was assisted by the advice of a fellow of the woman’s own species, that his selections, bids, and such, might be judicious. Most of the workers at Company Station, of course, as we have noted, were of the woman’s own species. It was thus, apparently, that the woman came to Company Station. We might also mention, incidentally, that on the same night some five other contracts, for similar purposes, were purchased by the zard. Amongst these was the contract for the brunette. The other women, unknown to Rodriguez and Brenner, were in the back. Thus, if one should fear that new customers at the bar might not be adequately served, one may discard such apprehensions. In the author’s opinion, the best of the lot were the blonde and the brunette. This might seem to be the opinion of others, as well, as the blonde and the brunette were the first to be sent to the floor. On the other hand, the others, I might mention, were also quite nice. The same night on which their contracts were sold the blonde and the brunette had lost their virginities. This seemed a negligible payment on the part of the zard, indeed, nothing from his point of view, for the services of the fellow who had been so helpful. And thus had the blonde and the brunette, and certain others, in cells, come with the zard and his coworkers, who were lodged in cabins, to Abydos. The blonde had worn the small white garment on the freighter to Damascus, incidentally, for several days before she realized what must have been regarded as one of its major assets, and was certainly a consequence of its design. This had become clear to her when a new girl had been put on at Thera or Rhodes, it was not easy to tell in the cells, weeks before they reached Damascus. This new girl, who was in an adjoining cell, was presumably also a company contractee. At any rate she was clad in the same small white garment, marked with the same logo, as the woman we are particularly concerned with here, and her cellmates. Interestingly this newcomer, despite the fact that she had presumably freely entered into contract, and was still a free woman, seemed determined to be rebellious. Accordingly, to the dismay of those in the adjoining cell, who must witness these things, she had been subjected to certain mild correctives, such as bonds and strippings. It was in the course of these events that the blonde had come to realize that the sort of garment she wore, the strings loosened, and such, could be removed from, and placed on, a bound woman, these things without injuring the garment or removing the bonds. She found that feature of interest, if a bit unsettling. In a few days the female’s rebellion, even given the gentleness of the admonitions applied to her, was over. She was on her knees to the zard crew members, her head down, cleaning the claws of their feet with her tongue, and such. All the females had learned something of discipline, thusly, either in the first person, or, so to speak, in the second person. To be sure, as they were free women, and not slaves, they could presumably not even begin to conjecture what it might be to be subject to a very different sort of discipline, one which we might, for want of a better word, call “slave discipline,” a sort of discipline to which, nonetheless, many females in the galaxy found themselves subject. One should not, incidentally, feel any particular horror or regret at the nature of the contract sales. On Damascus, for example, there are also slave sales, and they are quite different, being on the whole, as you might expect, far more brutal and exotic, which is however undoubtedly appropriate, considering the nature of the merchandise. For those of you who might be interested in the fate of the credits advanced to the blonde upon her signing of the contract, it might be mentioned that they were returned to the company, being used to pay her passage to Damascus. In this fashion she arrived on Damascus, as the agent had doubtless intended, under contract, and with not one credit of her own. Indeed, she arrived slightly in debt, as certain charges had been made against her enroute, for food, and certain minor sundries. These small charges, of course, were paid off by the zard, as a surcharge