Page 171 - The Perpetrations of Captain Kaga

Investigating the Mystery of the Talking Plant
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of it except for official visits. It is rare for one alien to call upon
another in its chambers; you can imagine how unlikely it would be for
anybody to be able enter an environment whose temperature,
humidity, gravity, and atmosphere differ widely from his own world—
ours included! Everything in here, though, has been deactivated; the
medic could not have stayed long enough to do his job, otherwise.”
Lugo touched another knob and the second set of doors opened.
Kaga walked slowly into the chamber. He tried to remember what he
had heard about Tzigi: the massive overarching trees blotting out all
sunlight; strange colorless animals and bright gaudy fungi on the
ground; and a PKU mission that had to remain perpetually in orbit
around the planet. Now, in the illumination readjusted to humanoid
retinas, he surveyed the scene before him. The center and corners of
the room contained mammoth wooden columns from floor to ceiling.
Underfoot was a spongy mass of vegetable fiber that felt several
meters thick. The air seemed highly oxygenated and moist, although
Pontengan atmosphere had been pumped into the room for several
hours. And there was one other ambient quality that struck Kaga.
“It’s so quiet in here,” he said to Lugo, almost in a whisper.
“Wouldn’t you create some sound effects to make your guest feel
more at home?”
“In most cases, yes,” replied Lugo. “In fact, there normally is a lot
of noise at ground level on Tzigi. Bulakko’s race, however, dislikes any
extraneous sound, and long ago they bred a species of fungus that
absorbs sonic waves very efficiently. That is the sonopor plant, a
mutilated specimen of which you saw earlier in the exhibition area.
Rather than re-create all the noise and then plaster the room with
sonopor, we just kept it quiet. Bulakko was quite satisfied with the
decibel level.”
Captain Kaga poked around a bit more, and then said, “I think I’ve
seen enough. What’s left of the Tzigian air in here is making me dizzy.
Let’s go outside. Tell me more about the emissary. Was he liked by the
staff here? What did the other guests think of him?”
Lugo considered the questions as they passed into the anteroom and
res et the environmental lock. “I didn’t have that much to do with him;
some of the other guests made a lot of demands on us while we were
getting them settled. As I said before, Bulakko was very sociable and
spontaneous; in that respect, I guess you could say that he was naive,

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