"Then they must all be Lords-Master." He saw the
objection to that at once. "But how can one be a Lord-Master if there
are no slaves?"

The horror was not all on the visitors' side of the desk, either. Obray
of Erskyll was staring at the delegation and saying, "Slaves!" under his
breath. Obray of Erskyll had never, in his not-too-long life, seen a
slave before.

"They can't be," Tchall Hozhet replied. "A Lord-Master is one who owns
slaves." He gave that a moment's consideration. "But if they aren't
Lords-Master, they must be slaves, and...." No. That wouldn't do,
either. "But a slave is one who belongs to a Lord-Master."

Rule of the Excluded Third; evidently Pre-Atomic formal logic had crept
back to Aditya. Chmidd, looking around, saw the ranks of spacemen on
either side, now at parade-rest.

"But aren't they slaves?" he asked.

"They are spacemen of the Imperial Navy," Shatrak roared. "Call one a
slave to his face and you'll get a rifle-butt in yours. And I shan't
lift a finger to stop it." He glared at Chmidd and Hozhet. "Who had the
infernal impudence to send slaves to deal with the Empire? He needs to
be taught a lesson."

"Why, I was sent by the Lord-Master Olvir Nikkolon, and...."

"Tchall!" Chmidd hissed at him. "We cannot speak to Lords-Master. We
must speak to their chief-slaves."

"But they have no slaves," Hozhet objected. "Didn't you hear the ... the
one with the small beard ... say so?"

"But that's ridiculous, Khreggor. Who does the work, and who tells them
what to do? Who told these people to come here?"

* * * * *

"Our Emperor sent us. That is his picture, behind me. But we are not his
slaves. He is merely the chief man among us. Do your Masters not have
one among them who is chief?"

"That's right," Chmidd said to Hozhet. "In the Convocation, your
Lord-Master is chief, and in the Mastership, my Lord-Master, Rovard
Javasan, is chief."

"But they don't tell the other Lords-Master what to do. In Convocation,
the other Lords-Master tell them...."

"That's what I meant about an oligarchy," he whispered, in Imperial, to
Erskyll.

"Suppose we tell Ravney to herd these Lords-Master onto a couple of
landing-craft and bring them up here?" Shatrak suggested. He made the
suggestion in Lingua Terra Basic, and loudly.

"I think we can manage without that." He raised his voice, speaking in
Lingua Terra Basic:

"It does not matter whether these slaves talk to us o