A Slave is a Slave Read online

chief-slaves."

  "But they have no slaves," Hozhet objected. "Didn't you hear the ... theone with the small beard ... say so?"

  "But that's ridiculous, Khreggor. Who does the work, and who tells themwhat to do? Who told these people to come here?"

  * * * * *

  "Our Emperor sent us. That is his picture, behind me. But we are not hisslaves. He is merely the chief man among us. Do your Masters not haveone among them who is chief?"

  "That's right," Chmidd said to Hozhet. "In the Convocation, yourLord-Master is chief, and in the Mastership, my Lord-Master, RovardJavasan, is chief."

  "But they don't tell the other Lords-Master what to do. In Convocation,the other Lords-Master tell them...."

  "That's what I meant about an oligarchy," he whispered, in Imperial, toErskyll.

  "Suppose we tell Ravney to herd these Lords-Master onto a couple oflanding-craft and bring them up here?" Shatrak suggested. He made thesuggestion in Lingua Terra Basic, and loudly.

  "I think we can manage without that." He raised his voice, speaking inLingua Terra Basic:

  "It does not matter whether these slaves talk to us or not. This planetis now under the rule of his Imperial Majesty, Rodrik III. If thisMastership wants to govern the planet under the Emperor, they may do so.If not, we will make an end of them and set up a new government here."

  He paused. Chmidd and Hozhet were looking at one another in shockedincredulity.

  "Tchall, they mean it," Chmidd said. "They can do it, too."

  "We have nothing more to say to you slaves," he continued. "Hereafter,we will speak directly to the Lords-Master."

  "But.... The Lords-Master never do business directly," Hozhet said. "Itis un-Masterly. Such discussions are between chief-slaves."

  "This thing they call the Convocation," Shatrak mentioned. "I wonder ifthe members have the business done entirely through their slaves."

  "Oh, no!" That shocked Chmidd into direct address. "No slave is allowedin the Convocation Chamber."

  He wondered how they kept the place swept out. Robots, no doubt. Orelse, what happened when the Masters weren't there didn't count.

  "Very well. Your people have recorders; are they on?"

  Hozhet asked Chmidd; Chmidd asked the herald, who asked one of themenials in the rear, who asked somebody else. The reply came backthrough the same channels; they were.

  "Very well. At this time tomorrow, we will speak to the Convocation ofLords-Master. Commodore Shatrak, see to it that Colonel Ravney has themin the Convocation Chamber, and that preparations in the room are made,so that we may address them in the dignity befitting representatives ofhis Imperial Majesty." He turned to the Adityan slaves. "That is all.You have permission to go."

  They watched the delegation back out, with the honor-guard following.When the doors had closed behind them, Shatrak ran his hand over hisbald head and laughed.

  "Shaved heads, every one of them. That's probably why they thought I wasyour slave. Bet those gorgets are servile badges, too." He touched theKnight's Star of the Order of the Empire at his throat. "Probablythought that was what this was. We would have to draw something likethis!"

  "They simply can't imagine anybody not being either a slave or aslave-owner," Erskyll was saying. "That must mean that there is no freenon-slave-holding class at all. Universal slavery! Well, we'll have todo something about that. Proclaim total emancipation, immediately."

  "Oh, no; we can't do anything like that. The Constitution won't permitus to. Section Two, Article One: _Every Empire planet shall beself-governed as to its own affairs, in the manner of its own choice,and without interference._"

  "But slavery.... Section Two, Article Six," Erskyll objected. "_Thereshall be no chattel slavery or serfdom anywhere in the Empire; nosapient being of any race whatsoever shall be the property of any beingbut himself._"

  "That's correct," he agreed. "If this Mastership intends to remain theplanetary government under the Empire, they will be obliged to abolishslavery, but they will have to do it by their own act. We cannot do itfor them."

  "You know what I'd do, Prince Trevannion?" Shatrak said. "I'd just heavethis Mastership thing out, and set up a nice tight militarydictatorship. We have the planet under martial rule now; let's just keepit that way for about five years, till we can train a new government."

  That suggestion seemed to pain Count Erskyll almost as much as theexisting situation.

  * * * * *

  They dined late, in Commodore Shatrak's private dining room. BesideShatrak, Erskyll and himself, there were Lanze Degbrend, and CountErskyll's charge-d'affaires, Sharll Ernanday, and Patrique Morvill andPyairr Ravney and the naval intelligence officer, Commander AndreyDouvrin. Ordinarily, he deplored serious discussion at meals, but underthe circumstances it was unavoidable; nobody could think or talk ofanything else. The discussion which he had hoped would follow the mealbegan before the soup-course.

  "We have a total population of about twenty million," Lanze Degbrendreported. "A trifle over ten thousand Masters, all ages and both sexes.The remainder are all slaves."

  "I find that incredible," Erskyll declared promptly. "Twenty millionpeople, held in slavery by ten thousand! Why do they stand for it? Whydon't they rebel?"

  "Well, I can think of three good reasons," Douvrin said. "Three squaremeals a day."

  "And no responsibilities; no need to make decisions," Degbrend added."They've been slaves for seven and a half centuries. They don't evenknow the meaning of freedom, and it would frighten them if they did."

  "Chain of command," Shatrak said. When that seemed not to convey anymeaning to Erskyll, he elaborated: "We have a lot of dirty-neckedworking slaves. Over every dozen of them is an overseer with a big whipand a stungun. Over every couple of overseers there is a guard with asubmachine gun. Over them is a supervisor, who doesn't need a gunbecause he can grab a handphone and call for troops. Over thesupervisors, there are higher supervisors. Everybody has it just enoughbetter than the level below him that he's afraid of losing his job andbeing busted back to fieldhand."

  "That's it exactly, Commodore," Degbrend said. "The whole society is aslave hierarchy. Everybody curries favor with the echelon above, andkeeps his eye on the echelon below to make sure he isn't being undercut.We have something not too unlike that, ourselves. Any organizationalsociety is, in some ways, like a slave society. And everything isdetermined by established routine. The whole thing has simply beenrunning on momentum for at least five centuries, and if we hadn't comesmashing in with a situation none of the routines covered, it would havekept on running for another five, till everything wore out and stopped.I heard about those missile-stations, by the way. They're typical ofeverything here."

  "That's another thing," Erskyll interrupted. "These Lords-Master are thedescendants of the old Space-Vikings, and the slaves of the originalinhabitants. The Space Vikings were a technologically advanced people;they had all the old Terran Federation science and technology, and a lotthey developed for themselves on the Sword-Worlds."

  "Well? They still had a lot of it, on the Sword-Worlds, two centuriesago when we took them over."

  "But technology always drives out slavery; that's a fundamental law ofsocio-economics. Slavery is economically unsound; it cannot compete withpower-industry, let alone cybernetics and robotics."

  He was tempted to remind young Obray of Erskyll that there were no suchthings as fundamental laws of socio-economics; merely usually reliablegeneralized statements of what can more or less be depended upon tohappen under most circumstances. He resisted the temptation. CountErskyll had had enough shocks, today, without adding to them bygratuitous blasphemy.

  "In this case, Obray, it worked in reverse. The Space Vikings enslavedthe Adityans to hold them in subjugation. That was a politico-militarynecessity. Then, being committed to slavery, with a slave population whohad to be made to earn their keep, they found cybernetics and roboticseconomically unsound."

  "And almost
at once, they began appointing slave overseers, and thetechnicians would begin training slave assistants. Then there would beslave supervisors to direct the overseers, slave administrators todirect them, slave secretaries and bookkeepers, slave technicians andengineers."

  "How about the professions, Lanze?"

  "All slave. Slave physicians, teachers, everything like that. All theMasters are taught by slaves; the slaves are educated by apprenticeship.The courts are in the hands of slaves; cases are heard by