Aurelia couldn’t believe it. How was this even possible? She never saw anything like this in her life, never even heard of anyone like this, not in Military training nor any other time for that matter. How could Kama move so fast like that? Nobody can do that. Nobody. Who the hell was this freak of nature, anyways? Aurelia thought.
Kama slowly lowered her polearm and vertically rested it down. She lightly held it as a trail walker would hold a homeaway walking stick. Aurelia continued her frantic pace and made small semicircles back and forth again. Kama dropped her polearm and then to Aurelia’s amazement she removed her headgear. As she did so Kama repositioned her bone phones which had temporarily dislodged a little when she removed her leather helmet from her head.
“What the hell are you doing?” Aurelia asked Kama as she lowered her polearm. Her voice was pressured and cholerically charged. “Hey. What. The. Fuck. Are. You. Doing.”
Kama said nothing at all but continued the odd behaviour. She removed the wraps from her right arm first, which revealed a series of snaps strategically installed on their underside. Then she removed the left wraps and let the now unraveled strips of metal lined leather drop to the floor. Kama reached under the shoulder flaps right to left and released a series of four previously unseen snaps from them. Finally, three snaps that ran from under her armpits down to her waist, released. Then, the other side, six altogether. The entire assemblage fell to her feet. Her battlesuit was a single piece of continuous leather not including the headpiece. “I won’t need it for this,” Kama said.
Aurelia just stood there and stared and did not know what to really do.
Presently Kama wore a grey undershirt and what looked like boxer shorts, also grey. The seams were severely frayed, ripped here and there and overall quite threadbare. She removed these as well. Kama did not look at Aurelia and appeared as anyone would when they remove their clothes for bedtime, slowly and without any sense of rush.
As she peeled them from her Aurelia said, “Ummm, hell-oo? Earth to Kama! I hate to break it to you but I am not a homosexual!”
Without raising her head Kama continued the strange, out of place ritual and said, “Neither am I. But they made me sometimes. Be with some of the other women. But they liked it though. I had no choice.” Kama straightened herself up and then rotated her shoulders around as if to loosen them away. She rotated her neck to stretch and said, “You aren’t worth getting any marks on my armor. I save that for real fights.”
“Say what? What the hell are you talking about? Who are they? What do you mean them?” Aurelia screwed up her face into a confused, puzzled look.
“Wow, good question Aurelia! Maybe she’ll elaborate on that.” Professor Palmer’s voice said across Aurelia’s bone phones.
Kama responded, “Elders. Not important.” At this moment only a Military issue bra and underwear, and socks remained. Aurelia stared at the many tattoos that covered Kama’s upper chest and arms.
Not your everyday body art, Aurelia thought. On Kama’s skin there were symbols, a lot of symbols and none of them made any sense to Aurelia as she looked at the tattoos then back to Kama’s face and then back to the esoteric symbols. There were circles and triangles and shapes within squares, mostly intricate linework and some interconnecting one to another. Inside the shapes were Hebrew letters and maybe some numbers but Aurelia really didn’t know. On her right upper chest over her clavicle there was a grand depiction of the Sun and on her left clavicle, a moon. Connecting the two symbols was a large winged iconograph that traversed her neckline. The wings looked like something that was lifted from walls of the Valley Of The Kings in Egypt. There were serpents and there were dragons. There was an eagle’s talon clutching a human heart. There was a simple maze on her left upper arm with two elaborate arrows, heavily scrolled and flourished that appeared to point both up and down from within the maze when her arm rested by her side. On her right lower arm there were three pyramid shapes and a series of five ovals each one slightly bigger than the last that crossed over the pyramids. A lion, another snake, some flames and more fine-lined scrollwork that wrapped around her arms from her wrist all the way up to her shoulders, front and back alike.
Kama’s legs were not spared from the mysterious inkwork. There were five pointed stars, lines that appeared to be sine waves, twisted lines, spiked abstractions and crosses, something that looked like a demon, more Hebrew letters, some Mandarin pictograms, a few Sumerian cuneiform bits and other symbols, marks that looked like no known language spoken by anyone anywhere, ever.
Aurelia waved her hand up and down in front of her body. “See this suit I’m wearing?” She said. “I’m about to ruin you down but hey, you asked for it. So here it comes! Nice ink by the way,” she sarcastically announced. Aurelia knew from her Military training that you can overcome a more powerful opponent if you know where to strike, and when. Kama left herself without any armor and Aurelia doubted that her mystic body art menagerie was going to help her any. She resumed her tactful pace around Kama, who continued to appear relaxed, unstressed.
“Screw this shit,” Aurelia thought to herself and then a half second later she pushed her polearm quickly forward and to the side and then executed a sideways power stroke. She pushed the polearm with a sweep and simultaneously pulled with her left hand for extra power and speed. Whoosh. Ke-crack! Bleep! Kama met her swing with her polearm, a blurred single arm connected with the oncoming weapon. Kama only had to scuffle her left foot a little wider out to purchase base support, but nothing more.
“I knew that you were going to do that,” Kama said. She did not lower her polearm as they both remained in the air, one against the other. Aurelia pulled her weapon down just as Kama attempted a twisted her s which would have otherwise disarmed Aurelia.
Angry and red-faced, Aurelia swung herself around in a full-pivot. She tried to hit Kama from her fully exposed left flank and then aimed for her ribcage to the side.
Another whoosh followed. Aurelia's polearm drew a deeper since her weapon was fully extended outward. And then a ketta-ketta-crack! as the polearms vibrated against one another. Bleep!
Kama reposed her polearm down and to the left to meet Aurelia's strike, as if she could see through time and she knew long before that Aurelia was going fora full lateral windmill sweep. Had she struck it through Aurelia would have fractured at least one of Kama’s ribs, perhaps more but instead Aurelia's hands went numb from Kama's deflection and the subsequent resonance against her. Kama said, “Before you strike you squint your eyes a little and tense the side you are going to use.”
“Great so I have a tell. Well aren’t you just the fucking savant.” Aurelia backpedalled three steps and then continued to pace back and forth. “You should be in the Polar City poker tournament.”
Kama looked up to the the camera in the upper corner and said, “I don’t know what poker is.” She looked back at Aurelia.
“Yeah of course.” And then Aurelia charged at Kama in a flash. AShe rotated her polearm from a defensive position to strike. Aurelia could feel her pulses bang in her neck.Her feet were moist from the sweat that magnified inside her shoes. “Ahhhh! YA!” Aurelia yelled out and then pulled her polearm straight down. Kama twisted to meet it and again a crack resounded, softer this time as Kama pulled her weapon back into her. She guided Aurelia’s polearm down and away to herright side.
Bleep! “AHHH..YA!” Aurelia yelled and jabbed furiously at Kama who ducked just as the end of the thing slithered by her head. Kama grabbed the pole with her left hand and pushed Aurelia back. Aurelia almost lost her balance from the sudden insult but scrambled her legs beneath her. “Eee..YAA!” She swept low at Kama’s right leg. Kama deflected her attempt once more. “FUCCK!” Aurelia yelled
Aurelia pulled her polearm back and then tried another forward jab. Kama rolled away. She let Aurelia fall straight down and right onto her face. Aurelia rebounded into a standas if she were assembled from springs and then SMACK SMACK! Aurelia pulled the polearm left and righ
t, a two-sided narrow sweep attack.
It was a powerful move but it also left Aurelia’s entire front utterly vulnerable and exposed. Kama let the two strikes land on her shoulders and barely even winced despite the incredible pain felt from the twin blows to her upperarms. Bleep-BLOOP! BLOOP! Aurelia’s polearm signaled two good solid hits on Kama.
Kama decided that she was done playing around with the lesser creature.I It was time to accomplish what she actually wanted to and that was to regain her honor. Kama had already guessed that they were going to either kill her here in this City prison or turn her loose. For the latter she would have to go back home again, back to Reso. They would probably not even let her in and she would be lost forever, banished to the Great Wastes beyond. If I am going to die, I die with honor as a Chosen, she thought. Kama paced forward straight at Aurelia. She looked up to the camera once more and said, “He’s watching us, isn’t he.”
“Shut up,” Aurelia said.
“He is though,.” Kama broke out into a near run and thwoosh thwoosh thwoosh thwoosh her polearm turned round and round so fast it became out of focus and grey to all in witness, even on the one hundred frames per second 8K video display in Professor Palmer’s room. Aurelia tried her best to anticipate what Kama was going to do next. She shifted her weight forward and held up her pole in a fully defensive posture. But it was no use.
Kama struck a false blow and then snapped her weapon back. As Aurelia tried to deflect Kama's baited faux attack. Kama quickly reversed her motion in full swing and hit Aurelia's opposing exposed flank. Her polearm landed with a dulled and drumlike thwump against Aurelia’s undefended body armor. Bleep! Critical! The polearm announced.
Aurelia reeled onto her right side and landed halfway down as her right hand met the floor. Even with her tactical armor a magma hot wave of pain traveled through her flank and into her core. She quickly stood up on reflex before her mind consciously registered the event she was on her feet once again. Can't believe I fell for that, Aurelia thought.
Kama yelled, “Come on!” Aurelia felt paralyzed. “COME ON!!” Kama roared, and provokingly jutted her polearm back and forth at Aurelia.
What happened next was a flash, white. As if someone marionetted her from a world unseen she sprinted straight at Kama and struck her again and again. From the top, from the sides, straight in. Bleep! Bleep! Critical! Critical! She jammed the pole right into Kama’s left knee which cause her to buckle in and fall. Kama was down! How did I do that? Aurelia did not know. The motions came as one continuous flow,like a singular motion, all. She wailed and smashed at the exotic alien. She screamed and didn’t even stop when Kama tried to instinctively shield her face from Aurelia's sustained onslaught.
Blood sponged out of Kama from her arms and her head in small places. Aurelia straddled her and pinned her down, her sheer motions resignedly out of her control. Aurelia dropped her polearm and then she simply punched and jabbed at Kama, over and over and over.
“Stop! STOP IT! Jesus Christ you’re going to kill her!” Professor Palmer screamed into his microphone uplink. “Shit she can’t hear me,” he said.
Which was true. Aurelia could not hear him because her senses were tunneled down so far and she was in that special spiritual place that envelopes one when they exercises for a long time or engage in extreme combat,or find themselves in a fight for their very life. After what seemed to be ten minutes even though only about thirty seconds passed Aurelia rolled off Kama. Aurelia was out of breath and covered in blood which was everywhere. The Arena door whizzed and whirled, a metallic bolt sounded through and with a ker-klunk the door swung open. A stream of Officers and guards filed into the room. Aurelia held up her right hand. “Its..” She couldn’t even catch her breath for more than two words and waved some more at the guards. “Okay. Okay. Okay...” She said with an diminished volume for each word.
The guards stood around the two combatants in a semicircle, all silent while they lay there together on the matted floor. They stared at the light arrays above them, a soft glow of gold-white in six lines cross. Kama had landed right next to her leather battlesuit. A small rivulet of blood flowed toward the resting armor from the ever-growing pool that surrounded Kama’s upper body. Kama extended her right arm out and weakly plopped it onto her heap of leather and metal. She stared down her arm, down the road of symbols and skin and congealed hemoglobin veins with a faraway, melancholic stare. All those years of great and absolute power. All the days where she feared nothing and nobody, never in want of anything in a world of complete need and desperation. Those days were gone now and all that remained was this thirty-one year old arm and a mind full of mysteries known to very few alive and dead alike. What remained was the pain and the hazy, defocused memories of control, of endless and loveless sex with men and women and an untouchable, immeasurable distance from anything that resembled intimacy, gentleness or care.
It was at that moment she realized the truth. She was lost.
Then, after about twenty seconds of diffused silence as everyone in the Arena, the guards, Kama, Aurelia and even Julian and the doctor in the office room could find no reason to speak, Kama cried aloud. Through the venations of blood that veiled her face, she cried. The guards looked in silent confusion one to another, unsure of what to do. Aurelia, who continued to breathe heavily from the fight turned her head away from the lights to face Kama who lay three meters away. She said nothing at all and simply stared at Kama along with the others.
Kama said through the sobs in perfect Mandarin, “When I was nine, they took me away from my mom to be a Chosen.” She choked a little from the blood which ran into her mouth and spit it out. “When I was twelve, they made me be with an Elder.” She covered her eyes. “I didn’t know what was happening to me.” She paused and cried for a few seconds, more subdued now. “When I was fifteen, sex always, three at once sometimes. This was how they broke us. But in return we have anything we wanted. It was like, like being a god.”
“So they got tired of you.” Aurelia quietly offered. The guards could not understand what Kama said for none of them wore a set of the bone phones. Aurelia, however, heard the translation perfectly through hers.
Kama turned her head to Aurelia and stared at her for seven seconds although to Aurelia it seemed much longer than that. Without a single word she then turned back toward her leather battlesuit and reached inside. She briefly fumbled through the strips, produced a long thread and held it above her head. The thread glistened and sparkled with a subtle shimmer as she turned it round.
“What the hell is that doc? A thread?” Julian squinted closely at the video display.
“Holy shit it’s..Oh Christ...” Palmer slammed his hand on a five sided button on the console and it lit up. He yelled into the microphone, “Guys secure the prisoner NOW! Do it!”
The guards reflexed into action and scrambled for Kama in order to pin her arms down. One of the guards carelessly slipped in Kama’s blood pool and comically slapped butt-first onto the floormat. The other two guards grabbed onto her arms and legs but it was no use. Even against their opposed force she closed her eyes and pulled the suicide wire across her neck. The wire bit in deep and appeared to disappear into her skin as if it were a magic trick only to be replaced with an incomprehensible flow of blood. And then Kama released her arms. As she did so the guards managed to wrestle the wire away even though she offered no real resistance. The guard leader, who stood above them belted into his arm-worn personal assistant, “Code Six! We gotta Code Six here! Medical stat!!!”
Seven
Three weeks passed after the events in Arena Five. To everyone’s amazement Kama survived but only after an extreme, aggressive medical intervention. She was clinically dead by the time they got her over to Medical. They tried to stabilize her enroute but there was only so much they could do along the way. The medical specialists used the same Circulator machine that saved Aurelia a few weeks earlier. The City only had two surgeons who were skilled enough to patch Kama’s
vessels back together. The doctors used a robotic assisted laser device that was able to fuse the thin cell membranes. The repair process was tedious and slow. Had Kama been born a century before she would have never survived for the technology simply did not exist before 2410. The damage to her neck was repaired one painstaking cell at a time.
Kama’s neck fascia was exposed for five days while the repairs were made. such a prolonged exposure was possible thanks to high power UVA lights, the Circulator and the Silvermist System.. The procedure was a success but at the cost of the nearly the City's whole supply of synthetic blood made from a DNA recombination process.
Kama roused from her comatose state only two days after the procedure was completed. Another six and her body could function without the Circulator's assistance. She would, however, have a raised scar that would forever transverse her neck.
Colonel Eiger pulled over a stool and sat next to her bed. He asked Kama in English, “So it’s good to see you, well, not dead Kama. How are you feeling?”
Kama looked at the Colonel who wore his full dress uniform. She said in pure Mandarin, “Who are you?”
The Colonel responded in equally fluent Mandarin, “Oh yeah.” He waved his hand to his chest. “Colonel Eiger, you can call me Nelson, it’s my first name.”
“Should have let me go.”
The Colonel placed his hand on her left arm and said, “But you do. You know Kama I watched the video archive from the Arena. Really impressive. You are really an amazing fighter, did you know that? I have never seen anyone move like that in all my years in military.”
“So, I am entertainment for you,” Kama said and then rolled her head away.
Colonel Eiger said, “No that’s not, look. Don’t you see what happened to you Kama? Do you? Those Elders of yours, well. They just used you up and chucked you out like yesterday’s trash. They threw you away Kama. And here you are. Now you’re with us,a Polar City citizen now.”
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