Gladiator (Gauntlet Prime Book 1) Read online

  The great room was already cleared of the dead bodies and remains of the robots. A wave of nausea gripped Mel as she remembered the woman that she had kicked in the head. During that moment, she hadn’t felt a thing. The thing needed to be done and she had done it. But killing that woman hadn’t served any purpose at all. Grabbing Anna, she spun her around.

  “You killed them. You realize that? You knew we were trying to escape, that we were planning to overpower the guards. And you let them come in here anyway. You killed that woman,” she said.

  Anna brushed her arm away and looked at Mel evenly. “They were all dying anyway. They wanted to die. You did her a favor.”

  Mel wanted to slap Anna, but she stopped in confusion. That first day, when they got the translators. Hadn’t the man asked her to kill him? She hadn’t been sure at the time, but she thought he had.

  The confusion just added to her anger. “Next time you want someone killed off, do it yourself instead of handing your dirty work off to someone else.”

  Anna rolled her eyes and turned away from Mel. Everyone had filed in and milled around the room, unsure what to do next. Mel had to admit that this wasn’t what she had expected would happen if they got caught. She was waiting for the next shoe to drop. With nothing else to do, she walked over to stand with Gorgeous, Riley and Beast.

  “I owe you all an apology. I thought we had a chance to escape. I thought we could trust Anna. I was just so naive,” she said.

  Riley sighed. “Yeah, that caught me off guard too. It’s not your fault. It was always a long shot and we did our best. I’m glad we tried, even if it didn’t work. Look, no one got hurt and we learned a lot about how we’re being held, right?”

  Mel nodded. She hadn’t thought of it that way, but Riley was right. As long as Kathor didn’t punish anyone for her idea, maybe this could still work out in their favor.

  A moment later, the door opened and Kathor entered the room. He stood for a moment, staring at them, before settling his eyes on Mel. Except for around the eyes, his face and head was a bony mask, the thing that looked like a human mouth frozen in a line of permanent displeasure and judgment. Mel forced herself to meet his gaze. She noticed Kathor’s eyes twitching slightly, but couldn’t read his expression. Oddly, the translator didn’t give her any feedback. She had the sudden thought that Kathor may have programmed the translators to not translate his non-verbal language. That would give him an obvious advantage when talking to them.

  Kathor reached down to the electronic device he carried and made a gesture on the screen. Anna’s voice filled Mel’s head as he began to talk. She had almost gotten used to hearing Anna’s voice when talking to Beast and Gorgeous, but it was jarring coming from Kathor.

  “I have upgraded the translators to introduce tonalities based on the species of the speaker. This will make the translations more meaningful.” Mel shook her head. The voice in her head had started out as Anna’s, but halfway through it changed into a male voice. There was a familiarity to it that she couldn’t quite place. A deep voice, strong but polished.

  Mel turned to Beast. “Can you hear the difference in his voice?”

  “No. I had a translator installed years ago, so mine has always worked. He’s just making it work for you,” he said. Instead of Anna, the voice in Mel’s head was now a deep bass, powerful and clear. It definitely suited Beast much better than a teenage girl.

  Kathor put the device away and studied them.

  “Society is held together by rules. Conventions and expectations of its citizens. We call it the Sovereignty. You may think of it as a government. Or perhaps as a religion. It is those things and more. It is a way of life that is built into the fabric of our culture.”

  Mel thought he sounded like a televangelist or someone who was asking for money to cure cancer. Earnest and strong. And that strange familiarity that Mel couldn’t quite place.

  “To protect the integrity of our humanity, certain restrictions have been put in place. It is appropriate for lesser minds, perhaps, who are naive like children. They do not know the dangers the Sovereignty protects them from. But even a lesser mind will rebel. That rebellion has brought us the .

  “The gauntlets are illegal but popular. The Sovereignty often ignores the ban. It is useful to give an escape from the limitations the Sovereignty is forced to place upon society. I am forming a team. And you shall become my .”

  Fighters in some kind of gladiatorial contest? That was the word that the translator had used. Gladiators. But with a connotation of contestant, criminal, and fighter. There were echoes in her head of the words battle, games and death when gauntlet had been translated. But it didn’t make sense; none of them were fighters. Well, Beast could be, he was big and strong enough, but apparently also an avowed pacifist. Right after that robot had attacked Jon in their first training-torture session, Mel had been sure that Gorgeous would know what to do. She moved so well, Mel had assumed that Gorgeous would be a kick-ass fighter. All the alien women in movies were deadly assassins, so why not Gorgeous? But Mel had clearly been wrong about that.

  The situation was still ridiculous. Mel interrupted Kathor. “What do you get out of this?”

  Kathor gazed at her, that strange twitch in his eyes. It was unnerving that she couldn’t read his expressions and she realized how much more comfortable she was around Beast and Gorgeous just because she could.

  He continued smoothly. “Mel. You have many qualities that shall prove useful on the fields of battle.” Kathor waved a hand. “For me, there is money. There are few ways to profit in the Sovereignty; the gauntlets are one such way. In addition, there is a special event every two years. A tournament called the Gauntlet Prime. The best teams, the most elite, come together. For those of you who survive the gauntlets and reach this tournament in two years, when that battle is complete, you will be free. Free to return to your home world, if you wish.”

  “Let me get this straight,” Mel said. “We’re supposed to fight for the next two years in some kind of weird combat to the death. And whoever survives, which may be none of us, gets to go home if we win?” Mel wasn’t sure whether to be grateful or to laugh.

  Kathor’s eyes narrowed. “I require that the team I assemble make it to the tournament. Whether you win or lose it is not important to me.”

  That sounded even weirder, but she couldn’t begin to fathom why Kathor thought it was a good idea to have a bunch of human teenagers on this elite death squad he was trying to build. They were cannon fodder.

  Jeff realized this too. “Why us? None of us are fighters,” he said, looking sideways at Beast.

  “You may have advantages that other gladiators do not.”

  “What if we don’t want to fight?” Riley asked.

  “You will be in the gauntlets. If you don’t fight, then you will likely die. And you will get your friends killed. The battles rely on teamwork. I believe in time we will be left with a team that is willing to put in the necessary effort.”

  Mel felt a creeping sense of despair. In the end, they wouldn’t have a choice. Either compete or die. But in the slimmest of chances that they did win, maybe in two years they could get home. Kathor certainty wouldn’t waste time forming a team that had no chance, would he? Her biggest fear was that out of all of them, she was the most useless. Well, maybe the second most useless after Sharon. Or maybe the third after Riley, considering how sick he was. In any case, she didn’t see what she could possibly bring to a gladiatorial death match.

  Maybe they wouldn’t have a choice, but annoyance at being played by Anna earlier still grated. “I guess we’ll all have to get together and think about it. Personally, I’m still partial to the idea of escaping.”

  “Excellent spirit,” Kathor responded. “I have high hopes for you.”

  That was the moment when it hit Mel. The familiarity in his voice. I have high hopes for you. Kathor sounded just like her father.

  She
struggled to process that as Kathor continued. “Your first competition will be in three days. I will let you know who shall be the first to fight.”

  Chapter 14

  As Kathor left the room, a moment of stunned silence gave way to loud protest, primarily aimed at Anna. She looked at them stoically, which added to Mel’s annoyance.

  “He’s crazy, right?” Mel said.

  Anna tilted her head. “Not crazy. He is stubborn. Or maybe it’s better to say that he has conviction. But I don’t know why he wants us, why he wants you.”

  Mel drew back. “Me? What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Nothing, forget it. You have two days to train. It won’t help for this first match, but you may as well get started anyway.”

  Jeff stepped forward, physically hovering over Anna as if trying to intimidate her. “What kind of ‘matches’ are these supposed to be? He called them ‘gauntlets.’ What’s that supposed to mean?”

  Anna didn’t react to Jeff’s attitude, replying in a calm voice. “Don’t read too much into the name. I had to help translate their words for the… thing… into English, and nothing quite fits. They use ‘gauntlet’ the way we would use soccer or tennis. So it’s a gauntlet match or gauntlet game. Or just a gauntlet. That’s all. I think there’s some historical significance to why they use those terms, but I haven’t had a chance to research it. They have some other odd terms. The people who design and run the games are called architects. That was pretty straightforward. So was using ‘gladiators’ as the word for the competitors. But I struggled to find a word for the competition area. They play the matches in abandoned cities on different planets. So it’s not exactly an arena. Sometimes they call it a battlefield, but that seems a bit overdone, in my opinion.

  “The first thing is to get you oriented. We have videos of previous competitions. That will give you an idea of how the gauntlets are structured and what the goals are.”

  “Who gives an alien rat’s ass?” Jeff said. “If we have to fight, then we’re all going to die. We barely held our own against the robots here.”

  “But you did hold your own. Twice. Once in the training hall and then during your attempted escape. And you didn’t have weapons. Or anything resembling a real plan.” Anna looked away for a moment, then caught Jeff’s eye again. “You have one other advantage. Kathor has technology here that no one else in the gauntlets have access to. Especially at this level. Not weapons—you wouldn’t be able to take them in anyway—but advanced AI that can analyze your strengths and weaknesses, and those of the other players. It can come up with a strategy ahead of time that will vastly increase your odds of winning and staying alive. That’s the only reason Kathor is putting you in this match in three days. Without that technology, yes, your odds of surviving would be low. But with it, you have a real chance.” Anna opened the door to the hall. “Get cleaned up. I’ll be back in thirty minutes.”

  Anna left, leaving the others to mill speechless in the great room. Jeff muttered to himself and cast dark looks at Beast. “What’s the matter?” Mel asked.

  Jeff’s attention snapped to Mel. “Oh. Nothing, I guess. At least you should feel right at home.”

  Riley looked between Jeff and Mel. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  Mel half-smiled in return. “The Gladiators. It’s my high school mascot. Nick and I both. And no, it doesn’t help.”

  “She’s right,” Jeff cut in. “We did do okay in that training fight. Well, Sharon might not agree with that. I suppose the escape went smooth enough. But it’s all because of them.” Jeff pointed at Beast, but Mel assumed he meant both Beast and Mirage. “If it had just been the rest of us, we wouldn’t have stood a chance.”

  Mel nodded. Jeff was right, but she wasn’t sure why it mattered. It wasn’t exactly Beast and Mirage’s fault the humans were wimpy. Jeff seemed to be taking it personally, though.

  “It is what it is. Gorgeous didn’t do any better than we did. Look, we can train and get better. If they have weapons, we’ll be on more equal footing, right? If these are competitions, then they have to be at least a little fair or even. No one’s going to care about a competition where they butcher a bunch of helpless aliens.” As soon as she said it, Mel knew she was being naive.

  Jeff laughed. “Uh-huh. How many times did your high school sports team beat another team by twenty or thirty points? Did you talk about how boring it was, or did you cheer just as loud about kicking the other team’s ass? Just the fact they’re having these games at all should say enough. They don’t care about us. Hell, I don’t even think Anna cares about us anymore. She’s practically become one of them.”

  “I don’t know what’s going through Anna’s mind, but I don’t think she wants us to die. She seems to think the AI will make a big difference and I’m not going to argue with her.”

  “Would it matter if she’s wrong?” Riley said. He bent over coughing for a moment, then continued. “We all thought we were going to die here anyway. That’s why we wanted to escape. What’s the worst case? That we die on some planet instead of on the ship? Look, it’s weird, but I actually have more hope now than I did before. If we do well and stay alive, then in a few years there’s a chance we can go home. Do I really trust him on that? Of course not. But the more time we have to learn about this ship and this world, the more opportunities we have to get free.”

  “Keep your optimism to yourself. And your cough too, I don’t want to catch whatever you have,” Jeff said, turning away angrily.

  “The optimism will be shared until morale improves,” Riley said, coughing deliberately at Jeff’s receding form.

  ***

  A party of three aliens that looked like Kathor huddled behind aged and battered vehicles. Beast had called them Asadharan. Dust blew in whirlwinds around decaying buildings, and large holes in the gray streets marked the locations of ancient explosions. The damage was obvious, but the overall effect was of a battle that had happened long ago.

  The three aliens were aligned facing an underpass, with one in the lead crouching behind a turned-over vehicle. The other two flanked him on both sides, hiding behind other debris. Each held a weapon; rifles, based on the way they held them. Swirling dust occasionally enveloped the three, but they didn’t move. The camera angle shifted, panning up. A form crawled from the top of the underpass and down the wall to the opening. It was like a frog, with eight legs spread out to the side. The thing looked greenish-brown and leathery and was the size of a large dog. It stuck to the vertical wall easily and slowly made its way down until the oblong head could peer into the underpass. Since the frogman was in clear view of the three gunmen, Mel assumed they were on the same team.

  As the head of the frog peered into the darkened tunnel of the underpass, a rope hurtled out and wrapped around its head. There was a squeal from the frogman, who tried to dig into the side of the wall. But the pull was too strong and the frogman ripped away from the wall and disappeared into the darkness of the underpass.

  The scene cut to a different camera. They were in the underpass, looking out. Two of the eight-legged frogs, one stuck on the ceiling, the other hanging above the road by a rope. Twitching in the air, the first frogman tried to free itself. A moment later, gunshots rang as the three aliens outside the underpass opened fire.

  Mel guessed they couldn’t see anything in the darkness of the tunnel. Maybe they could make out the dim form of the first frogman swinging in the air. Most of their rounds were aimed at the ceiling at least, but they were randomly spraying the space. One shot nicked the frogman on the ceiling and it let go of the first frogman and quickly scuttled backwards. The first frogman dropped to the ground with a thud, but its arms still moved. Feebly, it tried to crawl out of the underpass. It didn’t get far before more gunfire erupted from behind the camera, deeper into the underpass. The second frogman had disappeared out of range of the camera. The gunfire from behind the camera continued for a moment more, ear-shattering explosions in the small space that riddled
the Asadharan’s cover with small holes. After several seconds, the gunfire stopped. The rifle disappeared from behind the vehicle and Mel caught a glimpse of three figures ducking behind a building further back. They had retreated instead of daring to enter the underpass. The camera held steady as Mel realized the obvious truth. The first frogman lay on the ground of the underpass, near the entrance, unmoving. Dark liquid pooled under its body.

  Mel and the others sat in a large classroom, ample for twenty or so humans. Projected into open air from some hidden recess in the wall, the video seemed almost lifelike, as if Mel was looking through a very large window at the actual scene.

  She sat back without a word. Riley looked even paler than usual and Jeff stared off to the side with unfocsed eyes. The humans were taken aback, but Gorgeous and Beast seemed bored. As usual, it was impossible to say what Mirage was thinking.

  “I believe I saw this match. Around two years ago,” Beast said.

  Anna turned to him. “Do you follow the gauntlets? What do you think about how this one stacks up to the others?”

  Beast thought for a second. “This was a mid-tier match, so they allowed long range weapons. It’s not unusual to have one or two casualties at this level. There are definitely injuries, sometimes severe. It’s all very savage and bloodthirsty.”

  “Your people sure like violence,” Jeff said.

  “My race doesn’t. You never find Manesh in the gauntlets. Except me, apparently. But I think those who enter the games are looking for something.”

  “Like what?” Riley asked.

  Before Beast could answer, Gorgeous cut in. “Something to give their lives meaning.”

  Mel frowned. The footage they had seen was pretty bloody and violent, but was it really that much worse than what passed for entertainment on Earth? Mixed martial arts fighting could be pretty bloody. Not to mention movies and video games that created fake violence that was even worse. As she pondered whether fake violence was any better than real violence, Jon interrupted her train of thought.