Mitchell's Revenge
Arena manager’s office, main sports arena, Tiberion, off EQ2

Snatch sat at his desk staring atthe hard copy printouts in front of him. It was the first run of the eventslisting for the intergalactic ballroom dancing championship. He found it was theeasiest way to manage the information until they’d worked out the completerunning order. Then it would be digitised and made available to all thecompetitors and their support teams.

Registrations were still coming in.They closed in another six weeks. There were currently four and a half thousanddancers registered over the five days of the championship. Snatch wasstruggling with the organisation of such a large event. He’d never doneanything like it before and soon realised he was going to need help. The majorevents were few and far between.

In the months since he took on therole of arena manager he’d arranged a couple of small weddings and afundraising event for Covington Military Hospital. Those had only a few hundredparticipants, not the thousands involved in this one.

Once he realised he could not do italone, he spoke with Natasha, who quickly secured the services of a specialist ballroomdancing championship event manager by the name of Sonny Riccardo. Sonny had arrivedon Tiberion just over a week ago. Long enough for Snatch to figure out that althoughincredibly knowledgeable, he was very difficult to deal with.

Sonny was a prima donna of thefirst order. He was a temperamental, detail oriented perfectionist. His suitswere beautifully tailored, and he always wore a flower on the lapel. His shoeswere polished to such a shine that he could see his own face reflected in theleather if he bothered to look down. His white blond hair curled gently at hiscollar and his ice blue eyes sparkled with intelligence. Snatch thought himtotally pretentious.

Sonny was most comfortable dealingwith ballroom dancing coaches and studio owners, not former pirates who were usedto bending or breaking the rules. After a couple of screaming matches over howto do things, Snatch decided the best way to deal with him was to act in asupport role, and let Sonny have the run of the championship.

Snatch decided it was best to focuson the big picture, to concentrate on the arena and the associated technicalissues for the event. By the end of the week he had left the running order andmanagement of registrations to Sonny. Sonny was in his element, prancing in andout of Snatch’s office at all hours of the day.

This morning he had dumped the hardcopy print outs on Snatch’s desk and flounced out again without a word. At thetime Snatch shook his head in dismay.

“Sonny!” he yelled after him. Sonnypaused in the hallway. “You need to explain this to me. I can’t make head ortail of it.”

He sauntered back in to Snatch’soffice, muttering under his breath. “She asked me to work with a moron. Why didshe ask me to work with a moron?”

“I heard that,” said Snatch. “I amnot a moron. I have simply never worked on anything like this before. A littlepatience would go a long way!”

Sonny spread his hands in front ofhim. “Alright, alright. This is how it works.”

An hour or so later Snatch had agood understanding of what the printouts meant. He could see that they wouldhave to allocate space away from the dance floor for marshalling the dancersprior to their event. Then they’d need clear space for them to walk out on tothe floor. They’d need a practice/warm up floor somewhere near the marshallingarea.

Change rooms would need to be allocated,along with storage, hanging racks, mirrors and bathroom facilities. They’d needsome masseurs, a physio and a doctor available. They’d need food and drink forthe competitors. They’d need separate rooms for the adjudicators, with theirown changing facilities and food and drink.

After the final round of icehockey, the ice rink would be disassembled and stored out of the way. A large dancefloor would be laid and checked for smoothness and size. Arrangements would bemade for sponsors and advertising within the arena.

They’d have to decide how theprogram was to be presented to make it easy for the audience to follow along,and for the competitors to replace their events. The common language wasinternational English, although Sonny suggested some interpreters might beuseful. They’d need to decide how recalls were handled for each round of eachevent.

Lighting, sound and music wouldhave to be planned. Security was the other concern. He knew that all the Orlovfamily, except for Anton, were attending. Snatch understood that Yuri wouldbring his own security personnel. He’d heard from Natasha that the Captain ofthe Zond and his engineer would be competing in the pylon race off the U.S.E.shipyard, so the Orlov family protection would be down to two.

Snatch felt that his head wouldexplode. This was huge. So many thousands of competitors and so many rounds ofevents made it a real challenge. The arena would be full to the brim. Hewondered how Tiberion would accommodate everyone and whether there would beenough docking bays and moorings for the incoming ships.

Natasha assured him that therewould be a rolling attendance, with competitors coming in for their events andthen leaving as soon as they had competed. There was always another championshipto travel on to so they rarely stayed long.

The pylon race competitors wereanother concern. Snatch expected them to make a side trip to the moon oncetheir race was finished. It was exactly the sort of place a competition pilotwould want to visit to let off steam afterwards.

They expected the betting kiosks tobe frantic with business for both the ballroom dancing championship and thepylon race. This was the activity that Natasha was most concerned about. A lotof money was about to change hands. She was concentrating on securing currencyhandling systems and the personnel to manage them.

Snatch ran his hands through hishair and rubbed his scalp. At least Sonny had explained everything to him. Thechampionship would be here before they knew it. Time was running out. He had alot of work to do.