“I admire that intelligent an outlook, and now I’m going to take advantage of it,” Jake said, and then he explained how enslaving women was keeping society on this world from advancing. Gordi developed a frown as he listened, and then he shook his head.
“I knew I didn’t much like slavery, but I had no idea that it was actually hurting us,” he said, his expression sober. “What impresses me most is that you people are trying to talk us into changing things, not strolling onto our world and telling us what to do. But there are those who won’t be impressed by any of it, and even more they’ll claim that you’re lying.
People like Flam over there, and that brings us back to a point you haven’t explained yet. How did we all get here?“
“You can thank that slaver Himlin for your being here,” Tain said while
Jake searched for the proper words to answer Gordi’s question.
“Himlin decided to make use of a new idea, so we did the same.”
“She means that Himlin didn’t just kidnap Tandro and me and try to talk us into withdrawing our complaints,” Jake said hurriedly while Gordi frowned at Tain as if a piece of furniture had suddenly spoken to him.
“Himlin used the slave drug on my friend and me, then gave us a taste of what women go through with him. Needless to say, Tandro and I now hate slavery even more than we did.”
“But that’s not possible,” Gordi protested, still giving Tain an occasional disapproving glance. “That drug doesn’t work on men, only on women.”
“Guess again,” Tain said, sitting straighter on her pallet. It was fairly clear that Tain had noticed Gordi’s attitude toward her and wasn’t happy about it. “There are only a very small number of drugs that don’t work on both men and women, and you people aren’t sophisticated enough to have any of those. If you thought you were safe from being put through what’s only been done to women until now, you were wrong.”
“I don’t like your attitude,” Gordi stated, having done his own straightening where he sat. “You’re dressed like a slave and even have the proper armbands, so you have no right talking to a free man like that. I want an immediate and proper apology from you, slave, and then I want that pallet you’re sitting on.”
“I really am so sorry, sir, but I’m not allowed to take the orders of anyone but my owner,” Tain answered at once with a very … feral kind of smile. “You claim you don’t like slavery, but you still don’t hesitate to give orders to someone you consider a slave and you even resent being talked to by that someone. With those facts clear before us, I’m sure you won’t mind if I do the same as you.”
“Tain, please don’t,” Jake said, the order he’d meant to give coming out in the only way it was possible for him to speak to her. “I thought we agreed—”
“I agreed to give you a chance,” Tain interrupted to point out, the look in her own blue eyes a good deal calmer than Jake had thought it would be.
“He thinks it’s a shame that slavery seems to have been holding his people back, but he still doesn’t consider slavery wrong. If you want people to see things your way, you have to make the matter more personal for them.”
Jake really did want to argue the point, but this time it was reason that held the words back. It so happened that he agreed with Tain, but pushing the matter to the limit could make the whole interview blow up in their faces.
“I think people ought to be what they are,” Gordi said, taking advantage of Jake’s silence. “It isn’t hard to make a woman a slave, but the same can’t be said of men. If it’s truth you’re looking for, you now have it.”
“Truth isn’t truth when you’re only looking at one side of the coin,” Tain countered, seeing the challenge in Gordi’s attitude just as Jake did.
“It’s now become time to flip that coin, so why don’t you get to your knees, put your head to the floor, apologize to me for speaking out of turn, and then sit down again.”
Gordi didn’t hesitate to do as he’d been told, of course, and once he was back sitting as he’d been the look in his eyes was pure pole-axed.
“Now you know how we got you here, and you also know that making a man a slave isn’t hard at all,” Tain said to a Gordi who looked like he might pass out. “Not to add insult to injury, but you have to obey everyone, not just me. How did you like the experience of being what you are?”
“I never thought -! This can’t be possible, but I know I didn’t imagine it!” Gordi sounded almost wild, and then he looked at Tain again. “I don’t want to tell you that I hated what you just did, but I can’t stop myself. You have to get this drug out of me, you have to!”
“There is an antidote to the drug, but no one on this world has it,” Tain answered, her words still mild. “I think if you people outlaw slavery and really mean it, our own people will see their way clear to supplying the antidote for your use. On the provision, of course, that the women get to be freed first. After all, they’ve been chained to that drug longer than you have.”
Gordi opened his mouth, probably to protest, then he closed his eyes and shook his head.
“It never occurred to me that being subject to the drug could be so … devastating,” Gordi muttered as he ran his hands through his black hair. “You can’t refuse to do something even if you want to, and that’s not right. Using the drug isn’t right, and that’s one stance no one will ever move me from.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” Tain told him, and her tone was the least bit more gentle now. “And since you’re such a fan of truths, here’s one that ought to be self-evident right now: as long as anyone at all is in danger of being enslaved, you yourself are not safe no matter how well protected you think you are. As long as any kind of slavery is possible, just because you aren’t enslaved today doesn’t mean it won’t happen to you tomorrow.”
“Ten minutes ago I would have argued that statement, but right now all I can do is agree,” Gordi said, raising his head to look directly at Tain. “It hadn’t come to me sooner, but you’re not from this world either, are you? Does that mean off-worlders aren’t as easy a mark for the drug as we are?”
“No, it just means we’re sneakier than you are,” Tain responded with something of a smile. “We brought you and your friends—and your major opponent—here to show you our side of things, but Killen wanted to start with you alone. He obviously thought you were the most reasonable of the bunch, and I’m glad to say I now agree with him. But the question still has to be put: will you talk to those others and try to get them to see things your way?”
“I think I now need to talk them around,” Gordi said slowly, as though examining his words as he spoke them. “For the second time I wouldn’t have said exactly that if I’d been given the choice, but this damn drug isn’t giving me the choice. You bet I’ll talk to them, and if one of them doesn’t see it my way I’ll probably break his neck.”
Jake expected Tain to tell Gordi that he couldn’t break anyone’s neck without her permission, but she just smiled and left her pallet to move closer to the three sleeping men. She spoke softly to each of the three, and a couple of minutes later they were all sitting on their blankets fully awake.
“What the hell is this?” the man named Flam asked as soon as he could, glaring around at everyone in the room. “How did you manage this, Gordi? No, never mind how you managed it. Just show me the way out of here.”
“You were brought here for the same reason I was, Flam, and you won’t be leaving until you hear what I have to say,” Gordi returned at once. Then he began to tell the three what he’d been told by Jake, but he didn’t stop there. He also described the rest of what had happened, and the two men who were supporters of his ended up looking shaken. Flam, though, was another matter.