Ellie looked at the handsome man again and reckoned he must be of middling class, as his straight black hair was cut in a fashionable galactic cut, not extremely long like maximum class men’s hair or shoulder-length like the slaves’. Ellie also recognized that he must be someone important as his body was covered in tattoos. Tattoos always signified important events, deeds, or birthrights. She wasn’t close enough to identify any of his markings though.
When he looked away, she began quickly scrolling through the names of the competitors in the first group on the 3D computer at her table, but there were too many middling class men to even guess what his name might have been so she gave up and just said to Tamsin, “Did you see that stunning man who was looking up at me? I swear he had blue eyes. Do you think I’m drunk?”
Tamsin smiled at her, “I thought he was looking at me?” she said jokingly. “And you must be drunk. Alliance men don’t have blue eyes, but it would be attractive if they did. I, myself, prefer them with green eyes to grey.”
Ellie laughed, “Stop.”
“It doesn’t matter, he’s middling class anyway. You can’t have him as a husband. But I hear from our cultural teacher that you can have him as a lover before you marry. So, I guess, in a way, you can have him in the most important way,” Tasmin finished in a sultry voice.
“That’s something to consider,” Ellie agreed, but she didn’t think she would be comfortable starting a relationship with a man that she knew would only end with ‘goodbye.’ There was already a lot that Tamsin and she had shared about one another and they had become fast friends but there was still a lot Ellie had not told Tamsin, especially about what had happened on Earth and that being the catalyst for why she ran away. “Well, I hope Mr.-Handsome-Middling-Class-Could-Have-Blue-Eyes-Or-It’s-The-Zota wins or at least gets in the top five so I can meet him later at the victor’s reception.”
Tamsin filled up their black ceramic zota cups, “I’m sure whoever the five winners are will be equally as handsome judging by the competitors we’ve seen so far.” Tamsin sighed, “I love the Empire, what a terrific idea to make them do this in the nude.”
“It’s a society ruled by women, would you expect anything less?” Ellie replied still uneasy with some of the inequalities in the Empire. “It surprises me more that men still put up with it.”
“Oh, don’t you think in some ways they enjoy it? Showing off their bodies, I mean?”
“I don’t know. I think it’s a cultural practice they’ve all bought into as a means to an end. If they meet their future wife by participating then I would say they enjoy it, otherwise I find it difficult to believe they enjoy parading around like this.”
“Male peacocks on Earth do it. Maybe the Empire has it the right way around? When’s the last time they had a civil war? Oh, that’s right about a million years ago. The same with poverty and everything else we are still struggling with on one planet with a small population, all because we give men too much power. Are you trying to tell me you don’t like it? Not only the safety and the power of being a woman here, but look at all those gorgeous muscular men, greased up and naked,” Tamsin exclaimed glancing at the next group of equally good-looking young competitors.
“Of course, I enjoy it. I just don’t feel it’s right somehow. And I feel like humanity has its own issues that go far beyond our past inequalities with men.”
Tamsin took a sip of zota and reflected, “You can’t help but wonder if our past would have been different maybe our future would be different too.”
“Yes, that we might be closer to this peace with each other,” Ellie said and trailed off. Humans were technically united but there was still a lot of crime, poverty and unspeakable things going on. It was common knowledge that Captain Kara Rainer had been sold like a piece of meat to her husband. However, Ellie was forbidden to speak of it as were all the newcomers to the Empire. Admiral Jei had told her that the others had their minds wiped clean of it, but that he didn’t want to interfere with her memories, for obvious reasons so he would trust her not to say anything about it. She brought herself back to the present, “It just feels so strange you know? Watching all these men compete for show like horses or something. I like it, but at the same time, I feel guilty. These aren’t my men, and this isn’t my culture.”
Tamsin shrugged, “I signed myself up to this culture so I’m going to enjoy every second of pleasure it has to offer because we both know there is so much pain involved as well, and the pain will come.”
Ellie nodded in agreement, she unequivocally agreed, there was a lot of pain in the Empire. Then she took another sip of zota while watching the next group of men run past just wanting her mind to stop thinking and try to enjoy.
The first day of the Yoli race was crossing the hot desert to get to the grasslands towards the mountains. The only rule of the Yoli race was that you were not allowed to intentionally kill any of your competitors. Obviously, that didn’t mean there wasn’t a lot of punching and kicking to slow others down though. Valentin himself had already had to ward off a couple of people in the first few minutes of the race by kicking and punching, but thankfully he was a fast runner and so he was able to separate himself from most of the other competitors by speed alone. The only thing that worried him was meeting one of the gamekeepers for the duel too soon, then getting ahead would have been all for nothing.
After hours of running in the heat at good pace, he reached the grasslands. He had an advantage over all the pure Alliance people because he was half human, he could stand more heat than they could. However, he hadn’t taken more than three steps into the tall grass before a gamekeeper called out to him.
“Val, Commander of the Nage Horde, Outcast to the Empire. Pick up the sword at your feet and prepare to defend yourself,” the gamekeeper said as he stood up tall from his hiding place in the long grass. The gamekeeper was naked except for a yellow sash around his body marking himself as officially a part of the Yoli race.
Valentin stopped, and took a deep breath to steady himself. He almost smiled that the gamekeeper referred to him by his official GC title. Valentin wiped the sweat off his brow. His thighs were pulsating with exhaustion. He picked up the Imperial short sword and took in the man in front of him. The gamekeeper was equal in height and older than Valentin, which meant he was definitely more experienced. Valentin couldn’t help but notice a few of his tattoos signified that he had been the champion of the largest and most competitive Imperial dueling competition a few times over a decade ago. Valentin reminded himself, It’s not a duel to the death. He just needs to bleed in three places, and I’ve won. I can do this. Think of that beautiful smile on that human woman’s face. Think of her now and get this done.
The large gamekeeper stepped forward and swung his sword and Valentin defended himself with sweat flying off his arm with the movement. The feel of it at first almost broke his concentration but then he managed to focus and steady himself against the gamekeeper.
For some time, they were equally matched, and Valentin realized that he would need to get creative if he was going to win, otherwise he would just become too tired and lose, which he reckoned was the gamekeeper’s strategy. Valentin was determined not to lose in such a sad way. Not after all his training. He looked around. It was just grasslands, but then a thought occurred to him. After his next defensive block, he would drop to the ground and hopefully nick the man on his legs before he had a chance to hit him. Valentin was sweating and felt his movements were fueled by adrenaline alone. When he fell to the ground, rolled, and then swiped the gamekeeper’s legs and drew blood it seemed surreal as if he were witnessing someone else guiding his actions.