Interview with a Character: Kaga Cheng

Rita:  Hello, Rita Trevalyan here with another character interview from my forthcoming book Takuhi’s Dream.  Will you tell us your name please, sir?

Kaga:  Kaga Cheng.

Rita:  Home world?

Kaga:  You mean the world I was decanted on?

Rita:  Yes, and spent your childhood on.

Kaga:  Gessename V, but I started at the Feldmar Institute when I was very young.

Rita: How old?

Kaga:  Don’t recall exactly, think I was 3 or 4.  I was an orphan, my parents were killed by bug invaders, and I was sent to the Institute where I lived and studied until I was 17.  Then I started going out on missions as a FirstInScout.

Rita:  What does a FirstInScout  do, exactly?

Kaga:  Makes first contact.  He (usually we’re males, just as kulturologists are females) encounters the planet, and reports on the physical part of the planet, planetologist, meteorologis, biologis and other fields all rolled into one.  The Kulturologist concentrates on the intelligent life forms of the planet. 

Rita:  Yes, we interviewed one of those last week.So the training for this career is somewhat involved, sounds difficult and dangerous.

Kaga:  We have to be tested extensively for our suitability for the work.  But in my case, it was, how you say, duck soup. It’s as though I were bred for this.  We may lose a few along the way, from attacks from wild creatures on the planet, but we’re taught self-defense techniques and how to deal with most species, even ones we haven’t encountered before.  

Rita:  So you’re taught mind control techniques?

Kaga:  Yes, but only with creatures which are non-sentient.  The sentients are within the Kulturologist’s bailiwick, and so we leave it to her.  

Rita:So you have some psi, some psychic powers.

Kaga:Yes.  We all do, it’s imprinted on the DNA of every member of the Human sector of the Galaxy, but the Koinonians try to suppress it among their people.  Anyway, we’re tested for our amount of it, and if we have enough, we continue with our FirstInScout training. I don’t know what happens to the kids who fail. We never talk about them.  

Rita:  Ah. Very interesting.  Are you usually the leader of the team?

Kaga:  Usually.  There are several departments under me, zoology, botany, geology, and so on, then there is the Kulturologist.  Together, she and I lead the team. There are up to twenty five on a large team.  

Rita:  Do any missions stick out in your mind?

KagaL  Yes, there was the Mission to Sogdien III.  Beautiful planet. We were just packing up when--No let your readers find out when they read Takuhi’s Dream.

Rita:  Yes. Watch for it when it comes out from Crimson Frost Books.  Thank you, Mr. Cheng.

Kaga: Any time for you, Rita.