by Robin Roseau
"So now you're talking five thousand genetically diverse animals?"
"Yes, but we might have to implement a size limit. I do not know how we would raise a thousand humpback whales before releasing them."
I lowered my eyes and said quietly, "You may choose any name you want."
"Oh, no. You have to pick."
I looked back up. "This is just a game to you, isn't it? You don't care what happens to me. You don't care what happens to any of us. You're just playing a game."
"I need you to pick. I'll bring the saber tooth back, if I can, or another animal, if you prefer. Oh, we won't tell anyone you and I made a deal. No one can know. I need you to pick a name."
"I picked a name. I'd happily stand by it."
"Pick a name from the original list. Do you need to see it?"
"There is no way I am worth what you're offering," I said. "This is ridiculous. You're not even going to explain what you're doing?"
"No. Pick a name, and I'll keep my end of our bargain."
"As long as that name is yours?"
"Any name on the list."
I sighed. "You're playing a game. I don't choose to play. May I be returned to my cell?"
"You'll marry Jasmine Brighteyes. Or you'll let me pick for you, if I make this bargain. But you won't pick if that's part of the bargain?"
"I picked. May I return to my cell now?"
"I'll make you and your parents twenty-five."
"On top of the saber tooth?"
"Yes."
"I tell you what. Convince Jasmine to accept my proposal, and I'll owe you a favor. I'm sorry, I won't be able to bring extinct animals back to life, and there might be other limits to what I'd do. Perhaps you'd like help finding that third you want, and more help finding someone for Charoite. I'd be in a position to select women who would happily accept without any coercion at all, once I calm them down a little."
"You're really turning me down?" she said. "Really?"
"Really. But you can choose. I can't stop you."
"But you won't accept, will you? You'll resist her advances and expect to go home."
"If you really bring back the animal, I'll find a way of convincing her I'm hopelessly in love."
"Will you be?"
"I don't know. I guess we'd find out."
"I need you to pick," she said.
"We seem to be going in circles. Perhaps you would care to explain why."
"No, I do not so care."
"May I return to my cell, then? Or did you have another topic?"
She stood. "Your event is in two hours. You will attend as you are dressed." Then she blinded my visor.
* * * *
Piper and Dilly returned, this time with Hank and Aaron. Yeah, they'd told me their names, too, but I still called them Hank and Aaron. I sighed.
"You haven't needed them since the first week I was here."
"Orders," Piper said. "Please lie face down on the bed with your hands behind your back."
"Seriously?"
"Seriously. I'm sorry."
"Yeah. Whatever." I rolled over and let them shackle me, the shackles on my wrists quite tight, and my ankles not much less. Then they helped me to my feet, and I could barely walk.
Which was the intention, as it was Hank and Aaron who took my arms, and the first time I tripped, they dragged me. I scrambled to get to my feet, but it was a lost cause, and so I arrived in the arena as if I had resisted.
They forced me to my knees, and I felt dirt beneath me, so I knew I was in the arena. The hot sun was a clue, of course.
They unshackled my ankles then pushed them into the pillar. Then my hands were bound the same way, behind my back and swallowed by the pillar.
"Thanks for the help, guys," I said. "You did a great job helping them to abuse me at the end."
If they replied, I didn't hear.
They left me there. I began to hurt almost right away. The sand was rough under my knees. My arms were bent at an uncomfortable angle. And I had to lean on them for balance, so my shoulders quickly began to hurt.
But they left me there.
And left me there.
I bowed my head and tried not to get too upset.
I began to burn from the sun.
My shoulders were in agony, and my legs weren't any happier.
And then I felt a shadow move across me. A moment later, my visor brightened, and I found myself staring at a pair of Kitsune feet. I looked up to see Sugilite watching me.
"Is this your idea or Jasmine's?"
"Pick a name and we'll release you. We'll see to your aches and pains."
"I presume your earlier offer is off the table."
She didn't answer immediately but finally said, "I'll roll back your parents' ages if you stay with your new mate. The rest is off the table."
"Well, it wouldn't have mattered. I already picked a name. Was this her idea or yours?"
Again, she was slow to answer. "Mine. She's watching but has vowed not to interfere."
"Well, I'm sure you'll break my will eventually. I don't imagine it will even take that long. I'll be burnt to toast in a few hours, and my body is already in agony, so I can't imagine I'll last until nightfall. Congratulations. You've demonstrated both a willingness and ability to torture helpless women. Fuck you, Sugilite, and fuck everything you ever said about the relative maturities of our two species. You're full of shit."
Then I bowed my head and closed my eyes.
* * * *
Time passed, and tears had long begun to crawl down my face before she returned. The first I knew she was back was when she used my hair to lift my head towards her. "Pick a name."
"Fuck you."
She released me, and my head dropped. "I have a new offer for you."
"Not interested."
"You might be. It is a good idea to listen before rejecting my offers. Do you know what that is?"
I opened my eyes again to see. There was a metal container about the size of a large backpack. There was a pump on the top and a metal wand attached to the container by a hose.
"No."
"The reservoir is filled with liquid. It is pressured by air. And of course, you can imagine what the rest is for."
"Is it a flame thrower?"
"Oh, no, nothing like that." She gestured to the side, and when I looked, I saw a very large number of Bay's little ant robots and spider robots.
"Fuck," I said. "Go to hell, Sugilite."
"Ah, you haven't heard the rest of the offer. I have a question. You will answer. If you do, then I won't go out of my way to squirt you inside your mouth and nose. Oh, I'll be drenching you, and I don't promise to avoid your mouth. But I won't do it intentionally."
"Fuck you, too, Bay."
"Other than the guards who placed you here, no one who works here is involved. I brought my own technicians."
"Whatever."
"Do you agree to my terms?"
"You could ask me to pick a name."
"Ah. I will ask my question, or perhaps a few closely related questions. If you answer, and I believe you, then we will have an agreement. And for bonus points for completeness and honesty, I won't put this between your legs and fill you as well as I am able."
"Fuck you, Sugilite," I said. "Ask your damn questions."
"Did Jasmine Brighteyes put you up to this?"
"What?"
"You heard me."
"You want to know if Jasmine told me to let you put me out here like this?"
"I want to know if Jasmine encouraged you to defy the council. I want to know what Jasmine has offered you to accept what is happening."
"You think she bribed me somehow?"
"I don't know what she has done. You will tell me. If I believe you, then what happens next won't be as horrible as it could be."
I thought about refusing to answer, or about lying.
"You know what?" I said. "I'll answer, but I'm not answering because of your threats, so you go ahead and squirt me w
here ever you want. You know what Jasmine did? She was there when I needed her to be there. She was there when you put me into a panic about my mother. She was there when Cherish left. She gave me a job I enjoy. I enjoy her company. I enjoy her touch. It doesn't hurt that she's based here, so I could see my parents from time to time. But when I told her I wanted her, she was upset. She tried to get me to change my mind. She didn't do a thing to tell me to conspire against you. All she ever did was act like the woman I want."
Sugilite looked down on me for a minute. Finally I asked, "Do you have a follow up question?"
"Did she do anything to encourage your affections?"
"She was a friend. She offered respect. I know she likes looking at me. I know she likes holding me. She says I taste good, but so does every other Catseye who hugs me. But she doesn't want me, so what does it matter?"
She knelt down and lifted my head by the hair again. I could get tired of that. "If your parents suddenly receive alien largesse in any form, do you know what I am going to do?"
"I assume it involves poison."
"Probably not. I'll probably have them collected and torture them to death. Whatever agreement she made with you is void."
"There is no agreement," I said. "But please make sure she knows your threat. She might actually feel sorry for whatever you do to me and try to apologize through a gift to them. I'd rather she not do so."
"If you change your answers and tell me the truth, I'll give you whatever she was going to give you. But you have to pick a name for the rest of this to stop."
"I'll make a few more hours. I told you the truth. Believe me or not. I already told you to squirt wherever you want. But I sure dodged a bullet when I didn't marry your daughter. I wouldn't want a harridan like you as a mother-in-law. Tell me. Does she know you're doing this to me? Is there video? I wonder what she'll think. She'll probably love you for punishing me. I imagine she's feeling the sting of rejection. Is that why you're doing this? Are you punishing me because I didn't want to leave my planet, and so I dared to say 'no' to your precious daughter?"
"You can end this by picking a name."
"Well, when you finally do break me, sometime in the next few hours, I won't be mentioning her name or yours. Well, except I suppose I could spend the year making her miserable, but I imagine you intend to drug me out of my mind the rest of my life, so perhaps that's an empty threat."
She stood up, walked to her oversized Super Soaker, gave it a few pumps, and then grabbed the wand. I bowed my head, and she began squirting me down.
She was thorough. I tried to hide my face, but she got it, anyway.
"Open your mouth."
I turned away. "Fuck you."
"Open your mouth and I won't squirt lower."
"Fuck you."
"Open your mouth or I'll squirt lower then knock your teeth out to squirt your mouth."
I lifted my head and opened, and she gave me a good squirt. I wondered if it was bad for me. It sure tasted terrible. I tried to spit it out, but it was oily and clung tenaciously.
When the ants and spiders began moving towards me, I began pleading. I avoided screaming until they began crawling inside my mouth.
I screamed for a long, long time.
Surrender
I knew I wouldn't last forever, but I lasted longer than I expected. She came out twice more with the big squirt bottle. Other than to demand I choose a name, we didn't talk. When I refused to open my mouth, she slipped the wand between my legs instead.
Yes, I screamed.
* * * *
I hung limply, staring ahead. Feet appeared in front of me. "Pick a name."
"Fuck you."
"Right now, there is a team outside your parent's home. They are both there. Your father just got home from golfing. Pick a name, or I have them picked up, brought here, and everything that has happened to you happens to both of them."
I stared straight ahead. "The Luxan," I said.
"What?"
"The Luxan. I don't remember her name. Give me to the Luxan."
Sugilite knelt down, interposing her face where I could see her.
"As I understood it, you didn't care for the Luxan. Why her?"
"You won. I picked a name. So now you have new demands?"
"Why the Luxan?"
"Because I don't want anyone I once cared for to do to me what's going to happen next. And in case you were wondering, you are the most evil woman I've ever had the displeasure to meet. But you seem to thrive on that."
"There are forces involved you don't understand."
"I'm sure there are, but that's because you wouldn't tell me about them, so whose fault is that? And the ends does not justify the means. You got what you want. Now go fuck yourself."
She stood and walked away. A minute later the visor dimmed. The stone released me, and I cried out as I toppled onto my face.
The world went black.
* * * *
When I next woke, I was in the medical bay, and Sugilite was standing over me. I stared up at her for a minute, my brain barely working. "Come to torture me some more?"
"You will meet your challenger in the arena in two hours."
"Ah. I'm sure I'll put up a good fight. When do you drug me?"
"I guess you'll find out. What would it take to convince you to accept this willingly?"
"You're not serious, are you?"
"What would it take?"
"It would take my original choice, but she's not interested, and you wouldn't let her have me if she were. You're too vested in beating me, as if I'm that big a challenge to you. What's the matter? Did you lose a PTA election and needed to feel powerful?"
My visor dimmed, and she walked away.
* * * *
I didn't see who the guards were. I spent the entire time still locked in the chair, the visor dimmed, until I felt hands on me. I was shackled, this time with my hands in front. And my ankles weren't so tight I couldn't walk.
Then I was led out onto the sands. The sun was hot. The sand was hot. They locked my hands into the pillar, but at least it was in front of me. Then I stood there a while. But finally the visor brightened. Sugilite was there. I looked around. There were people in the stands, although they were being quiet.
I didn't see the Luxan. I didn't see anyone else in the arena.
"Where's my challenger?"
"You don't get to see her. Your visor is hiding her from you."
"Oh, because the Luxan needs an advantage. Whatever."
"You may need some time to recover emotionally from what I have done to you. If after a reasonable period to heal you are then able to fully embrace your new mate, I will find some way to pay reparations for what I did."
"Fuck you and your reparations, too. I don't want anything from you. Oh wait, yes. I'll take a promise that I never have to see or hear from you or your daughter again. I'll take that."
"Maybe you'll change your mind."
"You torture harmless, innocent women. I'm sure you could have done worse. You didn't actually pull teeth. But that's just a matter of degrees. You're right down there. The only people worse than you are the ones who do it to little girls instead of women. Congratulations. You're as bad as the worst humanity has to offer. I hope you're proud. Fuck off. There's a Luxan around here who is so afraid of me she has to hide. I guess she saw my challenge with the Implac. I wonder how she feels that you had to torture me to give you her name. What kind of woman would want me after that? That tells me I was right to dislike her in the first place."
"Enjoy your challenge. Once the pillar releases you, you may select a weapon. They are all blunt. Your challenger will give you the opportunity to do so before she begins to stalk you. You lose when you land in the cage. There will not be an exit."
"Maybe I'll get lucky and manage to kill one of us."
She said nothing but walked away. I stayed locked in place until she arrived at Jasmine's usual seat.
Then the pillar released me.
&
nbsp; I pulled away, looking around. I didn't see anyone in the arena with me, and the crowd was quiet. I tried following gazes to see if they'd give away where the Luxan was, but if anyone was looking at her, I couldn't tell.
I moved to one of the weapons racks. I didn't know how to use any of them, and I was sure I wouldn't be holding it very long. But I grabbed one of the staffs. Then I moved back into the center.
"Well, I'm here," I called out. "A big strong Luxan shouldn't have any trouble handling me. Or maybe Sugilite did a replacement. Maybe it's really Charoite out here, and that's why you need a handicap."
I spun around with the staff, right at waist level. I did that a few times then stilled, listening.
"Come to think of it," I said, "The Luxan wouldn't want such an uneven fight." I spun the staff again. "So if it's you, Charo, just know you're going to have to drug me." Spin. I still didn't connect. I spun again, lower, in case she was ducking.
I looked for footprints. Maybe the visor wasn't hiding them.
I stopped taunting. I just turned in slow circles and tried to be unpredictable with the staff.
And then I did connect on something! It was a meaty thunk, and a lot more solid than a Kitsune. An instant later, I felt myself wrapped in arms.
And tentacles.
"It's me," said Jasmine's voice in my ear. She tightened all her tentacles. "It's me, Andromeda."
I froze. "Just you?"
"Just me."
I dropped the staff. I didn't struggle. I didn't struggle when she picked me up. I didn't struggle when she walked me to the cage. I didn't struggle when she tossed me in.
Jasmine
She came visible. I stared at her. I think the crowd began making noise, but if they did, I didn't notice. I stared at Jasmine.
"I caught you."
"You did."
"I won this challenge."
"You did."
"That means until morning, you belong to me."
"No."
"Oh, I think it does."
"Either I belong to you for a lot longer than that, or not at all."
"Well, maybe you'll win the next challenge, and then I'll belong to you," she said.
"And in between?"
"Perhaps we could discuss belonging to each other."