the home world,” said Brenner, “speculate that sexual needs may exist.”
“How bold!” exclaimed Rodriguez.
“Well, it is something,” said Brenner, irritably.
“It is a sop thrown to intellectuals,” said Rodriguez. “It is usually brought up at professional conventions, where there are no students about to rush off and report to the morality officers. Also, it tends to reassure sycophantic toads of the reality of academic freedom.”
“It is always pointed out, of course,” said Brenner, “that these needs, if they exist, are unimportant and negligible.”
“That position neglects at least one fact,” said Rodriguez.
“What is that?” asked Brenner.
“Sexuality’s radical centrality,” he said. “It is the engine which powers the machine, the force which gives meaning to the world.”
Brenner gathered from these remarks that Rodriguez did not share even the more liberal view of sexual needs expressed in the bold conjecture that such might, if only in some minimalistic form, exist. Indeed, he seemed to regard sexuality as of great importance. Apparently, even if it were politically unacceptable, and thus to be denied, or ignored, it was real, very real. Brenner wondered what a world might be like which openly acknowledged sexual realities, rather than denying or hiding them. Perhaps some of the openly stratified, or “strong,” worlds, as Rodriguez might have referred to them, he speculated.
“I will tell you something I wager you do not know,” said Rodriguez.
“What is that?” asked Brenner.
“Have you heard of the levies?” asked Rodriguez.
“What levies?” asked Brenner.
“Some ten thousand, or so, women from the home world, each year, are taken in them, for slaves.”
Brenner regarded him, startled.
“To be sure,” said Rodriguez, “that is only part of the tribute.”
“I don’t understand,” said Brenner.
“You do not think a world as weak as ours, as silly as ours, a world which has made one stupid choice after another, a world which is not capable, even, of defending itself against interstellar attack, a world which has nothing really with which to even make a serious contribution to a defensive alliance of worlds, is likely to be somehow immune from the notice of more efficient worlds.”
“Speak clearly,” said Brenner.
“The home world is now, as it has been several times in the past, a tributary planet. That goes back even to the time of the Telnarian Empire, which you also probably did not know. After its collapse the home world, which had been a tributary planet within the aegis of the empire, fell amongst the prizes to be sought by ensuant barbarisms. In these times of troubles, so to speak, the home world fell within the sphere of influence of one world or another. In those days, our governments, rather as they like to do today, but then with better justification, preferred, in their high echelons, to think of these disbursements, so to speak, as payments for protection, and, in a sense, formerly, protection was involved. The home world became tributary to world “A” which would then protect it, as one of its tributaries, from world “B.” But then, later, in the fallings out of war, and after the failures of various alliances, certain agreements were reached amongstst some of these barbarisms, ones active in this portion of the galaxy, agreements which, in effect, divided this portion of the galaxy into protectorates, as our governments might put it, or into tributary sectors, as the barbarisms put it.”
“To what world is the home world tributary?” asked Brenner.
“I do not know,” said Rodriguez. “But I gather that it is far away.”
“What would they want with women from the home world?” asked Brenner.
“Probably nothing having to do with the women per se,” said Rodriguez, “who might not even be of interest to them, except, of course, for their value as trade goods.”
Brenner could not speak.
“The trade may have a dozen corners, so to speak,” said Rodriguez. “The women might be inserted at any given point in a trade network. I really do not know. Similarly they might be traded from one world to several others for a variety of items, or they might be traded about, from point to point, for one good or another, until they came to a world or worlds that wanted them for themselves, as what they would be, slaves, of course.”
“I have not heard of this,” said Brenner.
“You can scarcely blame the government for being somewhat reluctant to publicize the matter,” said Rodriguez. “Besides, ten thousand, or so, women, taken here and there out of the population of the home world annually, is a negligible amount, one scarcely to be missed.”