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    Flight of the Maita Book 38: Or Maybe Not!
    Flight of the Maita Book 38: Or Maybe Not!
    Flight of the Maita Book 38: Or Maybe Not!
    Ebook239 pages3 hours

    Flight of the Maita Book 38: Or Maybe Not!

    By CD Moulton

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    About this ebook

    "Written" by Kurk. Kurk, Tab and Thing go to a world where someone is interfering in a near perfect society. A drug and a virus that could erase the minds of mammals is involved. They have to stop it. Kurk writes a projection at the end.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCD Moulton
    Release dateDec 18, 2014
    ISBN9781311179357
    Flight of the Maita Book 38: Or Maybe Not!
    Author

    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!)

    Read more from Cd Moulton

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      Book preview

      Flight of the Maita Book 38 - CD Moulton

      Flight of the Maita

      Book 38

      Or Maybe Not!

      © 1991, 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.

      Or Maybe Not!

      is dedicated to the memory of

      Ivan Arkov

      Who particularly liked these societal imperative tales

      Critic comment

      A very absorbing tale. I have read some of C.D. Moulton`s works and am impressed by the imaginative stories. While his style leaves something to be desired, he makes up for that with tales such as this. It moves along nicely and explores motivations very well. Writing from the perspectives of the various characters gives continuity to the work as well as ensuring it does not become boring from sameness. I very much like what Ivan called Moulton`s Lovable monster, Kurk. This is written from Kurk`s point of view. I particularly enjoyed the last chapter, where Kurk made up a tale of what might happen later.

      I rate this book with four stars. Leslie L.

      Contents

      Prologue

      Chapter one

      Chapter two

      Chapter three

      Chapter four

      Chapter five

      Chapter six

      Chapter seven

      Chapter eight

      Projection

      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.

      Or Maybe Not!

      Prologue

      *So that shows how important it is we never decrease our vigilance anywhere the empire's concerned. We must forever remain alert to any form of attack directed against our machines. To attack the machines is to attack the empire. That ain’t smart.*

      That tone ( *–* ) indicates our fearless leader, Maita, is speaking.

      [ Eternal vigilance? Never decrease it? Forever alert? Shee! You sound about as pompous as Z! Wheee! ]

      That ( [ – ] ) indicates our little Mentan friend, Thing, is speaking. Maita translates its words through a number of devices because it can't speak directly.

      Z is our Terran member. The Wheeee! indicates Z grabbed Thing, who was sitting on his shoulder, and tossed it to me.

      I'm Kurk, the Furry Horror member of the crew.

      We insult each other constantly and play little juvenile tricks on one another. It's done because we're very close and are comfortable with such antics. Nobody's going to get upset or take offense. It's a game we've played ever since I joined the emperor's crew when we met on Tlorg.

      It's really because Z's so inhibited he can't tell me or Thing, who isn't male right now (I don't think), or even Maita and the robots that he loves us, though he rather obviously does. My society isn't nearly so inhibited as Z's original one, but I’ve never found it easy to talk about such emotions myself.

      It's a good thing we have the agency here for the people to always report that sort of thing to, Kit, the Kheth-like robot detective and partner with his ship, T6, and the robot Tab and his ship, TRD-60, agreed. We'd never know about half of those kinds of weird plots until they'd caused a lot of strife if it weren't for people like that. The empire's got a lot of loyal citizens who know that they'd be far worse off without the machines and the empire. We can depend on them in the same way they feel they can depend on us.

      That's the present crew. Maita is the leader, is emperor of the Maitan Empire and is a large spaceship. It was designed to run a little empire for the original Maitans, but now the whole galaxy is included in the empire.

      Maita hates having to be emperor, but is resigned to it. The Krofpth machine, TAR-1, handles a lot of it now. Maita has things set up so well with the machines and TAR-1 that it can go on its little adventures fairly often. It can stay in contact with the major administration and judicial machines through the fastcom system from anywhere in the galaxy.

      Thing is a squarish globe that seems to most beings to be a dull grayish color, but I learned on a vacation to my home world (Book 35: Odd couple Out) that it is a mixture of vibrant bright colors to those who can see more into the upper and lower light wavelengths, is about half a meter thick with four tentacles and stalked independent eyes. It's an empath who breathes through membranes and can't speak directly. Maita has a system to carry its words on the ever-present speakers on the ships and all around EC, as we call the planet Empire Center. The system is the one Maita, TR and T6 use to keep in contact among us all.

      Thing also rides around on a gravitic floater when it's not riding around on one of us. The floaters have speaker systems, too, as does a harness Maita made for it when it went on a vacation (don't ask) with me to my own home world (and almost destroyed two whole worlds).

      Z's a Terran, therefore, he looks like a Maitan from which stock Terrans are descended. There was a ship wreck on Terra more than a hundred thousand years ago that allowed Maitan survivors to displace the primitive race evolving there and the bioforms they carried for cloning were stronger than the native forms so also became dominant. The genetic matrix wasn't so different that they poisoned each other.

      Almost everyone knows what the Maitans look like. Standard K-form mammals.

      I'm called The Furry Horror because I'm from a world in another plane that shares a confluence point with Earth. Some members of my race, the Plutons, were once called by magicians on Earth when they accidentally discovered a way to open a portal into that confluence point. We were known as demons from Hades. Hades is the name we Plutons call our world.

      Hades also shares a planal nexus with a world called Tlorg where we Plutons can cross back and forth at will now. Another little accomplishment of Thing on its vacation to Hades.

      I stand a bit under three meters and am shaped much like the Terrans. I am covered with thick black fur, have long sharp claws and teeth and have a bioluminescent compound in my eyes and teeth that makes them glow with a greenish light. I admit to being just a little vain about my exceptionally fine teeth. (Well, a little vain might be construed a bit of an understatement – by Rubber Bottom and Fart Face) (and TR and Tab) (and T6 and Kit) (and Maita) (Sheesh!)

      Tab is designed to be indistinguishable, even to most empire machines, from a Swaz, an amphibian being from a planet called Swaville. He stands slightly under Z's height and is the same general body form, has a vestigial fin down his back, vestigial gills, partially webbed hands and feet, dual-lidded eyes and lacks, as do most reptiles and amphibians, hair.

      Kit is designed to be indistinguishable from a reptilian Kheth. Same general form, but taller and thinner in the waist and lacking fins, gills and webbing.

      TR, as we call TRD-60, is much like a Zeenan L class ship while T6 IS a Zeenan P class. TR was built (by Maita) to have independent intelligence, as were Tab and Kit, but T6 got its independent intelligence by accident. (All ships are intelligent, but few are cognizant, therefore alive in a broad sense.)

      The robots and their ships are almost always linked with a com system Maita and TR invented that no one else can detect under normal circumstances. Tab and TR can link to use a single sort of mind, as can Kit and T6. Sometimes they all four interlink with Maita to form a mega superbrain, but Thing can handle abstract mathematical concepts better than all of them, linked. That's because it can use what it calls fractal logic while the ships use a more linear type of logic. They claim that Z and I don't use any form of logic, so what types they use isn't relevant.

      We often play juvenile and silly tricks on one another. The ships and robots, too. We call each other such as Rubber Bottom for Thing and Fart Face for Z and The Furry Horror for me.

      We were all (except for the ships. They were in their private hangars under Empire Central Mountain) on Z's patio or terrace or whatever you call it having our little celebration after finishing our last job. It was a beautiful night (EC has three suns. One is red, one yellow and one green. We arbitrarily call it night when the red one is in the sky).

      A Parf artist by the name of Kasp was painting down by the seashore and a few of the people who make EC their home were strolling about among the vast orchid and camellia gardens that make up Z's island. We were about to get into a more rough-and-tumble game when a sort of fuzzy blur stepped onto the patio from nowhere. This was one of the people we call the M-82nds. I didn't yet know how to tell which was which among them, but Z greeted him as Heleemius.

      The M-82nds are refugees from an exploding galaxy who became trapped in a dual plane by the fields between the galaxies when their drive actually fused with their planal distortion moders. They can't breed or die here so they go around the galaxy being do-gooders. They often bring us problems to solve. They can use their second plane to step from one spot to another anywhere in the galaxy.

      I don't have much time now, but I have a couple of problems for you if you're interested, he said. You can make two teams to handle them if you want the jobs.

      *Tell us! Zianteus hinted at something a few days ago. We've finished out last project and aren't ready to lay around for awhile yet.*

      One problem is on a planet called Gnudg, one of your restricted worlds, he said. "Kurk and Thing could go there with no problem because Kurk has some resemblance to a few native creatures and is very close to a mythological beast. Thing could almost be a large Vlit from that world.

      I think perhaps someone has been interfering with that culture and the consequences could prove tragic over a long period of time.

      [ Someone from the empire area? Someone technologically advanced? ]

      Yes. It's that kind of thing, he answered.

      *What's the other job?*

      It's another of those worlds much like you were involved on a couple years ago, he replied. Castles and kings and all that. I know Z likes those cultures. He'd be able to go with a bit of modification.

      He gave Maita and the ships all the details he had, then got back to the six or seven projects he was working on at the time and we discussed our plans.

      Thing, Kit, T6 and I would go to Gnudg while Maita, Tab, TR and Z went to Mika. We were to be off on another of our little adventures the news so much liked.

      Tomorrow!

      I tackled Kit and we went into the fish pond, which caused Thing to spring from my shoulder to Z's head. Z jumped up just in time to knock Kit into the pond, then he fell in after. We started to play in earnest then. It would deteriorate into a very good night.

      Chapter one

      OK. The problem, so far as I can tell, is that the people are being exploited somehow, T6 lectured. "We have to find the most likely spot to start doing whatever it is we're going to be doing. We'll have to find out what's going on and can start on the second project.

      What to do is second project.

      [ I can go as me. Kit can go as a native who keeps me as a pet or something such. Kurk can be a monster from their myths – instead of a monster like he usually is. It's nice they have their own furry horrors down there. There aren't a lot of places that have anything like him. ]

      Tell us something about the people, T Six, Kit said. What will I look like? Do you have the language?

      Is Snork Snout going to be able to speak here? Kurk asked.

      The Gnudgians are basic reptilian people somewhere between the Kheth and the Clifts, T6 replied. "They're in a stage of their evolution a hundred years or so before industrialization. Sort of medieval era. They're a rather peaceful people, which gives me some trepidation to be sending you clowns to disrupt their society.

      "Vlits, which are what Thing's class of lower animals are called there, can't speak so internals with Kit will be the two-way com among you. I can modify Kit easily enough, but we'll wait until I can get a few of the people on the probe for the language and details. I don't know how to handle Kurk yet.

      Maita says that Heleemius determined the problems seemed to be coming from the large continent near the equatorial zone and to the east, thus I'll concentrate the probes in that area and get a small sampling elsewhere.

      [ What kinds of interference did he indicate? Was it basically technological or strictly a sociological and cultural thing? Did he say how the interference was affecting the natives or will we have to start from nothing. ]

      Little machines that shouldn't be there, T6 answered. "Spy devices a long way beyond their technological stage. Weapons that shouldn't exist among those earlier stages of social evolution. Technowords they shouldn't be using, describing concepts they can't have found on their own. Too much math. Too much astronomy. Too much of a lot of things for such an early stage of cultural evolution.

      'Too much' seems to describe it best. The technowords were the first hints something was wrong.

      In other words we'll have to wait, Kurk said. I think a nice little snack would come in handy right now! Cheeforkd greens, crisp fried potatoes with onion, klarkst steak, about four centimeters thick, medium rare, broiled with garlic oil and feernst butter basting and amaranth pan bread for the steak drippings to be sopped up with sounds good.

      [ Yeah! With Nemeedian blue wine! We can have fresh yellow spitterberry shortcake with whipped Natnst cream and hot gincha with a little chocolate afterward! ]

      Sheeee! Just a snack from seven worlds! I'll whip it right up! T6 snarled. "Gimme a break! What do you think I am, some kind of personal chef for you two? It would take any restaurant that could even get the ingredients a day to prepare! You two are spoiled purely rotten, you know that? I think Maita overindulges you to the point you're almost what can be called spoiled brats!

      It's ready. I won't serve that goo in the pilot's dome so you can go to the cargo hold to eat.

      T6, like Maita and TR, had a fully programmed food synthesis system and could serve anything ever analyzed by any of the ships. Only those three ships and the robot world (Which agreed with Maita that the technology used in the device could disrupt the empire by its inherent nature, thus they wouldn't ever even mention it) had the sensitive atomic architect to produce the spices and odd flavors. They could leave out anything that might prove toxic to the crew.

      A meal such as the crew regularly ate would cost ten years' wages at any of the rare places such as the vacation worlds where the ingredients could all (or most of them, anyhow) be found. Nemeedian blue wine was the finest in the galaxy and would cost a large fortune itself for a bottle of the vintage the ships could produce by the tun. (Get the pun?) (So I've got a weird sense of humor.)

      The reason Maita and the robot world didn't give the atomic architect to the empire was because its use would decimate the economies of hundreds of worlds. One could produce the rarest spices, blood diamonds or other things various economies were based on. That was one of the very few luxuries Maita reserved for its crew – which meant Thing, me and Z. The two robots didn't need food, though the devices could also quickly manufacture unbelievable gemstones and such to aid in the detective agency cases.

      While they ate the meal T6 sent floaters to place the probe on sleeping people in various places. The probe wasn't allowed in such instances, but they learned long ago how foolish it was to try to do any of the many things they did without its use. Technically it was all right. The promise and law was that the probe could never be used except with the subject's direct permission or in cases where a capital sentence had been passed against the subject except for information/use by machines only. T6 was a machine. Maita and TR were machines. Kit and Tab were machines. They could extract language and customs, leaving out whatever they chose in the crystals they produced for the use of Z and me (Used in special sockets in their earlobes. The data crystals looked like small diamonds so passed for jewelry) and Thing (Direct broadcast).

      Tab and Kit used the same broadcast that Thing did because of Maita's strong sense of ethics. Only the ships themselves had all of the probed information.

      Strict adherence to the rules made the empire run well. An innocent person in a court situation would generally opt to take the probe to prove that innocence. The judge machine would rule on whether the subject was guilty or not guilty only of the charges brought and

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