by CD Moulton
the type of world he liked most.
Gothic World puts Z on a world where there seems to be an outside influence, but he finds it is internal. The societal imperative there is being challenged and, which has to stop! These are basically a very good people. It is important that the belief that violence can solve problems not be allowed to become entrenched – while Z's problem is that violence is the only way to solve the problem there.
It was about time the whole bunch worked together. There was a story in the newspapers where some crud had bribed a judge (making that judge an even lower form of crud), so I wondered how anyone could get around the mechanical judges in the empire.
In Run Around the Pond someone is tampering with the judge machines so Tab, Kit and Z will straighten it up! Thing, Kurk and Maita run the detective agency while the other are so occupied. They are very good at it. The judge tampering is a scheme by a newer world in the empire to seize control of certain aspects of manufacturing on a few worlds and build it into a monopoly of sorts. That can't work in the empire, but people could be hurt. It has to stop.
Everyone in the crew except Maita wrote about their experiences and Kurk had been around long enough to write a book. It would have to be a good study that would allow Kurk some leeway to be himself, so the next is a story "written" by Kurk. He, Thing and Kit go to a world where something is definitely wrong and the society is ideal so should not be changed. There seems to be some kind of viral infection there that erases the minds of mammals. It might be spread even to University.
This is a peaceful stable society where the people are, all-in-all, content with life as it is and machines and tools being introduced could end that. They must stop, first, the virus and second, the damage to the culture.
Kurk invents a story to end the book simply because that would be part of his nature.
There were stories on the net (forums) about cyclic civilizations and how they seemed to repeat the same mistakes over and over again, which gave me an idea (or twenty). Do Tell! is a story where Tab, Thing and Z find there is a cyclic destruction of society and that it is always led by the same family. It seems to be a genetic factor. They, being them, decide to change the direction of the society. Z suggests undermining the military from inside by seeming to invent things that will make a given country invincible, then "accidentally" letting it fall into the hands of everyone, which would soon make war, except hand-to- hand combat, totally impractical.
Maita, Thing and Tab know the only way to stop this cycle from repeating is to eliminate that genetic factor and that family. They have to do it in a way that Z will never know about it. Z uses a primitive weapon to defeat the few who would attack them.
Then it was time to finally resolve a few more things that were hanging over the empire. I had ideas for stories that were too much on a theme, though they were different in many ways. The result was Not Again! – the berserker is back for the final time – but then, it's been taken out for the final time three times before. This time it's moving out in patterns of groups of ships and is heading for Hospital and other empire worlds. It has learned a great amount and is much more sophisticated in some ways and is always a very dangerous adversary. This is a machine upon which psychology is wasted. For psychology to work the subject must have emotions and this machine has none – or does it? Has it fallen into a disastrous habit of overlooking the obvious or is its programming a bit short in that one small area?
I had postulated the possibility of moving between the galaxies and even think it may be easier than moving inside the galaxies because of the nature of time. I had also suggested a number of times that Maitan, Krofpth and other ships had left to try to cross the vastness.
Duty's Call leads Maita and crew to another galaxy where it seems the Immins and Maitans went separately millennia ago. The Maitans have established a small group of worlds into a sort of co-op and everything is progressing well, but the Immins are still Immins and are plotting to become the queens of the universe and other places. Maita, in a demonstration of pure illogic, feels responsible. At the end, Iggy, the intergalactic spaceship is built and GD, the driver comp for the golems, will begin its study of abstract societal imperative and confluence interactions in nul space aboard.
Then it was time for some fun. I wanted to bring Earth into the empire in a way I think Earth would react to being in that situation. Con Game is another tampering with empire machines that leads to a scheme to take over the traders guild through a ruse with language. Gamble On is an extension. It introduces Gloria Donnell, who becomes a crew member in a few books (if I write more). She teams with the Asimovian intelligent ship, Inge (Ingenious).
It was then time to update our personalities and to resolve some inner conflicts in Z. Book forty four, Growing Up, leaves me undecided. It has good parts and bad parts, but Z changes in some ways that I'm not sure will work, but parts of the story are, I think, above average.
Book forty five is a collection of shorts "written" by Iggy, the intergalactic spaceship. I'm about halfway through it. This one will extend far into the future in the stories – which makes a somewhat difficult situation for me so far as chronology is concerned for future books. (Later note: this is the last book in the Flight of the Maita series. More would be redundant. I have used Gloria in some of the stories in book 45.)
I've tried to include all types of stories in the series, but to give them a sort of continuity. Everything that can be described as science is coherent within the confines of the theory. I purposely didn't get very deeply into that part because it's boring to the reader who isn't into astrophysics.
My situation here has me convinced that the new series, Clint Faraday Mysteries, based on a retired Florida PI who moves to Panama (Now where did that idea come from?), is more workable, plus I have branched into various types of works. My best friends are among the Indios here. I greatly respect and enjoy much of their society, though there are a couple of parts I cannot find to my liking. It is more open and honest and inclusive than the Latin or American/European societies.
This is from Launching the Maita. I find that my writing has changed quite a bit in the mechanics and background ideas. My use of the commas and such is far different.
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