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    Flight of the Maita Book 39: Do Tell!
    Flight of the Maita Book 39: Do Tell!
    Flight of the Maita Book 39: Do Tell!
    Ebook235 pages3 hours

    Flight of the Maita Book 39: Do Tell!

    By CD Moulton

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    About this ebook

    A world that seems to be cyclic, denying progression past a certain point. It seems to be because of one family. Can Z be convinced that the only way to save this very good race is to eliminate that family? Is there a solution if they don't eliminate that family?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCD Moulton
    Release dateDec 20, 2014
    ISBN9781311139191
    Flight of the Maita Book 39: Do Tell!
    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 39 - CD Moulton

      Flight of the Maita

      Book 39

      Do Tell!

      © 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.

      The crew investigate a world where there seems to be a cyclic growth, then destruction. Z establishes a court system that may be able to break the cycle – but Maita and the others feel they must not let Z know what steps they are taking.

      Critic comment

      Moulton seems fixated in what he calls social dynamics and imperatives. This type of thing would be off-putting to me when looking for a work to read. Such works are most often rather boring and tend to preach.

      Not the case with Moulton. The story is rather nicely connected and very humorous at times. There is a sense of fun shared between the main characters.

      I will give this one three stars. Make that three and a half.

      BEL ***½

      Contents

      Prologue

      Chapter one

      Chapter two

      Chapter three

      Chapter four

      Chapter five

      Chapter six

      Chapter seven

      Chapter eight

      Chapter nine

      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.

      Do Tell!

      Prologue

      Heleemius, a strange being from a group of refugees from an exploding galaxy who were trapped between planes, stepped from Z's patio and was gone. He had come to Empire Center (EC) with a couple of projects for Emperor Maita's famous crew. He had often given them strange little projects in the past and would, undoubtably, continue to do so in the future.

      The M-82nds, as the people were called, spent much of their time going from world to world in the N plane (The one we're in) guiding emerging cultures.

      Kit, one robot detective, would take himself, the Pluton, Kurk and Thing, the little Mentan empath, to a world called Gnudg where Heleemius said there was a problem suited to their solving. Kit, Kurk and Thing had just stepped into the transmat that would instantly deliver them into the caves where all our ships, including Maita, are hangared, leaving Z and me to talk about our own little job Heleemius had left for us.

      I'm Tab. I, like Kit, am a robot. I was built before Kit, along with my own ship, TRD-60, affectionately known as TR.

      Everyone knows TR and T6, Kit's intelligent ship, are free independent agents. They don't know Kit and I are robots and they damned certainly don't know Emperor Maita, our friend and partner, is a machine.

      TR and I are really different parts of one being as are T6 and Kit. We can link with one another and with Maita to become a super-being. TR stays in contact with me almost all the time through a special gravitic comlink no one can intercept – that we know about. That's true between Kit and T6 and Maita and all of us.

      Maita's a spaceship who was given free intelligence and the responsibility to act as a general ruler by the original Maitans who built it. They wanted it to administer their little empire so they'd be free to go out to explore the galaxy and to meet other intelligences. A strange set of circumstances put Maita in charge of an empire that was now galaxy-wide.

      It inherited the job because it was designed for exactly that purpose. We later found another machine designed for the same purpose over at Krofpth, TAR-1, who was learning to share the rule with Maita.

      People know TAR-1 is a machine and don't mind it having such control so long as they have an organic ruler like Maita who holds full final authority. A lot of people are nervous about a machine having so much power, so Maita hasn't revealed that it isn't an organic in the more than three hundred fifty years since it and a few friends, including the aforementioned Z and the ditto Thing established the first part of the empire.

      I was built later, along with TR, while Kit was built much later than that to be a friend and partner to T6, who got its intelligence through a set of accidents.

      Kurk's the newest member of Maita’s Crew. He's very different from most people in the empire. We call him our furry horror.

      I write about a lot of our adventures and about some of the cases we get at the detective agency following the lead of Z, who's a Terran (Thus a Maitan, but that doesn't matter in this. Suffice it to say the Terrans were the result of a colony ship lost more than eighty five thousand MGS (Maitan Galactic Standard) years ago). Kit has written a couple and even TR has written one book.

      Kurk wants to write about their present adventures if he finds them worth the trouble. Thing wrote a couple.

      For the first book Z wrote he had to find a way to indicate when Maita and Thing are speaking. Maita is a spaceship and uses speakers in itself and in floaters, as well as in TR and T6 and around EC. Thing is an empath and doesn't vocalize directly. Maita translates and carries its words on the same speakers.

      Z solved that problem by suggesting Maita use a bell tone before and after its speech, which he indicates that with an * (asterisk) before and after anything Maita says, ie: *What the hell was that for?*

      Thing has a middle C (?) tuning fork sound before and after its speech that Z used brackets to indicate, thus: [ It definitely wasn't for you, Platinum Pate! ]

      We all enjoy our insult game. We've been playing it for some centuries. We have a deep love for one another and it comes out that way.

      The ships and Kit and I each have our distinct voice and speak in a normal manner. Maita and Thing say everything in long paragraphs. It's only a habit now, but it won't change.

      The rest of us use Z's system when we write. Maita is * and Thing is [–] while the others of us are Kit said, and TR replied, etc.

      I write in the first person and Z writes third person as a general rule. That's from reading those detective novels Z brought from Terra. I was designed originally to be a detective.

      TR introduced another thing we all use now.

      We can read the crystals of all the adventures, thus we know exactly what anyone else said or did. TR introduced a separation of identities such as one mark, often a V for Z, two for Thing and three for itself and me before those sections taken from that person's point of view.

      I may or may not use that here. It's too soon to know.

      Heleemius had just told us about a world that was in a sort of beginning industrial age. There was something wrong that was causing the society to head down a path that would end with the loss of that race in a few hundred years. The race had enough good qualities that we'd try to save it.

      Heleemius, because of the way the M-82nds worked, couldn't do anything in such a late stage of development.

      Kit and his bunch had Gnudg while Z, Maita, TR and I would try to handle this one. We work together or in any combination with, so far, pretty good effectiveness. Sometimes we can save these kinds of cultures.

      Sometimes we can't.

      We'll do what we can.

      Chapter one

      What can you tell us about the place, Maita? Z asked. I'll need to know how much modification I'll need.

      We were in orbit around Mika.

      *I don't have much yet. I'm sending floaters down to get the language and customs. Heleemius said they're not too unlike the Jornians so you'll be close. They're now in an early industrial age. About the mid eighteen hundreds on Earth. Some steam-driven locomotives, steamships, some experimentation with steam personal vehicles. They have a crude type of telephone. They've put gas lights in some few larger cities and in the better homes. They employ servants, but don't have slaves. They never did here. I'll know more when I know more. I can use the probes and spy floaters to gather everything. Get a good meal and some rest because it'll be ten hours or so.*

      Hmm. They seem to have large armies, TR noted (Over Maita's speakers. I was on TR and Z was aboard Maita. We talk among all of us. It's on internals unless there's reason for others to hear. I can use the internals to receive full holographic data on what is called my interior screen – though there is no screen, of course).

      *Yes. They do seem to threaten each other a lot. There are three major political divisions and dozens of minor ones. There seems to be evidence of some wars. The broadcasts are very highly accusatory of one another and there is great suspicion that this or that one is deliberately trying to start trouble.*

      Z should be right at home, I said. He's always talking about all the stupid wars Earth had.

      I think as close as this place is to Kropfth we should be able to find something there or at Library about the world, TR suggested. I see some very old structures in places. They have deserts that preserve those big stone things. There are some very old artifacts. They've been around for an awfully long time.

      Not for a quarter million years, Z pointed out. Is there any evidence of regressional sequences? Cyclic history?

      *Some. There are massive buildings on the order of what must have been fortresses of two, possibly three cycles. We'll have to date them, but deterioration would indicate there are structures from about eight thousand years ago or more on the oldest ones.*

      Wouldn't Heleemius mention that? I asked.

      If he knew about it, TR said. It's possible the M Eighty Seconds didn't ever come to this world before. There are only a few of them and there are literally millions of systems in the stages they aid at a given time. They have to miss far more than they find.

      Maybe he thinks there's a fairly simple way to break the cycle, Z suggested. I'll take Sharstedtian scallops in amaranth crust in a white Djankenth wine sauce as the main course with young peas, mushrooms and pearl onions in Vinqdant cheese sauce, crisp-fried oormf root, a Kvceth salad with pineapple and Grfthnian blue cheese dressing on the side. Royal Klanecht pink wine and gincha.

      *Mmfth. Get a shower and I'll have it ready.*

      That meal would cost half a lifetime's salary – if anyone could even get it all in one place. The ingredients came from five different worlds spaced all around the galaxy. Maita, TR and T6 have atomic architects and synthesizers to make any foods we want – or the organic ones of us anyhow – and can whip up such little meals in a few minutes. It's no harder to make that than it would be to make anything else.

      Kurk, Thing and Z eat very well indeed.

      I went into TR's shop to be modified into a Mikan. Maita would be able to change Z into one in the medical boxes.

      Z could be altered considerably into the form of any number of mammals (basic K-form types, such as he was), but Thing and Kurk couldn't be modified to any great extent. Thing had internal pressures that couldn't be changed and Kurk was from another plane. Maita was planning to find a way to bring elements from Kurk's plane for use in modifying him, but it hadn't been done yet on anything more than coloration and the shape of the ears or other minor details.

      The probes on the spy floaters sent to ground on Mika would extract language and customs – and anything else in the minds of the subjects. Maita and TR would edit specific information to what we would need. The crystals on which the information was recorded fit into a socket on Z's earlobe and into a rack inside of me. I could also be fed the information directly.

      The sockets in Z, Thing and Kurk were connected to specific areas of the mind and gave the wearer the ability to do many of the things the subject of the probe could do. Z could speak the language perfectly when he had the crystal in the ear sockets – assuming his body was capable of handling the language. The Mord used colors in speech and many races used frequencies Z's body simply couldn't reach or even hear.

      There's also a crystal we use frequently in particularly dangerous situations that contains the physical abilities of an Oriental girl taken on Earth many years ago. It was mostly concerned with hand-to-hand combat. That was combined with another crystal made from a fencing and swordsmanship expert and an archery expert.

      Z and Kurk can use as many as three crystals at once. Thing can use whatever Maita, T6 or TR sends to it. Kit and I have parallel-connected racks that can hold six hundred crystals. We simply record on the permanent crystals most of the time.

      We have a standard set of such things ready at any time.

      Do the Mikans wear jewelry? I asked.

      *Not in their ears, so I'll have to conceal the socket. They wear their hair long enough to cover their earlobes and I'll change the crystals to inside the earlobe while he's in the box for alterations.*

      I climbed into my modification slot. I would go in now as a Swaz and would come out a Mikan male in only a few minutes – complete to racial odor!

      Z would go in a Kappin (That's what he looked like when we started the trip. He particularly liked the form and had been one on the last adventure we went on) and come out a Mikan.

      Our job would start in a few hours.

      *Here's what I have. They're just like you and you have the full memories of three of them. I don't often give the unedited crystals to you, Z, but you can see the kinds of problems we have. One was a soldier, one a merchant and one a servant. I put it all on the one crystal so you can use a secondary in the other ear. Check how to insert them on the inside of the lobe like that.*

      There's no class structure in one way, but it's strong in others, Z replied. They tend to give lots more respect to the soldiers, somewhat less to servants and even less to merchants? Odd!

      I agreed, studying the crystals. They feel most servants are honest while most merchants aren't.

      That's another thing like Earth! TR said. "Anything goes so long as you call it business!

      I notice old males start wars and young ones fight 'em and die. That's the same as old Terra. Wars are territorial and for monetary gain. There seems to be a lust for power among some of them and some strange tendency to want a strong leader to tell the person what to do? Isn't that ... strange?

      *The same businesses make the weapons for all sides in any conflict. That's why business isn't trusted. It is a bit odd that all three subjects look to a strong leader to such a degree. We can study that as we go. It could be either coincidence or a racial trait – or learned behavior. The business mistrust is possibly based on observation.*

      Right. It doesn't deserve to be trusted, Z said. "These people seem to take a lot of things to extremes. Earth was never THIS bad! There's a long history of this kind of thing. Their oldest legends go back to what they call the barbaric times.

      Is this kind of psychology genetic, Maita? If it is we're wasting our time to bother with them regardless of high potentials or any of that kind of bull crap. Look what the Immin psychology was. Millennia, and they never changed.

      The Immins were a now hopefully extinct race who had been genetically criminal. In the many years they were spread through the Maitan Empire not one was probed or read by an Acnian who wasn't of a fixed criminal mind.

      We can't say, TR said. I've done a study of the sun here and find it reads as a stable one on Krofpth so it's been like it is for a long time. Probably fifteen or twenty million years at least. It was an early condensation for this galaxy, I think.

      Then they could be cyclic progression-regression? I said. This is maybe civilization number thirty at this point?

      Any evidence of old nuclear wars? Z asked.

      *Hmm. There are a few spotty areas that could be old nuclear destructions. I have some probes in some of the remotest ones to see if there are remnants of civilization. They appear older than the artifacts.*

      What about continental cycling? I asked.

      Yes. Twelve to fifteen million years and slowing down in normal progression, TR replied. What?

      Is it rising out of the sea on a standard sort of flow? I

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