timid, eager to please, easily guided, suitably conditioned, manipulable, repudiators of nature, betrayers of their blood, traitors to their manhood? Why were Goreans so different, so unassuming, so thoughtless, so unpretentiously confident, so unconsciously and innocently proud, so self-satisfied, so unquestioning, so virile, so powerful, so strong, so unaware, so triumphant? Why did they look upon us, and see us as theirs, and make us theirs? I did not think the men of Earth and Gor were so different, if at all, biologically. Surely they were of the same species. The differences, I was sure, were those of enculturation. Why had those of Gor never abandoned nature; why had they never strayed from her, why had they never betrayed her, and themselves? Doubtless there were complex historical explanations for such things.
I then looked about, wildly, at the long dock on which I knelt, the heavy boards stretching before me, diminishing in the distance, the great ship ahead, uneasy at its moorings, at the broad river to the left, the sheds, shops, and forest on the right.
I must escape. I would escape.
I must be wary. No sooner would a man lay his eyes upon me than he would see me as goods, as a slave. The tunic, the collar! How different to be a slave on Gor, I had gathered, as opposed to a free woman! They were everything, we nothing. I had never even seen a Gorean free woman, though there must have been some about, say, when I was on the dock in Brundisium, coffled, blindfolded, my hands tied behind me. Perhaps some were outside the market wall, but yards away, when I was in the exposition cage. Within the wall there were only men, regarding us, considering their choices. I had heard there were male silk slaves. Perhaps there were other markets where they were exhibited and sold, markets frequented by women rich enough to buy them. Such slaves were apparently scorned by Gorean males. It was said Earth was a good source of such slaves, as its males had already learned to fear, please, and obey women. Many were silk slaves and did not know that they were silk slaves. Some were natural silk slaves and others had been raised, taught, and trained to be such. These were told they were “true men.” Even their mistresses despised them. What, on Earth, did they lack but a distinctive garb, and the collar? I had not seen a Gorean free woman but I had heard much of them, particularly from my instructresses in my house of training. They spoke of them with loathing, but also fear. One of the sorriest fates of a kajira would be to find herself the serving slave of such a self-centered, regal, haughty monster. It is supposedly harrowing even to encounter one on the streets. For some reason, they hate us. I had gathered that the Gorean free woman, in the might of her liberty, possesses a standing, prestige, status, and force far beyond that of the allegedly free woman of Earth. Even Gorean males who may have a dozen servitors and own a hundred women, and be followed by a score of clients, will step from her path, and defer to her. They will listen attentively to her, even though she might speak the most arrant of nonsense. She is, after all, free. She need not kneel and humbly, as a slave, request permission to speak, a permission which may not be granted. She is said to well and shamelessly exploit the eminence and authority which the culture bestows upon her. Where all are free, at least after a fashion, there is nothing special or important about freedom. It is taken for granted, and one thinks little of it. The Gorean free woman, on the other hand, understands that she is free in a manner which might dismay, and would surely far exceed, that of the allegedly free woman of Earth. Certainly she may contrast herself with the meaningless animal, the female slave. Why then do free men court the free woman and buy the slave? Why do they yield their place in the theaters and concert halls to the free woman, and drag the slave by the hair to a tavern’s alcove? When the free woman is courted, she may be uncertain if it is she, or her wealth, her influence, her familial and caste connections, or such, which are sought; when the slave is purchased, as she has nothing, she is