by Moulton, CD
They met in the dining hall in the morning.
[ I trust you had a pleasant night, Fale? ]
"Zhes, I was very comfordable," Fale replied. "Zhu are mosd kind."
They ate a good nutritious dawnmeal, then Fale flew down to Teeme to tell the judge the group had returned and would be at Net's Inn for the noonmeal. It delivered a paper from the Supreme Judge to Judge Jeft, then had to fly to Fethren with a copy for the judge there. The crew was sitting at a long table at the Inn in a small semi-private dining room with the golem floater hovering above the center of the table. They had finished the delicious meal and were talking among themselves. The golems were sniping at one another. Thing made a pass over No's head and it suddenly found itself inside a block of ice where no one could hear it. The show with the golems never stopped. It amused people and made a lot of friends.
There was a shadow from the door behind Z, but no one paid any attention to it until Yes began to rail at No for being so stupid as to make remarks to Maybe.
+No, you simply WILL NOT learn not to mention cold or heat when Maybe's around! I have TRIED to teach you, but all I get is the ... heh, hee ... cold shoulder from you! Heeee! Except that you don't have any shoulders!
–I think this is a rather COOL reception.... YAGHK!–
The most terrifying sound Z had ever heard exploded close behind him. He almost literally wet his robes. He knew what it meant to feel your bones turn to water. He was barely able to turn around to see a true monstrosity standing there. It was almost seven feet high, was all muscles, teeth and claws. It had eyes that quite literally glowed green and it smelled of sulfur. It was the blackest black Z had ever seen. He knew this must be a Pluton, but his instinctual fear of this kind of being was overwhelming.
"Sorry," the Pluton said. "I shouldn't laugh when I'm behind someone and am unexpected. It scares hell out of them.
"I'm Kurk, Pluton, studying at Forthern. I can figure which of you is which.
"Are you all right, Boss?"
"Yeah. I'll get over it, but not anytime very soon," Z answered. "Cripes! You don't know the story behind my overreaction, but your people are demons of the most horrifying kind back where I was raised!"
"Well, whenever we're kidnapped from our world to some other where we aren't too happy we do tend to become violent," Kurk replied. "It can be a rather unpretty sight. We're bigger than anyone I've ever come across. I suppose we might have wreaked a good bit of havoc on your world at some time or other if you have sorcerers like they did here. We learned a long time ago we were being kidnapped through some sort of planal distortion technique so we've been trained to do as much lasting damage as we can when it happens. It did cut way down on the incidents."
[ Yes. It can be useful to have a bad reputation in the right places. Z was primed for this because Hades is the name for the place of the dead on his home planet. You were described to him and he said there were demons named Beelzebub or something on his home world that looked like you. ]
"Beelzebub?" Kurk asked. "That means 'I'll squash your slimy ass' in our language. I imagine someone was kidnapped and tore the entire town up yelling that so people who survived thought it was his name. Of such stuff are legends made."
[ There's a great deal more to this one, but now isn't the time and here isn't the place to discuss it. We understand that you're in an era of spaceflight and nuclear power on your home plane? ]
"Yes. You too?" Kurk asked.
[ Actually, we're in a period of interstellar flight and planal science. We've established a galactic civilization in our plane. ]
"Good! Then it's possible!" Kurk replied. "I suppose if you can do it where you came from we can do it where I come from and these people can do it here."
"There seems to be some new theory that would make it rather meaningless," Ehrak said. "I mean, if you're all figments of my imagination anyhow what...?"
"That's old philosophy," Kurk dismissed. "At least, back on Hades it is. It's only a twisting of logic and is completely subjective."
"Unfortunately it's not," Z said, conquering his fear for the moment. "It was merely a philosophy called solipsism on my home world, but something's come up recently. Something that's really scary while it's also silly."
[ Are you to the point where you realize there are all these planes we call universes, that all of them taken together must add to zero? ]
"It's been postulated, but nothing's been proven yet," Kurk answered.
"We thought it was as much as proven, but now we appear to have come face to face with the fact that one tiny little provision of the thing may be stated wrong," Ehrak said.
"What's that?" Kurk asked.
[ It doesn't add up to zero. It IS zero. Can you see what that would mean? ]
"That we don't actually exist?" Kurk replied. "That WOULD be a joke!"
"Yeah! And what happens when whichever one of us is dreaming all this wakes up?" Z asked. "What happens if the one dreaming this stops believing any of it?"
"I don't see it as important," Kurk answered.
"You don't care if your own existence means absolutely nothing?" Ehrak asked, incredulous.
"It doesn't anyhow," Kurk said. "How can you get so involved with something as meaningless as this question?"
[ Meaningless? ]
"Hah! He's right!" Z cried. "We're back to the Ithians!"
[ Boss, only you and I know what that reference is about. Nobody here has the least idea what an Ithian is.]
"The Ithians were a sect who believed that whether or not there was a god was irrelevant," Z explained.
[ These people have no gods. Do the Plutons? ]
"We did have, but no more," Kurk said. "We decided they were irrelevant a long time ago. It gets tiresome to have forty different cults or creeds or whatever that say the same thing – and that's to kill off anyone not a member of the particular cult. If any one of them were right the others wouldn't exist because a god wouldn't have to resort to such primitive, savage, juvenile methods."
Burl came in to join them at that moment. Kurk had taken a vacant seat one removed from Z, but moved next to him when Burl sat. Z felt his heart in his throat and was having difficulty breathing for a few moments. He felt as if the smell of sulfur was choking him to death. He'd had fears and prejudices before and he had conquered them. He determined he would conquer this one, too. He leaned forward, his shoulder coming into contact with Kurk's. "Burl, you said earlier you'd found some easier and simpler points for the planal interfaces.Would you mind diagraming the simpler form so I could check them to see how they might differ from my own?
"Maybe the one for Hades, as Kurk is here. I'm sure he will be interested in the nexus points for Hades."
"Certainly!" Burl replied, taking a drawing charcoal from a pocket of his robe. As he drew on the tablecloth he explained, "We used to place the bronze and silver piece here, then go at thirty six degrees to the copper and gold pyramid piece, two and a third meters, then to the zinc and copper ball at forty nine degrees and one meter, then back to the bronze and silver, then two and a sixth meters to the pure silver square, through the zinc and copper ball at about this angle and back to the pyramid, then to the energy jar, back through the pyramid at an upward angle, back through the bronze and silver here, then to an iron bar here at one and a fifth meter, then back to the energy jar.
"Now, I use the copper and zinc here, eliminate these two passes and combine them through an iron ball here. You can see it takes a bit less control. It also gives less resistance because the energy flows in only two directions through two points where the old way used three."
"It is different!" Z cried. "This first one is Martin's. I use it, but this IS safer and easier!"
The floaters recorded the whole thing and Maita could work out the points from that information.
"I'm afraid I've messed up Uncle's tablecloth!" Burl apologized.
[ No problem! North Saskatchewan Mercantile Association! ] As Thing spoke the English wor
ds it had the ultrasonic on its floater shake the carbon free of the tablecloth and the static point projector induce a charge into the particles at the same time the same charge was induced into the cloth. The writing simply turned fuzzy, then disappeared.
–How cute! Rubberpuss induces a static charge and makes weird noises. Very quaint!–
+Now, No! You WILL refuse to learn!+
[ At least I CAN bring a static charge where I want it – like this! ]
Thing pointed a tentacle at No, who screeched as a bright spark jumped to the end of its nose.
"You two stop it!" Z demanded sharply.
[ What's wrong with a little theatricality now and then? It makes it fun! ]
Kurk laughed, causing Z and Ehrak to jump. Burl's eyes flew wide open.
"This is some display!" Ehrak said. "People will think we're nothing but a gang of fancy cheap tricksters!"
"We are," Z replied. "I'm getting used to you, Kurk. I like your sense of humor."
"I like all of your senses of humor," Kurk said. "How does that clamshell thing work? Jets?"
[ No. It's a kind of spell that induces a negative gravitic force. We do use a lot of magic in what we do. Boss really can do a lot of things. Extrx and I depend on him and on science, mostly. I can do the teleportation, but it's far too dangerous to use. Extrx can use the spell Martin used to stop the sun, but not on such a scale. ]
Ehrak searched Tom's memory, found the light bending spell and suddenly disappeared.
"Did he teleport out of here!?" Kurk asked, awed.
"No, I'm still here," Ehrak answered and was suddenly back in the chair. "I simply put up a tensor field around myself. It caused the light to bend around me so you saw what was behind me instead of me."
"That's the displacement spell?" Burl asked. "You do it very well. Kene was good at that one."
Z thought, then quoted from the sorcerer Tee's memory, which he had programmed into him long ago: "Use the meditation spell to cause the air near you to move in a circle, then the holding spell to stop it from moving. You must quickly release the air and take the light, thus the light will move along the place where the air is just beginning again to move. The light will cause the air to move in one direction. You then move the air close to your body, returning it to the point directly behind. Once the flow is established the light will cause the air to become shiny. The light will move along the outside of the shining air.
"Be cautioned! You cannot see out of this spell!
"Go ahead and try it. It becomes easier very quickly. Even Kurk can do that one with a little practice. He basically has to learn the meditation spell."
"It's magic, then?" Kurk asked.
[ Partly. It's also partly science. The magic is a minimal psy talent that almost anyone can develop. ]
Burl became a bit fuzzy, then was back. He thought a moment, then tried the spell again. He disappeared for a few seconds. "I can see how it's done. I'll practice. It might be a good thing to know sometime."
They talked about a few other things for another hour, then there was a stir outside. Fale and another Frome ran into the inn and to the table.
"Friend Boss!" Fale gasped. "Zhere iss a mezzage from King Dihn! Zhere iss zum gread bad drouble on zhe dark condinend! King Dihn wishez zhat zhu come do Loosda! Iss dizasder!"
"Trouble? What kind of trouble?" Z asked, standing. "What do you mean, disaster?"
"Zome zorzerer zhere! Maybe zame when Kene iss in Soudboind!" Fale cried. "Maybe iss odderworlderz!"
"Come on, gang!" Z cried. "Th ... Maybe! Call down the clamshell! Extrx! Golems! Let's move it! Now!"
"May I come with you?" Kurk asked.
[ Certainly! We may need your help, but please forgive us if we speak in our native languages. We think better and faster that way. ]
It switched to Maitan.
[ Z, Ehrak – it can't be Immins! There are no more Immins! What is all this? Maita! Get floaters over there! Fast! ]
*They're halfway there. You'll go directly to Loosta in the clamshell floater. Maybe you can let Kurk in on part of the secret on the way. Z! I'll send personal floaters to meet you in the pass when you leave Loosta. The golems are to come directly back here. Tell the people something. Tell the Fromes the golems will give them any messages directly from you. They can come to town if necessary. The Fromes can stay at the castle if they like.*
Kurk was staring at Thing, hearing the very different voice coming from it.
[ Radio. I'll explain later who that was and what may be happening. ]
"Fromes!" Z called. "Fale, you and your friends can go to the castle whenever you want. I'll leave these golems there to relay messages. I can far-speak through them from anywhere on Tlorg. The castle will take care of your needs. Stay in touch. We may need your help. We may need the Targs, too. We'll let you know."
Ehrak grabbed the cushions from the clamshell and threw most of them out to make room for Kurk. The group quickly climbed aboard, the lid slammed shut and the floater headed at speed for Loosta.
"This is faster than a jet and there isn't any G-pressure," Kurk said. "If this is magic it's a hell of a lot better than science!"
[ Gravity shields gravity. We use gravitics to make us part of the structure of the floater so inertia is relegated to the surface parts, which are designed for it. As I'm sure you know by now we aren't from another plane. We're from another world. Several worlds. We represent the Maitan Empire, which is the one that came when Kene's Pluton friend, Wruk, called us to remove the Immin ship. No one is legally to contact this planet until they develop spaceflight on their own. The Immins were galactic criminals. They no longer exist so we have no idea who else is here. There's a restrictor satellite that's supposed to detect anyone coming in. It was probably some kind of detector that was placed by whoever's here that brought them out. ]
*I surmise we're not seen as representatives of the empire, but are believed to be other poachers or whatever. They want us off and out of here fearing we could bring the empire into it. They'll probably see it as necessary to kill us off to protect themselves.*
"But who are they, Maita?" Z asked.
*I wish I knew! I know of no one who would come to Tlorg, of all places, because the story of this place is so well known!*
“Excuse me," Kurk said. "You've mentioned the Maitan Empire several times and you call the person on the radio Maita. That's one powerful implication!"
[ Kurk, Emperor Maita. Maita, Kurk. ]
"We're almost at Loosta," Z announced. "Kurk, it's important that no one knows about this. We came here once before when the magician Martin made Tlorg seem to disappear. We're known for the things we tried to do here. Maita and the rest of us are good friends and Maita IS the emperor of the galactic empire, but machines run most of that. We came here to see how our influences were working out.
"I think this is one culture that would benefit from being taken right into the empire. I know the empire would benefit because we'd also have all of you peoples from other planes. It would be a very exciting exchange. Anything that adds diverse peoples to the empire always proves positive. Otherplaners would certainly be a new diversity!
"We knew nothing of any others here. This is as much news to us as it is to you. We have very strict laws about anyone who would interfere with an evolving culture."
*Give us a chance to work this out, please, Kurk.*
"You're at the castle?" Kurk asked.
[ Maita's ship is beneath the castle, which is mostly spun fiberglass with a gold coating. We meant to stay here for only several days, make new friends and learn what's happening on Tlorg. We were also keeping the promise to return here. We made that promise the first time we came and I made it again when I came to aid Kene since then. ]
"It's just too bad the magic isn't real," Kurk said. "You can't have everything!"
"Some of the magic is very real," Z corrected. "We can't explain much of it even taking into consideration the psy powers of a few of these people."
[ We've arrived. We must stay in character, Kurk. That's vitally important. ]
"I understand," Kurk replied. "I'm just a curious demon along for a ride and to aid a wizard and his other demons. I've seen the good you've done here. Have no fear I'll let anything slip."
They jumped out of the floater as soon as it was down and headed for the palace. The Targ guard trotted along with them, saying that King Dihn would come to them if they preferred.
"I think it'll be more fun to see his and Yilv's faces when Kurk comes running in!" Z answered.
[ I'm sure they know Plutons. Is there anything new to tell us since the message, Linx? ]
"Not really," Linx replied. "It is yust a message that vas sent to King Dihn by Frome. He sent the Frome on to Teeme. It must 'ave been exhausted py the time it arrived!"
[ It was. It's recuperating at the castle right now. There's Kar now. ]
The king ran out to meet them and quickly explained that some sorcerer on the continent had sent the message that he was going to invade the Kingdom of Loosta and destroy the great wizard, Boss. There was a paper with wizard's writing on it that was to be given to Boss.
Z read the message in Maitan: Get off of this planet. You are here illegally. If I must warn Fleet of your presence I will not hesitate to do so. Wizards do not use radio. You are discovered. Leave at once or face consequences of cultural interference. I am a close friend of Emperor Maita, as you will know from my signature. Get out!
Tabori R. DeSixtee
Thing placed the floater so Maita could read the paper as it and Z read it. Z could feel Maita using the direct channel to Thing so waited, pretending to be having trouble reading the thing. Thing spoke in Maitan.
[ Tab, TR, Kit and T Six are halfway across the galaxy. The emperor called them to confirm that. Chose your own course. ]
"This isn't wizard's writing," Z said. "It makes no sense to me. It's nothing but trickery by some half-educated moron. It's possible this socalled wizard has some small power. I'll go to the dark continent to face him. If necessary I'll do to him what I did to the sorcerer, Tee, two hundred years ago!
