completely willing to talk about his _sargh_. Onthe last day of the voyage they managed to be alone for a time withoutthe presence of Sal Karone.
Marthasa shook his head in answer to Cameron's question. "No, the_sargh_ is not a slave--not in the sense I believe you mean it. None ofthe Ids are. It's a matter of religion with them to be attached to usthe way they are. They have some incomprehensible belief that theirexistence is of no value unless they are serving their fellow beings.Since that means _all_ of them they can't be satisfied by serving eachother so they have to pick on some other race.
"I don't recall when they first showed up in the Nucleus, but it's beenmany generations ago. There've been Ids in my family for a half dozengenerations anyway."
"They had space flight, so they came under their own power?" Cameronasked incredulously.
"No. Nothing like that. You can't imagine _them_ building spaceships canyou? They migrated at first as lowest-class passengers on the commerciallines. Nobody knows just where they came from. They don't even knowtheir home worlds. At first we tried to persuade them to go somewhereelse, but then we saw how useful they could be with their fanatic beliefin servitude.
"At present there is probably no family in the Nucleus that doesn't haveat least one Id _sargh_. Many of us have one for every member of thefamily." Marthasa paused. The tone of his voice changed. "When you'vehad one almost all your life as I've had Sal Karone it--well, it doessomething to you."
"What do you mean?" Cameron asked cautiously.
"Consider the situation from Sal Karone's point of view. He has no lifewhatever that is his own. His whole purpose is to give me companionshipand satisfy my requirements. And I don't have to force him in any way.It's all voluntary. He's free to leave, even, any time he wants to. ButI'm certain he never will."
"Why do you feel so sure of this?"
"It's hard to explain. I feel as if I've become so much a part of himthat he couldn't survive alone any more. He's the one who's made it thatway, not me. I have become indispensable to his existence. That's theway I explain it to myself. Most of my friends agree that this is aboutright."
"It's rather difficult to understand a relationship like that--unlessyou put it in terms I am familiar with on Earth."
"Yes--? What would it be called among your people?"
"When a man so devotes his life to another we say it is because oflove."
Marthasa considered the word. "You would be wrong," he said. "It is justthat in some way we have become indispensable to the Ids. They'reparasites, if you want to put it that way. But they provide us arelationship we can get nowhere else, and that does us a great deal ofgood. That's what I meant when I said it does something to us."
"What about the Id's own culture? Haven't they any community ties amongthemselves, or do they ignore their own kind?"
"We've never investigated very much. I suppose some of our scholars knowthe answer to that, but the rest of us don't. The Ids have communities,all right. Not all of them are in service as _sarghs_ at one time. Theyhave little groups and communities on the outskirts of our cities, butthey don't amount to much. As a race they are simply inferior. Theydon't have the capacity for a strong culture of their own, so they can'texist independently and build a social structure like other people. It'sthis religion of theirs that does it. They won't let go of it, and aslong as they hang onto it they can't stand on their own feet. But youdon't need to feel sorry for them. We treat them all right."
"Of course--didn't mean to imply anything else," said Cameron. "Do youknow if there are other Id groups serving in other galaxies?"
"Must be thousands of them altogether. Out beyond the Nucleus, away fromyour galaxy, you can't find a planet anywhere that isn't using the Ids.It's a wonderful setup. The Ids get what they want, and we get _sarghs_with nothing like the slave relationship you had in mind. With slavesthere's rebellion, constant need of watchfulness, and no genuinecompanionship. A _sargh_ is different. He can be a man's friend."
III
They came out of the darkness of Transpace that evening and the starsreturned in the glory of a million closely gathered suns. The MarkovianNucleus lay in a galaxy of tightly packed stars that made bright thenights of all their planets. It was a spectacle for Cameron, who hadtraveled but little away from the Solar System, and for Joyce who hadnever traveled at all.
Marthasa and Sal Karone were with them in the lounge watching thescreens as the ship changed drives. The Markovian squinted a moment andpointed to a minor dot near the corner of the view. "That's ourdestination. Another six hours and you can set foot on the best planetin the whole Universe!"
If it had been mere enthusiasm, Cameron could have taken it withtolerant understanding. But Marthasa's smugness and arrogance had notdeserted him once since the beginning of this leg of the trip.Objectively, as a cultural facet to be examined, it was interesting, butCameron agreed with Joyce that it was going to be difficult to livewith.
The unsolved puzzle, however, was Sal Karone. It was obvious that the Idwas sensitive to the gauche ways of the Master, yet his equally obviousdevotion was unwavering.
Marthasa had sent word ahead to the government that he desired theTerrans to be his guests. Evidently he was a person of influence forassent was returned immediately.
His planet was a colorful world, banded by huge, golden deserts andpinkish seas. The dense vegetation of the habitable areas was blue withonly a scattered touch of green. Cameron wondered about the chemistryinvolved.
The landing was made at a port that bordered a sea. The four of themwere the only ones disembarking, and before the car that met them hadreached the edge of the city the ship was gone again.
A pirates' lair, Cameron thought, without the slightest touch ofamusement. The field looked very old, and from it he could imagineraiders had once taken off to harass distant shipping and do wantondestruction of cities and peoples on innocent worlds.
He watched the face of Marthasa as they rode through the city. There wasa kind of Roman splendor in what they saw, and there was a crude Romanpride in the Markovian who was their host. The arrogance, that was notfar from cruelty, could take such pride in the sweep of spaceshipsembarking on missions of murder and plunder.
And yet all this barbarism had been put aside. Only the arroganceremained, expressed in Marthasa's tone as he called their attention tothe features of the city and landscape through which they passed. Itwasn't pleasing particularly to Terran tastes, but Cameron guessed thatit represented a considerable accomplishment to the Markovians. Stoneappeared to be the chief building material, and, while the craftsmanshipwas exact, the lines of the structures lacked the grace of the Greek andRoman monuments of which Cameron was reminded.
They came at last to the house of Marthasa. There was no doubt now thathe was a man of wealth or importance--probably both. He occupied a vast,villa-like structure set on a low hill overlooking the city. It was aplace of obvious luxury in the economic scale of the Markovians.
They were assigned spacious quarters overlooking a garden of incrediblecolors beyond the transparent wall facing it. Sal Karone was alsoassigned duties as their personal attendant, which Cameron graspedintuitively was a gesture of supreme honor among the Markovians. Hethanked Marthasa profusely for this courtesy.
After getting unpacked they were shown through the house and grounds andmet Marthasa's family. His wife was a woman of considerable beauty evenby Terran standards, but there was a sharpness in her manner and a senseof coldness in the small black eyes that repelled Cameron and Joyce evenas the thoughtless actions of Marthasa had done.
Cameron looked carefully for the same qualities in the three smallerchildren who were at home, and found them easily. In none of them wasthere the aura of serenity possessed by the Id servants.
When they were finally alone that night Cameron sat down to make somenotes on their observations up to date. "The fault line I mentioned isso obvious you can't miss it," he said to Joyce. "It's as if they'reliving one kind of life because they think it's the th
ing to do, but alltheir thoughts and feelings are being drawn invisibly in anotherdirection--and they're half ashamed of it."
"Maybe the Ids have something to do with it. Remember Marthasa'sstatement that the relationship of the _sarghs_ does something to theMarkovians? If we found out exactly what that something is, we mighthave the answer."
Cameron shook his head. "I've tried to fit it together that way, too,but it just doesn't add up. The basic premise of the Ids is asceticismand there never was any strength in that idea. Marthasa is probablyright in his estimate of the Ids. They have achieved an internalserenity but only through compensating
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