Read Candidate (Selected Book 4) for Free Online Page A

Brighteyes again. "We cannot go home," she explained. "The reasons are complicated. Your leaders know we do this. They agreed when they invited us to stay. They changed your laws sufficiently to allow us to take you without interference. They keep our secrets." She spoke for several more minutes, then the visor dimmed. When next it brightened, I was looking at an empty room.
    * * * *
    She didn't make me wait long. The visor provided a small clock in the upper right corner of my vision, and it was only a few minutes. Then Administrator Brighteyes stepped into the room, smiled briefly, then sat down across from me again. I stared at her.
    "Now what?" I asked her quietly.
    "Now we see if you keep your promises. Are you going to say something rude to me?"
    "How many of the women who go through that are gay?"
    "The usual percentage," she said.
    "How many of them attempt to kill their alien?"
    "About, oh, a third of the women fight with deadly intent that first day. A very small percentage attempt murder during the subsequent challenges."
    "It's not murder."
    "None have made the attempt once reaching their new homes, although a few have attempted suicide."
    "Attempted?"
    "Attempted without success, so far, anyway. Every month or two, one or two attempt it in the arena. A similar number do so in the cells. There have been a few close calls, but no fatalities."
    "What you do to them is barbaric."
    She didn't respond.
    "Well, what now?" I asked after a minute.
    "Well," she said. "The visor didn't explain something to you. You have a choice."
    "A choice?"
    "Several choices, actually. Your first choice, and this is what will happen if we do not come to another agreement. Tomorrow morning you will step onto the arena sands, and it will be much as you saw on the visor, but it will be you and four alien males. There will be two exits, not four, and the males will be from the more athletic species. It is possible you could win your freedom, but unlikely. The most likely scenario is you will land in a cage, and when you are carried from the field, your subsequent challenges will be against the eventual victor."
    "A male."
    "Yes. A male."
    "Not interested."
    "Your next choice is to wait until the next group of women comes through, and you will enter the arena as one of them. There is a possibility one or two of the challengers will be female. It is possible she will be the one who eventually carries you from the arena. It is unlikely. However, you will also be allowed to surrender to any of the combatants, and then she is definitely the one to carry you back to your cell to await the remaining challenges."
    "I see. A chance one will be female."
    "Of the species in or near human space, there are several that engage in female-female pairings. Catseye are one. We are of a single gender. There are no male Catseye."
    "Oh," I said.
    "I will come back to that. There are two such species that prefer a mating fight. It does not need to be exactly what we do here, but those are details. However, one of those species has no unattached females at this time, so you could possibly encounter the other. Amongst the other species, there are several that experience female homosexuality in a fashion similar to humanity. So there is a possibility you could face one of them."
    "How big a chance?"
    "Randomly it is low. If you keep your promises, I can dramatically increase your chances, but there is no promise the females who might be here at that time would find you intriguing. They may choose to attempt to leave with another."
    "What are my chances?"
    "At best? Fair."
    I looked away, saying nothing. I wanted to scream, but I was sure screaming wouldn't help me and could likely hurt me.
    "Your next choice is to accept willingly a mate from those species that do not compete in this fashion. I would let people know you were available and then would select someone for you."
    "Female?"
    "Yes."
    "Someone I don't even know."
    "Or know only briefly. It is not unlike