Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    A Slave is a Slave
    A Slave is a Slave
    A Slave is a Slave
    Ebook82 pages1 hour

    A Slave is a Slave

    By H. Beam Piper

    ()

    Switch to audiobook
    Read preview

    About this ebook

    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...?
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPerennial Press
    Release dateMar 21, 2016
    ISBN9781531258825

    Read more from H. Beam Piper

    Related to A Slave is a Slave

    Related ebooks

    Science Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Hook, Line And Sinker

      Oct 18, 2018

      Hook, Line And Sinker
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Devil’s Dictionary

      Jul 6, 2021

      Select entries from Ambrose Bierce’s lexicon of cynicism, bitterness, and humor, produced over a 30-year period beginning in 1881. APOLOGIZE, v.i. To lay the foundation for a future offence. BARD, n. A person who makes rhymes. The word is one of the

      4 min read

    • Article

      In Search Of ...

      Apr 1, 2019

      Fifteen-year-old Tay lives on Rannoch, a distant planet covered with water, where undersea pods or living chambers provide life support for up to three people—usually two adults and one child. Tay learns that her parents are expecting another child a

      8 min read

    • Article

      Moscow

      Feb 21, 2018

      Moscow
      9 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Sep 9, 2021

      With regard to Nick Guitard’s letter pooh-poohing the possible existence of tiny aliens [FT405:71], I would like to make the following observations. David Bowie, may he rock on, once said that the Internet is like an alien being has landed and that w

      17 min read

    • Article

      Anniversaries

      Dec 27, 2019

      Anniversaries
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Hermit Of Suvarov

      Jul 30, 2020

      The Hermit Of Suvarov
      5 min read

    • Article

      Rock Hard

      Sep 10, 2020

      Rock Hard
      7 min read

    • Article

      Your Writing Critiqued

      Sep 1, 2022

      Your Writing Critiqued
      6 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      May 18, 2023

      CONTACT US BY POST: PO BOX 1200, WHITSTABLE CT1 9RH, OR E-MAIL SIEVEKING@FORTEANTIMES.COM PLEASE PROVIDE US WITH YOUR POSTAL ADDRESS With reference to his article on Nazi UFOs [FT430:44-49], I would be curious to know what evidence SDTucker has for s

      12 min read

    • Article

      Good Vibrations

      Mar 4, 2024

      Good Vibrations
      6 min read

    • Article

      Commonplace Book

      Dec 1, 2021

      The light from the full moon lent a silky, glacial sheen to the towering front of the cloud, which stretched off to the horizon in both directions. I stood transfixed as it made its way down the street toward me at a little over the town’s speed limi

      3 min read

    • Article

      I Hate To Miss A Comet

      Jul 29, 2020

      TWENTY years ago, I camped out in the Sahara desert with a couple of Libyans and I remember two things: the almost painful brightness of the night sky, unobscured by wisp of cloud or earthly light, and the small rocks that I rather nervously supposed

      2 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Oct 8, 2020

      Thank you for making my life more joyful month after month. I can’t tell you how important to me the Fortean Times is. Kevin Hope By email Regarding Matt Salusbury’s Forum article on sunken bells [FT396:54-55], there is more to the bells of Aberdyfi

      14 min read

    • Article

      Grave New World

      Apr 21, 2022

      Grave New World
      15 min read

    • Article

      Q&A YOU ASK, WE ANSWER

      May 14, 2020

      Q&A YOU ASK, WE ANSWER
      8 min read

    • Article

      The Vanished Birds

      Aug 12, 2020

      Starship captain Nia Imani returns home to one of the great trade Stations with an unexpected passenger who will change the course of history… Umbai’s Ark departed from the Colombian Elevator two years later, in early June. It was the third to leave

      5 min read

    • Article

      Commonplace Book

      Jun 4, 2018

      I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me. —Fred Allen I have always wondered, in reading travels, at the childish joy travellers felt at meeting people they knew, and their sense of loneliness when they did not, in

      4 min read

    • Article

      Stars On Mars: The Celebs Go To Space Show We Didn’t Know We Needed

      Jun 8, 2023

      Klaxons sound and red lights flash inside a Martian base as a celebrity delegation takes residence. Apparently, the last member of their 12-person crew had a hard landing on the red rocks and is now trapped inside a capsule that’s fast losing oxygen.

      3 min read

    • Article

      A Bomb In The Desert

      Jul 16, 2020

      A Bomb In The Desert
      8 min read

    • Article

      This Is Rebellion

      May 3, 2020

      This Is Rebellion
      17 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for A Slave is a Slave

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      A Slave is a Slave - H. Beam Piper

      A SLAVE IS A SLAVE

      H. Beam Piper

      PERENNIAL PRESS

      Thank you for reading. In the event that you appreciate this book, please consider sharing the good word(s) by leaving a review, or connect with the author.

      This book is a work of fiction; its contents are wholly imagined.

      All rights reserved. Aside from brief quotations for media coverage and reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced or distributed in any form without the author’s permission. Thank you for supporting authors and a diverse, creative culture by purchasing this book and complying with copyright laws.

      Copyright © 2016 by H. Beam Piper

      Interior design by Pronoun

      Distribution by Pronoun

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      A SLAVE IS A SLAVE

      A SLAVE IS A SLAVE

      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.

      Like all the others, Line-Commodore Vann Shatrak wore shipboard battle-dress; his coveralls were black, splashed on breast and between shoulders with the gold insignia of his rank. His head was completely bald, and almost spherical; a beaklike nose carried down the curve of his brow, and the straight lines of mouth and chin chopped under it enhanced rather than spoiled the effect. He was getting coffee; he gulped it at once.

      It was very smart work, Commodore. I never saw a landing operation go so smoothly.

      Too smooth, Shatrak said. I don’t trust it. He looked suspiciously up at the row of viewscreens.

      It was absolutely unnecessary!

      That was young Obray, Count Erskyll, seated on the commodore’s left. He was a generation younger than Prince Trevannion, as Shatrak was a generation older; they were both smooth-faced. It was odd, how beards went in and out of fashion with alternate generations. He had been worried, too, during the landing, but for a different reason from the others. Now he was reacting with anger.

      I told you, from the first, that it was unnecessary. You see? They weren’t even able to defend themselves, let alone....

      His personal communication-screen buzzed; he set down the coffee and flicked the switch. It was Lanze Degbrend. On the books, Lanze was carried as Assistant to the Ministerial Secretary. In practice, Lanze was his chess-opponent, conversational foil, right hand, third eye and ear, and, sometimes, trigger-finger. Lanze was now wearing the combat coveralls of an officer of Navy Landing-Troops; he had a steel helmet with a transpex visor shoved up, and there was a carbine slung over his shoulder. He grinned and executed an exaggeratedly military salute. He chuckled.

      Well, look at you; aren’t you the perfect picture of correct diplomatic dress?

      You know, sir, I’m afraid I am, for this planet, Degbrend said. Colonel Ravney insisted on it. He says the situation downstairs is still fluid, which I take to mean that everybody is shooting at everybody. He says he has the main telecast station, in the big building the locals call the Citadel.

      Oh, good. Get our announcement out as quickly as you can. Number Five. You and Colonel Ravney can decide what interpolations are needed to fit the situation.

      Number Five; the really tough one, Degbrend considered. I take it that by interpolations you do not mean dilutions?

      Oh, no; don’t water the drink. Spike it.

      Lanze Degbrend grinned at him. Then he snapped down the visor of his helmet, unslung his carbine, and presented it. He was still standing at present arms when Trevannion blanked the screen.

      That still doesn’t excuse a wanton and unprovoked aggression! Erskyll was telling Shatrak, his thin face flushed and his voice quivering with indignation. We came here to help these people, not to murder them.

      We didn’t come here to do either, Obray, he said, turning to face the younger man. We came here to annex their planet to the Galactic Empire, whether they wish it annexed or not. Commodore Shatrak used the quickest and most effective method of doing that. It would have done no good to attempt to parley with them from off-planet. You heard those telecasts of theirs.

      Authoritarian, Shatrak said, then mimicked pompously: ‘Everybody is commanded to remain calm; the Mastership is taking action. The Convocation of the Lords-Master is in special session; they will decide how to deal with the invaders. The administrators are directed to reassure the supervisors; the overseers will keep the workers at their tasks. Any person disobeying the orders of the Mastership will be dealt with most severely.’

      Static, too. No spaceships into this system for the last five hundred years; the Convocation—equals Parliament, I assume—hasn’t been in special session for two hundred and fifty.

      Yes. I’ve taken over planets with that kind of government before, Shatrak said. You can’t argue with them. You just grab them by the center of authority, quick and hard.

      Count Erskyll said nothing for a moment. He was opposed to the use of force. Force, he believed, was the last resort of incompetence; he had said so frequently enough since this operation had begun. Of course, he was absolutely right, though not in the way he meant. Only the incompetent wait until the last extremity to use force, and by then, it is usually too late to use anything, even prayer.

      But, at the same time, he was opposed to

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1