Page 74 - The Perpetrations of Captain Kaga

Claiming the Vegimal Property

evolutionary status enables them to be either
ambulatory or stationary. Their bodies are not
morphologically predetermined, a feature they hold in
common with terrestrial trees, but their limbs are
prehensile and bifunctional. A Vegimal may insert all
or some of its limbs into the ground, in the fashion of
roots, and derive nourishment from the soil, or
remove them all and use them for locomotion. There
seems to be a trade-off between these two modes: a
Vegimal who stays in one place and puts most of its
limbs into the ground will have a single source of food
at the expense of mobility, whereas a peripatetic
Vegimal has access to a varied diet at the expense of
security.

Contact was made with several groups on Miglig; the
Languex experienced no difficulty in translating their
language, and a solitary Vegimal was engaged to act as
informant and assist in running the PKU base office.
The members of the exploratory mission were not able
to establish the authority structure among the
Vegimals; this task was left to succeeding PKU
representatives. The mission also left a reconnaissance
satellite in orbit, which relays geophysical data back to
the base. The climate and terrain of Miglig is Earth-
like. The mission found nothing else of interest on
Q75-29.”

The report ended shortly thereafter, and Kaga began to wonder
about the Vegimals. What a strange race, he thought to himself; the
species on Earth intermediate to flora and fauna were all primitive
ancestors of intelligent life. He was speculating about social
organization on Miglig when he was interrupted by a buzzer
indicating the ship’s approach to Q75-29.
He buckled himself down into the acceleration couch and watched
the surface of the planet rush upwards. The Hubble passed over the
major land masses and made a pinpoint landing in the middle of
Miglig. Kaga disembarked and walked over to the prefabricated PKU

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