8 Chapter 8: The Arena, Part 2

My brother taunted the beast again and again with his flowing scarlet promise of insanity, pain, and death. The creature lowered itself to the earth and charged, its barbed horn aimed for Abran's stomach. He dove to the side, and punched the creature's flank with his titanium gauntlet. The charges in the knuckles exploded into the Flopper's armor, cracking a plate open. It screamed, its great eye rolling back in its clockwork skull. The crowd cheered and stomped their feet as the screens zoomed in on the creature's agony, a creature who had once given rides to laughing children at carnivals.

I looked at my watch again. I had two minutes. The blanket field jammed transmissions within the audience, but Abran said my watch would work if I was inside the ring. I eyed the stairs, but if Adeola saw me run down them now, she would be suspicious.

The Flopper lunged again, and my brother spun to one side, as graceful as a danseur. He punched the same armor plate he had cracked before, his gauntlet tearing into the beast's innards. Gears slipped, and ground together with a metallic screech. I had twenty-two seconds.

The Flopper reared up on its jets, its claw crackling with forks of blue-white fire. My brother raised his scorched, tattered cape, and leaned to the side to parry.

My watch ran down to zero.

Lightning exploded from the claw, washing over my brother. I rose with the crowd as his broken body twisted through the air, and fell to the earth. Everything - the spectators, the noise, the Flopper - seemed to slow down. I lunged down the steps, my feet pounding on the concrete. Someone grabbed for me, but I dodged his well-meaning hands, almost sprawling on my face.

I reached the wall at the end of the front row, and leaned forward to hurdle it. Entering the ring during a fight was a felony, but surely the madness of a grieving brother would be forgiven. All that mattered was that the signal from my watch reached the Flopper before security got their bearings, or worse, before it finished Abran off. It roared in triumph as I jumped.

A squirming rope whipped around my waist and yanked me back, jerking the breath out of me. I looked down. The Oligochaetans had lassoed me, their bodies woven into an elongated serpent. They anchored one end around their seat, the other around me.

"Let me go!" I shouted as I tore at their wormy bodies, my fingers slipping in-between them.

"Be at peas," the gestalt said, its mouth pointing up at me. "You can't kelp now."

I stretched my arm as far as I could into the arena, aiming my watch at the Flopper. Download the release code, I screamed inside. Download, and fly into orbit -

There was a whistle, followed by a thunderclap. The lower half of the Flopper's head exploded, showering down a rain of gears and pneumatic fluid. Its jaw hung, cockeyed, its rows of needle-sharp teeth scraping its neck. Its eye rolled in its swivels, the iris swirling open and closed.

The security team fired again, and this time the Flopper's body burst into flames, its oil igniting. Its jets fired, and it hovered in the air for a second, its twisted steel frame dangling its shattered head backwards. Then it fell to the dirt.

I slumped against the wall as the worms uncoiled from my waist. The on-site paramedics attended to my brother. They raised him onto a stretcher, and ran him off the field. I made my way down to the gate in a daze. The security team recognized me, and escorted me through.

By the time I reached the arena's infirmary, Abran had already been pronounced dead. He lay on a stretcher, covered by a sheet. I pulled it back to see my brother's face. He did not look peaceful.

A lieutenant from the local garrison stood over my shoulder, making notes on his data pad. He scratched his bald head behind his ear. "Are you still planning to return to Earth this evening?" he asked.

I nodded. "Can I take his body with me?" I asked.

The lieutenant shrugged. Though expensive, it was not unheard of for the remains of colonists to be returned to Earth. And though he did not know it, I had already paid more than ten times necessary in freight. There was no need for an autopsy. Abran had been electrocuted in front of ten thousand eyewitnesses. What else was there to know?

The clack of heels echoed from the hallway. The doors flew open and Adeola stormed into the infirmary, flanked by her two sons. One, a colossal figure with triceps like tree trunks, took a spot by the door. The other stayed a respectful two steps behind her.

"Excuse me, ma'am," the lieutenant said. "You can't come in here right - "

"Shut up," Adeola said, not bothering to look at him. She yanked my brother's sheet off. She pulled his eyelids back, and stared into his sightless pupils. She whirled on me.

"You," she said. "You and your brother are coming with me."

I looked at the lieutenant. He sighed. "Ma'am, I'm going to have to ask you to leave," he said.

She ignored him. "Are you coming on your own, or are you going to be on the stretcher with him?" she asked me.

"All right, that's enough," said the lieutenant. He tapped a button on his wristwatch, his eyes meeting Adeola's imperial gaze. The doors opened and two corporals came in, their sidearms in hand.

Adeola's right eye twitched. "Are you really fooled by this?" she asked. She slapped my brother's cheek. "I can name at least three drugs that can simulate death for hours. Put one of those in a nano-capsule, and you can time the release down to the quarter-second." She slapped him again. "Those lightning bolts weren't lethal. Do you think I would risk my property like that? His cape is lined with flash powder." She grabbed the charred cloth from my brother's side, and shoved it under the lieutenant's nose. "Smell the sulfur," she said, her voice a low growl.

The lieutenant rolled his eyes. "Call for an ambulance," he said, "and escort Mister Pena and his brother to the shuttle port. See that they get on their transport safely."

Adeola took a deep breath. She walked towards the door, taking long, graceful strides. She stopped, and peered into my face. She said nothing, then stalked out of the medical center, her sons in tow.

An hour later, Abran and I were off into Ganymede's artificial atmosphere. My brother's casket had been secured in the cargo bay. He lay inside, wrapped in a heated blanket. I sat next to him, staring out the porthole as the moon fell away beneath us, a medical kit on my lap.

My watch beeped.

Abran's face twitched. His eyes snapped open, and he gasped.

"Give it a minute," I said. "You may need an adrenaline shot, but I don't want to give it to you if I don't have to."

"Ice," Abran moaned. He clamped his hands to his head. "Jesus Christ, it feels like my brain is full of ice. Give me some hot water, or something." I went to the corridor, and filled a cup from the dispenser. The intercom came on.

"Is he awake?"

"Yes," I said.

"Sorry about your wasted cargo fee," said the pilot. "Tell you what, I'll give you a fifty percent refund."

"Thanks," I said.

"We'll be clearing the Jovian well in another hour. Do you think your brother will be ready to go back under?"

"I don't know."

I headed back inside the cargo bay with the cup of hot water. Abran stood at the porthole, the glowing orange blanket draped over his shoulders. The swirling storms of Jupiter's red spot filled the view.

"We're past the orbital pickup point," Abran said without turning around, "and the Flopper isn't here."

I put the cup in his hand.

"What happened?" he asked.

I told him of the Oligochaetans, of Adeola, and of my failure. "I'm sorry," I said.

"Don't be," said Abran. He turned and smiled at me as he placed his trembling hand on my shoulder. It felt like ice. He sipped the hot water gingerly.

"It's better off dead," he said. "Better off in pieces too small for that bitch to put together again." He finished the water, crushed the paper cup, and let it fall to the floor. "I just wanted to set it free."

I rubbed his back in a half-hug. "We should get ready for the sleep tanks," I said. "It's going to be a very long flight." He nodded, and we walked together towards the door, towards Earth, and towards a new life.