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

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