The Champion (41 page)

“That would be racist,” John said. “Other species are
totally
welcome. Not just any Sklorno can get in, though, only the smart and well-behaved ones, you know? The good kind of Sklorno.”

Quentin wondered if the next thing John said might be
some of my best friends are Sklorno
.

He again looked at Becca — she looked at him at almost the same time. Her face instantly grew hard and unforgiving. She turned and walked into the HeavyG locker room.

They’d won the game. On the field, he and Becca had worked together so effortlessly they might as well have had the linked brain John believed in. Quentin wanted to celebrate the win, sure, but he wanted to celebrate it with
her
.

“Sorry, John. I’m not up for going out tonight. But I promise I will after the Neptune game next week, win or lose, okay?”

“Hah,” John said. “Like we could lose to those scrubs.”

John gave Quentin another heavy slap, then walked away, leaving Quentin rubbing his now-stinging shoulder.

He just wanted to finish up and go get some sleep, but he couldn’t because his job wasn’t done — the multi-headed monster needed to feed.

Quentin finished undressing, grabbed a towel and headed for the Ki baths.

“BRIGHT LIGHT REMAINS
in the stadium facility,” the agent said. “No indications he will leave and enter Virilliville proper.”

Of course he wouldn’t, not if he was smart. Well, he was a football player, so he wasn’t
smart
, but Quentin Barnes was far from stupid.

The agent’s J-plant buzzed with the annoying voice of his controller.

“Desert Sun, do you have visual on Bright Light?”

Creterakians were disgusting little creatures. Their high-pitched voices could cut crysteel. The agent hated them. They had subjugated his planet, his government, his people ... but they also paid extremely well.

“Negative, Boss Seven,” the agent said. “Bright Light is in reserved areas not open to the public.”

Creterakians barely understood the concepts of “privacy” and “public.” The bats were a shared intelligence, or maybe it was
distributed intellect.
.. something along those lines, anyway. More like insects than a real sentient race, really.

“Desert Sun, this is a high-contact area for Bright Light. We must know who he is communicating with. Are you able to get closer?”

Of course he could get closer. He was better than anyone. For him, it was easy ... but why tell that to his “boss?”

“There might be an opportunity shortly, but it would be extremely dangerous to my safety,” the agent said. “I’m not sure it’s worth the risk.”

A pause from the other end.

The agent waited. The Creterakians had more money than they knew what to do with. As long as you didn’t come out and actually
ask
them for it — which was offensive to some indefinable part of their primitive group-think, perhaps — they would throw cash around like, well, like Quentin Barnes throwing at will against the Yall Criminals secondary.

“Desert Sun, you are approved for a triple bonus if you send visual confirmation of Bright Light inside the facility.”

The agent had to bite his hand to hold back a sudden laugh. The bats ruled the galaxy, they had founded the GFL, but they knew nothing about how the league actually worked or the culture surrounding the sport.

“I accept the mission,” the agent said. “If I don’t make it out, tell my mother I love her.”

He couldn’t help saying that, he just couldn’t.

“Desert Sun, we are not in contact with your mother. You frequently make this request, yet we have no information on your family structure.”

“Desert Sun, out,” the agent said, managing to shut off his comms before the laughter finally escaped him.

GFL WEEK FOUR ROUNDUP

Courtesy of Galaxy Sports Network

Bye Weeks:
OS1 (3-0), Buddha City (2-1), Themala (1-2) and Shorah (1-2) did not play this week.

With the season one-third over, the undefeated Bartel Water Bugs (4-0) stand alone atop the Solar Division standings. Bartel gutted out a back-and-forth 24-14 affair with Jang (1-3) to stay in first place. Bugs’ QB Andre “Death Ray” Ridley’s skills were on display again, as he ran for a touchdown, threw for another and caught a trick-play pass from running back Robert Shonfelt for a third.

Bartel is a full game up on Texas (3-1) and Vik (3-1), both of which posted close wins. The Earthlings held off a late-game rally from Neptune (2-1) to give their home crowd a 28-24 win, while the Vanguard kicked an overtime field goal to beat Sheb (1-2) by a score of 30-27.

In the Planet Division, Ionath (4-0) stayed in first place with a 24-21 win over the Yall Criminals (2-2). Ionath’s Quentin Barnes threw for two touchdowns and also scampered 28 yards for the winning score late in the fourth quarter. Barnes racked up 271 yards in the air and another 110 on the ground.

Following a season-opening loss, the To Pirates (3-1) won their third straight, 23-20 over D’Oni (0-4). Pirates QB Abdullahi Ba hit wide receiver Victoria for an 82-yard go-ahead touchdown late in the fourth quarter.

“That’s the second time this season we’ve lost by a field goal or less,” said Coelacanths head coach George Hrab. “If we want to stay in Tier One, we need to figure out how to finish games.”

The Pirates and Wabash (3-1) are tied for third in the Planet, a full game behind Ionath and a half-game back of OS1 (3-0).

The Wolfpack topped D’Kow (1-3) by a score of 27-21.

While it is a little early to start the annual relegation watch, it’s important to note that there are three teams who have yet to win a game. Coranadillana (0-4) joins D’Oni at the bottom of the Planet Division, thanks to a 10-3 loss to the Jupiter Jacks (2-2), while the newly promoted McMurdo Murderers (0-4) are in sole possession of last place in the Solar.

Deaths

No deaths reported this week.

Offensive Player of the Week

To Pirates quarterback Abdullahi Ba, who threw for 380 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions in a come-from-behind win over D’Oni.

Defensive Player of the Week

Scootchie-Poo Pootersnoot, cornerback for the Neptune Scarlet Fliers. Pootersnoot became the first Prawatt player in GFL history to earn Player of the Week honors, thanks to a pair of interceptions it returned for touchdowns.

38

Week Five:
Ionath Krakens at
Neptune Scarlet Fliers

QUENTIN TOWELED OFF,
his body mostly relaxed after a long post-practice soak in the Ki baths.
Mostly
relaxed, because ever since Becca’s position change, tension seemed to fill the locker room.

Trevor Haney had left a firm number-two spot with New Rodina to stay in Tier One; now he was on the practice squad and wouldn’t even dress for games. He hadn’t been with Ionath long, but the players liked him, and his demotion didn’t seem right.

Then there was the obvious fact that although Becca was number three on the depth chart, she was better than Yitzhak. Everyone could see it.

The Krakens had won the Galaxy Bowl with Becca at fullback, and now she wasn’t there. That made everyone nervous about the rest of the season. No one was happy. No one except for Kopor the Climber, who suddenly found himself as the starting fullback.

The team was en route to Neptune, a six-day trip from Yall that took them first to Ol in the Ki Rebel Establishment, then three punches through the Ki Empire, and three in the Whitok Kingdom before popping out at Neptune in the Planetary Union. The game after that required another five-day trip from Neptune back to Ionath. Add in the first leg from Ionath to Yall, and the games themselves, and the three-game road trip meant a total of almost three full weeks away from home.

Some of the players were already starting to grumble about the long voyage; Quentin worried what effect that might have on the upcoming game against the Scarlet Fliers. As if that wasn’t bad enough, w hen the Krakens finally returned to Ionath, it would be on a Friday night, giving them only two days at home before a Monday Night Football matchup against the visiting Alimum Armada — so, basically, it was almost a
four
-game road trip.

Quentin walked into the
Touchback’s
empty Human locker room. The other Human players had taken their post-practice nannite showers, then gone off to their rooms for some time to themselves before team dinner. Next week Quentin would have to do his annual visit to the Ki quarters and eat with them — he wasn’t looking forward to that one bit.