Return to Earth: Flight of the Maita, #15

By C. D. Moulton

The crew go to Earth to see what has changed. Thing, being Thing, decides to straighten the world out.

• Language: English
• Publisher: C. D. Moulton
• Release date: Jul 4, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201806668

Book preview

Flight of the Maita

Book 15

Return to Earth

© 1987 & 2019 by C. D. Moulton

all rights reserved: no part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, 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.

The crew go to Earth to see what has changed. Thing, being Thing, decides to straighten the world out.

Critic comment

Is this true? Moulton has a very cynical slant about politics on Earth. What he says about us is too close for comfort. He knows the political mind, as evidenced in today’s headlines – and more in the back pages where so much is hidden. This is humorous and serious at the same time.

– PA  Rtng: Must

Contents

About fhe author

Chapter one

Chapter two

Chapter three

Chapter four

Chapter five

Chapter six

Chapter seven

Chapter eight

Chapter nine

Chapter ten

Chapter eleven

Chapter twelve

Chapter thirteen

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, Ambrosia peruviana.

Information about this cure is free on the FaceBook group, Ambrosia peruviana for cancer. CD asks only that all who try it please report on its effectiveness on that group.

Chapter One

[ Ha! That's about the biggest pile of garbage I've ever heard! ]

That tone ( [ – ] )means that Thing, the rubber ball with tentacles from a planet called Menta out on the N spiral arm of the galaxy was using Maita's translators and speakers to get its point across. Thing had no capacity to speak directly so Maita, the ship, Emperor of the Maitan Empire (though only the immediate crew knew that. There might be objections if the people knew a machine was in charge) and friend translated the empathic sendings for the rest of them. (The Zulians knew, of course, but that's another story.)

Thing was speaking to Z, real name Steven Zutec, an Earthman (syn: Terran) who had been, as was Thing, an original member of the group. It was aboard from when the Pweetoos were defeated until now. Only Maita, Thing and Z had been together from the first.

What do you mean, garbage?! Z snapped. I was just trying to explain why I wanted to go!

[ If it takes more than a hundred words it's only an excuse, not an explanation. If an excuse takes more than two hundred words it's an evasion. If it takes more than three hundred words it's an outright lie! Wouldn't you agree, Maita? ]

Thing had a tendency to run its thoughts together and spoke without breaks or inflection so one had to listen to the words, not intonations that would never come. Maita spoke in the same pattern so the tones had been agreed on hundreds of years before and continued, though with a less mechanical sound than before.

Maita used a bell tone (*) and a lower register.

*As a general rule, but so the hell what? It all boils down to either I go or I don't. It makes no difference what either of you wants.*

I wouldn't say that, exactly! Tab (Tabori R. DeSixtee) said. TR and I can always take them.

Tab was a robot Maita had made and given intelligence so he could handle detective work of the empire for it. Tab resembled a Swaz, an amphibian from a planet called Swaville, but could quickly be altered to fit anything of the general shape (K-form) and size of Z. Z could be altered in the medical machines to an extent also. Tab was now a permanent part of the group and, while others came and went, Z, Maita, Thing and Tab were the regulars on The Emperor's Crew.

Maita could extend the lives of Thing and Z to anything they chose while Tab, being a machine, didn't have to worry about death in the same way though he had learned, pointedly, that he could die in much the same sense as could Z or Thing. He was an intelligent entity.

TR was Tab's ship, the TRD-60 and was in fact a part of Tab. They were in constant contact whenever possible on a special band of radio/ gravitics. TR could store truly inconceivable amounts of information that was immediately available to Tab.

Maita and Thing had very early been forced to develop senses of humor or, as Maita put it, *We'll never know what the hell Z is talking about!*

Maita built the basis for humor into Tab, then let it develop on its own. Maita was puzzled itself as to how and why machines of independent intelligence could actually feel affection and even love. It seemed a rather un-machinelike trait. The group had a sort of one-upmanship and insult game they played. Strangers sometimes thought their insults would bring them to blows, but the affection each held for the others was real and deep. The game was a tension reliever and, no matter how cruel it seemed, was fun for them all.

This was more or less what they were doing now. Z had said that, as Earth was very nearly ready to come into the empire, he would like to go there to see what his race was like now. Thing responded that all Z wanted was to find some Earth girl to seduce. Z answered that Thing had recently spent almost a half year on Menta and they all were sure it hadn't wasted any time in that area.

Tab asked which of the several known sexes Thing was (no one knew) and Thing said, [ All of them at different times in my life. ]

Tab was built with all the talents and abilities of an organic being and had been highly rated as a lover by a Swaz girl – who should know. He had also been highly rated when he was in the guise of other races. He made no secret of the fact Maita had made sex a pleasurable thing for him.

Z had gone into a long lecture about the reasons he wanted to go to Earth, prompting Thing's reply.

Well, you promised I'd be able to go home anytime I wanted! Z pointed out.

*Does that mean you want to stay there?*

No! I just want to see what's going on!

[ Damn! It's not worth the trouble then! I was hoping you'd want to stay so I could have your seat here on Maita. Damn! ]

Thing was curled into a ball on Z's lap on the pilot's chair, which was Z's favorite place. Z threw it to Tab.

Don't get that thing all over me! Tab yelled.

*Which Thing should he get all over you?*

Thing wrapped its tentacles around Tab and moved all over his head and shoulders, then swung around behind.

[ Ha! Ow! That hurt! ]

Thing sprung back to Z.

It was only thirty volts, Tab said.

*It wasn't expecting it. It works pretty good, though.*

I think so, Tab replied. My power packs could have given you a couple thousand volts – then Z could have had fried squid for supper!

Thing had been thinking and suddenly sprang astride Tab's shoulders. [ You don't have the guts! ]

*He doesn't have any guts at all. He’s circuits and organic motors and cables and solenoids. Plus a couple of speakers and an elementizer grid. Of course, I make them all organic – so far as you unsophisticated clods can tell.*

Gnuh! Tab cried and swayed.

*What did you do?*

It took a piece of wire from the console, Z said.

[ I ran a jump ground from the crossplate to his head. He shocked himself! ]

You dirty little...! Tab mumbled.

[ Ahha! It's all right for you to shock me, but it's not so great if I make you shock yourself! ]

The whole thing's shocking if you ask me, Z sniffed.

*Huh! Nobody did. It's important to know you'll have to work out a secondary protective grid, Tab. Good trick, Thing. Get packed if you want to go to Earth.*

What would you pack to go to a backwater planet like that? Tab asked. Not to mention the fact that Thing and I don't wear anything most of the time, anyway.

*Don't start now. I want to go to Terra because of an entirely different reason. There's a danger they won't ever be allowed into the empire if this stupid contentive thing with the Goombridgians isn't resolved. It's hard to say which is more responsible.*

Do I take TR? Tab asked.

*TR will tag along. Are we ready?*

[ Aw, do we hafta? ]

Can it, Rubberpuss! Z snapped.

[ Maita! Z's being mean to me! Help! ]

*He's doing fine. He doesn't need help. Prepare for IDmode.*

Are you gonna start that again? Tab asked.

Maita had for years given the IDmode warning. There's no known way to lessen the slightly unpleasant twisting sensation in the mind whenever planal interfaces were transposed in shifts. It had become one of the standing jokes among the crew.

*I never stopped.*

As EC (Empire Center, the planet where they all were until a moment before) is only a few thousand plazsis (Light years plus a little) from Sol it would take them only a few minutes to get there in the drive called TTH14. They would pass near Goombridge, a mere fifteen lightyears from Earth (The Goombridgian Bakr is based on a planet circling Goombridge 1618) en route, but would continue on toward Earth. The bulk of the time spent in the trip would be in the much slower TTH4. TTH14 didn't have the necessary refinement (yet) to get a ship directly to the destination.

*Let me bring you to date about what's known about this ridiculous fiasco. The silly enmity between the two empires has been going on for a good many years with a few worlds caught in the intrigues who have no desire to be any part of it. The Tau Cetans – Thing will have a lot in common with them, physically. They have tentacles – and a couple of others. An Inktan named Rimalt found an Earthman on an undeveloped planet and took him back to the Solarian Empire. He learned a great deal on the way. Remember Tlorg? There's magic there. Not on Earth, on the planet where the Earthman shouldn't have been in the first place. We may drop by but, according to this Earthman, Alan Dale – he's known as Alfred Dawn, now. Rimalt gave him identification – even I may be in some danger. Rimalt says a magician there totally removed all of the energy from Dale's ship and he had to recharge it to get it off the planet. Where was I? Oh. Rimalt says the two empires are close to a war that none of the people want. The politicians and military seem to keep inciting things. This Dale character is trying to make a difference, but we have no further reports.*

There was a silence.

Are you through? Z asked. (I warned you Maita's speech was hard to follow.)

*That's what we know.*

We don't know anything! Tab cried. That didn't make any sense!

[ Get used to things not making any sense if we're going to Earth! Z came from there! ]

"Thing seldom makes any sense!" Z retorted.

*You two knock it off. What else do you want to know, Tab?*

Did Rimalt have any other evidence of interference in other cultures? Is there more to it? Tab asked. (Tab could communicate with Maita and Thing silently, but they generally spoke aloud around Z or any of the others who traveled with them as a courtesy. Z could contribute nothing if he didn't know what was already discussed.)

[ There's quite a bit – and all in the name of their stupid war. Only the Immins were irrational enough to believe war could be waged across plazsis – at least, this far in our experience. ]

If you forget the pirates and the robot worlds and stuff like that, Z replied.

*He got you there! I thought you'd know better than to make such a dumb statement, Thing!*

[ Touché. ]

You know, I ought to climb on you with both feet for that one! Z cried. Touché? From you?

*Don't start. We're almost there and we have to make some sort of plan. I doubt that Dale alone could have made much of a difference, but you Maitan stock are always surprising me. What next? They're your people, Z.*

Do you have a recording of Rimalt's testimony about it? Z asked. Maybe he makes sense where you don't.

*I'll play some of it. He's a professor and tends to be a bit wordy.*

[ You don't? ]

There was a pause, then a voice came on the system. "...that the planet was just beginning an industrial age on one continent. It was decidedly less advanced on the second landmass where I found the ship and Alan Dale of the Solarian Empire Fleet.

"Dale was then in the employ of what they called a wizard, a practitioner of superstition and beginnings of science. If I have been correctly informed the wizard is a small increment above a sorcerer in these cultures and uses a certain amount of science as well as the magic parts.

"Dale wished to return to the Solarian system, but wanted a new identity as he felt the machines were destroying the Solarian Empire through, first, taking over too many jobs then beginning to almost dictate legal reactions. Offering demands instead of making suggestions, as it were. Proclamations and decrees. It seems the war machines make all the decisions. Even the ship made all those decisions for Dale. He wished to attempt to inform the people of their little empire that there was a large conglomerate of systems galaxywide who would welcome them if they ever, as he put it, 'grew up,' which is, I tend toward assuming, a term denoting a maturation process inside a culture or an individual.

"So many of these idiomatic colloquialisms require a direct basis for translation, but that one doesn't seem particularly difficult if taken in context.

"I must say that personally he didn't seem to be particularly convinced anything could be done about it. Let's see ... 'grow up' I take to mean to mature as a society. I will pursue those types of descriptives when there is time.

"Dale said he could garner 'publicity' and the people would rally behind him if they knew the facts. I must admit I did nothing to discourage his trying to change the way these strange people conduct their extra-system affairs as I personally feel they are doing a great amount of damage to emerging cultures. They seemingly have no sense of responsibility for the future repercussions that might result from their inattention to ... er, yes.

"I asked my ship to reprogram Dale's ship to return without information of any events which took place on that planet to the planet or base they call 'Luna' and to make a report with the warning that it would be most unwise for the Solarians to go again to that planet.

"I then took Dale to the Solar system where I was able to place him aboard a private interplanetary conveyance belonging to someone who called himself Rod Steele. He is an athlete or competitor, whatever that is. Something about Terrans watching sports competitions in lieu of participating. I don't see why ... er, Ummm.

"My ship and I made one stop at station N six seven to test a project the wizard, a being known as Lordrum, taught it, er, or something such. A research test, I assume. I don't really follow this kind of thing too very well. It confuses me to test what seem superstitions when they seem to work. They can be explained by the practitioner having a talent in the area of psychokinetics or such, but when a machine can duplicate the ... uh.

"My belief, after much discussion with Dale, was that there was about a ten percent chance he could actually make any change in the way the Solarians, or Terrans, as they prefer to call themselves, conduct their affairs. They have not changed in many centuries and are rather in a fixed sociological pattern, though there are always those who wish to advance and redefine the parameters of the societal imperatives that govern ... what? Oh.

"I am led to understand that Emperor Maita has a friend or adviser or something who is a Terran. That is the gossip ... oh yes. Z. I've seen him on the holo. He does closely resemble Dale and Steele in the sense of racial traits.

"My ship suggested the chances were much better, er, uh, well! Yes!

I then proceeded to Inkta, thence on to the university of....

*He goes on for quite some time like that. He's really very likeable and is smart, but I think that covers what you asked about?*

Do you see what I see in that little report, Maita? Z asked.

[ I do! ]

*It seems an honest and straightforward report. There  seems to be some minimal possibility of success by this Dale character, but we will have to wait to see. There have been thousands before him who tried. There have been those same thousands who failed!*

[ We can come in as emissaries of the Maitan Empire and decide that issue ourselves. That isn't what Z means. Not even maybe! ]

*What do you mean, Z?*

Rimalt's ship is intelligent and he's trying to hide the fact for some reason, Z answered. That's awfully obvious.

I see! Tab exclaimed. You know, you may be right! He talked about the ship almost as if it were another professor at times!

*Hmm. I know of no ships that have been programmed for independent intelligence except TRD Sixty, Searcher and Theronialtes. What makes you think Rimalt's ship is intelligent?*

Rimalt made two slips that gave it away, Tab replied. Do you have the data for the time when he went to the station – the station report?

There was a pause.

*A large