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[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
In any event the captain paused, solicitously.
"I am all right," she assured the captain.
"I passed in the corridor," said he, "on my way, one of Pulendius's brutes. I
trust you were not accosted."
"No," she said. "No!"
How could she have been accosted? One does not accost slaves. One commands
them.
"I think it a mistake that such brutes should be allowed to roam freely," he
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said.
"Doubtless," she laughed.
"They should be kept in cages," he smiled.
"Perhaps," she laughed.
"Are you all right?" he asked.
"Yes," she said.
She had heard that female slaves were sometimes kept in cages, sometimes quite
small cages.
"I bid you a joyous evening," said the captain.
"Captain!" she said.
"Yes?"
"There is to be some sort of entertainment tomorrow evening?"
"Entertainment?"
"Games," she said, "a contest?"
"Yes," he said.
"A contest?"
"Yes," he said.
"At what time and place may I inquire?"
"It is nothing in which you would be interested, milady," he said.
"It is in the lower portions of the ship," he said.
"In the hold," said he, "Section Nineteen, an hour after supper."
"I will see how I feel tomorrow evening," she said. "If I am bored, I might
look in."
"You should not wish to see it," he said.
"Oh?" she asked.
"I am not sure you would find it appropriate," he said.
"Other women will attend, I trust?" she asked.
"Doubtless," he said.
"I have every right to attend, do I not?" she asked.
"Of course," said he.
"This is a pleasure ship, a cruise ship," she said. "Entertainments are
afforded. I have paid my passage."
"You are entirely welcome, of course," said the captain.
"Is anything wrong?"
"No," he said. "It is only that you are of Terennia."
"And what has that to do with it?" she asked.
"Nothing," he said.
"We shall see how I feel tomorrow evening," she said.
The captain's offer to escort her to her cabin was declined. She was, after
all, of Terennia. Yet, to recount matters accurately we must mention that
after his departure, for whatever reason, she began to tremble. She looked
out, again, onto the night, and the stars, the worlds, and was afraid.
She felt very small, and helpless. The ship itself, with its light, its
warmth, its steel, its numerous life-support systems, did little to allay her
apprehension. It would not have hurt, she thought, even though she was of
Terennia, and who would know, to have had the company of the captain to her
cabin. It was a long way there, through several passages, and she was clad in
such a way that it was made quite clear, in spite of the teachings of
Terennia, that she was not really a "same." She looked at herself in the
mirror of the portal. No, she was clearly other than a "same." She was
something else, quite different from a "same." She then hurried to her cabin,
looking about her, even stopping to peer down adjoining passages, before
crossing other corridors, and then, in a little while, frightened, and
breathless, for she had at times even run a little, in short, hurrying steps,
the most permitted to her by the garment in which she fled, she arrived at her
door. In a moment she was within, and stood on the inside of the cabin, her
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back against the door, the door double-locked. She was frightened, and was
breathing heavily. Then she moaned, and turned about, and sank to her knees
behind the door, and put her hands out, touching it, touching the steel.
She was not a slave!
She was safe.
CHAPTER 10
"What a dreadful outfit!" laughed one of the women on the tiers.
The officer of the court did not deign to respond.
"Do not be angry!" called the woman. "Come, sit here beside me!" She patted a
place on the tier.
The officer of the court smiled, and climbed to sit beside her.
"Have I missed much?" asked the officer of the court, lightly.
"Not at all, you are quite early," the woman assured her.
The performers, if one may speak of them in that fashion, had not yet entered
the wooden-
rimmed circle of sand which was ringed by the tiers. The room in the hold,
Section 19, was a high one. One could see, above, the lofty girders, and
steelwork, which the shipwrights had not been concerned to conceal in this [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] - zanotowane.pl
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