 Why does the bowman shoot a soldier during the Viceroy's procession?
A pair of guards, their purple hides smoothly polished and gleaming with oil, crossed their ceremonial pikes in front of him as he approached the entrance. "Just tell him that a man has arrived from Earth to talk to him. An elegant courtier, with elaborately jeweled harness, bustled from inside the palace, obviously trying to present an air of strolling nonchalance. His Effulgence commands you to appear before him at once." The two guards withdrew their pikes and froze into immobility at the sides of the entrance. "It's customary to genuflect when you enter the Viceroy's presence," said the standing one at last. "It's all right, Ggaran," said the Viceroy languidly. What I meant was that I expected someone from Earth to break through our blockade and come here. "If you wanted someone from Earth to come here to see you, why did you put the cordon around Earth? And why did you drop a planet-buster in the Pacific Ocean, and tell us that it was triggered to go off if we tried to use the distorter drive? "I'm Viceroy of one of the hundred Sectors of the Empire. When you showed up in the spaceways, it was decreed that you had to be stopped at once. There was even serious discussion of destroying Earth out of hand, while it is still possible. While these creatures could by no means be classed among the intelligent races, there was a general expectation, which we reported to the Sunda, that they would some day come to be numbered among the Servants of the Emperor. Then, after several impatient days of careful study and calculation, the distorter drive had been activated, for the first time in Earth's history, and, for the twelve, the stars had winked out. To do so, said their theory, would usually—seven point three four times out of 10—destroy the ship, and everything in space for thousands of miles around, in a ravening burst of raw energy. They had headed for that planet confidently and unsuspectingly, using the ion drive. Although far within the dangerous influence of a planetary mass, they had again activated the distorter drive, and they had beaten the odds. On the distorter drive, they had returned to Earth as swiftly as they had departed. Even if you could get down to the bottom of the ocean and tamper with the bomb, you would only succeed in setting it off, and that's what the Sunda had been in favor of in the first place.
 To demonstrate what would happen if someone who was not a guest of the Viceroy viewed the procession.
 To demonstrate what would happen if someone who was not a guest of the Viceroy viewed the procession.  The soldier was attempting to stage a coup against the Viceroy.  The soldier tripped and made the procession look sloppy.  To demonstrate the Vegan's knowledge of antiquated weapons.