Page 19 of Breaking Point
She reminded herself yet again that he had played the game professionally.“I’ve never seen a full game at all,” she said, with a sigh.
Two nights later she found herself in one of the high boxes at the arena, looking through the transparent steel wall of the tank at twelve players rolling in zero gee, and threw the four-handled ball around the tank, aiming for the goal mouth at the top.
While, down at the bottom of the tank, the groundsmen fielded the ball when it reached them, and used all their strength to throw the ball back up into the zero-gravity zone.Sometimes, the other team’s groundsmen would tackle them for the ball, and the crowd would go crazy, chanting “Fight!Fight!”as the two groundsmen grappled.
Not that there could be much fighting in two gees.“You’re twice as heavy down there as you are in normal gravity,” Brice pointed out.“You don’t want to blow all your energy swinging punches.”
As he had promised, he did explain the game to her, and it did make a difference, understanding the rules and why players were doing what they were doing.Luciana was happy to go to games after that, only she knew she would never love the game the way Brice did.His enthusiasm, while he watched a game, gave him a different appearance.She could see the younger man, the groundsman, in his shining eyes.
Frequently, they would walk to the Capitol after the games.They weren’t the only ones.A steady stream of Capitolinos would walk in front or behind them.Often, they would tease Brice about his former team’s less than stellar season.Brice would sometimes scoff back at them about the misfortunes of the other team.He could cite statistics, wins and losses, all without apparent thought.
It wasn’t just games that they attended together.Public functions that one or both of them had been invited to, including a Captain’s Table dinner on the Bridge with Captain Travers, Brice suggested with a casual air that he could withstand attending if only Luciana was there to distract him from the foul moods they generally produced in him.
There were performances in the Aventine.Brice arranged permission for them to have coffee—poured from a flask—while standing on the catwalk at the top of the ship, which stretched from the Aventine to the Palatine hub, and gave a stupendous view of the ship.
And Luciana got to see what public life was like for a former tankball player, turned wildly successful promoter, and why he usually preferred to stay at home.Anywhere they went, Brice was in demand.People surrounded him, put their hands on his arms, and sometimes his shoulders.Women, and some men, would step in close and smile breathlessly.And it never stopped, not even for a minute, unless he found a way to extract himself and find an empty room somewhere to breathe and brace himself for the next round.
In comparison, attending tankball games in the relative privacy of the Association’s private box was tranquil.
So when Brice suggested that they attend the Void Hounds’ last game of the season—as they had not made the finals, this year—Luciana agreed readily.
Chapter Seven
RIGHT UP UNTIL IT HAPPENED, Luciana was thoroughly enjoying herself.She and Brice had the box to themselves tonight.The game meant nothing to most people because neither team would qualify for the finals, even if they won the game.Luciana guessed that the Association staff had better things to do.
Yet the stall seats below and around them were all full, and the fans cheerful, despite the lame duck status of the game.
The Void Hounds were giving it their all, too.When she commented on it, Brice said, “That’s the team philosophy, right there.They started out as a no-name team, with no uniform or colors or even a coach.They got in the tank and played their hearts out, and the fans loved them for it.That’s where their original name came from.Mongrels United.They were a scrappy bunch of misfits who won the final, their first season out, because they never gave up, even though most of the ship thought they were laughable.”
“Is that why their uniforms are almost all white, now?”Luciana asked.
“They used the basic exercise clothing that the printers will print for free, to start,” Brice said in agreement.“They’ve kept that pared down look ever since.”
The Panthers, a Palatine team, didn’t look nearly as enthusiastic.Then the Hounds scored a goal, and the mood of the game shifted.It was as though the Panthers had rolled up their sleeves.
The game felt real, now.Luciana laughed as the groundsmen fought it out in the bottom zone, each trying to reach the ball, which was a deadweight right then, sitting at the bottom of the tank, the electronics blinking to show that it was still responsive.
The white uniform on the Hounds’ groundsmen made them seem even larger than their well-muscled bodies were.Luciana wondered what Brice had looked like in the uniform.When she had a moment, she would dig through the archives on the Forum and see if she could find images of him from those days.
The Panthers groundsman broke free of the Hound groundsman, lunged for the ball with the slow, wading movement players used in the heavy zone, gripped the ball, and spun in a slow circle, bringing the ball with him.He released the ball, which flew in a high arc toward the waiting players floating in the zero-gee zone.
They stretched out their arms to catch the ball…and it zigged away from them.
Luciana laughed.She hadn’t known the ball could do that.
“What the hell?”Brice said.
The ball’s new trajectory was directly toward the back wall of the tank, between the two goal mouths.The wall was transparent there, too, as it was all around the tank.On that side of the tank, girders and platforms had been built all the way up to the top of the tank.Players and other game officials used the platforms to access the tank.There were two access panels.One at the bottom of the tank, the other right at the top.
At the start of the first game she had seen, Luciana had watched in horror as team members had dived from the platform, through the top hatch, their arms out wide, to float through the zero-gee level and wave at the fans.
She fully expected that this time, the ball would bounce harmlessly off the walls as it always did, even though it seemed to be goingveryfast.
“Too fast,” Brice muttered, and she glanced at him.He was sitting up, his expression tense.
The ball didn’t bounce off the wall.It smashed right through it.It cannoned into the girders behind the wall and the girder bent with a deep, vibrating groan.The platform above it sagged.
Brice lurched to his feet.
