The Tumbler

Deep in the outer rim of Starbrood known as, Galaea's Ring—a place where space pirates, refugees, and ex-patriots reign supreme—is a sizeable arena built inside of a hollow asteroid among the multitude of celestial bodies that populate the ring.

Run by a ruthless scallywag who holds a gameshow involving a large, semi-transparent tetrahedron divided into four equal rooms, the top one being inhabited by a robot specifically designed for the challenge in which three imprisoned contestants must fight for their lives to keep the robot from tipping the structure over onto another side.

The robot has mild gravitic technology which allows it slowly push the structure to one of the three sides. The contestants must quickly learn how to work together, moving weights around their small room to counteract the robot. If they fail, they are fed to the Gargantula, a mysterious, giant spider-like creature that they have enslaved to run a special treadmill to power the arena for the gameshow titled, The Tumbler.

"Lllllllllet's get ready to tumblllllle!" Was suddenly heard over an analogue PA system.

Immediately, Helg, Vagen, and Golus were pressured at spear point by three large ogyrs to enter their individual rooms.

Helg Gasperius, a female molluscan of the octopus variety gasped a bit before reluctantly moving forward.

Golus Val'Kor, the former Orkk Kommander General of the Kelvaran Army groaned as he complied, largely due to his old bones.

Lastly, Vagen Rootrutter, a small, male tarpan of the mole variety—a lowly fisherman—jumped as the spear touched his back. He was the most nervous, knowing that, out of the three of them, he was the weakest.

All of them knew about the challenge. It's broadcast in all of the cells 24-7. None of them truly belong here, but Switchback, the gameshow host, spends long hours contriving the perfect trios that will make the mostly rigged game seem possible to win, though no one ever has.

They may know about the challenge, but watching others do it is very different than actually doing it, and they were about to find out why.

Once situated, the robot didn't hesitate to push the tetrahedron toward the side opposite of Vagen. Vagen tumbled toward that wall as Helg was quick to use her arms and tentacles to hold herself in place. Golus struggled, but managed to keep himself from falling as the structure lifted a few inches.

They remained quiet as they assessed the situation, but were all soon trying to move one of the randomly-shaped weights, each about the size of a medium dog. They could feel the structure continuing to slowly tip as Helg tried to pick up a weight, only for it to thrust itself upward at a diagonal angle, forcing her to stop it from moving in that direction as though its gravity had suddenly shifted.

Unbeknownst to them, the metal weights are filled with incoherium, a volatile gas that wants nothing to do with itself, and it can have anti-gravitic qualities as a result.

Helg always wondered why it seemed like everyone had trouble moving the weights. Even as smart as she is being a xeno-paleontologist, she couldn't understand why the weight was doing that. She figured that it had to do with gravitic technology of some kind.

She managed to pull the weight back to her using a tentacle as a third hand. She momentarily watched Golus struggle to move a weight where he wanted it to go. He let go of it, and it moved toward a corner of his room. Then it struck her.

She went to put the weight down, and as she turned it, it tried to move a different way, wanting to go toward the center of the structure. She let it do so, and with so many appendages in place, she could feel the slight shift back toward putting the structure back down.

She glanced at Vagen who was just getting up and knew that it was going to be up to her and the Orkk.

She grabbed another weight and kept shifting it around until it wanted to go to the center and then held it as she knocked on the wall connecting her room to Golus's. Golus looked at her with confusion, but watched with interest as she let go of the weight and it floated to the center. When he looked back at her, she frantically pointed at the center and then the rest of the weights. She then picked up another weight and shifted it around until, again, it wanted to go to the center and let go.

She then gave him a frantic look and moved her arms to tell him to hurry up. Golus smirked and didn't hesitate to do the same thing. He understood enough about mass and gravity that, putting the weights in the center should keep the structure level.

After finally getting to his feet, Vagen looked at the others and saw what they were doing. It seemed odd to him at first until he tried to pick up a weight and it thrust itself in a random direction. He struggled to control it, but managed to shift it until it, too, wanted to float toward the center. He didn't understand why they were doing this, but if the other two were doing it, he felt obligated to do the same.

Before long, it was apparent that the robot was no longer having an effect.

Switchback fumed, and even the three of them heard him yell from his press box. He ordered them to be fed to the Gargantula anyways, though, once he saw the ratings feed, he stopped them. He suddenly realized they had done just what the gameshow needed as its ratings had been slowly waning more and more.

For the first time, three prisoners won their freedom.

Thank you so much for reading. Please like, comment, and share. I hope you have a wonderful day….[[|:-)