They marched me out into the hot, slanting rays of Joe's Sun.
Large, brown-haired, big-nosed pedestrians gawked at me with stolid
curiosity. The women carefully kept at a distance of ten foot lengths.
We turned a corner and passed a column of varied men and women who
did not fall within Maggiese standards. They carried or pushed
primitive agricultural tools, such as chain saws, weed burners, and
self-propelled soil tillers and sickle bars. Their brooches were
inscribed, "Farmer."
We climbed a broad flight of plank steps into a huge log building with
wooden pillars and carved friezes. The Dominant said, "Guard him," and
passed through one of the many doors in the vestibule.
I examined two flat photographs on the wall. I decided that the
Maggiese letters labeled the man as Joe Nordo, and that he had said,
"To be alike is to be free." The woman was Maggie Ione Curwen Nordo.
Evidently, she had never said anything worth quoting.
Although Maggie was rather pretty, she had features similar to Joe's.
Joe was a caricature of most of the natives. His face appeared almost
in profile, so that the combination concave and convex bridge of his
nose jutted prominently.
The Dominant came through another doorway and motioned. The guards
ushered me into a room where Betty Toal sat between two more guards.
Dirt smeared her face and her torn white sack.
"Low, Toal," I said. "What--"
The Dominant said, "Planetary Ordinance 104: Criminal aliens shall not
speak to fallen Maggiese females."
"Can't you do anything but gibber Ordinances?" I yelled. "Toal only
gave me some water. If you--"
Leather bands snapped around my wrists. The guards tied me to rings in
the wall. The Dominant strapped a harness under my jaw and across the
top of my head. I tried to talk, but all that came past my clenched
teeth was, "Effhyu hink hyu kun--" and I stopped.