Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition (81 page)

T6 coupled
electronic communications to TR and they exchanged vast quantities
of possibly needed information for a few milliseconds. That
information was available to their counterparts instantly on
demand. Each linked to his ship through a form of radio TR and T6
had worked out. It was unlikely anyone in the galaxy could now
intercept or even detect the communications. Tab and Kit could link
through it as well as to either or both ships.

"I wonder when
we'll have our first case?" Kit asked. He was anxious to get
started.

"In about two
minutes, maybe," TR replied. "I'm always getting requests, most of
which I hand to some other agency. I instructed this one to call
back with certain information. It's coming in fastcom right now. We
can soon open the files on our new agency. I've taken the liberty
of naming it the T-K Detective Agency. I’d say Case one in the T– K
Casebook is about to commence!"

(Author's note:
the asterisk *–* has been used before and after Maita's speeches in
all of Z's and my writings and the brackets [ – ] have been used
before and after Thing's words. I will continue that. I will
indicate separate action by myself with a single asterisk * in
center page and by Kit with a double asterisk * * – T.
DeSixtee)

First Case

"Here it comes
now!" TRD-60 announced to its two passengers, Tab (Tabori R.
DeSixtee) and Kit, two robot detectives for the Maitan Empire. The
two were together aboard TR at that moment though they were in
constant communication through the special internal circuitry with
each other and with their ships, TR and T6. It was a complicated
arrangement the ships had worked out together (The ships were also
independently intelligent) making the group for all practical
purposes one being at the same time they were four separate
personalities.

The internal
system was a mixture of gravitics and radio they were sure couldn't
be detected – yet. If anyone ever discovered they were using it
they would soon have eavesdroppers. The trouble with technology was
that as fast as a thing was invented its neutralizing principle was
also invented so the detective business wasn't much easier in this
tremendously advanced empire. It was about the same as before space
flight was even developed.

What TR was
referring to was the expected fastcom call with a client for the
T-K Detective Agency. The Emperor Maita, itself a machine
intelligence (We won't go into that now except to say the Maitan
Empire was galaxy-wide and few knew the emperor was a machine), had
built TR and Tab as detectives more than a century past. T6 had
developed intelligence because some "government" maintenance people
had used a number of shortcuts and improper parts in its upkeep and
repair. Kit was later built by Maita to serve the same functions
with T6 that Tab did with TR.

Kit was
designed to look, feel and smell (VERY important!) like a Kheth
while Tab was ditto as a Swaz, though Maita, T6 or TR could modify
them greatly as needed when they were to pass for other races.

"What sort of
thing is it?" Tab asked aloud. They had agreed to speak aloud
whenever they were together or when there was no reason not to so
they would be "in character" as a habit. That would prevent deadly
slips later. TR could pass fastcom directly to them on internals.
They all enjoyed playing odd word games and one-upmanship games,
which required vocalizations because it was often a matter of
inflection or using a particular word NOT in translation. The
digital sign for a word like "no" was the same for almost all
negatives so a play between "not" and "knot" wouldn't work in
silent communication.

They carried
storage for any known language, the customs of the speaker of that
dialect and much other racial information. They could be programmed
thoroughly for a language in less than one second or could "unload"
or erase that language as quickly. TR and T6 had all known
languages ready at no notice.

While they
could be linked together in any combination to share their mental
capacities each had a secret part of its mind it did NOT share.
That was important, even to machines, and would have made the
original experiment useless had it not been included. The real
reasons the experiment hadn't worked had to do with other things
entirely.

"It's some kind
of big business deal gone sour on Klohr," TR replied. "It wouldn't
be brought to our attention except there've been a couple of
murders. Someone's playing dirty. Tab really likes murders, as
you'll learn soon enough, Kit."

"Information,"
Tab said.

"The Klohrians
are mammals on the order of the Cheeth. They have a common type
economic system that's competitive/capital structured. They're
fairly new in the empire, of course. These things don't happen in
the more evolved societies.

"The problem,
as it seems to me, is almost twelve percent of the population of
the planet are employed by the two companies so this could quickly
deteriorate into a worldwide economic depression. Needless to state
it's the working people who suffer at those times and they tend to
revolt. Revolution breeds repression, breeds violence, breeds
further repression, breeds the failure of the system. The
particular system there has run its course and should fail, but not
in such a manner. It probably won't be too easy a job, but maybe
you can defuse this bomb."

"What kinds of
things are supplied by these two companies and does merger mean
monopoly?" Kit asked.

"Transportation
facilities and, yes, a virtual monopoly," TR replied.

"Stock and bond
market?" Tab asked.

"General type.
A few people control the wealth of the world," TR replied.

"Could we cause
a recession and devaluation of both companies' stock?" T6 asked.
"That could stop them short of the revolution-repression cycle,
force the merger and leave us with time to make longterm
adjustments."

"We could try
what you and Z did on Klemmr," Kit suggested. "Invent things that
will drain off interest in the companies and weaken them both and
maybe start a process directly on the stock market that will make
such things impossible in the future. Bring in strong market
laws."

"We'll do a
little of both," Tab agreed. "We have to design something that'll
make permanent changes in the way things are done there. Maita
doesn't want to have to intercede in this sort of thing because
once it gets started it's so damned hard to stop. It would soon
have to spend all its time screwing around with these local
problems.

"Let's get
modified and go to Klohr. We can assess it better there."

They agreed to
that and each went to the shop on his ship. The next thing Tab or
Kit knew they were in orbit above the planet.

"I have an
idea," Kit said over the com system. "We can be competitors! I can
move into the market in Southport and you can move in at the same
time in Majority City. TR and T Six can use our abilities to input
a held company for each of us that has been registered for some
time. What we'll need is some reason to suddenly both need to get
capital from the market – and in the transportation area. It'll
divert the market and, if it's good enough, should maybe make the
other two companies move to get together to get rid of us."

"It could
work," Tab agreed. "They've got linkage to Library, but don't use
it much. I'll show research linkage for the past two years – my
company will have been registered then. TR says it can input
whatever we want into the computer records here easily enough. The
way their comps work we can have been in the records for decades
without anyone noticing.

"You should
register a bit earlier and should have linkage records to Library.
Something's beginning to take shape!

"TR's done it.
I'm Frah Lore, owner and sole stockholder in Bright Future Success,
Inc., a diversified exploratory company. I've accessed the ancient
world of Kleefan Dis through Library and discovered the Nrxrmf
Beamed Power Principle which will be very cheap to produce, will be
available right away and will make what they already have here
obsolete. My use patent for Klohr is in the files as of today."

"I'm Neep Tide
– that's a joke from Z – who is sole owner etc. of Innovative
Concepts, the same sort of company," Kit said. "I'm an ass to get
along with, but I've searched through Library and have found ...
what?"

"The Armantane
Gravitic Drive," T6 suggested. "The AGD is everything the NBPP is,
is a bit more expensive to produce, but cheaper to use. The two
should balance so far as the market is concerned. You registered
your use patent just yesterday."

"You're both
planning to arrive in Record City tomorrow and are prebooked at the
Royal Palace Hotel there," TR continued. "You share the third
floor, but at opposite ends of the building. You must go there if
you wish to open a stock option. Perhaps you'll meet at the
registrar's office for a moment. You'll read in the listings the
following day about each other's companies – and that you've both
registered major stock openings in transportation. You both have to
raise money to go into production so will become immediate
competitors.

"I'm afraid
you'll have to take it from that point yourselves. T Six and I
can't do it all!"

"Damn!" Kit
replied. "You mean I can't stay here and let you handle all of it
through the computers?"

"Stick it!" T6
shot back. "We are now given permission to land on our separate
pads. You two'll have a whole afternoon to set up your companies
that've been there for a year or more! Enjoy! Enjoy!

*

Tab landed on
the assigned pad, went to his hotel, then out to find something in
the local records he could use as a business location. He would
necessarily have to find some place that was unoccupied for the
past year, at least. He plugged into the hotel's computer system
through the phone connection and came up with a better idea.

He went to the
local postal building, accessed the records, located a box number
that hadn't been used in several years and registered it in his
name. He had the small fee such boxes cost placed into the PO
account, informed TR as he did it so it would be placed in the
records of the Future Success business.

As the company
had never been active no one would know it was done until they had
reason to check. They would, hopefully, have reason to check very
soon.

He knew TR was
making the working model of the NBPP-1, as he would call it, to
show to potential investors. Notes and diagrams that would appear
to go back for almost a year were also being made, including a
fastcom readout of the entire text the "idea" came from. As nothing
in Library required a patent except in the section that dealt with
active patents anyone who had the credits it cost to have such
things fastcommed could do the same thing.

The patent Tab,
or rather, Frah Lore, held was a use patent that would guarantee no
one else on Klohr could make or sell the thing nor would it allow
identical units to be brought to Klohr from offworld for sale for a
period of ten MGS years.

He then spent
the evening making friends.

In the morning
he went to Records City and to the Royal Palace Hotel, room
302.

* *

Kit went
through much the same process and even came to the same conclusion
for the address of Innovative Concepts. The difference being he
spent the evening being obnoxious to people.

His room in the
Royal Palace Hotel was 321.

At the assigned
time, Kit went to the records officer at the government complex to
open a stock venture. T6 gave him official papers these bureaucrats
would always require along with a lot of useless ones. Kit was to
be abrasive so would have learned a long time ago to cover any
possible requirement no matter how silly or unreasonable. In short,
he pretty much knew how to deal with bureaucrats. He was a total
ass to the woman at the desk, but he somehow intimidated her,
hinting he had friends in high places and any trouble from her and
she'd be reassigned to the Icedesert Station offices.

He wanted her
to remember him if the time came when he would need her – and she
most definitely would! He would be remembered as the first-prize
obnoxious ass of the year!

As Neep Tide
was leaving the office Frah Lore was coming in. Tide made a remark
about rude people who barged blindly through a door without regard
for the safety of others and banged on out.

Z grinned at
the desk clerk and shrugged. She rolled her eyes upward and had him
sit. He went through the process in no time.

Kit went
directly to the offices of the stock exchange to register to sell
one hundred fifty thousand shares of common stock at ten credits a
share. The brokers were trying to get it through to him that he
wasn't going to be able to sell any stock without some kind of
proof he could produce what he claimed and at the cost he claimed –
and besides, he didn't tell them what he was going to produce
yet!

"Transportation, damn it!" he snapped. "I got the patent and
everything. No way am I gonna stick MY neck out for the sword. I
know what I got. Got all the figures and projections and all that
damned crap. Worth billions! All I need is the opening capital. Had
it and I'd do the whole damned bit myself. Don't need anymore
damned aggravation! Worth billions! Everybody the hell on Klohr
will want them! Ain't all that expensive, neither. Big BIG profit
margin. There ain't any competition on the whole damned world – and
I got the patents that say there ain't GONNA be any for ten
years!

"Get off your
fat asses and turn over some money! That's what the hell you're
paid to do, ain't it? Do I have to even do your jobs, too?
Move!"