Free The Gripping Hand by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle Page A

them loose on a ground-to-orbit ship? A little improvement in a space shuttle can double the cargo capacity! For a smuggler, that's golden! But it was an old ship, refurbished, and the engineering was entirely human and not very good at that.
     
     

    "These people are not in contact with Moties, Mr. Bury."
     
     

    Bury didn't move.
     
     

    Ruth Cohen used the stylus to make notes on the face of her pocket computer. "Kevin, I believe you, but we still have to be sure."
     
     

    "You'll take care of that," Renner said. "They've got a ship on station at that wavering Jump point. Send a small ship with a couple of Navy people to inspect that ship. Go yourself. When they signal that it's clean, we talk to the Governor."
     
     

    "It will work," Ruth said. "Governor Jackson would look very good if he could persuade New Utah to come into the Empire without a fight, and this might just do it. Fertilizer! Well, they're not the first world to have a soil problem.
     
     

    "All right. Between the regulations about Moties and your reputation, we won't have any trouble getting Captain Torgeson to send a scout ship out to the Jump point. One of the local Church people ought to go, so there won't be a fight."
     
     

    "Ohran," Renner said. "The one who called himself Mr. Elder is a high-ranking bishop named Ohran. Send him." Renner poured himself a brandy. "And that takes care of that. Mr. Bury—damn it, Horace!"
     
     

    Only Horace Bury's sunken dark eyes moved. They burned. "They're not here now. They're still corked up behind the blockade for now. For a quarter of a century I have left it to the Navy to keep them that way. Kevin, I've remembered too much. I've always known how dangerous they are. I manage not to think about it unless I'm asleep. Kevin, we must visit the blockade fleet."
     
     

    "What? At Murcheson's Eye?"
     
     

    "Yes. I need to know that the Navy is on duty. Else I will go mad."
     
     

    Ruth Cohen spoke. "Your Excellency, your dossier indicates that your . . . that the Secret Service may take exception to your plans."
     
     

    Bury grinned. "Let them hang me, then. No, I don't mean that, and of course you're right. I'll have to be persuasive in a number of places. We'll have to go to Sparta."
     
     

    "Sparta." Ruth Cohen sighed. "I'd like to see Sparta someday."
     
     

    "Come with us," Renner said.
     
     

    "What? Kevin, I'm assigned here."
     
     

    "We can get those orders changed. I can requisition people at need."
     
     

    "What need?" she asked suspiciously.
     
     

    "Well . . ."
     
     

    "I thought so."
     
     

    "Actually there is a very good reason," Bury said. "Kevin, you propose to convince the Governor to condone high treason. I do not doubt your ability to justify that on Sparta, but it will do no harm to have another Navy officer confirm our story." Bury drained his coffee. "So. Commander, if you will see to the investigation of the ship at the Jump point, Nabil will make Sinbad ready for the voyage."
     
     

    "That'll give me some time," Renner said. "I'm going back to the spill."
     
     

    "Surely we have better wines and whiskeys here." Bury glanced significantly at Ruth Cohen. "And better companionship as well."
     
     

    "Oh, easily. But that miserable wimp Boynton still has my snow ghost fur. I'm going down to the Maguey Worm and take it back."
     
     

PART 2
SPARTA
Treason doth never prosper: what's the reason? For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.

     

    —Sir John Harington

     

     

     
1: Capital City
For forms of government let fools contest;
Whate're is best administered is best.

     

    —Alexander Pope,
"Epistle III, Of the Nature and State of Man with Respect to Society"

     

     
     
     
 
A.D. 3046 Imperial University

     

    The Imperial University was founded in CoDominium times as the University of Sparta and enjoyed close ties to several Earth institutions including the University of Chicago, Stanford University, Columbia, Westinghouse