J McKenna: Slave Planet

“Jor-ja’s opponent has been carefully chosen. She will be fighting against one of Keltar’s top young fighters, a man who has won his last three fights! Tangut!”

A man separated himself from the small group and clambered up on the platform. Beth blanched. The man looked tough and strong. Fortunately, Tangut did not tower over the engineer. She guessed his height was about six-three. Still, he appeared to be a formidable opponent.

“Now, as you know, these strangers have been in our village only a few days. There was not time for Jor-ja to learn our fighting style. Besides, she has one of her own, from Earth, that she calls ‘ kar-at-tee’ . Therefore, we declare this fight to be ‘no rules’.” The crowd cheered again.

“The contestants will battle until one of them is unable to continue. Men, place your bets now! The fight will begin in nine lunnits !”

The crowd went wild. Money was waved, men talked excitedly with each other, making wagers and backing them up with quitnums . Men whom Beth assumed were bookies collected money and wrote down bets on parchment.

It took ten minutes for all the activity to settle down. Finally, the announcer held up his hands. “Men! Are you ready?” The crowd yelled back. “All right!” He turned to the fighters, eyeing each other in the ring. “Jor-ja, are you ready?” She nodded, never taking her eyes off Tangut. “Tangut?” He nodded.

“All right. Fighters, begin!”

Tangut charged at Jorja, remembering how much trouble the Earth fighter had had with the much-taller Maknar during practice yesterday. Jorja just slipped away from him, kicking him in the stomach as he went by. Tangut shrugged it off and came in again. Again, Jorja danced away, this time rapping him in the face with a backhanded fist.

Tangut angrily shook his head, then came in more cautiously, trying to punch or grab the smaller woman. She dodged his first blow, then kicked him hard between the legs. The breath whooshed out of him and he staggered away. Jorja was on him in a flash, kicking through his knee from behind, forcing one leg down. She spun and tried to kick him in the head, but Tangut remembered seeing that trick and ducked. Her kick sailed overhead, spinning her off balance.

As she struggled to right herself, he charged, knocking her to the mat. He jumped on her, but she wasn’t there. She had rolled away at the last second and now had scrambled to her feet. He started to get up, only to be met with a kick to the head. He scuttled back out of reach.

The crowd gasped. Tangut reached up and found he was bleeding from the nose. Enraged and embarrassed, he lost control and charged the woman, arms outstretched. Jorja planted her left foot and brought up her right into a hard front kick, aimed directly at his stomach. It was like running into the end of a log. The breath was forced out of him and his head dipped. Jorja grabbed him behind the head and brought it down to her knee, rising up from the floor, the same technique she had shown Gulnark. The collision could be heard all over the hushed square, the thwack of knee against bone. Tangut, unconscious on his feet, slid to the mat in a heap, his head bouncing once.

There was a collective gasp from the crowd. No one seemed to be able to believe it. A mere slave woman had defeated a man! A trained fighter! Gulnark looked pleased with himself, as if to say, “See? That’s how she defeated me!”

Klasdor, standing with the other fighters, suddenly jumped up onto the platform, his face a mask of rage. “I fight you!” He declared. He raised himself to his full seven-foot height over the gasping Jorja. Keltar scrambled up and entered the ring. “No! You must fight Ripatus!”

“I fight them both. Her first! She dares to fight like men! I show her!” He approached the woman, brushing aside Keltar as if he wasn’t there. The crowd roared their approval. Jorja cowered back into a corner. There was no way she could defeat this man. He must weigh 325 pounds!

Klasdor stalked toward the woman. Everyone seemed to be at a loss as to what to do except the crowd, who continued to cheer lustily.

Suddenly, a huge explosion rent the air. Heads turned as one as a portion of the street leading to the square simply dissolved into smoke and dust. Some men near the blast site held their hands over their ears, mouths agape. The dust continued to swirl in the hot air. Everyone in the crowd stared, not comprehending what was happening.

Beth, Jorja and Greta stared as well, not quite believing it themselves.

Out of the dust and smoke, a lone figure came striding toward the crowd, skirting the bomb crater. As it approached, Jorja, from her better vantage point, was the first to recognize the strange apparition.

“Captain!”

Beth and Greta took up the shout. “Captain! Captain Dyson!” All of the crew women were stunned that Dyson would disobey orders to come down and try to rescue them.

Now the crowd could see that the figure was a woman, dressed like the Bakchari , the free women of the forest. On her head was a helmet of bark. She continued to approach and a man near her bent down to pick up a rock. Without pausing, Kate aimed and fired the phaser in her hand. There was a bright light and the man staggered and fell down. The crowd drew back. In the hush that followed, Kate held up her U.T., the volume turned up loud and announced.

“Don’t fuck with me. I have PMS and a gun.”

The men, true to form, quickly overcame their initial shock. They began looking at each other and nodding. A few moved into position, ready to surround the approaching woman. Several picked up rocks, too many to shoot.

Kate, never breaking stride, held up her scanner and pressed a button. Another huge roar went up, heads swiveled toward the sound. The blast came from just outside the village. Prevailing winds carried some of the dust and smoke toward the crowd.

“Stay back or I’ll blow you to hell,” she said, waving the scanner, to make sure they knew who was responsible for the explosions, which she hoped were completely out of the range of their experience. Kate was bluffing, of course. She could never kill any of these people. She had two more hidden C4 charges, both outside the village. All she had to do was make them fear her for just a few more minutes and she just might be able to get her team away from here.

“Release the Earth women!” she shouted. She fired off another hidden charge, this time on the other side of the village. With each blast, however, the effect on the aggressive men seemed to diminish.

Niktus glanced uneasily at Beth, then looked across the crowd and caught Gorshun’s eye. Niktus could tell from his expression he wasn’t about to release his new slave. Gorshun yanked hard on Greta’s leash, to warn her she’d better not move.

The men continued to surround Kate. One tall man to her right slipped a rock into his hand and flung it before she could spot him. The rock bounced off her helmet. She turned and fired, stunning him to the ground. A humanoid directly in front of her sidearmed a rock while she was distracted and struck her forearm. She gasped and nearly dropped her phaser. She shot him as well.

Kate was becoming desperate. The men were not cowering at all. Now she understood how Ally had been taken so easily. Despite her modern weapons, she was outnumbered. She might be able to hold them off for a little while, but soon a rock would hit her face or her hand and she’d be helpless.

She whirled and fired at the first sign of movement, dropping men who approached or tried to stone her. By now, the first men she had stunned were slowly getting up, letting the others know that the blinding white blasts weren’t fatal. Kate glanced down and checked her phaser. It was half depleted already. If they didn’t back off and let the crew go soon—