Page 176 - The Perpetrations of Captain Kaga

Investigating the Mystery of the Talking Plant
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“Thuup,” said Lieutenant Lugo, “this is Captain Kaga. Is
Commander Quex in right now?”
[ “Pliss too mee chew,” said ·Thuup, and pushed a button on his
ComSet. “Loot nan Loog oyan Capt ank aga toosy oosir.”
“Send them in,” came the reply after a brief pause. As they entered
the inner office, Kaga reflected on the need that drove some non-
humanoid members of the PKU to communicate in Galactic Standard
English without benefit of Languex. He supposed it showed initiative,
if nothing else.
Quex was seated behind his desk, looking up at them with an air of
tolerant annoyance. “Well, gentlemen,” he said, “what can I do for
you? I still have a lot of work to do because of this accident.”
Lugo was about to speak, but Kaga got in ahead of him. “Oh, yes,
of course, Commander, we don’t want to take up any of your time. We
just wanted to put together a little remembrance of Bulakko’s visit to
send back to his next of kin on Tzigi. Can you remember what he had
to say about the opening after it was over last night? That might
reassure the Tzigians that his trip was a success, at least.”
“Hmm, yes, it might at that. Well, I don’t know if I can help you
much I did go back to the alien quarters for a few moments after we
closed the place up, just to check up on things, but I didn’t run into
Bulakko at all. So I don’t really know what his reactions were.”
“I see. In that case, we’ll go back and ask some of the aliens if they
talked to Bulakko before he retired. Sorry to have bothered you. Oh,
by the way, we just saw Farnitt on the way in. He was coming out of
the Tzigian gallery; he said something in there was damaged.”
Quex’s eyes narrowed. “Damaged, you say? Well, I suppose he can
repair it or replace it. That’s his job, after all.”
“Quite so,” said Kaga, and steered Lugo out of the office. They
made their way back into the exhibition area, where Lugo finally
spoke.
“Why did you make up all that nonsense about Bulakko and Farnitt
and the sonopor plant?”
“You’ll see,” said Captain Kaga. “It’s all part of the plan.”

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