Planet of the Titans

Chapter 7

Darian grabbed the captives and placed them back inside the habitation module. For some reason, she didn't allow them to walk back through the entrance themselves, she wanted to feel them in her hands, to give her a feeling of power. Darian instructed Zima to carry the habitation module back to the lab. The two women walked together while Zima carried the habitation module.

"Do you think the people of Earth will ever be as technologically advanced as Thanatar?" Zima asked.

"Probably," said Darian, "but when they do, we'll just find alternate realities where they are less sophisticated than us and use those realities to lure victims here for the games on Arcadia!"

"What if they went to war with us?" Zima asked. "I mean, if they became as advanced as us, and they sent warships to attack us in this day and age!"

"They'll probably never know people from their reality were victimized by us!" said Darian. "What you're describing could only happen if little people from Earth returned to their home world to tell them about us. So far, that's never happened, and it's up to people like us to ensure that it never happens!"

By that time, they had gotten back to the lab. Zima set the habitation module on the table next to the Thunderbolt.

"Don't set it there!" said Darian. "I don't want them to have access to their spaceplane while we're gone. I have to go to study hall and write a paper on my presentation that I did today, and you have a class right now. I'm leaving them in here without locking them into their habitation module."

"What if they escape again?" Zima asked.

"They only escaped last time because I allowed it to happen!" said Darian. "I'll discuss it during my second presentation. But for now, I'll just close the window they escaped from!" Darian walked over to the wall where the space-warp cannon was, and activated a control console that closed the window that the Earth captives had escaped out of with an extension cord several nights earlier.

"What are you going to do with the tinies when you're done with your junior thesis?" Zima asked.

"I'm not sure, why?" Darian asked.

"Because I'd like you to turn them over to me!" said Zima.

"Zima, that's not going to happen!" said Darian. "Those three captives I won on Arcadia that I gave you didn't last 24 hours! I'm not stupid enough to turn these captives over to you, they'd just end up in your belly!"

When Darian and Zima left, the lights were on lower than normal, but there was still enough light to see by. Leo was fiddling with the device the protester had given him. Mason saw it, and approached him.

"What did she give you?" Mason asked.

"It's a device that should help us to escape from Darian and get back to Earth!" said Leo. "If I could just figure out how to work it!"

Nolan, Tyler and Mason slid the door open that led outside the habitation module. The Thunderbolt was on the next table over, and there was a gulf of about a hundred feet between their table and the table where the Thunderbolt was perched. The men looked over the edge of the table and tried to find a way down and back up the other table so they could ascend to the Thunderbolt, but there was no way down.

"I don't see anything we can use!" said Mason. "We need to know how much fuel we have left, and once we refuel, someone needs to open the window and operate the space-warp cannon that brought us here!"

"Won't that mean one of us will have to stay behind?" Nolan asked. "Because it sure as hell won't be me!"

"It's going to be either Leo or myself who will have to stay behind," said Mason. "Logan has a device that may help him decipher Titan technology, and as long as Darian doesn't discover it and take it from him, it should be our key to getting home!"

"Well it looks like we can forget about getting to the Thunderbolt," said Nolan. "Let's try to help Logan decipher that gizmo he acquired!" Nolan turned and entered the habitation module.

Tyler, Mason, Carmen and Natalie remained outside.

"So how's it coming?" Nolan asked Leo.

"I'm reading the tutorial right now," said Leo. "It says not to activate the device completely until I've read and understand the tutorial, because it will give off an electromagnetic signature that Darian can track."

"Have you found out anything about Titan technology yet?" Nolan asked.

"It seems that everything we need to get home is in this lab! There is a replicator that we can use to synthesize fuel for the Thunderbolt, and it's showing me how to activate the space-warp cannon that pulled us into this universe!"

"That device that giantess gave you is very important, maybe we should keep watch and warn you when Darian and Zima are coming!"

"Good idea!" said Leo. "Go tell Mason to set up shifts where each of you will keep watch while I try to learn about this technology!"

"Leo?" Nolan asked.

"Yeah?" Logan replied.

"They say nobody from Earth has ever successfully returned to their home world from Thanatar, do you think we can pull this off? Do you think we have a chance?"

"There's a first time for everything!" said Leo.

Meanwhile, on another part of the campus, Darian was finishing typing up her report. She went to her teacher's office to hand it in. The teacher, a woman in her late 40's, was not unattractive, and Darian knew she would hold herself together as well as her when she got to be that age. The people of Thanatar were virtually immmortal, because every illness and disease known to man had been conquered thousands of years prior; because of this, it was no marvel when a teacher could reach her late 40s and still require no form of corrective surgery to look magnificent.

"Darian, this is an unusual topic for a junior thesis, but since you're a psyche major, it seems like a reasonable endeavour."

"How did I do?" Darian asked, as she turned in her report.

"I liked most of it, but if you're going to use school technology to acquire captives for your junior thesis project, I would like to see the spoils of your labor. You should've used some of your captives to win more captives on Arcadia! That would really impress the audience, and it would get your point across that when they first get here, they overcome any psychological stress to prevail on the game-boards if they have any athletic skills!"

"I had some captives I won, but I gave them to my assistant Zima, and she swallowed them!"

"I remember how much I loved swallowing captives at that age!" said the teacher. "That's what you get for showing mercy! When Zima becomes a junior and does her own junior thesis project, she can keep her captives and do with them how she pleases! But as long as you're in charge, you should keep any captives you've won as part of this project! Don't let her swallow any more!"

"I'll remember that!" said Darian. "I just felt sorry for Zima because she's become a close friend since we started working on this project!"

"You know what they say on the game-boards about feeling sorry for someone!" said the teacher. "'Those who feel sorry for others and act on it will soon feel sorry they did!'"

"I'm familiar with that expression," said Darian.

"Then turn it into action!" said the teacher. "For your next speech, I want you to have won as many captives as possible, while retaining the original set of captives you've already acquired!"

"Yes, ma'am!" said Darian, as she got up to leave. "I'll take them to Arcadia right now! One of my captives is a race car driver, and another is a pro tennis player."

By this time, Zima got out of her class and Darian met her in the hallway on the way back to the lab.

"My teacher gave me a ton of homework!" said Zima. "There's no class a week from today, so we have a bunch of work today and the day after tomorrow!"

"I can't let you swallow any more captives!" said Darian. "My teacher wants me to acquire as many captives as possible for my next presentation."

"I don't have a problem with that," said Zima. "But can we cut a deal? If you let me have a skilled captive that I can use to win more captives, then I'll have a fully self-sufficient operation!"

"We are friends," said Darian, "If I win five or more captives today, I'll let you have one of them so you can win more captives. But you have to promise not to swallow him until you have more captives!"

"You've got a deal!" said Zima as they shook hands. As the two giant women entered the lab, Nolan and Mason warned Leo and he put his device away.

"Okay," said Darian, "we're going back to Arcadia! I need the race car driver and the tennis pro!"

Zima collected Mason and Tyler, and put them in a jar with air-holes cut into the lid.

"The rest of you are staying here," said Darian as she grabbed some protein bars from a box and threw them into the habitation module, then closed the dome over the top. "There are water bottles in the kitchen area if you get thirsty!"

Darian and Zima turned and exited the lab, and walked to the parking area and entered Darian's shuttle cruiser. Zima placed the captives (inside their container) in a cup-holder as they blasted off. The shuttle cruiser pierced the cloud layer and hurtled into the stratosphere, then emerged into outer space.

Before long, the familiar site of the Arcadia space station appeared on the view screen. Darian deftly maneuvered her shuttle cruiser to the parking structure, which was located in one of the armatures that swung around constantly, providing perpetual gravity that matched the gravity on Thanatar.

Darian and Zima walked through the crowded hallways and corridors, and came to a turn that divided the racetrack from the tennis arena.

"You take Mason to the racetrack," said Darian, "and I'll take Tyler to play tennis."

The two women split up, and Darian went and registered Tyler for a tennis match. She bet Tyler against the ownership of another captive; if Tyler won, Darian would own that captive. The match began within fifteen minutes, and Tyler won with ease. Darian collected her captive and entered Tyler in another game. Tyler had better competition in the second match, but he still won fairly easily. Darian collected her second captive, and entered Tyler for a third match. Tyler was tired by this time, so Darian told him "This will be your last match of the day!"

Tyler got into the arena and fought hard against his opponent, and dispatched him despite being exhausted. When the match was over, Darian collected her third captive and went to see how Zima was doing. When she got to Zima's seat in the other stadium, she was surprised to see the jar with ten captives stuffed inside.

"We're going to have to get a bigger jar!" said Darian said. "How did you win so many?"

"I bet credits in addition to captives, and every time Mason won, I gave the loser the option of paying me with their captive instead of paying me money!"

"Let's get them back to the lab!" said Darian.

The two women walked back to Darian's shuttle cruiser, and from the perspective of the society they lived in, they looked like a couple of ordinary college-age women walking through a hallway crowded with other people, but the reality of it was they were colossal and the other people were all gigantic in stature; on Earth, most of these people would stand in the vicinity of four-hundred feet tall, some of them taller than that! But within the society they lived in of people who existed on the same scale as them, they appeared to be two ordinary college students conducting normal every day business.

They got into Darian's shuttle cruiser, and returned to the college campus. Zima held onto the captives in her jar, as if holding them empowered her somehow. The two women carried their captives to the lab where the Thunderbolt was. Darian activated the dome on the habitation module, and it opened. Zima dumped the ten captives plus Mason into the habitation module, and Darian dumped Tyler and the three captives she had won into the module.

"You've got some partners!" said Darian. "Get along with each other, because I'm going to need you all for my next presentation!"