[Pg 62]

[Pg 62]

A SLAVE IS A SLAVE

BY H. BEAM PIPER

Transcriber's Note

This etext was produced from Analog Science Fact—Science Fiction April 1962. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.

There has always been

strong sympathy for the poor,

meek, downtrodden slave—

the kindly little man, oppressed

by cruel and overbearing masters.

Could it possibly have been misplaced...?

[Pg 63]

[Pg 63]

Jurgen, Prince Trevannion, accepted the coffee cup and lifted it to his lips, then lowered it. These Navy robots always poured coffee too hot; spacemen must have collapsium-lined throats. With the other hand, he punched a button on the robot's keyboard and received a lighted cigarette; turning, he placed the cup on the command-desk in front of him and looked about. The tension was relaxing in Battle-Control, the purposeful pandemonium of the last three hours dying rapidly. Officers of both sexes, in red and blue and yellow and green coveralls, were rising from seats, leaving their stations, gathering in groups. Laughter, a trifle loud; he realized, suddenly, that they had been worried, and wondered if he should not have been a little so himself. No. There would have been nothing he could have done about anything, so worry would not have been useful. He lifted the cup again and sipped cautiously.

"That's everything we can do now," the man beside him said. "Now we just sit and wait for the next move."

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