Only A Game

The gladiator emerged into the bright sunlight and blinked as his eyes adjusted to the light from the three suns of Proxima Centauri, and Alpha Centauri A and B. When he had grown accustomed to the light, he looked up at the roaring crowd of aliens from all the distant corners of the galaxy. Some were multi-armed, reptilian or insectoid, but the majority of them were the custodians of these bloodthirsty games, the Te'Rans. He almost cringed as he thought of the name that was dreaded throughout the galaxy. They were the scourge of all races except for the other warrior races they came across that actually put up a significant fight.

The gladiator had been born on a world at the fringe of the galaxy. His people, the Eschat, were a people of agriculture. They grew the water retaining vegetables called havak and sold them to nearby desert planets for a reasonable price. They had never attacked another planet or colony and only killed animals for their food. Then, one day, the Te'Rans came and all of that changed.

Suddenly, at the other end of the stadium a door opened in the massive wall that enclosed the contestants. Out of it stomped the looming form of a Valtek. The Valtek were a vicious reptilian race who had terrorized the space surrounding their homeworld until the Te'Ran came, smashed the Valtek fleets and enslaved the race. They were huge beasts. Their skin was rough and pebbled brown and green. They had large teeth, as sharp as knives and a long tail that could shatter bones with one hit. He was going to have his work cut out for him if he was going to win.

When the Te'Rans had landed on his peaceful little world, the Eschat had welcomed them with banquets and speeches. After accepting their hospitality, the Te'Rans had began their attack. Hundreds died in the first few minutes. When the gladiator had emerged from his hiding place he found that the Eschat capital was burning and the carefully tended fields were soaked with their caretaker's blood. Soon the Te'Ran Enslavers came in their hovercraft and swept over the land finding people who had escaped the carnage to take into bondage. He had tried to escape but was easily captured and sold to the people who ran the stadium on this fate forsaken planet.

The Valtek began to move fluidly towards him with increasing speed. In its hand were a trident of tritanium and a disintegration net. On its belt was a knife with a blade of an encased laser. As if for the first time the gladiator looked down and saw his own weapons. He had a scimitar of synth-diamond, an energy shield and a battle staff of tritanium laced with synth-diamond. He had to move our he would be killed in a few seconds. He moved. Bolting around the Valtek he leapt in onto its back and struck as hard as he could at the scales that protected it. His sword made a line of dark blood where it had pierced the scales. His opponent then swung its tale and smashed him to the ground.

For months after he had been sold to the owners of the stadium he had been training in the ways of hand-to-hand combat. If he was going to survive the coming battles he had to be and excellent fighter. Eventually, he had become one of the best in the stadium and had amassed numerous victories. This was to be his tenth fight in the stadium on Alpha Centauri VI. He had heard his captors saying that he had many fans who bet on him every time they came to the stadium.

He scrambled away from the pain maddened beast just before its tail slammed into the dust where he had been a second ago. In one fluid movement he was back on his feet and ready to face his opponent's retaliation. The Valtek spotted him and charged with its mouth wide open. When it got close it flung its disintegration net at him and thrust at him with its trident. He dodged the trident and threw up his shield to block the deadly net. When the net hit his energy shield both weapons crackled and a fierce heat sprang up as the conflicting energies created an immense amount of friction. The heat grew to such an extent that both contenders were forced away. In a moment the net had become disentangled from the
shield and the heat dissipated.

There were stadiums like this one all over the galaxy. They were very popular around the Te'Ran homeworld of Earth. On Earth alone, the gladiator had heard there were at least twenty of these barbaric places and another five hundred more clustered on planets around Earth. A few groups in the free races thought that these arenas were evil and bloodthirsty and attempted to stop them, but they had too soft a voice in the governments to make a difference. Some of these groups were actually wiped out for trying to stop the most popular sport in the known universe.

The combatants started to circle one another in the dusty, blood stained arena. Eyeing each other and gauging the best time to lunge at their enemy. Almost faster than the eye could follow the gladiator sprang at his opponent, drew his scimitar and slashed at the Valtek's throat. This would have ended the encounter, but the Valtek pulled back at the last second and blocked the gladiator's shot. Then both of them pulled away and began to circle each other again.

There was a serious side affect to the players of these games. They called it the Madness. It was actually a buildup of adrenaline in the body from all of the fighting and the practicing that the contestant was forced to go through to actually make it onto the field of battle. The symptoms were a sudden increase in body temperature, a surge of energy, then a feeling of weakness gripped the person. Many were easily killed by their opponents after the energy surge and some killed themselves. The owners of the stadium try to discourage this because of the letting down the audience with an anti-climax. This Madness was one of the reasons some people in the alien governments wanted this sport banned from arenas all over the galaxy.

As they circled the gladiator tripped and stumbled before catching himself. That was enough of a opportunity for his opponent to lunge and pierce his leg with its barbed trident. He fought off the attack and the creature retreated leaving the trident in his leg. The Valtek, sensing that he was hurt, drew his las-knife and attacked again. He slashed downward powerfully but missed his target. As it missed him the gladiator smashed his staff at the back of the las-knife and shattered it. His opponent screamed in pain as the laser generator in the knife handle exploded taking half of its hand with it.

After the Te'Rans had began their outward expansion into the galaxy they only met one real threat. One alien race faced them and almost took the Earth itself. This the Te'Rans could not allow to happen again, so when the aliens finally surrendered every single one of them was executed. This scared all of the other alien races into submission. The Te'Rans were easily the most ruthless people in the entire galaxy. There were legends that they once used to be merciful and helpful but these are very, very highly unlikely stories considering the present condition of the galactic social pyramid.

For many hours the two battled and both of them sustained heavy wounds. All over the dusty soil blood and wrecked weapons were scattered. Then without warning something in the gladiator snapped. He felt heat fill his body and blood cloud his vision. The Madness was starting to attack him as fiercely as his opponent was. Finally after a few spurts of adrenaline he felt the futility overwhelm him and he ran into his opponent’s disintegration net and disappeared in a flash of light and ozone.