Flight of the Maita Book 28: What Now?

By CD Moulton

Kit, Kurk and T6 discover a distress signal. They find a ship that is 250000 years old. Someone is activating the signal. A race is being held in mental slavery. All their attempts to change it are frustrated. When they finally have some success the real surprise comes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: CD Moulton
• Release date: Dec 11, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310806674

CD Moulton

Born in Florida, travelled the world as a rock guitarist with some big names in the late sixties, early seventies. Been everything from a high steel worker to longshoreman, from musician to bar owner, and much more. Educated in botany and genetics. Now living in paradise (Panamá!)

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Flight of the Maita

Book 28

What Now?

© 1988, 2011 & 2016 by C. D. Moulton

all rights reserved: no part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, either electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any other information retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright holder/publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

Features Kurk, Kit, and T6. They respond to an emergency call from a Krofpth station – but the Krofpth Empire died out a quarter million years ago!

Critic comment: 1988

Moulton seems to concentrate on the psychological social dynamics theme. I started out not liking this one, but grew to think it was actually very good by the (surprise) climax. I think I like Kurk, Moulton’s lovable monster.

– IA Rtng: ***

2012

I have read all the Flight of the Maita series to date. I like them all, some better than others. I found this to be a pleasant surprise. I think I, also, like Kurk. I like the humor in Moulton’s work, and the situation presented here is just at the thin edge of believable. The worst of Moulton’s work is entertaining. This is far from the worst.

- EVGH Rtng: ***½

Contents

Prologue

Chapter one

Chapter two

Chapter three

Chapter four

Chapter five

Chapter six

Chapter seven

Chapter eight

Chapter nine

Chapter ten

Chapter eleven

Chapter twelve

Epilogue

About the author

CD was born in Lakeland, Florida, in 1938. He is educated in genetics and botany. He has traveled over much of the world, particularly when he was in music as a rock rhythm guitarist with some well-known bands in the late sixties and early seventies. He has worked as a high steel worker and as a longshoreman, clerk, orchidist, bar owner, salvage yard manager and landscaper – among other things.

CD began writing fiction in 1984 and has more than 300 books published as of 3/15/16 in SciFi, murder, orchid culture and various other fields.

He now resides in Puerto Armuelles David and Gualaca, Chiriqui, Panamá, where he continues research into epiphytic plants and plays music with friends. He loves the culture of the indigenous people and counts a majority of his closer friends among that group. Several have adopted him as their father. He funds those he can afford through the universities where they have all excelled. The Indios are very intelligent people, they are simply too poor (in material things and money. Culturally, they are very wealthy) to pursue higher education.

CD loves Panamá and the people, despite horrendous experiences (Free e-book; Fading Paradise). He plans to spend the rest of his life in the paradise that is Panamá

- Estrelita Suarez V. de Jaramillo – 3/15/2016

CD is involved in research of natural cancer cure at this time. It has proven effective in all cases, so far. It is based on a plant that has been in use for thousands of years, is safe, available, and cheap. He has studied botany, and was cured of a serious lymphoma with use of the plant, Artemisia annua.

Information about this cure is free on the FaceBook group, Artemisia Cancer Cure plus. CD asks only that all who try it please report on its effectiveness on that group.

What Now?

Prologue

Kit, robot detective and adventurer for Emperor Maita, was staying awake solely for the benefit of his fellow passenger, Kurk, a Pluton from Hades (Never mind). The two were aboard Kit's intelligent ship, T6, just after leaving the planet known as Tlorg, which was the only place in N space from which Kurk could go home for a short visit.

See?

Okay, don't start bitching.

Emperor Maita is a spaceship that had become emperor of a small conglomerate of star systems on the N arm of the galaxy through a series of incidents that happened more than three hundred Maitan Galactic Standard (MGS) years ago, but which has grown to cover the entire galaxy at this point. As you can guess, Maita is also intelligent.

Those first few years there were the three close friends, a Terran known as Z, a Mentan known as Thing and Maita itself, who adventured out on that spiral arm where the original planet, Maita, the planet Earth and the planet Menta are located.

Maita was named by Z (As was Thing). The race who built the large spaceship were called the Maitans. Thing was because Z couldn't think of anything else at that moment to describe the small squarish rubbery being with tentacles and eyes on stalks. Z's real name was Stephen Zutec. Maita could extend the lifespans of Z and Thing (And Kurk) for as long as they cared to go on.

Maita originally designed Tabori R. DeSixtee (Affectionately known as Tab) and his spaceship, TRD-60 (Affectionately known as TR), to try to learn something about the thought processes of organic beings. Tab and TR opened a detective agency on a planet called Perfect 3 (Again, don't ask!). They developed their own personalities, though they were actually linked most of the time to act as one entity. They were so successful Maita later built Kit to be a part of T6 when T6 developed independent intelligence by accident.

When the Inktan, Rimalt, died (He had owned T6) Maita knew how lonely T6 would become, thus made Kit, who now was a partner in the detective agency Tab started. The two detectives and their ships had worked well together in the detective agency and had handled many cases in that capacity, learning much about people and themselves. They also traveled with Maita much of the time and were considered as part of the crew.

Tab was designed to be indistinguishable from a Swaz, an amphibian being from a planet called Swaville. He was generally the shape of the Kheth, the Bentans, the Terrans, the Maitans and so on, (K-form, or K-type) stood about two meters, had a vestigial fin down his back, dual-lidded eyes and some webbing between his fingers and toes. The robots couldn't be distinguished from the organic beings they were designed to appear as at any given time (The ships could quickly modify them to anything in the general size and shape of their master form). They could eat, drink, excrete and even make love – though they couldn't actually father young. Even Maita wasn't that good!

Kit was formed to look like a Kheth, a reptilian being from Khee. He was slightly taller than Tab and was thinner at the waist, but as broad at the shoulders. Neither had hair, being of reptilian and amphibian form, but Kit had a fleshy crest across his head.

The ships were of the saucer type. Maita was sixty meters across and plated in platinum (Not ostentation. Platinum isn't reactive and has an immense melting temperature) while TR and T6 were far smaller. Maita couldn't very well disguise itself, but TR and T6 had a variety of interesting devices to change their lines or appearances. They could change fairly quickly and those disguises could be removed almost instantly when the need arose. It was sometimes necessary that the ships not be recognized, especially as it was generally known they were intelligent and the identification of the detectives as their partners would be made immediately. They were quite famous for some of their cases.

No one knew the detectives were robots, of course, except for Maita and its crew – and the Zulians, but that's another story. No one knew except those same beings that Maita was a machine, either. The story was that the emperor never let anyone see him so any citizens of the empire could believe he was of their race. The empire was mostly just a huge trading guild that was run by machines, anyhow, but some races would be uncomfortable knowing that a machine was emperor.

Maita programmed the traders guild machines and kept close watch on them, but didn't interfere with operations so long as things went along smoothly. Having control of those machines allowed Maita and the crew to input tremendous information about whatever disguises they were using in any given instance the subjects of the investigations to find. The crew didn't realize how closely Maita watched that sort of thing, but wouldn't abuse the ability.

Z was, it had turned out many years after the first adventures, from a lost Maitan colony. A ship had made an emergency landing on Earth on the order of eighty five thousand MGS years ago. Their moder went out and they were trapped where they had to start a colony or die out. Over a thousand years the Maitans had devolved, then re-evolved. The natural evolution on Earth fit very well with what the Maitans were, though some things were lost because of the differences – but that's the way of the universe.

Kurk. That's a hard one! Kurk isn't from this universe. There are perhaps an infinite number of universes that comprise the omniverse. The differences in the planals is generally in the number of stressed dimensions and their angles to one another. If one can look.... It's too complicated to explain and you wouldn't care anyhow. Only Thing actually knew about the planals and fully understood them so far as was known. Even combined super machines such as Maita and the linked ship/robots TR/Tab and T6/Kit didn't really understand it.

Kurk was found and asked to join the crew on the planet they had been visiting, Tlorg. There were wizards there who had a small psy talent that would allow opening of a portal between certain close dimensional planes and that world. Those beings such as the Fromes, the Targs and the Plutons were the natural denizens of Tlorg on other planal interfaces. Kurk had been called into N (This plane) space by such a wizard, had helped the crew with a very serious problem and had joined. He didn't want to return to Hades as the Plutons called their world because it was in that first phase of space travel where the planet generally becomes too polluted, greatly overpopulated and the people haven't yet outgrown certain traits. Kurk was a misfit on Hades as Z was on Terra.

Oh, well – Kurk was a demon on Tlorg and looked like one! The sight of him was enough to send most beings into a wild panic if he wasn't expected. His laugh could send strong beings into sheer panic, expected or not. It had been known to panic even the machines such as Tab and Kit.

Kurk was shiny deep black, had fairly long soft fur covering his entire body, had sharp claws on his fingers and toes, long vicious-looking teeth, pointed ears that could be swivelled toward sounds and eyes that, due to a phosphorescent compound, glowed green. He also needed added sulfur in his diet to replace sulfur oxides found in his home's air.

He stood more than two meters in height and was powerfully built. He was generally easygoing and was liked immediately by children, but unlike Z, Thing and the robots was capable of truly awesome violence. He was amoral in some ways while being extremely moral in others. His view was simplistic.

For some reason none of the crew (Except Z) could figure females of many races found him to be extremely attractive.

Everyone in Maita's Crew, including the robots and ships, developed strong senses of humor over the decades. Their present form of affectionate joking was insults of the most outrageous kind. It was proof of their deep genuine affection for one another that they could say and do the things they did and no one would take offense. They would find a way to get even, usually by making a better trick against the one who had one-upped them. No trick was too juvenile to be below them or too slapstick.

They were on their way back to Empire Center to rejoin the others in their little group when T6 interrupted their insult game to say over the speakers built into the ship, I'm getting something strange on the emergency call circuits – and it’s on the old (1/4 million years!) Krofpth emergency beacon frequency!

Is it a new signal? Kurk asked. Or is it something that's been floating around space for centuries?

Low static. Let me move over for better triangulation, T6 replied. There it is. Sixteen degrees.... Point of origin less than two plazsis (MGS lightyears) from here and not even that from the first read.

I vote to go, then, Kurk said.

So do I, Kit added. Let's see what this is all about! It certainly shouldn't take much time to check it out. If it's real we can call in Hospital or Fleet or whatever.

Don't you get the full import of this? T6 asked.

Full import? Kurk replied. Okay. I'll save it. What?

You might stop to consider that the Krofpth empire was last heard of, when Maita found Library, more than a quarter million years ago! Kit said thoughtfully. "This might prove very interesting! Add to that the fact they were never in this part of the galaxy and we have a very complex little puzzle, don't we?

I wonder – what now?

Chapter one

"This may well be a very strange one, Kit mused. The old Krofpth Empire was right on the dome. It wasn't anywhere near this area of the galaxy, large as it was. I wonder where they got the emergency signal.... T Six?"

Yo? T6 replied.

Are they using straight Krofpth or is it another of the languages? Kit asked.

Yep! Straight from Library unabridged classic Krofpth, T6 answered. If it had been anything else I think I wouldn't have answered it. Not personally. I would've called Fleet. I'm calling Maita to ask what we should do. There's a lot more oddity to this every second. The closer, the odder it gets.

We should go right on in, Kurk suggested. It's a call for help on an emergency beacon. Someone needs help – or did when that signal was sent out. We can call Fleet or Hospital when and if they're needed. Maybe it's something fairly simple that we can handle without anybody else. Maybe all they need is Hospital (A planet that was exactly that and that had ships to go anywhere in the galaxy at a moment's notice if an emergency arose).

Maita's gone with Z and Thing on some new adventure and says for us to handle it ourselves. Tab had to go to some place to meet somebody for the agency and can't help, T6 replied. Well, Kurk! You've worked with all of us now and you've worked with Maita and Thing. If this is something new and interesting it'll be our first chance to work as only the three of us! Most of what Kit and I do is with the whole crew or with Tab and the agency so we pool our ideas before we act, okay?

In other words don't go running amok through this until we decide if we know what's going on, Kurk said with a wide grin. Agreed. I think we can work together very well. I've gotten a feel for the way you operate with the Gretschiim thing.

They came in close to a system a quick visual probe showed as having eleven planets, two of which were in the life zone. There were two very large planets with large moons that could also support life.

Can you triangulate exactly where the signals are coming from? Kit asked. "If they're still being sent, of course. There's always the chance the signals were sent years ago and the cause of the emergency has rendered our arrival incidental and irrelevant as no one survived."

Yo! From geostationary orbit over the fourth planet, T6 replied. "There seems to be activity of a civilization on the fourth planet. Signals. I'm doing spectra.... There's quite a little civilization there. A mix of some advanced and a lot of pre-industrial societies. The world is more than two thirds water, as reasonably comfortable as wet M three planets generally are for Swaz, Kheth, Terrans and Plutons – also for robots designed in those patterns. It has a stable oxygen/nitrogen atmosphere and is lushly forested. There are six continent-sized land masses along with several thousands of islands of all sizes. There's evidence of some fairly large cities, all on two tropical through temperate zones continents. The more advanced types of pollution and such are there, naturally.

"There's some small bit of ocean travel as well as land travel. Perhaps there's some near-rocket travel, but nothing greatly advanced so far as I can detect. We've found civilizations before that have primitive space travel before they have ... but they don't have any air traffic I can see. They don't have simple television or radio – but the beacon is using focused gravitics to make the aid call. It's also in a high stable orbit.

"None of this adds up! There isn't evidence a.... How strange! I wonder if they've detected us?

They couldn't have! I would've detected their scans and we can't be seen with telescopes from this distance! Not through an atmosphere!

What happened? Kurk asked.

The transmissions stopped! T6 answered. This is weird! Maybe they have some kind of psy power they can use to see us?

T Six, back away from the system a plazsi or so, Kit suggested. Come back inward in jumps of a light day. Check the way their transmissions have changed over the period of a year to see if there's some kind of pattern that would indicate an automated response.

They felt the mental twist that dropping into and out of TTH dimensional drives caused when it interfered with natural electrical flow in the brain.

There isn't any transmission here, T6 said. We'll move in to see when it starts again. I see what Kit was saying.

They turn the damned thing on and off, Kurk said. How can they do that? Radio controls? Who would turn an emergency distress signal off? Why? Why turn it on again?

It would seem they're doing exactly that, T6 replied. Maybe they think it'll conserve power, though those Krofpth signals would operate for centuries after the star burned out.

They waited for another few hours with forty or so jumps to determine the timing of the beacon’s transmissions.

Okay! They turn it on for five of their hours every fifth day, T6 said. The message is a flat call for aid in the old Krofpth language and codes on four separate emergency channels at once. It's not a simple basic call signal, but it doesn't contain any vast information, either. It's just – there.

But that doesn't make sense! Kit cried. Why would anyone only send a call for emergency aid for a few hours every few days? Either they're in trouble or they're not!

"The first thing we're going to do is make a very cautious approach to the planet, T6 replied. We're gonna find out what the people are like and what stage they're in, then we're gonna find exactly where and why that stupid transmission is coming from."

Why it's coming from? Kurk asked with his toothy grin. "You've blown your logic circuits! I have an idea it's some kind of artifact someone learned to turn on and off. They're probably trying to find out what it is themselves. It's something that's in an orbit it's been in for centuries and they've recently located something in an old escape pod or cave or something that turns it on and off and are trying to find out what