by Moulton, CD
The picture of the Pluton drew shocked gasps. It was truly a terrible-looking being.
"I've never met a Pluton," Tab continued. "He's from another plane – not even from this universe! I think he’ll be a fascinating person."
"Where's a picture of the emperor?" a woman asked.
"No one knows the emperor's race and there are no pictures of Maita that anyone knows definitely are pictures of Maita," Tab explained. "He says that's best because each can believe he's of their race. I think he's probably a Maitan – there is such a race. It was almost totally destroyed by a race of insectoids called the Pweetoos.
"He could be a Kheth or he could be anything. He could even be a mechanical being."
"A machine that’s emperor of the galaxy?" Kit asked in feigned shock.
"There are machine societies," Tab replied easily. "We don't know. Only his crew know for sure – and the Zulians. They're close friends with the emperor. There are intelligent machines. They are citizens of the Maitan empire. My own ship is one of them. Emperor Maita's ship is one of them."
The talk lasted into the night, then the people went to rest for the next day's work. Finally Tab and Kit were able to link and to bring TR and T6 into a conference.
The ships were able to keep the numbers of the fungi down and were now getting ahead, but it wouldn't last. It wouldn't be possible for them to stay on Grandish for the many decades needed to eradicate it. Tab and TR explained what they'd learned at Kuhlicht and what Nortich and Givzoo were doing.
"I believe Givzoo will be able to develop a bacterium to release here to control most of this," Tab said. "It's a matter of getting it done before we get new sporings to spread the thing even farther here."
"Yes. It's also a matter of seeing the artificial organism isn't something that could do as much damage as the one we're fighting or more," Kit explained. "I'm worried about that part where the V. Grandish is so important to the ecology of this world. All I can say is that I'm very damned glad Maita's overseeing the whole process. These scientists tend to look at things from a point where the fact this world is full of people is secondary to the problem at hand."
"Not these particular scientists, but I know what you mean," Tab agreed. "Did you catch the point that shook me a bit? With the fungus?"
"What's that?" Kit asked.
"It said I was the one called Fel," Tab replied. "I passed it over, but it could see immediately that we're very close to being one entity. That's a little scary in its own way. We can be glad it isn't interested in such things to any real extent."
"That could be trouble on a personal level," Kit said. "We'd better break this up. In the morning we can make some kind of excuse to get away. I want to see what we can find about some areas where the fungus doesn't grow except in small poor patches if at all. Maybe we can find another controlling influence there."
They removed the link, then Kit went back to his own room to feign sleep until morning. The next day Kit took Tab to introduce him to Veen and the people in Koosd. They kept joking with one another so soon the people joined in. This was the first alien any of the people had ever seen from close up (So far as they were aware) so Tab was quite a rare novelty. He was able to put the Grandish at ease quickly, then to almost as quickly inspire a real liking. One of the people he met was Kaer Peld, who kept saying he reminded her so much of someone she knew.
It wasn't possible for them to get away for exploring so they stayed the night at Veen's, then went back to the glass plant early the following morning where they were shown the first results of the attempt to reproduce the art of the Parf. It was close, but before Kit could say anything the engineers said these would be melted down. Close simply wasn't good enough.
"We have another batch in the ovens now," Lee Djin, the line boss, said. "I think we can double-fire them. That should bring out the colors better and will soften the lines around the base and edges. Those are very hard things to mold."
"Maybe we can add a section to cut and polish the rougher spots," Kit suggested.
"I've already got a cutting wheel set up," she replied. "We can polish on it, too. I want to get as much done as we can before that. Cutting takes time. If we have to cut we have to up the price.
"What's my margin to work with?"
"Thirty dorbeks per unit is what I've already offered," Tab replied, getting a surprised look from Djin. "I admit that's negotiable. I'll go 'way higher if this quality can be guaranteed."
"Ha! THIS quality will be melted down!" Djin replied quickly. "These are experimental. They simply aren't good enough to ever get past the gate!"
"If you're serious I'll go eighty dorbeks per unit as a base bargaining offer!" Tab exclaimed, feigning surprise. "These are already so close I can't see much difference between them and the models!
"That's purely a lie, of course. The signature of the Parf is unmistakable, but I'm serious about the price. I can open a market for that quality for any quantity you can produce."
Djin grinned. "We'll limit the quantity long before we'll even discuss limiting the quality," she said. "Fel made it very plain to you, I hope, that our intention is to establish an empire-wide reputation as the very best glass makers in the galaxy."
Tab looked at Kit, who insisted they would stop not one tenth of a millimeter short of THAT goal!
"It's not my place to say so, but we can take extra time at sixty dorbeks to produce the very best quality," Kit continued. "We appreciate the offer of eighty, but we wish to produce quality goods at a reasonable price. We're in business to make a profit, but that's but one of several considerations."
"I think your plant here is going to prove to be much too small – and soon!" Tab replied.
Pride
Tab returned to A Port with the first shipment of glasswares two days later. They were better even than he had hoped – and he knew from the very first they would be good. The pride of the Grandish race was in those pieces. They had much to be proud of.
The connection with Kit had shown him both of the robots saw this race in the same light. They were an exceptional people who would fit well into the empire, but who would be much like the Zeenans in their interactions. They would like and enjoy other diverse races, would welcome them, would have things to offer as well as things to learn and would never be psychologically harmed by the meetings, though they would tend to stay away from very many contacts. They would prove themselves before the contacts were made. That was what this glassware thing was really about. Kit had seen the artistry in the people even before he had used the glasswares thing that was as much as thrown at them by events.
Kit was going to work out better than even Maita hoped when it constructed him, too.
There was still one little problem to solve here. The fungus would already have placed this world in an unbreachable quarantine had Tab and Kit and their ships not been aground. No one could get the products offworld except those in that group. The ships would see that no spores were transmitted anywhere – even to thoroughly microwaving the glass to see that none came out in the packaging, the wares or even the air moved into and out of the ships while they were on Grandish. That was another advantage in being a robot. The decontamination process wouldn't do them any damage. As soon as the ships were in space they would be opened, then microwaved completely, then resealed for the trip, but the fungus was still on Grandish and was still as much of a threat as it ever was.
Tab took the glassware art to Tltle and Sentah where the potential buyers were awestruck at the craftsmanship of the Grandish as well as by the art of the Parf. The items first bought with the intention they were to be sold in the shops would be used in the hotels instead. They would be issued in limited quantities of each design, the price would be much higher than planned, Looph would have exclusive rights guaranteed by the hotels which would supply the raw blocks of the materials at whatever cost the Grandish wanted to charge. The models would then be the sole property of the hotels (Except for those which Looph wished to
keep for her personal memento collection), would be displayed there and the copies sold at fair prices for the quality.
"In other words, there will never be any cheap ones!" Klop Jode Vebth, the negotiator for the hotels, promised. "Why, any one of these would bring twenty thousand credits at any respectable auction house on first bid! This is one place where everyone can get rich – honestly! If the suggested limits are kept on production, these items must appreciate in value rapidly among the art community."
"Why not design a new game where some of them are prizes?" Tab asked. "You can have Looph autograph the first ten or so of each issue to be used there. That should make them at least double in value. If a Parf puts her mark on a piece it's almost immediately priceless!"
"We can put a matchfour slot machine in each lobby of each of the hotels that pays off in a signed piece for four stars!" Jode cried. "They'll be the biggest draw on the worlds!"
They talked and argued for several hours, then Tab went to Parf with sixty of the glass bricks. Looph was delighted with the idea so long as it would be stipulated one half of all profits from the machines would be donated to Hospital. That would be paid in addition to the five percent Hospital already received of all proceeds from the vacation worlds. The funds were targeted for education and for the emergency fund. Tab or the emperor were to handle all the models and the signed copies personally until the problems on Grandish were settled.
Tab didn't hesitate to tell Looph about the fungus. The Parf aren't prone to gossip (Well, one or two maybe, but not Looph!).
That behind him Tab, connected with TR to find T6 was able to handle things well enough for the moment so they headed for Kuhlicht to see what progress Givzoo's group had made.
"Oh, it's coming along about as well as can be expected, I rather suppose," Givzoo reported. "I have the whole crew concentrating on this solution – which could be a mistake. It's all we have at the moment and will be slow enough in the development stages even with all of us on it. If it fails it'll cost us critical time, but there's no other way."
"I'll ask Maita to send you some of the best students at University," Tab suggested. "Maita can see that the psy shields are built into all of the students he sends. Maybe they can take some of the routine drudgery work off of your hands to free you for more important things."
"Before Givzoo refuses we accept!" Nortich said quickly. "We know there is a certain danger the fungus will find a way to get by the shields, but we desperately need help here. Just see that no one comes in who isn't aware of that danger."
"Done!" Tab replied. "Can you give an estimate as to when this thing will be ready?"
"Our problem is to overcome resistance of the bioengineered bacterium to being restricted to the rotting wood," Volich said. "It's such a widespread type of thing it becomes very difficult to draw its parameters in, if you understand what I'm trying to say."
TR sent a message to Tab on the internals.
"I have a suggestion for what it's worth," Tab replied. "I found the fungus wouldn't grow in swampy areas even though the wood seemed perfect there. I've put samples of all the wood, the bacteria and everything else in those swamps as well as samples from anywhere the fungus does grow into my ship's analytical computers. I think you know TR's one of the intelligent ships and it input methods to handle the data. Maybe there's something in that data?
"We're not really equipped for that kind of work and don't know what it is we're looking for. I would think you'd know more where to look in all that information. We simply have no concept of what we're looking for."
"There's a restricting agent that works against the fungus spores, I suppose," Zantoo answered. "Maybe it's a lack of something brought about by the particular environment in the swamps."
"Yes. We'll take any type of input we can get," Volich suggested. "You can interface the data from your ship's computers to our own. I don't see...."
"Yes!" Givzoo suddenly cried. "Get us that information as quickly as you can! Use the direct interface!
"Nortich! Acidic tannic retardational enzymes! The wood in a swamp goes through long periods of acidic deterioration as the wood sours from the still warm water and the natural tannins! Agents! Bacteriological, amoebic, phytic.... We can interject corpodia interwahti latidah goovic incidental bloopich on a glabbinfartergas dobie gohtahell chain (It sounded like that to Tab, who had input most of what the libraries had about genetic interjection processes. Maybe TR could follow it. These scientists were already beyond what was in the libraries!)."
Tab went out to TR as Givzoo and Nortich interspersed orders with loud arguments.
TR reported it had done an automatic pulse data input into their computers. They headed back to Grandish after Tab called Maita to send the students.
"TR, did you follow what Givzoo was getting so excited about?" Tab asked en route.
"Oh, sure! They're going to splice something into something else to try to stop the fungus," TR replied brightly.
"I had already figured that much from the yelling at each other!" Tab cried. "I mean exactly!"
"They lost me fast," TR said. "Interwandrea latifense is a fungus that grows in bogs on those kinds of worlds. The varietal names like the Tesfortii thing and the Grandishii tag identifies the worlds where it's found. They're either going to inject it into something or they're going to inject it with something else."
They landed as soon as TR changed Tab back into Klist Mar, then a floater took him to the boat he left tied to some trees above the high water line a good while past. The boat was in good shape and hadn't been bothered so Tab took it back to land on the jetty nearest the castle. He walked in as the people there were sitting down for the nightmeal. Kit greeted him with the joyful news they had actually sold some of their wares offplanet! There were repeat orders already that came in from A Port only hours ago! Grandish was going to be considered for membership in the Maitan Empire Traders Guild!
"Then it's good that I've set up a warehouse for us in A Port!" Tab said smugly. "Do you know there's no cargo allowed off Grandish except our glasswares? There's a kind of dangerous plant or fungus that could infect the whole damned galaxy or something. I don't know all the details, but I haven't been goofing around, you know.
"I met an alien, a Swaz called Tabori, who's some kind of friend of the emperor. He's on Grandish because of the fungus infection. I sent him here."
"I was wondering how he was contacted," Djin said. "I know none of our regular salespeople here have contacted him. Heip Low says he's the famous detective, Tabori R. DeSixtee, and he'll go far out of his way to help a world he thinks is worthwhile. That ship of his is intelligent! Did you talk to it?
"We can be damned glad he thinks Grandish is above average! We haven't let him down! (This last with great pride.)"
"I wonder about this disease or whatever," Kit said. "Could it be what's happening to the farms? That fungus thing?"
"It's possible," Tab replied. "If it wasn't for the fact our glass can be heated without damage even it wouldn't be allowed offworld. Almost nothing is. I told them we would guarantee no damage from that little bit of heat. Just four hundred Maitan Standard degrees, which Tabori said is something like our three hundred fifty. We bake things at a lot more than that with no damage in our own ovens."
They talked awhile, then went to bed. Tab and Kit linked in the small morning hours to exchange information. It was going to be a time of mostly waiting until they had something to work with.
In the morning Tab and Kit had a meeting where the exclusive contracts with the hotels and with Looph were introduced. Djin and a few other foremen attended. They couldn't believe the prices that were agreed on.
"I think this would be a great time to prove to the Maitan Empire that the Grandish are anything but greedy self-centered wallowbeasts!" Tab announced. "I checked with this Tabori character about something that occurred to me: This infection or fungus or whatever is costing the empire about six million credits to fight even if they can control it
quickly. Tabori claims there are always problems like this somewhere in the empire and they have to find a special crew to fight it each time it crops up. TR, his ship, is directing some kind of information gathering plan while they're here. They have a crew working on it composed of four of the finest biologists in the galaxy. They're donating their time. That's a trait of the best races in the empire – they give something to all people.
"We obviously can't stand the cost of financing the whole thing, but we can afford to finance a single ship for the use of that crew and the general upkeep of those scientists. Our profit projections are so far above what we dared to hope it's nothing if not obscene! I vote my half of this to do that! It'll be known as the Grandish Aid Project and will be located on the world called Hospital, which is exactly that. It'll have a branch office on the world known as University, which is exactly THAT!
"Grandish will enter the empire with a sign that will make it known to all people of every race in every part of the galaxy that we care and that we will do something about a problem when we come across one!"
It was as good a speech as Kit's had been on the opening of the plant. Had Kit refused he would have a revolt on his hands. This was for the pride of all Grandish!
"With what we project here we can well afford that!" Kit agreed. "Voted, carried and approved unanimously. Put it in the records of the meeting. Next time Tabori comes here we can get him to set the project in motion.
"Now, about these bricks for that Parf artist. You guaranteed her an exclusive? Was that smart?"
"Look at the price," Tab said. "This is what made the price what it is. Tabori said the fact a Parf would have anything to do with this at all guarantees its complete success."
They spoke of the project for awhile longer, the engineers were called in so they could make a place on the base of ten of each new design for Looph's signature. There would be one hundred of each item produced, then the molds were to be destroyed.
