Tia Versus the Gorn by Nagrij

What the! Where has she woken up? This is weird, who or what has taken Tia to this place? Her knives, her pepper spray, but no phone, keep getting stranger. No way in or out, but at least she hasn't had any organs removed. An opening on the far wall and hallways outside it, a woman with horns or frills on her head comes inside, who is she?

She was green, and her face was a bit longer than mine, sporting more of a snout. She also had longer limbs... and two extra ones. She was a woman for sure, because I could see the two most obvious attributes a woman had, and they were very... obvious.

This is either someone with a very unique appearance from GSD or an alien, from the room so far and Tia has no memories of how she got here it is adding up to alien abduction to me.

"My name is J'telc, and you are on the space ship 'Venture'. We have taken you from your home as part of a cultural exchange between our peoples. Your guardians do know where you are."

Yeah, sure, if that were true I'm sure Tia's guardians would have informed her about this cultural exchange and not have her abducted out of the blue. I can't believe Tia isn't questioning this more.

The alien drew up to her full height, arms still out as if to shield her. "You have been chosen as a representative of your species to prove your worth in our arena."

Okay, she has either truly been abducted by aliens or this is the most elaborate set-up for a combat final I've ever seen.

"We find the battles between those who have not been trained for war the most interesting."

Dang, this could be a real alien abduction and not a combat final set-up.

Great, she can't refuse either.

"Yes, there are many! Some of whom you may even know. I do not have such knowledge, but rest assured you are not the only representative from your world present today."

If it is fellow students from Whateley that is too much of a coincidence and I'm back to thinking this is a combat final set-up, a crash with deception to get the students to participate. Wander the ship, and partake of food, this is making me question things again.

A window showing a moon and stars, Tia is told it isn't Earth's moon.

"You mean Earth's moon? If so, then no. We are parked in orbit around the planet you call Mars, on the dark side of the moon you call 'phobos'. We park here to avoid detection and any efforts your more war minded peoples might direct at us."

What kind of heat shielding does this ship have to handle that? Various aliens are seen on the way to the eatery, either the ANTs can depict a lot more range than I previously thought or she really is on an alien ship.

Wait a minute, looks of recognition from aliens, that doesn't seem right. Why that reaction from the male of J'telc's species to Tia? Chicken carbonara, the smell of a type of pasta, either these aliens have a lot more contact with Earth than humanity as a whole knows or Tia is being scammed somehow. Wait a minute, the galley just happens to be similar to places at Whateley and there is a big tree guy there like the mutant at Whateley. Something not obvious is going on.

Oh god, please don't let the goobers be right, they would never let anyone hear the end of it. J'telc knows about Tia's dietary restrictions, hhm. Strange purple fruit smells sweet and cloying like honey, curioser and curioser. This guy seems friendly, Seeds like sunflower seeds, but a different color, hhm. Cashew crossed with a mushroom, ack, not mushroom flavor!

J'telc's reaction to those seeds, just how rare and a delicacy to her species are they? Intelligence and weapons, yes, prepare for a fight, Tia. Weapons with armor and badges must be ship security. How does everyone know who Tia is out here? Did the incident where she was transformed somehow get transmitted into space and aliens picked it up?

Oh boy, everyone is more subdued and on guard now, if those aren't security then who are they? J'telc isn't the one in charge here, so she isn't in charge of who is sent to their arena, this is sounding more and more like a very bad situation for everyone except the one in charge. They do this every year and yet no one has noticed, which government is involved in allowing aliens to take human citizens off to fight in an arena?

The hanger, why do I get the feeling J'telc doesn't like this whole situation either and wants to get Tia out of there with her. Snake-based alien, there was bound to be one.

There had to be at least a hundred ships here, and all different. From saucers to the box with engines, and everything in between. Even if they were mockups, just this much alone seemed to prove beyond any doubt that I was not on Earth anymore, and that J'telc hadn't lied.

Oh boy, I wish my theory about this being a combat final set-up held any water now, but this just blew it up. Force field to keep everyone and everything in except for ships coming and going, classic.

Again, those shifty eyes. "Some mining here, some enjoying of the local color there...."

What is with J'telc's shifty eyes so often? An over 7' tall upright lizard, why is J'telc shaking upon seeing them? Those teeth, yikes. That is Tia's opponent, the Gorm! Who set up this match, do they want to get Tia killed? Great, instead of leaving them to work on his ship he has to lord over them and intimidate them in that way, the Gorm is a brute from what little we have seen.

Comes over to examine Tia and laughs at her, he is a creep.

J'telc slumped a bit. "No, it isn't. What the Gorm said was unfit for polite company."

Okay, I hope Tia humiliates this creep in the arena. Time warning, planet fall, Tia is going to need a long rest after all this is over. Less than a cycle to get Tia ready, this isn't a Star Trek outfit, is it? The look in J'telc's eyes, uh oh. Look your best when you fight to the death, oh brother.

Honestly, this whole operation struck me as something... less than fully thought out.

Something screwy is going on with all of this. Makeup done by J'telc. Wait a minute, I think I just realized what is really going on. I was right the first time, this is all an elaborate set-up for a combat final. The shirt is the same one Kirk wore and the Gorm is a play on the Gorn, the reptilian alien that Kirk fought, the title of the story gave it away.

No weapons to fight the Gorm with makes it even more obvious. Make Tia's eyes look bigger, hhm. Tia, trying to escape when you have no way home if you are really in space and about to land on another planet, is never a good idea. Shit! They are hypnotizing her with those pulses of light, this isn't a combat final!

"Can you hold your breath, please?" She muttered something that the translator barely caught: "sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't"

Okay, I don't trust J'telc anymore.

All that to make her a 'space suit', what did it really do? Matter fabricator, hhm, so if is J'telc telling the truth why did she say sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't? That 'space suit' has me questioning if this is a combat final set-up or not again. 15 minutes to suit up and get back to the ship, either J'telc didn't plan their tour out well, or something else is up. Why so much murmuring at seeing Tia in the 'space suit'?

Soldiers that are just green-skinned humans, holding rifles like that, what is really going on with all this? More soldiers and all lined up leading to a ship, either this is a combat final set-up or these aliens revere Star Trek and emulate a lot of the original series. Brightly colored and plastic rifles, is Tia right, are those just water guns? A troop transport like that, for a species that can travel lightyears, weird.

"Greetings, honored combatant. I am undercommander Gelvron, your escort to the hallowed field of death. This is my second, sergeant Hrak."

This just gets stranger and stranger. Hehehe, Tia got them to let J'telc come with her. Sub-commander is an interesting thing to let slip, no real military would let that slip to an outsider.

"It was deemed unwise. Sometime before, on an earlier journey, the Gorm decided to save time and kill his fellow honored combatant in the ship."

With all these people around? Pull the other one. Then again, maybe for earlier trips, they had fewer guards.

No, that was stupid. Could aliens be that stupid? Could any race that was space-faring be that stupid? I mean, I guess we counted, so maybe?

Okay, I'm back to this all being an elaborate ruse to get Tia to take her combat final without complaining and using Star Trek as a base with additions. Because that is too stupid to be real. The soldiers going with them don't have space suits on, that is a huge slip-up for making Tia believe this is real.

Gelvron glaring, that is either an ANT or Gunny in special effects make-up, or I'm off-base and this is real aliens, but ones who are bad at a lot of things.

She started rattling off facts about how old the moon was, how it had been formed, and all the other stuff that made the universe go 'round.

Such a science geek...wait a minute.

Ack! The airdrop, this always looks like it sucks in sci-fi that uses it. The sound acts strange to Tia, she has superhuman hearing so even with the helmet on she should pick up things others can't. What has been going on with the sound, is the helmet part of the simulation and designed to distort sounds to fool her into thinking this is all real, or is something else going on?

A species capable of designing spaceships that can go FTL can't design something that can land without bouncing, that is highly suspicious. Just how strong is J'telc? Giant crystal dome to provide a safe atmosphere inside, something that size would have been spotted by scientists on Earth for sure. No more 'space suit' once they are safely inside.

Why are all the soldiers so on guard around Tia?

Then a third flight of stairs, and my ears could now pick up the faint panting of out of shape people working out in thin air.

I wiped the smirk off my face as quick as I could. People really were the same everywhere, it seemed. With even military types being lazy and cutting on cardio. Or were they?

The illusion they are trying to sell Tia keeps having big cracks in it like this. A lot of cameras, J'telc walks what Tia is sure is a pressure plate without triggering it, I want to know what is really going on already.

There were pictures on the wall, actual framed pictures, of people. human people in this case, every one of them black and white, and every one of them bearing clothes like the ones I'd been shoved into. Some were smiling, and some were not.

If this isn't just to sell the image and is real, they have been abducting people for years on one or more governments' say-so.

A live crowd and they use her full name, Lucretia Del Bosque, ouch. The Gorm comes out looking like that, seesh, this feels like a TV show or movie set-up.

"Will Earth survive another year? Or will those the Gorm represents have their way with the tiny world at last? Or will the chosen representative of Earth stave off the planet's destruction yet again? The day will tell! Final words and final bets begin now!"

Okay, Earth allowing this just to survive is insane, they should take the fight to whoever is behind all this.

No weapons, yet the Gorm has his natural weapons that Tia doesn't, yeah, your sacred arena rules can shove it imo. Charging Gorm and Tia with a force field to protect her for at least a moment. Rocks to throw as her only weapon, oh boy. Different gravity, rock lighter than expected, strides are lighter, and the Gorm has experience fighting in it.

80% Earth gravity, hhm.

There should still be some heft to this thing, but there was less, as if it was made of something other than the types of rock I was used to.

Something is off because Earth rocks and Mars rocks are made from the same mineral types from what I understand. Great, the rocks are useless, she needs bigger, heavier rocks, but can't slow down now or the Gorm might get her.

The broken pieces of the manacles that Gorm broke and left behind, good idea, Tia. Something off about the chain as well.

Like everything else, of course. If I didn't know what was going on before, this would have clenched it.

What is going on, Tia, tell us. Two hits of the chain against Gorm and it breaks, this is a set-up in one way or another.

Unarmed palm strikes are worthless against the Gorm as well. Nice stunt getting dust to hit the Gorm in the eye with. Good taunt, Tricked the Gorm into charging, judo throw right into the force field.

I let go when I heard the bell-like 'bong'. It was loud enough to max the protection on my clips, and the Gorm flew back from the protection measure twice as fast as he'd gone into it.

Bell-like bong, force field around the arena, this is a combat final! Uses the chain and moves from MA to choke out the Gorm, and Tia wins.

Then, under her breath, she asked me: "how do you feel?"

Two large soldiers were running up with some kind of hovering stretcher, no doubt for my victim. "Furious right now."

"Right, right, that is understandable. Let's get back out into the hall and I'll explain everything."

If this isn't all an elaborate ruse for a combat final I want to know what is going on as well.

"So this is all a con. Some sort of wrestling style thing where the fights are fixed, and maybe some reality T.V. thing on the side, where you've been filming my reactions the entire time? None of this, or very little of it, is real. I am in space, you all are aliens, but this is some sort of amusement or entertainment for you. How close am I?"

So it is aliens, but it is all just entertainment for them with fixed fights, dang, Tia is smart to figure all that out. The tour was the first tip-off for her of what was really going on. Her chips translating things, yeah, I didn't recall Laura building in that feature, I should have realized it sooner. Tia objectively observed everything, including the interactions with the Gorm by the crew.

I knew it, I knew they were riffing off that episode of Star Trek with the Gorn. I should have known Tia like Star Trek and would know this set-up.

The chest was open, a plate lowered down to expose a small chair and controls within, and on top of that plate, sitting with legs dangling off and kicking idly, was the real Gorm, a small lizard that resembled a very small chameleon from home.

A mecha-suit for a tiny alien lizard, that is priceless, like out of the Men in Black.

Ack! Video quality like that for the episode, no wonder they thought the alien's name was the Gorm.

J'telc finished up with some great big full belly chuckles and turned back to us. "Why didn't anyone tell us?"

Was she really asking or was this rhetorical? Whatever, I'd answer anyway: "Likely most didn't know or remember. That show was ground breaking and historical, but it was also only on three years at a time most of us weren't even alive for. We'd recognize the broad strokes, but not all of it. As for those who would know, they were probably staying quiet because it tips us nerds off."

True, us nerds if we knew this was all a set-up would love to play along and live out a Star Trek episode for aliens entertainment.

Surely they wouldn't. "You're going to wipe my memory?"

A slight prick at my neck and I was falling. J'telc caught me.

"Don't be silly," she whispered. Then louder I heard: "Alright, that's a wrap, people! Well done!"

An injection and Tia wakes up back home in her bed thinking it was all a dream, rats.

There, in my closet, was a new addition. A uniform, a knock off uniform, consisting of a yellow-green shirt with black trim around the collar and gold trim around the sleeves, a pair of black pants, and black boots. The shirt had a small rip in it of course, right above where my left breast would be if I wore it. There was a small note pinned to the shirt with a safety pin.

"Shhh," it read, with a small crude drawing of two hands held up to a mouth in a clearly now universal gesture of silence.

Ah, Tia just thought it was a dream, I hope finding this and the note makes her realize it was all real.

A fun story that had me guessing almost all the way through. I seriously thought the staff might go this far for a combat final, trick a pacifist student into taking their combat final without realizing it until it was all over. Tia noted a lot of things my bias with the previous assumption made me miss. J'telc made me second-guess her motives throughout the whole thing, was she a member of the staff or a student in disguise, or was she a real alien.

I'm happy that Tia was able to prove how smart she is in this fight even if it is a fixed fight. I never expected the bane of reality TV to exist amongst alien species as well, boy, I was proved wrong on that one.

I love that Tia gets to keep her outfit and proof that it really happened at the end, just told to keep quiet about it. I can't wait to see more of Tia in the future.