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

by Moulton, CD

  "Trivitus gallus parvifolia 'Tremblens' Tesfortii is a tree that produces a symbiotic sap feeding system for what I'll term SymboTrivitus Tesfortii symbiosea Tesfortii, which is our gall. There is definite patternings of RNA in those things. They can grow as much or as little of it as they choose – and they have enough of it to act as quite a little brain. Their storage capacity for memory is limitless for all practical purposes. It's like T Six and Maita and me. It can add whatever volume of data storage space it needs. While it grows it, we manufacture it.

  "If there's genetic reason for their psy power – and that's hardly in question here – it's in that material so can also be increased by exercise of will. In other words the thing can think and can reason. We'll not likely discover its motivations except by deductive extrapolation. It's a plant.

  "Maita once found a planet full of intelligent plants and placed them off limits because they can't understand us and we can't understand them in most things.

  "It remembers, inherits the memory, reasons and is strongly instinctual in protecting itself and its perceived territory. We've invaded its territory and have physically harmed it – in its probable estimation. We'll be indistinguishable from the Klaft to it.

  "Then we have the present combination. A fungus that grows exponentially, but which contains that RNA, thus that gall. It can control its own growth I'm sure. Givzoo and company obviously feel the same. I'm equally sure it CAN'T control the fact it will mature and spore – and die. Givzoo and company have probably deduced the same. It knows full well it can never die a natural death for a number of reasons.

  "What Givzoo's group may or may not know is the thing can probably grow as much RNA as it chooses into each spore. I will deduce it can then selectively program whatever it chooses into that RNA so far as memory goes.

  "Is all this beginning to suggest what Givzoo fears so totally?"

  "That it would be almost insectile in any practical application," Tab said. "If it can select what memories go into which spores it can program them into everything from scientists to warriors. Program only negative memories of animal societies into a few billion of the things and it'll have one very formidable army! Even with millions of bits of memory it'll still be a very small spore!"

  "Then Givzoo put that lab that far out there for it through trickery!" Kit exclaimed. "He wanted to keep it away from the spaceport!"

  "That seems to be the thrust of it," Tab agreed. "But I don't understand why he doesn't just kill the thing off!"

  "Givzoo and Zantoo are in the skimmer craft and are heading for A Port fast," T6 reported. "Perhaps Kit should be here to greet them. I take it he's still a Bentan?"

  "I'll be right there with my good new friend, the native I rescued, Klist Mar," Kit replied. "Maybe we'll be able to make a plan together."

  The two went by fast floater to T6 where they were waiting when Givzoo and Zantoo arrived. They came to their own ship, but Kit waved for them to come aboard T6. T6 would fully shield the influences of the fungus. It had learned that when it got the information to shield Tab and Kit. When the two were aboard Kit introduced his native friend, Klist Mar, and said the ship was a Zeenan P class and that psy influences couldn't intrude so they were safe there. Givzoo would remember Klist Mar from buying glassware from him.

  "Stop this immediately! The women will be treated horribly!" Zantoo protested.

  "Not so long as that thing doesn't know about this," Tab said. "I tried some experiments after it led me to that room. I found I can push it to one part of my mind. I can't make it lose control of my body, but I can hide my thoughts from it easily. It didn't do anything to us in the bunks but try to make us sleep, but I learned how to get around that. It knew I was still in the building, but it didn't know anything else.

  "I found the files, you know. I can't read them, but Clohk Nate can. He spent a lot of time in there and has reported to the empire about the thing. The emperor says the thing is about to spore so we have to be sure none of the spores get off of this planet. The emperor says you will have tried to do something, but it isn't as easy as it may appear from the first. It can stop you."

  "You spoke to the emperor?" Givzoo asked.

  "Well, mostly just to Fleet, but the emperor interrupted. He said it was very important we understand the extreme gravity of the situation," Tab replied. "Clohk spoke with him more than I did, but I guess I'm more impressed than a citizen would be. I'm very impressed about you, too. Emperor Maita said he presented you with awards for your good works. Clohk says the emperor's very stingy with his awards so your getting them says a lot about you."

  "I don't deserve any awards for the way I've handled this mess," Givzoo said bitterly. "It got out of hand almost immediately. It was too far gone before I knew about it. It has a ... cunning ... and hid its development until it was strong enough to affect us. It took control. We're afraid it will spore again, as the emperor also fears. Is he aware the spores will have the memories of the parent?"

  "Yes," Kit replied. "That's why we have to end it here. We can't take any chances of it getting off of this world or even of it spreading here. You have to get the women away from there so we can burn that thing out. Fire will stop it."

  "It's too late!" Zantoo cried. "It's already spored once! It was only the first growth of the thing – before it had learned to control the growth rate. The spores were released into the woods – into the stream so it will be growing around the lake.

  "We think it will control its growth. We think maybe there was a partial programming of the spores so it will learn to hide."

  "Can it kill?" Kit asked suddenly.

  "Yes, but that's not really a danger," Givzoo said. "There are far worse things it can do. There are things where you would welcome or even beg for the release of death! It can get into the mind itself. It drives you insane in a very horrible way, but it doesn't really do that for any reason I can understand. It's perfectly well aware we've killed a few of its kind and that it was itself a part of an experiment, but it accepts that as being the way of the universe. It holds no animosity, but it does seek power.

  "I can't understand it. It doesn't know pleasure so far as I can tell. It doesn't have any concept of pain, though it knows animals do. It is aware when it is in danger or when it has sustained damage.

  "Oh, yes. I've studied the thing very carefully and long! I know what it wants, but I don't know why! It will punish me for speaking like this to you. It doesn't know pain, but it knows how to cause it and it knows how to use it. It can make me tell it exactly what I've said, you know. You can trick it, but you can't lie to it. Do you see the difference? The significance?"

  "That's why you could tell me so much earlier," Kit agreed. "You would have to tell it the words you used to me and the words I used in reply, but without the stress or without the double entendre. The words haven't the same meaning like that. It'll learn, though. That's inevitable.

  "We can get rid of the main thing here. We can then attack the new ones as they come along."

  "You can't win," Zantoo answered, sadly. "The thing produces millions of spores. It already has an estimated two hundred thousand spores out there. If we miss one it all starts over. It's hopeless!"

  "Another thing is that those spores can survive as much as sixty years before growing," Givzoo added defeatedly. "That is, the spores of the original organism can. Whether these can last as long or longer is unknown. It's something we have to learn. I don't see how it will be possible to keep those spores on this world alone."

  "Can the spores survive in space?" Tab asked for T6, who was giving him instructions through the internals. "If they can't we decontaminate on the inside of every ship before it leaves."

  "They can't survive outside, but they can control whether or not the decontamination is complete," Givzoo replied. "They can use a post-hypnotic type of suggestion to have spores held in a container and released elsewhere without memory of the agent. That will occur to it sooner or later."

  Kit went
to the fastcom, called Fleet and said, "This is a full emergency. I have spoken with Emperor Maita about the situation on Grandish, coordinates supplied on transmission. I believe the emperor will wish to quarantine this world immediately. Ship will now give particulars."

  There was a pause, then the fastcom dinged.

  *This is Emperor Maita. I have spoken long on this matter with citizen Clohk Nate, Bentan, and have asked that he report what he finds on the world, Grandish. I hereby decree that no one leaves or enters the atmosphere of that world until further notice. This is a serious matter and is code green to Fleet. Inform all that no latitude will be allowed in this matter. Should any ship attempt to leave Grandish it will be destroyed. This is the Emperor Maita on open channel to Fleet and to all now in the area of the world, Grandish. No ship will be allowed to enter or leave the atmosphere of the planet, Grandish, until further notice on pain of destruction. I am sorry. Fleet will dispatch six full battle cruisers to enforce this quarantine. This is Emperor Maita. No ship is to attempt to leave or enter the atmosphere of the planet known as Grandish on pain of destruction. I am sorry.*

  "Well, that could mark our death warrants and I take full responsibility," Kit said. "I feel it had to be done. The Fleet ships are shielded against psy powers so it won't really matter if that thing becomes planetary in size. It'll never get off of this world."

  "I wasn't aware that psy forces could be shielded," Zantoo said. "Who developed that? The Acnians?"

  "Emperor Maita faced such a power three hundred years ago (Tristar) and developed the shields himself," Kit replied. "I'm sure you've heard the story of Empire Center. EC was inhabited by a psy machine that could influence others six plazsis away."

  "But that's a legend!" Zantoo cried. "This is real!"

  "Then all you have to do is to reach that thing right now. From inside of this ship!" Kit said. "The emperor had the shield placed when I came back from your laboratory and reported what I found. You can be sure it'll work."

  Both Zantoo and Givzoo concentrated, but couldn't feel any influence at all.

  "Then there is some hope," Givzoo said. "If my staff can be moved out of the influence of the fungus we can possibly discover something to control it. I have some ideas, but I have to be careful about thinking on a more concentrated level. I doubt we could eliminate it altogether, though. That's asking an awful lot."

  "We simply have no choice," Kit said dryly. "Unless we eliminate it totally no one will ever leave this world again. That's set in TitChroPlat! Count on it!

  "Now we have to come up with some kind of plan to attack the thing."

  "As a scientist I have to question if we have a right to commit a total genocide of those beings," Givzoo argued. "What we are discussing here is a sentient intelligent being, like it or not."

  "So were the Immins," Kit replied. "When it came down to the Immins or everyone else the case was clear. Maita didn't pause. You might also consider that this is an artificial lifeform so we're simply stopping it before it gets started. Remember those machines from Tlesson (Zulians and Robots)? Those military robots? They were intelligent artificial lifeforms, but Maita and DeSixtee certainly put a quick end to that. It took more than a century, but what must be done must be done!"

  "Then let's get on with it!" Tab said. "I do have a couple of questions the emperor sort of asked to get answers for.

  "Why did you bring it out here? Why not keep it on the world where it came from or maybe take it to some planet that's not occupied?"

  "Because it forced us to take it off of Tesfort where we found it," Zantoo replied. "Our first attempt was to take it to Crowlert, an unoccupied world – at least occupied by sentient beings – but it insisted we take it to a world with intelligent natives. We could see the possibilities forming so made a pact to destroy our ship, ourselves and the fungus, but it stopped us. Givzoo was able to convince it that a restricted world would be best and safest and an isolated area would be the only way we could succeed in protecting it from discovery. We had hoped to attract the attention of the empire, but that has come too late. We can hope the empire can keep it and us quarantined here for all time! That is our only hope!"

  Chat With a Fungus

  Tab considered for awhile, then suggested he go with Givzoo and Zantoo back to the labs where he could try to reason with the fungus.

  "It doesn't think in the same patterns as we do," Zantoo protested. "Don't think that we haven't repeatedly tried. It will pay no attention whatever to many things we would consider in a very harsh way if those things were done to us, then will take the greatest measures against us for what has no meaning whatever to us."

  "We aren't sure it has any real intelligence. Not as we know it," Givzoo continued. "We have no way to test such things, of course. The basic criteria is not the same for a vegetable being as it is for an animal one. Perhaps the emperor – or someone else in the empire – has experience with plant intelligences."

  "He does. He once discovered a planet that was dominated by a plant intelligence," Kit said. "It's off limits. Even the best computers couldn't be sure about what would have importance to them. There was also one huge difference there in that those intelligent vegetables had mobility. These are rooted to one spot, aren't they?"

  "Yes," Givzoo replied. "That doesn't help a whole hell of a lot when it can program its spores with the essence of itself. Literally billions of them."

  They talked awhile, but the main thing decided was that they had to make some kind of plan, but no one had any ideas short of burning the present fungus, then seeking out others as they came up. They had to agree that such a plan was as much as impossible because the thing wouldn't grow in very strong light so would naturally be hard to detect. If it got any size it could repel searchers through the psy talent.

  Then Givzoo and Zantoo said they had to get back to their ship. The women might at that very moment be in danger because of their absence.

  "Might I make a suggestion here?" Kit asked. "Report to the thing that you came here where we discussed a number of the problems we would face because of it. Tell it we discussed various methods of destroying it. It will expect that I'm sure. Maybe the fact you tell it the truth about such matters will prevent it from punishing any of you. From what I've heard so far I think I'm beginning to understand the way it thinks to some extent. I mean that in the context of analyzing what would be important to a plant that can't move, but can probably communicate with its psy talent with other clones of the same thing. It amounts to one large organism, in a way. Don't tell it about this one suggestion.

  "Can you engineer a virus or bacteria to attack the thing?"

  "No. We've tried those," Givzoo said. "It can control its immune system pretty well, it seems."

  "Poison it," Tab suggested. "If it's in some lab you have to feed it. Arsenic kills plants. You can probably poison it."

  "It produces semipermeable membranes to filter out all such things," Zantoo replied. "We've tried all kinds of poisons."

  "What about radioactives?" Kit asked.

  "It can detect them somehow and can isolate them with the membranes," Givzoo answered.

  "Then we have to do some very hard thinking," Kit said. "Try telling the thing the basic truth about this. It'll expect it anyhow so maybe it'll come out easier on all of us to not try any deceit or lies about it. As you've said you can tell it only the part of the truth you want it to see. It's an old truism that a partial truth is the greatest lie. I would add that it's also the most effective lie."

  Givzoo and Zantoo left, looking thoughtful.

  Tab looked at Kit, sighed deeply, shrugged and suggested, "So they've tried biological agents, poisons and radiation. Why not fire?"

  "It can probably prevent that," T6 replied. "It detects the attacks. It can possibly detect the direction of attack if not precisely what form it'll take so will use the psy where it can't otherwise protect itself. It's learning. I suggest getting rid of that one even if it means more problems with those spores
already spread. Remember – it couldn't program in those things it hadn't yet learned when it formed the spores."

  "Yes. It has a strange form of immortality with the programmed progeny," Kit agreed. "There's something not quite right here."

  "We earlier discussed how much like insects this thing is if in a somewhat displaced way," Tab said. "If it really follows that form there's one thing being left out as I see it. The queen is going to die in childbirth."

  "I see what you mean," T6 said. "I wonder just how big that spore will have to be?"

  "That spore?" Kit asked. "Oh, yeah. The next one with all the memories of mama. You did an analysis with TR so you should know pretty much how efficient that kind of RNA will be."

  "Very efficient," T6 replied. "With all the other factors that will have to be built in, about six millimeters in diameter ... no, closer to eleven for all of it. That's one spore that isn't going far!"

  "It could if it were to be sent out into the stream," Tab warned. "Specific gravity?"

  "Close enough to water that it would move with the current," T6 answered. "It has to be protected from getting to the salt ocean so maybe it'll have a coating that absorbs water and sinks?"

  "Could it grow from underwater?" Kit asked.

  "No," T6 replied. "I wonder how it'll manage that? It has to get the spores out of that lab so it'll produce several of them, at the least. It could possibly engineer a method for ensuring some of them reach a place where they can grow."

  "We aren't going to learn that here," Tab said. "I'm going to go back there to face the thing – or you are. I doubt if a native would be invited in while a citizen of the empire is far more likely to be able to get spores offplanet. I think it's plain enough that it has that as a top priority. If I'm right about how that thing thinks I might be able to get a lot of answers. We'll have to modify the emanations from our brains or it'll wonder how we could die in the bunk room and show up in the lab a couple of days later.