Gladiatrix of the Galaxy

by Tristan Vick

  “Go to hell, you bastard,” Jegra barked.

  With a wild punch, she clocked the emperor in his jaw and sent him flying. He soared through the wall on the opposite side of the corridor with a resounding crash, sending a shudder through the entire deck. Loose wires hissed and sparked while paneling fell to the floor with metallic clanks. In the distance, a second crash could be heard as he passed through another wall.

  “And the name is Jegra from now on.”

  Cassera stood looking at Jegra, unamused.

  “Weren’t you supposed to protect your precious emperor or something?” Jegra jeered, thumbing toward the gaping hole in the wall.

  “Indeed,” Cassera answered, manifesting a baton from her belt. She squeezed the trigger and it sparked to life with a blue arc of crackling electricity. Before Jegra could react to Cassera, however, the vice admiral merely touched Jegra’s arm with the baton and tazed her.

  “You bitch! I’ll…” Jegra said, her words cutting out and her eyes rolling back as she lost consciousness. Jegra fell face first into the metal plating of the floor beneath the open archway and landed at the feet of Vice Admiral Cassera Danica.

  “She’s coming to,” a voice said. It came dimly from beyond the darkness that shrouded Jegra’s consciousness. But as she crawled back out of the insentient void that had pulled her under, she slowly grew aware of the voices in the room with her.

  Jegra slowly opened her eyes and looked around at her surroundings. She was lying in her own bed, in her gladiatorial chambers back on Thessalonica. Standing at the foot of her bed were the emperor and vice admiral.

  Dakroth rubbed his chin, which had a slight bruise from where she’d clocked him, and grinned down at her. “That’s quite a right hook you have, my dear. Consider me impressed.”

  Jegra looked at Cassera and then back at Dakroth. Sitting up, she rubbed her head and asked, “Why did you bring me back here?”

  “I thought you’d feel more comfortable in your own room,” Dakroth relayed. He tossed his white hair and then smiled at her again. “You stay here and get your rest. I’ll announce the wedding to the crowd. After all, we’ll make an empress of you yet.”

  With that he turned and exited her room.

  Jegra looked back at Cassera who stared down at her with a blank expression that she couldn’t see through. “What?” Jegra snapped, glowering at the vice admiral.

  “I’m supposed to accompany you out once he makes the announcement. You’ll appear before the audience, kiss Emperor Dakroth, and then, in his honor, you will fight and kill a Nogrossian Razor Boar.”

  “Are those the big ones with actual razors or the tiny ones with the hard, spiny shells and poison-tipped quill darts that give you temporary paralysis?”

  “The big kind, I believe. Why do you ask?”

  “I was sort of hoping it was the small ones, because I was going to take a handful of those pointy little needles, make a special bouquet for you, and then shove it where the sun doesn’t shine.”

  “Charming.”

  Jegra stood up and got in Cassera’s face. She was taller by almost a foot so her chest bumped Cassera’s chin. Cassera merely turned her face, avoiding eye contact, and let out a sigh that revealed her disgust with Jegra’s crude behavior.

  “You think you’re better than me, don’t you?”

  “Think?” Cassera balked. “No, Terran pink-skin. I don’t just think it. I know it.”

  Jegra balled up her fist and snarled, “Is that so?”

  Cassera merely glanced down at Jegra’s fist and then looked back up at Jegra’s face. After a moment her eyes softened as did her voice and she changed her tune.

  “Listen,” she said, glancing side to side. “I don’t actually hate you, Jegra. It’s all a ruse. But the walls have ears, and I have to put on a good show.” She smirked and turned her back on the gladiatrix. “You didn’t hear that from me.”

  The complete 180-degree turn threw Jegra for a loop. She wasn’t sure what Cassera was playing at. But, whatever it was that had prompted the brief break in her façade, the urge to knock the smirk from Cassera’s face was slowly fading.

  “Why are you telling me this?” Jegra asked in a hushed tone, leaning in to hear what Cassera had to say.

  Cassera spoke from the corner of her mouth, over her shoulder at Jegra. “Once you and Lord Dakroth are married, you’ll live aboard the Dreadnaught for a year. I’m hoping that, in that time, we might become friends.”

  Jegra pulled back and turned the vice admiral to face her, looking long and hard at Cassera’s eyes. “You really mean that? You’re not just pulling my leg?”

  “I haven’t touched your leg,” Cassera replied, not understanding the Earth idiom. “But I could if you want.” She moved in so that her thigh brushed up against Jegra’s and her eyes slowly settled on Jegra’s lips.

  A loud knock at the door sent them scurrying apart, and a guard entered. “Your majesty,” he said reverently, alerting them to the fact that the announcement had been made, “It’s time.” He bowed before his future empress.

  Jegra looked at Cassera and bit her lip as she mulled over whether Cassera was being genuine. She’d never known her to lie, at least, not like the emperor, but she couldn’t be certain. She decided the best she could do was to go along with it and see where it led them. Smiling at Cassera, she teased, “Admit it. You like me.”

  “You’re Jegra the Masterful! Of course I like you. Everyone likes you.”

  “But, I mean, you really like me,” Jegra stressed.

  “I’m fond of you, yes.”

  Jegra made a sour face and folded her arms. This gesture confused Cassera and the guard.

  “My mistresses,” the guard repeated, growing nervous by their delay of the emperor’s grand announcement. “It’s time.”

  She stared at Cassera for a moment, one eye narrowing with annoyance at her obstinance, and then huffed. “I’m not going anywhere until you admit that you like me,” she said, placing a finger on Cassera’s chest.

  Cassera looked down at Jegra’s finger, then over at the guard, and then back at Jegra. “We don’t have time for this.”

  “Oh, I have all the time in the world,” Jegra replied, folding her arms and stubbornly planting her feet. “I’m the next Imperatrix of the Dagon Empire.”

  “Not yet you’re not,” Cassera said, grabbing Jegra’s hand. She tried to guide Jegra to the door but Jegra didn’t budge.

  “Come on, Jegra!” Cassera pleaded. “End this childish protest. You’re keeping the emperor waiting.”

  “Say it!”

  “No!” she said with a laugh.

  “Then I’m staying right where I am.” Jegra folded her arms and turned her back to Cassera just to drive the point home.

  “Fine!” Cassera finally admitted, relenting to Jegra’s persistent stubbornness. “I like you.”

  “Yeah, you do.” Jegra smiled, and slapped the vice admiral’s ass as she walked past her and out into the corridor.

  Cassera let out a pent-up sigh and then laughed quietly to herself, amused by Jegra’s pig-headedness.

  Jogging up the dim passage, Jegra made her way toward the light and the roar of the crowd. When she emerged, Dakroth extended his arm to her and she walked up and took it. Standing by his side, he waved to the crowd and the millions watching on their televid displays at home.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, and all intergalactic transspecies of the Dagon Empire, I am proud to announce that I have taken Jegra’s hand in marriage!”

  The crowd erupted with an applause like never before. An additional four televid drones swooped down and buzzed noisily overhead as they broadcast the happy news clear across the galaxy.

  Jegra smiled and waved to the crowd.

  As she smiled, she spoke discretely through her teeth. “I don’t know what you’re scheming, but just know that I’m watching you.”

  Matching her grin with one of his own, he replied, “That’s all part of the fun, my dear.” />
  The vice admiral stepped up to them and ushered Jegra off to the side. The emperor pandered to the audience a bit more, then shouted, “Long live the Dagon Empire!”

  His words were echoed back to him in waves and with that, he tossed his cape, spun, and blew Jegra a kiss just as a yellow beam of light came down from his ship.

  “You’re not returning back to the ship?” Jegra asked, watching with great interest as Vice Admiral Cassera Danica took off her over jacket and tossed it aside.

  “My orders are to remain by your side, day and night, until the wedding.”

  “Is that so?” Jegra said with a grin.

  Cassera glanced at her and smiled. “Stop it! We have a giant razorback to kill.”

  She wasn’t kidding, either. Nogrossian razorbacks were twice as large as Earth elephants and twice as mean as any razorback warthog back on her planet.

  Also, to make things even more interesting, they had real razors all along their backs, right to the ends of their tails, similar to the extinct stegosaurus. This creature was difficult to best and downright lethal.

  As the gate at the end of the arena opened and Jegra could smell the beast, she cracked her neck and popped her knuckles then said, “Follow my lead.”

  An enraged snort came from the beast as it shook off its chains from the handlers who then scurried away in fright. The giant, razor-backed warthog burst out of its cage, bending the iron bars as it pushed through and charged tusk first into the arena. When it made eye contact with Jegra, it swung its head side to side, snorted, and stomped its back hoof, kicking up dirt in a grand display of dominance.

  Nogrossian boars were extremely territorial, and they are always ready to fight. And Jegra was happy to oblige.

  She rushed forward and the razorback met her in the middle of the arena, its giant tusks plowing through the sand with little resistance. Attempting to spear the smaller female biped with one of its tusks, the giant hog was surprised when its whole body lurched to a stop.

  “I’ve got it!” Jegra shouted, holding onto the creature’s tusk with two hands.

  Standing just behind her, Cassera said, “What do you want me to do about it?”

  “Zap it with your laser fingers!”

  “I don’t have that skill,” Cassera replied.

  “What are you talking about?” Jegra asked, holding the pig at bay.

  The warthog thrashed wildly in a desperate attempt to get away, but Jegra held on.

  “My people have developed different skill sets. Some can produce energy discharges. Others can create forcefields.”

  “So, you’re telling me you can create a protective bubble?”

  “It’s how I got the rank of vice admiral.”

  “Let me guess, to protect the emperor.”

  She nodded in the affirmative and then placed her hand on Jegra’s shoulder. “I have an idea.”

  “I’m all ears,” Jegra replied, struggling to hold the panicked animal that was two elephants tall and twice as long.

  “Let him go.”

  “What?”

  “Do you trust me?” Cassera asked.

  Jegra looked over her shoulder at Cassera. The truth was, she didn’t trust her motives, but in this moment, here and now, she trusted her instincts as a fighter. “Yes,” Jegra answered, and let go, flinging the stunned animal back away from them.

  Cassera threw up a shield by extending the palms of her hands and focusing. It looked like a disk of blue and green energy and when she separated her hands, fanning them apart, the shield responded to her motion and grew larger, wide enough to deflect the charge of an angered razorback warthog the size of a space barge.

  The warthog deflected off the shield and tumbled to the ground. It whined as it rolled in the dirt and fought frantically to get back up to its feet.

  Not wasting another moment, Jegra leapt high into the air. Cassera created a shield about three meters up for Jegra to leap off of. She created another three meters above that.

  Just as the beast had gotten back up on all fours, Jegra came crashing down on the warthog’s forehead like a meteorite.

  It groaned out as its head smashed into the ground of the arena. The entire stadium shook with the crash of the armored beast.

  A large dust cloud shot up when the beast’s body finally collapsed to the ground, and Jegra emerged from the cloud, dusting off her hands.

  “We make a good team, you and I,” she said.

  “Jegra, watch out!” Cassera said, throwing up a hand in alarm.

  Jegra felt a lacerating pain and looked down in alarm. The spiked end of the beast’s tail had penetrated her torso and a large spine was protruding from the middle of her chest.

  “Fuck me,” she said, and then collapsed to her knees.

  Cassera rushed forward and caught Jegra in her arms. “Don’t worry. We beat it,” she said. “Just stay with me.”

  Jegra began to feel dizzy; she wanted to thank Cassera for fighting with her even though she didn’t have to make such a grand gesture, but the blackness came before she could form the words.

  7

  “No!” Jegra shouted, sitting up in bed. She immediately regretted the sudden jolt to consciousness and gripped her aching side. Bandages held her together but her entire body throbbed with a lingering pain that wouldn’t soon go away.

  “You’re finally awake,” a voice said. She looked over to see Cassera walking over to her bedside, silver tray in hand. On the tray was a steaming cup of fresh herbal tea along with an ointment she recognized by the scent; a root that had numbing properties, something she used a lot these days.

  Although she healed fast and was exceptionally strong, her body took its fair share of beatings. And she wasn’t immune to the pain. She just grew a tolerance to it because it was so constant. But every once in a while, it was nice to not have to feel all the thousand aches and pains the body was heir to. Even she had her limitations.

  “Thanks,” Jegra said, taking the tea from Cassera who seated herself on the side of Jegra’s bed as she cared for her.

  “How long was I out for?”

  “About twelve hours.”

  “Twelve hours?” Jegra gasped. “But that means it’s a whole new day.”

  “It’s the middle of a whole new day, actually. But you looked as though you needed the rest.”

  “You know,” Jegra said, holding the cup in both hands in front of her face and letting the soothing aroma flood into her nostrils, “a year ago they wouldn’t even have let me had time to fully recuperate. I’d have been in the arena the very next day, fighting to survive. Every day just like the one before.”

  “You are a survivor, Jegra,” Cassera replied. “It’s one of the things that I find so fascinating about you. Your ability to push past all the pain and just keep going. No matter what.”

  Jegra smiled. “And what about you?” she asked, reaching over and brushing a strand of Cassera’s white hair to the side of her face and tucking it behind her blue ear, “what kind of woman are you?”

  “For years I’ve been whatever kind of woman the emperor needed me to be. Now? Well, that remains to be seen,” Cassera replied, looking away.

  Jegra gently pulled her face back to hers and leaned in and kissed Cassera on her lips. It was partly because Jegra wanted to thank her for tending to her wounds and taking care of her, but also it was to see if she could break through that icy-cold exterior of hers and get to know the real woman underneath it all.

  Cassera kissed her back, but it was short and awkward. She pulled away and said, “I’m on duty. I’m supposed to help you mend for your wedding day, and I’ve failed.”

  “Nonsense,” Jegra said. “I’ll be as good as new in no time. But since we have some time to kill, why don’t we make the best of it?”

  Cassera smiled and then stood up. Her face and skin still had dirt stains from their bout against the Nogrossian razorback hog as she hadn’t even left Jegra’s side for one moment. But Jegra didn’t care if Cassera
was sweaty and a bit salty. Sometimes the added flavor made it all the better. Right now, though, she just wanted to feel good. And Cassera could help with that.

  “Right now?” Cassera asked, looking around the room as though she searched for some distraction to use as an excuse. But there wasn’t any.

  Jegra reached across the bed and grabbed Cassera’s hand and pulled her back down onto the bed with her. “There’s no better time,” she answered.

  She climbed on top of Jegra, who lay back. They gazed into one another’s eyes for a long while, then Cassera sniffed her armpit and cringed. “But I’m filthy.”

  “The filthier the better,” Jegra teased. Reaching up, she grabbed Cassera by her neck and reeled her in for another kiss. This time Cassera’s Prussian blue lips met Jegra’s pink ones with an equal thirst and their tongues danced a sultry tango inside one another’s mouths.

  “I want you,” Jegra said, frantically trying to peel Cassera’s clothes off. “All of you.”

  But just as she had gotten her half-undressed a loud boom sounded from above. Then another. And another.

  “What in the world?”

  Cassera leapt up off the bed, leaving her clothes behind. “Come on!” she shouted, making her way to the door. “We have to go. Now!”

  Jegra didn’t know what was going on, but before she’d even climbed out of bed there was a large explosion. The wooden door of Jegra’s chambers blew off its hinges and smashed into Cassera, knocking her to the floor.

  Jegra leapt out of bed and rushed over to her friend. “Are you all right?”

  Cassera was already pushing herself up. “I think so,” she replied.

  “What’s going on?” Jegra asked, helping Cassera the rest of the way to her feet.

  “Come on,” Cassera said, dragging Jegra by her hand. “We have to get up to the Dreadnaught.

  The two women ran out into the arena. Half the stadium was on fire, the other half demolished. “What could have done this?” Jegra asked, looking at the destruction in horror. When there was no reply, she looked back over at Cassera who was staring up at the sky. Jegra slowly looked up, shielding her eyes from the mid-day sun with the palm of her hand. There were five giant ships, each at least as big as the Dreadnaught, and all of them were firing on the ship.