Page 109 - The Perpetrations of Captain Kaga

Fasting the Plastiphage

The flaw in this system, of course, was that the oil
would not last forever. Shortsighted and conservative,
the Hierotechs maintained an irrational belief that more
petroleum would miraculously appear when needed;
that, in their own words, “Burdleim will provide.” This
much I inferred from Stimgage’s random remarks. The
inevitable crisis occurred not very long ago, probably in
the second-to-last generation. General knowledge of
these events is not to be found outside the temple
walls, and what is known within them is already
becoming mythologized. After carefully analyzing
Stimgage’s account of the miracle, I feel the following
is a fairly accurate rendering of the essential facts.

When the last bit of oil had been transformed into a
plastikon, the Hierotechs began to panic. No more
petroleum had materialized. They began to doubt their
faith in Burdleim. Some of the younger Hierotechs
wanted to smash the machinery and create a new
religion of Burdleim-worship without idols, much like
the old iconoclastic monotheism on Earth. The older
ones, most particularly the High Priest, refused to
abandon the old ways. From what Stimgage told me,
however, it is clear that the elder Hierotechs realized
what the superstitious populace would do to them once
it was believed that Burdleim’s blessing had been
withdrawn. They were, in fact, secretly preparing to flee
the Great Temple and hide in desert sanctuaries
unknown to the uninitiated.

Then the miracle occurred. In their anxiety and
confusion, the Hierotechs almost missed recognizing it.
A small boy from a distant mountainside village entered
the temple grounds one morning during the height of
the crisis and managed, owing to the general disarray
within, to pass unnoticed all the way to the High
Priest’s chambers. There he found the old man sewing
bits of shiny metal into the lining of his robes,

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