Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition Page 75

  "The Lirnian Psiltripium Economic Exhibition has disappeared," TR repeated. "I wouldn't think it should be necessary to repeat everything to a machine."

  They also enjoyed individual senses of humor, which talents they shared with Emperor Maita (Another spaceship who had become emperor of a galaxy-wide conglomeration of trader worlds through circumstances beyond its control – or liking) and its organic crew, Thing, a Mentan empath, and Z, a Terran abducted from a planet called Earth more than three hundred MGS (Maitan Galactic Standard) years past. They played several word games based on seeming insults and one-upmanship that would often leave strangers with the decided opinion they would end up killing each other, though the reality was they had a very deep affection for one another. The difference in the games the machines played and the ones the organics played was the machines played in a mostly mental way while the organics played physical tricks as well, most of which were extremely childish.

  The organics played the physical tricks on the machines as well as on each other, but the robots knew they could inflict terrible damage on the more fragile organics so refrained from anything except an occasional tossing around or such. They would sometimes build the same kinds of traps, such as the old bucket of water over the door trick.

  "And we are called to find it!" Kit said happily. "Good! I'm about exhausted with Perfect (Hah!) Three and doing nothing."

  "Well, actually, I'm going over the galactic news summary and came across that item," TR replied. "There are perhaps ten other agencies working on it. Nobody called us."

  "Oh, good!" T6 cried. "Let's go solve this one for them! When you get all those people trying to do anything all that happens is they get in each other's way."

  "Yeah," Kit threw in. "If a group learns anything they keep it strictly to themselves. The object becomes that WE solve it before YOU do, not just that it's solved."

  Kit went aboard T6 and the two ships rose above atmosphere where they did another thing only they and Maita could do, they linked for the flight in interdimensional mode. They then flashed into the TTH mode.

  "I'll get what I can on the fastcom while we head out there," TR said. "I'll use Maita's code and seal so they won't dare to hold anything back from us. It'll also throw a scare into the thieves to think that the emperor is personally interested. Maita's established a reputation for getting things done."

  "Yeah," T6 added. "Maita usually brings us in to do the actual solving anyhow so the only difference will be we've used the Great Seal. Maybe Maita'll give us twenty five years in confinement for that!"

  This was a joke too. All they would have to do in that case would be to turn off for the twenty five years. To them it would seem no more than a blinking of the optical sensors. Maita had personally designed and built Tab/TR and Kit so had full faith in their using its seal. They had use of the seal and all the empire machinery without restriction.

  "Okay. Here's what I've gotten so far," TR reported. "If you would listen in I wouldn't have to repeat all the dreary details.

  "First is the background info: The LPEE is a traveling exhibition to promote the main export of the Lirnian Worlds. There are four worlds in the group, three of which are planoformed. The Lirnians are reptiles with some mammalian traits, such as a full head of hair. One of those worlds has a quite large deposit of psiltripium, which the other worlds use in the manufacture of various things as well as the obvious gravity focus. A large deposit doesn't mean they can be careless with the use of the stuff. It's mass makes it generally very deep in the crust or at the center of the core of the planet, but their world is made up of a lot of things that are too tough for it to sink through so they have ... you get the drift. There's enough of it close enough to the surface to mine. (Psiltripium is the heaviest stable element and would seemingly have no right to exist in an orderly universe. It has long been established that the universe isn't all that orderly so it does exist. It's the heaviest and rarest element known. Even Thing's immeasurably high intelligence coupled with that of Maita and the other machines can't discover why it's not radioactive to any extent.)

  "I didn't know it was good for anything other than a focus," Kit said. "It would take a machine to lift anything made from a high percentage of it. I thought it was only good for a few laboratory oddities."

  "Have you ever seen Psoosis metal?" T6 asked. "That's silver with about one percent psiltripium by weight and is so bright you can't look directly at it – or most organics can't – in direct M-type sunlight. The size of the atoms make it as reflective as neutron mass!"

  "It adds sparkle to any jewel," TR said dryly. "Its atomic volume makes common silica glass about three times as refractive as diamond. Two percent by weight psiltripium fluoride in water is easily as refractive as diamond. The weight is the problem and not too much is made with the stuff. At the best refractive index for use in art the water weighs eleven point six kilos per liter at one MGS gravity. Add color to the water and you can imagine the beauty.

  "That's what it's used for in the exhibition, mainly. Art. The Lirnians called in six Parf artists to sculpt and paint using psiltripium in their materials. The results are stunning. Magnificent. It was such a complete success that the Zulians requested instruction from those Parf in using the media. You can imagine the reaction of the Parf, the finest artists in the galaxy, being asked to instruct the only race who has anyone to equal them in art and who have no equal in anything else! The Parf rushed to New Zule where the mutual admiration has grown steadily between the races. I understand that Theron (Another intelligent spaceship) is kept busy running Parf and Zulians back and forth.

  "This is all very recent. Within the past four years.

  "Anyhow, the exhibition of much of that art as well as other things such as carved jewels and industrial applications makes up the LPEE. There are also some very important applications in science as well, such as the fact that psiltripium has such an immense mass attractive force that it can detect much smaller fluctuations in gravity than was ever been shown before. They called in several Zeenans, who developed gravitic pulse separators with it that can tune coms to reject frequencies no more than a four billionth of a second's duration. Actually, that's how T Six made the sets for your internals and why we don't fear detection. You each have a small mass of psiltripium built-in. T Six and I also have exactly the same mass in exactly the same configuration. The possibility that anyone will find those bands by accident or scan is so close to zero as to have no meaning. We can use the atomic architect so there's no way anyone else can refine the pulse enough to receive us, in other words.

  "The atomic architect uses psiltripium to focus the carrier of the individual atoms. It's possible to focus that finely with it. The important thing for us is the com units built in."

  "I don't want to go off on a tangent, but they can receive us on anything wider that includes the band," Kit said.

  "Huh-uh. Not if we’re broadcasting in a flat beam with a reversed wave/crest configuration immediately beside it a four billionth of a second displaced," T6 said. "Don't interrupt."

  Tab was on TR and Kit was on T6 so they couldn't see each other, but Tab could picture the very organic and vulgar gesture Kit must be making toward T6.

  "That's the background on it," TR continued. "The LPEE, as I stated, is touring to promote contacts with peoples of other worlds. There's plenty of the art on the Lirnian worlds as well as the materials that make the art possible so anyone with a true appreciation of that kind of art will go to those worlds. The exhibition was on Khlyv. It was on the exhibition pads at Port City, had just finished the show and was preparing to move. Everything was packaged and in place – stowed in the holds. It was checked and secured and the insurer's agent had certified the cargo and sealed it. The ship took off. Eight minutes later there was a distress call. The ship was STL and still in the system. It was code three! Pirates!

  "There haven't been any pirates in empire space in over a hundred fifty years.

  "Since then, silence
. No trace of the ship or the art. No word. No nothing. Due to the code three, every agency available has been called in. It's been sixteen hours plus now and no one knows anything. The ship simply made a distress call and disappeared. It was NOT a malfunction or collision call, it was a code three. I can't begin to understand why Maita wasn't called and didn't come clear across the galaxy for this one!"

  "I'd say we wait until the art hits the black market, but it won't," Tab said sourly. "What're they going to do with it? It's obviously the easiest art in the galaxy to identify. They can't keep it and they can't sell it. No one could ever show it. It will be automatic execution if anyone alive now is ever caught with any part of that art. Maita is certainly not going to ever moderate a sentence where piracy is involved and that ship had passengers and crew."

  "Then they'll extract the psiltripium and sell that," Kit said as sourly. "I don't see any other choice."

  "The psiltripium alone isn't worth that much," T6 said. "It's certainly not worth getting the emperor's attention on a matter of piracy. Everyone in the galaxy knows Maita won't let go of something like that. Not ever!"

  "Not to mention that it would cost far too much to extract it," TR noted.

  "Not to mention that Parf and Zulian art are far beyond all of that," T6 added. "I can't think of anyone anywhere who would be nearly depraved enough to destroy any of their art. Even the Immins, the most disgusting race we've ever had to deal with, wouldn't damage that kind of art."

  "Which leaves us with the simple fact it was a contracted job," Tab agreed. "Someone wants a ransom for it or someone is a fabulously wealthy collector and will be satisfied with having the stuff locked up somewhere for his own viewing pleasure. I think I know a thing or two we can do to locate it. I have to know everything there is to know about the articles in that exhibition. I'll need open access to your linked records banks, TR, T Six.

  "Kit, you work with the ships to make one of the little items TR said is in the exhibition. I want the most precise gravity fluctuation device ever built. Two of them. One for TR and one for T Six. We'll use the 'immense mass attraction' TR spoke of to locate the art once we decide which worlds are the most likely destination for it. My study of the records will be intense so don't bother me if you can help it."

  There was silent agreement. Tab could come up with some pretty amazing solutions at times. The mass detector sensors would come in very handy for this and would be useful in thousands of other applications.

  They arrived in orbit around Khlyv and stayed there for more than three hours while the various projects were completed. The mass detectors were researched over fastcom with Library, as well as with Lirn and Zeena – TR identifying itself to the Zeenans and giving its word the use patents wouldn't be infringed on Maita's word.

  The Zeenans would accept Maita's word on anything. They would accept Tab's word on anything so it was done.

  TR later called them back to say the technology identical to their own was in free access on Library, having been discovered thousands of years ago by a lost culture so they should protect themselves with an empire use patent instead of their present trade guild agreement. That would further ensure that the Zeenans would always cooperate with the T-K Detective Agency. That little tip could save them a whole industry later if anyone else decided to dig through Library with the intensity they had used.

  When Tab finally unplugged from the records they landed on Khlyv Port where Tab and Kit presented themselves as empire agents to the government agency. The government people were somewhat suspicious of them and even resentful until Tab said they were there because there was a report of piracy and it was a choice of them or Emperor Maita personally. They could make the choice. They became cooperative instantly. Pirates weren't what they wanted to be investigating, only return of the stolen property. Representatives of all the teams working on the case were called to a committee room where it was explained they could do whatever they pleased so long as they stayed within empire law with the case, but certain evidence was to be shared with the empire. This could be given in private sessions, therefore keeping their own petty and even silly competitions safe.

  "You're each seeing the huge rewards above all else in this," Kit lectured. "That unfortunately is the way things are. People are greedy and tend to think of 'me!' first and others later. The empire is interested in the fact that this was an act of pure piracy. We're here to find those pirates and to put an end to such actions before they can become entrenched as they once were in the area. It's to the advantage of every one of your worlds that we're successful in that. If we find the loot it's incidental. What we're after is the ones who took it. If you find them first you'll have a greater reward added by the empire by the old decree Emperor Maita made three hundred years ago. It still holds.

  "If you find the merchandise, that's between you and Lirn. If we ever find you've in any way obstructed an investigation into piracy you'll find yourselves facing the same penalties as those pirates – and you don't have to be reminded of what that means. There's every possibility the crew of that ship are dead. If you obstruct us in any way and that's found to be the case you'll be placed before a judge machine and found guilty of murder one accessory. The penalty for that is probe and execution. An act of piracy means there will be no tiniest moderation of sentence. Ever. Under any circumstances. Period. Next case. Think about it!

  "I'll be in room 'C' and Tab will be in room 'F'. Each of you can send in a representative who knows the entire case from your perspective. We guarantee in the name of Emperor Maita that we won't share anyone's information with any other of you. It will be now and until final resolution of this case the private information of Tabori R. DeSixtee and Kit and their ships' computers. This is hereby sworn before you. The computers in our ships are even more secure than the empire judges. Emperor Maita saw to it personally when he designed the comps. We're here as personal representatives and will show you the papers proving that under his seal at your request. You are aware that our ships are independent empire agents and citizens.

  "Choose the individual representative and make your own system of interview. Tab and I will go to the designated rooms."

  Four hours later the two were aboard T6 to compare what they'd learned, if anything. It wasn't much.

  "Okay," TR summarized. "The ship left here with its cargo stowed aboard and was met by a pirate ship of unknown description before it went into TTH mode drive and while it was insystem. We have a complete listing of equipment and the merchandise it was carrying. There were four crewmembers aboard, all Lirnian citizens. There were two passengers, one an insurance agent, a Ternz, and the other a director of the display, a Lirnian.

  "There was a total of six tons of psiltripium – worth sixty million credits in itself as impure ore. It was compounded or in homogenized solution so doesn't have the pure value. There's no way known to place a monetary value on art and this is even far beyond that. This is Parf art.

  "There were no suspicious persons of any race noted during the exhibition. There were no unusual ships leaving the planet within six hours before the LPEE ship left. There are no clues in the distress call except that it was a pirate attack code three signal. There has been no ransom demand nor anything that could be seen as any indication ransom will be asked.

  "We knew all that before we came here except for the no ransom bit and the racial types of passengers."

  "Fall back and go to plan two," Kit said. "That means whatever Tab's been doing with all those records and the detectors, I take it?"

  "I have a list of six hundred nine people who have the wealth and opportunity to've pulled something like this hijacking off," Tab reported. "In addition they're all collectors of art in one fashion or another. They're on four hundred worlds, give or take ten. We'll have to be able to reduce the likelihoods somehow."

  "Are they all among races where this sort of thing could even happen?" Kit asked.

  "Yes," Tab replied. "I took that factor into consideration. S
ome are far more likely than others."

  "It might be best to start with the most likely ones and work backward until we find what we're after here," TR suggested. "Split the list into increasing probabilities and each of you set off in a direction working down the lists – within reason. If we have a probability one here and the next probability one is halfway across the galaxy go to the closest two or three or even four.

  "Agreed?"

  "I have search lists and coordinates in three sections," Tab answered. "Section 'A' is most likely and all worlds should be scanned in that section in order of most accessible. A circular search pattern will return us to this point and we can go to 'B' and then to 'C' if necessary. We'll use the new mass detectors. If a fourth of that psiltripium is in one small area on a world we'll be able to detect it with a shielded focus detector. It'll take approximately one hour and a quarter per world. When one of us finds it we can fastcom the other, then we can figure a plan of attack based on that world and that person and the individual requirements of the position.

  "Fair enough?"

  "I love it when you talk like that!" Kit replied. "This will take fifty six days if we have to search all of those planets so we'd better get started. T Six has the list for our part?"

  "Yup!" T6 answered. "Let's get at it. Meet back here before we start list 'B'?"

  "Yo!" TR replied.

  They left the planet and moved to the spot where the distress signal originated, but found nothing. They didn't expect to as several very good teams had already tried.

  Tab scanned thirty one worlds in six days and was above the thirty second when T6 called to say it had either the sought merchandise or an unsuspected lode of psiltripium in the scanners. Considering that psiltripium was found only on a very specific sort of world this was obviously not a lode.