Michael Hudson - Thieves of Light

He was flying feet first down through the chute, out of control. If he had guessed wrong, he was going to end up flat on his back at the bottom, the breath knocked out of him, staring up at the pseudo-Arrian who was going to have the pleasure of dispatching him.

But he had not guessed wrong. His entry into the chute had tripped some sensor, and as Bhodi dropped toward the bottom a figure stepped out from the right and started firing up the ramp. But Bhodi was not where the warrior expected Bhodi to be, and the shots missed low. A moment later Bhodi's boots caught the warrior in the thorax, driving his body backward and snapping its neck forward.

The collision drove the guard all the way to the wall, where it was sandwiched momentarily between rocklike earth and a human projectile. With something to push against, Bhodi turned his fall to the floor into a twisting roll and came up with the Allison in his hand. He burned his opponent's chest pack with his first shot, and only in the light of its exploding circuitry did he see that his opponent was Qeth, disarmed, and quite unconscious.

One Bhodi did not linger. He snatched up the fallen warrior's sidearm with his free hand, tested it with several shots down the dark passage to the left, then started himself down the passage to the right with both weapons at the ready, like a two-gun sharpshooter from a four-horse Western.

He went thirty steps into a corridor so dark that even the image amplifier couldn't capture enough light to provide a sharp view ahead, then slowed as a feeling of terrible apprehension began to haunt him. Something was wrong. It was as though the sound of his own footsteps had changed Suddenly his unarmored right elbow was seared by a phaser blast that came out of nowhere. He twisted toward what he had thought was a wall and dropped to a crouch, ready to return fire if only he could find a target.

As if in answer to his unvoiced plea, lights came on all around him. In an instant, he saw that he had blundered into a small chamber with several exits, and glimpsed motion in one of them. In the next instant, the brilliance of the amplified light turned his vision all to white. It was as though a superpowered camera flash had gone off inches in front of his face. He was blind.

On internal compass alone, he spun away and scooted back the way he had come, skidded into a baseball slide, and flattened himself belly-down on the floor facing back the other way. He fired at random down the corridor with his Allison, hoping to drive back anyone who had followed, all the while fumbling with the switch for the image amplifier and praying his vision came back soon.

Then Bhodi realized that it was the helmet itself that was still blinded, the display circuits destroyed by the sudden peak. He slapped the release on the chin strap, shook the helmet off, and found himself looking up at the gaunt figure of an Ikthalarian edging toward him along the wall, a Bracke in its left hand.

They started firing at the same instant, but Bhodi had two weapons and a better angle. He held the Ikthalarian's sensor pack in his sights until it exploded in a shower of sparks. When that happened, the Ikthalarian lowered his weapon, shook his head in self-disgust, and sat down along the wall.

"All yours," it said, gesturing toward the chamber where Bhodi had been blinded.

"So's that," Bhodi said, rising and pointing to the warrior's weapon. "I'm starting a collection."

The Ikthalarian surrendered the Bracke reluctantly, and Bhodi returned his own sidearm to the holster cuisse so that he had a free hand for it. Then he started cautiously down the corridor. The fierce white lights were still on, illuminating not only the chamber itself but also a fair distance down each of the five connecting corridors that branched off it. All five appeared to be empty.

But there was a sixth exit from the room-a triangular hole in the floor that looked like the hole left in dough by a cookie-cutter. Bhodi crept up to the edge, fired at random down into the hole, then leaned out and peered over the edge for a quick glimpse.

The hole led to another chamber below. The floor dividing them was more than two feet thick, and the floor of the second chamber was another ten feet below that. At first there seemed to be no ladder, but then Bhodi spotted a pattern of toe-cuts in the wall of the lower chamber. He could see little more of what awaited below-just a small section of the floor lit from above and his own shadow inscribed in the splash of light.

Bhodi looked up, scanning the branch corridors again, then systematically began to shoot out the rectangular lights illuminating the upper chamber. When the last one winked out, both the upper chamber and the lower were in darkness.

I knew there had to be a reason they were leaving the lights on, Bhodi thought. I go down that funky ladder with my back to them, spotlighted, and they sit in the dark and fry me.

But Bhodi did not plan to cooperate. He waited an interminable minute for his eyes to adjust, then slipped off the edge and dropped lightly into the lower chamber.

A beam of blue fury buzzed past Bhodi's head, close enough to vaporize a few flying strands of blond hair. He shoulder-rolled to the left and fired back in the direction the bolt had come from. Each blast of phaser fire dimly lit the room-far vaster than the upper chamber-in an eerie light.

Fire and move. Fire when moving. They dueled in darkness, circling, trying to anticipate each other's moves. Each tried to use the other's fire as a targeting aid, which led to short fierce exchanges and long periods of silence and darkness. Bhodi took hits on both legs, right thigh, left shoulder, and midback, none serious. He did not know what he gave in return.

It seemed like the only way the stalemate would end would be if they bumped together by accident and strangled each other. Then Bhodi got a flash of inspiration. Stripping one of the straps from his holster cuisse, he looped it around the grip of the Bracke. Laying the weapon on the floor, he snugged up the strap against the actuator, and the weapon began to fire.

Immediately, the unseen enemy began to fire back. Bhodi rolled twice to his left, into the darkness, then sprang to his feet. For a count of one thousand, two thousand, three thousand Bhodi ran away from the Bracke and toward his opponent as fast as his legs would carry him. Then he skidded to a stop, dropped to one knee, and aimed his own Allison and the one taken from the Qeth at the exact spot from which his unseen enemy's phaser bolts were appearing.

There was an animal squeal, and the other phaser winked out. A fraction of a second later, Bhodi heard the thud of something striking the floor. Bhodi kept firing until the lights came up and an end-of-match chime began to sound.

His opponent was a Riknoid and in obvious pain, kneeling and holding its right hand. Its weapon was lying in the center of a splatter of blood. Uncertain of his obligations, Bhodi took one tentative step toward it. But before he could decide whether his help would be welcome, three medical-section types dropped through the hole and hurried to the injured fighter's side.

Bhodi backed away then and retraced his steps through the now fully lighted warren to the entrance. When he reached the surface, he found Li-hon walking across the arena toward him.

"I won," Bhodi said quietly as they came together. "I'm ready."

"You won," Li-hon agreed. "But you're not ready."

"I want my third refusal."

"No."

"But you said-"

"I said I would give you a chance to show what you could do. I did, and you did. Now we continue to work on what you can't do," he said. "Go back to the platoon room. I'll be there when I can be. You've left me with a couple of injured Guardians to look after first."

And then he brushed past and left Bhodi standing there alone in the empty arena, his mind empty and mouth open, unable to quite believe what had just happened to him.