The Lost Colony

Chapter 2

Outside the stadium, thick grey smog billowed between the towering skyscrapers, the residences of the elite in the overcrowded coastal megacity of Estusa. Inside, the large audience waited in silence, eager for the final round of the competition. The excitement of the mock fights and the very real competition for places on the colony ship was a respite from their drab  routine lives.

In the anteroom of the stadium, Lily White prowled impatiently with feline grace while waiting for her team's chance to exhibit their skills. A strikingly tall woman, she wore an orange striped leotard, which accentuated her lithe muscular body and reflected her nickname of Tiger Lily. She paced across the room, long braided hair swinging, twirled on her toes and strode back again, subduing her incipient panic. They had done well in the competition so far, surviving the early elimination stages, and now their fate rested on these final events. She feared if they failed to win places on the next colony ship, she would be confined within the grimy megacity for the rest of her miserable life.

She paused in front of her companion, the team leader, John Simmons. He sat, leaning back with his eyes closed, looking relaxed and unconcerned. Lily burst out with her worries, "Did we make the right choices? Do we have a winning performance?"

He grinned at her restless antics. "Lily, you look marvelous! Don't worry! You are the star of our act. The audience loves Tiger Lily!"

"I know," she said, in complacent indifference to her dramatic impact. "But, will it be enough? I couldn't bear to lose for a second time. We've been training for ten years. And, I hate living in the smelly underground rabbit warrens! I hate the bland nutrients, the stupid virtual emersions!" She shook her long braid and glared fiercely at him. In her opinion, it was better to act angry than to look scared. Her whole life was based on action, rather than passive acceptance of the meager food and dumb virtual existence of the majority of people in the subterranean cells.

John was a sober counterpoint to Tiger Lily, wearing black to highlight her bright orange dress and exuberant gymnastics. He was accustomed to her impassioned outbreaks, and sympathized. They shared the same goal of exploring a new world. A natural leader, he exuded confidence.

"We'll win this time," he declared optimistically. "We're all in peak physical condition, and you and Max have designed superb exhibitions showcasing our talents that will wow the spectators. We'll travel to another planet, and much faster than our predecessors of four hundred years ago." The new generation of spacecraft harnessed the hyperdrive, discovered only fifty years ago in the scientific renaissance after the chaos of two war-torn centuries of deprivation.

The bell clanged. It was time for their first demo, to Lily's great relief. Her nervousness evaporated as their act began. She and John entered from opposite sides of the arena, ran to the center and clashed the shiny tips of their swords together. They had decided to exhibit their low tech combat skills in the last stages of the competition, under the assumption that any surviving descendants of the first colonists had lost the ability to make advanced weapons. The spectators yelled their enthusiastic approval of the mock swordfight, reveling in the rare opportunity to shout aloud without violating the rigid conventions of the crowded passageways.

John and Lily were closely matched in height and skill. Their swords flashed against each other as they leaped through their energetic dance-like routine, protected by invisible skin-hugging force fields. The repeated clashes of their darting blades reverberated throughout the arena. Lily whirled around with feline agility, even vaulting right over the head of her opponent, in blatant disregard of the precautions needed for a real combat. She was an anachronism in the modern age, a throwback to a less polluted era with lower population and greater freedom. The audience loved her outrageous exhibitionism. They roared approval, waving orange and black striped flags in wild celebration of Tiger Lily's flawless performance.