Trying to draw a fast breath, she sucked in a lungful of water. Panicked, she tried frantically to surface. She wasn't going to make it. Overwhelming sadness joined the exhaustion made her strokes and kicks more and more ineffective. She watched the bubbles rise to the surface as she tried to get her body to the air.
A hard arm wrapped around her and pulled her into the air where she coughed and gagged, dragging in air. Kellac pulled her to the shore.
She coughed up water until she vomited.
“It’s all right. Best to get it all out.” Kellac stroked her hair gently.
“I-I still have three dives left,” she gasped. Her teeth were chattering.
“No, it would be foolish. I wasn’t sure I could reach you in time. I won't be as fast if this happens again. And the Game Master has no safety measures. Other than the rope.”
He sounded furious and she glanced at him. He watched the Games Master approach with narrowed, dangerous eyes.
She rested against him, too exhausted and shaken to try and look strong for the swarm. She was cold and appreciated Kellac’s warm body pressed against her as he continued to hold her.
“Your hand is bleeding.”
She looked at her hand in surprise. Most of her palm was scraped raw and bleeding.
“We’re low on food. I should try again,” she whispered.
“Quiet. We’ll work something out. I'll share what I won. It is not worth dying for.”
Kellac lifted her as though she weighed nothing and carried her to their shelter, ignoring the Game Master. Gema buried her face against his neck, thankful he a man of good character. The Naturals who died in past shows had been urged to compete by their PureGen partners when they were exhausted or injured.
“If he was solid, I’d break his neck,” he muttered.
She couldn’t help it, she giggled. Kellac grinned at her and their eyes met. “I'll stoke up the fire and make an early supper. We'll just relax the rest of the day. Maybe make some kind of strategy.”
She nodded, too tired to speak.
He hoped the near drowning didn't have repercussions down the road from bacteria or other microscopic inhabitants in the water. Kellac rummaged through the med kit for medications. He loped to their food cache up in a tree and found two meals he could make into a type of stew with a pile of edible greens they had. The hot liquid would be good for her.
When he got back to the camp the Game Master was still there, trying to get Gema to complete her turn.
“Ignore him.” Kellac could barely contain his fury. No safety measures! She could have died. He'd barely managed to reach her in time. He wanted to pound the Game Master, and the producers of this game, and all the avid viewers, too. For all their high tech they were nothing but barbarians. Evil indulgent society.
He could not let the audience know how he despised them. Instead he got Gema some dry clothes, ignoring the Game Master until he finally left in a poof of holographic sparkles. They ate and he insisted Gema take one of the medications they had, to perhaps stop an infection in her lungs from contaminated river water. It made her sleepy, so while Gema rested and then slept, he worked on the fence, taking his anger out on it, trying to think of a way to get some control over this game.
***
“What’s the catch?” Kellac asked.
They'd had a couple days without the Game Master and spent the time foraging greens and weaving fishnets out of a long thin reed they found growing along the river. Gema found a variety of edible grubs and shelled river snails from the small creek not too far from camp. While they foraged, or worked on the fence, and they carefully exchanged notes and ideas about a counter challenge. Her hand was scabbed over and painful to move, but appeared to be free from infection.
The Game Master laughed. “Oh, I love your attitude. The audience loves a rebel. You are becoming quite popular, you know. Especially with the ladies.”
Not on this planet. Kellac glanced at Gema, who looked particularly delicious with her hair pulled up in a knot with a sprinkling of golden brown freckles across her nose. He wanted to lick them before kissing her on those full soft lips.
“I’ve noticed the food supply’s getting thin.” Kellac glanced at Gema. They'd been quietly adding native foodstuffs to their stews, stretching their rations. Apparently the swarm or the editors up on the ship hadn’t noticed.
The Game Master turned to Gema. “This challenge is specifically for Gema, so she can redeem herself. You want to earn some credits, now don't you?” He didn't wait for her to answer.
“You will hike to a designated site—we will provide coordinates— and haul back a cart of food. A cart of food would be a handy thing to have, wouldn’t it? The viewers decided to give this challenge to you, since you have a negative balance in your account.”
“Are you serious?” Kellac jumped up and the Game Master and swarm turned to him. “You’re giving a crippled girl that challenge? Alone? If your plan is to execute us, why don’t you just use a weapon?”
“Gema is injured?” The Game Master asked. His fake face showed fake shock.
“Look at her leg!” The swarm zapped over to her legs.
“It was injured years ago, and now you want to exploit her weakness? There is no honor in the challenge,” Kellac said. He stood, eyes narrowed. “Are the citizens of this system without honor?”
The Game Master did not approve. His eyes narrowed. “Then we need your counter offer, in one day’s time.” The Game Master spoke in a clipped way, as though offended, and then disappeared.
The Game Master seems determined to wipe me out. Maybe the audience hates me. Gema sighed. The future stretched before her looked grim.
Well, what was new? She'd lived most of her life on Toph, and they hated lesser life forms. I may not make it off this planet alive. She shivered. Was she really so despicable?
She got up and retrieved her foraging basket. It was either that or cry inside the dugout and she didn't want Kellac to see. She wiped a tear off her face.
Kellac was popular. He had some credits in his account for winning an audience favorite poll. Really she didn't mind. He was a good man, kind and honorable. Half the women in the galaxy are probably in crazy love with Kellac, especially after watching him stand before the Game Master with fire in his eyes, protecting me, talking about honor… she was half in love with him herself.
Kellac handed her a note.
“Our counter offer—you’ll show your tits. It will get the male audience interested in you, and change the focus of the game from physical challenges to sexual. You’ll get better audience input.”
She glared at him.
“I don’t want to change the focus that way.”
“I know.” He scribbled.
“We need to amass points and food. This will do it, without endangering our lives. It's the practical thing to do. Play the audience.”
She got up, livid. “This is just what I didn’t want to do.”
“You want to survive, you want to be free, with points. This is the way.” He wrote some more.
“We string it out, some nudity here, a kiss there… tease the audience. This week you take off your top, the following week I do something.”
He tucked the paper into her hand and she just held it for a few moments before reading it, and then threw it into the fire.
Gema scowled at him. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Then think about it. It’s a winning plan. And we weren't going to talk about it anyway.” Kellac slapped some globes out of his face.
She considered it while picking greens down by the river, and again while digging up a starchy root from the river bank they had come to enjoy. After cleaning them and putting the roots on a flat stone near the fire she marched into the hut and wrote her own note. She shoved it at Kellac, who was working on the fence and crossed her arms in front of her, waiting for his response.
“I’m not PureGen. I’m not beautiful. It won’t work. The audience will
laugh at me. It will just be humiliating, and it won’t get us out of any physical challenges.”
He read it and grinned. Tossing the paper in the fire he looked at her, eyes intent on her face. He moved so close she could feel the heat of his body through their clothes. She backed away but he rested his hands on her shoulders so she couldn’t move away. The swarm buzzed busily about them. He raised one hand to her breasts, then gripped her baggy shirt and pulled it out from her body.
She sucked in a breath as her heart rate ratcheted up. She didn't know what he planned to do, but the idea of stopping him didn't even enter her mind.
He leaned over her, taking a long look down her shirt. “It’ll work. Trust me on this.” He leaned over and brushed his lips against her ear, nuzzling the loose strands falling from her knot out of the way.
“I’ve been in the military since I was a youth. I know men,” he whispered into her ear. “I have three brothers. Went to all male schools. I’ve seen the pictures of naked women men collect. You probably haven’t, have you?”
Gema shook her head awkwardly because his lips, warm and firm, traced the shell of her ear in tiny nibbles, sending shocked pleasure through her. She sagged against him for a moment, her nipples tingling with pleasure as she pressed against his chest, a shiver zinging all the way to the sensitive area between her legs.
“And I’m going to keep my eyes wide open,” he whispered.
She fled.
Chapter Three
“We have a counter offer.” Kellac acted as their spokesperson. He grinned right into the swarm, showing his gleaming teeth and dimples. “Something for my friends in the military. I know how it is, locked down on the base or on satellite hubs or spacers, surrounded with other smelly men, with leave times few and far between.” He winked.
He turned to Gema and drew her forward so she stood in front of him. She could feel his heat against her back. “I’ve persuaded the lovely Gema to remove her top for our enjoyment. Wouldn’t you all rather see more of Gema than some sweaty hike? I know I would. I’ve been thinking about Gema revealing all this beauty for weeks now.” He gave a bad boy smile calculated to raise the temperature of the women out there, glued to the Viewcast. Kellac slid his hands up and down her forearms, his knuckles gliding along the sides of her breasts. Even though she knew she was being watched by millions, her nipples hardened.
“You’ve heard the counter offer,” the Game Master boomed. “Ready your votes. We will announce the results in five minutes.”
The five minutes seemed far longer to Gema. She sat on a large fallen tree they’d pulled into the fence for a type of chair.
“The audience has spoken. Gema, remove your upper garments for the pleasure of our audience.”
Gema’s heart jumped into her throat. Her face got hot and she turned away from Kellac.
Kellac moved right in front. She frowned at him, but he just grinned.
Reluctantly she lifted her shirt and dropped it to the ground, then worked on the ties of her worn bodice, an item of clothing not provided in the penitentiary. PureGen woman didn’t wear them on Toph, and she’d found this rare one at a salvage shop. It was old, and the ribbons were frayed.
Her fingers fumbled with nerves as she pulled at the ties. One hand was still stiff and scabbed over, which didn’t help.
“Let me.” Kellac brushed her hands out of the way and then gently swept her hair over her shoulders. He worked on the knot between her breasts, the swarm flittering about. “I have the best seat in the galaxy,” He said straight at the swarm, with a flash of white teeth and dimples.
Gema grit her teeth. She wasn’t doing this so he could look at her! But her nipples hardened, as though trying to reach up to his hands, so close.
“Sit down.” She frowned at him. He was enjoying this a little too much.
Kellac didn’t listen, of course. He just winked an eye and worked on the knot. Her stomach jumped, a combination of nerves and desire. Tingles ran down to her toes, caused by Kellac’s fingers brushing her breasts as he helped with the laces.
“Maybe the Game Master can get you a new ribbon for lacing.” Kellac looked at the hologram Master. “Coral would look nice on her, don’t you think?”
“Well, you certainly seem to know the ladies.” The Game Master gave a hearty laugh.
She couldn’t talk, her mouth was dry and her nipples were hard, even with the swarm and the Game Master viewing her.
“There it is,” Kellac’s voice was low, a growl, as the knot came undone and he gently spread open her bodice. She shivered as her breasts fell free, exposed to the warm sunshine. The Game Master counted down thirty seconds. Gema looked resolutely toward the roof of the hut.
“Ten seconds,” the Game Master blared out.
Gema stood there, swallowing hard. Finally she glanced at Kellac.
He was looking at her, eye lids half down, lips pursed just a little. Then his eyes lifted and looked into hers. He nodded, so slightly she could barely see it.
He looked edible.
“That works,” he said his voice husky. “You have nothing to worry about.”
She pulled her shirt on.
“A refreshing interlude, wasn’t it, men?” Boomed the Game Master. “Let’s thank Gema for her little show. We will add twenty-five points to her account.”
“Just twenty-five? Come on, man, do an audience survey. I think there are men out there who would give her more than twenty-five stingy points. Men, I’m right aren’t I? How often do you see breasts like Gema’s, so full and round, with those coral pink nipples? A rare beauty! Make this Game Master do right by lovely Gema. ”
Gema gaped at him. He was trying to garner audience support for her.
The Game Master disappeared.
“Come down to the river.” Kellac grabbed her by the arm and they trotted down to the shallow spot where they bathed.
“Why?” They usually went in the late afternoon, as a break from the heat.
He grinned at her. “You don’t know?”
Gema frowned at him. “No.”
“Hmm. Take a man who was on military duty, and then in a military prison, now alone with a young woman in the wilderness. Young woman takes off her top revealing truly stunning breasts. Man has a normal reaction.”
“Oh.” He’s hard. She could feel her face turn red again.
He laughed, then ran into the river. As she stepped on the bank he splashed a spray of water at her. The swarm zipped away from the water.
“Are you a virgin?” He asked the question then splashed the swarm away again.
“No.” She looked at him, warily. “Are you?” She got in the river and sat down so the water flowed to her shoulders. He joined her.
His grin broadened.
“So, many lovers or a few?” He flicked a drop of water at her.
“You share first.” Gema sent a double-handed splash his way.
“Many.”
“Oh big surprise.”
Kellac just grinned and waggled his eyebrows. “So, tell.”
“Just one.” She scowled at him.
“Tell more.” He swamped the swarm with several mighty waves in a row and they skittered away.
“He was PureGen. I worked for him as his cook and housekeeper. He was retired, but had been an important man on the planetary council.”
“He was an old man?” Kellac yelped.
“Yes. But beautiful. White hair, bright blue eyes… PureGens are coded to age well. You know.”
“So you were lovers.”
“Yes. For a year. It was a secret, of course. He was a pioneer in PureGen legislation on Toph. It would have looked bad if people knew about me.” She looked down at the water, not meeting his eyes. “Then he died.”
“I’m sorry.”
“He betrayed me.” Gema couldn’t keep the hurt out of her voice. “He swore he would fix things so I would have the funds to get off world. But after he died, I waited. His family had me clean and shut the house up. A
nd then they fired me.”
“Maybe he just forgot. Maybe he meant to. Maybe he assumed he had more time.”
Gema sat quiet for a while. It was sweet he was trying to make excuses for her dead lover. “Sometimes I think he just died too soon. Mostly though I think I just didn’t matter much, not being pure or a citizen.”
Alien Blood (Diaspora Worlds) Page 4
