Page 164 - The Perpetrations of Captain Kaga

Investigating the Mystery of the Talking Plant
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Pontenga possessed a very mild climate, a significant factor in its
choice as a PKU mercantile and administrative center.
Kaga frowned. He had serious reservations about the concept of
these exhibition centers. The official rationale was that they served
two useful purposes. The first was to show the ethnology of PKU
trading partners to the inhabitants of the branch-management planet,
many of whom handled numberless shipments of goods while
knowing little of their origin or destination. The second involved a
subtler demonstration of PKU power and influence to the emissaries
of those far-flung planets who accompanied their exhibits to the
center.
Those goals sounded worthwhile, and perhaps had been achieved in
several cases; nevertheless, Kaga worried about the potential danger in
bringing representatives of diverse species together in an uncontrolled
social situation. Granted, the emissaries were carefully screened by
both the PKU and the alien planet’s sociopolitical authorities; as a
result, embarrassing incidents were practically unknown.
But Kaga was of the old school: limit the contacts to avoid cultural
and technological pollution. There was an unknown chemistry at work
when beings from two very different worlds first confronted each
other, as happened on every successful PKU exploratory mission; and
this unpredictability had to be greatly compounded, reasoned Kaga,
when half a dozen aliens suddenly came together on a strange planet
far from home. PKU tact and diplomacy had kept the centers
operating smoothly for several years, but Kaga had totally shunned
them. At last he would see one on the inside as an official guest,
thanks to Lieutenant Lugo.
The alarm finally rang, and Kaga tightened his harness. The g-force
slowly mounted as the ship accelerated. Well, he thought, that was
done smoothly enough; but I don’t think I’m going to make it to that
opening in time. Just then the new ETA flashed on a screen, and his
pessimistic prediction was confirmed.

2: Death of an Emissary

After a bumpy landing at Pontenga Port, Kaga quickly found
transport to the Center. It was just past dawn the day after the
opening, and there were few vehicles parked around the entrance; one

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