My Kingdom Come book 1: The Saints We See

656 standard years after the signing of the Alliance treaty

Hathu sat at the edge of the room listening. The older members of blue team were clustered around a desk at the center of the classroom discussing team member strengths and tactics. The physical combat teacher, Korish, sat in the corner watching over the general proceedings.

This was the second year that Nassar was a team captain. Team captains were chosen by vote. Each teacher had a vote and the students who were old enough to participate in the game also voted. Whoever won the student election was given an extra vote when the teachers cast their votes. The top four voted for students in the teachers election were the team captains for the game that year. The fields were assigned to the captains by lot and then the captains got to pick their own teams.

“Well,” Nassar was saying, “if we put those two on these sides of the pennant tree, then-”

“Do we have to put our pennant in that tree?” Hathu interrupted.

Nassar’s head snapped up. He looked around the room, uncertain who had spoken. “What?”

“Do we have to use that tree? Can we pick another tree to put the pennant in?”

Nassar stared at Hathu for a moment. “There’s nothing in the rules that say we have to use that tree, it’s just…always where blue team puts their pennant. That’s why it’s called the pennant tree.”

“What would happen if we put it in another tree and guarded the pennant tree as if we had put our pennant in it?” Hathu asked.

Nassar rolled his eyes. “They would be able to tell right away. There wouldn’t be any pennant there to see.”

“For all they know, we could have put it further up in the tree on the back side where no one can see it from their territory. As long as we do a good job of acting like our pennant is there it will take them a while to figure out it’s not there. Wasted time for them, extra time for us.”

Nassar stared at him for a few seconds then looked down at the map. After a moment he looked back up at Hathu with a sardonic expression on his face. “How old are you?”

“Ten.”

“You’re a baby. You don’t know anything. Your job is to listen and learn.”

“Alright.” Hathu shrugged.

Nassar turned back to the map. “So, if we have Pazier and Henin guarding these two sides of the pennant tree, then we’ll have to have three others guard the other side, because no one else is as fast as they are.”

When they were dismissed from the planning session Nassar told Hathu to stay back.

Hathu slowly began to pack his school things, waiting for the other students and Korish to pack up their belongings and leave the room.

Once everyone had left, Nassar turned to look at Hathu. “You’re Nediz’s youngest son, aren’t you?”

Hathu zipped up his bag and nodded.

Nassar swallowed. “Listen, I didn’t mean any offense. I just can’t take strategy suggestions from you in our meetings. You’re ten. It’ll make me look bad.”

“Alright. I’ll be quiet.” Hathu swung his bag up on his shoulder and turned to go.

“But you have more ideas?”

Hathu stopped and turned back. “Yeah.”

“Show me.” Nassar pointed to the map.

* * *

Nassar jogged up and grabbed Hathu’s arm. “We need that distraction. Orange team is wearing our runners out.”

“You want me to sacrifice myself?” Hathu asked in surprise.

Nassar nodded.

“I’m not the best candidate, I don’t think they would believe me.”

“If anyone can sell it, it’s you. Besides, you’re fast and you’ve been held back here so you’re rested. Go.” Nassar motioned across the field.

“Alright.” Hathu nodded.

The playing field was a giant square divided into quarters. Orange and red territories were directly adjacent to two sides of blue’s territory. Purple was catty-corner to them. Orange had gotten a lucky break early in the engagement and taken purple’s pennant. Blue team had won red’s pennant while orange was desperately trying to capture blue team’s pennant in the tree they expected it to be in. The engagement was tied. Whoever took the next pennant would win the first point of the game.

Unfortunately two thirds of orange’s territory was uphill from blues territory and orange’s strategy for the moment was to just hunker down and let blue team exhaust themselves while they rested up.

Hathu wandered towards orange’s territory trying to look like a lost ten standard year old. It seemed to be working. The defenders were focussing on the older members of the team. He crouched down into the scrub as soon as he reached it and crept up to where orange had both it’s pennant and purple’s pennant hooked over a low branch of their pennant tree.

Members of orange team were swarming around the tree, outside the buffer zone they had to leave between the defenders and the pennant. It would take a miracle to get through that defense line to the pennant, and even if someone made it through, there was no way they would be able to get back across that line without being tagged out.

Hathu studied the terrain for a moment planning out his deception. There was a decent sized bush near the defenders line. He crept over to the bush his heart pounding and made it there without being spotted. He watched the shifting line of defenders waiting for a moment when most of them were looking away from his position. He debated briefly whether or not he should try to crawl inside the defense line and nab the flag himself, but he quickly shook the thought away. It would only be a moment of glory that he would quickly lose, and his team was depending on him.

Suddenly Hathu’s moment came. Two groups of blue team runners were coming up into orange’s territory, pulling the defender’s attention their way. Hathu burst out of his hiding place, hands clutched to his chest. He sprinted towards his home territory screaming frantically, at the top of his lungs. “I got it! I got the pennant! Cover me!!”

The closest group of blue team runners converged on him, surrounding him to protect him from being tagged as long as they could. Hathu continued to make as much noise as possible. The plan worked. Orange team swarmed around him and his defenders, frantic to stop him. Hathu ran diagonally towards the outside corner of his home territory to give Nassar more room to work with.

One of the camera drones covering the engagement hovered nearby keeping pace with him. Hathu had a brief heart stopping moment where he wondered what his father’s reaction to this play would be. He pushed the thought away and forced his legs to move faster. He had to sell this. His team was counting on him.

Hathu’s defenders were picked off one by one and then he was being tackled to the ground by a much larger player. He slammed into the dirt, his breath was driven out of him and his vision blacked out for a moment, but he kept his hands clutched to his chest as if he were still holding the pennant. Rough hands rolled him onto his back.

“Drop it! You’ve got to drop it!” The players clustered around him yelled triumphantly.

Hathu stared at them as if he were confused and afraid.

“Drop the pennant!” One of the players leaned down and pried at his hands.

The sound of the buzzer that signaled the capture of a flag rang across the field. The players around Hathu lost all interest in him. They let out a few preliminary cheers, looking up wide eyed, craning to see the score board. Hathu jumped to his feet and pushed his way through the taller students.

‘Blue team captures orange pennant,’ flashed across the lit screen. Triumph filled Hathu as the orange team members around him let out sounds of dismay.

Blue team had won the first point of the game.