Page 96 - The Perpetrations of Captain Kaga

Recounting the Binary Neeks

distinctive ways of walking and talking, so we’ve given them names
that describe those idiosyncrasies.”
“Ah, yes,” said Kaga. “After viewing the ethnographic report, I
wondered how you could keep track of them.”
“That’s a very good account of Neek society—at least as it was
when the PKU found it. I’m glad you’ve seen it; I won’t have to start
from scratch.”
Lugo picked up a stylus and began doodling on his deskpad:
endless chains of ones and zeroes.
“Before Colonel Snempfar arrived, the development of the PKU
mission here proceeded along normal lines. It was almost totally
culture-proof; all the average Neek knew was that we were outsiders
peacefully doing business with their leader and occupying an
otherwise deserted section of their territory. Three typical response
patterns emerged among the Neeks: hostile, enterprising, and curious.
The frequency of these responses diminished in the usual curve as
the Neeks realized they could not hurt us, steal from us or learn from
us. We were well on the way to becoming a neutral part of the
environment, waiting for one or two generations to pass before
expanding the contact beyond a simple trade agreement. I think one
reason Colonel Snempfar got this assignment was simply because
there wasn’t much happening here; and probably he resented it.”
“After a few months’ duty, something must have snapped inside
him. He left some notes for the next representative, which luckily
happened to be me. I destroyed them: they were incriminating, to say
the least. He began to have the idea that the PKU was keeping the
Binary Neeks ignorant of our culture in order to exploit them later in
unfair contracts. While this has, in some unfortunate cases, actually
transpired, it certainly is not an intentional policy of the PKU, and
the offenders have all been punished. Nevertheless, he felt he had a
chance to save the Neeks from future exploitation and disasters in
dealing with us—you remember his theories of cultural diffusion. So
he removed every restraint on contact with the Neeks, and actively
educated them in our ways.”
Captain Kaga was stunned. Uncontrolled contact between two
completely unrelated cultures, one at a high level of material and
conceptual development, the other technologically rudimentary,
unaware of anything outside narrow limits of time and space: what a
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