Alien Bounty by William C. Dietz

failed the test and set about using Eena's predicament to his advantage.
    Usually it was a simple matter of sliding her warriors off one intersection and onto another less important position. And sometimes he moved his own stones, subtly improving their positions and worsening Eena's.
    The vid cams swooped and hovered throughout all this, picking up his activities and transmitting them to thousands of Il Ronnians all over the planet. What did they think of his cheating? There was no way to tell.
    Eena came close to catching him more than once, returning from the pile of stones to find the board slightly altered, frowning as she tried to remember where all the pieces had been. Had he been a peer, or had she been less exhausted, maybe she would've said something. But she didn't and the game went on.
    Time after time she returned to the ever dwindling supply of green stones, and time after time she hauled one back, until it was obvious that she was on the edge of physical collapse. But the little Il Ronnian had guts and refused to give up.
    By this time McCade had begun to feel sorry for her. He kept looking up at the hovering vid cams, waiting for Teeb to declare that the game was over, that Eena could stop. But nothing came.
    Damn it! Why continue this farce? Eena had won all but a final victory and could hardly keep on her feet.
    McCade set about reversing the effects of his cheating. Making almost no effort to conceal his movements, he rearranged Eena's warriors so they surrounded twice the intersections they had before and captured half his remaining warriors in the bargain. Maybe he'd lost the match, maybe he'd failed the test, but he couldn't bear to watch Eena carry more rocks.
    Eena finally staggered up with her last stone, dropped it onto an intersection with a heavy thud, and surveyed the grid. Then she realized that her warriors dominated the entire grid and her features lit up with delight. She gave a whoop of joy and her tail stood at attention as she jumped up and down. "I won! I won!"
    The vid cameras spun and dipped as they picked up final shots, and McCade wiped the sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand. He looked down at Eena and grinned. "You sure did, Shorty. You won fair and square."

Ten
    It seemed like a long time before Teeb came. McCade spent it smoking cigar after cigar until his room was thick with dark blue smoke. Finally coughing and hacking, Neem left McCade alone with his own dark thoughts.
    Had he passed their stupid test or not? The least the pointy-eared bastards could do was tell him. The whole thing was silly. Yes, he understood how much the sacred vial meant to the Il Ronnian people; yes, he understood that according to tradition only a full Ilwik could undertake a holy quest; yes, he knew what was at stake.
    But it wasn't fair. The tests had no clear rules, the odds were stacked against him, and the penalty for failure was way too high.
    If he failed, would the Il Ronnian ships really blast out of hyperspace and lay waste to the rim worlds? Was a vial full of liquid really worth an interstellar war? Unfortunately the answer came back "yes," and the knowledge plunged him even deeper into despair.
    In typical Il Ronnian fashion Teeb didn't knock when he entered McCade's room. Instead he barged right in waving some sort of printout over his head.
    "You know what this is, human?"
    McCade did his best to look bored. "I haven't got the slightest idea."
    "It is an audience consensus . . . that is what it is!"
    "A consensus?"
    "Yes, our society operates on consensus, as you know, and the only way to test consensus is to sample the population on a regular basis. And according to the people you passed the second test by an even larger margin than the first one!"
    McCade was suddenly on his feet. "What? You mean the audience decides whether I pass or fail?"
    Teeb looked momentarily mystified. "Yes, of course. Who else would decide?"
    McCade's jaw dropped. "I don't know. I assumed there