One Thousand Brides by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Format: epub
Published: 2010-02-13T07:24:14+00:00

Chapter Six

Delos gave her an appraising look. “You’re probably not ready to do the jumps between floors. We’ll use the elevator.”

He took her to the recreation and exercise floor. Jan imagined the floor would be like a health club on Earth but it seemed that Terilians did not care for mindless, repetitive exercise. Many of their exercise routines engaged the mind as well as the body.

He showed her a large variety of virtual-reality games, usually played wearing full-body suits. Some of them were performed in low-gravity chambers, which looked especially entertaining.

Other games were played in large groups. Delos took her to an observation deck where they watched fifteen primuses, formed into three teams, play something that resembled “capture the flag”.

“Do you ever play that?” Jan asked.

“The Medical Corps has four teams. I’m the captain of the doctors’ team.”

“Because you’re the best player?”

“I’m not the best player.” He grinned. “But I am the best strategist.”

“What other games do you like?”

Delos led her to a small room that he said was a ball court. As Jan watched from an upper balcony, Delos stood in the center of the court, unsheathed his claws and said, “Ready!” Small, fluffy balls in various colors began to rain down from the ceiling. Spinning, turning, leaping, Delos caught them with his claws. A scoreboard on the far wall changed rapidly. “If I catch a blue one it counts against me, unless the lights are blinking,” he called up to her, not pausing in his quick movements.

The game looked like fun but when he asked if she wanted to try it, Jan declined. She’d never been athletic and didn’t want him to see how badly she’d do. Perhaps she would try it on her own, later.

He showed her sparring pits where males wearing gloves tipped with rubber claws fought each other. Jan couldn’t figure out the rules as she watched two males in a free-for-all that combined wrestling, clawing and body blows, sometimes standing, sometimes rolling on the ground.

Jan didn’t care for either boxing or wrestling on Earth but the sparring held her interest because it was so quick and graceful. The participants were like two dancers who had rehearsed with each other often and could anticipate the next movement.

Delos watched intently. Jan, startled, saw that his claws were extended. Somehow she’d never imagined the doctor as dangerous before.

“Good one!” he exclaimed as one male clawed the other’s face. “That would’ve taken an eye in a real fight.”

Jan shuddered. “Do you ever do that?”

“Not for real—but I spar with Hannus once a week.”

She remembered the orderly who had helped her walk around the hospital room. “Hannus! He’s twice your size.”

Delos gave her a wicked grin. “Yes but I’m much faster.”

As they left the sparring area, Jan saw a glass bulb on a silver stand, filled with tiny, multicolored spheres. Surely the Terilians hadn’t developed human-style gumball machines. “What’s this?”

“I’ll buy a couple,” Delos answered, waving his palm in front of the stand. A light came on briefly, then blue and gold spheres dropped from the machine.

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