Laila, Spock's Granny (Book 1: Vulcan Gladiatoress and Klingon Slave)

Fighting No.1 2

"I think you do not understand, I'm the President of the gladiator's association. If you want to continue working here, you better do what I request from you."

"Sir, I know very well who you are. Only 7 seconds left, which will be 10 in reality."

"Stretch them as much as you can."

"Fine. I hope nobody will realize that time is double now."

Meanwhile on the Center Field

My weapon was locked in Kretorg's hand and I could not wield it anymore. Next, he stepped into my right upper thigh with his foot. The pain was atrocious and at the same time, he pulled at my long stick to get it into his possession. By all means, I had to hold onto it. That second, when the agony in my right leg was torturing me like hell, Mirih gave me the right advice. I let myself fall onto my knees and to my right at the same time. While I was falling, I moved my long stick upward towards the left carotid artery of my opponent. Kretorg still had my long stick in his hand pulling at it with all his might, but I had way more lever and thus he could not stop its sideways movement. Unfortunately, I did not properly hit his carotid artery, just the neck. Other than brutally punching him at the neck and chin, that blow did not do what I anticipated it to do. However, with the turning of the stick, his hand got twisted and he could no longer keep his hand locked onto it. 13 seconds to go. I had to get away from him and the fight would be finished. During those two seconds it took him to collect his wits, bring his head back into a straight position and face me again, I had rammed one end of my long stick into the ground pushed upward and forward with my arms and my left foot, spun around the long stick 180° and landed on the ground about 2m away from my opponent. He was already jumping at me again and thus I rolled away from the Klingon. Rolling did not get me far enough and he jumped onto me. My opponent grabbed my long stick again with one hand and pulled at it. Then I heard the buzzer. It was over, the fight was over now. Relieved, I looked at the display, which showed 0, time out. The audience cried and shouted yay, yay, yay ... and applauded. Another glance at the display told me, I was leading by 14 points. I was getting fucking tired now. I really had trouble keeping my attention at everything.

In the Operations Room

Editorial note: The following paragraph is information, Laila did not know at the time, but was gathered later in a trial and is provided for the reader's better understanding of events.

"Add another minute!"

"That is impossible Sir, time has run out, even with a slow clock. The fight is over. The buzzer had come already."

"Don't you listen to me, I said, add another minute."

"Sir, it's over!"

"Here, these are 5000 darseks and I hope for you, that you will add another minute now!"

"Fine Sir, as you wish, but don't blame me, if the whole Klingon Empire is on our neck tomorrow."

"Add the minute now!"

The technician, started a new fight with a duration of only one minute, to satisfy the President's request.

"You will make an announcement, that there were technical problems with the system", the president finished.

On the Center Field

When Kretorg had heard the buzzer, he first had stopped all his actions, but for some reason, now he was coming for me again. Before I realized it and reacted, he was over me and pulling at my long stick with both hands. He kept his own long stick between his legs in order to get both of his hands on my long stick. I had real trouble now keeping my shit together, and then out of the corner of my eye I saw the display, which showed 39 seconds. The fight was over, how could time still be running? Something was wrong. Points were 0 for both of us. What in Gre'thor was happening? Mirih instructed me to hold onto my long stick no matter what and I put all my power into that, disregarding everything else. Next he let himself drop down onto my belly and rammed his right knee into my abdomen, pulled even harder at my long stick and finally tried to turn it sideways. I was loosing it, I was loosing my concentration, casting clear thoughts took like an eternity. Mirih and I both knew something was utterly wrong with me. The pain in my stomach was brutal, but I held onto my long stick for dear life. That one thought, Mirih made sure was ruling my head. Dear life until the Klingon bent his upper body down and quickly up again. Together with a bit of pushing of his legs, it lifted his whole body up a bit and pushed him forward about 20cm. With that move, he landed on my breast. I could not breathe anymore and the long stick slipped out of my left hand. Kretorg knew what he had to do. He got up, made two sideways steps, that way twisted my right hand with the lever of the long stick, until my grip automatically opened. Kretorg held my long stick in his hand now and I did not. If I only had my wits together, I would have grabbed his long stick with my left hand, but for fuck sake, I did not. Mirih urged me to get back to my feet, which I did. I turned around, my back towards the Klingon. With my hands I pushed myself up, because my right leg pained so much. Now Kretorg swung my own long stick at me and hit me on my buttocks quite hard. I fell back on the ground again. He hit a couple a times more and all my trying to get up was in vain. My body and my brain were both tired. Then finally, the buzzer sounded again. He still hit my buttocks 5 times more until he stopped. The audience was dead silent, no applause, nothing. Kretorg lifted my long stick up in the air to claim victory, but there was no applause. The audience was as puzzled as I was.

Meanwhile in the Operations Room

Editorial note: The following paragraph is information, Laila did not know at the time, but was gathered later in a trial and is provided for the reader's better understanding of the events.

The three judges stormed into the operations room and the first one asked: "What is happening here? Time out had come already, and then all of a sudden there is still a minute left, points back to Zero and a minute later the buzzer comes again?"

"There was a technical problem with the system. You will make an announcement in regards and declare Kretorg as the winner, because he had disarmed 'ethl tits."

Judge 1: "Mr. President that will not work. We have our own watch running alongside the system time and the buzzer came about 6 min. too late already. After that came another minute and another buzz."

"I'm the President of the Gladiators Association and if I say, you announce Kretorg as the winner, then you will do so!"

Judge 1: "Mr. President, all we want to say is, that it cannot work that way. Something was wrong with the timing system and it is so blatant, that the public will realize it. They can take the recording and stop the time and they will see, that even the first buzz came 6 min. too late. We have our own watch running, which clearly indicated that. What shall we write into the protocol?"

Judge 3 held his communicator up, so that the President could see the screen: "The press has already realized that the timing in the last three rounds was off. It is going viral already. The press already suspects rigging. The time extension in the last three rounds was just too convenient for Kretorg. We cannot announce Kretorg as the winner."

"Don't you listen to me, you will declare Kretorg as the winner!"

Judge 1: "And then what Mr. President? We will get sued and an investigation will be made and it will reveal irregularities, possibly rigging. We will get in deep shit, if we do that. It's just all too obvious."

Judge 3 added: "Kretorg will not be the winner, when we will get convicted of having fixed this fight."

"You are my judges and you do what I tell you to do! I will not allow the whole gladiator sports getting ridiculed by a Vulcan girl. Hundreds of years of an honorable sport bedraggled by a heinous slave!"

Judge 3: "Mr. President, what we can do is declare the fight invalid, a No Contest, because the timing system did not work correctly. Everything else will just make matters worse."

"Fine. Then do that", was the President's agitated response!