The Totems of Abydos

CHAPTER 4





“Do not be disturbed,” said Rodriguez. “It is merely that you have not seen women of your species in this way before.”

Brenner did not dare to look down at her, to where she knelt beside him, as he stood at the bar. Her hands were on his left leg. Her head was down, her cheek pressed against his thigh.

“Get away,” he hissed to her.

The bartender, a zard from Damascus, a life form thought by many to be related to that of the captain of the freighter, though smaller and more upright in carriage, looked up from where, a few feet away, behind the bar, he was polishing glasses. The relationship of the zard to the species of the captain, incidentally, despite popular conjectures on the subject, is regarded as improbable by most zoologists, given the diversity of worlds and the timing of certain technological developments on these worlds, in particular, their attainments of interstellar flight capabilities. These zoologists tend to attribute the resemblance to the parameters of convergent evolution which, to be sure, has apparently produced numerous resembling species throughout the galaxy. The subject, however, remains open, even in learned circles, because of the unusual similarities of microscopic genetic structures between the two species. Too, it is obvious that a third species, which had, in the remote past, and perhaps even one now extinct and lapsed from notice in galactic records, which did possess interstellar capabilities, might have been involved, for example, in settling certain specimens of a primitive species on a different world, on which world, over periods of time, these specimens, wending their own ways, would develop into a new variety of the old species, or, if one likes, into a new species. Certain crossings between zards and others, for example, of the captain’s species, had proven fertile. The problems, of course, had to do with probabilities in such matters. In spite of the fact that life forms on diverse worlds often bore remarkable similarities to one another, presumably because of resembling adaptations to frequently similar ecological niches, the chances of crossfertility between diverse species tended to be calculated in the millions to one. It is possible, of course, that that million, or millions, to one chance might obtain. Too, of course, a sufficiently advanced life form, might be able, through chemical and physical alterations in genetic materials, deletions, additions, and such, to produce hybrid forms. Much progress had been made, for example, in developing new agricultural products along these lines. Needless to say, animal husbandry had also profited. In general, in speaking of adaptations, and adaptational advantages, intelligence, or rationality, tended to be extremely common in the galaxy. It is difficult not to acknowledge the obvious value of this adaptational device. It is interesting to note, incidentally, that normally only one such form, one such rational form, tended to be found on undisturbed worlds, that form which, it seems, in one way or another, overcame its rivals. Rationality, you see, is not always conjoined with kindliness and tolerance; it may be as often conjoined with fanaticism and ruthlessness; rational species which did not, at least in some point in their development, practice the principles of priority and tyranny, tended on the whole to disappear or, at least, to have their numbers controlled by the dominant species. Only in current times, with a plurality of worlds, and available room for expansion, at this point in history, and the balances of power between certain species, and the advantages to be obtained from commercial and technological exchanges, it seems, did clearly diverse rational species set about the business of tolerating one another’s existence. The zards, incidentally, were the dominant life form on Damascus, though other life forms, in diverse menial and servile capacities, were permitted amongst them. Their reputation in this portion of the galaxy was to the effect that they were shrewd businessmen, or creatures, that one must be wary of bargaining with them, and that their word was not to be overly trusted. They tended, on the whole, to be an aggressive, commercially active species. Whereas one could commonly count on them being civil and polite in the pursuit of business, and sometimes even ingratiating and obsequious with prospective clients or customers, they had a general reputation, it must be admitted, outside of interspecific transactions to their advantage, of being severe to inferior life forms.

“Easy,” said Rodriguez to Brenner.

Brenner turned a bit away from the girl, to his right. He did not wish her to see the effect on his body of her proximity.

“If you do not want her there,” said Rodriguez, “cuff her away. She will crawl back, but probably keeping out of your reach.”

“This is a human female,” whispered Brenner to Rodriguez.

“Do not demean her,” said Rodriguez.

“How could she be more demeaned than she is?” asked Brenner.

“Drink your drink,” said Rodriguez.

Brenner, unsteadily, almost tipping the glass, reached for the drink.

He glanced at the bartender, who then looked away, continuing to dry the glasses.

The young woman did not release his leg, and she kept her cheek pressed against his thigh. She seemed frightened.

Brenner also glanced to his right, and back, well beyond Rodriguez at the bar, to a counterlike desk near the rear of the room, behind which sat the proprietor of the establishment, like the bartender, a zard. This desk, near the rear of the room, not far from a beaded curtain to its right, as Brenner looked at it, was set well back from the main floor with the small tables, and, at one side, booths. Near some of these booths, and tables, rings were set in the floor. Rodriguez and Brenner, perhaps because of the hour and weather, were at this time the only customers in the establishment. The proprietor looked at Brenner, and then returned his attention to the papers before him. On the top of the desk, at hand, so to speak, lay a stout, two-foot-long leather quirt. The young woman who knelt beside him was the second woman who had been summoned forth, through the curtain, the first a blonde, to hasten to the bar, by two blows of that quirt on the top of the desk, loud, sharp, and resounding blows, almost like the reports of primitive firearms.

Then Brenner had his hand on the glass, and, slowly, deliberately, in misery, as steadily as he could, took a tiny sip. It was a cheap cooler, flavored with imported citarine extract. The bartender, if Brenner had not been mistaken, had served it with a certain contempt. Rodriguez was nursing a glass of Heimat, for which he had a taste.

“I cannot have this person in this position,” said Brenner.

“She is a female,” said Rodriguez. “If you would look at her, you might notice that.”

“I cannot have this young woman in this position,” said Brenner.

“Call her a “girl,”” said Rodriguez.

Brenner looked at him, angrily.

“She is a girl,” said Rodriguez.

“Rodriguez,” protested Brenner, half under his breath.

“She is pretty enough, and menial enough, to be a girl,” said Rodriguez. “And considering her status, there is no doubt about it. She is a girl.”

Brenner looked away, angrily. Too, he was worried. He recalled the first woman, the blonde. She had hurried forth from behind the curtain, in response to the signal, but then, for the merest instant, had stopped. She had regarded them. She had seemed startled, and then flushed, as though with sudden hope. Her hand had gone, seemingly inadvertently, to the narrow, silken sash of her garment, tight about her waist, but then she had jerked it away, frightened. She had looked to the proprietor, and the bartender. Neither, it seemed, was paying her attention. Of course, she had responded to the signal. Neither, too, then, would have observed her tiny, arrested, furtive movement, that of her hand near her sash. She then gathered herself together, and smoothed down the sides of her brief garment. On her left ankle was a small chain. Attached to it was a tiny disk. She had then approached them in a manner which might have made Brenner cry out in protest and desire, on all fours, had he had not detected something of falsity in it. Before Brenner and Rodriguez, Brenner surmised, she was, in effect, acting. This was to be a secret between the three of them, to be kept from the zards. Surely Rodriguez, too, with his perceptiveness, had noticed these things. “Sirs?” she had then asked, kneeling before Rodriguez, whom she naturally took to be first amongst them. He looked at her, and she looked puzzled, and then she smiled, knowingly, and spread her knees more widely. This, too, Brenner gathered was to be a part of the secret. He had to look away from her, as it disturbed him to see her as she was garmented, and in her current attitude. Such things made his blood scream with need. In a moment or two, he could look back, as the woman had withdrawn, Rodriguez having ordered, the food to be brought to one of the tables. Brenner was hungry, as they had not eaten since this morning on the ship. A few moments later the quirt had struck down twice again on the desk, suddenly, loudly, sharply, the sounds startling Brenner, and the second woman, a brunette, had come forth, and quickly. There had been no doubt whatsoever as to her prompt response to the signal. Then she, too, as had the other woman, had stopped. Then, angrily, she had dropped to her knees and, in a moment, as Brenner supposed she was expected to do, head down, approached them on all fours. Although she was angry, resentful, frustrated, she was not like the other woman. This one, before them, was truly on all fours.

Then she was before Brenner, and put her head down, and kissed his boots, first the left and then the right, and then knelt near him, holding to his leg, and putting her cheek close to, and then against, his leg. He had tried to draw back, but she had kept close to him. She seemed angry, but frightened, too. It was then that he ordered her away from him. She had not, of course, as we recall, surrendered her position. Brenner, putting down his drink, was in consternation. He had never seen women like this before, of course, or known they could be like this, except perhaps in his dreams. But it had not occurred to him that the substance of such dreams might be founded on realities, to be sure, realities which he had not himself experienced. These things, then, as actualities, not as dreams, were revelations to him. He had not really understood that females could be such, or that there might be places where they were such. To be sure, he had heard of such things, as, for example, having a woman at one’s feet, but, as is well understood, to hear of having one there is one thing, and to have one there, in actuality, is quite another. Brenner wanted to scream, to cry out with exultant joy, but instead he had ordered her to withdraw, with which command, as we noted, she did not comply, but only clung to his leg the more closely.

The proprietor, back at the desk, stood up, sliding his chair, or seating device, a rather heavy, stable object, cut in such a way as to accommodate his tail, backward on the wooden floor. He then came about the side of the desk. Although the girl had not turned to see, she had undoubtedly heard the movement of the chair, or seating device. Brenner felt her cheek press more closely against his thigh. Her small hands held him more closely, too. He noted that the zard, in leaving the desk, had picked up the quirt. But he had done so, as far as Brenner could tell, as much as a matter of habit as anything else. The zard, in its soiled, pocketed apron, was now moving toward them, with its characteristic, stalking gait. It was of average height for a zard, which was some seven Commonworld feet in height, a foot or so taller than either Rodriguez or Brenner. Brenner could mark its approach, its measured steps, the heel pads of its rear legs making contact with the floor first, and then its claws. Brenner felt the girl now press even more closely against him, and hold even more closely to his leg. She seemed to be very afraid. Then the steps passed them, as the zard, apparently not even noticing them, or being concerned with them, went to the door of the establishment, and, stretching his neck a little, peered out into the night. Outside the paneling of the door one could see the rain in the light of the establishment’s sign. Then, in a moment or so, the zard turned about, and stalked back to his desk. The night was not a good one for business in Company Station.

The girl drew back a little, but kept her cheek in contact with his thigh, her head down. Too, she held to his leg, as before. Brenner could not forget the feel of her body, the softness of it as it had been pressed so closely against him in the girl’s terror, her apparent fear of the proprietor, that unspeakable, luscious softness which was doubtless intended to be betrayed by the bit of yellow silk she wore. How that softness had alarmed him, and disturbed him!

Brenner took another drink, angrily.

He was furious that he had agreed to come with Rodriguez. He had originally resolved to remain in the hostel. He realized now he should have done so. Too, he could have gotten something to eat there. But he had decided not to remain there. He had been afraid to stay there, not that there was any real danger. And he had certainly been pleased to follow Rodriguez to the hostel. The day had been, as it remained, chilly, and what with the rain, and enough wind to drive the chill through one’s jacket, he had been miserable. When Rodriguez and he, soaked and cold, with their bags, had entered the hostel, he had seen, behind, and above, the desk, squatting in a large ring, suspended on a chain hung from the ceiling, a small, large-eyed, furred creature. He had originally taken this to be a pet of some sort but it had swung down from the ring to the desk, and, in a bit, had welcomed and registered them. Shortly thereafter, too, it had with one small, prehensile, black-toed foot, punched a bell, in response to which a large, shambling, slothlike creature hove into view, who seized up their bags and began to ascend the stairs. Ascending rings hung to one side, for the use of those who might prefer them to the stairs. The stairs were broad, and coarsely carpeted, to accommodate various sorts of grasping or locomotory appendages. The desk clerk, if Rodriguez was right in his identification, as it seemed probable he would be, was a Chian lemet, whereas the porter, if we may call him that, was a hirsute, three-toed veripus, an unpleasant creature of unusual strength, thought to have been originally native to Pergamum. Before one forms any possible contempt for either of these species, however, it is well to keep in mind that both life forms had independently, long ago, achieved interstellar capability, a feat which the species of Rodriguez and Brenner, presumably because of various historical reasons, had never managed. In the hallway, leading to their room, Rodriguez and Brenner passed a female of their species, who was standing near a cart. On a projection at one end of the cart, and within two containing rails, one lower and one higher, were some cleaning implements, brooms of various sorts, dustpans, one long-handled and one short-handled, and, standing in a pail of liquid, a mop. The top two shelves of the cart were laden with various objects, implements and supplies. Amongst these were brushes of various sorts, and cans and bottles, filled with various substances serviceable for cleaning and polishing. There were also such things as toiletries, bars of soap, and such. There were also, folded neatly, assortments of clean linen, sheets and such. Two blankets were also in evidence. The lower portion of the cart back from the projection, contained a hamper, in which crumpled sheets could be seen, and another container in which might be seen such things as discarded paper and the remnants of packagings of various sorts. At one side of the hall, not on the cart, was a vacuum cleaner. The woman lowered her head as they passed. She was wearing that form of garment which Rodriguez had reminded him was called a “dress.” It was rather stiff, and was presumably starched. It was of two colors, basically tan, but trimmed with white at the collar and at the borders of the short sleeves. Brenner had seldom seen a woman’s arms, as home-world proprieties had required that those small, lovely, rounded limbs should be concealed. Naturally that her arms were bared disturbed him. The dress, too, far worse, came slightly above her knees. This, too, disturbed Brenner, and even more than the baring of her arms, for the home-world proprieties were even sterner with respect to the baring of a woman’s legs, perhaps because this was thought to lead even more swiftly to lewd thoughts of mysterious, sacrosanct secrecies. Such things, the baring of arms and, even more, the baring of legs, were thought to demean her personness, which was apparently regarded by many as being incompatible with having a body, or, at least, an interesting, attractive one. The porter, for we shall speak of him as that, as he passed her, paid her no attention. Brenner noticed that the woman was barefoot, as had been the woman with whom he had so inadvertently and unfortunately collided earlier in the day, she who had been so angry. But about the ankle of this woman, the left ankle, was a small, sturdy chain, doubtless a decoration of some sort. She had apparently fastened this on herself with some sort of short, thick, cylindrical lock. Completing the decoration, about an inch in diameter, was a small, flat, circular metal disk, itself fastened into one of the links. This unpretentious little getup at the ankle seemed to Brenner an unusual sort of ornament, particularly in its plainness and sturdiness, but he did admit it was attractive.

It disturbed Brenner, of course, that the woman should be seen in the company of such tools and implements.

The door to the room was ajar and the porter thrust it open with his foot, that Brenner and Rodriguez might enter. In the room were two more women who, looking up, as they entered, and then looking down, quickly completed their work, turning down the second of the two beds in the room. Something in the attitude of the women had suggested to Brenner that they might be frightened of the porter. The porter put their bags inside the room. The two women now hurried out, one of them glancing over her shoulder at Brenner as she left. The porter had not acknowledged their presence. They were dressed the same as the woman he had encountered in the hall, and so he came to understand that their dresses were, in effect, a sort of livery or uniform. Both, too, as had the woman in the hall, had worn the tiny decorations on their left ankle, the sturdy little chain, with its lock, and disk. As one of them had left Brenner had heard a tiny, metallic click, presumably that of her disk, or its fastening, interacting with the chain.

Brenner looked after them.

“Maids,” explained Rodriguez.

“Maids?” said Brenner.

“Yes,” said Rodriguez.

This, too, upset Brenner, as such work had been outlawed for women on the home world, where it was regarded, in its servility, and meniality, as demeaning. Such work, on the home world, was now done by men.

“I do not understand,” said Brenner.

“This is Company Station,” said Rodriguez, by way of explanation.

“But they are women,” said Brenner.

“It is fit work for them,” said Rodriguez.

“Surely you are joking,” said Brenner.

“Not at all,” said Rodriguez. “Let them get down on their knees and scrub floors, let them dust and clean, and sweep, and cook, and launder, and sew. Such servile tasks are fit for them.”

“I cannot believe what I am hearing,” said Brenner.

“I am not a politician,” said Rodriguez. “I am an anthropologist.”

Most positions of importance and authority on the home world, as far as Brenner knew, were now occupied by women. There were many explanations for this, such as the remote successes of various militancies and activisms, numerous discoveries of rights, countless stunning advances in social, political, and economic justice, landmark decisions by judiciaries, reformations in education, institutionalization of much-needed public conditioning programs, media control, censorship, the domination of major political parties, and the eventual control of all significant political processes, at least on the surface. Further, as every schoolchild knew, the natural superiority of women, and their right to rule, and be dominant, had been demonstrated scientifically in a number of ways, for example, by means of carefully conducted experiments, as a consequence of numerous tests of various design, and by open, objectively conducted public-opinion polls. Interestingly enough, in spite of an apparent control of power on the home world it was rumored that many men remained in positions of power in the metaparty, if it existed, and, indeed, interestingly, that certain women in the metaparty served these men in secret, much as might slaves masters. He knew a number of highly placed women. He wondered if some of them, in secret, had their masters. Then he dismissed such a horrid thought. There were some reservations about the scientific aspects of matters, of course, such as the difficulty of replicating certain crucial experiments, of which little more than the purported consequences were published, difficulties connected primarily with the classified nature of the experimental designs and controls. There were similar reservations on the part of some with respect to the reliability and, more importantly, the validity, of the tests. Historians, largely in obscure monographs, often privately published, had noted interesting correlations, spanning several thousand years, between the pronouncements of objective science and the requirements of various political establishments. The ports at which the ship of science called were often determined by the rudder of politics. Similarly the cargos it carried and the goods it pretended to deliver were often determined by those who, in effect, owned the ship.

Some social scientists, perhaps in virtue of the limitations of their less vast perspectives, tended to find difficulties elsewhere, as, for example, in the redefinition of the parameters to be assessed. For example, if one changes the meaning of a locution ‘A’ to that of locution ‘B,’ while retaining the original expression ‘A,’ it is natural one would then discover numerous bits of interesting and important information about A’s, never before noticed. For example, if one changed the meaning of, say, ‘tigrons’ to that of ‘tidwit’, then it turns out, of course, that the true tigron would have the properties of a tidwit. To be sure, this is not likely to have any effect on what used to be called a tigron, and, as a consequence of reformational definition, was no longer a tigron, unless, of course, it could be convinced that it must either be, or pretend to be, a tidwit. Recalcitrance, or dissent, of course, would be rare in science, for various reasons, for example, the objective nature of the enterprise and the publicness of its validation procedures. The control of access to graduate education, and the control of professional certifications, appointments, reappointments, tenure, fundings, grants, staff, facilities, equipment, outlets for publication, and such, would also be helpful. Lastly it might be mentioned that various attempts to reform language itself had been attempted, the object being to make it impossible for divergent axiological viewpoints to be expressed, and, ideally, and more importantly, if all went well, even to be thought. This program, for better or for worse, had been largely unsuccessful, because language, in its cognitive richness, as always, and even in its engineered versions, proved itself better adapted to be the accomplice of thought than its jailer. Too, for example, the removal of a word, say, ‘tigron’, if one wished to do so, from a language, did not, after all, remove tigrons. It would just make it a bit more of a bother to talk about them. Too, the hole left in the lexicon tended to draw attention to itself. And so the old words, or variants of them, would return, to talk about the old things, which had not gone away. To be sure, the linguistic reformers still had at their disposal numerous time-honored devices, such as slander, denunciation, and censorship. But it is aside from our narrative to enter into detail on these interesting matters.

Rodriguez obtained the fiscal number of the porter, and punched him a credit. He had had his Commonworld credits, as had Brenner, converted to company credits. This had been done in their in-processing at the agent’s office, at the depot.

The porter then turned about and left the room.

Brenner closed the door, carefully, after him, and locked it, fastening it, too, with a chain.

“You do not tip the maids for their services,” said Rodriguez.

“Their services?”

“No,” said Rodriguez, throwing his bag on one of the beds, and opening it.

“Changing sheets, and such,” said Brenner.

“And such,” said Rodriguez, absently, tossing some linen on the bed.

“Their dresses,” said Brenner, the word sounding strange in his mouth, “are rather revealing.”

“They are intended to be such,” said Rodriguez, attending to his business. “If you think that sort of thing is revealing you should see slave garb, when they are permitted garb.”

Brenner thought to himself that Rodriguez had probably seen slaves, real slaves. Brenner was uneasy even with the thought of such. He had heard that such women were even branded.

“Did you notice the maids?” asked Brenner.

“Of course,” said Rodriguez.

“They are a comely lot,” said Brenner.

“They are picked to be comely,” said Rodriguez. “There is a bell there,” he said, pointing. “You can ring it, if you want maid service.”

“‘Maid service’?” asked Brenner.

“Yes,” said Rodriguez.

“I do not understand,” said Brenner.

“Surely you noted that they were barefoot, and noted their left ankles.”

“Yes,” said Brenner. “They wore some sort of ornament there.”

Rodriguez came about his bed and went to the wall where he pushed in the button for maid service.

In a moment or two there was a small knock at the door, and Rodriguez, loosening the chain, drawing back the bolt, had it open.

One of the maids was there.

“Come in,” said Rodriguez.

She entered.

He closed the door, behind her.

“Get on the bed,” said Rodriguez. “On your stomach.”

Brenner almost cried out with protest, but no sound escaped him.

The maid, with no hesitation, but apparently with some apprehension, with some timidity, obeyed.

Rodriguez had put her on Brenner’s bed. Brenner noted this with dismay, and, to be sure, another feeling which he would been hard put to describe. To be sure, there was some point in this. There was already a suitcase on Rodriguez’ bed.

Rodriguez then, with his left hand, brushed the maid’s uniform up a few inches, revealing more of the backs of her legs. Brenner gasped. This thing, small in itself, had a very great impact for Brenner. He had never seen so much of a female before, except perhaps in the performance circles of his imagination, and on the sales blocks of his dreams. She lay very quietly on the freshly made bed, which she had helped turn down but moments ago. Her small hands, at either side of her head, clutched the sheets. “Look,” commanded Rodriguez, seizing her left ankle in one hand, and pulling it up, bending the leg forward. “See?”

Brenner looked at the ankle, encircled closely by the small, stout chain. Certainly it could not be slipped, not as it was on her. Too, with misgivings, he regarded the cylindrical lock. That lock, if he were not mistaken, actually fastened the chain on her ankle.

But Rodriguez’ interest, it seemed, was in displaying the small metallic disk, about an inch in diameter, which was fastened to the chain. “See?” he asked.

On the disk was a tiny number, but this number, more importantly, was below another sign, larger, impressed in the metal. “Do you know this sign?” asked Rodriguez.

“Of course,” said Brenner. It was one of the best-known signs in this portion of the galaxy. It was the company logo.

“This, in effect,” said Rodriguez, shaking the ankle in his grasp for emphasis, as though this might the better impress the matter on Brenner, which forcible motion brought a small cry from the woman and was accompanied by a tiny jingling from the disk on the chain, “is company property.”

“The chain, the lock, the disk?” said Brenner.

“What they mark!” said Rodriguez, impatiently. “The woman!”

“She is a free person,” said Brenner.

“She is a contract slut,” said Rodriguez. “You can tell that from the chain. “For all practical purposes she is company property.”

He then, angrily, flung the woman’s ankle back to the bed. It struck the covers with a sound, and the disk made a tiny noise against the chain. Brenner observed that she had a small foot, and then, closely about her ankle, was the chain, and then came her calf.

“It’s part of your job to make our stay here pleasant, isn’t it?” asked Rodriguez.

“Yes, sir,” she whispered.

“Do you understand “maid service” now?” asked Rodriguez.

Brenner thought it wise not to respond. It was at this point, incidentally, that he decided he would not remain at the hostel that evening but would accompany Rodriguez outside, even in the weather, to find a bar.

Rodriguez dropped his hand to the back of her thigh, and touched it, gently.

Her eyes opened very wide, and she made a tiny sound.

Again Rodriguez touched her.

She closed her eyes, and uttered a tiny moan.

“Get your ass down,” said Rodriguez.

She moaned, and pressed herself further down, into the covers.

“You can ring for her later, if you want her,” said Rodriguez.

“No, no!” said Brenner, alarmed.

“Get out,” said Rodriguez to the maid.

Quickly she left the bed, and pausing only a moment to smooth down her skirt, she hurried from the room.

Brenner, sweating, locked the door after her, and put the chain in place.

He turned about, to face Rodriguez. “How could you have done that?” he asked him.

“What?” asked Rodriguez.

“What you did to her!” said Brenner.

Rodriguez looked at him, puzzled. “I didn’t do anything to her,” he said.

Brenner regarded him, aghast. But Rodriguez, carrying a robe, was making his way to the bath. A little later Brenner heard the shower running.

For a time Brenner did not even sit on the bed. He stood there, rather, looking at it, and at the place where the maid had lain. There were some small disarrangements in the covers there, sloping up to the sides. Too, there were some tiny wrinkles where she had clutched the sheets, her small hands on either side of her head. He tried to look away, but he found it difficult to do so. He recalled the hem of the dress, as it had been pushed a little above the back of her knees, and the disturbing exquisiteness of what had consequently met his view. The wholeness of what had been revealed had been particularly striking to him, the way the curves, from the foot to the ankle, to the calf, to the back of the knee, and above, blended into one another. He had suddenly understood how, on some barbaric, monstrous worlds, men could kill for the possession of women. To be sure, he did not think that the women of the home world, so miserable, frustrated, smug, inhibited, petulant, and cold, would be in great danger. It was hard to imagine them stripped and roped in the grass, prizes awaiting the outcomes of savage contests. Still, he did not know. They were, after all, women. Perhaps, somehow, under proper conditions, their psychological disarrangements, or improvements and perfections, so carefully wrought by subtle, pervasive conditioning programs, might be torn down and the female might then be freed to find herself as she might be in and of herself, as a female. Then Brenner dismissed such horrid thoughts. But found it hard to forget the chain and disk, with the lock, on the maid’s ankle. Too, he remembered how she had made tiny noises when Rodriguez had touched her. He scarcely dared conjecture what might have occasioned them. One of the great breakthroughs of the past several millenniums had been the scientific proof that human beings did not have sexual needs, but that such needs had been invented by insidious men as devices wherewith to dominate, oppress, and enslave women. Accordingly, even if, as Brenner seemed to, one had such needs, one must realize that they did not exist. Certainly almost no one on the home world would admit that they had such needs, and the public admission of such in a public figure was tantamount to disgrace and ruin. Many biologists and even social scientists, who, because of the sensitivity of the issues with which they dealt, could usually be relied upon to produce findings congenial to, and supportive of, current political orthodoxies, whatever they might be, had lost posts for pretending to have come up with politically dubious results. For a time some recusants had embraced a “Two-Truth Theory,” namely, that there was scientific truth and political truth, which many scientists accepted because it let the chips fall where they might, rather than in prescribed configurations, but the dishonesty of this distinction was quickly detected by various political establishments. This was succeeded by the “Two-Opinion-One-Truth” Theory, which was to the effect that there was only one truth, the political truth, whatever it might be on the world in question, but that there might be two opinions, according to one of which truth might seem to be “A” and according to the other of which truth might seem to be other than “A.” This approach, too, was quickly suppressed in the best interests of the community, party, people or whatever, and replaced with the “One-Opinion-One-Truth” Theory, which, in an intellectual tour de force of unity, simplicity, and elegance, successfully restored one qualified opinion, identical with the one correct truth, the political truth, whatever it might be at the time. The theory, incidentally, that human beings lacked sexual needs superseded a somewhat less politically effective theory, which had earlier also been indisputably proven scientifically, the theory that there was only one sex, the human sex. This theory had been quite useful in its role of reducing gender differences which, because there was now only one sex, the human sex, were then regarded as either minimal or nonexistent. The flaw with this theory was that one then had to recognize two varieties of human sexuality, or two sorts of individuals, for example, the egg-carriers, or “eggers,” as it was said, and the sperm-producers, or “spermers,” as it was said. Astute, politically progressive critics saw in this a concealed version of the old, troublesome two-sex theory which had been so politically divisive, in which men, in particular, thinking of themselves as different from women, might find it more difficult to recognize that that their true best interests lay in the inhibition, suppression, and denial of their own sexuality, in the surrender of manhood, or, perhaps better, in merely discovering that hundreds of thousands of generations of masculine forebears had been mistaken as to its nature. The new theory that sex did not exist, and thus that sexual needs did not exist, was clearly superior. Men and women were now seen as “sames” or “identicals.” To be sure, there might be certain anatomical differences amongst human beings but these were negligible. For example, some people were taller than others, some had different-size feet, and such. It is interesting that populationalism remained a political issue in a world in which sex did not exist. But, as some historians had pointed out, generally in underground monographs, such apparent discrepancies in world views have not been unprecedented. Brenner, it might be mentioned, recognized that he himself had sexual needs, or, at least, seemed to have them. Often however, particularly on the home world, he had felt very isolated in this particular. And naturally it would have unthinkable to have uttered an admission to this effect. And so Brenner, and perhaps others, pretended not to have sexual needs. And, though Brenner did have the decency to be sensitive about these needs, he was not one of the more moral sorts who struggled not to have them. As usual, the most moral, or, at least, the most socially controlled, tended on the whole to be the most afflicted, miserable, and guilt-ridden, fighting to be whatever the current stereotypes told them they should be, lying awake at night tormented, troubled, and weeping, denouncing themselves for countless slips, errors, shortcomings, failings, and inadequacies, punishing themselves in orgies of self-castigation, self-contempt, self-scorn and such, which activities provided some gratification, but not much, and, of course, frequently resolving to do better but, for one reason or another, and probably for a very good reason, usually not managing it.

“You haven’t changed,” said Rodriguez, coming out of the bath.

Brenner could hear the vacuum in the hall outside. One of the maids must be cleaning the corridor.

He was still standing near the bed, in his wet clothes, his bag on the floor near him. The carpet was wet.

“No,” he said.

Brenner was disturbed by the sound of the vacuum cleaner, even though it must be some doors down the hall.

“Rodriguez,” said Brenner.

“Yes,” said Rodriguez, getting dressed.

“When you touched the maid,” said Brenner, hesitantly, “she moved a little, she made tiny noises.”

“Yes?” said Rodriguez, sitting on his bed, pulling on a boot.

“Why was that?” asked Brenner, uncertainly.

“Surely it is obvious,” said Rodriguez, looking over at him.

“No!” said Brenner.

“She was responding to my touch,” said Rodriguez, “and probably to the entire situation in which she found herself, and to what her condition is, and so on.”

“‘Responding’?”

“She couldn’t help herself, she’s hot,” said Rodriguez, working on the second boot.

“I don’t understand,” said Brenner.

“Frigidity is not acceptable in a contract slut,” said Rodriguez.

“I wish you wouldn’t use that expression,” said Brenner.

Rodriguez stood up, and stomped twice.

“Are you intimating that her behavior was—sexual?” asked Brenner.

“Certainly it was sexual,” said Rodriguez, irritably.

“Do you mean to suggest that she might have sexual needs?” asked Brenner, carefully.

“Of course she has sexual needs,” said Rodriguez.

“But sexual needs,” said Brenner, “do not exist.”

“Do not be naive,” said Rodriguez.

“Surely you are aware of the official position on this matter,” said Brenner.

“Of course,” said Rodriguez.

“Do you have sexual needs?” asked Brenner.

“Certainly,” said Rodriguez. “And so do you, unless you are crippled, or insane or sick, or something.”

Brenner was silent.

“What about it?” asked Rodriguez.

“What about what?” asked Brenner, uneasily.

“Do you have sexual needs?”

Brenner was silent.

“This is Company Station,” said Rodriguez. “This is not the home world.”

“Yes,” said Brenner. “I have sexual needs.”

“Good,” said Rodriguez. “Now say that again, and to another person.”

“I have sexual needs,” said Brenner.

“Excellent,” said Rodriguez.

Brenner felt happier, and freer, then than he had in years. It was as though a great weight had been thrown from him. He wanted to laugh, and cry, with relief.

“But we must be rare, and terrible,” said Brenner, though, at the time, given his elation, he did not feel, really, either rare or terrible.

“Then everyone must be rare and terrible,” said Rodriguez, “that is, everyone who is not crippled, or insane, or sick, or whatever.”

“But what of the indisputable scientific proofs that sexual needs do not exist?” asked Brenner.

“One supposes, except politically, that the existence of such needs takes precedence over the proofs that they do not exist. For example, the existence of one tree takes precedence over the proofs that trees are impossible.”

“Then the proofs are not really proofs,” said Brenner.

“A proof is a proof, by definition,” said Rodriguez, “but, similarly, by definition, what is not a proof is not a proof. A pseudoproof, for example, is not a proof.”

“But what of the decisive experiments?” asked Brenner.

“Much there depends on definition, the politician’s ally,” said Rodriguez. “For example, if a need is operationally defined as, say, something which must be satisfied within two hours or the organization perishes, then one has a certain number of needs, for example, for oxygen, for blood flowing to the brain, and so on; if one operationally defines a need as something which must be satisfied within three days or the organism perishes, then one has additional needs, and so on. For example, on the first definition, one does not have a need for water or food. On the second, one does not have a need for food, and so on.”

“But the frustration of sexual needs does not lead to death!” said Brenner, triumphantly.

“Or at least not to immediate death,” said Rodriguez. “There are, of course, numerous statistics, muchly suppressed now, in the best interests of the public, of course, that the failure to satisfy sexual needs may tend to shorten life considerably, by several years, in fact. To be sure, the matter is obscure, as the failure to satisfy these needs may be merely a part of, or a consequence of, a pathological syndrome, or a defective system, tending to be linked to decreased longevity.”

“You could have your degree revoked, or be imprisoned for expressing such thoughts on the home world,” said Brenner.

“Or be remanded for “smoothing” as a physiological deviant,” said Rodriguez, smiling.

“Yes,” said Brenner.

“I have declined that offer more than once,” said Rodriguez.

“The state would have borne the expenses of the operation,” Brenner pointed out.

“Even so,” said Rodriguez.

“It is interesting how people resist their own improvement,” said Brenner.

“Doubtless that is a symptom of their deficiency, and a proof of their need of a cure,” said Rodriguez.

“And this then occasionally necessitates the action of the state, to intervene in the best interests not only of the people but of the particular individual involved.”

“Some see it so,” said Rodriguez. “But returning briefly to the questions of needs, or drives, or whatever, I think it is important that you understand how definitions enter into these supposedly scientific matters, and, indeed, that the scientific results will depend, in effect, on how the definitions are constructed. For example, there is no point whatsoever, except from a political point of view, to define a need in terms of something that must be satisfied at the expense of life itself, and promptly, or soon, as though one could have only needs for such things as oxygen, food, and drinking water. What if the failure to satisfy a need, or whatever we choose to call it, resulted not in death, or at least not in immediately ensuant death, or whatever, but in misery, in frustration, in discomfort, in pain, in unhappiness, in lack of fulfillment, in psychic disarrangements, and such? I would be willing to call that sort of thing a need. Would a plant, for example, not have a need for a certain mineral, simply because it could drag out a pathetic, stunted existence without it? No, needs, at least as I would choose to understand them, are not simply connected with, say, the basic essentials for some level of metabolism and oxidation, and such, but with what is required for the plant to be fully healthy, and, indeed, to flourish.”

“But health, too, and such things, may be variously defined,” said Brenner.

“Of course,” said Rodriguez, “and doubtless will be defined in various ways, to accomplish various purposes. Some words are good words, so to speak. They are prizes to be fought over. An excellent example is the word ‘health’. That is a good word. That word is a prize. It will be fought over. It has favorable connotations, you see. People have been verbally conditioned to believe that health is good, that they should be healthy, and so on. Thus, the political trick is to take the old word, evacuate it of its customary meanings, replace those meanings with the new political meanings, and then count on the favorable connotations of the word to win over the public to your cause. Naturally this is never made clear to the public. Rather it is presented as a new cognitive discovery, as to what, say, “health” really is.”

“That is meretricious and deceitful,” said Brenner.

“It is done with many words. Excellent examples are ‘good’, ‘right’, ‘justice’, ‘normal’, ‘mature’, ‘democracy’, ‘religion’, and such. Sometimes, of course, when it is feared that the absurdity of this may be too obvious, one speaks of such things as “true justice,” “real democracy,” and such.”

“But surely there are realities involved, as well,” said Brenner. “It cannot be all verbal manipulation, all fraud, all politics.”

“Yes,” said Rodriguez. “There are realities involved, and that is why the political fraud, the media manipulations, and such, are so important, to distract attention from them, to conceal them, and such.”

Brenner nodded. He even sat down on the bed, forgetting that the maid had been there. He wondered if he should have listened to Rodriguez. The man must be mad.

“The stunted plant deprived of the mineral, you see,” said Rodriguez, “is an unhealthy plant, in a quite clear sense, to be sure, perhaps in an old sense, or a superseded sense, even if it is now defined, for political purposes, as being “healthy.” Similarly, a plant that is clipped and trimmed into an absurd shape, to conform with an external or alien concept of excellence, may now count as a better plant, or a superior plant, from the external or alien viewpoint, but it is certainly not the natural plant, the plant as it would grow if it were under conditions ideal to its own nature, as it would grow in its own natural health and glory, so to speak.”

“I see,” said Brenner.”

“There is also a distinction between the descriptive and prescriptive use of discourse which is often blurred in these matters,” said Rodriguez. “For example, ‘normal’ might be used to signify what sort of thing actually occurs most frequently, or it might be used to characterize an ideal, rational or otherwise, which is seldom attained in actuality. For example, in the first sense, having sexual needs is quite normal, but, in the second sense, on the home world, the normal person, so to speak, or the truly normal person, as it might be said, does not have such needs. Those who have them, secretly, of course, are thus expected to regard themselves as, say, abnormal, deviant, in need of a cure, or such. This guilt is useful politically, of course.”

“I am prepared to admit that I have sexual needs,” said Brenner. “But surely I am unusual.”

“Not at all,” Rodriguez assured him.

“But what of women,” asked Brenner. “Surely they do not have sexual needs.”

“You saw the maid, and heard her,” said Rodriguez.

Brenner suddenly realized he was sitting on the bed, or, rather, that the maid had been there earlier. He stood up, quickly.

“But she must be a deviant, or a nymphomaniac,” said Brenner.

“It is highly unlikely that she is a deviant,” said Rodriguez. “It is much more likely that she is simply a normal woman, one with sexual needs. To be sure, her sexual needs have probably been liberated by now from the bondage of her training and education.”

“Liberated from bondage?” said Brenner. “She has a chain on her ankle.” Brenner decided that he would accept what seemed to be the reality of the maid’s situation, rather than pretend to disguise it in his own mind. It had seemed to him unlikely, even from the beginning, that the maid held the key to that chain on her ankle.

“I refer, of course,” said Rodriguez, “to the liberation of her sexual needs.”

“She is probably a nymphomaniac,” said Brenner.

“Is that a derogatory expression?” asked Rodriguez.

“I’m not sure,” said Brenner, though he supposed it was supposed to be. He was not exactly certain why. To be sure, he could see how it might be of advantage to a certain form of political establishment to claim it to be such, for example, that it might be used as a device to discourage women from seeking sexual fulfillment, from fulfilling their needs, from becoming themselves.

“I am not sure what you mean by the expression,” said Rodriguez, “but as I use it, every woman, properly handled, is a nymphomaniac. She will beg for more, and such.”

“Then you think that women have sexual needs,” said Brenner.

“Women have profound sexual needs,” said Rodriguez. “Sexual needs, biosexual needs, psychosexual needs, it all goes together.”

“Even the directress?” asked Brenner.

“That self-important, smug, pretentious, frustrated, miserable, frigid slut?” asked Rodriguez.

“She,” admitted Brenner. Rodriguez’ assessment met with his approval. Still, he did not personally find the directress, who was a young woman, unattractive. He recalled her as he had imagined her kneeling on the plating of the lounge, on the ship, her hands, the wrists linked together in the bracelets, lifted to him.

“I would suppose so,” said Rodriguez, “somewhere, somehow. These needs, you must understand, can be suppressed, fought, resisted, and such. Certainly her frustration suggests that something is being frustrated. Her misery indicates that something is wrong. Her frigidity, as it seems rather of the defensive, hostile, frightened kind, rather than that of simplistic anesthesia, suggests that something, awakened, of which she is at least dimly aware, is being blocked and denied. Too, of course, energies can be thwarted and diverted, and twisted, and turned to other outlets, for example, to the seeking of power, to the grasping for position, to the scratching for authority, such things, or others, in an ill-fated, belligerent attempt on her part, which she knows is doomed to failure, to conform to a culturally prescribed stereotype, in effect, to prove that she is the same as a man, a denouement which, incidentally, in my opinion, she does not really want. Thus, her pretenses, her postures, her behaviors and such, represent in their way not only the uncritical adherence to a perverse conditioning program but more importantly a reaction against something, an attempt to deny something she senses in herself, and fears in herself, that they constitute an attempt, in its way, and a rather hysterical attempt in its way, to repudiate her belly knowledge, so to speak, what she knows about herself ultimately, that she, a female, belongs at a man’s feet.”

“I am wet, and cold,” said Brenner. “I think I will change, and shower.”

“Well,” said Rodriguez, “you have made progress. You have admitted that you are a human being, that you have sexual needs.”

Rodriguez glanced at the bell, which would ring for maid service.

Brenner pretended not to notice. He found a robe in his bag, and some dry clothes. He could no longer hear the vacuum in the hall. But he did not doubt but what there would be a maid on cal1.

“Your next step,” said Rodriguez, “now that you have acknowledged that you have sexual needs, is to satisfy them.” He pointed to the bell.

“No, no!” said Brenner, hastily, frightened. The bell seemed very large on the wall, very prominent, very visible. Though, to be sure, it was actually rather small, and discreet.

Rodriguez looked at him, puzzled.

Brenner shook his head. It was, after all, one thing to have sexual needs, and quite another to satisfy them.

“As you wish,” said Rodriguez.

“Where are you going?” asked Brenner.

“Out,” said Rodriguez.

“Wait for me,” said Brenner. “I’m coming with you.”

He did not wish to be left alone with the bell. Too, what if there should be the small knock on the door? What if a maid should check with him, to see if he wanted anything? Certainly he would not want anything. No! He would want nothing, nothing!

At the door to the bath Brenner turned. He looked at the disarranged covers on his bed, where the maid had lain.

“I’ll only be a moment,” he said.

“All right,” said Rodriguez.

“Is it true,” asked Brenner, “that women have sexual needs?”

“Yes,” said Rodriguez, “but in some women they are latent, and must be aroused.”

“I see,” said Brenner.

“But they are there,” said Rodriguez, “like combustible material.”

Brenner nodded.

“And once they are aroused,” said Rodriguez, “it is done to her.”

“‘Done to her’?” asked Brenner.

“Yes,” said Rodriguez. “They are then with her. She cannot unarouse them, so to speak.”

“I see,” said Brenner.

“The clearest case is the slave,” said Rodriguez. “But then they are given no choice in the matter. Their passions are aroused deliberately and uncompromisingly, even cruelly, with no concern for them, and aroused in such a manner that their emergence is profound and frequent, indeed, in such a manner that they become, in effect, the pathetic, helpless prisoners of their needs, dependent on masters for their satisfaction.”

“It is hard to understand,” said Brenner.

“I have seen them at a man’s feet, begging,” said Rodriguez.

Brenner gasped.

“Will they be satisfied?” asked Rodriguez. “It is up to the master.”

“I see,” said Brenner.

“Those are a slave girl’s strongest chains,” said Rodriguez.

“I understand,” said Brenner.

“But you must understand, too,” said Rodriguez, “that eventually the slave girl rejoices in these chains, in whose clasp she continues to remain helpless.

“I do not understand,” said Brenner.

“They keep her on the mark, where she wishes to be,” said Rodriguez, “even more than more prosaic bonds, such as chains, brands, identifications and such.”

“I do not understand,” said Brenner.

“She is a female,” said Rodriguez. “And it is only in bondage, and such relationships, that her femaleness, both by herself and others, is fully appreciated, understood, relished, and celebrated. There is a wholeness in this. Nothing is isolated. Her entire personal, individual, exciting, beautiful psychosexuality is involved, the full range of her feminine needs, nothing starved or denied, the wholeness of her being, the wholeness of her deepest self, involving such, things as giving, devotion, love, service, attentiveness, a desire to be truly pleasing, profoundly so, and as a female, and so on.”

“You mean they want these things?” asked Brenner.

“Certainly,” said Rodriguez.

“And they accept these things, and relish them, of their own free will?” asked Brenner.

“Yes,” said Rodriguez, “but one must there be careful, for it is important to the slave to be a slave, and this means that she must then, in a sense, be choiceless.”

“Interesting,” said Brenner.

“Had she the choice, she would choose to be given no choice, said Rodriguez.

“This seems a paradox,” said Brenner.

“Perhaps,” said Rodriguez.

“But then,” said Brenner, “if she is a slave, then she would have no choice, no choice in actuality, literally no choice, whether she wished it or not.”

“Correct,” said Rodriguez. “She is a slave. She has no choice. She is choiceless, absolutely. She is a domestic animal, a slave.”

“Doesn’t she know she is supposed to be free, and such things?” asked Brenner.

“Like a man?” asked Rodriguez.

“Yes,” said Brenner.

“I thought,” said Rodriguez, “we were discussing psychobiology, not the prescriptions of politics.”

“Very well,” said Brenner. “Continue.”

“The slave may even, in the beginning,” said Rodriguez, “use the bondage of her liberated needs as an excuse to submit, for if she does not submit, and in ways suitable to the master’s will, she will not be satisfied.”

“I understand,” said Brenner.

“Not to mention her obvious subjectability to other forms of punishment, as well,” said Rodriguez.

“Of course,” said Brenner.

“For example, the whip,” said Rodriguez.

“I understand,” said Brenner, shuddering.

“But soon,” said Rodriguez, “as the slave becomes familiar with her duties, her chains and silk, and understands in her belly that she is now a slave, and that is that, and that is all, she senses a great relief and happiness. She is then at her master’s feet. She is content, joyful, and fulfilled.”

“But surely she must occasionally regret her choicelessness,” said Brenner.

“Doubtless,” said Rodriguez. “She is, after all, a slave. Doubtless the condition contains its terrors as well as its gratifications.”

“But what you have described is a sort of an ideal, is it not?” asked Brenner.

“Of course,” said Rodriguez. “Doubtless many are the girls who shiver with cold, naked and miserable, chained in the holds of freighters. Doubtless some are dragged weeping to blocks to be sold. Doubtless some labor long hours in remote, muddy fields, far from public view, or, similarly, concealed from sight, behind the scenes, in public kitchens and laundries. Some doubtless labor in barren, spacious, friendless mills, chained to looms. Perhaps they envy certain of their more fortunate sisters, those with painted lips, chained to their beds in brothels.”

“Horrifying,” said Brenner.

“More terrifying,” said Rodriguez, “is the slave who knows that her master does not care for her, for example, she who is merely taken for granted, who must serve neglected or unnoticed, perhaps even scorned. Too, some slaves find that their masters do not like them, literally, and that these masters are intent upon keeping them at a primitive level of slavery, one more associated with terror and punishment than discipline and love. It is one thing, for example, to subdue and tame a rebellious slave, one not yet in touch with her deeper realities, decisively and effectively, and quite another to relate to a woman whom one makes certain will continue to hate you, say, for the pleasure of the psychological torment one sees imposed upon her, for example, as she must beg you for sexual relief, and such. There are many variations here.”

“You seem to believe that there are two sexes,” said Brenner.

“Yes,” said Rodriguez. “And they are not the same.”

“That is not the official position of the home world,” said Brenner.

“The official position of the home world is mistaken,” said Rodriguez.

“Perhaps,” said Brenner.

“Did you believe it?” asked Rodriguez.

“No,” admitted Brenner.

I didn’t think so,” said Rodriguez. “Only idiots take it seriously. The important thing is the lie, and to pretend to take it seriously, for purposes of politics.”

“The home world is not as inflexible and uniform in its views as you think,” said Brenner.

“Oh?” said Rodriguez. To be sure, he had not spent a great deal of time on the home world over the past several years. As you might suspect, there had been good reasons for this.

“Some on the home world,” said Brenner, “speculate that sexual needs may exist.”

“How bold!” exclaimed Rodriguez.

“Well, it is something,” said Brenner, irritably.

“It is a sop thrown to intellectuals,” said Rodriguez. “It is usually brought up at professional conventions, where there are no students about to rush off and report to the morality officers. Also, it tends to reassure sycophantic toads of the reality of academic freedom.”

“It is always pointed out, of course,” said Brenner, “that these needs, if they exist, are unimportant and negligible.”

“That position neglects at least one fact,” said Rodriguez.

“What is that?” asked Brenner.

“Sexuality’s radical centrality,” he said. “It is the engine which powers the machine, the force which gives meaning to the world.”

Brenner gathered from these remarks that Rodriguez did not share even the more liberal view of sexual needs expressed in the bold conjecture that such might, if only in some minimalistic form, exist. Indeed, he seemed to regard sexuality as of great importance. Apparently, even if it were politically unacceptable, and thus to be denied, or ignored, it was real, very real. Brenner wondered what a world might be like which openly acknowledged sexual realities, rather than denying or hiding them. Perhaps some of the openly stratified, or “strong,” worlds, as Rodriguez might have referred to them, he speculated.

“I will tell you something I wager you do not know,” said Rodriguez.

“What is that?” asked Brenner.

“Have you heard of the levies?” asked Rodriguez.

“What levies?” asked Brenner.

“Some ten thousand, or so, women from the home world, each year, are taken in them, for slaves.”

Brenner regarded him, startled.

“To be sure,” said Rodriguez, “that is only part of the tribute.”

“I don’t understand,” said Brenner.

“You do not think a world as weak as ours, as silly as ours, a world which has made one stupid choice after another, a world which is not capable, even, of defending itself against interstellar attack, a world which has nothing really with which to even make a serious contribution to a defensive alliance of worlds, is likely to be somehow immune from the notice of more efficient worlds.”

“Speak clearly,” said Brenner.

“The home world is now, as it has been several times in the past, a tributary planet. That goes back even to the time of the Telnarian Empire, which you also probably did not know. After its collapse the home world, which had been a tributary planet within the aegis of the empire, fell amongst the prizes to be sought by ensuant barbarisms. In these times of troubles, so to speak, the home world fell within the sphere of influence of one world or another. In those days, our governments, rather as they like to do today, but then with better justification, preferred, in their high echelons, to think of these disbursements, so to speak, as payments for protection, and, in a sense, formerly, protection was involved. The home world became tributary to world “A” which would then protect it, as one of its tributaries, from world “B.” But then, later, in the fallings out of war, and after the failures of various alliances, certain agreements were reached amongstst some of these barbarisms, ones active in this portion of the galaxy, agreements which, in effect, divided this portion of the galaxy into protectorates, as our governments might put it, or into tributary sectors, as the barbarisms put it.”

“To what world is the home world tributary?” asked Brenner.

“I do not know,” said Rodriguez. “But I gather that it is far away.”

“What would they want with women from the home world?” asked Brenner.

“Probably nothing having to do with the women per se,” said Rodriguez, “who might not even be of interest to them, except, of course, for their value as trade goods.”

Brenner could not speak.

“The trade may have a dozen corners, so to speak,” said Rodriguez. “The women might be inserted at any given point in a trade network. I really do not know. Similarly they might be traded from one world to several others for a variety of items, or they might be traded about, from point to point, for one good or another, until they came to a world or worlds that wanted them for themselves, as what they would be, slaves, of course.”

“I have not heard of this,” said Brenner.

“You can scarcely blame the government for being somewhat reluctant to publicize the matter,” said Rodriguez. “Besides, ten thousand, or so, women, taken here and there out of the population of the home world annually, is a negligible amount, one scarcely to be missed.”

“And there are other tributes, too?” asked Brenner.

“Items of various sorts,” said Rodriguez. “Raw materials mostly.”

“What is the nature of the women?” asked Brenner.

“On the whole they would seem to be what you might expect,” said Rodriguez, “young, beautiful, and sexually responsive.”

“How do they know they are sexually responsive?” asked Brenner.

“There are tests,” said Rodriguez.

Brenner blushed.

“And interestingly,” said Rodriguez, “many of these women do not even realize they are, or would be, under certain conditions, helplessly sexually responsive, and as slaves. It has never occurred to them that the time might come when they would beg a man, piteously, and as a slave, for his least touch.”

What secrets, Brenner wondered, lie concealed within women, secrets of which they might themselves be unaware.

“A certain percentage of these women are mothers,” said Rodriguez. “It is speculated that these may be of interest as proven breeders.”

“I see,” said Brenner.

“Do these things come as a surprise to you?” asked Rodriguez.

“Yes,” said Brenner.

“They should not come as such a surprise,” said Rodriguez. “Surely you know that some slaving has taken place for centuries on the home world, both for export and for internal use.”

“I have heard such,” admitted Brenner.

“And that certain women of the home world, unwary enough to visit certain worlds, or foolish enough to visit certain districts or quarters of certain worlds, have vanished, presumably having been taken as slaves.”

“Yes,” admitted Brenner.

“Do you think they were careless?” asked Rodriguez.

“Surely,” said Brenner.

“Perhaps,” said Rodriguez, “But perhaps, too, rather, they wanted a chain on their neck, and a master.”

“Surely not!” said Brenner.

“The levies are much the same thing,” said Rodriguez, “only periodic and regularized.”

“I understand,” said Brenner. He glanced back at the bed, where the maid had lain.

“No,” said Rodriguez. “That one was not levied. She is not a slave. She is a contract slut.”

“But she is, in effect, a slave,” said Brenner.

“No,” said Rodriguez. “She is merely under contract. That is quite different.”

“How can she be freed?” asked Brenner.

“By paying off her contract with her earnings, which she will not be able to do,” said Rodriguez. “Or by her contract holder.”

“As a slave might be freed?” asked Brenner.

“A slave—freed?” asked Rodriguez.

“Yes,” said Brenner.

Rodriguez laughed, and wiped his face with his arm.

“Is that thought so absurd?” asked Brenner, angrily.

“Yes,” said Rodriguez.

“But the contract person’s contract might be purchased by someone, who would then pay it off for her?”

“Yes,” said Rodriguez.

Brenner continued to stare at the bed.

“Perhaps you are thinking of buying her contract, and then freeing her?” said Rodriguez.

“No,” said Brenner.

“Good,” said Rodriguez. “That is much better.”

“What?” asked Brenner.

“Buying her contract, and not freeing her.”

“No!” said Brenner.

“But you would want to try her out first,” said Rodriguez.

“No, no!” said Brenner, shuddering.

“She looks like she would make a pleasant armful,” said Rodriguez.

“No!” said Brenner.

“I would have thought so,” said Rodriguez.

“No, no,” said Brenner.

“It is just as well,” said Rodriguez. “You could probably not afford to buy it, any more than she could afford to pay it off, given the expenses charged to her for board and room, and such things.”

Brenner regarded him.

“Not on an adjunct’s salary,” said Rodriguez. “These contracts are usually held by businesses, institutions, and such. They tend to be expensive.”

“Undoubtedly,” said Brenner.

“Because the contract slut is not a slave, but a free woman, and can be held openly on worlds on which slavery might remain a sensitive issue, as it is not on many other worlds, more progressive worlds.”

“‘Progressive’?” asked Brenner.

“To be sure, an illusive word,” smiled Rodriguez. “You may define progress as constant change, even racing from one stultifying madness to another, but it need not be defined that way. For example, it may be thought of rather as the attempt to approximate an ideal. If that is so, then refinement, restoration, and such, if they result in a situation which more closely approximates the ideal, would constitute progress. It is not clear, for example, that continuing to go down a wrong road constitutes progress. Also, you must be aware that on many worlds certain institutions, such as explicit social stratifications, aristocracies, slaveries, and such, have been introduced, to counter the decline, disintegration, bankruptcy, and chaos of failed systems, to succeed them with more honest, more realistic forms. Not every world has to be founded on lies.”

“Let us not speak further of these things!” said Brenner.

“It is interesting,” said Rodriguez, looking at the bed to whose surface he had ordered the maid.

“What is interesting?” said Brenner.

“On your salary,” said Rodriguez, “you presumably could not afford to buy her contract, that of the maid, the free woman, but with the same salary, on many worlds, such as Sybaris and Megara, it would be quite easy for you to own one or more slaves.”

“Please,” protested Brenner.

“You could do with them what you wish,” said Rodriguez.

“Please,” said Brenner.

“They are beautiful, and cheap, and hot,” said Rodriguez.

Brenner looked at him.

“It is largely a matter of legality, and politics, and supply and demand, such things,” said Rodriguez.

“Wait for me,” said Brenner. He looked at the bell on the wall. He trembled a little. “Do not go out without me. Do not leave me here alone. Wait for me.”

“All right,” said Rodriguez, agreeably enough.

Brenner then, carrying his robe, and a change of clothing, entered the bath.

Rodriguez pulled a notebook out of his bag and sat down in a chair. It was nice, in a way, to sit in a chair and stay there, without the webbing.

In a short while Brenner had emerged, dressed, from the bath.

He then accompanied Rodriguez from the room. In the hall they encountered a maid, she whom Rodriguez had ordered to the bed. It seemed their encounter was inadvertent. She had some towels over one arm. Rodriguez did not speak to her as he passed her.

Neither did Brenner. She did not raise her eyes as they passed.



* * *



The zard, the proprietor of the bar now patronized by Rodriguez and Brenner, as I have mentioned, had now returned to his desk, from his short journey to the front door, to reconnoiter the weather, which he had done to his apparent dissatisfaction. It was a poor night for business in Company Station. Too, it was not, in general, the sort of weather of which his kind approved. To be sure, it was not exactly the sort of weather which was universally greeted with enthusiasm by the species of Rodriguez and Brenner either. The girl was still at Brenner’s thigh, with her head down. She, as I have indicated, clung to his leg, as before. This disturbed Brenner considerably, but he could not deny that there was something in him that was not dissatisfied to have her there. Certainly he was still cognizant of the feel of her body, the softness of it, as it has been pressed so closely against him in her terror, her apparent fear of the proprietor, that unspeakable, luscious softness, which, he had not doubted was intended to be well betrayed by the silk she wore. That softness, as we recall, had alarmed and disturbed him. He had then taken a drink, angrily.

“Get away,” said Brenner, angrily, to the girl.

She looked up at him, frightened. “Please do not send me away,” she begged.

“Your lips are painted,” said Brenner.

They had not been painted when he had seen her before, several streets away, earlier in the day, for, as you have doubtless suspected, this is the same young woman into whom he had inadvertently struck earlier, in their small accident, the one who had cried out so angrily, of whom he had caught but a brief, striking glimpse, the one who had then hurried away, in anger, making her way barefoot through the cold mud, clutching the cloak about her. Naturally she seemed much different now, kneeling at his feet, made-up, in a bit of silk.

“It is called ‘lipstick,’” she said.

“What is on your upper eyelids,” he asked.

“Eye shadow,” she said.

He continued to look at her. “There are various cosmetics,” she said, “eye shadow, eye liner, mascara, such things.”

“You are painted,” he said.

“Some men like it,” she said.

“I am not a man,” said Brenner. “I am a person.”

“Yes, sir,” she said.

“To be sure, Brenner thought of himself as a man, at least secretly, and would surely have referred to himself as such in his conversations with Rodriguez, and with others whom he might well know, and trust, but the title ‘man’ in this context made him distinctly uneasy, for it suggested something quite different from the creature at his feet, who was clearly not a man, but something remarkably, wonderfully, excitingly, and marvelously different. Brenner was not willing to fulfill any expectations, or accept any obligations or responsibilities, which might seem to be involved with being a man, at least in a situation such as this. He did not wish to risk relating to her as might have a member of the opposite sex. He did not wish to insult her. Too, he felt safer clinging to the myth of sameness. To be sure, though it disturbed him, he was not really displeased to be addressed as ‘sir’ by this delectable creature. If there were some subtle inconsistency here, he did not find it objectionable. Besides, by the waiters in restaurants, by the male attendants in conveyances, in hotels, and such, he would often have been addressed as ‘sir’. And the locution, he reminded himself, was probably required of her by her contract holder. He thought of having her address him by the proper neuteristic term of ‘pers’, but then, for some reason, decided against it. He would permit her, devolved though it might be, to continue to address him not only by an appellation indicative of respect, but by one, in her case, appropriate to a member of an opposite sex.

“Do you like them?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said.

“Why?” he asked.

“I think they make me pretty,” she said. As she had looked down and whispered this, her thighs had moved slightly under the silk. This suggested to him that there might be more involved here than a simple matter of aesthetics. Rather he suspected that the cosmetics, perhaps because of some meaning or other, also made her feel in a certain way, a way which, it seemed, she might not be likely to mention explicitly to Brenner.

“They demean you,” said Brenner.

“Then I like being demeaned in this way,” she said.

“They make you attractive, as a decorated animal,” he said, irritably.

“It is my hope that they make me attractive,” she said.

“And,” said Brenner, irritably, deciding to risk a shot in the dark, “they also make you feel attractive.”

She looked up, startled.

“And you personally find them arousing, and exciting,” he said.

She put her head down, quickly. “Yes, sir,” she whispered.

Brenner was pleased with this outcome. His shots, it seemed, had exactly and decisively struck home. To be sure, if Rodriguez, and other renegades, was right, and females really had sexual needs, and such, perhaps the shots, so to speak, had not been fired so much in the dark as he had thought. She kept her head down. He then became vaguely conscious for the first time, in a real sense, of the power he held over this creature. He did not, of course, bother to mention the effects of the cosmetics upon himself. He had heard, incidentally, that on some worlds slaves were by custom refused cosmetics. He thought such worlds must be rather puritanical. To be sure, it seemed strange to think of a world as puritanical on which beautiful slaves might have to labor for months, striving to improve their services, and to become more and more pleasing, before they would be thrown a garment.

“I think you should leave now,” said Brenner.

She lifted her head. She looked up at him, frightened. “Please do not send me away,” she begged.

Brenner looked down at her. He then became even more conscious of his power over her. This pleased him. She was, in some way he was not clear about, at his mercy.

“Why not?” he asked. After all, he was of the home world. Surely he should not keep this person beside him, in this degraded position, one of respect, at his feet.

“I am sorry I was cross with you earlier today,” she said.

“It is nothing,” said Brenner. “The accident was trivial. It was of no importance, and it was as much, or more, my fault than yours.”

“But I did not behave well!” she said.

This interested Brenner, that she should even consider the matter as to whether or not she had behaved well. Certainly the women of the home world, or the typical women of the home world, never concerned themselves with such things. To be sure, this woman was not on the home world, but on this world, and was under contract, apparently to the proprietor of the bar. Brenner gathered that there might be sanctions on the behavior of such women, those on this world, or at least those under contract on this world. She was not, of course, a slave. He did not doubt, of course, that the sanctions placed on a slave for behaving well might be quite severe, and even extreme.

“You did not expect to see me tonight,” said Brenner, “or to find yourself where you are now.”

She put down her head, not responding to this. Her hair was dark brown, and glossy. Doubtless it had been washed, and brushed and combed, before she had come to the floor tonight. He considered that dark, glossy hair, and the compact, sweet curves of her in the silk. Her entire body had been washed, he did not doubt. Her feet, which had been in the mire earlier, were clean, except for some dust on the soles. On her left ankle, which seemed the place for such things, there was a chain and disk. It was similar to, but of a different construction from that which the maids in the hostel had worn. Brenner liked her chain and disk better. The chain was black-enameled, as was the lock, and the disk was larger. Indeed, he liked her better than the maid at the hostel. He was glad he had not remained at the hostel. Then he put such a horrid thought from his mind.

She looked up at him.

Brenner found the bar very hot. It was not merely that he was emotionally disturbed by the proximity of the young woman, but the temperature was objectively hot. Zards tended to like warm temperatures, even very warm temperatures, and accordingly tended to keep their dwelling areas, places of business, and such, quite warm. Even the girl, who wore almost nothing, would presumably have felt the temperature to be quite warm, perhaps even too warm.

Brenner sniffed the air. He could not place the aura, but he liked it. He had barely sensed it before. It was quite subtle.

He was not certain of its source, but he suspected it. Had he thrust his mouth and lips to the girl’s throat its source would have been clear to him.

“It is perfume,” she said. “I have a better upstairs.”

“It is a substance you put upon your body?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said.

“You are apparently intended to be found delightful by many senses,” he said.

“Yes, sir,” she said.

“I think you may go now,” said Brenner.

“Please be kind to me,” she said.

Rodriguez laughed, and she looked at him with fear.

“I have no intention of being unkind,” said Brenner.

“I am sorry!” she said. “I am sorry I behaved badly!”

“No apology is necessary,” said Brenner. “As I told you it was as much, or more, my fault than yours.”

“Please forgive me!” she said.

“No forgiveness is necessary,” said Brenner.

“I do not want to be tied naked to a post in the back yard!” she said.

“How is that done?” asked Brenner.

“My hands are tied behind my back,” she said, “and I am roped to it by the neck!”

“Excellent,” said Rodriguez.

She cast him a glance of fear, as at one who knew the handling of women.

“Barbarous,” said Brenner, disbelievingly.

“Do you want me to remove my silk?” she asked, looking up at Brenner.

The thought of seeing her so, then with only the appurtenance on her ankle, the chain, the lock, and disk, almost made Brenner scream with joy.

“No!” he said. “No!”

She looked back, fearfully, at the zard, but the creature did not look up.

“Remove the chain,” said Brenner.

“I cannot do that,” she said.

This pleased Brenner exceedingly, that she could not remove that device.

At this point the other woman, the blonde, the waitress, or whatever we might wish to call her, she who had seemed to share some secrecy with Rodriguez, emerged from the back, bearing a large tray, steaming with food.

Brenner was famished.

The blonde set the tray on one table, a serving table, and then, carefully, in a certain order, set another table. She glanced back once at the zard, but he paid her no attention. Then she gave Rodriguez a look of secretive confidence which he received impassively and declined to return. In a few moments the other table was prepared, complete with napkins, utensils, drinks, a nail wash and such. These arrangements were traditional with zards. Also, it might be mentioned that zards tended to use females of various species, including their own, for such services. It might also be mentioned that such females must in serving serve the males first and the females second. They are forbidden to do otherwise, and disagreements as to this sort of thing will elicit an invitation from the management for disgruntled patrons to depart. Zard restaurants were not common on the home world.

“Sirs,” said the blonde, turning to face them.

The table was prepared.

Rodriguez brought his glass of Heimat to the table, and Brenner followed suit, with his cooler. The girl who had been at Brenner’s feet, he noted, followed him, as though he might represent some sort of security for her, to the table. There were two rings set in the floor, one on either side of the table. These made Brenner nervous. Their purpose was not clear to him. One was a bit in front of him to his right, and the other was similarly situated with respect to Rodriguez, to his right, who took his place across from him.

“Is everything satisfactory, sirs?” asked the blonde. To Brenner, it seemed, again, as though she might somehow regard herself as playing a role. He wondered if she might not be speaking more for the benefit of the creature in the back than for theirs. Certainly her posing of the question, its tone, and such, to those to whom the language was familiar at least, had failed to ring of authenticity. Again there seemed to be some secret between her and Rodriguez. She was certainly attractive, however, thought Brenner, with those long legs, with that long, blond hair, and the yellow silk, in spite of whatever real or imagined meretriciousness, or falseness, might be in her manner. Yes, thought Brenner, she was ravishing. The brunette who had been at his feet at the bar now knelt docilely to his right. The blonde, it seemed, scarcely took note of her. The brunette was shorter than the blonde. Both, within the parameters set by their diverse heights, were superbly curved, the blonde in a tall, spare, linear loveliness and the brunette, shorter, with a more compact lusciousness. Brenner supposed that the blonde, from her manner and such, regarded herself as the superior of the two. Also, he recalled she had been summoned first to the floor and, of the two of them, Rodriguez and himself, had addressed herself to Rodriguez, who would have been easily recognized as first between them. The zard had then, perhaps as an afterthought, summoned forth the brunette for Brenner. From Brenner’s point of view, however, he was not dissatisfied with the arrangement. As a personal matter he found the brunette far more exciting. If the blonde was ravishing, then the brunette was even more ravishing. The blonde, incidentally, was of a type which many men of the home world, those who dared to speak of such things, professed to admire. Perhaps this had to do with her height and linearity, which tended to be more masculinistic than feminine, or, at least, than typically feminine. In this fashion, Brenner supposed that it might seem to many men of his world to constitute a less dangerous object of consideration, triggering fewer induced guilts, aversions, and such, than would the frank and delicious consideration of the luscious forms of more statistically normal females. Herein, one might speculate, could be found certain consequences of the negativistic conditionings to which the males of the home world were subjected. To be sure it was possible that there might exist another appeal of such a form, as well, a more obscure appeal, to be sure, but one perhaps also connected, ultimately, at least for the most part, with the negativistic conditionings. At any rate, Brenner preferred the brunette. Also, as some sop to his preferences, and as a reassurance to his vanity, he recalled reading somewhere, in a footnote somewhere, into which the most meaningful materials were often inserted, that on the openly stratified worlds, on all of which it seemed there existed the institution of female slavery, that the shorter, more luscious females, such as the brunette, tended to bring the highest prices. Indeed, more linear women, such as the blonde, tended to be held in a certain contempt, and were often consigned to the most menial duties. To be sure, it was admitted that they could be taught to jump and thrash, and serve, as well as their more normal sisters.

“Kneel there,” said Rodriguez to the blonde, indicating a place to his right, at the ring.

She looked at him, startled, but did as he had said.

She looked well there. Her back, of course, was to Brenner.

“This stuff,” said Rodriguez to Brenner, shoving a bowl in his direction, “is home-world mush. You would probably like it. Here it is probably fed to the women.”

Brenner glanced to the brunette. She put down her head. He gathered that such gruel might indeed be a staple in her fare, and doubtless in that of the blonde. The zard would presumably feed them alike. Too, they would not be likely to thrive on the fare preferred by zards. They were, after all, of a different species.

“Are you going to eat that?” asked Rodriguez.

“What?” asked Brenner.

“That,” said Rodriguez, indicating a dish near Brenner. “It is of the flesh of animals.”

“No!” said Brenner.

Rodriguez pulled the dish over to himself.

Brenner was horrified.

Brenner picked up a spoon and put it to the gruel before him. Such material tended to be unpalatable and tasteless, unless seasoned with various condiments. Some individuals on the home world, moral individuals, insisted upon eating it without condiments, in atonement for past species crimes.

“Is everything satisfactory, sir?” asked the blonde, again, but now from her knees.

Rodriguez felt under the table, where there was, apparently, under the upper surface, a sort of shelving. Brenner heard the slide, and rattle, of metal. To his horror he saw Rodriguez draw forth what appeared to be, at first, a handful of chain within a metal circle. He freed a tiny object from its housing in this apparatus, and slipped this tiny object into his vest pocket. He then tossed the remainder of the assemblage to the floor, before the blonde.

“Put it on,” he said.

She looked down at it, disbelievingly.

Brenner now saw, that it was disarranged on the floor, that two objects were actually involved. There was a short chain, the first object, about a yard in length, with an opened clip lock at each end. At one end, this opened clip lock had been inserted through, and turned, but not closed about, a small, stout, rounded staple emerging at right angles from the flat, metallic circle, the second object. This metallic circle, about a quarter of an inch in thickness, and an inch and a quarter in height, had a hinge in the back, which permitted it to open. It also had a hasp in the front, hinged, which was apparently congruent with the staple.

“Surely you cannot be serious,” said the blonde.

Rodriguez looked at her.

“Ah!” she whispered. “Of course!”

Brenner looked back to the zard. He had lifted his head, on that rather long neck, when the metal had struck the floor.

“Of course!” she said, rather loudly, doubtless for the benefit of the zard.

Then, and Brenner gathered it was not the first time she had done this, she snapped the lower lock clip shut about the ring in the floor. She then placed the metal circle about her neck, adjusting it with both hands, the chain, held to the metal circle by the open lock clip, it inserted through the staple, dangling from it. She then removed the upper lock clip of the chain from the staple, closed the hasp over the staple, reinserted the lock clip through the staple, it now with the hasp behind it, in place, and clicked it shut. Brenner seized the edges of the table. There was a beautiful woman before Rodriguez, collared and chained.

“You are clever,” she whispered to Rodriguez. Again it seemed there was some secret between them.

Brenner wondered if she were mad. Did she not understand that she was chained, truly!

“Chain me,” whispered the brunette to Brenner.

“Never!” said Brenner.

“You must!” she whispered. “Please! He is watching!”

Brenner looked up, as discreetly as possible. It did seem that the zard was regarding them.

“Please!” begged the brunette.

Brenner felt under the table. There was, indeed, a shelf there, and his hand, groping about, encountered chain. Too, there was a curved, flat metallic surface there. He drew forth these objects. They were loosely connected, as they had been for Rodriguez, by a lock clip put through, and turned, but not closed about, a staple.

Brenner looked at the objects. There was a key in one of the lock clips, that put through the staple, and Brenner removed it from the lock clip and put it on the table, beside a plate.

The brunette reached for the chain and circle.

“Put your hands down,” said Brenner, sharply.

Instantly she did so. She looked at Brenner, startled.

“On your thighs,” said Brenner. “Keep them there.”

She put her hands on her thighs.

“What do you say?” asked Brenner.

“Yes, sir,” she whispered.

He then removed the upper lock clip from the staple and crouched down, rather in front of her. He attached the lower lock clip to the ring in the floor. He jerked it against the ring. It was well fastened. He opened the collar. She then lifted her chin and looked outward, being careful not to meet his eyes. He put the collar on her and swung the hasp forward, over the staple. There was a small, but clear, rather decisive noise, as he did this. He then fitted the bolt of the lock clip through the staple and, decisively, snapped it shut. He jerked it against the staple. It was on her, well. Quite securely. She was chained.

He then resumed his seat and put the key to the apparatus in his upper, left-hand shirt pocket.

“I am sorry I was cross with you today,” she whispered.

“You were more than “cross”,” said Brenner. “You were angry, and I did not care for it.”

“Quirt her,” said Rodriguez.

Brenner looked at him.

“They look well, quirted,” said Rodriguez.

“There is a whip upstairs,” whispered the girl.

“You may remove your hands from your thighs,” said Brenner.

She did so, putting them on the chain, three or four inches below the collar.

“Perhaps you may free me,” said the blonde to Rodriguez, “so that I may serve you better.”

“You will stay where you are,” Rodriguez informed her.

“But perhaps others will come in,” she said.

“You will remain where you are,” said Rodriguez.

“Yes, sir,” she said, uneasily. And it seemed to Brenner that it might have been the first genuine response she had uttered all evening.

“Let us eat,” said Rodriguez.

He seized up a pair of zardian tongs. These could lift up a number of objects and could grasp quite firmly. Their width and gripping surfaces facilitated the capture of live food, scurrying about in dishes, for which zards had a taste. To be sure, as Rodriguez and Brenner were not zards, such materials had not been served to them. Zards, incidentally, particularly upper-class zards, tended to regard the use of the tongue to secure food as rude, at least in public. Certain exceptions were made for certain forms of food, of course, for which the use of the tongue was traditional.

Brenner noted the blonde, her hands on the chain, near her collar, cast a glance, and, it seemed, a somewhat uneasy one, at the brunette. He wondered how the women, generally, felt about one another. The blonde, he had surmised, held herself superior to the brunette. Now, however, it seemed that the women were rather in a commonality, and that their current predicament might take precedence over any typical competitions consequent upon their vanity. Both were now chained and collared, and kneeling. He wondered if the brunette knew that she was incredibly beautiful.

Brenner and Rodriguez then applied themselves to their repast, such as it was. In the course of the meal neither paid the women any attention. They did not, for example, offer to feed them. To be sure, at one point, Rodriguez did warn the blonde to silence.

“Not bad,” said Rodriguez, eventually, thrusting back a plate.

He then drew forth a letter, folded small, written in a feminine hand.

“No, please!” whispered the blonde, suddenly, terrified, lifting her hand to Rodriguez.

He read the letter, slowly, casually.

“Please,” whispered the blonde.

Rodriguez tossed the letter over to Brenner. “It was passed to me at the bar by this slut,” said Rodriguez.

Brenner now understood the secrecy, and the confidence, which had seemed imminent in the blonde’s manner toward Rodriguez.

“Please!” wept the blonde.

“Shut up,” said Rodriguez.

She pulled at the chain, but remained on her knees. She could not move from where she was, nor could she, of course, stand upright.

“It is a note which she wishes me to take with us when we leave Abydos, seeing that it is posted to a certain executive in the middle-management echelons of the company on Naxos,” said Rodriguez.

“Surely you will do so,” she whispered. “You are strangers here. You will be leaving Abydos. It will be easy for you to do! I have no other way to contact him, what with the censorship here, and the control of my movements! Women such as I are not even permitted within the precincts of the agent’s office!” The blonde squirmed, her hands on her chain, as Brenner read the note. It was not difficult, from the note, to gather what the situation was. The woman, now apologetic and willing, contrite, begging for another chance, wishing to be reconsidered, had refused the advances of a given executive. She had then been selected for reassignment. On Thasos, enroute to Aegina, her credits had been canceled, presumably as a matter of clerical error, from Naxos. Fortunately the company maintained offices on Thasos, to which she immediately appealed, only to discover that her identificatory credentials were no longer to be found in the company files. The agent on Thasos, it seemed, could do nothing. To be sure, he had expressed sympathy for her, in her dilemma, for it is surely not pleasant to be found stranded on a distant world, and in particular on one such as Thasos, on which visible evidence of support, sponsorship, or kinship is required. It could have been far worse, of course, for Thasos is relatively civilized. On some worlds she might have found herself in a slave pit by nightfall. The agent had suggested to her, as a temporary expedient, that she consider placing herself under contract to the company, embarrassing and regrettable as such an act might be, by means of which act she would come again under its aegis, and might once more profit from its power, protection, and solicitude, which contracts he was authorized to prepare and execute. The misunderstanding might then, at a later date, be corrected, all errors rectified, the contract canceled, and such. Indeed, he assured her that she would doubtless receive a profound apology from the company, small compensation though this might be for her humiliation. More tangibly, of course, he suggested that she might expect a full restoration of her canceled credits and, doubtless, a substantial compensatory bonus posted to her account. Gladly then did she put her name and personal number, having to do with her world of birth, species, and such, to the contract, for which act a certain number of credits were immediately posted to her account. “I am now a contract person,” she had laughed. “Yes, you are,” he had smiled. He had then conducted her to a small side room, which was bare, with no furniture, rugs or such. She was locked in this room. Later, toward the end of the working day, he opened the room, and handed her a small, neatly folded, white camisklike garment. This garment was narrow and fitted over the head. Its sides were open, except that by means of strings, on both sides, on both edges, under the arms, at the waist, and at the thighs, it could be tied modestly shut. It was a plain garment, except that at the left shoulder, tiny, and discrete, was placed the company logo. He then retired discretely while she changed. She was somewhat dismayed to discover the brevity of this garment. Also, when he first returned, he discovered she had retained undergarments, leg coverings and shoes. He then retired again, that she might remove these objects, which she did, putting them neatly to one side. She was to wear, it seemed, only the light, brief, white garment, literally that, and nothing else. When he returned, matters were in order, as was proper. He then carried her garments from the room, leaving her disconcerted within, in only the brief white garment. When he returned again he had her put her hands behind her back and put them in bracelets. “Routine,” he had assured her. He had then had her sit on the floor at the back of the room and put a small chain and disk on her left ankle, locking it there. “This marks you as company property,” he informed her. “ I am a free woman1” she exclaimed. “Of course,” he had reassured her. He had then gagged her and left her in the room, locked within. That night, still gagged, she was conducted from the room. He permitted her to see her clothing disintegrated. Then, hooded, she was transported from the office to the spaceport in an air car. In due course she found herself in a cell on a freighter, with five other females, none of whom spoke her language, and two of whom were not of her species. When she shrieked or complained, she was not fed. In time she found herself on Damascus where she, or, more exactly, her contract was put up for sale at auction. For the purposes of this sale, of course, not even the brief white garment in which she had been placed was permitted to her. In such sales, as you can easily understand, it is important for the bidder to be in a position to form a reliable conjecture as to the worth of the contract. On Damascus, as on a number of such worlds, although the young lady did not understand it at the time, incidentally, sales of contracts tend to be somewhat informal. Whereas the company would receive its credits for the sale, it would not receive any information, nor would any be kept on Damascus, of the disposition of the contract. In this there is, incidentally, a borrowing from slave handling. Suitable endorsements, however, as one would expect, are kept in the contract itself. Similarly, such endorsements are commonly kept on slave papers, where such papers are kept on a slave. Her contract was purchased by a native of the planet, a zard, who had recently negotiated the opening of a concession, a bar, on Abydos, at Company Station. In his bidding he was assisted by the advice of a fellow of the woman’s own species, that his selections, bids, and such, might be judicious. Most of the workers at Company Station, of course, as we have noted, were of the woman’s own species. It was thus, apparently, that the woman came to Company Station. We might also mention, incidentally, that on the same night some five other contracts, for similar purposes, were purchased by the zard. Amongst these was the contract for the brunette. The other women, unknown to Rodriguez and Brenner, were in the back. Thus, if one should fear that new customers at the bar might not be adequately served, one may discard such apprehensions. In the author’s opinion, the best of the lot were the blonde and the brunette. This might seem to be the opinion of others, as well, as the blonde and the brunette were the first to be sent to the floor. On the other hand, the others, I might mention, were also quite nice. The same night on which their contracts were sold the blonde and the brunette had lost their virginities. This seemed a negligible payment on the part of the zard, indeed, nothing from his point of view, for the services of the fellow who had been so helpful. And thus had the blonde and the brunette, and certain others, in cells, come with the zard and his coworkers, who were lodged in cabins, to Abydos. The blonde had worn the small white garment on the freighter to Damascus, incidentally, for several days before she realized what must have been regarded as one of its major assets, and was certainly a consequence of its design. This had become clear to her when a new girl had been put on at Thera or Rhodes, it was not easy to tell in the cells, weeks before they reached Damascus. This new girl, who was in an adjoining cell, was presumably also a company contractee. At any rate she was clad in the same small white garment, marked with the same logo, as the woman we are particularly concerned with here, and her cellmates. Interestingly this newcomer, despite the fact that she had presumably freely entered into contract, and was still a free woman, seemed determined to be rebellious. Accordingly, to the dismay of those in the adjoining cell, who must witness these things, she had been subjected to certain mild correctives, such as bonds and strippings. It was in the course of these events that the blonde had come to realize that the sort of garment she wore, the strings loosened, and such, could be removed from, and placed on, a bound woman, these things without injuring the garment or removing the bonds. She found that feature of interest, if a bit unsettling. In a few days the female’s rebellion, even given the gentleness of the admonitions applied to her, was over. She was on her knees to the zard crew members, her head down, cleaning the claws of their feet with her tongue, and such. All the females had learned something of discipline, thusly, either in the first person, or, so to speak, in the second person. To be sure, as they were free women, and not slaves, they could presumably not even begin to conjecture what it might be to be subject to a very different sort of discipline, one which we might, for want of a better word, call “slave discipline,” a sort of discipline to which, nonetheless, many females in the galaxy found themselves subject. One should not, incidentally, feel any particular horror or regret at the nature of the contract sales. On Damascus, for example, there are also slave sales, and they are quite different, being on the whole, as you might expect, far more brutal and exotic, which is however undoubtedly appropriate, considering the nature of the merchandise. For those of you who might be interested in the fate of the credits advanced to the blonde upon her signing of the contract, it might be mentioned that they were returned to the company, being used to pay her passage to Damascus. In this fashion she arrived on Damascus, as the agent had doubtless intended, under contract, and with not one credit of her own. Indeed, she arrived slightly in debt, as certain charges had been made against her enroute, for food, and certain minor sundries. These small charges, of course, were paid off by the zard, as a surcharge on his successful bid for the contract. The surcharges, of course, were made clear to the clientele of the auction, as well as, naturally, the house’s commission. The contractee’s earnings, as Rodriguez had suggested to Brenner, are usually arranged in such a way as to either fall short of the contractee’s debits, or to equal them. In this case, as the zard, though severe, was an honest sort, he had arranged matters in such a way that the blonde’s earnings, and those of her fellow contractees, as well, were exactly balanced by her debits, for example, those charged against her for her keep and food. In this fashion the blonde, and the others, would remain under contract, could make no progress in paying it off, and would have, naturally, not even one credit of their own. In this the zard was not cruel, as were some contract holders, for example, in letting a contractee seem to make progress toward buying back the contract, and then, again and again, on one pretext or another, at the last moment, levying new and large charges against them, bringing them back to their original position. By now, it might be mentioned, it was clear to the blonde, as it eventually becomes clear to most contractees, that she was absolutely helpless in herself, and that she must depend on others. That was doubtless the motivation for her letter. Out of her earnings, incidentally, the zard had recovered both the surcharge on his purchase of the contract and the broker’s commission. He had then raised the cost of her food and lodging to equal her earnings. One need not bother with this sort of accounting in the case of slaves, of course, as they are domestic animals.

Brenner handed the letter back to Rodriguez.

He lifted it up, and looked at it again, and then put it back on the table.

The blonde was in consternation, but she dared not reach over to snatch it up, nor, I think, given the temper of Rodriguez, would this have been a wise action on her part.

“Hide it,” she whispered, frantically. “Do not let him see it!”

But Rodriguez left it lying before him, on the table.

Brenner glanced at the brunette. She, too, seemed frightened, though apparently not for herself. Brenner noticed that she had her hands on her thighs, as he had once, earlier, ordered her to place them. The dark collar looked well on her neck, the chain dangling from it, running to the ring on the floor. He recalled he had put it on her. He did not feel for it, but he remembered the key was in his upper, left-hand shirt pocket, away from her.

“You planned to use this fellow, the one to whom the letter is addressed,” said Rodriguez to the blonde.

“He wanted to paw me,” she said.

Brenner thought the locution was an odd one, considering that the fellow in question was doubtless of her own species, and, accordingly, would be highly unlikely to possess paws. On the other hand, he was willing to grant that the usage was intended to be metaphorical, and derogatory. As such, however, it seemed demeaning to various sorts of life forms, which possessed paws. Did she not realize the equivalence of all life forms, and their equal merits, regardless of such trivial differences as size, weight, quantity of population, frequency of gene replication, nature of consciousness, emotional development, and intellectual capacity? Too, he supposed that the females of some species, at least, might find the touch of paws, and even those which contained claws, as most did, interesting, and even tactually stimulating. Certainly several rational species pawed one another in play and love, and so on. Indeed, he knew, beyond this, that the lovemaking of certain species tended to be quite rough, and even violent. Her use of the locution, however, Brenner decided, was largely internal and subjective, not so much indicative of an external reality, suitably appraised, as expressive of her aversion to sexuality.

“Surely,” she said to Rodriguez, “as a gentleman, you can understand!”

Brenner considered the matter. Things were doubtless more complex than the blonde’s locution suggested. He decided to dismiss, at least for the time, the expression ‘pawing’, which in this context seemed to function more emotively than cognitively. Suppose one took another expression, one somewhat more literally intended, but nonetheless certainly explicit, such as ‘handling’. He then regarded the blonde and the brunette. Certainly it seemed their bodies invited handling, holding, grasping, seizing, touching, caressing and such. Indeed, it seemed likely, given the selections of nature over countless generations, that they had been designed to be handled, and well. It was natural then that they might be of interest to men, regardless of the danger, or inconvenience, of this to the maintenance of certain political arrangements. If moons were political, thought Brenner, they would perhaps disclaim their effects on the tides. If flowers were political they would perhaps scold bees for having been lured to their nectar. Did the blonde not know she was a female, and an attractive one? Brenner looked at her. Yes, thought Brenner, she has been designed to be handled. Her present brief garmenture, of course, left little doubt as to the matter.

“You wished to use his interest in you,” said Rodriguez to the blonde.

“No!” she said.

“You put him off,” he said.

“Of course!” she said.

“You wished to whet his appetite,” said Rodriguez. “What was it you were out to buy?”

“Nothing!” she said.

“What?” he asked.

“Promotion!” she said, angrily.

Rodriguez leaned back, regarding her.

“The company is not like the home world!” she said.

Rodriguez nodded.

In the company, as in most such companies, men remained important. There were a number of reasons for this.

“A woman must do her best for herself,” she said.

“You do not think it is an accident that you were stranded on Thasos, do you?” he asked.

“No,” she said. “Not now.”

“Nor that the agent there was so cooperative, and such?”

“No,” she said, bitterly, putting her head down.

“It seems, from your letter,” said Rodriguez, “that you have rethought your original position in this matter.”

“Yes,” she said.

“And now,” said Rodriguez, “if I am not mistaken, you are willing to crawl back to this fellow on your hands and knees, begging his forgiveness.”

“On my belly,” she said, bitterly.

Rodriguez fingered the letter, idly.

“You must have it delivered!” she said.

“Why?” asked Rodriguez.

“I must be rescued!” she said.

“And you think this fellow will do so?”

“Of course,” she said.

“But I gather from your letter,” he said, “that your contract was sold on Damascus.”

“I don’t understand,” she said.

“Why not on Chios or Thera?” he asked.

“I don’t understand,” she said.

“Both are closer to Thasos than Damascus,” he said.

“Yes?” she said.

“Doesn’t it seem strange to you then that your contract was sold on Damascus? Indeed, why was it not sold even on Thasos?”

“I do not understand,” she said.

“You could not be traced from a sale on Damascus,” he said.

She regarded him, frightened.

“Your fellow on Naxos surely knew that,” said Rodriguez. And so, too, incidentally, would have the agent on Thasos.”

“What are you saying?” she asked.

“Is it not obvious?” asked Rodriguez.

“No!” she said.

“You have been thrown away,” said Rodriguez. “Your fellow on Naxos, obviously, has no interest in getting you back.”

“No!” she said. “That cannot be!”

“He has doubtless dismissed you from his mind,” said Rodriguez. “He has doubtless forgotten about you.”

“But I am different now!” she said. “I am contrite! I am willing to do what he wants!”

“You will now do what any man wants,” said Rodriguez.

She shrank back, in the collar and chain.

“Quite,” he added.

“He can’t have forgotten me!” she said. “He wanted me!”

“Your contract was sold on Damascus,” Rodriguez reminded her. “He has rid himself of you.”

“No,” she said.

“Doubtless he has others,” said Rodriguez.

“No!” she said.

“Do not be naive,” said Rodriguez.

“It is only necessary that I let him know my whereabouts,” she said. “He has doubtless, by now, regretted his decision, and will hasten to arrange my rescue!”

Rodriguez smiled.

“Yes!” she said.

“And what do you think you would then be to him?” he asked.

“I do not care what I would then be to him!” she said.

“Do you think he will restore your freedom, your position, your salary, such things?”

“No,” she said.

“At most what could you be to him, a maid under contract, at a walled country house, on a world occasionally visited? Perhaps you would be assigned as a hostess in a company resort on some world, where he might, on some vacation or another, see to it that a certain portion of your time was reserved for him.”

She looked down, her small fists clenched.

“He might even have you embonded,” said Rodriguez. “He might find that amusing.”

“No!” she said.

“You might become a brothel slave,” he said, “chained to a bed on Sybaris.”

“Please see that the letter is posted,” she whispered. “I must be rescued!”

“Doubtless,” said Rodriguez, “you stole the paper and the ink used in this letter, and the use of its writing implement. I expect such things are not commonly at the disposal of contractees.”

“Please,” she whispered. “He can hear! He can understand!”

“And since he has this concession,” said Rodriguez, “and must deal with humans here, he is undoubtedly literate, as well.”

“Hide the letter,” she begged.

But Rodriguez left the letter where it was.

“I must be rescued!” she whispered.

“There are many women under contract on Abydos,” said Rodriguez, “for example, the maids at the hostel. What of them?”

“Let them fend for themselves!” she said.

“But what if they are unable to do so?” asked Rodriguez.

“Then that is their misfortune,” she said.

“To all fours,” said Rodriguez, “and come closer.”

She did so, the chain then going back a little, and under her.

“Now lift your chin,” said Rodriguez.

Frightened, the blonde did so. Rodriguez then, with the back of his hand, in a swift, sweeping motion, struck her on the right cheek.

“Rodriguez!” protested Brenner.

“To all fours, again,” said Rodriguez, angrily.

Quickly the blonde, the side of her face red, doubtless stinging, tears in her eyes, hastened to comply.

“You have a room upstairs,” said Rodriguez.

“One I am permitted to use,” she said.

“You are normally slept below,” said Rodriguez, “in cages or kennels?”

“We are not slaves,” she said. “We are put in small rooms, separately, with a straw mat, and blankets, and locked in!”

“You look well on all fours,” said Rodriguez.

A tear fell to the floor.

“What do you say?” asked Rodriguez.

“Yes, sir,” she said. “Thank you, sir.”

“You are ready, it seems, to crawl on your belly to your friend on Naxos,” mused Rodriguez.

“Yes,” she whispered.

“Is there a whip in the room?” asked Rodriguez.

“Yes,” she whispered.

“Will it be necessary to use it?” he asked.

“No, sir!” she said.

“Do you know what I am going to teach you?” he asked.

“No,” she said.

“I will teach you to crawl on your belly to any man,” he said.

She looked up at him.

“Speak,” he said.

“Yes, sir,” she whispered.

The zard had his head lifted, in an attitude of interest. But then he returned to his work.

“I will release you now,” said Rodriguez, removing the key from his vest pocket and opening the lock clip which had been secured through the staple on the blonde’s collar. He then removed the clip from the staple, swung back the hasp, clearing the staple, fastened the bolt of the clip about the staple, inserted the key in the lock clip, these things then as they had been originally, and opened the collar. He let the apparatus lie on the floor. The blonde, frightened, took the key from the upper lock clip and freed the lower lock clip, and put the key back in the upper lock clip. Then, with a look of fear at Rodriguez, and on her knees, she curled the chain inside the collar, and put both items back on the shelf. Neatness, Brenner gathered, might be important to the zard. His own species, as he recalled, was regarded as one of the most slovenly in the galaxy. Brenner, seeing what Rodriguez was up to, similarly freed the brunette, but unlocked the lower lock clip first that she would continue to wear the neck chain longer. He was not certain why he did this. He then let the brunette, on her knees, as had the blonde, put the custodial apparatus back on its shelf under the table. The brunette then went to all fours, following the example of the blonde. “You may clear,” Rodriguez informed the women. “Then you may precede us upstairs, each of you bearing a desert, a coffee and a liqueur.”

“Yes, sir,” said the blonde, from all fours.

“I am returning to the hostel,” said Brenner.

“No, no!” whispered the brunette to him. “Please, do not! Go upstairs! You do not need to do anything! Please try to understand! If you do not send me upstairs before you, it will be thought that I have not been found pleasing! I do not want to be beaten, or tied outside in the cold! I know that I did not treat you well earlier today, but I am truly sorry, truly! Do not hold it against me! Forgive me! Please be merciful to me now. Indeed, punish me, if you wish, in the room. There is a whip there. But do not send me away now. Order me upstairs, before you. I beg it! Please be kind! Please!”

“All right,” said Brenner. And to be sure, on some level, he was pleased, and exceedingly so, to have this woman, so exposed and scantily clad, who had been angry with him earlier in the day, now, somehow, apparently so much at his mercy.

The women, working together, quickly cleared the table and then hurried to the back. When they reappeared, each bearing a small tray, Rodriguez and Brenner rose up from the table and went to the foot of the stairs leading upward, not far from the desk of the zard. The women were there, at the foot of the stairs, to the right of the zard’s desk, as one would face it. Rodriguez brought the letter, opened, with him, and looked at the blonde. She shook her head, wildly. She turned white. The articles on her small tray trembled. He must hide the letter!

“I am not an errand boy,” Rodriguez said to her.

The blonde cried out with misery and, putting down the tray on the floor, flung herself on her knees, sobbing, her head to the floor, before the zard.

He picked up the letter, opened, which Rodriguez had dropped on his desk. He perused it.

His expression did not change, and it is difficult for those of Rodriguez’ and Brenner’s species to read most expressions of zards. We might mention, however, that the tiny ridge of plates on the back of its head and neck did not erect, nor did the mouth open, emitting a loud, hissing noise. His forward right appendage, however, reached out, grasping the heavy quirt.

“No, no, please!” wept the blonde, her head down.

Rodriguez put his hand on the clawed hand of the zard, and shook his head.

The blonde looked up, frightened, at the zard, and then at Rodriguez.

“I expect you will be watched rather carefully now, for some time,” speculated Rodriguez. “Perhaps you will not be allowed to wear silk on the floor for some time, and your body may be examined, before you are permitted on the floor, to make certain you are not concealing any such messages. I would not wish, if I were you, incidentally, to be caught attempting such a childish, stupid trick again.”

“No, sir,” wept the blonde.

“I do not know what might be done to you.”

“No, sir,” she wept.

“Rejoice that you are not a slave,” said Rodriguez.

“Yes, sir!” she said.

“But that can come later,” said Rodriguez.

“No, no!” wept the blonde.

“Such is certain to become your eventual fate,” said Rodriguez.

“No! No!” she wept.

“I will let you know in the morning,” said Rodriguez, “if she is satisfactory.”

The zard inclined his head.

“I will try to be as pleasing as I can be to you,” said the blonde.

“I am confident of it,” said Rodriguez.

“Do not complain of me in the morning, I beg of you,” said the blonde.

“We shall see how you perform,” said Rodriguez.

“What do you want of me? What must I do?” she wept.

“Pick up the tray,” said Rodriguez.

Sobbing the blond picked up the tray. She then stood before Rodriguez. The articles on the tray trembled slightly. She did not meet Rodriguez’ eyes. Although she was tall, Rodriguez was considerably taller.

“Do you fear you will be “pawed,”” asked Rodriguez.

She kept her head down, and did not respond.

“Before I am through with you,” said Rodriguez, “you will beg to be merely “pawed,” and brutally.”

“Yes, sir,” she said.

“Get your ass upstairs,” he said.

“Yes, sir,” she said.

She then preceded Rodriguez up the stairs. She looked nice ascending the stairs.

Brenner then looked at the brunette. She was standing, holding the small tray, on which were a coffee, a desert, a small custard, and a tiny glass of some liqueur. Their eyes met. Then she looked down. Brenner recalled how she had been angry with him earlier in the day. He had not been pleased by that. “Get your ass upstairs,” he said.

“Yes, sir,” she said.

He then followed her upstairs. The blonde had turned left. The brunette turned to the right, and led the way to a room near the end of the hall.