Kankad had a good idea, at that, a most meritorious idea. He was sold
on it, already, and he doubted if it would take much salesmanship with
Paula, either. Already, she was clinging to his arm with obvious
possessiveness. Maybe their grandchildren, and the Kankad of that
time, would see Uller a civilized member of the Federation....
They paused, as the gun-cutter nuzzled up to the _Procyon_ and the
canvas-entubed gangway was run out and made fast, looking back at the
fearful thing that had sprouted from where Keegark had been.
"You know," Paula was saying, echoing his earlier thought, "but for
that female pornographer, that would have been Konkrook."
He nodded. "Yes. I hope you won't mind, but there will always be a
place in my heart for Hildegarde."
Then they turned their backs upon the abomination of Keegark's
desolation and went up the gangway together, looking very little like
a general and his adjutant.
* * * * *
With a broadsword in his hand, von Schlichten fought his way
toward the throne. There Firkked waited, a sword in one of
his upper hands, his Spear of State in the other, and a
dagger in each lower hand. Von Schlichten fought on, trying
not to think of the absurdity of a man of the Sixth Century
A.E., the representative of a civilized Chartered Company,
dueling to the death with a barbarian king for a throne he
had promised to another barbarian ... or of what could
happen on Uller if he allowed this four-armed monstrosity to
kill him!
_Ace Science Fiction Books by H. Beam Piper_
EMPIRE
FEDERATION
FIRST CYCLE
FOUR-DAY PLANET/LONE STAR PLANET
FUZZY PAPERS
FUZZY SAPIENS
LITTLE FUZZY
LORD KALVAN OF OTHERWHEN
PARATIME!
SPACE VIKING
ULLER UPRISING
THE WORLDS OF H. BEAM PIPER
* * * * *
ULLER UPRISING
"ZNIDD SUDDABIT!"
So the Ulleran challenge begins, with the rantings of a prophet and a
seemingly incidental street riot. Only when a dose of poison lands in
the governor-general's whiskey does it become clear that the "geeks"
have had it up to their double-lidded eyeballs with the imperialist
Terran Federation's Chartered Uller Company. Then, overnight, war is
everywhere.
How it will end is in the (merely) two Terran hands of the new
governor-general, a man shrewd enough to know that "it is easier to
banish a habit of thought than a piece of knowledge." The problem is,
the particular piece of knowledge he needs hasn't been used in 450
years....
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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