Chapter 202: Warming Up

Chapter 202: Warming Up

"She's not answering her phone, Eric. I need to find her. I scheduled her for a panel on new gaming technology. She'll be perfect for it."

Eric Kresthammer had the urge to grab his boss and friend, John, and slap him until he woke up and smelled the reality. He wanted to believe it was no sleep for 72 hours and too many doses of 'Wide-a-Wake, the Gamer's Friend.' But he had this urge when he was well rested. It was just John. Some people grew sharper under stress. John wasn't one of them.

"John, you don't want Belinda on that panel. Please drop that idea."

"Why not? She needs friends, and I'm trying to get her on team M-1000. She said she wanted friends."

"Yes, John. Most young people want friends. Can I remind you of a few things? She can't wear augmented gaming gear. She was in real pain from trying to use those gloves. She also knows you lied about having her medical team look at them first. All it took was a call to her doctors. So she can't wear the product you want her to endorse, and she isn't going to be accepted by a group of self-centered elite competition gamers who already think she's an idiot."

"What!? Why would they think that."

Eric poured another cup of hot black stuff in a pot by his desk. He couldn't get himself to call it coffee at this point. "John, you put Myra in a wig and a costume, told the people at Ubergear she was your daughter, and wheeled her up on stage. Myra took it from there and made Belinda look like an idiot. Not that anyone really thinks that's your daughter. Meanwhile, Belinda was actually doing some good work by stopping Chambers from getting you stuck in a lawsuit for harassing a disabled orphan."

John winced. "Yeah, that would be bad."

"You have no idea, John. He's also part of a VIP team that somehow got left off the VIP list. They were sent down by one of the Sponsors Belinda found. So not only would you have an ADA lawsuit, you could have had another for breach of contract. But I've been checking in with her bodyguards. Everything seems fine, and they invited her to compete with them in your 'Win it and take it home.' contest."

"Well, that's awesome! That was the whole point of this. Hopefully, she wins a game. She mentioned wanting some."

Ghost thanked the man handing him a contract and a pen. He put the pen in his bag and used the contract as a placemat as he ate some gooey concoction of fried potatoes, cheese sauce, and chili. The gesture went unnoticed by anyone except for Ghost. He was actually thankful. He recognized the problem as too much chili and not enough fried potato. When the insulted gamer went to put his hand on Ghost's shoulder, Butch glared at him and spoke low. "You really, really don't want to do that." The hand was withdrawn.

John appeared on the overhead screens, all smiles. "Wasn't that awesome? And we've got more to come. Up next, we have six teams competing in our one-of-a-kind Tournament featuring the return of that Legendary game: Starship Commander. We had over nine teams show up to compete in the retro-game challenge. The top six teams will now get a chance to show the galaxy who has the best crew. So let's hear it for our brave space explorers: Team M-1000 from Ubergear, Team Gearhead, Team Nameless Order, Team Good Old Guys, Team PowerDrink, and Team MunchyPotato. Even in the depths of space, you'll find those tasty gamer snacks from MunchyPotato!"

Minerva scowled. "Why aren't we up there? We beat all of those people!" Butch was disappointed as well. He and Kenji had read up on the game. It looked dead sharp to play.

Belinda looked torn. "I'd love to. But it's a hard game to play. I did solo simulations as the Captain, a Gunner, and a LAC pilot. I could handle them, but the Navigator role is impossibly tough unless you have a lot of practice."

"I could do it." Everyone looked over at Ghost, who was staring into space. Belinda realized his wrap-around shades must be smart-glasses. He was reading something and flipping through screens.

Kenji looked at Butch. Minerva put her hands in the air. "Yes, let's do it! I want to fire the guns."

Belinda asked Ghost. "How can you do it? Have you played before?"

Ghost nodded. "Yeah, just now. I checked out the Navigator controls. It's just astrogation and accelerated gravity. If you can handle Captain, I'll take Navigator. Kenji and Yumi are on the big guns. They have the best scores for it. Butch and Minerva can handle the Light Attack Craft when we launch them." Butch and Minerva had been playing dogfight games like X-wing and Red Baron of Solaris X for years.

Butch gave them a thumbs up. "Let's do it. Can you get us in, Captain?"

Belinda signaled to one of her guards. "Can you call Eric and tell him we need to talk? There's been a mistake in the roster for SC6."