Page 48 - The Perpetrations of Captain Kaga

Cooking the Cannibals of Kek-lawa

tolerance. The air had a slightly pungent fragrance; Kaga supposed
the thick flowering vegetation growing on all sides of the PKU
compound was its source. He inhaled deeply a few times, and felt
confident that he would soon become habituated to his new
environment.
It was close to sunset, and he became aware of the changing colors
of the sky. The particular composition of the planet’s atmosphere
provided a striking display of refracted light when the sun was less
than fifteen degrees above the horizon. The Kek called their luminary
Fraung, a name whose literal meaning was ‘paint roller.’
As Kaga mused thus upon the poetic injustices of Languex
translation, a PKU staff car emerged from the base structure and
glided toward the ship. By the time it pulled up next to Captain Kaga
and his pile of belongings the sky had shifted through the spectrum
from pale green to yellow-orange. Rem Fildop oozed out of the
vehicle and greeted Kaga.
“Hello,” came the translation of the Vindelgan’s speech from a
Languex slung around one of his less mobile joints. “You must be
Captain Kaga. No, no: no need to show me all those documents. I’m
quite certain I wouldn’t understand them, anyway. Is this all your
own luggage? My, you humans do carry around a lot of equipment.
I’d forgotten: it’s been a long time since I’ve dealt with any of your
kind, you know.”
As he spoke, Rem Fildop undulated up to the stack of boxes and
insinuated a length of his auxiliary gastropod around it. The pile
lurched precariously, then righted as it was raised high into the air on
the Vindelgan’s rippling midsection. He slithered back to the vehicle
and deposited the load in the baggage compartment. Kaga stood
watching with his mouth open; he had not been briefed on his
predecessor’s morphology.
Rem Fildop turned and eyed him from several stalks. “Are you
having any trouble breathing here? No? That’s good. I happened to
notice that your respiratory orifice is dilated. I’ve always enjoyed the
air on Kek-lawa; quite salubrious, I feel. Well, shall we be going? It’s
almost dark.”
Mutely Captain Kaga joined him in the hovercar and they travelled
the half-kilometer to the prefabricated building in silence. Once
there, the newcomer’s gear was quickly unloaded and stowed away
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