Orion Colony Complete Series Boxed Set J.N. Chaney (books for new readers .txt) 📖

natural born leader. To be honest, I didn’t want to take either him or Stacy with me on the mission to the Rung. If anything did happen to us, they were too important to the colony to be lost.

These thoughts ran through my mind as I rounded a corner leading to the Civil Authority tent. I heard grunts and the familiar sound of fists hitting a punching bag.

That noise made sense to me in a world out of order and I didn’t bother to suppress the grin. I walked to the back of the tent to see John Bower training on a heavy bag he’d fashioned from a thick piece of canvas and sand.

John wasn’t just a suit, he had previously been a gladiator back on Earth. He was a brother and a hard man who knew what it was like to be locked in a ring and only come out when your opponent was unconscious, or you had inflicted so much pain on him that he gave up in defeat.

Next to John, sitting on a bench, was Lou. I was surprised to see the older man lifting weights and doing bicep curls. He looked over at me and smiled as if he had expected me to show up the entire time. Lou was a deeply religious man who often seemed to have a direct pipeline to his supposed man upstairs.

“Dean,” Lou said with a toothy smile. “Come on over. We’re working out. Or at least John is. I’m just pretending.”

John stopped hammering at the bag to give me a measured look and wipe the sweat out of his eyes. “Heard you went a round with a Rung spy today and got that shoulder of yours popped out of socket. Looks like you took a good shot to your eye as well.”

I touched the spot over my eye that had been opened. It had bled fiercely, but head wounds always looked worse than they were. After I wiped the blood away, there was only a small gash to show for the blow I had taken.

“Don’t you worry about me,” I said. “I’ve still got more than enough to put you down in the first round.”

John held my gaze steadily as if he were about to take offense, then he broke into a smile.

“You’re lucky I like you, Steel Hands,” John said, using my gladiator name from back on Earth. “Or I’d challenge you to a friendly fight right now.”

“Might have to put that on hold,” I said. “The Rung have given us an offer to join forces against Legion. They say they know how to kill him. You in?”

“Sign me up,” he said, looking around at the meager weights he had and the improvised bench. “I’m getting kind of bored here anyway. No offense, Lou.”

“None taken,” Lou said, lifting another weight to do a bicep curl. His veins popped out of his neck at the effort despite the weight only being ten pounds. “I just have to finish this set and get a nice pump going, then I’ll grab my things so we can go.”

“We?” I asked.

“Oh, you didn’t think you were going to leave me behind now, did you?” Lou winced in pain as he raised the weight again. He was definitely wearing down, close to ending his “workout.” “You remember how I did against Legion when we went out to the coast? I may not have been a gladiator on Earth, but I’m still spry. I’ll be of use. Besides, I know where Legion’s heart is, remember?”

“The lightning-bolt-shaped rock in the jungle,” I said, recalling when Lou had taken me to the top of the Orion to get a view of the oddly-shaped landmark.

“Anybody else coming?” Lou asked. “I mean, besides Stacy?”

“Why would you think she’s coming?” I asked, stiffening. Had we been so transparent?

“Please, you think that woman is going to stay behind when there are things needing to be done?” Lou looked at me like I was stupid.

“Fair enough,” I said. “We don’t need anyone else outside of us. Tong will be coming along with us to translate, as will, of course, the Rung.”

“One hundred and ninety, one hundred and ninety-one,” Lou said as he counted out his reps. “One hundred and ninety-two…”

John and I exchanged a grin. More like twenty-one, twenty-two…

I looked over at the crudely-fashioned punching bag, missing the feeling of my fists hitting something. Being a gladiator had always been more than just a sport to me or a means to make a living. It was my vocation, a way for me to be the person I knew I was created to be. Everything else fell away when I was fighting or training. The world made sense then, and I missed that.

“You know, I mean, unless you want to fall back on the excuse that your shoulder is still messed up, we can always go a round or two,” John said, catching my gaze and playing on the uncertainty and desire he probably saw. He knew he could tip me over the line I was mentally walking and get me to go a few rounds with him. He knew what being a gladiator had meant to me. “We’ll wear the heavier gloves, so I don’t mess you up too bad.”

There were mountains of reasons why I shouldn’t. We were going to depart that night to meet with the Rung and preparations had to be made. Still, it would only take a few minutes.

You can put him down in a minute or two, I told myself. It might do you some good to limber up before you embark on a mission that could be your last.

“I mean, if you don’t think you’ve still got it, then that’s completely understandable.” John shrugged offhandedly as if he was going to forget the whole thing but still somehow come out the winner. “I get it. I wouldn’t want to fight me either. You had your heyday and you’ve moved on. I—”

“Get me some gloves,” I said suddenly,