Page 125 - The Perpetrations of Captain Kaga

Reforming the World of Bolix

thought there was no place in Gornian culture for deception. I think
this is an anomaly, a fantasy resulting from contact with more
sophisticated cultures from the outside.”
Captain Kaga left his friend soon after, but he couldn’t stop
thinking about ‘the Liar.’ How did it all fit in? Suddenly it carne to
him: lying must be a secret vice on Gornat IV, a forbidden pleasure.
And computers were always programmed to tell the truth, to be
models of fair play. But, thought Kaga with glee, they didn’t have to
be! He hurried back to his rented bunker, threw off his radiation suit,
and began working on “Don’t Lose Your Marbles!”
As it developed, the Gorn player would not have to lie to the
computers; the taboo would not be challenged. But the machines
themselves would randomly lie to each other, giving the player a
vicarious thrill. The two computers would try to guess a number
chosen by the player between one and one thousand. Each machine
was not given enough opportunity to pin the answer down by itself, so
it was forced to request information gained by the other. The
deceptions would cause the computers to come up with wrong
guesses, for which they would be penalized; the player would win if
both of his mechanical opponents ran out of chances before his
number was correctly deduced.
Captain Kaga was working late trying to get the bugs out of the
program. He had a simulator monitoring the process and was at the
point of balancing the variables in order to give the computers a
slightly less than even chance of winning. He had great hopes for this
game. It was dark in his cramped living space except for computer
screens and indicator lights, but Kaga took no notice; he toiled on,
fine-tuning “Don’t Lose Your Marbles!”
Abruptly his ComSet began beeping. He pulled his attention away
from an optimization parameter and acknowledged the call. “Captain
Kaga, PKU officer on leave; may I be of service?”
A plump female Gorn stared at him from the screen. “Please give
on-line genetic ID,” she said officiously. “Deepspace message
follows.” She waited, still staring. Gorns had no eyelids.
Kaga frowned. Why did she need the extra identification? Who
could be sending him a costly extra-galactic message? He put his
finger on the bioscanner plate, and his DNA configuration was
instantly matched against the local PKU files. Kaga remembered the

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