The Deadliest Lifeform in the Universe Loves Me-Volume 3: Gamma-12, Chapter 3.15

The Deadliest Lifeform in the Universe Loves Me-Volume 3: Gamma-12, Chapter 3.15

Eve and I spent the rest of the day just exploring the paradise core, checking out the various buildings and what all activities we could participate in. There were morning dance classes like yoga and other workouts, shows every evening, leagues for every imaginable alien sport, all stuff we could sign up for. Just like on a cruise back on Earth there were all kinds of daily activities people could join—stuff for kids, families, couples and even singles events. The paradise core was so large you needed GPS coordinates so you could actually find those various meetups.
I wasn’t sure what all would happen being on standard Imperial time in the bright paradise space station as time passed, but it turns out they did establish a bit of a day/night cycle to help keep a schedule; after 20 hours of daytime, the paradise core’s internal lighting all dimmed so it seemed like it was a really bright night, with the nebula in the sky casting a beautiful glow across the landscape. That first night there were holographic fireworks that played over the water, and while I was enjoying the show at first, Eve insisted nighttime was her time, so she pulled me back to the room to have her way with me.
The next morning, we met up with the team again but since there was quite literally nothing for us to do for the mission, we ended up falling into our roles pretending to be couples—talking about the fake company and having no small amount of fun with it. And now that we weren’t being so over the top with the PDA, some of the team members even gave Eve and me some good-natured ribbing for being such starry-eyed newlyweds—we were all getting along rather well.
Despite Doctor Yun thinking it was ridiculous needing to act like couples—as though no one would really care at all—Agent Roote made it a point to say we should start meeting up regularly in pairs or groups, continuing the act of being on some work trip together. The agents all took the roles very seriously, and while I kind of understood where Yun was coming from, I didn’t have the espionage training the spies did, so obviously I would defer to their expert opinions. As such, I decided it was time to get Zyno to have some fun with us, and while I wasn’t trying to play matchmaker or anything with him and Yun, I was hoping to calm things down between them so he wouldn’t be so anxious over the whole deal—wanting him to have fun on the vacation.
We ended up joining a hoverball league together, and as you could imagine it was some alien sport I’d never even heard of. After breakfast with the team, me and Eve with Zyno and a reluctant Yun met up at the hoverball courts for the introductory lesson. The game itself was played on a large round court that was split down the middle. We were to ride on these hover-disks that reminded me of those old-school circle sleds. You were given two wrist braces that projected small shields in front of you maybe a foot across each, and the object of the game was to fly around your side of the court and hit a ball back and forth with your shields, trying to get it to land down on your opponent’s court.
Obviously having never played the sport before—never even ridden the hover-disk, I was all over the place trying to figure out how to fly right. The others weren’t doing much better though as Zyno and Yun were both science nerds and didn’t have much athletic ability. The one standout was Eve; with her supercomputer brain and her Predazoan instincts, she figured it out quickly and then set to teach me. It was a rather tender moment we shared, so normal as she held my arms or bent my knees showing me how to move and balance, it was the kind of simple intimacy we’d been missing since being so overindulgent with the physical side of our relationship thus far.
In less than an hour Eve had me trained up so we were ready to play, and we ended up dominating Zyno and Yun. Flying all over the court, Eve and I passed the ball back and forth and spiked it down easily to break through Zyno and Yun’s shaky teamwork. We floated up and down, back and forth, defense and offense, Eve and I were totally in sync—our teamwork a matter of pure reflex.
We won our second game in a row with a heavy spike, knocking Zyno off his hover-disk when he failed to defend in time. He slowly floated down and dropped to the floor of the court gently as the gravity-shielding protected him during his fall. He settled down on the ground, glaring at me as I easily hovered down towards him.
“Are you
sure
you’ve never played before?” He demanded.
I rolled my eyes, “When would I have
ever
played this alien sport?”
He threw his hands up in defeat, “I don’t know, maybe on some simulation or something?”
I chuckled and shook my head, “Sorry, no, I must be a natural.” I shrugged, “Maybe humans are just more talented at sports compared to other aliens?”
He stood up and brushed himself off, “Yeah, and then you’ve got
her
on the team, making it all the more unfair…” He grumbled, gesturing towards Eve; she was doing fun little loop-de-loops, flying around on her hover-disc with such skill it looked like she’d been doing it for decades.
Yun floated down over to us, her arms crossed and a frustrated look on her face, “Are you just going to keep sitting there or are we going to play again?” She demanded. Turns out she
hated
losing—perfectionist research doctor getting all competitive over a silly game.
We reset the court and played again, winning another few times in a row. Yun was getting so frustrated over losing she started yelling out commands at Zyno as though her strategies would help them play better, and they ended up in such a heated argument over the whole thing they honestly looked like a real couple.
After winning seven games in a row, Yun said she was sick of the stupid game and stormed off back towards their room.
I jumped off my hover-disc and floated down towards Zyno, “Uh, sorry I guess, hope that doesn’t make things worse.”
In response, Zyno just chuckled, “You kidding? She deserves to be taken down a few pegs.” He rolled his eyes, “You should hear her go on and on about her research accolades, her academic accomplishments. She has such a huge ego, honestly getting shown up like this is probably a good thing.”
I smiled and clapped him on the shoulder, “Alright, feeling better over the whole thing finally?”
He shrugged, “Honestly yeah; she can have her attitude and shove it for all I care.
I’m
going to have fun on this vacation mission.”
Since Eve and I played so well, there was some activities manager android that asked if we wanted to be part of some daily tournament. Obviously we said yes, and within the next couple hours we I got lined up in a hoverball bracket.
It seemed like it was mostly couples playing, nothing too crazy, but it was surprising how seriously some people took it. Our first match was against some lobster alien and his crab-looking partner, and same as our games with Zyno and Yun, Eve and I passed the ball back and forth easily to spike through our opponent’s defenses. After sweeping three straight games, we moved onto the next round.
The hoverball stadium itself was rather spacious, with lots of games going on at the same time, with some hundred pairs involved in the tournament. We got a break in between rounds, and we were surprised to see Kianna and Densdor join Zyno in the stands.
“Hey, are you guys in the tournament too?” I asked.
Kianna shook her head, “No, figured we’d come support you guys though.” She gestured to Zyno, “Zyno said you guys are really good even though it’s your first time playing.”
I laughed at that, “Yeah, it’s been a blast so far, don’t know how well we’ll do in a tournament like this, but it’s fun just to play.” I confirmed, and Eve came over to stand beside me, wrapping her arms and tentacles around me as usual.
“Do they have any sports like this on Earth?” Densdor asked.
I hooked my thumb back towards the courts, “Like this, not really; we don’t have hover…technology, or whatever you call it.” I shrugged, “But we have some sports that involve courts and sides, even some with rackets similar to the shields; we have tennis and ping-pong, badminton too.”
“Did you play those sports much?” Zyno inquired.
I shrugged, “A little badminton during like barbeques and shit, never for a league or anything.”
Kianna gestured towards me, “Considering your build and physiology, I think humans are naturally predisposed to athletic talent.” She waved off to the rest of the courts, “Most other races are built for a specific focus; some are fast but weak, some are strong but slow, humans are a rare mix of perfect averages with enough significant talents without too many drawbacks.”
“You think?”
Kianna shrugged, “Or you’ve just discovered a new hidden skill of yours.”
The announcer droid called the start of the next round, so Eve and I returned to the courts. Our next opponents were a pair of a jelly looking alien in the vague shape of a female and a bulky werewolf looking alien male. I was starting to see what all people told me before about sexuality being so free in the Empire; there was almost no pattern I could notice between couples, it seemed like pretty much any race was free to love whoever they wanted—slug-man, jelly-lady, or any strange combination in between.
Gave me a little more hope people aboard
The Radiance
would be more understanding with Eve and I being in a relationship, but of course there was still the mission to worry about.
Just as Kianna said, some aliens were slow and strong while others were weak and fast, and our next pair seemed to follow that exact pattern; the jelly-lady moved around the court quickly and snapped out her jelly limbs with her shields lightning fast, but her strikes themselves seemed rather weak as the ball barely floated towards our side of the court. The werewolf man on the other hand seemed to have the most difficult time setting up shots if the ball moved too fast, however when he actually landed a hit it would rocket back down on the court. Eve stayed on defense against the werewolf man’s attacks while I broke past the jelly lady, and we ended up sweeping another three matches in a row.
During our next break we returned to the stands to discover our audience had grown once more; Vinnago and Lobae were sitting in the stands now, talking excitedly about the matches they watched.
“I can’t believe it; this is really your first time playing?” Vinnago pressed excitedly, always with that bright energy of his.
Eve giggled and jumped up for a piggyback ride from me as we made our way over to the group, “
Yes
, why is everyone so surprised at how talented we are?”
Lobae gestured to herself, “I played hoverball in a league back in school, and even after four years of playing I could never move like you do.”
Zyno nodded along, “It’s a lot to keep track of.” He started ticking off fingers, “Balancing on the hover-disc, flying around the court, catching shots, returning shots, you’ve got to work as a pair while working around your opponents.” He shrugged, “Honestly, you two are out on the courts looking like pros.”
I boosted Eve up more on my back and she giggled, holding her arms around my neck and chest with her tentacles on my shoulders, “There’s pro leagues for this?”
Lobae nodded, “Oh yeah, big time in the Dullom and Wystnam systems, but they play all over the Empire. “
“How many sports do guys have across the Empire?” I asked.
The rest of our group found that rather amusing, “Adam, we’re an Empire that spans thousands of planets and systems; take
all
the sports on Earth and multiply that number by several thousand, and you probably still wouldn’t even scratch a tenth of what’s all out there.” Kianna chuckled to herself.
Eve glared at her, “Hey, Adam wouldn’t know, he wasn’t raised in the Empire.” She defended me.
I chuckled and waved her off, “She’s got a point Evie; even on Earth I’d have no idea how many sports or games we have across all our countries.”
Eve pouted a little, leaning her chin on my shoulder, “Still…”
I found it adorable how Eve defended me—never mocking me for being some dumb human out in this crazy grand Empire, never making me feel foolish for my ignorance. No matter what we dealt with, Eve always had my back, and I knew I would always have hers.
Eve nipped my ear playfully, “Easy now darling…” She whispered coyly.
“Hey, I was
definitely
thinking pure thoughts there.” I protested.
Eve trilled a little giggle, “I know, but anytime I feel your thoughts are of me, it gets me at least a little excited.”
Another round was announced, and this time we fought a more conventional couple; a pair of grendalls just like Zyno. A husband and wife, they were definitely more athletic than Zyno, but they didn’t have the necessary power to disrupt our defenses. Their teamwork was superb, and we actually learned a lot by playing them; it seemed a good strategy to pass back and forth with your partner while moving around the court, changing elevation, and then you could fake your opponent out so you could go for a high or low shot so they had to split their attention, leaving a gap right in the middle. Eve and I fell for the trick a couple times and ended up losing one of the matches, but we still won the set overall.
Once more when we returned to our group we saw the number had increased, but this time it was just Yun who joined up with Zyno. Right away I could see she was berating him, telling him why they lost and using our teamwork as an example for what they should’ve been doing. We decided to stay uninvolved in their little tiff and sat on the opposite side of the group.
The next match was against some strange furry couple, one looked like a bipedal dog and the other was some wholly alien red thing I couldn’t even make sense of. We employed the fake-out tactics we learned from the last match and won the round rather easily.
We returned to our group and saw Yun and Zyno had calmed down the argument, so everyone seemed in good spirits once again.
“Semi-finals are next.” Kianna cheered excitedly.
“Holy shit, you think we can actually win this thing?” I turned to Eve.
She smiled brightly at my enthusiasm, “Duh, our teamwork is flawless.” She said, leaning up on her tiptoes to give me a quick kiss.
The semi-finals were against another odd pair; some lady who looked like a classic Mind-flayer, and some cute little blue goblin dude. This pair was the opposite of one of the earlier we faced, with the male being all fast and tricky and the female holding all the power. It was wild how fast the little goblin guy was, zipping around the court like it was nothing, meanwhile the big squid-alien lady mostly just hovered in the middle of their court, down low to play defense until she was set up for a crazy power spike. They overwhelmed us the first game, but we got the second, then they came in and just barely won the third game, but we straightened up and swept through the next two games no problem; seemed they didn’t have the stamina to keep the action going, and my stamina was one thing I was more than proud of—Eve certainly saw to that.
Our group all cheered for us, eager and excited, even Yun seemed to be getting into the spirit of things.
“I can’t believe that last match, you guys are
dominating
.” Yun called out excitedly.
“Did you see that last setup, how Eve caught the ball and then passed it up to Adam like 20 feet above her?” Zyno added.
Kianna mimed the gesture of spiking the ball, “And then he just slammed it down the middle of the court, the other team didn’t even react for like five seconds!”
Lobae shook her head slowly, “I know this is just a vacation tournament with a bunch of amateurs, but you two should honestly look into joining a real league at some point; with the right training you guys would be serious contenders.”
Zyno scoffed at that, “And when would they be allowed to do that? Stuck on the—”
Vinnago put a hand on Zyno’s shoulder abruptly, “I know, stuck with all that overtime once we get back to work, and Eve has her studies to worry about. I’m sure it would be difficult to find the time to join a league.”
The cheerful atmosphere diminished a little as Vinnago reinforced the cover we were all playing. I looked around and saw the stands were pretty full around our group—plenty of people watching us as the pair that would be part of the finals. I still didn’t think it would be much of a big deal—who really cared what our group was doing on vacation, but again, I wasn’t the secret agent; that was their job—Vinnago and Lobae, the whole reason they were on the mission, to maintain our cover.
Zyno looked rather embarrassed and shook his head, “Right right, we’ll have to see once we get back to Exo-Cordeggo if there’s any leagues in the nearby systems.” He said hastily.
We returned to the courts for our final match. The stands were quite full now, people excited to see the end of the tournament with skilled people playing. There were a good couple hundred people watching us on either side of the courts.
Eve leaned forward and squeezed my hand, “Nervous?”
I smiled and kissed her on the forehead, “Not at all sweet-thing, just excited to have some fun with you.”
Eve bit her lip in that adorable way of hers and trilled a little with happiness. We turned together to face our opponents. This team seemed much more normal than most; the man was a red humanoid that looked like a mix between a human and a classic squid alien, larger than me with longer arms, but rather squat legs. The female seemed to be the same race, but she was purple, and without the tentacle beard like the guy had.
We all got onto our discs and rose in the air, “Let’s all have fun with it, alright?”
The man scoffed, “You guys are going down!” He declared, and his partner joined in with jeers.
I floated over to Eve, “Let’s thrash these nerds.”
In response Eve smiled viciously—eyes blazing with barely contained violence, “Let’s show these fools the teamwork of a human and a Predazoan.”

Volume 3: Gamma-12, Chapter 3.15