The other man laughed too but abruptly stopped when the fat man’s expression grew serious again. “Hmmm, it occurs to me that a spicy little piece of meat like this may cause trouble among the slaves. Benny, when you take her to the quarters you’d better stay awhile and supervise the argument over who gets her. Try and make a decision that will cause the least friction.”
“I understand, boss.”
Jan was wishing now that she had gone back into the cage with the other women. There was no way she was going to become the carnal property of some brutish male slave. She would have no choice but to defend herself, an action which would end, sooner or later, in her death. The sooner she could find a way of setting off her bomb, the better.
The fat man was reaching again into the bowl from which he’d extracted the smoking implement. This time he took out a small metal rod with a star on the end of it. The star was glowing red. He sighed. “I’m afraid there is a slight unpleasantness to attend to before you can be on your way, amazon. Please come here and kneel before me.”
Jan saw at once what he intended to do, though she didn’t know where exactly he intended to do it, and took an instinctive step backward. Immediately a powerful hand closed around the back of her neck and she was stopped from moving any further.
The fat man shook his head, making all the fat beneath his mouth wobble obscenely, then said sadly, “You must never ever disobey me, girl. But as you have just arrived I shall be lenient. Benny, just a quick touch of your razzle stick, if you please.”
Before Jan knew what was happening she saw, out of the corner of her eye, the man apply the tip of what she had thought was a club to her upper right arm. She discovered instantly it was no club. Every nerve cell throughout her entire body seemed to burst into flame. She experienced agony infinitely beyond anything she thought the Mother God would allow to exist in Her universe. She screamed. …
Then the pain was gone and she was on her knees and retching fluid on to the floor. She’d emptied her bladder too, she realized, but nothing mattered now that the terrible pain was gone. And when Benny then dragged her closer to the fat man, who deftly applied the red hot, star-shaped brand to her right cheek, she didn’t even make a sound. She just stared into the empty eyes of the other girl who continued to massage the fat man’s neck even as he applied the brand. Jan no longer felt contempt for her. To avoid being touched again by that black stick she was prepared, at that moment, to take the girl’s place and do exactly the same.
The fat man put the glowing metal rod back into the bowl and said, “You are now marked as a slave. For life. Like her. See.” He indicated the naked girl’s face. For the first time Jan noticed the small black star on her right cheek. She thought it actually looked rather pretty. “You can only enter and move about within those parts of the Sky Lord that are marked with similar black stars,” continued the fat man. “If you are ever discovered outside these designated areas you will immediately be ejected from the Sky Lord. Understand me, amazon?”
She said yes, anxious not to upset him again.
“Good. Benny, you can take her to the slave quarters now.”
As Benny pulled her to her feet the fat man added, “Hopefully, if you turn out to be clean, we can get to know each other much better. Would you like that?”
Jan swallowed and said, “Yes. I would.” The girl, showing her first sign of independent life, frowned at her. The fat man chuckled and made a dismissive gesture with one of his pudgy hands. Jan was hurried out of the room by Benny. She glanced down and saw that the black stick was, thankfully, again hanging from his belt.
He took her into a very narrow corridor that was more like a tunnel. It was badly lit and smelt foul and Jan had to hunch forward to avoid hitting her head on the roof. They hadn’t gone far when Jan saw a large rat ahead of her. It watched them approach with no sign of fear and then, when Jan was only a few feet from it, suddenly vanished into a hole in the floor.
Finally the tunnel widened out and became better illuminated. It ended at a kind of junction with different corridors leading away in different directions and one that led straight down. Coming out of the latter were the sound of raucous male voices and dreadful cooking smells.
“Go on, climb down it,” ordered Benny, indicating the ladder that led down into the tunnel. Jan did so, with Benny following her. After a short distance the ladder emerged from the ceiling of a narrow but very long room. Jan hesitated and looked around at all the faces that were staring up at her. A silence had fallen over the room as she’d made her appearance but then someone, a man, yelled loudly, “Don’t be bashful, darling. Come on down!” Then came a burst of laughter, followed by jeering and catcalls. Jan’s initial reaction was to climb back up again, but when Benny gave her a sharp knock on the top of her head with the heel of his boot she had no choice but to descend the rest of the way.
There was another brief spell of silence when the occupants of the long room saw Benny emerge from the hole in the ceiling after Jan, but as she reached the end of the ladder the jeering and laughter broke out again and she was immediately caught in a press of male bodies. For a moment she thought the room contained only men but then she glimpsed several women on the edge of the throng. From their expressions they were definitely not as happy as the men to see her.
She was relieved when Benny joined her at the base of the ladder and cleared a space around them simply by unhooking the black stick from his belt and pressing a switch in its side. The jeering and laughter subsided again. Then a man called out, “Hey, Benny, who’s your pretty little friend?”
“She’s from that amazon town we flattened yesterday,” Benny told them cheerfully. “And she’s come to join you. …”
There was a roar of laughter that made Jan flinch. Benny held up the black stick for silence. “Now the thing is, you bunch of hull scrubbers, that the boss doesn’t want you fighting over this little amazon. Too many of you have died, or been maimed, in brawls during the last year and he’s not happy about it. You’re valuable to him and he doesn’t like losing his valuables for no good reason. Are you with me?” He looked around.
There were mutters of assent. Benny continued “Right, so let’s do this sensibly. Hands up all of you who think you deserve this little item here.”
A lot of hands shot into the air and there was a great deal of laughter again. Benny scowled. “I haven’t got forever, you idiots, so give me a break.” He pointed the stick at a man almost directly in front of him. “You, Barth! What are you holding your hand up for? I know for a fact you have two women. What do you need another one for?”
Barth, a big man with a spectacular growth of beard, grinned and said, “Why do you think?”
More laughter. Even Benny smiled briefly but the scowl was soon back into position. “Put your hand down, Barth,” he ordered. “And the rest of you who have women, no matter how much you think you deserve a spare, pull your hands down as well.”
Reluctantly and slowly a lot of hands went down. But a lot still remained. It was obvious that the slave quarters contained many more men than women. It was then that Jan noticed a man standing apart from the rest. He was leaning against a wall next to two women who were looking at Jan and muttering to themselves. He had his arms folded and was watching her with studied indifference. She had noticed him because, unlike the other men, he was not only beardless but completely bald as well.