38
I woke up, but I wasn't in my room.
Above me was a fitfully lit florescent tube, audibly buzzing in its sockets. The smell of mildew was strong, and I could feel the damp soaking into my clothes from the carpet under my back.
I sat, then stood, looking around. Brown carpet riddled with stains, yellow walls, endless spaces that were neither corridors nor rooms.
Liminal space.
Glancing down at my wrist, I wore no bracer. There was no door near me.
I was alone.
Turning slowly, I sought bearings that simply weren't to be had. In one direction most of the lights were out, leaving the area underneath in perfect darkness. In every other direction the lights revealed the same endless, random spaces. In places the ceiling was higher or lower, sloped or arched. Pillars of varying sizes stood next to each other in obvious disorder, but there was no one to ask, no one to tell.
In every direction there was nothing. Darkness ... or nothing at all.
"Now, this is a proper hell," I said with quiet satisfaction, and started walking.
I woke up.
Pala was staring down at me as she pulled her hand away from my head, her golden eyes luminous in the near dark. The only light was flooding in from the door to the main area of the suite. She'd used that internal whatsits of hers to wake me and I sat up, looked around, then at her with a raised eyebrow.
"Today's the day the competition begins," she said. "The first competitors will perform in about an hour and a half. I wanted to see if you cared to have breakfast before we go watch."
"We have to watch? Aren't there like, a hundred eighty-something competitors left?"
"A hundred seventy-two," Pala said. "Fourteen were killed during the triathlon."
"And how long's it going to take to go through all those performances? Don't we go last?" I asked, squinting at her in annoyance.
"Only twenty-eight of the competitors will actually perform. It'll be over by the end of the day," Pala said.
"Whaat?"
My trainer smiled a feral smile as she said, "All the rest have admitted they don't have what it takes to perform in one way or another. Most of them had no training. You expect the audience to sit through a hundred fifty shitty performances?"
I'd actually taken quiet joy from the likelihood that the audience for this event would be sitting through massive amounts of suck before getting to the good stuff.
"I admit the idea made me smile," I said, frowning.
Pala showed her teeth at that, and said, "SDM isn't interested in boring their audience. All of the practice sessions were reviewed and those not deemed worthy of the stage were disqualified over the course of the last few days. I don't have numbers, but I promise you most of the competitors didn't even attempt this event. Should we win it, it will go a long way toward keeping you on your throne. No one outside SDM expects you to have any musical ability."
"So they do expect me to sit through everyone else's garbage," I said with a sigh, and rolled out of bed.
Pala watched me, one hand on her cocked hip, as I got dressed out of the closet of identical jumpsuits. The colors annoyed me, but at least the damn things were comfortable. When I was done, she tipped her head toward the main room and followed me out. The others were waiting there, already dressed.
As I looked around, I said, "Aww, thanks for letting me sleep in."
Yim rolled her eyes and said, "You're welcome. Let's do breakfast and get ready."
I glanced at Astra, who was literally bouncing, and asked, "Excited?"
"Yes yes! I love music!" she chirped, hopping toward me, then away as she tilted her head, feathers covering her beak a moment before she ran to the suite door, opened it, and fled.
"What gives?" I asked no one in particular as I followed her out.
Phoebe chuckled and said, "She likes you."
"She runs away from people she hates and the ones she likes, apparently," I noted blandly as we strode toward the elevator at the end of the hall. There was a bay of windows to my right, and the pre-dawn light illuminated the courtyard below. A better man than I've ever been might have appreciated the beauty there, but I mostly ignored it.
As though reading my mind, Yim said, "No matter what happens today, you need to get out of the suite more, Taz."
"I go out every damn day."
I turned to face the elevator doors as the others parted to my left and right, flanking me. The doors closed and we hurtled toward the ground as Yim said, "You know what I mean."
"I'm ignoring what you mean. There's nothing out here I care to see or do."
"Most of the serious competitors have picked up at least one new ally playing the various games available. You should consider it," she said, though she sounded both exasperated and somewhat hopeless. It was obvious she didn't think I'd be doing it, and she was right about that.
Pala said, "You're giving up too easily."
At first I thought she was talking to me, but before I could reply, Yim snapped, "I don't want to hear that from you. I expected way more help with him than I'm getting."
The next thing I heard sounded like a muted thwap that I could only imagine was Pala smacking her daughter upside the head. Since Yim yelped at practically the same time, I would have put good money on my guess being right.
I thought about stepping in, but what was I going to say that wouldn't just turn Yim on me and get me nowhere? I had no dog in that race ... so to speak, so I kept my mouth shut and pretended not to hear what was going on.
Pala said, "You may take it on faith that I've provided more benefit than you realize. You may also take it on faith that if you don't assert yourself in some meaningful way, your career in this business will be very short."
The brushed metal in front of me showed me colorful shadows of the people standing behind, but no more. That was enough to pick out Pala and Yim, standing just behind me to my left and right. Astra was next to Pala, Phoebe next to Yim, but the two packwren were staring fixedly at one another, though I didn't hear any growling.
In a flash of inspiration, I thought Pala might be implying Yim try and assert herself from a subordinate position, rather than attempt to maintain a dominant one. I'd read something about it in one of the many papers I'd consumed over the last few days. What had they called it? Topping from the bottom.
Dismissing the thought, I sighed and said, "I don't care which one of you says what, unless I have a concrete reason to go out and mingle I don't plan to. I already offer my services to the SDM staff, what other benefit is there to going out?"
Yim said, "Director Chosen provided us with an ally she wants you to try and obtain."
"Oh yeah?" I asked, glancing back at her, one eyebrow raised. "Is it a succubus?"
Yim winced, and that told me all I needed to know. I waved a dismissive hand as I turned away from her and said, "Forget it."
"She's a singer," Yim blurted.
"So?" I asked, turning to look at her as I waved a hand toward Astra. "I've already got a singer."
Astra's crest went up, then she preened, but didn't say anything as Yim said, "She wants you to pick this girl up to help with some sort of deal you two made. She wouldn't tell me the details."
I frowned, but when I didn't immediately answer, Yim added, "She'll be performing today."
"We'll see what happens. Chosen hasn't offered me a deal, and until she does I'll be damned if I saddle myself with a fuck'n'suck."
I'd actually meant to say 'fuckin' succubus,' it just came out wrong. Since it still worked, I didn't bother correcting myself.
Phoebe made a throat noise, then several more. I glanced over to see her lips tightly shut as she tried valiantly to stifle her laughter, looking sidelong at me. As the doors opened with a bright chime, I leaned toward her and asked with all the faux concern I could muster, "Are you okay? You sound like you're choking on something. Shall I escort you to the infirmary?"
Her shoulders dropped as she made a high, whining sound, then shook her head violently and took a swing that glanced off my shoulder as I leaned away with an easy grin. The force of her swing bounced one of her boobs off the other and took her farther around than she intended, and I caught her as she spun back into me. Leaning down, I whispered, "You seem a little shaky. Not still off-balance from yesterday, are you?"
The green of her cheeks got darker as she said, "If I am, whose fault is it?"
"Yours, naturally."
She leaned away and turned to look up at me as she said, "How do you figure?"
"You get the kind of energy you produce, Phoebe," I said.
Her eyes rolled up, then left as she tilted her head and grinned.
"You aren't scoring any points, talking like that," Yim said without a trace of humor. "Most livestock aren't free to vote. The bulk of the audience are succubi. I shouldn't have to tell you it's not healthy to bite the hand that feeds you, Taz."
"Fine, I won't say succubi aren't good for anything," I said, glancing up at Yim. "If she impresses me today I'll scout her. Who's she working with?"
"Baester. He's eighteenth on the leaderboards right now and took first in the triathlon."
"What is he?" I asked.
"He's a Darter."
I stopped, turned to Yim, and held out a hand in sarcastic invitation as I stared pointedly at her.
She rolled her eyes, pulled up an image, and handed her data pad over for me to look. Apparently, Baester was a four-armed, two-legged, four-winged ... hornet-lookin' thing. No abdomen, just a thorax. He was obviously chitinous, and his head was a fair likeness of a hornet save that his eyes actually seemed to curve over the top of his head and his antennae were long, multi-segmented, and drooped behind him to his middle back. His upper body was golden, but below the second set of arms he sort of grayed toward black at his feet, which were completely alien looking. He was wearing purple and green, but I couldn't hold that against him. No one in the games chose their clothes.
I handed the data pad back as I asked, "Can that thing fly?"
"Yes, he can."
"Why haven't I seen him before? I figure I'd remember something like that."
"He's three and a half feet tall and probably stayed the hell away from you on purpose," Pala said wryly. "Darters can be dangerous, but they're also not all that strong. He was second leg for his team and left before you arrived at the mountain top."
Nodding as I resumed my walk toward the chow hall, I found myself wondering what use the succubi might have for something like that, but chose not to voice that curiosity out loud. Pretty sure the answer would scar me. Unless they were just like ... delivery boys or something. I opened my mouth to ask, then firmly shut it.
I'd either learn or I wouldn't.
Hopefully not.
Instead of meat I asked for scrambled eggs and though they tasted just about right with salt, they were purple.
Mis'tle practically fawned over us, and since I'd gotten used to her I made sure to be on my best behavior. Working with her and the other kitchen staff had turned out to be a breeze — most of them were grateful for the help and seemed genuinely friendly.
As I was finishing off the last of my eggs, Yim nudged me and pointed with one of her thumbs as she said, "That's the succubus. Miriam Lorentz."
The succubus she pointed out had bright red skin and black hair. Her horns were actually pretty small, ivory, and arched over her ears to stop at points just off her temples. She was wearing a skin-tight, bright blue one-piece tight enough to tell me that was all she was wearing, and like all succubi, she had all the curves and a model's face.
"Where have I seen her before?" I asked no one in particular as it struck me that I had seen her somewhere.
"She was one of the potential allies when you selected Astra."
"Oooh, so she's pissed at me."
"Very likely."
"Why would Director Chosen want me to take on a hostile succubus?" I asked, glancing in consternation at Yim, who showed her hands.
She said, "Don't ask me. I just work here. No one tells me anything."
Since she didn't have anything useful, I turned to look at Pala, who was finishing something that'd been moving when the plate was set in front of her. She glanced at me then shrugged and said, "Any number of reasons. Drama or sex ordinarily, but it could also be that there's some behind-the-scenes reason. Some corporate deal. It might just be that she or her backers are wealthy potential contributors. Yim told you that Chosen mentioned some sort of deal, and if you know anything about that you've yet to tell us."
"There is, no, deal."
"But there might be a deal in the future?" Yim asked, drawing my attention back to her.
"It's looking increasingly unlikely," I said as I looked out across the hall to where Miriam Lorentz was just sitting down at a table with a few other females and, yes, hornet-dude.
The little guy was in a booster seat, bless his heart.
As I saw him, my curiosity gripped me again and I did an unconscious head tilt, something I'd picked up from the packwren I lived with.
Yim and Pala said, in stereo, "It's his wings."
"Huh?"
I turned to Yim, who said, "They vibrate ... really hard."
"I didn't ask!"
"Yes you did," she and her mother said, once more in stereo. Yim tilted her head to look at me as she added, "This, is a packwren gesture of open curiosity. You can't not know that."
"So every time you two do that to me you actually expect me to say something?"
"You, or anybody," she said with a long affirmative blink. "It's usually obvious what we're curious about. You're wondering what the succubus use his kind for, right?"
"Y-yes," I reluctantly drawled. "That is what I was curious about, but I had no intention of asking."
"Why not?" she asked.
"There are some things I'm better off not knowing."
"So don't ask next time."
"I didn't ... never mind. Is there anything we need to do for setup before we watch this shitshow?" I asked.
She shook her head and said, "All the instrumentation is recorded already. All we need to do is show up."
"No costumes?"
"Ooh! You're right! Liminal Science arranged for-"
"Fffuuuck. I shouldn't have said anything."
Phoebe started laughing, and since I had nothing else good in my life at just that moment, I couched my cheek in my hand and watched her jiggle.
She caught it and showed me all her teeth as she said, "Anytime you want 'em, they're yours."
"Ooooh, don't tempt me," I said as I got up, turned to smile at Mis'tle, and added, "And thanks, as always, for serving us."
"You are sooo welcome, Taz. The girls and I will be watching today!"
I grinned, despite myself. The song we'd play might literally be a cosmic joke, but that didn't mean it wouldn't be good.