GRAND CENTRAL ARENA: Chapter 26

[seawasp]

Now let's find out what hit Ariane...

 

Chapter 26.

 

     DuQuesne had also been studying Ghondas – and Orphan's reaction to her comments. He's definitely a Big Time Operator, Orphan is. Bigger than Ghondas. At the same time, I'm sure he's serious about needing our help – which tells me quite a bit about the mess we're in.

 

     Orphan's tail suddenly rose halfway, his body and wingcases tightening, staring at a point just past DuQuesne's shoulder, where Ariane had just passed him.

 

     As he turned, Ariane staggered back and fell, her black-blue hair pooling outward as she hit the smooth floor ungracefully. He spun fully around. "What the hell –"

 

     The thing that he was suddenly confronting was a nightmare, taller than him, standing on seven claw-tipped, chitin-covered, jointed legs, a central body like a gorilla crossed with a praying mantis, the entire creature colored in violent splotches of red, black, and bluish-purple; it probably outweighed him by fifty kilos. Two more of the things stood just behind it and in flanking positions. It screech-hissed from a mouth that combined the worst features of a lobster and a lamprey, sounds translated into a rough, grating voice. "You stand in my way and speak unquietly. Unwise. Move."

 

     Ariane was getting up, looking shaken and pale, a trickle of blood from the corner of her mouth showing that she'd been hit harder than he thought. Now that's just torn it. "I move when you apologize for hitting my Captain. Not before."

 

     Orphan hissed, a sound of dismay. "Molothos!"

 

     In the moment before the creature reacted, DuQuesne had time to realize what a stupid mistake his antiquated instincts had driven him to. The Molothos were one of the most powerful factions, and by far the most dangerous – a race of xenophobic – no, xenomisosic, alien-hating – creatures who had managed to establish a power base large enough to challenge even groups like the Faith. Of all the lousy breaks…

 

The monster lashed out with jack-knife mantis claws, a stroke faster than anything DuQuesne had seen in fifty years. He barely moved aside in time, as the bladed forelimb ripped through the air where he'd been; the second stroke was just as close. This thing's a killer. Those aren't slaps like it gave Ariane; it's trying to rip my head off! He noticed the other two were moving forward and fanning out, legs moving in a stacatto crablike gait which was deceptively smooth and swift.

 

This is bad. Very bad. This wasn't one of the formal Challenges Orphan had talked about, it was a random gang attack, and it didn't look like anyone – even Orphan – was inclined to help out. No time to draw my gun, assuming these guys aren't armored enough to take a hit or two, and with the crowd around us I'd end up doing collateral damage. I've got to interrupt this guy's rhythm, throw him off. The next time the sharp-spined foreclaw stabbed outward, he moved.

 

The impact stung like catching a swung baseball bat, and he almost lost his grip. Thing's too fast, and I'm too slow and way out of practice. But he had the claw, and the hiss-screech was a gasp of startled anger. For a moment they stood motionless, the Molothos trying to pull its claw back, DuQuesne holding it locked in an iron grip. Jesus, the thing's strong. I don't know how long I can hold it.And if I shift enough to get my sword out, I'll hand it an opening and it'll be just too bad for me.

 

A gray shadow suddenly fell over both of them, and DuQuesne felt as though mired in thick oil. He turned his head – more slowly than he wanted.

 

A squat, armored figure stood to one side, pointing a flattened clublike weapon at both of them. "End this," it said in a hard, flat voice. "Initiating violence is prohibited outside of Challenge. You know this, Molothos Dajzail."

 

Dajzail's single eye – a crescent-shaped organ that extended around most of his head, like a wraparound visor – flickered with yellow light. It slowly relaxed the pressure, letting DuQuesne ease off and let go, but the entire body trembled, so much that the chitinous legs gave a slight rattling hum from their contact with the floor. And I'm sure that's rage, not fear. It's furious that it has to stop, has to accommodate this guy.

 

"This… creature refused to give ground, and insisted I… perform a service before it did so!" Dajzail snarled.

 

"Perform a… I insisted that you apologize for knocking over my friend and Captain!"

 

The armored figure – which appeared to be of a race similar to the toadlike creatures that had been accompanying First Guide Nyanthus – bobbed slightly; the replying voice, though still mostly dispassionate, seemed to have acquired a faint trace of wry humor. "A hard service indeed… for a Molothos. But an unwise service to demand, as well."

 

Orphan stepped forward. "Adjudicator, my friends are First Emergents. And Dajzail did strike their Captain without warning."

 

     "I see that this is so. Then the fault is not theirs, but yours, Molothos. Not an uncommon situation. But let us simply set it aside; continue on with your business, remembering the prohibitions." As Dajzail and his two companions turned – without a word or glance – to continue onward, the Adjudicator raised its voice. "But be warned – if   we see similar events repeated anytime in the next four weeks, we will be much less tolerant, Dajzail."

 

     The hacking snarl was translated as an obscenity, but apparently any answer was considered acknowledgement. DuQuesne watched them leave with a combination of relief and disappointment. Get over it. Only your stupid hindbrain wants to fight the damn thing. Didn't you spend five decades trying to wash that poisonous crap out of your head? Get over it.

 

     Instead, he turned on Orphan. "Thanks a lot for nothing. Were you going to take pictures of my dissection after they finished gutting me?"

 

     Orphan was staring at him, still in his protective-threat pose. "You are insane. Insane!"

 

     "What the hell's your problem? I didn't know exactly what they were, yeah, but once that started they weren't backing off."

 

     "You confronted an unknown – and one so clearly formidable – for no reason!" Orphan said, the translated voice shaking. "There wasn't a chance in ten… in a hundred… that you'd survive it." Orphan shook himself. "And you wanted… no, you expected… me to enter combat." He glanced at the others, realized that they had been positioning themselves to intercept the other two Molothos. "I thought you had said that it was the Shadeweaver's interference that caused you to intervene on my behalf… yet this was even more of a risk."

 

     Something about the whole situation's spooked him. Spooked him bad. DuQuesne shrugged. "Fine, drop it. You thought it'd be throwing good lives after bad, all right, your judgment to make. Who or what was that… Adjudicator?"

 

     Clearly relieved to be away from the prior subject, Orphan answered in a much more normal tone. "Ah, the Adjudicators. They are the enforcers of the Arena, appointed by the major factions. They have to be evenhanded in their dealings, and the armor they wear – which, it is said, adapts to the wearer – has some connection with the Arena that allows them to intervene in any of the forbidden activities. There are not many such, but just a few Adjudicators has always been sufficient to keep people, shall we say, honest most of the time."

 

     DuQuesne was now checking Ariane's injuries. The trickle of blood wasn't serious – he was rather surprised by the shock it had given him. He'd seen many fights before, and this had just shaken up the Captain a bit; why did he feel like fussing over her? "No real harm done, Captain. Banged your lip a little, I think."

 

     "Thank you, Marc. But next time, please think before defending me. My pride – and even my lip – can take a few hits if necessary."

 

     He wanted to protest, but she was perfectly right. "Understood, Captain."

 

     Ariane nodded to Orphan. "Now what?"

 

     "I think," Orphan said, "we should make our way towards my Embassy. I believe we will encounter a few more persons of interest along the way, and it will be a good safe haven to rest at; I suspect we will all want a good rest after all this walking, not to mention the excitement." He chuckled, a flapping motion of the wings. "And I'm looking forward to a decent meal."

 

     As Ariane followed Orphan, Sandrisson fell in next to DuQuesne. "I must confess, I had not expected you to take the position of Sir Galahad."

 

     "What? That two-bit thug just pissed me off."

 

     "I was furious as well, but I was – I admit – rather intimidated by those creatures, and Ariane was petrified by them; I think they strike some rather unpleasant associations with her. But when you saw her go down, you didn't hesitate at all." Sandrisson smiled. "Don't worry, I shall say nothing. Honorable opposition and all that." He moved forward before DuQuesne could think of a reply, leaving him to stare after the elegant white-haired scientist.

 

     What the hell did he mean by that?

It seems that aliens aren't the only danger here, Marc.

Comments

Marc's got a GUUURL. (Potentially.)

[the-blue-fenix.livejournal.com]

(GRIN)

Enter another convention of the classic pulps -- plain ol' proximity of the opposite sexes in times of crisis starts and eventually completes romantic relationships with very little of that cootie-laden TALKING about it.

(The troubles I got into, reading that stuff in my teens...)

I hadn't previously thought of Sandrisson as romance fodder, but I guess he has a right to consider his options. And I do agree that being cut off from all non-party humans for an unpredictable period of time may be operating on everyone's pair-off impulses on a subconscious level.

Also, we learn that not all challenges are Challenges. It's probably an extremely good thing that the bug guys didn't want to push matters to that extent.

addendum

[the-blue-fenix.livejournal.com]

How many chapters total in the book, just for my information?

Re: addendum

[seawasp]

74. So you're a little over 1/3 of the way through.

And I'm stopping at 1/2. MUAAAHAHAH!

Re: Marc's got a GUUURL. (Potentially.)

[seawasp]

Well, Marc's got himself a PROBLEM. He has serious "issues" -- partly his outmoded thought processes, partly a major problem in his past, etc.

Interesting you hadn't thought of Sandrisson as romance fodder, as he was already flirting with Ariane -- and getting a positive response -- prior to everything going to pot. Simon is tall, handsome, intelligent, and has an English accent, so he's full of Win for a romance object. Of course, Marc is even taller, dark, handsome, intelligent, and with a Mysterious Tragic Past, so he's in the running too.

Yeah. It was a good thing for the MOLOTHOS that they didn't try to push things.

Re: Marc's got a GUUURL. (Potentially.)

[kengr]

It was a good thing for the MOLOTHOS that they didn't try to push things.

Shhh! You'll give away...

oh. That's right. You;'re the author. Nevermind.

:-)

Re: Marc's got a GUUURL. (Potentially.)

[the-blue-fenix.livejournal.com]

Re Sandrisson, hotness of -- It's probably a weakness in me as a reader, maybe reinforced by getting this in small chunks, but I haven't been taking very good mental notes on character as we've gone along. I notice details about Ariane because she's the Main Protagonist, and about Marc because he's Marc, but a lot of stuff about the others is probably going right past me.

Re non-Challenge, who that's good news for -- are we badass, then? I was thinking good for us humans that we aren't in a duel we know nothing about. What if the other side gets choice of weapons and picks space fleets? Or something else where we'd automatically lose through gross non-preparation? Let's get more oriented before we start going John W. Campbell on other species around here.

I'm re-reading "Skylark" and it's your fault.

Re: Marc's got a GUUURL. (Potentially.)

[seawasp]

Simon's look is based strongly off Sephiroth from FFVII, so given the female squeeing contingent for Sephy, I feel fairly confident in describing him as good-looking.

If the Molothos had pushed it THEN, they were in direct violation of the Arena's rules. And the Molothos do NOT want to piss off the Arena at large.

Yes, there's things that we don't want to mess with, and yes, we can get set up for losing propositions.

But then, no one in the ARENA knows anything about US, so that bit about "find out a little more" could cut both ways.

[illian.livejournal.com]

Orphan's reaction is interesting, to say the least. *happy sigh* Nutball, violence prone hoo-mans at large!

"Don't worry, I shall say nothing. Honorable opposition and all that."

*snicker*

[muirecan.livejournal.com]

Caught that did you. :D I'll give you a hint, it is fairly universal to the races currently known in the Arena.

[illian.livejournal.com]

I assume you mean Orphan's reaction is fairly universal? :)

[seawasp]

Indeed. There's even a specific clue in what he says as to where THEY are very different from US.

[illian.livejournal.com]

I think I picked up on that in the next paragraph. :) Which also hints at why the Molothos (if they are just as happy to get violent with others as they were in this section) have been able to establish such a large power base despite being xenomisosic. I'm sure the members of the Arena will be just thrilled to have another group of crazies. At least humans usually don't automatically hate you? :)

For some reason, it just tickles me pink when a writer goes down this path. Not that it happens often.

[seawasp]

Which particular path is that? It's obviously not "humans are different" because this is actually a return to that as an old, old, old hoary old trope.

[illian.livejournal.com]

Mmm, it is difficult for me to express, exactly, but I frequently see a theme (usually outside military sci-fi) where human nature as we currently understand it is an inherently Bad Thing but especially the violent and conflict prone parts. This leads to Crapsack Worlds or places where humans are usually to blame for anything going wrong (usually catastrophically). The less developed authors put me in mind of being accosted by a fire and brimstone preacher while I'm wearing a scarlet letter on my chest. :) Its a pessimistic view of the species that I don't buy into any more than I do the more rosy Star Trek Federation of the early years. Both are picking and choosing which parts of humanity they want to emphasize. Seeing an author instead writing about it as another force to be channeled into actions (good or bad) seems to be rarer lately.

[muirecan.livejournal.com]

Interesting take, but I can safely say that isn't where Ryk is headed. But I am very interested to see what conclusions you do draw. Ryk's beta group knew before the book started certain choices he had made regarding man and the rest of the universe. So it is very interesting to see what conclusions someone who doesn't know that kind of detail ahead of time reaches.

Orphan does give a hint of what the biggest difference is. I will say that the difference if not why the difference becomes much clearer in later scenes. This is just the first time the difference has been seen in action.

[illian.livejournal.com]

Oh, I don't have any expectations one way or the other as to where he is going with it. It is just that in comparison the pessimistic view would have had a far stronger reaction out of Orphan and the other aliens and humans would probably already be fighting against being permanently bottled up in the solar system as being far too violently insane to be allowed around civilized, mature entities. :)

[seawasp]

And then we would kill them and take their stuff.

[seawasp]

Ah, yes, I see. I follow neither path exactly. This is a salute to the Golden Age, so humanity must be special somehow. I follow the RAH philosophy, crossed with Doc Smith, but I'm not writing MilSF (exactly -- though if I get sequels to GCA there WILL be war) so it's not just how badass you are that matters.

[illian.livejournal.com]

I didn't expect you to. I'm just enjoying the fact that you aren't going down that particular pessimistic path or that I'll need to brace myself against one of the "relatively good" guys doing something absolutely abominable simply due to the fact that the book dictates that humans are That Way. I'd follow but I'd probably be grumbling about it the entire way. ;)

if I get sequels to GCA there WILL be war

And I hope you do. :D But the Arena is just a formalized war zone, really, so its built in to the universe (or that universe, at least).