Read Online Inferno: A Chronicle of a Distant World (The Galactic Comedy) by Mike Resnick - Free Book Online

back and pretend nothing was happening?
    Good questions, all. But the one you keep coming back to is this: How did it all begin? . . .

    6.

    There were problems right from the start.
    Since Emperor Bobby had erected enough modern buildings in Romulus to house a government, William Barioke, rather than spending the money to build a new capitol, simply appropriated Romulus for his own. Within a month of the election, the opera house had been converted into the parliament, the theater into the High Court, the two largest tourist hotels into government offices, and Bobby's own house became the Presidential Mansion.
    Soon Romulus, which had been populated almost exclusively by Men and the Enkoti, was overrun with members of the Rizzali, most of whom were working for the government. Bobby protested to Arthur Cartright, who explained that the emperor had insisted on self-rule and would now have to live with the consequences of his actions.
    After a few months of lobbying without success, Bobby decided to move the Prime Minister's offices to Remus, some fifty miles away. He paid for a new mansion with his own funds, but managed to raise the money for a new theater and sports complex from Men and moles, and within less than a year Remus had replaced Romulus as the cultural center of Faligor, and most of the commerce moved there as well.
    As the Men and moles followed the Enkotis' exodus from Romulus, the capitol began falling into a state of disrepair. Barioke spent a fruitless three months urging them to move back, and then appropriated Remus for the government as well.
    Bobby, who understood how government worked, went to the press and vehemently protested—but Barioke, who understood how power worked, simply shut down those segments of the media that presented the prime minister's case. Then the president took to the airwaves—everywhere but in the heartland of the Enkoti—and explained that he was the president of all the jasons, and that he would never agree to the Enkoti demand for special treatment. If the prime minister would not abide by the constitution, he concluded, then he would reluctantly have to remove him from office.
    Bobby countered by holding a huge rally at the recently-constructed sports arena in Remus. 40,000 Enkoti and Men filled the seats, and after a few lesser Enkoti officials addressed the crowd, Bobby himself stood before the microphones.
    "I will not stand by and watch my people being systematically robbed by a government that has sworn to eradicate tribalism and favoritism," he announced. "Where in the constitution does it say that entire cities can be appropriated by executive fiat or, even worse, by executive whim? Where does it say that the president can deny the prime minister access to the media? The Enkoti don't ask for special treatment, but merely for fair treatment—and if we cannot get it from William Barioke, then we shall present our case to the Republic."
    During the applause that followed, Bobby scanned the faces at the front of the audience, and stopped when he came to a huge jason in a military uniform.
    "I see that Barioke has sent his general here to listen to what I have to say," he continued. "And doubtless to report every word back to him." He paused and smiled. "Are the words I'm using too big for you, General Labu?" he asked sarcastically.
    The audience laughed, none more loudly than Gama Labu himself.
    "Perhaps you would like to come up onto the platform and tell us what you are doing here?" said Bobby.
    Labu, accompanied by his own personal translator, got to his feet and climbed the small set of stairs with his ungainly stride.
    "I am not political," he said, speaking in Maringo and obviously uncomfortable before such a large audience. "We are all jasons, and I will never hold a grudge against another of my kind. I am a soldier, so I go where my president sends me, but I have no opinion in these matters."
    "And what will you tell your president?" demanded Bobby when the