The Highest Treason
()
About this ebook
Randall Garrett
Gordon Randall Phillip David Garrett (December 16, 1927 – December 31, 1987) was an American science fiction and fantasy author. He was a contributor to Astounding and other science fiction magazines of the 1950s and 1960s. He instructed Robert Silverberg in the techniques of selling large quantities of action-adventure science fiction, and collaborated with him on two novels about men from Earth disrupting a peaceful agrarian civilization on an alien planet.
Read more from Randall Garrett
The Search for Kä Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Murder and Magic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Well of Darkness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The River Wall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Return to Eddarta Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Steel of Raithskar Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hail to the Chief Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Science Fiction Collection #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Glass of Dyskornis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Randall Garrett MEGAPACK®: 25 Classic Science Fiction Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Randall Garrett Omnibus Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Eyes Have It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Second Randall Garrett Megapack: 19 Classic Science Fiction Stories Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Supermind Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Anything You Can Do Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Nor Iron Bars a Cage.... Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Psichopath Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUnwise Child Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Brain Twister Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/520 Must-Read Thriller Novels Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPSI-POWER TRILOGY: Brain Twister, The Impossibles & Supermind: Paranormal Science Fiction Series Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Highest Treason Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPagan Passions Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSuite Mentale Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThat Sweet Little Old Lady Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Appointment in Tomorrow Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Man Who Hated Mars Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Related to The Highest Treason
Related ebooks
The Highest Treason Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLemon in the Basket Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Beloved: Trial of Seventh Blood Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Complete Works of Malcolm Jameson Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMr. Justice Maxell Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAssignment on Venus Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEndangered Pair: The Chimera Pact, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Belt Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Forsaken: The Empire's Corps, #22 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPLANET STORIES [ Collection no. 1 - Winter 1940 / Spring 1941 ] Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCaptain's Call: The Complete Series Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmidst Dark Satanic Mills: Folkestone & Hand Interplanetary Steampunk Adventures, #2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Wise and the Mad Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFor Love or Loyalty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stopwatch Stories vol 7: Stopwatch Stories, #7 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Lost Prince: Guardians of Aandor, Book Two Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBodyguard Rescue Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Seventh Magic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Matthew Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Democracy's Might: Democracy's Right, #2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMaster of One Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Imperial Echoes: Ashes of Empire, #4 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Giants in the Land: Book Three - The Cavern of Promise Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEvacuation: The Commorancy, #3 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Master's Talent Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThirst Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTears of Eternia: Days of Resonance Episode Three Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMartians, Keep Out! Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGraveyard Shift: In Love and War, #4 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Altered Rise: The Sentinel Quartet, #2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Science Fiction For You
Shift: Book Two of the Silo Series Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wool: Book One of the Silo Series Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Stories of Ray Bradbury Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This Is How You Lose the Time War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Am Legend Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Warrior of the Light: A Manual Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Annihilation: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Camp Zero: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Institute: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Firestarter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Who Have Never Known Men Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cryptonomicon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England: Secret Projects, #2 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silo Series Collection: Wool, Shift, Dust, and Silo Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How High We Go in the Dark: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dust: Book Three of the Silo Series Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Troop Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rendezvous with Rama Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Contact Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Alchemist: A Graphic Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sarah J. Maas: Series Reading Order - with Summaries & Checklist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Frankenstein: Original 1818 Uncensored Version Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Time and Again Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5That Hideous Strength: (Space Trilogy, Book Three) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Psalm for the Wild-Built Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for The Highest Treason
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
The Highest Treason - Randall Garrett
THE HIGHEST TREASON
Randall Garrett
OZYMANDIAS PRESS
Thank you for reading. If you enjoy this book, please leave a review.
All rights reserved. Aside from brief quotations for media coverage and reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced or distributed in any form without the author’s permission. Thank you for supporting authors and a diverse, creative culture by purchasing this book and complying with copyright laws.
Copyright © 2016 by Randall Garrett
Published by Ozymandias Press
Interior design by Pronoun
Distribution by Pronoun
ISBN: 9781531292102
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Prisoner
The Decision
The Escape
The Traitor
The Strategy
The Results
The Reason
The End —and Epilogue.
THE PRISONER
~
THE TWO ROOMS WERE NOT luxurious, but MacMaine hadn’t expected that they would be. The walls were a flat metallic gray, unadorned and windowless. The ceilings and floors were simply continuations of the walls, except for the glow-plates overhead. One room held a small cabinet for his personal possessions, a wide, reasonably soft bed, a small but adequate desk, and, in one corner, a cubicle that contained the necessary sanitary plumbing facilities.
The other room held a couch, two big easy-chairs, a low table, some bookshelves, a squat refrigerator containing food and drink for his occasional snacks—his regular meals were brought in hot from the main kitchen—and a closet that contained his clothing—the insignialess uniforms of a Kerothi officer.
No, thought Sebastian MacMaine, it was not luxurious, but neither did it look like the prison cell it was.
There was comfort here, and even the illusion of privacy, although there were TV pickups in the walls, placed so that no movement in either room would go unnoticed. The switch which cut off the soft white light from the glow plates did not cut off the infrared radiation which enabled his hosts to watch him while he slept. Every sound was heard and recorded.
But none of that bothered MacMaine. On the contrary, he was glad of it. He wanted the Kerothi to know that he had no intention of escaping or hatching any plot against them.
He had long since decided that, if things continued as they had, Earth would lose the war with Keroth, and Sebastian MacMaine had no desire whatever to be on the losing side of the greatest war ever fought. The problem now was to convince the Kerothi that he fully intended to fight with them, to give them the full benefit of his ability as a military strategist, to do his best to win every battle for Keroth.
And that was going to be the most difficult task of all.
A telltale glow of red blinked rapidly over the door, and a soft chime pinged in time with it.
MacMaine smiled inwardly, although not a trace of it showed on his broad-jawed, blocky face. To give him the illusion that he was a guest rather than a prisoner, the Kerothi had installed an announcer at the door and invariably used it. Not once had any one of them ever simply walked in on him.
Come in,
MacMaine said.
He was seated in one of the easy-chairs in his living room,
smoking a cigarette and reading a book on the history of Keroth, but he put the book down on the low table as a tall Kerothi came in through the doorway.
MacMaine allowed himself a smile of honest pleasure. To most Earthmen, all the Carrot-skins look alike,
and, MacMaine admitted honestly to himself, he hadn’t yet trained himself completely to look beyond the strangenesses that made the Kerothi different from Earthmen and see the details that made them different from each other. But this was one Kerothi that MacMaine would never mistake for any other.
Tallis!
He stood up and extended both hands in the Kerothi fashion. The other did the same, and they clasped hands for a moment. How are your guts?
he added in Kerothic.
They function smoothly, my sibling-by-choice,
answered Space General Polan Tallis. And your own?
Smoothly, indeed. It’s been far too long a time since we have touched.
The Kerothi stepped back a pace and looked the Earthman up and down. You look healthy enough—for a prisoner. You’re treated well, then?
Well enough. Sit down, my sibling-by-choice.
MacMaine waved toward the couch nearby. The general sat down and looked around the apartment.
Well, well. You’re getting preferential treatment, all right. This is as good as you could expect as a battleship commander. Maybe you’re being trained for the job.
MacMaine laughed, allowing the touch of sardonicism that he felt to be heard in the laughter. I might have hoped so once, Tallis. But I’m afraid I have simply come out even. I have traded nothing for nothing.
General Tallis reached into the pocket of his uniform jacket and took out the thin aluminum case that held the Kerothi equivalent of cigarettes. He took one out, put it between his lips, and lit it with the hotpoint that was built into the case.
MacMaine took an Earth cigarette out of the package on the table and allowed Tallis to light it for him. The pause and the silence, MacMaine knew, were for a purpose. He waited. Tallis had something to say, but he was allowing the Earthman to adjust to surprise.
It was one of the fine points of Kerothi etiquette.
A sudden silence on the part of one participant in a conversation, under these particular circumstances, meant that something unusual was coming up, and the other person was supposed to take the opportunity to brace himself for shock.
It could mean anything. In the Kerothi Space Forces, a superior informed a junior officer of the junior’s forthcoming promotion by just such tactics. But the same tactics were used when informing a person of the death of a loved one.
In fact, MacMaine was well aware that such a period of silence was de rigueur in a Kerothi court, just before sentence was pronounced, as well as a preliminary to a proposal of marriage by a Kerothi male to the light of his love.
MacMaine could do nothing but wait. It would be indelicate to speak until Tallis felt that he was ready for the surprise.
It was not, however, indelicate to watch Tallis’ face closely; it was expected. Theoretically, one was supposed to be able to discern, at least, whether the news was good or bad.
With Tallis, it was impossible to tell, and MacMaine knew it would be useless to read the man’s expression. But he watched, nonetheless.
In one way, Tallis’ face was typically Kerothi. The orange-pigmented skin and the bright, grass-green eyes were common to all Kerothi. The planet Keroth, like Earth, had evolved several different