THE ALL-PRO (72 page)

“I knew you not well,” George said to Killik’s remains. “But if the spirits that guide the firmament are so inclined, the power of the Old Ones will let me mightily whip the asses of all that were responsible for this transgression.”

George nodded once, then followed Quentin and Mum-O out of the infirmary.

• • •

QUENTIN, MUM-O AND GEORGE
entered the bridge. The place radiated a lethal calmness. The seven sentients already here were focused on a life-and-death situation, where any mistake could be disaster.

The four bridge crew members sat at workstations below the large, holographic
Touchback
. They talked to each other, pointing to various parts of the hologram that glowed red. The crew’s cool demeanor impressed Quentin — they were all probably excellent poker players.

Kate stood in the center of the bridge, talking to Michael Kimberlin and Messal the Efficient. Kimberlin held a messageboard that showed a small holographic
Touchback
. Kate pointed and each time she did, Kimberlin nodded. The three of them struck quite an image — a towering, 8-foot-tall HeavyG, a normal-sized Human woman and a 3-foot-tall Quyth Worker.

She waved Quentin and the others over. Her eyes drifted down to his blood-soaked pants leg. “How bad is it?”

Not
are you okay?
Not
what happened?
Captain Kate only cared about one thing — could Quentin still get a job done?

He shrugged. “Does it matter? I’m here. What do you want us to do?”

She inclined her head toward Kimberlin. “He’s going to walk you back to Gun Cabin 6.”

“It’s destroyed,” Quentin said.

“Then make it un-destroyed,” she said. “Whatever it takes, get the room repaired. The fighters didn’t hit the cannon itself. The three of you are going to have to wear pressure suits. Seal off the corridor. Kimberlin will walk you through that process, then I need him on the engine decks. Starcher, you get in that gun cabin and figure out how to get the room re-pressurized.”

George nodded. “Aye-aye, Captain.”

“We’re in a bad spot,” she said. “We’re pretty far past the Prawatt border. We have to get out of here.” She was calm, but clearly worried. Her body language told Quentin there was more to the story.

“Do the Prawatt know we’re here?”

“Probably,” she said. “The only question is how long will it take them to reach us. We don’t have military-grade sensors. We wouldn’t even know they were here until they were right on top of us.”

Something out past the bridge’s large windows caught Quentin’s attention. Something out there ... moving?

“Get the gun fixed,” Captain Kate said. “There’s a small chance the pirates will re-engage us before we can reach Yall and Creterakian protection. We may have to fight again. Messal, take that damage control list to the galley and make assignments as you see fit, got it?”

“A brilliant plan, Captain Cheevers, I doubt anyone could do better regardless of—”

“Cut the brown-nosing,” she said. “Kimberlin, get back to the upper engine deck as soon as you can. We need a pair of smart hands up there.”

Quentin stared. There
was
something moving out there. A dot of light? He squinted, trying to focus on it. Was it one of the fighters?

“I understand,” Kimberlin said. “I’ll do what I can.”

One of the bridge crew stood up suddenly. “Captain! We’re being jammed, random noise all across the spectrum. We’re blind.”

Kate ran to her chair. “We have to run for it. Correct course to go straight for Sklorno space.”

There was a chorus of
yes captain
, but Quentin didn’t really hear it. All his attention stayed locked on the thing out the window. The light. No,
multiple
lights. Almost as if the stars were ... moving.

“Uh ... Captain?”

“Not now, Barnes! Go fix that gun!”

“Captain, I don’t think that will matter.”

Kate looked at him. He just pointed out the bridge’s wide window.

Kate saw, then sat back in her chair. “Crap,” she said. “Well, that’s it, folks. We’re screwed. Boys, forget the long-range stuff, scan the damn thing that’s right outside our window.

The moving lights grew a little larger, filled the entire view, blocking out the stars that stayed fixed in space. Quentin almost asked Kate why they didn’t run anyway, but that was before the window flashed and holographic information danced across the crysteel. The info showed the other ship’s distance and size.

“Uh ... that’s a really big ship, isn’t it?”

Captain Kate laughed. She stood and walked to a workstation. She seemed to be in no hurry.

Kimberlin leaned in, talked quietly. “It is big, Quentin. As big as it gets. We’re looking at something very few people see.”

“Which is?”

“A Prawatt capital-class warship,” he said. “The largest known vessels in the galaxy. If I were you, I’d enjoy it.”

“
Enjoy
it? Why?”

Captain Kate reached the workstation and pressed a button. “Attention, all sentients on the
Touchback
. We have been overtaken by a Prawatt warship. If we’re lucky, we will be boarded within moments. Everyone should stay where they are and make no effort to defend the ship. Our only chance is to pose no threat, hope we get a chance to explain ourselves. If we don’t get that chance, well ... it’s been real shucking nice to know ya.”

She released the button. She walked back to her chair, dropped into it. She reached beneath the chair and pulled out a glass bottle. Kate unscrewed the cap, then took a long sip of some brown fluid. She looked utterly defeated, resigned to whatever might happen next.

“Why enjoy the view?” Kimberlin said. “Because this is it for us.”

He looked out the window to the sprawling mass of the Prawatt ship.

“History speaks for itself,” Kimberlin said. “Sorry, Quentin, but I’m afraid that we’re all going to die.”

From
UBS Sports

by
PIKOR THE ASSUMING

VIRILLIVILL, YALL, SKLORNO DYNASTY — Deaths are a part of football, as we all know. For the second time in three seasons, the Grim Reaper plucked away a Jupiter star in the middle of the sport’s biggest game.

Themala won its first GFL title with a 28-24 win over the Jacks at Galaxy Bowl XXVI, held at Tomb of the Virilli stadium. The team celebrated the win, as they should, but those celebrations lost some luster in the face of the death of Jupiter quarterback Shriaz Zia.

Zia led his team to a 21-0 advantage. It looked like a Galaxy Bowl shutout until midway through the third quarter, when Zia scrambled left due to pressure from the Dreadnaughts front four. Instead of sliding, Zia tried to pick up a few extra yards by taking on a tackle from linebacker Tibi the Unkempt. The hit severed Zia’s C4 and C5 vertebrate. He was carted off the field and declared dead in the stadium hospital.

With Zia out of the game, the Jacks could not move the ball. To close the third quarter, Themala scored on a Galaxy Bowl record 88-yard run by running back Don Dennis.

The Dreadnaughts entered the fourth quarter down 21-7. Quarterback Gavin Warren hit wide receiver Keflavík for a 42-yard strike, then five minutes later, hit Dennis on a simple screen pass that turned into a 68-yard touchdown reception.

With the score tied at 21-all, Jacks returner Luxemborg ran the ensuing kick back to the Dreadnaughts’ 11. Backup quarterback Steve Compton couldn’t advance the ball any farther, so the Jacks settled for a field goal that put them up 24-21 with 2:17 left to play.

“I’m mad as hell. We had that game wrapped up. Now my quarterback is dead and we have to start all over.”

JT MANIS OWNER, JUPITER JACKS

Following a touchback, Themala started on its own 20. The Dreadnaughts then proceeded to drive 78 yards for a first-and-goal on the Jupiter 2-yard line. With five seconds to play and no timeouts, Themala coach Smitty Halibut opted to go for the win instead of kicking the tying field goal.

“I said to my team, I said,
screw it
,” Coach Halibut said. “We had the momentum.”

The unexpected decision proved fortuitous. Warren dropped back and found fullback Zach Mann all alone in the end zone for the winning touchdown.

“I’m mad as hell,” said Jacks owner JT Manis. “We had that game wrapped up. Now my quarterback is dead and we have to start all over.”

The Jacks couldn’t move the ball, true, but the Dreadnaughts did run roughshod in the second half of what will surely go down as the biggest defensive collapse in Galaxy Bowl history.

“Hey, their
defense
didn’t die,” Don Dennis said. “Those are the same guys who held us scoreless through two-and-a-half quarters. I’m sorry Shriaz is dead, but we scored twenty-eight points in the second half of the Galaxy Bowl. We owned them. We wanted it more and we took it. Vini, vidi, vici, we be the champs.”

Themala finished the regular season at 9-3 for the second year in a row. Including playoff games, the Dreadnaughts are 22-7 over the past two seasons. ■

From the
Ionath City Gazette

by
TOYAT THE INQUISITIVE

YALL, SKLORNO DYNASTY — The
Touchback
, team bus for the Ionath Krakens football franchise, has gone missing following an attack by an unknown force.

The ship had arrived in far orbit around the planet Yall in the Sklorno Dynasty. The Krakens players were there to attend Galaxy Bowl XXVI. Details are scarce, but reports indicate that an unknown fighter craft attacked the
Touchback
as soon as it came out of punch-space. Preliminary investigations seem to show that the
Touchback
fled this attack by crossing the Prawatt border.

“We are proceeding with caution,” said the Creterakian Empire regional admiral. “We cannot go in after them. The Prawatt would consider that an act of war. We are trying to implement diplomatic communications, but so far our efforts have been ignored. The Prawatt remain in total communication blackout, as they have for decades.”

Heightened tensions between the Prawatt and the Sklorno Dynasty have not helped efforts to find the
Touchback
’s whereabouts. Last year, a Sklorno vessel was destroyed near the border, killing 40,000 sentients. There is some suspicion that the perpetrators of that deed are also responsible for the attack on the
Touchback
.

GFL Commissioner Rob Froese reported the missing bus in a press conference. He said he is optimistic that the Krakens will be found.

“We haven’t received a destruct signal,” Froese said. “If the
Touchback
was destroyed, on-board sensors are eighty percent likely to send a signal. We are hopeful the ship remains intact. We can’t say for certain if the team and the crew are alive, but if the ship is still in one piece it’s a good sign.”

As of yet, there has been no word from the
Touchback
. It is unknown if the team and crew are alive or dead.

“We will find them,” said Ionath owner Gredok the Splithead. “No matter what it takes, we will find them. And I will find the sentients responsible for this, I assure you of that.”

THE END