"Yes,” said he.
Chapter, the Eighty-First:
DEPARTURE
In the narrow, steel corridor, Cabot knelt Cecily, and snapped the short chain about her neck, which would fasten her to the bulkhead. Cecily's eyes were wide, and we fear she was uneasy, but Corinna was similarly secured, near her, and so, too, were several others; all were girls who had been in the pleasure cylinder. This form of custody was not unfamiliar to them.
Each had been accorded, prior to boarding, when they had been stripped, a brief, gray, shipping tunic, which had a number clearly inscribed in Gorean on the upper left side. Cecily's number was 27, and Corinna's was 28. These numbers were correlated with identical numbers at the bulkhead's chaining rings, number 1 with ring 1, and so on. In this manner ship's records might be kept in order. Also, if a girl were to be removed from a ring, say, for pleasure, it would be clear to what ring she was to be returned.
Cabot jerked Cecily's chain against the collar ring, twice, this ring attached to the bulkhead's holding collar, which was rather heavy, which was closed over her slave collar.
In such a way the slave is reminded she is chained, not that they truly need any such reminder. With their small hands they can, if they wish, pull at the chain quite well themselves, and pull it against the ring to which it is fastened, and so on.
"Master?” she said.
"We will be leaving soon,” said Cabot, and left her.
The chain was some three feet in length, as were the others.
Peisistratus, as Cabot, and his slave, had never been, at least consciously, in such an environment, had led them about, the preceding day, introducing them to at least some of the ship's several divisions and systems.
They had visited, for example, the bridge, galley, pantries, mess, crew's quarters, officers’ cabins, engine room, weapon cubicles and turrets, the diverse holds, and such.
Cabot noted that the ship carried propellant, which consumed much space, and functioned on a principle of reaction. In short, the propulsion system of the ship was relatively primitive, at least when measured against what he understood to be the capabilities of the ships of Priest-Kings. For example, if the ship were to lift away from a planetary surface, even one such as Gor, a great expenditure of propellant would be required. This expenditure need not take place, of course, in leaving the steel world. Cabot suspected that certain ships, larger ships, might remain in orbit, while communication to and from a planetary surface might take place by means of shuttle craft. On the ship of Peisistratus, however, which Cabot supposed might be typical, there were no shuttle craft. There were, however, some escape pods. The ships of the Priest-Kings, as Cabot understood, did not carry internal fuel, but drew on the forces of gravity for their propulsion. In this way there was no difficulty in leaving a planet's surface, nor need they face dangers such as the exhaustion of the ship's source of power, the risk of its volatility, and so on. Whereas the force of gravity as normally encountered is, so to speak, a very weak force, widely distributed, obviously it is, in its extent, a titanic force capable of holding moons to a planet, planets to a primary, stars in a galaxy, and so on. The Priest-Kings, Cabot speculated, had discovered a way to gather together or focus this universally distributed force, multiply its effects exponentially, and utilize it for their purposes. Indeed, it was speculated that Priest-Kings could use a planet as what, in effect, it was, a space ship, and shift it, if one wished, from one primary to another, a competence possibly of great value, should alterations or disturbances take place in its local primary.
In one of the holds Cecily was fascinated by closely arranged racks of transparent cylinders, outfitted with various forms of tubing. There were a hundred or more of these cylinders, or containers. Each was now empty.
"What are these?” she asked.
"Slave capsules,” she was informed.
"Earth-girl slaves,” said Peisistratus, “are normally sedated on Earth, brought to collection points, stored in such capsules for the journey to Gor, disembarked unconscious on Gor, and then brought unconscious to the pens. Thus, in a typical case, a girl might retire as usual, in the comfort of her sheets, with no thoughts save for her quotidian existence of the morrow, totally unaware of her selection, and then, later, to her astonishment, awaken in the pens. To be sure, there is a great deal of variation in these matters. Sometimes, for example, if a girl has been somewhat annoying, she might be surprised in her bed, gagged, stripped, bound hand and foot, and then left there for a few hours, to ponder matters, after which she will be sedated, and things will continue in a more routine matter. Sometimes girls are not taken directly to the pens but, particularly when the patrols of Priest-Kings are unusually zealous, are disembarked in the wilderness, and, while unconscious, coffled. Thus they awaken in the grass, naked, on a slave chain, thence to be marched to some predetermined house or rendezvous. In this way they appear no different, to satellite surveillance, than other such coffles, being taken between cities, and such."
"You, however,” said Cabot to his Cecily, “would have been selected by Priest-Kings and brought in one of their ships to the Prison Moon."
"Might I,” Cecily asked Peisistratus, “have been found of interest by you, or your colleagues?"
"Certainly,” said Peisistratus.
"How are your acquisitions selected?” she asked.
"There are usually a number of parameters involved,” said Peisistratus. “Obviously feminine desirability is important, for they are to be sold. One looks, then, for unusual beauty, high intelligence, helpless sexual needfulness, and such."
"It might be understood, however,” said Cabot, “that one is looking, most essentially, for women who will make superb slaves, women who have slave dispositions, who desire to be slaves, who want to be slaves, who need to be slaves, who will not be happy until they are collared, and such."
"They need not, of course, be fully aware of this on Earth,” said Peisistratus. “It will, presumably, however, be clear enough to them in their dreams, dreams which may frighten them, or in their fantasies, which they will perhaps fear and keep as their most closely guarded secret."
"Some of these women are scouted carefully, as I understand it,” said Cabot.
"True,” said Peisistratus. “Our agents often scout them for days, weeks, even months, observing their characteristics and dispositions, considering what they might look like in tunics and shackles, such things, and careful lists are kept."
"You have some sense of their latencies?” asked Cecily.
"Certainly,” said Peisistratus, “we are skilled in the evaluation of slave stock, such as yourself. One can, certainly after a time, sense their needs, and the fires which burn within them, scarcely concealed by their idiotic garments."
"You have lists?” said Cecily.
"Yes,” said Peisistratus, “there are possibility lists, which are, in effect, inspection or assessment lists, and then, if the female is deemed suitable, she is put on an acquisition list. Once on an acquisition list it may still be weeks or months before she is acquired. It is amusing in its way, how they go so naively, so unsuspectingly, about the boring, meaningless trivialities of their daily lives. They do not know that they are already Gorean slaves. They lack only the brands and collars."
"One thing which might be mentioned,” said Cabot, “though you have doubtless noted it in most of your sister slaves, is that almost all of them have the bodies of the natural human female, in height, size, shape, and such."
"With the exciting slave curves of the natural woman,” said Peisistratus.
"The Gorean male,” said Cabot, “tends to find such women pleasing. They are the sort he wants in his collar, at his feet."