The Year is 2132 Ch. 02

"Steev, do I have any money from the goods we sold?" He nods and Cherl goes to the girl and tells her that if she will give herself up as a slave for her, Cherl will pay her mother's debts and free her from the stake. The girl is taken aback and whispers to her mother. Her mother says no; that she would rather die than see her daughter enslaved. The girl reminds her mother that she herself has no money and may have to prostitute herself in order to survive. If caught selling her body, she could end up on the stake, too. After much argument and weeping, the girl tells Cherl she will give herself as Cherl's slave if Cherl saves her mother.

Cherl asks Claude to arrange the woman's release and have the girl made her legal slave. He tells her that they have to go to the city magistrate and have him cede the girl to Cherl. The girl introduces herself as Sylvi and her mother, as Cordele. Sylvi tells Claude that it isn't necessary to go to the magistrate as she is a graduate of the Academy and can be transferred to Cherl by the Academy proctor.

When Claude asks her why she isn't being sold as a Pleasure Time server, she tells him she was enrolled for only five years coinciding with her father's military enlistment and wasn't eligible for the Pleasure Time.

She explains that she went to the Pleasure Time pavilion almost every day for a year to watch the girls perform their sexual training and speak to the girls she knew. She says she knows what is expected of her. While she didn't actually have the practice that the other girls had, she says she is capable of carrying out those duties.

"Please, accept me and have the proctor cede me over to you right away. My mother can't tolerate much more. I've tried holding her up, but as soon as I stop, she'll die. Please take me now. Please."

Claude enters the Academy and speaks with the proctor. The necessary papers are drawn up and the proctor requests that Sylvi be brought in to sign hers. Steev offers to hold her mother while Sylvi is in the Academy. After an eternity, forty-five minutes, Sylvi rushes out of the Academy and hands a document to the Centurion. Cordele's sentence has been commuted. The officer and Steev lift her off the stake and carry her inside the pavilion. The proctor has her sign a document and he hands a sheaf of papers to Claude.

Steev has been talking to the Centurion who tells him that he also is a graduate of the Academy and had gone into military service when graduated. His service contract was for ten years; however, he had been demoted and sent to do this prisoner detail for failing to obey a superior office. His regiment had captured a small enemy town and was taking the younger men and women prisoner. When he was told to have his men kill the enemy wounded and the elderly "who wouldn't have survived anyway, without help", he refused to have them killed out of hand. He was soon to be cashiered from the military for his disobedience. His last military days were to be spent here watching people die. Steev asks him what he intends to do when he leaves the service. The officer shrugs his shoulders.

"Come see me at Claude's estate when your enlistment ends. I could find a place for a man with your background." They clasp wrists, and Steev rejoins Claude and the women. Claude's men are carrying Cordele to the wagon. She has been given food and wine and has slightly improved from her ordeal.

Claude tells Steev that since they paid Cordele's debts, she has been indentured to them. Sylvi and her mother thank the Centurion for his sympathy and for giving them his water canteen.

As the wagon cannot carry nine people, Claude, Steev, and two of Claude's men decide to walk along side for the travel home. Steev's visit to the city has been postponed. As they start off, they observe that the other two women who were impaled have fallen to their deaths. There is a puddle of blood on the ground beneath them. Sylvi says, "I hope they deserved their fate. I'm sorry I couldn't have helped them, too." She breaks into tears and hides her face in her mother's lap.

Cherl reaches over and strokes Sylvi's hair. She is emotionally exhausted and the day isn't over. When they reach the estate, Sylvi and Cordele are bathed and scented by the musicians. Cordele is given a bed and is immediately asleep.

Someone knocks on Cherl's door and she says, "Enter." It is Sylvi who enters, drops her chiton, turns slowly around for Cherl's examination, and kneels waiting for Cherl's instructions. It is her first evening as a slave girl, and she is trembling with trepidation.

She hadn't lied to Cherl about watching what the girls did during Pleasure Time, but she didn't tell her the whole truth. Sylvi is strongly heterosexual and had grown up expecting to marry a man and have a family. Sylvi paid little or no attention to the girls when they learned and practiced how to service women; however, she watched them closely when the girls went through body movements that would please men.

She has no idea of what is expected of her. Not only does she not know how to sexually please another woman, she is revolted by the very thought. She doesn't know if she can carry off the fraud. Sylvi dreads that when Cherl, now her owner and mistress, discovers her deception, she will send her -- and her mother back to the stake.

Cherl crooks her index finger and beckons Sylvi to come to her.