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.
For example, in the present one, a judge would be expected to decide whether or not the behaviors of the sort performed, constituted behavior for which the collar might be suitably imposed. Also important, of course, at least in the eyes of some, might be her failures in the defense effort, her refusal to be shorn, contributing her hair for use as catapult cordage, in spite of the desperate need for such materials, and the fact that it was only after the imposition of a severe penalty for noncompliance that she accepted even a small duty in the siege.
It was on the basis of considerations such as these, and perhaps cumulatively, taking into consideration their conjoint weight, that a determination might be made as to whether or not it was fitting that she be made a slave. Her begging for a Cosian collar but moments ago, and her open admission of the fittingness and rightness of her being collared, interestingly, would probably not be considered at all. In most cities such things are taken for granted, the natural righfulness of slavery for females, and such, and are accordingly seldom regarded as germane with respect to the legal imposition of a sentence of bondage.
"You do not think then that these charges should be dismissed out of hand!" she asked, faltering.
"I would certainly not think so," said Aemilianus.
"I see," she said, frightened. She was kneeling up, off her heels.
We heard a Vosk gull screaming overhead.
From where I stood I could see the linked ankle rings on her fair ankles, and part of the long chain running from the ankle-ring chain up, before her body, to the staple on her collar. The wrist-ring chain, in front, was attached to the same long chain. I could see also the metal collar on her neck. It was in plain view, of course, as I had cut her hair.
"What then is your decision upon the charges, Commander? she asked. "'Charges'?" he asked.
"Yes," she said.
"Charges," he said, "are appropriate to free women."
"Commander?" she asked.
"They might be involved, for example," he said, "in a trial."
"Of course, Commander," she said.
"Whereas in your case," he said, "such considerations, being pertinent to free women, may be simply beside the point."
"But surely I have been on trial!" she said.
"Perhaps, rather," he said, "as I suggested earlier, we are not engaged her in a trial but in something quite different." "I do not understand," she said.
"Perhaps this is more in the nature of a little hearing, a quire informal little hearing, or inquiry."
"Commander?" she faltered.
"And perhaps what we are really concerned with here are not charges, which are pertinent only to free persons, but causes for punishment, which are pertinent to slaves."
She looked at him in terror.
"To be sure," he said, "anything, with or without reason, may be done to a slave."
"Commandera€”" she said.
"I do not think we need now concern ourselves with matters such as intentional misrepresentations of caste, violations of decorum, arrogation of advantages, jeopardization of fellow citizens, and insufficiency of patriotism. We must rather consider matters which, I believe, are more pertinent in your case, and, I fear, unfortunately for you, far more serious."
"What matters?" she asked, terrified.
"Chief among them," he said, "would seem to be misrepresentation of status." "Ia€”I do not understand," she whispered.
"Impersonation of a free woman," he said.
She did not dare to speak.
"And, of course," he said, "there are several associated considerations, such as arrogant speech, speaking without permission, and failure to use the proper forms of address."
She shuddered.
"You may speak," he said.
She lifted her hands toward her collar. "You can see that the only collar I wear," she said, "is a portion of my chaining. You can see that I am not branded!"
"Are you, or are you not, a free woman?" asked Aemilianus. "Speak clearly." She squirmed, kneeling on the deck. She trembled in the chains. She looked from one face to another, before her, and at the sides. Wildly she must have been considering whether or not there might be any there who had heard her speak the self-irreversible words of self-enslavement on the upper battlements. Then, kneeling up, again off her heels, she straightened her back, and, I fear, was preparing to respond boldly, and negatively, to the question of Aemilianus. She lifted her head, she drew in her breath.