Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition (153 page)

Interesting. He
stood, checked his appearance in the mirrors and went down to the
lobby and out.

*

TRD-60 took
sections four A and B, while T6 took C and D of sector 1. Maita
took the near half of sector 2, sections A and B.

There were
literally millions of entries for the past fifteen years that had
to be crosschecked for a number of items. It was a matter of
working backward, really. There was little doubt but that it was
all eventually handled through the four outlaw trader worlds in
this section. It may have expanded over the past five years, but
they all doubted that. The evidence from Savaraj was that this was
a slow and steady building up of ... something. Once the lists were
all gathered and each had "lifted" the information that might apply
the two ships linked through their special channel to once again
crosscheck the newly expanded pattern. They placed what they wanted
to know on their mental "screen" to see if anything became
obvious.

There were nine
possibles, each of which was nearly equal in likelihood.

Then, they
waited.

*

Thing took a
carrier floater to the nearest warehouse where it announced itself
as investigating something on orders of Emperor Maita and demanded
to see the bills of lading for all ships loading from that company
for the past five years. It was all handwritten, but Thing said it
knew all of that was kept in separate computer records as well as
on the paper. This was an emergency and time was critical. The
emperor was just trying to prevent the necessity of Fleet coming
into the sector because he didn't want to get too much of the
empire's resources tied up in a silly investigation that would do
nothing more than eat up funds and time – to no real end.

"It's in
company code," the Eacheron foreman said. "Won't do you any good
because no one but a couple of the big bosses know the key – and
the guy who programs the thing, you know."

[ There's never
before been a code I couldn't break and there isn't one now. I
swear to you we aren't here to do anything to your business. This
doesn't concern you except peripherally. What we want is to avoid
having to send the fleet out here to become bogged down for years
in a long investigative process that will tell us more than we want
to know. We simply don't have the facilities to spread around like
that. Everything is fairly well needed where it is at the moment.
I'll promise we aren't after this company in any way. What we're
after here will have to be extracted through a logical process only
another Mentan would understand. This is something you don't even
dream of! ]

Thing used its
empathic projection to make the fellow trust it a bit more than
normal, though there was every chance it could have gotten the
information without it. This was a little faster. It wasn't going
to be done very quickly under any circumstances, but there wasn't
any better way.

The floater had
a special socket TR had built into it. It was designed by Tab for
the specific purpose of reading everything in a computer's
permanent banks or to take anything off of software even without an
access code. The fellow took Thing to the main computers and showed
it the hundreds of software crystals, saying it was going to be
almost impossible to get the stuff the emperor wanted without the
codes. He didn't know most of the codes himself and didn't want to
know because that'd just add to his job without adding anything to
his pay. They had a fellow come in each evening to input the
records of the day.

Thing inserted
the variable-pin socket from the floater into the modem output
port. The foreman asked what that was for.

[ I can't speak
directly and can't, obviously, use a keyboard designed for fingers
(Waving a tentacle) so I use a standard modem through the floater's
computer. It's complicated, but it works. The circuits I use to the
translator as much as push the keys on command. ]

"Well, you'll
be here for days so I'll get back to my work," the fellow replied.
"The emperor's responsible for any damage!"

Thing waved,
then quickly inserted one crystal after another until all had been
"read." It removed the modem socket three hours later, found and
thanked the Eacheron, then went to the next warehouse to repeat the
process. It then did its own crossreference studies, which took
awhile longer. Finally it sat back to think for a few minutes, then
asked the computer for a bit of other information. It thought
again, made a deep mental sigh and went back to Maita.

*

Z went directly
to the reception desk at the traders guild, announced he was there
on empire business, showed the identification chit Maita prepared
and asked for all listings of movements of certain types of heavy
equipment. He then asked for listings of all movements of certain
types of laboratory equipment, then for various other types of
equipment. He was very careful not to ask for certain
qualifications, as that would tend to color his results. These
people knew what was going on out here and knew their own ability
to do business was linked to it so would tend to give information
on what THEY thought the empire wanted just to see that officialdom
got the nine hells out as fast as possible. Business had to
restrict itself while the emperor's agents were there.

He wasn't too
sure he knew what he was after, but he got all the lists, put them
into his case and headed back to Maita. He passed a Jornian on his
way out and nodded, wondering if maybe he had been in the nick of
time – if the others' questions maybe had alerted someone.

Of course not!
That had been Tab! The little scar over the left eye identified
him.

He went aboard
Maita and had food sent to the pilot's dome, sat in the chair,
chatted with Maita a moment, pulled the computer console around and
began inputting all the data he'd gathered. It would take a little
time, but so would the others' projects. No one was trying to beat
the others in some kind of silly race. They all wanted answers and
didn't care which one or which combination came up with the results
they needed. They could play their games later. About two hours
later he saw the indicator on T6's circuit telling him Kit was back
aboard. He was deeply absorbed and only noted it subconsciously as
he noted when Tab returned to TR a couple of hours after that.

He finished the
input, read a part of it to be sure he got it fairly straight and
asked his questions. His answers came onto the screen, then he
called Maita's data banks for information about certain types of
worlds in certain areas and figured that into the equation. If he
had figured right it was one of those six worlds. It wouldn't take
too long to search those six worlds if they had to. Maybe one of
the others had information that would eliminate some of them
without a search. One thing was dead sure. There was at least one
other world the Jornian outlaws were building a base on – and
they'd moved the equipment and had time to have it very
well-defended.

He was tired.
Exhausted. It had gone on for fifteen years so a few hours more
wouldn't matter. He laid back and went to sleep.

*

Thing came
aboard a half hour later than Z. It stowed the floater in the cargo
hold and carried a crystal with it into room two, placed the
crystal into the computers there, went to its cubicle to clean up
and eat, then went to the pilot's dome to rest. Z was exhausted,
too, and was asleep in the pilot's chair, so Thing curled up in his
lap to sleep.

Maita called
six hours later to wake them. *It's time we saw what we have. TR
and Tab went into outer orbit some hours ago and T Six and Kit are
on their way now. We'll rendezvous in a few minutes and compare
notes. I have my own information input in conjunction with TR and T
Six. All I'll say is that I'm sure there are one or more worlds
being exploited in the manner Savaraj was to have been. They'll be
armed by now, I can safely assume. I have it narrowed to eleven
worlds.*

"Six," Z
stated.

[ I'll say
seven, but our comparisons may further reduce the possibilities. I
don't think personally that any of us approached this from the same
angle. That means there's a good chance we'll be able to reduce it
to a lower number quickly. If we can get it to four or less we are
as much as done with that part of it. ]

*We're with the
others. We'll link. First Tab will tell us what he found and his
logic and method. I'll plot everything on the main holovid so we
can all study it and apply our own input.*

"My logic was
that the rest of you would find the basic leads," Tab said. "I
determined the cycle, thus determining there IS a cycle. I feel
that'll determine which of the worlds – I'm sure you've each come
up with a variety of worlds – it could be. My logic was that they
would use a schedule based on the day on the planet they're using.
My method was to get into the hotel register where the Jornians
stay on Grlaq and note when and at what time of the day they
checked in. Over a period of years that'll give us a fairly
accurate length of day when compared with the thirty two day month
on Jorn. I assumed they would use one of those thirty two day
months as a time-base from old habit.

"They arrived
here every twenty eight and two thirds days Grlaq, which would
probably be every thirty second day wherever they are so their day
there is point eight eight five of the day here. Maitan standard
time of the day here is twenty six point four four two hours so
their day is twenty three point four oh hours MGS.

"If one of your
suspect worlds has a twenty three point four oh hour day, that's
it!"

*Kit?*

"I guess we're
programmed a bit too much alike," Kit answered. "I thought of the
time angle and that you'd make a list of possible worlds. I did one
other thing, though. It may help in the long term to know
approximately how long their year is. It would also tell us what
kind of climate the world has if the seasons there change enough to
be noticeable here.

"They drank
warm drinks and wore somewhat too much clothing into the bar when
they came directly from the ship to meet people there part of the
time and were too loosely dressed and drank chilled drinks part of
the time. I worried for a moment that perhaps the contrast here had
reversed the seasons on their world of origin, but it doesn't
matter. We want to know the length of their year, not what season
it is now. I’ve determined that pretty exactly, I think.

"The overdress
was for two to three visits, then normal for two to three, then so
forth. It would vary. One year it was two visits, then three, then
two, then three so we can deduce that two and a half is fair.
That’s two and a half hot, two and a half cold, five intermediate
over the course of the year. Their year is very nearly five hundred
sixty six days here or about five hundred one MGS days. That should
narrow it down a bit."

*We have it
down to three worlds on my lists. Thing?*

[ I checked
special food movements and other such necessities. The crystals of
my findings are based on a triangulation from worlds that ordered
things that aren't very suitable to their indigenous populations
but are much desired by Jornians. Here are the seven worlds that
are close to the junctions of those triangulations. I can also
deduce their population on that world, calculated from the amounts
of food, is on the order of twelve hundred. ]

It engaged the
main holovid linkup with its personal computers and the worlds were
glowing dots with their coordinates beside them.

*Still three.
All of them are represented there. Z?*

"I assumed they
made major plans to use the chromium/rhodium moder setup for power
and they were going to depend on phase disruptor weapons because we
can't detect them if they're not in direct use," Z lectured. "That
would mean mining the rhodium and chromium so I looked for special
equipment movements, then for the laboratory equipment used in
refining, then for things that could be modified for focuses such
as Mrfat Drills and so forth. I started with the same general type
of triangulation technique as Thing did, working only with
habitable worlds. Here's my results."

He overlaid his
selections on Thing's. Only one of the worlds matched.

[ How
wonderful! None of us found the world itself, but we each found a
pattern that, when added together, told us we must go to Sharstedt
and that we must go there prepared for disruptor weapons. We can
shield them easily enough, but the backwash could be deadly to any
exposed people there. Tell us about the planet, Maita. ]

*Inhabited by
beings not unlike the Swaz so Tab will feel at home. They aren't
developed enough to be of much use to the Jornians except as beasts
of burden, I'm afraid. Let's meet outside the system and make our
plans. We can see what they have and where it is and if it'll
interfere with the natives – or if they already have.*

[ They selected
a planet with people they can't use? ]

*Apparently.*

[ How odd!
]

Sharstedt

Sharstedt was a
pleasant world, with much water in the form of ponds and lakes. The
natives were amphibious and, as Maita had said, not unlike the
Swaz, though they had larger gill areas and more webbing and
something more of an armored skin on their backs and chests. They
were the standard bipedal K-form, but obvious intelligence wasn't
developed to a great extent. They were of a schooling society so
were basically nonviolent. They were physically very powerful so
there was a strong potential for damage should they be
provoked.

Sharstedt was
an "easy world" in that food was plentiful in the warmer three
quarters of the planetary cycle and the natives hibernated through
the cold part. They had developed partial body temperature control,
but weren't harmed from being frozen solid. Under those conditions
the beings enjoyed the temperatures in the very warm season. When
the lakes and ponds were far too warm for comfort for mammalian
Jornians it was most pleasant and stimulating for the natives.