The Captain

CHAPTER 21

“Mercy! Mercy!” cried Tuvo Ausonius.

He was forced down to his knees before the curule chair.

The black, metal holding rod, used for controlling and guiding, was snapped into its adjustable sockets, on the mounts fixed on the floor before the chair. There were other such paired mounts, to receive other such bars, elsewhere in the dank, dimly lit chamber, one several levels beneath the commissioner’s quarters.

Tuvo Ausonius knew where he was, as he had not been blindfolded. His arrest had been effected quite openly, the officers arriving during daylight hours with the rod and cuffs, and conducting him quite publicly through the streets.

The rod was behind the small of his back, and his arms had been brought forward about it; his hands, in the cuffs, were rather at his sides; held closely there by the arrangement of cuffs and chain. The rod could not slip from its position as two small, looped chains, attached to the rod, one on each side of the body, were snapped about his arms, just above the elbow.

The two officers who had placed Tuvo Ausonius on his knees now stepped back.

Tuvo Ausonius was naked, save that a rag had been twisted about his loins, perhaps that his modesty as a same might be respected.

Ausonius winced as a bright light, set somewhere above, illuminated him.

The curule chair, at the moment, was empty.

Ausonius, his eyes half closed, shut against the glare, tried to look to the guards. He could do so only with difficulty, as they were rather behind him, on each side. He could read nothing in their expressions or carriage, save perhaps that they would do with him what they were told.

A door opened and an officer of the city entered.

“Mercy!” cried Tuvo Ausonius.

The officer, who carried some papers, regarded him.

“I am innocent!” said Tuvo Ausonius.

“Of what?” asked the officer.

“I do not know,” said Tuvo Ausonius. “Why am I here? With what have I been charged?”

The officer, looking down upon him, did not choose to respond.

“There has been some mistake,” cried Tuvo Ausonius. “I am Tuvo Ausonius, of Miton, an honest citizen, a patrician, a level-four civil servant in the government of his majesty, the emperor!”

“My record is impeccable,” said Tuvo Ausonius.

“I am a patrician,” he said.

“I am innocent!” he said.

“You will be heard, of course,” said the officer. “His lordship himself will hear your case.”

“His lordship?” asked Tuvo Ausonius.

At this point a tall, darkly clad figure appeared in the doorway.

Tuvo Ausonius pressed back against the metal bar fixed in its sockets.

“Your lordship,” said the officer, deferentially.

The darkly clad figure nodded and approached, taking the papers from the officer. “Thank you, Commissioner,” said the darkly clad figure.

This appellation startled Tuvo Ausonius.

The darkly clad figure took his place on the curule chair, and leafed through the papers.

“I am innocent, your lordship,” said Tuvo Ausonius.

“You may leave, Commissioner,” said the darkly clad figure.

“Yes, your lordship,” said the officer, and withdrew.

The darkly clad figure was masked.

“Tuvo Ausonius, civil servant, fourth level, Miton, a same world, finance division, first imperial quadrant, member of the honestori, even of the minor patricians-” said the masked figure, looking through the papers.

“Of the Ausonii,” said Ausonius, “in the 103rd degree!”

“That is quite impressive,” said the masked figure.

“An excellent dossier,” said the masked figure.

“Yes, your lordship!” said Tuvo Ausonius.

“On the whole,” said the masked figure.

“Your lordship?” asked Tuvo Ausonius.

“There does seem the matter of mating,” said the masked figure. “You are aware of the encouragements of the imperial government in these respects? You are aware of the empress mother’s concern in such matters?”

“Oh!” cried Tuvo Ausonius, relievedly. “Certainly! Do not fear! I searched avidly for a spouse! A marriage was arranged, indeed, with an inferior, but technically suitable member of the patricians, one from the acceptable world of Terennia, one whose descent fell, even if only barely, within the guidelines for my station, a Tribonius Auresius!”

The masked figure raised his eyes from the papers.

“That is a woman, of course!” said Ausonius. “Sames often give their female children masculine or neutral names, in order to help them better attain in their psychology and behavior the goals and ideals of sameness.”

“But you are not mated,” said the masked figure.

“Alas, no!” cried Tuvo Ausonius. “Perhaps you have heard of the Alaria?”

“Yes,” said the masked figure.

“It was lost!” moaned Tuvo Ausonius.

“Several ships have been lost,” said the figure.

“There was doubtless a malfunction, or a meteor storm,” said Tuvo Ausonius.

“Doubtless,” said the masked figure.

“My proposed bride was on board the Alaria,” said Tuvo Ausonius, in a choked voice.

“But you have not made other arrangements?”

“I was at a loss, I was heartbroken,” said Tuvo Ausonius. “You can understand.”

“I think so,” said the masked figure.

“But now, after this time, of course,” said Tuvo Ausonius, “I am more than willing to mate. Does the board have a candidate in mind? I would be eager to comply, whoever it might be. I am a good citizen.”

“Your citizenship is commendable,” said the masked figure. “Do you think this business has to do with a mating board?”

“Does it not?” asked Tuvo Ausonius, apprehensively.

“The empire does not practice coercion,” said the masked figure. “The empire is the very condition of freedom, as you know.”

“Certainly,” said Tuvo Ausonius.

“Very few individuals, statistically, are arraigned before mating boards,” said the masked figure, “and little more is necessary, in most cases, than presenting some evidence, reasons, arguments, or such, pertinent to the matter. You have done far more than is expected by such boards, having actually gone to the lengths of arranging a marriage, and such. You would be instantly, and without question, exonerated. Too, the empire can surely respect your sense of loss, your feelings.”

“Then this matter is not in connection with a mating board?” asked Tuvo Ausonius.

“Certainly not,” said the masked figure.

“Why do you think you were brought to this world?” asked the masked figure.

“I do not know,” said Tuvo Ausonius.

“The empire has had its eye on you for a long time,” said the masked figure.

“Oh?” said Tuvo Ausonius, uneasily.

“Your record appeared outstanding,” said the masked figure.

“Your lordship?”

“You were summoned here to be commended, to be honored for your devotion to the empire, to be rewarded and promoted.”

“Your lordship!”

“But in examining your accounts, preparatory to clearances for the award,” continued the figure, “a number of unusual, subtle, serious discrepancies appeared.”

“Impossible!” cried Tuvo Ausonius.

“There are special formulas, not generally publicized, for detecting such discrepancies,” said the figure.

“My work is outstandingly accurate,” said Tuvo Ausonius.

“Perhaps it contained some inadvertent errors?”

“Perhaps,” said Tuvo Ausonius. “But I find that hard to believe.”

“So does the examining board,” said the figure. “The errors are of such a nature, such a frequency, such a proportion, that it is impossible that they can be the result of inadvertence. They demonstrate, incontrovertibly, to the board, evidence of extensive, profound, shameless peculation.”

“I do not understand,” said Tuvo Ausonius. He suddenly seemed very much aware of the cuffs on his wrists, how hard the cement was beneath his knees.

“Perhaps you have enemies?” suggested the figure.

“But who, for what purpose?” cried Ausonius.

“In light of your record, and your imposing lineage, I have been reluctant to process the matter,” said the masked figure.

“I am innocent!” said Tuvo Ausonius.

“I have even thought, on the basis of your record and such, before these matters came to my attention,” said the masked figure, “that there might be a place for you in the service of the palace itself, perhaps at the tenth level, as a special agent, a confidential agent, to be sure, charged with the conduct of delicate affairs.”

“I will do anything!” said Tuvo Ausonius.

“In such an event, I was considering turning over to you those records, and such, which constitute the putative evidence of those alleged, say, misdemeanors, that you might do with it what you wish.”

“Your lordship!” said Tuvo Ausonius.

“It would be tragic, indeed, if an innocent man were to be sent to a mining planet, there to serve out whatever portion he might manage of a fifty-year sentence of hard labor.”

“I am innocent!” cried Ausonius.

“I believe you,” said the masked figure.

“Thank you, your lordship!”

“But there is another more serious matter,” said the masked figure, regretfully.

“Your lordship?” asked Tuvo Ausonius, frightened.

“And that is why you are clad as you are, and on your knees, and chained,” said the masked figure.

“I do not understand,” said Tuvo Ausonius, pulling at his restraints.

“Commissioner!” called the masked figure.

The officer returned to the room.

“You, Tuvo Ausonius, of Miton,” said the masked figure, reading from the papers, “are charged with attempting the chastity of a free woman, one Sesella Gardener, of Miton, and engaging in activities with the object in view of having a free woman, this same Sesella Gardener, reduced to the condition of animal and slave.”

“No! No!” cried Tuvo Ausonius.

“Bring forth the witness,” said the masked figure.

Sesella Gardener entered, angrily, righteously, followed by two officers.

She was clad in gray, bulky, disguising same garb, boots, coveralls, and stiff, high-collared cloak, her hair, even, concealed beneath a dark, gray cap.

The top button on the coveralls, and the top closure on the stiff cloak, designed to conceal her upper body, were fastened shut.

Tuvo Ausonius, kneeling there on the cement, constrained, regarded her with misery and fear, but, too, oddly, with disappointment.

How different she was before, thought Tuvo Ausonius, that startling beauty of some two weeks ago.

It was not altogether impossible, however, even now, to recognize something of that wondrous vision of desirability, so small, so luscious, so deliciously curved, even in the gray, almost-shapeless vengeful thing which stood to the right of the masked figure’s chair. Tuvo Ausonius now had a better sense of such things.

“Is this he?” asked the masked figure.

“It is he!” cried Sesella Gardener, pointing at the kneeling Tuvo Ausonius.

“No!” said Tuvo Ausonius.

This encounter was quite ironic in its way, and certainly unexpected, for it was this very night that Tuvo Ausonius had expected her to be put up for sale, at the commissioner’s auction. Indeed, he had thought that he might even, as he had nothing better to do that evening, attend the auction. He did not intend to make a bid, of course. That would not be appropriate for a same. On the other hand, he had considered his resources carefully, if only as a matter of idle speculation. Such women, he supposed, might prove useful, for example, for domestic tasks, for housework, shopping, cooking, such things.

“Is it true that this man attempted your chastity, that of a same?” asked the masked figure.

“I expected him to!” said Sesella Gardener.

“I never laid a hand on her!” cried Tuvo Ausonius. “I mean I was not even in the city the night one of her clients, it seems, left her chained at the foot of the bed!”

“We have verified that he was in the city, and that he had rented the room,” said the commissioner.

“The morning prior to the alleged incident?”

“Yes,” said the commissioner. “We have the disembarkation reports, the passenger lists, the rental agency’s records, such things.”

“It was he who had me disrobe, and put me at the foot of the piece of furniture, and made it such that I could not depart!” said Sesella Gardener.

“It was he who chained you naked at the foot of the bed?” said the commissioner.

“Yes!” said Sesella Gardener, reddening.

“She disrobed voluntarily!” said Tuvo Ausonius. “And she put herself in the relevant impediments.”

“Is that true?” asked the masked figure.

“He commanded me to do so,” she said, angrily.

“And you obeyed?”

“Yes.”

“Although a putatively free woman?”

“Yes,” she said, uncertainly.

“Interesting,” said the masked figure.

“I had no choice,” she said. “He was going to report me to the company.”

“For what?” asked the masked figure.

“For disarray,” she said, “even for insubordination, discourtesy, lies, lies!”

“She was in disarray on the vessel, and she leaned over me, and she removed her cap, making her hair naked in front of me, in one of the ship’s galleys,” said Tuvo Ausonius.

“I was afraid,” she said. “I did not want to be reported. I did not want to lose my position!”

“You say that you expected him to attempt your chastity?” asked the masked figure.

“Yes,” she said.

“And yet you went to the room?”

“Yes,” she said.

“Did he attempt your chastity?”

“No,” she said.

“The first charge then, Commissioner, must be dismissed,” said the masked figure.

“It now is,” said the commissioner, making a notation.

“Why did you say that?” asked the masked figure.

“I expected him to!” she said.

“Perhaps you wanted him to,” said the masked figure.

“No!” she cried.

“But, Tuvo Ausonius,” said the masked figure sternly, “that leaves the most serious charge in place, that you acted in such a way as to have in view the enslavement of a free woman, this very Sesella Gardener.”

“Yes!” cried Sesella Gardener.

“No!” cried Tuvo Ausonius.

“You left her chained in a room,” said the masked figure.

“No!” said Tuvo Ausonius.

“Some of the fingerprints on the manacles were his?” asked the masked figure.

“Yes,” said the commissioner.

Tuvo Ausonius’s prints had been taken shortly after he had been brought to the commissioner’s headquarters.

Apparently they had matched some of the prints, at least, on the manacles.

Tuvo Ausonius put down his head in misery.

Sesella Gardener cried out with pleasure, clapping her hands.

“Surely you must have understood that the authorities, to whom you reported the incident, would take her for a woman of pleasure, and one unlicensed, thus subject to impounding, and reduction to slavery.”

Tuvo Ausonius looked up, agonized, and then, again, lowered his head.

“I find you guilty,” said the masked figure.

“Yes!” cried Sesella Gardener, in triumph.

She looked at Tuvo Ausonius.

“That is where you belong, down there on your knees, you chained, stripped, filthy filch!” she cried.

Tuvo Ausonius looked up, angrily.

“The plaintiff may strike the defendant,” said the masked figure.

Sesella Gardener rushed to Tuvo Ausonius.

“You are nothing now, patrician filch!” she exclaimed.

She struck his face, repeatedly, with her small hand, back and forth.

“Filch, pig, dog!” she cried.

“That is enough,” said the masked figure.

Sesella Gardener, distraught, furious, oddly enough with tears in her eyes, backed away from Tuvo Ausonius.

“Punishments, in normal cases of this sort,” said the masked figure, “might be expected to be severe, considering the gravity of the offence, conspiring to reduce a rightfully free woman to the indignities and shame of bondage, so hateful to her, but this is obviously not such a case.”

Tuvo Ausonius looked up.

“Free him,” said the masked figure. “And take her into custody.” The two officers behind Tuvo Ausonius bent to free him of the bar and cuffs. Sesella Gardener cried out in protest, as she was seized by the other two officers who had accompanied her into the chamber. Tuvo Ausonius, bewildered, rose unsteadily to his feet. “Remove her clothing, completely,” said the masked figure. “And bring a bar and cuffs suitable for her, and put her in the sockets to my left.”

In a moment Sesella Gardener’s beauty was wholly bared, as much as it had been at the foot of the bed in the shabby room, as much as it had been in her small cell in the building for the past two weeks, to the pleasure of the guards, until, to her amazement, same garb was brought for her, and she was informed of the arrest of Tuvo Ausonius. It has been but a moment’s work for the indictment to be drafted. Shortly thereafter she had been brought down to the chamber, to testify. She now knelt, wide-eyed and bewildered, the prisoner of a bar and cuffs, suitable for her smaller frame, fastened in a pair of raised sockets, adjusted as to height, to the left of the masked figure.

“You say,” the masked figure asked Tuvo Ausonius, “that this female person was in disarray, and that she bared her hair to you on some ship?”

“Yes,” said Tuvo Ausonius, “and she knelt before me on the ship.”

“He suggested that I do so!” said the prisoner.

“And you knelt?”

“Yes,” she said, petulantly.

“You look well on your knees,” said the masked figure.

She pulled at the cuffs, but this moved the linking chain across her waist, tightly, and she stopped, instantly, realizing to her apprehension, and yet excitement, that this might accentuate her beauty, with what consequences she dared not speculate.

“You originally declared in the indictment,” said the masked figure to the kneeling girl, “that this esteemed citizen of the empire attempted your chastity.”

“Yes,” she said.

“You lied?”

“Yes,” she said.

“Why?”

“I was angry! I wanted to involve him in difficulties! Consider what he did to me, how he made me act!”

“For such an act you could be sent to a penal colony,” said the masked figure.

“If he had been a man he would have attempted my chastity!” she said.

“And doubtless would have removed it from you?”

“Yes,” she said, angrily.

“I am not a barbarian,” said Tuvo Ausonius.

“When a woman is clad as you reportedly were, all men are barbarians,” said the masked figure.

She looked up at him, angrily.

“You cannot thrust a torch into straw and not expect it to catch fire,” said the masked figure.

“He did nothing!” she said.

“He is a same,” said the masked figure.

“I changed my testimony!” she said. “I only said that I expected him to attempt my chastity, and that is true!”

“Such an expectation is irrelevant to the charge,” said the masked figure.

“The charge was dismissed,” said the commissioner.

“Yes,” said the masked figure.

“Why have you put me on my knees, and taken away my clothes, and chained me?” she asked.

“Is perjury not sufficient?” asked the masked figure.

She pulled at the cuffs, and then, again, stopped, instantly.

“It is a crime, is it not,” she asked, “to attempt to unlawfully reduce a rightfully free woman to bondage!”

“Yes,” said the masked figure.

“I am such a woman!” she cried.

“Scarcely,” said the masked figure.

“But you found him guilty,” she said.

“Of having in view your subjection to bondage, certainly,” said the masked figure.

“Why then am I chained as I am?”

“You are a free woman,” said the masked figure, “but not a rightfully free woman.”

“I do not understand,” she said, almost in a whisper, backing against the bar.

“I think you understand very well,” said the masked figure. “There are many counts against you, earlier and later, among them that you came as you did to his room, that you were clad, adorned and perfumed as a prostitute or less, that you obeyed, and so on.”

“I do not understand any of this,” she said.

“Your lordship,” said Tuvo Ausonius. “May I have a garment?”

“Certainly,” said the masked figure. He raised a hand in the direction of the commissioner, and the commissioner nodded to one of the two officers who had entered with Sesella Gardener. The officer immediately left the room.

“It is all madness, and all a mad combination of coincidences and circumstances,” said Sesella Gardener, wildly.

“You were scouted by sames, and by private agents, and agents of the line,” said the masked figure. “It was known that you chafed under the restraints of sameness. Your tendency to leave the top button of your uniform undone was noted, even under less exacting circumstances, your tendency to lean near to male passengers, your habit of neglecting the full complement of undergarments appropriate to a female same, thus permitting your lineaments to be conjectured, even your habit of touching your lips with the hint of cosmetics. It was not difficult to conjecture the closely guarded secrets of your innermost nature.”

“It is all coincidence!” she wept. “How unfortunate I am! The flight was not my regular flight. I was transferred to it at the last minute. Even the ships were changed, one substituted, one of many, whose climate machinery was laboring and, as yet, unrepaired. And why was I assigned to the executive compartment? I should not qualify for such an assignment for years! Why did that man have to be one of my passengers?”

“An incredible assemblage of circumstances,” admitted the masked figure.

The officer who had left the room now returned with a long cloak, with which, gratefully, Tuvo Ausonius covered himself.

He then, clad in the voluminous folds, looked down at Sesella Gardener, to his right, but to the left of the chair of the masked figure.

“I could not have been expected not to have noticed, and not to have taken offence, at her slovenly disregard for the etiquette of appearance and her forward, provocative behavior,” pointed out Tuvo Ausonius.

“Certainly not,” said the masked figure.

“Perhaps another might not have reported her,” said Tuvo Ausonius.

“Perhaps not,” admitted the masked figure.

“But certainly I would,” he said.

“Most probably,” agreed the masked figure.

“What is to be done with me?” begged Sesella Gardener.

“I am considering transmitting you to a penal colony,” said the masked figure. “The charge would be unlicensed prostitution.”

She looked up at him, in misery.

“You see the justice of the charge, surely,” said the masked figure. “First, you are a free woman, and not a slave. Thus, the applicable category in your case is not that of slave, say, bondgirl or thrall, but that of prostitute. Secondly, you went to the room in order to exchange, or sell, your favors, in this case for exemption from disciplinary action.”

“I had another reason, as well,” she said, her head down.

“I am sure you did,” he said.

She looked up.

“How do you feel about your chains?” he asked.

“They hold me well,” she said.

“What do they tell you?” he asked.

“That I must do as I am told,” she said.

“You are familiar with the usual punishment for unlicensed prostitution, aren’t you?” asked the masked figure.

“Yes, your lordship.”

“What is it?”

“Reduction to slavery,” she said.

“But in your case,” he said, “I am prepared to be lenient, and have you sent to a penal colony.”

“The minimum sentence to such a place is twenty years,” she said.

“Yes,” he said.

“What does one do there?” she asked.

“The guards find applications for female prisoners,” said the masked figure.

“The charge would be unlicensed prostitution?”

“Yes,” he said.

“Such a sentence, with all due respect, your lordship,” she said, “would be mistaken.”

“How so?” he asked.

“I am not a prostitute,” she said.

“What are you?” he asked.

“I am a slave girl,” she said.

Tuvo Ausonius gasped.

“You are not branded, you are a free woman,” said the masked figure.

“In my heart, your lordship, I know that I am a slave girl,” she said. “I have known it for years.”

“Interesting,” said the masked figure.

“Disgusting slave!” cried Tuvo Ausonius.

“I beg your indulgence, and forgiveness, your lordship,” she said, “for my debasement, my degradation and weakness. But there are such women, and I am one of them. I do not think that there is any longer any point in denying it. I want to be owned and mastered, to have no choice but to obey. I want to love and to serve, selflessly, unstintingly, with all that I am and can be.”

“Surely you are terrified at the thought of becoming a female slave,” said the masked figure.

“It is what I am,” she said. “Beyond that I do not know what to think. I sense that it is my true freedom. I do not think I could be happy in any other life.”

“Your thinking must be corrected,” said Tuvo Ausonius.

“To agree with yours?” she asked. “I have spent my life with such thoughts. They are gray, meaningless and empty.”

“Terrible, terrible!” said Tuvo Ausonius.

“Some women want to know that they are alive, really,” she said. “They desire real experiences, strong experiences.”

“What of tenderness and sensitivity,” said the masked figure, amused.

“Such things,” she said, “are surely very precious, and doubtless a girl muchly treasures them, but they are meaningful only when set against a background of power and mastery.”

“Degraded slut!” cried Tuvo Ausonius.

She looked at him, angrily. “I do not apologize for what I am!” she said.

“You would choose the brand, as opposed to a mere twenty years in a penal colony?” asked the masked figure.

“Yes,” she said.

“Why?”

“I am a slave.”

“I think I shall send you to a penal colony,” said the masked figure.

“Please do not!” she said.

“I can do what I wish,” he said.

“Yes,” she said, putting her head down, trembling, “the power is yours.”

“What do you think I should do, Tuvo Ausonius?” asked the masked figure.

“It matters not to me, of course, your lordship,” said Tuvo Ausonius.

“She is well curved,” said the masked figure.

“I am a same,” said Tuvo Ausonius, “we do not notice such things.”

“The penal colony is, of course, by far, the lesser punishment,” said the masked figure.

“The lighter punishment might be appropriate for a different woman, a higher woman,” said Tuvo Ausonius, “but consider this one, what she is, her debased nature, the utter worthlessness of her.”

“True,” said the masked figure.

“Too, as a free woman she would be priceless, of course, but she would actually have no value,” said Tuvo Ausonius. “As a slave, she would presumably be worth at least something. For example, she could be bought and sold.”

“True,” said the masked figure.

The masked figure turned to Sesella Gardener, the stewardess, from the line Wings Between Worlds.

“You understand,” he said to her, “that as a slave, you might come into the keeping of anyone. For example, you might be sold, and you would then belong, wholly, to whoever bought you.”

“Yes,” she said.

“You might even come into the keeping of our esteemed Tuvo Ausonius,” he said.

“Oh, no!” she cried. “Please, no! Do not jest, your lordship! Do not even hint at such things!”

“It is surely a possibility,” he said.

She struggled helplessly, futilely, but she could not even rise to her feet, as she was held.

“You are to be herewith, on numerous grounds, and particularly prominent among them those of fittingness, with my next words,” said the masked figure, “pronounced slave.”

She looked up at him, trembling.

“You are a slave,” he said.

“Take her away,” said the masked figure. “See that she is branded before nightfall.”

The slave’s guiding rod was freed from the sockets and she was pulled to her feet.

“Trust that you come into the keeping of a good master,” said the masked figure.

She was thrust from the room.

She looked back, once, wildly, over her shoulder at Tuvo Ausonius.

“She came to your room, did she not?” asked the masked figure.

“Yes,” said Tuvo Ausonius.

“One wonders why,” said the masked figure.

“Yes,” said Tuvo Ausonius. “It is all very strange.”

“She mentioned that there was another reason, other than her concern with her position with the company, and such.”

“As I recall, she did,” said Tuvo Ausonius.

“I wonder what it might have been,” said the masked figure.

“I have no idea,” said Tuvo Ausonius.

“Some women have needs,” said the masked figure, “a complex spectrum of needs.”

“Perhaps some low, terrible women,” said Tuvo Ausonius.

“Such as slaves?”

“Perhaps,” said Tuvo Ausonius.

“She is now a slave,” said the masked figure.

“Appropriately so,” said Tuvo Ausonius.

“I think she may have found you attractive,” said the masked figure.

“Surely not,” said Tuvo Ausonius.

“You are not a bad-looking fellow,” said the masked figure.

“She hates me,” said Tuvo Ausonius.

“That might make it interesting then, to own her,” said the masked figure.

Tuvo Ausonius regarded the masked figure, startled.

“Surely you found her attractive?” said the masked figure.

“I am a same.” said Tuvo Ausonius. “Such matters are of no interest to us.”

The masked figure turned to the commissioner, and the two officers who had remained in the chamber. “Thank you, gentlemen,” he said.

They bowed and withdrew.

“Tuvo Ausonius,” said the masked figure.

“Yes, your lordship,” said Tuvo Ausonius.

“I am confident that you are innocent of peculation, and such, but the evidence is surely serious. I fear you have enemies.”

“I do not know who they could be,” said Tuvo Ausonius.

“I, too, have enemies,” said the masked figure.

“You, your lordship?” said Tuvo Ausonius.

“Unfortunately, yes,” said the masked figure. “In these days intrigue, ambition and malice abound.”

“I am innocent,” said Tuvo Ausonius.

“I think that you are likely to fare very badly if you do not obtain a friend, a protector, in a high place, someone of importance, someone with considerable influence.”

“Alas, I know no one!” said Tuvo Ausonius.

“At some risk to myself, I could be such a one,” said the masked figure.

“Your lordship!” exclaimed Tuvo Ausonius.

“But there is a serious difficulty.”

“Your lordship?”

“I admire your insight and courage, your insight in detecting that the former Sesella Gardener was rightfully, and naturally, a female slave, and your courage, despite the risks involved, in attempting to see justice done, to bring about her fitting reduction to embondment, thus bringing to an end her pretensions as a free woman.”

“It is nothing, your lordship,” said Tuvo Ausonius.

“Such insight, such intelligence, such daring, such courage,” said the masked figure, “are such as are needed by a confidential agent, of the sort I mentioned earlier.”

“One attached to the palace, a tenth-level imperial civil servant?”

“Certainly, but one who would report only to a given individual.”

“Who?” asked Tuvo Ausonius.

“The arbiter of protocol.”

“I have heard of him,” said Tuvo Ausonius, shuddering.

“There would be considerable compensations, pecuniary and otherwise, involved in such a post,” said the masked figure.

“I would be honored even to be considered for such a post,” said Tuvo Ausonius.

“There is a serious difficulty, of course,” said the masked figure. “There are the charges of peculation which, even though we both know them false, might bring about your arrest and sentencing to hard labor on a mining planet.”

“Perhaps your lordship might consider sheltering me from such dangers,” said Tuvo Ausonius.

“It is not impossible,” said the masked figure.

“What of the matter of the slut?” asked Tuvo Ausonius.

“That matter is done,” said the masked figure. “I have already cleared you of that. Your enemies, even if they wished, can no longer make use of it.”

“The woman herself?”

“She is now a property,” said the masked figure. “She has no legal standing, no more than a pig or dog.”

“I am deeply grateful to you, your lordship.”

“You are then interested in my suggestions, in the possibility of promotion, of rewards, even riches, of perquisites and favors, of various sorts, of service to the empire and palace?”

“Yes, extremely so, your lordship.”

“You understand that these matters are confidential, that they may involve matters of delicacy, of state importance, and that your allegiance, devotion and service must be complete and unquestioning?”

“Of course,” said Tuvo Ausonius.

“You will be contacted,” said the masked figure.

“Yes, your lordship,” said Tuvo Ausonius.

“In the beginning you will be on a probationary basis.”

“Of course, your lordship,” said Tuvo Ausonius.

“An officer will be at the guard station, at the end of the hall. He will arrange to have your clothing returned to you.”

“Thank you, your lordship.”

“When you receive it, I think you will discover that a letter of credit will be enclosed in the left inside jacket pocket, in the amount of a thousand darins.”

“My thanks, your lordship!” said Tuvo Ausonius.

“In one of the pockets of your jacket,” said the masked figure, “we discovered a ticket to the commissioner’s auction, to be held this evening.”

“Oh?” said Tuvo Ausonius.

“Perhaps you planned to attend?”

Tuvo Ausonius shrugged.

“As a matter of curiosity, of sociological illumination,” said the masked figure.

“Possibly,” said Tuvo Ausonius.

“You are correct that a certain slave will be put up for sale,” said the masked figure.

“Oh?” said Tuvo Ausonius.

“It might be interesting,” said the masked figure, “to see her exhibited naked for the men, perhaps on a neck chain, forced to move, and pose, as the auctioneer requires, knowing herself subject to his ready, even eager, whip at the least sign of unwillingness or hesitancy.”

“Perhaps,” said Tuvo Ausonius.

“The experience should do her good,” said the masked figure. “I myself intend to attend, though you will not recognize me there.”

“No, your lordship,” Tuvo Ausonius assured him.

“I will have an agent bid for her,” said the masked figure.

“Oh?” said Tuvo Ausonius, in disappointment.

“On your behalf, of course,” he said.

“Your lordship!”

“It is nothing,” said the masked figure. “That is just one of the perquisites of which I spoke.”

“Thank you, your lordship,” said Tuvo Ausonius.

“After the sale, return to your quarters. She will be delivered to you, hooded, by midnight,”

“Thank you, your lordship,” said Tuvo Ausonius.

“You will recall how she rushed upon you and struck you when you were helpless?”

“Yes,” said Tuvo Ausonius.

“She will be yours, by midnight,” said the masked figure.

“Thank you, your lordship,” said Tuvo Ausonius.