"You hoped by your mode of dress, and such," said Aemilianus, "to conceal that you were of a caste on which vengeances might be visited, and thus to improve your chances of survival."
She tossed her head, and the chain dangling from her collar moved in its staple. "I am not a man," she said. "Indeed, I can barely lift, let alone wield, the weapons of men. I have nothing of their strength. I have nothing of their power. I am other than they. I am a woman. I am something quite different from a man. I think that I am entitled, then, to attempt to secure my survival as best I can, and in my own way."
"In the way of a female?" asked Aemilianus.
"Yes!" she said.
"In doing what you did," he said, "in going barefoot, in baring your calves, in not having your hair shortened, in carrying gold and such, you arrogated to yourself considerable advantages over other women in Ar's Station." "It is every woman for herself," she said. "It is not my fault if other women were not as clever as I. It is not my fault if they did not judiciously bare their bodies, and design themselves clothing such as might appeal to a conquering invader. Too, it is not my fault if they lacked the gold wherewith to sweeten a petition to foes for the collar. Am I to be blamed, too, for being more beautiful than many women of Ar's Station, for I am certain that I am, and for thus having some additional unfair advantage over them?"
"Why did you not donate your hair to the defense of the city?" asked Aemilianus. "I did not want to," she said.
"Why not?"
"It was pretty," she said, angrily.
"And?" he asked.
"I thought I would be more attractive with it," she said, angrily. "I thought if I were captured by Cosians, I would be more likely to be spared, if it was not cut."
"While the women of Ar's Station had theirs cut?"
"If they wished," she said.
"And thus might be less likely to be spared?" he asked.
"That is their business, not mine," she said.
"What of the desperate need of cordage for catapults? he asked. "Let the hair of slaves be shorn," she said.
"And what if there was not enough? he asked.
"Then get hair from the women who are willing to give it," she said. "What if there was not enough?" he asked.
"My hair would make no difference," she said.
"What if all the free women took that position? he asked.
"They did not," she said.
"For one in chains you speak rather arrogantly," he observed.
"Surely they will be removed in a moment," she said.
"What did you do to contribute to the defense of the city?" he asked. "I accepted a duty," she said.
"Bit it is true, is it not," he asked, "that you did this only late in the siege?"
"Yes," she said.
"And only after it had been made clear that women who did not participate in the efforts of defense were to be lowered over the wall at noon, naked, to Cosians." "Yes," she said, angrily.
"What duty did you choose?" he asked.
"I served as a warder in the citadel," she said.
"Why did you choose that duty?" he asked.
"I thought it would be easy," she said.
"And in such a place," he said, perhaps it would have seemed less inappropriate to wear garments such as you did, and go barefoot, and such?"
"Perhaps," she said.
"You did not choose to work on the wall? he asked.
"No," she said.
"Why not?" he asked.
"I am not strong," she said.
Straighten your back," he said.
She did so.
"There seems nothing wrong with your body," he said.
One or two of the men smiled.
"Slight as it is," he said, "it seems such that it could be appropriately subjected to lengthy servile labors."
She looked at him, frightened.
"Or perhaps more appropriately yet," he said, "to numerous, various labors of a more delightful sort, labors particularly suitable for females." "Commander!" she protested.
He said nothing. I wondered if he were not, in his mercy, giving her an opportunity to request permission to speak. I was curious to see if she would ask such permission.
"Have I heard the sum of these charges? she asked.
"Your behavior of this morning might be included," he said, "in which, before your compatriots, you in effect begged the collar of Cosians."
"I had no idea, Commander, that you or the others were here," she said. "We gathered that," he said.
There was laughter.
"I beg your indulgence," she said. "I am only a female."
Aemilianus did not speak.
"I do not think my behavior so untoward, unpredictable or surprising for my sex," she said.
The face of Aemilianus remained expressionless.
"I do not think that other women, those of Ar's Station, or of other cities, under similar circumstances, would have behaved differently," she said. "Do you think they would have behaved so, so readily?" he asked.
"I do not know," she said. "Perhaps stupider women would not have. It is every woman for herself!"
"I understand," said Aemilianus.
"If that, then," she said, "is the sum of the charges against me, I request that they be dismissed. Surely my defense, even if you do not approve of me, is sound. Surely everything that I have done, including the matter of wanting to keep my hair, lies within the prerogatives of a free female. Similarly, it is surely within her rights to pursue her own best interests, selfishly or not, as she understands them. Similarly, it is not her fault if other women are not as favored as she with intelligence and wealth, and perhaps beauty. If there is any objection to my conduct, surely it must be merely that I was not, in your opinion, sufficiently patriotic, and surely it is no crime to be insufficiently patriotic. Therefore, remove my chains." At this point she lifted her chained wrists to Aemilianus. "The matter," said Aemilianus, "is considerably more complex than you seem to understand. There are more subtleties here than you seem to realize. For one thing, your conviction that it is not a crime to be insufficiently patriotic may not be shared by everyone. In particular, it may not be shared by those who risked their lives in defense of the city, those who, say, fought upon the wall, or at the gate, or on the landing or walkway. Secondly, there is the consideration, subtle at times, to be sure, of conduct indicating suitability for the collar."
She shuddered.
The principle he had alluded to pertains to conduct in a free woman which is taken as sufficient to warrant her reduction to slavery. The most common application of this principle occurs, in areas such as fraud and theft. Other applications may occur, for example, in cases of indigency and vagrancy. Prostitution, rare on Gor because of female slaves, is another case. The woman are taken, enslaved, cleaned up and controlled. Indulgence in sensuous dance is another case. Sensuous dance is almost always performed by slaves on Gor. A free woman who performs such dancing publicly is almost begging for the collar. In some cities the sentence of bondage is mandatory for such a woman.
"Conduct indicating suitability for the collar," of course, can be interpreted in various ways, and more broadly and narrowly. It is almost always understood, of course, fortunately for women, and as I suppose the phrase itself makes clear, in the special legal sense of the phrase, as having to do with overt behavior rather than psychological predispositions and such. Many Goreans believe that all women are natural slaves, and thus, in a sense, are all eminently suitable for the collar. But even taken in the appropriate, legal behavioral sense the phrase is, as may well be imagined, subject to diverse interpretations.