Kelly forced his legs to start walking again. "Does that make us neighbors? You never said how far Earth is from here."
"You are approximately forty-eight light-years from here and thirty-six from the Olyt home world. Not very far, as distances go."
"You are approximately forty-eight light-years from here and thirty-six from the Olyt home world. Not very far, as distances go."
The game room was small and relatively dark, the only illumination coming from a set of dimly glowing red panels. In the center of the room, and taking up a good deal of its floor space, was a complex-looking gameboard on a table. Two chairs-one strangely contoured-completed the furnishings.
Across the room was another door, and standing in front of it was an alien.
Kelly was better prepared for the shock this time, and as he stepped toward the table he found his predominant feeling was curiosity. The Olyt was half a head shorter than he, his slender body covered by what looked like large white scales. He was bipedal with two arms, each of his limbs ending in four clawed digits. His snout was long and seemed to have lots of teeth; his eyes were black and set back in a bettle-browed skull. Picture a tailless albino alligator wearing a wide sporran, Sam Browne belt, and a beret....
Kelly and the Olyt reached their respective sides of the game table at about the same time. The board was smaller than it had first looked; the alien was little more than a double arm-length away: Carefully, Kelly raised his open hand, hoping the gesture would be properly interpreted. "Hello. I'm Kelly McClain; human."
The alien didn't flinch or dive down Kelly's throat. He extended both arms, crossed at the wrists, and Kelly discovered the claws were retractable. His mouth moved, generating strange noises; seconds later the computer's translation came over an invisible speaker. "I greet you. I am Tlaymasy of the Olyt race."
"Please sit down," Slaich's disembodied voice instructed. "You may begin when you have decided on the rules."
Kelly blinked. "How's that?"
"This game has no fixed rules. You must decide between you as to the objective and method of play before you begin."
Tlaymasy was speaking again. "What is the purpose of this?"
"The purpose is to study an interaction between Olyt and Human," Slaich said. "Surely you have heard of this experiment from others of your race."
Kelly frowned across the table. "You've been through this before?"
"Over one hundred twenty-eight members of my race have been temporarily taken over the last sixteen years," the Olyt said. Kelly wished he could read the alien's expression. The computer's tone was neutral, but the words themselves sounded a little resentful. "Some have spoken of this game with no rules.
However, my question referred to the stakes."
"Oh. They are as usual for this study: the winner is allowed to return home."
Kelly's heart skipped a beat. "Wait a minute. Where did that rule come from?"
"The rules and stakes are chosen by us," Slaich said flatly.
"Yes, but... What happens to the loser?"
"He remains to play against a new opponent."
"What if I refuse to play at all?"
"That is equivalent to losing."
Kelly snorted, but there wasn't much he could do about it. With dignity, he thought dryly, and began to study the game board.
It looked like it had been designed to handle at least a dozen widely differing games. It was square, with two five-color bands of squares running along its edge; one with a repeating pattern, the other apparently random. Inside this was a checkerboard-type design with sets of concentric circles and radial lines superimposed on it. To one side of the board itself sat a stack of transparent plates, similarly marked, and a set of supporting legs for them; to the other side were various sizes, shapes, and colors of playing pieces, plus cards, multisided dice, and a gadget with a small display screen. "Looks like we're well equipped," he remarked to the Olyt, who seemed also to be studying their equipment. "I guess we could start by choosing which set of spaces to use. I suggest the red and-is that color blue?-the square ones.
He indicated the checkerboard.
"Very well," Tlaymasy said. "Now we must decide on a game. Are you familiar with Four-Ply?"
"I doubt it, but my people may have something similar. Describe the rules."
Tlaymasy proceeded to do so. It sounded a little like go, but with the added feature of limited mobility for the pieces once on the board. "Sounds like something I'd have a shot at," Kelly said after the alien had demonstrated some of the moves with a butterfly-shaped playing piece. "Of course, you've got a big advantage, since you've played it before. I'll go along on two conditions: first, that a third-level or fourth-level attack must be announced one move before the attack is actually launched."
"That eliminates the possibility of surprise attacks," Tlaymasy objected.
"Exactly. Come on, now, you know the game well enough to let me have that, don't you?"
"Very well. Your second condition?"
"That we play a practice game first. In other words, the second game we play will determine who gets to go home. Is that permissible?" he added, looking up at one of the room's corners.
"Whatever is decided between you is binding," Slaich replied.
Kelly cocked an eyebrow at his opponent. "Tlaymasy?"
"Very well. Let us begin."
It wasn't such a hard game to learn, Kelly decided, though he got off to a bad start and spent most of their practice game on the defensive. The strategy Tlaymasy was using was not hard to pick up, and by the time they finished he found he could often anticipate the Olyt's next move.
"Somewhat. The ancients used it for training in logic. Are you ready to begin?"
"I guess so," Kelly said. His mouth felt dry.
This time Kelly avoided the errors he'd made at the beginning of the practice game, and as the board filled up with pieces he found himself in a position nearly as strong as Tlaymasy's. Hunching over the board, agonizing over each move, he fought to maintain his strength.
And then Tlaymasy made a major mistake, exposing an arm of his force to a twin attack. Kelly pounced, and when the dust of the next four moves settled he had taken six of his opponent's pieces-a devastating blow.
A sudden, loud hiss made Kelly jump. He looked up, triumphant grin vanishing. The Olyt was staring at him, mouth open just enough to show rows of sharp teeth. Both hands were on the table, and Kelly could see the claws sliding in and out of their sheaths. "Uh... anything wrong?" he asked cautiously, muscles tensing for emergency action.
For a moment there was silence. Then Tlaymasy closed his mouth and his claws retracted completely. "I was upset by the stupidity of my play. It has passed. Let us continue."
Kelly nodded and returned his gaze to the board, but in a far more subdued state of mind. In the heat of the game, he had almost forgotten he was playing for a ticket home. Now, suddenly, it looked as if he might be playing for his life as well. Tlaymasy's outburst had carried a not-so-subtle message: the Olyt did not intend to accept defeat graciously.
The play continued. Kelly did the best he could, but his concentration was shot all to hell. Within ten moves Tlaymasy had made up his earlier loss. Kelly sneaked glances at the alien as they played, wondering if that had been Tlaymasy's plan all along. Surely he wouldn't physically attack Kelly while he himself was a prisoner on an unknown world... would he? Suppose, for example, that honor was more important to him than even his own life, and that honor precluded losing to an alien?