Alien Gladiator's Prize

by Zara Starr

  Alien Gladiator’s Prize

  Star Gladiators Book 2

  Zara Starr

  Copyright © 2020 by Zara Starr

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations in book reviews.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and events are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, places, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

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  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Epilogue

  Star Gladiators

  About Zara Starr

  Also by Zara Starr

  Chapter One

  Amelia

  Amelia zipped up her last bag and set it next to the front door. She glanced at the time – it was only eight. Still, it would be best to get a good night’s rest. Tomorrow, she would have to be up early.

  Amelia was excited. This was the opportunity of a lifetime, the chance to put her name on some of the most distinguished scientific papers that were in circulation.

  Not only that, but she would be able to make a difference. She would be able to really contribute to science. It was all she had ever wanted.

  Her parents didn’t really understand what she did – or why. They didn’t understand the scientific world, where Amelia worked on levels they just couldn’t imagine.

  But that was okay. Amelia was used to being misunderstood by now. It was like that with everyone who crossed her path. It was a lonely life, but Amelia had never been incredibly popular, so she was used to doing things on her own.

  Now, going to the Cocos Islands with Doctor Malcolm would change everything. They had studied together back in the day, but since then, they had developed their specialties in different areas, and they hadn’t seen each other in a while. When she had gotten the call, requesting her specifically, she had accepted immediately. For Doctor Malcolm to still remember her, it was a compliment in itself.

  The Cocos Islands had many different species of insects that very few people had seen. They were going there to study the insects, to see how they affected the habitat. More particularly, they wanted to determine if some of the insects might have been responsible for the near-extinction of another insect species that had been a part of the tropical world for years.

  After going through her checklist again, and being satisfied that she had packed everything she would need, Amelia got dressed in her pajamas and climbed into bed. She lay back on the pillow and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath in and then releasing it slowly.

  The project on the island would last for at least two years. During that time, she would be away from home, from her family and the one or two distant friends she had left.

  Amelia didn’t mind. She didn’t mind being away for so long, essentially living in a different era while life moved forward. If she went to the islands and studied the insects, she would be doing something worth her while. Something that mattered.

  Until now, it had felt like everything she did was insignificant – it didn’t matter whether she had done it or not.

  If there was anything that made the existence of a scientist seem superfluous, it was discoveries that didn’t change society or its approach to nature at all.

  Amelia tossed and turned for a while. She couldn’t fall asleep – she was either too hot or too cold. She wasn’t comfortable. She reached for the glass that was on her nightstand and took a sip of the cool water, hoping it would put her at ease. But soon after that, she needed to get up to pee.

  By eleven o’clock, she was frustrated. She had gone to bed on time, intent on getting enough rest before she had to wake up at five in the morning.

  She just couldn’t fall asleep.

  By midnight, Amelia was starting to get irritated. The more time passed, the less time she would have to sleep. She had to be up again in five hours. And Amelia was the type of person who needed to get a full eight hours in order to not be cranky.

  Besides, she had to get enough sleep to be able to think clearly. That was the crux of her entire career. She had a scientific mind. A lot of her professors and early colleagues had commented on how clever she was. How sharp. How she always noticed the smallest details that other scientists missed.

  It was one of the reasons Amelia knew for a fact that she was in the right career. She had the perfect way of thinking and an approach that came naturally, while others had to learn it. When they had given her step-by-step instructions to approach scientific tasks, the steps aligned perfectly with what she would have done by instinct. She was a natural.

  But if she was very sleep-deprived, she wouldn’t be able to think clearly and all that natural ability would fade away.

  Of course, Doctor Malcolm would understand that traveling was exhausting. He would not expect too most from her on the first day, surely.

  After midnight, Amelia was so irritated with not being able to sleep that she climbed out of bed. She went to the kitchen to make herself a cup of tea – not coffee, which she adored, because that would have only kept her up longer.

  Once the tea had brewed, she carried the teacup back to her bedroom. She opened the sliding door that led onto the small patio and took a deep breath. The sea air greeted her.

  Amelia lived just outside Los Angeles, her apartment overlooking a small beach. It was the only thing she felt she would miss. She liked her little apartment. She liked the fact that it opened up almost right on to the ocean. And she liked that it was private. Her neighbors couldn’t overlook her small patio, and her working hours were so strange that she barely ran into them.

  Although seeing that she was going to an island, maybe she wouldn’t miss it at all. She could create a new home there. The two years would fly by quickly. Before she knew it, she would be home again.

  Or jetting off to her next adventure.

  Amelia held her teacup in both hands, feeling the warmth seep into her body, helping her relax. She had made chamomile tea, which usually made her feel a little more relaxed and sleepy. She knew that after this, she would finally be able to fall asleep.

  She glanced up at the stars. Here, outside the city, the stars were bright – unhindered by the pollution that was a result of so many people living together. It was another reason why Amelia adored her apartment.

  The Milky Way was a smattering of stars across the night sky, twinkling like diamonds or a ball of jewelry upended.

  If Amelia hadn’t gone into science, she figured she might have chosen to go into astrophysics instead. Insects fascinated her, but so did stars.

  As she watched the night sky, it was almost as if it shifted. Amelia squeezed her eyes shut, feeling a little unhinged. She rubbed the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger. Maybe she was finally getting tired.
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  When she looked up at the night sky again, everything was normal. Yes, she was definitely getting tired. That was a good sign.

  One of the stars seemed to shine brighter than the rest and Amelia focused on it, frowning. Had it been like that just a moment ago? Had it been like that always? How was she only noticing it now?

  As she watched, the star seemed to be coming closer. She blinked, shook her head, looked away, and then at the star again. Her mind was playing tricks on her. It had to be.

  But as Amelia watched the star, it definitely grew in size. Now, it was considerably larger than it had been just a moment before. And it seemed to be growing in size consistently.

  What was that? Was it a meteor? Something that was going to crash into Earth? Did anyone know about this?

  A moment later, Amelia realized that it wasn’t a star or a meteor that she was looking at. It was something else. And it was coming closer.

  She realized that the twinkling she had seen hadn’t been the star shining in the night sky, but rather, artificial light. The object that came closer and closer to her now was more like a craft rather than a natural or even a celestial body.

  When it was close enough, Amelia realized that it was a spacecraft. And it seemed like it was coming straight toward her.

  Her heart leaped in shock and she stepped back, trying to get back into the apartment. If she could just close the sliding door, she would be safe.

  What was happening?

  Amelia stared at the spacecraft, her eyes wide and her feet rooted to the floor in fear. This was just a nightmare, wasn’t it? Spaceships like that – from outer space, definitely not human-made – didn’t exist. She was just dreaming. She had worried about falling asleep for nothing – she was sleeping right now.

  She knew that it was a dream when the spaceship lowered a small gangway onto her patio. The door slid open with a hiss, white smoke floating from the inside and curling around the gangway for a moment before dissipating. A strange-looking creature crawled out of the craft.

  If Amelia could have found her voice, she would have screamed. It was all so bizarre. Surreal even. It didn’t feel like it was really happening. That was why it didn’t feel like much of a threat. It couldn’t be real.

  The creature looked like a giant praying mantis. It was the closest thing Amelia could think of, although it didn’t exactly look like one. It stood on two legs, with arms that almost resembled hers, but not quite. It had clawed hands that clutched some kind of weapon, some kind of gun if she had to guess.

  And it was aimed at her.

  The strange mantis moved from side to side, looking around. Its eyes were not the eyes of insects, although they did seem completely empty and soulless. But there was an expression on its face of sorts. Not an expression that Amelia knew or an expression that humans used, but she couldn’t claim to feel nothing when this creature stared at her.

  In fact, she definitely felt something. She felt recognition – of some kind.

  Without knowing how, Amelia knew that she was what the creature was looking for. It wasn’t a pure accident that they had landed on her porch.

  Another mantis-like creature appeared, holding a similar weapon, and Amelia realized that they could hurt her.

  “Please, don’t shoot,” she said, holding up her hands. Dammit, this felt like the movies. Some ridiculous sci-fi flick where the woman was being abducted by aliens.

  Sometimes, Amelia dreamed about the insects that she studied all day, her brain refusing to switch off. This was the first time it took such a strange turn though.

  The insects made a clicking sound, moving closer.

  Amelia backed away. With every step they took forward, she took one backward.

  Her back hit against the low wall that surrounded her patio and her teacup fell out of her hand, the glass shattering and the tea she had left splashing on the floor.

  “Please, take whatever you want,” Amelia said. “I have money.” She wondered if money meant anything to them. “Or scientific equipment, if that’s what you want.”

  That was harder to offer. Amelia loved her scientific equipment. She had saved up for a long time to buy things for herself. And it was already packed in her bags, ready to travel to the Cocos Islands.

  The insects made more clicking sounds, coming closer and closer to Amelia. She couldn’t back away anymore. When they were right in front of her, they moved to the sides, each of them flanking her. They started probing and jabbing at her with the tips of their weapons.

  First, Amelia tried to swat them off. What were they doing? But a moment later, she realized what they wanted. They wanted her to move.

  Oddly, it wasn’t aggressive. They weren’t just suggesting that she go in a different direction. They were directing her toward the ship.

  When they wouldn’t stop poking at her, Amelia had to do as they suggested. She started moving toward the strange craft that hovered just outside her patio. Would any of her neighbors notice? The lights were extremely bright and the craft hovered close to the building. Maybe others would see it.

  But it was late – almost one in the morning – and all of her neighbors would probably be asleep. Her neighbors were all very quiet people of routine.

  When Amelia stood at the foot of the gangway, the insects started nudging her to get on it. She didn’t want to go. Where were they going to take her?

  When she stopped moving, one of the insects fired his weapon. Amelia squeaked. The shot lodged in the wall next to her – a warning. It left behind a hole that went straight into her bedroom. Amelia blinked at the wall with wide eyes – that weapon would completely ruin her.

  She moved up the gangway. She wouldn’t let them fire that thing at her.

  When she was inside the ship, one of the mantis-like creatures gestured toward a seat that flipped out from the side of the craft. Amelia sat down without hesitation. None of this was real anyway.

  Soon, she was going to wake up, and she was going to laugh at herself for having such an absurd dream. She would shake her head at herself for not just taking sleeping pills and getting it over with. Then she would go to the Cocos Islands and carry on with her life, not even giving this dream a second thought.

  The ship started to crumble beneath her. The gangway retreated and the door hissed closed.

  The spaceship started to move, and Amelia wondered how it was possible for a dream to feel so real. Maybe this was where books and movies came from, people who had crazy dreams and wrote about it rather than forget about it. Maybe that was what Amelia would do once she woke up too.

  This dream was just too strange. It was too good for her to come up with herself. Amelia was scientific, not creative. These types of things didn’t happen to her.

  The spaceship jerked forward, pressing Amelia tightly against the side of the craft. She held onto the handle that had been bolted to the wall nearby, as if it was exactly for that purpose.

  The large, mantis-like creatures still hovered around. Watching her. Approaching her.

  Amelia shut her eyes. She decided that she just had to wait it out.

  Soon, it would be over.

  Soon, she would wake up.

  Chapter Two

  Gage

  Gage sat by his kitchen table, cleaning his weapons. The antimatter gun that he always carried with him was his favorite. Cleaning it was almost therapeutic, not just necessary.

  While he cleaned, his mind worked overtime. He focused on the small mechanical parts that moved together, cleaning them one by one as he went over his tactics in his mind. A new gladiator season was starting and he was preparing to win.

  That was what he always did. He was a good fighter; he always had been.

  Of course, it helped that the Qai race could predict what their opponents would do before they did it. It was one of the reasons why Gage had won as many fights as he had.

  There were no rules during the fights – he could do whatever he needed to win. The others did the same. From
the Karzem with their metal implants and immunity to pain to the Palean gladiators who could use telekinesis. They all had something on their side.

  Nothing the other creatures had could help them against Gage though. He could predict moves, so it didn’t matter what they used to help them.

  As Gage cleaned his gun, he put the pieces next to each other on the table, working systematically.

  This season’s championship, held on Saitha itself, included prizes from a new race. This hadn’t happened in a long time. The Saithin Championships were always filled with amazing prizes, from money to rare creatures and exotic females.

  But new races were always something special and Gage had a feeling they were using the new race as a marketing strategy, to get more fighters to enroll, to get more viewers to tune in. The championships were always broadcasted across the galaxy, and it was one of the planet’s biggest sources of revenue.

  Gage was curious about the new race. What would the females be like? Some of the females they had in the championship as prizes were intriguing. Gage had won a few females for himself too, although he never kept them long.

  He liked the exotic species, the females who were different from what was usually in the prize pool. He didn’t care to keep a female for himself, but it was always interesting to talk to them and find out about their worlds.

  Of course, to get his hands on one of the new females, Gage would have to win.

  Not that that was a problem. He had a string of wins behind him so far, and he couldn’t see why it would be any different from the last two seasons.