Uller Uprising

s Came Afte

g the table. There was a remaining clatter of cups and saucers; liqueur-glasses tinkled,

onfounded meek. Nowadays, nobody yells 'Znidd suddabit!' at you. Nobody sticks all four thumbs in his mouth and waves his fingers. Nobody commits nuisa

ur pardon, General von Schlichten," he nodded in the direction of the guest of honor. "If they don't bow and scrape to you and ge

certain minimum show of hostility toward us from some of these geeks, to conform to what

eng-Li," he called on the local Intelligence officer and Constabulary chief. "This fellow Rakkeed was here, about a month ago. Was there any n

aking of began to become conspicuous. We did catch some of Rakkeed's disciples trying to get in among the enlisted

replied. "And I might say that Lieutenant-Governor Blount has reported from Keeg

d has things under pretty tight control at Keegark. He'd not allow a

to get us concentrated at Keegark, where Orgzild could wipe us

ay with it for just twelve months-the time it would take to get the news to Terra and for a Federation Space Navy task-force to get

. "The point is, does Orgzild know it? I d

oes he think we come f

ed. "Or, rather, the string of orbiters and artificial satellites arou

the voyage, inside the ship, is of the order of three weeks. Taking that as the figure, he'd estimate the distance at about a quarter-million miles,

of Niflheim with captured contragravity ships," Hideyoshi O'Leary chuckled.

was still derisive, but under the derision was uncertainty. After a

understand it." Von Schlichten finished his brandy and got out cigarette-case and lighter. "I have an id

ur home, and that the farms where we raise food here, and those evergreen plantings on Konk Isthmus and between here

ow, the main base off Niflheim is practically self-supporting, with hydroponic-gardens and animal-tissue culture vats. And it's enough bigger than one of

talking about...."

en all the way around it, on hipposaur-back, in the high latitudes, and the thalassic peoples at the Equator have sailed all the five equatorial seas and portaged all the isthmuses between. But, of course, Uller is the center of the universe; the sun travels around it, on a rather complicated double-spiral track. As

of combined Academy of Arts and Sciences and College of Cardinals. They almost were massacred. As soon as the assembled pundits saw this thing and grasped its meaning, they beg

rowded around the orrery, trying to set it up to show the existing position of the planet relative to the primary and figure out the theory back of it. They were very much interested; some of them must have sent word home about it, because Kankad came in on the next ship, wanting to see it. He was so much taken with it that Sid Har

people have for those cutthroats," Keaveney declared. "Oh, yes

y said. "Miss Quinton, how did you like your visit to Kank

culture of their own with our techniques. For instance, those big guns, the ones they call the Ridge Battery, that they built for themselves. They aren't copies of

an they were; we just had better weapons. To have the same kind of weapons, they'd have to learn to make them, and once they began studying technology, they found that they had to study science. Weapon-mak

, too," Mordkovitz added. "I'm only sorry there

lear weapons here, just to be on the safe side,

e old First-Century H-bomb, he could use it for a model and construct a hundred like it, with all the plutonium we've been handing out for power reactors. And there are too few of us, and we're concentrated in too few places, to last l

of the junior officers here, without your giving countenance and encouragement to it. We're here to earn dividends for the st

e their friendship, we should. Well, only five days ago, in Konkrook, Mr. Mohammed Ferriera and I were attacked by a mob, our native aircar driver was murdered, and if it hadn't been for General von Schlichten and his soldiers, we'd have lost our own lives. Mr. Ferriera is s

!" Von Schlichten came as close as a man wearing a monocle can to winkin

ering urgently. The black-bearded brigadier rose immediately, taking his belt from the back of his chair and putting it on. Motioning the sergean

nkrook, general," he said sof

a second to grasp what had bee

geant said, giving him a radioprin

m, at 2210; there were no details. He glanced at his watch; it was 2243. Konkrook and Skilk were i

ation, sergeant?" he aske

etain him as he took his belt and put it on. "How abou

tching his pistol and survival-kit into place. "It'll be out all over the planet in half an

et-room, he could hear Keave

r attention! There has just come in