Chapter 4
Tested by the Tragadomians
Landen was led through a series of twisting passageways and up a ramp into a large open area. He was surprised to find that he was in a stadium which was covered by a transparent dome. Thousands of Tragadomians let out a roar upon seeing Landen emerge from the tunnel. Evidently, they had something planned in which he would provide them with excellent entertainment. Landen felt sick to his stomach. Located in the middle of the stadium was a large rectangular wall. Numerous sharp steel spikes protruded from the wall, and a long cord of rope was looped through a hole in the wall's center. The rope stretched far across the surface of the stadium on the spiked side of the wall. On the smooth side, the rope was attached to a sturdy-looking machine.As Landen stood observing the apparatus, Salurm addressed his people from a platform. The crowd periodically made honking noises which Landen guessed was laughter, although he was uncertain because the noises seemed unpleasant.When Salurm finished speaking, he descended from the platform and walked across the stadium to Landen."The purpose of this test is to measure your physical strength," Salurm told Landen. "An unbreakable belt, which is attached to the end of the rope, will be strapped around your waist and locked. The key which opens the belt will be placed a short distance behind you. Then the machine on the other side of the wall will be activated. This machine will pull the rope through the hole in the wall until you are impaled on the steel spikes. Your only hope of survival is to exert a greater pull on the rope than the machine is able to produce. If you are able to back up to the point that you can reach the key, you may unfasten the belt and let the machine wind the rope back into it. The consequences are obvious should your strength prove to be less than that of the machine." Salurm walked away.The guards attached the belt to Landen, who stood sixty yards in front of the spiked horror. The key of survival lay fifteen yards behind him.Landen became aware of the growing excitement of the crowd. He thought with grim humor that his present feelings must be similar to those of the early Christians as they ran from the lions in the Colosseum. Landen considered these Tragadomians to be as bloodthirsty as those ancient Romans. He wished that the Tragadomians had matched him against lions instead of a machine; with his strength, he could overpower a lion. Unfortunately, the Tragadomians had not allowed him to choose his opponent.Landen closed his eyes and started to breathe deeply. He sought to achieve inner peace through a unity of body and mind. Once ready, he opened his eyes to see that Salurm had returned to the platform.Salurm looked down at Landen and then raised both arms above his head. Landen braced himself for the beginning of the contest. Salurm dropped his arms to his sides in order to signal the guards to activate the machine.The previously slack rope instantly became taut, and Landen grabbed the rope with both hands. A tremendous force began to yank him forward. Landen dug his feet into the pebble-covered ground in an effort to halt his forward movement. He turned sideways and drove backward with all his might, but the awesome power of the machine prevented him from making much progress.The strain caused muscle spasms in his arms and legs. He maintained a position ten yards from the key for almost two minutes. The Tragadomians went wild with excitement. Landen's entire body throbbed with pain as he continued to pull with all of his strength in this deadly game of tug-of-war. He was using his Noelmian power to its fullest. Pulling three yards closer to the precious key, he groaned in agony. Seven yards still to go. Landen knew that he only had enough strength remaining for one final drive to the key. He edged three yards, and the machine seemed to tug at him harder than ever. Landen moved to within two yards of his means of escape.The next yard took over a minute to gain and was the hardest of all. Landen had never known that his body could endure such pain. The key lay one yard from him, and Landen reached out for it. When the tips of his fingers touched the key, he tried to pick it up, but dropped it.Landen then felt the horrible sensation of being pulled away from the key, so he snatched at it. However, as he scooped up the key, he lost his balance and was rapidly dragged across the ground toward the spiked wall. He instantly stuck the key into the lock and turned the key. The belt fell off, and Landen rolled across the ground to safety. A second later, the heavy belt smashed into the wall.Landen lay on his back in utter exhaustion. Two guards lifted him onto a stretcher and carried him toward an exit. The Tragadomians took Landen to a room that had been prepared for him. The guards placed him on a large bed. Within seconds, Landen was sound asleep.The next afternoon, Landen stood on the veranda of a building which resembled a golf course clubhouse on earth. He was surrounded by several Tragadomian leaders, including Salurm."The purpose of this second test is to determine how shrewd you are when competing against Tragadomians in a life-or-death situation," Salurm said. "You have already proven that you possess awesome physical strength, but strength alone means little if you are not clever enough to know how to use it in battle. In this test, you will be released into the woods which you see before you. These woods are filled with animals that we hunt for sport. However, today, you shall be the one hunted."Fifteen minutes after you have entered the woods, one hundred Tragadomian warriors will set out in pursuit of you. You must avoid them for one hour because, if they capture you before time expires, you will be executed. You will hear a siren when the warriors enter the woods and another siren one hour later when it is safe for you to reveal yourself. If you are now ready, you may go down to the edge of the woods and enter them whenever you wish."Landen glared at Salurm for several seconds before walking toward the woods. This entire test is unfair, he thought. A hundred armed soldiers against one unarmed man is an execution, not a competition. Landen then decided that he might be able to make a contest out of it by providing himself with two weapons: trickery and cunning.He sprinted into the woods and was soon out of the Tragadomians' range of vision. As he ran across the wet ground, he noticed that he left deep footprints behind him. After six minutes of hard running, Landen saw a stream that bisected the woods. He stopped and stared at the stream for several seconds. A plan was beginning to form in his mind. Resuming his run, Landen went across a bridge that spanned the stream. Two hundred yards past the bridge, he came to a stop several yards in front of one of the tallest trees in the woods. Landen took off his yellow shirt and knotted it around several sticks. Once again calling upon his Noelmian strength, he hurled the bundle to the top of the tree, where it became stuck among the branches. Only six minutes remained before the Tragadomian warriors would begin to hunt him; he had to move rapidly.Landen concentrated still harder until he had increased his strength to its fullest. He then turned around and leaped through the air onto the branch of a tree. Hanging from the branch with both arms, Landen swung back and forth at a rapid speed in order to build up momentum. On a forward swing, Landen released his grip on the branch and sailed twenty yards to the next tree. He repeated this procedure a dozen times before finally flinging himself from a tree into the stream that he had passed over a few minutes earlier. The shallow stream only came up to his neck. Its gentle current caused him no difficulty as he edged to the side of the stream. Landen plucked a large reed from the bank to use as a snorkel. At that moment, the piercing wail of a siren resounded through the woods. The hunt was on.Moving back into the center of the stream, he ducked under the bridge. Landen was pleased with himself because he had prepared his decoy perfectly. His trail of footprints would lead the Tragadomians past his hiding place to the tall tree in which he had thrown his shirt. The footprints stopped at the tree, so the Tragadomians would undoubtedly think that he was still inside the yellow shirt, which was barely visible from the ground.Soon the line of one hundred warriors appeared. They carefully searched each tree and bush while steadily coming nearer to Landen's hiding place. When they came close to the stream, Landen completely submerged himself in the water. Only the tip of the reed through which he was breathing was visible above water. Upon hearing the muffled sound of footsteps on the bridge, Landen pulled this tip of the reed below the water's surface also.It took about two minutes for the hundred warriors to pass over the bridge, although to Landen it seemed more like two hours. Several seconds after the last Tragadomian stepped off the bridge, Landen's reed again appeared above the water. Eight minutes later, Landen felt safe enough to raise his head in order to locate the warriors. To his relief, they were running in the direction of the tree that contained his shirt. One of them must have spotted the speck of yellow at the top of the tree and called the others.Landen immediately waded out of the stream and began to jog in the direction of the clubhouse. All that remained was to wait the hour out. His decoy would keep the Tragadomians busy for a while. Landen climbed to the top of a tree that was only a short distance from the clubhouse. In fact, he could see Salurm and the other Tragadomian leaders, who were still standing on the veranda of the club. At any moment, they expected to receive word of Landen's death.The Tragadomian warriors, however, were having a difficult time finding their prey. They had wasted several minutes cutting down the tree with a laser rifle and were infuriated upon seeing that the tree contained only a shirt. The Tragadomians then split into two groups of fifty warriors. One group went deeper into the woods, while the other group went back to search the stream in which Landen had been hiding. This group had just convinced themselves that he was no longer in the stream when the siren sounded, ending the hunt. Landen had successfully evaded his pursuers for an hour.Salurm was astonished to see Landen emerge from the woods only a half minute after the siren went off. Very impressive, Salurm thought. A pity that the human would die tomorrow, regardless of how well he did on the third test.
