Ullr Uprising Read online

  III

  Governor-General Sidney Harrington had a ruddy outdoors-man's face anda ragged gray mustache; in his old tweed coat spotted with pipe ashes,he might have been any of a dozen-odd country-gentlemen of vonSchlichten's boyhood in the Argentine. His face was composed enoughfor the part, too. But beyond him in the governor's office,Lieutenant-Governor Eric Blount matched von Schlichten's frown, hissandy-haired and younger face puckered in worry.

  "We picked up a few of Keeluk's goon-gang," von Schlichten wasreporting. "But I doubt if they'll tell us anything we don't alreadyknow. The dog was gone, but we found where it had been kept; at leastone of the rabbits had been there, too. No trace of the goat. Anyhow,the riot's been put down. The Kragans and some of King Jaikark'sinfantry are patrolling the section. Jaikark's troops are busy makingmass arrests. Either more slaves for the King's court favorites orelse our Prime Minister Gurgurk wants to use them for patronage."

  Blount nodded. "Gurgurk's building quite a political organization,lately. He must be about ready to shove Jaikark off the throne."

  "Oh, Gurgurk wouldn't dare try anything like that," Harrington said."He knows we wouldn't let him get away with it."

  "Then why's he subsidizing this Mad Prophet Rakkeed?" Blount wanted toknow. "Rakkeed is preaching a holy war against all Terrans and againstJaikark. Gurgurk subsidizes Rakkeed, and...."

  "You haven't any proof of that," the governor protested.

  Blount shrugged, his face looking grim. Von Schlichten knew how hefelt. They couldn't prove it, but both knew that Rakkeed had beengetting funds from the hands of Gurgurk. The prophet had been steppingup his crusade against the Terrans, and Gurgurk wasn't the only onebacking him. The Prime Minister probably figured on using Rakkeed tostir up an outbreak; then Gurgurk could step in, after Jaikark waskilled, put down the revolt he helped incite, and claim to be the bestfriend of the Company. But the question was whether Rakkeed could beused that way. He was becoming more of a menace than Gurgurk couldever be. Everywhere they turned, Rakkeed was at the bottom of theirtrouble--just in this case, where Keeluk was one of Rakkeed'sfollowers.

  His power seemed to be growing, too. There were rumors that he hadbeen entertained at the palace in Keegark, just as he was usuallyentertained by the big shipowning nobles here at Konkrook; come tothink of it, the last time here, he'd been guest of the Keegarkanambassador. He went all over Ullr, crusading, traveling coolie-classin disguise on Company ships, according to their best information.

  Blount sighed heavily. "This damned dog business worries me."

  "Worries me, too," Harrington said. "I'm fond of that mutt, and Godonly knows what sort of stuff he's been getting to eat."

  "I'm a lot more worried about why Keeluk was hiding him, and why hewas willing to murder the only two Terrans on Konkrook who trust him,to prevent our finding out he had Stalin," Blount struck in.

  Von Schlichten chain-lit another cigarette and stubbed out the oldone. "Maybe Keeluk turned him over to Rakkeed to kill before acongregation of his followers--killing us in effigy. Or maybe theyfigure we worship Stalin, and getting him would give them power overus. I wish I knew a little more about Ullran psychology."

  "One thing," Blount said. "It doesn't take any Ullran psychologist toknow about eighty per cent of them hate us poisonously."

  "Oh, rubbish!" Harrington blew the exclamation out around his pipestem with a gush of smoke. "A few fanatics hate us, but nine-tenths ofthem have benefitted enormously from us."

  "And hate us more deeply with each new benefit," Blount added. "Theyresent everything we've done for them."

  "Yes, this spaceport proposition of King Orgzild of Keegark looks likeit, doesn't it?" Harrington retorted. "He hates us so much he'soffered us a spaceport at his city...."

  "At what cost?" Blount asked. "He takes the land from some noble heexecutes for treason and gives it to us--together with forced labor.We furnish everything else. We get a port we don't need, and he getsall the business it'll bring. In fact, considering that Rakkeed is awelcome guest there, I wonder if he isn't fomenting trouble here atKonkrook to make us move our main base to Keegark. He's so sure we'llaccept already that he's started building two new power-reactors tohandle the additional demand from increased business."

  "Where's he getting the plutonium?" von Schlichten asked,suspiciously.

  "He just bought four tons of it from us, off the _City of Pretoria_,"Harrington replied.

  "A hell of a lot of plutonium," Blount said. "I wonder if he has anyidea of what else plutonium can be used for?"

  "Oh, God, I hope not!" Harrington exclaimed. "Bosh! What about thoseletters Keeluk gave the Quinton girl?"

  "All addressed to rabidly anti-Terran Rakkeed disciples," vonSchlichten replied. "We couldn't find any indication of a cipher, butthe gossip about Keeluk's friends might have had code-meanings. I'llhave to advise her to have nothing to do with any of the peopleKeeluk gave her letters to."

  "Think she'll listen to you? These Extraterrestrial Rights Associationpeople are a lot of blasted fanatics, themselves. They think we're agang of bloody-fisted, flint-hearted imperialists."

  "Oh, they're not as bad as all that. Old Mohammed Ferriera's alwaysbeen decent enough. And the Association's really done a lot of good inother places."

  A calculating look came into Harrington's eye. "She was going toSkilk, eh? And you're going there yourself, to investigate some ofthis Rakkeed worry of Eric's. Why not invite her along, and maybe youcan plant a couple of ideas where they'll do the most good. We allknow there are a lot of things at the polar mines that would look badto anybody who didn't understand. And with all this trouble beingstirred up now...."

  It was his first admission that there _was_ trouble, but vonSchlichten let it pass. "Her company wouldn't be any heavy cross tobear," he replied. "I won't guarantee anything, of course...."

  The intercom-speaker on the table whistled, and Harrington flipped aswitch and spoke into the box. "Governor," a voice replied out of it,"there's a geek procession just landed from a water-barge in front,coming up the roadway to Company House. A platoon of Jaikark'sHousehold Guards with a royal litter, Spear of State, gift-litter,nobles and such."

  "Gurgurk with indemnity for the riot, eh? Let them in, give them anhonor guard of Kragans, but keep their own gun-toters outside. Take themto Reception Hall until I signal from Audience Hall, then herd them in."He flipped back the switch and turned back. "We'll have to let them waitor they'll think we're worried. But you see--everything's going alongnormal lines."

  Blount nodded, but his face showed disbelief. And von Schlichtengrumbled unhappily to himself, without knowing why, until they finallywent out to the big Audience Hall to meet the delegation.

  Governor-General Sidney Harrington, on the comfortably-upholsteredbench on the dais of the Audience Hall, didn't look particularlyregal. But then, to a Terran, any of the kings of Ullr would havelooked like a freak birth in a lizard-house at a zoo; it was hard toguess what impression Harrington would make on the Ullran psychology.

  He took the false palate and tongue-clicker, officially designated asan "enunciator, Ullran" and, colloquially, as a geek-speaker, out ofhis coat pocket and shoved it into his mouth. Von Schlichten andBlount put in theirs, and Harrington pressed the floor-button with histoe. After a brief interval, the wide doors at the other end of thehall slid open, and the Konkrookan notables, attended by a dozenCompany native-officers and a guard of Kragan Rifles, entered. Thehonor-guard advanced in two columns; between them marched an uncladand heavily armed native carrying an ornate spear with a three-footblade upright in front of him with all four hands. It was theKonkrookan Spear of State; it represented the proxy-presence of KingJaikark. Behind it stalked Gurgurk, the Konkrookan equivalent of PrimeMinister or Grand Vizier; he wore a gold helmet and a thing like astring-vest made of gold wire, and carried a long sword with atwo-hand grip, a pair of Terran automatics built for a hand withsix-four-knuckled fingers, and a pair of matched daggers. He wasconsiderably past the Ullran prime of l
ife--seventy or eighty, tojudge from the worn appearance of his opal teeth, the color of hisskin, and the predominantly reddish tint of his quartz-speckles. Theretinue of nobles behind Gurgurk ran through the whole spectrum, froma princeling who was almost oyster-gray to the Keegarkan Ambassador,who was even blacker and more red-speckled than Gurgurk.

  Four slaves brought up in the rear, carrying an ornately inlaid box onpoles. When the spear-bearer reached the exact middle of the hall, hehalted and grounded his regalia-weapon with a thump. Gurgurk came upand halted a couple of paces behind and to the left of the spear, andmost of the other nobles drew up in two curved lines some ten paces tothe rear; the ambassador and another noble came up and plantedthemselves beside Gurgurk.

  * * * * *

  The Governor-General rose slowly and descended from the dais,advancing to within ten paces of the Spear, von Schlichten and Blountaccompanying him.

  "Welcome, Gurgurk," Harrington gibbered through his false palate. "TheCompany is honored by this visit."

  "I come in the name of my royal master, His Sublime and IneffableMajesty, Jaikark the Seventeenth, King of Konkrook and of all thelands of the Konk Isthmus," Gurgurk squeaked and clicked. "I have thehonor to bring with me the Lord Ambassador of King Orgzild of Keegarkto the court of my royal master."

  "And I," the ambassador said, after being suitably welcomed, "amhonored to be accompanied by Prince Gorkrink, special envoy from mymaster, His Royal and Imperial Majesty King Orgzild, who is in yourcity to receive the shipment of power-metal my royal master has beenhonored to be permitted to purchase from the Company."

  More protocol about welcoming Gorkrink. Then Gurgurk cleared histhroat with a series of barking sounds.

  "My royal master, His Sublime and Ineffable Majesty, is prostratedwith grief," he stated solemnly. "Were his sorrow not so overwhelming,he would have come in His Own Sacred Person to express the pain andshame which he feels that people of the Company should be set upon andendangered in the streets of the royal city."

  "The soldiers of His Sublime and Ineffable Majesty came most promptlyto the aid of the troops of the Company, did they not, General vonSchlichten?" Harrington asked, solemn-faced.

  "Within minutes, Your Excellency," von Schlichten replied gravely."Their promptness, valor and efficiency were most exemplary."

  * * * * *

  Gurgurk spoke at length, expressing himself as delighted, on behalf ofhis royal master, at hearing such high praise from so distinguished asoldier. Eric Blount contributed a short speech, beseeching the godsthat the deep and beautiful friendship existing between the CharteredUllr Company and His Sublime etcetera would continue unimpaired. TheKeegarkan Ambassador spoke his piece, expressing on behalf of KingOrgzild the deepest regret that the people of the Company should be somolested, and managing to hint that things like that simply didn'thappen at Keegark.

  The Prince Gorkrink then spoke briefly, in sympathy. Von Schlichtennoticed that a few of his more recent quartz-specks were slightlygreenish in tinge, a sure sign that he had, not long ago, been exposedto the fluorine-tainted air which men and geeks alike breathed onNiflheim. When a geek prince hired out as a laborer for a year onNiflheim, he did so for only one purpose--to learn Terrantechnologies.

  Gurgurk then announced that so enormous a crime against the friends ofHis Sublime etcetera had not been allowed to go unpunished, signallingbehind him with one of his lower hands for the box to be broughtforward. The slaves carried it to the front, set it down, and openedit, taking from it a rug which they spread on the floor. On this, fromthe box, they placed twenty-four newly severed opal-grinning heads, infour neat rows. They had all been freshly scrubbed and polished, butthey still smelled like crushed cockroaches.

  The three Terrans looked at them gravely. A double-dozen heads wasstandard payment for an attack in which no Terran had been killed.Ostensibly, they were the heads of the ringleaders; in practice, theywere usually lopped from the first two-dozen prisoners or overageslaves at hand, without regard for whether the victims had ever heardof the crime they were expiating.

  There was another long speech from Gurgurk, with the nobles behind himmurmuring antiphonal agreement--standard procedure, for which therewas a standard pun, geek chorus--and a speech of response from SidHarrington. Standing stiffly through the whole rigamarole, vonSchlichten waited for it to end, as, finally, it did.

  They walked back from the door, whence they had escorted thedelegation, and stood looking down at the saurian heads on the rug.Harrington raised his voice and called to a Kragan sergeant whosechevrons were painted on all four arms.

  "Take this carrion out and stuff it in the incinerator," he ordered.

  * * * * *

  "Wait a minute," von Schlichten told the sergeant. Then he disgorgedand pouched his geek-speaker. "See that head, there?" he asked,rolling it over with his toe. "I killed that geek, myself, with mypistol. And Hid O'Leary stuck a knife in that one." He walked aroundthe rug, turning heads over with his foot. "This was a cut-ratehead-payment; they just slashed off two-dozen heads at the scene ofthe riot. Six months ago, Gurgurk wouldn't have tried to pull anythinglike this. Now he's laughing up his non-existent sleeve at us."

  "That's what I've been preaching, all along," Eric Blount took upafter him. "These geeks need having the fear of Terra thrown intothem."

  "Oh, nonsense, Eric; you're just as bad as Carlos, here!" Harringtontut-tuted. "Next, you'll be saying that we ought to depose Jaikarkand take control ourselves."

  "Well, what's wrong with that, for an idea?" von Schlichten demanded.

  "My God!" Harrington exploded. "Don't let me hear that kind of talkagain! We're not _conquistadores_: we're employees of a businessconcern, here to make money honestly, by exchanging goods and serviceswith these people...."

  * * * * *

  He turned and walked away, out of the Audience Hall, leaving vonSchlichten and Blount to watch the removal of the geek-heads.

  "You know, I went a little too far," von Schlichten confessed. "Or toofast, rather."

  "We can't go too slowly, though," Blount replied.

  Von Schlichten nodded seriously. "Did you notice the green specks inthe hide of that Prince Gorkrink?" he asked. "He's just come back fromNiflheim. Probably on the _Canberra_, three months ago."

  "And he's here to get that plutonium, and ship it to Keegark on the_Oom Paul Kruger_," Blount considered. "I wonder just what he learned,on Niflheim."

  "I wonder just what's going on at Keegark," von Schlichten said."Orgzild's pulled down a regular First-Century-model iron curtain. Youknow, four of our best native Intelligence operatives have beenmurdered in Keegark in the last three months, and six more have justvanished there."

  "Well, I'm going there in a few days, myself, to talk to Orgzild aboutthis spaceport deal," Blount said. "I'll have a talk with HendrikLemoyne and Colonel MacKinnon. And I'll see what I can find out formyself."

  "Well, let's go have a drink," von Schlichten suggested.

  But he kept remembering the falsehood of Gurgurk's indemnity. When theUllrans started making a mockery of such things, it was no time forHarrington's trusting policies. The smell of trouble was suddenlystronger in his nostrils.