The Chieftan

“Do you think you are on a beach, on some civilized world, with transports overhead every hour?” he asked.

“Light a beacon,” said the officer of the court.

“And who would see it?” he asked.

“Surely there is someone on this world,” she said.

“That is possible,” he said.

“Surely someone!” she said.

“But who?” he asked, meaningfully.

The officer of the court, and the shopgirl, were silent.

The young naval officer withdrew.

The shopgirl stood up, and looked about herself. “This is a beautiful world,” she said.

The officer of the court sniffed.

“It is primeval,” said the girl, “untouched, unspoiled.”

“I am glad you like it,” said the officer of the court. “You may spend the rest of your life here.”

“What did he mean,” asked the shopgirl, “that he did not know who might see a beacon?”

“I do not know,” said the officer of the court. “I am sure we are alone on this world.”

“I am not so sure,” said the shopgirl.

“Why do you say that?” asked the officer of the court.

“I thought I saw something, yesterday,” she said.

“What?” asked the officer of the court, apprehensively.

“I do not know,” she said.

“Perhaps it was a beast,” said the officer of the court, uneasily. Surely, last night, when they were locked in the capsule, they had heard things outside, prowling about. Too, there had been howling, roars, in the forest.

“Perhaps,” said the shopgirl.

“He took the pistol, of course!” said the officer of the court, angrily.

“It has only a charge or two left, surely,” said the shopgirl.

“What will protect us, if something comes?” said the officer of the court, looking about herself.

“We can run to the capsule,” said the shopgirl.

“Where is he?” asked the officer of the court.

“Doubtless he has gone for firewood,” she said.

“I’m hungry,” said the officer of the court.

“I wonder if there are men here, on this world,” said the shopgirl, looking at the darkness of the trees.

“I would not know,” said the officer of the court.

“It there were, they would almost certainly be barbarians,” she said.

“Undoubtedly,” said the officer of the court.

“I wonder how they would view us,” she said.

“As persons, as ladies,” said the officer of the court.

“But if they were truly barbarians —” said the shopgirl.

“I wonder where Oona is,” said the officer of the court. This was the name of the woman in the pantsuit, it now frayed and dirty, who had gone to fetch water.

It seemed she should have returned by now.

There was some cause, incidentally, for the guarded reply of the young naval officer, that having to do with his response to who might see a signal, or beacon, if one were set. He had, you see, seen earlier some signs of human habitation, footprints by a stream, and a broken spearblade. Too, yesterday they had smelled smoke, from afar. He had climbed a tree and discerned the fire, but it seemed no ordinary fire, centered in a locale, then spreading, much at the mercy of wind. Rather, though he had not called this to the attention of his companions, it had been a fire of unusual pattern, one seemingly in defiance of nature, surely nothing one would expect to result from a simple blast of lightning, and, too, from where would have come such a blast, out of a clear sky?

“I am hungry,” said the officer of the court, and began to sort through the rations, put outside the capsule, to be sorted and divided. This was in connection with an inventory intended by the

young naval officer. It was now miserably close in the capsule, the life-support systems shut down.

“Do not touch the rations!” said the shopgirl.

“Do not speak so to me, humiliora!” snapped the officer of the court.

“You are fat enough!” said the shopgirl.

“I am not fat!” said the officer of the court. “It is the modesty of my garmenture!”

“You look like a balloon and you smell!” said the shopgirl.

“My garb is designed with a purpose in mind, one which you are incapable of appreciating, in your pretty little slacks and jacket!” said the officer of the court. “And you smell, too!” she added.

The officer of the court and the salesgirl refrained from making further untactful allusions to certain odors, as this was a sensitive issue, and one in terms of which they were both clearly vulnerable. The young naval officer and the woman in the pantsuit had, yesterday, gratefully, after weeks in space, at respectfully separate intervals, washed in the nearby stream. The waters, however, had been much too cold for the likings of the officer of the court and the salesgirl. Too, who knew who might be watching? This consideration, in particular, alarmed the officer of the court. For example, could she truly trust the young naval officer? Too, they could always bathe tomorrow. It might be warmer then.

“It is designed to conceal from others, and from yourself, that you are a woman!” said the shopgirl.

“Insolent bitch!” said the officer of the court.

“But then you are probably not a woman,” said the shopgirl.

“I am a woman!” said the officer of the court, somewhat surprising herself by this declaration, one not really to be expected from a woman of Terennia.

“Fat!” said the shopgirl.

“I am not fat!” said the officer of the court.

“If you were a slave,” said the shopgirl, “your figure would be trimmed until it was sexually stimulating to men!”

“Do not dare to speak to me in that fashion,” cried the officer of the court. “I am an officer of a court, of the honestori! You are only an employee, a salesgirl, working in a shop on a cruise ship. You are only of the humiliori. Do not dare speak so to me, you meaningless little snip. I am of the blood itself!”

“See if you speak so proudly when your hair is pulled out!” said the shopgirl, angrily.

“Do not dare touch me!” said the officer of the court, alarmed.

Angrily the salesgirl turned away. The least that might happen to her now would be that she would lose her position with the line. The humiliori were expected to exhibit a proper deference toward those of the honestori. Too, she might then find it difficult to locate another position. On certain worlds she could be fined, or sentenced to a penal brothel, even to being close-chained to her pallet. On many other worlds she could be simply remanded to slavery. Perhaps she would be purchased by the person whom she had offended.

The officer of the court opened a box, one containing concentrated survival chocolate.

“Do not eat that,” said the shopgirl.

“I do as I please,” said the officer of the court.

“It is for all of us!” said the salesgirl.

“Be quiet,” said the officer of the court.

“Fat!” said the shopgirl.

“I am not fat,” said the officer of the court.

“Where are you going?” asked the shopgirl.

“I am going to the stream, to get a drink,” said the officer of the court.

Their water, you see, had been muchly depleted in the capsule, not only over time, but in virtue of their needs, given the physical dehydration which tends to occur in such an environment. The water in the stream, too, constituted a considerable improvement over the water in the capsule’s stores. The water in the stream, tested pure, was cold and fresh. It was not stale. It did not reek of the taste of containers. Indeed, it was the best water