Galactic Arena Box Set

by Dan Davis

  He stomped out into the corridor and disappeared, his feet echoing while he muttered to himself.

  Ram looked at his team, who shrugged and followed the man out.

  Standing back, R1 smiled. “After you, Mr. Seti.”

  “Just you two down here now, right? He must be fun to work with.”

  She stopped smiling. “No, he is not fun. Not pleasant at all, in fact. But he is brilliant, in his own way, and he is necessary, so we must put up with his abrasiveness as best we can.”

  “Alright, I’ll do my best. No promises, though.” It brought her smile back and he indicated the door. “After you, please, R1. Lead the way.”

  They did not have to go far before they found Dr Monash standing by two large doors that filled the end of the corridor from floor to ceiling and wall to wall.

  “In here,” he said, smiling and proud, before pushing a button on the corridor wall. Air hissed and rushed, with a hot, humid atmosphere pouring into the corridor.

  The doors swung inward to reveal an enormous space beyond, poorly lit but clearly vast.

  The walls and floor and ceiling were dark and light was filtering evenly from everywhere and nowhere at once. Ram’s heart started racing even before he realized what it reminded him of. The air was warm and wet and smelled odd but it was otherwise incredibly familiar.

  Coming from inside, a rhythmic banging echoed all around, like a machine pounding something large.

  Ram followed Dr Monash inside, almost in a daze caused by wonder and apprehension and overwhelming memory.

  “You’ve made a replica orb arena?” Ram said, raising his voice over the pounding noise.

  Dr Monash waved a hand as he turned and approached the near corner where a wide line of screens shielded what was happening beyond. “Well, a simulacrum of an orb arena. As you can see by the squareness of the walls, the dimensions are in fact dissimilar and overall far smaller. Especially the height of the ceiling because two hundred meters is entirely unnecessary. But the engineers otherwise did their best to reflect the arena dimensions. We don’t always have the pools filled with water but the atmosphere is closely controlled. Watch out for any symptoms related to oxygen toxicity. You see we have screened off certain sections for reasons of privacy. Follow me, follow me.”

  “Sorry, Doctor Monash, what symptoms of oxygen toxicity should we watch out for?”

  “Oh, you’ll be fine,” the doctor said, waving a hand in the air as he rounded a wide section of screening. “And, here we are.”

  He led them around one end of the screens. Beyond, taking up a corner of the hall, was something like living quarters combined with a gymnasium. There was a huge bed against the black wall with a side table and a shelving unit with personal effects. And there were rows of exercise equipment, weightlifting machines, as well as combat dummies. There was even an enormous Avar chair, drawing Ram’s eye. Everything was oversized.

  The pounding noise was coming from a man who crouched over a dummy on the floor, that he was punching with massive, swinging blows, over and over again with perfect regularity. Each impact was powerful, booming as the dummy took the strikes of the huge fists pummeling it.

  Those fists were gigantic and the arms that swung up and down were long and bony.

  “Henry!” Dr Monash shouted. “Henry!”

  The pounding stopped, one fist raised. The chest of the man heaved in and out, taking in vast breaths.

  Without speaking, the man turned and stood in one fluid motion. Ram wasn’t sure if Flores or Cooper gasped or if it was he who had done so but the man was taller than Ram and approaching three meters in height. But where Ram was bulky, the man in front of them was thin, with incredibly long and thin limbs. Each joint seemed oversized and his hands and feet were huge, with massive knuckles.

  He was wearing a tight leotard over his entire body but his arms were bare. The waist was very narrow but the muscles of his abdomen were bulging even through the fabric and his muscles everywhere were dense and rippling under the skin, as if he had almost no body fat. The gigantic man’s pale skin had a yellow-green hue and his hair was black, cut very short. His face was the most ordinary thing about him, and his features were strong, handsome even, though overly bony with a thick jaw and prominent eyebrow ridges.

  “Henry, dear boy, these are the nice people who are going to take us out of here shortly.” Dr Monash grinned. “Come on, son, don’t be shy, say hello to everybody.”

  The giant named Henry bobbed his head and smiled a lopsided, sheepish smile. When he spoke, his voice was deep and the words came out quickly with no pauses between them. “Hello, everybody, nice to meet you.”

  “Doctor?” Ram said, pointing at him. “Is that… is he...?”

  “Yes! Quite right. The purpose of your mission, Lieutenant. My friends, please meet Henry. The weapon who will win us back the Earth!”

  9.

  “The weapon?” Ram said. “Henry is the weapon? The weapon is him? This guy?”

  The doctor frowned. “Why, yes, of course. Of course it is him.”

  “He’s going to fight in the arena? He’s going to fight on Orb Station Alpha?”

  Henry grinned and bobbed his head, looking at him and the others with an excited expression in his eyes.

  “Yes, precisely.” Dr Monash planted his hands on his hips. “He must fight on Orb Station Alpha, he simply must. And you are the one who is going to get him there. That is your purpose. Were you not briefed?”

  “They never said what the weapon was,” Ram admitted. “We thought… I assumed it would be a biological weapon, something to use on the Hex for a counterattack, for the reconquest of Earth. I never thought it would be a genetically engineered subject.”

  “Well, we are due, Lieutenant, are we not? It has been almost nine years since the last combat was lost, and eighteen since the one before and so we are due for our next combat on Orb Station Alpha. But after two utter failures, this time, it will be different.” Monash grinned, his narrow chest puffed with pride as he looked at the giant Henry.

  “But that’s just it,” Ram said. “The combat is this year. Even assuming we can get you out of here, there’s not enough time to reach the Orb.”

  Cooper cleared his throat. “The Hereward, sir. It’s the fastest human ship ever built.”

  Flores nodded. “That’s what they said. And I believe it. My family built part of it in the new shipyards around Ganymede. It has a small crew ring, a huge power generation and propulsion core, and a larger ring which was closed off and its purpose classified. Now I’m guessing it’s meant for training and for the staff of Outpost Omega.”

  Monash clapped his hands, beaming. “There you are, then! How delightful. Fastest human ship ever built, there you are. Hear that, Henry? Hear that, R1? What did I tell you? All in the plan. You doubted the new schedule but I knew all would be well, what did I tell you? They have the fastest human ship ever built and it has a Project Omega ring all ready for us. Come on, what did I tell you?”

  R1 smiled with her mouth only. “That’s right, Doctor, you did.”

  “There was a new schedule?” Ram asked her.

  “An encrypted message ten months ago,” R1 said. “When our original evacuation deadline was passed without a team to escort us.”

  Doctor Monash pointed at her while addressing Ram. “She wanted us to evacuate on our own! Only a few miles walk, across the surface, she said. We don’t need any babysitters, she said. Well, lucky I’m the one in charge, isn’t it, my dear? Otherwise everything would have been utterly ruined. And then we received the updated deadline and it’s here! You are here. And the time is now. We really must be off, my friends. Are you ready, Henry? You’re going to have a shower, aren’t you? I think you should, my boy, we’re going to be in close proximity with you for quite some time and none of us have any interest in breathing in your overpowering unwashed stench, alright? So be sure to do that Henry, do you hear me?”

  Henry glanced at everyone in the hall w
ith something like embarrassment. “Alright, Doctor Monash, I will do that, of course, no problem.”

  “So this is the only subject?” Ram said, pointing at the giant humanoid figure. Henry stared back at him with a friendly but somewhat blank expression. “Our one shot?”

  The doctor blew through pursed lips, glancing at R1 beside Ram. “There were more. Many, many more. But these things are incredibly complex, just incredibly complex in ways that would take far too long to explain, if any explanation is even necessary. But yes, in summary, yes, our dear Henry is the last and best and only hope for humanity and for a free Earth.”

  “Okay, I understand that this is the only subject you have here in Outpost Omega. It’s just him, just us, and we’re getting him and you on to the Hereward?” Ram sighed and shook his head. “Isn’t there any other backup, though? Maybe somewhere else? What if something goes wrong with Henry? No offense, Henry.”

  Henry shrugged his great, bony shoulders then looked away, as if he was bored. Or perhaps worried.

  Dr Monash huffed. “Well, I’m afraid I don’t know about what’s happening with other programs and other ships and missions, I just don’t know. There were many separate teams in separate programs working to develop arena champions but for reasons of operational security they were isolated in their own outposts. Perhaps one or more of them has also produced subjects and perhaps they are on the way to Orb Station Alpha also, I simply do not know. But what I do know is that Henry is the most perfect physical specimen we ever created here, or anywhere for that matter, and I am certain he will prove able to defeat the enemy champion. Isn’t that right, Henry?”

  Henry bobbed his head and grinned. “It is, Doctor Monash. No problem.”

  Ram stared at him, still staggered by the man’s bizarre body and realized he had been rude. “Henry, I’m sorry for not greeting you properly. I was just surprised by the situation. Anyway, I’m Rama Seti and it’s nice to meet you.”

  He stepped forward and held out his hand. Henry stared at it, blankly, and then at Ram.

  Dr Monash sighed. “I’m sorry, we haven’t ever had to introduce Henry to anybody new. Henry, this is what we call a handshake. It’s a kind of greeting, like saying hello to someone but doing it physically. Watch me, like this.” Monash turned and held his hand out to Flores who scowled but shook his hand. “You see?”

  “Oh, alright, I see now and I will replicate that behavior with Rama Seti,” Henry said, speaking the very moment Monash stopped and his words emerging quickly but with perfect clarity.

  When Henry moved closer, it was both fast and smooth. Henry’s limbs were long and yet he moved with a speed that defied his size. His giant fist was larger than Ram’s suit gauntlet, and he felt the strength of Henry’s grip even through the armor. “Whoa, easy, Henry. No need to squeeze, okay?”

  “Oh, sorry,” Henry said, smiling sheepishly as he dropped Ram’s hand. Even his facial expressions were fast, his smile darting out and back and his eyes flicking.

  “No problem. So, you’re the weapon, are you?”

  “That’s right.” Henry’s grin widened.

  “And you’re going to defeat the Hex champion in the arena.”

  “I am.”

  “How?”

  Henry shrugged, his shoulders jerking up and down. “It’s my destiny.”

  “Destiny?”

  Monash laughed, nervously. “What else would one call it? From years before his birth, Henry has been designed to be the perfect physical counter to the Hex.”

  “He’s an Artificial Person?”

  “No, no. Not at all. Henry is unique. The APs are designed with functions that limit their abilities, placing blocks on their mental development and often on their physical development. Henry here is not like that at all. He has been crafted to be more than human.”

  “So, he’s not human.”

  “Of course he’s human! A unique human. The most unique human ever made. We sculpted him entirely from extant human genomes with just a little light editing to make things work… Anyway, he’s human.”

  “Alright? He’s human enough for the orbs to let him in to fight for us? I mean, do you know if he’s going to be able to get through the smokescreen to fight inside the—”

  “We are not amateurs here, Mr. Seti. We are the very best that there are. We do not make basic mistakes. He’s human. And you, Lieutenant, are now nothing more than a soldier. And when you were a subject, you were nothing but a cog in the machine.”

  Ram shrugged. “Tip of the spear, really.”

  Henry gaped. “You are really that Rama Seti? The actual Rama Seti, the actual one who beat the wheelhunter champion on Orb Station Zero back in the old days?”

  Ram smiled. “That’s me.”

  “Well, Henry,” Monash said, “if we wish to be completely accurate about this and frankly why would we be anything else, the real Rama Seti died in the arena and they imprinted his mind into the brain of one of his line’s clones. And that clone suffered such extensive battle damage that it was largely regrown, along with brain tissue and kept in stasis. I assume this man before us is that same clone with the original mind patterns overlaid onto its brain. So, this is not precisely the same Rama Seti but it is a close approximation and as good as we’re going to get. I’m sure you feel the urge to speak to him about your own destiny in the orb but I’m afraid it will not help you, as his adversary was an entirely different species to your own. Now, we must complete our preparations for departure. Please have a shower, Henry, gather your personal effects, and get your gear on. You, too, please R1, finish your preparations as agreed. Come, come!” Monash turned on his heel and strode out of the hall.

  Ram turned to R1. “A minute ago he said he wanted me for my combat experience and now he’s saying I can’t help because it was against wheelers.”

  R1 sighed. “I apologize on his behalf. I am sure he just wants to keep Henry away from your direct experience. He can be remarkably protective of his own authority. But we do need you. The truth is, your expertise will be an incredible boon for this program. And one thing he was not lying about is the need to depart very shortly.” She inclined her head and followed the doctor out of the hall.

  Ram looked at Cooper and Flores who stared back. Ram had a knot in his guts at the thought that he was not the real Rama Seti. But he had faced such thoughts before and although they filled him with a profound existential dread, there was nothing he could do to change things and thinking about it only made the dread worse. So, he would not think about it.

  “Yeah, I am really very sorry indeed about Dr Monash and the words he used just then when he spoke to you about yourself,” Henry spoke with a small smile on his face. “Don’t worry about him, please, it’s just his way and he doesn’t mean anything by it and even if he does then it doesn’t matter. That’s what Marit always says.”

  “Marit?”

  “Professor or rather Doctor Olsen who was called Marit Olsen and she was my friend for all my life.”

  “What happened to her?”

  “She climbed into the incinerator.”

  “Oh. Why did she do that?”

  “She was sad.”

  Ram nodded. “I suppose she must have been. I’m sorry to hear that.”

  “Oh, it’s fine because R1 is my friend now and she speaks to me every day and she’s just as smart as Marit and knows everything Marit knew and even more so it’s fine, really, even though I was very sad for quite a while.”

  “That’s good, Henry,” Ram said, starting to wonder if there might be something wrong with Henry’s mind. “So, you live here?” He pointed to the bed in the corner and then gestured to the vast hall behind them.

  Henry turned and walked away from his bed in the corner and opened his arms to the great black hall. “This is my home.”

  The way he moved was strange beyond Ram’s clear understanding. He was like some gigantic, monstrous bird, moving so fast that his movements appeared jerky and yet at the same time
he had perfect balance and flow, like a tiger.

  “And you were raised here?”

  Henry turned as Ram came up beside him. “I know it’s strange and I know it’s not how people live. I’ve seen how people live on screen, I’ve been all over this base and been in the living quarters, and I’ve spent time in Avar looking at the world how it used to be before the Hex. But this is how we were brought up here so it’s normal to me.”

  “We? There were more subjects?”

  Henry’s face lit up. “Of course! There were, I don’t know, I don’t remember when we were real young too well but like twenty maybe? Or fifty? But even just three years ago there was four of us left.”

  “What happened to the others?”

  He shrugged. “Died.”

  “Right. How did they die?”

  Henry shrugged again, his bony shoulder joints jerking up and down. “All different. Cancer, heart disease, muscle wasting diseases. Lot of psychosis. A lot.”

  “Is that so?”

  Henry nodded. “Oh yeah, lot of defects.” He grinned. “Not me, though.”

  “Not you, huh? Well, that’s great.”

  Cooper walked out past them into the hall. “Why raise you in here? They made it look a little like the inside of an orb arena so you’d get used to it?”

  “That’s right. That’s exactly right.”

  Cooper turned. “The floor’s all uneven out there. Depressions in the ground, looks like some of them are deep.”

  “It’s important for us to train in the same environment as the orb arena.”

  “Oh yeah,” Flores said. “That’s right. I remember.”

  Ram frowned. “The arena floor is flat as a pool table.”

  Henry grinned. “Yours was. Not mine. Not Orb Station Alpha. The Hex are a semi-aquatic species, you know, and the arena combats take place in a semi-aquatic environment with approximately seventy-eight percent of the floor area under water.”