Iggy wasn't allowed to see his mother before he left Novr.
Commander Emerik Au Victorus claimed he needed to be put on a transport immediately if he wanted to get on the prison vessel headed to Elysium Prime. That meant there was no time to return to his apartment. No time to say goodbye.
He could still feel his mother's hand against his face. Her frightened eyes tormented his mind every time he closed his own.
Sat inside the back of the Elysian transport, he forced his building emotions into the farthest corners of his mind. They wouldn't stay there for long, though. The ride out of town and to the station took the entire night—meaning he had plenty of time to dwell on his situation. He hadn't slept at all. How could he? Instead, he opted to gaze at the black expanse stretching across the horizon. Night was the only time Novr's sky was remotely visible. The iron oxide in the air subsided for a few hours, giving way to brilliant stars blinking in the distance. Silhouettes of cargo ships hauling their loads off-world in the name of the empire met his eye.
He'd soon be on a ship too, whisked off to yet another unknown planet to fight for his life and his freedom. Not only his but his mother's, too. She needed him to come through, now more than ever.
Iggy wrung his hands as he watched the landscape blur outside his window. To say he was anxious was the understatement of the millennia.
Rubbing his eyes, he witnessed the morning sun rising over the mountains in the east. A sinister shadow loomed over the sandy dunes stretching for miles in every direction. Craning his neck, he got a glimpse of the hull of the massive spacecraft hovering hundreds of feet above the distant docking station. Even from their distance, cannons could be seen jutting out from the iron behemoth's maw. The ship was a long, rectangle with triangle faces; an exposed square compartment split it into two sides.
Iggy squinted as he watched a smaller ship leave the compartment. It must've been the ship's docking bay.
He swallowed hard as he spotted a smaller ship jet out of the bay. It made a beeline for the station below.
The building itself wasn't as grand as the humongous spaceship covering a large portion of the sky above it. Then again, Iggy wouldn't have described anything in Novr as 'grand'. The closer his transport got, the more rust and neglect he spotted around the place. Hands—android workers owned by a master—and Slavs in sand-covered uniforms milled about, prepping the landing area. The dock wasn't in the best of conditions, but almost nothing on Novr was. Hands and Slavs alike milled about the station, prepping the landing area for the next arrival.
Moments later, Iggy's transport came to a halt. His door opened upward like the wing of a flying insect. A soldier pulled him out and ushered him toward the station. Grimacing, he limped forward. Commander au Victorus walked behind him.
The smaller ship ahead finished docking. Dozens of attendants rushed over to tend to its needs. Gears turned and air pressures leveled as the ship's entrance revealed itself. Its white mouth yawned open; a wide, metal tongue rolled out, serving as a walkway.
"Is this the rebel?" one of the soldiers asked as they approached the Elysian commander.
The blond man nodded. Iggy suppressed the urge to scowl.
"That's him alright," Commander au Victorus lied. "He's all yours."
The other soldier nodded before flicking a hand at one of the guards standing beside him. They stepped forward, grabbing Iggy by the forearm and prodding him toward the walkway of their ship.
As Iggy shuffled forward, he spotted a worker staring at him. At least, he assumed them to be a worker. They were even smaller than he was, possibly a child. It wouldn't have surprised him if they were. Their tawny skin was covered in grime and sand peppered their wild hair. Dull eyes blinked slowly as they watched him.
His steps faltered.
"Keep it moving," a soldier barked. They shoved him forward with their rifle. His ankle flared with pain as he nearly ate dirt. Biting down on his lip, he forced himself not to cry out and kept moving.
Grumbling, he shuffled up the carrier's walkway. He turned his head to find the child again but found nothing but sand. He furrowed his brow. He wondered if they had ever been there in the first place. Novr's heat was known to create illusions. It had been a full day since he slept. Something told him the streak would only get longer.
Iggy arrived at the top of the walkway. Before he could enter the ship, Commander Au Victorus called out to him. He stopped and turned around.
He glared at the Elysian, his cuffed hands balled into fists in front of him.
Had he not been handcuffed—and been a much braver person—he would've attacked him. His anger quickly subsided, though, only to be replaced by hopelessness. Once he entered that ship, nothing would be the same. His life as he knew it was over.
All because he took some stupid letters and a pendant.
His eyes widened. The pendant.
After leaving the interrogation room, the man took it from him for 'examination purposes'.
Commander au Victorus approached the ship with a sly smile on his chiseled face. "Good luck in the arena, Arigorii. You're going to need it."
Iggy's lip curled into a snarl.
"Perhaps you do have some fight in you," the Elysian quipped. "Use that in your battles." He fished a hand into his pocket and retrieved Iggy's father's amulet. He tossed it to the young Arigorii.
Iggy barely caught it. He stared at the amulet before looking back at the commander.
"Why?"
A simple shrug was the only answer he got.
"Time to go," said the soldier behind him.
With a sigh, Iggy nodded. He turned around and disappeared into the carrier ship.
#
Once the carrier ship landed within the larger prison vessel, which was known as The Chyron, Iggy was led out into the docking bay. The soldiers formed a box around him they shepherded him through the hangar. Dozens of Elysian fighter jets parked in precise rows filled the cavernous space. Glowing lines ran through the metal walls.
Iggy stiffened. The soldier at his back prodded him forward with their blaster rifle.
They left the hangar and turned down a dark corridor. One of the soldiers approached the holographic scanner built into the sealed-off entrance in front of them. After the system scanned his biometrics, the heavy, metal doors opened, revealing a grey courtyard flanked by multiple stories of holding cells. Catwalks guarded by white-painted railings ran along the edges of the walls, giving access to the cells.
A skylight sat in the center of the curved ceiling overhead, showing off Novr's burnt orange sky.
The soldiers led Iggy through the courtyard sandwiched between the endless rows of prison cells. He stayed close to the Elysians. Hundreds of different beings populated the area, all of them donning white jumpsuits with identification numbers printed onto their backs. Iggy nearly fainted after seeing a ten-foot-tall Krayakian* stomping around. Two sets of handcuffs were clamped around their four, muscular arms. Another set kept its thick, scaly tail pressed against its back.
All eyes were on Iggy as his welcoming party cut through the courtyard to another set of doors on the other side. He was met with nothing but dirty looks and sneers. He even saw some drag their crooked finger across their throat as he passed them.
Face burning, he kept his head and eyes down.
Eventually, they left the courtyard and entered another, much smaller room. A white jumpsuit sat atop a metal table.
"Put that on," one of the Elysian's ordered.
The soldiers left the room without another word. The doors closed automatically behind them.
Iggy was alone.
A sharp beep went off and his cuffs fell away, clattering to the floor. The sound echoed in his ears. Iggy absentmindedly rubbed the raw skin of his skinny wrists as he examined the outfit laid out for him on the table in the center of the room. They weren't much, but it was better than the sweat and blood-stained mining uniform he currently had on.
Shaking his head, he peeled off his clothes and stepped into the prison jumpsuit. He studied his reflection on the glossy surface of the table. The suit didn't quite fit him, but almost nothing fit his small, frail frame. His black hair fell into his misshapen face. He always hated his face; his nose was far too small, and his eyes were a little too far apart. Coupled with his pointed ears and large lips, he looked like something out of a traveling circus.
He blew air from his nose before turning around to face the doors.
There was only one thing left for him to do now:
Survive.
#
The cell the soldiers placed Iggy in was better than he anticipated. For starters, it had a bed. That alone made it better than his cramped living room back on Novr. Still, the room was only big enough to fit a basic steel-framed cot, a wooden stool, and a circular window on the rear wall. His door, which was fitted with a magnetized lock and a biometric scanner on the outside, hid within the thick wall.
All the cells were open. His was on the third level. From the edge of his cot, he had a clear view of the bustling courtyard below. Prisoners congregated in small cliques, conversing amongst each other as The Chryon darted through the infinite black void that was space. He watched as nebulas and star systems bled into vibrant colors through the skylight in the center of the courtyard's ceiling.
Iggy spent what felt like hours staring at the pretty colors.
It was his first time on a ship with a hyperdrive system. He expected the ground to shake and the walls to rattle as they traveled through the Outer Rim at insane speeds, but he barely felt a thing.
He could never remember the trip he and his parents made from Yensari to Novr. Traveling the galaxy had always been a dream of his, though. But with all his time and efforts going into making money in the salt mines, he never had much time for dreams.
Now he had all the time in the world. Until he arrived in Elysium Prime, that is.
Grimacing, he laid down on his cot and closed his eyes.
He didn't want to think about it. Not now. Not ever. Fortunately, he'd have a few days before The Chryon finished its journey. All of them would be spent enjoying his last moments alive. There was no way he would survive the arena. He'd already come to terms with it.
Still, a tiny part of him wondered if he truly could win a game. Maybe even more than one.
What if I make it to the finals?
He banished the thought. Now was no time to get his hopes up. His chances of surviving even a single game were slim to none. Dreams of reaching the final gladiator game were just that—dreams. And he didn't have time for those.
A low siren hummed throughout the prison vessel, accompanied by a voice instructing everyone to return to their dwellings. All the prisoners made their way back to their respective cells. Iggy remained in his room, watching as the courtyard emptied.
A towering, old man with a thick, grey beard passed by his room. Dark markings scaled up and down the ivory skin of his arms and neck. Battle scars could be seen across his hands and face. His rugged features suggested he was an Andradan—one of the galaxy's more prominent species alongside the Elysians.
Iggy sucked in a breath as he recognized a golden tattoo inked into the side of the man's neck. Three crescent moons above a backdrop of crisscrossing lines. His hand immediately went to the pocket of his jumpsuit. The soldiers had let him keep his father's amulet; all the tributes were allowed a keepsake of sorts, so long as it wasn't an outright weapon. He easily could've used it to harm someone, but then again, no one saw him as a threat anyway.
The bearded man caught Iggy's eye as he went past.
Eyes deeper than black holes stared into the boy's murky ones. He stopped in his doorway, his gaze trained on the pendant in the Arigorii's hand. Iggy froze, his hand trembling slightly as he stared at the man.
The stranger narrowed his gaze. He said nothing. He only shook his head before continuing the journey to his own cell.
Iggy released the breath that had been building in his lungs.
Was that man a rebel? Commander au Victorus told him that symbol was an indicator of high rank within the rebel alliance. His eyes widened.
What if he knows my father?
He shot up from his bed and rushed over to his door. Sticking his head out the doorframe, he searched for the stranger through the crowd of prisoners passing by. He couldn't find him among the sea of diverse characters.
Sighing, he returned to his room. He rubbed his thumb over the initials carved into the amulet in his hand.
As he watched the door to his cell slide closed, he vowed to find that man. He didn't remember much of his father's teachings, but he did remember one thing.
Coincidences didn't exist.
Iggy was on that prison ship at the same time as that old man. That was no accident.
Laying his head onto his stiff cot, he closed his eyes. Millions of questions swarmed around his head like an angry hive of insects. He needed answers. His mother hadn't explained everything to him, and he could no longer ask her. That old man... He would have answers.
Iggy was sure of it.
Nodding to himself, he drifted off into a nightmare-plagued sleep.