Flight of the Maita Supercollection 3: Solving Galactic Problems Collector's Edition

by Moulton, CD

  Kit asked if she ate any the night before and she said she hadn't, then stared hard, putting her hand to her throat. Tab wouldn't have believed that a "nine foot Tyrannosaurus rex," as Z described the Feach, could look scared, but this one did.

  Kit went back to her rooms and brought back the ices from her freezer, but had already told Tab through the link no one except Marm had used a key to get into her room because she had never let the card out of the pouch she wore around her neck, but there was a peg in Klen's office to hang the carry pouch on when he was working in the labs.

  Tab grinned at Kit as he took Marm out to return her to T6 and sent that he knew at least one of the murderer's name. When Tab came back Kit met him in Klen's office.

  "Okay, I've accessed the computer, then the lock reader," Kit said. "There has to be an easier way to read those locks. I have to wait for it to cross-reference everyone in this whole part of Hospital.

  "It could've been done anytime in the, say, three days before he actually ate the ice so I see where it could've been any of six or seven of them."

  "No. Consider that Klen faced them with his evidence yesterday and is dead today," Tab pointed out. "He ate an ice every night and all of them had the poison. Further, it was past midday when he told Marm he was GOING to face them. Our killer had to go into the lab for the key to the office, the office for the key to the apartment, to the apartment to change the ices, then return to the office with the key to the apartment, then return the office key to the lab. That meant he took the office key with him so he could return the apartment key. He then took the office key back to the lab but if you check the timing Klen returned to the office about then, meaning our murderer shoved the office key into a pocket or something – no pocket. They don't wear clothing – and we'll find it in or near the lab, I suppose. Either that or hidden somewhere in between the office and our killer's rooms.

  "Klen would assume the key was going to be placed back in the lab on finding our killer in the office. Klen was trusting and was probably told the equipment would be returned and blah, blah, blah. Teachers are always too trusting, which is fine with the students, but these aren't students.

  "What do you think?"

  "I think you've stripped a gear or something," Kit said. "The key was generally kept in the lab on a hook and it wasn't there. Marm looked for it. The key to his apart ... great exploding galaxies! Klen met his killer there in his own apartment!"

  "You're both goofy if you ask me," TR sent. "You're supposed to be detectives. Find the keys."

  "How do you suggest we do that?" Kit asked.

  "They're electronic keys," T6 sent. "Do I have to give you a course in locating things that sit around broadcasting their presence?

  "What difference do keys make? You still know it had to be Klarsed."

  "I want her on the probe," Tab explained. "I therefore have to be able to prove to a judge it was murder of a capital type. To do that I have to show it couldn't have been anyone else. I have to prove it was premeditated and vicious and I have to leave no reasonable doubt about the identity of the killer. I shouldn't have to tell you that!"

  "You're a machine," T6 sent back. "You're an incorruptible witness. Lie."

  "And face Maita?" TR sent. "Surely you jest!

  "You know the locks’ patterns from entering the rooms so find the damned keys. If they're in any of the places outside of the general path taken by other than Morkeltics you'll have your proof, but you won't get capital because there may be some doubt. Klarsed will claim fear. It's all circumstantial."

  "Will this fit conspiracy?" Kit asked. "Z used that on Sentah. It would seem to fit here. There are definitely a bunch of them in on something like this."

  "We'll have to go to Morkeltic," Tab decided. "We may be able to work that angle, but I doubt it. This is bigger than a bunch of gangsters. I'm not sure exactly how big it is."

  "Come on and I'll take you to Morkeltic, Tab," TR sent. "Kit will take Marm to Feach until this is over. You can probably show conspiracy if there's some government complicity. I think there will be. I think I've figured a lot of this already."

  "Why not just build specialized robots to mine the psiltripium?" Kit asked. "Why go to this kind of trouble? They should realize Maita won't allow this sort of thing."

  "Cultural differences," T6 replied. "It's the way they've always done things. They use their own people. They're egg layers and don't have the same kind of moral outlook as livebearers. Maita would never allow them to do that sort of thing with intelligent peoples or even with most lower animals. Only the insectoids could hope to get away with it because that's their evolutionary background. They'll change everything about the individual to fit them to a specific task, not just a few muscles to make them into freaks."

  Tab boarded TR after they decided Kit would stay on Hospital to locate the keys. If those keys were found hidden in an area frequented by the Morkeltics and not the doctor or others with access they could move against Klarsed. The fact she was the only one on the lock identifier except for Klen on the afternoon when the poison was placed meant nothing as someone else could have entered while the door was opened without being registered. Only the one actually using the key was registered and at that time everyone else was accounted for, but it was still circumstantial.

  Had the key been returned to the peg in the lab it wouldn't have carried any weight but if it were secreted within those described areas it was very strong. The judge worked on logic and evidence along with all reason for doubt going to the accused in consideration. Take away one little point, the location of the evidence, and the doubt was almost gone.

  While Kit was finding the keys together in a space behind a gincha dispenser in the Morkeltic dorms and arresting Klarsed, Tab was searching for the lab where the genetic engineering was taking place. He had to locate where the ships unloaded the equipment, who had picked it up and where they were supposed to be taking it. It didn't take too long as they never expected to be caught. They never expected to even be under suspicion. They were careful to not take much of the stuff at any one time. It was basically their bad luck Marm took her job so seriously and noted those missing items over a period of time.

  The labs were being prepared, but hadn't started work and were simply ordered shut down. It was a scheme by only a few crooked politicians who wanted to get rich quick with the psiltripium, which couldn't be mined by robots profitably. The mass of the people of Morkeltic knew nothing about the scheme and would be allowed to handle legal prosecutions of those responsible through their court system. The empire wouldn't be brought into it and there would be no unauthorized experiments.

  The saving concept, as far as the Morkeltics were concerned, was they honestly intended to colonize the heavy planet the people were being designed to work on. If they could show Maita it could be done without causing more pain and problems than was planned, if they were truly going to produce a race who were fitted for the world they were to inhabit, the empire might actually allow it. If the people were designed specifically for that world it wasn't too much different from Maita designing various of the robots for a specific set of purposes. Tab had Vood to prove such a thing could very well work and that a very useful people could result – and a happy people. (Male Progeny Six: Heku and Heku)

  Moral and ethical questions weren't something he wanted to get involved in. Let Z and Thing present the arguments. They were organics and could understand the implications.

  Tab returned to Hospital to find that Kit had found the keys and arrested Klarsed. The information hadn't been fastcommed at the time because Tab didn't need the information to make his point.

  Klarsed was convicted of murder, but not capital murder so they were blocked from using the probe on her. The evidence did, however, mean that all the Morkeltics employed in that section of Hospital were sent back to their home planet and that no more of that race would be working at Hospital for quite some time.

  Marm was safe now so she took over the work of
Klen while Tab and Kit took TR and T6 back to Perfect 3.

  Not all the cases turn out the way you'd prefer. Klarsed was hardly more than an easy scapegoat, though she had committed a murder. Everyone else in the scheme escaped without any penalty except for three politicians on Morkeltic.

  "It doesn't seem quite right," Kit said. "I'm not so sure I like the detective business very much. I don't feel we actually accomplished anything. Maita might even permit them to do precisely what they planned to do in the first place!"

  "And Klarsed takes the fall for the murder she was one sixth of," Tab agreed. "You'll get used to it. We know who all of them are and they'll be watched."

  "But I think that's taking this probe law thing too far!" Kit replied. "We had them! One probe and it would be proved!"

  *And next time it would be so much easier to demand use of the probe. If it was again proved you were right, the next time would be easier yet and soon no one would have any rights. It would be abused within a year and would become a tyranny of the mind in two. These things follow a set pattern.*

  [ As you say, we know who to watch. Z says it's better to let ten guilty go free than to convict one innocent person. It would get to that point and you know it. I tend to agree with him. ]

  *Do you know today's date?*

  "Oh, yes! It's Medate eight!" Tab answered. "We'll be there tomorrow!"

  "If we don't have another case," Kit said. "Next one, we'll tie down so even the empire can't do this to us!"

  "We started very slowly," T6 said. "We learned how to work together. It may be you'll get a lot of cases that seem to be inconsistent with reason, but I suppose you can't win 'em all!"

  "Oh, come on now!" TR interjected. "You caught the murderer, you prevented at least one more killing, you stopped a whole world from becoming involved in a thing that would cause unimaginable damage to them in time. So you weren't able to get each and every one who was involved! These things DO balance, you know!"

  [ Get Tab to tell you about Vood, Kit. I will possibly agree if Maita wants to oversee the genetic engineering of the race to go to that planet if it will be done as carefully as Vood was. There are those considerations. ]

  *It will be done scientifically or not at all. Tab will tell you those Voodian people are truly happy. Evolution will very seldom match people so perfectly to an environment. Tomorrow Z will be three hundred Earth years old – give or take a couple. He's working on his orchids so you can get there and through the transmat without him knowing anything about it until he comes in from the mountain. I have that Zeenan girl who stayed with him for a time and some others who have worked with us from time to time. Also, there is Kwarn and....*

  "For crying out loud, Maita!" Kit cried. "I'm in a deep moral dilemma about what we've done here and you're planning a birthday party?"

  [ Maita, if you've made another machine with all those same stupid morals you have I'll find some way to short you out! ]

  "Why Thing!" Tab said, shocked. "You know very well we're all very moral! I don't know how you can act like this concerning such a serious question! Kit's right. Five of those Morkeltics got away with murder and now Maita wants to let them go ahead and do what they were planning all along! Worse! You agree!"

  [ You're both glitched! Me? Agree to an immoral experiment? You're burned out! Totally and completely! ]

  Kit sent over the internal com that it was working. They'd really get the best of Thing this time!

  Oh? Really?

  Third Case

  "They were like a bunch of little kids!" Kit said, speaking of Z's three hundredth (More or less) birthday. "When Thing dropped out of that fern tree onto Z's head I thought Z would have heart failure! Are they always like that?"

  "Sure," Tab replied. "They had the whole island there where they could play tricks on each other. You should see us when we're all on one ship! It's pretty much the same. Didn't you enjoy it?"

  "I've never had so much fun in my whole life!" Kit replied. "Until this party I wasn't really sure what the term 'fun' meant, but I know now! I really got involved in thinking up childish tricks to pull."

  "Your whole life?" Tab said. "You aren't even a year old yet!"

  "Yeah," Kit shot back. "I hope I don't burn out too soon."

  "You two clowns can pull the plug on that," T6 said. "I took the liberty of accepting a little job. More in the line of what Kit's looking for, I think. It's on some weird planet that's used for meetings and such and by people who like constant violent weather. Place called Drove."

  "We know Drove," TR said. "Tab did a job there once. Security detail. Some diplomats got murdered anyhow so I'm surprised they'd call us."

  Kit input the experiences Tab had at Drove (The Castle Drove Murders), then shook his head. "Is the weather really always like that?" he asked.

  "Oh, no," Tab replied quickly. "I was there in spring when the weather was at its best. Sometimes it gets pretty rough. The winds weren't over a hundred sixty kilometers per hour the whole time I was there and it actually stopped raining for almost half a day!

  "What's the case, T Six?"

  "I see through the input you're familiar with Castle Drove," T6 said. "That might help. It seems there's a party of Khronkhytes at Castle Drove. They were invited by a wealthy businessman to have a vacation on the world. The people are mostly actors who have roles in the sponsor's plays or whatever and he wants them to get a feel for the sinister or something. I see Castle Drove would be the perfect place for that!

  "Mort Bhar, the sponsor, is planning to produce and direct a series of plays about a period of Khronk's history that was filled with castles and intrigues.

  "They're a mammalian people – Z could almost go there without disguise – and their moods are affected by the dark and rain and the sound of the sea and lightning and wind, I hear. Bhar feels that spending a little time in a place that's always experiencing those phenomena will add much to the actors and others involved in the plays. A sense of reality.

  "Castle Drove is decorated in the style of their old castles on Khronk. It was considered to be a wonderful idea until people started disappearing.

  "You can take it from there."

  "Oh, groan!" Tab cried. "This isn't one of those things like in Z's novels, is it? Let me call.... Ten Little Indian's was the name of one and I believe And Then There Were None was another. Some woman named Agatha Christie wrote them and they were really quite good.

  "Z explained what Indians were, but that was just the name of the play and didn't have a thing to do with the plot except as a gimmick. There were people murdered one at the time in those stories. Revenge of some sort."

  "They haven't found any bodies," T6 pointed out. "Murder isn't yet proved, but it's damned likely since they're sure the ones who're missing aren't in the castle and couldn't survive outside for very long. Whatever it is, it seems to be something a detective would relish!"

  "Who called us?" Tab asked.

  "Bhar," T6 replied. "He doesn't want to scare his people or anything and wants us to find some Khronkhyte operatives to go there. He says their world has plenty of detectives to choose from, but he thinks we could better find the best."

  "BETTER FIND THE BEST?! And you bitch about MY phrasing?" Tab exclaimed. "Okay, we'll be Khronkhytes. Actors?"

  "I think set designers," Kit suggested. "They'd have an excuse to be poking around. I've input a lot about these things in the past few seconds, mostly from Z's book collection. We'd have to criticize whoever decorated the castle as a matter of form, but the actors will be aloof from ... if these are like the ones in Z's culture."

  "I think we can be a set designer and a script expert," Tab said. "The script man could argue constantly about how difficult entrances and exits and cues would be if the set designer's ideas are followed. The script man would be expected to get advice from the directors and actors both, I think. Both would be in and out of all the rooms to figure the better camera angles and special effects. They'd both spend time talking with the a
ctors about timing and limits.

  "I'll be script and you be sets."

  "And I'll be a spaceship who brought you," T6 added. "Get in the shop and I'll modify you two."

  The two robot detectives went into the shop where T6 changed them into two exact copies of Khronkhytes.

  "TR stayed on EC so Maita could make some changes in nav and com equipment. Maita didn't think two ships would be needed here for a thing that will probably be confined to Castle Drove."

  "Here?" Kit said.

  "Yep! We've arrived in orbit while you were in the shop. We'll land on the castle's pads. Tab is Hop Trull, script writer, and Kit is Cam Rich, set technician. I've made arrangements with Bhar for you to share a suite on the third floor, right in the middle of the personal rooms. He's gonna tell the crew there to cooperate with you or you might design some nasty little surprises into the sets for revenge.

  "There were seventy seven people originally brought. At last count four have disappeared. Most of them are just secondary and bit-part prospects and won't really figure into it.

  "I'll be in touch. Call if you need me."

  Tab and Kit made their way to the castle. The rain was intense and in sheets, the wind was howling at over a hundred kilometers per hour, the lightning and thunder were blinding and deafening and it would be unpleasantly cold outside if they had actually been Khronkhytes.

  "Well, at least we have a nice day to arrive!" Tab said with a sneer. "It's almost like a balmy spring day! Welcome to Drove!"

  They went into the main entrance hall where they were greeted by several people who wanted to know what they "did" before they offered to introduce themselves.

  Tab, as a script expert, was tolerated by the actors, but Kit was as much as ignored so he mumbled just loud enough for them to hear that he could think of a lot of things to do with a set like this one – even if it would make the actors look like the clumsy idiots they were as they tried to find their way around it!