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Old sci if short story about a military general on another planet who gets tied up on an anthill by the locals

Science Fiction & Fantasy Asked on October 3, 2021

I am looking for the title and author of a short story I read in a Megapack. It’s about a military general who is exiled on a planet, but he is so overbearing and cruel to the locals, they tie him up and leave him on an anthill.

One Answer

Would fit Happy Ending by Frank Brown and Mack Reynolds.

Mr Smith, formerly 'Number One' and ruler of the solar system escapes capture and escapes to an exile on Venus. He tries to set himself up as ruler of a village, and shoots many of the locals, including the chief. Once he is overcome, they have a difficult choice:

To harm one who was mad was tabu. If he was really a god, it would be worse. Thunder and lightning from the sky would destroy the village. Yet they dared not release him. Even if they took the evil weapon-that-whispered-its-death and buried it, he might find other ways to harm them. He might have another where he had gone for the first.

The solution is to give him to the Kifs - Venusian ant-equivalents:

“If he is a god, they will not harm him. If he is mad and not a god, we will not have harmed him. It harms not a man to tie him to a tree.”

It was included in The Science Fiction Megapack

Correct answer by Michael on October 3, 2021

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