“Look,” said the companion of the officer of the court.
The captain and his first officer, with some other officers, had just entered.
“May I join you?” asked one of the minor officers, looking up from the floor.
“Please do,” said the companion of the officer of the court.
Seats were scarce. Some had been reserved below, of course, at the side of the ring, in this case,
opposite the door to the section. The captain and the first officer, and certain other officers, were seated there, and some of these seats, too, had been left empty, apparently to be filled later. It might be mentioned that the officer of the court and her friend were not far from these privileged seats. They had come rather early to the entertainment, it may be recalled. They thus had much their pick of seating arrangements.
The officer took his seat to the right of the companion of the officer of the court, thus away from the officer of the court. He did this, rather than sit between the ladies, as might otherwise have been expected, for one of them was of Terennia, and the women of Terennia, being “sames,” or supposedly so, tend to be uncomfortable in the presence of males, and, accordingly, tend to shun their proximity.
Shortly thereafter the lights began to dim.
“It is beginning!” said the companion of the officer of the court.
CHAPTER 11
The lights had continued to dim until the section of the hold was in total darkness, and then, after a moment, they came on again, suddenly.
In the ring now, on the sand, to one side, rather toward the door, there knelt a large, bearded man. His long hair, which behind him fell to his waist, was bound back with a fillet of leather. He wore a tunic of roughly sewn skins. He was heavily chained, hand and foot.
The women in the crowd, at the first sight of him, gasped, drawing back.
“He is clad as a barbarian,” said the woman who had invited the officer of the court to sit with her, to the minor officer.
“He is a barbarian,” said the officer. “He was taken on Tinos.”
On either side of the kneeling figure, standing, were two guards, armed not with stun sticks but fire pistols.
There are several varieties of such weapons. They are commonly a sidearm of imperial officers. A common form of fire pistol, and that which the guards carried, held ten reduced, controlled charges, each emitting a narrow, bright, quarter-second beam. In this fashion the beam, in the moment of its activation, might breach materials such as wood or flesh, but could do little more than scorch and disfigure metal. This was important within a carefully regulated environment, that, say, of a ship in space. Weapons in the empire, as I have earlier indicated, were carefully controlled, and this policy was one of the reasons, doubtless, for the general security of its authority. Within the empire the manufacture of such weapons was an imperial monopoly. Indeed, even within the empire primitive weapons, clubs, staffs, pointed, edged weapons, and such, were far more common than technologically sophisticated weapons. Indeed, many in the empire knew only such weapons. Some imperial troops, as a matter of fact, had been, for most practical purposes, reduced to the use of such weapons, they being supplemented, of course, to some extent by more powerful devices. Certain forms of energy within the empire were, statistically, quite rare, many sources having been exhausted centuries ago. This was the case on literally thousands of worlds. These facts, however, must not obscure the fact that the empire still had at its disposal weapons capable of dislodging planets from orbits, even of pulverizing them into miniscule, radiating debris.
“The skins he wears,” said the minor officer, to her in the pantsuit, “are from animals which he himself has killed.”
“Interesting,” she said.
But her interest, we may suspect, was taken less by those savage skins than by something else, by the savage himself, he so muscular, so mighty within them, he whom they so primitively bedecked.
The officer of the court swayed a little.
Her heart, like that of many of the other women in the tiers, was beating rapidly, fearfully.
Out there, somewhere, in the galaxy, there were men such as these!
What could be the fate of women in the hands of such men?
Did she not know?
The borders must hold!
“Are you all right?” asked the minor officer.
“Yes,” she said.
The women in the tiers, who were educated, civilized women, looked upon the barbarian, even though he was chained, with some apprehension. How different he was from the men with whom they were personally acquainted!
The officer of the court, seeing such a man, became suddenly quite conscious of the shocking undergarments she had dared to place beneath her “same garb.”
How frightening were such men. Their attitudes, their values, would doubtless be quite different from those of civilized men, gentlemen. Who knew how they might look upon a woman, or in what terms they might see her?
“Are you alarmed?” asked the minor officer, looking over to the officer of the court.
“Certainly not,” she said.
“He is now quite helpless,” said the minor officer.
“Are their women dressed similarly?” asked the officer of the court, as though idly.
“The women commonly wear cloth, some, the finest, obtained in trade, some, particularly in remoter areas, which they themselves have spun and loomed. The most common garment of free women is a long dress, which muchly covers them, that their men may not be driven mad with desire.”
“Not all their women are free?”
“No.”
“They then keep slaves.”
“They are barbarians, of course,” he said.
“And what is the most common garment of slaves?” she asked.
“Usually the long dress,” said he, “as with free women.”
“But not always?” asked the officer of the court.
“No,” said the minor officer.
“And how then would they be dressed?” asked the officer of the court.
“As slaves,” said the minor officer.
“If dressed?”
“Of course,” said he.
“How many women do such men have?” asked the officer of the court.
“Some have several,” he said.
“Both wives and slaves?”
“Sometimes,” said the officer.
Despite the ponderous chains on the barbarian, and the presence of the vigilant, armed guards, many of the women continued to be apprehensive, regarding the kneeling figure.
They knew themselves to be civilized women, of course, and thus no more than prey to such men.
Such men, they understood in their bellies, would see them as women, and put them to the uses of women.
How dreadful!
At this moment the main door to the section opened and the young naval officer, he who was putatively on leave, entered.
The officer of the court gasped.
Yesterday evening she had seen him only in a lounging robe, a leisure, or pleasure, garment, one suitable for the captain’s table, but he was now in what must be a dress uniform. It was white with gold braid. Too, she was startled to note, at the left shoulder, three purple cords.
As he entered, in uniform, the captain himself, and his officers, had risen, in salute. The two guards in whose custody knelt the prisoner, too, came to attention.