Mitchell's Revenge
Main entry foyer, sports arena, Tiberion

The Orlovs and the Ostrakovs wereescorted through security and into the sports arena well before the main cohortof dancers arrived. Natasha met them inside and led them to the seats she hadreserved for them. Daria kept her hand firmly on Anja’s shoulder as they movedto their seats. Anja dared not look around her until she was seated.

Their seats were in the firstraised tier, opposite the stage. They were seated at the end of the third rowdown from the aisle that separated them from the second tier seats. The floorwas four rows further down. Sergey and Elena settled into seats directly behindthe family. Natasha had chosen these because Snatch had a direct view of themfrom one of the cameras in the control room.

Sonny and Snatch had done awonderful job of transforming the ice hockey stadium into a ballroom dancingvenue. The Championship compere would narrate the day’s events from the stage. Musicand the adjudicator’s tables were set up nearby. Floor length black curtainingseparated the facilities at the rear of the stage from the performance area. Behindthe curtains was a warm up floor, the competitor marshalling area, changingrooms, massage therapists, food kiosks and other facilities for the dancers.

The stage was decorated withartificial flower arrangements laced with multi coloured fairy lights. Stairs descendedfrom the middle of the stage to the floor. The finalists for each event wouldassemble behind the curtains before being introduced by the compere and walkingdown the stairs. A vid screen above the stage was set to display the currentevent number and run live vid footage of the event on the floor. Vid linksbackstage and in the change rooms kept the competitors up to date with what washappening and helped to make sure they did not miss their event.

Like all the other competitors,Anja and Aleks were required to use the change rooms. Daria accompanied Anja tothe women’s section, and Ivan went with his son to the men’s. Other competitorsand their support teams were moving into the auditorium, replaceing their seatsand making space for themselves. Over two thousand couples were expected forthe day’s events. If they made it through the rounds it would be a very longday.

Both juniors were nervous. Alekshad barely spoken to Anja since breakfast at the hotel. It did not help hernerves at all. Daria pushed open the door to the change room and their nostrilswere assailed by a ghastly smell.

“What’s that?” Anja asked Daria. Shescrewed up her nose in disgust. She hesitated in the doorway. Daria grabbed hercharge by the wrist and pulled her into the room. The door slapped shut behindthem.

“Vomit,” replied Daria. “Don’tworry about it. Some of the girls get physically sick before they compete. Thetoilet’s just over there.” She motioned towards it with her head.

Anja heard retching sounds frombehind the door. She thought she would be sick too. The smell was awful. Daria flickedsome switches on the wall and an exhaust fan started to whir. Air freshener filtereddown from the ceiling taking the worst of the smell away.

Anja’s eyes watered, but she darenot touch them. She couldn’t risk smudging the makeup that Daria had socarefully applied. She felt beyond miserable. Her long blond hair was piled upon top of her head in a top knot so tight that it gave her a headache. Silversequins were glued into a pattern from her hair onto her forehead. A sequinnedcomb was wedged into one side of the topknot. She dreaded getting into her lycra suit as shehad grown another two centimetres since the final measurements and it was onceagain too short for her body. She didn’t recognise the young woman staring backat her from the mirror.

She didn’t know how she was goingto manage today. In the eighteen months since her abduction she managed to staystrong by believing that Jake would rescue her somehow. Elena Zeitsev had beena great support to her even though they had never been able to have aconversation about it. To be this close to her home world and unable to send amessage to her family was almost more than she could bear. She was terrifiedthat if she didn’t perform today Daria would hurt her.

Daria unpacked the bodysuit andhanded it to Anja. She pulled it on and Daria zipped the back of it closed. Anjafitted the ballroom shoes onto her feet. The Latin rounds would be later in theday. She pressed the tab at the wrist of the suit to activate the hologram. Shestudied herself in the mirror as the firefly pattern came to life on the dress.It really was very pretty. The sky blue complimented her blond hair, blue eyesand pale skin. She switched it off and pulled a long black robe over the top ofthe suit. At least this way no one would see how tight it was.

“We must go now,” said Daria. “Yourfirst round is in fifteen minutes. Come on.”

She took Anja’s hand and pulled hertowards the door. Anja stumbled forward, then straightened up, determined toleave the room with a dancer’s dignity. As they left they passed two tall womenwalking the other way. The redhead was wearing a silver grey pants suit and thedark haired one wore a long silver robe over her bodysuit with silver sequinson the breast pocket. Anja stared at the pattern as they walked past.

She blinked and glanced up at thestriking woman wearing it. The woman winked at her and continued on her way. Anjathought that the sequinned pattern was familiar. Even the dark haired woman wasfamiliar. But she couldn’t place either of them. They reached the auditoriumwhere Aleks and Ivan were waiting. They took off their covering robes andactivated the holograms. Aleks looked so smart in his tail suit. Anja hoped shewould do justice to their months of practice.

“Time to go,” said Ivan. “You looklovely Anja. Aleks knows where to go. He will take you to the marshalling. Dous proud.”

He smiled at the juniors. He shookhands with Aleks, and bent to kiss Anja on the cheek. He offered Daria his armand escorted her back to their seats as the juniors walked towards their firstround.