A NON-CANON Second Generation Whateley Academy Adventure

Tia versus the Gorn

by

Nagrij

I woke without any groggy feeling or even a need for caffeine. Just an instant thing. Where was I? I wasn't in my room. The space was all silvered and vaguely oblong, rather than a box. My roommate was also missing. What had happened?

The bed I'd been laying down in was inset into the wall and looked like it recessed into it. Other than that, it looked more like a space-aged coffin than a bed. The only other furniture was a large vanity, complete with old-fashioned looking lights ringing it.

Had I been kidnapped? I could see waking up in the hospital, but this didn't look anything like that.

Okay, don't panic. Take stock. I was alive, unhurt, and still in my pajamas. I could see some clothes and some of my other stuff on the vanity. But not my phone. Why would my knives be there, and not my phone? What sort of kidnappers were these? They hadn't even bound me, and potential weapons were there? I could even spot my pepper spray!

My clips were in my ears; an experimental wiggle proved their weight was present without me having to reach up. There was nothing weird on me that I could see or feel, no bomb collars or weird accessories. I wasn't cut or missing a kidney.

There was no door that I could see, and aside from the lights on the vanity, there was no noticeable source of any light. Were the walls themselves glowing?

Had I been kidnapped by a devisor? They would certainly be arrogant enough. Please, let it not be a devisor. Let it be anyone else. Anything else.

A piece of the far wall slid up, opening into a hallway that looked much like the room itself, leading in left and right directions. In stepped a woman smaller than I in both height and mass, with a few horns or frills or something on her head in place of hair. 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.

She was walking upright at least, and she bore a smile without teeth as she approached, all four of her arms slightly up and in front of her in a warding gesture. A devisor project?

"Greetings," she said, her voice a bit rough, but pleasant. "Do not be afraid. We mean you no harm."

Well, talking was good. Talking was discussing, and could be negotiation. More importantly, it wasn't fighting or worse.

"Who are you, and why am I here? Why have you taken me from my home?" There, nice and calm, reasonable even. No matter who it was, they couldn't get upset over that, right?

The smile grew a touch wider, showing just a hint of white now. She stopped just out of my grabbing range and spoke again: "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."

That... that might be good? Honestly, aliens were better than crazy devisors, and if the school knew I was here, then surely there was a plan in place of some kind. Some way to rescue me or keep me from harm. Right? Unless this was one of those 'we will take some earthlings, and if you don't agree, we will nuke you' sort of thing.

I really hope it wasn't that. "Why have you taken me?"

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."

That was... better and worse than I expected. "You realize I'm not a fighter, right? You'd be better off getting a mixed martial arts guy or one of our military guys or something."

J'telc cocked her head, much as a confused dog might, and at roughly the same angle. "We find the battles between those who have not been trained for war the most interesting."

Well, if I was to take on someone like J'telc, I could maybe take her? She had better reach but she was smaller, and had more of a... handicap than I. I'd feel bad punching her though. For some reason, she was rocking that 'little sister I never had' vibe.

I should press. Just a little. "What happens if I refuse?"

J'telc immediately backed away, lowering her hands into what was certainly a combat stance. "Bad things. Awful things."

Of course. Why wouldn't aliens be as bad or worse than we humans were? Did I even want to know? No, I really didn't. Even with much of this not adding up, I just didn't want to know the reward for non-compliance. After all, those nozzles in the ceiling looked more than a little suspicious.

"So you mean me no harm, huh?" It didn't sound much like that from here.

"We mean you no harm," J'telc replied. She even shrugged, rolling both sets of shoulders. "Others might or might not. Your opponent in the arena will certainly mean you harm. Until then, however, your safety is guaranteed, given you remain reasonable."

Right. I'd remain reasonable, of course, for now. "Are there any others who have been chosen for this... honor?"

J'telc visibly brightened. "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."

Then I might have allies. Allies better at this sort of thing than I was.

Seriously, aliens? Of all the things, aliens? At least I wasn't getting probed. Thank God I wasn't getting probed.

Hopefully no one else was getting probed either. For all I knew, it was a different department on the same ship.

That was a chance, though. I was on a ship, after all. I wouldn't let people I didn't know wander around, but did they feel that way? "May I tour the ship? See the sights?"

J'telc cocked her head back upright, for all the world appearing to have forgotten to do so before. "Of course! We have time for such. If you like, we may even stop by our eatery and partake in some food."

I wasn't hungry, but seeing what J'telc and her people ate might be cool. So long as it wasn't people or anything. Or maybe live worms. Something like that.

If this was all just a big con, then stepping out the door would likely reveal it. But as far-fetched as it sounded, what evidence I had pointed to my alien friend being an actual alien, and not some experiment by a cranky white haired scientist type.

The door swished open, or up, and my first theory took a massive hit. Because there, right on the other side of the door, was a window. Not a porthole, an actual picture window that showed a round hulking shape - the moon? It was hard to tell, there wasn't much light. The tiny lights, however, could only be stars. Unless the entire window and all it showed was fake.

I decided to ask. "Is that the moon?"

J'telc turned back to me with a guileless stare that had to be feigned. "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."

That... made sense. So, Phobos? I couldn't really speak to the shape of Phobos, and we seemed to be parked too close to see the entire outline. At least from here. Whatever, I'd roll with it. After all, what else was there to do?

J'telc moved, turning left, with a bright "This way!"

I followed. The hall was filled with people, some in what could only be a uniform, some without. Some without any clothes at all. I was using the term people loosely; I was seeing more tentacles and chitin than I liked. Strictly speaking anyway, that person which looked more like an upright mantis than anything else, with a sort of cloth cape set over its non-shoulders, seemed pleasant enough. They even bobbed their head my direction as I passed, as if they knew me.

Come to think of it, I was getting more than a few looks. Looks of recognition, unless I missed my guess. Which was weird, because aliens of any kind shouldn't know me. But I'd gotten used to seeing those looks, and I would swear to seeing them now.

There, another one like J'telc, though a male; he almost jumped when he saw me, and his eyes widened. Either he knew me, or I looked as different to them as they did to me. Whatever, it was a mystery for future me.

The hall had more windows. Each showed a different slice of space, yet they all linked up, so the chances I was being lied to by displayed images was a little less. Not greatly less, but evidence was mounting.

We'd crossed a number of doors that we hadn't tried. However, this one J'telc stood in front of, and it opened. "Here is the galley."

I could smell it. Some were smells I could recognize... chicken? Carbonera? Some kind of pasta. The other smells, well, they seemed like they might be food-like but slightly off compared to what I was used to.

"Would you like something to eat?" My escort asked, free of any guile at all.

I wouldn't mind a light meal; one should always take advantage of offered food when you didn't know what trials you may face ahead. "Can I?"

"Certainly!" J'telc chirped. "There is enough for all, of course, and very little of what we have would sicken or kill you."

"Well, that's comforting." It was also disturbing because it meant these guys had been doing this sort of thing before, and often enough that they had some idea of our physiology and preferences. From the smells, they might even be importing our food from Earth, and that was another massive can of worms to open.

I followed J'telc in, and the scene was one that wouldn't look out of place at our school; a large hall with benches in front of tables, along with an assortment of stools, bean bag looking chairs, and even slight depressions in the floor. At the far front, a sort of line where foods were displayed under something that looked like glass but probably wasn't. There was even a line, if a small one.

Was that a tree? No way was that a moving, talking tree. I mean we had one at home, but that guy was a mutant. Wasn't he?

We joined the line, and no one questioned it. I got some more looks, but everyone here seemed more interested in their food. Maybe it was the fact that I didn't have a uniform? The pajamas covered everything, at least. I could only imagine how things might go if I'd been abducted in the summer - An oversized shirt was great to sleep in, but didn't make a great first impression.

Whatever, they only had themselves to blame if that happened; they were stealing people without permission, after all. Unless they got permission from a government or something and called it good. It wouldn't surprise me, but it would shock me; mostly because it meant the conspiracy theorists were right all along. The only thing worse would be if the goobers were right, and demons really were walking among us!

Yeah, not even in this crazy world with aliens everywhere, could that be a thing.

We reached the front, and I could see it, right near the beginning of all the stuff. "Is that... carbonera?"

"Of course," J'telc replied at once. She already had a tray, and had something on it. Something that looked like a small roasted fish. "There is chicken in that, however. Would that not cause problems for you?"

So they knew? "Is there an option that won't?"

"Of course. They are in this section, over there." J'telc pointed the way. We still needed to wait for the line to move. While we were waiting J'telc added a few more things to her tray. Two of those seemed to be fish, like the first, and the rest seemed to be sauces or meats. She would get along well with our resident dragon-girl.

The section for me was designated with a green stripe around it, and was full of what could only be fruits and vegetables. Most were not recognizable, with weird shapes that were not circles or oblongs.  I did recognize about half the salads, though, and most of the nuts.

Looking around, the section seemed to be at least as popular as the one before it. The section that had to be all the meat - even if some of it didn't look like meat.

I snatched a nice looking garden salad and a small bowl of nuts and some strange purple fruit I liked the look of, to be daring. It was diced up, so I couldn't see what form it had originally taken, but it smelled sweet and a little cloying, almost like honey.

This was probably enough. No, that stuff over there looked alright too. I'd try it, at least. I would also very carefully not ask where it was from. I didn't want to find out it was a slurm or a dune spice situation.

J'telc led us to a table, one in the center of the room, one which I'd never take on my own. It was small however, and empty, with two of the more normal looking seats. She sat with her back to the door, which spoke a lot on its own about how much she knew about us in general, and how much she knew about me in particular.

How much she'd been told about me, from the people running this thing. A scary thought.

I was getting just as many looks as I was giving, which was making people watching a little awkward. I settled for buckling down and finishing my meal. My possible last meal, since I was going to fight someone and all. Maybe someone in this very cafeteria, which seemed designed to put me at ease. It wasn't the hall, but it shared the look with school cafeterias all over America.  I wonder if it'd look the same if I'd been French, or German.

A guy walked a bit closer than the others, and he was staring, breaking off from his buddies. He looked normal-ish, except for longer features and being a bright, vibrant green. He snagged something from his tray as he passed, holding the rest one handed.

"You should try these. They are, what is that phrase... 'to die for'."

Well that wasn't ominous at all. I glanced over; J'telc was smiling, clearly happy about something. So was the guy, but he hadn't stopped, just put a bowl of what looked like seeds on my tray and left.

I should be nice at least, I had no power here. "Thank you."

He waved as he went to his friends who'd already taken a table in the back. "You're welcome."

The seeds were small, and seemingly already shelled. If they'd had shells in the first place. They looked much like sunflower seeds, only they had a color that reminded me of dark wood... mahogany?

I tried a few, just a pinch, and they were good. A more earthy taste than sunflower seeds, more like a cashew crossed with a mushroom.  How had I missed them before though?

I wasn't sure I had.

J'telc was no longer people watching. She was looking at the seeds, and she was salivating. I spread some on my salad and passed over the rest; she positively glowed when she saw them approaching - then she frowned.

"Those were a gift to you."

Silly. "If they were, then they are my gift to do what I please with, and I choose to share."

After all, aside from the whole kidnapping thing, no one here had mistreated me. At least not yet.

J'telc didn't need any further prompting. She went right to them, and inhaled the entire bowl of the little things in seconds. So... a rarity? A big cost item?

No one had asked me to pay, but that could just be because everyone knew I was an earthling here. I was certain of it; even if I shook J'telc here, the entire ship would know what I was about instantly. They would all be able to subdue me. Well, probably.

What I needed was more intelligence. More intelligence and weapons. Whether my government and people had sold me out or not, I didn't have to sit back and allow it.

Still, how would I manage? I'm sure everyone here was being so hands off because they knew I couldn't fly some strange alien spaceship back home, even if I could find back home. A navigator I was not.

Well, that was part of it. I was sure I knew the other reason too. They weren't exactly being subtle, these aliens.

J'telc finished up and settled for looking at me. I guess she figured out what I was up to. I started eating faster, while she still seemed reluctant to just grab me and drag me off somewhere.

Some more came in and left while I was finishing up, and these had weapons. Small things which could only be guns... no, maybe tasers. Surely not lasers, those would actually be dangerous on a ship. All someone would need to do is aim at an outer wall to kill a bunch of people. They also had armor, and badges.

For all of that though, they were all smiles to everyone, even me, while making it absolutely clear that they knew who I was as well. One even waved. Friendly enough, but clearly the authority arm of the ship, the way everyone glanced at them. People watching was paying off already.

I waved back, of course, and the guy strode past us to a far table, delighted. A far table clearly reserved for them, and one where they could watch all the action.

J'telc was one of those who weren't happy. She was trying to hide it, but she kept shooting looks back past my shoulder, and her earlier smiles were muted.

She wasn't alone in this, and it did not speak well of the state of things. Yet, something felt off... something more.

I wasn't buying it.

"Well, we should get going, if you want to finish the tour!"

I looked down, I'd finished most of my stuff, eating without thinking. I could think back and remember the tastes, but the shield the food had represented was gone now. It was nice to know aliens followed some forms of human polite-ness, but I couldn't milk this one for time anymore.

"Sure."

At the word, J'telc reached over and took my tray, and somehow managed to inhale the left overs. Very quickly. I was reminded of a few of my friends; had they been taken too?

"So, J'telc, did you guys take anyone else from the school?"

J'telc grabbed a tray in each set of hands and stood up. "I'm sorry, I don't know. If others were taken, they have guides of their own. I'm simply your guide. I'm not the one in charge here. I do believe, however, that if others were taken, they would be from other places on your world. That is the usual plan for such expeditions as these."

"Right. So you guys do this often?"

J'telc shifted her eyes left, then right, before admitting: "Every year."

Right, of course they did. It made perfect sense, but you'd think if it were happening every year, people would have talked by now. Well, people who couldn't just be immediately dismissed as crackpots.

"So..." J'telc took a moment to physically brighten, pulling herself out of whatever mood I'd helped put her in. "This way!" she chirped out, and led us out and back down the hall. A left, back along the outer wall with its very large windows. Portholes? What did one call the windows in a spaceship?

It didn't matter. "Where are we going?"

"The hangar, of course! I did promise, after all."

Nice. I wish I had my phone; a few pictures, even if I could call anyone, might go a long way toward proving my case. I hope my kidnappers had just left it in my room when the snagged me; the thing was expensive.

The hangar was down the hall, past several other doors, which did not open as it turned out. I didn't know what lay beyond since I couldn't read whatever language was being used. It looked like some sort of universal sign or hieroglyphic system, but I wasn't sure what two spoke wheels or that double squiggly line meant. Other people went in and out, otherwise only the signs themselves gave the doors away.

The one for the hangar, though, was easy to spot. It was an actual ship, a sleek looking tapered box with thrusters on one end and fin-like wings. It also opened up, the outer hall meeting two others here, and the space given to walk, or shamble, or scoot like a snake in that guy's instance, was about the same size as a normal two-lane street back home. Was the ship really that big?

Probably, if it had a hangar for ships, and was meant to go so far away. It would be more efficient and less costly to make one large ship the size of say, a small moon than to make a bunch of smaller ships. At least for us, and surely that held true for aliens, even if they were so advanced?

J'telc wasn't needed to open the door here, there were already so many others opening it with their presence. The huge double doors opened sideways this time, as one would expect, and revealed something no devisor could match. Hopefully.

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.

And there, at the far wall, was a clear opening into space itself; that inky black could only be one thing; even if this far away with all the lights on and blinking around me, I couldn't see the stars. Something was keeping us all in, and it wasn't a door; while I watched a saucer ship flew right out, and no one got sucked out or killed. The people near the action hadn't even looked up.

I felt like a tourist as I followed my guide inside.

Speaking of, J'telc was dancing as she gestured around, somewhat like a proud parent showing off her children. "Here we are! As you can see, even for a place like this, our pilots and technicians are quite busy. We...."

I had to ask. "Sorry to interrupt, but busy doing what?"

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

I knew it! Aliens walked among us! The history channel had been right all along!

The thought made me more than a little ill, but it passed quickly as J'telc spun away from me, beginning to describe which ship was used for what purpose. The boxes were mining ships, the true workhorses here, and the saucers were for kidnapping. Of course.

J'telc began shaking; she was looking at someone in particular.

That someone could only be described as an upright lizard. He? It? was over seven feet tall if an inch, and built with muscles that I could recognize, even if they were much larger than they should be. Seriously, his biceps alone were larger than my thighs; I'd lay money on it.

The second thing to note were the giant bug eyes that seemed to rove around, taking it all in. The third thing was, of course, the very large and very sharp dagger teeth set in the mouth of the lizard, flashing in the light as the thing smiled. A smile like that was not something friendly.

"So, who is that?"

J'telc shuddered as she answered, a full body ripple: "That is your opponent. He s known as the Gorm."

Right, because of course it was. J'telc's mouth had formed over that one; she'd said it in English.

"He seems to be checking over his ship. Overseeing the work our technicians are doing."

That also made sense. I watched the being grunt and roar at what was probably one of the technicians or mechanics, who was one of J'telc's people. A male of her species, the man was cowering as if expecting to feel those impressive teeth firsthand. An interesting response to see.

J'telc turned abruptly, clapping all four hands together in groups of two. "Come, let us go and finish the tour, or we may run out of time!"

That large eye swiveled our way, and the scaled skin stretched back over the large teeth a bit. I could see the decision in that eye as the Gorm turned and started striding my way.

There was no way it was 'our' way, that eye never wavered, even when he brushed past J'telc and sent her stumbling.

The Gorm rumbled as he looked down at me, hulking. It took me a moment to realize he was laughing. So he knew I was his opponent then. Grumbles and hisses, neither of which my clips were translating.

I smiled without showing my teeth and waved; what else was I supposed to do here?

The gorm rumbled another laugh and then carefully walked around me before striding off.

J'telc reached my side as if she hadn't been knocked to the ground. "The Gorm said he looks forward to your epic battle."

Right. Everyone else in the giant hangar was very carefully not looking our way. "That's not really what he said, is it?"

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

That was cute, that my guide thought that I was polite company.

The Gorm had well and truly left, he was like a horror movie villain that way. He must have taken a right from the door. Which, unless I missed my guess, was where we needed to go next.

A siren sounded briefly; loud and complete with a red lighting change. I looked to the hangar, and that seemed fine, we weren't dying of explosive decompression. What was going on?

J'telc grabbed my hand in two of hers. "Come on. The tour is over, I'm afraid. That is the time warning; we need to get you ready for planet fall."

Well, so much for stalling. I let J'telc lead me away; there was no way I could start a fight here, and just running away solved nothing since most of the people around here were still watching me, for whatever reason.

She led me right back down the hall we came from, going at a much faster pace than I'd have given her credit for. I had to huff out my question: "So, that alarm was for time? The ship isn't exploding or holed or something?"

J'telc rasped a laugh. "No, nothing is wrong except we've got less than a cycle to make you ready. That may not be enough time; we shall do the best we can."

An hour was more than enough time to get ready, surely? What did getting ready entail? If it was all about learning how to fly one of those ships or about space guns of some kind or another, I was all for it. I could show these aliens how fast humans could learn!

It wasn't about any of that. Back in the room I'd woke up in was a small dummy, which appeared to be made of some kind of plastic. It had my proportions, and was wearing clothes. An outfit - A yellow colored shirt of some stretchy looking fabric, and black pants of the same. black boots a bit taller than I was used to wearing completed it. The yellow shirt had a black collar. It looked familiar, but surely it couldn't be, right?

A little too on the nose, wasn't it? I was vaguely reminded of watch parties on the weekends and much laughter.

The other new item in the room, right next to it, was a vanity. An actual vanity, complete with makeup and everything. I'd undergone some of the most awful torture regarding all of that, and I could recognize the costly and very American labels of the stuff. Most of it was unopened.

Well, unless the aliens I was among had tampered with it and then repackaged it, but that was just silly; they'd already had multiple chances to poison me by now.

Still, I didn't like that look in J'telc's eyes - it reminded me a bit too much of my adopted aunts back home who'd been the one to drill me in all this nonsense in the first place, even as half of them admitted I didn't need it.

The colors were suited for my skin color, and would compliment my hair. Which begged the question again of how much these aliens really knew about humanity. What we found pleasing and attractive couldn't be a mystery; did they feel the same, or was it just a matter of learning?

Now I really I wanted to know; it took a force of will to tamp that down as J'telc pulled me forward. "I'm sure you know what this is. What all these things are, I mean. You simply must look your best when you fight to the death!"

Yeah, right.

"Not to worry; I am an expert in human makeup customs!"

Honestly, she looked it. Was it weird that my guide and minder for this strangeness was a makeup artist. An alien makeup artist.

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

J'telc gestured and I sat; might as well get this over with.  She started with my hair, carefully moving my ears aside when she felt they were in the way. She didn't touch my clips.

She was also taking her time. "You know, I can do this."

"Oh no, it's my job! I'll make you look your best, trust me!"

That was a polite 'let me do it, or else' if ever I'd heard one. She'd actually had a bit of growl in her voice there.

Still, I had to try again: "So, about those clothes..."

"They are a traditional uniform. Only combatants can wear them, and it is a great honor."

Yeah, sure. I sighed. J'telc was laying it on a little thick here.

"Come now, sit back. Relax."

Hard to relax when aliens were setting me up for a death match with a giant lizard. An unarmed death match, no less. If there had been any doubt before, seeing the lack of any weapons with those clothes made it real enough. The lack of armor. People wanted this to be personal and bloody.

I wished I had even my walking around stuff. Even my grapple could be of some use here.

J'telc finished with my hair, setting the brush down. Somehow, she'd made my straight cut look poof up into some rather intense feathering, a style that hadn't been in on Earth since before I was alive. Maybe not even before Mom was alive.

I'd question the thought of leaving the pull on shirt for after we did hair and makeup, because it wasn't how we did things back home, but J'telc had called herself the expert, so I'd let it go.

As expected, she started on makeup first, and she had the good sense to go light with everything. Expert or not, it was clear she had done this before. Even so, she took her time, and by my count, it was almost thirty full minutes later before she leaned back with a slight smile.

My face had been highlighted; brighter in some areas, darker in others, with slightly more pronounced eyes and lashes. I'd seen a similar effect before, and it helped sell the words my guide had spoken just before; she was indeed an expert. I wasn't sure what purpose making my eyes look even bigger than they normally did served, but she had clearly gone for that.

"Alright. You should get changed. Have no fear, we have some time yet to repair any damage done to my stellar work!" J'telc laughed at what was supposed to be some kind of joke and sauntered out.

I didn't get it, or rather wished I hadn't.

Now, the choice. J'telc was waiting just outside, and there seemed to be no other way out of this room. I didn't even see a vent! Do I try to just run past her, try to subdue her for what is clearly one of my last chances for escape, or do I just follow the program they've set?

It rankled within me to just blindly follow a bunch of kidnappers.

No, it was best to just go along with things. From the sound of it, they were taking me somewhere else, and there might be a better opportunity to escape there than here. The odds here were not good at all, but they might be better or worse than here. even so, one percent were not good odds.

So instead, I moved to the door; surprisingly, it opened. J'telc had her back to me... it wasn't going to get any easier.

It made me suspicious. "J'telc, I'm done."

My guide turned, and she was all smiles. "You look great! every inch the great warrior!"

The translator software, or translator itself, had stumbled briefly over the word inch, clearly wanting to say something else. Interesting.

It had to be software; my clips didn't feel any heavier.

"Come, come, back inside. There is one last step we must take."

I let J'telc herd my back inside, and to an empty corner in the room. "Stand there and please do not move. We only have a few times to get this right."

I stood straight, and made no complaint when J'telc used two hands to move my ears upright and my arms away from my body, just slightly. I kept them that way, and she nodded to herself and moved away, now distracted.

Her arms were really very long; she was shorter than I was, yet she managed to reach my ear tips there.

A computer monitor faded into view, inset in the wall. Had it always been there? Sure it had. What was also fading in were a series of lights. Those lights were around me, in the corner I was standing in, and they were a light pleasing blue. A pole came up from the floor to my left, and it was also lit up. It grew to the ceiling, and I heard the click as it locked into place.

Then the light pulsed, becoming more intense and washing over me up and down, up and down. Then again, up and down.

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

I held my breath. Once again, the light moved up and down. It was clear what was happening; but if they hadn't scanned my body before, then how had they gotten the fit of my clothes so correct? As stupid as this outfit looked, it was comfortable and fit without being skin tight.

Which was a good thing because if it had been skin tight, I wouldn't have worn it no matter what. That was a little too close to treading ground my sponsor tread. I wasn't a showoff, like some people.

"Okay, you can move now." The pole clicked again, and started its descent back into the floor.

I let my breath go and got away from the light show. "What was that all about?"

"We need to make you a... 'space suit' as you call them, for your journey. Just in case. Accidents happen, after all, and it is best to be prepared for anything."

Well, on that much we agreed. "So, how did that build it?"

"I didn't just yet. The fabricator is in the other corner," J'telc admitted, tapping a button that started a pole raising in the corner opposite the one I stood in."

"I see." That was what would take the time, probably. It'll be cool to see how an entire space suit could be made in minutes by a machine. We had fabricators, three dimensional printers at home, but they weren't that fast. When you added more complex items and items of different materials, sometimes they took as long as a week!

By my count, we had less than a half an hour.

The light in the corner in question was green, and the light show was a little more complex. it started at the bottom and circled around, and at every pass, I could pick out more matter. First the soles of the shoes, then up There were no laces; it was all of one piece.

The suit that was taking shape.... well, it did not look impressive. The boots looked hard enough, but the rest of it seemed to be soft cloth and blindingly white in color. There were some bits and things hanging off from it that had color, some black clips for gear and red and blue hoses that ran down the front, one all the way to the right knee, and one to the left. Some things that looked like control surfaces, also in red and blue, and to cap it off....

Once the thing reached the head area, it didn't create a helmet; it created some sort of almost square monstrosity that was attached to the suit. It was semi-rigid on the sides, and the front and top of it was clear and not glass, but looked to be some sort of clear plastic of all things.

To top it all off, the one thing that should probably be attached to everything else, the gloves, were not. The entire thing looked like some sort of fever dream interpretation of vacuum protection from the time before space travel actually happened.

There was no way that thing wouldn't ruin the job J'telc had done on my hair. But at least it would have room for my ears.

It looked like that face plate would fog up in seconds from my breath, if I were honest. Maybe it wouldn't matter.

The lights stopped. "So, it's done?"

"Yep!" J'telc chirped. "You can put it on!" Then she frowned at the console in front of her. "In fact, you should! We need to make it back to the hangar in less than fifteen of your minutes!"

"You don't need a suit?" Was my guide not coming?

J'telc shook her head, carefully. Two shakes only. "No. My job is only to guide you to the ship; I will not be able to come with you, unfortunately. Come, I'll help you."

The suit was something that opened at the back, with some kind of zipper of all things. A reinforced looking zipper, but still, a zipper. It felt thin and cheap to the touch, like a nylon weave. It didn't look or feel like it could protect me from anything.

I was meant to keep it standing up, which was a trick in itself since it wasn't held up by anything, and sort of walk into it from the back. Then I was supposed to put the gloves on, rotating them in place until they clicked, and somehow reach behind me and zip up the back.

Utterly stupid, as a design. The only good part of it was the extra room in back for my tail. J'telc helped me by holding it up so I could step inside, and by zipping me up once I was in.

Then she walked around to my front and pushed a couple buttons, clearly starting the air flow or exchange  or whatever it was using. The suit ballooned a bit as a result, and the only pressure on me from it now was on my shoulders due to the ridiculous not a helmet I was peering out of.

"Come, we need to hurry!"

J'telc didn't exactly run out, but she was walking with great big strides for her, and clearly putting some effort in. It was easy enough to match her, and when I did, she poured on a little more speed.

I matched that, then looked around. The others in the hall were getting out of the way, slowing down, and of all things, murmuring. Murmuring words I couldn't understand anymore, maybe because my clips were being stifled by the suit?

It didn't matter; the clear tone of reverence was easily heard through it all. The tone of respect. It made little sense. No, it made no sense at all.

J'telc looked back to me and smiled, as if to say 'this much is normal'.

I didn't like it. Something like this may be normal to these people, but it wasn't normal to us. It shouldn't be a normal thing for anyone.

The strange behavior continued, and when we reached the hangar, it was even worse; at the doors, to either side, were what could only be soldiers. They had the armor; they had the weapons that could be rifles. They even had side-arms, and aside from being green, they looked human. The helmets were a little much - as were the way those rifles were pointed up at an angle, to intersect above our heads.

No one else was going in now, no one was headed out. The doors opened for us alone.

The hangar was darkened now. The activity hadn't ceased, but it was much less now, limited to what could only be a mechanic here and there, or maybe a pilot running final checks. There was no conversation now, when just an hour ago, the people were having fun.

A line of unbroken soldiers, all of them looking more or less human and all of them in vests and helmets like the first, led from the door to a certain ship. All of them also had rifles up like the first two. I guess that answered my question on where to go; there must be a hundred of them here, and there was no real gap between them. If I tried, those stupid looking rifles could easily swing down.

Seriously though, could those things even fire? They looked like water guns from back home, almost. Brightly colored and plastic. Best not to test it; even if they were ceremonial, with a hundred guys here there was no way I could outrun or overpower them all.

Some others might have a better chance at that; which cheered me up. Because there was no way they'd been here. If anyone else from Whateley had been taken and brought here, the ship would likely be in chaos by now. That or blown up.

There hadn't been any word from J'telc, and no hint of angry faces aside from the Gorm, so it was unlikely any other ships near here had gotten anyone else from the school either. In that, they had gotten quite lucky - or they had been watching us and knew who would be a troublemaker and who would not.

A thought for later.

We finished walking the distance, and I got my first good look at the ship. It was not a box, but something sleek, with stubby wings and a fuselage like two bathtubs set on each other and welded in place. I wasn't an ironmonger, but it screamed troop transport to me, and it was large enough to fit a few cars in the back. Seats lined either side, bolted to the floor and walls. They had heavy straps, and there were a few places that looked to be for people that didn't share human physiology, but all in all, it looked to be made for humans or people like them.

J'telc stopped, the tug on my hand loosening abruptly. I barely managed to avoid running into her. Before us, between us and the ramp to get into the ship, at the end of the line were two people. They also both bore the look of soldiers, but their rifles were slung and they were standing at parade rest in front of us. Blocking our way.

The words were formal and delivered without inflection: "Greetings, honored combatant. I am undercommander Gelvron, your escort to the hallowed field of death. This is my second, sergeant Hrak."

So the word sergeant was translated well, but undercommander wasn't. No direct correlation? I wasn't sure I believed that; we earthlings had military ranks for days.

I was going to dig my heels in a bit. "Can J'telc come with us?"

"Sub-commander J'telc is not cleared for this part of the operation," Gelvron said.

I wasn't calling him an undercommander even in my head. He would just have to be offended, if he was. But wasn't that a nice tidbit he'd let slip? J'telc had a command rank here. Maybe even a higher one than this guy had.

"She wants to come." I wasn't even lying. I knew she wanted to take the trip, for whatever reason, and I'd feel better having her there.

The Undercommander stared at J'telc. J'telc stared back. They did this for a long moment while Hrak rolled his eyes in a sign of silent frustration that had to be universal. That was also a nice tidbit to learn.

"Fine. Get your suit, Sub-commander."

J'telc beamed for a moment, before seeming to remember where she was and striving for decorum. She turned and made her best speed while Hrak rolled his eyes again. I smiled at him, and he smirked back at me for just an instant.

"If you please, board."

I looked at the man, and he finally got the idea he was still in my way and moved aside. I started up the ramp, showing none of how I really felt. This was just such a farce. The two followed, and more besides. The honor guard broke up behind me, marching out in an orderly fashion as the ten closest joined us. I had to keep stepping back to allow room for them.

It did bring out a question though. "The...Gorm isn't coming with us?"

The Undercommander grunted, then replied. "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?

The door opened and J'telc burst through, clearly out of breath. She straightened up and kept going, in a suit that was nothing like mine and looked a hundred percent more practical. It even had hard armor in spots and a spherical helmet that was completely clear.

Why didn't the soldiers have suits on?

As soon as J'telc's feet hit the ramp, it started rising. She weathered it like a champ and made her way directly to me, slipping around people who moving away as if not seeing them at all.

She got near enough, and grabbed my hand again. "Come on, come on! We should strap in."

The alien pulled me to the left and front, gently but firmly moving me to the second seat in the line. I sat and she pulled the straps over. "This is bolted to the strongest bulkhead of the entire ship. In case of an accident or collision, this seat is statistically the safest."

"I see. That's comforting."

J'telc leaned in and favored me with another beaming smile before taking the front-most seat for herself and fumbling her own straps on.

It wasn't really all that comforting; if something hit us, being the sole survivor drifting in space while everyone else died sounded pretty bad to me. I guess I'd have to hope my kidnappers liked the idea of rescue parties.

The two... high ranking officers in charge settled into their own seats directly across from us. Gelvron had his in-flight activity all picked out, clearly. He was glaring at me, and did not look like he'd stop. As if he expected me to somehow hijack this ship unarmed with all these armed soldiers on board. I knew a few people who could do that, but I certainly wasn't one of them.

"So how long will the flight be?" At least I could time it in my head and know when we were getting close.

"Around thirty of your minutes," J'telc replied after a moment's thought. "We do not want to descend at too steep an angle."

"Thanks for that." I was no expert, but descending too fast at too deep an angle would just be a bad time. A bad and hopefully short time.

Still, that was thirty minutes. What could I do for thirty minutes? There weren't even any windows in this thing.

I had it. It would be bad, but not worse than the alternative. I turned to J'telc again: "So, what can you tell me about the place we're going?"

I knew without asking the people here would never tell me about themselves or their own, but surely they wouldn't be so tight-lipped with facts than anyone could learn, right? Dry, scientific facts about planetary bodies and moons and such that I could learn at home just by asking an astrophysicist.

J'telc's eyes visibly brightened; I knew it. I was on the right track. 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.

I listened with an ear and some focus while the rest of me roamed around the cabin. The soldiers didn't look nervous at all, or even bored. They were all alert and fidget free. Gelvron was still glaring at me, as expected. I half expected him to be aiming his sidearm at me; thankfully, he wasn't.

Some few minutes in, motion caught my eye; across from us, heavy looking thick bars were coming from behind the people across from us, something automated that came over the shoulders. Then I felt the pressure on my own shoulders; they were coming down on this side too. I could also hear them now, a monotone electronic hum.

J'telc kept talking through whatever was going on as if it was nothing unusual, even when the heavy bars locked into place. The overall effect was not unlike what you'd see in a thrill ride at an amusement park, and was not the most reassuring thing in the world to see.

The ride was about to get bumpy, apparently.

It didn't get bumpy, so much as the bottom fell completely out. We'd had gravity all along, of course, on the ship and here, and I'd taken it somewhat for granted that such good times would continue.

I'd been wrong; what could only be normal gravity resumed with a vengeance. My stomach seemed torn between trying to find my feet and escaping through my nose.

Even worse was whatever was going on with my inner ear; it was telling me we were moving both down and to the side at the same time, slaloming around as if there was no control over our flight at all. I wasn't prone to airsickness, but this was something else, and in no time at all, my entire focus was swallowed up with one thought: don't throw up in this suit.

Then as quickly as it started, the turbulence (Was it still turbulence in space?) was gone, and my stomach and ear both decided we were heading down on their own. Even if the pull was less than it had been.

Far far less, and there was something else different about it, but I couldn't put a metaphorical finger on it.

It didn't matter, I could hear some things again, like the engine? Engines? Yeah, multiple engines kicking back on, and I heard those through my... connection with the seat more than anything else. Sound was behaving weirdly too, and had been almost since we sat down, with any noises that were happening farther away just not reaching me, even though I was certain the cabin was pressurized. After all, J'telc was still chattering away as if nothing was wrong, and had been the entire time, and I was hearing her.

Right, maybe I wasn't hearing her. Maybe I hadn't been the entire time, at least not in the way I thought.

Another electrical hum and a shudder brought me back out of that thought; the landing gear unless I missed my guess. They sounded heavy, and that was good. Heavy was good when you were about to slap down on a random moon somewhere with all the grace of an overweight chicken.

The image of grace proved itself correct when we slammed down with just enough force to bounce once. from the almost bored looks around me, this too was normal.

As soon as we settled from the second bounce, the bars over our shoulders popped up with a click, then retracted. They hadn't been needed this time, and I was glad for that. Now I only had to escape somehow and get off wherever we were, or win a death match against an alien lizard everyone seemed afraid of.

Piece of cake.

The soldiers were undoing each other's buckles, but their eyes were on me, as if thinking that if I was going to do something, trapped in a giant metal box with a dozen armed and armored aliens while on a moon that, for all I knew, was dead and had no atmosphere was the perfect time to strike.

Me? I was having trouble getting the buckles undone. Only my expertise in weird racing harnesses saved me from total embarrassment.

J'telc was already up of course, and she offered me a hand. I took it, and she pulled me right up with a smile. A clear display of strength that made me wonder about a few thoughts I'd had earlier.

Her voice was clear as a bell and way too chipper for this: "Come on, let's get you ready!"

With a loud clank that shook the ship, the ramp began to lower. J'telc dragged me toward it, and the soldiers let her, falling in behind us with their hands resting on their weapons in a clear message. Just who had they kidnapped before me, I wonder? Had to be someone pretty powerful to be respecting me like this. Or maybe they'd seen desperation before; I wasn't that yet. I had a feeling, a thought, about what was going on here. Unless I missed my guess, I'd even seen it before.

The ramp lowered, revealing us on top of a featureless gray building, looking out over a mostly featureless landscape, surrounded by a huge crystal dome that dwarfed the one back home and seemed to stretch a mile, maybe more.

J'telc popped her helmet off with a sigh and a laugh, shaking herself free of her suit almost like a dog might a sweater it didn't like. She stepped out of it, leaving it pooled right on the ship deck without a care as she stepped to me.

"Come now, let's get you out of that," my guide muttered as she worked on my zipper.

That was it? We didn't need the suits anymore? I mean, sure, big dome, but what about meteor strikes or space dust or something?

A slight catch and then J'telc had my suit unzipped. I lowered my head and stepped out of it, kicking the thing to the side.

The air was a little cool and tasted a slight bit stale, like the air you got in a small strip mall with struggling air con in the height of summer. But it wasn't bad; I could breathe it. A little thin. As if I were on a mountain or something.

They'd almost gotten it right here. Everything looked washed out, gray-tinged, like something seen through a filter.

The door, and it was a recognizable door, was open. A single soldier was standing in front of it, his weapon not quite directed at us. He had no suit, of course, so it was easy to see that his knuckles (or what passed for knuckles) were a whiter green than the rest of him. As if I'd charge him with everyone else here and cause trouble or something.

Did we really have such a reputation in the universe at large? I mean, sure I was pissed off about all this, but a murderous rampage wasn't the first step to take.

Now escape was always an option, but now I was in a dome where the one door seemed to be up, and it was probably locked from a computer or console somewhere. Judging from how this place looked, I'd guess a console. A very analog console.

J'telc reached up and fluffed my hair a bit, teasing it back into the shape she wanted. Then she grabbed my hand again; "Come on, let's go! We're going to be late!"

I managed to get my feet under me after a few steps; J'telc could really move for a short person.

We went past the guard as if he didn't exist, and down a flight of stairs. Then down another flight of stairs. 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?

J'telc reached the last stair and slammed the door before us open, revealing a long hallway. A long hallway lined once again with soldiers, their weapons pointing up in a salute just as before on the ship.

A quick and discerning eye, one used to certain things, could spot the likely camera locations with a glance. There were a lot of them. The floor sported a few questions too, but J'telc walked right over what I was pretty sure were pressure plates without a care in the world, and they didn't trigger.

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.

Whatever, it beat trying to fight in my pajamas.

The photos had shown each of the people depicted standing in front of a doorway, so I was ready as J'telc pushed the door ahead of us open and then stepped aside. The flash was still blinding, however. Where had they even gotten one of those old timey things? Why not just use a phone, like everyone else?

J'telc stepped over to the photographer as I blinked spots out of my eyes, and leaned over to check. "Perfect! you shall be remembered with respect among us for all time, no matter the outcome of the next few minutes."

It seemed J'telc was trying to get a rise from me. I wouldn't take that bait.

In the distance, there was a fanfare; an actual trumpeting fanfare, complete with pomp. Was there circumstance? I didn't know.

What I did know, was that there was a crowd. A live crowd, already cheering their heads off and making such a racket that it was hard to hear anything else.

I could clearly hear announcements, however; the language wasn't one I knew and I didn't know where the voice was coming from. But "and now, the champion of Earth, the chosen, the high school girl, Lucretia Del Bosque!"

Ouch, they knew my full name. Even rolled it correctly and everything, whoever it was, they were good.

The voice continued: "Now, the one you've all waited for, the champion of the universe, the one, the only, Gooorrrmmmm!"

A door opened directly across from us, one set underground that had looked to be part of the scenery, and a platform rode up through it. The Gorm was on it of course, and he was playing the crowd; chained but  testing the chains, his brief toga-like garment ripped and shredded, feet bare, making what had to be roars I couldn't hear over the sudden swelling of noise from the crowd.

Those chains had a lot of slack in them. Enough so that he could hold his hands up over his head, full extension. That seemed rather dangerous.

"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!"

Of course there were bets. Watching the crowd and the numbers I couldn't read, the trend became obvious. That was fine, I wouldn't bet on me either.

"Weapons?"

"There are none," Jtelc answered. "The battle between you shall be barehanded, with nothing brought into the sacred arena."

I didn't tell her what I thought about that; it seemed there was a loophole anyway. An expected loophole. "Right. Any final thoughts or wisdom, from someone who has seen a few of these before?"

J'telc made a show of thinking on it: "Give it your all if you wish to save yourself. The Gorm is a dangerous and mighty opponent. Hold nothing back."

Sounded almost as if she knew me there, and my stance on violence. At least some of it. "Right. That shouldn't be a problem."

"You ready?" J'telc asked suddenly, her eyes burning with intensity.

What else to do but nod? I'd not found an opportunity to escape from here, and there was no way it was happening now. At least I knew what was really going on now.

Across from me, the chains holding the Gorm broke, and with a roar that I could hear as the crowd made a collective gasp, the giant lizard lunged off the platform.

At the same time, I was shoved forward, with just enough force to make me stumble, and a bright blue glow popped into being between me and the armed bunch behind me.

I'd expected the force field, but not the shove. I really should have expected both, come to think of it.

Right, charging lizard man, I should probably deal with that.

They weren't tennis balls, but the rocks littering the arena would make decent missiles, provided my throwing arm could put some force behind them; those scales looked pretty tough.

I scooped the first one up at a light jog and encountered my first problem; it was light. Terribly light, far lighter than it should be. My strides were lighter too, almost launching me into the air; was it the gravity difference?

No, it was different on the surface here, but not that different, maybe around eighty percent what I was used to. 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.

Well, I wasn't even sure I could hurt myself with these things, let alone that giant lizard, but I might at least slow him down. The first two stones were in the air before I even straightened, and of course, they missed, but that was fine.

I had an idea of the range and flight capabilities of the stones now, and the Gorm was close enough.

My next three throws were on target; the first two bounced off the charging person's knees, and the third off his head.

The two knee shots did nothing, while the head shot bounced the person's head back. It seemed to do little else; the lizard reached me and took a big telegraphed swipe, which I could easily avoid by ducking under. The followup tail swipe was just as easy to leap over, and I kept most of my momentum while the Gorm had to turn around. The Gorm was not very quick it seemed.

A few more rocks; bigger ones, heavier ones. I risked a glance back to find the Gorm was well behind me; If I outright stopped to throw he might catch me, but if I kept going and angled myself, the Gorm would have to cut me off.

The Gorm did move to cut me off, and ate three more rocks to the face. He growled at me but kept going as the missiles broke apart on him, one almost powdering completely.

So that wasn't going to work; what else was there?

Nothing else around but the rocks. Maybe dirt itself, but that wouldn't do much. The only other thing that was close to a weapon in here were the manacles and bits of chain the Gorm was sporting... the other halves of which were on the platform that had not receded back to where it came from.

I reversed course, heading for it. I'd needed to reverse anyway, so it worked out. The Gorm growled and moved to chase.

The chain was there, a full length of it that would be long enough to use, and it was all one piece, threaded through a single loop. That made things easy - but picking it up, it was easy to tell that there was something wrong with it. Like everything else, of course. If I didn't know what was going on before, this would have clenched it.

I wouldn't give the game away just yet though; who knew what would happen if I did?

I reversed again, taking note of the roaring crowd, something which sounded almost like approval to me as I closed the distance. One good thing about all this is that my cardio was up to the task. I'd have to remember to thank my running partners when I get back.

The Gorm made as if to grab me as I got close; I cracked the chain over a knee, ducking my opponent's attempts to hit me with their own chain lengths.

No damage, of course. I reversed it and hit him again, and all that earned me was a broken chain. The crowd roared even louder.

The Gorm on the other hand, surprised me a bit. I moved to get out of range, and he stayed with me, throwing clumsy swing after clumsy swing that I wasn't going to even try to block.

I threw a few strikes and hit back, landing two where the floating ribs would be on a human. Not hurtful, but very painful strikes, and the only visible effect I experienced was pain in both my palms.

Glad I hadn't tried karate. I lunged down again and scrambled up, and the Gorm didn't catch me, but he still wasn't far behind. Was there anything else to use?

There was. But how to use it? Surely he wouldn't be that stupid....

No more running, the plan was now to stay just one step ahead. The Gorm wasn't making it easy.

I scooped up another rock, and I could almost swear I heard the Gorm sigh at me over the crowd as it pounded along, not quite keeping pace.

The real goal wasn't the rock of course, it was the dust. Rubbing the rock against the length of chain produced quite a bit, and I was close enough. I turned again at the edge, and this time the Gorm was wary, slowing immediately, hands up to intercept whatever I was going to throw.

Didn't do a thing for the handful of dust I sent into his face. Now for the piece of resistance, or whatever: "I eat lizards back home, then go looking for a real meal."

Not my finest work, and I was pretty sure some of the meaning was lost in translation, but the crowd roared and jumped to their feet or whatever else they had, and the Gorm roared and charged.

The good news is he couldn't really see me, not entirely, so it was easy for me to wrap around him, grab his leading arm, and drive him past me with his own momentum... right into the force field itself.

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.

The chain would do to end this farce.

The Gorm was struggling, foaming at the mouth, and didn't appear able to get up. I had to be quick, for all that I wanted to be cautious. I jumped in and wrapped the chain around the neck of the poor guy, and wrapped myself behind him in a move I was now stealing from the combat class and martial arts track; my legs went around him, my feet past his thighs as I cranked the chain to his neck.

I had to ease up of course, but the Gorm threw his hands up and waved them around. Screaming in obvious distress, as if this was working.

He flailed some more, making us roll around some in the dust, then went limp. The crowd went even more berserk, and how was that possible? Should I give it the customary thirty seconds? Wait, was it twenty or thirty seconds?

I let go to find J'telc already running my way. She stood me up and screamed out: "Your winner! The earthling wins! Earth 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."

I stayed silent as J'telc Held my hand up to the roar of the crowd swinging me around the four cardinal points in turn while gesturing with her other three hands my way in what could only be a 'your winner' gesture. Then she led me off, back toward the hall I'd come from. The under-commander was heading out center stage, no doubt to make some kind of announcement.

I walked into the hallway with my head held high, and the door shut behind us. The soldiers were gone. J'telc immediately steered us toward a wall, which this time opened to reveal a small room. The hidden door shut behind us and she rounded on me.

"Okay so...."

I held up a hand. "Let me talk first, and you can tell me how close I am."

J'telc shut her mouth and nodded.

"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?"

Oh, the uniform supplied me had ripped sometime during the fight. Probably when we were rolling around on the ground back there. I'd almost exposed myself to several thousand or even tens of thousands of aliens in the same manner as a certain friend of mine.

J'telc gaped for just a second, then a rueful looking smile stole across her face. She tapped her nose. "Right from the start. They told us you were smart; how long were you onto us?"

Time for the truth. "Well, I wasn't entirely certain until I picked up a rock in your arena. But I suspected almost from the start. Why take a person you kidnapped on a tour? That only encourages them to try to escape, and no doubt if I'd tried, I'd have found it easier than I expected. A ship left empty at the right time perhaps, or a pilot I could overpower and force to do my bidding? Something like that. You were entirely too willing to show a prisoner anything and everything."

J'telc nodded, clearly amused now.

"Then there was the language. Everything was being translated by my clips, which is a capability they didn't have before. Everything but one word, which you took great pains to say correctly, and even with the clips translating things in your voice without repeating you somehow, that word came through as different. Then there was the buildup itself, about how unstoppable and scary the Gorm was, and how brutal it was... for a seemingly tight knit and happy crew to deal with regularly. No way a crew that needed to trust each other in deep space had a member they were afraid would eat them at any time."

J'telc's mouth dropped a bit, but she nodded. "Clearly you've thought about this. Most we... deal with are unable to be so objective."

Now for the final piece. The real dead giveaway: "There is more of course, several tiny things, but the main thing, the one that really got me thinking, wasn't just your treatment of the word Gorm, or of the being you set up to be the gorm, it was the word itself. You see, I'm a bit of a nerd anymore, and I know some things. I know what show you're riffing off of, and I know the episode, and as a result, it actually threw me a bit. You see, in that show, the word for the big bad lizard dude was the 'Gorn', not the Gorm. When I saw the Gorm, the relationship was too big to just ignore as a coincidence."

J'telc raised two hands, with a single finger on each up. Then lowered them. Then raised them again. Then lowered them again, grabbed my hand, and led me from the room.

She gently pulled me down the hall, and I let her. We stopped again at what looked to be bare wall. The hidden door opened to reveal another room like the one we just left, with the Gorm of all people just chilling inside.

The real Gorm and the fake Gorm. The fake Gorm was what I just beat revealed in all it's glory; A somewhat realistic suit of the body I'd just 'beaten' in the Arena. 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.

Sipping a beverage in a small cup. The little guy held up the cup and toasted me: "good match earlier! We're meeting a bit earlier than most, how long did it take you to figure it out?"

J'telc rushed past him, mumbling, and began pawing at the wall.

"Almost from the start. It wasn't you though, your acting is pretty good." A little hammy, maybe, but still good enough for the task.

"Kind of you to say," the lizard replied, puffing up in a way I'd find comical anywhere else. Then he looked to J'telc just as the wall rippled and a screen came out of it, with some sort of controls attached under it. "What's her problem?"

"Not really sure," I answered. "I think I pointed out something she's not happy about."

The screen came to life, J'telc with all four hands going on those control surfaces. We were treated to the show I knew, but the quality was awful: there was barely a picture, and the sound was a static-y mess that I could just barely understand.

It was especially static-filled when it came to the last consonant of a certain name; all I could hear was "Gor..." and then a burst of noise. The screen changed again, and again, the dreaded name came through, this time with more fidelity. "Gor..." and what sounded an awful lot like it could be either an M or an N.

J'telc froze the screen and began to laugh.

The little lizard looked to me, agape, and I looked back with maybe slightly less confusion. Sometimes these things just happen, after all.

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."

Gorm had been the one word J'telc had pronounced herself after all, the effort spent in that alone told me something.

The two aliens looked at each other, then back at me. "Humans are devious," J'telc said at last.

Said the ones who kidnapped me. "So what happens now?"

J'telc smiled. "Now? The battle is won, and the Earth and all upon it are safe for another cycle. As you might say, good has triumphed over evil, and you will of course be returned home, none the wiser."

"It was nice to meet you," the little lizard added, toasting me again with his cup.

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!"

I was in my bed. There was no pain in my neck, I was in my pajamas, in my darkened room. My phone read five fifty-six, which meant I was a little late for my run, but I felt fine. My clips were next to my phone on the nightstand, and they looked fine; perfectly normal.

What a weird dream?

I grabbed my morning pill and swallowed it, using my nightstand water to wash it down. Then I put my clips in my ears and powered them up, to find they had a full charge. just as if they'd been charging on my dock the entire night.

My roomie chose that moment to snore, just a little, something she did in the mornings. She was having a good dream too, it seemed.

Right, I was late. Jogging sweats, jogging sweats....

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.

The End?