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

Death or Freedom

I had a very relaxing Saturday together with my mom and Nethis.

Sunday was the day of the fight. I woke up at 10:00h, then got ready. At 11:00h Odron and Kala picked me up. Together with my mom, Nethis, Kala and Odron we flew to the Grand Arena, where we arrived around 12:30h. We moved into one of the big change rooms, where I started to warm up. Kala had ordered a masseur who worked on me after my initial warm up. At around 13:00h, Achot came in. For a change, he seemed to be in a good mood and greeted everybody with a smile. Imagine that, he greeted even me with a smile. Then he went into discussing my fighting tactics with me: "You know already, that Kretorg usually starts slow, then increases speed trying to finish his opponent in round 6, maybe 7. Saying that, he must be very aware, that you have enough stamina to carry an exhausting fight all the way through to the end. He is the best Batleth wielder within the Klingon Empire, maybe even in Stu'vo'kor. Due to that and the heavy Batleth, he might expect you to wear out faster this time. I'm not sure, which strategy he will follow. In any case, I recommend you to safe your power as much as possible. You go into the fight with your two sticks, right?"

Not opening my mouth, I just pointed to the two swords next to my bag. When Achot's gaze fell on my two new swords, his facial expression dropped that instant. For two seconds he looked like the apocalypse unfolded for him. Next he walked over and picked up one of the swords scrutinizing it: "It is extremely light. Blade is blunt, as is the rule, but it seems it cannot be sharp?"

Truthfully, I answered: "No, this one cannot be sharpened. But it does not matter for this fight."

"Yes, for this fight the blade has to be blunt. Why did you never tell me?"

With a smirk I answered: "I wanted to surprise you."

Deeply caught up in thoughts he came back after two seconds: "Surprise me, hmmm. Oookey. Well the two swords change the picture, you will be able to make points with them. You are very fast with the sticks and the swords are even lighter. As such, focus on your speed."

With that, Achot did not tell me anything I did not already know. Nothing new.

Even Achot seemed to realize that he had not bestowed me with great wisdom just now and he continued: "Well, you are ready. You know all that anyways. Nothing I can do for you at the moment. I will go upstairs and get me some Gagh." He turned around, to leave the change room, but then turned and came back to me: "One thing I forgot. You said, you did not like the sugary energy boosters. This time I brought you energy boosters based on coffee. Hope you like them more?" With that he pulled out two bottles of coffee based energy drinks and handed them to me.

I grabbed them, put them in my bag and said: "Thanks, that is very kind of you." Achot smirked and left the room to get his Gagh.

Klingons had a lot of foods, which I liked, which were very tasty. Though Gagh looked so disgusting, that I never mustered the courage to even try it. The worm stew was clearly not my thing. Now Mirih urged me to hide the two silver swords in the elevator shaft. When I returned the WADA inspector was in my change room. This time around, he had brought company, female company. So this time, they were two inspectors and they both showed me their official WADA card. The inspector I already knew, handed me the paperwork: "I guess you remember everything from last time. Still, if you have a question, don't hesitate to ask." Next he handed me a small container and pointed to the adjacent toilet. I knew, what I had to do, but with the disaster from last time in memory, I looked at Kala, who nodded. As I had her blessing, I walked into the toilet and the female inspector followed me. With piercing eyes, the Klingon woman watched me and I was not sure, which one was worse: the laughing male WADA inspector or the female one with her X-ray gaze? It took considerably longer until I was finished but so what? Maybe, I would even get used to that procedure over time. Once I had handed her the little container, she opened the door, where the male inspector gave her two bottles. These bottles were new, not the same ones as last time. The woman split my urine pretty evenly between the bottles and closed them. Then she wanted to glue the stickers over the lid, but Kala interrupted her. She made her hand the two bottles and turned the lid even further in clockwise direction until they made a clattering noise. With a satisfied nod she handed them back and the woman finished putting the stickers over the lid. Then they were handed to me and I checked the number on the lid and on the control sheets and signed them. The entire wicked and embarrassing procedure took about 10-15min. Naturally, producing the urine was the most time consuming part.