Aubry walked smoothly through the crowd, followed by Jacobs. It parted for him, as if waves before the prow of a great ship. He looked neither to left nor to right, but seemed guided by some internal sensor.
The festival was a celebration of the opening of Swarnaville Spaceport, with clowns, and food stands, and acrobats, and dancers, as well as exhibits of every kind. The Nullboxing was just another dimension of spectacle. There was a part within Aubry that could not understand how anyone could consider it “just another” spectacle.
Two men, locked in the most extraordinary combat, risking life and limb for the entertainment of the people below. He was a warrior, and Thu was a warrior.…
(Although there was a part within him that whispered that, although Thu, a former world champion, was considered in decline, no living man could take a Nullboxer in zero gravity without actual experience. The force vectors were unique to the situation. It was simply impossible.)
He presented his passes at the appropriate checkpoints and was probed by security apparatus. The guards nodded, with grudging acknowledgment, and once, just once, he saw one of their eyes open wide, as if receiving a reading he hadn’t expected.
He didn’t care. It didn’t matter. He was approaching a moment he had awaited for half his life. Today he was a Nullboxer, and no matter what happened later, nothing could ever take this moment away from him.