Page 67 - The Perpetrations of Captain Kaga

Settling the Strike on the Plateau

“How so?” asked Captain Kaga.
“Wait a bit, I’m getting to it,” said Lugo morosely. “Chromolith, a
crystalline substance needed on Pinduk as a substitute for that
planet’s depleted mineral reserves, was discovered by the PKU
exploratory mission in large deposits here. After the deal for it was
made, we blasted open a quarry and left it to the Oolyakooans to
extract. Finding a trade item for them was not as easy. They haven’t a
money economy, you know, and there’s no shortage of necessities. In
addition, the Elders are highly conservative, and viewed our presence
with suspicion verging on hostility. It was finally decided that small
mirrors were an acceptable commodity. The number we deliver is
limited, and some are always falling out of the nests and breaking;
thus there is no danger of saturating the market.”
“Who gets the mirrors?” asked Kaga.
“Ah, there is the crux of the matter. Since the deal was made with
the Elders, we naturally deliver the mirrors to them. They, in turn,
have always passed them on to the Lower Echelons. Since those low-
status Oolyakooans, living down close to the quarry, do all the
mining of chromolith, the PKU assumed that the Elders gave them
the mirrors in payment for their labor. That made sense to us, and
the arrangement was clearly acceptable to them.”
“Until you came along, eh?”
“Yes, until I came along. It seemed to me that the PKU hadn’t
done a very good job of gathering information about the
Oolyakooans. I was bored, so I started going out with my Languex
and talking to members of the Lower Echelons near the base. That’s
how I found out about the finer points of the vertical value system,
among other things. I finally decided that the Elders would have
more to do with us if the base were located closer to their own level.
I applied for permission from Galactic Headquarters, got it, and
moved the operation up to this plateau, just below the Elders’ nests,
That was three months ago…”
“But something went wrong,” prompted Kaga, when Lugo
stopped his narrative and began staring blankly at the wall.
“What? Oh, yes: a little knowledge isdangerous, and that’s all I had
gotten. I was determined to get us into a a position where the Elders
would give the PKU more respect, and I succeeded all too well. The
next time a load of mirrors arrived, the Elders kept them all for
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