by Moulton, CD
Tab is formed like a Swaz, in the basic shape (K-form) of the Kheth (Which is Kit's shape), the Tlorgians (Where Maita was at the moment) or the Terrans. The difference was that, as the Swaz are amphibians, he had a few odd fins, gills and lacked hair.
Kit is indistinguishable from a Kheth, who are a reptilian people, though much in the form of others named. The robots are made to be able to mimic all functions of the organics they so closely resemble. Very few ever guess they are machines.
TR and T6 have machinery on board that can change the robots to resemble many other types of lifeforms when necessary along with an ability to disguise themselves in some ways.
While the two detectives and their ships can and do communicate silently through the built-ins they prefer to remain in the habit of using vocalizations most of the time. That's primarily so they won't forget at the wrong time and give their true natures away.
They each have their own sense of humor, too. Maita has a very good sense of humor and strongly believes in the value of such traits when dealing with organics.
"Hey, Boss!" TR greeted as Tab came into the pilot's dome. "Maita called. I'm going to be needed for a few hours on Tlorg so you two can stay on T Six 'til I'm back.
"Maita also says the entire omniverse is in jeopardy because of those magicians on Tlorg (Vacations Don't Always Work Out) or something such. I thought it was a joke, but Thing says it's all too real." (Thing is a Mentan, a small being with tentacles, is a member of the regular “crew” aboard Maita and is one of the most intelligent beings known.) (Well, the Mentans.)
"We can handle this here," Tab replied. "Kit and I'll be on Grandish disguised as natives. T Six can stay under the ocean on call. You can return to orbit until we find out what's going on there. This planet seems to be the focus for some kind of deal. We have to find out what it is.
"That'll take awhile I suppose so we'll play it as we find it."
"Let's make some kind of plan," Kit suggested. "T Six, run down what we have to know."
T6 can use the speakers on TR as TR can use those on T6. There are also speakers on various floaters carried by Maita and the other ships any of them can use.
It answered, "Grandish is at a nexus for trade in this area. There isn't much known about most of the world as more than half of it's agricultural and doesn't concern itself with space travel and empire. The world is restricted by their own insistence. It was brought into the empire with a hegemonous group of worlds the Eacherons contacted before coming into the Maitan Empire Traders Guild. That's the only reason such a basically primitive world is even ON a trade run. The people are mostly mammalian, look much like Bentans but with more color and are fairly docile most of the time, though they can act quite violently if provoked.
"There's some kind of interference with their culture. We see the results, but not the cause. We have to find the cause and motivations behind it. My suggestion is to, as you noted, disguise yourselves as natives. The society's mostly in an early industrial age on all except the one continent where the spacers come. The transhippers there are based on a large peninsula to the south and east so few of the people are influenced by them.
"There's not too much travel yet so we can set you up as businessmen in any number of areas. There's good communication on any given continent, but not so fast or good between them.
"There are six main land masses with a lot of islands in various areas. More than two thirds of the planet is water – halogen salt water – while the two large continents we're most concerned with are those on the equatorial belt.
“The present money's based on empire standard switched from the money of the old hegemony of worlds that was here before Maita contacted the Eacherons. I can supply all the papers, script or whatever you may need.
"Ain't I getting good at this detective crud?"
"You have the language – make it idiomatic in the vein of Klormedt," TR said. "You can be from a town called Misd. T Six can give you the intimate details about the place. It read a native from there (The ships had floaters with helmets to record the language, customs and any other things the user of the headgear knew. The stored information could then be programmed into Tab, Kit or anyone else in Maita’s crew. It was immediately thereafter usable by the recipient), so you can appear knowledgeable.
"Common names for these people are, for Tab, Klist Mar and for Kit, Jarj Fel. You'll appear on the continent called Sendedt at the port town of Koosd. There's a trench forty kilometers offshore where T Six can wait. It's over two kilometers deep there so this should be a safe way for T Six to be close if needed."
"Got it all figured out, have you?" Tab asked.
"SOMEbody has to think of these things!" TR shot back.
"Stick it in your moder!" Tab snapped.
"Okay! While you're aboard!" TR replied.
"I thought you were supposed to be heading out to save the universe?" Kit said.
"The OMniverse! Sheesh! You clowns never listen!" TR snapped sarcastically.
"Eh? What?" Kit shot back.
"Will you mechanical morons stuff it with the cutesies for a minute?" T6 inserted. "If you save the omniverse we'll save these people. All this childish sniping won't solve anyone's problems!
"Now, do you want to snipe at one another or do something worthwhile?"
"I vote to snipe!" TR said quickly.
"Me, too!" Kit put in.
"Vote to snipe! Carried!" Tab added.
"Seeing as you're all aboard TR anyhow, why not experiment with landing in a black hole?" T6 asked. "I can handle this bit here by myself."
"Hmmm. That sounds like an interesting sort of experiment," Tab replied. "Maybe we could come in at a sharp angle to reduce the bump at contact?"
They kept the chatter up while they shifted to T6 for the trip to Grandish. TR soon left for Tlorg.
"Well, it looks like this could be an interesting one," Kit said. "What do you see as a persona for each of us?"
"Z (The Terran member of Maita's crew and a close friend of the robots) and I handled a thing once where I was an obnoxious inventor and he was an arrogant sort of businessman – well, not arrogant with the workers, but definitely with the bosses. I swore a lot. T Six has the records of that.
"We can be that type of team. It'll get us into the major parts of the business community here and will give us an inside shot at meeting the kinds of people we'll have to meet – and should lead us to the ones causing the trouble. We can see what the deal is, then work our way in. We can modify the personalities if we think something else might work better."
There was a short pause while T6 programmed the experiences of Z and Tab into Kit, then Kit nodded and said, "Might as well get started. Let's go!"
Pleasant Place
The floaters carried the two robots from the sea into the forest just to the north of the little town called Koosd. They were programmed with the language and customs of the people and were modified to where there was virtually no way anyone could detect they weren't born and raised right there on the world of Grandish. They were carrying papers that would show them to be from the nearest continent, Klormedt. Even the town Misd had been imprinted in detail on their memories including names and descriptions – perfect photographs, in fact – of everyone the three people the probe had used from that town had known.
It was less than two hours until dawn, which had been shown by long experience to be the best time to arrive in any new place. They would wait until the early light to enter the town with stories of their travels.
The floaters were emptied of money, luggage and other possibly necessary impedimenta, then returned to T6, who was forty four kilometers offshore in more than two kilometers of water where it rested comfortably on the bottom. No one on this world could find it there even if they had any small inkling of its existence.
Tab sat on a log to wait while Kit explored among the closer trees. When the sun was rising enough for it to be logical they had been walking along the road for a few kilo
meters they moved out toward the town. They passed neat farms as they neared the town, which also seemed to be exceptionally clean. There were people working near the farmhouses who would wave a greeting as they passed.
The first place they located upon entering the town, also something learned through experience, was the local inn for a dawnmeal. Small towns on most worlds always had such a place where the local gossip would bring them up to date on what was important to the natives. Uncommon occurrences would also be the subject under discussion. The simple fact that strangers might bring excess comment would tell them much about the place and the people's temperament. Being robots they could eavesdrop on conversations that were being held at quite a distance.
The inn in Koosd is near the center of the town where there is a square park area with small businesses around the fringe. That's also common form on many worlds. There's a tavern of sorts to one side, but it wouldn't open until after the noonmeal. There's a general hardware, clothing and smithy store on the other side and a food store to the left. The schoolhouse is across on a little side street from the food store and there is – unusual for such small towns on most worlds at this stage of development – a library next to the schoolhouse. There's a large meeting hall on the remaining side of the little park. Streets lead out in the four directions.
There are mountains about fifteen kilometers away to the East, the ocean and docks are to the west and forests are to the north. The Wu river empties into the sea at a little port town called Blesd, twenty three kilometers north. To the south are inlets and bays filled with those rampant mangrove-like plants that seem to cover such tropical areas on many planets with large concentrations of halogen salts in their major seas.
The farms raise grains and/or grazing animals for the most part, but there are always fresh fruits and vegetables in great variety in the food market.
The two robots entered the cozy inn, called simply "Veen's Place," and sat at a counter to order gaf, a beverage high in a caffeine-like substance. The beverage would be in taste somewhat like coffee with a taste like chocolate with a touch of mint and would be a mild stimulant.
There were fruit-filled sweetcakes, eggs cooked in a variety of ways, fruit juices, fruit pies and various types of melon on the menu. The eggs were served with various breads or fried ko roots, which were much like potatoes or oormf root.
"Four eggs – scrambled, klie toast – light. Gaf with soft cream, ko and a big slice of yellow-green melon," Tab ordered. "It's a beautiful day for traveling!
"I'm called Mar, Klist Mar, late of Misd, in the nation of Klormedt. This is Fel, Jarj Fel, of the same place.
"This is as nice a town as we've found! It's about perfect!"
"Veen, Aars Veen," the proprietor introduced himself. "My serving girl is Barst. Du Barst.
"I was once on Klormedt when I was but a lad. I was even in Misd. It was a nice enough place as I remember, but was having something of a problem with the thorny-suckers. There was a place by the docks, Kope's or something such, that served the best waterclaw salad and strikershell chowder I ever tasted!"
"You mean Kolep's?" Kit asked. "Brown roof tiles with white window boards and that fishnet hanging all over the verandah?
"They're famous all over Klormedt. It's nice to know they're appreciated even so far as this! I'll tell Nince about it next time I'm there!"
"Kolep Nince! That's it!" Veen cried. "Fifty dorbeks for her recipe for the chowder! A hundred!"
"She wouldn't sell for a hundred thousand," Tab said. "The thorny-suckers are an annual problem. You must have been there in Fourmonth or Fivemonth. Hot that time of year."
"Yes, it was that, but it's as hot here in Four and Fivemonth," Veen agreed. "Have you traveled far?"
"If Fel will give his order I'll have it prepared while you talk of travels," Barst said. "When someone comes in who's been in any of the many places Veen has he can talk for days!"
"I'll have the same except sigdbread toast – medium," Kit replied. "Maybe redmellon if it's not too sweet yet."
Barst nodded, wrote the order down and went into the back room. The two robots talked about several towns along the coast and about the lushness of the forest along the Blesd-Koosd road. That lushness was noted even from low orbit, which was why TR suggested this place in particular. It may have no connection, but they had to start somewhere and this was the only obviously different place.
"Yes. Something in Flint Creek seems to be fertilizing the forest along there," Veen agreed. "If we could find what it is we could probably raise a lot more crops out near the Mountainfeet Hills. The soil's barely marginal there."
"Oh?" Kit asked. "Do you mean the forest there wasn't always so lush?"
"Well, it's always been thick and fast," Veen said. "It's only the past three years it's gotten like it is now. All of a sudden there seems to be double or better growth in there.
"Sedge Lope – that farm by the creek about four kilometers out – was going to use the creek for irrigation, but somebody told him it maybe wasn't a good idea until we found out what was doing it. Some fertilizers can go into the plants and make you right sick. I remember when that copper stuff they used to get rid of puffy rot got on the redfruit how it made a lot of us get the sticker sores. Like to have never got shed of them, then some physician from Glarsted did a study and we found it was that all along."
"Has anybody gone up the creek to see if maybe something it's running through is doing it?" Tab asked. "Maybe somebody's mining gold or something and dumping the tailings in the creek. I heard once a whole river was poisoned in Hasbd – that's an area of Klormedt – when they were mining lead or zinc ore or something. Killed some children or something. Big stink."
"Lope and his kid went up about twenty five kilometers to Milk Lake, but they said the lake was the same so whatever it is could be coming from any number of streams up there or even from the lake itself," Veen replied. "That's the trouble with farming. The people don't have the time to spend looking for such. It's a matter of saying you can spend four days on a thing and that's the limit. Got to not spend more or you could lose your whole crop."
"Well, we've got time!" Kit exclaimed. "Mar! Let's borrow or buy a canoe and do some water exploring. It'll be great fun and can serve a good purpose at the same time."
"If it won't take us past the halfmonth next we can manage it," Tab replied. "It might even show us more of this country over here. Maybe this will be the area we decide to stay so it would be better if we knew for fact that there wasn't going to be any poisonous water in a few years from something like that.
"Okay. We'll do it!"
"Are you going to relocate here?" Barst asked, bringing the steaming gaf and the egg course. The melon would be served when the main course was finished. The robots can eat, drink and do everything else a normal organic being does. The food (Or whatever) drops on built-in elementizer grids that break it down into its elements which can then be stored until it's convenient to dump them. Some, such as oxygen and nitrogen, are vented off. The elementizers serve another purpose when there's no one else around to note, too. Whatever's dropped onto the elementizer grids can be instantly and exactly analyzed.
They finished their meal, talked with Veen, Barst and a couple of customers, went over to the general store for supplies, the food store for staples, then headed, pulling a small cart Veen lent them for the supplies, for the farm of Sedge Lope. They had notes from Veen about the project for Fel and Mar so Lope was to lend them the skiff if it wasn't inconvenient. Veen would come for his hand cart if he needed it before the two returned.
Lope was a slow-talking, slow-moving man, but the type who's also sure in his actions so doesn't often make mistakes or have to do things over. He showed the two robots the area around the creek and how quickly those effects reduced as you moved away from the water only a few meters. Kit surreptitiously dropped some of the water into his mouth, then used the internals to report to Tab that there were concentrations of nitrates and phosphates
far above what would naturally occur as well as potassium and iron ions in more than normal amounts.
In fact, all the trace elements, plus a couple that could, over a period of several years, cause some troubles if people drank the water directly, though they weren't the kinds of things plants would absorb.
"Does anyone raise grazers or any other food animals directly along the creek?" Tab asked.
"Mebbe some o' the creeks up 'bove the lake," Lope answered. "None o' 'em this here side ‘til farther down."
“I guess it would occur to people not to let their animals drink from the creek," Kit suggested. "Not before we know what it's about, anyhow."
"Won't," Lope agreed. "Smell it 'n turn up their noses. Kids swim in ut, but they's got orders to swaller none o' ut. Kids don't care nothin' 'bout the smell. Say uts tasten' awful sos they ain't no problem with 'em drinkin' no more'n drops by accident."
"Probably won't hurt anything if they don't swallow much of it," Tab said. "We can go right out. Maybe we can make the lake today, spend a day or two finding which creek it comes from if it doesn't come from the lake directly, then go on up whichever it is.
"How big is the lake, Lope?"
"Well, Mar," Lope answered, sticking a twig in his mouth, "Ut sorta depends. Ut ain't fer 'crost ut, but ut's pretty longish. Mebbe a kilometer 'crost by four, mebbe five long. Got just Flint Creek comin' out this here side, but they's sevrul a'comin' in ter t'other from the mountins. Mebbe six, mebbe eight. Mebbe more.
"Some o' 'em're bitsy things, t'others is bigger 'ns. Ain't none o' 'em big uz Flint.
"Stay ter inside o' tuh meanders. Current ain't near so bad inside. Make better time."
They loaded their few supplies into the skiff, then headed directly upstream. They passed two adolescent boys and one young girl a hundred meters or so above the farmhouse who had stripped off their clothes and were swimming in the creek. It was obvious swimming wasn't all they were doing. There was a sharp bend before the little cove that hid the skiff until it was only a few meters away. The three had sprung apart.
