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

by Moulton, CD

  Thing used the floater speaker and spoke in Porth's language.

  [ Z will have to become adept at hearing the language so we will speak a moment while he listens and learns the inflections and accents. I am called Thing and am a Mentan. I'm sure you haven't heard of my race here on your quaint little world so I will forgive and overlook your not having proper foods and beverages ready for me. Z won't be bothered by that so much as your extreme rudeness in not bowing when meeting a Maitan. He will be far too polite and proper to mention such things, I am sure. It would be terribly declasse' for him to say anything. This looks like a comfortable place if a bit primitive for my tastes. Do you reside here alone? ]

  Porth was in shock. He stammered a bit.

  [ Don't these people look like those animals we use for cattle on Paradise Planet, Z? I wonder how tasty they are? Porth, I ... well, I won't ask. We are very curious about this place. It seems you've learned to control population very nicely and you've done away with pollution. The native language is a bit effete. Almost decadent. Have your race been stagnating here for very long? The place has an air of the decay of great age about it, wouldn't you say, Z? ]

  Z saw what Thing was doing, but was sure it wouldn't work. There was nothing to lose by going along with it.

  "It would seem they've done away with all kinds of things. Things like progress, for example. I don't understand how anyone could tolerate the boredom.

  "Tell me, Porth. When was the last time anyone did anything new here?"

  "Wha? Huh? Who?" Porth demanded.

  [ Oh, dear! Are we not using the language properly? Let me check! I was sure it was ... it seems all right to me. ]

  "I guess we're not what Porth expected. Let me analyze the language for the better.... I see. Nothing has changed here since that old empire died! Before!"

  Porth regained control of himself and drew up to look down at Z sitting lazily on a couch.

  "Whenever a race advances to a point where all things become redundant that race selects those things it deems worthwhile and ingrains them into its lifestyle," Porth sniffed haughtily. "You may call it stagnation, but if one tries to improve on perfection that perfection is lost. We have found perfection and will keep it. We will leave it to such as you to seek. It is no longer of any importance to us. There is no advancement from perfection."

  [ What a silly thing to say. You are giving a definition to the desire for suicide. You really don't know what the word stagnation means, apparently. It's a decaying regression. A stopping and falling back when used in reference to societal imperatives. There is no perfection. ]

  "There is no perfection to YOU because you have not yet found it!" Porth retorted sharply. "You can't possibly understand it even as a concept!"

  "Really?" Z said interestedly. "Thing can understand crossplanal interdimensional mode transference drift as a concept, but it can't understand your idea of perfection? How odd!"

  Thing twisted one eye to look at Z, but kept the other fixed on Porth. Beings with unidirectional vision found that disconcerting, usually.

  [ I understand abstract concepts and theories of any kind, Z. I understand the idea of perfection as a concept, but state it can only be real if it's false. If perceived as a real thing it becomes real only in that perception and it doesn't matter in the least what obviates OUTSIDE of the perception. It's one of those silly 'I say it, therefore it is' philosophical circles. ]

  "Oh," Z said. "Solipsism? Or is it silopsism? Cism? One of those things where a thing is true because I perceive it to be true – but ending the dream, what of the dreamer?"

  [ You make about as much sense as Porth. Do you ever think or do you just open your mouth to be surprised by what comes out? ]

  "Yes, I hope so," Z said. "Porth! Do your machines grow your food or are you so perfect you don't have to eat, thereby doing away with the necessity of excretion and all those messy sorts of things?"

  Porth stared hard at Z, so he shrugged.

  [ I would imagine the diet would be very bland and tasteless. One must give something to get something. ]

  "Our foods are finer and of better taste than anything in the universe!" Porth exploded. "How can life be perfect if ANY part of it is not?"

  *Perhaps Porth would enjoy some Narvinian lobster in crisp amaranth crust, Harkan greens with kleevish butter dressing, ormpth root crisp fried with Broonktht sauce, Kaleftian mushrooms sauteed in pungentbulb and Sarnian sour cream and Kenovian special wine?*

  The probe had shown the things that would appeal to Porth's taste and these things were also favorites of Thing and Z. The ingredients, could Maita not make all it might want on the atomic architect, would cost more than anyone could afford, as they came from planets thousands of plazsis apart. Thing and Z saw Maita's strategy immediately.

  [ Well, considering the fact that Porth doesn't have snacks waiting for us we can overlook that breech in etiquette and supply some things, I suppose. Actually, I could use a bit of sustenance now. I'm sure Porth would enjoy tasting some of our regular fare so send us a little meal, Maita. It is proper when imposing on a person to supply something even if the host fails to do so. We can show Porth the true meaning of perfection in food. Maita, add a little something. How about some lettuce salad with tomatoes, avocados and cucumber from Terra with glovetch vinegar and bldrth oil? A sristeen of Zrdlectian gold wine as an aperitif with a few very small cinnamon and frzcth spice morsels to stimulate the appetite? ]

  Z grinned to himself. He knew full well this wouldn't work, but maybe they could learn something about the way these people lived – and he could use a snack like that!

  The food came. Porth was a bit squeamish at first but, once the smells reached him and he took a small taste he was hooked. He ate some of everything they brought and even forgot how completely insulted he was. He actually started to act friendly. After the meal, Maita sent gincha with a touch of creme de menthe and vanilla from Earth. The three sat around the couches, Thing on Z's lap, to talk.

  "I have to admit it, that was very good!" Porth declared. "It is as good as anything I have ever tasted!"

  [ We won't get into the more obvious part, which is that your perfection wasn't exactly perfect. Tastes differ among different people. How do you grow your food here? Machines? ]

  "I haven't been in the food tanks lately so we can tour them together if you like," Porth replied offhandedly. "We have completely eliminated need for anyone to lack proper nutrition along with having the finest flavors imaginable. I can show you how it is done and perhaps you will aid me in getting a start of those things we have eaten here today."

  They walked along a hall to a door. They went through and found themselves in a long room filled with vats. "I'll have the computer explain what is being done here," he continued inside the place. "It is all modern tissue cloning technique."

  He punched instructions on a computer board, then a recorded lecture began about the process: "Once a sample of any organic material is placed in the proper nutrient solution it will grow as quickly as the nutrients are provided. The special lights can be varied causing the texture of the different plant materials to vary to consistency desired. Genetic splicing adds those chemicals in spices to become a part of the material itself.

  "The same techniques are used in the protein vats except that electrical stimulation pulses causes masses of muscle tissue to constrict until the desired texture is reached. The meat products are also internally spiced. Most beverages are produced through enzymatic actions and are augmented with minerals and vital chemicals and chemical chains produced by genetically spliced bacteria."

  "If you will supply me small samples of the things we have eaten, the machines can extract the genes and can grow us all we want," Porth requested. "I'm sure the computers will be glad to explain the entire process for you."

  [ I'm afraid our storage processes would destroy the genetic chains in the material so it couldn't be cloned. Perhaps there's some of the amaranth or you could match the chemicals i
n the wines. ]

  "I think we have the genetic basic materials so probably can duplicate the structure of any of it without direct cloning," Porth said. "I think the computers can splice whatever we want together even if some of your foods are synthesized."

  *I do recombine specific materials from their purified forms. I can remove anything that may be toxic to any of the diners. I will supply some of the various things we served. If Thing and Z will return to the ship we have a bit of a minor emergency to answer. Perhaps someday we will return here.*

  They said their goodbyes and went back to Maita.

  [ What's the emergency, Maita? ]

  *There isn't any, really. I've detected another world from a sensor satellite I left in space that's advanced beyond radio. There isn't anything we can do here. This society is fixed and invariant. I was hoping the foods would incite a craving for something in him, but it didn't. Just a mild curiosity. I imagine he actually can produce any flavor he wants and really can duplicate what we served. We may have added to his little storehouse, but nothing will change here. It's really frustrating to know we can't always make a positive change. We're wasting our time here. The race will never produce anything at all. Their place is in the past. I want to get away from here before the two of you get your natural instincts to make change started. It would be hopeless.*

  [ I think so, too. It's as bad in its way as the Immins were in theirs. They are what they are. At least they'll never hurt anyone. ]

  "Yeah, let's get out of here. I know what you mean about my instincts. I was getting into trying to do something.

  "I think I learned more about me than I did about Porth. I could get stubborn as all hell about it. We could take away the machines and they'd HAVE to do something!"

  *They'd soon starve. That would make you no better than them.*

  "I know it. That's what I mean. It bothers me that I would regress to such a petty thing, but I actually seriously thought about doing something like that."

  *That would be no more than striking out at frustration. Nothing would be gained and we'd spend a lot of time on a truly hopeless case of societal atrophy.*

  "Say what?"

  [ It would be hopeless. They aren't hurting anything. They should be left alone and Z should sit around the dome psychoanalyzing himself because he still thinks like a childish primitive! Actually he IS a childish primitive. Well, he’s childish, anyway – and primitive. He can't ... Hey! WHOA! ]

  They started playing and teasing each other then, and didn't stop until Maita announced they were in orbit around their next stop.

  The Krofpth

  *I felt I had to get us out of there to avoid the clash that was sure to come. It would have solved nothing. This was a highly developed planet during the time of the Krofpth Empire according to Library. I've worked out coordinates very well now. It's too bad we can't send pictures on fastcom so we could know if they're the original race here. They declined and are again advancing. That, I think, is very rare. I would have believed a race who had devolved in the manner the empire's races did was doomed. If I could get pictures on fastcom we could compare. As it is we'll have to wait until we've checked the world, then check back with Library.*

  "I've never understood why you can't send pictures and even voice over fastcom. I'm willing to bet that, unless I'm very badly misunderstanding what you've said about it, I can do both things."

  [ So give us your theoretical basis. Sometimes you childish primitives have ideas that actually work – after a weird kind of fashion. ]

  Z refused to be baited. "Well, you send digitals? That's what fastcom is?"

  *Pure digital signals, yes.*

  Z took a sheet of clean paper from the console record's drawer and a writing utensil. He drew a fast sketch of a tree.

  "Okay. I know you can do this in full color and even in three-D, but this is basic. I suppose you'll do all kinds of things with it within an hour or so.

  "How many digital signals can you send in one second MGS?"

  *Ten million would be easy.*

  "Good. Divide this paper into ten million little squares in your visuals. This is black and white so you need ... what are you doing?"

  *I'm using the holovid screen to set it up. Thing and you can see what I'm picturing and you can tell me if I miss anything.*

  "Oh. Okay. Start a line from top left and designate a digital signal for each of those ten million squares, say in an unending 'S' from top right to the ten millionth on the bottom left like in TV. The pattern covers every square angstrom of the sheet. Understand?"

  *Except for the part about angstroms. They don't mean anything to me. Okay. I've got it. So very simple. One for black and 0 for white. The more black in a small space, the darker. Grey would be less black spaces – this is, as you say, simple and obvious!*

  There was a blur, then the sketch was copied exactly about a hundred times actual size on the holovid screen.

  *I could give any number of signals in each spot for color gradations. Speech would simply be a value in time for intensity in each of thirty thousand frequency ranges. That would translate even into exact tonal qualities of the individual voice. It's old technology that's been forgotten. Simple scanning patterns, such as are used in television. This could be what's happening down there! Rediscovery of those simple little things we've done without for more than three hundred years you've been with us. You could've said that at any time. Why didn't you?*

  "Quite frankly it never once crossed my mind. I programmed computers on Earth and even made little silicon chips that made sounds – music – from an almost invisibly small piece of silica. The simple ones in watches and clocks just lightened or darkened little square crystals to draw numbers and letters. Same thing. You do it every time you call records to holovid. It's the way the holovid works, as a matter of fact, except you work with a three dimensional square. A cube. Isn't that all digitally stored?"

  [ Now that we're sufficiently humbled at our obvious gross stupidity shall we see what's going on on that world down there? It might be nice to know since we came clear across the galaxy to get here. ]

  "We only came halfway across the galaxy. Why can't you be precise in your speech? I've told you at least ten million times not to exaggerate!"

  *I have floaters there now. It seems they have some kind of knowledge of the empire and know there are people out here so we can land here, too. This should be an interesting contrast to the last one. There are truly magnificent buildings and other structures as well as some primitive things. A real mix. There seem to be any number of contrasts. A supermodern community next to a primitive society.*

  "I'm getting glad we came out here. Can you get the language before we go in? It would make it far easier and faster all the way around."

  [ Yeah, Maita. Break the rules about the probe. You know we will, anyhow. We always have. ]

  Maita sent a portable probe on a floater to seek someone in an isolated place and in the proper circumstances to use it. It got two subjects on different parts of the planet, to find the language to be dialectic, but not so much a person from one place couldn't understand one from another. The floater also brought back videos of reptilian people of very fine features.

  [ They seem to be very highly evolved. They're graceful and intelligent. Their mental capacity is far more than what they use. It's a reawakening of some kind, I'd say. They had some kind of social disaster, regressed to a primitive situation and are re-emerging into an extremely high societal level. ]

  "They do seem very highly advanced, Maita. I have to agree these are a re-evolving society. At one time they must have been far ahead of...."

  [ Great colliding galaxies, Maita! These will have to be the Krofpth! There isn't any other way to explain this! ]

  "The leaders of the old empire?!"

  *Yes. I found the coordinates while we were at Library and sent the satellite in this direction. You'll remember that Station Two mentioned the Krofpth so I immediately scanned records
at Library to locate the world. That's why I was so ready to leave back there! I wanted to see what artifacts they may have left that would survive the eons. It would seem they directly survived themselves! I didn't get a picture at Library, which I regret, but this is definitely a very highly evolved race. I'm trying to contact them on their radio. I think I'm getting a reply. I'll put it on the speakers.*

  "Maitan Empire ship Maita," a pleasant voice said. "We have been waiting for you. Please follow this beam to ground. Welcome to Focus!"

  [ They've been waiting for us? What could they...? Are they telepaths or what? I didn't ... oh. Obvious, isn't it, but why waiting for us? ]

  "Probably figurative. They've been waiting eons for someone to contact them."

  *Mountbeast excrement. Library and those beacons had fastcom of a sort so they've been listening since we put our relay in place. That would be since we came here – only eighteen days, but enough for them to know we were here and we would definitely be contacting them, eventually. Maybe they planned to contact us after they learned the language. I'm getting very excited about this contact!*

  "They didn't have relays to Library and the beacons? I've got plenty of questions! I've got questions I've never even thought of yet!"

  [ I expect to find something beyond anything we expect. ]

  *Now YOU sound like Z. That doesn't make any sense and you know it!*

  "It does to me! This is beautiful!"

  Z and Thing were together in the pilot's chair so were coming in upside down, but were so used to it that it didn't bother them in any way. If they settled into a grounding NOT under the ship upside down to the landing site it would bother them.

  [ I don't see anything primitive here at all, Maita. This is advanced beyond even the Parf worlds so far as art forms and architecture are concerned. The evidence of technology beyond anything we have is overwhelming! This is a very old technology and is slightly different from our own. Perhaps they can explain a few things to us. ]