A Slave is a Slave | Page 9

"Yes, I believe so, sir. They are trained, organized and armed for
civil-order work, which is what we'll need them for ourselves. In the
entire history of this army, all they have done has been to overawe
unarmed slaves; I am sure they have never been in combat with regular
troops. They have an elaborate set of training and field regulations for
the sort of work for which they were intended. What they encountered
today was entirely outside those regulations, which is why they
behaved as 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 too
intelligently. I simply told them that they were now the personal
property of his Imperial Majesty, Rodrik III. They were quite flattered
by the change of ownership. If ordered to, I believe that they would fire
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, then
snatched up his brandy-glass--the meal had gotten to that point--and
drained it at a gulp. The others watched solicitously while he coughed
and spluttered over it.

"Commodore Shatrak," he said sternly. "I hope that you will take
severe disciplinary action; this is the most outrageous...."
"I'll do nothing of the sort," Shatrak retorted. "The colonel is to be
commended; did the best thing he could, under the circumstances.
What are you going to do when slavery is abolished here, Colonel?"
"Oh, tell them that they have been given their freedom as a special
reward for meritorious service, and then sign them up for a five year
enlistment."
"That might work. Again, it might not."
"I think, Colonel, that before you do that, you had better disarm them
again. You might possibly have some trouble, otherwise."
Ravney looked at him sharply. "They might not want to be free? I'd
thought of that."
"Nonsense!" Erskyll declared. "Who ever heard of slaves rebelling
against freedom?"
Freedom was a Good Thing. It was a Good Thing for everybody,
everywhere and all the time. Count Erskyll knew it, because freedom
was a Good Thing for him.
He thought, suddenly, of an old tomcat belonging to a lady of his
acquaintance at Paris-on-Baldur, a most affectionate cat, who insisted
on 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
most happy to receive a nice fresh-killed mouse.
"Too bad we have to set any of them free," Vann Shatrak said. "Too
bad we can't just issue everybody new servile gorgets marked, Personal
Property of his Imperial Majesty and let it go at that. But I guess we
can'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 forward
viewscreen of the ship's launch. It was only when he realized that the
tiny specks were people, and the larger, birdseed-sized, specks vehicles,
that the real size of the thing was apparent. Obray of Erskyll, beside
him, had been silent. He had been looking at the crescent-shaped
industrial city, like a servile gorget around Zeggensburg's neck.
"The way they've been crowded together!" he said. "And the buildings;
no space 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 halted
progress, even retrogressed, rather than give up slavery."
Halting progress, to say nothing of retrogression, was an unthinkable
crime to him. Like freedom, progress was a Good Thing, anywhere, at
all times, and without regard to direction.
Colonel Ravney met them when they left the launch. The top
landing-stage was swarming with Imperial troops.
"Convocation Chamber's three stages down," he said. "About two
thousand of them there now; been coming in all morning. We have
everything set up." 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 what he meant. No doubt he thought Ravney was talking about
things crawling out of the woodwork.
"Screen pickups, radio pickups, wired microphones; you name it and

it's there. I'll bet every slave in the Citadel knows everything that
happens in there while it's happening."
Shatrak wanted to know if he had done anything about them. Ravney
shook his head.
"If that's how they want to run a government, that's how they have a
right to run it. Commander Douvrin put in a few of our own, a little
better camouflaged