re robbing all voted the Makann
ticket in the last election." A crumb of comfort occurred to him,
and he passed it on. "The only people who are armed to resist them
will be Makann's storm-troops and Dunnan's pirates; they'll be the
ones to get killed."

"We don't want any more killing than...." Prince Simon broke off
suddenly. "I'm beginning to talk like his late Highness Crown Prince
Edvard," he said. "He didn't want bloodshed, either, and look whose
blood was shed. If they're doing what you think they are, I'm afraid
we'll have to kill a few of your Space Vikings, too."

"They aren't my Space Vikings." He was a little surprised to find
that, after almost eight years of bearing the name himself, he was
using it as an other-people label. Well, why not? He was the ruler
of the civilized planet of Tanith, wasn't he? "But let's not start
fighting them till the main war's over. Those three shiploads are
no worse than a bad cold; Makann and Dunnan are the plague."

It would still take four hours to get down, in a spiral of
deceleration. They started the telecasts which had been filmed and
taped on the voyage from Gimli. The Prince-Protector Simon Bentrik
spoke: The illegal rule of the traitor Makann was ended. His deluded
followers were advised to return to their allegiance to the Crown.
The People's Watchmen were ordered to surrender their arms and
disband; in localities where they refused, the loyal people were
called upon to co-operate with the legitimate armed forces of
the Crown in exterminating them, and would be furnished arms
as soon as possible.

Little Princess Myrna spoke: "If my grandfather is still alive,
he is your King; if he is not, I am your Queen, and until I am old
enough to rule in my own right, I accept Prince Simon as Regent
and Protector of the Realm, and I call on all of you to obey him
as I will."

"You didn't say anything about representative government, or
democracy, or the constitution," Trask mentioned. "And I noticed
the use of the word 'rule,' instead of 'reign.'"

"That's right," the self-proclaimed Prince-Protector said. "There's
something wrong with democracy. If there weren't, it couldn't be
overthrown by people like Makann, attacking it from within by
democratic procedures. I don't think it's fundamentally unworkable.
I think it just has a few of what engineers call bugs. It's not
safe to run a defective machine till you learn the defects and
remedy them."

"Well, I hope you don