Uller Uprising

-Twenty

eat-with his ruddy outdoorsman's face and his ragged gray mustache and his old tweed coat spotted with pipe-ashes, he might have been any of the dozen-odd country-gentleman neighbors of von Schlichten's boyh

foot blade upright in front of him with all four hands. It was the Konkrookan Spear of State; it represented the proxy-presence of King Jaikark. Behind it stalked Gurgurk, the Konkrookan equivalent of Prime Minister or Grand Vizier; he wore a gold helmet and a thing like a string-vest made of gold wire, and carried a long sword with a two-hand grip, a pair of Terran automatics built for a hand with six four-knuckled fingers, and a pair of matched daggers. He was considerably past the Ulleran prime of life-seventy or eighty, to judge from the worn appearance of his opal teeth, the color of his skin, a

paces behind and to the left of the spear, and all the other nobles drew up in two curved lines some ten paces to the rear, with considerable pushing and jostling and a sotto voce argument, with overtones of weapon-fingering, a

ccompanying him. Out of the corner of his eye, von Schlichten watched a couple of Kragan mercenaries with fifty-shot machine-rifles m

ered through his false palate. "The

of Konkrook and of all the lands of the Konk Isthmus," Gurgurk squeaked and clicked. "I have the honor to

special envoy from my master, his Royal and Imperial Majesty King Orgzild, who is in your city to receive

rink. Then Gurgurk cleared his thr

is sorrow not so overwhelming, he would have come in His Own Sacred Person to express the pain and shame wh

e drug which had, on its users, the combined effects of hashish, heroin and yohimbine;

most promptly to the aid of the troops of the Company,

ichten replied gravely. "Their promptness,

existing between the Chartered Uller Company and His Sublime etcetera would continue unimpaired, and that His Sublime etcetera would enjoy long life and peaceful reign, managing, by a trick of Konkrookan grammar, to imply that the second would be condi

aged to convey King Orgzild's pleasure at having obtained the plutonium. Von Schlichten noticed that a few of his more recent quartz-specks were slightly greenish in tinge, a sure sign that he had, not long ago, b

nds for the box to be brought forward. The slaves carried it to the front, set it down, and opened it, taking from it a rug which they spread on the floor. On this, from the bo

o-dozen prisoners or over-age slaves at hand, without regard for whether the victims had even heard of the crime which they were expiating. If the Extraterrestrial's Rights Association were really serious about the rights of these geeks, the

dard procedure, for which there was a standard pun, geek chorus-and a speech of response from Sid Harringt

tood looking down at the saurian heads on the rug. Harrington raised his voice

tor," he ordered. "If any of you think you can clea

e with the bolo; see where she chopped him on the back of the neck? The cut that took off the head was a little low, and missed it. And Hid O'Leary stuck a knife in that one." He walked around the rug, turning heads over with his foot. "This was cut-rate head-payment; they just slashed off

Eric Blount took up after him. "These geeks ne

!" Harrington tut-tutted. "Next, you'll be saying that

anded. "Don't you think we could? Our Kragans could go through

We're not conquistadores; we're employees of a business concern, here to

ence Hall, leaving von Schlichten and Blou

lichten confessed. "Or too fast, rather. He'

wait for him to change his mind, it'll be the same as wai

e of that Prince Gorkrink?" he asked. "He's just come back from Niflheim. No

to Keegark on the Oom Paul Kruger," Blount conside

ar First-Century-model iron curtain. You know, four of our best native Intelligence operatives

ut this spaceport deal," Blount said. "I'll have a talk with Hendrik

Schlichten suggested, consulting hi