Deep Space Endeavor 3 Death Match (11 page)

“You will have your choice of these fine weapons for your battle, Colonel Marcos.” The Farannsian diplomat began with a lack of conviction that suggested he was already finished with this conversation.

“No thank you, I think I’ll use my own weapons. I have trained with them and they would feel more comfortable to me.”

“We are sorry, but that is not permitted, you must use these weapons.” He replied as if explaining something to a small child.

Jesse feigned a look of confusion as he saw the Zinnebailans smile. He started to accept the weapons when he looked up and asked, “This is a shorter than normal death match, is it not?” When no answer immediately came, he looked over one of the swords presented and continued. “The match will be only two days instead of three, am I right? And it’s already been advertised as such and cannot be changed?”

“Yes, you are correct, but I do not see what that has to do with anything, what is your point?” The diplomat hated every moment of being in the presence of humans and both his speech and actions highlighted that fact every time he had to speak.

“My point,” he paused for effect, knowing how the diplomat felt and relishing his discomfort. “Is that I would like to use my own weapons for the death match.”

“Colonel Marcos, as we have already stated, that will not be possible.”
Why is this human not getting this simple point? Why are humans so difficult and stupid? I wish I could reach out and end his life now
. Jesse continued to smile as the conversation wore on, but would not budge on his request.

“Well then, we need to get Garrinoras down here to choose from the same assortment or I’m leaving. I’ll wait for your answer in my ship.” He turned and began to walk into the landing bay.

“Wait,” the diplomat called out as he was almost inside the ship. “You agreed to this match, you cannot renege on your agreement now, human.”

Jesse turned around and pulled a piece of paper out of his jacket. He began walking back towards the delegation as he started to read aloud. “In the rare occurrence of a death match of irregular length, contestants may use their own weaponry in place of the weapons provided by the Zinnebailan government. If the contestant is denied the use of his own weaponry, he may withdraw from the match without being branded a coward, or suffering any other consequences.” As he looked at the surprised expressions on the faces of the delegation, he continued. “Does that sound familiar? That was read from the official rules of a Zinnebailan death match; and two days is an irregular length.” The surprised looks continued as he added, “What, you didn’t really think I would agree to a contest of this magnitude, and put my life on the line without learning the rules, did you? A normal match is three days in length. Most people don’t know this rule, because the last time an irregular length match was fought was over thirteen hundred years ago. It looks like you are going to have a lot of refunds to give out and a lot of disappointed people around the galaxy today.” He turned around again to leave, knowing he had them.

“Wait, it appears we were mistaken, you have our apologies. As you have stated, it has been so long since an irregular match was fought. Of course, you may use your own weapons. You will be expected at the contestant tunnel in two and a half hours.” They were stunned that he had somehow learned their rules, and such obscure rules at that. They knew that Garrinoras was not going to be happy with this development, so in the interest of preserving their own lives, they decided not to tell him.

“And Captain Reed will be waiting at the tunnel to board my ship before I enter the arena, is that correct?”

“Yes, she will be there.” The diplomat gritted out as if spitting an unpleasant food from his mouth.

“I just wish to be clear. I will not set foot in the arena until she is safely aboard my ship, because I know that once I’m inside, I cannot leave under penalty of death. Understand, I will leave no room to be betrayed. If she is not aboard my ship, I do not enter the arena, do you understand?”

The delegate looked as if he wanted to kill Jesse himself. Never in his life had a human dared speak to him in such a manner. As the heat rose inside his body, he clenched his teeth and responded, “Yes, it will be as we have agreed.” He didn’t wait for any further response, as he turned and left, followed by his delegation.

“Such nice people,” Josiah joked.

“Yeah, I think I’d like to build a summer home here,” Jesse replied to a round of laughter as the shields came back up and the four of them returned to
Endeavor
.

As he returned to the bridge, Suzy called out, “So, how did it go?”

“About as well as could be expected with Zinnebailans involved, but I get to use my weapons. There’s food, wine and water in the loading bay, compliments of Zinnebulous. I would like it all incinerated. It is no doubt poisoned or somehow tainted, so no one is to even touch it. I am going to go make my final preparations for the match. Collin, you have the bridge. Josiah, can you come see me when it’s done?”

Josiah nodded his understanding as Jesse left the bridge. A quiet came over the crew as they realized yet again that Jesse might not make it through this one. They were as prepared as they could be, but the reality is that Jesse would be facing a dominant warrior, that was likely to cheat, in a hostile environment. Victory in this case might be too much to ask, even for Jesse.

Precautions had been taken,
Endeavor
had a full complement of fifty aboard, twenty-five of which would be accompanying Jesse to the stadium. There were also ten tactical units in place around the area as well as a several soldiers planted in the stands. Because of the semi-neutral location, there were many people here in support of Colonel Marcos, which made it easier to have backup available.

Kimi had been avoiding Ogen since their last conversation. She didn’t want to have to make a decision and his question was forcing her to. It didn’t help that every time he passed by her, he would smile the smile of a man that knew he was going to
get the girl
. She felt she ought to be offended, but the reality was if there were no Jesse, she would really like Ogen. As that thought hit her, she had her answer.
It’s so simple, if I didn’t know Jesse I would give it a try with Ogen, but I do know Jesse, and the only reason I can think of that I wouldn’t go for Ogen is because on some level at least, I’m still in love with Jesse.
Now she had to go talk to Suzy and see if it was still possible to get back on track with Jesse. Ogen would be disappointed, but she would sit down with him after the death match and explain. She at least owed him that.

______

As Jesse made his final preparations for the death match, his test on the frozen planet entered his mind once again. It seemed to be all he could think about besides the match lately. Maybe it was because that mission is what really had started it all for him. It was his first real test of leadership. It was the first test of whether or not he could take a life. It was his first real opportunity to help people he didn’t know that were basically being held as slaves. Now here he was again, helping people he barely knew, leading his crew on a dangerous mission and wondering if he could kill an unarmed Garrinoras if the time came. As his mind once again fixated on that mission from his past, he continued thinking about that first battle seventeen years earlier, wondering if it held a clue that might help him with what was to come.

[The hunters realized something was wrong when one of them ran out of the supply tent in a panic. “Some of our weapons and grenades are missing, Jack.” He shouted with concern.

“Where could they have gotten to?” The leader asked, not at all liking the implications of another armed group patrolling the frozen planet. “It had to be the villagers. I thought they understood that if they hindered us in any way we would destroy their village and everyone in it.”

“Who knows what they understand, Jack, these savages don’t even speak common.”

“They’re not savages; they’re just primitive compared to us. And their status doesn’t stop you from using their women to keep you warm at night, Jeremy.”

“Whatever,” he replied impatiently. “Let’s go get our blasters back before they figure out how to use them against us.” If the villagers were armed and looking for a fight, this could go bad really quickly. He had no doubt they could take the villagers if it came to it, but that would mean murdering almost two hundred people and some of his men would undoubtedly be hurt in the process.

“Ten armed primitives would barely pose a threat to us; there are twenty-seven of us.” Jack replied, not getting the danger an uprising could present.

“Nothing can stand in our way. We’re gonna be rich when we capture enough of these four-armed arctic bears. We’ve got eight dead ones already, but the real money is gonna come from the live ones. If we bring a couple dozen back to Earth, it will have been well worth the trip. We only have seven, so we are gonna be here a while longer. It took us too long to learn how to capture these things without killing them, they’re pretty tough.” Blaine thought Jeremy was being over dramatic about the danger the villagers posed.

Jeremy wasn’t willing to let it go, though. He knew he had to nip it in the bud before it became a problem. “Alright, Blaine, you stay here with eleven men, I’m gonna take the rest to the village and see what’s going on. We may need to kill a few more of them to remind them of how serious we are.”

When Jesse saw the men leave the camp, he sent in Collin and Simons to cause a distraction. They infiltrated the camp and unlocked all of the captured beast’s cages. Then they unlocked the captured villager’s cages and told them to run. Nothing happened, and Collin realized they didn’t speak common, so he mimicked the beasts breaking free and pointed to the villagers and mimicked running. They seemed to understand, and it was clear to them that Collin and Simons were not with the hunters. The villagers quietly left the camp and began to run towards their village. Collin wired the remaining speeder while Simons set up a diversion in the munitions tent. A moment later, there was an explosion, which caused the creatures to become agitated and rattle their cages. When they did, the cages opened and the beasts realized they were free. The creatures began to wreck the camp while trying to escape as Blaine and his remaining men attempted to stop them. In the confusion, Collin and Simons took off in the speeder.

The creatures did not go down easy, killing Blaine and six of his men before the final three escaped. That’s when the rest of Jesse’s team struck. They were able to stun all five of the remaining hunters and lock them in the cages quickly. They then prepared for the return of the rest of the hunters. He was sure they would have heard the explosion at the camp and turned around.
I hope they didn’t make it to the village before the explosion. I would hate to see any more villagers hurt by these hunters,
Jesse thought as he heard the explosion. He had sent Collin in the stolen speeder back to the drop ship to send a transmission Sergeant Kelly and update him on the situation. He felt it had gotten to the point where his superiors needed to know about it. Unfortunately, Collin returned pretty quickly with news that the hunters had destroyed the ship and were headed back to their camp. Jesse did a quick scan and noticed their transmission array had been damaged by one of the rampaging creatures.
I wish I had enough time to fix it before the hunters get back, but I’ll just have to wait. My men are as ready as they can be, and the remaining hunters would be back here soon. It’ll be fifteen against ten, but my men have the best training available, and the element of surprise. We will emerge victorious.
He only hoped his whole squad made it, too. He picked up one of the viewers they had found at the camp and put it to his eyes. He saw the four speeders heading their way and used hand signals to alert his men to stay out of sight. He had asked Manny and Josiah to set a trap at the most likely point of entry, and to that end, they had used six of the grenades. They were ready and they wouldn’t have to wait long to test the limits of their training.]

The flood of memories subsided and Jesse realized that Josiah would be arriving momentarily. Jesse nervously picked up a data card and prepared to have a difficult conversation.
When I hand this card to Josiah, it will be the first time that I am actually admitting to anyone that I’m not sure I can win
. As that thought hit him, the whole scenario suddenly became more real to him. He knew Suzy knew he was having doubts, but he hadn’t expressly verbalized it, at least he didn’t think he had. Now, however, he would not only be verbalizing it, but putting a contingency plan in place with his first officer. He knew this conversation would not sit well with Josiah, but what would happen in the event of his losing the match had to be discussed.

Josiah knocked at the open door and Jesse motioned him to come in. As he entered his Commanding Officer’s quarters, he closed the door behind him. He waited a moment for Jesse to begin, but he didn’t like the silence. “What’s up Jess? What do you need?” He inquired as he sat down by the desk.