ver with his wife.

"Don't see how we can afford a child right now. Wouldn't be fair to
the child. Things will improve in a few years."

"Of course," she said. "We're young--we'll have time to start our
family. If we wait, we'll be able to give them more."

They held similar conversations later and one day realized it was too
late. Jarro Kogar died in his sixties. His widow directed the center
for several more years. The slaves liked her and took good care of
her. She left them the estate when she died.

Loran Krotalu protested to the authorities that the slaves didn't want
the estate. But the group heads ruled it legal under amendment 1,486,
especially since no relatives could be located.

Loran left the center and moved to another city where he found a
galactic couple who wanted a slave. He and his family served the
galactic couple for many years. This couple, like Jarro Kogar and his
wife, were childless and when they both died, Loran and his wife were
very grieved.

After the funeral, Loran went into the city. He returned hours later,
tired and depressed.

"It's no use," he told his wife. "There's not an unattached galactic
in the area. We might get a few hours work a week with one, but we
can't have one to ourselves."

"But, Loran, _everybody_ in our set works for a galactic!"

"I know," he said miserably. "But it's no use. There must be fifty
slaves for every galactic. I've taken a job at the spaceship factory.
It's the best I can do."

* * * * *

Membership on the highest group council had become a killing job.
Chief problem was the revision of the slave code, which had 3,697
articles. After trying for years to simplify the code, the council
members called in Loran Krovalo to fill a vacancy and take over the
job.

Loran was known and liked by galactic and slave alike for his
brilliant essays on the master-slave relationship. While he was on the
council, the Cerberan affair broke out. The Cerberans, an intelligent
saurian race from a globular cluster, exploded into the Galaxy in vast
numbers. Military action became necessary.

"We can handle them," Loran told the council. "Our factories are
mobilized and we have any number of spacemen. We have robot
instruments for fighting that are better than anything they have. We
can carry the war to their home planets."

Some of the galactics objected.

"But the use of robots is forbidden. We can't fight the Cerberans with
r