Miss Quadrant-35 (Electric Dreams Short Story Entry)

On the Sohanian planet of Joloho, the annual bloodbath of the ‘Miss’ Quadrant-35 Pageant was drawing close to the final.

Fine Oddfuji had been competing for the title since the age of 11, like all those displaced in Emporal expansion, it was the best hope she had. The pageant consisted of 35 separate challenges; each designed to test to competitors in a seemingly endless variety of skills, including poise, combat, ingenuity and artistry. Fourteens year on, having survived the carnage of Round 30 for the tenth time, Fine Oddfuji was already set to finish with the coveted accolade of Tenner.

They were down to the last twelve competitors, the last three rounds. She would no longer have to win for a shot at a new life. Tenners could get jobs as guards on the haulage ships, but she had fought too hard to accept the shitty, oily life of a hired gun. She would keep fighting until she won, nothing less would do.

Fine favoured an ornate curved blade for the close-quarters combat of Round 33. She stood, waiting at the Arena Gate.

There was once a time she had practised her stance, the look of menace. She absently brushing the cold edge of her cutlass against the orange hued skin of her exposed midriff. She had stopped paying attention to the petty intimidation games years ago.

Intricate white writing snaked around her deep apricot waist, “Live and die by the blade”. She had it inked before her first pageant. She had known she would face some of the best warriors the Quadrants had to offer, a life spared in one round, could cost her own in the next.

Six white bands encased her right arm, marking the six lives she had ripped from gargling, broken throats in earlier rounds. The ceiling of her cramped flat was strung with the white metal death bands, hard won trophies from previous years.

Her mind drifted back to her rundown flat; the life she was fighting to leave. Like most Escaladians born in The Mother Solar System, Fine had been destined for a life between the shipping lanes, struggling to survive. The ‘First Humans’, comfortable in their ancestral territory, still held pointed disdain towards the genetically similar lifeforms that had long populated the quadrants.

Fine cast a subtle glance at the eleven other competitors. She would face three of them in the arena. Four would go in, two could come out. There were no rules, no limits, she intended to slaughter all three if she got the chance.

Her battle-hardened rivals twitched outside the gate. Shifty eyes surveyed the competition. She knew everyone would be thinking of The Ombelar, the first to claim the Seal. Over a hundred years ago, The Ombelar had massacred her opponents in this moment, stepped over their warm corpses to enter the death match that led to the penultimate round. Fine snorted in derision, if only it could be that easy for her. The game was always changing, killing them all now would make it near impossible to pass the next round.

The Pageant had once started as a means of finding a suitable addition to the Emporal Harem. The winner was lifted from poverty to lead to a life of luxury, walking the line between whore and assassin. As the years had passed, that had proved a less enticing incentive. The ‘Miss’ Quadrant-35 Pageant had evolved into a brutal contest to the death, men and woman from across the Galaxy competed for the elusive Emporal Seal.

Fine Oddfuji breathed deep. The Emporal Seal had only been won 3 times. It’s potential was limitless. She had never seen a former winner, but she grew up on the stories of Akabel Ostrar. The last man to claim the prize did so before she was born, he used his Seal to charter a Great Battle Cruiser. Akabel enlisted the Pageant Veterans he had trained with, and staked claim to a planet at the edge of Quadrant-49. The Akabellian warriors who competed now had been schooled by the former champion.

A great display jumped into life, suspending itself above the arena walls. Each warrior tensed as they surveyed the bright points of light. The Death Match Draws were up. Bookies across the quadrant would be heaving with the beep of money changing hands as bets were placed.

There was only one Akabellian in her draw, Mesa Villi. She spotted the gold adorned warrior, with eight white bands, weighing her up. Fine ignored him, knowing the advantage in being underestimated.

The hooked cutlass she toyed with glinted in the garish glow of the screen above, drawing focus away from her simple leather wristbands, and the blades they concealed.

She kept her guard up as she caught movement in her peripheral vision. Mesa Villi was coming towards her. The Akabellian were a people, not a race. She didn’t recognise the dark shining hair, the pallid green skin of her opponent. She didn’t know what far flung quadrant he descended from, but his bulging muscles were honed for the fight.

Fine kept her gaze centered on her blade as he came up behind her. She was used to the catcalling of foolish men who didn’t know the death they taunted, she smiled to herself as he lent towards her. He could whisper all he liked, it wouldn’t put her off.

Or so she thought.

She recoiled in shock as he put his tongue in her ear and offered her pancakes.

The familiar word sounded jilted in his bassey voice. Pancakes… she turned it over in her mind, a smile on her face grew as she remembered the technique.

She let her gaze wander over the competitors, taking in the others drawn for her match. A brown scaled woman rested against her heavy spiked hammer, flicking a thin tongue in the warm air as though tasting the hanging tension. Six white death bands gripped her lizard-skinned arm.

The other, a giant of a man, moved with the elegance and ease of one raised in 10G. Fine squinted, trying to count the multitude of bands wrapped around the pale skin of his colossal arm.

“The flip and slit… that could work” she murmured, it was an old move; charge one each, then suddenly switch.

She could keep her extra blades concealed until the last moment, then turn on Mesa before he knew what was happening. She nodded, she didn’t really need a plan, but this could work.

Mesa, guessing her thoughts, laughed out loud,

“You think I would be easy to leave to bleed out on the dirt?” he asked.

She turned to look him in the eye, “Two warriors can walk out of each battleground…”

“Well let’s hope they do” he replied with a wink.

It didn’t matter to her if he turned on her, she planned to kill him anyway, if he wanted to help her win first, that was ok with her.

The loud siren sounded, marking five minutes until they would enter the arena. She tensed a little with excitement.

“I want the big man, in the end” Mesa nudged her in the ribs.

“Fine with me, I like the look of that handbag anyway” Fine replied, casting a glance over the scaled Antasipharian woman.

The minutes ached by as she waited for the gate to lift, it wasn’t too late for someone to try and take her out before the round started.

She was almost disappointed when nobody did, she had been itching for the combat.

The heavy bars ground open, hidden chains clattering through slots as the gate rose. Bright spot lights danced to the entrance as the waiting crowd roared in anticipation.

She exploded movement, racing out of the gates. Each set of four warriors had a section to reach before barriers shot out of the ground, creating separate battlegrounds.

The Antasipharian ran alongside her, her hammer rested on her shoulder, her muscular lizard legs pounded the dirt.

Fine took her chance, spinning round and slashing the woman across the plated stomach. Her lightweight blade flipped easily in her hands, it wasn’t the plan, but she couldn’t miss a good opening.

The thin edge of her blade slashed a gash in the scaled skin, just deep enough to produce beads of orange blood.

They crashed across the metal line of their battleground as the Antasipharian swung her heavy hammer down on Fine’s head.

Too slow.

Fine dipped out of the way, hooking the tip of her cutlass into the taut tendon of the lizard leg, ripping it out to sever the fleshy fibre.

The reptilian warrior stumbled backwards, losing her footing exactly as Fine had expected. She punched her left fist into the falling throat, tensing to trigger the reinforced bladed tucked against her wrist.

Orange blood spurted down the brown scaled chest of the spluttering warrior. Fine followed through with the cutlass, plunging it under blood spattered ribs.

Yanking her blade free, Fine walked away, knowing death would soon follow in her wake.

Mesa was matching the light footed mammoth of a man in speed as she approached him.

“I thought I was going to wear her down for you?” he called, as he dove between the giants legs.

“More like let me slice him up a bit for you!”

“Well if you’re offering…”

The crowd behind them chanted in a frenzy, spurred on by the early death.

Fine, not one to disappoint an audience, charged towards the darting pair. As she came into the melee, she realised they both out paced her, iron fists smashing into air as each outmanoeuvred the other. She dropped low, ducking under Mesa furious punch, trying to read his arm.

She dived to the left, lifting her blade to nick the torso of the massive man as he evaded Mesa’s blow. A tiny red line swelled in gushing blood. A heart that pumped in 10G could bleed a man to death without needing too much help.

In that instant, the giant changed. His movements became more focused, his aim more precise. Fine could swear he even got faster.

She had seen the Death Push before; instinct that could be drilled into a person, the sudden final spurt that took the enemy down as well.

“More pancakes?” Mesa shouted, his form lost in a desperate blur as he dodged the bulging blows.

They scattered to opposite corners, forcing the 10G man to pick one to pursue.

He chose Fine.

She had expected it, he would have noticed she was the slower of the two. She never ceased to love being underestimated.

She grinned as she turned to face him, the pale streaks in her dark eyes burning under the spotlights.

She had noticed Mesa Villi moving in the background, she didn’t need him for this. The giant may be fast enough to land a blow, but all she had to do was make sure it was in the right place. Her cloth-wrapped breastplate concealed spring coiled spikes, a hit there would pierce his unsuspecting fist. It wouldn’t take much more for him to bleed out.

She judged his gait, trying to leave the right opening. The massive man leapt, moving with ease in the low gravity. His overpowered muscles propelled his heavy fist where she needed it to be.

Before he slamming blow had chance to hit her, Mesa had jumped onto the giant’s back, using his weight to swing the man’s head forwards.

The huge unsuspected forehead smashed into her chest plate. Hundreds of tiny reinforced needle-blades shot into the skull of the 10G colossus. The heart that allowed him life, sprayed Fine in high pressured blood as death claimed the warrior.

“I was supposed to know about the chest plate right?” Mesa winked.

Fine hesitated for a moment, the heavy corpse pinned her to the ground; Mesa could smash her face in with his boot heel before she could wriggle free.

“That’s what made us such a good team” she replied cautiously.

“Make,” he corrected her, “that’s why we make such a good team”

Round 34: The Dead Drop

Seven of the possible eight made it to the next round. Fine had hoped for one or two less, she found herself willing her uneasily alliance to last a little longer. It would make the next round considerably smoother. Round 34 had knocked her out every time she made it this far. She lived in the filthy underbelly of one of the biggest cities in the system, training for the Dead Drop wasn’t easy to find.

They sat in the ship that would deliver the seven Pageant contestants to a dead world. Three one man shuttle-pods had been hidden on the surfaces of the lifeless rock, but the pods only launched if all three were activated in time. They had twelve hours to find the pods, and the first few were normally spent whittling down the numbers a little.

Mesa turned to her with a grin,

“So which one of these five excuses of warriors do you think we will see in the final?”

Fine shrugged, smiling back at him, “Barely matters”

Each contestant had been given a leg tag, and tracking unit. They would be able to see each others locations; each players white dot would turn an alerting red if they got close to a shuttle.

The low G descent slowed as they neared the planets surface, they would all start from the same location.

Mesa grabbed her arm, as he hissed into her ear

“Come with me, I know where to go”

The clock started the moment the ships doors began to open. Mesa had a firm grip on her arm as he ran towards the exit, pulling her with him.

A small army of humming cameras drifted out of the doors alongside the contestants, recording the entertainment.

Mesa dragged Fine off behind the ship, pulling her into a tunnel entrance.

“I know this planet, I sensed it as we were coming down” he whispered urgently, “but I need to know, are you with me?”

“With you…?”

“I can get you through this round, but I need to know, when the times comes, you won’t turn on me.”

“What…” She spat, “so you can turn on me? You will get me through if I agree to lose for you?”

“If you’re in, it doesn’t matter which one of us wins, as long as it’s you or me”

Fine wrinkled her apricot forehead, not following. She had already ceased to notice the hovering camera, adjusting the focus of it’s lense as it moved around them.

“You understand what the Emporal Seal can do, don’t you?”

Fine shrugged, “Who doesn’t? Wealth, luxury, ease, whatever life you could want.”

“Is that really what you want? Is that what you’d really do if you got the Seal…?”

She paused, she had dreamed for so long of getting out of the rot of the city, of eating real food and seeing sunlight every day, she hadn’t thought far beyond that.

“If you can promise me now, that whichever one of us wins, works with the other to create a fair planet, where all life is equal, then I can promise one of us will win that Seal.” Mesa added.

Fine suddenly began to catch on, “Is this what Akabellians train for…?”

Mesa grinned, “Now you get it, and with two planets, it won’t take as long for a third, and a fourth, and then a...”

“Ok” she interrupted him, speaking without realising.

She spent her whole life hearing stories of the planet where warriors lived equally, training under Akabel Ostrer, pledging their life to his mysterious cause. Yet she had dedicated herself to winning her own Emporal Seal, she wasn’t sure if she’d be able to go through with helping him in the end.

He didn’t waste any time questioning if he could trust her.

“I know where the shuttles are. We need to draw the others to the closest one, distract them while we get to our own.”

Fine smiled as she wondered, was this how the great Akabel Ostrar had won himself?

Mesa Villi had come prepared, he had a memorised the map in his pocket, and handed her the folded paper.

“You go to the furthest one. I can draw the others to the one deep in this tunnel system, the second pod isn’t too far.”

Fine looked at the map, it would take a good six hours to hike to the point marked. If this was a trick, she’d have wasted a lot of time.

Turning it over, she realised she’d had enough of getting knocked out on this round.

---

She shouldn’t have been so surprised Mesa’s plan worked. She sat sealed in her pod, expecting the alarm to sound Game Over.

Instead, she heard the feed from the live audience, screaming with delight as the lights in her shuttlepod came on, ready to take off.

---

Round 35: The Unexpected Final.

Last year the final challenge that no one made it to, had been to compose a ballet. The skills need in each years final were different. Fine found herself entering a biology lab with Mesa and a stout balding bull of a human man.

A voice echoed through loudspeakers,

“Each player has a station. Please use the equipment provided to reproduce the genetic code for a platypus”

Laughter echoed behind the announcer as the crowd were given insight the contestants were not.

Fine dashed to her station, noticing Mesa trying to catch her eye. She ignored him, scanning the DNA bank. She had completed a biotech bootcamp when she was 17, the memories were hazy, but she was starting to feel her way through.

She needed to find the right building blocks. Fine was scrolling through the bank data, when she noticed Mesa rushing towards her. She didn’t have time to consciously process his expression, she followed his gaze, turning to look behind her.

The small stout man cracked a stained knife onto the bench as she snatched her arm out of the way. Mesa slammed into him as Fine punched hard into the man’s gut, letting her knife sink into the tough flesh.

He let out a deep cackle, “That almost stung”

He swung the serrated blade towards her, grabbing her leg as she tried to pull away. She toppled backwards off her chair and in an instant, her assailant dove on top of her.

Her chest spikes triggered, impaling the man as he grinned over her.

“Now you’re just stuck with me” he laughed, as he brought his blade to her neck.

Mesa kicked hard into his side, moments too late to stop the toothed knife gnaw into Fine’s slender golden throat.

Grabbing the thick head of the other contestant, Mesa snapped the man’s neck, his arms straining with the effort. He let the body fall as he dropped to his knees to try and hear Fine’s gargled words.

“There are parts of the building blocks for the sequence on my station, I got it up on my screen.” her hand clutched her bubbling throat.

“The other parts…”

She began to cough as blood seeped into her lungs, she tightened her grip.

“...will be probably be accessible on the other two stations…”

Her lungs were filling rapidly, she struggled for breath between words.

“...the only ones with mammalian and…”

She took a deep gasp, aware of the choking, rising sensation.

...reptilian and avian genetic modules”

Her last words were whispered from smiling bloodied lips as blackness crept across Fine’s vision. She had lived true to her word, and she would die by it. She could accept that, knowing, in her own way, she had already won.

Phew I wrote this in one sitting and have spent the last few days tweaking it to be only-just-over the word limit. This was so much fun to write, I could have just kept on going. I had come up with the character names a while a go, using a website I have since sadly lost, I knew that Fine Oddfuji was a warrior competing in a contest near impossible to win, so I knew right away this prompt was meant to be her story. I always enjoy writing this light-hearted pulp fiction kinda scifi and this contest is so good for it.

This is my entry to @tygertyger 's Electric Dreams Short Story Contest the prompts this round are #1 your protagonist is a contestant in a space age game show he/she/they/it have three challenges to overcome to win the grand prize. What are the challenges? The Prize is life altering and coveted by everyone on earth and our solar system. What is it ? Only 3 people in the history of this game show have completed the challenges and won. Will your protagonist win? Will /he /she/they/it lose and why? what are the consequences? #2 a platypus #3 the story must include the sentence - “He put his tongue in my ear and offered me pancakes ” - it is a lot of fun so head over to the post to give it a go.

Check out all the entries under #electricdreams

Photo Credit by Pixabay User DasWortgewand who has an amazing selection of stunning scifi images (others worlds, alien skies, double suns, space explorers) as well as a variety of other great stock images.