Planet of the Titans

Chapter 4

Daybreak warmed the land, and Rikki woke up to check on her captive. Nolan had slept in a jar with airholes cut into the lid and a rag as a blanket, bed, and pillow. Rikki picked up the jar while Nolan was still sleeping and rapped on the jar with her other fist.

"Wake up, sleepyhead! It's time to prepare you for the games!"

Rikki sat down Indian style on the carpet of her bedroom and unscrewed the lid of the jar and dumped Nolan out onto the carpet. He came tumbling down harmlessly, then stood up to face his captress.

"Are you thinking of taking me to Arcadia?" Nolan asked.

"Yes!" said Rikki. "If you win a few games, I could acquire some more captives!"

"Wouldn't I make a better sex toy?" Nolan asked.

"You're too small to make an effective sex toy," said Rikki.

"But I don't have any athletic skills! The only sport I was ever any good at was basketball, but I'm five-eleven, so I wouldn't stand a chance against some of those bigger guys!"

"Maybe we can find a sport you're good at," said Rikki.

"I'm telling you you're wasting your time!" said Nolan. "I'm not good at anything!"

"Well, I can give you two choices," said Rikki. "You can either volunteer to practice for the games, or you can be the victim of another drinking game and end up at the bottom of my belly, but this time, you'll be stuck there permanently!"

Nolan stepped back and swallowed out of fear as he looked up at his mistress. She was far too powerful for him to escape from by himself, so he had no choice.

"Okay, I'll practice for the games!" said Nolan.

"Good!" said Rikki, clapping her hands together. "I'll call my friend Britney and have her bring her captives and equipment over, and they'll train you to play a sport!"

Rikki got up and got her cell phone and called her friend.

"Britney? This is Rikki! I have a captive now! Can you bring your captives over so they can train my captive for Arcadia?"

Meanwhile, back at the camp by the stream, the five fugitives from Earth began to wake up. Tyler and his wife Carmen woke up to see that Leo was already awake, and sitting on a log.

"I could really go for a cup of coffee right now!" said Carmen.

Mason woke up next, followed by Natalie.

"Are we going to rescue my brother?" Natalie asked Leo.

"Yes, we're going to try." replied Leo. "But I'm only taking one man with me, and the other man needs to stay with the women and find food. Both missions are dangerous, so I'm asking for volunteers!"

"I'll go with you to rescue Nolan," said Tyler. "It shouldn't fall on Mason to help you do all the difficult work."

"All right Tyler," said Leo, "Freshen up and drink some water before we leave, because we'll take off in ten minutes!"

Back at Rikki's house, her friend Britney arrived with the equipment and her two captives. Rikki helped Britney set up a portable handball court on her dining room table. After it was unfolded, it had a hard surface that made up the floor, and a hard surface that functioned as a wall.

"These are my two captives Jace and Trevor!" said Britney to Nolan. "I purchased Jace, and he happened to be a great handball player back on Earth, so I took him to Arcadia and he won a match and I won Trevor, his opponent!"

Nolan shook hands with Jace and Trevor.

"Nolan, have you ever played handball before?" Rikki asked.

"Yes, in jail, but I was never any good at it!" Nolan responded.

Jace and Trevor set out to show Nolan how to play the game effectively. They showed him how to serve the ball, and they showed him their techniques, but Nolan just couldn't catch on. As the morning wore on, it dawned on everyone that Nolan just didn't have any skills, and would probably get beaten at any sport on Arcadia he tried to play.

Within two hours of leaving the camp, Leo and Tyler were halfway to Rikki's house. Although it was a short distance from the park where Nolan was captured to Rikki's house according to how giants measured distance, to the fugitives from Earth it was a distance of about thirty miles. Leo was in top shape for a man his age, and Tyler was a professional tennis player, so both men were able to jog most of the distance without feeling tired. The two men were in such great shape that they could even carry on a conversation while they jogged along.

"We're going through a lot of effort for one man!" said Tyler. "Even if we rescue him, what do you think our chances are of getting the Thunderbolt refueled and returning to Earth?

"It doesn't look good right now," Leo replied, "but the Future Shock company entrusted me with the lives of these passengers, and I'm going to do all in my power to get them back to Earth, no matter the odds!"

"Let's say we manage to get the Thunderbolt refueled," said Tyler as he jogged along beside Leo in a gutter beneath a curb. "If one of us manages to figure out how to use Darian's equipment to re-open that wormhole or space warp that brought us here, one of us will have to stay behind to work the control console!"

"If it comes down to that, I'm prepared to stay behind, if it will mean the rest of you get to return home!" said Leo.

Meanwhile, back at Rikki's house, it was time for lunch. Rikki set out a small table that was on Nolan's scale, with three chairs, one for Nolan, one for Jace, and one for Trevor. Food and water was set on the table for the captives.

"Jace and Trevor," said Rikki, "try to talk some sense into Nolan for me!"

Rikki and Britney went to eat on the patio of the backyard. While Nolan, Jace and Trevor silently ate their lunch, Nolan noticed that Jace and Trevor were very athletic-looking, but also looked like they had done some time in jail.

"So how did you two get so good at handball?" Nolan asked.

"On the version of Earth that I came from," said Jace, "I was locked up in the county jail a lot, and that's how I got good at handball. They used to let us out into the yard a lot to play, and I became the best on my cell-block!"

"I played some handball in juvie when I was a teenager," said Trevor. "But I wasn't as good as Jace. I was defeated by him, but luckily, Britney didn't swallow me, she kept me and had Jace train me to get better at handball."

"Don't fool yourself," said Jace. "There's no escape from Thanatar, in the history of this world no tiny has ever escaped from this world! You will play handball on Arcadia, win or lose!"

"And whether or not you end up in the belly of some giantess depends on how good you get!" said Trevor.

"But I suck at handball!" said Nolan. "I did time in county jail, too! But I never got good at handball!"

"On Thanatar, it's do or die!" said Jace. "Pretenders don't live very long! You can either train with us, or you can live a very short life!"

Before long, training resumed. After playing hard for about 45 minutes (and not winning or improving), Nolan was thirsty.

"Rikki, can I have some water?"

Britney was shocked that Nolan had addressed her by name. "Nolan, that just isn't done!" said Britney. "You should always address your owner as mistress!"

Jace and Trevor approached Nolan. "How long ago did you get captured?" Jace asked.

"The day before yesterday!" said Nolan.

"Forgive him, mistress!" said Jace to Britney. "He hasn't been here long enough to know any better!"

"Can I have some water?" Nolan asked.

"You can have water when your game improves!" said Rikki.

Meanwhile, Leo and Tyler had found the street corner where the signpost that signified the street where Rikki's house was located.

"That's the street her house is on!" said Leo, pointing at the sign.

"How far is the house?" Tyler asked.

"About two miles on our scale," said Leo.

The two men jogged along the curb, passing underneath the occasional shuttle cruiser that was parked on the street. At each driveway, they peeked around before running to the other side where the curb continued; the curb concealed them, but every time the curb dipped down to form a driveway, they were out in the open.

Within twenty minutes, they reached Rikki's house. They walked under her back fence and entered her backyard. There was a patio area with a table and chairs for giants to sit and eat or drink. The sliding glass door was closed, but it opened and Rikki and her friend Britney exited.

"Nolan isn't with them!" whispered Leo. "He must still be inside!"

"Which one lives here?" Tyler whispered.

"That one," whispered Leo as he pointed at Rikki.

"I'm going after Nolan!" said Tyler, and he ran toward the open sliding door.

"Tyler, come back!" said Leo. "We need a plan!"

Tyler was able to enter the house undetected by the giantesses. He ran to a pot that held a potted plant, and hid behind it. Jace saw him enter the house, and got Trevor and Nolan's attention.

"Do you know that guy?" Jace asked Nolan.

"That's Tyler Chen!" said Nolan. "He was a passenger on the space plane that I was on when we got pulled through a space warp to this world!"

"I don't know about the world you came from," said Jace, "but on my version of Earth, Tyler Chen was a pro tennis player!"

Jace started yelling for Britney and Rikki. "Mistress! There's an intruder here! He plays tennis! You can't lose with him as your captive!"

Rikki and Britney got up from their seats on the patio and entered the house to see what the fuss was about. Rikki hit the button on the keypad that shut the sliding glass door, and crossed her arms and looked at the captives.

"What is going on?" Rikki asked.

"There's a pro tennis player hiding behind that potted plant!" shouted Trevor. "If you catch him, you can't lose!"

Rikki looked for the captive, and Tyler ran out and darted across the room. Rikki ran after him and slammed her left foot down in front of him, blocking his path. He ran in another direction, but she slammed her other foot down and blocked his path again. She reached down and cupped her hand over him and picked him up, and set him down on the table with Nolan, Jace, and Trevor.

"I can't believe you dropped a dime on him!" said Nolan, and he took a swing at Trevor.

"Is it true you play tennis professionally?" Rikki asked.

Leo could see Tyler getting captured, so he made his way under the backyard fence and out to the front yard, and back to the gutter to make his way back to the camp thirty miles away. It wasn't quite sunset when he started out. He made his way back the way he had came, traveling in gutters and being careful to cross the streets only when he was sure there were no giants around. He tried to jog like he did on the way to Rikki's house, and he made it back to the camp at about three in the morning. When he got back, he was exhausted from climbing the radio tower, and making the trek to and from Rikki's house three separate times. Mason was keeping watch, and woke up the others. Natalie and Carmen joined Leo and Mason.

"Tyler was captured by the same giantess that captured Nolan!" said Leo. "There was nothing I could do!"

"My husband!" said Carmen in shock. "Are you going to try to rescue them?"

"I don't know," said Leo. "We would need tools of some type to break through her sliding glass door! I don't know where we can find tools like that on our scale!"

"What does the giantess plan on doing with Tyler?" Carmen asked.

"It looks like both he and Nolan are being prepared to play on Arcadia!" said Leo.

"I have faith in Tyler," said Carmen. "He's an expert tennis player, so if they have a similar game here on Thanatar, Tyler should be okay!"