Page 83 - The Perpetrations of Captain Kaga

Claiming the Vegimal Property

few phrases of what they said; the Languex could not cope with
multiple concurrent utterances.
“What does he want?”
“Not another rootless—”
“Get rid of him faster!”
Then there was silence, and the Vegimals and the human marched
on together. Finally one of the group spoke up.
“Alien,” it said in a voice that rumbled and cracked. “We are not
interested in your absurd questions, nor do we have a leader. The
other alien would not let us alone. He followed us for two days.
Please do not do the same. We do not like aliens.”
Kaga immediately sensed that this bunch was not as aggressive as
the first. He guessed that they were semi-nomadic, settling for less
valuable locations in return for an avoidance of conflict. He took his
hand off the destabilizer.
“I will be glad to leave, just as soon as you tell me a few things. If
you do not cooperate, there will be a big fight between us; and,
although I am rootless, I will win, nonetheless.”
“All right,” said another of the Vegimals. “All we want is to find a
nice spot to put down roots for a while.”
“Fine.” said Captain Kaga. “Now, what did the human want to
know?”
“I can tell you because it made a little bit of sense, not because I
know,” piped up a small Vegimal in the rear of the group.
“According to the alien there is a relationship between one or more
of the inhabitants of Miglig and Miglig itself. This would appear to be
exclusionary with respect to other inhabitants, but unconnected with
the actual location of any of them. That is preposterous, since it is
well known that every one of us has the right of usufruct over all of
Miglig.”
“Ha!” burst out another member of the group. “Listen to
Rusomila, will you! A real thinker we have here! Uh, what does that
mean, ‘usufruct’?”
“Yes, Rusomila,” interjected yet another. “Is that straight from the
Igmalavex? Or are you making up words again?”
At that the whole group started arguing among themselves. Kaga
could not follow any of it. Finally, he shouted, “Stop! I’ve heard
enough! Where is that other alien now?”
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