Page 98 of Galaxy Games Four-Book Box Set (Galaxy Games)

98

Acceptance

A nubis

I keep my eyes focused on the purple-furred male. Somehow this geneslave, raised with nothing but abuse and contempt has found compassion. I hold onto the concern emanating from his golden eyes as he chokes me. It takes all my self-control to resist my powerful impulse to fight back.

Out of the corner of my eyes, I see a black hover approaching at a high rate of speed.

“Halt,” blares from an external speaker on the craft.

The furred male doesn’t remove his hands from my neck, but he loosens his grip as his gaze flicks from me to the hover and back again.

Although I expected Pleer to step out of the vessel, perhaps to get a picture for all the galaxy to see of him strangling me with his own bare hands, an enormous blue male emerges. He has a powerful laser rifle pointed our way.

Behind him, a tiny female steps out of the hover. The same model rifle looks ludicrous in her small hands, but the look on her face brooks no argument.

“Come with us if you want to live,” she says with a smirk. “I always wanted to say that line.” She shrugs.

The furred male tightens his grip, clearly following his orders. The blue male points the red laser rifle light at my attacker’s forehead. The female has skirted the three of us and her laser’s light is shining directly on the other male’s third eye.

“You’ve got five seconds,” she warns, her face a mask of calm. “Three, if I get trigger happy. Let him go.”

When, a second later, his hands are still squeezing my neck, the female moves her rifle, fires into the forest until a tree falls, then returns the beam to my attacker’s third eye.

Miraculously, the furred male loosens his grasp. Within moments, both geneslaves take several steps back.

The huge blue male grips me by the upper arm and pulls me into the hover while I gasp several deep breaths through my bruised and aching throat. Before I can comprehend my swift change in circumstance, we’ve hovered away and are flying over the river where I almost lost my life only hours ago.

The hover is a large troop transport. When I gaze into the roomy back compartment, there are at least twenty heavily-armed males in fatigues. My guts squeeze in fear. Have I just exchanged one brush with death for another?

“Surprise!” the female says, as if this is some type of game. “I’m Blaze, this is my mate, Xzavic. Sorry we cut that so close. Looks like your life was about to expire.”

Now that I don’t have a geneslave’s viselike grip around my neck and I can think straight, I realize this must be an Earth human like my sweet Sadie.

“We’re the winners of The Game, Down to One .”

She says this like I should understand what’s going on. I’m baffled. My gaze flicks to the rear compartment again, but none of the males has their weapon trained on me.

“Let me explain,” Xzavic says. “When we reached the flagpole in Down to One , the Feds and the network were ready to double-cross us, too. At a moment not too different from this, the King of the largest kingdom on planet Marentine hovered in and saved us from a certain death. King Aldric Alcantar of the Kingdom of Plesmore.”

As I try to wrap my mind around what they’re saying, I realize that even before Pleer showed up, the six of us were facing certain death. No one could survive living on a planet with giant lizards. Even though we won, the network had doomed us to death.

“King Alcantar offered us sanctuary on his side of the planet where slavery is illegal,” Xzavic continues. “Blaze and I are now honored members of his personal guard. We’ve all been watching the broadcast, without the pleasure package, I assure you.

“Knowing you all would be facing certain death, the King asked us to come to Ultera and make the six winners the same offer he made us at the end of Game One. Want to come to Marentine and live as free people?”

These two could be the biggest liars in the history of the universe, but what they’re offering couldn’t be worse than the fate we were facing. At least I can negotiate freedom for the five others.

“Each of us will have to make up their own mind. There’s nothing you can do to save me, though. Pleer will kill me here or take me back to planet Malego to my barracks and torture me slowly.”

“The papers of manumission were real,” Blaze says. She’s as small as Sadie. That must be how all Earth humans look. “And if they weren’t, with King Alcantar’s backing, we can shame the network into providing authentic ones. If that contingent of Pleer’s soldiers wants to take up arms, we came prepared.” She points her chin toward the soldiers behind me. “1213, you’re a free male. Want to come to Marentine? Start a new life?”

Could this possibly be true? One minute ago, I’d been ready to accept my fate when I was being choked to death for no reason. Now these two strangers have swooped in, told me this unbelievable story, and are offering me and my friends freedom. It’s almost too much to absorb.

“You can make this happen? Take us off this forsaken planet? Give us a chance at a new life?”

Blaze is sitting in her big, blue mate’s lap, and they both smile and nod as they say, “Yes.”

Perhaps in minutes or hours or days, I’ll truly believe this is real. For the moment, I’ll take it as a reprieve. At least I’ll be able to see my mate one more time before the next terrible thing happens.

A few minutes later, we return to the flagpole. Sadie’s face is blotchy red, tears streaming down her cheeks. She has to blink several times before she can see clearly enough to know it’s me. To ease her mind, I call to her so she can hear my voice.

Blaze, Xzavic, and all the soldiers except the hover driver jump to the ground. Their weapons are drawn as they order everyone, even Zedd and Pleer, to stand in front of the pole where they’ll be easy to pick off if they make a move to harm us.

“Our hover will hold all six winners,” Blaze says. “Any of you who want to come with us to safety, just ease on up there. None of you,” she points her rifle at the Commander’s cadre of soldiers, “are going to make a move because we’re recording all of this. If anything goes wrong, the entire galaxy will see the Feds and the Network cheating these contestants out of their victory. No one wants that, right?” She lifts an eyebrow, her expression still deadly.

“They’re rescuing us,” I tell the others. “At least I think so. Whatever they have in store for us couldn’t be worse than being food for giant reptiles.”

Sadie runs into my arms, hugging me so tightly she would melt into me if she could. The other contestants need no convincing. We’re all belted in the hover before Zedd and the Commander can figure out a way to cheat us again.

As we hover away, I look out the window to see Pleer and Zedd engaged in a screaming argument. By the look on their faces, I’d be surprised if they both emerge from this alive.

I turn in my seat and give Sadie a heartfelt kiss, then look out the front window. I want to keep my focus ahead of us from here out.