Bio of a Space Tyrant Vol. 3. Politician by Piers Anthony

Author:Piers Anthony [Anthony, Piers]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FICTION / Science Fiction / Space Opera
Publisher: PREMIER DIGITAL PUBLISHING LLC
Published: 2011-02-15T23:00:00+00:00

• • •

As time passed I came to know the premier better. He was a ruthless and, at times, violent man, but he was in an environment that required such qualities. He did have firm principles, and he was trying to improve the lot of his planet. Gradually we spoke more candidly to each other, as he recognized that it was not my purpose to judge him, humiliate him, or to work against his interests. I had, after all, been as ruthless as he, in the course of my prior military career. It was my purpose to improve relations between Jupiter and Ganymede.

“How would it be,” I inquired musingly, “if we arranged to find something to do?”

His eyes narrowed appreciatively. “What do you have in mind, Señor ?”

“Suppose we were to commence negotiations for the resumption of sugar purchases by Jupiter, the orderly transfer of Tanamo to Ganymede suzerainty before the lease expires, that sort of thing?”

His eyes fairly popped. “You would do that?” Tanamo was a major Jupiter Naval base situated on Gany, the one I had invoked for the mock defector shipment. It operated under a long-term lease arranged before the revolution that had changed the nature of Gany’s government. Tanamo’s presence was perhaps the leading sore spot of the present Gany regime. But there was no way Gany could take over the base without provoking war with Jupiter, and that was not to be contemplated. That lease would terminate in another decade, but it was not known whether Jupiter would give up the base even then. Treaties are honored by governments only when it suits their convenience, and Jupiter’s interplanetary record in this respect was no better than Saturn’s, no matter what the school texts might claim.

“Sometimes capitalistic and communistic purposes coincide,” I said. “I would like to facilitate peace in our time in the Solar System, naturally—”

“Naturally,” he agreed dryly.

“And the elimination of trouble spots should help,” I continued. “It is possible that the position of the premier who arranged for the resumption of territorial integrity—”

“And the reputation of the ambassador involved,” he added.

We looked at each other, smiling. We both could profit.

“Of course, there is always a certain quid pro quo,” I said.

“Ganymede has been accused, perhaps erroneously, of fomenting revolution elsewhere in the Jupiter sphere, and of serving as a supply conduit for Saturn arms.”

He nodded. “Were this the case, it might be that it would not be entirely under the control of the local authorities,” he pointed out. “There might be debts to pay.”

“Granted. Yet perhaps a dialogue with the appropriate party ...”

“Perhaps a dialogue,” he agreed.

“And some have claimed—naturally I do not personally credit this—that there are political prisoners who might safely be released: intellectuals, misled youths, ill folk.”

“If, perhaps, an initiative were made.”

I nodded. We had an understanding.

And so it was that I, in the dutiful performance of my office, relayed to my government the Gany petition for early consideration of the transfer of Tanamo and other matters.

And the antimatter, as the saying goes, hit the matter.

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