Emi plunked down on the bed and turned on the vid screen. She didn’t understand a word of the broadcast, but there were pictures of her and her men. She changed channels. Another newscast, featuring them. And another. And another. Until she found a channel with a cartoon.
Hell, it was better than nothing.
Aaron sat next to her on the bed and pulled her close. “It’ll be okay, babe.”
“Yeah.”
He kissed the top of her head. “They’re okay.”
“Yeah.”
He sighed into her hair. “I miss them, too.”
“I’m not going to lose them,” she said. “Whatever I have to do, I’m going to kick that bitch’s ass.”
“I know.”
* * * *
Emi felt the tension and worry in Aaron that night as they tried to sleep. Not so much worry for himself as worry for her and the twins.
She knew she dozed during the night but wasn’t sure how much sleep she actually got. When the sun rose the next morning, she pulled on the same clothes she’d been wearing when they arrived, including uniform trousers with cargo pockets, comfy, loose enough she could move around in.
As she felt a bulge in one pocket, she stuck her hand in and wistfully smiled when she pulled out Caph’s little Halloween surprise.
She fought the urge to cry as she tucked Bucky back in her pocket. Maybe it would be a good-luck charm.
Baltin delivered their breakfast. “I will come back for you in an hour to take you to the grounds.”
They ate in silence. Emi kept her meal light, not wanting a full stomach to slow her down. She couldn’t help but think about the twins. She knew they were probably okay, that Mauri would ensure their safety. Still, she missed them.
Would this morning be the final time she ever saw them? She talked a good game, but what if she did lose? How would she get her guys back short of returning with a lander and a shitload of guns?
She suspected the DSMC and ISTC wouldn’t overturn the Moran laws and risk an interstellar incident over three men.
Aaron tried one more time. “Em, listen to me. I—”
“No.” She cut him off, not letting him speak it. She’d felt the resignation in him ever since he awoke. He wasn’t sure she could win and was willing to sacrifice himself for the sake of the twins.
The feeling of dread she remembered from the sim session, when Aaron sacrificed himself for all of them, slammed into her.
“We could guarantee they’d be free,” he quietly said. “They could be with you.”
“Aaron, crew first.” Her anger boiled. “I can’t believe you’d even think it! No fucking way am I letting that bitch take any of my husbands. Crew always comes first. You yourself taught me that. Crew first.”
He studied her for a moment before he nodded. “Okay.” In the privacy of their room, he pulled her tightly to him and held her, burying his face in her hair. “Okay, sweetie. You’re absolutely right. Crew first.”
* * * *
Apparently, situations like this brought out the party animals in the normally reserved Moran women. As they were led into the arena, Emi stared at the full stands, eager faces watching and anticipating a hell of a show.
She couldn’t help but make the comparison to old-Earth gladiator games.
The large, sandy field was marked by a white circle in the middle. The combat area.
When she spotted Caph and Ford, naked except for their collars and G-strings, bound, and seated on a bench to one side of the circle, she raced over to them and hugged and kissed them.
“Jesus, are you guys okay?”
“Nothing harmed but our fucking pride,” Ford snarked. “You all right, babe?”
She nodded, stroking his hair and Caph’s. “I get you two back to the Bight, I’m never letting you out of my sight again. You got that?”
“Fine with us, sweetie,” Caph softly said. “I’m so sorry.”
She pulled his head to her chest and buried her face in his hair. “It’s not your fault.” Emi couldn’t shake that certainty. The twins had a fairly bad track record for getting into trouble before she joined them, but most of that was, especially early on, designed to keep Aaron thinking he had to look after them and to distract him from his grief over Kelsey’s death. Since Emi joined them and Aaron’s deepest healing finally started, the twins had been virtual angels.
Emi also knew without a doubt that Rawin had set them up.
As she turned and looked across the arena, she spotted Rawin laughing, grinning, and talking to two women. She shook hands with them and gave them hugs. One Emi recognized as the one who filed the report.
“Ford, is one of those the woman who helped you two in the store?”
Caph and Ford looked at the woman as she turned and walked into the stands. “Yeah, that’s her,” Caph said. “She saw the whole thing. She’d even talked with us and helped us find stuff. We weren’t anywhere near that other woman. She came into the store and looked like she was looking for something. Then she walked right over to us and then started yelling for guards. That one there didn’t bother standing up for us, either.”
Emi locked eyes with Rawin. The Moran woman’s lips curled into a sneer. Then, she winked at Emi.
That fucking bitch.
Emi now knew beyond all doubt this was a scam for Rawin to get her hands on Aaron after Emi refused her offers. But fuck, to so blatantly orchestrate something like this?
The guards made Aaron sit on the bench next to Caph and bound him to it. The men wouldn’t be released again until someone won the contest. Then the winner could claim her spoils.
Aaron’s brown gaze bored into hers. “You can do it, sweetie,” he softly said. “Just be careful. Take your time.”
Emi nodded and kissed each man once more. Then she stood across the circle from Rawin and waited for the signal to begin. Mauri had a seat in an ornate box at one side of the arena, close to the circle. When the Moran leader stood and raised her arms, the thousand or so women filling the stands immediately fell silent.
“We are gathered here today to settle a debt. If Dr. Hypatia wins, her men go free. If Rawin wins, as the appointed proxy for the injured party, she earns the right to claim the men as hers to do with as she pleases. The rules are this—a fight to the finish, and you may not lift or carry your opponent out of the circle. First warrior completely out of the circle loses. Step inside the circle, both of you.”
With a final glance at her men, Emi rolled her neck and shoulders and stepped into the ring. Rawin met her in the middle and stared down at her.
“You should have been generous, Doctor,” she said in a voice too low to be heard by anyone else. “You had two more. You could have given one up, or at the very least shared. It would have been polite. You brought this on yourself.”
“You’re going down, you soulless bitch.”
Rawin sneered. “I do not think so. I will try to make this as quick on you as I can so my friends and I can go enjoy my new men. I promised them the large one. I will keep the pilot for myself, and we’ll all share the blue-eyed one.”
Rage boiled inside Emi. She forced it back. It was exactly what Rawin wanted her to do, get mad so she’d do something stupid and lose her focus. Emi had seen Rawin practicing on one of the news vids the night before, saw a hint of what the fight would entail.
Emi also remembered every minute of self-defense training she’d received from the DSMC before leaving Earth. Aaron had worked with her personally on sparring.
She could brawl with the best of them.
Mauri picked up a large, carved wooden instrument and blew into it. “Begin!”
Rawin dropped into a crouch, her obsidian eyes gleaming. Emi balanced on the balls of her feet and waited until the last second to dodge Rawin’s first charge. Emi had the advantage of being used to heavier gravity, although the planet’s slightly thinner air would even that out if the fight continued for too long.
Rawin’s fist shot out, grazing Emi’s ch
in as she ducked away from the punch. But then the Moran kicked and caught Emi mid-turn in the left kidney. Emi dropped to the ground and rolled away, forcing herself back to her feet as the Moran closed in again to attack.
Calling upon her self-defense training, Emi feinted a punch, then kicked and caught the other woman in the right knee.
Rawin hissed in pain. “Lucky shot.”
“There is no such thing as luck, you said.”
“I lied.” She charged Emi, grappling with her and driving her a few steps closer to the edge of the ring. Emi managed to land a few punches under the woman’s arms, in her sensitive tympanic region, forcing the Moran to drop her arms and back off.
“I forgot to mention I play dirty to keep my husbands,” Emi growled.
No one could hear them over the roar of the spectators, some cheering Emi on, she realized.
She didn’t have time to think about that as Rawin charged again. They exchanged punches, Emi fighting off a wave of dizzying pain as one landed on her right ear. Emi managed another kick, this time to Rawin’s left tympanic region, again driving the Moran back.
Emi straightened and spit blood from where she’d bit her tongue. Portraying a confidence she didn’t feel, she stepped toward the center of the arena. Rawin circled her, apparently less sure of herself now that Emi hadn’t gone down immediately as she’d first anticipated.
After fifteen minutes, Emi knew she sported a black eye, a split lip, and probably a cracked rib or three. She was, however, still standing and fighting, throwing punches and kicks and holding her own. Rawin didn’t look much better, her complexion now slightly green, most likely in pain from Emi landing several more brutal kicks to her tympanic regions on both sides. Moran women didn’t hit each other in that region as a matter of courtesy, much as human men didn’t usually aim for the balls.
Emi also felt Rawin’s uncertainty. She’d been counting on a quick and easy win. Emi’s skill and tenacity and different style of fighting, along with her refusal to stay down and lose, proved troublesome to Rawin’s training and her ego. The fact that Emi was, by Moran standards, playing dirty also threw her.
Emi wasn’t feeling very courteous. And Emi knew her ribs could take a hell of a lot harder kick than the Moran’s tympanic region.
Unfortunately, she knew she couldn’t continue on like this much longer before the larger Moran simply wore her out and managed to get in a lucky shot to finish the fight.
Then Emi tripped backward while trying to duck Rawin’s next charge. The Moran hooked her legs through Emi’s and rolled both of their bodies through the sand, making Emi scream in pain as it felt like her right hip was nearly dislocated. Worse, she realized what the other woman was up to, trying to get them close to the outer edge of the circle.
Somewhere through her pain, a strange woman’s voice yelled in her brain. “Use Bucky!”
Emi didn’t have time to contemplate that as she clawed at Rawin’s legs, not gaining any purchase. Then Emi felt something rubbing inside her pants pocket, against her thigh.
Desperate, she threw a handful of sand at Rawin’s face, making the other woman choke. That distracted her enough Emi could squirm loose, but the Moran was on her again in a flash from behind, one arm hooked around Emi’s neck.
“I’ll choke you,” she growled in Emi’s ear. “Break your neck. Then you’ll die and I’ll still have your men.”
They were just feet from the ring’s edge. A desperate idea formed in her mind. She forced herself up to her knees, Rawin still choking her.
Struggling to hold on to consciousness, Emi jammed her hand into her pocket and found Bucky. Grabbing the rubber spider, she thrust her hand backward over her shoulder into Rawin’s face.
Rawin immediately freed Emi and let out a bloodcurdling scream as she desperately scrabbled backward out of the ring.
The horn sounded as more cheers than jeers erupted from the audience.
Emi shakily climbed to her feet, the rubber spider tightly clutched in her fist. No way in hell would she ever let loose of that lucky charm. Bucky would be her new best friend with a place of honor on her desk.
Swaying, she turned to Mauri, who raised her arms and wore a beaming smile. “Dr. Hypatia wins. Her men go free with her. All charges are hereby dropped and this case is considered permanently settled.”
Rawin screamed from behind Emi. “No! She cheated! She threw something at me. This is not how it was supposed to end! Those are my men! I want them!”
Emi turned. “You cheated,” she yelled. “You set this whole thing up with your friends over there.” Emi pointed at the two women in the stands, who now wore horrified expressions.
Rawin stepped toward her, her fists clenched. “You should have shared them like I asked. Respected our customs. Then I never would have had to resort to…” Rawin went silent as she realized too late what she’d said.
Mauri’s face darkened. “What is the meaning of this, daughter? What have you done?”
Desperation replaced rage on Rawin’s face. “Mother, she would not share! I only wanted to play with the dark-haired pilot, just to see what a human male was like, and she refused to—”
Boos and hisses from the audience drowned Rawin out.
“You lied to me, then, when asking me to invite them down?”
“Yes, but, Mother—”
More boos and hisses.
Mauri looked horrified. She motioned to her guards to take Rawin. “Dr. Hypatia, my most sincere apologies. You and your men have been horribly dishonored, and I am most ashamed of my daughter’s actions. I will talk with you momentarily.”
Rawin looked at Emi, rage painting her face. “I will kill you!” She charged Emi before the guards could reach her and landed a few more punches Emi didn’t have time to defend herself against. As the guards dragged Rawin off her and across the arena, another guard helped Emi to her feet again.
“Are you all right, Captain Doctor Hypatia?” the guard asked.
No, she wasn’t. She suspected she had a concussion now, in addition to all her other injuries. And as she felt the world go out of focus, she realized Aaron and the twins had been freed and were racing to her side to catch her as she started to fall…
* * * *
“Babe, please open your eyes.” Ford’s soft voice cut through Emi’s pain. She struggled to do it. One eye didn’t want to obey, and she thought she should know why, but the reason escaped her momentarily. The other cracked open a little, allowing her to squint up at Ford, Aaron, and Caph, all bent over her.
“Is she all right?” That was Mauri’s concerned voice coming from somewhere close.
Emi forced her head to move a fraction, enough she could see the Moran leader also standing over her.
“I think she’s got a concussion,” Ford said. “I’ll need to get her back to our ship immediately for treatment.”
“Of course,” Mauri said. “I will assign a cadre of guards to escort you to the shuttle and back to your ship. But first, we must finish this.”
“Finish what?” Aaron demanded. “She won. You said so.”
He sounds really pissed off. Her mind struggled to figure out why. Then she gave up thinking as more pain in her ribs broke through her consciousness.
“Yes, but she has the right to witness sentencing. It is our law. It will only take a moment.”
Emi groaned as Aaron and Caph helped her sit up. She tasted blood in her mouth and spat in the dirt as she ran her tongue over her teeth. At least she still had all of them.
Mauri addressed the crowd, who went silent. Through her one squinty eye, Emi saw that Rawin and her two friends were now all restrained by guards. “Injuries of body, reputation, and honor have been perpetrated upon Captain Doctor Hypatia and her males. Therefore, as Imperial Ruler, I hereby decree the following—for acting dishonorably and selfishly and lying about innocents, for failing to respect other cultures, and for bringing disgrace to the ruling family as well as to our entire culture, I hereby sentence Mla
ui Mil’rawin to five years of forced service to the feral maintenance division, including public and training use as necessary, and permanent revocation of all her rights of honor and ruling family.”
Rawin screamed, begging, tears coursing down her face. “No! Please, Mother, you cannot do this to me! She would not share!”
Ignoring her daughter’s screams, Mauri wasn’t finished. “For assisting in this treachery with expectation of gains, and for lying, I hereby sentence Tor’Galso and Ptau’Baegen to two years forced service to the feral maintenance division, including public and training use as necessary, and permanent revocation of their rights of honor.”
The other women didn’t protest. They just stood there and cried.
“Is this a fair judgment?” Mauri asked the crowd.
They all cheered.
“Any who dispute this ruling? Speak now and be heard, or it shall be so.”
Silence met her statement.
Mauri looked grim. She nodded. “So it is ordered and shall be recorded in the official dockets. Remove the prisoners immediately and remand them to the custody of the feral trainers,” Mauri ordered.
Rawin screamed and struggled as the guards forced her from the arena. The other women quietly went with the guards.
“I also declare,” Mauri continued, “that as diplomatic emissaries from the DSMC, and as the legal mates of this woman by the rules of their society, not to mention as invited guest to our planet, that Captain Doctor Hypatia’s men are, by official diplomatic decree, allowed the freedoms and protections of any honor-bound woman.”
“Including clothes?” Caph quipped.
Mauri smiled and nodded. “Including clothes.”
“Aww. That sucks,” Emi mumbled as she slumped against Aaron, darkness taking her again.
She awoke in the Tamora Bight’s sick bay, on a bunk, with Ford hovering over her. He was now dressed in a casual crew uniform.
“You didn’t waste any time getting un-nakey, did you?” she mumbled. Her lips felt huge, her head hurt like a son of a bitch, and she suspected maybe the other eye was swelling shut, too.
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