by Ruby Ryan
We also know that this human woman, Leslie, had great desire for you, said another member of the Council. The dreams found in her consciousness are quite primal. And in spite of this, you refrained from allowing yourself to be seduced.
The Dominion Lord said, A great feat indeed.
Relief washed over me. It was technically the truth, from the perspective of Leslie's consciousness. I had resisted the urge to mate with her, and that would be my saving act.
Thank you for your understanding, was all I said, remaining in a small ball of light.
You have executed your duties as scout honorably and to the great benefit of the Karak Dominion of Planets, the Dominion Lord said ceremoniously. You will be promoted with full honors, and allowed to advance to an occupation of your choosing. You are home, Jerix, and will be welcome among your kind.
The Dominion Lord turned to his Council.
As an advanced, intelligent species, the human woman will be euthanized and examined, he said. I wish to be present for the dissection, however, the examiner must--
NO!
I shouted into their consciousness, forcing through their own thoughts. They turned and regarded me as one.
The human Leslie has shown advanced intelligence, one Councilor said. It would be cruel to allow her to live, and become mad, here on our world.
She could not survive, another agreed. We do her a kindness.
I hesitated for second, gathering my thoughts. I have studied these humans extensively. They are adept at experiencing change, more than we Karak. In four thousand years they have advanced from agriculture and animal husbandry to where they are now. In less than one earth century they have moved from carbon-based energy to spaceflight!
That fact shocked the Council; I felt them considering the words, their impossibility.
Even if what you say is accurate, a creature that steals aboard a scout craft cannot be trusted. The Dominion Lord hardened his tone. Creatures of deceit have no place here.
I knew that was true. I'd known it even as I spoke, but didn't want to accept it. Leslie would be executed, and there was nothing I could do to save her.
Except, of course, that wasn't true.
I had a choice. And I made it instantly, instinct rather than thought.
I infiltrated her mind, I said immediately, seizing on the thought with human desperation. I captured her and brought her here with me, then altered her memories to make her think she came of her own choosing.
I felt shock waves of surprise pass through the Council.
Any blame for her presence here is mine alone. To execute her for my own actions would be a cruelty far beyond what she would otherwise experience.
I poured as much pleading as I could into my thoughts, human and Karak mingling together in a strange, begging blend.
Release her into my protection. I will watch over her, and ensure she makes such a transition smoothly. Allow her to live, as evidence for her species' unique ability to adapt.
And if she cannot? a Councilor asked.
Then... you may euthanize her, I admitted, even though it was not my choice to make. But give her the chance first. Trust my word, my experience, as a Karak scout.
The Council spoke among themselves, flickering with anger and curiosity and other bursts I dared not identify. And all the while the Dominion Lord focused his photon gaze on me.
Without warning he invaded my consciousness, casting aside all Karak tact with such an action. I felt him soaring through my memories, and experiences, and the human emotions tainting everything within.
He would know that I was lying, and then Leslie would be killed.
And my human brain forced imagination upon my consciousness. I captured Leslie against her will, it insisted, rewriting my memories with lies. She would not have come. She is innocent.
The Dominion Lord pulled back and shuddered.
Very well, he announced, cutting off the chatter of the Council. Because of what you have seen, and the difficulties in watching Arix abandon his own Karak vows, we will allow this human to be released into your protection. We will have her monitored at all time, physically and mentally, and at the first sign of madness we will intervene.
Relief poured through me, a human wave of feeling.
Thank you, Dominion Lord.
But the leader of my planet recoiled.
Do not thank me, Jerix. Although our decision grants this human one more chance, your actions as a Karak scout are unforgivable.
Oh. Oh no.
Jerix, the Dominion Lord's voice boomed with finality, you are stripped of your rank and honors. Behold as you are cast down to the rank of the Dishonorable, blemished with disgrace for your actions.
No, I thought. No no no!
The Dominion Lord continued, You may surrender to your fate and be banished to the Forbidden Caves, or you may fight to restore your honor. Make your choice now, before your Lord and your Council.
I responded immediately, because there was no true choice to be made. I will restore my honor.
The Council shimmered with acceptance. Very well. Begone from our presence, Jerix the Dishonorable, until you have been restored to Karak grace.
The human in me wanted to lash out against their decision. To scream and gesture and rage against them. But the Karak in me knew the futility of such a thing, and in the end it won out.
I will return with my honor restored, I promised.
I left the chamber, barely able to contain my despair.
9
LESLIE
I was barely able to contain my excitement when Jerix finally returned.
"How'd it go?" I blurted out. "Was it a great honor to meet your Dominion Lord? It's a big deal to meet the President of the United States, and he's not in charge of an entire Dominion of planets!"
Jerix hesitated, and I sensed that something was wrong.
The Dominion Lord asked about scout Arix's decision to remain on earth.
Ahh. Of course that would be a big deal here. I tried to imagine explaining to my superior how a fellow officer had gone AWOL, removed their badge, and gone running naked into the woods. This situation was probably that level of crazy for a species like the Karak.
Jerix led me to the platform, which then began moving back out into the city.
"So did you receive your promotion?" I said, trying to change the subject to something cheerier. "Are you a Karak settler now?"
No.
I could feel the regret in his voice. "Why not? Is something wrong?"
Jerix did not speak for a long while. I watched the tall glass buildings zoom by in a blur on either side of the platform as we moved through the alien city.
I have changed my mind, he finally said. I chose to be promoted to Karak warrior instead. I will fight in the Sunken Pit.
"What?" I laughed. "You told me you weren't bloodthirsty enough for that."
I was lying.
"You told me Karak couldn't lie," I pointed out. "You're not doing this to impress me, are you?"
No.
I felt the truth in those words, and for a moment I wished he had done it to impress me. A wild gesture of love.
Suddenly I realized what was so different about this planet.
"There are two suns!"
One hung in the sky the way I was used to, but a second one was just now climbing above the horizon. The dual light sources created strange shadows throughout the city.
This is a binary star system, yes.
"That's crazy!"
Most star systems in the universe are binary systems, Jerix explained. Your own system was very nearly one as well, but your planet Jupiter lacked the mass to collapse into a star.
"You sure know how to make a girl feel dumb."
I am sorry.
"Don't be. Just making conversation."
I felt giddy while I looked around at the strange place. It shocked me that I wasn't afraid. This sort of thing would probably cause crippling anxiety in most humans. It p
robably helped that I had my own semi-human tour guide. Two weeks of Jerix had given me enough familiarity to feel like I had someone I could trust.
And the three nights on the spacecraft, dreams as real as could be...
"So where are we going?" I said, clearing my throat.
I have been given a temporary residence.
"Ohh, fancy." I looked around. "If you control a Dominion of planets, where are all the other aliens?"
They occupy different districts within the city, designed for their physical bodies, Jerix explained.
I grinned. I was special since I was with a Karak warrior. I got to shack up with him.
I looked at my alien escort and I made a face. "How about you shift back into your human form so I can actually look at you without feeling like I'm squinting at the suns?"
Not in public!
The burst of thought made me flinch. "Okay. Sorry."
We traveled the rest of the way in silence.
*
Unlike human cities, this one never seemed to end. Its density of buildings and flickering Karak beings remained constant until the transportation platform abruptly slowed, then stopped.
"It looks like all the other buildings," I said.
To human eyes, maybe.
"Well yeah. That's all I've got."
I followed him inside the wide doorway into another room full of natural light. Jerix moved toward a small blinking light in the wall, which reminded me of the end of a fiber-optic light, but then stopped.
We will take the transportation lift.
But instead of taking us up toward one of the building's upper floors, the lift moved down. The wonderful light of the planet's two suns was replaced by the unnatural glow of lights placed in the walls and lift car, and it was as though I could feel Jerix receding on himself.
The door opened into a dark room, like a storage warehouse but empty. A single stool-chair device like the one in Jerix's scout craft occupied the corner to the right, but beyond that the room was empty.
"This looks like the kind of place they would send prisoners, not warriors," I muttered.
Jerix abruptly shifted, new light filling the room as his atoms swirled and became his human form. He did not look happy, but that was probably just him getting used to being back here. Homecomings could be difficult.
"This is only a temporary residence," he said slowly. "The... the city is full, for now."
"It is a big planet," I smirked.
"I must remain close to the Sunken Pit." He sounded resigned to that fact, rather than elated. Why would he have chosen to become a warrior instead of a settler if he wasn't excited about it?
Being in this foreign place, with someone so familiar and comforting, made me drawn to him. Jamie, Jerix, whatever his name was he was with me. The man I had followed across the galaxy in search of excitement. Because just then, in that foreign room in a foreign city in a foreign goddamn planet, I felt vulnerable.
And the impulsive part of me, the woman who had hopped onto the spacecraft without a second thought, crept forward.
"I had some interesting dreams on the trip here."
Jerix stood very still while he considered me, his sea-green eyes moving up and down over my body. He wants me, I chose to believe, because I desperately wanted him too. The comfort of his touch and embrace.
"Do you know what I dreamed?" I asked.
His head moved, the barest flinch of a nod. He still wore the jeans and thin shirt he'd worn on earth, pressed tight against his body. I moved forward on hesitant feet, close enough to smell the peppery cologne and his natural human scent underneath, and I let one hand rest against his chest like it belonged there.
"How about you shift a bed--"
He lurched away from me before I could finish, and shifted back into his Karak form. I started to ask him what was wrong, when I felt a presence behind me. I turned just in time to see the Karak form shift into place, appearing from that same sort of fiber-optic light I'd seen on the ground floor, recessed in the wall by the lift.
The Karak spoke to Jerix, and the words spilled over into my consciousness.
YOU ARE SUMMONED TO THE SUNKEN PIT FOR YOUR FIRST OF THREE TRIALS.
Jerix's form staggered as if struck by a strong wind. But I have only just arrived!
UNFORTUNATE FOR YOU. THE DOMINION LORD DEMANDS IT.
And then, as quickly as he'd appeared, the Karak was gone, the photons of his body disappearing into the blinking light.
"Wow," I said. "They must think you are a great warrior if the Dominion Lord wants to watch."
You know not of what you speak, Jerix said, fear crawling into his voice. I have not even begun to train.
I knew that kind of fear: applying for a job, believing you weren't qualified when you very obviously were. Impostor syndrome, I'd heard someone call it.
But of course Jerix was probably ready. Otherwise why would he have chosen to be a warrior?
"Can I watch?" I asked.
No.
"Why the hell not?"
You wish to watch me die?
I flinched. "Hold on. You fight to the death?"
What did you think occurred in the Sunken Pit?
I didn't know what I'd thought. Something ruthless and terrible, but not deadly. The Karak were supposed to be an advanced species. This didn't seem like it at all.
"I can't just sit down here while you're out there. I think I'd go crazy." Crazy with worry. That was the part I didn't say: that even though the idea of watching Jerix fighting to the death made me queasy, the idea of staying here while waiting to learn of what happened was an order of magnitude worse.
Very well.
Karak guards waited on the platform upstairs. But not for Jerix: for me.
I must travel faster, he explained, moving toward one of those fiber-optic button things. They will escort you to the Sunken Pit.
"Good luck!" I said, but by then Jerix was gone, the atoms of his body sucked into the transport. The space around me felt empty with him gone.
The Karak guards stood still, waiting.
*
Neither of the guards spoke as we zoomed through the crystal city, and I didn't care to say anything to them either. All I could think about was Jerix, my friend and only acquaintance on this foreign planet, and the sport he was about to attempt.
I may never see him again.
It was a terrifying prospect. Traveling across the stars was possible because I had a guide whom I knew and trusted. Someone who spoke the language and knew their way around. But with him gone, even gone from my proximity as he was right now, I could feel the fear of the unknown creeping all around me. I was a stranger here. I did not belong.
I tried not to think about it as I watched the two suns arc across the sky.
The Sunken Pit was so named, I discovered, because it was sunken: unlike the glass buildings that rose everywhere, the pit was dug deep into the soil of Karak like the crater of a massive meteor crash, with buildings of glass constructed around the perimeter. As I was led through an archway I saw that this ring was comprised of rooms and windows for viewers; it reminded me of the box suites at a football stadium.
Into the pit itself, rings of benches were carved into the walls as it descended down toward the ground level, the arena, my mind affixed the word into place. And, to my deep surprise, the benches were filled with thousands of non-Karak.
I saw animals of all kinds, four-legged with fur or feathers or some strange combination of the two. To my immediate left was a cat-like animal, but devoid of ears, and when it opened its mouth multiple rows of teeth like a shark's protruded. Several benches were occupied by what looked like plants, green and leafy and blowing in the wind, except the longer I looked I realized they were moving of their own accord.
Everywhere I looked was a frigging Dr. Seuss style creature.
We are a Dominion of Planets, one of my guards said, as if he could read my mind. He probably was. Karak are only one of thousands.
"Sure," I said, still feeling woozy from the sight of so many aliens. One at a time was tough enough.
Take this, the guard said, and a small round object materialized in the air before me. It looked like an iPhone earbud. It will allow you to hear the fight.
I plugged it into my ear; it fit perfectly. "You guys just happen to have a pair waiting for me? Even though Karak are telepathic?"
Many species have aural senses, the guard explained, a touch of impatience in his tone. You humans--he said the word with an even stranger tone--are not unique.
"And it knows English? My dialect of English?"
The research logs on Jerix's scout craft were thorough.
The guard began moving away.
"Hey, wait! Where am I supposed to..." I trailed off as he disappeared.
I surveyed my surroundings. Okay, so I'm in a big stadium full of aliens. Don't freak out. Freaking out would draw attention, and right now nobody was looking at me twice. This wasn't weird. Yet.
Of course it's weird! a voice screamed inside my head, but I beat it down until it was nearly silent.
"The grand melee will begin shortly," my ear-translator announced, a soft squawk in my ear. There were several open spaces on the benches nearby, but I didn't think I could handle crawling over anyone without freaking out, so I grabbed a seat on the aisle next to the cat shark-mouth thing. Its green fur rippled with color like an oil slick.
"Hello!" it said cheerfully, words deciphered by my ear-translator. It had one of its own in a hole halfway down its neck.
"Hi."
"First time in the Pit?" it asked.
"How'd you guess?"
"You will enjoy it." It returned its gaze to the arena, and I sighed with relief that I wouldn't have to carry on a deeper conversation.
Thirty or forty rows down, the floor of the Sunken Pit rumbled gently. Eight doors spaced equally around the outside shimmered with a membrane-layer like the one we'd passed through in the orbital ring docking bay. Participants appeared as one from their individual doors. Three were Karak beams, though I couldn't tell which was Jerix. One was a creature like a woolly mammoth, but without tusks, and in addition to its four legs it possessed two arms that sprouted from the middle of its back, flexing dexterously as it walked. Next to it was another cat-thing, but with darker blue fur instead of green, and it held two curved objects that looked like electric swords.
