Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition

by Moulton, CD

  Eed thought of that and his legs went shaky, but there was no way he could have been traced to Tltle and Netdel. The body at the estate probably wasn't discovered yet. The one in that ship would never be found.

  He was nervous though. He signed for the others to come aside when he caught their eye. The bureaucrat was writing on forms, but was getting more and more irritated, for some reason.

  Z suddenly picked up the microphone and snapped, "Computer! Report! You have had time enough to trace the entire movements of everyone on this stinking hole of a world!"

  "Processing," the flat mechanical voice responded (It was a Feach on the ship). "Subjects traveled using various aliases. Also changed ships.

  "FXR forty two! FXR forty two! Eed Kale Lohrkn of Jorn! Fleet responding!"

  Only Dorn was still there. Eed and Klewt were nowhere in the hall.

  "What does that mean?" he asked.

  "FXR forty two?" Z asked, unconcerned. "It means there is an empire warrant for a capital offense which has been filed by an empire judge machine against him.

  "Computer! F code forty two. Explanation!"

  "Conspiracy to commit murder proved by probe," the "machine" answered. "Warrant is priority A."

  "It means there is a criminal warrant for Eed of Jorn," Z said disinterestedly. "It's based on a proved charge of conspiracy to commit murder. R means it is proved by machine witness. That will be the probe. Priority A means he is to be apprehended in any way or by any means possible. He is outlaw, so capture is only one option and no one will question if it is his dead body and not a living person delivered.

  "No wonder you tried to hide a plague! If you are conspirators with him the execution is a lot more sure than the plague! We can't find a cure for execution! Ha ha!

  "The warrant is only for Eed, though, so I guess that's not what's behind it."

  "There isn't any plague," Dorn repeated. "Can you find out what – I mean, who – was put on the probe and why?"

  Z stared aghast and in shock at him. "My word! No one can find out what the judge knows! What kind of a question is that?!"

  "I thought someone who was found guilty by the probe could be named and charges stated," Dorn snapped. "I didn't ask for a read of the whole damned thing! You certainly are easy to get excited! You haven't understood one word we've said yet!"

  "There's no reason to get belligerent!" Z sniffed haughtily. "I'm only doing my job! That job does NOT include the passing on of privileged information to a suspect in a criminal action!"

  "What in hell are you talking about?!" Dorn shouted. "The warrant is for Eed! Not me! What damned criminal action?"

  "Obstructing us in curing this virulent plague here!" Z said triumphantly.

  "There ... isn’t ... any ... damned ... plague you rockbrained idiot!” Dorn screamed.

  "You don't have to get abusive," Z said, sniffing. "I have my job to do. I don't see why you insist on obstructing me. I warned you there are consequences if you don't cooperate!"

  Dorn started to sit on a bench, then stood and stalked out. They could hear the fleet cruiser landing in the courtyard. The two ships there took up over half the space available. Six Acnian troopers came down the ramp into the hall as the Feach "doctors" came back in. Dorn and Klewt came in from the door that Dorn left through.

  "Uh, Nurk," Krone said. "There is no one in this place except for eight Zurn citizens. We told them to go to the courtyard. I don't know if there is anyone outside of the gates."

  "Which one of you is Eed of Jorn?" an Acnian demanded.

  "He's, let's see...?" Z answered. "Why, he's not here! He was right here a minute ago!

  "While you're here, though, take these two into custody for obstructing a Hospital mission."

  "Damn it!" Dorn shouted. "There are no plague victims here! Your own doctors have proven it! There was no mission to obstruct if there is no plague!"

  Z looked deflated. "Oh, my! You're right, aren't you? All of this was for nothing? I'm needed so much elsewhere and you waste my valuable time by propounding a false report of a virulent plague that is supposed to be decimating the vacation worlds and Jorn to boot? There have to be thousands of charges in that! Pretending to be crazy?

  "I know! It was some kind of trick! Your friend Eed! He wants to plead insanity against the warrant! That's IT! Arrest them all! They tried to use Hospital to vacate a criminal warrant!"

  "Look, officer," Klewt said to the Acnian. "I think you can see very well who's crazy here. We told him from the first there was no plague. He keeps going off on tangents all the time! He needs rest! The man's sick!"

  "See?" Z squealed. "There! See? They're all abusive! They're using this Hospital mission for their own ends! They're all out to get me! They've been plotting against me all along!"

  "If you will please come with me?" the Acnian said. Klewt shrugged. Z could hear the Acnian as they got out of sight saying to just come to the ship and identify themselves for the record and they could go. Nurk was known to be a total nutzo by all of them, but they were required to come when he called.

  "Why don't you tell his superiors and get him taken off the job?" Dorn asked. "He's a menace to the empire the way he acts!"

  "Ha!" the Acnian responded. "Have you ever tried to get some incompetent bureaucrat fired? He's worked himself up to a job he can't handle. All we can do is wait until he retires. There's no way to get rid of that type in those government jobs. If I thought I could get away with it, sometimes I'd like to accidently slip and fall – and have this laser go off! I'd like to get that rockhead right in the gut!"

  They all laughed at that. Z went into the garage. There was a groundcar missing from when he was there earlier.

  "T Six, who took the car?" he asked the light beam unit.

  "I didn't have any visual in there, but it was a Jornian," T6 answered. "Milo, the Acnian who picked up your two friends, will file ID on both of them, then let them go. When Eed implicates them we can grab 'em and put 'em on the probe. I think we're getting close to the top here. Finally.

  "I take it Eed's the one in the car. He's taken a side road about nine point three kilometers toward Northport from there. The floater's waiting outside. You can bet he's armed, so be careful."

  "Tell Milo and Krone I've gone after him," Z requested, and went to the waiting floater.

  The Net Closes In

  Z rode the floater out along the road. As soon as he passed the outer limit of the valley, he stripped off the isolation suit with its silvered mirror. He must plan as he goes. It may not be so important to get Eed on the probe, but again, it may be. There may be no legal reason to put Dorn or Klewt on the probe, but he was sure Maita would again, as in so many instances in the past, allow it to be used here.

  Maybe T6 could take them to Maita itself for the probe, as that would ensure ... no. Maita controlled all of those kinds of machines, meaning it was really the same thing. It was likely Maita monitored all of the probes, just as it answered all the calls to the fleet. Maita never failed to surprise him with its endless duties and abilities.

  What would the empire be without those myriad fastcom links?

  Ridiculous. There would be no empire. Maita built and held it together all by itself.

  T6 had a map of the route Eed had taken in a glowing line on the floater's holovid screen with a flashing dot at his position at the moment. He was following a long winding valley toward the peninsula. There were large estates out there, if he remembered Bypass. It would be logical for plans to have been made from the first for escape in all situations.

  "It would seem that Eed has a friend out there, T Six," he said. "Check for private ships. I don't want to have to chase him all over the galaxy."

  "Gotcha," T6 answered. "I'll send scan floaters to check the entire area for powerpack or fastcom signs. Unless he changes directions, I'd say he's headed here or here."

  Two orange dots began flashing on the screen.

  "Your floater can go over this area (White scribbled line) a
nd you can be waiting for him. He didn't see Liahr, couldn't see more than a shadow through the I-suit, didn't ever see you as Lion, so you can be somebody else who happens to be on the road there."

  "I can be Liahr. His scootskimmer is much faster than a hovercar, so there won't be any way he would believe I could have been left at the castle and still get out here before he did. I have to keep in mind I wasn't supposed to have seen him at the castle, either. It will get dark soon. I can be heading back for Northport – late, as usual."

  "Be careful if you face him. He isn't going to be in any mood to get along with Liahr. You're the one who caused all the trouble at the castle, you know."

  "I can handle that. Nurk was such an ass it can all be put right on his head. He's the type who's always looking for something that will get his name noticed so he'll get a big promotion out of it."

  The floater left the road and set a shield around them, then went across the mountains at more than sound speed. It came down on the road again, dropped the shield, and folded the antenna, moved close to the road where it used a slight replusor field to "blow" light dust and debris from under it. It began moving at a moderate pace.

  "Eed is about half a kilometer behind you and you're approaching the gate into the first of the estates," T6 reported. "I have it timed so he'll pass you about a hundred meters before the gate at the pace he's traveling. You can see where he goes or you can travel along with him if he passes that one. It's customary for people to move along together here and talk for a distance. I don't think he'll want to draw any attention to himself. He'll follow convention. Maybe you can make him nervous."

  Z saw Eed approaching from behind and got a scope of his face in close-up on the screen from the floater's telescopic. He was caught in a grimace of exasperation, but as he drew even he was all pleasantness.

  Z hailed him. "Excuse me, but where am I? I was coming along the road I thought led to Northport, but I've been traveling for hours. I would think I'd have arrived long before this!"

  "Isn't your automap working?"

  "No, I guess not. I got into some rough scrub while I was looking for caves and lost my radio, then my map kept shifting – only I didn't know that until a while ago – I tell you! This has been some day for me! Everything I do is wrong!

  "I called in to Northport earlier this afternoon from a peak a kilometer or so before the road curved to the right with the non-directional. It's a good thing I told them I was going to stay near the road, but I was going to explore on the way. They'd have a search party looking for me.

  "My name is Liahr. I get lost all the time on any world I go to, but I can always seem to eventually find my way somewhere. I think Loula, my mate, has grown to expect it!"

  "Liahr?!" Eed exclaimed. "Surely you're not the one who caused all the panic at Rock House?"

  "Panic? Rock House? Is that the big castle?"

  "Yes," Eed replied, barely controlling his temper. "Hospital and Fleet are both there! They're threatening to quarantine the whole planet if not the whole sector! They're totally crazy!"

  "Great Jerm! Why?!"

  "It seems you called Hospital and said there was a virulent plague that was decimating the galaxy or something! What could you have been thinking? There isn't any plague there! There were a few businessmen having a meeting!"

  "But ... but ... I didn't! I only told Loula that a fellow there said there was a plague and I thought they probably didn't want company. I told her to call Hospital and to say there was a rumor of plague and maybe they should send an investigator, just to be safe. If the people there needed help they could send it. If not, nothing was lost. All they had to do was to call the castle and ask!"

  Eed groaned. "Who did she talk to? At Hospital?"

  "I don't know. I haven't had any contact since I called at the pass."

  "Well, you should have taken the left bend at the pass to go to Northport. You are on Long Toe Peninsula – three hundred kilometers from Northport by the road.

  "If you wish to call in, you may use my com. Perhaps your mate will have heard about Castle House and can tell you what happened there. I was passing on the road when the Fleet ship landed and a trooper told me about it."

  Sure! Z mused. He told you my name, the planet was going to be quarantined and what I was supposed to have reported to Hospital while you were passing on a road that ended at the castle! Aloud, he said, "I would like to call so she won't worry. It's most kind of you to offer. Maybe she'll have some news."

  T6 was, of course, listening to all this chatter through the floater's system. It would give the right answers. Z punched the code and the sexy female voice answered.

  "Dearest?" Z said.

  "Liahr, are you lost again?" she asked in reply, sounding exasperated.

  "You know me so well! I miss you. You don't know how much at this moment.

  "Listen, love. I'm on some place called Long Toe Peninsula. I took a wrong turn about the time I was talking to you before. I may have to find a place out here to spend the night. I'll get the radio fixed and call you in the morning. I promise to come straight in. No more exploring!"

  The voice laughed. "You'll explore, dear! You'll never change!

  "Listen. Remember you told me to call the med center to report a rumor of sickness?

  "Well, I was transferred to Hospital, where I talked to the strangest person!"

  "Strange? How was he strange?"

  "Well, dearest. His name was Turk or Murk or something. I said there was a rumor there were some people at that Rocky place who were sick and the doctors weren't sure what it was. That Jurk character started yelling about deadly intergalactic plagues and quarantining L sector! I tried to tell him it was only a rumor that a couple of people were sick with something a local medical doctor couldn't find a cause for, but he ranted and raved and actually cut me off! I couldn't believe anybody working at Empire Center could be so rude!

  "I mean, I was insulted and called back, but by the time I was transferred again another man said that Kurk was gone. He said something awfully strange, too."

  "What was that Loverlips?"

  "Well, Sweetness," she answered in an even more sexy voice. "He called Wurk 'El Rockbrain'! Isn't that strange?

  "Listen, Hotsums, there was an enormous Fleet ship that landed and two little ships have left it and have come back and now there are six or seven little ships out looking for something. Do you think it's because of Gurk?"

  "Well, Shining Queen of my Life. I guess so. I hear there's some excitement out there at Rocky Castle. I'll call again in the morning, my Perfect Delight. I can't tie up this man's com forever!

  "Love and kisses, Light of the Galaxy!"

  "I'll be waiting impatiently for your return – in a nice warm bed – Sweetbuns!"

  Eed was staring in disbelief as Z cut off the com. "Do you always call each other all those ... names?"

  "I get all excited just thinking about her! You should hear us when we can get our hands on each other!

  "It seems I really did stir up a stingerhive by reporting that place. I really owe those people an apology. I never dreamed that anything like that could happen."

  "You are approaching the next listed gate" came on the holovid screen.

  Eed looked at the gate, nodded and suggested, "I will have to leave you now. Just go on down the road a ways and you'll find an inn. Good fortune!"

  Z grinned and hit him with a stunner beam. He drug the limp body onto his floater, lugged the skootskimmer into the brush and headed for T6.

  "I was wondering why you didn't do that when you first came to him," T6 greeted.

  "I wanted to know where he was going, first. See if there's a ship at the estate, unless you've already found it."

  "There's no ship at that one. There's one at the estate behind you and one on an estate across the peninsula."

  "I MEANT the one back there. That's where he was going."

  "What?"

  "He was going to trust a stranger? Then he found it
was the one who caused all the trouble at Rock House?

  "Naturally, he would go to another place, go in while saying a cordial goodbye to me, wait until I was on down the road, then go back. If I was ever asked if I met him on the road I would then say he went onto that estate. No one there would know what the troopers were talking about. He and his friends at the other place could be off-planet and far away."

  "I'll have to learn to think deviously. Maita says to take him directly to the Fleet ship. He's already under death sentence. They'll put him on the nearest probe. Maita waited before letting me put Dorn and Klewt on the probe because it says they'll be implicated if we get Eed. We got Eed."

  "Find who owns that estate and who's supposed to be there now. I'll deliver Eed and come back to visit. The floater didn't detect any radio or anything broadcasting from the scootskimmer. It didn't identify us to anyone.

  "Did he use anything en route?"

  "He called once on standard com to say the Klonter's would be calling sometime this evening. He called ... why didn't I check it out then? He called that estate back there. I could have been way ahead of you!

  "It's supposed to be unoccupied this time of the year. It's a vacation home owned by some company called Clarbon Ventures, on Netdel. Ever hear of it?"

  "I think these people are a bit too sure of themselves and are a lot too smug. Or they were! I doubt they'll feel quite so safe and clever at the moment."

  He came in over the port and went to the Fleet ship, who were called by T6 to announce Z's arrival with the criminal, Eed. Z neutralized the stunner's effects and Eed sat suddenly bolt upright to stare at the two Acnian troopers who were on either side of him.

  "Eed of Jorn, we place you under arrest on a proved charge of criminal conspiracy. Please show the good sense not to resist and...."

  "Hypnotize him!" Z suddenly screamed.