Collected (Selected Book 1)

by Robin Roseau

  You must not get hurt.

  "If you agree to at least two more challenges, I will adjust the scoring," Jasmine said. "How much weight can you safely carry?"

  "Any weight throws off my balance," I said. "And that increases the likelihood I'll fall. This course, even adjusting the hardest of the obstacles, represents a significant challenge. I do not know if I could finish it, even if each obstacle were one I could navigate when fresh. I won't be fresh by the end, and just sitting in the sun saps my strength."

  The two exchanged a look. Bronze nodded.

  "If you agree to everything I offer," Jasmine said, "Then we will do this. We will remove the extra weight. We will adjust the scoring so that if Bronze wins, and if you complete the course by traversing each obstacle, then you will have an identical number of points at the end, counting the 41 you already have. You may bypass any obstacles you feel would be dangerous. You must attempt all others, but if you are stymied, you may also bypass it."

  Bronze spoke briefly.

  "And the medics are ready, in case. If you are at all injured, we will heal your injuries, and see to all your needs before your next challenges."

  "I'm going to have to skip some obstacles. You said if I finished after doing them all."

  "We will adjust further. If you finish after skipping no more than four, then your scores are identical. If you do not finish or bypass more than four, then she will gain one additional point for every obstacle you do not complete. Do you agree to do your best and to allowing the additional challenges?"

  "No."

  Please, Sapphire. For me.

  "I will do my best with these adjusted rules. I may not finish, however. This is going to be grueling for me, and it is very hot today besides."

  "There will be water available for you," Jasmine said. "And assuming Bronze finishes first, then there is no additional loss of points if this takes you a long time."

  "This is our last challenge."

  "Why? It is a poor choice."

  "I do not know how to use my points to my advantage, and Bronze does. I do not understand the possible competitions. I do not know how to steer the choices, and I do not believe for the physical challenges that there are sufficient handicaps in the world to make up for our differences."

  "You won the first day."

  "Luck. She would have won in a smaller arena, and the number of physical challenges that even exist that play to my strengths instead of hers, well, it's very small."

  "I will teach you how to use your points, and I will share with both of you the entire range of choices available in each challenge. The grid of choices changes. I make decisions based on the individuals."

  "She's still going to win the fifth challenge."

  "She is definitely going to win the third."

  I thought about it. "It is a strategic mistake."

  "You could win."

  Bronze was looking at me, I thought perhaps with hope, but it was hard to be sure.

  If I win, you know I will treat you very well.

  I looked up at her.

  Think of the wonders I will show you.

  "A space station in the deep darkness of space, with a sun only slightly brighter than the available stars. If the station was in orbit around Saturn, at least I could see the rings."

  I will take you to Saturn. I will take you to your moon first, and you can walk where no human has ever walked.

  "We've been to the moon."

  We leave your sites alone. They serve as monuments to your achievements, and we would not disturb them. We go to other places. You would walk on the moon, Sapphire. You would see Earth in the skies above, and it is a beautiful, beautiful thing, surrounded by so many stars. So many stars that could never be seen from any planet with an atmosphere.

  "You had that ready."

  She smiled.

  I have been preparing my arguments.

  "I-" I looked back and forth between them. I was sure it was a mistake. I was sure of it. But still, I wavered.

  Three months is not enough time for you to decide if you can commit your life to me. Five months isn't, either. If you can resist me for three months, you can resist for five. And I promise to be devoted to your happiness and wellbeing.

  "Bait and switch," I muttered.

  I do not understand.

  "You offer five months of wooing, and then when I agree-"

  "No!" she said.

  I offer a lifetime of devotion. Not five months.

  "You don't know me to make that promise."

  My species decides these things more quickly than yours. I am emotionally invested and have been for longer than you realize. I want you. I don't want anyone else. I want you.

  "This is our final challenge. You have your three months. Then I'm going home."

  You like me. You find me sexy. Why can't you give me a chance?

  I stared at Bronze for a while.

  You are human. Three months is not long enough to commit to me. You know this. You know you need more time to decide. You will spend three months convinced it is an utter waste of time. But five months can be different. Five months are enough to really decide. No human will ever treat you as well as I will. If you lose today, you will waste three months of your life. If you allow two more challenges, you might win and not lose those three months. Or you might lose, but you'll give us enough time for you to take me seriously. You'll give us enough time for me to convince you I can make you happy.

  She must have worked furiously to somehow type all that out. I looked to Jasmine. "I don't want us at two hundred points each."

  "It'll be 60 or 70. I will need to sit down and figure out how my promise actually works."

  I laughed. "All right. I agree. I'll do my best as we discussed, and today is not the final challenge."

  Bronze pulled me into her arms, hugging me tightly. Jasmine patted my shoulder and thanked me.

  And then they helped me out of the backpack and to my feet.

  * * * *

  Bronze won just as easily as we expected her to. The obstacles barely slowed her down.

  Me, on the other hand... I struggled. Without the weight throwing me off, the first three weren't terrible, but I came to the fourth and stared at it. It was a twelve-foot wall. I had to climb up it, using a rope to pull myself up, hand over hand.

  Jasmine was walking the edge of the course, keeping pace with me. She saw me stop and eye the wall.

  "Go around if you want."

  I glanced at her. "It represents points."

  "It represents getting hurt."

  "I promised to do my best."

  "You promised not to get hurt. That promise supersedes any others. And spending energy here will cost you later."

  I went around. After that, I went around any that looked dangerous to me.

  By halfway through, I was beat. And I was only halfway. It didn't help that the course was uphill, and it was terribly hot besides.

  Bronze had long completed the course for her win. She waited at the end for me, but then she doubled back, taking the opposite side of the course from me. She began cheering me on, offering encouragement each step of the way.

  I fell off one of the obstacles, landing in the thick mud underneath. I lay on my back, mud oozing everywhere, and blinked at the sky. Bronze was immediately at my side, kneeling down, shielding me from the sun. "Sapphire!"

  "I'm fine," I said. "Oops."

  She helped me to my feet, and I moved back to the start of the obstacle. Now I was all muddy, and that was nearly my undoing a second time, but I managed it this time.

  But I was moving slower and slower, and it was four obstacles from the end. When trying to climb over a short wall, I decided I was entirely done. I sank down and leaned my back against it, panting heavily. Bronze moved to me, and Jasmine brought me water. And I panted and panted.

  "You could go around," Jasmine said. "You must finish or Bronze will have far more points than you."

  Please get up, Sa
pphire.

  The visor kept sweat from my eyes, but it didn't know how to keep mud from its optics, so when I looked at her, it was through a thin layer of mud. I smiled weakly.

  We'll do the last ones together. This is what mates do.

  I let her pull me to my feet, and then she helped me over the wall before jumping it herself. After that she steadied me between obstacles. There was one more easy one, and I did that without help, but then she helped me with the last three. They would have been exceedingly difficult for me without her help, although not dangerous.

  She had to nearly drag me across the finish line, and if she hadn't caught me afterwards, I would have fallen to the ground.

  Thank you, Sapphire. Thank you. I am so proud of you.

  "I am pathetic," I said. "How could you be proud?"

  You are a fighter.

  "You're the fighter. I'm the lover."

  I am also the lover. You will see.

  Jasmine stepped up to us. "Tell me, Sapphire Fletcher. Do you feel alive today?"

  "I feel half dead."

  Please don't say that.

  "And more alive at the same time."

  She crushed me to her.

  Détente

  Two thirds of the women were gone at the end of their third challenge, but Jasmine allowed me to see April one last time.

  "I'm going to give him a chance," she told me. "Who knows? And if I don't like him, I don't have to let him go too far."

  "You don't have to let him touch you at all."

  "That's not what they said. They said I have to give him an honest chance. I have to let him do anything he wants to me, short of, you know, sex." She smiled. "He gave me a backrub. He had me moaning for more. I dunno. I might like him. We'll see."

  "I hope you'll be happy, April."

  "I was so mad at first, but maybe this isn't so bad. If nothing else, the stories I'll be able to tell!"

  We shared a smile and a hug, and then she was gone.

  * * * *

  True to her word, Jasmine gave me the opportunity to take small classes. They were an exposure to advanced material. There was homework, and I found the material sufficiently fascinating that I studied hard.

  It kept my brain engaged when I wasn't with Bronze.

  * * * *

  I managed to steer the fourth challenge, and either Bronze was a very good actress, or I surprised her badly. We were to have a Knowledge challenge, the major category I had eliminated during our second challenge. It turned out that one of the sub-branches below Knowledge was called Talent, and below that one choice was Music. Bronze let me use my points to steer us down that path, and then I watched carefully as the path I wanted worked out. I only needed to use my points once more.

  We would play a song using the human musical instrument of our choice.

  And she didn't know I was first violin in high school and college.

  Bronze herself wasn't completely without talent. She had a sense of percussion. We were given three days to practice our instrument and learn one song, and so she taught herself to play, of all instruments, a hammered dulcimer. During our competition, she went first, and the song she played was simple but well played.

  Jasmine had provided me with an electric violin, an instrument I'd always wanted to play. I spent my three days practicing a concerto.

  But then when I heard Bronze play her song, I decided on something entirely different.

  I played a lively Irish jig, dancing as I played. When I was done and lowered the instrument, I was panting and sweating lightly, but I'd had a great deal of fun.

  I believe you have played this instrument before. And I believe I will insist Jasmine give you this instrument when I take you for my mate.

  I laughed. "Awfully cocky, Bronze."

  They both bowed to me. I had, figuratively speaking, kicked Bronze's butt, and the challenges were now two to two.

  And I had more points than she did to manipulate the terms of the fifth.

  * * * *

  But the fifth challenge would be back to physical. Jasmine spent two hours going over the entire grid of choices. Most of them were far better suited to Bronze than to me, and while I had more points than she did, it was not significantly so. But each major branch and most major sub-branches had events I thought appealed to my feeble strengths more than hers, and I thought I could steer us in a good direction.

  I let Bronze choose technological. I chose a medium arena, which meant we would probably be playing in the arena here.

  I eliminated combat, and then she used points to put it back as an option. She then used more of her precious points to select it, and I let her. There were several sub-branches that appealed to me, so I allowed it. She let me steer us down one without spending points, but then I had to use points for the next.

  But then she out-maneuvered me. She picked a branch with no events I could perform, and I used points to revert it. But then we got into a bidding war. As I had more points, I won, but it severely depleted my points to do so. I believe she did this deliberately, forcing me to spend my points so they wouldn't be available later.

  I watched helplessly as she steered us from there. I didn't have enough points to steer anymore, and I literally had no choice but to leave them for either applying handicaps to her or removing them from me.

  In the end, she steered us into a progressive shooting competition. We would each have a light-beam weapon and wear clothing that would detect a hit. In that way, it was quite a bit like laser tag. A hit wasn't a kill or even a point. Instead it was a progressive handicap. The clothing was quite clever. On a hit, that portion of clothing would stiffen, and each subsequent hit would cause the clothing to stiffen further, hampering movement. It would take three hits to change a leg from flexible to as stiff as concrete.

  Head-shots weren't even a kill. Instead, they affected the visor, increasingly restricting my vision. I wouldn't go blind, but if shot enough times, I would be down to only blurry tunnel vision, which would be nearly as bad.

  Bronze's eyes could not be controlled in the same fashion as my visor, so for this event, she was also wearing a visor with the exact same capabilities as mine, and, like me, she wouldn't be able to remove it for the duration of the event.

  However, the goal of the event wasn't necessarily to shoot your opponent, although shooting her was a worthwhile tactic. Instead, we each began on opposite sides of the arena. Bronze would win if, similar to the opening competition, she could drive me into a cage. To do so, there were targets on my side of the arena that caused barriers to move into place, restricting my movements further and further. Eventually, she could use these barriers to force me into the cage.

  To help me, I could also shoot targets on her side that constrained her to one side of the arena, giving me the ability -- if I were fast and avoided getting shot -- to run down the other side to freedom. Of course, there were targets on my side that would lower these barriers. Bronze could shoot me until I was fully disabled, then shoot the targets to lower the barriers, then walk over and toss me into the cage. I lost if I went into the cage.

  My goal was to escape through the exit on Bronze's side of the arena. For every target on my side, there was a corresponding target with the reverse effect. She could erect a barrier on my side, but I could shoot the corresponding target on her side to turn it back off. And there were more targets with the same effect as the ones on my side, erecting barriers to hamper her movements. With, of course, corresponding targets on my side to turn the barriers back off.

  To win, I had to use the barriers to push Bronze out of my escape path, drop the barriers between the two sides, and then keep Bronze confined while evading her fire and running for the exit. If I escaped, I won and would be allowed to go home!

  Discounting our physical differences in the first place, Jasmine assured me it was equally difficult for either of us to win. After reviewing the game, I decided she wasn't lying. This time.

  I had some advantages. I was a
significantly smaller target than Bronze. There was available cover on both sides of the arena, and it should be easier for me to hide from her fire than for her to hide from mine.

  However, as she could win without ever shooting me, that was a limited advantage. If she kept me pinned down, she could begin shooting the targets on my side, and the challenge would be over in only a minute or two.

  Bronze had her own advantages. She was bigger and faster than I was.

  And I had never fired a gun in my life.

  Our selection process wasn't completed, however. We each had points left, although I had very few.

  I want a good competition.

  I looked carefully at her. "I guess I do, too. Do you have enough points to handicap me enough I can't possibly win?"

  No, and I would not wish to win that way if I did. It would be a hollow victory, and I would not feel mated after a hollow victory.

  And so, she used her points to apply handicaps, but they were not crippling. There were a variety of weapons that could be used, each with strengths and weaknesses. She handicapped me to a hand pistol. It was small and fast, but it would be more difficult to fire accurately, and it was of reduced power, so it would require shooting her more times before she would become disabled.

  She used additional points to further reduce the effectiveness of my weapon, first lowering its power to the lowest setting the game would allow and then reducing its accuracy. I used a few of my own points to return a portion of the accuracy and some of the power. Bronze didn't fight me over that.

  Then it was my turn. I used my first points against her weapon, making it prone to overheating. She would need to fire more slowly or suffer a simulated overheat that required a significant cool down period. If ignored, and she continued to shoot while the weapon required cooling, it would fail, and she would be weaponless.

  Bronze immediately used points to remove that handicap.

  I do not like equipment that does not perform properly.

  And she scowled at me besides, but I decided it was in fun. I had hoped she would keep the handicap, but it took fifty percent more points to remove the handicap than to apply it, so while I'd spent points, she had spent more.