Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition (104 page)

"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. Some 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.

"Come to Leen,
E two nineteen minus three E twenty six five thirty two," T6
instructed. "We'll stay out of sight until you get here and can go
in together."

"So it's
Kronner Lomm Spatt?" Tab asked. "I had her on the top of the most
likely lists. About number ... eight. I guess we should've taken
this according to the most likely on down and we would've found her
the first day."

"And if it
hadn't been her we'd take most of a year to finish our search," TR
pointed out. "We'll be there in two hours. Do all the passive scans
you can. Send floaters only if they can elude detection. We have to
know the general area and every detail of the immediate
grounds.

"Is it
underground? In some kind of vault? Still in the ship? What
happened to the ship? Are the crew all right?"

"How about if
you answer one or two of those questions for yourself after you get
here?" T6 replied. "I have two spy floaters with passives moving
through on velocity so they shouldn't be detected. There're some
weapon systems down there, but nothing spectacular. They don't have
power for large ones except on one ship, which I assume is the
pirate craft. I'll have the floaters drop tracers on all the ships
down there just in case. We can't go in there until we can prove
this is the stuff, you know. We can't enter private property on a
private world without probable cause and a warrant and you know
what a judge machine would do with our new detectors. We can put
this case as a precedent for them by recording everything, but it's
not allowable evidence without that proof.

"What do we
do?"

"Maybe
Jornians?" Tab said. "We have to find out what kinds of beings
frequent her place. She's a Leen mammal so.... It will have to be a
race who wouldn't flinch at coldblooded murder, but who appreciate
art. Terrans?"

"Not likely way
out here," Kit replied. "It'd have to be someone with the wealth to
travel the galaxy for a purpose having nothing whatever to do with
art or psiltripium. You can wager she won't want anyone to know
about any of this.

"Why would who
be on Leen and why would they seek out Kronner Lomm Spatt?"

"She owns a
number of companies in this area of space," TR pointed out.
"Business?"

"Well, we could
go to her main offices on Leen and seem to be interested in making
some deals that would mean meeting with her. According to these
records she entertains at her place there almost exclusively. She's
quite the social show-off so we'll have to be VIP's from another
part of the galaxy," Tab said. "TR and T Six can handle the input
into the galactic news for her to check on. Business, wealth and
huge social importance somewhere. Maybe with social importance
that's growing in the area of influence? Maybe something that could
reach galaxy-wide proportions in a rather short time?"

"Her type would
want to be first to introduce somebody like that into the social
system here," TR agreed. "I have an idea! We might as well have
some fun here! You two go into the shops for modification while T
Six and I plan this. We can use difference and surprise to our
advantage. Whatever you do will seem possibly normal.

"Remember the
last case? The different set of logic?"

"I'm not going
to be turned into a weird unclassifiable!" Kit retorted.

"Oh yes you
are!" T6 replied happily. "It'll be fun!"

Tab shook his
head in a very organic-seeming fashion and went into the shop hold.
When he emerged TR was linked to T6 in orbit above Leen. The ships
were both putting on their own disguises.

"Come into T
Six pilot's dome and I'll explain what we came up with," TR said to
Tab. "I think you'll really enjoy this!"

"What the hell
am I supposed to be?" Tab asked as he came from the modification
shop. Kit was asking T6 the same thing.

"You are a
Wahtziht," TR answered. "You are an unclassifiable conglomeration
of all kinds of different things!"

Tab closely
viewed himself through TR's optical sensors. He was about the same
size and shape he was as a Swaz, but had faceted eyes, long sharp
carnivoran teeth, a bit of a trunk for a nose and large fan-like
ears. He had long bushy red hair on either side of a scaled crest
with tubular antennae rising a third of a meter above his head. He
was powerfully built, with the fin of the Swaz somewhat larger. The
curly red hair extended to a point at his waist in front and back
and his legs ended like his arms with webbing between the digits.
From the knees down and the elbows outward the skin was scaled. He
had sharp talons for nails.

"This is an
impossible being!" Tab cried as Kit came into the hold, looking
like an identical twin.

"I know it!" T6
said happily. "You know it! Kit knows it! Kronner Lomm Spatt does
NOT know it! You are both fabulously artistic, which is why you're
rising so fast in social circles all over the empire. You're here
to open accounts with four different kinds of companies belonging
to Lomm.

"They use the
middle name in polite society here.

"You have a
very different system of logic from these local people so must say
and do totally outrageous things. You don't take offense at
anything unless you decide it's a good idea to do so, then it can
be the most innocent thing."

"You are
compulsively sexual," TR continued. "Tab will like that. You want
to mate with about every kind of being you come across. The Leen
are known to be hedonistic so it'll make for some interesting
times.

"One of the
major things you wish to establish trade in is psiltripium, which
Houhziht, your home world, has a great amount of. Hopefully, Lomm
will want to show you some of the artistic possibilities of the
medium."

"Kit is Puddih
Dover and Tab is Ohnem Nau," T6 said. "Kit is called Curly for
short and Tab is Mo. I got that from Z!"

"Sheee! How
would you get Curly from Puddih Dover?" Kit asked.

"Why, it's
totally logical to YOU!" TR replied. "You've been programmed with
the talents of Tous and Uars, two Parf, long dead, who were friends
of Maita and who had the probe used on themselves to help Maita in
a study of the mind of the artist. Tous did the painting in Z's
bedroom and the sculpture and mosaic on his terrace. Uars did the
painting of Maita and the Zulians in Maita's pilot's dome. You can
see the amazing talents at your disposal, though there is little or
no hope you could duplicate any of the quality of their work you
will have the ability for all the mechanics and can do more than
ninety percent of the artists known.

"You have an
appointment with Clarp Hopp of Leen Consolidated Industries."

"The news
recorders will show you and your race to be among the fastest
rising peoples in social circles in the galaxy as well as some of
the wealthiest. You've kept a low profile until ready for
expansion, which is now.

"Leen
Consolidated makes gravity focus units for spaceships and gravitic
amplifiers for fastcom communications. They also deal in
exceptional art importation. You also grow a product much like
gincha. It's called coffee and is from Z's Earth. Z transplanted it
to EC and now it's grown on several planets so we can actually
supply it in commercial quantity. Many mammalian races will like
it. It contains a mild stimulant and the poisons are easily
extracted before export.

"That's three
separate products so you should get to see Lomm very quickly – if
only because of the social thing.

"Questions?"

"We'll react to
situations," Tab agreed. "I'm as ready as I ever will be. Did Maita
tell you how to adjust me for the horny bit?"

"Yeah!" TR
replied. "You're supposed to be obsessive about sex so I figured
I'd better reinforce it. It should be a novelty to Kit. I don't
think he's ever had the need to use those abilities. T Six made him
horny, too."

They went to
the Leen Consolidated office where they were totally
incomprehensible to Clarp Hopp, who only understood there was a lot
of business to be done here and a lot of money could change hands.
Obviously, the Wahtziht had psiltripium and other things the
business wanted to get their hands on. That coffee stuff could be
as big as gincha!

. . . .

These were
easily the strangest beings Clarp had ever seen. He quickly checked
the records to find they operated under a strange logic. The logic
system was valid if different according to the empire. The people
were rising socially and were generally quite wealthy. There was a
side notation that these people were unselectively sexual? What the
hell did that mean?

Clarp looked at
the two strange beings. Their general form was much like a very
powerfully built Leen in some ways and they certainly exhibited a
magnetic sexuality for some reason. They were certainly mammalian
in those respects visible to him!

The two seemed
to notice where he was looking and seemed to be responding to HIM!
The Leen were rarely homosexual and Clarp not at all. He was at a
complete loss as to what to do. He edged to the door where he
suddenly slipped out and had his secretary contact Kronner Lomm
Spatt. SHE would certainly appreciate their sexuality! He knew that
well enough! He was able to get them out of the office before he
was actually raped or anything. His secretary was looking dreamily
at them and simply accepted that Mo character's invitation to come
with them to their ship! She hadn't even asked if she could take
the time off! Better her than him!

How in HELL did
they get Mo from a name like Ohnem Nau?

. . . .

Kit had the
opportunity to try out his various parts finding that everything
worked superbly well and he could understand Tab's great liking for
the sex thing.

Nute, the
secretary, had called a friend for him and was ready to call some
more. It seemed they weren't used to such stamina in their males.
Now they were in a flittercraft heading for Lomm's place. It should
prove interesting if nothing else.

They were being
followed shortly by TR and T6. They supposedly had programmed their
ships to come to them whenever they called – which brought the
company representatives here into a frenzy. They'd never heard of a
ship that could be programmed to handle itself except for a few
insystem drones and Theron, the emperor's ship and a couple of
ships that were always with the emperor's crew! That technology was
priceless!