Inferno: A Chronicle of a Distant World (The Galactic Comedy) (8 page)

"I think not," said Barioke. He paused and turned his piercing eyes full upon Cartright's image in his vidscreen. "Let us understand one another, Mr. Cartright.
You
are the one who did not wish my planet to obtain self-rule for another quarter of a century. You are the one who has constantly favored the Enkoti in all things. You are the one who made that irresponsible, game-playing spendthrift the interim president. You are the one who urged your fellow Men to erect their buildings and start their businesses on Enkoti land. And now you are urging me to deal with an Enkoti who has publicly condemned my government. You are not my friend, Mr. Cartright. I am trying to unify this world, and you are hindering me every bit as much as the prime minister, perhaps more."

"That is a very one-sided statement of the facts," responded Cartright. "Robert August Tantram was elected prime minister by your people, not mine."

"In point of fact, he was defeated by my people, and appointed to a meaningless office by
me
," said Barioke. "In retrospect, it was a mistake. He has opposed me at every turn."

"He has only requested that you not appropriate the private property of the Enkoti for governmental use."

"He does not request; he demands. And I should point out that the prime minister and his tribe possessed the property we have confiscated only because of the favored treatment his father and brother received at the hands of your race. You literally threw money at them, Mr. Cartright. They did nothing to earn it, except to give you a free hand to use our world as your Department's grand social experiment."

"I resent the implication!" said Cartright. "We have helped elevate all the jasons. Our medical clinics have been constructed in every tribal homeland, our teachers have gone into the most remote areas, our—"

"But always you have begun with the Enkoti," interrupted Barioke. "You make it sound as if I wish to enslave them, Mr. Cartright. All I wish to do is redress the inequities and unify all the inhabitants of Faligor. No Enkoti will suffer during my rule."

"What kind of impression do you think you're making on the Enkoti right now, with hundreds of soldiers surrounding the prime minister's residence?"

"A momentary disruption, nothing more," said Barioke. "If he will publicly apologize for attacking the government and swear fealty to it, all will be forgiven."

"And if not?"

"Then I shall have to charge him with treason."

"That's ridiculous!" snapped Cartright.

"I realize that you and I have honest disagreements, Mr. Cartright," said Barioke, "but I cannot permit you to address me like that."

"I apologize, Mr. President," said Cartright, struggling to control his temper. "But I helped draft your constitution. It guarantees freedom of speech, and all that the prime minister did last night was exercise that right."

"I have studied your laws, Mr. Cartright," said Barioke, still unperturbed, "and I think you and I both know that freedom of speech is not an absolute, that there are circumstances under which it can and indeed must be restricted."

"Voicing an honest opinion about the government is not one of them."

"And if it is his honest opinion that the government must be overthrown by force, or that the Enkoti must secede, is that protected by our constitution?"

"He did not urge anyone to secede or use force," said Cartright. "I was there."

"There were nuances and implications," answered Barioke.

"You don't charge someone with treason because of nuances."

"This is getting us nowhere, Mr. Cartright," said Barioke. "If you will give me your word that he will make no further public statements, the army will withdraw immediately and his freedom will be restored."

"Let me speak to him."

"Certainly," replied Barioke. A small smile cross his face. "He is not, after all, going anywhere."

Cartright broke the connection and immediately called Bobby.

"What did Barioke say?" asked Bobby the moment he looked at his screen and saw that he was speaking to Cartright.

"He says that if you'll promise not to criticize the government again, he won't press any charges."

"And the army?"

"They'll withdraw."

"We've created a tyrant, Arthur. The Republic has to do something about him."

"I don't know exactly what the Republic
can
do," replied Cartright. "You're no longer a protectorate, and you're not yet a member. You're an independent world."

"You've got to get them to apply economic pressure," continued Bobby. "If he can do this to me, he can do it to anyone who speaks out. He's not always going to have Gama Labu in charge of the army; the next commander could be a serious threat to the populace." He paused. "Why is he doing this, Arthur?"

"He has his reasons," answered Cartright. "I don't think they're valid, but I'm willing to believe that he does. I think the best thing to do is to try to set up a meeting between the two of you."

"Do you think he'll do it?"

"Not if you don't promise to stop criticizing him in public."

Bobby lowered his head in thought for a moment, then looked up and bared his teeth in a very alien grin. "Tell him he's got a deal."

"I mean it," said Cartright. "And more to the point, he means it. If you speak out against him again, I can't protect you."

"I won't say anything against him," answered Bobby. "You have my word on that."

"All right," said Cartright. "I'll call him and tell him you've agreed to his terms, then see what I can do about arranging a meeting."

Two hours later Bobby was freed.

Four days later, President William Barioke refused to meet with him.

One week later, Bobby gave another speech. This time he never mentioned Barioke by name, but made an impassioned argument that it was time for Faligor to apply for full membership in the Republic, that only the Republic could assure that no tyrant ever ruled the planet, and that he himself planned to travel to the Deluros system to present his case.

The next morning, Gama Labu led his 500 men down the streets of Remus toward Bobby's home. When they got within three hundred yards, they were met by gunfire from an army of 2,000 Enkoti warriors.

Labu retreated half a mile, sent for reinforcements, joked with the press and onlookers while awaiting them, explained once more that he was simply a soldier carrying out his orders and that the politics of the situation were beyond him, and then stormed the mansion.

Twenty minutes later Robert August Tantram II, the 302nd Sitate of the Enkoti, and two thousand of his followers, lay dead in the ashes of his mansion. Before sunset, they were buried outside of town in a mass grave.

That evening William Barioke announced that the constitution would be suspended for a period of three months, while a better document, one that would never allow a traitor to rise to the rank of prime minister, was drafted and implemented.

And Arthur Cartright sat by his video, listening to the news and wondering what he could have done differently, and trying to determine exactly what had gone wrong.

7.

"Has he written the last chapter yet?"

That was the joke among the Men who lived on Faligor, and it referred to the constitution which William Barioke had suspended for three months. But the more he tinkered with it, the less he liked the results, and three years later the constitution was still being rewritten.

Barioke decided that there was no need to allow the office of prime minister to remain vacant, simply because there was no constitution, so he combined it with the office of president. And since there was no constitution to state how elections should be held, there were no elections.

General Labu went on video a week after the death of Emperor Bobby to apologize to the public; he assured them that he had no grudge against the Enkoti, and was merely following his orders. He deeply regretted the fact that he been forced to kill so many of Bobby's followers to protect his own men, and he assured anyone who was listening that he was just a soldier who had sworn his loyalty to the president, even when he didn't necessarily agree with the president's orders.

Barioke considered firing him for insubordination, but found that the speech had made Labu an overnight hero, and any action taken against the huge soldier might well result in an insurrection. So instead the president called his general to his office, they hugged each other for the holo cameras, and another crisis was averted.

Things remained calm for a few months, and then disconcerting rumors began to reach Remus: the Bolimbo had tortured and killed two members of the Traja, the Rizzali had set fire to the home of an Enkoti merchant who had opened a business in one of their cities, the Enkoti refused to trade with the Bolimbo. Sabare University, which was still dominated by Enkoti, refused admission to three qualified Rizzali students in retaliation for the burning of the Enkoti home. More than 20,000 moles, assuming they would be the next group to be discriminated against, emigrated back to their home planet.

Finally Cartright organized a group of some dozen Men and gained an audience with Barioke.

Your society, explained the Men, is falling apart. Something must be done to combat this reemergence of tribalism. You are the president. If you won't ratify a new constitution, at least do something about this problem, or before long Faligor will need twenty-seven constitutions, one for each tribe.

Barioke heard them out, pledged to attack the problem with all the forces at his command, and thanked them for this show of concern. They left his office half-convinced that he really meant to take some action.

But no one was quite prepared for the action he took.

Within two weeks he had nationalized all the mines, and before three months had passed, the government had assumed ownership of all businesses that employed more than one hundred jasons.

With each acquisition, Barioke went on the video to explain his actions: the best way to combat tribalism was to totally remove it from the economy. Jasons no longer worked for Enkoti or Rizzali or Traja employers, but for the government, which was not a tribe, but rather a combination of
all
the tribes.

There were cries of outrage from those jasons whose businesses had been appropriated, but the cries grew fewer and farther apart after Barioke had the apologetic Labu march his army through the streets in front of the establishments in question.

Since the government did not pay taxes to itself, the assimilation of all the major industries made a major dent in the tax base, and Barioke's answer was to raise taxes on all other segments of the planet's economy. Since the Enkoti had the most to give, they were taxed at the highest rate; his own Rizzali were taxed at the lowest, and could avoid all taxes whatsoever simply by having a member of their immediate family serving in the military.

Complaining to the government was useless, to say nothing of dangerous, and numerous committees of jasons visited Cartright and the other Men who were stationed in Remus, imploring them to intervene with Barioke on their behalf.

Finally Cartright yielded to their pleas and arranged another meeting between himself, a handful of his aides, and Barioke.

"Mr. President," said Cartright, when the men had been ushered into a large meeting room in the presidential palace, "this is not what we had in mind when we warned you about tribalism."

"Have there been any outbreaks of tribalism lately?" asked Barioke calmly.

"Yes," said Jeffrey Samuels, a former naval commander who had retired to a huge farm about thirty miles south of Romulus.

"Oh?" said Barioke. "And who is the guilty party?"

"The government, sir," said Samuels.

"Mr. Samuels, if you were a jason, I could have you executed for making such a statement," said Barioke without raising his voice. "As you are a Man, I shall overlook it." He paused and stared at Samuels. "This one time."

"And since you are not a Man, I shall overlook your threat this one time," shot back Samuels.

"Gentlemen, this meeting is over," said Barioke. "You are guests on Faligor, and if you will not behave as guests, I will not listen to you."

"Please, Mr. President," said Cartright hastily. "I am sure Mr. Samuels meant no offense. It is essential that this meeting take place. We have only Faligor's best interests at heart."

"Did you mean to offend, Mr. Samuels?" asked Barioke.

Samuel glared at Cartright for a moment, then shook his head. "No, I did not, Mr. President."

"And if you knew you had caused offense, you would certainly apologize, would you not?" continued Barioke.

"I apologize," said Samuels softly.

"Very well, then," said the president. "Now, Mr. Cartright, what have you come to discuss?"

"Mr. President, this world has been without a constitution or an election for too long. The rights of the citizenry are being eroded almost daily. We cannot force you to change, but we strongly urge that you consider the consequences of your actions."

"The consequences are quite clear," replied Barioke. "Where there was tribalism, now there is none. Where there was unrest, now the cities are quiet. Where there was inequity, now there is equality."

"Do you really believe that?" demanded Samuels.

"You have made us a society of laws," responded Barioke. "If you can show me a place where they are being broken, I will order the army there immediately to set matters right."

Samuel got to his feet. "He has no intention of listening to us, Arthur, and I, for one, am not going to waste my breath talking to him. We're going to have to get the Republic involved in this."

He walked out the door, and Cartright was left to apologize for his behavior and steer the conversation back on track. Barioke listened patiently for almost two hours, made an occasional comment, thanked the Men for their concern, and finally dismissed them.

That evening Jeffrey Samuels was found dead behind a human restaurant in Romulus. The police ruled it an attack by an unknown assailant, and released evidence to indicate that the murderer was a mole. The next morning a mole shopkeeper was arrested, charged with the murder, and executed before noon without a trial, while Samuels' family received a note of condolence personally signed by the president.