Laurence M. Janifer

“ I find Marvor after the fighting, once only, and I ask him what it is that is so important about this fighting. The Confederation—the masters we now have—are only masters like the ones we know. Marvor looks at me with a look as if he, too, is a master.
"Freedom is that important," he says. "Freedom is the most important thing."
I know that Marvor is not right, because I know the most important thing: it is the dead. For me Dara is most important, and I remember Puna, who is dead in the fighting: the rest does not matter. ”

“ The others followed his example, except for Cadnan, who, afraid to let himself fall on bare metal, crouched down slowly instead.
"Weak are the slaves," Gornom whispered.
The answer was a whisper, too.
"Small are the slaves."
The others whispered.
"They are like small ones all the days of their lives, and only the masters are elders."
"The masters are elders."
"As the machine obeys," Gornom said, "so the slave obeys. As the tree obeys, so the slave obeys. As the metal obeys, so the slave obeys. As the ground obeys, so the slave obeys." ”

“ Dara looked at him innocently. "Go?" she said.
"You must go as Marvor has gone. The masters do not take you for punishment if you go."
"There is nothing for me to do," she said, and her eye closed. "No. I wait for you, but only to tell you this: there is nothing I can do."
"Marvor is gone," Cadnan said slowly. "You, too, can go. Maybe the masters do not find you. If you stay you are punished. If you go and they do not find you there is no punishment for you." It amazed him that she could not see so clear a point.
"Then all can go," she said. "All can escape punishment." ”

“ They all talk about equality, friends, and you know what equality is? Equality is a license to rob you blind and steal you blind, to cut you up and leave the pieces for the garbage collector, to stuff what's left of you down an oubliette, friend, and forget about you. That's what equality is, friends, and don't you let them tell you any different.
Why, years ago there used to be servants, people who did what you told them. And the servants got liberated, friends, they all got freedom and equality so they were just like us. ”

“ Cadnan pushed at it, and it opened—and then there was sound, plenty of sound, more sound than he could have imagined, sound to fill the great lobby, to fill the entire building with rocking, trembling agonies of noise!
There was an alarm-bell, to be exact, an alarm-buzzer, combinations and solo cadenzas. The guards were, after all, no more than dressing: the automatic machinery never slept, and it responded beautifully and with enthusiasm.
Cadnan and Dara ran crazily out into the darkness. ”

“ Dalor, Puna, Grudoc, Burlog, Montun. Cadnan stared with fascinated eyes at Puna, who was older than anyone he had ever seen. His skin was nearly all white, and in the dim room it seemed to have a faint shine. His voice was very high and thin, like a wind sighing in tall tree-branches. Cadnan shivered, but didn't take his eye from Puna until, as if at a signal, all the elders rose. Awkwardly, then, Cadnan rose with them, again confused and still frightened.
He saw Gornom raise his hands over his head and chant: "Tall are the masters." ”

“ Albin said. He walked a few steps toward the window. "Anyhow, that was for war."
"I don't know," Dodd said. His hands went back into his lap, and his eyes closed. He spoke, now, like a man in a dream. "There used to be all kinds of jobs. I guess there still are, in the Confederation. On Earth. Back home where none of us have ever been." He repeated the words like an echo: "Back home." In the silence nothing interrupted him: behind his head light poured in from the giant window. "A man could choose his own job," he went on, in the same tone. ”

“ His eye was larger than normal, and glittering cold. Cadnan, awestruck, neither spoke nor moved, and the elder regarded him for a time and then said abruptly: "Not all are called to the truth."
"He has been called," Gornom said. "He has been chosen."
"How is he chosen?"
Gornom explained. When he had finished, a silence thick as velvet descended upon the room. Then, very suddenly, all the elders spoke at once.
"May the masters live forever."
Cadnan, by this time, was nearly paralyzed with fright. He sat very still. The elders continued, in a slow, leaden chorus:
"May the masters live forever. ”

“ She returned to Cadnan and took his hand. It was finished. Soon the tree would bud with the results of the liquids rubbed on it: after that, there would be small ones, and Cadnan would be an elder. All of this was in the future and it was very dim in Cadnan's mind, but everything was dim: he lay on the ground and Dara lay near him, both very tired, too tired to think of anything, and he felt himself shaking for a time and his breath hissed in and out until the shaking stopped. ”

“ Cadnan thought for a minute. "Important is what a master needs for life," he said at last. "The masters need a slave for life, because a slave must push the buttons. Without this work the masters do not live."
"Then why do the masters not push the buttons?" Marvor said.
"It is good they do not," Cadnan said stubbornly. "A slave is a big thing, and Cadnan is only a little thing. It is better to be big than little."
"It is better to be master than slave," Marvor said sullenly. ”

“ The green-gray light that filtered through the trees and haze bathed both Alberts in a glow that enhanced their own bright skin-color. They stood for a few seconds, listening, and then Dara turned.
"I know these sounds," she said. "I talk to others in our room, and some of these work outside. They tell me of these sounds and this place: it is called a jungle."
Cadnan made a guess. "The trees make the sound."
"Small beings make it," Dara corrected him. "There are such small beings, not slaves and not masters. They have no speech but they make sound." ”

“ The night-beasts, soft glowing circles of eyes and mouths which none of their race had ever seen before: the giant flesh-eating plants: the herd of bovine monsters which, confused, stampeded at them, shaking the ground with their tread and making the feathery trees shake as if there were a hurricane: all this might have made an epic, had there been anyone to record it. But Cadnan expected no more and no less: the world was strange. ”

“ Then none of us are punished." He paused. "It will be a great punishment."
"I know," Dara said. "Yet one does not go alone."
Her voice was so low that Cadnan could barely hear it, but the words were like sharp stones, stabbing fear into his body. For the first time, he saw clearly exactly what she was driving at. And after a long pause, she spoke again.
"Where one goes, two may go. Where Marvor goes, two may follow, one to lead the other."
"One goes alone," Cadnan said, feeling himself tremble and trying to control it. "You must go." ”

“ The new noises, and the strangeness of bare metal walls and artificial light, still novel after only a single day's training, gave rise to something very like a panic, and a confused babble of voices arose from the crowd.
"What is this?"
"What place is this?"
"It is a training place."
"My name Hortat. My name Hortat."
"What is training?"
"There is food here."
"What place is this?"
"Where are elders?"
"Are masters here?"
"My food."
"Is this a place for sleeping?"
"Training is to do what a master says. Training—"
"There are no elders. My name Hortat." ”

“ The elders were only elders, but the masters were masters, and Cadnan was a slave. It made him feel great and wise when he thought of it.
That night he could hardly wait to tell his news to Marvor—but Marvor acted as if he knew it already and was even made angry by the idea. "What is a slave?" he asked, in a flat, bad tone.
Cadnan told him of the work, the food, the shelter....
"And what is a master?" Marvor asked.
"A master is a master," Cadnan said. "A master is the one who knows."
"A master tells you what to do," Marvor said. "I am training and there is more training to come and then work. ”

“ Marvor tells us, "Dara would be safe, and the others."
"Yet it is freedom that kills them," I say.
Marvor says: "Not freedom but the war. The fight against our masters here, the old masters, to make them give us freedom."
I say: "Do not our old masters have freedom?"
"They do," Marvor says, "now."
This puzzles me. I say: "But they have freedom at all times. They have what they want, and if freedom is a good, and they want it, then they have it."
Marvor says: "It is true. They have freedom for themselves." ”

“ Only people, just you and your people, living your own lives and making your own decisions? How about that, kid?"
"We would be alone," Cadnan said simply. "No master would feed us. We would die."
"No," Dodd said again. "What did you do before we came?"
"It was different," Cadnan said. "It was not good. This is better." He tried to imagine a world without masters, but the picture would not come. Obviously, then, the world he lived in was better: it was better than nothing.
"Slaves," Dodd said to himself. "With a slave mentality." And then: "Tell me, Cadnan, do they all think like you?" ”

“ To be free is to go to these bad things."
"To be free is to do what you want," Marvor said. "To be free is to be your own master."
After some thought Cadnan asked: "Who can be his own master? It is like being your own mate."
Marvor seemed to lose patience all at once. "Very well," he said. "But you will not tell the masters what I say?"
"Does a brother harm a brother?" Cadnan asked. That, too, was in the rules: even Marvor, he thought sleepily, had to accept the rules.
"It is good," Marvor said equably. ”

“ Cadnan said earnestly, still puzzled. "Masters are good. It is true. Masters are always good."
"You don't have to be afraid of me," Dodd said, still looking away. "Nothing I could do could hurt you now—even if I wanted to hurt you. And I don't, Cadnan. You know I don't."
"I am not afraid," Cadnan said. "I speak the truth, no more. Masters are good: it is a great truth."
Dodd turned to face him. "But you tried to escape."
Cadnan nodded. "Dara can not die," he said in a reasonable tone. "She would not go without me."
"Die?" Dodd asked, and then: "Oh. I see. ”

“ After all, you're people, aren't you? Just like us."
Cadnan tried to untangle the questions, and finally settled for a simple answer. "We are slaves," he said. "You are masters."
"Sure," Dodd said. "But I mean people. And you want the same things we do. You want a little comfort out of life, a little security—some food, say, and enough food for tomorrow. Right?"
"It is good to have," Cadnan said. He was determined to keep his end of the odd conversation up, even if it seemed to be leading nowhere.
"It isn't as if we've been here forever," Dodd said. ”

“ Dodd opened his eyes. They looked very large and flat, like the eyes of a jungle animal. "I don't need education," he said. "And I don't need hobbies. I need to get off this planet, that's all. I need to stop working with the Alberts. I need to stop being a master and start being a man again."
Albin sighed. "Slavery," he said. "You think of slavery and it all rises up in front of you—Greece, India, China, Rome, England, the United States—all the past before the Confederation, all the different slaves." He grinned again. "You think it's terrible, don't you?"
"It is terrible," Dodd said. ”

“ A man didn't have to work at one, whether he wanted to or not."
"All right," Albin said. "Okay. So suppose you had your choice. Suppose every job in every damn history you've ever heard of was open to you. Just what would you pick? Make a choice. Go ahead, make—"
"It isn't funny, Albin," Dodd said woodenly. "It isn't a game."
"Okay, it isn't," Albin said. "So make it a game. Just for a minute. Think over all the jobs you can and make a choice. You don't like being here, do you? You don't like working with the Alberts. So where would you like to be? What would you like to do?" ”

“ Cadnan said wearily. "I am a slave."
"That is a bad thing." Cadnan tried to speak, but Marvor went on without stopping. "Dara is with me," he said, "and some of the others. There are not many. Most of the brothers and sisters are cowards."
Then he had to define "coward" for Cadnan—and from "coward" he progressed to another new word, "freedom." That was a big word but Cadnan approached it without fear, and without any preconception.
"It is not good to be free," he said at last, in a reasonable, weary tone. "In the cold there is a bad thing. In the rain there is a bad thing. ”

“ But no man on Fruyling's World could see the Alberts without preconceptions. They were not Alberts: they were slaves, as the men were masters. And slavery, named and accepted, has traditionally been harder on the master than the slave.
John Dodd, twenty-seven years old, master, part of the third generation, arranged his chair carefully so that it faced the door of the Commons Room, letting the light from the great window illumine the back of his head. ”

“ It's senseless: even if we won, the Confederation fleet could blockade us, prevent us getting a shipment out, bottle us up and starve us for good. But they don't need sense, they need motive, which is quite a different thing. They're going to fight—both because they need the punishment of a really good licking, and because fighting is one more way for them to deny their guilt."
"It seems complex," Norma said.
"Everything is complex," Dr. Haenlingen said, "as soon as human beings engage in it. The action is simple enough: warfare." ”

“ It was only human, after all, to find the cheapest way to do necessary work. It was only human to want the profits high and the costs low. It was only human to look on other races as congenitally inferior, as less-than-man in any possible sense, as materials, in fact, to be used.
That was certainly human: centuries of bloody experience proved it. But the Confederation didn't want to recognize human nature. ”

“ Dodd said. "The Confederation needs the metal. It exists pure here, and in quantity. But if they knew, really knew, how we mined and smelted and purified it and got it ready for shipment...."
"So suppose somebody goes back," Albin said. "Suppose somebody talks. What difference does it make? It's just rumor, nothing official. No, the reason nobody goes back is cargo space, pure and simple. We need every inch of cargo space for the shipments."
"If somebody goes back," Dodd said, "the people will know. Not the government, not the businesses, the people. And the people don't like slavery, Albin. ”