Novelas:Fourth and a Lightyear

The story of New Triton's improbable success in the 2404 Galaxy Bowl

Chapter 1
As four o’clock AM local time approached, the streets of Myvq were finally quiet. As the planet, situated near the edge of the Milky Way slept, only a few objects were giving off any light. Among them were the world’s twin moons, street lights, and a room on the third floor of the Royal Hotel. The room was a mess by almost all standards, filled with empty coffee cups and food wrappers, and clothes scattered everywhere.

There was, however, an explanation to the apparent mess beyond mere sloppiness on the part of the room’s occupant. The ubiquitous papers diagramed a myriad of hypothetical American football plays, and the clothes were not carelessly thrown around but actually carefully placed to represent different formations.

One piece of the floor, for example, featured socks lined up in a 5-receiver set, and to its left were empty cups and candy wrappers modeling a 3-4 defense. Further to the left was the bed of Hunter Danielson, head coach of the New Triton Planetary Football Team. Considering the late hour, it would be reasonable to assume the 36-year-old would be asleep, but the youngest head coach in the upcoming Galaxy Bowl was in fact wide awake, kept up by a combination of nerves and side effects of futuristic energy drinks. In the weeks leading up the competition, which was arguably the most prominent sporting event in the Galaxy, Danielson had routinely spent sleepless nights scouting opponents and studying film, aided by energy boosters such as CafPro and EnerX.

By this night, though, which marked the eve of the tournament, the young coach had done all the preparations necessary, and simply wanted to sleep.

As the clock struck 4:00, the monitor next to his bed lit up and showed a series of numbers that Danielson recognized as having a New Tritonian area code. The coach reached across the bedside table, which incidentally was also holding toenail clippings forming the popular 2-4-5 defense (with a piece of lint representing the 11th man in the formation), and hit “Accept.”

At that, two young girls appeared on the screen. “Hi Daddy,” both screamed immediately. “Dad, guess what? My tooth is loose!!!” said the shorter of the two girls.

“Another one? Wow. You are keeping that tooth fairy busy,” McDaniels said, audibly tired yet genuinely happy to see his two daughters. Not wanting to be outdone, the taller girl pushed her little sister aside.

“And guess what I did?! I saw a yellow frog in the playground today.”

“You know what that means, don’t you? You better make a wish,” the coach said, in reference to a popular New Tritonian folk story. Molly and Abby McDaniels, eight and six respectively, had consistently overlooked the 12 hour time difference between Myvq and New Triton, calling their father at any and all hours of the day, against the wishes of their mother who had told them not to call during the Myvqian night. McDaniels, though, never minded the predawn calls from his kids, seeing as he was rarely asleep anyway, and was frequently looking for a legitimate distraction from Xs and Os during the time he should have been sleeping.

During his eleven year coaching career, McDaniels had never previously sought distractions from football. He genuinely enjoyed coaching, particularly the strategic element of the game, but in the build up to the 2404 Galaxy Bowl, he had reached his limit, leading him to search in vain for momentarily relief from the preparations. He would only succeed in this pursuit through the late night talks with his daughters.

The sleepness nights themselves were also something new to the coach. Granted, he pulled his share of all-nighters in the past, but was still able to stay relatively well-rested, something few of his peers in the profession could say.