A SLAVE IS A SLAVE

BY H. BEAM PIPER

+--------------------------------------------------------------+| Transcriber's Note || || This etext was produced from Analog Science Fact--Science || Fiction April 1962. Extensive research did not uncover any || evidence that the U. S. Copyright on this publication was || renewed. |+--------------------------------------------------------------+

 There has always been strong sympathy for the poor, meek, downtrodden slave--the kindly little man, oppressed by cruel and overbearing masters. Could it possibly have been misplaced. .. ?

Jurgen, Prince Trevannion, accepted the coffee cup and lifted it to hislips, then lowered it. These Navy robots always poured coffee too hot;spacemen must have collapsium-lined throats. With the other hand, hepunched a button on the robot's keyboard and received a lightedcigarette; turning, he placed the cup on the command-desk in front ofhim and looked about. The tension was relaxing in Battle-Control, thepurposeful pandemonium of the last three hours dying rapidly. Officersof both sexes, in red and blue and yellow and green coveralls, wererising from seats, leaving their stations, gathering in groups. Laughter, a trifle loud; he realized, suddenly, that they had beenworried, and wondered if he should not have been a little so himself. No. There would have been nothing he could have done about anything, soworry would not have been useful. He lifted the cup again and sippedcautiously. 

"That's everything we can do now, " the man beside him said. "Now we justsit and wait for the next move. "

Like all the others, Line-Commodore Vann Shatrak wore shipboardbattle-dress; his coveralls were black, splashed on breast and betweenshoulders with the gold insignia of his rank. His head was completelybald, and almost spherical; a beaklike nose carried down the curve ofhis brow, and the straight lines of mouth and chin chopped under itenhanced rather than spoiled the effect. He was getting coffee; hegulped it at once. 

"It was very smart work, Commodore. I never saw a landing operation goso smoothly. "

"Too smooth, " Shatrak said. "I don't trust it. " He looked suspiciouslyup at the row of viewscreens. 

"It was absolutely unnecessary!"

That was young Obray, Count Erskyll, seated on the commodore's left. Hewas a generation younger than Prince Trevannion, as Shatrak was ageneration older; they were both smooth-faced. It was odd, how beardswent in and out of fashion with alternate generations. He had beenworried, too, during the landing, but for a different reason from theothers. Now he was reacting with anger. 

"I told you, from the first, that it was unnecessary. You see? Theyweren't even able to defend themselves, let alone. .. . "

His personal communication-screen buzzed; he set down the coffee andflicked the switch. It was Lanze Degbrend. On the books, Lanze wascarried as Assistant to the Ministerial Secretary. In practice, Lanzewas his chess-opponent, conversational foil, right hand, third eye andear, and, sometimes, trigger-finger. Lanze was now wearing the combatcoveralls of an officer of Navy Landing-Troops; he had a steel helmetwith a transpex visor shoved up, and there was a carbine slung over hisshoulder. He grinned and executed an exaggeratedly military salute. Hechuckled. 

"Well, look at you; aren't you the perfect picture of correct diplomaticdress?"

"You know, sir, I'm afraid I am, for this planet, " Degbrend said. "Colonel Ravney insisted on it. He says the situation downstairs isstill fluid, which I take to mean that everybody is shooting ateverybody. He says he has the main telecast station, in the big buildingthe locals call the Citadel. "

"Oh, good. Get our announcement out as quickly as you can. Number Five. You and Colonel Ravney can decide what interpolations are needed to fitthe situation. "

"Number Five; the really tough one, " Degbrend considered. "I take itthat by interpolations you do not mean dilutions?"

"Oh, no; don't water the drink. Spike it. "

Lanze Degbrend grinned at him. Then he snapped down the visor of hishelmet, unslung his carbine, and presented it. He was still standing atpresent arms when Trevannion blanked the screen. 

 * * * * *

"That still doesn't excuse a wanton and unprovoked aggression!" Erskyllwas telling Shatrak, his thin face flushed and his voice quivering withindignation. "We came here to help these people, not to murder them. "

"We didn't come here to do either, Obray, " he said, turning to face theyounger man. "We came here to annex their planet to the Galactic Empire, whether they wish it annexed or not. Commodore Shatrak used the quickestand most effective method of doing that. It would have done no good toattempt to parley with them from off-planet. You heard those telecastsof theirs. "

"Authoritarian, " Shatrak said, then mimicked pompously: "'Everybody iscommanded to remain calm; the Mastership is taking action. TheConvocation of the Lords-Master is in special session; they will decidehow to deal with the invaders. The administrators are directed toreassure the supervisors; the overseers will keep the workers at theirtasks. Any person disobeying the orders of the Mastership will be dealtwith most severely. '"

"Static, too. No spaceships into this system for the last five hundredyears; the Convocation--equals Parliament, I assume--hasn't been inspecial session for two hundred and fifty. "

"Yes. I've taken over planets with that kind of government before, "Shatrak said. "You can't argue with them. You just grab them by thecenter of authority, quick and hard. "

Count Erskyll said nothing for a moment. He was opposed to the use offorce. Force, he believed, was the last resort of incompetence; he hadsaid so frequently enough since this operation had begun. Of course, hewas absolutely right, though not in the way he meant. Only theincompetent wait until the last extremity to use force, and by then, itis usually too late to use anything, even prayer. 

But, at the same time, he was opposed to authoritarianism, except, ofcourse, when necessary for the real good of the people. And he did notlike rulers who called themselves Lords-Master. Good democratic rulerscalled themselves Servants of the People. So he relapsed into silenceand stared at the viewscreens. 

One, from an outside pickup on the _Empress Eulalie_ herself, showed thesurface of the planet, a hundred miles down, the continent under themcurving away to a distant sun-reflecting sea; beyond the curved horizon, the black sky was spangled with unwinking stars. Fifty miles down, thesun glinted from the three thousand foot globes of the twotransport-cruisers, _Canopus_ and _Mizar_. 

Another screen, from _Mizar_, gave a clearer if more circumscribed viewof the surface--green countryside, veined by rivers and wrinkled withmountains; little towns that were mere dots; a scatter of white clouds. Nothing that looked like roads. There had been no native sapient race onthis planet, and in the thirteen centuries since it had been colonizedthe Terro-human population had never completely lost the use ofcontragravity vehicles. In that screen, farther down, the fourdestroyers, _Irma_, _Irene_, _Isobel_ and _Iris_, were tiny twinkles. 

 * * * * *

From _Irene_, they had a magnified view of the city. On the maps, nonelater than eight hundred years old, it was called Zeggensburg; it hadbeen built at the time of the first colonization under the old TerranFederation. Tall buildings, rising from wide interspaces of lawns andparks and gardens, and, at the very center, widely separated fromanything else, the mass of the Citadel, a huge cylindrical tower risingfrom a cluster of smaller cylinders, with a broad circular landing stageabove, topped by the newly raised flag of the Galactic Empire. 

There was a second city, a thick crescent, to the south and east. Theold maps placed the Zeggensburg spaceport there, but not a trace of thatremained. In its place was what was evidently an industrial district, located where the prevailing winds would carry away the dust and smoke. There was quite a bit of both, but the surprising thing was the streets, long curved ones, and shorter ones crossing at regular intervals to formblocks. He had never seen a city with streets before, and he doubted ifanybody else on the Empire ships had. Long boulevards to giveunobstructed passage to low-level air-traffic, of course, and shortwinding walkways, but not things like these. Pictures, of course, ofnative cities on planets colonized at the time of the Federation, andeven very ancient ones of cities on pre-Atomic Terra. But these peoplehad contragravity; the towering, wide-spaced city beside thiscross-gridded anachronism proved that. 

They knew so little about this planet which they had come to bring underImperial rule. It had been colonized thirteen centuries ago, during thelast burst of expansion before the System States War and thedisintegration of the Terran Federation, and it had been named Aditya, in the fashion of the times, for some forgotten deity of some obscureand ancient polytheism. A century or so later, it had seceded from orbeen abandoned by the Federation, then breaking up. That much they hadgleaned from old Federation records still existing on Baldur. Afterthat, darkness, lighted only by a brief flicker when more records hadturned up on Morglay. 

Morglay was one of the Sword-Worlds, settled by refugee rebels from theSystem States planets. Mostly they had been soldiers and spacemen; therehad been many women with them, and many were skilled technicians, engineers, scientists. They had managed to carry off considerableequipment with them, and for three centuries they had lived inisolation, spreading over a dozen hitherto undiscovered planets. Excalibur, Tizona, Gram, Morglay, Durendal, Flamberge, Curtana, Quernbiter; the names were a roll-call of fabulous blades of Old Terranlegend. 

Then they had erupted, suddenly and calamitously, into what was left ofthe Terran Federation as the Space Vikings, carrying pillage anddestruction, until the newborn Empire rose to vanquish them. In thesixth Century Pre-Empire, one of their fleets had come from Morglay toAditya. 

The Adityans of that time had been near-barbarians; the descendants ofthe original settlers had been serfs of other barbarians who had come asmercenaries in the service of one or another of the local chieftains andhad remained to loot and rule. Subjugating them had been easy; the SpaceVikings had taken Aditya and made it their home. For several centuries, there had been communication between them and their home planet. ThenMorglay had become involved in one of the interplanetary dynastic warsthat had begun the decadence of the Space Vikings, and again Adityadropped out of history. 

Until this morning, when history returned in the black ships of theGalactic Empire. 

 * * * * *

He stubbed out the cigarette and summoned the robot to give him another. Shatrak was speaking:

"You see, Count Erskyll, we really had to do it this way, for their owngood. " He wouldn't have credited the commodore with such guile; anythingwas justified, according to Obray of Erskyll, if done for somebodyelse's good. "What we did, we just landed suddenly, knocked out theirarmy, seized the center of government, before anybody could do anything. If we'd landed the way you'd wanted us to, somebody would have resisted, and the next thing, we'd have had to kill about five or six thousand ofthem and blow down a couple of towns, and we'd have lost a lot of ourown people doing it. You might say, we had to do it to save them fromthemselves. "

Obray of Erskyll seemed to have doubts, but before he could articulatethem, Shatrak's communication-screen was calling attention to itself. The commodore flicked the switch, and his executive officer, CaptainPatrique Morvill, appeared in it. 

"We've just gotten reports, sir, that some of Ravney's people havecaptured a half-dozen missile-launching sites around the city. Hisair-reconn tells him that that's the lot of them. I have an officer ofone of the parties that participated. You ought to hear what he has tosay, sir. "

"Well, good!" Vann Shatrak whooshed out his breath. "I don't mindadmitting, I was a little on edge about that. "

"Wait till you hear what Lieutenant Carmath has to say. " Morvill seemedto be strangling a laugh. "Ready for him, Commodore?"

Shatrak nodded; Morvill made a hand-signal and vanished in a flicker ofrainbow colors; when the screen cleared, a young Landing-Trooplieutenant in battle-dress was looking out of it. He saluted and gavehis name, rank and unit. 

"This missile-launching site I'm occupying, sir; it's twenty milesnorth-west of the city. We took it thirty minutes ago; no resistancewhatever. There are four hundred or so people here. Of them, twelve, onedozen, are soldiers. The rest are civilians. Ten enlisted men, a non-comof some sort, and something that appears to be an officer. The officerhad a pistol, fully loaded. The non-com had a submachine gun, empty, with two loaded clips on his belt. The privates had rifles, empty, andno ammunition. The officer did not know where the rifle ammunition wasstored. "

Shatrak swore. The second lieutenant nodded. "Exactly my comment when hetold me, sir. But this place is beautifully kept up. Lawns all mowed, trees neatly pruned, everything policed up like inspection morning. Andthere is a headquarters office building here adequate for an armydivision. .. . "

"How about the armament, Lieutenant?" Shatrak asked with forcedpatience. 

"Ah, yes; the armament, sir. There are eight big launching cradles forpanplanetary or off-planet missiles. They are all polished up like theCrown Jewels. But none, repeat none, of them is operative. And there isnot a single missile on the installation. "

Shatrak's facial control didn't slip. It merely intensified, whichamounted to the same thing. 

"Lieutenant Carmath, I am morally certain I heard you correctly, butlet's just check. You said. .. . "

He repeated the lieutenant back, almost word for word. Carmath nodded. 

"That was it, sir. The missile-crypts are stacked full ofold photoprints and recording and microfilm spools. Thesighting-and-guidance systems for all the launchers are completelymissing. The letoff mechanisms all lack major parts. There is anelaborate set of detection equipment, which will detect absolutelynothing. I saw a few pairs of binoculars about; I suspect that that iswhat we were first observed with. "

"This office, now; I suppose all the paperwork is up to the minute inquintulplicate, and initialed by everybody within sight or hearing?"

"I haven't checked on that yet, sir. If you're thinking of betting onit, please don't expect me to cover you, though. "

"Well, thank you, Lieutenant Carmath. Stick around; I'm sending down atech-intelligence crew to look at what's left of the place. Whileyou're waiting, you might sort out whoever seems to be in charge andfind out just what in Nifflheim he thinks that launching-station wasmaintained for. "

[Illustration]

"I think I can tell you that, now, Commodore, " Prince Trevannion said asShatrak blanked the screen. "We have a petrified authoritarianism. Quitelikely some sort of an oligarchy; I'd guess that this Convocation thingthey talk about consists of all the ruling class, everybody has equalvoice, and nobody will take the responsibility for doing anything. Andthe actual work of government is probably handled by a corps ofbureaucrats entrenched in their jobs, unwilling to exert any effort andafraid to invite any criticism, and living only to retire on theirpensions. I've seen governments like that before. " He named a few. "Onething; once a government like that has been bludgeoned into the Empire, it rarely makes any trouble later. "

"Just to judge by this missileless non-launching station, " Shatrak said, "they couldn't even decide on what kind of trouble to make, or how tostart it. I think you're going to have a nice easy Proconsulate here, Count Erskyll. "

Count Erskyll started to say something. No doubt he was about to tellShatrak, cuttingly, that he didn't want an easy Proconsulate, but anopportunity to help these people. He was saved from this by the buzzingof Shatrak's communication-screen. 

It was Colonel Pyairr Ravney, the Navy Landing-Troop commander. Likeeverybody else who had gone down to Zeggensburg, he was in battle-dressand armed; the transpex visor of his helmet was pushed up. BetweenShatrak's generation and Count Erskyll's, he sported a pointed mustacheand a spiky chin-beard, which, on his thin and dark-eyed face, lookeddistinctly Mephistophelean. He was grinning. 

"Well, sir, I think we can call it a done job, " he said. "There's adelegation here who want to talk to the Lords-Master of the ships onbehalf of the Lords-Master of the Convocation. Two of them, with about adozen portfolio-bearers and note-takers. I'm not too good in LinguaTerra, outside Basic, at best, and their brand is far from that. Igather that they're some kind of civil-servants, personalrepresentatives of the top Lords-Master. "

"Do we want to talk to them?" Shatrak asked. 

"Well, we should only talk to the actual, titular, heads of thegovernment--Mastership, " Erskyll, suddenly protocol-conscious, objected. "We can't negotiate with subordinates. "

"Oh, who's talking about negotiating; there isn't anything to negotiate. Aditya is now a part of the Galactic Empire. If this present regimeassents to that, they can stay in power. If not, we will toss them outand install a new government. We will receive this delegation, informthem to that effect, and send them back to relay the information totheir Lords-Master. " He turned to the Commodore. "May I speak to ColonelRavney?"

Shatrak assented. He asked Ravney where these Lords-Master were. 

"Here in the Citadel, in what they call the Convocation Chamber. Closeto a thousand of them, screaming recriminations at one another. Soundslike feeding time at the Imperial Zoo. I think they all want tosurrender, but nobody dares propose it first. I've just put a cordonaround it and placed it off limits to everybody. And everything outsideoff limits to the Convocation. "

"Well thought of, Colonel. I suppose the Citadel teems with bureaucratsand such low life-forms?"

"Bulging with them. Literally thousands. Lanze Degbrend and CommanderDouvrin and a few others are trying to get some sensible answers out ofsome of them. "

"This delegation; how had you thought of sending them up?"

"Landing-craft to _Isobel_; _Isobel_ will bring them the rest of theway. "

He looked at his watch. "Well, don't be in too much of a rush to getthem here, Colonel. We don't want them till after lunch. Delay them on_Isobel_; the skipper can see that they have their own lunch aboard. Andentertain them with some educational films. Something to convince themthat there is slightly more to the Empire than one ship-of-the-line, twocruisers and four destroyers. "

Count Erskyll was dissatisfied about that, too. He wanted to see thedelegation at once and make arrangements to talk to their superiors. Count Erskyll, among other things, was zealous, and of this hedisapproved. Zealous statesmen perhaps did more mischief than anythingin the Galaxy--with the possible exception of procrastinating soldiers. That could indicate the fundamental difference between statecraft andwar. He'd have to play with that idea a little. 

 * * * * *

An Empire ship-of-the-line was almost a mile in diameter. It was morethan a battle-craft; it also had political functions. The grand salon, on the outer zone where the curvature of the floors was lessdisconcerting, was as magnificent as any but a few of the rooms of theImperial Palace at Asgard on Odin, the floor richly carpeted and thewalls alternating mirrors and paintings. The movable furniture variedaccording to occasion; at present, it consisted of the bare desk atwhich they sat, the three chairs they occupied, and the threesecretary-robots, their rectangular black casts blazened with the Sunand Cogwheel of the Empire. It faced the door, at the far end of theroom; on either side, a rank of spacemen, in dress uniform and underarms, stood. 

In principle, annexing a planet to the Empire was simplicity itself, butlike so many things simple in principle, it was apt to be complicated inpractice, and to this, he suspected, the present instance would be noexception. 

In principle, one simply informed the planetary government that it wasnow subject to the sovereignty of his Imperial Majesty, the GalacticEmperor. This information was always conveyed by a MinisterialSecretary, directly under the Prime Minister and only one more step downfrom the Emperor, in the present instance Jurgen, Prince Trevannion. Tomake sure that the announcement carried conviction, the presumedly gladtidings were accompanied by the Imperial Space Navy, at presentrepresented by Commodore Vann Shatrak and a seven ship battle-line unit, and two thousand Imperial Landing-Troops. 

When the locals had been properly convinced--with as little bloodshed asnecessary, but always beyond any dispute--an Imperial Proconsul, in thiscase Obray, Count Erskyll, would be installed. He would by no meansgovern the planet. The Imperial Constitution was definite on that point;every planetary government should be sovereign as to intraplanetaryaffairs. The Proconsul, within certain narrow and entirely inelasticlimits, would merely govern the government. 

Unfortunately, Obray, Count Erskyll, appeared not to understand thiscompletely. It was his impression that he was a torch-bearer of Imperialcivilization, or something equally picturesque and metaphorical. As heconceived it, it was the duty of the Empire, as represented by himself, to make over backward planets like Aditya in the image of Odin or Mardukor Osiris or Baldur or, preferably, his own home world of Aton. 

This was Obray of Erskyll's first proconsular appointment, it was due tofamily influence, and it was a mistake. Mistakes, of course, wereinevitable in anything as large and complex as the Galactic Empire, andany institution guided by men was subject to one kind of influence oranother, family influence being no worse than any other kind. In thiscase, the ultra-conservative Erskylls of Aton, from old Errol, Duke ofYorvoy, down, had become alarmed at the political radicalism of youngObray, and had, on his graduation from the University of Nefertiti, persuaded the Prime Minister to appoint him to a Proconsulate as farfrom Aton as possible, where he would not embarrass them. Just at thattime, more important matters having been gotten out of the way, Adityahad come up for annexation, and Obray of Erskyll had been namedProconsul. 

That had been the mistake. He should have been sent to some planet whichhad been under Imperial rule for some time, where the Proconsulate ranitself in a well-worn groove, and where he could at leisure learn theprocedures and unlearn some of the unrealisms absorbed at the Universityfrom professors too well insulated from the realities of politics. 

 * * * * *

There was a stir among the guards; helmet-visors were being snappeddown; feet scuffed. They stiffened to attention, the great doors at theother end of the grand salon slid open, and the guards presented arms asthe Adityan delegation was ushered in. 

There were fourteen of them. They all wore ankle-length gowns, and theyall had shaven heads. The one in the lead carried a staff and wore apale green gown; he was apparently a herald. Behind him came two inwhite gowns, their empty hands folded on their breasts; one was a hugebulk of obesity with a bulging brow, protuberant eyes and a purseylittle mouth, and the other was thin and cadaverous, with a skull-like, almost fleshless face. The ones behind, in dark green and pale blue, carried portfolios and slung sound-recorder cases. There was a metallictwinkle at each throat; as they approached, he could see that they allwore large silver gorgets. They came to a halt twenty feet from thedesk. The herald raised his staff. 

"I present the Admirable and Trusty Tchall Hozhet, personal chief-slaveof the Lord-Master Olvir Nikkolon, Chairman of the Presidium of theLords-Master's Convocation, and Khreggor Chmidd, chief-slave in officeto the Lord-Master Rovard Javasan, Chief of Administration ofManagement of the Mastership, " he said. Then he stopped, puzzled, looking from one to another of them. When his eyes fell on Vann Shatrak, he brightened. 

"Are you, " he asked, "the chief-slave of the chief Lord-Master of thisship?"

Shatrak's face turned pink; the pink darkened to red. He used a word; itwas a completely unprintable word. So, except for a few scatteredpronouns, conjunctions and prepositions, were the next fifty words heused. The herald stiffened. The two delegates behind him were aghast. The subordinate burden-bearers in the rear began looking aroundapprehensively. 

"I, " Shatrak finally managed, "am an officer of his Imperial Majesty'sSpace Navy. I am in command of this battle-line unit. I am _not_"--hereverted briefly to obscenity--"a slave. "

"You mean, you are a Lord-Master, too?" That seemed to horrify theherald even more that the things Shatrak had been calling him. "Forgiveme, Lord-Master. I did not think. .. . "

"That's right; you didn't, " Shatrak agreed. "And don't call meLord-Master again, or I'll. .. . "

"Just a moment, Commodore. " He waved the herald aside and addressed thetwo in white gowns, shifting to Lingua Terra. "This is a ship of theGalactic Empire, " he told them. "In the Empire, there are no slaves. Canyou understand that?"

Evidently not. The huge one, Khreggor Chmidd, turned to the skull-facedTchall Hozhet, saying: "Then they must all be Lords-Master. " He saw theobjection to that at once. "But how can one be a Lord-Master if thereare no slaves?"

The horror was not all on the visitors' side of the desk, either. Obrayof Erskyll was staring at the delegation and saying, "Slaves!" under hisbreath. Obray of Erskyll had never, in his not-too-long life, seen aslave before. 

"They can't be, " Tchall Hozhet replied. "A Lord-Master is one who ownsslaves. " He gave that a moment's consideration. "But if they aren'tLords-Master, they must be slaves, and. .. . " No. That wouldn't do, either. "But a slave is one who belongs to a Lord-Master. "

Rule of the Excluded Third; evidently Pre-Atomic formal logic had creptback to Aditya. Chmidd, looking around, saw the ranks of spacemen oneither side, now at parade-rest. 

"But aren't they slaves?" he asked. 

"They are spacemen of the Imperial Navy, " Shatrak roared. "Call one aslave to his face and you'll get a rifle-butt in yours. And I shan'tlift a finger to stop it. " He glared at Chmidd and Hozhet. "Who had theinfernal impudence to send slaves to deal with the Empire? He needs tobe taught a lesson. "

"Why, I was sent by the Lord-Master Olvir Nikkolon, and. .. . "

"Tchall!" Chmidd hissed at him. "We cannot speak to Lords-Master. Wemust speak to their chief-slaves. "

"But they have no slaves, " Hozhet objected. "Didn't you hear the . .. Theone with the small beard . .. Say so?"

"But that's ridiculous, Khreggor. Who does the work, and who tells themwhat to do? Who told these people to come here?"

 * * * * *

"Our Emperor sent us. That is his picture, behind me. But we are not hisslaves. He is merely the chief man among us. Do your Masters not haveone among them who is chief?"

"That's right, " Chmidd said to Hozhet. "In the Convocation, yourLord-Master is chief, and in the Mastership, my Lord-Master, RovardJavasan, is chief. "

"But they don't tell the other Lords-Master what to do. In Convocation, the other Lords-Master tell them. .. . "

"That's what I meant about an oligarchy, " he whispered, in Imperial, toErskyll. 

"Suppose we tell Ravney to herd these Lords-Master onto a couple oflanding-craft and bring them up here?" Shatrak suggested. He made thesuggestion in Lingua Terra Basic, and loudly. 

"I think we can manage without that. " He raised his voice, speaking inLingua Terra Basic:

"It does not matter whether these slaves talk to us or not. This planetis now under the rule of his Imperial Majesty, Rodrik III. If thisMastership wants to govern the planet under the Emperor, they may do so. If not, we will make an end of them and set up a new government here. "

He paused. Chmidd and Hozhet were looking at one another in shockedincredulity. 

"Tchall, they mean it, " Chmidd said. "They can do it, too. "

"We have nothing more to say to you slaves, " he continued. "Hereafter, we will speak directly to the Lords-Master. "

"But. .. . The Lords-Master never do business directly, " Hozhet said. "Itis un-Masterly. Such discussions are between chief-slaves. "

"This thing they call the Convocation, " Shatrak mentioned. "I wonder ifthe members have the business done entirely through their slaves. "

"Oh, no!" That shocked Chmidd into direct address. "No slave is allowedin the Convocation Chamber. "

He wondered how they kept the place swept out. Robots, no doubt. Orelse, what happened when the Masters weren't there didn't count. 

"Very well. Your people have recorders; are they on?"

Hozhet asked Chmidd; Chmidd asked the herald, who asked one of themenials in the rear, who asked somebody else. The reply came backthrough the same channels; they were. 

"Very well. At this time tomorrow, we will speak to the Convocation ofLords-Master. Commodore Shatrak, see to it that Colonel Ravney has themin the Convocation Chamber, and that preparations in the room are made, so that we may address them in the dignity befitting representatives ofhis Imperial Majesty. " He turned to the Adityan slaves. "That is all. You have permission to go. "

They watched the delegation back out, with the honor-guard following. When the doors had closed behind them, Shatrak ran his hand over hisbald head and laughed. 

"Shaved heads, every one of them. That's probably why they thought I wasyour slave. Bet those gorgets are servile badges, too. " He touched theKnight's Star of the Order of the Empire at his throat. "Probablythought that was what this was. We would have to draw something likethis!"

"They simply can't imagine anybody not being either a slave or aslave-owner, " Erskyll was saying. "That must mean that there is no freenon-slave-holding class at all. Universal slavery! Well, we'll have todo something about that. Proclaim total emancipation, immediately. "

"Oh, no; we can't do anything like that. The Constitution won't permitus to. Section Two, Article One: _Every Empire planet shall beself-governed as to its own affairs, in the manner of its own choice, and without interference. _"

"But slavery. .. . Section Two, Article Six, " Erskyll objected. "_Thereshall be no chattel slavery or serfdom anywhere in the Empire; nosapient being of any race whatsoever shall be the property of any beingbut himself. _"

"That's correct, " he agreed. "If this Mastership intends to remain theplanetary government under the Empire, they will be obliged to abolishslavery, but they will have to do it by their own act. We cannot do itfor them. "

"You know what I'd do, Prince Trevannion?" Shatrak said. "I'd just heavethis Mastership thing out, and set up a nice tight militarydictatorship. We have the planet under martial rule now; let's just keepit that way for about five years, till we can train a new government. "

That suggestion seemed to pain Count Erskyll almost as much as theexisting situation. 

 * * * * *

They dined late, in Commodore Shatrak's private dining room. BesideShatrak, Erskyll and himself, there were Lanze Degbrend, and CountErskyll's charge-d'affaires, Sharll Ernanday, and Patrique Morvill andPyairr Ravney and the naval intelligence officer, Commander AndreyDouvrin. Ordinarily, he deplored serious discussion at meals, but underthe circumstances it was unavoidable; nobody could think or talk ofanything else. The discussion which he had hoped would follow the mealbegan before the soup-course. 

"We have a total population of about twenty million, " Lanze Degbrendreported. "A trifle over ten thousand Masters, all ages and both sexes. The remainder are all slaves. "

"I find that incredible, " Erskyll declared promptly. "Twenty millionpeople, held in slavery by ten thousand! Why do they stand for it? Whydon't they rebel?"

"Well, I can think of three good reasons, " Douvrin said. "Three squaremeals a day. "

[Illustration]

"And no responsibilities; no need to make decisions, " Degbrend added. "They've been slaves for seven and a half centuries. They don't evenknow the meaning of freedom, and it would frighten them if they did. "

"Chain of command, " Shatrak said. When that seemed not to convey anymeaning to Erskyll, he elaborated: "We have a lot of dirty-neckedworking slaves. Over every dozen of them is an overseer with a big whipand a stungun. Over every couple of overseers there is a guard with asubmachine gun. Over them is a supervisor, who doesn't need a gunbecause he can grab a handphone and call for troops. Over thesupervisors, there are higher supervisors. Everybody has it just enoughbetter than the level below him that he's afraid of losing his job andbeing busted back to fieldhand. "

"That's it exactly, Commodore, " Degbrend said. "The whole society is aslave hierarchy. Everybody curries favor with the echelon above, andkeeps his eye on the echelon below to make sure he isn't being undercut. We have something not too unlike that, ourselves. Any organizationalsociety is, in some ways, like a slave society. And everything isdetermined by established routine. The whole thing has simply beenrunning on momentum for at least five centuries, and if we hadn't comesmashing in with a situation none of the routines covered, it would havekept on running for another five, till everything wore out and stopped. I heard about those missile-stations, by the way. They're typical ofeverything here. "

"That's another thing, " Erskyll interrupted. "These Lords-Master are thedescendants of the old Space-Vikings, and the slaves of the originalinhabitants. The Space Vikings were a technologically advanced people;they had all the old Terran Federation science and technology, and a lotthey developed for themselves on the Sword-Worlds. "

"Well? They still had a lot of it, on the Sword-Worlds, two centuriesago when we took them over. "

"But technology always drives out slavery; that's a fundamental law ofsocio-economics. Slavery is economically unsound; it cannot compete withpower-industry, let alone cybernetics and robotics. "

He was tempted to remind young Obray of Erskyll that there were no suchthings as fundamental laws of socio-economics; merely usually reliablegeneralized statements of what can more or less be depended upon tohappen under most circumstances. He resisted the temptation. CountErskyll had had enough shocks, today, without adding to them bygratuitous blasphemy. 

"In this case, Obray, it worked in reverse. The Space Vikings enslavedthe Adityans to hold them in subjugation. That was a politico-militarynecessity. Then, being committed to slavery, with a slave population whohad to be made to earn their keep, they found cybernetics and roboticseconomically unsound. "

"And almost at once, they began appointing slave overseers, and thetechnicians would begin training slave assistants. Then there would beslave supervisors to direct the overseers, slave administrators todirect them, slave secretaries and bookkeepers, slave technicians andengineers. "

"How about the professions, Lanze?"

"All slave. Slave physicians, teachers, everything like that. All theMasters are taught by slaves; the slaves are educated by apprenticeship. The courts are in the hands of slaves; cases are heard by the chiefslaves of judges who don't even know where their own courtrooms are;every Master has a team of slave lawyers. Most of the lawsuits areestate-inheritance cases; some of them have been in litigation forgenerations. "

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

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

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

 * * * * *

Degbrend and Ravney exchanged amused glances. Ravney said:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"I hope I am, " Shatrak replied grimly. 

 * * * * *

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 * * * * *

They took their seats. He slipped the earplug of his memophone into hisleft ear and pressed the stud in the middle of his Grand Star of theOrder of Odin. The memophone began giving him the names of the Presidiumand of the Chiefs of Managements. He wondered how many upper-slaves hadbeen gunbutted to produce them. 

"Lords and Gentlemen, " he said, after he had greeted them and introducedhimself and the others, "I speak to you in the name of his ImperialMajesty, Rodrik III. His Majesty will now greet you in his own voice, byrecording. "

He pressed a button on the arm of his chair. The screen lighted, flickered, and steadied, and the trumpets blared again. When the fanfareended, a voice thundered:

"_The Emperor speaks!_"

Rodrik III compromised on the beard question with a small mustache. Hewore the stern but kindly expression the best theatrical directors inAsgard had taught him; Public Face Number Three. He inclined his headslightly and stiffly, as a man wearing a seven-pound crown must. 

"We greet our subjects of Aditya to the fellowship of the Empire. Wehave long had good reports of you, and we are happy now to speak to you. Deserve well of us, and prosper under the Sun and Cogwheel. "

Another fanfare, as the image vanished. Before any of the Lords-Mastercould find voice, he was speaking to them:

"Well, Lords and Gentlemen, you have been welcomed into the Empire byhis Majesty. I know, there hasn't been a ship in or out of this systemfor five centuries, and I suppose you have a great many questions to askabout the Galactic Empire. Members of the Presidium and Chiefs ofManagements may address me directly; others will please address thechairman. "

Olvir Nikkolon, the owner of Tchall Hozhet, was on his feet at once. Hehad a loose-lipped mouth and a not entirely straight nose and pale eyesthat were never entirely still. 

"What I want to know is; why did you people have to come here to takeour planet away from us? Isn't the rest of the Galaxy big enough foryou?"

"No, Lord Nikkolon. The Galaxy is not big enough for any competition ofsovereignty. There must be one and only one completely sovereign power. The Terran Federation was once such a power. It failed, and vanished;you know what followed. Darkness and anarchy. We are clawing our way upout of that darkness. We will not fail. We will create a peaceful andunified Galaxy. "

He talked to them, about the collapse of the old Federation, about theinterstellar wars, about the Neobarbarians, about the long night. Hetold them how the Empire had risen on a few planets five thousandlight-years away, and how it had spread. 

"We will not repeat the mistakes of the Terran Federation. We will notattempt to force every planetary government into a common pattern, ordictate the ways in which they govern themselves. We will foster inevery way peaceful trade and communication. But we will not again permitthe plague of competing sovereignties, the condition under which war isinevitable. The first attempt to set up such a sovereignty incompetition with the Empire will be crushed mercilessly, and no planetinhabited by any sapient race will be permitted to remain outside theEmpire. 

"Lords and Gentlemen, permit me to show you a little of what we havealready accomplished, in the past three hundred years. "

He pressed another button. The screen flickered, and the show started. It lasted for almost two hours; he used a handphone to interjectcomments and explanations. He showed them planet after planet--Marduk, where the Empire had begun, Baldur, Vishnu, Belphegor, Morglay, whencetheir ancestors had come, Amaterasu, Irminsul, Fafnir, finally Odin, theImperial Planet. He showed towering cities swarming with aircars;spaceports where the huge globes of interstellar ships landed and liftedout; farms and industries; vast crowds at public celebrations;troop-reviews and naval bases and fleet-maneuvers; historical views ofthe battles that had created Imperial power. 

"That, Lords and Gentlemen, is what you have an opportunity to bringyour planet into. If you accept, you will continue to rule Aditya underthe Empire. If you refuse, you will only put us to the inconvenience ofreplacing you with a new planetary government, which will be annoyingfor us and, probably, fatal for you. "

Nobody said anything for a few minutes. Then Rovard Javasan, the Chiefof Administration and the owner of the mountainous Khreggor Chmidd, rose. 

"Lords and Gentlemen, we cannot resist anything like this, " he said. "Wecannot even resist the force they have here; that was tried yesterday, and you all saw what happened. Now, Prince Trevannion; just to whatextent will the Mastership retain its sovereignty under the Empire?"

"To practically the same extent as at present. You will, of course, acknowledge the Emperor as your supreme ruler, and will govern subjectto the Imperial Constitution. Have you any colonies on any of the otherplanets of this system?"

"We had a shipyard and docks on the inner moon, and we had mines on thefourth planet of this system, but it is almost airless and the colonywas limited to a couple of dome-cities. Both were abandoned years ago. "

"Both will be reopened before long, I daresay. We'd better make thelimits of your sovereignty the orbit of the outer planet of this system. You may have your own normal-space ships, but the Empire will controlall hyperdrive craft, and all nuclear weapons. I take it you are thesole government on this planet? Then no other will be permitted tocompete with you. "

[Illustration]

"Well, what are they taking away from us, then?" somebody in the rearasked. 

"I assume that you are agreed to accept the sovereignty of his ImperialMajesty? Good. As a matter of form, Lord Nikkolon, will you take a vote?His Imperial Majesty would be most gratified if it were unanimous. "

Somebody insisted that the question would have to be debated, whichmeant that everybody would have to make a speech, all two thousand ofthem. He informed them that there was nothing to debate; they wereconfronted with an accomplished fact which they must accept. So Nikkolonmade a speech, telling them at what a great moment in Adityan historythey stood, and concluded by saying:

"I take it that it is the unanimous will of this Convocation that thesovereignty of the Galactic Emperor be acknowledged, and that we, the'Mastership of Aditya' do here proclaim our loyal allegiance to hisImperial Majesty, Rodrik the Third. Any dissent? Then it is ordered sorecorded. "

Then he had to make another speech, to inform the representatives of hisnew sovereign of the fact. Prince Trevannion, in the name of theEmperor, delivered the well-worn words of welcome, and Lanze Degbrendgot the coronet out of the black velvet bag under his arm and theImperial Proconsul, Obray, Count Erskyll, was crowned. Erskyll'scharge-d'affaires, Sharll Ernanday, produced the scroll of the ImperialConstitution, and Erskyll began to read. 

Section One: The universality of the Empire. The absolute powers of theEmperor. The rules of succession. The Emperor also to be Planetary Kingof Odin. 

Section Two: Every planetary government to be sovereign in its owninternal affairs. .. . Only one sovereign government upon any planet, orwithin normal-space travel distance. .. . All hyperspace ships, and allnuclear weapons. .. . No planetary government shall make war . .. Enterinto any alliance . .. Tax, regulate or restrain interstellar trade orcommunication. .. . Every sapient being shall be equally protected. .. . 

Then he came to Article Six. He cleared his throat, raised his voice, and read:

"_There shall be no chattel-slavery or serfdom anywhere in the Empire;no sapient being, of any race whatsoever, shall be the property of anybeing but himself. _"

The Convocation Chamber was silent, like a bomb with a defective fuse, for all of thirty seconds. Then it blew up with a roar. Out of thecorner of his eye, he saw the doors slide apart and an airjeep, bristling with machine guns, float in and rise to the ceiling. The firstinarticulate roar was followed by a babel of voices, like a tropicalcloudburst on a prefab hut. Olvir Nikkolon's mouth was working as heshouted unheard. 

He pressed another of the row of buttons on the arm of his chair. Out ofthe screen-speaker a voice, as loud, by actual sound-meter test, as ananti-vehicle gun, thundered:

"SILENCE!"

Into the shocked stillness which it produced, he spoke, like aschoolmaster who has returned to find his room in an uproar:

"Lord Nikkolon; what is this nonsense? You are Chairman of thePresidium; is this how you keep order here? What is this, a planetaryparliament or a spaceport saloon?"

"You tricked us!" Nikkolon accused. "You didn't tell us about thatarticle when we voted. Why, our whole society is based on slavery!"

Other voices joined in:

"That's all right for you people, you have robots. .. . "

"Maybe you don't know it, but there are twenty million slaves on thisplanet. .. . "

"Look, you can't free slaves! That's ridiculous. A slave's a _slave_!"

"Who'll do the work? And who would they belong to? They'd have to belongto somebody!"

"What I want to know, " Rovard Javasan made himself heard, is, "_how_ areyou going to free them?"

There was an ancient word, originating in one of the lost languages ofPre-Atomic Terra--_sixtifor_. It meant, the basic, fundamental, question. Rovard Javasan, he suspected, had just asked the sixtifor. Ofcourse, Obray, Count Erskyll, Planetary Proconsul of Aditya, didn'trealize that. He didn't even know what Javasan meant. Just free them. Commodore Vann Shatrak couldn't see much of a problem, either. He wouldhave answered, Just free them, and then shoot down the first two orthree thousand who took it seriously. Jurgen, Prince Trevannion, had nointention whatever of attempting to answer the sixtifor. 

"My dear Lord Javasan, that is the problem of the Adityan Mastership. They are your slaves; we have neither the intention nor the right tofree them. But let me remind you that slavery is specifically prohibitedby the Imperial Constitution; if you do not abolish it immediately, theEmpire will be forced to intervene. I believe, toward the last of thoseaudio-visuals, you saw some examples of Imperial intervention. "

They had. A few looked apprehensively at the ceiling, as thoughexpecting the hellburners and planet-busters and nega-matter-bombs atany moment. Then one of the members among the benches rose. 

"We don't know how we are going to do it, Prince Trevannion, " he said. "We will do it, since this is the Empire law, but you will have to tellus how. "

"Well, the first thing will have to be an Act of Convocation, outlawingthe ownership of one being by another. Set some definite date on whichthe slaves must all be freed; that need not be too immediate. Then, Iwould suggest that you set up some agency to handle all the details. And, as soon as you have enacted the abolition of slavery, which shouldbe this afternoon, appoint a committee, say a dozen of you, to conferwith Count Erskyll and myself. Say you have your committee aboard the_Empress Eulalie_ in six hours. We'll have transportation arranged bythen. And let me point out, I hope for the last time, that we discussmatters directly, without intermediaries. We don't want any more slaves, pardon, freedmen, coming aboard to talk for you, as happened yesterday. "

 * * * * *

Obray, Count Erskyll, was unhappy about it. He did not think that theLords-Master were to be trusted to abolish slavery; he said so, on thelaunch, returning to the ship. Jurgen, Prince Trevannion was inclined toagree. He doubted if any of the Lords-Master he had seen were to betrusted, unassisted, to fix a broken mouse-trap. 

Line-Commodore Vann Shatrak was also worried. He was wondering how longit would take for Pyairr Ravney to make useful troops out of thenewly-surrendered slave soldiers, and where he was going to findcontragravity to shift them expeditiously from trouble-spot totrouble-spot. Erskyll thought he was anticipating resistance on the partof the Masters, and for once he approved the use of force. Ordinarily, force was a Bad Thing, but this was a Good Cause, which justified anymeans. 

They entertained the committee from the Convocation for dinner, thatevening. They came aboard stiffly hostile--most understandably so, underthe circumstances--and Prince Trevannion exerted all his copious charmto thaw them out, beginning with the pre-dinner cocktails and continuingthrough the meal. By the time they retired for coffee and brandy to theparlor where the conference was to be held, the Lords-ex-Masters werealmost friendly. 

"We've enacted the Emancipation Act, " Olvir Nikkolon, who was ex officiochairman of the committee, reported. "Every slave on the planet must befree before the opening of the next Midyear Feasts. "

"And when will that be?"

Aditya, he knew, had a three hundred and fifty-eight day year; even ifthe Midyear Feasts were just past, they were giving themselves verylittle time. In about a hundred and fifty days, Nikkolon said. 

"Good heavens!" Erskyll began, indignantly. 

"I should say so, myself, " he put in, cutting off anything else the newProconsul might have said. "You gentlemen are allowing yourselvesdangerously little time. A hundred and fifty days will pass quiterapidly, and you have twenty million slaves to deal with. If you startat this moment and work continuously, you'll have a little under asecond apiece for each slave. "

The Lords-Master looked dismayed. So, he was happy to observe, did CountErskyll. 

"I assume you have some system of slave registration?" he continued. 

That was safe. They had a bureaucracy, and bureaucracies tend to haveregistrations of practically everything. 

"Oh, yes, of course, " Rovard Javasan assured him. "That's yourManagement, isn't it, Sesar; Servile Affairs?"

"Yes, we have complete data on every slave on the planet, " SesarMartwynn, the Chief of Servile Management, said. "Of course, I'd have toask Zhorzh about the details. .. . "

Zhorzh was Zhorzh Khouzhik, Martwynn's chief-slave in office. 

"At least, he was my chief-slave; now you people have taken him awayfrom me. I don't know what I'm going to do without him. For that matter, I don't know what poor Zhorzh will do, either. "

"Have you gentlemen informed your chief-slaves that they are free, yet?"

Nikkolon and Javasan looked at each other. Sesar Martwynn laughed. 

"They know, " Javasan said. "I must say they are much disturbed. "

"Well, reassure them, as soon as you're back at the Citadel, " he toldthem. "Tell them that while they are now free, they need not leave youunless they so desire; that you will provide for them as before. "

"You mean, we can keep our chief-slaves?" somebody cried. 

"Yes, of course--chief-freedmen, you'll have to call them, now. You'llhave to pay them a salary. .. . "

"You mean, give them money?" Ranal Valdry, the Lord Provost-Marshaldemanded, incredulously. "Pay our own slaves?"

"You idiot, " somebody told him, "they aren't our slaves any more. That'sthe whole point of this discussion. "

"But . .. But how can we pay slaves?" one of the committeemen-at-largeasked. "Freedmen, I mean?"

"With money. You do have money, haven't you?"

"Of course we have. What do you think we are, savages?"

"What kind of money?"

Why, money; what did he think? The unit was the star-piece, the stelly. When he asked to see some of it, they were indignant. Nobody carriedmoney; wasn't Masterly. A Master never even touched the stuff; that waswhat slaves were for. He wanted to know how it was secured, and theydidn't know what he meant, and when he tried to explain theirincomprehension deepened. It seemed that the Mastership issued money tofinance itself, and individual Masters issued money on their personalcredit, and it was handled through the Mastership Banks. 

"That's Fedrig Daffysan's Management; he isn't here, " Rovard Javasansaid. "I can't explain it, myself. "

And without his chief-slave, Fedrig Daffysan probably would not be ableto, either. 

"Yes, gentlemen. I understand. You have money. Now, the first thing youwill have to do is furnish us with a complete list of all theslave-owners on the planet, and a list of all the slaves held by each. This will be sent back to Odin, and will be the basis for thecompensation to be paid for the destruction of your property-rights inthese slaves. How much is a slave worth, by the way?"

Nobody knew. Slaves were never sold; it wasn't Masterly to sell one'sslaves. It wasn't even heard of. 

"Well, we'll arrive at some valuation. Now, as soon as you get back tothe Citadel, talk at once to your former chief-slaves, and theirimmediate subordinates, and explain the situation to them. This can bepassed down through administrative freedmen to the workers; you must seeto it that it is clearly understood, at all levels, that as long as thefreedmen remain at their work they will be provided for and paid, butthat if they quit your service they will receive nothing. Do you thinkyou can do that?"

"You mean, give them everything we've been giving them now, and then paythem money?" Ranal Valdry almost howled. 

"Oh, no. You pay them a fixed wage. You charge them for everything yougive them, and deduct that from their wages. It will mean considerableextra bookkeeping, but outside of that I believe you'll find that thingswill go along much as they always did. "

The Masters had begun to relax, and by the time he was finished all ofthem were smiling in relief. Count Erskyll, on the other hand, wasalmost writhing in his chair. It must be horrible to be a brilliantyoung Proconsul of liberal tendencies and to have to sit mute while acynical old Ministerial Secretary, vastly one's superior in theImperial Establishment and a distant cousin of the Emperor to boot, calmly bartered away the sacred liberties of twenty million people. 

"But would that be legal, under the Imperial Constitution?" OlvirNikkolon asked. 

"I shouldn't have suggested it if it hadn't been. The Constitution onlyforbids physical ownership of one sapient being by another; itemphatically does not guarantee anyone an unearned livelihood. "

 * * * * *

The Convocation committee returned to Zeggensburg to start preparing theservile population for freedom, or reasonable facsimile. Thechief-slaves would take care of that; each one seemed to have a list ofother chief-slaves, and the word would spread from them on aneach-one-call-five system. The public announcement would be postponeduntil the word could be passed out to the upper servile levels. Ameeting with the chief-slaves in office of the various Managements wasscheduled for the next afternoon. 

Count Erskyll chatted with forced affability while the departingcommitteemen were being seen to the launch that would take them down. When the airlock closed behind them, he drew Prince Trevannion aside outof earshot of their subordinates. 

"You know what you're doing?" he raged, in a hoarse whisper. "You'resimply substituting peonage for outright slavery!"

"I'd call that something of a step. " He motioned Erskyll into one of thesmall hall-cars, climbed in beside him, and lifted it, starting towardthe living-area. "The Convocation has acknowledged the principle thatsapient beings should not be property. That's a great deal, for oneday. "

"But the people will remain in servitude, you know that. The Masterswill keep them in debt, and they'll be treated just as brutally. .. . "

"Oh, there will be abuses; that's to be expected. This Freedmen'sManagement, nee Servile Management, will have to take care of that. Better make a memo to talk with this chief-freedman of Martwynn's, what's his name? Zhorzh Khouzhik; that's right, let Zhorzh do it. Employment Practices Code, investigation agency, enforcement. If hecan't do the job, that's not our fault. The Empire does not guaranteeevery planet an honest, intelligent and efficient government; just asingle one. "

"But. .. . "

"It will take two or three generations. At first, the freedmen will beexploited just as they always have been, but in time there will beprotests, and disorders, and each time, there will be some smallimprovement. A society must evolve, Obray. Let these people earn theirfreedom. Then they will be worthy of it. "

"They should have their freedom now. "

"This present generation? What do you think freedom means to them? _Wedon't have to work, any more. _ So down tools and let everything stop atonce. _We can do anything we want to. _ Let's kill the overseer. And:_Anything that belongs to the Masters belongs to us; we're Masters too, now. _ No, I think it's better, for the present, to tell them that thisfreedom business is just a lot of Masterly funny-talk, and that thingsaren't really being changed at all. It will effect a considerable savingof his Imperial Majesty's ammunition, for one thing. "

He dropped Erskyll at his apartment and sent the hall-car back from hisown. Lanze Degbrend was waiting for him when he entered. 

"Ravney's having trouble. That is the word he used, " Degbrend said. InPyairr Ravney's lexicon, trouble meant shooting. "The news of theEmancipation Act is leaking all over the place. Some of the troops inthe north who haven't been disarmed yet are mutinying, and there areslave insurrections in a number of places. "

"They think the Masters have forsaken them, and it's every slave forhimself. " He hadn't expected that to start so soon. "The announcementhad better go out as quickly as possible. And I think we're going tohave some trouble. You have information-taps into Count Erskyll'snumerous staff? Use them as much as you can. "

"You think he's going to try to sabotage this employment programme ofyours, sir?"

"Oh, he won't think of it in those terms. He'll be preventing me fromsabotaging the Emancipation. He doesn't want to wait three generations;he wants to free them at once. Everything has to be at once forsix-month-old puppies, six-year-old children, and reformers of any age. "

 * * * * *

The announcement did not go out until nearly noon the next day. In termscomprehensible to any low-grade submoron, it was emphasized that allthis meant was that slaves should henceforth be called freedmen, thatthey could have money just like Lords-Master, and that if they workedfaithfully and obeyed orders they would be given everything they werenow receiving. Ravney had been shuttling troops about, dealing with thesporadic outbreaks of disorder here and there: many of these had beenput down, and the rest died out after the telecast explaining thesituation. 

In addition, some of Commander Douvrin's intelligence people haddiscovered that the only source of fissionables and radioactives for theplanet was a complex of uranite mines, separation plants, refineries andreaction-plants on the smaller of Aditya's two continents, Austragonia. In spite of other urgent calls on his resources, Ravney landed troops toseize these, and a party of engineers followed them down from the_Empress Eulalie_ to make an inspection. 

At lunch, Count Erskyll was slightly less intransigent on the subject ofthe wage-employment proposals. No doubt some of his advisors had beentelling him what would happen if any appreciable number of Aditya'slabor-force stopped work suddenly, and the wave of uprisings that hadbroken out before any public announcement had been made puzzled him. Hewas also concerned about finding a suitable building for a proconsularpalace; the business of the Empire on Aditya could not be conducted longfrom shipboard. 

Going down to the Citadel that afternoon, they found the chief-freedmenof the non-functional Chiefs of Management assembled in a large room onthe fifth level down. There was a cluster of big tables andcommunication-screens and wired telephones in the middle, with smallertables around them, at which freedmen in variously colored gowns sat. The ones at the central tables, a dozen and a half, all worechief-slaves' white gowns. 

Trevannion and Erskyll and Patrique Morvill and Lanze Degbrend joinedthese; subordinates guided the rest of the party--a couple of Ravney'sofficers and Erskyll's numerous staff of advisors and specialists--todistribute themselves with their opposite numbers in the Mastership. Everybody on the Adityan side seemed uneasy with these strangehermaphrodite creatures who were neither slaves nor Lords-Master. 

"Well, gentlemen, " Count Erskyll began, "I suppose you have beeninformed by your former Lords-Master of how relations between them andyou will be in the future?"

"Oh, yes, Lord Proconsul, " Khreggor Chmidd replied happily. "Everythingwill be just as before, except that the Lords-Master will be calledLords-Employer, and the slaves will be called freedmen, and any timethey want to starve to death, they can leave their Employers if theywish. "

Count Erskyll frowned. That wasn't just exactly what he had hopedEmancipation would mean to these people. 

"Nobody seems to understand about this money thing, though, " ZhorzhKhouzhik, Sesar Martwynn's chief-freedman said. "My Lord-Master--" Heslapped himself across the mouth and said, "Lord-Employer!" five times, rapidly. "My Lord-_Employer_ tried to explain it to me, but I don'tthink he understands very clearly, himself. "

"None of them do. "

The speaker was a small man with pale eyes and a mouth like a rat-trap;Yakoop Zhannar, chief-freedman to Ranal Valdry, the Provost-Marshal. 

"Its really your idea, Prince Trevannion, " Erskyll said. "Perhaps youcan explain it. "

"Oh, it's very simple. You see. .. . "

At least, it had seemed simple when he started. Labor was a commodity, which the worker sold and the employer purchased; a "fair wage" was onewhich enabled both to operate at a profit. Everybody knew that--excepthere on Aditya. On Aditya, a slave worked because he was a slave, and aMaster provided for him because he was a Master, and that was all therewas to it. But now, it seemed, there weren't any more Masters, and thereweren't any more slaves. 

"That's exactly it, " he replied, when somebody said as much. "So now, ifthe slaves, I mean, freedmen, want to eat, they have to work to earnmoney to buy food, and if the Employers want work done, they have to paypeople to do it. "

[Illustration]

"Then why go to all the trouble about the money?" That was an elderlychief-freedman, Mykhyl Eschkhaffar, whose Lord-Employer, Oraze Borztall, was Manager of Public Works. "Before your ships came, the slaves workedfor the Masters, and the Masters took care of the slaves, and everybodywas content. Why not leave it like that?"

"Because the Galactic Emperor, who is the Lord-Master of these people, says that there must be no more slaves. Don't ask me why, " Tchall Hozhetsnapped at him. "I don't know, either. But they are here with ships andguns and soldiers; what can we do?"

"That's very close to it, " he admitted. "But there is one thing youhaven't considered. A slave only gets what his master gives him. But afree worker for pay gets money which he can spend for whatever he wants, and he can save money, and if he finds that he can make more moneyworking for somebody else, he can quit his employer and get a betterjob. "

"We hadn't thought of that, " Khreggor Chmidd said. "A slave, even achief-slave, was never allowed to have money of his own, and if he gothold of any, he couldn't spend it. But now. .. . " A glorious vista seemedto open in front of him. "And he can accumulate money. I don't suppose acommon worker could, but an upper slave. .. . Especially achief-slave. .. . " He slapped his mouth, and said, "Freedman!" five times. 

"Yes, Khreggor. " That was Ridgerd Schferts (Fedrig Daffysan; FiscalManagement). "I am sure we could all make quite a lot of money, now thatwe are freedmen. "

Some of them were briefly puzzled; gradually, comprehension dawned. Obray, Count Erskyll, looked distressed; he seemed to be hoping, vainly, that they weren't thinking of what he suspected they were. 

"How about the Mastership freedmen?" another asked. "We, here, will bepaid by our Lords-Mas- . .. Lords-Employer. But everybody from the greenrobes down were provided for by the Mastership. Who will pay them, now?"

"Why, the Mastership, of course, " Ridgerd Schferts said. "MyManagement--my Lord-Employer's, I mean--will issue the money to paythem. "

"You may need a new printing-press, " Lanze Degbrend said. "And an awfullot of paper. "

"This planet will need currency acceptable in interstellar trade, "Erskyll said. 

Everybody looked blankly at him. He changed the subject:

"Mr. Chmidd, could you or Mr. Hozhet tell me what kind of a constitutionthe Mastership has?"

"You mean, like the paper you read in the Convocation?" Hozhet asked. "Oh, there is nothing at all like that. The former Lords-Master simplyruled. "

No. They reigned. This servile _tammanihal_--another ancient Terranword, of uncertain origin--ruled. 

"Well, how is the Mastership organized, then?" Erskyll persisted. "Howdid the Lord Nikkolon get to be Chairman of the Presidium, and the LordJavasan to be Chief of Administration?"

That was very simple. The Convocation, consisting of the heads of allthe Masterly families, actually small clans, numbered about twenty-fivehundred. They elected the seven members of the Presidium, who drew lotsfor the Chairmanship. They served for life. Vacancies were filled byelection on nomination of the surviving members. The Presidium appointedthe Chiefs of Managements, who also served for life. 

At least, it had stability. It was self-perpetuating. 

"Does the Convocation make the laws?" Erskyll asked. 

Hozhet was perplexed. "_Make_ laws, Lord Proconsul? Oh, no. We havelaws. "

There were planets, here and there through the Empire, where an attitudelike that would have been distinctly beneficial; planets with electiveparliaments, every member of which felt himself obligated to get as manylaws enacted during his term of office as possible. 

"But this is dreadful; you _must_ have a constitution!" Obray of Erskyllwas shocked. "We will have to get one drawn up and adopted. "

"We don't know anything about that at all, " Khreggor Chmidd admitted. "This is something new. You will have to help us. "

"I certainly will, Mr. Chmidd. Suppose you form a committee--yourself, and Mr. Hozhet, and three or four others; select them amongyourselves--and we can get together and talk over what will be needed. And another thing. We'll have to stop calling this the Mastership. Thereare no more Masters. "

"The Employership?" Lanze Degbrend dead-panned. 

Erskyll looked at him angrily. "This is something, " he told thechief-freedmen, "that should not belong to the Employers alone. Itshould belong to everybody. Let us call it the Commonwealth. That meanssomething everybody owns in common. "

"Something everybody owns, nobody owns, " Mykhyl Eschkhaffar objected. 

"Oh, no, Mykhyl; it will belong to everybody, " Khreggor Chmidd told himearnestly. "But somebody will have to take care of it for everybody. That, " he added complacently, "will be you and me and the rest of ushere. "

"I believe, " Yakoop Zhannar said, almost smiling, "that this freedom isgoing to be a wonderful thing. For us. "

"I don't like it!" Mykhyl Eschkhaffar said stubbornly. "Too many newthings, and too much changing names. We have to call slaves freedmen; wehave to call Lords Master Lords-Employer; we have to call the Managementof Servile Affairs the Management for Freedmen. Now we have to call theMastership this new name, Commonwealth. And all these new things, forwhich we have no routine procedures and no directives. I wish thesepeople had never heard of this planet. "

"That makes at least two of us, " Patrique Morvill said, _sotto voce_. 

"Well, the planetary constitution can wait just a bit, " PrinceTrevannion suggested. "We have a great many items on the agenda whichmust be taken care of immediately. For instance, there's this thingabout finding a proconsular palace. .. . "

 * * * * *

A surprising amount of work had been done at the small tables whereErskyll's staff of political and economic and technological experts hadbeen conferring with the subordinate upper-freedmen. It began coming outduring the pre-dinner cocktails aboard the _Empress Eulalie_, continuedthrough the meal, and was fully detailed during the formal debriefingsession afterward. 

Finding a suitable building for the Proconsular Palace would presentdifficulties. Real estate was not sold on Aditya, any more than slaveswere. It was not only un-Masterly but illegal; estates were all entailedand the inalienable property of Masterly families. What was wanted wasone of the isolated residential towers in Zeggensburg, far enough fromthe Citadel to avoid an appearance of too close supervision. The lastthing anybody wanted was to establish the Proconsul in the Citadelitself. The Management of Business of the Mastership, however, hadpromised to do something about it. That would mean, no doubt, that the_Empress Eulalie_ would be hanging over Zeggensburg, serving asProconsular Palace, for the next year or so. 

The Servile Management, rechristened Freedmen's Management, wouldundertake to safeguard the rights of the newly emancipated slaves. Therewould be an Employment Code--Count Erskyll was invited to draw thatup--and a force of investigators, and an enforcement agency, underZhorzh Khouzhik. 

One of Commander Douvrin's men, who had been at the Austragonianuclear-industries establishment, was present and reported:

"Great Ghu, you ought to see that place! They've people working inplaces I wouldn't send an unshielded robot, and the hospital there isbulging with radiation-sickness cases. The equipment must have beenbrought here by the Space Vikings. What's left of it is the damnedestmess of goldbergery I ever saw. The whole thing ought to be shut downand completely rebuilt. "

Erskyll wanted to know who owned it. The Mastership, he was told. 

"That's right, " one of his economics men agreed. "Management of PublicWorks. " That would be Mykhyl Eschkhaffar, who had so bitterly objectedto the new nomenclature. "If anybody needs fissionables for apower-reactor or radioactives for nuclear-electric conversion, his chiefbusiness slave gets what's needed. Furthermore, doesn't even have tosign for it. "

"Don't they sell it for revenue?"

"Nifflheim, no! This government doesn't need revenue. This governmentsupports itself by counterfeiting. When the Mastership needs money, theyjust have Ridgerd Schferts print up another batch. Like everybody else. "

"Then the money simply isn't worth anything!" Erskyll was horrified, which was rapidly becoming his normal state. 

"Who cares about money, Obray, " he said. "Didn't you hear them, lastevening? It's un-Masterly to bother about things like money. Of course, everybody owes everybody for everything, but it's all in the family. "

"Well, something will have to be done about that!"

That was at least the tenth time he had said that, this evening. 

 * * * * *

It came practically as a thunderbolt when Khreggor Chmidd screened theship the next afternoon to report that a Proconsular Palace had beenfound, and would be ready for occupancy in a day or so. Thechief-freedmen of the Management of Business of the Mastership and ofthe Lord Chief Justiciar had found one, the Elegry Palace, which hadbeen unoccupied except for what he described as a small caretaking stafffor years, while two Masterly families disputed inheritance rights andslave lawyers quibbled endlessly before a slave judge. The chieffreedman of the Lord Chief Justiciar had simply summoned judge andlawyers into his office and ordered them to settle the suit at once. The settlement had consisted of paying both litigants the full value ofthe building; this came to fifty million stellies apiece. Arbitrarily, the stelly was assigned a value in Imperial crowns of a hundred for one. A million crowns was about what the building would be worth, withcontents, on Odin. It would be paid for with a draft on the ImperialExchequer. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 * * * * *

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

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

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

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

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

 * * * * *

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Illustration]

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

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

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

"Well, we have a rough draft. I don't care much for it, myself, butCitizen Hozhet and Citizen Chmidd and Citizen Zhannar and the others aremost enthusiastic, and, after all, they are the ones who will have tooperate under it. "

The Masterly estates would be the representative units; from each, thefreedmen would elect representatives to regional elective councils, andthese in turn would elect representatives to a central electoral councilwhich would elect a Supreme People's Legislative Council. This wouldnot only function as the legislative body, but would also elect aManager-in-Chief, who would appoint the Chiefs of Management, who, inturn, would appoint their own subordinates. 

"I don't like it, myself, " Erskyll said. "It's not democratic enough. There should be a direct vote by the people. Well, " he grudged, "Isuppose it will take a little time for them to learn democracy. " Thiswas the first time he had come out and admitted that. "There is to be aConstituent Convention in five years, to draw up a new constitution. "

"How about the Convocation? You don't expect them to vote themselves outof existence, do you?"

"Oh, we're keeping the Convocation, in the present constitution, butthey won't have any power. Five years from now, we'll be rid of thementirely. Look here; you're not going to work against this, are you? Youwon't advise these ci-devant Lords-Master to vote against it, when itcomes up?"

"Certainly not. I think your constitution--Khreggor Chmidd's and TchallHozhet's, to be exact--will be nothing short of a political disaster, but it will insure some political stability, which is all that mattersfrom the Imperial point of view. An Empire statesman must always guardagainst sympathizing with local factions and interests, and I can thinkof no planet on which I could be safer from any such temptation. Ifthese Lords-Master want to vote their throats cut, and the slaves wantto re-enslave themselves, they may all do so with my complete blessing. "

If he had been at all given to dramatic gestures he would then have sentfor water and washed his hands. 

 * * * * *

Metaphorically, he did so at that moment; thereafter his interest inAdityan affairs was that of a spectator at a boring and stupid show, watching only because there is nothing else to watch, and wishing thatit had been possible to have returned to Odin on the _Irma_. The PrimeMinister, however, was entitled to a full and impartial report, which hewould scarcely get from Count Erskyll, on this new jewel in the ImperialCrown. To be able to furnish that, he would have to remain until theMidyear Feasts, when the Convocation would act on the new constitution. Whether the constitution was adopted or rejected was, in itself, unimportant; in either case, Aditya would have a government recognizableas such by the Empire, which was already recognizing some fairlyunlikely-looking governments. In either case, too, Aditya would makenobody on any other planet any trouble. It wouldn't have, at least for along time, even if it had been left unannexed, but no planet inhabitedby Terro-humans could be trusted to remain permanently peaceful andisolated. There is a spark of aggressive ambition in every Terro-humanpeople, no matter how debased, which may smoulder for centuries or evenmillennia and then burst, fanned by some random wind, into flame. Toshift the metaphor slightly, the Empire could afford to leave nounwatched pots around to boil over unexpectedly. 

Occasionally, he did warn young Erskyll of the dangers of overwork andemotional over-involvement. Each time, the Proconsul would pour out sometale of bickering and rivalry among the chief-freedmen of theManagements. Citizen Khouzhik and Citizen Eschkhaffar--they were allcalling each other Citizen, now--were contesting overlappingjurisdictions. Khouzhik wanted to change the name of his Management--heno longer bothered mentioning Sesar Martwynn--to Labor and Industry. Tothis, Mykhyl Eschkhaffar objected vehemently; any Industry that wasgoing to be managed would be managed by his--Oraze Borztall wassimilarly left unmentioned--management of Public Works. And they werealso feuding about the robotic and remote-controlled equipment that hadbeen sent down from the _Empress Eulalie_ to the Austragonianuclear-power works. 

Khouzhik was also in controversy with Yakoop Zhannar, who was alreadycalling himself People's Provost-Marshal. Khouzhik had taken over allthe private armed-guards on the Masterly farms and in the factories, andassimilated them into something he was calling the People's LaborPolice, ostensibly to enforce the new Code of Employment Practice. Zhannar insisted that they should be under his Management; when Chmiddand Hozhet supported Khouzhik, he began clamoring for the return of theregular army to his control. 

Commodore Shatrak was more than glad to get rid of the Adityan army, andso was Pyairr Ravney, who was in immediate command of them. The Adityansdidn't care one way or the other. Zhannar was delighted, and so wereChmidd and Hozhet. So, oddly, was Zhorzh Khouzhik. At the same time, thestate of martial law proclaimed on the day of the landing wasterminated. 

The days slipped by. There were entertainments at the new ProconsularPalace for the Masterly residents of Zeggensburg, and Erskyll and hisstaff were entertained at Masterly palaces. The latter affairs painedPrince Trevannion excessively--hours on end of gorging uninspiredcooking and guzzling too-sweet wine and watching ex-slave performerswhose acts were either brutal or obscene and frequently both, and, moreunforgivable, stupidly so. The Masterly conversation was simply stupid. 

He borrowed a reconn-car from Ravney; he and Lanze Degbrend and, usually, one or another of Ravney's young officers, took long trips ofexploration. They fished in mountain streams, and hunted the smalldeerlike game, and he found himself enjoying these excursions more thananything he had done in recent years; certainly anything since Adityahad come into the viewscreens of the _Empress Eulalie_. Once in a while, they claimed and received Masterly hospitality at some large farmingestate. They were always greeted with fulsome cordiality, and there wasalways surprise that persons of their rank and consequence should travelunaccompanied by a retinue of servants. 

He found things the same wherever he stopped. None of the farms wereproducing more than a quarter of the potential yield per acre, and alldepleting the soil outrageously. Ten slaves--he didn't bother to thinkof them as freedmen--doing the work of one, and a hundred of them takingall day to do what one robot would have done before noon. White-gownedchief-slaves lording it over green and orange gowned supervisors andclerks; overseers still carrying and frequently using whips and knoutsand sandbag flails. 

Once or twice, when a Masterly back was turned, he caught a look ofmurderous hatred flickering into the eyes of some upper-slave. Once ortwice, when a Master thought his was turned, he caught the same look inMasterly eyes, directed at him or at Lanze. 

The Midyear Feasts approached; each time he returned to the city hefound more excitement as preparations went on. Mykhyl Eschkhaffar'sManagement of Public Works was giving top priority to redecorating theConvocation Chamber and the lounges and dining-rooms around it in whichthe Masters would relax during recesses. More and more Masterly familiesflocked in from outlying estates, with contragravity-flotillas andretinues of attendants, to be entertained at the city palaces. Therewere more and gaudier banquets and balls and entertainments. By the timethe Feasts began, every Masterly man, woman and child would be in thecity. 

There were long columns of military contragravity coming in, too;troop-carriers and combat-vehicles. Yakoop Zhannar was bringing in allhis newly recovered army, and Zhorzh Khouzhik his newly organizedPeople's Labor Police. Vann Shatrak, who was now commanding hisbattle-line unit by screen from the Proconsular Palace, began fretting. 

"I wish I hadn't been in such a hurry to terminate martial rule, " hesaid, once. "And I wish Pyairr hadn't been so confoundedly efficient inretraining those troops. That may cost us a few extra casualties, beforewe're through. "

Count Erskyll laughed at his worries. 

"It's just this rivalry between Citizen Khouzhik and Citizen Zhannar, "he said, "They're like a couple of ci-devant Lords-Master competing togive more extravagant feasts. Zhannar's going to hold a review of histroops, and of course, Khouzhik intends to hold a review of his police. That's all there is to it. "

"Well, just the same, I wish some reenforcements would get here fromOdin, " Shatrak said. 

Erskyll was busy, in the days before the Midyear Feasts, eitherconferring at the Citadel with the ex-slaves who were the functionalheads of the Managements or at the Proconsular Palace with Hozhet andChmidd and the chief-freedmen of the influential Convocation leaders andPresidium members. Everybody was extremely optimistic about theconstitution. 

He couldn't quite understand the optimism, himself. 

"If I were one of these Lords-Master, I wouldn't even consider thething, " he told Erskyll. "I know, they're stupid, but I can't believethey're stupid enough to commit suicide, and that's what this amountsto. "

"Yes, it does, " Erskyll agreed, cheerfully. "As soon as they enact it, they'll be of no more consequence than the Assemblage of Peers on Aton;they'll have no voice in the operation of the Commonwealth, and none inthe new constitution that will be drawn up five years from now. And thatwill be the end of them. All the big estates, and the factories andmines and contragravity-ship lines will be nationalized. "

"And they'll have nothing at all, except a hamper-full of repudiatedpaper stellies, " he finished. "That's what I mean. What makes you thinkthey'll be willing to vote for that?"

"They don't know they're voting for it. They'll think they're voting tokeep control of the Mastership. People like Olvir Nikkolon and RovardJavasan and Ranal Valdry and Sesar Martwynn think they still own theirchief-freedmen; they think Hozhet and Chmidd and Zhannar and Khouzhikwill do exactly what they tell them. And they believe anything theHozhets and Chmidds and Zhannars tell them. And every chief-freedman istelling his Lord-Employer that the only way they can keep control is byadopting the constitution; that they can control the elections on theirestates, and hand-pick the People's Legislative Council. I tell you, Prince Trevannion, the constitution is as good as enacted. "

Two days before the opening of the Convocation, the _Irma_ came intoradio-range, five light-hours away, and began transmitting in tapedmatter at sixty-speed. Erskyll's report and his own acknowledged; aroutine "well done" for the successful annexation. Commendation forShatrak's handling of the landing operation. Orders to take overAditya-_Alif_ and begin construction of a permanent naval base. Notification of promotion to base-admiral, and blank commission asline-commodore; that would be Patrique Morvill. And advice that onetransport-cruiser, _Algol_, with an Army contragravity brigade aboard, and two engineering ships, would leave Odin for Aditya in fifteen days. The last two words erased much of the new base-admiral's pleasure. 

"Fifteen days, great Ghu! And those tubs won't make near the speed of_Irma_, getting here. We'll be lucky to see them in twenty. AndBeelzebub only knows what'll be going on here then. "

 * * * * *

Four times, the big screen failed to respond. They were all crowdedinto one of the executive conference-rooms at the Proconsular Palace, the batteries of communication and recording equipment incongruouslyfunctional among the gold-encrusted luxury of the original Masterlyfurnishings. Shatrak swore. 

"Andrey, I thought your people had planted those pickups where theycouldn't be found, " he said to Commander Douvrin. 

"There is no such place, sir, " the intelligence officer replied. "Justplaces where things are hard to find. "

"Did you mention our pickups to Chmidd or Hozhet or any of the rest ofthe shaveheads?" Shatrak asked Erskyll. 

"No. I didn't even know where they were. And it was the freedmen whofound them, " Erskyll said. "I don't know why they wouldn't want uslooking in. "

Lanze Degbrend, at the screen, twisted the dial again, and this time thescreen flickered and cleared, and they were looking into the ConvocationChamber from the extreme rear, above the double doors. Far away, infront, Olvir Nikkolon was rising behind the gold and onyx bench, andfrom the speaker the call bell tolled slowly, and the buzz of over twothousand whispering voices diminished. Nikkolon began to speak:

"Seven and a half centuries ago, our fathers went forth from Morglay toplant upon this planet a new banner. .. . "

It was evidently a set speech, one he had recited year after year, andevery Lord Chairman of the Presidium before him. The splendidtraditions. The glories of the Masterly race. The all-conquering SpaceVikings. The proud heritage of the Sword-Worlds. Lanze was fiddling withthe control knobs, stepping up magnification and focusing on thespeaker's head and shoulders. Then everybody laughed; Nikkolon had asmall plug in one ear, with a fine wire running down to vanish under hiscollar. Degbrend brought back the full view of the Convocation Chamber. 

Nikkolon went on and on. Vann Shatrak summoned a robot to furnish himwith a cold beer and another cigar. Erskyll was drumming an impatientdevil's tattoo with his fingernails on the gold-encrusted table in frontof him. Lanze Degbrend began interpolating sarcastic comments. Andfinally, Pyairr Ravney, who came from Lugaluru, reverted to the idiom ofhis planet's favorite sport:

"Come on, come on; turn out the bull! What's the matter, is the gatestuck?"

If so, it came quickly unstuck, and the bull emerged, pawing andsnorting. 

"This year, other conquerors have come to Aditya, here to plant anotherbanner, the Sun and Cogwheel of the Galactic Empire, and I blush to sayit, we are as helpless against these conquerors as were the miserablebarbarians and their wretched serfs whom our fathers conquered sevenhundred and sixty-two years ago, whose descendants, until this blackday, had been our slaves. "

He continued, his voice growing more impassioned and more belligerent. Count Erskyll fidgeted. This wasn't the way the Chmidd-HozhetConstitution ought to be introduced. 

"So, perforce, we accepted the sovereignty of this alien Empire. We arenow the subjects of his Imperial Majesty, Rodrik III. We must governAditya subject to the Imperial Constitution. " (Groans, boos; catcalls, if the Adityan equivalent of cats made noises like that. ) "At onestroke, this Constitution has abolished our peculiar institution, uponwhich is based our entire social structure. This I know. But this sameImperial Constitution is a collapsium-strong shielding; let me call yourattention to Article One, Section Two: _Every Empire planet shall beself-governed as to its own affairs, in the manner of its own choice andwithout interference. _ Mark this well, for it is our guarantee that thisgovernment, of the Masters, by the Masters, and for the Masters, shallnot perish from Aditya. " (Prolonged cheering. )

"Now, these arrogant conquerors have overstepped their own supreme law. They have written for this Mastership a constitution, designed for thesole purpose of accomplishing the liquidation of the Masterly class andrace. They have endeavored to force this planetary constitution upon usby threats of force, and by a shameful attempt to pervert the fidelityof our chief-slaves--I will not insult these loyal servitors with thisdisgusting new name, freedmen--so that we might, a second time, betricked into voting assent to our own undoing. But in this, they havefailed. Our chief-slaves have warned us of the trap concealed in thisconstitution written by the Proconsul, Count Erskyll. My faithful TchallHozhet has shown me all the pitfalls in this infamous document. .. . "

Obray, Count Erskyll, was staring in dismay at the screen. Then he begancursing blasphemously, the first time he had ever been heard to do so, and, as he was at least nominally a Pantheist, this meant blasphemingthe entire infinite universe. 

"The rats! The dirty treacherous rats! We came here to help them, andlook; they've betrayed us. .. !" He lost his voice in a wheezing sob, andthen asked: "Why did they do it? Do they want to go on being slaves?"

Perhaps they did. It wasn't for love of their Lords-Master; he was sureof that. Even from the beginning, they had found it impossible todisguise their contempt. .. . 

Then he saw Olvir Nikkolon stop short and thrust out his arm, pointingdirectly below the pickup, and as he watched, something green-gray, aremote-control contragravity lorry, came floating into the field of thescreen. One of the vehicles that had been sent down from the _EmpressEulalie_ for use at the uranium mines. As it lifted and advanced towardthe center of the room, the other Lords-Master were springing to theirfeet. 

[Illustration]

Vann Shatrak also sprang to his feet, reaching the controls of thescreen and cutting the sound. He was just in time to save them frombeing, at least temporarily, deafened, for no sooner had he silenced thespeaker than the lorry vanished in a flash that filled the entire room. 

When the dazzle left their eyes, and the smoke and dust began to clear, they saw the Convocation Chamber in wreckage, showers of plaster andbits of plastiboard still falling from above. The gold and onyx benchwas broken in a number of places; the Chiefs of Management in front ofit, and the Presidium above, had vanished. Among the benches layblack-clad bodies, a few still moving. Smoke rose from burning clothing. Admiral Shatrak put on the sound again; from the screen came screams andcries of pain and fright. 

Then the doors on the two long sides opened, and red-brown uniformsappeared. The soldiers advanced into the Chamber, unslinging rifles andsubmachine guns. Unheeding the still falling plaster, they movedforward, firing as they came. A few of them slung their firearms andpicked up Masterly dress swords, using them to finish the wounded amongthe benches. The screams grew fewer, and then stopped. 

Count Erskyll sat frozen, staring white-faced and horror-sick into thescreen. Some of the others had begun to recover and were babblingexcitedly. Vann Shatrak was at a communication-screen, talking toCommodore Patrique Morvill, aboard the _Empress Eulalie_:

"All the Landing-Troops, and all the crewmen you can spare and arm. Andevery vehicle you have. This is only the start of it; there'll be ageneral massacre of Masters next. I don't doubt it's started already. "

At another screen, Pyairr Ravney was saying, to the officer of the dayof the Palace Guard: "No, there's no telling what they'll do next. Whatever it is, be ready for it ten minutes ago. "

He stubbed out his cigarette and rose, and as he did, Erskyll came outof his daze and onto his feet. 

"Commodore Shatrak! I mean, Admiral, " he corrected himself. "We mustre-impose martial rule. I wish I'd never talked you into terminating it. Look at that!" He pointed at the screen; big dump-lorries were alreadycoming in the doors under the pickup, with a mob of gowned civil-servicepeople crowding in under them. They and the soldiers began draggingbodies out from among the seats to be loaded and hauled away. "There'sthe planetary government, murdered to the last man!"

"I'm afraid we can't do anything like that, " he said. "This seems to bea simple transfer of power by _coup-d'etat_; rather more extreme thanusual, but normal political practice on this sort of planet. The Empirehas no right to interfere. "

Erskyll turned on him indignantly. "But it's mass murder!"

"It's an accomplished fact. Whoever ordered this, Citizen Chmidd andCitizen Hozhet and Citizen Zhannar and the rest of your good democraticcitizens, are now the planetary government of Aditya. As long as theydon't attack us, or repudiate the sovereignty of the Emperor, you'llhave to recognize them as such. "

"A bloody-handed gang of murderers; recognize them?"

"All governments have a little blood here and there on their hands;you've seen this by screen instead of reading about it in a historybook, but that shouldn't make any difference. And you've said, yourself, that the Masters would have to be eliminated. You've toldChmidd and Hozhet and the others that, repeatedly. Of course, you meantlegally, by constitutional and democratic means, but that seemed just abit too tedious to them. They had them all together in one room, wherethey could be eliminated easily, and . .. Lanze; see if you can getanything on the Citadel telecast. "

Degbrend put on another communication-screen and fiddled for a moment. What came on was a view, from another angle, of the Convocation Chamber. A voice was saying:

". .. Not one left alive. The People's Labor Police, acting on orders ofPeople's Manager of Labor Zhorzh Khouzhik and People's Provost-MarshalYakoop Zhannar, are now eliminating the rest of the ci-devant Masterlyclass, all of whom are here in Zeggensburg. The people are directed tocooperate; kill them all, men, women and children. We must allow none ofthese foul exploiters of the people live to see today's sun go down. .. . "

"You mean, we sit here while those animals butcher women and children?"Shatrak demanded, looking from the Proconsul to the MinisterialSecretary. "Well, by Ghu, I won't! If I have to face a court for it, allwell and good, but. .. . "

"You won't, Admiral. I seem to recall, some years ago, a CommodoreHastings, who got a baronetcy for stopping a pogrom on Anath. .. . "

"And broadcast an announcement that any of the Masterly class may findasylum here at the Proconsular Palace. They're political fugitives;scores of precedents for that, " Erskyll added. 

Shatrak was back at the screen to the _Empress Eulalie_. 

"Patrique, get a jam-beam focussed on that telecast station at theCitadel; get it off the air. Then broadcast on the same wavelength;announce that anybody claiming sanctuary at the Proconsular Palace willbe taken in and protected. And start getting troops down, and all thespacemen you can spare. "

At the same time, Ravney was saying, into his own screen:

"Plan Four. Variation H-3; this is a rescue operation. This is not, repeat, underscore, _not_ an intervention in planetary government. Youare to protect members of the Masterly class in danger from mobviolence. That's anybody with hair on his head. Stay away from theCitadel; the ones there are all dead. Start with the four buildingsclosest to us, and get them cleared out. If the shaveheads give you anytrouble, don't argue with them, just shoot them. .. . "

Erskyll, after his brief moment of decisiveness, was staring at thescreen to the Convocation Chamber, where bodies were still being heavedinto the lorries like black sacks of grain. Lanze Degbrend summoned arobot, had it pour a highball, and gave it to the Proconsul. 

"Go ahead, Count Erskyll; drink it down. Medicinal, " he was saying. "Believe me you certainly need it. "

Erskyll gulped it down. "I think I could use another, if you please, " hesaid, handing the glass back to Lanze. "And a cigarette. " After he hadtasted his second drink and puffed on the cigarette, he said: "I was soproud. I thought they were learning democracy. "

"We don't, any of us, have too much to be proud about, " Degbrend toldhim. "They must have been planning and preparing this for a couple ofmonths, and we never caught a whisper of it. "

That was correct. They had deluded Erskyll into thinking that they weregoing to let the Masters vote themselves out of power and set up arepresentative government. They had deluded the Masters into believingthat they were in favor of the _status quo_, and opposed to Erkyll'sdemocratization and socialization. There must be only a few of them inthe conspiracy. Chmidd and Hozhet and Zhannar and Khouzhik and Schfertsand the rest of the Citadel chief-slave clique. Among them, theycontrolled all the armed force. The bickering and rivalries must havebeen part of the camouflage. He supposed that a few of the upper armycommanders had been in on it, too. 

A communication-screen began making noises. Somebody flipped the switch, and Khreggor Chmidd appeared in it. Erskyll swore softly, and went toface the screen-image of the elephantine ex-slave of the ex-Lord Master, the late Rovard Javasan. 

"Citizen Proconsul; why is our telecast station, which is vitally neededto give information to the people, jammed off the air, and why are youbroadcasting, on our wavelength, advice to the criminals of theci-devant Masterly class to take refuge in your Proconsular Palace fromthe just vengeance of the outraged victims of their century-longexploitation?" he began. "This is a flagrant violation of the ImperialConstitution; our Emperor will not be pleased at this unjustifiedintervention in the affairs, and this interference with the planetaryauthority, of the People's Commonwealth of Aditya!"

Obray of Erskyll must have realized, for the first time, that he wasstill holding a highball glass in one hand and a cigarette in the other. He flung both of them away. 

"If the Imperial troops we are sending into the city to rescue women andchildren in danger from your hoodlums meet with the least resistance, you won't be in a position to find out what his Majesty thinks about it, because Admiral Shatrak will have you and your accomplices shot in theConvocation Chamber, where you massacred the legitimate government ofthis planet, " he barked. 

So the real Obray, Count Erskyll, had at last emerged. All theliberalism and socialism and egalitarianism, all the Helping-Hand, Torch-of-Democracy, idealism, was merely a surface stucco applied at theuniversity during the last six years. For twenty-four years before that, from the day of his birth, he had been taught, by his parents, hisnurse, his governess, his tutors, what it meant to be an Erskyll of Atonand a grandson of Errol, Duke of Yorvoy. As he watched Khreggor Chmiddin the screen, he grew angrier, if possible. 

"Do you know what you blood-thirsty imbeciles have done?" he demanded. "You have just murdered, along with two thousand men, some five billioncrowns, the money needed to finance all these fine modernization andindustrialization plans. Or are you crazy enough to think that theEmpire is going to indemnify you for being emancipated and pay thatmoney over to you?"

"But, Citizen Proconsul. .. . "

"And don't call me Citizen Proconsul! I am a noble of the GalacticEmpire, and on this pigpen of a planet I represent his Imperial Majesty. You will respect, and address, me accordingly. "

Khreggor Chmidd no longer wore the gorget of servility, but, as LanzeDegbrend had once remarked, it was still tattooed on his soul. Hegulped. 

"Y-yes, Lord-Master Proconsul!"

They were together again in the big conference-room, which Vann Shatrakhad been using, through the day, as an extemporised Battle-Control. Theyslumped wearily in chairs; they smoked and drank coffee; they anxiouslylooked from viewscreen to viewscreen, wondering when, and how soon, thetrouble would break out again. It was dark, outside, now. Floodlightsthrew a white dazzle from the top of the Proconsular Palace and from thetops of the four buildings around it that Imperial troops had clearedand occupied, and from contragravity vehicles above. There was light andactivity at the Citadel, and in the Servile City to the south-east; therest of Zeggensburg was dark and quiet. 

"I don't think we'll have any more trouble, " Admiral Shatrak was saying. "They won't be fools enough to attack us here, and all the Masters aredead, except for the ones we're sheltering. "

"How many did we save?" Count Erskyll asked. 

Eight hundred odd, Shatrak told him. Erskyll caught his breath. 

"So few! Why, there were almost twelve thousand of them in the city thismorning. "

"I'm surprised we saved so many, " Lanze Degbrend said. He still worecombat coveralls, and a pistol-belt lay beside his chair. "Most of themwere killed in the first hour. "

And that had been before the landing-craft from the ships had gottendown, and there had only been seven hundred men and forty vehiclesavailable. He had gone out with them, himself; it had been the firsttime he had worn battle-dress and helmet or carried a weapon except forsport in almost thirty years. It had been an ugly, bloody, business; onehe wanted to forget as speedily as possible. There had been times, afterseeing the mutilated bodies of Masterly women and children, when he hadbeen forced to remind himself that he had come out to prevent, not toparticipate in, a massacre. Some of Ravney's men hadn't even tried. Atrocity has a horrible facility for begetting atrocity. 

"What'll we do with them?" Erskyll asked. "We can't turn them loose;they'd all be murdered in a matter of hours, and in any case, they'dhave nowhere to go. The Commonwealth, "--he pronounced the name he hadhimself selected as though it were an obscenity--"has nationalized allthe Masterly property. "

That had been announced almost as soon as the Citadel telecast-stationhad been unjammed, and shortly thereafter they had begun encounteringbodies of Yakoop Zhannar's soldiers and Zhorzh Khouzhik's police who hadbeen sent out to stop looting and vandalism and occupy the Masterlypalaces. There had been considerable shooting in the Servile City;evidently the ex-slaves had to be convinced that they must not pillageor destroy their places of employment. 

"Evacuate them off-planet, " Shatrak said. "As soon as _Algol_ gets here, we'll load the lot of them onto _Mizar_ or _Canopus_ and haul themsomewhere. Ghu only knows how they'll live, but. .. . "

"Oh, they won't be paupers, or public charges, Admiral, " he said. "Youknow, there's an estimated five billion crowns in slave-compensation, and when I return to Odin I shall represent most strongly that thesesurvivors be paid the whole sum. But I shall emphatically not recommendthat they be resettled on Odin. They won't be at all grateful to us fortoday's business, and on Odin they could easily stir up some veryadverse public sentiment. "

"My resignation will answer any criticism of the Establishment thepublic may make, " Erskyll began. 

"Oh, rubbish; don't talk about resigning, Obray. You made a few mistakeshere, though I can't think of a better planet in the Galaxy on which youcould have made them. But no matter what you did or did not do, thiswould have happened eventually. "

"You really think so?" Obray, Count Erskyll, was desperately anxious tobe assured of that. "Perhaps if I hadn't been so insistent on thisconstitution. .. . "

"That wouldn't have made a particle of difference. We all made thisinevitable simply by coming here. Before we came, it would have beenimpossible. No slave would have been able even to imagine a societywithout Lords-Master; you heard Chmidd and Hozhet, the first day, aboardthe _Empress Eulalie_. A slave had to have a Master; he simply couldn'tbelong to nobody at all. And until you started talking socialization, nobody could have imagined property without a Masterly property-owningclass. And a massacre like this would have been impossible to organizeor execute. For one thing, it required an elaborate conspiratorialorganization, and until we emancipated them, no slave would have daredtrust any other slave; every one would have betrayed any other to curryfavor with his Lord-Master. We taught them that they didn't needLords-Master, or Masterly favor, any more. And we presented them with asituation their established routines didn't cover, and forced them intodoing some original thinking, which must have hurt like Nifflheim atfirst. And we retrained the army and handed it over to Yakoop Zhannar, and inspired Zhorzh Khouzhik to organize the Labor Police, andfundamentally, no government is anything but armed force. Really, Obray, I can't see that you can be blamed for anything but speeding up aninevitable process slightly. "

"You think they'll see it that way at Asgard?"

"You mean the Prime Minister and His Majesty? That will be the way Ishall present it to them. That was another reason I wanted to stay onhere. I anticipated that you might want a credible witness to what wasgoing to happen, " he said. "Now, you'll be here for not more than fiveyears before you're promoted elsewhere. Nobody remains longer than thaton a first Proconsular appointment. Just keep your eyes and ears and, especially, your mind, open while you are here. You will learn manythings undreamed-of by the political-science faculty at the Universityof Nefertiti. "

"You said I made mistakes, " Erskyll mentioned, ready to start learningimmediately. 

"Yes. I pointed one of them out to you some time ago: emotionalinvolvement with local groups. You began sympathizing with the servileclass here almost immediately. I don't think either of us learnedanything about them that the other didn't, yet I found them despicable, one and all. Why did you think them worthy of your sympathy?"

"Why, because. .. . " For a moment, that was as far as he could get. Hismotivation had been thalamic rather than cortical and he was havingtrouble externalizing it verbally. "They were _slaves_. They were beingexploited and oppressed. .. . "

"And, of course, their exploiters were a lot of heartless villains, sothat made the slaves good and virtuous innocents. That was your real, fundamental, mistake. You know, Obray, the downtrodden andlong-suffering proletariat aren't at all good or innocent or virtuous. They are just incompetent; they lack the abilities necessary for overtvillainy. You saw, this afternoon, what they were capable of doing whenthey were given an opportunity. You know, it's quite all right to givethe underdog a hand, but only one hand. Keep the other hand on yourpistol--or he'll try to eat the one you gave him! As you may havenoticed, today, when underdogs get up, they tend to turn out to bewolves. "

"What do you think this Commonwealth will develop into, under Chmidd andHozhet and Khouzhik and the rest?" Lanze Degbrend asked, to keep thelecture going. 

"Oh, a slave-state, of course; look who's running it, and whom it willgovern. Not the kind of a slave-state we can do anything about, " hehastened to add. "The Commonwealth will be very definite aboutrecognizing that sapient beings cannot be property. But all the rest ofthe property will belong to the Commonwealth. Remember that remark ofChmidd's: 'It will belong to everybody, but somebody will have to takecare of it for everybody. That will be you and me. '"

Erskyll frowned. "I remember that. I didn't like it, at the time. Itsounded. .. . "

Out of character, for a good and virtuous proletarian; almost Masterly, in fact. He continued:

"The Commonwealth will be sole employer as well as sole property-owner, and anybody who wants to eat will have to work for the Commonwealth onthe Commonwealth's terms. Chmidd's and Hozhet's and Khouzhik's, that is. If that isn't substitution of peonage for chattel slavery, I don't knowwhat the word peonage means. But you'll do nothing to interfere. Youwill see to it that Aditya stays in the empire and adheres to theConstitution and makes no trouble for anybody off-planet. I fancy youwon't find that too difficult. They'll be good, as long as you deny themthe means to be anything else. And make sure that they continue to callyou Lord-Master Proconsul. "

Lecturing, he found, was dry work. He summoned a bartending robot:

"Ho, slave! Attend your Lord-Master!"

Then he had to use his ultraviolet pencil-light to bring it to him, anddial for the brandy-and-soda he wanted. As long as that was necessary, there really wasn't anything to worry about. But some of these days, they'd build robots that would anticipate orders, and robots to operaterobots, and robots to supervise them, and. .. . 

No. It wouldn't quite come to that. A slave is a slave, but a robot isonly a robot. As long as they stuck to robots, they were reasonablysafe. 

+--------------------------------------------------------------+| Errata || || The following typographical errors were corrected. || || |Page |Error |Correction | || |4 |Terrohuman |Terro-human | || |10 |present; |present, | || |19 |tessallated |tessellated | || |28 |announcemnet |announcement | || |28 |intransigeant |intransigent | || |36 |tattoed |tattooed | || |37 |salutory |salutary | || |41 |constituion |constitution | || |43 |belligerant |belligerent | || |+--------------------------------------------------------------+