Page 108 - The Perpetrations of Captain Kaga

Fasting the Plastiphage

...and so the Hierotechs are still slightly interested in
trade with the PKU, but we have nothing to offer that
they need, and they continue to be suspicious of us as a
possible threat to their authority. I am only the fifth
officer to be stationed here, and my predecessors made
almost no progress in negotiating with the High Priest.
I have tried a different approach: I befriended a young
monk, Stimgage, who is assigned to deal with my living
arrangements. Like the older Hierotechs, he was at first
quite reticent; over a period of months, however, he
slowly opened up and I learned something which may
be of value to our mission.

The mystery of the Great Temple is how the
Hierotechs have continued to produce plastikons long
after their oil reserves were depleted. It was assumed by
the exploratory mission that petroleum was stockpiled
somewhere deep within the temple. I am certain now
that this is not the case. I also think we can fill in a bit
of the missing history of Burdleim between the time of
the crash-landing and the present.

It must not have been more than three generations
before a sort of Dark Ages descended upon this planet.
All technical knowledge beyond the operation and
maintenance of the injection molding machinery was
lost or suppressed. The personnel in charge of the
equipment became an entrenched oligarchy thriving on
secrecy and mysticism. The temple was probably built
to conceal mundane mechanical sights and sounds
from an increasingly ignorant populace. These mainly
rural folk developed a tradition of idolatry, focusing
their gratitude for good harvests upon the plastikons,
symbols of Burdleim’s beneficence. Since the
Hierotechs controlled the production and distribution
of these sacred objects, their power was assured.”

106