Page 134 - The Perpetrations of Captain Kaga
P. 134

Reforming the World of Bolix

          “That  was  a  good  move,”  said  Kaga.  “Now  I  do  need  more
        information  about the odd inhabitants of this world.  First  of all, in
        which regions of Bolix do the Surfoids live?”
          Lugo extracted a global projection from the mound of papers on his
        desk.  “A rough census was taken  by the exploratory  mission,  based
        mainly on infrared satellite  scans.  Since the axis of rotation of Bolix is
        inclined eighteen degrees to the ecliptic plane,  the  polar regions are
        considerably  colder  than  the  tropics;  so,  as  you  might  expect,  the
        entire Surfoid population is  clustered  between  thirty-five  degrees
        north and thirty-five degrees south latitude.”
          Captain Kaga took a blank sheet of paper from Lugo’s desk top and
        drew two concentric circles on it. “This,” he said, “represents a cross-
        section of Bolix taken on a great circle passing through the poles. I’ll
        just mark in the area of Surfoid habitation…there. Okay. Now tell me
        some  more  about  the  Innerite  environment:  what  did  your  infrared
        photo graphs reveal?”
          Lugo shuffled through the stacks of paper for a minute, muttering.
        “Where is that enhanced image…I know it’s under here somewhere.
        Aha! Here it is.”
          He pulled out a sheaf of computer-generated graphics and handed
        them to Kaga, who looked at them a few moments, then said, “I can’t
        read these things, Lugo. This is some kind of new technique, isn’t it?”
          “Oh  yes, excuse  me.  Well, the  negatively  curved geometry  of the
        inside of Bolix was projected onto this plane here—” he pointed to
        one  of  the  images,  “—in  sections,  and  the  heat  radiation  is
        trigonometrically  magnified  to  adjust  for  the  variable  scale.  Those
        randomly-placed  dots  are  kipitite  outcroppings;  the  larger  blurry
        patterns are Innerite bases or roving bands of soldiers.”
          Captain  Kaga  studied  the  pictures.  “Hmm,”  he  said.  “The  PKU
        report said that the drilling was done right on the equator. Is that true?
        Good. So, on this photo the horizontal axis represents east-west and
        the vertical axis north-south, right? Okay.”
          Captain  Kaga  took  his  sketch  of  Bolix  and  drew  in  the  area  of
        Innerite population. “Aha!” he said. “Just as I suspected. The Innerites
        are fairly dense and heavy, are they not?”
          “Yes,” Lugo replied. “A good bit of their body weight consists of
        armor plate, and they don’t exactly float through the air.”
          “That’s very good,” said Captain Kaga, “and I’ll tell you why. The


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