The Galactic Bride

Aki, for that's how Akihiko thought of himself after the events of the previous night, woke up to the light of his cabin door being fling open, and a domineering figure coming into the room. He squinted his eyes, his mind still numb from sleep. Of course it would be no one other than General Anura. He turned to Hana, who pulled the covered over her naked body and rolled over with a groan. He felt very much the same way, but knew he had to get up.

Sitting up he looked for the jumpsuit and underwear he had the night before. But it was such a jumbled mess of two outfits, he might as well change into new things anyway. It would take just as much time. So he got up, and under the General's eye freshened up as quickly as possible and got dressed. The General didn't say a word, just stood there and waited for him. They left the room, to the sounds of Hana's deep breathing from having fallen back asleep.

"Isn't it a bit early for training?" Aki complained. As soon as they were out in the hallway he noticed the night shift were still out and about.

"The ship had reached this Musa system, and will likely reach Musa Minor within a rotation." General Anura explained. "As such, I have my ship duties to preform and won't have time to do my normal lesson."

"Great." Aki yawned. "Because Lani's lessons aren't enough."

"Major Lani is a good officer, but she handholds you. For what I have to teach today, she will not be as forthcoming. And the lessons I'm teaching today could save your life." General Anura said quickly. "Coincidentally, every contestant in the coliseum will know this knowledge already. It would be a great disservice to you if you went in with knowing this."

Now he was awake. But the question still pledged him. Why was General Anura going through the trouble of personally teaching him things. It couldn't be in the job description to train him. From bits of conversations here and there, he had learned that there were other contestants on the ship. Yet he heard nothing of their training. Was the General training them as well? I doubted it as she had commanding duties for the ship most of the time. Training seemed to happen when The General had free time. But why? They both hated each other.

"I assume that you were not foolish enough to share one of your seeds to that girl, were you?" General Anura interrupted his thoughts.

"What business is it of yours?"

"I would have thought that Major Lani has stressed how important seeds are to the Nimbonians Nobles-"

"Yeah, yeah." Aki interrupted her not wanting another lecture. "Look, even if I wanted to give Hana-chan a seed, I don't know how. So relax."

General Anura raised an eyebrow at him, but dropped the topic.

Instead of entering into the cargo bay to learn a new weapon, they entered into a huge briefing room. She indicated a seat for him to sit in, then went to the head of the table and activated a holographic display over the table. Ordinarily he'd be impressed by this. But he had seen holographic displays in the hospital and other areas of the ship before. This time the display seemed to be full body images of people.

"You and your concubine are the only people on this ship that don't know what the other dominate races of the galaxy looks like, and what they can do. This has been an oversight on Major Lani's part, but I'll take responsibility as well. There was simply so much to teach. So let's remedy that. Let's start off with Tarfulles."

She walked around the table and selected an image and blew it up so it grew to the image actual size. It looked like a 12 year old girl cosplaying as Pikachu or a yellow furred rabbit with brown stripes throughout it's body. If he was going to be honest, she looked like the cutest furrie in the world. In fact she looked far too cute to be in a battle scenario. This must of shown on his face, as General Anura smirked as his reaction.

"Don't let this look fool you. They are smaller than the rest of the big races, but they are also the fastest. And they also have another surprise…" She poked the Tarfulles mouth and it opened. Aki gasped. It looked like she had a pirana teeth. "…Tarfulles have weapons. These teeth can strip through anything in no time flat. Combined with their speed, and they make a dangerous foe. Usually the Tarfulles pare up together in the coliseum and attack in a pack. But with a prize this big, they might go solo. If they are in a pack, they'll be the one's to watch."

Aki looked at the Tarfull, knowing there was a weakness. He saw that the General was hoping he'd see it himself rather than having her explain it to him. Then he saw it. "With their size, they probably aren't the strongest things in the galaxy, are they?"

"Correct. They are dangerous, but almost all fights with a Tarfull comes from either overpowering them, or simply shooting them before they can get to you." General Anura nodded. "Shall we move on, or do you have any questions?"

Aki couldn't think of any, so the General lowered the image and swatted it away. Then she pulled the furthest from her and grew that one to scale. This time it looked like she had pulled up an image of a Nimbonian, but Aki knew it wasn't. The skin color was a pale blue, so pale it was almost white. She had white hair, but not the same way an elderly person had white hair. It look more or less like youthful hair, like a near white blonde on a western girl. Her eyes were red, and she dressed in what looked to be like an Ancient Egyptian kilt and top.

"This is a Wahco. They are very similar to us, as you can tell. They key difference is they are a water race. Wahconese can live on both land and under water, so oxygen and temperatures aren't rarely a factor for them. I have to admit some can be stronger than Nimbonians, as a select few don't mind living in areas where water pressure is heavy, but those are rare. They have the same body structure as us, so many can't cope with those conditions. Of course, their weakness should be obvious."

"Dry environments and lack of water wouldn't be good for them." Aki already knew that as it had been mentioned before.

General Anura moved on. This time it was a Tyro. These looked completely different from both the Tarfulles and the Wahco. It dressed like a barbarian, with animal hides. It's skin was a muted violet color. Unlike the races he had seen so far, they didn't have pointed ears, but they didn't have human round ones either. It looked more like they were wearing headphones or earmuffs but they were attacked to the head, not by a plastic band. In the center of the ears was were the hearing canals were. This one sported a dark purple dreadlocks mohawk. She had no nose. Where the whites of her eyes should be was complete blackness, and where the color from the eye came from there was an intense white. But if all that was strange, they also had a long lizard like tail. Of everyone so far, these looked the most like a monster.

"Tyrians are from a warrior culture. Meaning that in any kind of environment, it won't matter. Though they are the only of the five races that love heat. They are out to kill. The side of this is that they don't have any loyalty towards each other. They tend to be about individual honor, so you don't have to worry about them teaming up like the Tarfulles. The bad thing is, you still don't want to run into them. They are stronger than Nimbonians and they extra tail is like a third arm. They are very difficult to fight."

Aki wasn't too keen on facing them. But he did see what a potential weakness could be. "They aren't that smart, are they?"

General Anura looked surprised at this. Apparently she thought she had to explain this one as it wasn't particularly obvious. "Yes. By looking at their primitive garb and hearing about their warrior culture, you figured that out?"

"Yeah. They are such a throwback. It's probably how you see us humans." Aki remarked.

"You're not one of them." The General reminded him. Aki disagreed, but he didn't voice it. Inside he felt very human.

Lastly, she pulled up the Mari hologram. This was the one that Aki was most interested in seeing. The girl who everyone was fighting for was a Mari, and he was secretly hoping she wasn't another Tyro monster. To his relief, she wasn't. Like the Wahco, the Mari seemed to be a variation of the Nimba, only instead of having blue skin, it was a tan color. On just looking at her, she could have very well came off as someone from the Mediterranean. With tan skin and dark hair, the only things alien that stood out were the light brown or yellowish eyes, the pointed ears, and the fanged teeth. But the feature that stood them apart was the horns. In this image the horns almost looked like she was waring fake cat ears, as they were little points coming from the head.

"I see you noticed the horns. Mari have a variety of looks, so this is not accurate for all of them. Some have a more curved look, others more tall and pointy." General Anura looked at the picture. "Overall they are just like us. But really their danger factor is their heads. They have hard skull and a reinforced spine for ramming. So when killing them, don't aim for the head, go for other vital areas. I hate to say this, but they really don't have a weakness other than most don't like deep waters like a huge lake or ocean. Sadly that won't be an issue in a coliseum."

"So this is who I might marry?"

"This is not the minister's daughter." General Anura clarified. Aki didn't think so, but let her continue. "In fact, many don't know what she looks like now. There are images of what she looked like as a child, but nothing more. This is mainly due to encourage the fighters imagination. If she weren't to their liking, they might not fight as hard."

"Well that's just fantastic." Aki groaned again. "Fighting for a goat girl and she could be ugly as sh-"

"It's not important on what she looks like, in the end." The General interrupted him. "It's the joining of two noble families. Should you win you'll have your lower-wife and concubines. It won't matter if the marriage is loveless."

"Wait a moment… lower wife?"

General Anura rolled her eyes. "That's not important right now. But yes, Nobles tend to have lower wives because their marriages are arranged. The understanding of the importance of happiness isn't forgotten in these political arrangements. It would be cruel to force another into marriage with someone they disliked, yet not have an outlet for their true love."

"Hmm, sounds about as cruel as say… forcing you to fight to the death for some chick you can't even look at."

"We're getting off point." The General moved on. "Now its time to talk strategy. There will be times during the contest that forming alliances for the short term might be good. As I said before Tarfulles do this all the time. So picking people to join up with is a good plan at the beginning of the contest. As a Nimbonian, the less racial clashes you'll find is with the Mari and the Wahco. However, since you were raised on Terra-3, a Tyro companion wouldn't be out of the question… should a Tyrian drop it's pride long enough to join forces with you. If it were me, I'd trust a Mari over everyone else."

"You know… you're talking about these guys as if they all fall under some general rule of how to act." Aki pointed out. "Everyone is an individual, right?"

"This is true. I have no way of telling you who is in this contest along side of you. But generalizing a cultural aspects of a race isn't saying all Tyro are blood thirsty, or all Wahco are art lovers. It's just giving you a general idea. Culture wise, Nimbonians are closer to Mari. Plain and simple. And really, is now the time you want to get into a racial debate? Your life is on the line."

"It's not a freaking racial debate, it's-"

General interrupted him with a sigh, and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "We don't have time for this. Can you just listen to me and stop getting off topic."

"How is it off topic if I'm asking questions I think I need to know in order to survive?"

"Yes, because lower wives and racial profiling will play a key factor in your victory." The General snapped.

Aki threw his hands up. "It's not just about strategy, it's about understanding this culture I'm thrown in. How can I beat someone if I don't get this whole new world?"

He could see she saw the point in this but she still stuck to her guns. "We simply do not have time to explain how everything works, Princess. For now let's focus on trying to keep you alive down there."

"Stop calling me Princess." Aki murmured.

The General went on. "When you first get down there, don't go up to them and try to make friends. Follow whatever instructions the referees give you, then run. Go to the place no one else is going, or where you think there might be water. Should you come along anyone else with the same idea, and they aren't trying to kill you, team up with them. I guarantee that if you stick around after being dropped off, there will be a fight. And most likely it'll be a Tyrian who starts it. That's why it's important to run."

Aki slumped in his seat, but it looked as if General Anura was finished anyway. She walked over to the head of the table and deactivated the holographic display. Then she came to his end of the table and sat down on top of it, looking down on him.

"You might hate me, and think I'm being unfair, but Major Lani's softness will not save your life. Try to remember the things I taught you. Don't ignore them out of spite of me. It only hurts you."

"Why do you care if I win or lose?" Aki asked the burning question he had been wanting to know for a long time.

"I don't."

It was a lie. But even if it was, there was no tell saying it was. She looked as imposing as ever and had an air that she couldn't give a lick if he bit it right then and there. But Aki knew better. She wouldn't be taking all this time to personally instruct him. Why was it such a big deal keeping the reason from him? He knew she hated him, but that wasn't a real reason. There was something else going on.

"There is still time before we arrive at Musa Minor. I suggest you ask Major Lani to refresh you on using primitive weapons and setting traps." She stood up, and started to walk out of the room. "Of course, it won't nearly be as important as lower-wives, but I think some of it might be useful."

He hated her. She had a sway to her walk, and he hated that he noticed. When she left the briefing room completely, Aki stood up and kicked the chair back under the table. Why did General Anura have to be such a bitch?