Chapter 16

The next day in gym class, Antaska told the other human students about the training she’d been doing and asked if they wanted to train with her. M. Hoyvil showed Antaska how to set up holo-movies in the gym at night when no one was there so they could practice as a group. Some of the humans joined her in the gym and on trips to the game room, but some declined.

“That’s too much exercise!” they told her. “The gym class is already bad enough.”

The students who practiced with Antaska got better at fighting back against Tilde. And as time passed, Tilde’s behavior changed again. She spent more time fighting with the male humans who were best fighters, but her fighting was becoming more playful. Now she looked like she was having fun.

“What’s up with that?” Antaska asked dark-haired Pablo one night when they were all practicing in the gym. “Tilde seems to be after you more than anyone else now. Is that bothering you?”

“Nah, it’s OK. I don’t mind,” Pablo answered. “She’s kind of hot.”

A few of the other humans hooted. Pablo’s face turned red, but Antaska was relieved to hear that.

But one person was not happy with the changed situation—Eegor. Antaska was giving him the brush off, after she had teased him in the beginning. This had never happened in the hundred years that Eegor had been a fitness trainer. And now Tilde wasn’t just flirting with Verdante men, who Eegor knew weren’t serious about her. She was flirting with the Earthling men in class too. And they looked like they liked it!

This is not the way things are supposed to work! Eegor thought.

He stood watching Tilde. She was in close contact with the one of the males in the class. She seemed to be taking a lot more time than she needed to demonstrate the fighting move to that guy. And Eegor knew that move didn’t usually involve so much grabbing and grappling.

His anger grew in a slow, steady burn. Eegor’s mind turned back to Antaska. He looked over at her. She jumped high in the air and performed an almost perfect kick. Her shiny pink hair flowed enticingly when she jumped up and down. There was something about Antaska that attracted him more than any of the other Earth women had. Especially now that she had become so fit.

He wanted her, but Antaska was making it clear that she didn’t want him. And in two days, the space ship would land on the Verdante home planet. His chance of getting her would be gone. Eegor’s mood grew dark with a dangerous level of dissatisfaction. His thoughts grew dark too.

What can I do about this? he asked himself.

That day in the weightlifting and cardio part of the class, Eegor didn’t go near Antaska. He stayed at the front, while Tilde circulated among the students. Again, Eegor was annoyed by her attention to the males. It was shockingly similar to his own behavior toward Antaska and the other women he had singled out on previous voyages.

Some of the male Earthling showed signs of obvious nervousness such as trembling, sweating, and stammering when Tilde got close enough to touch them. But Eegor noticed that the human Pablo, much shorter than Tilde but apparently fearless, flirted shamelessly with her. Eegor decided that he was going to do something about this.

It was time for the second half of the day’s class. Eegor stood at the front and spoke.

“Today, I’ll introduce you to the form of fighting called wrestling.”

Tilde looked at him in surprise, but he continued.

“Usually, we don’t teach this kind of fighting until we’re on the trip between the Verdante home planet and the space station. But I’ve decided that some of you need to learn your lesson sooner.”

Eegor swept the class with an icy, malevolent glare of his pale gray-green eyes. He included Tilde in his glare, but she didn’t look frightened, only confused. Then Eegor went on.

“Today, you’ll learn how to escape when you’re pinned down under your opponent. I’ll demonstrate this for you with Tilde.”

Eegor dropped to the mat on his hands and knees. He lifted one hand to gesture for Tilde to approach. They had given this demonstration many times, and Tilde knew what was expected of her. She knelt down behind Eegor and grasped him around the waist, covering him with the weight of her body.

“Now,” said Eegor, “I’ll show you how to free yourself from this hold.”

He thrust a leg out diagonally behind him, bending his knee and planting his foot firmly on the ground. Tilde made her usual next move in the demonstration. She shifted her weight to bear down on the leg Eegor had just moved. But even though their heights were about equal, his heavier weight and superior strength made it easy for him to escape.

When Eegor’s foot was locked into position, he curled his body down into a crouch, supporting his weight with the planted foot. Then he stood up fast. As he rose, he grabbed Tilde’s arm and flipped her over his back. He tossed her up high in the air and then down to the floor with much more roughness than usual. The human students gasped.

The powerful throw would have badly hurt or possibly killed any of the Earthlings in the class, but Eegor wasn’t worried about Tilde. She was super strong, and she knew how to land in a way that would cause her the least physical harm. Plus the gym floor was deeply cushioned.

Tilde’s body hit the floor, and she lay on her back, momentarily unmoving. She looked dazed. Eegor ignored her and addressed the students.

“OK. You’ve seen how it’s done. First, you’ll practice the escape move without an opponent trapping you. Then you’ll practice escaping from an actual opponent. Now all of you get on your hands and knees and move one leg, then the other, as I’ve shown you.”

Stunned by the display of extreme fighting, the students, including Antaska, were quick to obey him. They began practicing the move as instructed.

Antaska practiced the move, but she felt a growing sense of dread. She noticed Eegor circulating ever closer to her—shark-like—through the class. Occasionally, he stopped to correct one of them, but he didn’t touch anyone. At last, her fears were confirmed. Eegor came to a stop next to her. He turned to address the class.

“Now you’ll team up with another student and practice the move with one person trapping and the other attempting to escape. I’ll team up with this lucky student.”

Eegor turned to Antaska. “Because you’ve become so advanced in this class, you have the great fortune of getting to practice with me.”

Antaska had squatted back on bent knees while Eegor was talking. He crouched down behind her and easily shoved her forward into the hands and knees position. Then he lunged over and covered her completely with his much larger body. He supported himself on his own hands and knees.

Eegor wrapped an arm under Antaska’s body and across her chest. He pulled her toward him while supporting part of his weight by leaning on her.

“Now, we’ll see if you can escape from me,” he said in a low, menacing tone.

Antaska stuck her right leg out diagonally behind her. She tried to push up on it since Eegor’s right side was less supported. But she couldn’t budge even a single muscle of his vice-like posture.

Uselessly, Antaska tried the other leg, then the first one again. She rotated back and forth between legs and picked up speed, but she was imprisoned in the cage of his body.

Eegor seemed pleased by her discomfort. He laughed softly and unpleasantly into Antaska’s ear, which was disturbing close to his mouth. Panicked thoughts began to race around in circles in her mind.

I can’t get out of here. I’m trapped. I’ve never practiced anything like this. I don’t know how to get out of this. I’m trapped.

The thoughts kept coming, Antaska’s heartbeat and breathing grew more rapid, and her panic increased. She twisted and squirmed with her whole body trying to escape in any way possible.

While Antaska struggled, Eegor was thinking too. But his thoughts were quite different than hers.

I like this. It’s kind of fun. I could do this more often, and similar thoughts circled through his mind.

In the midst of his enjoyment of Antaska’s fear and useless squirming against him, Eegor looked over to the front of the class to see if Tilde was watching. But instead of looking his way, her attention was on one of the male humans. She still sat on the floor, and instead of exercising as instructed, Pablo was sitting next to her. He was talking to her while the rest of the class practiced the escape move.

Cold rage flooded Eegor as he kept his firm grip on Antaska. His dominance of her suddenly lost its playfulness. Her continuous, futile movements directed his attention back to her, but now he considered her in a much darker light. For almost a month, he had given her the benefit of his attention, but she had never responded like the others.

Antaska’s distant, uninterested attitude had seemed like an exciting challenge. By now, she should be warming up to him and showing her desire. Instead, she was showing an insulting lack of interest by fighting furiously to get away from him. It was like she was repelled by his very touch. All the resentment Eegor had just felt toward Tilde and Pablo shifted to Antaska.

As if she sensed Eegor’s hostility, Antaska’s desperation to escape from him increased, but her efforts were useless. He tightened the arm that clasped her around the chest. He squeezed hard with powerful arm muscles, and she felt like she couldn’t breathe.

Antaska panicked and tried to scream, but her lack of air only let out a low, squeaky “help!” The sound was muffled by her position underneath Eegor’s large body.

In her terror, Antaska didn’t notice the large speeding blur of blue and green that traveled from the area of M. Hoyvil’s class to just a few yards away from her. It was followed by a larger speeding blur of red and green. And she didn’t notice the heavy thump sound of two huge bodies landing on the cushioned floor. Eegor didn’t seem to notice either. His grip on her didn’t loosen.

“Enough!” a loud deep bass voice boomed from behind Antaska.

Eegor froze and then let go of Antaska. He dropped away from her, and Antaska turned around to look behind her. There, pinned to the floor under the massive weight of his gigantic green-skinned adult Verdante instructor, lay M. Hoyvil.

M. Hoyvil couldn’t move because the much more powerful Master Mytaar held his arms in a tight restraining grip.

“I’ll let you go if you promise not to break any galactic laws on the treatment of protected species,” Master Mytaar said to him telepathically “Can I trust you now?”

“Yes, I promise.” M. Hoyvil answered.

Master Mytaar released him. M. Hoyvil sat up and looked at Antaska. He saw her taking some deep breaths. He knew it wouldn’t be appropriate for him to speak to her vocally now. For the first time, M. Hoyvil wished that Antaska could somehow understand telepathic speech.

Antaska looked at him and smiled. Once again, unknown to M. Hoyvil, the mysterious bond of affection that can exist between two members of two different species had been strengthened by his actions, and words weren’t necessary.

“The exercise portion of class is over for today,” announced Master Mytaar to the entire gym out loud in his resonating deep voice.

Antaska’s classmates stood looking with wide eyes and open mouths at the sight of the gigantic blue-green man in their midst.

“As for you,” said Master Mytaar, turning to M. Hoyvil and speaking telepathically, “I hope you appreciate how fortunate you are that I stopped you when I did. Instead of continuing on your trip from the home planet to outer space, you could be on your way to Central Planet for a long, drawn-out court case. As you know, those often last a lot longer than a mere one hundred years.”

M. Hoyvil answered his Master’s criticism. “The laws about protected species say we must protect them before our own species, even before our own children. That’s exactly what I intended. I knew that my action could result in legal penalties, but Antaska called for help. I put her well being before my own.”

“In a way, that’s quite admirable,” said Master Mytaar, “but as I have told you, my pets are well trained to know their limits. She isn’t hurt, and she wouldn’t have been hurt in excess of what can be expected in martial arts training. I would order you not to interfere again, but I know you won’t listen. In fact, I’m not sure how to advise you.”

The master paused for a few moments.

“I’ll have to meditate on this situation,” he said finally.

At that moment, the gong announcing the end of class chimed loudly.

In M. Hoyvil’s opinion, what Eegor had done was more than what should be expected in a martial arts class. He didn’t say that to his teacher. That would be disrespectful. But he thought some less than respectful thoughts.

It’s so annoying that the adults must always think about a problem forever before they take action. Can’t they see that bad things can happen while they’re sitting around thinking?

M. Hoyvil was so bothered by what had happened to Antaska that he didn’t really care if Master Mytaar heard these thoughts. Still, he kept his mental shields up, as was expected when around others of his species.

“Well, everyone has calmed down here, so I’ll be on my way,” said Master Mytaar out loud.

The gigantic instructor turned and walked to the other side of the gym.

However, one person had not calmed down. Eegor acted calm, but he burned with rage after the embarrassing intervention of Master Mytaar. He added his master and M. Hoyvil to the list of people he was mad at.

Someone’s going to pay for this, he told himself. Someone’s going to pay with some broken bones. At least. But who?

He thought about Master Mytaar and M. Hoyvil.

No, that won’t work. M. Hoyvil’s only a foot taller then me, but they’re both way too much stronger than me. Supernaturally strong. Like punching a tree. It wouldn’t be a fair fight, he decided.

Eegor looked over at Tilde. She sat surrounded by three of the Earthling males—taller, blonder, and gorgeous—chatting away. It was like she hadn’t even noticed what just happened.

What about Tilde? he wondered. She’s really pissing me off right now. She’s a good fighter, but I’m stronger than her. Hmm. Nah, maybe not. She’s tough enough to hurt me back, and the master and mistress will get mad at me if I do anything to her.

That left Antaska.

Yep. She’s the one, he decided. She’s a lot weaker than me, and the master never cares if I break a few bones. Or do other stuff. All I need to do is get her alone.

After class, Eegor hovered several feet away from Antaska and a group of her friends. They were making plans for later that night. Eegor’s genetically enhanced hearing was superior to theirs. He could hear what they were saying from a farther distance than they would expect.

“Are we meeting to practice tonight?” Pablo asked Antaska. “Will you be up to it after what just happened with Eegor?”

“Yes, for sure,” Antaska answered him. “We need to start practicing some wresting moves too. I’ll see you all back here tonight at 1900 hours.”

Got it! thought Eegor.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a big blue and green blob moving closer. The Verdantes were coming to get their humans. Eegor turned and walked away.