The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Slave is a Slave, by Henry Beam Piper

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Title: A Slave is a Slave

Author: Henry Beam Piper

Release Date: March 3, 2007 [EBook #20726]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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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...?

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