what the crowding would have been. She remembered the press at the door of Section 19, in the hold. She knew nothing of the mechanisms of the lifeboats. Too, she would be terrified to trust herself to such things, so tiny, such frail barks in such vast seas, like lonely motes of steel in the enormous night, so far from commercial lanes, in an area of space scarcely charted.
Perhaps it would be too open, too bold, she thought, to proceed directly to the lounge.
And might they not have it guarded, lest others, like herself, think to find food or drink there?
Perhaps she could approach it, she thought, by means of the upper balcony of the general entertainment hall, which gave access, through a passage, to the lounge’s upper balcony. Then she could look down into the lounge, the main floor, and see if it were safe.
At this point she heard, from the hallway behind her, feminine laughter.
She cast about, wildly, looking for a place to hide.
But there seemed none.
Then, as the voices seemed almost upon her, she crouched down, back, between the lower rim of the port and the railing, to the right, as one would face the port. If one were searching for her there one would doubtless have discovered her, but if one were not looking for her, it was not unlikely that her presence in this simple ensconcement might be overlooked.
“Move!” said a female voice, sharply.
“Yes, Mistress,” said another female voice, frightened.
“It is heavy, Mistress,” said another female voice.
“Hurry,” said another female voice, this one, too, with uncompromising sharpness.
“Yes, Mistress!” said the female voice which had complained of the weight of something.
The officer of the court heard, too, the sounds of chains.
She pressed herself back into her nook.
Two women, stripped, passed her. Between them they bore a bulging silken sheet filled with a miscellany of precious items, doubtless loot taken from cabins. They could scarcely manage their burden. The officer of the court noted, to her horror, that their ankles were shackled. These were the chains she had heard. But even more startling to the officer of the court was the nature of the two women who followed the laden pair, two who stood to them obviously in some strict supervisory capacity, this made clear by their mien, and, too, by the whips they carried. It was the laughter of this second pair which had reached her ears but moments before. These two women following the shackled pair were among the most sensuous women she had ever seen. They were garbed, if one may so speak of it, in brief tunics, incredibly brief, and muchly open. On the wrists of these women, and on their arms, and slung about their throats, was much jewelry, things doubtless from the loot, with which they had bedecked themselves. On the wrist of one was a bracelet of diamonds that might have been the ransom of a city. Suddenly, startled, the officer of the court noted, about the throat of the other was a golden necklace which she had little doubt was her own, that which she had worn at the captain’s table. But beneath the necklaces, and strings of jewels, and such, which these women had flung about their necks in lavish prodigality she could detect, clearly, closely encircling each’s neck, a different device, a chain. This was locked shut, behind the back of the neck. Although the officer of the court could not see this from her vantage point, there depended from this chain, in front, a disk. On this disk appeared the name of the barbarian ship to which each was assigned, and a designation of the quarters upon it which each must serve and clean. These two women were vital, and held themselves beautifully. Muchly did their appearance contrast with that of the wretched, shackled creatures they supervised, creatures which they obviously held in the greatest contempt. One of these women held in her hand a piece of roasted fowl.
“Please, Mistress, let us pause, but for a moment!” begged one of the bearers of loot. Indeed, it is not unlikely that precious objects once her own lay mixed somewhere within that weighty heap which so tested the strength of herself and her miserable companion. Indeed, perhaps she could see them.
“Very well,” said one of the muchly bejeweled women. They were ship slaves. Barbarians do not like to be without their slaves.
The burden of the two shackled women was lowered to the floor, gratefully.
The officer of the court, fearfully, shrank back further in her nook.
“Kneel,” said one of the supervisors, “hands on your thighs, where we can see them.”
Instantly the two shackled women obeyed.
“You need not open your knees,” said the other supervisor. “You are not now before men.”
One of the shackled women moaned.
The supervisors laughed.
The supervisor with the bit of roast fowl tore off a bit of it in her teeth, and chewed on it.
“Please, Mistress,” said one of the kneeling women, “may we not be fed?”
“Do not dare to look upon us,” said one of the supervisors. “Keep your head down.”
“Yes, Mistress,” said the woman, hurriedly lowering her head.
“You have not yet finished your work,” she was told.
“Yes, Mistress,” said the woman.
Suddenly the other supervisor, laughing, cracked her whip.
The two shackled women cried out in misery.
“Up,” said the supervisor, “resume your burden!”
“But Mistress!” protested one of the women, for they had knelt but a moment before.
Then she cried out as the lash fell upon her.
“Please, no, Mistress!” she wept.
“Instant obedience is required of slaves,” she was informed.
“Yes Mistress!” she wept, and she and her companion hastily rose to their feet, and each, again, seized up two corners of the sheet and, with difficulty swung it up, free of the floor.
“Turn about, move, slaves!” said the angry supervisor.
Then the two shackled women bore again, between them, their heavy burden.
The one supervisor cast aside the bit of roast fowl, having had what she wanted of it.
She wiped her hand on her thigh.
The officer of the court heard the lash fall twice more.
“Hurry, slaves!” she heard.
“Yes, Mistress,” she heard. “Yes, Mistress!”
When the women had disappeared down the corridor the officer of the court crept forth from her hiding place and seized up the bit of roast fowl, eagerly biting away what particles of it clung still to the light, hollow bone. Then she licked and sucked the bone, and her fingers, for the least bit of grease. But such minums of provender could do little more than mock the rage of her hunger. Bitterly she knelt on the floor, before the window, recalling food she had refused, dishes she had rejected, returning them to kitchens with her sharp words for cooks. Now she would have eagerly addressed herself to such largesse, such gifts, even head down, feeding from a plate set on the floor, beside a master’s chair. And her throat was parched. Never had she been so hungry and so thirsty.
Were there passengers and crew members still free on the ship? She did not know.
Could the ship be regained?
It did not seem likely. She recalled the openness, the indifference, the assurance with which the two women, supervising the bearers of loot, those bearers, too, doubtless loot as much as any they bore, had walked the corridor.
She recalled the two women with the whips. They had been among the best-postured, best-figured and most sensuous women she had ever seen. She had no doubt but that they were dieted, exercised and trained. Such, you see, is permissible with animals, and slaves. What was she to do? She was afraid to surrender.
She did not even know if she would be permitted to do so. She might not even receive an opportunity to do so. She might be fired upon, a moving object, instantly, at first sight, cut in two in some corridor by a blast of fire.
Perhaps she might surrender to ship slaves.
But she was afraid of them, and their strictness, and the contempt in which she knew they would hold her.
She thought of herself naked, in shackles.