Blakes 71978

Commentator:
[voiceover, dignified and measured] Space. "The Final Frontier" as it was once called. A weightless, freezing vacuum, here created artificially and maintained by the central computer as one of the hundreds of different environments offered by the combat grounds for the coming battle.

[the viewscreen shows shifting scenes of different environments:
oceans, rocky shores, tropical beaches, etc.]

Commentator:
In giant chambers, exact recreations like these you see are controlled by the combat computer. Environments from other planets, other cultures, other times. The computer will choose which of these environmental chambers will be used for the battle. This choice is what the combat grounds are all about. In the words of the Convention, "Let no man say, 'This man chose the ground on which we die.'"

[Darvid stands in front of a combat grounds chamber entrance]

Commentator:
The combatants will each enter the chamber through a door like this. Only the computer will know what awaits them on the other side. Their only clue will lie in this locker, which contains protective clothing and specialized weapons, should the environment behind that door require them.

[Darvid holds his hand against ear for a couple of seconds.]

Commentator:
And I've just been told that the combatants are in fact now arriving at the spaceport, and we are going across to join the thousands of cheering spectators who are waiting to catch a glimpse of the two men on whose skill the outcome of this war depends.