Welcome to Sunday Morning Scifi – microfiction to help you wake up and greet the day with a smile. I started by posting the following to Mastodon and Bluesky:
And two people got back to me right away – good times! To honor their Sunday Morning Scifi Microfiction request, I’m doing both – I hope you enjoy:
Knerpfball – Courtesy @noam
“This is impossible!”
Hirohito didn’t want to admit it, but xrp!gjul was right. He wiped the sweat from his face and looked to Jane, their Knerpfball team captain. The trio enjoyed a legacy of victories forged in human skill and xrp!gjul’s eight-armed Black Widow pitch. How was it possible that Zeepzeep and team – never advancing beyond the semi-finals – could be in spitting distance of conquest?
Jane shook off her misgivings, patting xrp!gjul on one of eight shoulders. “One more pitch, make it count.”
xrp!gjul knew – he knew – as soon as the ball left his fingers that it was one of the best Black Widow’s he’d ever pitched. The knerpfball should have curved, over and under, unenerringly into Hirohito’s mitt. He watched, slow-motion horror, the ball obediently pointing toward into Zeepzeep’s bat. Their opponent’s bratty lip curled with cruel dominion. He was going to win and there was nothing they could do about it.
“Time out!” the umpire screamed in English and xrp!gjul’s native tongue. “Review of play due to multiverse interference!”
“What’s that mean?” Jane asked xrp!gjul. “‘Multiverse interference?'”
“Your guess is as good as mine,” Hirohito said.
xrp!gjul watched four umpires study a tablet carefully, pointing at something the three teens couldn’t see. “The detectors found something,” xrp!gjul answered, the brow of his third eye narrowed. “I thought something was off.”
“You think …?” Jane asked. “Some kind of performance enhancement?”
“Zeepzeep’s people are known for tricks.”
Suddenly, the four umpires raised up, blank eyes and vacant expressions. xrp!gjul’s second mouth fell open. It was bad enough that Zeepzeep used telekenesis to steer the ball toward his bat – now their team was using mind control, too! For once, Zeepzeep had beaten the humans Jane and Hirohito at their own game. It was time for the Black Widow pitch to save the day.
xrp!gjul planted his hoofs carefully, straightened his cap, eyes finding the mind control projector – a small black orb plugged into a laptop – on top of the dugout. He wound up, as though practicing his pitch. At the last second, xrp!gjul turned and threw the ball with all of his might. One last Black Widow pitch to save the game, and their reputation.
xrp!gjul could only pray that Zeepzeep was too busy practicing his victory dance to recognize what was about to happen. His Black Widow pitch was an angry wasp of energy that could break bones or pierce flesh. The next .025 seconds would determine the rest of their Knerpfball career.
Poof! The result was everything xrp!gjul had hoped for – a 500-kilometer per hour pitch – the projector exploding into a cloud of glass, metal, and plastic. The four umpires jumped as if stuck with pins. Jane saw the recognition, understanding in their eyes. Zeepzeep’s team made their last mistake. What would the umpires say?
“After careful review of the play, and thanks to some last-second tactical support – official ruling is that Zeepzeep’s team forfeits due to unsportsmanlike conduct. Rules of Knerpfball are very clear about multiverse interference. Set – match – game – championship – awarded to team Black Widow. Congratulations, kids!”
The crowd hoisted the three teens to thier shoulders over the strains of ‘the Washington Post March.’ In Zeepzeep’s dugout, angry parents argued with resolute umpires – nothing would change the fact that Zeepzeep used, not one, but two illegal devices to change the outcome of the game. “I’ve never seen a team stoop so low in the history of Knerpfball. You should be ashamed of yourselves.”
Jane called to xrp!gjul over the jubliant crowd. “How did you know what he was doing?”
“I knew he was going to cheat, I was just waiting to figure out how he would do it.”
“You knew he would cheat, but you played him anyway?”
“Jane, that’s just part of the game.”
The End
Thanks for the suggestion, Noam – I hope you enjoyed this Sunday Morning Scifi Microfiction called ‘Knerpfball.’ I’m going to get started on Round #2 here in a second but this was a lot of fun to do. Thanks again!
