by Moulton, CD
A large green and white star-shaped flower on the end of the log he labeled as Aspasia GN112, a plant from a different world than Earth that looked almost exactly like the Terran Aspasia principassa.
He turned to continue on down the path, pitched forward, his stabilizer gyros screaming and fell flat on his face. He rolled over to have Thing spring onto his chest to bend its stalked eyes to look into his visual sensors.
[ Hmmm! It seems that holding your ankles together impedes your stability as well as your mobility! ] came from the little floater hovering overhead. Thing, being an empath, needed the device to speak to the crew, though Tab could receive directly.
Thing sprang away as Tab grabbed for it. This was a childish game the whole crew played when they were around each other either on Empire Center or on Maita.
Of course, when they were on one of the spaceships they didn't go for so much rough and tumble physical play, but concentrated on the insults and one-upmanship word play – though Z and Thing would run all over the ships playing tricks on one another. They didn't take chances on doing any damage to each other. Tab or his partner robot in the detective business, Kit, were indestructible so far as this sort of thing was concerned. They must be careful they didn't damage the Terran, Z, or Thing, the little tentacled Mentan.
Maita was a very large ship so there was plenty of room (And rooms) for them to run around in, but Tab's ship, TRD-60, and Kit's ship, T6, weren't so large. At first Tab hadn't been able to understand these games, which were truly children's amusement, but he learned to feel the real deep affection they shared and developed the sense of fun they also shared. The games kept them mentally as well as physically sharp. The hardest part for others was to understand why Thing, with an intelligence too high to measure, would go for this slapstick form of play and humor. It was also the hardest part for the crew to get anywhere ahead of Thing in the games.
Z and Kit came along the path and stopped to laugh at Tab sitting there in the dirt. Thing dropped out of a tree onto Kit's head, then sprang across to sit on Z's shoulder.
[ Tab seems to have a lot in common with a wallowbeast. It's disgraceful the way he rolls around in the dirt! You'd think his upbringing would put him above such animalistic antics! ]
Tab suddenly sprang up to grab Thing and wallow it around in the dust.
"See how enjoyable it is?" he asked. "Now you know why I do it! It's fun!"
Lars, a Parf artist, came down the path to stop, staring with its large owl-like eyes at the robot and Mentan rolling around in the dirt.
"What a picture!" he declared. "Not one any respectable artist would care to paint, but a picture.
"Emperor Maita has a message on the com on your terrace, Z."
He turned to stroll on down the path on his four legs as Tab stood with Thing hanging onto his shoulder. The Parf are four-legged, two-armed beings with feathers and vestigial wings. They are among the finest natural artists in the galaxy. They have truly amazing skills with lines and perspectives and see in a much wider spectrum than most other races so can get shadings and hues much closer to reality than most.
The group went back to the com unit where Z asked Maita what it wanted.
*You and Thing can come along on a little trip if you're not doing anything and want a bit of excitement. I want to start the exploration on the galactic bubble.*
"What about us?" Kit asked.
"I've got a case," TR replied. It used the same speakers as did Thing, Maita and T6. "Leilanta wants us to go out the arm to Plamaita. There's some colony or research station or something out there that's having strange troubles."
"What kind of trouble?" Tab asked.
"I'm not sure," TR replied. "We'll have to see when we get there."
"Well, we'll set things up here and come with you, Maita," Z said. "At least I will. I don't think you'll want this filthy example of Mentanhood along! It's disgusting!"
Thing sprang onto his shoulder and gripped him around the neck and head.
[ Doan hit me no mo, massuh! I'se'll takes a bath! Honess I will! Doan hit me no mo! ]
Z stepped into the transmat so Tab shrugged and followed them while Kit came last. They were all instantly in the large cave that was used as a hangar for Maita and the two robots' ships. Z would arrange for the Tendd and Joe's People to take care of his gardens. The crew often went off exploring on the spur of the moment.
Tab and Kit went directly aboard their ships to head for Plamaita. None of the group were much for goodbyes.
They arrived at Plamaita only a few minutes apart and met in close orbit, then went aground to meet with Syntar and Leilanta, who were Z's grandson and granddaughter, though Z didn't know that.
"You'll have trouble with this one, I'm sure," Syntar said. "We have some contact with several races farther out the galactic arm, most of whom are the standard types. There's one, however, who are of the rarest types of high intelligence in the galaxy, insectoids. There are quite a large number of inhabited planets out here, most of which have never been explored."
"We called you and were intentionally vague about this because we know how Maita reacts to this sort of thing and we believe you can handle it," Leilanta continued. "Our grandfather was with Maita for many years before you were built, but this problem was there millennia before even Maita was constructed."
The Maitans knew about all the robots and about Maita. Z's son and his son's children knew who their grandfather was, but it was kept from Z for psychological reasons they all understood. Only the Zulians knew more about things than the Maitans, but that's another story.
Tab remembered then that these people had never met Kit or T6 so he introduced them, being totally honest about their being machines. They discussed the accidental route of becoming independently intelligent for a few minutes before T6 finally exploded: "All right!" it cried. "I know this is some kind of psychological warfare against Kit and me! I want to say right here and now that it's worked perfectly!"
"WHAT are you talking about?" Tab asked.
"Syntar said this was some kind of thing he wanted to keep from Maita," T6 replied. “Aren't you just a tiny bit curious? Older than Maita?"
Syntar laughed and Leilanta giggled.
"I’m afraid we got so interested in you and Kit we forgot," Leilanta said. "The Rrnslth, the insectoids, are being militarized. That's a normal thing in some ways, but they haven't bred warriors for almost a century except for a police force and for psychological feelings of safety they get from having the warriors around. They've learned not to war on one another and there are few of what they call 'bent' members of their society. We used the word 'crooked' or, as grandfather says, 'warped,' instead of 'bent,' but the meaning is that they refer to psychologically disturbed criminality."
The Maitans understood the basic psychological implications of most criminal behavior, but often stated that understanding a behavior pattern isn't excusing it. There was no affliction of those sorts of the mind where all those who suffered from it became criminals, which proved absolutely there was choice by the individual involved to make so a criminal was a criminal. It was by choice so wasn't excused on some stupid pretext. There always remained that line past which a person was insane and therefore was NOT in control of his own actions, but that was seldom the case. Far more than ninety five percent of criminals are criminals by choice. The Maitans treated them as such.
"What we fear is outside influence," Syntar explained. "From the way this is happening, the insidious methods that are being used and the timing we have calculated with an eighty three percent likelihood that what we have here is Immins."
Tab actually staggered as though he had been delivered a hard physical blow. "But ... I mean ... that's impossible!" he cried. "The Immins are extinct! They were quarantined on Orta! They've destroyed themselves in worldwide nuclear war!"
Kit was fully programmed with the history of the Immins, but his construction hadn't been dreamed of when the disease on the galaxy that had been the I
mmin race had supposedly ended.
"It seems rather unlikely to me, too," he agreed. "What do you mean, timing? How would it be possible?"
"Tab was here, part of the group when this colony was rediscovered," Leilanta said. "He knows of the methods used by ourselves and by Searcher to ensure our survival. It's one hundred seven years since the Immins were removed from this part of space. The computations involved the psychology of that race, though we also worked backwards from the facts we hold. It was the computers who figured them into the equations. They're the only ones who fit. There's plenty of energy available out here to make it work."
"They would've set their timers for an even hundred years so they've had seven years to begin their schemes again," Tab said. "You felt Maita shouldn't know?"
"You know Maita even better than we do," Syntar answered. "YOU tell ME what it would do!"
"It would bring the fleet out here and we would search every planet, asteroid and anything else on the entire arm," TR said. "At any sign of an Immin that world would become a seething lava globule in space!"
"We think they should be extremely limited in their numbers," Leilanta said. "You can take care of the problem and hand Maita a fait accompli."
"You sound like Z," TR said dryly. "Give us some coordinates and we'll see what we can find. Swaz and Kheth won't be good disguises around Immins. Tab was one of the principal reasons for their downfall and the Kheth bitterly hated the Immins."
"There are Bentans everywhere out here and they are known to have a high number of self-motivated criminal types among them," Syntar suggested. "Bentans worked with Immins in many of their schemes or were easy to use in any case. They are a somewhat immature race and retain a number of personal greeds that allows criminality."
"Bentans it is!" T6 interjected. "Give us the coordinates and you two get into the shops for modification. We'll see what we can do. I'm running every encounter any of our little group ever had with Immins and can see quite a number of ways to handle things under quite a number of situations. Their personal greed – which seems to be the pervading quality of the race's males – is easy to use against them.
"Great colliding galaxies! The damned males are greed-motivated and the females delusional power-motivated! They're downright primitive socially! They were exposed to mature races for more than sixty eight thousand years and didn't mature in any way! What a race!"
"I'd say the insectoids would be easy for the Immins to fool because the female is dominant in insectoids as well as among Immins," Leilanta said. "TR, T Six, N oh thirty four and oh N fifty eight seven sixty two is where you'll find Glrvcch and the insectoids."
They said their goodbyes and Tab and Kit went into their ships for modification while TR and T6 used TTH4 to travel to Glrvcch. They landed in separate parts of the world as Bentan traders. Tab would be selling luxury items of all types with a hint that they weren't necessarily honestly come by while Kit would be selling heavy equipment in general. He would say he could get anything, with a stress on any. He would hint he could even get weapons. The big empire-restricted kinds of weapons. If there was one thing Immins could be counted on to want it was big weapons.
And the trappings of primitive luxury.
* *
Kit went along the titchroplat alloy pad toward the offices. He wasn't used to meeting insectoids and his input showed they would either be very easy or very hard to deal with. There wouldn't be any middle ground. There were certainly plenty of military types around. Even to him it seemed an unbalanced thing for so many of them to be on a supposedly peaceful planet – one with virtually no crime and definitely no war.
He went into the office to find three slightly different kinds of the Rrnslth behind the desks. They all looked at him in what he could only describe as an expectant way. They had no hint of expression and the faceted eyes told him nothing. He read the signs in front of each, knowing they would be bred and trained in specific capacities. He selected the one marked "information" and approached it. There was a microphone which rose from the desk toward him.
"I am a free trader and am seeking information about accommodations and about who to contact to sell my wares," he requested.
There was a buzzing, humming, scraping, clicking series of sounds coming from a speaker as he spoke. The desk clerk made much the same types of sounds as the speakers translated into Maitan Galactic Standard.
"You appear to me to be of the race we call Bentans so I will suggest hotels B three and C five," it said. "There is a chamber of commerce building at F seven. A car is waiting. It is fully automatic so you may simply push buttons with corresponding letters and numbers for your chosen destination. There is a grid city chart in Maitan there on the wall and a listing of places of special interest. We would recommend that you familiarize yourself with it to an extent so you may move freely about.
"There are not translating devices in all places. We cannot hear the frequency ranges of your speech as you cannot hear the ranges of ours.
"We wish you a pleasant stay. Please feel free to move about as you wish and to call on this or any office if you feel we may serve you."
That was friendly enough!
Kit thanked the clerk and went to the chart. He was programmed in the language and couldn't only hear it, he could speak it. As no Bentan could possibly do so he mustn't let it be known. It may be very important that he could understand them. They would feel no inhibition to say anything at all in his presence as they couldn't know he would understand.
The chart was a circular gridmap with letters from A in the center to Q on the outer rim. The numbers were radians spreading from the center. All radians were odd numbers and were equally spaced until G, where the even numbers were added between the odd. By knowing any number and letter you would be able to go directly to that intersection. B3 was such an intersection, but the hotel was on a corner and wouldn't be missed. Its actual listed address was B3B1, which meant the intersection of B and 3, the next letter, if it were A, was straight ahead to the right, B meant to turn right and the address was on your left, C meant turn right and the address would be on your right, etc. 1 meant it was the first door you would come to on B3B. Facing away from the center of the city, the addresses on your left were read from the radian to your left or from center city outward on the radians. To his left would be A3B12, when B3B1 was to his right.
Very easy, actually. All directions were read facing away from the center of the city, which was a large building which housed the queen and her brood.
Kit went out to find the car. He punched F7 and felt a smooth surge of power as the car sped along. The walkways were on a level below where the cars moved. The cars were computer-controlled and sped along in complete safety.
The commerce building was exactly like all the others. Kit looked over the control board and punched for the car to wait, then went inside where he saw a line of desks with signs. He found furnishings, which would do for part of what he wanted, agriculture was another, engineering supplies and equipment was another.
This wouldn't work for him! It was much too compartmentalized!
He was looking around in bewilderment when he heard a buzz. He looked to see a clerk waving to him. It was at an information desk.
"Many are confused when first they come here," the translator explained. "We are not the kind of people you have dealt with before and you find us far too regimented to understand. I am placed here to help you. I have learned how to randomize thought.
"You probably see there are many different people to see for buying or selling what, to you, are many things, but we tend to specialization in all things.
"Please feel free to ask anything. I will try to answer your questions and arrange for you to meet with all of the necessary emissaries at one time."
"Thank you," Kit replied. "I am called Tongz. I am a seller of equipment of many different descriptions, from agricultural to engineering to weaponry to transportation.
"It's general equipment, but I h
ave contacts under which I can agent specialized items. I even sell spaceships and electronic equipment, as well as new monopolar navigational and gravitics and fastcom equipment.
"You can see how I am completely confused."
He had thrown in the weaponry to see if there was a special reaction. He couldn't read any expression on these people, but a button was pushed for each thing he mentioned, including weaponry.
"If you will please go to conference room B, six representatives will meet with you there soon," the clerk instructed. "The halls are lettered from your left to your right. The first is A-B and the second is C-D. The numbers are lowest here at center. Take that hall and you will find the room is the sixth door on your right.
"Feel free to move about as you please here. If we can be of any service do not hesitate to ask. It is our function to serve you."
Kit thanked the clerk and went to the hall.
What was going on? These were very open and friendly people who obviously had nothing whatever to hide!
Compartmentalized. That was the word. These would know nothing of the military branch. That was another department – another specialty.
He entered door B6 along with several of the Rrnslth, who spoke little among themselves. They seated themselves around a large round table and invited him to sit wherever he was comfortable. There were seats designed for the anatomy of the Bentans so he took one. They all looked expectantly at him.
He went through the spiel T6 had prepared for him. Anything they wanted from the list could be supplied at the prices quoted. He gave careful specifications to those who asked about them. It seemed each would ask a series of questions, excuse itself and leave the room. Soon only Kit and one Rrnslth were there. He didn't know what to say so he asked if he had missed something.
"You mentioned weaponry as you entered and I am the weaponry procurement expert," the translator said.
