Character Perspective: Reagan

“Grav-Ball. While it seems like it is just a game, it is in fact just another excellent team building tool, just one with a largely competitive nature,” The Commander was floating in the center of the large arena holding onto a rubber ball with handles on three sides.

We were all floating ourselves, the commander insisting for us to hop in and get cozy long before he dropped into the arena between us all and the rings on either side of the field began to glow.

“The goal of Grav-Ball should be obvious, to score as many goals as you can in your opponents hoop. You have a goalie, two defenders, two center fielders, and two attackers, much like Soccer,” the Commander continued.

“It’s called Football,” both Sullivan and Vicky seemed to call out in near unison.

“Well I call it Soccer so deal with it,” the Commander shot back. “Now, the big difference between Grav-ball and ground sports, other than the lack of gravity of course, is that the goal is in fact moveable.”

The Commander had hit his belt, dropping to the floor and then launching himself over toward one end of the arena, only stopping as he grabbed the edge of one of the large, circular hoops with his single free hand and started to swing around it. But instead of his body just circling into the center of the goal, his momentum actually dragged the hoop along with, twisting with his speed and only slowing him slightly as the large ring drifted with the Commander.

“Dang Commander, you’ve got some moves!” Mendez yelled from the other end of the arena where he was floating upside down.

While I had gotten used to Commander Allen being quick to shut us down when we joked, instead I saw an actual amused smile on his face as he pulled back around and slowed to a stop. “Never let anyone tell you you can’t enjoy a part of this job,” he said and shook his head out as he let go of the goal and righted his orientation. “The goalie is allowed to move the goal, but only when his own team has the ball. When the ball is taken by the opposing team, the goal will lock into place and cannot be taken past the goal line.”

At this, several beams of light pierced across the arena, marking the goals as well as the center of the field.

“Any questions?” He asked as he threw the ball in, on a direct path for Novarod floating on his side of the field. Novarod seemed to flip backwards as he grabbed the ball and moved with the slight momentum of the throw. With hands on separate handles, he looked around and quickly launched the projectile back across the field again as if it were a hot potato.

Curtis dropped to the floor and launched himself up into the balls path and grabbed it, pulling it upward with him as he floated to the center of the arena. “How long are the periods? Or is it just halves? Is there a prize?”

“No periods, no halves. One single fifteen minute round. Each side gets two ninety second timeouts. The top crew of each season gets a pizza party,” the Commander replied, surprisingly unfazed by the questions.

“A pizza party?” I asked, scratching at the side of my head. “Now, I like a good pizza party like a raccoon likes an open trash can, but isn’t that a little… anticlimactic?”

“What would you rather, Reagan? A trophy? A nice pat on the back?” The Commander asked with a raised brow, and I felt my cheeks get warm.

“I- No- But- Uh-“ I sputtered out.

“And I’m the Spacefly,” I heard Sera mutter with a laugh.

“There is in fact, more than just a pizza party,” he said finally with a laugh, mercifully cutting off my weird stumble of what didn’t even amount to half thoughts. “Each years season winner is given a small funding boost to their ship’s total amount. Not a huge amount mind you, but enough for extra customization, and the amount scales depending on the year of the victor, a higher amount for the lower the year. Think of it as an incentive to put on a good show.”

“Huh, that’s actually pretty interesting,” Sullivan said, seemingly floating on his side at the centerfield line.

“What is?” Sera asked him.

“Well think about it, we’re basically the lowest on the totem pole. Gonna have very limited experience in here and in this game, yet we are expected to play all the higher years, right?” He responded and Spacefly nodded. “So if we win it’s a bigger deal, and the command is basically acknowledging that by offering us a bigger prize for winning.”

“Makes sense,” she replied and rubbed at her chin.

“It has an extra side effect of making us work a bit harder to try and get that prize to if you think about it,” Curtis said, drifting toward the centerfield group that was starting to form.

I swung my body around so that I was facing the closest surface and hit the activator on my belt to drop toward it. As soon as my feet had hit the metal, I pointed myself toward the others and pushed off. After being in the room several times, we had learned that launching from a surface was more than just power. It was about finesse if you wanted to go exactly where you wanted to.

Even so, I overshot my power and a hand from Curtis was all that stopped me from floating on past them.

“Thanks,” I said with a sigh and quickly let go of his hand as I kicked my feet to spin myself to their orientation.

“But it’s not like the command actually expects us first years to win, do they Commander?” Vicky asked, looking over to the Commander who was slowly floating his way over to us.

“They don’t but it is always a fun surprise when you guys pull something wild out of left field. Remember, it’s not just for the command structure that is up here. The ancillary staff enjoy watching the games too and it’s considered one of the perks of the job for them being up here since we don’t broadcast any of those games back to the surface,” he explained as he drifted to a stop a half dozen meters away.

“Seems like a missed opportunity for making a profit, you know, since Star Launch is a company after all,” Curtis said and bit at his thumb in thought. “Though I guess they also don’t want the bridge crews to be public knowledge either.”

“Exactly. While the world is for the most part at peace, there have been other inner groups that have attempted to start up similar ventures to Star Launch. Because of this, we do have a tendencies to err on the side of secrecy,” the Commander added.

“Besides, you absolutely know somebody is making a profit on these games,” Mendez said with a sly looking smile on his face.

“If you’re implying what I believe you’re implying I can neither confirm nor deny the existence of such transactions,” the Commander said with a huff. “Now, figure out what positions you want to try and get to practicing. You all have some practice matches setup with the DRAKE and MEGALODON crews the next few days to help you all get used to the game before the season starts after your next trial.”

“Add it to the pile of things to do,” I muttered and heard Curtis cough to hide a snicker that started to escape his lips.

“Better get used to it now,” the Commander said, clearing having heard my comment as he started to lift back toward the exit hatch. “Life in space is rarely slow, so enjoy it now while you can. That goes for all of you, with the exception of maybe Mendez, he’s got the right track on that at the very least.”

“Thank… you?” Mendez said, though it came out sounding more like a question.

“Well mark it off, I think that’s the first time someone caught Julio off guard enough that he didn’t have an obvious joke,” Sullivan said as he snatched the ball from Curtis’s hands, dribbling it between his hands before passing it over to Novarod. “I call goalie, I got some ideas for how that hoop can be used that I really want to try.”

Curtis nodded catching the ball as Novarod quickly passed it back around. “Ok, let’s try it three on three just to get used to the ball. Sullivan is goalie for both sides and we will rotate every so often. How do we wanna split the teams to start?”

“Oh come on Cap, you know we girls gotta show y’all how it goes, at least to start, right ladies?” I asked looking to Vicky and Sera who both gave me smiles and thumbs ups. This time I lunged for the ball, getting a hand on one of the handles and quickly hitting the activator on my belt, the surprise wrenching it from Curtis’s hands as I fell to the nearest surface. “Game on, Cap!” I shouted up, feeling a wide smile spreading over my face.

If we were supposed to have some fun, then I damn sure was gonna have some.