Us Barbarians: Flight of the Maita, #32

By C. D. Moulton

Z gets to be a barbarian when he, Kurk, and Thing (and later, the golems) go to a world to try to find why it is so cyclical for disaster.

Critic comment
A rollicking good comedy with a very serious theme. Moulton has a deep insight about what drives a society (or he convinces me he does). Sometimes something very simple is the most important factor in societal evolution.
 – IA Rtng: ***½

• Language: English
• Publisher: C. D. Moulton
• Release date: Jul 12, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201853198

Book preview

Flight of the Maita

Book 32

Us Barbarians

© 1990 & 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 the permission in writing from the copyright holder/ publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

Z gets to be a barbarian when he, Kurk, and Thing (and later, the golems) go to a world to try to find why it is so cyclical for disaster.

Critic comment

A rollicking good comedy with a very serious theme. Moulton has a deep insight about what drives a society (or he convinces me he does). Sometimes something very simple is the most important factor in societal evolution.

– IA Rtng: ***½

Contents

Fun Time

Arrival

A Seaport City

Interim

Connecting Dots

Continuing Duties

Pirate or Anti-pirate?

The High Seas and Other Places

Solidifying Positions

Zeldep-Ba

Glett-Ba

Challenge!

Back Home

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, Natural medicine research. CD asks only that all who try it please report on its effectiveness on that group.

Fun Time

The little intelligent quadropus came from the deep waters of the clear sea on Empire Center and moved slowly up the path toward the home of the Terran. It stopped often to admire myriad flowering plants along the way. There were thousands of orchids and orchid-like plants brought there from many worlds. The Terran collected the plants and planted them there over the past three hundred plus MGS (Maitan Galactic Standard) years. They ranged from the warmer tropical sea level to the snowline on the high extinct volcano that was the Terran's private little world. The variety was staggering.

The Terran's love of those plants was known over the empire and explorers were constantly contacting him about a world where like plants were native. He sometimes went to those worlds to collect specimens. The famous artists came to the world to paint them and researchers came to study them.

The little quadropus searched ahead carefully before it moved on. It was definitely expecting some kind of physical attack and was wary. Its independent eyes constantly scanned around in all directions. Surprise could come from anywhere.

It moved on, rounding a bend in the path by some rocks with Phalaenopsis orchids in pink, brown and white covering them like a fantastic blanket made of the moths the orchids so resembled. There were many white and yellow Cymbidiums around the base of the rocks for contrast and green and brown Paphiopedalums around the bases of those. Epidendrums and Vandas climbed the huge trees and bearded Brassavolas among thorny licorice-smelling Mormodes covered the branches and perched in the larger crotches. Spectacular bromeliads, anthuriums, rhipsalis and ferns draped many colors from all available spots. Intensely bright frog-like creatures sat in the cool vases the bromeliads formed, feeding on the non-biting mosquitos and other useful insects imported to keep the various lifechains stable.

The only things there that seemed to notice the rubbery little being were a few praying mantises and some bright birds.

It moved on, carefully scanning to the sides. It was only a hundred meters until it would be on the pink and green marble terrace with its little waterfall and pond. All was quiet. The air was quite still, though a slight breeze teased at the topmost branches of the large spreading trees converging their branches above to form a cool canopy of large dark green, gold and purple leaves. Dark camellia plants, fat with buds, grew below the high arches of the trees. Sesanquas were already showing their whites and pinks, reflecting the colors of the moth orchids a few meters lower.

It moved forward and suddenly found itself wrapped in a net and swinging from a tree branch. A nightmare creature stepped out from behind a large solid camellia bush to stare at the little quadropus. It was very black and furry, stood a bit over two meters, had long greenish teeth, pointed ears, sharp claws and eyes that glowed a pale yellowish-green. There was a slight odor of sulfur about the terrible being, making it necessary for it to remain downwind of the path. The odor wasn't strong or unpleasant, but was distinct.

Hah! Gotcha, you imitation synthetic rubber blob! Kurk, the empire’s furry horror and close friend of Thing, the quadropus, said triumphantly. It was the oldest kind of trap I could think of! You weren't expecting that, now were you?

A com floater came overhead. Thing couldn't speak directly, being an empath, so Maita, the intelligent spaceship who was emperor of the Maitan Empire (Though few knew that) and close friend of the group on Z's island built the floaters for it to speak through.

Maita, Thing, TRD-60 (Affectionately known as TR) and T6, two other intelligent ships, also spoke through the floaters or through various speakers in Z's (The Terran) home or inside the ships. The Emperor’s crew could speak in any combination through the devices.

TR and T6 had distinctive voices so Maita had worked out a system three centuries ago to identify its own and Thing's speech. Thing had a tuning fork sound ([ – ]) before and after its speech and Maita had a bell tone (*) before and after its own.

(Z, who writes most of these chronicles of the deeds and adventures of the crew and related adventures, started using the signs for the tones instead of quote marks from the first so the others among the group who write about them use the same system. The others are denoted as standard-form speakers in many works, such as, TR said, and T6 replied.)

[ You miserable, lousy, stinking, crummy, overgrown inkblot! I'll get even! You wait! ]

"I thought Kurk getting even with you is what this is all about? Z said, coming out onto the terrace with an armload of new plants to sort. I seem to remember us all ending up in the pond from your last little trick."

*The furry horror and Rubberbottom forgot umpty years ago who was ahead in the revenge department. If you will remember it was your trick that ended the bunch of you in that pond, as well as Thing's. The ships are coming back so Tab and Kit will be there soon. I'll prepare a homecoming party! Coquina stock and amaranth crisped crackers from Terra as an appetizer followed with cheefth green salad with pineapple, cucumber and glice dressing Z makes. Next will be Grafth steaks, medium rare and topped with pungentbulb and mushrooms sauteed in soya sauce and grovnch butter with oormph roots, baked and served with sour klopt cream and chives. A nice Surfedtian royal wine should go right with that, then....*

[ For crying out loud! (They all used those expressions learned from Z as the humor and playing was also learned from the Crazy Terran.) They're robots! What the hell is all this fancy food? Is your programming screwed up again? ]

Shut up, stupid! Z said. "We like it!"

Yeah! Kurk replied. I could use a nice steak! Make mine rare.

[ Get me out of this net you disgusting sootball! I'm gonna fix you good! ]

Oh? Then it'd be stupid of me to let you out! Kurk declared. "Fix some of that purple spitterberry shortcake with whipped Djkrith cream for dessert, Maita. It's perfect with gincha and a touch of cognac!

I cured some of Z's vanilla orchid seedpods so we can use a drop of flavor from that, too!

Kurk slipped the loop off of the net and Thing climbed onto his shoulder. They were very close, really. They played the insult games and tricked one another constantly. It kept them alert and quick. It was their way of showing affection.

Tab came through the transmat unit onto the patio. He was in his basic guise as a Swaz, an amphibian being from a world called Swaville.

As Thing had noted he and Kit were actually robots. Tab was built at the time TR was made to be a part of the ship and a companion to it. They were both a collective single intelligence and independently intelligent. When they were connected directly to the ships computers they comprised a gestalt intelligence beyond measurement – but still less than Thing's in some ways, most notably in abstracts that no one could understand well, but Thing thought were really quite simple and obvious. Kit, who would be along soon, was the same kind of part to T6. T6 wasn't built to be intelligent, but had become so through repairs done with the wrong parts. Its original owner died so Maita made Kit to replace him.

Intelligent machines develop a love for others just as many organics do. Love is based in intelligence and interaction of beings. Organic or mechanical makes no difference. Kit saved T6 from a lot of grief when Rimalt died by simply being there to share. Maita made Kit as a Kheth instead of an Inktan, as T6's owner was, because memories couldn't be so closely connected. That would extend the pain.

Kit had some of the mannerisms of Rimalt, that famous Inktan scholar, programmed in. The bond between the two was immediate and strong.

The present crew of Maita consisted of that group. Thing, Z, Kurk, TR/Tab and T6/Kit.

Kit was built in the guise of a Kheth, a reptilian race, making it a very strange bunch when they were all gathered like they were that evening – if one can call anytime evening on a planet with three suns.

Maita, TR and T6 had shop areas inside their cargo areas where they could modify Tab or Kit very quickly to look, feel and smell (very important!) like a number of races. They could modify Z greatly, too, in the medical boxes, but Thing couldn't be modified to any extent due to high internal pressures. It was from a dense heavy planet with an atmosphere that was almost liquid from pressure. It had gardens on EC, as did Z, but it farmed and landscaped at depths of up to three kilometers. It was most comfortable at that depth, breathing through membranes that were almost as efficient in water as they were in air.

Kurk couldn't be modified much at all. He was from another dimensional plane and the materials weren't available. He had to return home to Hades at intervals to absorb elements with proper angular positioning of dimensions.

You see, the dimension called Structure here in the N plane is stressed at certain angles that are at some variance on Kurk's native plane so ... you couldn't care less. Sorry.

The group talked awhile, listening to Tab and Kit tell about their latest adventure in the T-K Detective Agency. They ran the agency for something to do now, but it was originally started because Maita wanted to discover why organics think as they do. There was now a consensus that, seeing organics didn't know why they think as they do, no machine ever would. The two robots stayed in the detective business because they enjoyed the puzzles they found. They were especially fond of murder cases, something that was a result of Tab reading Z's collection of murder mysteries from old Terra.

Tab had learned through the years before Kit was made that, strange and unlikely as those methods were, they often worked – not the shoot-em-up types or the ridiculous blow up everything in sight things, but the careful thought and trickery things and searching out of clues.

Maita served the meal it had promised. The robots didn't bother to eat any of it, though they were designed to eat – and to do everything else organics do. There wasn't any point. Why waste the food – even if Maita or the other ships could produce as much as they wanted at any time?

They were sitting around the terrace with the red sun almost to the overhead position and the yellow one setting behind the high mountain enjoying each other's company and discussing some of their adventures when a fuzzy outline stepped from nowhere onto the terrace.

Heleemius? Z asked.

Heleemius was one of the M-82nds, a race from that exploding galaxy who were trapped by an accident in two dimensional planes at once. They could neither die nor breed in their present form and had been steering races for over a hundred thousand years in this Milky Way galaxy to a sense of wonder and a desire to learn. They had been on Terra as Merlin and Apollonius of Tyana, on Zeena as Frezwin, on Tlorg as Martin and one of them, Zianteus, was now working with Joe's People there on EC.

The two groups did things to aid one another from time to time. The M-82nds could travel in the galaxy much as the ships did by simply moving around distance by using another dimensional plane. As the M-82nd were living partially in another plane it was a matter of stepping from one point to another. (They were called simply The M-82nds because the name they called themselves in their native tongue was phonetically a vulgar word in Maitan Galactic Standard.)

Yes, Heleemius answered. How are all of you doing?

Great! Z replied. We're having a Happy Nothing Day party. Tab and Kit got back from a little job that was so dull we couldn't find anything else to celebrate today. You know us!

Heleemius knew how they played. He nodded and greeted the floater with, "Hello Maita, TR, T Six. I bring greetings to all of you from all of us.

Tab, TR, Kit and T Six, I have another oddity you may wish to investigate out in the area of Hopeless. Leleucius discovered it and has been watching it for some time.

They all perked up at that. The M-82nds could bring them some very interesting cases.

*What is it, Heleemius? We're all a little stir crazy about now.*

Stir crazy? Heleemius asked.

[ One of Puke Pusses' expressions. We're bored with doing nothing. We feel trapped here. Stir was an old word for a prison cell on Terra, thus we're going crazy from the feeling of being in a small confining cell. ]

In your case crazy's a short trip, Z returned (The game called for immediate response to an insult). I think your rubber mind is stretched too tight already.

*You two knock it off until we find out what this is about!*

There's a pleasant world called Joiwa a few plazsis (Maitan Galactic Standard lightyears) from Hopeless (Maita had once scanned the planet while searching for a band of criminals, made the remark, This is hopeless! Z had quickly registered the world under that name as a joke), Heleemius replied. It's experiencing a strange form of oppression of one group by another. They're in an almost feudal stage, but there's something very wrong there. It's a bit past the stage where we can interfere. The people are potentially a very good race. They're reptilian and somewhat like the Lurfts, with some Kheth features thrown in. They have tails like the Feach. You two would modify easily.

[ Could they use a little pet or something? ]

They don't keep pets, he answered. I have a request for your help from a world where Louahna was recently working. You know how she is. She's immature and tends to start things she never finishes. It's others who request that you step in.

Louahna was once very close to the group, but they discovered she was irresponsible and selfish. It was because she was so young when she was caught in the dimensional entanglement, but the way she had used the group still stung. She collected orchid-like plants and had been closest to Z.

You know that we'll come anytime we're needed. It’s just that we should be needed, Z said. We never said we wouldn't. All we said was we wouldn't let her use us for her own selfish ends anymore. We understand the situation. We hold no animosity.

Louahna has almost forgotten what, to her mind, was a small and somewhat unpleasant incident, Heleemius explained. She would otherwise have to admit she was wrong. If you simply ignore it happened she'll forget it altogether soon. You can be too busy when she wants something you don't feel is ... right.

Fair enough, Z said. What do you have for us?

It's hard to say, he replied. "It's mostly a feeling something isn't right. There are some very puzzling aspects of the place and we are involved in some projects that won't allow our spending the time on it we feel it deserves. It's also the kind of thing you so love. Kings and magicians and sorcerers. It's in a brutal period of general mammalian history – really in the marginal area between prehistory and history. The kingdoms are mostly rough villages, the kings more like clan leaders. There are some cities beginning to be built, there's some trade between those city-states, but more fighting. They're only now beginning to understand barter for a standard, which is gold, silver and gemstones – as most such cultures are. Those things are fairly rare elements on the immediate surface of that world.

"Louahna particularly liked the people. She was going to be the fairy princess and was working with that concept, but the people didn't respond as she would have liked. She didn't tell us things were going wrong and left the race too early. Now it's too late for our type of teaching alone. As I said, we don't have the time right now and right now is when change may be effective.

"There are strange cults. There's some slight psy power among a few of them and they've called a demon or two in the past, but not nearly so many or of the types the stories and legends would indicate.

"The people are like the Lornans, if a bit more primitive, so Z can be modified to pass as one of them quite easily. They have barbarian clans and sorcerers.