A Slave is a Slave | Page 8

Over the
supervisors, there are higher supervisors. Everybody has it just enough
better than the level below him that he's afraid of losing his job and
being busted back to fieldhand."
"That's it exactly, Commodore," Degbrend said. "The whole society is
a slave hierarchy. Everybody curries favor with the echelon above, and
keeps his eye on the echelon below to make sure he isn't being undercut.
We have something not too unlike that, ourselves. Any organizational
society is, in some ways, like a slave society. And everything is
determined by established routine. The whole thing has simply been

running on momentum for at least five centuries, and if we hadn't come
smashing in with a situation none of the routines covered, it would
have kept on running for another five, till everything wore out and
stopped. I heard about those missile-stations, by the way. They're
typical of everything here."
"That's another thing," Erskyll interrupted. "These Lords-Master are the
descendants of the old Space-Vikings, and the slaves of the original
inhabitants. The Space Vikings were a technologically advanced people;
they had all the old Terran Federation science and technology, and a lot
they developed for themselves on the Sword-Worlds."
"Well? They still had a lot of it, on the Sword-Worlds, two centuries
ago when we took them over."
"But technology always drives out slavery; that's a fundamental law of
socio-economics. Slavery is economically unsound; it cannot compete
with power-industry, let alone cybernetics and robotics."
He was tempted to remind young Obray of Erskyll that there were no
such things as fundamental laws of socio-economics; merely usually
reliable generalized statements of what can more or less be depended
upon to happen under most circumstances. He resisted the temptation.
Count Erskyll had had enough shocks, today, without adding to them
by gratuitous blasphemy.
"In this case, Obray, it worked in reverse. The Space Vikings enslaved
the Adityans to hold them in subjugation. That was a politico-military
necessity. Then, being committed to slavery, with a slave population
who had to be made to earn their keep, they found cybernetics and
robotics economically unsound."
"And almost at once, they began appointing slave overseers, and the
technicians would begin training slave assistants. Then there would be
slave supervisors to direct the overseers, slave administrators to direct
them, slave secretaries and bookkeepers, slave technicians and
engineers."

"How about the professions, Lanze?"
"All slave. Slave physicians, teachers, everything like that. All the
Masters are taught by slaves; the slaves are educated by apprenticeship.
The courts are in the hands of slaves; cases are heard by the chief
slaves of judges who don't even know where their own courtrooms are;
every Master has a team of slave lawyers. Most of the lawsuits are
estate-inheritance cases; some of them have been in litigation for
generations."
"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
love to each other's wives, being entertained by slave performers, and
feuding 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 Honorable
Degbrend," Ravney said. "They.... How would you put it, Lanze?"
"I asked a slave a question. If he refused to answer, somebody knocked
him down with a rifle-butt," Degbrend replied. "I never had to do that
more 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 long
red-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 or penned
up in the Citadel. I requisitioned food for them, paid for it in chits.
There were a few isolated companies and platoons that gave us
something of a fight; most of them just threw away their weapons and
bawled for quarter. I've segregated the former; with your approval, I'll
put them under Imperial officers and noncoms for a quickie training in
our tactics, and then use them to train the rest."
"Do that, Pyairr. We only have two thousand men of our own, and
that's not enough. Do you think you can make soldiers out of any of
them?"