by Scott Sigler
Froese put his little hands together and cracked his little knuckles. “Creterakian law stipulates that Campbell’s mods must be removed. We’re taking him to the hospital onboard the Regulator.”
“The Regulator?”
Froese inclined his tiny head to the landing bay doors. “My ship. The Regulator.”
“I want to know Dan will be safe,” Quentin said. “I want your guarantee.”
“Barnes!” Hokor shouted. “This is not the place for you—”
Without looking away from Quentin, Froese raised a hand, cutting the coach off in mid-sentence. Froese kept staring, again waiting until the whole landing bay felt full of awkward air.
“Barnes, you don’t get to ask me for a guarantee of anything. You are an employee of the Galactic Football League, a rather privileged position. As for your teammate — excuse me, your former teammate — he broke not only GFL regulations but also Creterakian law. He has mods. Those mods have to be removed.”
“These synthetic nerve things... can you take them out safely?”
Froese shrugged. “There’s always a first time for that. I didn’t put the mods in him, Barnes. He made his choice. He knew what would happen if he was caught. Well, he got caught.”
“Okay, sure, but—”
“Enough,” Froese said. “I have a schedule to keep. But don’t worry, Barnes, I’ve been reading up on your history. I’ve had sentients keeping an eye on you. I think that soon, you and I are going to have a nice face-to-face chat.”
The Commissioner smiled for the first time. He had red teeth. Quentin didn’t know what to make of that, not one bit. The small man turned and walked into the white tank. Leiba gave the room one more scan, then walked inside. The door lifted and closed shut with a hiss and a clank.
“Q,” John said. “What was he talking about? Have you done anything that puts you at risk? Do you have mods?”
“No,” Quentin said. “You know better than that.”
“Then what was he talking about?”
Quentin shrugged, but he wondered the same thing. Quentin was as clean as clean gets. Unless... could Froese know about what Quentin had done to clear Don Pine’s gambling debts? Or even worse, did Froese know the To Pirates had tried to get Quentin to throw games? Maybe Quentin needed to come clean on that. But he hadn’t thrown games. He hadn’t done anything wrong. Reporting that now would create suspicion where there was nothing to be suspicious about. The team didn’t need distractions like that, not now.
[PLEASE CLEAR THE LANDING BAY IMMEDIATELY. PLEASE CLEAR THE LANDING BAY IMMEDIATELY]
Quentin felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned to face a smiling Yassoud Murphy.
“I believe that we had a bet about Campbell making it out of training camp?”
“What? Are you kidding me? Dan Campbell is probably going to die, and you want money?”
Yassoud held his hand out, palm up. “A bet is a bet, hayseed. The idiot got mods, that’s his problem. No wonder he was so agile.”
Quentin filed out of the landing bay with the rest of the team. “Fine,” he said. “I’ll pay you tonight.”
“Good deal. Because if you wait until tomorrow, I’ll have to start charging you interest.”
Yassoud seemed far too happy with the situation, but Quentin couldn’t really blame him — his top rival for the starting running back position was out of the picture. That, and he’d won a bet. For Yassoud, that was about as good as it got.
As for Dan Campbell, his GFL career was over, and he’d soon undergo forced surgery that might prove fatal.
The Krakens faced off against the Ice Storm in just two days. There wasn’t enough time to find a free-agent replacement for Campbell, and any free agents left unsigned most likely weren’t even at Yassoud’s level. If Yassoud didn’t deliver as the starting running back, the Krakens were in even more trouble than before.
BOOK TWO:
REGULAR SEASON, 2683
WEEK ONE: IONATH KRAKENS at ISIS ICE STORM
Transcript from the “Galaxy’s Greatest Sports Show with Dan, Akbar, & Tarat the Smasher”
DAN: Welcome back from the commercial break, and remember to patronize our sponsor, Kolok the Daring’s Spindly Spider Snacks, with that deep-fried taste of tarantula. Now in nacho flavor. Tarat, what do you think of those nacho-flavored tarantula treats?
TARAT: I have to say that I don’t like many things the Earth has produced — no offense, Akbar.
AKBAR: None taken.
TARAT: But these big spider treats you breed there? I can’t get enough of Daring’s Spindly Spider Snacks. I’m having one right now.
AKBAR: Oh God, I can’t even look at that. Tarat, don’t bite it in the middle! Spider juice is getting all over the counter! It makes me want to vomit.
DAN: Akbar, come on, that’s our sponsor! Try one.
AKBAR: I’ll quit the show before that happens. Can we get to the news?
DAN: We’ve been waiting, and waiting, and waiting, and finally, kickoff is here. Akbar, Smasher, in just a few hours the Tier One season begins as the Coranadillana Cloud Killers, pride of the Harrah Tribal Accord, play host to last year’s Galaxy Bowl runner-up, the To Pirates.
AKBAR: Oh, Coranadillana is going to get destroyed.
TARAT: That outcome is highly probable, Akbar, but it is not a foregone conclusion. Last season the Cloud Killers lost four games by three points or less, which is why they signed kicker Shi-Ki-Kill away from the Orbiting Death in Tier Two.
DAN: A bitter pill for the Death to swallow, Tarat, considering the Cloud Killers and the Death have such an intense rivalry.
TARAT: They haven’t been able to play each other in the past few seasons, with the Cloud Killers in Tier One and the Orbiting Death in Tier Two, but you are correct, Dan. Those two planets are just a single, short punch away from each other and share a great deal of commerce. One of the truly great rivalries of the GFL.
AKBAR: Well, unless the Orbiting Death earn promotion this season—
DAN: Which they will.
TARAT: I also think so.
AKBAR: —then that rivalry doesn’t really matter. What does matter is that all twenty-two Tier One teams are playing this week, no bye-weeks until Week Three.
DAN: You got that right, Akbar. This week and next, all twenty-two teams have to step up and battle.
AKBAR: Including our two newly promoted teams, the Ionath Krakens and the Chillich Spider-Bears.
DAN: It’s going to be a hard season for both squads. Really, it’s too bad they don’t play each other, at least one of them would get a win this season.
TARAT: Dan, I think those teams will each win at least one game.
DAN: I’m kidding, Smasher. But seriously, it’s silly they don’t play, the two planets are only a single punch apart. Practically neighbors.
TARAT: I have often thought the Quyth Concordia should annex Chillich, which is practically in our sovereign space.
DAN: Smasher, hey now, we don’t need to start talking about a new war between the Concordia and the Sklorno Dynasty, do we?
TARAT: It would be more like a minor skirmish that we would win.
AKBAR: Smasher, ever the pacifist.
DAN: At any rate, Chillich is in the Solar Division, the Krakens are in the Planet Division, and the two teams don’t play each other this year. The Spider-Bears open with a road game at the Bord Brigands, while the Krakens travel to the Tower Republic to face the Isis Ice Storm.
TARAT: I feel bad for the Krakens. Not only did their rookie running back Dan Campbell get busted for mods, but now Ionath has to play its first Tier One game at the Fishtank. That is an extremely difficult place to play.
DAN: It is, Smasher, and the Ice Storm has something to prove this year. They just missed the playoffs last season, they’ve got some new talent, and they are talking big smack about making a run for the title.
AKBAR: Hey, as long as they have Ryan Nossek rushing the quarterback, the Ice Storm is in every game.
TARAT: Nossek is the best defensive end in the game. I think Quentin Barnes is in for a long afternoon.
DAN: More likely Don Pine is in for a long afternoon.
AKBAR: What do you mean Don Pine?
TARAT: He means that he thinks Don Pine will start instead of Quentin Barnes.
AKBAR: I know that’s what he means, Tarat! I’m saying it’s a ridiculous statement. Dan, you’re not going to start a quarterback controversy before the season even begins, are you?
DAN: What? Me? Who? Start something? Where am I? What am I doing here?
TARAT: Dan, Quentin Barnes has officially been named the starting quarterback.
AKBAR: Oh, don’t encourage him.
DAN: For now, Barnes is the starting quarterback, but with two-time league MVP Don Pine on the bench, how much rope does Barnes get before he hangs himself?
AKBAR: Couldn’t you at least wait until the first snap to say the Krakens need to pull Barnes?
DAN: No! I never wait, and that’s why we have the galaxy’s top-rated show. We get the story before the story even happens! In fact, I want to hear what the peons out there think about this brewing quarterback controversy.
TARAT: But I’m confused. There isn’t a controversy.
AKBAR: Too late, Smasher.
DAN: Line three from Chachanna, you’re on the space, go.
CALLER: Quentin Barnes is a god!
DAN: A Sklorno fan of Barnes, who’d have thunk it?
AKBAR: This is always so uncomfortable...
CALLER: Do not blaspheme Quentin Barnes, or he will cause the suns to supernova and destroy you all!
TARAT: I don’t think he can do that.
DAN: Caller, tell me more about this Cult of Barnes, because I know our non-Sklorno fans just love to laugh about... I mean... love to hear about it. Continue!
From “Tower Republic: Birth of a Nation”
by Shellfish-Related Gatherer
Like so many nations in the history of all races, the birth of the Tower Republic came from a combination of war and isolation.
In 2469, a League of Planets expeditionary flotilla, sweeping near the galactic core, discovered a G-class star. As was the custom in those times, each star surveyed was named for an expedition crew member. Because this expedition had already surveyed and cataloged over five hundred systems, stars had been named after all of the command crew, the surface explorers, the engineers and even the maintenance crew. So it was that this particular G-class star was named after Earnest Tower — the flagship’s third-shift short-order cook.
The Tower System, as it is now known, proved to have one habitable planet. Originally called “Tower 1,” as it was the first planet in the system, the world is now known simply as “Tower.”
The surface of Tower is ninety-five percent liquid. While all the surface liquid is covered by ice, the planet’s internal geothermal temperature creates a thick temperate zone that flourishes with life. The planet’s oceans and the ground beneath them are home to ample natural resources.
Like many frontier planets, Tower quickly became a haven for free-minded Humans seeking a new start. Tower exported animal protein, clothing, and mineral wealth. The population grew steadily via immigration, reaching five million beings by the time it became a voting member of the League of Planets in 2527.
The year 2527 fell in an era known as “The Age of Colonization,” when almost every government in the galaxy had embarked on a major campaign of discovery and acquisition. As the most far-flung planet in the League, Tower became the home of the Sixth Expeditionary Fleet. The League planned on using the Sixth Fleet to explore that sector of the galaxy, but its very first mission proved to be both historic and disastrous.
In 2531, the Sixth Fleet set out on a peaceful mission to contact the Portath, a sentient race that lived inside a dense nebula. While no one had made contact with the Portath, it was known that they had discovered audio broadcast technology and achieved FTL capability. To date, no video signals have ever been received from the race. The Sixth Fleet sailed into the nebula now known as the “Portath Cloud” and was never heard from again.
A search and rescue attempt was in the planning stages when the galaxy heard the first direct message from the Portath. Transmitted in passable English, the message simply said, “To enter the cloud is to die.”
The League of Planets reacted immediately, secretly sending a task force of seventeen warships to Tower. League officials weren’t going into the Portath Cloud until they knew more, but they also weren’t about to leave their newest planet undefended.
The year 2538 saw the beginnings of Tower’s independence. It was then that the expansion-minded Purist Nation launched an offensive on the far-flung planet. The League of Planets immediately declared war, unwittingly falling for the political trap the Purists had set.
To close the First Galactic War, the Purist Nation had signed a peace treaty with the Planetary Union. That treaty clearly stated the Union would not allow forces hostile to the Purist Nation to pass through Union space. Since the primary shipping lanes between Tower and the League of Planets went through Union space, the Union government found itself in a very uncomfortable position. Because the League had declared war, the Union — by the dictates of their treaty — could not allow League ships to pass through Union space.
The Purist Nation had planned for this. They knew they could get the majority of their forces to Tower before the League could send their navy around the broad swath that is Union territory.
In effect, this political strategy completely isolated the young planet Tower from any help. A fleet of over one hundred Purist Nation ships closed in and demanded the complete surrender of Tower. Purist forces, however, did not know about the seventeen League warships that had been sent to protect against potential aggression from the Portath Cloud seven years before.
This fleet of seventeen ships, led by Captain Aurelius Markos, launched what is perhaps the biggest gamble in the history of galactic warfare. Instead of staying back at Tower and defending the planet against overwhelming enemy numbers, Markos bypassed the Purist Nation fleet and launched a surprise attack against Stewart, the Nation’s home planet.
The armada sent to conquer Tower was forced to turn around and defend Stewart. The technically superior League warships inflicted heavy damage, recording a seven-to-one kill ratio, but the Purist navy’s numbers were too much to overcome. Now with only fourteen ships, most of those damaged, Markos fled Stewart.
Eighty Purist Nation ships pursued Markos, hoping to crush his small fleet and then move on to an undefended Tower. To avoid that outcome, Markos again initiated a surprise strategy. With the entire Purist flotilla in pursuit, he took his forces straight into the Portath Cloud.
Markos kept a tight formation, intentionally slowing his ships to allow Purist Nation forces to close in. Once the Purist ships followed him deep into the Cloud, Markos scattered his fleet and ordered every ship to fend for herself. That is the last known communication from this hero of the Tower Republic. Seven Tower ships escaped the Cloud. Seven, including Markos’ vessel, were never heard from again. All eighty ships of the Purist Nation flotilla vanished with all hands aboard. They sent no messages. If they ejected contact buoys, those buoys were never found. It is assumed they were destroyed.
The Purist Nation admiralty could not contact their ships. They did receive one key communiqué, however — a direct message from the mysterious government of the Portath Cloud: “Attack again, and we will destroy you.”
Details of what happened from this point forward are sketchy at best. A persistent rumor is that several Purist Nation spies were discovered on Tower, and that Tower’s intelligence agency successfully sent false information that the planet had achieved a secret alliance with the Portath.
It is important to note that the church leaders of the Purist Nation could not say for certain what had happened to their flotilla. They knew that eighty ships had entered the Portath Cloud, but did not know if those
ships had been lost to Markos, to the unknown Portath, or to a cosmic accident. What they did know is that they had instantly lost thirty percent of their overall naval strength. Considering Tower’s possible alliance with the Portath, and considering that League forces were closing in to reinforce Tower, Purist Nation leaders sued for peace.
Tower had fought its first war and won. Their government, the League of Planets, had done little to assist. By the time those League reinforcements reached Tower, they were greeted not by a League planet, but by the new, independent government of the Tower Republic.
Tower’s birth as a nation had long-reaching political ramifications. League officials blamed the secession of Tower on the Planetary Union’s blockade. The Union blamed the Purist Nation for unmitigated aggression and manipulation, and quietly abandoned the Treaty of 2535. Both of these developments would directly contribute to the Third Galactic War.
• • •
THE REALITY WAVE TICKLED Quentin’s soul as the Touchback slipped out of punch space. He inhaled sharply and deeply, the natural reaction to holding one’s breath for too long. It took two more deep breaths before he could open his eyes.
He didn’t throw up. He breathed slowly, wondering if he was finally getting used to space travel. Maybe soon he could actually sit in the viewing lounge with his teammates, and share the experience of seeing a new world with them. One could only hope.
With the punch-out over, he ran out of his quarters and headed for the Touchback’s viewing lounge. Two dozen Krakens were already there, staring out the large windows. Quentin didn’t even break stride as he entered, running to an open space at the window. He slid to a stop, hands locking on the rail that ran along the clear crysteel.
“Easy, Kid,” Don Pine said. “A big boy like you could go right though this window.”
Don was on Quentin’s right. Quentin smiled at him, gave him a nod. “I’ll be careful, Gramps.”
“Not enough speed,” said a metallic voice on his left. Quentin turned and found himself facing Doc Patah.