Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition Read online

  "Wordt was shown to be a conscionless killer on Netdel. He would destroy anything he perceived to be a threat to himself – and you were a definite threat.

  "You would have the intelligence to note you are a friend of the emperor and that killing you would result inevitably in the deaths of those responsible for your death. Wordt would tend probably to hesitate.

  "Bast came from the ship with a box of papers, but there was a power pack hidden inside of the box.

  "Bast is an unknown factor, but that power supply meant an energy weapon. It was hidden. It was to be used on either you or Wordt. Probably both.

  "I contacted T Six and stunned Bast. He managed a scream. I was forced to improvise. I could hope Wordt would be off balance somewhat and there was a better than even chance you would be able to escape."

  "Very well done! I hope T Six can capture Wordt alive. I've determined this Moodad we've heard about is the big boss, but we don't know where he is or anything about him."

  Z picked up all the papers and used a portable scanner on any he had missed before on Netdel. He hoped T6 had been able to break the code.

  The floater sent spy sensors in and Z personally searched the entire ship, then adjusted the pilot's chair and slept while the floater kept watch in the hold. The floater suggested using the fastcom set to contact T6, but Z said he wanted the unit read where it was set. The knowledge shown by Wordt about Netdel and Sentah tended to show there was something there, some form of communication worked out by the syndicate that wasn't tapped yet by T6. It could be important. Four hours later the floater sent a servo to wake him up.

  "I have sealed the ship and we are prepared for liftoff," the floater instructed. "You are an experienced pilot. Take this ship to Tltle. We will meet T Six there. Don't use the com at all, as you were probably correct about it and T Six will want to check it carefully. Thing will meet you and you will go after Moodad."

  That meant had T6 caught Wordt and had used the probe on him. Maita would be mad as hell about it, but would have to admit T6 had no choice. It would forget it. Maybe T6 had been in contact with Maita and had received permission. T6 is a machine. much of the law doesn't apply.

  "Wordt destroyed his ship and himself when he found he was cornered," the floater reported. "T Six says to tell you it was unavoidable, but it thought at the time we had Bast. T Six was most distressed that Bast is also dead, but Thing and somebody else is waiting and maybe there isn't too very much lost.

  "T Six is anxious about this. It wants to know what you and Maita have done and who this other person is. T Six says there have been hints about a surprise and wants to know if that person is part of the surprise. It says Maita is acting very strangely."

  "I think it's the surprise, yes," Z answered. "Don't inform T Six about it in any way. I'm as excited as Maita about it. The surprise is for T Six. I have no idea if the person we are to meet has anything to do with it."

  "You can use the time en route to figure where Moodad is," the floater suggested. "We will be on Tltle in seven hours and six minutes."

  Z leaned back to relax and to think. He was sure the person they were to take along was the new member of the crew. It could well be a Swaz, like Tab, or it could be something else.

  Would Maita insert it into the middle of this investigation? That wasn't very likely, to say the very least, but Maita did things like that.

  Where was Moodad hiding? Thing seemed to think they knew?

  That slip, talking about Eed when they were supposed to think he was dead was a blunder that was unforgivably stupid! To let Wordt sit there and manipulate him on such an obvious point!

  Well, when he mentioned Moodad he had make a few good points, himself! The more he thought about it the more sure he was Eed wasn't supposed to know anything at all about Moodad. The fact he knew was the shock to those two, not the fact the VWPA had gotten it out of him.

  Why was it such an extreme shock?

  Suddenly everything fit. Everything that hadn't quite seemed reasonable from the first fell into place. The way things he and Thing had said and done were accepted. The way these people were acting, plotting and planning among themselves. The willingness of Wordt, who had some nagging suspicions in the back of his mind, to kill Eed. The real reason there was a weapon hidden in that box by Bast.

  The cleaning job on the Sentah six was to be thorough. Bast and Wordt were to go along with the others – and Eed was to take their place. All of them!

  Moodad had discovered that the Sentah six were plotting among themselves – and they were! That was why all the preparations, such as the meeting of Bast and Wordt way out here. That was why the Rock House and Long Toe places, both on Netdel. Plots within plots. Now the Sentah six were all gone and Eed was effectively out of the picture. All the empire had was one name; Moodad.

  WAS there a Moodad or was that just another clever subterfuge? Had Z been used all along to be the agent of this whole purge? Was the report that started it a plant?

  No! Moodad was real. The reactions of Bast and Wordt made that much certain. The whole thing had fallen apart because Eed heard or learned through some detective work of his own that someone named Moodad was the boss. Bast and Wordt were supposed to come to that world, where they would be convinced somehow to fight, then Moodad would only have the survivor to eliminate.

  No! Eed was to have gotten rid of Wordt on Netdel, Bast was to come here and to wait for Wordt, who would never show up. He was then to go somewhere in the ship and was to punch a destination code for a certain field. That code would activate a detonator. Wordt didn't commit suicide. He had taken Bast's ship. Maybe this ship had a bomb that would go off if that place were to be coded in – just in case.

  "We are aground," the floater said. "T Six is on the adjoining pad. Thing and the passenger will soon arrive."

  "T Six!" Z ordered. "Check this ship for a bomb that will go off if a destination is coded!"

  "I sort of figured that way, too," T6 replied. "Come on over! Thing will be here in a couple of minutes."

  Z went to T6 aboard the floater, which folded itself in and stored itself.

  "You can get in the medbox as soon as we’ve decided where to go," T6 said. "Your recorder needs a new cartridge soon and I'm sure the Kappin disguise isn't needed anymore.

  "Here comes Thing!"

  Z was excited as he went to the port to see what the new robot – he was convinced that's what it was – looked like, but it was a Kheth. From the patch on the chest it was a member of Kwarn's family.

  [ This is Kit. It's so good to see you again, Z! ]

  Thing lept from its floater to Z's shoulder and wrapped the tentacles around his neck and head.

  [ Kit, Z. T Six, Kit. Kit, T Six. Shall we go after Moodad? ]

  "Do you know where he is?" Z asked.

  [ Certainly! You told us where he was before we ever started all of this! Don't you remember? ]

  "I did? Where?" Z asked.

  "Of course!" T6 cried. "Frim! You told us he had to be there because it was the only one of these worlds that didn't have any subsidiaries of the Sentah six and their companies!"

  Kit had been waiting patiently through all of this and finally suggested, "Maita is expecting us. Might I suggest we go there promptly? I've never seen the emperor that I know of and admit to some curiosity."

  Z knew he had been right! "That I know of" was exactly what Tab had gone through! Kit was T6's robot partner!

  The History of the Deal

  *T Six and Kit are linked now and can't hear this. I won't record it. It is for us only. You have both, shall we say, grown up with Tab and TR.*

  Kit was on T6 and Maita had a large servo installing things aboard T6 while Thing and Z sat in the pilot's chair on Maita to catch up on what each had done since they separated on Netdel. Z had been to the medical box and was his old self again.

  *I recorded Rimalt's personality and habits and such before he died. I explained what I was planning to do to him and he agreed. He tr
uly loved T Six, as T Six truly loved him. I have given Kit certain turns of expression and gestures and such directly from Rimalt and I have given it some of Rimalt's sense of humor. You will find it quite dry, but definitely with content and to the point. I have given Kit Rimalt's sense of adventure, but also the conservative and careful streak and Rimalt's somewhat pedantic approach to problems and his scholar's attention to detail. I want them to work together on this case to get the feel of each other's minds and the feel of the combined mind in an actual situation where they are called upon to interact. That's why I didn't wait to introduce them until after we were through with this. Kit wasn't manufactured along with T Six. There are problems that must be resolved in a situation, not sitting in our hangar on EC with little or nothing to do. I had planned an immediate expedition to explore when Kit was ready, because we always find plenty of new experiences when we do that. The main problem there was that it WAS all new! This situation here isn't new, only the details. That's why I feel it's better. We will finish this, then we'll wait on EC for Tab and TR to return. We have a few cases waiting for the detective agency to allow them to interact with one another – the four of them. We can then go exploring together. I'll want the three of us to go exploring in the meanwhile, if you will. I'm not doing much here and could use some personal action.*

  [ Building Kit wasn't doing much? ]

  *It wasn't action in that sense. To tell the truth, a little action on my part while Kit and T Six and Tab and TR become a unit will keep me from worrying so much.*

  "Okay, mother hen!" Z said. "I think we should be exploring on the galactic center bubble, don't you?"

  [ Galactic bubbles now, Z? Is there no end to the depths you will delve into for these similes? ]

  "No bottom."

  [ What? ]

  "No BOTTOM to the depths to which I will sink, not no END. Ends are on things like your tentacles. The depth is the bottom."

  *Like Z's ass can be called either his end or his bottom but not his depth, though neither description is accurate.*

  [ I see. You can't accurately speak of it as his ass, either, because he's all ass! ]

  They played the game awhile until T6 called to say that it and Kit were now fully programmed and both were very pleased with the result. Thing and Z went aboard T6 and they headed for Frim. Z and Thing told Kit and T6 what they knew of the planet.

  "It's a mountainous world, with about three quarters under water. There used to be a lot of Immins on it, but they're all gone now. I suppose there'll be mostly Bentans running things. It's more a distribution center and a seafood production world for the vacation worlds than a pleasure world, though it has some smaller gambling houses."

  [ There are a lot of Zeenans there. They like the planet. It's a good world for freight relay and distribution going both inward toward Zeena and outward on the arm. It's very much like Perfect Two. T Six has been to Perfect Two and Three, so can tell you what the position means and what the basic world is like. I would imagine that's programmed in already, though. ]

  "It's in the storage area," Kit agreed. "I won't carry such a large load of memory. It's all available when it's needed. There isn't any need to clutter one's mind."

  [ Are you intimating that my mind's cluttered? ]

  "Even your body is cluttered, so I imagine that would be true enough," Kit replied innocently.

  Thing sprang onto Kit's shoulder and wrapped its tentacles around his neck and head.

  "There's certainly something blocking good sense in you!" Z exclaimed. "You're not likely to be able to strangle a robot!"

  [ Hah! I can block his sensors, though! ]

  "Oh, really? Can you?" Kit asked. "There's an eye here (pointing) and one here. Z is drinking some kind of stuff at the moment and the call light is on for the fastcom."

  [ No fair! T Six let you use its sensors! ]

  "You can use them if you want," T6 said. "What, Maita?"

  *I only wanted to ask if you tried what you told me on the files from Wordt. In the excitement lately I forgot all about that.*

  "I'll be damned!" T6 cried. "It worked! The machine has been patiently waiting for me to give it my attention!"

  "What was that?" Z asked.

  [ What was what? You don't make any sense! ]

  "What were you trying?"

  "T Six thought the fact these people used various worlds may be programmable into the random sequence of the code," Kit said. "Seeing as the decoder has it all done I would assume it was the correct solution."

  "Let's see," T6 said. "It used the coordinates of the world where the records were kept and the MGS date divided by two for digital retrieval. The code changed every day. If you extract for the date, then extract for the coordinates, you have a simple letter for number – number for letter code. A very complex system, then a very simple one."

  "What do the files say?" Z asked.

  [ Print them all and we'll look for pertinent information in a pattern. ]

  "It seems a huge waste of space," Z said. "You would only use one out of a hundred or so of the characters."

  "One of every one hundred thirty," Kit replied. "Each sheet there is encoded with more than six billion digital characters. Each sheet still could give seventy eight million characters, or about a thousand of those novels you so enjoy reading."

  [ I'd say that was sufficient! ]

  "We don't have room for all that printing in T Six," Z said.

  "I assure you, no single page was more than one one thousandth filled," Kit said. "I was merely speculating on the possibilities of the system, as it were."

  The printer began spewing out long lines of figures and a few letters. They each took a section and read through it rapidly.

  "It's all business records with a few comments thrown in," Z said. "We don't really care about most of it now.

  "T Six, eliminate the figures.

  "No! What we want to know is about Frim! Just give us the parts pertaining to that one world. We started this out thinking it was a problem on Sentah, but it's really a problem on Frim! That's where Moodad is!"

  [ For us, it's a problem on Frim, but for Moodad it's still the problem on Sentah! ]

  "For Moodad it's a problem on T Six!" Kit corrected. "I have to admit I'm a bit excited about all of this! I have all of Tab and TR's little adventures, but this is really different."

  [ Yeah! Tab always ends up in a bed with some local female. There isn't any of that here. ]

  "I'm looking forward to those things," Kit said with complete innocence.

  Z was enjoying it immensely. It reminded him of the things Rimalt used to say whose point hit you later. The joy that T6 was feeling was almost palpable. Thing was waiting expectantly for Z to say something, because it was a favorite joke among them that Z was so inhibited when he first was among them. He could see Thing was baiting him. He innocently said, "Tab doesn't need a female. He's never been choosy if we're to believe Thing.

  "Say, Maita.... No, you wouldn't do that!"

  *Do what?*

  "Oh, nothing!" Z said with a smirk.

  "Me and Tab?" Kit considered. "Well, it would be an experience of certain proportions, I would imagine!"

  *Wait a damned minute!*

  [ Maita! ]

  Z fell off the chair laughing. Kit was almost as bad. T6 was spouting the static that passed for laughter with it.

  "You really turned that one around on them!" T6 said. "You two managed to get Thing and Maita at the same time! This is priceless!"

  [ I suppose you knew it all along! ]

  "Sure!" T6 replied. "We share a brain, remember?

  "We are now at Frim. Will you stay in orbit, Maita?"

  *For a short while, then I have to head out for a bit. There's another plague – and it's not contrived. I think it isn't so bad, but I always check on these things personally. I should have made Kit a female Swaz!*

  "You could have made both of them hermaphroditic, but then they'd never get any work done," Z said. "According
to what I can read in these files we can go from Port City directly aboard a boat to the destination of the invoice numbers I've listed here, T Six. You can access the records and we'll know where it is."

  [ Island? Invoices? ]

  "Yes, I see!" T6 replied. "The profits and files were sent as exotic foodstuffs and were sent on a boat. That way they could smuggle it in easily enough. "If they had gone by direct or by air it would attract attention, but slow cargo isn't paid much attention. It goes from the space liner along with the restaurant supplies to a warehouse, from one warehouse to another, then is loaded on a route boat. Nothing suspicious about that!"

  "I can direct-access the warehouse dispatch machines," Kit suggested. "That should be easy enough. We can trace the invoice through bills of lading. It all came in through Clarbon except a few through New Innovations in Mechanicals ... which means...."

  "That the island has automatic weapons," Z finished. "That won't be a problem – unless T Six is recognized. We didn't think about that!"

  [ I'll be most likely to be recognized. T Six has on another disguise. We thought of that long ago. ]

  "I'm going to give you feathers, Thing," T6 decided. "They're superficial. They won't interfere with you. You can be an exotic pet from one of those Parf worlds."

  [ No, it'll have to be a Woost world. It would fit if someone checks Library. The feathers will have to come up thickly behind the eyes and will have to ... you can put pads on the ends of the tentacles. ]

  They made the changes in Thing and had a few jokes about the result, then went aground as a couple of tourists with an exotic pet. Kit accessed the customs machine and programmed Thing in as a Narzzst from Woost in case anyone checked. They then went to a local bar (Which Z and Thing had been in two hundred plus years ago in the pirate wars), then went to the docks. They moved around for awhile, using the strange Narzzst to hold the attention of everyone there. Kit would suddenly disappear for a few minutes at each of the main warehouses, then spoke to Z, who said they had enough of this place and they should see the view from the point out there.