Deep Space Endeavor 3 Death Match (19 page)

Dobar laughed again. He sent four of his ships to land on the planet when a powerful energy beam shot out from the moon, destroying all four ships. Dobar was no longer laughing as the energy weapon lashed out again, this time destroying six more ships.

The human was speaking on the transmission again.“Alien invaders, we have several of those weapons and unlimited power. We sent out our ancient unmanned vessels to see what you would do. Had you not been so warlike, we might have let you live.” Four more beams flashed and eleven more ships were destroyed. Thansar sent several ships to the moon, and they opened fire on three of the weapon installations, destroying them. Three more beams shot out from an asteroid field, destroying eight more ships. Dobar’s forces were immediately at the asteroids, destroying the weapons. Thansar had figured out that it took a few minutes for each weapon to charge enough to fire again, so the best time to destroy them would be right after they fired. Thansar destroyed four more weapons on Sindar’s moon. The only remaining weapons were now being fired from the planet, and the fleet had spread out far enough that they would not lose many more ships. Dobar and Thansar spent the next four days in orbital bombardment to punish the humans for the ships they had destroyed. They also did not wish to face similar weapons on the ground. After two more weeks, the human population had been subjugated. The leaders had been killed to prevent an uprising, but the Syndicate could expect the resources to begin pouring in soon. They had won, but the victory had come at the hefty price of thirty-one badly needed ships. Still, Thansar would take the win.

Chapter five

______

As Jesse stepped out into the cool air of the stadium, he was thankful he had decided to wear a long sleeve shirt over his tee shirt. He remembered that Zinnebailans were colder blooded than humans and liked temperatures humans would consider cool. He was immediately greeted by a chorus of boos louder than a sublight drive in atmosphere. He just smiled and waved knowing that for half of this stadium at least, he was considered the villain. He also waved to all of the supporters that had come out to cheer him on. He saw a large section of Julanii, another couple sections of Qualoosh and several sections of Humans. He even saw some of the Farannsians cheering for him. He stepped up into the back of an open hover vehicle that slowly made its way out to the center of the stadium. He watched as an identical vehicle carried his enemy towards the stadium’s center as well. Waiting there was the announcer that he assumed would get this event underway. It struck him as funny that this was considered an event, a competition, and that they were referred to as contestants. It seemed to him that no one bothered calling it what it actually was: a vicious hate-filled brawl to the death. When this was over, one of them would be dead and the other would forever have blood on his hands.

The pageantry of the opening ceremony was nothing short of remarkable as close to two hundred Zinnebailan musicians played the official theme music of a traditional Zinnebailan death match. Hundreds of dancers accompanied the music while happy Zinnebailan children ran through the stadium waving banners of the colors of Zinnebulous. Two previous death match winners gave short exhortations that were well received from a little over half of the stadium. Jesse found it all very interesting, including the fact that no consideration at all had been given for any human traditions he may have wished to see performed. When it was all finally finished, an announcer climbed the three steps of the small stage to officially begin the event.

The announcer was an older Zinnebailan male wearing a royal blue coat over a white shirt with black trousers. He stood almost six and a half feet tall, and his mannerisms suggested he was an entertainer. He held an amplification device in his hand as he waited for the two contestants to approach. The crowd had grown quiet with the anticipation of what was to come. Jesse stepped off the vehicle and made his way over to the announcer. Garrinoras was already flanking the announcer when he arrived. The announcer looked at him with utter disdain evident in his eyes, then smiled as he turned to the crowd.

“Ladies and gentlemen, fellow Zinnebailans, and people of all races, today we are witness to history. For the first time ever, we have a non-Zinnebailan competing in a death match. Normally, this would not be allowed, but an exception was made for this match because in the history of Zinnebulous, there has never been a more hated human. This is also the first two-day match, and the first match not held on Zinnebulous. We have a trio of first on this historic day. When the Mighty Garrinoras asked the council for permission to invite this human into a death match, they heartily agreed. They knew this pitiful human was responsible for the setback Zinnebulous encountered at Kaldor. They also knew that Colonel Marcos had stolen something of the utmost value from Mighty Garrinoras. They felt the heinous crimes Marcos had committed, without provocation, against his opponent were severe enough to warrant a death match. They knew Colonel Marcos to be a coward so they felt compelled to take out an insurance policy to make sure he would accept the challenge. So, without further delay, I give you the opening statements. First to speak is the Mighty Garrinoras.” As the announcer finished speaking he handed the amplification device to Garrinoras to a thunderous ovation from one side of the stadium and a strong chorus of boos from the other.

Garrinoras stood there for several minutes facing his supporters and taking in the applause of the crowd. He finally motioned for silence. “People of the Kalephi Galaxy, today I have the opportunity to rid us of a great evil that has plagued us since his arrival in our galaxy. I cannot explain with words just how much I hate this human. Colonel Marcos claims he is only a visitor in our galaxy and just wants to return home. Yet at every turn, he has been there to thwart the best interests of Zinnebulous. Never in our history has a single human done our planet such harm, and it will be my pleasure to slowly and painfully extinguish his star from our galaxy. I cannot wait to end his life with my bare hands in front of the crew he loves so much. First, however, I get to put him through two days of pain. A beating so brutal, so torturous, that he will beg for me to end his pathetic life. My only sorrow is that I cannot find his entire family and end their lives as well.” He handed the device back to the announcer to another round of thunderous applause mixed with the jeers.

After several more minutes, the announcer lifted the device to his mouth as he motioned for silence. “The rules clearly state that both contestants be allowed to speak, so I would remind you to hold all applause or displeasure until Colonel Marcos has finished speaking.” The pirate crowd began to loudly boo while the pro-human side went crazy with applause until the announcer handed the device to Jesse, and motioned for silence.

Jesse looked at the crowd, five hundred thousand strong. More than half of them couldn’t wait to see him killed and knew he would find no sympathetic ears on
the
pirate side
. He was also amused to find he thought of them as
the pirate side
, when in reality very few of them were probably pirates. He turned to the pro-human supporters as he began. “It’s a good thing the wise government of Zinnebulous saw fit to employ such an unbiased announcer for this event.” He joked to laughter from one side of the stadium. The announcer clearly did not like his character being so publicly questioned as Jesse continued. “I arrived in this galaxy eight months ago and since that time have sought only to explore until the opportunity presented itself to return home. What Garrinoras failed to mention to you is that his people attacked my ship and my crew, unprovoked, twice, before we decided to thwart him at every turn.

“I have no hatred for the planet Zinnebulous or the Zinnebailan people. I even returned to them several priceless artifacts found among the treasure of Ameteo.” Jesse mentioned the treasure to further get under Garrinoras’ skin. “Interestingly enough, when my crew and I found the treasure we did not find a note saying it was left for Garrinoras, so I have no idea why he feels I stole it from him. The perfect description of the not-so-mighty Garrinoras is this: one who would lie, cheat, steal and kill for his own selfish agenda. I think it’s time someone stood up to him and let the galaxy know that this kind of behavior will not be tolerated. Having said that, I will not judge an entire race by the actions of one man. I am told that Zinnebailans are an honorable people and I have no reason to believe otherwise. To the Humans, Qualoosh, Julanii and Farannsians that have come here in support of me today, I say thank you. Your support means a lot to myself and my crew. Whether I win or lose, I will cherish this moment.” He handed the device back to the announcer as his crowd went wild again. Some boos still rained down, but he was surprised to notice they were not quite as loud as they were before.

“Thank you contestants,” the announcer began while glaring at Jesse. “Your vehicles will take you back to where you entered the arena and when the horn sounds, the death match will begin. The match will start out this morning with unarmed hand-to-hand combat.” Jesse noticed that the opening ceremony had taken almost forty minutes, which meant it would be just over four hours until their one-hour break. After the break, they would begin again, with blunt weapons. They boarded their respective vehicles, which moved much more quickly this time as they dropped each contestant off at their respective tunnels. The horn sounded to a deafening roar of the crowd, and Jesse moved quickly to the open terrain near his side of the stadium. He didn’t want to get caught in the jungle and face his opponent where he was likely to be more comfortable. His gloves were made of the same material as the battle suits. He had put the gralium knuckles inside, so his opponent would not know what to expect. They stretched all the way to his elbow, which would give his arms some protection from whatever he might face this morning. He knew Garrinoras would have something far more elaborate, but he wanted to be able to move his arms with speed. He didn’t need to kill Garrinoras, or even knock him out. He only needed to draw blood to move on to his Bo staff. He breathed a sigh of relief as he ran out of the wooded area and found a wide clearing. He then sat down cross-legged in the golden dirt; he noticed the colorful birds still circling overhead. He closed his eyes and began concentrating as he filtered out all the noise from the crowd.

After a few minutes, he looked up and saw Garrinoras slowly sauntering towards him. He was dressed in all black with a red sash and he was wearing metal gloves. The gloves looked as if they were medieval. They were studded with small spikes, not large enough to stab, but sharp enough to draw blood. The gloves ran halfway up his forearms, and a large spike protruded from the end of the glove. The spike stretched all the way past his elbow.
Those spikes could do some serious damage if they hit their mark
. As he studied his opponents gloves, he realized that his arms would move much faster unencumbered by metal gloves of that size. He would retain his edge in quickness, while Garrinoras retained his edge in strength. They had each chosen gloves that played to their strengths. When his opponent was thirty meters from him, he stood up and settled into a defensive position. Garrinoras smiled and attacked.

______

Bessa was on her way to med-bay to see how things were progressing when she overheard Teha on a transmission with Sibbie making more plans to try and get some alone time with Collin. She realized how persistent they were, and also realized that neither one of them had ever been a slave. She knew that it was just a matter of time before the man she loved gave in to them and then her new world would come crashing down. The thought of it almost made her cry. Collin caught up to her while he was on his way to pick up some research he needed to help Cassie. Immediately, he noticed how upset she was.

“Bessa, what’s wrong?”

“I heard Sibbie and Teha speaking and they will not stop until one or both of them have you. They are young and beautiful, and I know I will lose you to them.”

“What?” He could barely believe his ears.

“I’ll never be anything more than a former slave girl, will I?” She added sadly.

“What? Are you kidding me? Bessa, you’re amazing, you can be anything you want to be, and you can be with anyone you want. I will never love Sibbie or Teha. That is a promise. You are better than them in every way. You are the kind of woman rulers start wars over. You are the kind of woman poets and musicians write about. You are astounding in every way; Bessa, and I am the luckiest man in two galaxies.”

“How can you think so highly of me when others think so little of me?”

“Every member of this crew loves you and thinks highly of you. Don’t ever forget that. When we get back to Earth, everyone that we know and love will love you, too. That’s a promise.” He put his arm around her as they continued to walk. “Would you come sit with me in med-bay as I continue trying to figure out this problem in Cassie’s head?”

“I would love to,” she smiled sadly.“And, Collin, please never stop telling me how you feel. I think I will always need to hear it.”