She wouldn’t kill anyone, for example… not without a damned good reason.
She also wouldn’t do anything to betray the skag towns, much less bring harm to her own people. They’d jerked her around some, but Jet had to assume Anaze communicated her message to his father, because, despite everything, Jet got the impression Richter was actually being more open and transparent with her than was usual for him.
She still felt totally in the dark. It was maddening.
She understood the need for them to retain some protectiveness around their plans, given how vulnerable she was to scans, being stung, whatever.
It still made her nervous.
She still had no real idea what their endgame even entailed, other than the more abstract concept of “freedom.” Freedom could mean anything from a planet with Richter in charge, to one where Laksri’s people had elections instead of a king, and attempted to rule over the colonial planets more benignly, say with integrated Green Zones, or with Green Zones made especially for humans… to full-blown extermination of the Nirreth on Earth to reinstate human rule.
Jet found herself thinking about this again, all the way back to Laksri’s room.
She was still thinking about it when they walked back inside, Laksri locking the door behind her… and she found herself looking at Anaze, who glared back at her.
Turning away, he stared pointedly at the wall clock in the main living area, right before he motioned towards a table laden with food, most of it the human-compatible variety.
“I ordered,” he said coldly.
He didn’t get up from his seat.
It struck Jet suddenly that Anaze had made sure food was waiting for her every time she’d left Rings training for the past two weeks.
It even struck her to wonder if he’d been trying to head off another of those dinners where stung Jet got paraded around as Laksri’s possession.
Or “trinket,” as Richter put it.
Jet honestly didn’t know if the feeling that possibility evoked in her came closer to appreciation or irritation––maybe because she couldn’t fully make out Anaze’s motives in this mess either. Anaze and Laksri already circled one another like animals, specifically like the mangy, stray dogs that fought over territory around the skag settlement.
Of course, the dogs had to fight for every scrap to eat and every piece of dirt to sleep on.
Those fights, Jet understood.
With Anaze and Laksri, she had less sympathy.
Laksri was more subtle than Anaze, in terms of his hostility… but only slightly. He had a tendency to bare his teeth perceptibly when Anaze tried to insert himself between Laksri and Jet, and also whenever Anaze made a point of announcing when he was off to bed, usually with a proprietary nudge for Jet to do the same.
So far, Jet managed not to blow up at either of them, but only by a small margin.
This time, when Anaze gave her a hard look, the faintest hint of accusation in his eyes at their lateness, Jet only rolled her eyes.
She was tempted to grab Laksri’s tail, or put her arm around him, just to get Anaze to back off––or maybe to get him to yell at her openly at least, and stop being so passive aggressive. She’d already had to elbow him off her a few times when she woke up in the middle of the night, although he claimed he hadn’t put his arms around her on purpose.
She supposed he thought he was protecting her… or told himself he was.
It didn’t lessen her irritation any, knowing that.
She’d far rather if they told her more about what was really going on than have any one of them “protecting” her––especially since every one of them seemed more than willing to throw her under the bus when circumstances demanded it.
It would be her risking her butt in the Rings in four days.
Not Anaze, and not Laksri.
Certainly not Richter himself.
Sitting on one of the standalone chairs, Jet looked between both of them, picking up a glass of cold apple juice from the greenhouse and chugging it down.
The apple juice at the Palace tasted like pure nectar; they chilled the amber-colored, sweet-smelling liquid to the exact right temperature, and every apple must be grown to healthy, ripe perfection. She’d grown addicted to the stuff, especially right after training.
Jet would give just about anything to be able to share it with her mother and brother.
Maybe that was the real reason to excel in the Rings.
Grabbing what looked like a chicken sandwich off the middle tray, she placed it on her plate and began loading up her dish with steamed vegetables, which were spiced lightly and glazed with lemon butter.
By the time Jet got her plate full, the other two had sat down as well.
Jet knew from Anaze that each of their basic dietary habits and preferences had already been documented somehow by the kitchen. They continually updated that information following every meal, based on how each item performed in their system.
Jet training for the Rings factored into her meal prep, as well.
It also meant her getting a vitamin shot every morning and evening.
For the same reason, she knew the long, dark-red slab of meat with the charred edges and the strange-looking flower plant with the purple bulbs and green, noodle-like things all belonged to Laksri… just like she knew the second chicken sandwich, the one that had cheese in it and red peppers, as well as the other half of the vegetable dish, belonged to Anaze.
Anaze got a blood-red juice instead of apple, and Laksri had his usual Nirreth drink, what he jokingly referred to as “lizard beer.” Jet noticed he had a tendency to leave out the “skin” part when using the derogatory name for Nirreth; it might have been even funnier if Anaze hadn’t been such a killjoy whenever Jet laughed at one of Laksri’s jokes.
Even so, she glanced at Laksri’s meal and gave him a small smile.
Holding up her hands in the shape of rough claws, she growled at him, pawing the air.
Laksri looked at her, his eyes and face completely blank…
Then he burst out in the most real-sounding laugh she’d heard from him, at least since that night a few weeks earlier. It came out as a low rumble, down in his chest, ending in a loud snort and more of those rumbles.
Jet found herself laughing as well, almost without meaning to, but when she glanced at Anaze, his face was stony as he looked between them.
“What?” he said finally.
Jet pointed at Laksri’s plate, still smiling. “He’s eating dinosaur.”
“Lots of Nirreth do that,” Anaze said coldly, still looking between them angrily. “So what? Do you have to act like a kid about everything, Jet?”
She gave him a irritated look. “Never mind. Clearly your sense of humor was part of your ruse with me before. You’re about as fun as a bag full of wet raccoons these days.”
At the angry expression that rose to his face, Jet only exhaled, looking away.
Even so, his comments managed to sour her mood.
“Are you going to eat?” she asked him a second later. “Or are you too busy being pissed off at me for not being constantly angry and miserable, like you?”
Anaze gave her a startled look at that, one followed by what might have been regret. She was still trying to figure out what the regret was from, exactly, when Laksri turned to her, his dark eyes serious.
“You should tell him,” he said, motioning at Anaze without looking at him. “What you did today. At the course. What we will do tonight.”
Anaze stiffened. He seemed to make an effort to keep his voice and his expression polite.
“What did you do?” he asked her.
Jet finished chewing the bite of sandwich in her mouth, swallowed.
“Nothing, really,” she said, shrugging. “Not yet, anyway. It just occurred to me to try and memorize the arena’s topography… you know, like what we do in the caves. Where everything is distances… spaces between objects. Knowing where the trap doors are. The likely vectors of attack. D
irectionality of weapons. That kind of thing.”
She waved her hand vaguely, taking another bite.
Laksri made a low humming noise in his chest, nodding in sudden understanding.
“Of course,” he said. “The caves. You are some kind of builder? That is how you could memorize this so easily?”
Jet looked at him in surprise.
“What do you mean?” she said.
Anaze sighed a little, explaining, “He means, not everyone has your freaky spatial thing, Jet. Most humans wouldn’t be able to keep their bearing in VR even with a square room and nothing other than four walls. Even if they had a map of the room’s layout printed on the back of their eyelids, they still couldn’t do it.”
Jet thought about this, a little stumped.
She looked at Laksri again.
“But it worked pretty good, didn’t it?” she said.
Anaze looked at Laksri, too, waiting for his answer.
“Better than pretty good,” Laksri said seriously, glancing for the first time directly at Anaze. “Every point in first fifteen seconds. More than half in next thirty. And not getting hit once on her own body––”
“Still not good enough for the first five rounds,” Anaze observed.
Laksri nodded, conceding his point with a wave.
“Still. Better than any other new humans. Better than the men, and they will be expecting worse. Much worse, since she has only human trainer.”
“Will it be enough to keep her alive, though?” Anaze said.
Laksri gave that head-inclining nod. “Should do. Yes. Unless judges think she cheating. Or they do not like her. This is harder to control. It depends on perform. On entertain. And what they think of her,” he added, glancing at Jet with slightly worried eyes.
Anaze glanced at Jet too, frowning.
It struck Jet that it might have just occurred to the two of them that she could really be dead as of Saturday night. How was it she was the only one who’d remembered that?
It might have been funny under different circumstances.
Might.
“They’ll think you helped her,” Anaze said, aiming his words at Laksri. “Will that be a problem? For her, I mean?”
The Nirreth shook his head, tearing off a piece of the T-Rex meat and chewing.
“No,” he said, swallowing a few moments later. “It is not against the rules. In fact,” he added, glancing at Jet, cautiously that time. “She asks that I help. It think it is good idea. They should not know she has this ability. Those Royals who do not like her or me or Prince Ogli or Richter will find a way around this thing. It will also change odds on her too much. Maybe make it harder for her to impress with first match. It is much better they expect nothing. If they expect something and it does not work…”
He held up a four-fingered hand, inclining his head.
Hesitating at the hard look on Anaze’s face, Laksri picked up another spear of meat and added, “It will also help with cover. I have been questioned. More this week. Not only by Prince Ogli’s spies, but by other Nirreth, why I have not brought Jet with me to more. It is expected that there are more of such things, until all have accepted it. Especially when there is some dispute. It is expected. It is custom––”
“How is taking Jet to the Rings going to help with that?” Anaze said.
That time, Jet could practically feel the effort Anaze made to keep his voice level.
“…Do you plan to invite others to watch you sting her?” he said, a little more bitingly. “Is that custom too? Or do you think they have cameras on the course, and that the camera operators work for Prince Ogli, too?”
“The Royals will see the films,” Laksri said, without missing a beat. “They are keeping eyes on their player. They will approve of after-hours training. They already worried, as their own betting on Saturday night match is showing. She must do well. If Prince Ogli is displeased with her for taking a different Nirreth as mate and if she is no good in the Rings, they will sell her. Or give her to their son.”
Hesitating, Laksri glanced at Jet, then shrugged.
“Also,” he added, his voice more cautious. “I could take her out. To more public places. Use sting for more than one purpose.”
He glanced up from his food, looking at Jet a second time.
“…You could come, perhaps, Anaze?”
Jet found herself shaking her head.
“Bad idea,” she said.
“Why?” Anaze demanded, that edge back in his voice. He looked surprised that Laksri had offered, but even moreso at Jet’s refusal.
“Because I don’t want the two of you fighting,” Jet said, giving him a hard look. “What? Are you going to hit him with a stunner if one of us does something you don’t like? How will we explain that to the Royals, if they happen to get something like that on camera?”
Anaze didn’t answer, but Jet saw the harder look back in his eyes.
Biting her lip, she looked away, taking another long drink of apple juice.
“How are things going with the prince, Jet?” Anaze said after another pause, his voice neutral once more. “Is he still angry at you for the Laksri thing?”
Forcing her own anger back, Jet sighed, thinking about the question.
Ogli still grilled her pretty much every day about Laksri, and refused to allow Laksri to be present as a bodyguard over “his” human, as Ogli still insisted on calling her. Since that had been Laksri’s primary role prior to all this, he no longer had any valid reason for being present when Jet hung out with the young prince.
As a result, Jet had been forced to put up with a number of different indignities as Prince Ogli tried to take advantage of the situation while Laksri wasn’t around.
On the worst of those days, Ogli demanded that Jet undress for him, presumably under the logic that he couldn’t force her to accept him as a lover, but still had the right, as prince, to order her around otherwise.
His excuse had been so that he could “check her for signs of coercion and/or abuse.” He’d meant by Laksri, of course, although the prince refused to say his name. In fact, when forced to refer to him directly, Prince Ogli had a tendency to call Laksri rek-pet, which made Laksri laugh aloud when Jet told him.
Between him and Anaze, Jet worked out that the insult meant something like “commoner who is muscular but also stupid,” like calling someone a neanderthal.
Needless to say, Jet refused to undress for Ogli.
Prince Ogli threw such a fuss, she eventually had to fend him off as he attempted to sting her. Finally, one of the guards heard her shouting and intervened on her behalf, which was lucky, really, as from what Anaze told her, not all of them would have.
The guard scolded the prince and threatened to tell his parents.
He also released Jet from duty for the remainder of the day.
The next day, an obviously chastened and unhappy Prince Ogli offered Jet her own pet otter to make up for what he had done. Jet accepted, mostly because it seemed like the diplomatic thing to do, but she still kept a good distance away from the prince’s tail.
She named her otter “Ricochet.”
Ricochet played happily alongside Scamp in the canals.
Both of them loved playing tricks, and splashing Nirreth and humans. Ogli was even teaching her how to train Ricochet to come when Jet called.
Jet had to admit, it was nice having a tamed animal that followed her around, and liked to be snuggled in her arms. She knew past humans kept a lot of animals purely as pets, but that hadn’t been much of a luxury in the skag pits. They kept a few cats around for the mice, dogs for hunting and to guard livestock, but even those highly domesticate-able breeds remained pretty feral. Only a handful would let you pet them without risking a bite or a scratch.
Rabies and worse swept the compounds periodically, so everyone was a little wary of animals, anyway, especially around kids or old people. Medicine supplies were unreliable at best, so no one wanted to risk getting bit on a bad day, or ha
ving anyone in their family bit, either. Generally, animals were seen as food, potential predators, workers in the case of a few, or carriers of fleas, lice, and disease.
The animals owned by the Royals were cleaner than any of the humans in the skag pits had been, much less the animals.
None ate garbage or diseased rodents.
None got radioactive bugs in their hair or intestines, and none of them shot bright yellow diarrhea all over Jet’s bed, the way the last cat she’d tried to befriend in the skag pits had.
Anyway, Ricochet was cute, playful, and affectionate. She also gave Jet and Ogli something to re-bond over––something nowhere near as unnerving or dangerous as the prince’s crush.
“He’s fine,” Jet said with a shrug. “I’ve arranged to get him riding lessons.”
Seeing Laksri’s lifted eyebrow, she added,
“Virtual, of course, at least to start. I told him we could try on real horses after a few of his guards got them used to being ridden. And after he got the hang of the virtual ones.”
Laksri nodded, his expression calm. “So it is better, then?”
Jet nodded. “Better, yes.”
Laksri continued to look at her, as if thinking, or maybe trying to decide how to say or how to ask something. She gave him a questioning look, but he only averted his eyes, looking down at his plate and sawing off another piece of meat with his knife, holding the steak steady with the pronged, spear-like fork.
“So you’re going to the training room tonight?” Anaze said, still obviously doing what he could to make his tone sound natural. “And you don’t want me to come along?”
Jet nodded, giving Laksri a sideways look, in spite of herself.
“Yeah,” she said. “I guess so.”
12
The Other Rings
Jet had never been in the arena at night before.
She looked around at the empty space, seeing it with new eyes.
Pieces of terrain stretched all around her, their placement looking more random to Jet again, despite the logic she’d found in the layout earlier that day.
The Complete Alien Apocalypse Series (Parts I-IV Plus Bonus Novella): An Apocalyptic, Romantic, Science Fiction, Alien Invasion Adventure Page 29