Page 7 - The Perpetrations of Captain Kaga

Foreword

commonwealth. The Protectorate was set up as a special branch of
the universal command in 2227. Its duties were the discovery of
previously unknown worlds and their integration into the existing
federation. If a planet had no intelligent life, then PKU officers
would analyze the feasibility of resource exploitation and
colonization; if, on the other hand, such a group were encountered,
those officials would initiate relations by establishing a diplomatic
and economic mission.
PKU missions had very delicate tasks to perform. A strict code
governing alien affairs was enacted, detailing the protocol by which
contact and agreements were to be made. At the most basic level, a
commercial contract had to be made with the intelligent species; the
PKU would identify some useful element in the new environment
and offer in exchange an equally valuable commodity from another
world. The items involved could not be ecologically or culturally
destructive.
The PKU explicitly recognized the possibility of meeting species as
intelligent as humans but without sophisticated hardware. These
groups were to be prevented from developing nuclear weapons or
spaceships; certain of their members could, however, after careful
screening, join the PKU and other branches of government. Less-
developed species were simply quarantined; in these cases, the PKU
strove to protect indigenous societies from disruption by cultural
pollution. PKU officers held a great responsibility, since they were
the only offworlders ever seen by locals.
An academy for training PKU recruits in the necessary skills was
created on Radnelac III in 2268. Since that time it has produced a
series of distinguished officers who have served the Protectorate on
every conceivable type of planet. Occasional lapses in discipline and
breaches in PKU regulation have occurred, it is true, but order has
always been restored with little or no harm done.

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