Read "The Highest Treason" by Randall Garrett online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
"Are you sure you understand, Tallis? " MacMaine asked in Kerothic.
The alien general nodded emphatically. "Perfectly. Your Kerothic is not so bad that I could misunderstand your instructions. I still don't understand why you are doing this. Oh I know the reasons you've given me, but I don't completely believe them. However, I'll go along with you. The worst that could happen would be for me to be killed, and I would sooner face death in trying to escape than in waiting for your executioners. If this is some sort of trap, some sort of weird way your race's twisted idea of kindness has evolved to dispose of me, then I'll accept your sentence. It's better than starving to death or facing a firing squad."