by Purple Hazel
But then, to the shock and surprise of everyone in attendance as well as millions watching on Ultravision that day, the young man quite clearly stepped out of bounds at the Lake Travis twenty-two-meter line. Almost seemed like he’d done it on purpose, too! After this strange maneuver, La Rumba then coasted into the end zone as defenders chasing him raised hell with sideline officials to alert them.
“Out of bounds! Out of bounds!” the Lake Travis players and coaches screamed to the referee calling the game; but their pleas were completely unnecessary. A nearby linesman, chasing down the sideline after him, had already seen the mishap, and whistled the play dead before La Rumba crossed the goal line. The official marked the ball back at the twenty-two and play soon resumed.
Meanwhile, a beaming Gerardo La Rumba happily trotted back and tossed the ball to the linesman, seeming like he could care less about his mistake. He had his record after all, and within less than a minute, he could see his own face up there on the massive jumbovision screen located in the center of that domed stadium just outside of Dallas. He had good reason not to worry about it. His place in history was safe and secure, at least for now. He could simply relax and let the game clock expire after the next couple of plays.
No one could believe it, though! He was two full strides ahead of the nearest defender and could have scored easily, adding even more to his fame—as well as his career statistics!
But what the public never knew was that, being ahead by twelve points at the time, the Katy Tigers offense had been under strict orders from their head coach to run out the clock; and a deep pass play was most certainly not what their offensive coordinator had dialed up from the sidelines. In truth, a very brave and emboldened fifteen-year-old substitute center back had taken the helm for the Katy squad moments before, only to find his teammates nearly in a state of mutiny as he took the field. Just why the hell was their coach shutting them down—with plenty of time left for two more plays? they wondered.
It just wasn’t fair, they protested. This was a record they could achieve together. Gerardo only needed two, maybe three long pass plays, and he’d have that record secured. Then all could share in the glory with him. They’d now be members of the team that got him that record, too. They’d get to grow into adulthood someday knowing every time that record was mentioned they could proudly proclaim to their friends and future spouses, “I was there…that day when he did it. I blocked for him. Saw it all go down!” And for years that record would remain unbroken, mentioned every year most likely during the national tournament, as they aged and grew beer bellies sitting around on couches in their living rooms each December.
No, few would ever know what really happened in the huddle right before that amazing play, when a gangly kid from a nearby orphanage just outside Katy stepped into the middle of all those big, sweaty monsters and prima donnas; then promptly told them, “Shut the fuck up...all of you!”
He spoke like a coach to them that day. Took command immediately, and got complete control of the situation. He knew exactly what they were jawing about. Could hear them griping as he ran out to the huddle. Coach had just pulled their first-string center back and replaced him with this mere freshman as a gesture of good will to the Lake Travis coach. He showed his opponent he was willing to call off the dogs and let them end the game honorably with a convincing 24-12 victory. Yet little did he know: Ranger Guerrero was about to take full advantage of the situation. What’s more, he had no idea that at that very moment, his big senior receiver Gerardo La Rumba was out there being redressed by a surprisingly mature former city kid from Katy Boys’ Farm.
“Now look, mother fucker!” he said directly to Gerardo. “You want the fuckin’ record? We want the record! The school wants the record! All of us fuckin’ want it, okay? We want to be the team that GOT you that record. Now...I’ll get you the ball. But—don’t fuckin’ embarrass me by runnin’ down that field ’n scorin’ another try. If I get you the ball, you step out of bounds before the goal line. Got it? Then we’ll kill the clock.”
Shocked and surprised by his candor, Gerardo then looked around at the faces of his teammates. Some were nodding, most were downright impressed with their upstart new leader! But no one was arguing, that was for sure. They knew full well they’d catch bloody hell from their coach if La Rumba pranced across that goal line and ran up the score to 30-12. “Yeah man,” said one of the big behemoths among the Forwards unit, “Don’t make us look like dicks. Just catch it and get out of bounds once you got the record, okay?”
And sure enough! Big-headed Gerardo, so fast and fleet-footed; and facing a Lake Travis defense which was already winded from chasing him around all day, did just as his teammates told him to. He caught that amazing pass—a spiraling missile which sailed through the hands of defenders thinking they could bat it down, and over hapless defensive backers who could not keep up with Gerardo’s blazing speed. The ball got there so fast, he almost wasn’t ready, after his skillful hip maneuver threw off the last defender and left him wide open. Yet he hauled it in nevertheless, on the fly even, and reached full speed within a couple steps.
After that, it was nothing but open field from there on out as he sped toward the goal. He could see it. He could practically taste it, too! A final touchdown to highlight his vaunted career, and get the college scouts literally begging him to commit to their schools. But...he just couldn’t do it and betray his teammates. He knew that. They were right, after all. He had what he needed. Katy would have their victory either way; and he’d only embarrass their opponent. That’s when he made his decision.
Therefore, somewhere around the twenty-two-meter line he cut it short, and quite blatantly planted a foot outside the boundary so that everyone nearby—for that matter everyone watching on Ultravision—would plainly see he’d purposely held up from scoring. He only wanted the record, and nothing more. They’d see that, and he’d be respected for it in the end.
After that, not surprisingly, Gerardo La Rumba was a media darling, once time expired. Reporters swarmed around him as he marched off the field at the end of the game, waving to the crowd—the senior outside backer from Katy High School who refused to dishonor his opponent by running up the score. Coach complimented him. Journalists fawned over him for interviews. He surely had his fifteen minutes of fame that day, no question about it!
But something else came out of this thrilling moment; something that lingered in the news for days afterward and lit up GBN broadcasters’ and commentators’ faces with excitement. That pass! That incredible pass—thrown by a freshman, no less! They couldn’t stop talking about it. It sailed fifty meters in the air, give or take, and arrived at his streaking receiver while in mid-stride. Oh yes, Gerardo La Rumba had his record. He deserved it. However, that news story inevitably faded away by the end of the weekend. By then, everyone in sports broadcasting was instead talking about Ranger Guerrero. Fans the world over now knew his name.
True, a new star arose that day in the sport of Megaball, because Gerardo La Rumba had achieved a lofty record that might not be broken for many, many years, if ever. He’d be highly recruited by most every major college program in North America. Yet something else had occurred—something far more important that would be remembered for decades to come. For that was also the day a sports legend was born.
The sports world soon knew all about young Ranger Guerrero and the story of his turbulent past. And as it unfolded in the media, it was both inspiring and intriguing to not just sports fans; but billions of people worldwide. Somehow one brave youngster, among all those millions and millions of city kids the world over, had somehow made it out! One orphaned child had made it from the slums of a major city, only to become a smashing success.
He wasn’t particularly handsome—not even boyishly cute—and when he smiled or laughed during interviews his crooked teeth showed brightly along with his sparkling, cinnamon-colored eyes. He looked Mexican, almost Native-American, and what’s more he was just as humble as could be. But
there was a confidence about him that belied his young age. Reporters adored him. He was the real article and they just knew he’d have a fabulous career some day in the professional league.
Thus, it was his story, not Gerardo La Rumba’s, which lingered in the news for several weeks …
* * * *
By way of comparison, in the compact little world of Santa Maria’s Away Team, toiling away on the gigantic spacecraft, Ozzie Guerrero was becoming quite a local sensation in his own right. The process for activating a Casimir Vacuum was in reality quite complicated. Fraught with dangers. Crewmembers could easily be killed if there was an unexpected leak or explosion. It took a cool head to pull it off from start to finish, and Kelvin grew to rely on him. It was Kelvin, after all, who supervised the launches now. He was drawn to Ozzie almost from the start—especially when he first heard Ozzie was a fellow Megaballer.
Little league Megaball—basically just old-style American football when he was a kid—had been an enjoyable experience for Kelvin, and now that even little tikes were able to play the modern sport, with pee-wee sized protective gear being designed for them. It was exciting to hear Ozzie talk about it first-hand, drawing Kelvin back to his high school glory days back in Virginia…
In Megaball, American style Football and English Rugby had been combined several years ago into a sport which added extra protection for head injuries as well as other technological features and rule changes to provide safety for the human body. In Megaball, the forward pass was permitted. Players on offense had to line up no more than ten meters from each other, horizontal to the sideline, with a minimum of nine players on the line of scrimmage. What’s more, each team had fifteen players, just like in Rugby. But those were only a few of the many differences.
Forwards took the place of offensive linemen. There was a center back who assumed the duties and functions of a quarterback or scrum half. There were also backs and outside bBacks who could carry or catch the ball when tossed or thrown to them by the center back. On defense, there were of course backs and forwards as well, which could be positioned however they wished. No more than two players on offense could be in motion prior to the snap; but all defenders could move freely prior to this.
For protection, players were now fitted with a full faced helmet that had a convex, polycarbonate lens to shield the face, but the interior was lit up slightly so that players could see each other’s eyes and facial expressions. That said, players on the same team mostly communicated with each other via transmitters built into the facial lens. The helmet interior was now climate controlled to accommodate outside temperatures.
Also, interior lighting was often tinted to match the team’s colors. For example, the Mexico City Aztecas—affectionately called the Macahuitls by their fans—wore turquoise and yellow uniforms with obsidian-black trim. They donned helmets with a yellow interior lighting to complement their uniforms, and the exterior was painted to look like that of a jaguar’s head.
Bodies were now covered almost head to toe in a para-aramid synthetic fiber armor which was further enhanced with an electrical field which would activate upon impact with any moving object or the ground itself. Sensors in the body armor system could detect potential collisions and create a temporary force field which, including the helmet itself, would deflect/absorb the majority of impact but not repel. A tackle still looked like a tackle, however, the complete force of the impact was not felt by either player.
The Megaball field was further adapted to match that of the old Canadian Football League dimensions. One hundred and one meters long and fifty-nine meters wide, it also had try zones eighteen meters deep where the goal was still located. However, the goal POST was a thing of the past. It was now an apparatus suspended three meters off the ground. Players could basically run right under it without impacting.
But the cleverest innovation of all by far was the field itself. All fields were artificial turf now, but constructed of synthetics, including a drainage layer, a multi-layered backing system, and grass blades in-filled with granular filler to resemble real Bermuda. The blades were interspersed with a top soil created with granulated silicone rubber. The synthetic turf system included a pad or elastic layer underneath.
However...by adding carbon to the silicon rubber, this made it electrically conductive. Scientists found they could develop an electrified sheeting which activated upon impact. Megaball fields now employed a sensor that detected the direction of shockwaves, then deployed an anti-shockwave laser that created a field between the explosion and the target. It effectively shielded an object or surface from explosive force by reflecting and absorbing it. This protective energy layer could be used to insulate players whenever they planted their feet or plowed into the ground during a tackle, thus permitting their bodies to experience only a small percentage of the force of impact.
There were no more HOLDING penalties either. This, coaches had learned over the years had continuously led to the increased use of the human head to gain an advantage at the line of scrimmage. Forwards on both offense and defense were thus permitted to grab and wrestle each other to the ground in an effort to protect or reach an opposing ball carrier. But it was also a personal foul referred to as interference to do this beyond five meters past the line of scrimmage. Because of this, on the line of scrimmage there would usually be a brutal battle for control on almost every play, yet it occasionally opened the game up to thrilling open field runs and pass plays outside of this neutral zone.
Furthermore, the game had a running clock, just like in English rugby. With two thirty-minute halves and a fifteen-minute recess in between, the Global Broadcasting Network would only allow advertisements during this break in the action. Otherwise the game moved constantly, with no more necessity for managing the clock like in American football. If the ball or player went out of bounds, a linesman marked the point of exit, and players had to return to the field to resume action. Any blatant attempts at delaying or purposely “eating up” clock time would result in an immediate change of possession.
Substitutions could be made by a head coach signaling to an official to allow them, but the clock would not stop running during this time. Thus, there was no more need, nor the opportunity for platoon-style offenses and defenses. Players could and often did play both ways until a substitution was made.
Due to these major changes, Megaball was deemed far safer than its predecessor sports of football and rugby. Violent? Oh yes, it was still nothing more than an organized gang fight with hand-to-hand combat up at the line of scrimmage. There were still ferocious tackles and vicious confrontations out there on that massive synthetic turf. But...at the end of the day, both Kelvin and Ozzie Guerrero had to admit, it was still safer playing Megaball than it was handling Casimir Vacuums and launching non-baryonic matter pods into space. Far safer indeed…
Because of these dangers, lab procedures were strictly adhered to. Absolutely NO room for error could be permitted or tolerated; and everyone fully understood this. Thus, in the first five Earth years there was never a malfunction or mishap; and Ozzie was certainly one big reason for this. He was a trusted member of the team and as far as Kelvin was concerned, one of the biggest reasons the lab functioned so well. Now almost a head taller than most of the young scientists and engineers in his unit, he was all business when on duty—and this inspired others to stay focused.
It amazed everyone on the Santa Maria…these children working alongside of them at their posts. Talented and dedicated as they were—Shamiso, Ozzie, and Young-Min that is—were a pleasant addition to the team. Given a simple function within an overall process, they could concentrate and thoroughly carry out their duties. Didn’t get bored or whiny. Knew what was at stake. Never complained of being under-utilized like some of the brighter young scientists occasionally did. No, Ozzie never fell into that sort of thing. He did his job and followed orders. Kelvin and his superiors could easily see. He simply had no patience for those other whiners working around him.
That said, daily life on board was rather mundane for the most part. Active crewmembers slept inside sleeping berths, stacked one on top of another like giant filing cabinets. Crewmen and women simply climbed up a short ladder and wormed their way into them head-first. Then when they were comfortable, the occupants activated a switch that sealed them inside and sevoflurane gas emitted from vents knocked them out cold for six to seven hours, depending on how long for which they’d programmed it.
Referred to by the captain as hammocks, even though they were far from that, they functioned basically in the same manner. Banks of them lined the walls in the barracks. Once inside and the system had been activated essentially nothing could wake them except for a command override if all hands were summoned to duty in case of an emergency.
At the end of their rack session, as the crewmembers liked to call it, they were then gently awakened by a combination of methylphenidate gas and cold air blown into their sleeping berth. Most crewmen programmed their rack sessions to end within fifty minutes of the beginning of their shift, so that they’d have plenty of time to dress, hit the chow line, and hurry off to their posts.
Food was rationed according to a pre-programmed system which was tailored to each crew member to meet their individual dietary needs. The crew man or woman would simply scan the palm of their hand over a sensor, and the ship’s computer would distribute dehydrated pellets or discs into a re-usable vessel for rehydration. The amount of daily calorie intake was predetermined and the computer would recall types of dishes the crewmember preferred, so that a variety of offerings could be selected from. Food was plentiful, but over-eating or binging was simply not possible. This was designed ahead of time to preserve crewmembers’ physical health.