Page 130 of Galaxy Games Four-Book Box Set (Galaxy Games)

130

Three Musketeers

V alor

Her eyes open with effort. There are tears in them and her lips are quivering. Panic slices through me as I realize I broke my Willow.

Hush, she says as she pulls herself together. That was so amazing, it made me cry.

I’ll have to ask her about that. Later. Right now, I want to hold and kiss her. We’re on stolen time. Zedd will be interrupting any minute, trying to steal what we just shared. Cheapening it.

We both say Thank you at the same moment.

I’m about to tell her more. I want to share my thoughts with her, tell her that wasn’t just the most amazing physical experience of my life, but it was profoundly meaningful. However, there’s no way to ignore Zedd.

The drones carrying the big vid-screen have entered our tent. Zedd’s larger-than-life face is smirking at us from only a few feet away.

“Well, females and males, I hope you feel you got what you paid for. I’d say our little couple has earned your donations. Let’s deconstruct, shall we?” The screens show a picture of me lunging between her legs as I prepare to put my mouth on her. “Here’s the moment…” She’s making something tawdry out of what felt like a beautiful act.

“NO!” I thunder as I rise from the bed, heedless of my nakedness. “We earned the credits. We need a medic for our friend.”

The medic, to his credit, doesn’t wait for Zedd to summon him. He hurries into the tent and kneels at Braveheart’s side.

He goes to work immediately as I help Willow out of bed and cover her with the thin blanket. We hurry the distance to Braveheart’s small bed and watch the medic use the medscan to assess, then treat.

Zedd is still blathering on, giving a blow-by-blow recap of what we shared on that bed. Good, let the medic work in peace.

“It doesn’t look good,” he says, barely moving his lips, his voice low.

I don’t think he wants to be a party to this, not the spectacle. He seems like a male who wants to heal. Despite all the medics and doctors I’ve dealt with in my life, I’ve never met a true healer.

“I’ll give him a generic anti-venom, although it would be so much better if we knew what type of animal did this.”

“A lizard. Brown. The color of shit.”

“Yes, but there are a thousand species of them. If I only knew which one.” He’s punching instructions into his pad that will relay to the medbot.

“I have the head. I thought you might need it.”

His head ricochets to me. “You have the head?”

“It was near him when I found him. He managed to kill it. I separated its head from its body and brought it with me.”

“Show me.”

I run to the shower room and easily find my huge crimson coveralls in a pile with all the other discarded clothes. Luckily, no one cleaned here yet. Soon, I’m back in our tent, the offending head in hand.

The medic sets it on Braveheart’s stomach, which is covered by a blanket. Using the medscan, he takes vids of it from every angle. Within minutes, he’s nodding his head.

“The Intergalactic Database identified the species, and the medbot is formulating a specific antivenom for the xellenex bite as we speak. Your quick thinking may have saved your friend, but…” His gaze darts to Willow.

“But what?” she asks.

“But look at this necrotic tissue. Even if he lives, he might need a portion of his leg amputated. You’re both smart enough to know he won’t be able to leave his bed tomorrow, much less run in any competition.”

Willow

Covering my face with my palms, I sag to my knees on the floor. I hate myself for thinking it, but I’m not sure whether my grief is for my friend Braveheart, or for myself and Valor. Just like the three musketeers, it really is one for all and all for one. If he dies, TGN kills Valor and me. It’s as simple as that. And if he can’t compete, we all die.

I’m a terrible person, I admit to Valor.

It’s hard not to have selfish thoughts, he says as he kneels next to me and slides his arm around my shoulders. It’s how species stay alive. It’s hard-wired. That we’re thinking of our own safety doesn’t mean we don’t care about our friend.

Only after he’s administered the potentially lifesaving treatment does the medic clean and bandage the wound.

Zedd continues to narrate our lovemaking, calling it copulation as if that makes it scientific and acceptable on galaxy-wide vid. Still, several drones are recording what’s going on in this sector of the tent. I imagine they’ll show snippets of this tomorrow to pretend The Game isn’t just a spectacle of porn and death.

The medic catches our eyes and reaches under Braveheart’s head.

“If it weren’t against the rules,” he says seriously, “I would provide him capsules for the pain. They should be administered every six hours. As well as antibiotic tablets twice a day. I was prohibited from doing that, and also told I couldn’t give him a shot to help with pain or give antibiotics. The shot I gave him was strictly to keep him from infecting everyone in the area.”

His voice is heavily laced with meaning, as if he’s talking in code. Animal bites aren’t infectious, even in space. Ahh, I get it. He is talking in code. He just gave Braveheart his first dose of antibiotics and painkillers. If I reach under his nape, I think I’ll find some tablets and capsules.

“I understand,” I say. “It was kind of you to do as much as you did.”

“You’re the scarlet team?” he asks. “I’m a fan of that color.”

He packs up his medbot and medpad, gives one last glance at his patient, and leaves.

He gave Braveheart meds because he’s a fan of our team? Valor asks.

Valor has no idea because he’s been behind bars these last months.

There’s a movement growing in the galaxy, I tell him . It actually started with the first game, Down to One. People from all over are beginning to whisper about rising up, fighting the corporations and the Galactic Federation. The team who won Down to One started it. They had a little reptilian mascot.

Valor wrinkles his nose. After Braveheart’s run-in with a xellenex , I don’t blame him.

It had little legs and was adorable. It was scarlet. People now show support by wearing scarlet when they can. It’s a symbol.

Why would they have scarlet as a team color? he asks. I would think they would have every color in the rainbow except for that.

I haven’t a clue. I was surprised myself. I wonder if the people at the top underestimate the power of many people rising up together.

I think he just saved our friend’s life, Valor says, his voice filled with hope.

We move to the bed and rearrange the sheet from where we kicked it off in our lovemaking. Valor then uses his gentlest touch as he lifts his friend and sets him in the middle of the bed.

The male never ceases to amaze me. He’s part animal. If I ever doubted that, it was erased when he howled and growled as we made love. I would think even though Braveheart is lying near death, Valor would still be in a pissing contest with him regarding me.

He could have easily laid Braveheart on one side of the bed and put himself in the middle so I wouldn’t be near his rival. But no. He’s set things up so we can both be near the male, can both tend to him in the middle of the night.

You’re a good male, my Valor, I say.

Those last two words popped out, but it’s how I feel. Like we’re bonded. Like he’s mine.