Disclaimer: If you're under age to read stuff about guys having sex or if you find it offensive, your society finds it offensive or illegal then stop reading now! This story is completelly fictional, as are all the characters.
By the same author: Previously I've written the multipart story "A Different World" which can be found under gay/sciencefiction at nifty. I've recently also started a spin off/sequel to that story, which is published in the same subdirectory, i.e. the directory for "A Different World". The spin off/sequel is called "What Dreams May Come".
This part contains some graphic voilence but only what's necessary for the story.
Written by Adam
We were given six pairs of blue gloves that were numbered from 1 to 6 and with them we were also given six rods that were also blue and three meters long, slightly elastic and with a small net dish about a foot in diameter. The six Masters put on red gloves and distributed red rods in between them. As I put my gloves on, each marked with the number 3, I looked closer at how this t'chaaa ball court looked like now than I had the night before when I just ran across it. The ground was a rough, rubbery material which covered the entire playing field at 20 by 30 meters. Across the middle was a white line and one half of the court was coloured red and the other was coloured blue. In the center of the court was a one meter high chrome pole with a bulb at the top half of which was coloured red and the other half blue. One meter from the end of the court on either side and still along the invisible middle line was a round hole or pit as K'ch'kt-aa had called it. The hole was about two feet in diameter at the top and almost as deep and then one foot in diameter at the bottom. On the long wall along one side of the court was a computerised score board that was half red and half blue. The red side was marked 'Home' and the blue was marked 'Guests'. On either side were two displays above each other. Brian walked up to me holding a rod in each hand and gave me one of them.
"Your gloves are marked as number 3, right? Then I suspect that you're supposed to have the rod that's marked number 3 as well. And..." Brian said and looked at my partly bare chest.
"Yes?" I said.
"What's with the torn shirts you and Kenny have? Some new fashion? It's very sexy, I can barelly keep from caressing your wonderful smooth chest" Brian said.
"That customer we had wanted to see us have sex with each other and Kenny was so eager to have me that he ripped the shirt off me and demanded that I did the same to him... and it also pleased the customer who was watching us" I said.
"Kewl" Brian said and started caressing my abdominal muscles.
"Hey, that's my boyfriend!" Kenny said walking up to Brian and then stood looking expectantly at Brian.
"So?" Brian said as he started to caress Kenny's abs as well.
"Now, that's better!" Kenny said.
"No, 'cause Brian is my boyfriend and I don't want him caressing other guys... unless I can join in!" Paul said and started caressing too.
"That's all very sweet, but maybe we should get on with the game, 'cause I suspect they'll kill us if we seem more interested in caressing each other than playing the game" Stan said but still he couldn't keep himself from running his index finger down the middle of my chest.
"He's right, I'm affraid" Kenny said as Tim put his hand on Kenny's chest.
"Yes, let's get on with the game before they see this and consider us 'tainted'!" I said.
"Ofcourse" Brian said and then we moved away from each other and distibuted ourselves on the blue side of the court.
"Excuse me sir!" Stan called out to K'ch'kt-aa.
"Yes?" K'ch'kt-aa said.
"I just want to make sure that we've got a few things right. This is our side of the court that we have to defend, right?" Stan said pointing down on the blue ground.
"Yes, and you have to put the ball into the pit here on the red side... simple enough even for Terrans to understand" K'ch'kt-aa said with a leer.
"Okay, then I got it right" Stan said, ignoring the attempt to insult us just as the rest of us did.
"One more thing, sir!" Brian said.
"Yes?" K'ch'kt-aa said getting a bit impatient.
"You explained the way the scores are counted very well, but how many points do we have to get to win... or do you have to get to win depending on how the game turns out, sir" Brian said.
"I was just getting to that. We'll play the standard way, where a team has to score at least six points to win the set and you have to win two sets to win the match... we'll take a one minute break between each set" K'ch'kt-aa said.
"Er, 'at least six points'? you can get more than that and win?" I asked.
"Since we get one point if they put the ball in our pit and then fail to touch the pole we get one point so if we end up with five points and then scores another two points for putting the ball in their pit and touching the pole we'll have seven points and wins the set" Brian said.
"Exactly! Your friend is much more clever than you, I guess that's why it was so easy for my father to frame you" K'ch'kt-aa said.
"What, you know it was a frame?!" I said.
"Now I do, I found a copy of the unedited surveillance disc in my old room yesterday... but I still hold a grudge against you for not daring to take a little pain just to refuse my mother's advances and for holding the gun and pointing it at her... however, technically you didn't pull the trigger since it was my father's pressing of the buttons on the remote that pulled the trigger... the things you said last night made me go back and check" K'ch'kt-aa said almost looking ashamed.
"Apology accepted" I said.
"Hey! That wasn't a ... never mind! Let's get on with the game! Be prepared to fire the ball!" K'ch'kt-aa said and positioned himself near the pole in the middle.
"Where is the ball anyway?" I said.
"You'll know soon enough! ... one more rule I forgot to tell you about earlier. During play only one player is allowed on the other team's side of the court while the rest of the team has to remain on their side of the court and may only pass the ball to their team mate on the other side. Each team is only allowed to use their rods to block the other team's player from getting to the pit. And this is only during play! When the team has scored all team members has to remain on their side of the court until the play has begun again. If the scoring computer registers more than one member of a team on the other team's side a penalty point will be given to the other team... you said that we would probably cheat when playing against you and you're probably right, but I asure you that the scoring computer is impartial" K'ch'kt-aa said.
"Understood" I said and the others nodded.
"Is the blue team ready to play?" K'ch'kt-aa said.
"Yes!" we said in unison.
"Is the red team ready?" K'ch'kt-aa said.
"Yes!" the other Masters answered in unison.
"Right! Computer, start a standard game of t'chaaa in ten seconds!" K'ch'kt-aa said.
"Ten... nine... eight... seven... six... five... four... three... two... one... " a female artificial voice said and on 'one' the top half of the bulb on the pole opened up, splitting in the middle and one second later a small yellow ball shot up out of the pole at high speed and K'ch'kt-aa who was prepared for this swung his rod high and hit the ball with the center of the dish at the end of the rod.
The ball flew towards one of K'ch'kt-aa's team mates who hit the ball with his rod so it flew over on our side of the court towards his team mate who had ran over and stood near our pit. I swung my rod and managed to hit the ball before it reached their guy on our side. The ball flew across to the far corner of our side where Paul met up and hit with his rod sending it over to where Stan had positioned himself on their side. Before Stan could hit the ball K'ch'kt-aa swung his rod along the ground so it his Stan at the back of his legs just below the knees sending him flying onto his back on the ground and knocking the wind out of him.
"Time out!" I called and held my left hand straight up and flat while I held my right hand on top of the fingers of the left hand, palm down making a 'T' of my hands.
"Time out" the computer repeated and made a beep afterwards everyone stopped playing and let the ball bounce off the walls and ground for a while until it stopped and one of their team kicked it into their pit where it disappeared.
"How did you know you could do that? We never told you that you about time outs!" K'ch'kt-aa said with obvious irritation in his voice.
"Actually I don't know... I just did it without knowing it would work" I said.
"A time out has been called, if no valid reason is given within thirty seconds the game will resume" the computer said.
"We were told that there would be no physical contact allowed during play except tackling and holding back when trying to get to the pole in the middle, yet number 1 of the red team struck blue team number 5 with his rod so the blue team member fell over!" I said.
"Tackling and holding back and all other forms of bodily contact is only allowed when the ball is in a pit and the scoring team member is trying to get to the pole. Incidental light touching with a hand on an opponent is allowed. During all other instances of play a player can only touch an opponent with his rod in any which way he likes except with the dish at the end. Red One hit Blue Five in a permitted way. If blue five is hurt he may leave the court until he feels better and another player off the bench may take his place" the computer said.
"I'm alright now" Stan said.
"Blue Five must return to the blue side before the game can resume" the computer said.
Stan ran over to our side and the computer started counting down again.
"Hey, Stan you'd better stay on this side for now, I'll run over to their side... and don't worry, I'll look out for their rods" Tim said and Stan just nodded as he apparently hadn't gotten his breath back completly yet.
"Two... one..." the computer said and this time I swung my pole, knocking K'ch'kt-aa's pole out of the way and hit the ball over onto our side of the court to the spot where Kenny was standing.
Kenny hit the ball sending it towards the other side where Tim had to duck for one rod swinging at his head and then jump almost emediatly after to awoid being knocked over the same way as Stan and then while still in the air Tim caught the ball in the dish of his rod and swung the rod round and over and slammed the ball into the pit.
"Blue Six now has ten seconds to touch the pole... nine... " the computer said, continuing the count down.
Tim landed running towards the pole. One of the red team grabbed him round the waist but Tim practically jumped out of his grasp. K'ch'kt-aa came running and tackled Tim full force, sending Tim flying. Tim rolled around on the ground and got back on his feet with amazing speed and dashed for the pole and put his hand on the bulb. A buzzer sounded.
"Blue Six touched the pole after eight seconds! Blue team leads with 2-0!" The computer said.
"Have you played this game before?" K'ch'kt-aa said.
"Nope!" I said and the other in the blue team agreed.
"Then how the hell could you score that quickly?" K'ch'kt-aa said.
"Well, I think it can best be described with a certain term we Terrans have; beginner's luck!" Tim said.
"Good term! I hope that luck runs out quickly! Computer, resume game!" K'ch'kt-aa said.
The computer made another countdown and the ball was fired from the pole in the middle. I jumped up and hit the ball, passing it to Kenny again and at the same time as the dish of my rod struck the ball I was hit in the side by K'ch'kt-aa's rod which he was swinging sideways at me and I was knocked to the ground where I got a bruise or two but was otherwise unharmed. Tim jumped over me in order not to stumble over or kick me on his way to the other side but then as he crossed the line in the middle a buzzer sounded and the red team stopped playing.
"Blue Six is on the red side. Same team member may not cross to the other team's until another member of his team has scoared a goal. Penalty! One poing to the red team. Game will resume in ten seconds" the computer said.
"Forgot to tell you about that rule, sorry!" K'ch'kt-aa said with a leer that indicated that he'd actually didn't tell us about that rule deliberatly.
"Okay, I'll go this time! I'm alright now! How about you?" Stan said helping me off the ground.
"I'm fine!" I said as I swung my rod and hit K'ch'kt-aa the same way he had hit me just before while deflecting his attempt to knock me over again.
Stan swung his rod and sent the ball flying to Brian who passed it at me. This time K'ch'kt-aa was the red team member on our side and he made an attempt to knock my legs from under me like he had done to Stan earlier but I jumped so his rod passed under me and then when I landed I passed the ball towards Stan and then had to jump again as K'ch'kt-aa swung his rod back. When I landed the second time I swung my rod and hit K'ch'kt-aa on the side of the neck, sending him to the ground. On the other side of the court Stan had been ducking and jumping like crazy as four rods were swung at him while managing to hit one of them in the head, knocking him unconscious. The fifth red team member swung his club and hit the ball in a pass to K'ch'kt-aa a second before I knocked him to the ground. I could tell I was seriously pissing K'ch'kt-aa off as he cursed horribly. I knew it was a serious cuss word since the censoring unit made sure the translator in my collar didn't translate it. I jumped and sommersaulted forward to land on my feet again in order to avoid being hit by K'ch'kt-aa's rod that he was swinging wildly at me now while still lying on the ground. I ran away from him for the time being. Paul came up behind him and hit the ball passing it to Tim who passed it along to Stan who just managed to break free and hit the ball so it slammed into the pit on the red side of the court.
"Blue Five now has ten seconds to touch the pole... nine... " the computer said, continuing the count down.
Stan dashed towards the pole. A red team member tried to block his path with intention of grabbing and holding him but Stan bent forward and tackled the Master in the stomach so he hit the ground heavily at the same moment as Stan hit the pole and the buzzer sounded again.
"Blue Five touched the pole after four seconds! Blue team leads with 4-1!" The computer said.
K'ch'kt-aa cursed again getting up off the ground and walked back towards the red side.
"Hey, you ducked real good there and caught him several nice blows yourself! I'm really impressed!" Kenny said.
"Thanks love! I'll make an attempt to score this time, okay?" I said.
"If I hadn't seen you perform like you did just now I would tell you to be careful... Actually I still say be careful, but also: Let's rock!" Kenny said.
"What?" I said.
"I don't know where I got that from... must be something similar to your burried memories of Earth" Kenny said.
"Hey, you're one player short and you don't have a replacement, should one of us step off the field for the time being to make it even?" I yelled to K'ch'kt-aa as two from his team carried the one that Stan had knocked out and placed him on the bench at the side of the court.
"No! Computer, resume game!" K'ch'kt-aa yelled angrily.
The computer made the countdown and the ball was fired. Stan jumped real high so K'ch'kt-aa missed him when he swung his rod at him. Stan on the other hand hit the ball and passed it to Tim who in turn passed it towards Kenny. I ran over the court onto the other side where I emediatly had to duck and jump as the other team swung their rods at me. I managed to knock the feet away for one of them, sending him to the ground. On the other side I noticed that K'ch'kt-aa was on our side again. Apparently the rule of not being allowed to cross the middle line only applied to the team member that has scored a goal so the team member from the team that didn't score may cross the line as many times as he likes until he scores a goal. This time K'ch'kt-aa didn't swing his rod at any of the players in the blue team but managed to intercept the ball before it reached Kenny and slammed it into the pit. The buzzer sounded.
"Red One now has ten seconds to touch the pole... nine... " the computer said starting the countdown.
K'ch'kt-aa made a run for the post in the middle. Brian and Paul tackled from the same side and remained on top of him while Tim, Stan and Kenny joined them and helped hold K'ch'kt-aa down. More curses streamed from K'ch'kt-aa's mouth.
"... two... one... Red One failed to touch the pole within ten seconds. One point to Blue Team. The score is 5-1" the computer said and K'ch'kt-aa roared with rage.
After I returned to our side we huddled together.
"Since we didn't put the ball into the pit I can go over again, I believe" I said.
"Yeah, and remember that we only need one more point to win the set, let's go for it!" Kenny said.
"Are you done huddling together over there? Good! Computer, resume game!" K'ch'kt-aa said.
The computer made another countdown and the ball shot up out of the pole in the middle. Stan started his jump but another Master hit him with his rod sending him to the ground while K'ch'kt-aa jumped upp and hit the ball making it fly to red number three who passed it to the red team member on our side and who was the same who had hit Stan. Before the ball reached the red team member Stan swung his rod, while still lying on the ground and knocked the Master over and Brian jumped up and hit the ball passing it to kenny who in turned passed it to me just as I swung my head at K'ch'kt-aa who cought it right below the rib cage and doubled over joining two of his team members that I'd already knocked to the ground. I jumped up just as the one that was remaining upright tried to strike my legs out from under me and hit the ball slamming it into the pit. The buzzer sounded yet again.
"Blue Three now has ten seconds to touch the pole... nine... " the computer said starting the countdown.
The one Master that was still standing tried to block my path as I ran for the pole but I dove to the ground between his legs, rolled over and was back on my feet and hit the pole.
"Blue Three touched the pole after five seconds! Blue team wins the set with 7-1! There will now be a one minute break" The computer said.
Once more K'ch'kt-aa screamed with rage and another set of cuss words streamed from him. The red team went over and sat down on a bench on their side just off the court along the long side and we did the same on our side.
"You've really gotta do something about that temper of yours, it can't be good for your blood pressure" I called to K'ch'kt-aa.
"You wanna live to the end of the game 47589619? Then I suggest you shut up!" K'ch'kt-aa said pointing his remote at me. I mimed locking my mouth and throwing the key away and then he lowered the remote.
On their side, the Master that had been knocked unconscious earlier by Stan had now come to and was sitting on the bench with the others in his team and glaring angrily at Stan. Suddenly there was a chirp from my wrist comm and when I activated it Mark's face appeared on the little display.
"Mark! Hi! What are you doing up so late?" I said.
"I'm safe at home in my little gold collar appartment where I made sure to be before curfew hit. I was reading the news when I read a note that a surveillance cam had picked up a strange occurence where some Masters had actually challenged some Terrans at a game of t'chaaa ball and now the game is being broadcast on the surveillance channel so I switched to watch it. Sadly enough I wasn't very surprised to see that it was the six of you who were the Terrans... this is the second night in a row that you're out past curfew!" Mark said.
"Not volontarily this time. My and Kenny's employer had as work way past curfew and then gave us passes for safe travel home but they were revoked shortly after we left. Then while we ran we bumped into Brian, Paul, Stan and Tim who had already been captured by these Masters... as for the challenge we all felt it would be fun to and a nice change to being killed emediatly" I said.
"Let me tell you a couple of things about Masters and ball games. I've come to understand that the only balls that existed on this planet originally were the Master's testicles. But one day, several hundred of years ago visitors arrived from a small, blue green planet called Earth arrived... and while they were just visitors they brought along several ball games called soccer, basketball, tennis and loads and loads of others and challenged the Masters at them. The Masters were never any good at any of these games and then over the centuries until the time when they had turned the tables on the conquerors from the blue green planet and made the Terrans into slaves and forced them to wear the collars that the Masters had been forced to wear under the terror of Terrans they also invented a ball game of their own which they believed would be impossibly difficult for the Terrans to play or even understand and then forbade Terrans from playing it just to make sure, and that game is t'chaaa ball... there never where any law that forbade us however, they just made sure we didn't get the chance to prove that we'd be better at this than them. But now, you've proven that... just look how easily you won the first set! I've heard that they promissed to let you go without killing you if you won the match, but I suspect they may go back on that deal and start killing you off during the game if you continue playing like that" Mark said.
"They said they'd give us a head start, running from them if we won, in other words they'll kill us whichever way it goes... as for your theory that they'll start killing us off before the game is over... I've begun supecting that myself" I said.
"The rest of us don't suspect, we're certain it will happen!" Brian said, looking over my shoulder.
"The break is almost up now, be prepared to play as best as you can until they kill you... and tomorrow I want to hear how your shirt got ripped, Mike won't be happy if he hears about that! Good night!" Mark said and the display went blank.
"Fifteen seconds left of break. Teams take their places on court!" the computer said.
"One last kiss now, in case we die before this set is over!" Kenny said urgently grabbing my arm.
I embraced and kissed Kenny and our tongues met momentarily as the computer started the ten second countdown.
"I go to the other side of the court this time!" Paul said.
"Deal, but then you run the risk of being killed first if you score, so kiss me now" Brian said and Paul gave him a quick peck on the lips just as the computer ended the countdown and the ball shot into the air.
I jumped up and hit the ball, passing it to Kenny who passed it on towards Paul on the other side of the court. Paul was being beaten savagely by four rods as K'ch'kt-aa hit the ball, passing it towards their player on our side. Stan swung his rod and hit the player on the head, knocking him unconscious again. Oh yes, it was the same guy that he had knocked out earlier. Brian swung his rod and struck the ball back across the court to the other side where Paul had gotten free and managed to get two other red players to the ground. Paul hit the ball with his rod and slammed it into the pit and the buzzer sounded.
"Blue Four now has ten seconds to touch the pole... nine... " the computer said starting the countdown.
The three red players that were still standing tried to block his Paul's path, but Paul jumped up and sommersaulted over their heads and then landed on his feet running and hit the pole with his hand.
"Blue Four touched the pole after three seconds! Blue team leads with 2-0!" the computer said.
K'ch'kt-aa walked over to the bench on their side and picked up his bolt gun.
"You're going to kill me now, right? Which wall do you want me on?" Paul said.
"No, not you! That black one, number five of your team, has knocked our number six out twice now, and this time I feel someone of your team has to leave the court to even out the numbers and since you're the one who keeps making us one man short you're the one who'll adorn that far wall just behind the blue team's pit. Stand there facing me" K'ch'kt-aa said pointing at a spot just in front of our pit while two from his team carried their number six off the court.
"See you tomorrow love!" Tim said.
"The thing that really beats me up is that we never seem to get the chance to actually have sex with each other!" Stan said as he stood on the spot that K'ch'kt-aa had pointed at.
K'ch'kt-aa fired the gun and nailed Stan to the wall. I vinced as I saw this and remembered what it felt like to get a bolt through my body.
"Me too" Tim said and Stan smiled as he heard this while dying pinned to a wall and the balloon on the end of the bolt started filling with his blood.
"Hey, number three... Jack, is that what they call you?" K'ch'kt-aa said.
"Yes?" I said.
"You managed to remove the balloon yourself while dying yesterday, how did you do that?" K'ch'kt-aa as he took his knife out and cut the balloon on Stan's bolt so the blood started spilling onto the court and into the pit instead.
"I could have showed you on that bolt, you didn't need to cut it to pieces" I said.
"Show me on this fresh bolt instead!" K'ch'kt-aa said and gave me a brand new bolt.
"Okay. It's easy, there's a ring at the end here and it unscrews just like that!" I said and unscrewed the ring with the balloon from the bolt and gave the two separate parts back to K'ch'kt-aa who examined how to reattach and then unscrew the balloon again and then flung the ring with the balloon over the fence along the long side of the court and loaded the bolt into the gun.
"You didn't tell him that the ring is part of the safety mechanism so the gun won't fire if it isn't attached to the bolt did you?" Paul said.
"Nope!... I suspect he'll be a bit mad when he tries to shoot one of us and it doesn't work but it will buy that person time to reach the pole in the middle if he's trying to use the bolt to stop him. I'll go next, if it's alright?" I said with a smile.
"I had no idea my boyfriend was this cunning!" Kenny said proudly.
"Computer, resume game!" K'ch'kt-aa called out as he put the bolt gun on the bench and the countdown started.
I will try to keep this story running parallel with What Dreams May Come (the spin off/sequel to A Different World) and write chapters for both. I'm interested in your feedback and suggestions. Is there some story thread that you would like me to explore further or turn into a spin off? ... Write me at my_evil_twin47@yahoo.com and tell me what you think of this story!