Free Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition by CD Moulton Page B

all the same basic
program, so we can predict pretty accurately what'll happen with
them. The same insanity is a part of all of the units.
    "What I want to
do is to contact the fleet as soon as it's collected and start a
certain form of attack. They'll start ... well, it'll depend on how
many ships they have. We can get clever ourselves. If any of them
are on planets already, we'll have to figure a method of attack
tailored to that planet.
    "I think the
instructions will be to build robots, assassinate key figures to
force the population to defend against terrorists while chasing off
any friends or allies the world has, then seize power when they're
weakened enough.
    "Every world
will have different conditions, so they'll each need a separate
plan, but there will be basic parts that will be the same and....
Uh-oh! I think I know how to attack this one here, but we'll have
to move fast – before it starts looking for a way out.
    "I want you to
figure how many very small pebbles it'll take to cover the entire
probable area down there with one pebble per ten square meters.
We'll make a holder-grid for dispersal and plan the maximum speed
that'll allow them to reach that level without vaporizing – and
you'll use a material that's very hard and heavy and with a high
melting point.
    "Okay?"
    "Sheee! How
small?" TR asked. "That's a lot of tonnage on a grid – and what the
hell was that `uh-oh' for?"
    "It'll be in
space, where we can accelerate it slowly enough that inertia won't
be a problem on this end. Make each piece about five millimeters in
diameter. It won't see that and won't shield in the proper place to
be able to defend, I think."
    "Do I get a
clue? What was the `uh-oh' for?"
    "Sure! It isn't
riding on an inertialess gravity repulsion field. It has some sort
of floatation device, and that device is probably gas-filled. If we
hole it in a lot of small spots the gas'll leak out. It'll then be
forced to move out into orbit.
    "The fusion
drive won't handle it for long in that atmosphere. It'll have to
come up or fall to where the pressure will crush it."
    "So we're going
to shoot holes in its big fancy red balloon! Neat-O!
    "It'll still
take about sixty four point seven seven five one tons of alloy,
give or take two grams. I can carry it on a screen grid. Carbon
powder in a force field will make the gravel seek equidistant
points along the gridlines, and I'll only have to circumference
it.
    "We gonna do
it!"
    I always get a
kick out of TR when it has a problem like this. It gets very
enthusiastic.
    "Now tell me
what the hell that `uh-oh' was for or I'll laser-clean the dome
with you in it!" TR demanded.
    "What if it's
landed on some planet with an evolving culture?"
    "Uh-oh!"
    It surprisingly
only took an hour and three quarters before we were ready to send
our barrage. We came in with TR in the center of the bubble of the
field, and the particles were beautifully focused to all strike
very close to the same instant everywhere, so the brain wouldn't
have warning to shield.
    Then we waited.
TR figured the impact moment for each level, but we could see or
hear nothing, and TR wouldn't call the brain again, but would wait
until it either came up toward orbit or gave no indication at all,
which would mean it had already left the area, but our satellites
would definitely detect it if it came out anywhere.
    "I'm getting
very weak radio signals," TR reported a while later. "It seems to
be digitalized ... some kind of instructions ... to servos! It's
sending servos to patch the holes!"
    "Jam its
signals!" I cried. "Don't let it patch! Can you?"
    "Not from here.
It can override at this range easily. There are four separate if
close frequencies, so I can assume we hit it in four spots, at
least. One thing I CAN do is trace the exact spot the signals are
coming from and can focus a laser right ... AH!"
    TR fired a very
intense heat beam into the atmosphere. We then waited a little
while longer.
    "It's almost to
the equator and is