Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition (102 page)

"Solve it
first, THEN they give us the clues and evidence?" he sent to
Tab.

"We're going to
HAVE to contact Thing on this one!" Tab returned. "Just go along
with Znof until we can get back aboard the ships. We can attempt to
understand their approach. Try to look intelligent and nod and look
knowing or something. We can figure it out later – I hope! Maybe it
will make sense to Thing, but I think we're going to have one
frozen hell of a time learning anything from these people!"

Znof showed
them a warehouse with equipment stacked around, apparently at
random. There was a large bare spot where equipment seemingly was
removed. It then showed them two more such areas in two other
warehouses. They tried to look knowing and nodded a lot (as per
Tab's earlier instructions), asked for the dates things were taken
and had them supplied, though they got strange looks from Znof and
any others who heard what they wanted. At least they thought they
were strange looks. They then returned to T6 to discuss it.

"We know
something was taken," Kit said. "We know when it was taken. I'd
hoped we'd get a list of what was taken at the same time, but all
we got was dates and warehouse numbers. T Six, call Thing. We need
some insight here!"

They waited
until they got a fastcom link to Maita and thus to Thing. There was
a two minute lag in the com so they knew the signal was going
through more than twenty relays. Maita was a long distance from
Elicjh!

[ What do you
need, Kit and Tab? Send as much information as you can at one time
as the lag makes for difficulty in holding to a vein of thought.
]

~We are on
Erlicjh. There have been a series of robberies of expensive
equipment of a type not known to us. It was taken at three separate
times from three separate warehouses. We were shown the places
where the stuff was taken and were given the dates, though these
people reacted strangely about giving us the dates. They say they
will give us their clues and information after we have solved it
(!!!). We can make no sense of this and have decided to let them
volunteer things, but we have to gain some understanding of their
system of logic. We see none so far.~

They
waited.

[ It's all
perfectly logical. You must solve the case with a minimum of
knowledge of the facts. You know where the material was stored when
it was taken. You must determine how to locate the stolen
merchandise and those who absconded with it, how it was done and so
forth. If your solution fits the facts as they already know them
and has been reached by a second method it will hold up in a court
there because it can easily and definitely be shown you weren't
influenced by anyone outside. They weren't acting strangely when
they gave you the dates. They don't want to give you so much of
their information a court will claim you were influenced. No doubt
they have several suspects and are hoping you will come to the
conclusion that one or more of the same people they have come to
suspect are the culprit there. They have no definite proof so
called in someone who could be shown to have no personal interest
whatever in the theft or the people involved directly. Tell them TR
and/or T6 are a part of the solution. They trust machines so the
weight of testimony of the ship's computers is great. ]

~How do we get
further information? We are as much as totally helpless with no
more than we have!~

[ So sit around
and cry about it! That way you won't have to think! I would imagine
you have any number of little tricks when you start a case that
wouldn't occur to them. The people there are neither thieves nor
liars so it will be something an offworlder has done. They can't
understand the act so won't know what to do about it. That's why
they called you. They believe you are accomplished thieves
yourself, though they will trust you because you are in their
employ. Don't refuse fees. They can't trust you if you do, though
you can make fees quite low. Tell them the empire pays you except
for surety fees from the one who calls to hire you. That will be
logical to them. You will then be on the side of the empire and the
empire's laws first and to them second, which is the way things
should be. It will also occur to them you are then ex-thieves
because you accept payment from the empire so are bound to follow
empire laws. ]

They talked
with Maita and Z a short while, then got together to decide how
they were going to handle this.

"I wish we knew
their system for warehousing," Kit complained. "If we knew the bulk
and weight of the individual items we.... I have an idea! T Six,
can you determine what ships were here on these fields on the dates
the stuff was taken?"

"It's all on
empire machines so I've already got it – or TR has," T6 replied.
"Routine stuff. It was either the Maktowian freighter M three TC
fifty one HC, or the Drarnian freighter 'Buk Starling'. The
Maktowian job is crewed by Maktowians only, as few can stand the
immense gravity they must maintain. Anything taken aboard their
ship would have to be well-made indeed if it were not to collapse
of its own weight. The Drarnian trader is crewed by whoever's handy
and makes general runs. M three goes directly to Maktow."

"What freight
aboard?" Tab asked.

"Electronic
parts transhipments to Maktow," TR replied. "The Drarnian ship
carries anything that will sell. You and Thing were on Maktow. I
refuse to believe those people would steal. It's simply beyond any
least possibility. That means we already know which ship the
merchandise went aboard. See how much we progress? We've already
identified the thieves – we just don't know what they took or how
they got it out of there!"

"I want to go
back again and look around in those warehouses," Kit said. "We have
to know what was taken now. I'm sure it wasn't something the whole
crew was in on."

"The captain
and the loadmaster at a bare minimum," T6 suggested. "If we can
discover what was taken we can trace the merchandise and can tag
them with it."

Tab and Kit
went back to the warehouses and walked through them. Kit recorded
the position of everything. He finally sent that he knew the system
and they went back aboard TR and T6.

"Find where
they took the ship. Everywhere it's stopped," Kit said. "We'll
split up and trace where they unloaded the loot. I think they
simply loaded a part of the stuff from here while they were loading
legitimate merchandise they were supposed to have. The Ejahds
wouldn't think of stealing so they wouldn't check if each load had
one thing that wasn't supposed to be there. We can check to find
where they unloaded the stuff and we've got them."

"What is it
they took?" Tab asked.

"Servos made to
be operated by standard K-form beings in low to moderate gravity
and with electronic control systems, but not fully automatic. Most
are agricultural, though the lot lost in warehouse two could be
mining," Kit answered. "They stack the stuff according to what type
of being and what type of world and have a system within those
boundaries of what equipment is in a given area with several
subareas as to how the equipment is controlled. I'm sure it's easy
for them, but I'd go nutzo trying to find anything in a hurry!"

"TR, give us
lists of legitimate cargo on that ship," Tab suggested. "Can you
get the routes it followed somehow? Will that be in the empire
recorders or maybe the traders guild machines?"

"I've been
working on it through the traders guild records," TR answered.
"It's been fairly easy because that ship changes part of the crew
on almost every stop. They list their ship and where it's been on
their trade papers."

"I'm checking
on something else about that particular ship!" T6 interjected. "Ah!
So! That's it, then! The captain, nav officer, com officer and
loadmaster are the only ones who were on all the trips where the
stuff's missing from here.

"Listen to
this! What a bunch! The captain is Drarnian, the com and nav
officers are Bentans and the loadmaster is Jornian. Talk about a
crew with a destiny! Only the Drarnians are new to us in criminal
affairs. I'm checking with registration central ... they're prone
to the same acts as the mammalian Bentans, though they're
reptiles.

"Now all we
have to do is find the stuff."

"I wish we
could get serial numbers or something," Tab said. "I don't know how
we'll prove it's from here."

"I'll get that
part," TR promised. "The stuff is only warehoused and transhipped
here. It’s not manufactured here. There'll be manifests and
guarantees and that sort of standard records regardless of the
logic system of the handlers. I have a floater accessing individual
warehouses' recorders.

"Great
colliding galaxies! It'll take forever to cross-check all of this
stuff!"

"How long
exactly?" Kit asked.

"Maybe twelve
minutes nineteen point four oh eight three seven seconds from –
mark! – approximately," TR replied. For a computer with TR's
capacities that was almost forever.

"That means
forty two million items in four directions?" T6 asked.

"Only sixteen
million items, but I can't find their system of bookkeeping so I
had to invent a system of listing and have to handle each item
several times," TR answered. "You go to Bell, Distin, Creops, Narth
and Zuunii and I'll take Krost, Czster, Dwone, Kloops and
Drove."

"You cut out
Drove and Krost and I cut out Distin and Narth," T6 suggested.
"They don't fit the kinds of things Kit says are missing. Wrong
types of worlds."

"Cut out
Zuunii," Kit added. "They don't use machines to any great extent.
Bell has everything totally automatic so all you have is
Creops."

"Nope! You
don't even have Creops!" Tab said. "They aren't standard-sized
people. They're very large.

"Let's get Znof
and whoever he wants to come along and we'll go to claim their
merchandise. Czster is the only real choice."

"I've got Thing
again. We'll see if it thinks we have what these people want," T6
said. "Here's its answer."

[ You seem to
have done it. This is exactly what they expected. They never
doubted one moment you would solve the case. Now let's hope you’ve
reached the same conclusions they did. ]

They couldn't
chat much so soon rang off and went to pick up Znof, who listened
to their explanations and seemed quite pleased. They located the
equipment on Czster, which was more than the Ejahds had expected.
They had hoped only to stop the thefts. Their insurors had
cancelled because they thought nothing was or could be done under
the Erlicjh system about the thefts. Now that the stuff was found
they fell all over themselves to try to get back into the good
graces of the Ejahds, but Tab introduced the people to the empire
system, which was cheaper and which wouldn't be cancelled when
anyone had some bad luck and the insurer didn't understand the
system.

The four people
on the Drarnian ship found quite a reception committee waiting for
them when they landed on Zuunii and were taken to Erlicjh. The
empire judge machines gave out severe sentences and turned all
funds held by those four over to the Ejahds, who used part of them
to pay the detectives' fees and part was put into the insurance
fund. The robots and their ships learned a great deal about
different peoples and different ways of thinking. All in all it was
one of those things that bring about a lot more good to many more
individuals than would have ever been thought.

Some cases are
like that.

Tenth Case

"Hmm. Odd. The
Lirnian Psiltripium Economic Exhibition has disappeared," TRD-60
informed the two robot detectives and their other ship, T6.

Detective one,
Tab, who looked (And most everything else) like an amphibian Swaz,
grinned at number two, Kit, who looked (Etc.) like a reptilian
Kheth and winked in a very organic looking (Etc.) manner.

"Say, what?" he
replied.

All four of the
members of the T-K agency were independently intelligent and had
distinct personalities, though they were usually linked through
internal com systems that allowed them to share all their mental
facilities and knowledge instantaneously. Considering the size of
the memory banks and computing circuits aboard TR and T6, that was
some combination!

"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."