Page 68 - The Perpetrations of Captain Kaga

Settling the Strike on the Plateau

themselves. I couldn’t understand it at first; the Lower Echelons had
delivered their quota of chromolith on schedule, so it couldn’t have
been a penalty of any kind. I climbed up the cliff to talk to the Elders,
who were finally willing to receive me. There I learned what I should
have found out before I moved the base.”
“What was that?”
“The mirrors had not been given to the Lower Echelons as a
reward for their work. The Elders simply did not want anything of
low status in their nests, and the value of an object depends on the
level of its origin. As long as our mirrors came from a ship that
landed down by the quarry, they were rejected by the Elders,
regardless of how much they might have wanted to keep them. Once
I moved the base up higher, the mirrors became worthy of the
Elders, and the Lower Echelons were forbidden to possess such
valuable objects. There’s nothing in our agreement to prevent this
from happening, of course, and we can’t very well force the issue;
that would really be interfering in their culture.”
“I take it the Lower Echelons are not happy with the new
distribution of wealth,” said Kaga.
“Indeed they’re not,” agreed Lugo, shaking his head sadly. “They
are threatening to stop the mining operation altogether. They know
that the Elders are entitled to the mirrors now, but at the same time
they have gotten conditioned to being rewarded for their labor. We
only introduced a very rudimentary kind of economic activity here,
but they worked out the concept of a strike on their own. The Lower
Echelons feel very strongly about their demands.”
“I see,” said Captain Kaga. “The Elders, however, don’t see it in
terms of wages, do they?”
“No,” said Lugo, frowning. “They won’t listen to reason, at least
my version of it. They see nothing wrong with the Lower Echelons
laboring to keep themselves supplied with mirrors. So I will have to
report to GHQ that I made a great blunder. That will be the end of
my career as a field officer.”
“Now, wait a minute, Lugo,” said Kaga. “Don’t get discouraged.
There must be some way to handle this.”
“Sure,” said Lugo. “After I’m gone you can request the base to be
relocated back down at the quarry level. At least you’ll be in the
clear.”
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