Page 187 - The Perpetrations of Captain Kaga

Investigating the Mystery of the Talking Plant
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“And Dr. Too-Rasoo engineered it all?”
“Right; that’s how he became a doctor. Prior to that he was just
another penurious Drastian.”
“Well, that’s quite a story. Let’s go talk to this creature. He must be
intelligent, indeed. Kaga himself pushed the large knob that opened
the door to the anteroom.
The transition was not profound; the gravity shift indicated that
Drast was slightly more massive than Pontenga, but the atmosphere
hardly changed at all. When the inner door opened, Kaga saw a flat
landscape artfully continuing into the distance on illusionistically-
painted walls. On one side of the chamber was a large sunken tub
filled with muddy water; in the center was a three-sided shelter built of
congealed animal, vegetable and mineral matter; and, on the other side
of the tub sat an anomaly, a piece of very sophisticated technology
sticking out like a sore thumb. Captain Kaga was regarding it intently
when he heard Lugo speak into his Languex.
“Hello, Dr. Too-Rasoo! Are you there?”
There was silence. Suddenly the surface of the water broke and Dr.
Too-Rasoo emerged from the tank. He had a bulbous head and body
as smooth and shiny as sealskin. His locomotion on land was
accomplished by hundreds of short ciliary growths on his flat bottom;
he whooshed across the distance to his little hut and reached inside it
with one of the long tentacles sprouting from his upper body. Kaga
surmised that Drastians swam like squid.
Dr. Too-Rasoo draped a dull metal disk on a cord around his neck
and whisked smoothly over to join the humans. “Excuse me,” he said
via the Languex. “I just don’t feel dressed without my doctor’s
medallion.”
“Of course,” said Lugo in sympathetic tones. “It’s our fault, really,
Doctor, for barging in on you. Didn’t you get the call from the desk
saying that we’d drop by?”
“Why, no, I didn’t. I’ve been under water for an hour or so. I guess
the air has flowed without me breathing it. Ha-ha!” He looked at them
quizzically. “That’s a joke on Drast. I don’t suppose it got translated
properly.”
“Well, you know,” said Lugo diplomatically, “it is kind of funny, at
that. Ho-ho-ho!” He jabbed Captain Kaga in the ribs surreptitiously
until he, too, started laughing. “By the way, this is an old friend of

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