Candidate (Selected Book 4) (10 page)

"I suppose I do."

"Today is a third challenge."

"The last then?"

"For this pair, yes. The human believes this is a simple challenge. She is being dropped at the south end of one of our large arenas. There is an exit at the north. She has a paper map, simple supplies, and her visor serves as a compass. If she is able to exit the arena, she wins."

"But the event is rigged."

"Not the way you think. Her challenger is from a species humans call Implacs. That is short for Implacable. They are the most maddeningly stubborn species known to the federation." She shook her head. "This is the third time for this particular Implac. I ensured his loss the first two times."

"Why? I thought you wanted the ETs to win."

"He is at least as stubborn as any of them, and he wouldn't listen to me when I told him he was attempting to win the wrong woman each time. You understand, even if he wins the challenges, he must still woo his mate. He gets three months, and after that, if she wishes to return home, she may."

"Right."

"During his first two visits, he attempted to capture very proud women who would not be readily pushed around."

"I think I see the problem. And this woman will allow herself to be pushed around."

"This particular woman had a poor childhood and will respond exceedingly well if her mate is able to convince her of one simple fact." Then she paused.

"You're waiting for me to ask, aren't you?"

"Yes."

"What simple fact?"

"That he will protect her no matter what. And he will not feel fully tested until he is able to demonstrate his ability to do so. They are well matched in this way."

"This isn't going to be a simple challenge of the candidate escaping the arena."

"She may escape, but I doubt it. There is not one hunter. There are three."

"Please tell me you don't have a pride of lions in there."

"Better. A friend of yours and her brother."

"You have a couple of
Wookies
in there?" I raised my voice.

She snorted. "Yes, I do. And I told them if they are able to catch and keep the human, then I'll let the male have her. Oh, he'll have his own challenges, but he won't face the arena."

"They're going to be deeply motivated."

"Oh yes."

"Soft Rain didn't tell me earlier."

"This was a last minute change," explained the administrator. "They were still drying from their swim when I messaged I had an intriguing offer for them."

"Does the Implac know?"

She snorted again. "No. If the Wookies catch her first, I'll tell him. Otherwise he won't find out until the Wookies intercept him."

I laughed.

"I do not like this Implac," she continued. "If he loses today, it won't break my heart. This way, I don't have to let the human go. The Wookie would take care of her far better than the Implac would. Oh, she'd have a good life with the Implac, but she won't have love. Implacs don't understand the word. But compared to where she was living two weeks ago." She trailed off, shaking her head. "Andromeda, you may think what happens here is barbaric, but it isn't remotely barbaric compared to what humanity does to itself."

"I haven't done anything like that to anyone."

"What have you done to help the situation, Andromeda? Wait. Don't tell me. It's not your responsibility." Then she made a sort of snuffle noise. "I'm sorry. You don't deserve that."

"You care," I said quietly.

"Of course I care! I'd like to put half of humanity over my knee and spank you bloody."

"Am I in the list deserving such treatment?"

"No. Again, my apologies." She made the snuffle sound again. "A few more details. The human has a compass and a paper map. The Implac gets a proper map with his location marked and a compass. Periodically, he gets a brief flash of where the human was, but it's offset by five minutes."

"Does he know that?"

She laughed. "No."

"You really don't want him to win."

"I don't want to hand him an easy win. If he knew exactly where she was, this event wouldn't last long enough. The Wookies have a similar map. They get a flash of the human half as often as the Implac, but they have a constant indicator telling them where he is. If they catch her first, then I'll add them to his map, and we'll slow the Wookies down so he can intercept them."

"Is anyone going to get hurt?"

"Probably. Not the human, but would you want to fight two Wookies?"

"They're going to fight?"

"Unless he is able to exit the arena a lot faster than I expect him to. Of course, they may encounter each other and forget about the human. She could escape. I hope she doesn't."

"You want to marry her off."

"She doesn't know how to take care of herself. If I am forced to release her..." She shook her head again. "I'll think of something."

"Are you one of those people who thinks a woman needs a man to take care of her?"

The Catseye began laughing. It was sort of a bark, sort of a snort, sort of a snuffle, but it was clearly a laugh. "You do know that Catseye don't have males. I don't think we're even able to entertain the thought you just suggested. No. This human needs a
mother
."

"I'm 34 and still quite capable, but there are times I need my mother."

"To make breakfast for you?"

"Well, no. I know how to stop by Starbucks."

She laughed again then sobered. "Questions?"

"I think I've got it. I'm sure I'll have more at some point."

"I want you to hold them during this event. We'll have time to talk before the afternoon events."

"All right."

* * * *

After that, she released me, returning to her chair. I roamed the room. Little was happening, but I looked at the screens. When I drew near one of the human women, she felt my presence and turned to face me.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to disturb you."

"You aren't. I'm Sal. I wondered if you'd like to sit and see what I'll do."

"Oh. Sure."

She gestured to a chair, so I grabbed it and pulled it over.

"Today it's my job to watch the mating candidate. Gene--" and she gestured to the one of the men, "-will watch the challenger."

"The Implac."

"Right. That's Danny," she said, indicating the other human. "He's watching the two Wookies."

"What do you mean by watch?"

"We have cameras. I'm controlling 16. Gene has another 16. Danny has his hands full with 24."

"Oh, wow. Okay."

"They're like those drones the kids fly," she said. "Here, I can show you." She gestured to a screen. It was like a bird's eye view. The image climbed up through the trees, whizzed around above the top for a minute, and then approached something hovering in the sky. She was right. It looked remarkably like a drone.

"The people in the arena can't see or hear them," Sal explained. "Their visor won't let them. This one is sort of the master drone. The computers here talk to this drone, and this one talks to the rest."

"Got it."

"The others are smaller. Here's the feed from the master." The image changed, and I saw another drone. It looked much like the first, but was perhaps smaller. "It's about the size of a swallow. It's a bitch to fly when it's windy, and we have to use bigger ones."

"Do you use a joystick?"

"I can direct it with the mouse, but usually they go on auto. I tell it who the target is and where I want them. They will follow her around, doing their best to maintain their distance and avoid flying into a tree. That can be difficult, and sometimes I have to help them out."

"Got it."

"So sometimes my job is easy. I tell the drones what to do and then keep an eye on them. But some challenges are more complicated, and we want more angles."

"Got it."

"Some events require us to do other things," she added. "And of course, we have to be ready to act fast if someone gets hurt."

"How often does that happen?"

"Bumps and bruises are common. The aliens get hurt in the main arena. Out here, the biggest danger is someone deciding to climb a tree and falling out. Stuff like that happens a few times a month."

Then she paused. "Oh, here we go." She gestured to the screen, and I saw three of the alien flying craft. They were at a distance, and then they separated. One approached our location, then I watched multiple views as it set down into the jungle.

"Sorry, can't talk more, but you can watch." Then Sal turned back to her screens and her keyboard, and her fingers began moving. I couldn't tell how she was doing it, but I watched the screens as they changed views. Some watched the lander. Several moved to the rear of the lander. Several more moved to cluster around a stone pillar at the center of the small clearing.

Then I saw the human. She was dressed in some sort of skin-tight jumper, boots, gloves, and a hat. Her hair was short, but I thought it might be dirty blond. I cocked my head, trying to envision the woman that the administrator had described.

There were two women guards, and I thought I recognized them. Each held the woman by an arm and led her from the lander. They were moving slowly, and the woman was staring straight ahead, not even looking around.

"She can't see or hear," Sal said.

The guards were gentle. Then pulled her to the pillar, set her hands on top of it, and it swallowed them. One removed the handcuffs; the other bent down and removed her shackles.

My heart went out to her.

One of the guards squeezed the woman's arm. And then they both turned and walked quickly back to the lander. A minute later, it rose into the air. None of the screens watched it fly away.

The drones moved. One set up position above and beyond the woman as if we were looking over her head. If it stayed there, we'd get a feel for what she could see. Others set up similar positions, some watching the woman, some watching the jungle.

Sal turned to me. "You should go look at the other monitors before it starts."

"Right. Thank you."

I moved around the room, coming to a stop behind the man Sal had called Gene. He looked over his shoulder, nodded, then turned back to his screen.

I saw the alien. "He looks like a dog."

Gene looked over his shoulder. "Yeah, a really ugly dog."

Oh, he didn't walk on four legs or anything. He was bipedal and looked quite sturdy. Two arms, two legs, and one head. But his facial features resembled a dog. Gene was right. An ugly dog.

"The females aren't bad," Gene added. "And even the males aren't all as ugly as this bloke. I hope the Wookies win."

I was reminded of a movie line.

I moved over to Danny last. He had his cameras arranged, several of them watching the Wookies, the rest on the jungle. The two Wookies were kneeling down, their heads together, and I could see they were talking

"What are they saying?" I asked.

Danny looked over his shoulder. "Hell if I know. They aren't speaking English."

"Oh. Right. Sorry."

"It's fine." But then he turned back to his screen.

"Human." I turned, and the crabby Catseye was looking at me. "Come here."

I stepped up to her. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't bother them."

"That's not what I wanted to tell you." She pointed. "If you wish to see what I am doing, you can watch those screens. They may not make much sense to you, but I have slaved them to indicate what I am doing."

"Thank you, Ms. Speckled."

"Just call me Clover, please."

"Of course."

She held out her hand. "I am sorry I was rude earlier."

We shook. "Quite all right," I said. "I've been rude to a few people myself lately."

She made that Catseye snorting laugh. "We both have cause. We're about to begin."

"Right."

I moved away, stepping to the workstations she'd indicated. There were multiple screens, and each screen showed me multiple things. There was a map on one screen with four dots. I knew the human was in the far south. Two dots were right next to each other, and they were to the far west. The single dot, which must be the Implac, was to the far east. Also marked were two lakes, one of them small, a river, several small streams, and then some additional marks that weren't immediately clear to me.

Three more screens showed multiple images of each of the participants. I could see the human, the Implac, and both Wookies.

"Begin," said Jasmine firmly. Several things happened at once. The stone holding the human relaxed its hold. The Implac immediately began running, and I would see shortly he was heading directly to the human. The Wookies also began moving, but they headed closer towards the middle.

The woman paused then looked around. I tried to judge her expression or body language, but I wasn't able. Then she knelt down and collected a backpack sitting at her feet. She opened it, looked inside for a minute, then zipped it and slung it across her back. Then she turned slowly before she began moving due north.