The Fourth World: Authors Definitive Edition

  “Starball is everything,” he repeated. “It’s a game, played using the saucers, flying inside the dome. It’s hard to explain – it’s best just to watch it; there’ll be a game at the end of this week. Every year the first and second place teams from the year before play an ‘exhibition’ match in the first week, to kick off the school year as it were.”

  Zack nodded thoughtfully.

  “The draft is tonight, after dinner. It’s a big deal. Students graduate, and need to be replaced. We lost two of our best players this year, so the draft will replace them. The new draftees will have to play in the exhibition game, which makes it more challenging for the leader – he only has a few days to get the new team together and working as a unit. Tryouts and the games proper will begin next semester, in late January. Then we play every squadron against every other until a winner is determined.”

  “Is there a prize?” asked Zack.

  “Oh yes,” said the boy. “A field trip.”

  “A field trip?” said Zack. “Oh whoopee, that sounds amazing. Not.”

  The boy shrugged. He then pointed at the door that led out of the dome, towards the train station. “You see those rocks?” he said, gesturing at a couple of display cases with basketball-sized gray rocks in them. “We picked them up on the last field trip.”

  “Great,” said Zack. “Rocks. Where’d you get them? Nevada?”

  “We got them on our field trip,” repeated the boy. “On the Moon.”

  ***

  Dinner was full of thoughtful silence from Zack. He had Starball on his mind, not to mention a field trip to the moon. He hadn’t said as much, but Fintan could read it all over his face.

  “I guess I was always on the sports teams at school,” he said finally. “I wonder how I can get to be on the Starball team.”

  “They might draft you,” said Fintan.

  Ayako smiled. “You probably don’t want to be drafted,” she said. “I can’t imagine leader Simon will be happy with untrained freshers on the team. We’ll have a chance when they have tryouts in January.”

  After dinner, Mister Sinclair, who was their squadron owner as well as Cosmic History teacher, took to the podium at one end of the dining hall.

  “Everybody, can I have your attention please,” he said loudly.

  All eyes turned on Sinclair, as a large screen unfurled behind him. On it was a video feed of the leaders of other squadrons. Fintan elbowed Zack pointing out Iara who was on-screen with the leader of Yellow Squadron. In the center was Trichallik.

  “Let the draft begin,” she said in her hissing alien voice.

  She held up a simple looking bag. “As Yellow finished fourth, they shall go first,” said Trichallik. She pulled a name out of the bag and read it “Morgan Wilson.” There were cheers on-screen in Yellow Squadron’s room, and groans in red’s.

  “He was their best reserve. They just got much stronger!” said one boy. The draft went on through Green Squadron, and then Blue, which had to replace three players.

  As each name was called out, Fintan could see Simon putting his head further down in his hands. The draft had been kind to their rivals, with experienced players being pulled from the hat.

  “Blue is looking strong now. I think they’ll take it this year!” Fintan heard somebody say.

  It became Red Squadron’s turn.

  On-screen, Trichallik reached into the bag. She pulled out a name and read it.

  “Nizhoni Benally,” she said. “First year student.”

  “What?” shouted Simon, incredulous. “A first year! A Fresher? You’ve got to be kidding me! She doesn’t even know how to fly!”

  “Actually,” said Iara, from the screen. “She’s in my class, and she’s very good.”

  Simon stared at the screen. “She’s a first year,” he repeated, softer this time.

  Mister Sinclair put his hand on Simon’s shoulder. “It’s a random draw,” he said. “Luck is against us, but we don’t need luck. We are Red Squadron.”

  “Besides,” he continued. “There’s another name to come out of the hat.”

  Trichallik nodded and reached into the bag again. She pulled out a name and read it.

  “Fintan Reilly,” she said, without emotion. “First year student.”

  Chapter 10. Nizhoni’s Plan

  I never thought you’d rig the draw like that.

  You probably won’t believe this, but I didn’t

  Really?

  Really. Fate can play a strange hand, can’t it?

  “So you guys are the little freshers who think they can fly with us, huh?” said Simon to Fintan and Nizhoni at breakfast the next morning. “I haven’t forgotten your pathetic defiance in the cavern. You will not defy me like that again, understood?”

  “Hang on,” said Fintan. “We didn’t choose this. You saw Trichallik pick our names out of the hat.”

  “Don’t answer me back like that!” said Simon, anger bubbling up in his voice. “You will now call me sir and ask me for permission to speak. Do you understand?”

  Fintan didn’t answer.

  “I said, do you understand?” he yelled, slapping the table for emphasis.

  “Yes, sir,” said Nizhoni flatly.

  Simon looked to her. She met his gaze. If he was looking for sarcasm or irony, it wasn’t there.

  “Practice is at the launch dome at 1700,” he said to her. “You know how to get there? You can read, right? Make sure the other greenie kiddo is with you, okay?” he said, jutting his thumb in Fintan’s direction.

  ***

  Cosmic History was even more boring than usual and it was hard to concentrate when Fintan was worried sick about what would happen with Simon later in the day. I didn’t ask for this, he thought. I didn’t want to join your little team.

  It seemed that Mister Sinclair had a sixth sense for when Fintan wasn’t paying attention and asked him question after question. Each one Fintan got right, but that wasn’t enough for the teacher, who kept asking.

  Finally, Fintan got one wrong. With glee Sinclair doled out detention for Fintan’s “lack of attention.”

  As he had practice that evening, he would have to serve late detention, after dinner.

  Fintan sighed. This was not a good day.

  He walked out of class in a dark mood, wanting just to go back to his bed and hide his head under the covers. Zack smiled and joked and mimicked Sinclair, but nothing was going to work. The more he tried, the more Fintan felt a knot in his stomach, tightening, making him want to scream.

  He felt a touch on his arm. It was Nizhoni. “Can we talk?” she said.

  Fintan nodded.

  Zack said “Sure! What’s up Nizhoni?”

  Ayako elbowed him. “She wants to talk to Fintan.”

  Zack’s mouth made an ‘Oh’ and he winked as he walked off with Ayako.

  When they were gone, Nizhoni looked him in the eye.

  “I told you he hates me,” said Fintan.

  Her answer was a slap to his face. Not a hard one, but enough to shock him more than he ever thought he could be.

  “Wake up,” she said. “You’re better than this.”

  Fintan put his hand to his face. It felt hot where she had struck him. “Why?”

  She didn’t let him finish. “Because sometimes that is the only language you understand. Listen with your heart Fintan, not your brain, and sometimes things previously hidden will be unveiled.”

  “Are you telling me he doesn’t hate me?” asked Fintan.

  She sighed. “I’m telling you it doesn’t matter what he thinks. You are in control of what matters in your life, not him. He cannot touch you, he cannot hurt you, he cannot harm one who has dreamed a dream like yours.”

  She smiled a rare smile. Tears were in her eyes. Suddenly tears were in Fintan’s eyes too.

  She touched his face again, this time more gently.

  ***

  Last class of the day was Astronomy with Miss Parmour.


  Fintan had always loved the stars, but this class terrified him. Miss Parmour was huge and she was warty. Her dirty blonde hair fell to her shoulders and her pig-like eyes seemed to have no whites in them. She liked to scream in class as she recited data about star after star.

  Red giants in particular got her excited.

  “I’m sure she’s an alien,” said Zack. “You know like it’s a disguise that she’s hiding in.”

  Fintan snickered, but stopped quickly as she cast her piggy gaze towards him. She squinted before going back to her lecture on the life span of red giants.

  “Deep inside there’s a big slimy lizard just waiting to get out,” whispered Zack.

  Fintan snorted. Again she looked his way and he tried not to cry from keeping the laughter inside. He bit his lip so hard he thought it was bleeding.

  “The blob from the planet Mungo,” whispered Zack.

  Finally Fintan burst out laughing, but by some stroke of luck his laugher was drowned out by the bell.

  He sobered quickly. It was 1700.

  As they left class, Zack and Ayako bade their goodbyes and Fintan and Nizhoni made their way to the flight center.

  They were a few minutes early, but Simon showed up on the stroke of the hour. He was friendly and cordial with the rest of the team, shaking hands, exchanging hugs and discussing the summer gone past and the upcoming game.

  The moment passed and it was time to get down to business.

  “By now, you know who we got to replace Jack and Paulina,” he said to the team. “Two greenie freshers. Two pinpricks who are useless to help us.”

  He paused and stood before Fintan, towering over him. “Two pilots who will be nothing but a weight around our necks.”

  “Well,” he continued. “Let me ask if these babies understand that when we are practicing and playing Starball, that they are under my command and my word is law?”

  “Yes, sir,” said Nizhoni. Simon smirked and looked at Fintan.

  “Yes, sir,” croaked Fintan.

  “Good,” said Simon. “I have my first orders for you. So simple, even you can understand.”

  He pointed to the door, and yelled.

  “Get out!”

  ***

  Fintan was ready to protest, but a subtle elbow in the ribs from Nizhoni stopped him. Wordless, she turned and walked out the door. Fintan followed, reddening as he thought of Simon’s smirk.

  She was waiting for him outside.

  “That nasty son of a-”

  She cut him off with a stern look. “We follow orders without question,” she said.

  “Without question?” said Fintan, incredulous. “Does the squadron owner know that he’d kick us out?”

  “You forget who the squadron owner is,” said Nizhoni, raising an eyebrow. “I’m sure Mister Sinclair would love to hear your concerns.”

  “Besides,” she continued. “Without question means without question. End of discussion.”

  She strode off towards the train station.

  Fintan followed “But-”

  She stopped, looking up at the signboards showing the different platforms for the different train lines. Her eyes furrowed as she searched. Then, with a little grunt, she found what she was looking for and began to walk towards a staircase that was ahead of her and to her right. She walked a few steps and then stopped, turned around and gestured for Fintan to follow.

  “That’s not the right way,” he said.

  “I know,” she answered. “Come.”

  She boarded a train that was heading closer to the city center, away from the barracks.

  “Where are we going?” asked Fintan, confused.

  “To practice,” she responded.

  At the next stop she got off, looked around, and then headed towards a large, low, nondescript building not far from the station.

  At the gates, she swiped her wrist bracelet over the security scanner. It beeped green and the gates yawned open, granting her access. Fintan did likewise and followed her in.

  Inside the building was a vast, noisy and cavernous hall. Lights were flashing and noises were pounding everywhere. Fintan looked around and all he could see were games. Some reminded him of those from the testing, but there were many others that looked far more complex. Some were solo games, others involved teams of players huddled over large consoles, directing the action within. One thing stood out, all the kids were older. There were no first years here.

  “Wow,” said Fintan.

  Nizhoni gestured towards another area. Large black doors separated it from the game room. A swipe of their bracelets granted access. Inside were flight simulators like the ones Simon had kicked them out of.

  “You’re a genius!” said Fintan. “How did you know about this?”

  “I have some friends in the school,” said Nizhoni, not elaborating further. “They told me.”

  They grabbed a couple of the simulators, and Nizhoni started programming the settings. “I’m setting it for Battle mode,” she said. “You and I will be dog fighting. This is practice time, and this is how we will practice.”

  Fintan entered the simulator and put his headpiece on. Immediately the screen filled with a beautiful desert scene. He was flying above canyons and mesas. The view was realistic to him, and it was easy to believe that he really was flying over the desert.

  He’d never flown in-atmosphere before so needed to experiment with the controls a little. As he would be fighting, he also needed to get used to the gun controls.

  “The ship is a saucer,” said Nizhoni in his headset. “You can shoot a narrow beam in any direction along the axis of the ship, forwards, backwards or whatever. Also, you can shoot a blast downwards from the center of the ship. Understood?”

  Fintan experimented a little. He could get behind another ship and try to take it out with his beam, but because the saucers were thin, they were hard to hit. Alternatively, he could try to get above and then shoot a barrage directly downwards with devastating effect.

  He did a little target practice on the ground and got the hang of it quickly.

  “Ready?” she said.

  “Ready,” he answered.

  The landscape reset, and now she was nowhere to be seen. Taking his ship low to the ground, hugging the contours, he searched for her. However, the simulation was so accurate; he blew dust off the ground, giving away his position. Nizhoni came screaming out of the sky, obscured by the sun and blew him to pieces.

  The fight had lasted maybe five seconds.

  “One – Zero,” she said, and the simulator reset.

  Fintan wasn’t going to be fooled again. He also knew that she was smart enough not to try the same trick twice. Flying close to the ground would throw up dust and give away her position, so he guessed there was only one choice – the canyons.

  Again she was too smart for him. She had hidden in the canyons, but when he entered, she shot straight up and waited for him to pass beneath before blowing him to pieces.

  “Two – Zero.”

  At least he had lasted a little longer this time. That was encouraging.

  “You’ve done this before, haven’t you?” asked Fintan.

  “No,” she responded. “This is my first time. However, it is like any combat, and that I have done before.”

  Fintan made a guess this time that he might have more experience in the tight confines of a canyon than she did. Both her kills came from open air. He saw a rock arch, and tried an experiment. He flew his saucer into the arch, stopping under the bridge at its top, and then gently flew upwards until his saucer was hovering, partially obscured by the bridge.

  He waited.

  After a few minutes, he spotted Nizhoni. She was smart, knowing he was trying something different and thus plotting random courses, trying to be unpredictable. Finally she seemed to decide that he was in the canyon and started ‘buzzing’ it, flying close to the edge, trying to lure him out.

  He waited.

  He was going
to try an edge shot, with his beam weapon. He held his breath as he waited to line up the ideal shot.

  She edged closer to his position, still not seeing him. When she was in range, he fired, and realization dawned on him that this was his first time using the weapons.

  It worked -- her ship was blown apart.

  “Good shot,” she said, “Two – One.”

  After that, their fights were a lot more even. The next time was a good old-fashioned chase. Fintan realized quickly that the ships were too fast, and their albedo too thin to take each other out with beam weapons. However, Nizhoni made a mistake, flying under an arch, allowing Fintan to blow the top off it, burying her ship and scoring a kill.

  “Two-Two,” she said, reluctantly.

  It was exhausting, but fun. Their time ran out at 18:30, and they had to stop. By then they had killed each other half a dozen times.

  “Good practice!” said Fintan, and she answered with a smile. He’d never seen her smile like this before, and it made him feel special. Somehow, after that, detention didn’t hurt so badly. Sinclair scowled at Fintan as he entered happily.

  Chapter 11. Starball

  Are you sure it’s him and not her that we should be interested in?

  Yes.

  She is the best we’ve seen in years.

  I know, but I don’t understand it but when I look forward, I see him being the One.

  The One. Sounds so religious.

  Not religion, fact. Again, most real religions are based on fact, are they not?

  Nizhoni had asked Fintan not to tell anyone about their practice session. So, when the following morning Zack had asked them how practice went, Fintan answered “Great,” but didn’t elaborate.

  For the rest of the week, they followed the routine. They’d turn up at practice, only for Simon to throw them out, and then go on to practice in the games arena.

  On Friday, the day before Starball, Nizhoni programmed the machine differently. She dropped in a data crystal that set the machine up to simulate a Starball arena.

  So this is what all the fuss is about thought Fintan as they looked at the arena. It was simple, being a perfect cube made up of force fields. Hitting a field would be like hitting a wall. Your ship could be damaged or even destroyed. Being a cube, it had eight corners. The ‘goals’ were in opposite corners, with the playing field stretching across the diagonal width of the cube.