The Wager by Duncan Long "Pawn to queen’s four," Death said with his raspy voice, bony fingers grasping the chess piece and precisely sliding it into the center of the designated square. I looked Death in the face for the millionth time and tried to discern some hint of what must be going on inside his skull. But his expressionless face was its usual blank self with only the red glow deep in his eye sockets suggesting the life — or whatever it was that animated him — inside. I didn’t rush to make my move. We had all the time in the Universe if we wanted to take it. After all, Death was deathless. He was in no hurry. And the body they had given me got all its energy from the eternal daylight that bombarded the glassy desert. A few extra moments of thought would cost me nothing. There was no need to hurry. Even with my opening move. Just take your time and don’t make any mistakes, I cautioned myself. Death always pounced on any weakness, perhaps displaying his ruthless nature intent on destroying the sick and helpless. I couldn’t afford a mistake if I hoped to win. My opponent started fidgeting the way he always did. I don’t know if it was a conscious tactic designed to break my concentration or just reflexive; either way the scraping and grinding of bone sliding over bone was always unnerving even though I’d heard it many times before. I refused to be distracted by the rattling this time. Today was the day I would finally win. I had to. So I played it safe. "Pawn to queen’s four." "How original," Death said sarcastically. "Don’t you ever take chances?" "Only once," I replied. "To my great detriment." I tried to force the thought of how I’d got into my predicament in the first place out of my mind. But the mechanism in my head was starting to function once more. I tried to concentrate. I tried hard. But too many centuries of wandering the planet by myself had made such efforts almost impossible. My mind wasn’t always my own. It often took off on uncontrolled flights, wheeling through the air like a mad hawk searching for prey that didn’t exist. Now the mechanism and my lack of concentration worked together against me. My two years of duty on the tramp cruiser had been a long, long time ago. Too long for clear thinking for a young man whose hormones were pumping strongly and freely. When we landed on Eden, the captain lined his green crew up and issued a stern warning. "Don’t get tangled up with the local women or you’ll live to regret it. Earth’s laws don’t apply here. But as long as you steer clear of their females you’ll be safe. If you want some, uh, rest and relaxation, go to the ship’s dispensary. But don’t try to make it with the locals. They’ll skin you alive. For starters. I want each of you to promise to stay clear of the females?" We were young and thought we knew it all. We glanced back and forth when the captain wasn’t looking. With a hint of a smile on our youthful lips, we signaled, What an old prude, to one another. "I want a spaceman’s oath from each of you," he said, giving no ground. We muttered our pledge. We would have promised anything to get some shore time. We vowed our empty promises. Then we piled out the hatch and shot down the gang plank. Most of the planet was off limits except for the few square kilometers where off-world ships could land to ply the natives with the steel and copper the planet lacked in exchange for powerful medicines and pharmaceuticals. Eden’s little trading zone was carved from the lush orange jungle. It wasn’t much to see. But after two years on a tramp, it doesn’t take much to seem like heaven. Especially if that planet is populated with curvaceous woman that make feelies look pale by comparison. Soon we were intent on carrying out some trades of our own with the odds and ends collected from years of flight between exotic planets. I wasn’t the only crewman who had soon singled out one of the beauties who enticed us into the soft foliage around the port. But I was the only one to get caught in my crime. "Pawn to king’s four," Death said, breaking into my thoughts. I swore under my breath. My mind was wandering again. Got to concentrate, I warned myself. Got to fight the memory machine and concentrate on the game. Death wouldn’t be back for another hundred years at least. Even if I lost — which I probably would once again — I should at least savor the moment of the only company I’d have for the next century. It would be a long time before his bat-like ship returned. Death’s ship was the only way to leave the planet. When he had first arrived I had toyed with taking the ship from him by force — until I had realized his strength was even greater than that of my then-new body. But he had a weakness. He liked to play games. Soon I had initiated that first game. He had come back from time to time to play again. Play for stakes. High stakes. If he won and left I would be alone again. Wandering the planet for yet another century with no one to talk to, with not even a blade of grass to keep you company. Only the endless plains of mirror-like obsidian. Sometimes I wondered if I’d lost my mind and was imagining the insanity that was my life. Other times I wished I could go mad. But the Edonites had seen to it I wouldn’t. The body they’d given me was capable of overriding such events, pumping just the right hormones into my bloodstream to make my brain run true when it ventured too close to derangement. The mind control was at its worst when I tried to kill myself. Any time I got close to carrying out the deed, the automated shutdown occurred. I lost consciousness and awoke from my stupor far from where I’d been, out of sight of the danger, whether a high ledge of a towering cliff or by banging my head against the glassy earth. But all I could do was live. Live and hope for escape. I forced myself to concentrate on the game board in front of me. Too bad I hadn’t been able to bring a few chess books along with me. Long ago I had been pretty good. I had several books that I would have given a fortune to have with me now. Death wasn’t an outstanding player and I was convinced he played by some system that might be beat if understood. I kept wondering if maybe, just maybe the right opening move might or a change in my tactics might not throw him off his stride and give me a chance to finally win. "So much caution," Death chided, clucking his teeth to substitute for missing tongue and lips. "It’s just a game. All you’ll lose is your bag of diamonds. As common as they are on this world, that shouldn’t be much of a consideration. You will lose and I will leave — just like I always do. And then you’ll be waiting here with another bag of diamonds to bet on another game. You should just relax and enjoy yourself. You’re so tense." I reached for the pawn in front of my king. "Pawn to king’s four." "Time for some blood letting," Death said with relish, eyes glowing brighter for just a moment. He quickly snatched his pawn, tapping it against mine and removing the defeated piece from the board and tossing it into the slick mirrored earth where it slid across the surface for several meters before coming to a halt. "Ready to concede?" I laughed. "Not just yet. Now be quiet, I’m trying to think." The Edonites had changed me in too many ways. Even though I’d been trapped in the tough-skinned body for nearly two thousand years, I still had never really mastered the rhythms it cycled through with the rotation of the twin worlds around each other. Now I felt myself becoming sluggish as the gravitational forces changed with the rising of the distant duplicate of the planet I’d been marooned on. The rumbling underfoot signaled the commencement of the day’s mild tremors. The chess pieces rattled momentarily and then were still. I was vaguely aware of my body slowing down, my mind growing foggy, no longer able to suppress the memories implanted in it. I was back in the cell. Back in my old — young — human body. The terror was as real as it had been that first time. That time they had caught me with one of their females. The time they pulled me from her, dragged me naked in front of their tribunal, and then dumped me into the crystal cell before the jeering crowd of angry natives. I wasn’t allowed to speak in my own defense. If I had been, I might have had a chance to talk my way out of the trouble, to explain that she had seduced me. Instead they jabbered in their native tongue, the female betraying me to the crowd. I had no need to understand their speech to know what was going on. It was a kangaroo court and I was trouble. Serious trouble. Spotting the captain, standing on the balcony at the back of the chamber in the shadows, I waved toward him. "Captain!" I screamed, my voice echoing inside the sealed container that held me like a lab specimen. Although my voice didn’t escape my confinement, I knew he understood I was crying for help. His face became a mask. He shook his head and muttered something — he wasn’t near enough for me to read his lips. Then he turned away, leaving through the triangular archway behind him. Leaving me to my captors. The truth suddenly sunk in. The captain wasn’t going to be able to get me out of this one. The situation was hopeless. I was lost. Out of control, my body shook and my knees buckled, dropping me to the hard floor. I hugged myself, rocking silently and knowing I was facing a terrible punishment. I had wondered what kind of horror might be meted out for having broken this world’s laws. "Are you going to move?" Death asked. "Yeah, sure," I said, blinking in the bright light, returning to the game at hand. "Sure." Instinctively I moved the pawn in front of my left bishop to protect my remaining pawn that now stood by itself in the middle of the board. "Happy?" "As happy as Death can ever be," he answered. I studied his face again, unsure whether he was joking or serious. Without lips or eyebrows, it is hard to judge the intent of the words. There’s a lot to be said for skin and muscle. Death rubbed his chin making a grating like finger nails over a chalk board. I knew he was going to take a while as he pondered his next view. He wasn’t the best of players, but he took the game seriously. He took his time to avoid any mistakes he could. I got up and stretched, my steely muscles bulging beneath the tight, blue skin the Edonites had encased me in. I wondered how Earth might have changed after two thousand years. Death would never tell me anything about it, even though he knew. He said he didn’t travel there much anymore which made me wonder if someone had finally mounted the final war, or if mankind had finally fouled the nest so much they’d all been forced to leave. How many of my fellows would have traded places with me? Any one of them, I bet. Eternal life, or as close to it as was possible, had been a dream of mankind and most likely still was still an unattainable hope even now. How ironic that I had that quality they yearned for and yet I couldn’t enjoy it, marooned on this planet. I would live as close to forever as was possible for a finite being. I would suffer eternal life on this hellish planet. That was my punishment. To live forever with only the memories to keep me company. Memories that cycled through my brain automatically to keep the reason for my punishment fresh in my mind. The mechanism in my head unspooled the memories yet again and I was once more in the crystal cell, the Edonites pouring their searing drugs into it as I stood helpless and naked, the liquid eating the skin from my muscles with excruciating pain. I passed out, sinking into the vile liquid. I awakened to find them laboring in my head, placing devices there for purposes I didn’t understand. Some of the implants would prevent me from killing myself. Others would make it impossible for me to sleep. Some would force me to relive that day, over and over again. They had worked below a mirror, slashing off my eyelids so I would be forced to watch as they chopped away body parts here and reformed others there. I observed with horrified fascination as they sliced away my manhood so I would never again repeat my crime, beheld with horror how they extracted bits of my brain to make room for their instrumentation, slapping chunks of gray matter on the table beside me like so much raw meat. Finally they were finished with their handiwork. They sealed new flesh over my enhanced muscles with searing irons that melted the tissue together like plastic fabric over the frame of expensive furniture. Then they herded me with electric prods aboard a jump ship which had dumped me on this planet in the Forbidden Belt. "Your move," Death called. I turned to see what he had moved. An old thought came back, unbidden, into my brain. A memory from long before. Suddenly I remembered a play I’d seen as a young man watching the tournaments on 3D. Could I remember it well enough to duplicate it? "Death, where is thy victory," I said, settling into my chair. I eyed my opponent a moment to see if he would react. "That wasn’t funny the first time you said it four hundred years ago," he finally quipped. "And, if you recall, I did have the victory in that game. Just like I will this time." I vowed to myself that he wouldn’t taste victory this time. I worked carefully through the next moves. Biding my time as the twin planet set, my strength of concentration returning to its fullest as the distant world sank below the horizon. We continued. I lost all track of time as I developed my ruse to lure him into just the right position. Then I hesitated. It looked like it should work. But would it? I licked my hard lips and then moved, sacrificing my queen. "Ha," Death said, smashing his knight into the piece with even greater relish than usual. "I have you now — what a blunder. Your queen’s lost." He tossed the prize onto the ground and it rattled away from us. I examined the board again to be sure my calculations were correct. A smile flickered across my face. Yes. I had him. My hand shook as I lifted my remaining Bishop and sat it into place to pin his King. "Checkmate," I whispered. "What?" he gasped, his eyes fading until the red glow was almost gone. He leaned forward and studied the board. Then the color returned to his eyes. He leaned back on his chair. "So. You’ve finally won." "You’ll keep the bet?" "If you can’t trust Death, who can you trust? I never go back on my word. But are you sure you want to go through with it?" I nodded. Then I smiled. Because now Death had to give me the one and only thing he had to bet. The gift of eternal sleep, of eternal rest. I would finally be free.