Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition (105 page)

They were
greeted at the estate house by a Bentan female who Kit immediately
moved to seduce, but they were called along to a large room where
Lomm was reclining on a bench-like couch covered in simulated furs.
She was being deliberately sensuous so Clarp or possibly Nute had
reported on them.

It must have
been Clarp. She wouldn't send the Bentan woman out if she'd talked
with Nute!

It wasn't long
before she did call several other women she knew over. If she
couldn't tell they were machines after so much more than any
organic male could have stood she wasn't too smart in Tab's
estimation.

. . .

Later Kit
decided he wanted to paint the room with her on the couch there and
had T6 send a floater with canvas and paints and an easel. Tab said
she should be done in clay so had TR send supplies for that. They
both said it would be a perfect time to discuss their business.
Lomm was exhausted and ready to lay around for awhile. They talked
to her and flattered her. She would ask them the most personal of
questions and they would simply answer her. It was true they were
different. They had no inhibitions whatever about telling her they
were surprised that Clarp didn't bed them – he had definitely
stared at them in an inviting manner. She tried to explain that
males didn't often bed each other in her society, something they
seemed incapable of understanding. She had bluntly asked them if
they shared a bed and they seemed surprised at the question. They
were raised together and were closest friends. Closest friends
didn't have sexual relations together because it always led to
problems later on in life.

The work was
magnificent! The news reports were right when they suggested these
people were sometimes as good as the Parf artists! She must compare
this work with the Parf things in the special vault – but there
couldn't be any actual comparison. The psiltripium would place them
in totally different categories.

She did have
two small Parf works, legitimate ones. The technique seemed as
good, though. The colors and textures were beautifully used and
blended. She asked Mo if he had ever used any of the psiltripium in
his work and he seemed puzzled. He didn't seem to understand it
COULD be used. Curly began to argue that maybe the difference in
refraction would give some startling results. Mo argued he didn't
care to carry around a palette that weighed half a ton! Curly
decided it wouldn't take that much to accomplish the refraction
level he wanted and he could picture colored water sculptures if
there were any soluble psiltripium compounds that wouldn't come out
of solution from weight.

These people
had never heard of the Lirnian work! Lomm's plan with the art was
to keep it for her own personal viewing and to leave it to her son,
who was just past puberty and who came up with the idea of pirating
the stuff. He could leave the art in the vault and it would always
be the family's security in the future. It was worth literally
billions of credits now and would only grow as the individual
artists grew old and died.

One thing was
certain. She could do something right now that may establish the
art forms using the psiltripium for all time. If these superior
artists used it she could tie up the trade in the form through her
own company and could slowly dribble the things in her vaults into
the markets. If anyone identified one work in a large group as
Lirnian she could claim she had no least idea of how it got there.
They couldn't prove anything at all! One painting in a gallery of
paintings of the same quality ... how could she possibly know?

Lomm smiled and
looked at the finished work. It was good! It was better than good!
This was true art! This was as good as any Parf work!

She had food
brought. They agreed during the posing to allow her company to
handle products from Wahtziht for everywhere except on the South
Galactic Sphere. So that was where they were from!

This was far
too good to be true! If they would produce art using psiltripium
she would handle it all!

"Let me show
you a couple of little things," she told them as they were being
seated to eat. They were both looking at her in a very specific
way, but that would have to wait until certain contracts were
signed and delivered. "I'll bring out the art, two little things a
friend who owns a gallery gave me. My secretary is instructed to
bring in the contracts to sign, then we'll find other amusement,"
she said and went to her vault while the secretary got signatures
on the contracts. When Lomm returned the secretary was on the couch
with both of them, but the contracts had been signed so she
wouldn't object. Together they were certainly much more than she
could hope to handle! Either of them was more than she could handle
by herself!

"Look!" she
called, but was ignored.

What were they
doing? She didn't even know that was possible! She waited a moment,
then Mo looked up to see her and grinned an invitation, saw what
she was holding and stopped.

"This is a
small water-filled sculpture with dye and a small bit of
psiltripium fluoride in it and this is a representative painting,"
she said as Mo came to stare in awe at the beautiful things. "It's
what I was talking about for the art."

Curly came to
stare in as much awe at the little painting of a sunset that
actually seemed to have a hot glowing golden sun. The psiltripium
in the magentas and reds on the undersides of the clouds made the
light seem real and moving. The light was a part of the painting
itself to the eye, not something reflected by it.

She moved the
little painting slowly into a darker shadow she made with her body.
It looked as though the sun were actually setting it was so
real!

Lomm was as
hypnotized by the amazing painting and sculpture as everyone else.
She slowly came back to the present reality to hear Mo saying
something about the empire.

"What’s that?"
she asked. "I was lost in the painting, I'm afraid. This is what
you can produce using psiltripium. I think you should experiment in
the medium."

"I was saying
that, by the authority vested in me as personal agent of Emperor
Maita, I arrest you and all on this property on a charge of piracy
and theft," Mo was saying! What was all of this?

"If you can't
produce the crew of that ship out there alive and in good condition
you will be charged with their murders and the bunch of you will be
executed. Your possession of these items is proof of your
complicity. If you have in your employ the persons who pirated that
ship it is conspiracy and the bunch of you will go on the probe.
Maita won't tolerate piracy. You should have found a way to do this
that wouldn't have been brought to his personal attention. Piracy
was sure to do that!"

At the words
about the probe Lomm went cold inside. That would expose her young
son as the originator and leader in this!

*

"They weren't
supposed to allow any distress calls out," Tab reported to Maita.
"The ship was to enter TTH and never come out again. The captain
saw them approaching and saw the stun antennae so made the call
before they were hit. The Leen ship wasn't on galactic channels and
didn't know until they were back at Lomm's place they were
reported. They'd killed the crew. All they could do was to hide out
and hope there was never any trace to Leen in their lifetimes.

"A kid was
behind the whole thing, but the probe showed him to be inherently
criminal, enforced with a too permissive raising. He was exiled
along with Lomm and the people at the company and estate who knew
about this to a rather unpleasant planet where no one would be
allowed to go in or out for one hundred years.

"The crew of
the pirate ship, the only one who was left was executed. He killed
off the others in an attempt to cover his own tracks.

"The Lirnians
have their property back. The reward was donated to Hospital in the
name of Wahtziht, which is purportedly a world out there where
you're exploring.

"Kit and I
thoroughly enjoy being oversexed unclassifiables who're ready and
willing to jump any other race. Please direct TR and T Six to leave
us as we are!"

There was the
two minute pause before Maita's answer.

*I hereby
direct TR and T6 to immediately return you to your original
designed states and to tune your sexuality down to more normal
levels! Other than that I have to say you've done a good job!*

"Come on,
Maita! Just a few days vacation somewhere before the reverse
modification?" Kit begged.

"A vacation on
Islipona!" Tab added.

Well, Maita
felt they did deserve some little reward. *Two days from landfall
on Islipona. No more.*

The two robots
did what Z called the "High Five."

They knew this
was programmed reaction and they were tuned for response, but it
was great fun and was more than pleasant. Maita had been forced to
give them normal responses to such situations to maintain their
cover at those times.

Perhaps it had
overdone it, but ... what the hell!

Eleventh Case

Islipona was
great fun for them and Kit was really getting into the sexuality
thing when there was a call to TR that, as the famous detectives
were in the area, perhaps they could handle a little problem that
had come up among the Frolt colony on a nearby island. They came to
the ships to leave the planet and TR adjusted their libidos back to
normal levels, then told them about the case.

"It seems there
are a few things that are just a little off-center out there," TR
said. "From what I was told there are too many accidents among the
Frolts. That wouldn't concern the Isliponan government in itself,
as the colony is self-regulating, but the accidents are happening
at certain government facilities. The Isliponans think there has to
be some form of contrivance to the incidents because the Frolts
aren't accident prone. They can't find any reason for it, but the
Frolt people seem to be getting more and more nervous. No one would
speak about it. That's suspicious.

"The Frolts are
reptilian people much like the Klifts so you can be changed to that
guise if it'll help. That's about what I know. I thought we'd
handle it so long as we're here anyhow so that's what I told
Glarch.

"Glarch is the
Isliponan who contacted me about it. Works for the government as a
sort of overseer at the factory there on the island."

"You mean we're
to walk in there with no more information than that and solve this
thing?" Kit asked.

"Why the nine
hells not?" TR snapped. "You ARE supposed to be detectives!"

They went to
the shop hold to be changed into Frolts, though T6 wasn't so sure
it would be necessary until they knew more about what was
happening.

"We have to get
these two oversexed damned machines back into a normal rut again!"
TR complained. "That means finding something to do in the detective
bit. The Frolts are NOT sexually active except for the spring and
early summer seasons so this will cool them off. It's late fall
here."

Tab and Kit
took a tour boat out to the island, called Flipscooter Cay, to
arrive as tourists. They had short-term work permits and had jobs
already arranged at the main trouble center, the protein processing
plant. Tab would be Hrst, an inspector of finished foodstuffs,
while Kit would be Vrndt, a processing machine designer and
mechanic. They would be expected to suggest new and better ways to
handle the protein – which they might be able to actually do. They
had access to all the processes known as well as those in the
Library archives.

The two checked
into the Workers' Inn late in the afternoon and mingled with the
patrons for the evening. The people were friendly and outgoing, but
there was a reticence behind the way they were acting that didn't
seem normal. The two discussed it through the internals while they
were feigning sleep, but hadn't figured anything by the time they
went down to the plant in the morning. They checked in with the
shift manager, received their assignments and went through the
plant. The operation was, as most things on Islipona, easy, clean
and well-run. The Frolts took various fishes from the seas that the
Isliponans had no particular use for, processed the protein, added
natural flavorings grown on the island and shipped it to Froltzar,
which was short on foodstuffs due to having polluted their own seas
to the point they wouldn't produce nearly enough food to feed the
population. Parts of the food chain were forever lost so it
wouldn't come back for centuries at best.

Two days later
they still hadn't found anything except a very efficient processing
plant. They were at the docks discussing the possibility there had
just been a run of bad luck at the place when another "accident"
happened at the plant. They were able to get there before more than
a very few minutes had passed.

"Uh-oh!" Kit
sent through the internals. "Note the mood. It's pure fear!"

Tab nodded and
raced to the figure laying partly beneath some crates of heavy
machinery that had "fallen" on the victim when "something" ran into
the far side of the stack while the victim was standing in that
particular spot. The plant security officer came strolling out of
his office, looked the situation over and began writing on a
pad.

"Get those
crates moved and get him over to the medfac," the security officer
ordered. "Who was driving the lift?"

"Uh-uh!" Kit
said. "This doesn't make sense!"

"Gotcha!" Tab
answered. "We've got several things not right here."

"Best keep yer
mouth shut if'n yer knows whats on ther page!" a Frolt standing
near them said. "Yer new here. Yer best keep yer mouths shut!"

TR sent that
they were to announce they were empire agents before anyone moved
anything so Tab said, "Don't move anything! Don't touch anything!
I'm an agent of the empire and so is Vrndt. We're here to
investigate what's going on here with all these phony accidents.
This wasn't any accident. The security officer will go with Vrndt
to the office while I'll see what there is to see out here. I'll
join you in a few minutes."