Fixer 13

by G. Michael Smith

  Chapter 10: Gravity Ball

  The game of GravBall (Gravity Ball) evolved after the Gravity Generator-Suppressor went mainstream. A lot of companies incorporated this technology into their exercise equipment, but its most famous use was in the GravTube (Gravity Tube), so-called because it formed a playing area encased in a cylinder of controlled gravity. The game became an integral part of the modern culture worldwide. [See Appendix 1 at the end of this ebook for a diagram of the gravity tube and details of the game.]

  The rest of Jayne’s week consisted of more jobs similar to the first. It lacked the excitement of discovering hearts hidden inside cases in strange rooms that morphed into other rooms and were visited by secretive-looking men with missing fingers and silver stars around their wrists.

  The supervisors seemed to take less and less interest in the group of apprentices under their charge. They experienced several problems involving the materials moving up and down the spavator. Packages would appear in an initial count, but wouldn’t be listed in the manifests or vice versa. Nothing seemed to come of it since all of the problems were resolved, being dismissed as miscounts or manifest errors. The panic that had overtaken the supervisors at the first occurrence was lessening. As computer error seemed to be the culprit, a recent upgrade was being rolled back in an effort to pinpoint the specific code responsible. This resulted in the apprentices being given some time off.

  Jayne woke to the sound of classical music that gradually increased in volume.

  “What is the title of the piece?” asked Lucky.

  It was a game they played: identify the music and the composer. Jayne quickly learned to recognize much of the music that Lucky chose. This morning, however, wasn’t a good one for Jayne. This was the third morning in a row that left Jayne with nothing to do. She missed going to work—it kept her mind occupied.

  As the music played on, continuing to increase in volume, Lucky spoke again, “Get up, Thirteen. I have made you something to eat. You can attempt to identify the music after you have eaten.”

  “I’m not hungry and I feel yucky,” moaned Jayne, rolling over and pulling the pillow over her head.

  “You do not feel well. Oh dear. I see you have not had a proper physical since you arrived. I will schedule—” started Lucky, but Jayne cut him off.

  “Stop. I don’t need a physical. I just feel yucky and I am bored out of my mind,” Jayne wailed.

  “Why don’t you go to the gym this morning after you eat?” suggested Lucky.

  “Gym? There’s a gym in this place? Why didn’t you tell me earlier?” asked Jayne. She got out of bed. “Where is it?”

  “Eat. Your VID will direct you, once you have finished your breakfast,” said Lucky.

  Jayne ate, then dressed and was soon on her way to the gym.

  “Maybe this day off won’t be so boring after all,” she thought. Apparently she wasn’t the only one to have thought about using the gym this morning. It was packed with apprentices. Some were working on machines, others were playing Gravity Ball in a mini GravTube (one-third regular size) designed for amateur play. The only major differences between this and a normal tube were the size and lack of cameras. There were also only three rows of seating for those who wanted to watch the amateur games.

  Jayne’s heart jumped in her chest when she saw the tube. GravBall was her favorite game. She learned to play when she was a little girl and, though some might say she was still a little girl, she knew she could play this game well. In fact she’d discovered that being little and quick was an advantage, especially on the high gravity lines. Her strength-to-weight ratio was often superior to that of many of the bigger players. She could speed up while travelling on a high grav line, and when that line changed to low grav she couldn’t be stopped. In low gravity Jayne was able to reach any goal position with a single leap. From there it was a simple matter of slamming the ball home.

  Jayne sat and observed from the near-empty viewing area near the center line. There was a ‘drop-in’ game in progress. She glanced at the clock, noting that the period was nearly over. She noticed Joseph playing, acting as the Ball Carrier (BC) for one of the teams.

  The teams weren’t using complicated pro scoring. Casual ‘drop-in’ games scored one point per goal no matter how many players were on each team. A balance was often achieved by balancing the skill of the players.

  Jayne watched as Joseph ran down a neutral grav line. She could see how strong he was. A seeker on the grav line to his left told him to move across and he veered left and back, just dodging a knocker. The robo-ref nearly called him for forward progress in space as the area between the lines was called. Then Joseph hit a low grav line. He misjudged his acceleration and went sailing up to the center axle. The axle bumped him with an anti-grav pulse. He lost his balance and went spinning out of control. He hit normal space and plummeted to the ground, but luckily his suit’s safety field kicked in and he landed softly.

  The robo-ref finally called him for forward motion in space and Joseph was forced to give up the ball to the opposition. Jayne smiled. That was her signature move. She would see a seeker indicate another low grav line on the opposite side of the tube, then she would execute a high leap on the line, followed by an anti grav bump from the center axle, moving down to another low grav line, before flipping back again until she was in scoring range. If everything went right, she was unstoppable.

  Jayne keyed her name into the game panel and it asked for her level of play. She had never played anywhere other than the nursery community tube. She had no idea what level she played. She took a guess and pressed five on a scale that went up to ten.

  The computer assigned her to the blue team, which was presently rated four points lower than the red team. She would be their seventh player. According to the computer, she would almost balance the teams. She grabbed the smallest suit and helmet she could find which would provide some protection to her elbows, knees, wrists and shoulders. The helmet fit well on her head, but the suit needed some adjustment. She rolled up the legs and sleeves and cinched in the wide blue waist belt. She knew that she probably looked a little silly, but that might make the other team underestimate her. They would do so at their peril. After she scored a few goals no one would care what she was wearing or how she looked. She waited for the period to end and, once the buzzer sounded and the door opened, she stepped into the grav tube. All gravity would be normal until the game started. Jayne walked over to the blue team as they gathered in the player pit.

  She strode up to the group of four guys and two girls. She didn’t recognize any of them, but she assumed that they came from some other apprentice group, or maybe they weren’t apprentices at all. They were all breathing hard and sipping water as she approached.

  “Did you see that big goof mess up an easy run on that low grav line?” a large blonde girl said, laughing.

  “I’m your seventh,” said Jayne, “I’m supposed to balance the teams. My name is Thirteen.”

  Everyone stopped and looked at her. “We use names here, not numbers,” said one of the guys.

  “That is my name… and my number. I’ve been called Thirteen for as long as I can remember, but if you don’t like it, just call me Wu, Jayne Wu,” she said.

  “Have you played this game before, Wu 13?” asked a small boy, who was sitting near the end of the bench. He stood, and Jayne noticed that he wasn’t much taller than she was. She realized after a moment that she was staring, for he was shaved completely bald except for a small horse tail sticking up from the top of his head. He had even cut a hole in his helmet to allow the hair to remain upright and visible.

  “I’ve played a little,” she finally replied, “and you can just call me Thirteen. What are your names?”

  The boy with the horse tail sticking out of the top of his head spoke first. “We all have GravBall names.” He pointed at each of the team members as he named them off. “That’s Busy Izzy, Jumper, Cannon Ball, Eye Spy, Pinky and I’m Spike. The next game will s
tart in a few. What position do you like?”

  There were seldom set positions in drop-in GravBall so everyone generally played a bit in each of them. The BC would have to run the ball down the lines and try to score, while the knockers could choose to play defensively or offensively. Depending on the team strategy, they would either guard the grav lines, trying to knock either the BC or the ball off the lines, or they would guard the BC and bump defensive knockers off the line. Seekers were in charge of communicating whether the grav lines were running high or low gravity, using coded gestures to tell the BC the best line to use. The trailer, as the name suggested, would play behind the BC, always ready to receive the pass back. Every player needed to be familiar with every position.

  “Whatever,” said Jayne offhandedly. “What are the signals?”

  “We are signal minimalists, meaning that we keep our signals simple. Thumbs up means a low grav line and thumbs down means a high grav line. The further you move your thumb back and forth, the more the line wiggles. A still hand means a straight line. Opening and closing your hand means a pulsar. If you signal with your other thumb up, then the line is moving towards the goal; thumb down means it’s moving away,” Spike said, opening and closing his right hand like a claw with his left thumb switching from up to down.

  “Wow, this tube has pulsar tech! That’s cool,” said Jayne. A pulsar line could send high and low gravity pulses down the line. Running in a low gravity pulse moving towards the goal would make an offensive player almost unstoppable.

  “I’ll start as a knocker,” said Jayne.

  “You and Pinky play back knockers and we’ll play the front when we are on defense. On offence, it’s all open,” said Spike. A buzzer sounded. “Let’s go!” he said, thrusting his fist in front of him.

  The other team members placed their fists on top of his and, as one, the team shouted, “Score!”

  As she ran out into the tube and took her position, Jayne glanced over at Joseph. He looked a little surprised to see her and raised his eyebrows in a mock salute.

  Spike noticed their interaction and glanced back at Jayne. “You know Big Foot?” he asked.

  Jayne shrugged, just as the ball popped out between Joseph and Spike. Joseph reached out and flipped the ball back to their BC who was already standing on a low grav line off to the left. The BC started running, glancing to the right at one of his seekers. Jayne saw the seeker give a wavy motion with his thumb up and assumed it meant that the line was low grav but not straight. Running it would be difficult. If a player jumped up too high, they could fly right over normal space or, even worse, into a high grav line. Falling like that could hurt, even with an anti-grav protection suit.

  The opposition’s BC glanced left, seeing his seeker raising and lowering his arm, hand edge up. There must be a low grav line running straight to the goal. He took the new line, just as Jayne moved to knock him aside. Anticipating that the BC would jump, Jayne jumped toward him, expecting to meet him in the air and hoping to knock the ball out of his hands. Unfortunately, she misjudged. The BC did not jump but instead ran right under her, then jumped for the goal located halfway up the wall. The ball disappeared and the score light turned red.

  Jayne watched as it flashed from red to amber and finally to green, and waited for the ball to spit back out of one of the four holes on the center line.

  “Tough one, Thirteen,” yelled Spike, just as the ball popped out right in front of Cannon Ball. Cannon Ball passed it over to Jumper as Jayne ran a zigzag pattern through the grav lines, trying to determine what was what. She discovered what she thought was a straight low grav line and signaled to the BC. Jumper ignored her, continuing to run from line to line, avoiding all of the other team’s knockers, while watching Eye Spy, who took up position about 20 metres from the goal inside of normal space. (Jumper liked twin high grav lines, especially when the knockers were closing in on him. He would snake through them. Anyone that tried to follow would be bogged down the moment they hit high grav. But his legs were like posts. Jayne found out later that Jumper could not jump, even in low grav.) Suddenly Ispy ran behind him, became the trailer, got the ball, ran down the low grav line, jumped and scored.

  Jayne clapped her hands and cheered, then took her place as the right back knocker. Pinky stood to her left, Busy Izzy was playing the mid, and Cannon Ball, Jumper, Ispy and Spike were playing the line. The ball popped into the air, hit a wavy low grav line, and sailed straight up. The ball crossed through a high grav line and careened straight down at Jayne. Grav balls were not designed to bounce so it landed with a thud, rolling to a stop at her feet. She picked it up, feeling like she was deep in the zone as Pinky moved behind her, into trailer position.

  Jayne looked around at her teammates for a signal of where to go. All she saw were thumbs pointing down. She started to run to her right, but she hit one high grav line after another. Some of them were so strong that she could barely cross them. She needed to find a low grav line soon or the opponent’s knockers would be on top of her. Looking up, she saw Joseph bearing down on her, his big feet flapping against the floor. Trying to avoid him, she ran up the curve of the wall. The 30 degree mark was the highest level that a grav line could run. Now she could see her seekers sending warnings. She would hit a reverse pulsar in one more step that would take her in the wrong direction and Ispy was signaling that there was a straight low grav line on the far left, but it was too far away to reach from the 30 degree line on her right. Jayne had no plan. There was no time to plan. She didn’t have enough information to form a plan.

  With no time to think, she just reacted, trusting in her luck. Jayne always trusted her luck and part of her knew that today would be no different. Luck was her friend.

  Smiling to herself, she started to run towards her own team’s goal. She heard Spike shout, “Thirteen, what are you doing? Pass it off.”

  But there was no one to pass to. She no longer had a trailer. Pinky was now in front of her.

  Jayne jumped into the reverse pulsar, catching a low grav pulse heading right toward her own goal. She jumped again in the low grav, sailing up to the center line. Arching her back like an old fashioned high jumper, she felt herself bumped upwards by the anti-grav field on the center line. She rolled over, moving into the low grav line on the left which sent her dropping straight down the line to the floor. She glanced to her right, seeing that all of the opponent’s knockers were on the right side, leaving her with a clear line down to the goal. Even if she walked, they couldn’t catch her before she scored. The goal was high up and stable, and Jayne decided to show off. Running down the low grav, she hopped, skipped, jumped, did a somersault in mid-air and scored. She pushed off the wall into another somersault and landed near the tube center in the low grav line.

  Jayne turned to her teammates with a smile on her face as they ran toward her.

  “That was fracking fantastic,” shouted Pinky, slapping Jayne on the back.

  “And stupidly dangerous,” said Spike, “but very cool to watch.”

  The rest of the team agreed and congratulated her.

  A moment later everything stopped. The hum of equipment and grav field generators halted. The lights dimmed and the doors to the gym clicked and locked.

  A computer voice droned over the PA. “HUB 169 is in lockdown. Please sit on the floor and wait for further instructions.” The message continued to repeat, stopping suddenly when the last person sank to the floor.

  One person decided to stand up, for whatever reason, and the droning computer voice started again. After a few similar episodes, everyone was so sick of hearing the announcement that they resigned themselves to the situation and sat and waited. And waited.