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

  "I am Don Darl," the broker said. "This is the rep, Ginj Fee, and Jehr Nill and Pond Kard, two people who may wish to invest if this is anything like it's purported to be.

  "Shall we get this started?"

  Tab led them to the model of the NBPP-PCV-CW, as he had named it. They were excited at the sleek clean lines and the roominess inside. They were soon en route to the large structure Tab had rented the day before. Production could begin as soon as funding was guaranteed and parts were ordered.

  "This is called NBPP hyphen PC hyphen CW, meaning a word we can't pronounce – a name of the inventor, really – that started with the N sound, B for Beamed, P for Power and P for Principle, then the PCV is for personal conveyance vehicle, then CW for cargo wagon.

  "The rear where Fee, Nill and Kard are seated has fold-down seats. They fold to leave a large area to carry things. It'll mostly come in handy for families or small commercial deliveries. The motive power is simple gravity. The principle is to take gravity, amplify it like we do on the spaceships, but then to reverse its field with a gravitic resonator. The car stays about twenty centimeters above the surface so you needn't stay only on paved roads. You have no tires to wear or anything else. Nothing touches the road. It pushes liquids aside so I don't recommend going over water, ha-ha!

  "The gravitics are beamed from the rear to move you forward. As the lower units neutralize weight and friction it doesn't take much to move you. If you're standing within a meter or so of the rear grid when the car starts out you can feel the push. If a full-power start is made it could knock a person down, but it's a square of the distance thing so it's not dangerous.

  "That rear propulsion is where the B comes from. There are no moving parts so nothing ever wears out in the drive train. The doors can be made in magnetic repulsor fields, but that's an unnecessary expense. Hinges won't wear out for many years if the owner lubricates once a year.

  "We're here. We traveled at a sustained velocity of two hundred kilometers per local hour, the maximum allowed speed on the freeway. I think you'll have to agree it was the quietest and smoothest ride you've ever taken at even half the speed! A gravitic field is very pliable so small obstacles aren't projected to the vehicle itself. The luxury model will have a double field so will be able to move over ridges in the path that're much larger than any vehicle with tires could navigate – and the passengers will feel absolutely nothing!

  "Hovercraft are almost as comfortable to ride, but are very expensive to maintain and to fuel. They are loud, while this is entirely silent, as you have noted.

  "The air can be vented through the reactive part of the field to heat it or through the expansion vanes to cool it so air-conditioning or heating is automatic.

  "I've rented this warehouse. Most of the interior parts are already mass-produced and those we must build ourselves are simple windings and focuses and things that aren't greatly expensive to produce. The gravitic focus amplifier is the same type of unit used on the freight floaters at the ports. They've been around for years, which is why I'm puzzled that no one thought of this before and patented it. I'm very lucky I was able to find it before that happened!

  "Any questions?"

  * *

  “You rode the damned thing all the hell the way out here!" Kit exploded. "How can you be so damned stupid? What the hell kind of question is that?"

  "You have to admit we can't observe the power cells!" Liht Keen said as snappishly. "If I knew what type they are and what size and how long they hold up under what conditions I wouldn't be asking! As for stupid, it's YOU who needs funding! I suggest you don't forget that!"

  "People'll beg to give me money for a cut in this and we both the hell know it!" Kit snapped back. "You can see the space the damned cell's in so you can figure what they draw! I told you where they were! Just lift the damned lid and look and cut the crap! You have all the specifications as to the power drain and lengths in your stupid damned hand! Can you read? Krostef give me strength!"

  The "potential investor" who had come along, Jit Forr, quickly stepped in. "Let's not argue personalities," he said. "I can see the car is made of stock parts – and cheap ones, at that.

  "This isn't much of a warehouse. What will you require, other than standard stock parts?"

  "Coils and repulsor shields," Kit replied. "Six broads sitting at a line bench can make thirty six per day. I figure on producing thirty damned six damned cars per damned day to start!"

  "You have projections of only thirty people to do that?" Forr asked. "They should come in well under projected cost! You said, ummmmmm, nine hundred fifty credits to produce a vehicle that you will wholesale for, uhhhhh, twenty eight sixty three? Why that figure?"

  "Because the assholes will pay that odd figure, but would be suspicious if it were an even twenty seven fifty or something," Kit replied. "You left off the twenty one centime. If its some strange figure and change we must have figured it as close as we could. The retailer will get right at five thou, which will be three thou cheaper than the only competition here. It won't cost much of damned nothin' to run and maintain the things so there ain't no damned competition! National Motors and Strong Automobiles and even little old Import Cars will be out of business in a year! We can buy all of their plants for next to nothin' and can use their labor force to top it. What the hell more could anyone ask?"

  Jitt Forr was a major stockholder in Strong Automobiles as Liht Keen and Hakj Fold represented the other companies. The big battle was between Strong and National. Import was siding with National.

  *

  It was quite late. Tab laid back on the hotel bed to feign sleep. Jehr Nill and Pond Kard had grabbed all the stock and he had the cash to begin production. That would be immediate, as would the advertising campaign which Kit would "happen" to see about the time Tab "happened" to see Kit's ads. Kit sent everything to Tab as Tab did to him so Tab was aware Jitt Forr personally bought all of Kit's stock. TR, who had been checking on these big buyers with T6, gave them the information about them: "Jitt Forr is a majority stockholder in Strong," TR sent. "He apparently always had a man in each brokerage firm to inform him if anyone comes up with anything that could be damaging to the company and will make his own on the side, even if it means bankrupting Strong.

  "Jehr Nill is National and Pond Kard is Import – same story. It's Strong against both National and Import, who would soon merge. That's the war we've heard about. I'm waiting for one of them to contact the other to gloat!"

  Tab grinned. In the morning he would hire an attorney and would make the strangest will ever seen on this world, as would Kit. This was going to happen fast. It had to if the enemy were to be kept off balance enough for success. The wills would accomplish pretty much what this world needed to put them among the better worlds in the Maitan Empire. It was time these people saw the bigger picture of life as part of a galactic culture and not a closed one-world society.

  In the morning Tab hired a foreman and had her hire the other workers. He put out contracts for standard parts and hired the drive builders' foreman and showed her what would be needed. She would set it up, working from the plans and blueprints Tab gave her. Then he went to the lawyer. TR had done an extensive search for the type of idealist they would need to carry on what they were going to start. The will was a big part of the plan for the ideas it would give to others.

  This was to be phrased exactly and was to be registered on the empire judge machine so no one could stop the process once it was started.

  Then both of the detectives could relax except for threatened lawsuits and a vicious advertising campaign, one against the other. The courts declared the drives weren't even close to being the same so no patent rights were infringed, which seemed to send Neep Tide into a fury, added to by the attitude of "screw you!" Frah Lore projected back at him.

  National Motors merged with Import suddenly and attempted to then bring about a merger with Strong, but it was far too late for any of them. The worldwide demonstrations of the AGD and t
he NBPP caused all potentional orders on record for standard vehicles to be cancelled and left the two new companies with a six year order backlog even if they were able to make production increases of a thousand percent immediately.

  Strong Automobiles closed their facilities and offered to merge with AGD, but Neep Tide said they were as damned stupid as he guessed all along to suggest it – but he would buy all their facilities at one centime on the credit. When he finally agreed to six point four centimes the deal was settled. It was barely enough to keep the stockholders from actual poverty and guaranteed employment for a good number of the people who would have lost their jobs with a permanent closing.

  The same sort of thing happened with NBPP and National Import Vehicles. That left only Tab and Kit to have a huge international fight, which they did with great glee. Over one hundred forty days they insulted and complained at each other through the media. Most of the media people kept trying to interject the fact both companies would never be able to fill standing orders even if they worked together and even using all the facilities of the old bankrupt companies. Others grabbed every opportunity to instigate more and more enmity. That was planned, too. T– K knew the psychology of these people very well.

  There was a lot of under-the-table dealing, too. By both of them. They had to set up a specific set of circumstances, then to act at the right time and in the right way.

  Neep Tide "happened" to be at a meeting of worldwide investors at the same time Frah Lore was there. They came face to face and began arguing about cheap crooks who stole patents. It ended when bystanders pulled them apart after they started brawling. As they were forcibly separated Tide swore he wouldn't rest as long as Lore was alive. Lore screamed back he felt the same and he was going to do more than threaten.

  That scared those news reporters who had been instigating this trouble, but they'd gone much too far and couldn't see any way to defuse the situation now that it had come to direct violence.

  Lore claimed an attempt was made on his life and Tide was almost run down by one of his own vehicles. Bystanders said the driver looked like Lore, but Lore said there was no way he would get inside of one of those AGD garbage death-traps.

  Then shots were fired publicly at each of them. Pencil lasers. Deadly little things.

  Meanwhile the factories were working at their maximum and the stock market was up. Almost everyone could afford the cars. Competition was keeping the price down.

  Then Tide publicly challenged Lore to meet him in space to have it out once and for all. The police rushed to Lore's private pad to prevent his leaving, but were seconds too late. There was a spectacular battle in orbit, from which nothing returned to Klohr. It filled the news and everyone wondered what would happen to the companies now. Who would take over?

  Then the empire judge declared them dead and made the wills public.

  * * *

  Tab leaned back in the pilot's chair on TR as Kit leaned back in the one on T6. They were back to their "normal" forms and the ships were linked. They were orbiting Klohr listening to the reading of the will:

  I, Neep Tide, being in control of all mental facilities, do hereby decree this as my last will and testament.

  Upon the declaration of my death all assets and properties of which I am possessed will be accounted. There will at that time be an issuing of stock in my company, Innovative Concepts.

  These assets will be divided so any one share will be of equal value to any other share.

  There will be one share issued to each person employed by my company(s) at the moment of my death.

  As is known by this time, I spent a great deal of time studying through Library. I have found that most worlds in the Maitan Empire, as well as all successful worlds of the past, have always made their ways to a system where the people who worked in a place owned that place. It is an incentive to succeed that one works for oneself, not for some damned idiot like me sitting at a desk somewhere doing nothing or for a lot of `stockholders' who contribute nothing but greed.

  I, therefore, decree that each employee have his one share, and that sufficient extra shares be issued in the division to ensure the continued solvency of the company, and to give each employee his own share after constant employment by the company for two tenthyars.

  As the company progresses and increases its holdings, yearly shares shall be presented to each person employed by the company. These shares are to be in the form of percent of profit. The funds for those shares are to be deposited into an account and are to be paid to the employee for his certificates, plus interest, at his retirement.

  Should such funds be needed for an emergency at any time, the employee may withdraw them by turning in his certificates. In the event of the death of a person employed by the company the certificates may be cashed by his heirs.

  There was a lot more, but that was the drift. The object was to give the incentive of working for oneself. One appreciated the profits of his own company in addition to the basic salary. One didn't get anything unless he was an employee of the company. It wasn't socialism nor welfarism. A person could be retired by fellow employees if he didn't produce. He could then turn in any certificates he had for face value and that was that.

  The final clause was an explanation of the will: "I have seen some companies in my lifetime that, upon the unexpected and/or unexplained death of an owner were awarded to and individual or collection of individuals or that were reverted to a board of directors or to major stockholders. If such a situation exists at my death this will means the one or one who brought about my demise will profit nothing. That is my final revenge!

  "This is a lot easier than I thought it would be," Kit said. "We didn't have to solve anything at all. Just form a plan and go in there and do it."

  "The first one was supposed to be easy," TR replied. "You two have to get used to working together."

  "It was hardly more than a drill," T6 agreed. "Keep in mind that you have a lot of experience to draw on when it comes to a thing like this. It won't always be that way."

  "I have a question," Kit said. "What was that about murders when we first started?"

  "There were four people murdered by your big original investors to get control of the things they had when you got there. In case you didn't know they were ruined and are being exposed a little at the time now," TR answered. "The end of the wills made that part clear. No one was going to murder you and end up with the company."

  "It was an unusual kind of thing," Kit agreed. "A little offbeat, as Z would say. I guess we won't get too many like that."

  "You should have known Wahnee!" Tab said. "Now, SHE could come up with the screwy cases!"

  "Well, I think this goody-goody job is done, and I think maybe it will give the people a few ideas. It should last," TR said. "I'll be waiting for you on Perfect Three, T Six!"

  TR flashed, and was gone.

  "We'll see who's waiting for who!" T6 replied as it flashed into TTH mode.

  "Waiting for WHOM," Kit corrected, stretching back in a very organic-looking way.

  Second Case

  "Say, Tab," Kit said. "I just thought of something. That Klohr thing had some murders in it that we didn't solve!

  "I mean, TR explained it, but we didn't solve them."

  "They were incidental to what we wanted to do," Tab replied. "Their local cops can solve those kinds of murders. They already know pretty much where to look. They don't have to investigate much. Everyone knew about it, really. The important thing was that we got the planet headed along a path to help them fit into the empire better and to end the silly personal gain thing. That is never productive in the long term.

  "The killers don't have the protection they used to have since they're broke, so they'll be caught now. They're typical greedy, self-serving types."

  "Uh-huh yeah," Kit replied. "Us machines never do anything for personal gain."

  "Sure we do!" Tab retorted. "But we don't do it at the expense of innocent bystanders. Our greed is for ot
her things."

  "You both make me sick!" TR snapped. "All this lovey-dovey goody-goody crap! You're so pure I could puke! You do what you're designed to do and they do what their evolution designed them to do.

  "I liked Kit better when he was an obnoxious inventor."

  "Now, how would a machine puke?" Tab asked. "Output static? Maybe that would clear the brain circuits!"

  Kit and Tab had been baiting TR and T6 all along, of course. They didn't wonder about their motives in the detective work or about why they were so truly concerned that a bunch of organic beings not head down a path of nonproductive infighting and jockeying for class position and personal wealth.

  "Why, TR!" Kit exclaimed. "How cynical! How come a machine is cynical?"

  "Try realistic!" TR snapped. "Stop talking like Z. You don't make any sense."

  T6 stayed out of it. It had figured what they were doing and why. Thing, the Mentan empath, was going to stop in on its way back to EC with Maita and they wanted to get TR in the mood to play the game. T6 figured that out immediately when it's sensors detected Thing's floater coming over. The trouble with all the baiting and playing was the fact Thing was generally so far ahead of all of them it didn't matter. It would sit on its floater and project a haughty air of superiority and condescension that was truly infuriating. It could elevate their reactions with its empathic talents.

  "Z always makes sense to me," Kit said as Thing came into the pilot's dome aboard TR where the two detectives were standing around. "He has a clever use of phrase. A different view. It makes perfect sense if you take it in context."

  [ I think there are some rather serious design flaws in you if Z makes sense! ]

  As Thing is an empath who can't produce sounds Maita built a translator into TR and T6 and itself and into several of the tug floaters Thing uses to move about on. It doesn't navigate very efficiently on smooth surfaces with its tentacles.