Stuff to See!
...This little tale takes place shortly after the conclusion of the great tournament on Kal-Gorga Prime. RZ has just shocked the world with his 4th place finish, losing only to the eventual champion Migalen. Forge, RZ's mentor and now his friend, has just refused Migalen's invitation for both of them to travel and study with him, and now he's about to learn of his master's mind concerning RZ's future...The Nature of the Business
"So the boy did well," the Boss said.
"Better than even I could have hoped," Forge replied. "No one could have predicted that a mere B-class fighter like RZ would make it so far in the tournament."
"He almost beat Migalen," the Boss said. "If fortune had been a little kinder, he might have been champion. As it is, that nobody below decks will be known across the galaxy."
Forge stared out the window, into the dark infinity of interstellar space, wondering what he had left to teach RZ about the art of combat. Even before the great tournament, before RZ made most of the galaxy's great fighters look like fools in the ring, Forge knew that he was no longer instructing an inferior fighter, but learning alongside an equal. 'People would come to us from all over the galaxy to learn our craft.'
"This is a problem," the Boss said. Forge turned around, feeling like the rug had just been pulled out from under him.
"What do you mean 'a problem'? I thought you'd be pleased."
"You don't understand, old friend. His success could ruin us."
"His success has done anything but!! I fail to see how this could be anything but a good thing."
"When we got together, we decided that we'd take on these fighters. That you would train them to fight in the arena, and that I would provide lodging and transportation for us all. Any prize money above and beyond our operating costs would go toward building a more permanent camp for us."
"And that's exactly what we've done."
The Boss turned away from Forge. "No," he said slowly. "That's not what I've done at all. You should know that the prize money we've gained isn't nearly enough to even keep us adrift in space."
"It isn't?"
"Not even close. If it wasn't for the wealth I'd had before, I really don't know where we'd be. I couldn't maintain my guard, my ship, and all of my fighters with the money we earned, even when you were still fighting in the Open circuit."
"Then how have we survived all this time? Why was I able to retire and devote myself fully to training if the money was so short?"
"There are other ways to wealth in this business, old friend."
"You gambled on our fights?!"
"You didn't know? That helped us a lot, but when we found RZ...the money just couldn't come in any faster at first. He kept on winning and winning and winning, but since he was in the lower classes, conventional wisdom held that eventually someone would beat him.
"Only they didn't. No one came close, and we let the other fighters go, content to ride the hot hand all the way to the big time. Which we have...only he did too damn well. Even in the Open circuit, who would bet against him after this? Can't you see, Forge?"
Forge couldn't believe his ears. He just could not accept that RZ's success was anything other than the best thing that had happened to him since...ever, really. He knew that the Boss would never really let him go and found his own training camp, and he thought that was just the price he had to pay for the Boss's protection. But at least he could still teach, and still take pride in his students' deeds.
"We need to enroll RZ in the next Open tournament," the Boss said, after much thought. "Only this time...when he reaches the finals, and we both know he will, he must lose. No one will expect that, since most of the elite fighters shun the public fights. RZ will obviously be the one to beat. If I bet on his opponent in the finals...we could make a mint!!"
The Boss looked dead at Forge. "Brilliant! Forge, my boy, we'll make it out of this fix yet. Talk to RZ, make him understand that he needs to do this for me, that he owes it to me for all the training he's received from you. If you want, you can even try to bring him in on the secret. That might even be better. Get to it." The Boss turned and walked out.