The lights flickered on, followed by a soft, but persistent chime. One of Evie’s eyes slid open, squinting against the sudden light. She groaned softly and slid out of bed, massaging her aching arms and legs. She was sore, but not as much as she had been expecting, and her normally tight neck and back were still miraculously loose.
She had found a simple nightgown to sleep in the night before. Getting up, she pulled it over her head and tossed it onto the bed before starting towards the dresser. Without warning, the curtain opened and Mijra entered. Evie yelped, instinctively covering herself and jumping backwards. Mijra held what looked like a protein shake. Upon seeing Evie’s reaction, Mijra rolled her eyes. She didn’t actually roll them, instead she gave a quick flick of her tongue, but something in Evie’s mind translated the gesture as the equivalent of a human eye roll. The automatic understanding happened whenever she saw body language that wasn’t shared between humans and Skonarians, and she suspected that the surgery that enabled her to speak Common had also involved some additional knowledge. For the first time, she wondered what else they might have added, or altered, in her brain.
“I keep forgetting how prudish you all are,” Mijra muttered. “Please try to get over it. We do our best to accommodate you all, and the least you could do is have some flexibility in the other direction.”
She handed Evie the shake, which Evie set it down on the dresser before starting to pull on clothing, trying not to look too rushed. “You guys don’t like privacy?” Evie asked, to distract from her self-consciousness.
“Good heavens no,” Mijra replied, shuddering. “Why would anyone want their own space? We all live in a proper nest. ”
Evie blinked. “All of you?” she asked, taken aback. She had seen a few dozen Skonarians and was under the impression that there were many more. That was a lot of individuals to cram into a single space.
“All of us,” Mijra replied. Before Evie could ask more questions, the woman moved on. “You’ll be starting your day with physical conditioning. Do you need me to show you where you’re going?”
Evie thought for a second, then shook her head.
“They will expect you in twenty minutes. Leave the glass here when you’re done, I’ll come back for it. Don’t be late!”
Evie jogged into the training room just shy of twenty minutes later, stopping at the sight of the two humans who stood within. The man closest to her was a tall, thin black man. He greeted her with a nervous smile and took a few hesitant steps forward. He was young; she guessed in his early 20s, and he moved with the gangly awkwardness of someone who hadn’t quite grown into themselves yet. The second man was Asian, maybe in his mid-thirties. He was short, about her own height of 5’ 5”, but at least twice as broad with the muscles of a bodybuilder. He eyed Evie, looking her up and down in a less than friendly manner, before turning away.
“Evie! Welcome to the party,” greeted Claro, tailed by two other Skonarians Evie didn’t think she had met yet. She gestured at the two men. “Lubanzi, Haruto, meet our newest recruit, Evie.”
The black man, whom she guessed was Lubanzi, gave her an awkward wave. His eyes were big, dark, and open, looking at her with interest. Haruto didn’t move.
Evie, desperate to break the tension, said the first thing that popped into her head. “So… which one of you puked on Azur?”
There was a moment of silence, shattered by Claro’s laughter. Lubanzi gave himself away when the tips of his ears turned red and his expression became mortified. Evie grinned up at the younger man, striding forward and offering a friendly hand. He took it, smiling sheepishly back at her. His hands were huge, making hers look like those of a child.
She turned to Haruto. He stood stiffly, refusing to acknowledge her until she moved directly in front of him. Once it was no longer possible to ignore her, he eyed her distastefully. His name was a common Japanese name, so she took a guess. Bowing formally in place of a handshake, she spoke a formal greeting, “Hajimemashite dōzo yoroshiku onegaishimasu.”
His eyes widened for a heartbeat. In her experience, it always surprised the Japanese to hear a foreigner speaking their language, even under normal circumstances. For a moment, his face softened and a brief look of curiosity broke through his stony expression. Then it was gone. He replied only with a guttural “Hm.” before turning away. Evie’s eyebrows went up. He hadn’t even returned her bow. From a Japanese man, this was a serious breach of etiquette. A very deliberate snub.
“Good,” said Claro. “Now that we have the introductions out of the way, we can get started. Evie, you’ll be working with me, but I want you to meet Formad and Jui. They work with Lubanzi and Haruto, respectively.”
They began the day with some warm-up stretches and exercises. After they finished, they split up, moving to different areas of the room. The other two headed off, accompanied by their trainers, Haruto towards the weights and Lubanzi towards what looked like a set of gymnastics equipment. Claro and Evie began drills in the sparring ring.
Claro started with different combat forms, running through them again and again until Evie could perform them without thought. Then they moved to sparring. Evie lost every bout, after which Claro would walk her through exactly what she had done wrong. She would show Evie alternatives, and then make her repeat the match, incorporating the changes.
During her water breaks Evie watched Lubanzi and Haruto, though she tried to be subtle about it. Haruto was, predictably, over in the corner picking up heavy stuff and putting it down. He was impressively strong, and seemed to know it, accompanying his lifts with loud grunts, and throwing the weights down to the ground when he was finished. She wondered if he was intentionally trying to look intimidating.
Lubanzi’s trainer had him focusing more on calisthenics, working only with his body weight. About halfway through the morning session, they switched to something unexpected. He and his trainer moved to an open corner near the weights, and Lubanzi started throwing a ball against the wall. It looked like his trainer was helping with his throwing form. Evie could only guess it had something to do with his weapon.
Finally, Claro declared them finished for the morning. Evie had barely noticed the time passing. She was tired, but intoxicated by the dopamine rushing through her body. Wiping her face with a rag Claro had given her, Evie listened as the trainer told her she had thirty minutes to go back to her room and shower. Azur would expect her in the presentation room by hour eleven. Surprised, Evie looked at the clock positioned above the door. It read 10:30. According to the clock, they had been at it for five hours. It didn’t feel like it could have been that long. She was tired, but not that tired. Skonarian hours must be shorter than human ones.
After quickly rinsing the sweat off her body and pulling on yet another new uniform, Evie found her way back to the presentation room. She thought she had been quick, but Lubanzi was already sitting there, waiting.
“Surviving so far, I see?” he asked, greeting her with a big, friendly smile. “They tell me it gets easier. So far, it hasn’t, but I’m hopeful.” His accent was melodic, unusual.
She smiled back and replied, “So far, so good. Where are you from? I don’t recognize your accent.”
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“I live, lived, in Pretoria, South Africa.” He responded. “It’ll be nice to have someone human to talk to. Haruto isn’t what you’d call the chatty type.”
“I got that impression,” Evie said, walking over and taking the seat that sprouted from the floor next to him. “What’s up with him?”
Lubanzi shrugged noncommittally. “I don’t know. Frankly, he scares me. He has made it clear he’s not interested in getting to know me better, so I stay out of his way.”
Evie nodded, her worries from the night before returning. Lubanzi seemed friendly enough, but even her brief interaction with Haruto made it clear that he was someone she should be wary of.
Before they could continue their conversation, Azur hurried through the door, followed by Haruto. He said nothing, raking his eyes over the other two humans before sitting across from them. Lubanzi caught Evie’s eye, giving her a look that said, “see what I mean?” louder than any words could have. Evie snorted under her breath and found herself liking the younger man.
Azur sat at the head of the table. Evie looked at her, admiring the delicate silver trim that she had only seen on Azur’s uniform, and wondering what it signified. Azur, seeming more distracted than she had before, quickly typed a few commands into her tablet. Behind her the wall flickered and a nightmare appeared.
The creature was horrible to look at. Evie was reminded of Gollum from the Lord of the Rings movies. It was ape shaped, standing on four legs with its hindquarters much lower to the ground than its shoulders. The creature had a hunched posture, with sagging, sallow gray skin that was too large for its body. A thick line of course, greasy hair ran down its neck and spine in distinct triangular tufts. Its head looked too small, dwarfed by two beady eyes and a gaping mouth that hung open, revealing huge, tombstone-like teeth. Its legs ended gray, but otherwise uncomfortably human looking hands and feet.
“I’m afraid that I have a schedule conflict today,” Azur began. “So, we’re going to have to get through this as quickly as possible. This ugly bastard is a Honrad.” She gestured at the grotesque image on the wall. “All three of you are going to the Honrad home planet. Believe me, and I’m sorry in advance, they smell worse than they look.”
Evie and Lubanzi both laughed nervously. Haruto said nothing.
“Although the Honrad look, and smell, like something that got kicked out of hell for being too unpleasant, they are painfully boring creatures devoid of any kind of personality, except maybe stubbornness. They live on a single planet, their home world, which is also called ‘Honrad’. Honrad has many temperate zones, but overall, it tends toward swamp. The entire planet is damp, moldy, and covered in small, invisible spores that are varying degrees of toxic to most other species. The main reason humans are so popular this season is that you guys don’t have any reaction to the Honrad spoors. For most of us, contacting them results in something between mild irritation and instant paralysis, or worse. The Sniffers can’t go anywhere near these guys without serious precautions, otherwise the spores kill them pretty much instantaneously.”
The image of the Honrad winked out.
“Ok, let’s get into the rules of the Assassination Simulation. The Sim, as most of us call it, is based on a simple points system. Each team gets 14 assassins: seven for each of their opponents. Part way through the season, we bring in replacements for any assassins we have lost, which is what you three are. The current season has been running for about two years.”
“So, we are replacing three assassins who have… died?” Evie cut in, feeling the smallest twinge of unease curl around her gut.
“Oh yes. The Honrad don’t enjoy having their political leaders assassinated, even temporarily, and will do everything they can to prevent you from completing your assignments.”
Evie felt her blood run cold, the feeling grating unnaturally against the energy and excitement that had filled her since the previous day. Three deaths out of seven were not great odds.
“The Honrad live in a democracy, so targets are mostly elected officials, with a few industry leaders thrown in for spice. There are tens of thousands of eligible targets on Honrad, ranked into five levels. The easiest targets are level one, the hardest are level four. There are only twenty-five individuals ranked level four on the entire planet. Ones are worth a single point. Twos are worth three points, threes are worth ten, and fours are worth twenty. The first team to assassinate 100 points worth of targets from each of their opponents wins the season.”
“And level five targets?” Lubanzi asked. “You didn’t say.”
“A level five target is worth all 100 points, and there is only one per species. But no one attempts to assassinate them anymore. It’s not realistic. It’s always obvious who they are after, and it’s much too easy to defend a single target with basically limitless resources. A few species lost entire teams going after level fives, so everyone stopped trying.”
“Ok,” said Evie after a moment, forcing herself to remain calm. “Do we pick our own targets?”
“No,” said Azur. “You will have a target assigned. If you’re assigned to a level one or two target, you’ll hunt them individually. For the higher ranked targets you’ll be in groups. You will get a set amount of time to assassinate your target. The higher the target’s level, the more time you get.”
“And if we miss this deadline?” Haruto cut in abruptly, his voice sharp.
“Then you’re left to fend for yourself on Honrad until your inevitable demise.” replied Azur. “But the time limits are generous–”
“You did not mention this before!” Haruto said angrily, standing abruptly. Evie glared at the man distastefully, her own worries momentarily forgotten. She didn’t like the idea of the time limits either, but that was no reason to disrespect Azur.
“We don’t, because it’s not normally an issue.” Azur flicked her tongue in a Skonarian eye roll and eyed Haruto with resigned frustration. “The time limits were implemented because some older assassins realized they could just camp out until the game ended. So long as you’re not planning to sit on your ass all day, the time limits shouldn’t be an issue.”
Evie watched tensely as he and Azur each tried to stare each other down.
“So, let’s say I kill one of these level one targets.” Lubanzi asked, awkwardly trying to change the subject before tensions escalated. “What then? What happens?”
Azur turned away from Haruto and looked at Lubanzi. On the other side of the table, Haruto slowly sat back down. “Then, they are, temporarily, dead. But the assassination doesn’t count until you get them back to your transport and bring them up to the Skonarian base. If we don’t get their bodies, or at least their heads, into our custody, they will be resurrected by their own people and your assignment will not be complete.”
Azure stopped for a moment, looking around to make sure all three of them were paying attention.
“This next bit is extremely important. When you assassinate a target, make sure their heads go mostly undamaged. The rest of them, we don’t care about, and some light blunt force trauma isn’t a big deal, but their brain needs to be intact. If it’s damaged, resurrection becomes more difficult, sometimes even impossible. If that happens, the contract of the assassin who killed them is immediately voided, and we cut all ties. It’s not like missing a deadline, the Honrad will hunt you down. The few assassins this has happened to died very unpleasantly within a few weeks. So do not damage your target’s heads, understand?”
Azur let the silence hang heavy for a moment, making sure her words had sunk in. Then she abruptly stood and started towards the door. “That’s all you really need to know right now. When I have time in the next few weeks, I’ll fill you in more.”
“Wait,” Evie called out before Azur could leave. “I’m still confused by a few things. You told me before that the Sim is like a sport, that a lot of individuals in The Understanding watch it. How does that work?”
Azur shut her eyes for a moment before turning back. Her smile pinched at its corners, and her thin nostrils twitched irritably. Evie felt terrible for pushing Azur, but it felt like important information to know. “It’s more like a cross between a sport and a reality TV show. We will assign you each a producer, and their job will be to follow you around and direct a team of cameras.”
Evie looked at the woman, shocked. “We’re supposed to plan and execute assassinations, surrounded by cameras and a TV crew? That sounds impossible.”
“You don’t have to worry about that. There’s no crew, just your producer. They are individuals selected because they won’t stand out on Honrad, and who will personally take care of all the filming. The cameras are tiny, you won’t even notice them. Your producer will put together episodes which will summarize what you’ve been doing, and release them every third day. They can explain the details to you. We should be introducing you all tomorrow.”
Evie’s unease grew. She assumed the producers must be Honrad for them to not stand out, and she wasn’t eager to meet one of the hideous creatures in person. But then Azur’s last statement, and a much bigger issue, hit her. She had assumed that the episodes would come out later, like in a reality TV show on earth.
Haruto spoke before she could. “Can the Honrad see the episodes?”
Azure’s forced smile morphed into her big, toothy grin. She continued to inch towards the door, but right before she left, she answered. “That, my dear Haruto, is what makes this game fun. The episodes will not be released in real time, you will have a three-day lead. But yes, the entire Understanding, including the Honrad, will be watching.”