Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition (103 page)

"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.