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

by Moulton, CD

  "Like how a bumblestinger can fly?"

  *I'll settle for how those damned transmats work and how that grounding spell works and how you can produce that little blue flame in your hands!*

  They sat on a cleared piece of ground where nothing would be disturbed. Z and Thing went down the ramp to where a floater was waiting. Thing rode its own while Z used it.

  Z had the language crystal in place and, for the first time, studied it. The language was highly complex, but not flowery or decadent. It was more precise than even Maitan, but would be harder for many races to pronounce. Due to the fact they had viewed the people on holovid through the sensors before coming aground they knew what to expect. The people were the general form (K-form) of many of the empire's higher intelligences, but were all close to the same general size and shape. They were curious about Maita and the crew, but were very relaxed about it. They were perfectly willing to wait simply because they knew with certainty they would soon know everything they needed to know about their visitors.

  Thing was very closely scrutinized. There had been no race in the archives on Library much like it. There were definitely no empathic beings there to nearly the point the talent had reached in the Mentans. They were introduced to Happ and Glo, who would act as their guides. Happ was male and Glo female. They asked about the sex of Z, which they figured as male, and Thing. They knew of races with several sexes in the past and questioned it closely.

  They asked why Maita, who spoke with them on the radio, wasn't along. The floater told them it was along as the floater.

  *I'm sure you have figured I am the ship. I'm sure you know of mechanical intelligences.*

  "We will wish to ask about the fact you are called Maita, and you are of the Maitan Empire," Glo answered. "We have recently listened to your communications gravitics, but hadn't yet quite translated your language. We will wish to know much about your empire and of how it operates. We had great scholars in the past who have posited machine, er, controlled societies."

  [ We'll want to know as much about you, too. When we found Library we felt you were extinct at that time. The empire was dead for a quarter of a million years. You haven't devolved here, you've advanced. We want to know how.... I can't even think of the proper questions at this point. Suffice it to say I will wish fantastic quantities of information. I'm always fascinated by societal imperatives and am greatly puzzled as to what yours might be. ]

  "We looked around at ourselves and asked what it was all for," Happ replied. "The answer made this more or less inevitable. We were expanding without growing. The empire was ever larger and larger yet we might possibly be doing more harm than good. It was seemingly ever more and more pointless. There seemed no reasonable answer to the question."

  *Perhaps we've asked that question, too, and have found a much different answer. It may have a great amount to do with the basic psychological imperatives of your race and of the race who designed me. We're obviously very different in some ways.*

  "I've always found the truth to be somewhere between different viewpoints," Z suggested. "There times when you have an answer, then as much as forget it while you search for exactly that answer – or maybe give up the search.

  "That's what the fastcom pictures amounted to. Your attention gets diverted at a critical time."

  [ Truth is relative. The fastcom thing, that our hosts have no idea what we're talking about, was because the old Maitan system wasn't carried on a positional digital so it WASN'T practical then and the Kheth system was positional, but not digital. The system wasn’t usable until methods were combined into what we have now. ]

  "We could have had it for three hundred years," Z pointed out. "I'm sure these people don't know or much care what we're talking about."

  Glo and Happ both grinned and Z liked them for it. They had a sense of humor. "It wouldn't seem to have much to do with our discussion," Glo replied. "Fastcom, as you call it, is a method of communicating between machines that then translate to people."

  [You've never tried machines as your planners and leaders? ]

  "We didn't see, uh, there would be very much, uh, difference," Happ said, suddenly seeming a bit confused. "Perhaps more efficiency from machines, but efficiency can be detrimental in some ways."

  "They get rid of bureaucrats," Z said. "Maita runs the traders guild so far as trade routes and distribution and such go. The empire isn't much more than a large trading guild. We have Hospital and University and now we have the planet we call Library you bequeathed to us eons ago. We've restarted your beacons for the traders to use. Those are magnificent structures. They're monuments to a truly great empire that once flourished in the area.

  "We enjoy finding those kinds of things. We spend our time exploring. There's so much that's new!"

  "Then Maita here is actually the emperor?" Glo asked. "You leave out the military, I see. We used to do that. Don't mention them and they don't exist for the time in consciousness."

  [ Maita's the emperor. We'll call the Acnians if we need any military action. The Feach are good strategists, too, and will generally aid them. They haven't done anything other than aid in a few emergencies in a good many years. We're hopeful they won't ever be needed as military agents again, but that's asking far too much of the universe. ]

  "We will wish to ask what is different in your empire with the military under the control of machines," Happ said. "Militaries are expensive.

  "How are taxes handled?"

  *There are no taxes to handle. The empire runs the vacation planets and that's about it. I get ten percent of the profits and Hospital and University receive ten percent each. There's also a general emergency fund of ten percent. My budget has never used more than half of the funds allocated to the emperor's use so I generally spend what's left on research. I'm certainly not motivated by the desire to accumulate wealth. I have no use for it. The power is more a curse than anything any sane being would seek is why I've delegated responsibility to the extent possible. Rid yourself of responsibility and you rid yourself of power.*

  "How many worlds are there in the empire?" Glo asked, a slight smile on her face.

  [ Four thousand thirty one full members. That's as of the time we left so there are one or two more by now. They join all the time to get into the established routes of the traders guild and to meet others. The meeting of different peoples is basic to the drive in almost every advanced race we've found. ]

  "And how many warships?" she asked.

  [ I haven't any vague idea. They belong to the Acnians. Maita should know. I guess it keeps some kind of records on that sort of thing for emergencies. ]

  *About two hundred sixty unless they've added or subtracted since we left. I think Zeena was building them a special ship for emergencies of whatever type the Feach and Acnians felt might be needed. I know it'll probably have that stasis process thing in case we find anymore insane machines or whatever.*

  [ You know it'll probably have? ]

  *Stick it, Rubberbottom!*

  Glo's mouth dropped open, but she quickly recovered. "What kind of weapons can they carry where they wouldn't need more than that to control such a large galaxy?!" she exclaimed.

  [ They don't control anything. They are there to answer any calls from Maita or Hospital or Tab or Kit or Z or me. Any world can call them if they're threatened or if they have an emergency. In a case such as with Mord, the Zulians called them and several thousand trader ships. The Mord world was going to be consumed by their primary so we found them another world. Everyone came to help. It was a tremendous problem, but we were able to solve it to everyone's satisfaction. We found them a new world near a stable star. It was very touching. ]

  "You were able to move an entire race?" Happ asked.

  *Yes. We were just in time, too. The star went nova in less than a halfyear from the time we completed the job.*

  "How could you give them a usable biosphere in only the few years from when a star indicates it will die?" Happ asked. "If you wonder abou
t our questions we are being given the questions through radio implants. Everyone who wishes to hear is listening. The questions are from, er, scholars."

  [ We placed a transmat portal under the sea on their world and allowed the transfer to be done automatically. We also moved large sections of plant and animal life through the transmat, getting a complete biosphere. It's what we did with New Zule, but those people were prepared to move while the Mord weren't. ]

  "You speak of a transmat," Glo said. "We determined such were impossible long ago – and you don't have to quote me a lot of examples of impossible things that are as much as everyday. We will wish information about how this was done."

  *I can't give you the transmat. I have no idea how it works and we use it very sparingly except when moving from point to point on EC. We discovered the portals in use there. They were telepathically controlled, which should mean only Thing among us could use them, but such was not the case. Any of the peoples there can use them. Even Tab and Kit use them.*

  "You have mentioned this Tab and Kit before. Why are you so surprised they can use them?" Glo asked. "If one being can use them without a telepathic or empathic talent there would seem to be no reason other could not do the same."

  [ They're robots Maita built. If you wish contact with the peoples of the Maitan Empire we have to ask that you don't tell anyone Maita, Tab or Kit are machines. It's surprising that a machine can use a telepathic device who wasn't designed by the builders of those devices. It's one of the basic reasons we're so interested in finding how the devices work. They seem to work on planal interfaces, which tends to greatly multiply the impossibilities. ]

  "We will wish to know more about those robots," Happ said. "It is very possible Maita can directly input this information for us.

  "Perhaps you would like to see more of our society and to ask questions of us."

  *I can input much of the information you seek, but much you may obtain through Library. We placed all information from that world on open fastcom. There's a relay close. I'll show you how to use it. It will be easy and will reacquaint you with those things that have been long forgotten. I'm constantly amazed at the completeness of the information there.*

  "You would open Information Center Museums to anyone!?" Glo cried.

  [ Certainly. We already have many thousands of top scholars and researchers going there and probably more millions on fastcom circuits using the facilities. There's much useful information there if anyone wishes to search for it. Many have. It's time-consuming because of the vast store of information contained, but patience is generally rewarded. One finds what one seeks there – mostly. ]

  Z laughed and explained, "I can easily see our society's very different from what you have. I think your questions tell us why. You still fail to understand us at all because you view the system from the wrong perspective.

  "We aren't militaristic. We feel such a system leads nowhere. Militarism's self-defeating in the long run. It's back to the responsibility thing. Holding power brings the responsibility. Military power necessarily depends on repression, which breeds resentment, which breeds revolution."

  "The only way to stop the militaristic aims of a race are for that race to resolve its internal problems," Glo agreed. "This is a tenet we have found to be true. I can deduce what you mean by the term 'long run' and feel there is some misunderstanding because of our different societal directives. Our own, uh, leader has made a long detailed study of militarism. The fact of an empire's existing – or so we thought – meant a strong military, thus those internal problems that aren't easily solvable. One thing follows the other in a logical sequence. A race that expands into an empire leader has not solved basic and inherent problems. It appears to me the fact you are a machine means you do not understand what is happening. Your worlds will eventually seek to place themselves into an ascendant position in relation to their neighbors. It is the nature of a people. They have been forced by their very evolution to do this. The race will not advance without being aggressive, first against others to gain dominance of their world, then against their own kind for personal gain, then against others when they've reached the ability to go to other worlds.

  "I very deeply hope this is not true."

  [ Then you expect we've come here seeking conquest? ]

  "It would be logical to assume if you weren't controlled by a machine," Happ answered. "With Maita in control we have an equation without sufficient information. None of our factors are relevant to the situation."

  *You hear that? I'm in control here! Don't forget that, peons! You will do as you're told!*

  "Stick it in your focus coils!" Z snapped. "All I have to do is throw that one switch and I'm in charge! Don't YOU forget that, you pile of reject scrap metal!"

  [ The two of you combined don't have the intelligence to avoid a neutron mass! I am the logical ruler! ]

  *I can fly off and leave you here and that's that!*

  [ You're fully aware you couldn't handle it yourself. ]

  "We see what you are doing and why, but consider that you may be much too close to the problem to see it," Glo suggested. "Is there really a switch that will turn Maita off?"

  "No, but it does turn control over to any trained pilot," Z answered. "I'm a trained pilot. There are millions of trained pilots in the empire."

  "But they do not know Maita is the emperor," Happ pointed out.

  [ Tab and Kit know, as do the Zulians, and now you. Over the years there've been many beings aboard Maita, most of them were organic. The switch is right there on the console with a sign that says it's an override. ]

  *There was once a very large – for the time – political entity called the Kheth Federation. They were the first large group of star systems to become partners in the Maitan Empire except through the direct actions of Z, Thing, myself and a small collection of friends from several races. I wanted no part of ruling, though it was part of my design and original programing to rule or to administer government. It was thrust upon me – and those people in charge at the time knew I was a machine.*

  "Thrust on you?" Glo asked.

  [ Maita was petitioned by the Kheth Federation to allow them to join the small empire we had recently established and turned over to the servo machines. That federation was crumbling from an overabundance of bureaucrats. Maita installed the servo machines, but had to run it directly. We aided other races who insisted on joining and bringing their friends in. We enjoy exploring such as we're doing now and included the entire plane of the galaxy. There are a few worlds on the domes who have joined. The machines do run everything now, allowing Maita to be a spaceship, which is its primary purpose. The Maitans had designed the administration abilities into the ship when they knew the Pweetoos were going to decimate their group of worlds. Maita can give your machines the information. The problem with all your beliefs about what must happen is based on political situations. When you eliminate the politicians you eliminate those problems. People of most races want to get along with others. The empire works very well through the device of assuming that. ]

  "We can't see government without politicians," Glo protested. "Without the machines, that would be anarchy."

  "Anarchy can work – OR democracy – without politicians," Z said. "What did any politician ever do?"

  "They have done great things!" Happ cried. "When we had the wars it was the politicians who were able to bring us together to fight for right!"

  [ And who started the wars in the first place? The fact one wins a war automatically makes that side right. You have more intelligence than to make such ridiculous statements. You surely aren't conditioned to the point you will spout such ridiculous garbage and expect to be taken seriously! ]

  *Before you argue that politicians have built this or that, stop to think at what cost with those politicians and what cost it could have been done without them. You had a wonderful empire once, one that built many things. Great things. Library was one of those things, but if you know your own history a f
ew people on a few worlds made that magnificent place privately. The only thing your empire produced of lasting importance it also turned off when it retreated to ask unimportant questions of itself. Those beacons. That is two things your empire produced, which is two more than most produce. Had you put aside petty political differences your peoples would have soon worked things out for themselves and there would be no Maitan Empire here. You made a terrible mistake when you withdrew leadership, you know. That doomed all the races in your empire. We will continue to take the coordinates from Library and will check to see if any others survive.*

  "The empire was dying already," Glo explained. "There was and is much controversy about the possibility some of them would have survived. We cannot understand the need of leadership. That need denies most of your arguments about politicians.

  "What could we have done? It was already decaying and at an ever-accelerating pace. We couldn't stop it.

  "Again. What could we have done?"

  "Forgotten the military and war and desire to dominate like we have," Z replied. "Don't you get the point of all we're saying at all?"

  "Enlighten us," Glo requested. "There is obviously some point at which out thoughts on these matters become divergent to the extreme neither understands the other."

  "The Maitan Empire is mostly a galaxywide traders guild," Z answered. "They need only the least minimum of control. People want to know others and to interact with them. All we did was minimize the rules. There are only a couple of actual empire laws – one is that there are to be no nuclear weapons. Another is that no one is to interfere in any way with a developing culture. I can't think of any others.

  "The empire will move in at the request of a world in those cases where people are being harmed by others. Almost all laws are local and are applied only to the world in question. There are really very few laws on the worlds. Our example shows people the fewer laws, the less problems.

  "The traders guild handles their own laws and rules, such as patenting and trade rights and so forth.