CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Nova stopped mid-spin when she caught the sound of screeching metal. On the other side of the Hole, two large men lowered a cyborg soldier. Nova's eyes widened with horrified realisation. The individual looked as if it had been made of two separate creatures, then stitched together. The left half was that of a man, with brown hair and a green eye that eventually fixed on Nova. He had no shirt and the muscles of his arms and shoulders glowed in the neon lights. Over his waist he wore a simple pair of jeans and a thick boot covered his left foot.

The left hand side, the man, might have been handsome if it wasn't for the right half. The right side had no hair; instead a shiny metal surface reflected the many lights. A dark orb sat in place of his right eye. His nose and mouth were gaping holes.

Where skin met metal it looked as though the two had been fused together with extreme heat. The seam continued down the bare chest, which on the right side glinted hard steel. The metal groin and leg were unclothed, the jeans crudely cut in half. Nova tried not to let her gaze linger too long on the cyborg's crotch, although a part of her wondered how that part of him had been fused.

The cyborg reached the floor of the Hole with a crunch and the crowd cheered.

"What is this?" Nova yelled up at the people. No one responded.

"Begin in five seconds," the cyborg said. His voice was an odd combination of human and computer and the lips of the man moved while the robot's features remained motionless.

"Cracos!" Nova whirled around to get a look at the man but he was nowhere to be seen. "This is madness!"

"Three, two, one," the cyborg counted down, its tone remaining consistent.

At zero Nova pulled the gun from her belt and rolled to the side. The cyborg raised its right hand and a red beam of light shot out. It hissed over Nova's head and slammed into the far wall, creating a burning hole.

Nova rolled to her feet and turned on the cyborg. The creature was fast; it had already got her back in its sights and she was forced to roll to the side again, sending new waves of pain up her side. She clenched her teeth and hoped that her stitches stayed together.

She darted towards the cyborg before she'd even finished her roll and fired at the creature. Her own gun emitted a blue flash as it sent out a deadly blast. The cyborg stepped forward and the blast made barely a dent in its metal surface.

"Shit," Nova said, running as fast as she could to the other side of the Hole. Sure enough, another beam of red shot across the arena and left a burning crater.

"Look, let's be reasonable," Nova said as she darted around the small area. "I don't want to kill you, and you don't want to kill me. Let's call it even."

"The main imperative is to survive. Only one of us can leave the Hole," the robot voice responded, much to Nova's surprise.

"No, no! I promise to lay down my weapon just as soon as you lay down yours. I've been a friend to the cyborgs, I always supported your rights," Nova said, pleading with her eyes as the creature fired at her.

The battle for cyborg equality had been going for decades; the right to marry and the right to bear children had all been hard won, and still there were many areas of the known universe that a cyborg shouldn't tread - at least not if they planned to go on living.

"It is not my decision. It is them." For just a brief second the cyborg stopped shooting at Nova and gestured to the jeering crowd.

Security guards with large guns resting on their shoulders stood at intervals around the Hole.

"Only one will live. The imperative is to survive." The creature stopped talking and started barraging Nova with red blasts of energy.

She dropped low to the ground to avoid being hit and ran, half crouched, towards the creature. She refused to think about the man before her and instead focused on the gun in her hand. She ran past red energy blasts and dodged the pieces of rubbish hurled into the ring by the onlooking crowd. She sprinted up to the human side of the creature and there she stopped.

She took one second to look into the creature's human eye. "I'm sorry," she said as her gun fired and her blue plasma bolt punched through the man's skull, through the brain and into the robot's circuits. The moment her shot went off the cyborg's arm dropped to its side and its eyes went blank. Just a few seconds later the body collapsed to the ground.

The two halves twitched, out of tandem with each other as if they were trying to get away from one another. Nova stared down at the display and nausea rolled through her. All around her the crowd roared, the noise pounding Nova's eardrums. She wanted to turn her gun on the watchers and fire until either there were no more bullets or no more people, but she held back. If she wanted to survive, she had to hold back.

She refused to look up at the crowd as they cheered. She gazed at the cyborg until it twitched its last and lay still. She then went about checking her gun and when she was satisfied all was well, she stood still, staring down at the floor of the Hole.

Her elbows and knees dribbled blood and her black dress hung in tattered rags from her hips. Dirt covered most of her body, interspersed with purple bruises, but she didn't react to the pain or the filth. She stared at the ground, unmoving.

The crowd lost interest as Nova refused to move. Their cheering died as they moved away from the Hole to find different entertainment. A grimace crossed Nova's face as she caught the scent of burning plastic from the cyborg's head. The scent of boiling flesh came next. The smells and a faint smoke hung in the air.

Rage boiled through Nova's veins, coursing through her body like rivulets of fire. Her hands clenched into fists at her side as she imagined the many ways Cracos and the onlookers would pay for what they'd done to the cyborg, and to her. Her anger choked her throat and made her breath ragged, stinging her eyes with furious tears.

"Quite a fight," the familiar voice came from above the Hole. Nova refused to look up.

"I have to say I'm surprised. Gendon has been with us for some time and never lost. Until now, of course."

Nova glared at the floor, ignoring Cracos. Whatever he wanted, she wasn't interested.

"Just shoot her!" Zodac growled.

"Now, Zodac, don't be spiteful; Nova's paid her debt."

"And what did he do?" Nova glared up at Cracos. Her shaking finger pointed at the fallen Cyborg.

Cracos smiled down at her with his bloated lips. "Freaks will not be tolerated here on Tabryn." His many chins jiggled as he laughed.

"He was just a man," she said, cursing herself for speaking to Cracos, but at the same time unable to stop.

"An animal; nothing more." Cracos's tone lost its humorous edge and he sucked hard on the cigar in his mouth.

Nova's mouth formed a hard line and she returned to glaring at the ground.

"You're free to go, Nova. Your punishment is done," Cracos said.

Nova didn't look up.

"Lower the ladder," Cracos ordered, stomping away from the Hole.

Nova heard the rope ladder fall down the Hole's wall and come to rest a foot from the ground. Only then did she lift her gaze, and only enough to see the ladder and make her way to it.

She climbed the twelve rungs with ease, as quick as a sewer rat, despite the pain coursing through her. She crested the lip of the Hole and stood to her full height. Her expression made the security guards take a step back and glance at one another.

Nova's eyes flashed with intense anger. Murder filled her mind.

"I- er- think you should leave," said the first security guard who had initially tossed her into the Pit.

The second guard nodded but said nothing, his eyes wide.

Nova had kept her gun in hand as she climbed the rope ladder. She took her time inspecting it and watching the way it reflected the casino back at her on its shiny surface.

"Er- firearms are not to be possessed within the casino," the first guard said, stepping forward as if he meant to take the weapon.

In a move too quick to follow, Nova swung the gun down and pointed it at the man's chest. "That's close enough," she said.

"Ma'am, I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

"Oh I'm going. I wouldn't stay in this cosmic craphole for another second." She glared at the men, the only ones left near the Pit. "I just want to make sure that I remember the faces of the men who let this happen."

"Look, we're just doing our jobs." The first man held up his hands. Nova's gun remained aimed at his chest.

"And what a fine job you did too," she said between clenched teeth.

"Cracos said you can leave," the second guard said.

"Hmm. I suppose I'm off then," she growled, her finger twitching against the trigger.

She turned towards the casino's main exit but not before moving the gun to the second man and pretending to shoot him, and then blowing imaginary smoke from the barrel of her gun.

She sauntered towards the main exit, followed by hundreds of stares, the very picture of cold confidence. Inside, she reeled with revulsion, guilt, and anger. A part of her wanted to take out her gun and go on a shooting spree throughout the casino. She would kill as many as she could on the way to Cracos's office. When she finally reached his door, she would burst through and fill his body with her deadly blue blasts. In her imagination, Vicki was in his office too and they would both be filled with plasma shots, until Nova was surrounded by cold, lifeless corpses.

In reality, Nova put her gun back in its holster and pushed her way through the milling crowd. Her expression was as dark as thundering storm clouds and the crowd parted before her, leaving a clear way to the exit.