Free The Ecstasy of Tral-Gothica by Victor Hadnot, Amanda Travis

don’t know.”
    “Stella, are we friends?”
    Stella glanced at him and shot him a
dreamy look, then, realized it and changed it. “Well, I guess we
can be considered friends. I mean, we haven’t had to kick each
other’s ass or anything just yet.”
    “Even if we had to, I’d let you win.
I’ll let you win all the time, Stella.” It was so obvious that
Falco had serious feelings for her.
    “Well, I really don’t want you to do
that, Falco.”
    “Do what?”
    “I really don’t want you to let me
win, if indeed, you can beat me!”
    Falco frowned. “But I...”
    “But you what?” she gazed at the
young man. “Falco, I’ll be your partner, ok...”
    The time went by and one day Stella
and Falco were finally matched for a series of special combat
training. The instructors were simply pairing them together, like
they paired any of the others, because the students, by then, had
naturally paired themselves up, and were studying and operating, in
such a way. So, there was nothing special or different about Stella
and Falco being paired together. The fighting finally began. Stella
was a strong woman, voluptuous, yes, but well proportioned, so that
she could move quickly and agilely. Falco fought with her
throughout the training and finally, it came down to the finals. At
the finals, it was to be part of their permanent grade, how they
worked together and how they fought each other. When Stella found
out that this was a part of their final grade, she objected to
fighting Falco.
    “Why don’t you want to fight your
partner?” ask a female T.I.
    “Stella couldn’t really think of a
good reason, she was feeling rather emotional about the whole
thing. “I just think I might do better fighting someone else.” It
was stupid, what she said.
    The T.I. studied Stella for a
moment. “You think you are the first woman to come through here
that has feeling for her partner?”
    “What? No! I don’t have feelings for
Falco. He’s just my friend. I mean, we are paired to work together.
That is all, Ma’am!”
    The T.I. talked rough to Stella.
“Really? You think I am stupid, Recruit? I can see the mussy
lovesick way you two look at one another! You think you can spare
him by fighting someone else. You don’t want to fight your little
boyfriend?”
    “Please, Ma’am! It is not like
that.”
    “Why do you think we encouraged you
maggots to pair up? It was so, at the end of the course, you could
turn on one another! It is part of your spy training, maggot! There
may come a time, when you’ll have to kill the person you are
working with. It is part of being a spy!”
    Stella was totally caught off guard.
“What? I don’t want to harm, Falco. He’s my partner, we’ve been
together all this time. We work together. We are...he is my
friend!”
    “Oh, he’s your little friend is
he?”
    “Yes he is. And you are being cruel
for no reason!”
    “Oh I am, am I? Imagine that you are
out in the real world. Your cover has been blown. You have vital
information that the government and the super-corps can use to
defeat the enemy! The only way that you can get the information to
the right people is to sacrifice your partner! What are you going
to do?” The T.I. was now yelling at Stella, as she was ordered to
stand at attention and just take it.
    “With all do respect, Ma’am! I’d
never sell out my partner. I don’t give a damn how important the
information was.”
    “Oh you wouldn’t would
you?”
    “No, Ma’am! Some things are just too
important! Like loyalty. Truth. Justice. The sense of Good verses
Evil!” Stella insisted, but very weakly, the T.I. had
psychologically beaten her down.
    “Well, looky here, what do we have?
A little bleeding-heart liberal! You believe in all of that
bullshit, maggot! The only thing that matters here, is your orders.
You will fight your partner, and whoever wins, moves on, the loser,
washes out!”
    Stella knew that and that was why
she didn’t want to fight Falco. She knew