WeRead Powered by ReaderPub
Uller Uprising cover

Uller Uprising

Chapter 52: ULLER UPRISING
By H. Beam Piper
Open in WeRead

Explore more books like this:

NovelsScience-Fiction & Fantasy

About This Book

On a frontier world settled by Terrans, colonial administrators and military officers confront a violent uprising fomented by native political and religious leaders; raids, riots, and thefts trigger investigations that reveal rival factions exploiting local beliefs and power structures. The narrative follows civil and military efforts to suppress unrest, protect civilians, gather intelligence, and negotiate with indigenous rulers while coping with limited resources, cultural misunderstandings, and clandestine schemes. Tactical engagements and investigative threads converge as conspiracies are exposed and authority is reasserted. Themes include the challenges of colonial governance, the manipulation of faith for political ends, and the tensions between technological power and traditional societies.

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....