Page 162 - The Perpetrations of Captain Kaga

Investigating the Mystery of the Talking Plant

1: Late for an Opening

“Now what’s wrong?” said Captain Kaga into the ComSet, his voice
well-modulated with sarcasm.
“Just a minute, sir,” came the agitated reply.“The chief engineer is
looking into the problem. It’s something to do with the thorgon
generators, I think—ah, here he comes, now. It’s Captain Kaga again,
chief. He wants to know the cause of the delay.”
A dull click came through the line as a Languex circuit activated.
Kaga cursed to himself, not for the first time, the fact that he had been
forced to take a PJ training flight in order to get to Pontenga in time.
What had at first enabled his voyage was now disabling it, breakdown
by breakdown. But it was a free ride…
“Captain, this is Urtheshar, Mechanologist First Class, reporting.
The cadet in charge of monitoring the thorgon flow accidentally
overloaded the heat exchanger, and a safety plug blew out when the
pressure got too high. He’s learning Boyle’s Law the hard way, sir, I
must admit. We’ll be on our way again within an hour, I can promise
you that. And I shall see that it does not happen again.”
Captain Kaga signed off, unable to detect any emotion in the
Antrombian’s voice, at least as rendered by the Languex. Mechanical
translators were mute when confronted by species whose major
overtones of meaning were conveyed by nonverbal or nonvisual media
such as gestures or scent. Nevertheless, when Kaga thought of
Urtheshar, a towering molluscoid with snapping pincers, it seemed
obvious that the chief engineer could administer corrective discipline
to his students by innuendo alone.
There wasn’t much to do until the signal came that acceleration
would resume, so Captain Kaga reached over into his kit and retrieved
his invitation from Lieutenant Lugo. He stuck it into the ComSet’s
input slot, and gave it yet another audition. First came the official
PKU symbols and a few bars of the anti-melodic synthesizer anthem,
followed by the appearance of his old friend’s head and shoulders,
framed by more flags and regalia.

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