THE ARENA OF REVENGE
By Bison Raven

Stella gazed at the dazzling blur of stars through the smoky glass screen at the front of the ship. Years of hyper space travel had not dissipated her sense of wonder at such awesome sights as this, nor ever could. She glanced at her faithful robot companion, wondering if Elle's artificial senses extended to appreciation of breathtaking spectacle, but considered that to quiz him might yield a disappointing response. For his part, the sight of Stella was enough to bring out the human element in his man-made mind. She turned back to the window, and watched the colors alter as they slowed down, until soon, although they were still traveling close to the speed of light, the ship's progress could hardly be gauged by the star field at all.

"This is the sector where the distress signal emanated from," announced Elle. "But I don't like it. There are thousands of inhabited planets between where we were, and this location…not to mention millions of ships and space stations!"

Stella Starr walked over to the scanner console. She wore a short red dress with a silver breast plate, and the heels of her thigh-length boots skittered on the metal hull floor. 'that accelerated distress signal was on a specific frequency," she said. "It must be from someone who knows us, and is desperate for our help!"
"Or someone trying to trap us!"
"Oh, Elle, you're so paranoid!"
"You're mixing me up with some other robot! I'm just cautious. It's just as well I'm here to protect you."
Stella responded absently as she searched the scanner for a blip. "You just want to wrap me up in cotton wool...Oh! Look! I've found the precise source of the signal! Slow us down!"

Within a few minutes, they drew up alongside a floating hulk of a ship. It was battle-scarred, and showed no sign of life. To one side, there was a protruding transparent sphere, maybe ten meters in diameter. It appeared to be a the air lock, possibly designed that way so that all those boarding or disembarking, could be clearly seen, and be prevented from importing or stealing any undesirable object.

It seemed to be the only way in, so Stella took the controls, and with easy skill, which can come only from much practice, docked the craft against the portal.

"I have made a rudimentary scan of the interior of the ship," said Elle. "It seems to have no air in the hull, but the sensors are picking up some traces of oxygen. I suspect that there are working self-contained breathing units in there. You'd better let me go in first."

"We"ll both go in. I"ll get into my space suit." She went to the compartment where her equipment was kept, but turned at the doorway. "And don't you dare to go without me!"

Stella had changed hurriedly, but, of course, Elle was nowhere to be seen upon her return. He was not obliged to obey her, although he usually did, out of courtesy; however, when it was a matter of protecting her in spite of herself, his chivalry chip always sparked into play. She felt no need for protection, and she tried to be annoyed, but she was really too pleased and touched to feel any anger. She had not expected him to wait for her, in any case.

She entered the airlock, and felt a curious feeling in her stomach, as she entered a gravity-free zone. She kept one hand on her laser as she looked around the chamber. It was comprised of hexagonal panels, most of which were transparent, except for the portal through which she had passed, the other one in front of her, which led to the hull of the big ship, two lighting units, which at this moment seemed to be above and below her, and two panels opposing one another at either side, which were of a deep grey metal, and had some sort of clamping mechanisms on them. A second glance suggested that there were four clamps on each panel, located at certain points of the hexagon. The hexagon was roughly the size of a spread eagle human being.

"Elle!" Stella was not afraid, but only an unfeeling idiot would pretend not to be nervous. "Elle!" There was no reply. His receiver was linked directly to the voice transmitter in her helmet. She looked at the entrance to the hulk, which she had now reached. He must have gone through this way. If it would not open, she would blast it open. She looked at the door control, and began trying to calculate the code. She stepped back when the door opened suddenly. It was even darker inside. She activated the lamp in her suit, and looked around. She realised she was in another, smaller airlock. The door slammed behind her, and within a short time, another one opened. She felt the jolt of artificial gravity. She was now in a hangar. There still was no sign of her robot companion. The hangar was occupied by a number of small fighter ships, some of them damaged, others completely cannibalized. The subdued lighting in the bay revealed something else to her, which made her heart jump. One of the ships was a fighter craft of the Amazon women of Arrakis. Behind a blaster scorch, she could discern the insignia of Queen Corellia.

Suddenly, Elle's voice came through her receiver. "Stella!" "Elle? Elle, where are you?"
"I'm still here! I'd gone to the weapons compartment to get some decent artillery, and I've only just realized you aren't still getting changed!"
"You know I don't take too much time dressing! You won't believe what I've found! Come over here!"
"I can't! The door has become jammed! You"ll need to open it from your side!"
"Just sit tight, Elle. I want to see what's going on here…Queen Corellia's ship is here!"
"That nasty broad! Between her mind-probe, and her amazons, and her big mechanical doll, she almost did for us a while back! It is a trap, Stella…come back now!"
"No, her ship has been captured! She's a prisoner here! No matter what she's done to us, we have to help her!"

Suddenly, Stella perceived a movement. A figure stood not far from her, flanked by several robots with guns pointing at her. The figure stepped into the light. His cruel, bewhiskered face, his flowing red cloak, his greedy, mirthless laugh. His identity was unmistakable. Stella narrowed her eyes. "Zarth Arn!"

"Did you think it was that easy to defeat one so powerful as me? I intend to climb back to the top, and I intend to get revenge on all of my enemies along the way. I wanted to leave you until the last, but I have decided that your continued existence is too risky for an indulgence. I hope this is accepted by you as flattery."

Stella inclined her head in acknowledgment.

"Have you captured Queen Corellia? I thought she was working for you."

"She was. And I know that she had, by means of the mind-probe, extracted data from you, pertaining to your ship."
Stella flinched a little at the reminder of her interrogation at the hands of the amazon queen. "Don't tell me - she wasn't about to divulge this information free of cost."
"Exactly. So I had to lure her here - on the promise of riches, not the distress signal I used on you, of course."
"And, having extracted the data from her, you killed her, I suppose?"
The count looked shocked; almost hurt. "Stella Starr - do you think I am so wasteful? No, no, she is perfectly well, and in a chamber not far from here. And now she is being prepared for a chance to redeem herself, and to earn another chance to serve me." He stepped forward, and Stella noticed a slight shimmer around him, which she realised was a force field, and took it that his air supply was contained within that zone.

"My golems could kill you now. But I want the amazons on my side. I have shown Corellia that I have power. Now I wish only to show her that I can be a kind and giving leader. I am going to give her the chance to kill you!"
Stella reached for her gun, and within less than a second, one of the golems was on the deck, sparks arcing across its twitching limbs.

Several more bolts from her gun stabbed at Zarth Arn's force field, but it absorbed them. She realized she should have not wasted her time shooting at him. Too late. Three more golems arrived, and one of them grabbed her in its claws, forcing her to drop the weapon. Zarth Arn strode over, and fixed her with his black hole eyes. "I will enjoy watching your fate, Stella Starr!" The golems released an electrical charge into her, and she blacked out. Back on her ship, Elle was trying to reach her, but the comms unit in her suit had short-circuited.

Stella Starr slowly regained consciousness. She made three disturbing deductions: She was in the spherical chamber, and without her space suit. It had been completely removed, leaving her in just the black bikini she had been wearing underneath it. Secondly, she was restrained by wrist and ankle. Thirdly, facing her from the opposite side of the chamber, clamped in a similar spread eagle fashion, and wearing the regal costume of her office - metal and leather, but almost as brief as her own garment - was her bitter enemy, Queen Corellia. A sadistic smile played about the Amazon leader's lips. This was one of the few beings whom Stella feared, and she knew it.

Zarth Arn's voice echoed around the chamber. "I'm sorry to restrain you in this manner, but I did not want the circus to begin before time! Stella Starr - Queen Corellia - there is one space suit, which you see floating in the chamber!" They both looked around until they spotted the empty encounter suit drifting lazily a short distance away. 'the chamber will be drained of air when the sun rises!"

They both wondered what he meant by that, until they realised that he was referring to a planet which could be seen through the window, around which was the glow of its sun, many millions of miles distant. Stella figured the first rays would soon be gleaming on its rim. Another celestial spectacle, but would she live to see it?

"You're playing a bad hand, Zarth Arn," shouted Stella, struggling vainly against her restraints. "Even if Corellia defeats me, she won't be able to board my ship - Elle is guarding it!"
"You stupid girl," sneered Corellia, "Once I have killed you with my bare hands, Zarth Arn will send his Golems through to destroy your pet robot. It is only being kept active so that it can witness your doom, and transmit the information to your friends on the other side of the galaxy!"
"Don't trust Zarth Arn! He just wants to watch us fight, then he"ll kill whoever survives!" "You are clutching at straws, Stella Starr! The Count values me as an agent! This contest will prove my loyalty to him, and my physical strength!"

The face of the count loomed enormous as a holographic image. Stella knew that he was gloating over her ordeal in a chamber within the ship.

"Let the battle commence!" With a whir, the shackles opened up, releasing the combatants. Stella was used to moving in zero gravity conditions, so maybe that gave her a slight advantage over the other woman. However, she had painful memories of the strength of the amazons from her first encounter with them. She had managed to fight several of them off, but she remembered their grip of steel when they overpowered her. And this woman was their queen, and therefore the strongest of them all. And she knew, having been tortured by her, that she was a deeply cruel woman, and that was something that Stella could never compete with.

Corellia grasped Stella by the wrists, and tried to twist her arms, but this was not a clever move without gravity, and she was able to spin out of the attempted hold, and in looping round, found she suddenly had her thighs around Corellia's neck. It was hard to say who was more surprised by this sudden coup, but Stella decided to squeeze for all she was worth, and end the contest quickly. However, Corellia, cursing herself for over-confidence, reached up, and gripped Stella's thigh just above the knee. The nerve-pinch caused her to cry out in pain, and relinquish her hold. Corellia had no intention of releasing Stella now that she had hold of her, however, and clamped her own legs around her opponent's body. Stella groaned as she felt her ribs bending, and the air being forced out of her. Her arms were pinned, too, so she could not defend herself. If she didn't get out of this soon, she thought, they wouldn't need to drain the chamber of oxygen.

Using all her strength, and fighting against the crushing pain, she brought up one leg, and, bending it behind her enemy, and hooked her away, catching the side of her head with her heel as she did so. She was free, but Queen Corellia was furious. Stella braced herself, as the other woman, reaching one of the side panels, used it to propel herself forward. -

She stunned Stella with glancing chop to the neck, and anchored herself by grabbing onto Stella's long, raven hair. Taking her wrists, and planting a bare foot onto Stella's back, she began an attempt to wrench her arms out of joint. Stella howled with pain, but Corellia had forgotten that she was still drifting with the momentum of her leaping attack, and distances were almost impossible to judge in this place. Her head met with one of the transparent panels, and although they were moving slowly, the collision stunned her enough to make her break her grip. Stella floated herself free, and prepared for the next attack. The Amazon Queen was enraged, and aimed a blow at Stella's face, but she dodged it, and her attacker's body followed the swing of the punch. She should have known better than to try lashing out like that under gravity-free circumstances, thought Stella. She was spinning around now, or was it the whole ship, and her opponent, and the universe, and was she, herself, perfectly still? All she knew was, she was dizzy. And now, Corellia had come around behind her, and had her in a choke hold. Her arms were still aching from the earlier attack, and she could not seem to make them do anything. They just floated in front of her, while Corellia tightened her own strong arm around her throat, and was now snaking another over her thighs, manipulating her into a back-breaker hold.

Zarth Arn gloated over the helpless girl's predicament. He admired her athletic form, and regretted that she was not corruptible, like Corellia.

He idly wondered whether she would choke before her spine snapped, when he noticed that her arms were working again, and pulling at the limbs that held her. The muscles of her abdomen flexed and tightened, and she was now no longer arching to snapping point, but bending herself inwards, away from Corellia's death-hold. With a cross between a scream and a battle roar, she disengaged herself, and grabbed Corellia by the neck, and applied a nerve-pinch, which she had learned from somewhere, and hoped would work. It did. The Amazon Queen blacked out. Stella looked at the planet. There was still a while before the sun would wink over its edge, but the face of her enemy loomed over her.
"I can get plenty of Amazon Queens! You"ll both die!"
Stella realized that the oxygen was being drained from the chamber. She also guessed that even if she could reach the suit, there would be no air in the tanks. Grabbing Corellia around the waist, she leapt in the direction of her ship. She unjammed, and opened the door, and both girls fell inside. After her exertion, and still in some pain, she was unable to withstand the sudden pull of the artificial gravity system, and lay, exhausted, on the deck, draped over her prisoner. "Get us out of here, Elle!"
"I can get one clear shot, Stella..."
"Not this time! Head for Arrakis - and cover our tracks!"

The ship flickered across the galaxy. Stella knew that Zarth Arn would not pursue them at this time. He would have other plans.

On the desert beach of Arrakis, Stella stood at the doorway of the ship, as Corellia walked down the ramp, her hands still bound. That was Elle's second idea - the first, being to eject her through the disposal chute.
"You beat me in combat, Stella Starr. I bow to you. Come to our citadel as my guest…" In the distance, her Amazons were galloping toward them on their horsoid mounts.

"So that you can take your revenge? Not this time, Your Highness. Just remember that you owe me a favor for returning you to your people."
Corellia looked at Stella with something combining hatred and admiration. Despite her victory, Stella still found her frightening, and all she wanted to do was to go into her ship, close the hatch, and put a few billion miles between her and this harpy.

Corellia watched the ship rise into the deep blue sky, and ascend until it was a dot, and then vanished. Her Amazons were before her now. They did not untie her. She would need to prove herself worthy to lead them again. Stella Starr would be made to pay for her humiliation.

The End.