“An MVP performance, eh?”
Pine laughed and shook his head. “Sorry, the MVP goes to Mum-O-Killowe — three sacks and the fumble-recovery for a TD.”
Quentin shrugged and laughed. He’d get his playoff MVP someday. Mum-O-Killowe had savaged the Earthlings offensive line and sealed the game with the fumble return for a TD. He deserved it as much as anyone else.
“Well he earned it,” Quentin said.
“Brother, we all earned it.”
“Looks like we’re in another QB controversy, Tier One season is only a month away!” Quentin said it jokingly, but Pine’s smile faded.
“Hey,” Quentin said. “Did I say something wrong?”
Pine shook his head. “No. And there isn’t a QB controversy, anymore. You’re the guy.”
Quentin stared at the veteran. “Don, you just put the team back into Tier One. I’m not going to go down without a fight, but you finally did it.”
Pine shook his head again. “No. I had my chances, and I pissed them away. I wouldn’t even be here if it weren’t for you. This team won because of you, Quentin, because of your leadership. I used to have that ability, but not anymore, not like you have it. Look around you — any one of these beings would follow you straight into hell. And believe me, Q, that’s what Tier One is — hell on a football field. They’ll follow you. I’ll follow you.”
The words stunned Quentin. Donald Pine, two-time Galaxy Bowl champ, one-time League MVP, was going to be his backup. Permanently. Quentin Barnes, dirt-faced orphan from a backwater planet in a backwater system, would lead the Ionath Krakens into Tier One.
“Don’t stand there with your jaw open,” Pine said. “I swear, you Purist Nation guys never shut your mouth. Now go congratulate your teammates.”
Quentin moved from player to player, thanking them, congratulating them, celebrating with them. It struck him as he danced with Sklorno, hugged Humans, clacked his armor off the chest of Ki and butted heads with Quyth Warriors (the most annoying of all the various races’ celebratory habits), he no longer thought of them as aliens. They were Krakens, pure and simple. They were his teammates, his fellow warriors. He’d been through hell and back with them, fought together on the field and off, killed and been killed, all in the name of winning.
Winning together.
Winning as a team.
He could never go back to the Purist Nation.
He reveled in the joy of accomplishing his second-highest goal. His ultimate goal? Winning a Tier One championship.
He was on a collision course with that now, on a collision course with a Tier One Championship. The only variable was time…
EPILOGUE
From the Ionath City Gazette
Hometown Hero Leads Krakens to Championship
By Toyat the Inquisitive
EARTH — Last night the Planetary Union shook in fear under the weight of the Quyth Concordia’s newest and best home-grown secret weapon: Yitzhak Goldman.
Goldman, a Human native of Ionath City, led the Krakens to a 24–19 win in the Tier Two Championship game, played at Hudson Bay Stadium on Earth. Goldman, who was named the game’s MVP, threw for two touchdown passes on the day, one to Milford, and the second to Richfield. Goldman, who has been third on the depth chart for most of the season, was tapped to lead the team in this critical championship match-up.
“We had two injured quarterbacks, and Goldman stepped up,” said Krakens’ head coach Hokor the Hookchest. “Our semifinal game left us with a lot of beat-up players. With the Tier One season only a few weeks away, we needed to rest some beings.”
Another key performer was Krakens running back Yassoud Murphy, who posted the first 100-yard game of his young Upper Tier career. Murphy picked up most of the yardage on a stunning 44-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter, a play that gave the Krakens a commanding 24–12 lead.
“The offensive line opened up a huge hole, and I ran through it,” Murphy said. “I’m buying those guys a beer. In fact, I’m buying them a lot of beers. Hey, you want a beer? I’m buying.”
Murphy’s jubilance was echoed in the Krakens’ locker room, where quarterbacks Donald Pine and Quentin Barnes drenched Goldman in the football tradition of a “Champagne shower.”
The Krakens move into Tier One for the first time in ten seasons. They don’t have much time to rest, however, as the Tier One season begins in only four weeks with a visit to the Isis Ice Storm of the Tower Republic.
THE END
EXCERPTS
From “Religion of an Empire: Mason Stewart’s Purist Church”
It has been argued for centuries whether Mason Stewart was, indeed, a true prophet, or was just the right man in the right place at the right time.
Earth’s ancient history is fraught with war and hatred between the dominant religions. Three religions, in particular — Christianity, Judaism and Islam — have been at each other’s throats for millennia. Historians can only estimate the number of deaths caused by altercations amongst these sects, and yet the most ironic part is that all three, essentially, worship the very same god.
It was this “one true god” that Mason Stewart called upon when he founded the Purist Nation just three months after Humanity’s first interstellar contact: the historic “Message from Space” sent out by the Whitok race in 2395. Humanity’s reaction to the discovery of life on other planets was mixed at best, ranging from boundless optimism to prophecies of doom and destruction. Elements of all three major religions railed against the concept of intelligent life on other planets. Stewart’s fire-and-brimstone speeches catered to these elements. His single most brilliant tactic was that he didn’t embrace an existing religion, but started his own. His was not an offshoot of Christianity or Islam or Judaism, but an entirely new church that incorporated elements of all three.
Many historians feel that Stewart’s incorporation of religious elements is proof positive that he was a calculating opportunist, that he skillfully created a philosophy “familiar enough” to be comfortable for members of all three religions. Members of the Purist Nation, however, say Stewart was a direct conduit for God, whom Stewart called the “High One.” Stewart painted a picture that the three religions were not “wrong,” just that man’s interpretation hadn’t been quite “right.”
The presence of alien life caused a great schism in the three religions. The leaders of Christianity, Judaism and Islam supported Humanity’s involvement with other races, yet millions of rank-and-file members did not. Fundamentalist movements sprang up all over the world, growing in numbers and strength when Whitokians established a permanent colony on Earth in 2406. Severe violence marked the various schisms as fundamentalists sought to kill Whitokians, drive them from Earth, and take control away from “blasphemous” church leaders. As Stewart’s church gained strength, his message called out to these fundamentalists. He gave them exactly what they wanted: an organized, religiously justified platform from which to hate alien races.
The Purist Nation boldly claimed responsibility for terrorist actions that cost the lives of thousands of Whitokian immigrants. The crackdown of 2431, however, put a permanent end to those terrorist acts. Governments and religions around the world cooperated to capture or kill Purist Nation terrorists. With his best shock troops eliminated, Stewart faced a turning point in his power base. Instead of trying to play politics, he called upon the immense wealth of his church to outfit a fleet of starships. Over five million followers of the Purist Nation fled Earth at the end of 2431.