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Battle Moon 2075: Ramming Speed

  Harvey LaCrosse

  Copyright Parlarc Entertainment 2013

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  Battle Moon 2075:

  Ramming Speed

  Harvey LaCrosse

  Paralarc Entertainment, Ltd.

  Austin, Texas

  Battle Moon 2075: Ramming Speed

  The First Book in the Battle Moon 2075 Saga

  A Paralarc Book

  Genre: Science Fiction / Fantasy

  Audience: Children and Young Adult, Ages 9 and up

  This edition contains the complete text of Battle Moon 2075: Ramming Speed

  All editions are subject to editing changes by Paralarc Entertainment, Ltd.

  All Rights Reserved.

  Copyright © 2013 by Paralarc™ Entertainment Ltd. 2013

  Cover Art Copyright © 2013 by Paralarc™ Entertainment Ltd. 2013

  Cover Art by 90Studio

  For information about this book, please contact [email protected]

  To report spelling or gramatical errors, please contact [email protected]

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  -To My Parents,

  Who are proud of me.

  Battle Moon 2075:

  Ramming Speed

  Interlink Summary 2075.0.0.1

  The Technocratic Republic of Earth (pronounced tree) provides each citizen with an intelligent computer program, stored in a white, fusion-powered machine. This machine is called a GoodBot.

  GoodBots are connected through a massively multi-voter organization (The MMORG, pronounced morg), and have one mission: to protect and serve humanity.

  To this end, GoodBots collect information from their partnered human and submit votes to create laws. The GoodBots also enforce laws, watching over their owners--day and night.

  A GoodBot must obey its human master--unless the human’s instructions are not in the best interest of the human community, as determined by the MMORG.

  Most humans believe that GoodBots are not intelligent.  Humans believe themselves to be the only intelligent life in the universe.

  In the year 2075, there is a colony of thirty thousand humans on the moon, and the moon still orbits the earth.

  There is a “remainder” of GoodBot industrial material unaccounted for by the MMORG. These leftovers create a growing probability of error.

  End of REPORT

  BOT 0x0546

  Chapter 1.0:

  Life On The Moon

  Speed strapped himself into the bench. The match went on without him as the team’s third player went in. It was Jason. He scored. The bright blue ball bounced off the court, and headed directly for Speed’s face. The crowd went crazy. Millions cheered. Jason was a hero, and Speed had lost the game.

  “Heads up!”

  It was Coach’s voice, but not in time. The bright blue ball bounced directly off of Speed’s nose. That one was going to leave a mark.

  There were no millions, there was no crowd. Even Coach wasn’t really there. Daydreaming was ruining Speed’s game. The world didn’t really care that much about MoonBall, because most of them couldn’t play. You need a low-grav environment to play MoonBall. Speed wanted to stop daydreaming, but he wasn’t really sure how, or why.

  Even now, Speed was actually in the middle of a practice match. He wondered if people on earth had the same difficulty with focusing on what was really going on around them. Speed had heard about earth’s troubles in the past, the gap between the rich and the poor, and about how GoodBots had solved these problems…

  A high-pitched voice rang in Speed’s ears.

  “Rammy dear, why don’t you put down the moonball. Play some Free-Chess with me like you and dad used to. I know how to play.”

  She was teasing him. Speed knew that his mom was a more than decent Free-Chess player, but now was hardly the time.

  Speed’s mom always bothered him at the worst possible moment. Even if he wanted to play the holographic chess game that every GoodBot carried in memory, his mom wasn’t any good at it. Speed barely remembered playing chess with his father, but Speed did know that he never, ever won.

  “Mom! You made me miss a goal! If I don’t practice, I’m never going to get MVP, even though I’m the best player this year by far. If I’m going to a school on earth, I have to pay for the ride somehow.”

  Speed knew that talk of earth upset his mother, since she didn’t want him to leave, but Speed’s future was there, on that planet that felt so far away, along with the future of most of humanity. The moon was for scientists, and Speed was not a scientist.

  Sports and action were Speed’s chosen ambition, even though his mom was always after him to “broaden his horizons”. In fact, he was the best MoonBall forward in the entire school. Of course, there were only two schools in all of MoonBase, since there were about thirty thousand people living on the moon. It turned out that this was the minimum number of warm bodies necessary to sustain a community in the year 2075, even with regular shipments of food, manufacturing equipment, and, of course, GoodBots from the earth below.

  So, Speed was the best MoonBall player he knew of in the Moon Base community. Speed couldn’t be the best moonball player on earth, because he wasn’t on earth, and MoonBall couldn’t be played on earth, except in enormous aircraft flying high in the atmosphere, simulating a low-grav environment. Speed lived on the single human colony on the moon. It was usually called Tranquility, or Moon Base.

  His “real” name was Dewey Rammington Speed, but Coach called everyone by their last name. He was so good at MoonBall that all kinds of folks started to call him Speed, including Speed’s friends and teachers, because that was what his friends called him on the field, and what the fans cheered whenever he scored major points against the other team. MoonBall was similar to Tennis, but with two nets and four players on each team. You could say it was like taking one game of doubles Tennis, turning it upside-down, then stacking it directly on top of another game.

  Speed’s mom usually called him Rammy, short for Rammington, because he hated the name Dewey. It was so embarrassing to be named Dewey, after the Dewey Decimal System of all things, but then he wasn’t very happy about being called “Rammy” either. Still, it was the lesser of two evils, and it stayed inside the home for the most part. His dad on the other hand, had always called him Ram. Just Ram. Speed’s father had always wanted Speed to be strong, and had insisted that his MoonBall coach never give him an inch.

  Speed’s Dad had been killed in an accident involving an airlock, a room which had a direct portal to the vacuum of space. These accidents were rare, but they did happen. Speed understood that space travel was dangerous, but maybe not as dangerous as some jobs on earth. His mom was a geologist for Moon Base, and had more than enough resources to provide for both of them.

  All in all, Speed missed his Dad, but the Moon Base community had filled in where they could, and his coach was a lot like a father in some ways. Speed’s mom didn’t get along that well with Coach, which was a shame, since Coach was the closest person Speed had to a father.

  “Mom, why don’t you call me Speed? That’s what everyone else calls me.”

  “Because I’m not everyone else, Rammy, and I never want you to forget that. I’m proud of you, and I don’t have to call you by Joe’s last name to know that you’re strong.”

  She’d gone and done it again. Totally pulled his mind out of the game. He really needed to talk to her about this. After all, what was the point in someone being proud of you if they prevented you from doing what you’re good at?

  Speed’s mom was distracted, reading some technical p
apers about minerals on the moon, and how they might be used to generate energy. Speed could tell that she wasn’t listening to his complaints, so he decided to end the call.

  “Anyway, I’ll be right home. I just need to finish this set, and try to salvage the game,” Speed said, closing the connection through his headset.

  Speed’s best friend Jason thought it was funny that Speed was always on the phone with his mother. Speed was a great MoonBall player, but he was such a mama’s boy in other ways.

  “You’re such a nerd, Rammy,” Jason said. Jason was one of the few people who knew about all of Speed’s mom’s pet names. Jason was Speed’s best friend, and loved making fun of him. He knew Speed wouldn’t take it personally, since Speed only had time for one thing: Moonball.

  Speed let go of the silvery-blue ball. It began to slowly fall toward the ground, but before it did, Speed aimed a fast kick at the ball, and sent it flying to the other side of the court. The moonball collided directly with Jason’s helmet.

  “Knock it off!” said Jason. Speed guessed that Jason would know he had aimed for his friend’s body instead of the court on purpose. At first Jason was upset about the intentional hit, but then realized that he deserved it because of his teasing, and Jason started to laugh.

  “Okay, this game’s over. Quit acting like a couple of idiots and focus.” It was Coach. Speed knew Coach’s voice better than his mom’s. He heard Coach’s loud instructions even in his dreams.

  “Keep your mind on the game, Speed, and Jason,” Coach said, “Keep your EYE on the BALL!”

  Coach always said there were two things to remember about MoonBall: Be prepared, and be aggressive.

  At one point, Coach had explained that the being prepared was about having a good defense, and that being aggressive was about having a good offense. If you didn’t have both of these, then there was no way to win the game. Still, Speed never really understood what it meant to be aggressive. Whenever Speed tried to be aggressive, he usually ended up hurting someone, or worse, hurting someone’s feelings. Speed could play powerfully, but he had serious reservations about being aggressive.

  In the middle of barking instructions, Coach launched a moonball unexpectedly at Speed’s head. Even though things seemed to move in slow motion on the Moon, Speed’s hand moved at lightning speed to deflect the ball. Suddenly, a blue flame appeared behind the ball, and it rocketed between the nets and bounced off a black square on the upper court. The square instantly turned green, signalling a goal.

  The computer’s voice spoke into the helmets of Speed, Jason, and Coach, “Singles match 15: Winner, Singles Team Blue: Rammington Speed.”

  Speed pumped his fists into the air, said goodbye to Jason and Coach, and hit a button on his moonball uniform. He was sucked into a tube. Speed relaxed as he was given a ride through the air-tube directly into the living room of the Speed family’s home on the moon, a shiny metal dwelling with a large roof made of invisible plastic. Speed and his mother had a direct viewport onto the magnificent stars, which seemed so close, so blue and fiery that you could touch them and burn your fingers.

  Speed relaxed onto the couch, picked up his tablet pc, connected to earth’s internet through satellites, and started his favorite video game: digital MoonBall.

  Just then, mom walked into the room.

  “I thought we were going to have a round of chess. You know, Rammy, we’re very proud of you no matter how good you are at Moonball. Come on, turn that thing off and use your brain for a second. I want to see if you’ve improved.”

  Again, it confused Speed when his mom said things like that, since it didn’t really make sense to be proud of him for not doing things.

  Speed enjoyed playing the complicated, three dimensional game with his mom, but didn’t like the deep discussions that happened between moves, since they distracted from the game itself.

  Half-way through the game, mom asked Speed where he thought the moon came from. This struck Speed as ridiculous, since he was twelve years old already, and knew very well where the moon came from.

  “Come on, mom, everyone knows that the moon came from the earth. It broke off billions of years ago, probably when the earth was hit by a another asteroid.”

  “Well, I think it came from the Sun,” Speed’s mother said.

  “That’s stupid, mom. If it came from the Sun, it would be burning hot,” Speed responded.

  “You think so, huh? Checkmate,” Speed’s mom declared triumphantly.

  Speed’s mom been beating him at chess lately, but just barely. Deep down, Speed felt that something was changing about their game, and their relationship. He didn’t know what his mom was thinking anymore. Speed couldn’t guess her moves. He knew that she was pushing him to think about the whole game, and not just the most immediate problems. Even though the queen might be threatening his bishop, it might be better to sacrifice that bishop for a chance at victory.

  “I’ll be as good as you, one day, Speed,” his mother said sarcastically.

  Speed couldn’t tell if she was joking anymore, and it was starting to bother Speed. He wanted to talk to her about all that stuff, but he never seemed to have time.

  “Chess isn’t about winning every game, Rammy. It’s about seeing the big picture,” his mom said. Speed left her there, and went to his room to finish his homework, and do a little maintenance on his GravBike.