A Slave is a Slave Read online

the chiefslaves of judges who don't even know where their own courtrooms are;every Master has a team of slave lawyers. Most of the lawsuits areestate-inheritance cases; some of them have been in litigation forgenerations."

  "What do the Lords-Master do?" Shatrak asked.

  "Masterly things," Degbrend replied. "I was only down there since noon,but from what I could find out, that consists of feasting, making loveto each other's wives, being entertained by slave performers, andfeuding for social precedence like wealthy old ladies on Odin."

  "You got this from the slaves? How did you get them to talk, Lanze?"

  * * * * *

  Degbrend and Ravney exchanged amused glances. Ravney said:

  "Well, I detailed a sergeant and six privates to accompany HonorableDegbrend," Ravney said. "They.... How would you put it, Lanze?"

  "I asked a slave a question. If he refused to answer, somebody knockedhim down with a rifle-butt," Degbrend replied. "I never had to do thatmore than once in any group, and I only had to do it three times in all.After that, when I asked questions, I was answered promptly and fully.It is surprising how rapidly news gets around the Citadel."

  "You mean you had those poor slaves beaten?" Erskyll demanded.

  "Oh, no. Beating implies repeated blows. We only gave one to a customer;that was enough."

  "Well, how about the army, if that's what those people in the longred-brown coats were?" Shatrak changed the subject by asking Ravney.

  "All slave, of course, officers and all. What will we do about them,sir? I have about three thousand, either confined to their barracks orpenned up in the Citadel. I requisitioned food for them, paid for it inchits. There were a few isolated companies and platoons that gave ussomething of a fight; most of them just threw away their weapons andbawled for quarter. I've segregated the former; with your approval, I'llput them under Imperial officers and noncoms for a quickie training inour tactics, and then use them to train the rest."

  "Do that, Pyairr. We only have two thousand men of our own, and that'snot enough. Do you think you can make soldiers out of any of them?"

  "Yes, I believe so, sir. They are trained, organized and armed forcivil-order work, which is what we'll need them for ourselves. In theentire history of this army, all they have done has been to overaweunarmed slaves; I am sure they have never been in combat with regulartroops. They have an elaborate set of training and field regulations forthe sort of work for which they were intended. What they encounteredtoday was entirely outside those regulations, which is why they behavedas they did."

  "Did you have any trouble getting cooperation from the native officers?"Shatrak asked.

  "Not in the least. They cooperated quite willingly, if not always toointelligently. I simply told them that they were now the personalproperty of his Imperial Majesty, Rodrik III. They were quite flatteredby the change of ownership. If ordered to, I believe that they wouldfire on their former Lords-Master without hesitation."

  "You told those slaves that they ... _belonged_ ... to the _Emperor_?"

  Count Erskyll was aghast. He stared at Ravney for an instant, thensnatched up his brandy-glass--the meal had gotten to that point--anddrained it at a gulp. The others watched solicitously while he coughedand spluttered over it.

  "Commodore Shatrak," he said sternly. "I hope that you will take severedisciplinary action; this is the most outrageous...."

  "I'll do nothing of the sort," Shatrak retorted. "The colonel is to becommended; did the best thing he could, under the circumstances. Whatare you going to do when slavery is abolished here, Colonel?"

  "Oh, tell them that they have been given their freedom as a specialreward for meritorious service, and then sign them up for a five yearenlistment."

  "That might work. Again, it might not."

  "I think, Colonel, that before you do that, you had better disarm themagain. You might possibly have some trouble, otherwise."

  Ravney looked at him sharply. "They might not want to be free? I'dthought of that."

  "Nonsense!" Erskyll declared. "Who ever heard of slaves rebellingagainst freedom?"

  Freedom was a Good Thing. It was a Good Thing for everybody, everywhereand all the time. Count Erskyll knew it, because freedom was a GoodThing for him.

  He thought, suddenly, of an old tomcat belonging to a lady of hisacquaintance at Paris-on-Baldur, a most affectionate cat, who insistedon catching mice and bringing them as presents to all his human friends.To this cat's mind, it was inconceivable that anybody would not be mosthappy to receive a nice fresh-killed mouse.

  "Too bad we have to set any of them free," Vann Shatrak said. "Too badwe can't just issue everybody new servile gorgets marked, _PersonalProperty of his Imperial Majesty_ and let it go at that. But I guess wecan't."

  "Commodore Shatrak, you are joking," Erskyll began.

  "I hope I am," Shatrak replied grimly.

  * * * * *

  The top landing-stage of the Citadel grew and filled the forwardviewscreen of the ship's launch. It was only when he realized that thetiny specks were people, and the larger, birdseed-sized, specksvehicles, that the real size of the thing was apparent. Obray ofErskyll, beside him, had been silent. He had been looking at thecrescent-shaped industrial city, like a servile gorget aroundZeggensburg's neck.

  "The way they've been crowded together!" he said. "And the buildings; nospace between. And all that smoke! They must be using fossil-fuel!"

  "It's probably too hard to process fissionables in large quantities,with what they have."

  "You were right, last evening. These people have deliberately haltedprogress, even retrogressed, rather than give up slavery."

  Halting progress, to say nothing of retrogression, was an unthinkablecrime to him. Like freedom, progress was a Good Thing, anywhere, at alltimes, and without regard to direction.

  Colonel Ravney met them when they left the launch. The top landing-stagewas swarming with Imperial troops.

  "Convocation Chamber's three stages down," he said. "About two thousandof them there now; been coming in all morning. We have everything setup." He laughed. "They tell me slaves are never permitted to enter it.Maybe, but they have the place bugged to the ceiling all around."

  "Bugged? What with?" Shatrak asked, and Erskyll was wanting to know whathe meant. No doubt he thought Ravney was talking about things crawlingout of the woodwork.

  "Screen pickups, radio pickups, wired microphones; you name it and it'sthere. I'll bet every slave in the Citadel knows everything that happensin there while it's happening."

  Shatrak wanted to know if he had done anything about them. Ravney shookhis head.

  "If that's how they want to run a government, that's how they have aright to run it. Commander Douvrin put in a few of our own, a littlebetter camouflaged than theirs."

  There were more troops on the third stage down. They formed a processiondown a long empty hallway, a few scared-looking slaves peeping fromdoorways at them. There were more troops where the corridor ended ingreat double doors, emblazoned with a straight broad-sword diagonallyacross an eight-pointed star. Emblematology of planets conquered by theSpace Vikings always included swords and stars. An officer gave asignal; the doors started to slide apart, and within, from ascreen-speaker, came a fanfare of trumpets.

  At first, all he could see was the projection-screen, far ahead, and thetessellated aisle stretching toward it. The trumpets stopped, and theyadvanced, and then he saw the Lords-Master.

  They were massed, standing among benches on either side, and if anythingPyairr Ravney had understated their numbers. They all wore black,trimmed with gold; he wondered if the coincidence that these were alsothe Imperial colors might be useful. Queer garments, tightly fittedtunics at the top which became flowing robes below the waist, deeplyscalloped at the edges. The sleeves were exaggeratedly wide; a knife ora pistol, and not necessarily a small one, could be concealed in everyone. He was sure that thought had entered Vann Shatrak's mind. They werearmed
, not with dress-daggers, but with swords; long, straightcross-hilted broadswords. They were the first actual swords he had everseen, except in museums or on the stage.

  There was a bench of gold and onyx at the front, where, normally theseven-man Presidium sat, and in front of it were thronelike seats forthe Chiefs of Managements, equivalent to the Imperial Council ofMinisters. Because of the projection screen that had been installed,they had all been moved to an improvised dais on the left. There wasanother dais on the right, under a canopy of black and gold velvet,emblazoned with the gold sun and superimposed black cogwheel of theEmpire. There were three thrones, for himself, Shatrak, and Erskyll,and a number