A Slave is a Slave Read online

stelly was assigned a value in Imperial crowns of a hundred for one.A million crowns was about what the building would be worth, withcontents, on Odin. It would be paid for with a draft on the ImperialExchequer.

  "Well, you have some hard currency on the planet, now," he told CountErskyll, while they were having a pre-dinner drink together thatevening. "I hope it doesn't touch off an inflation, if the term ispermissible when applied to Adityan currency."

  Erskyll snapped his fingers. "Yes! And there's the money we've beenspending for supplies. And when we start compensation payments....Excuse me for a moment."

  He dashed off, his drink in his hand. After a long interval, he wasback, carrying a fresh one he had gotten from a bartending robot enroute.

  "Well, that's taken care of," he said. "My fiscal man's getting in touchwith Ridgerd Schferts; the Elegry heirs will be paid in Adityanstellies, and the Imperial crowns will be held in the Commonwealth Bank,or, better, banked in Asgard, to give Aditya some off-planet credit. Andwe'll do the same with our other expenditures, and with theslave-compensation. This is going to be wonderful; this planet needseverything in the way of industrial equipment; this is how they're goingto get it."

  "But, Obray; the compensations are owing to the individual Masters. Theyshould be paid in crowns. You know as well as I do that thishundred-for-one rate is purely a local fiction. On the interstellarexchange, these stellies have a crown value of preciselyzero-point-zero."

  "You know what would happen if these ci-devant Masters got hold ofImperial crowns," Erskyll said. "They'd only squander them back againfor useless imported luxuries. This planet needs a completemodernization, and this is the only way the money to pay for it can begotten." He was gesturing excitedly with the almost-full glass in hishand; Prince Trevannion stepped back out of the way of the splash heanticipated. "I have no sympathy for these ci-devant Masters. They ownevery stick and stone and pinch of dust on this planet, as it is. Isthat fair?"

  "Possibly not. But neither is what you're proposing to do."

  Obray, Count Erskyll, couldn't see that. He was proposing to secure theGreatest Good for the Greatest Number, and to Nifflheim with anyminorities who happened to be in the way.

  * * * * *

  The Navy took over the Elegry Palace the next morning, ran up theImperial Sun and Cogwheel flag, and began transmitting views of itsinterior up to the _Empress Eulalie_. It was considerably smaller thanthe Imperial Palace at Asgard on Odin, but room for room the furnishingswere rather more ornate and expensive. By the next afternoon, thecounter-espionage team that had gone down reported the Masterly livingquarters clear of pickups, microphones, and other apparatus of servilesnooping, of which they had found many. The _Canopus_ was recalled fromher station over the northern end of the continent and began sendingdown the proconsulate furnishings stowed aboard, including severalhundred domestic robots.

  The skeleton caretaking staff Chmidd had mentioned proved to number fivehundred.

  "What are we going to do about them?" Erskyll wanted to know. "There's alimit to the upkeep allowance for a proconsulate, and we can't pay fivehundred useless servants. The chief-freedman, and about a dozenassistants, and a few to operate the robots, when we train them, butfive hundred...!"

  "Let Zhorzh do it," Prince Trevannion suggested. "Isn't that what thisFreedmen's Management is for; to find employment for emancipated slaves?Just emancipate them and turn them over to Khouzhik."

  Khouzhik promptly placed all of them on the payroll of his Management.Khouzhik was having his hands full. He had all his top mathematicalexperts, some of whom even understood the use of the slide-rule, tryingto work up a scale of wages. Erskyll loaned him a few of his staff. Noneof the ideas any of them developed proved workable. Khouzhik had alsoorganized a corps of investigators, and he was beginning to annex theprivate guard-companies of the Lords-ex-Master, whom he was organizinginto a police force.

  * * * * *

  The nuclear works on Austragonia were closed down. Mykhyl Eschkhaffarordered a programme of rationing and priorities to conserve the stock ofplutonium and radioactive isotopes on hand, and he decided thathenceforth nuclear-energy materials would be sold instead of furnishedfreely. He simply found out what the market quotations on Odin were,translated that into stellies, and adopted it. This was just a baseprice; there would have to be bribes for priority allocations, rakeoffsfor the under-freedmen, and graft for the business-freedmen of theLords-ex-Masters who bought the stuff. The latter were completelyunconcerned; none of them even knew about it.

  The Convocation adjourned until the next regular session, at the MidyearFeasts, an eight-day intercalary period which permitted dividing the358-day Adityan year into ten months of thirty-five days each. CountErskyll was satisfied to see them go. He was working on a constitutionfor the Commonwealth of Aditya, and was making very little progress withit.

  "It's one of these elaborate check-and-balance things," Lanze Degbrendreported. "To begin with, it was the constitution of Aton, with anelective president substituted for a hereditary king. Of course, thereare a lot of added gadgets; Atonian Radical Democrat stuff. Chmidd andHozhet and the other chief-slaves don't like it, either."

  "Slap your mouth and say, 'Freedmen,' five times."

  "Nuts," his subordinate retorted insubordinately. "I know a slave when Isee one. A slave is a slave, with or without a gorget; if he doesn'twear it around his neck, he has it tattooed on his soul. It takes atleast three generations to rub it off."

  "I could wish that Count Erskyll...." he began. "What else is ourProconsul doing?"

  "Well, I'm afraid he's trying to set up some kind of a scheme for thecomplete nationalization of all farms, factories, transport facilities,and other means of production and distribution," Degbrend said.

  "He's not going to try to do that himself, is he?" He was, hediscovered, speaking sharply, and modified his tone. "He won't do itwith Imperial authority, or with Imperial troops. Not as long as I'mhere. And when we go back to Odin, I'll see to it that Vann Shatrakunderstands that."

  "Oh, no. The Commonwealth of Aditya will do that," Degbrend said."Chmidd and Hozhet and Yakoop Zhannar and Zhorzh Khouzhik and the restof them, that is. He wants it done legitimately and legally. That means,he'll have to wait till the Midyear Feasts, when the Convocationassembles, and he can get his constitution enacted. If he can get itwritten by then."

  Vann Shatrak sent two of the destroyers off to explore the moons ofAditya, of which there were two. The outer moon, Aditya-_Ba'_, was anirregular chunk of rock fifty miles in diameter, barely visible to thenaked eye. The inner, Aditya-_Alif_, however, was an eight-hundred-milesphere; it had once been the planetary ship-station and shipyard-base.It seemed to have been abandoned when the Adityan technology and economyhad begun sagging under the weight of the slave system. Most of theinstallations remained, badly run down but repairable. Shatraktransferred as many of his technicians as he could spare to the _Mizar_and sent her to recondition the shipyard and render the underground cityinhabitable again so that the satellite could be used as a base for hisships. He decided, then, to send the _Irma_ back to Odin with reports ofthe annexation of Aditya, a proposal that Aditya-_Alif_ be made apermanent Imperial naval-base, and a request for more troops.

  Prince Trevannion taped up his own reports, describing the generalsituation on the newly annexed planet, and doing nothing to minimize theproblems facing its Proconsul.

  "Count Erskyll" he finished, "is doing the best possible undercircumstances from which I myself would feel inclined to shrink. If notcarried to excess, perhaps youthful idealism is not without value inEmpire statecraft. I understand that Commodore Shatrak, who is alsocoping with some very trying problems, is requesting troopreenforcements. I believe this request amply justified, and wouldrecommend that they be gotten here as speedily as possible.

  "I understand that he is also recommending a permanent naval base on thelarger of this planet's two satellites. This I also endorseunreserv
edly. It would have a most salutary effect on the localgovernment. I would further recommend that Commodore Shatrak be placedin command of it, with suitable promotion, which he has long agoearned."

  Erskyll was surprised that he was not himself returning to Odin on thedestroyer, and evidently disturbed. He mentioned it during pre-dinnercocktails that evening.

  "I know, my own work here is finished; was the moment the Convocationvoted acknowledgment of Imperial rule." Prince Trevannion replied. "Iwould like to stay on for the Midyear Feasts, though. The Convocationwill vote on your constitution, and I would like to be able to reporttheir action to the Prime Minister. How is it