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

kill so many of Bobby's followers to protect his own men, and he assured anyone who was listening that he was just a soldier who had sworn his loyalty to the president, even when he didn't necessarily agree with the president's orders.
    Barioke considered firing him for insubordination, but found that the speech had made Labu an overnight hero, and any action taken against the huge soldier might well result in an insurrection. So instead the president called his general to his office, they hugged each other for the holo cameras, and another crisis was averted.
    Things remained calm for a few months, and then disconcerting rumors began to reach Remus: the Bolimbo had tortured and killed two members of the Traja, the Rizzali had set fire to the home of an Enkoti merchant who had opened a business in one of their cities, the Enkoti refused to trade with the Bolimbo. Sabare University, which was still dominated by Enkoti, refused admission to three qualified Rizzali students in retaliation for the burning of the Enkoti home. More than 20,000 moles, assuming they would be the next group to be discriminated against, emigrated back to their home planet.
    Finally Cartright organized a group of some dozen Men and gained an audience with Barioke.
    Your society, explained the Men, is falling apart. Something must be done to combat this reemergence of tribalism. You are the president. If you won't ratify a new constitution, at least do something about this problem, or before long Faligor will need twenty-seven constitutions, one for each tribe.
    Barioke heard them out, pledged to attack the problem with all the forces at his command, and thanked them for this show of concern. They left his office half-convinced that he really meant to take some action.
    But no one was quite prepared for the action he took.
    Within two weeks he had nationalized all the mines, and before three months had passed, the government had assumed ownership of all businesses that employed more than one hundred jasons.
    With each acquisition, Barioke went on the video to explain his actions: the best way to combat tribalism was to totally remove it from the economy. Jasons no longer worked for Enkoti or Rizzali or Traja employers, but for the government, which was not a tribe, but rather a combination of all the tribes.
    There were cries of outrage from those jasons whose businesses had been appropriated, but the cries grew fewer and farther apart after Barioke had the apologetic Labu march his army through the streets in front of the establishments in question.
    Since the government did not pay taxes to itself, the assimilation of all the major industries made a major dent in the tax base, and Barioke's answer was to raise taxes on all other segments of the planet's economy. Since the Enkoti had the most to give, they were taxed at the highest rate; his own Rizzali were taxed at the lowest, and could avoid all taxes whatsoever simply by having a member of their immediate family serving in the military.
    Complaining to the government was useless, to say nothing of dangerous, and numerous committees of jasons visited Cartright and the other Men who were stationed in Remus, imploring them to intervene with Barioke on their behalf.
    Finally Cartright yielded to their pleas and arranged another meeting between himself, a handful of his aides, and Barioke.
    "Mr. President," said Cartright, when the men had been ushered into a large meeting room in the presidential palace, "this is not what we had in mind when we warned you about tribalism."
    "Have there been any outbreaks of tribalism lately?" asked Barioke calmly.
    "Yes," said Jeffrey Samuels, a former naval commander who had retired to a huge farm about thirty miles south of Romulus.
    "Oh?" said Barioke. "And who is the guilty party?"
    "The government, sir," said Samuels.
    "Mr. Samuels, if you were a jason, I could have you executed for making such a statement," said Barioke without raising his voice. "As you are a Man,