Page 186 - The Perpetrations of Captain Kaga

Investigating the Mystery of the Talking Plant
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“Well, the PKU has a small factory here on Pontenga that produces
them for export to Bismilla. If we didn’t have anything to offer the
Bismillans, we couldn’t get their phroxite.”
“Phroxite? Never heard of it. What— wait a minute! The point is
that we trade for these crystals on Drast. What did you say about
diving into crater lakes to get them?”
“Ah, yes. Didn’t I say that these creatures are amphibious? They
evolved out of very deep lakes on Drast; in their present level of
development, they can spend part of the day on land, but must return
to a certain depth for a few hours every so often to maintain their half-
primitive metabolism. The young ones have the lung-power to dive all
the way to the bottom of the craters, but the elders can only go about
halfway.”
“How deep is that?” asked Kaga.
“I think about fifty meters,” Lugo replied; “a lot further down than
any human could dive. At any rate, Dr. Too-Rasoo became a doctor
when he negotiated the trade agreement for pikary crystals with the
PKU. You see, the crystals are like a sort of currency on Drast. All the
important life-transition events—like birth, death, and marriage—
require ceremonies that can’t take place without a ritual destruction of
pikary crystals. The youth have to dive while they’re young in order to
accumulate enough wealth to be respected as adults. Whatever they
have gathered by the time they become too old to dive is all that they
can ever get.”
“But what about the trade?” asked Captain Kaga. “Why would they
sell us their only tokens of wealth?”
“A very good question,” said Lugo, “and Dr. Too-Rasoo figures in
the answer. The original PKU mission to Drast discovered, after
making the standard geological analysis, that many of the crater lakes
were slowly silting up. The crystals, as a result, were becoming harder
to find on the lake bottoms. Drastians of Dr. Too-Rasoo’s generation
were feeling the pinch; that made it easier to accept the bargain he
made with us.”
“Which was what?” asked Kaga.
“Basically, we dredge their lakes in return for a percentage of the
pikary crystals that we then leave on an undisturbed part of the lake
bottom and are thus made available to the divers. They’re still ahead
on the deal, so all parties are satisfied.”

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