Dear readers In a time of universal prosperity technology and good will Earth is still the home base for a thriving human civilization which has spread across 50 or so planets In addition to these colonies the people of Earth are on friendly terms with hundreds of alien civilizations Some of these aliens are humanoid some are animal-like and a few are truly unique Almost all the civilizations Earth is in contact with are friendly and military aggression is extremely rare but that has not always been the case For many generations conflicts and misunderstandings led to a galaxy in continual war But this all began to change in U-year 13,154,333,701 when a visionary alien named Eno Therru called all the alien civilizations together for the first Galaxy Games With a mix of space science facts and science-fiction fun the Galaxy Games series stars 12-year-old twins Gemma and Jones Team Earth’s very own out-of-this-world athletes The twins travel from planet to planet with their teammates to compete in the biannual Galaxy Games This series is nonsequential so you can enjoy them in any order And when the reading fun is done there’s lots of bonus stuff to dive into including jokes fun facts scientist bios websites to visit and more These books are a real blast Happy reading Rourke Educational Media 3
Chapter 1 Keep It Up February 19 2238 Galaxy Games Village Pluto Team Earth had kept the balloon in the air for two hundred seventy-three hits It was quite possibly the longest rally of keep-it-up in recorded history Like any great keep-it-up session it started by accident The team was fresh off their fifth consecutive hockey win Although they were headed to the gold-medal match they were bruised and battered and beat sipping hot chocolate in the Pluto cafeteria But then Felix Rip their fearsome enforcer began batting around a Galaxy Games balloon Soon everyone on Team Earth was at it diving to the floor leaping chairs and sliding across tables to keep that half-deflated balloon from touching the ground 6
There were dozens of other alien races in the cafeteria And at first they looked on with confusion and annoyance at the Earth team jumping and diving like malfunctioning robots But soon enough an alien from the Coopra System figured out what the game was all about and got into the action It helped a great deal that the Cooprans had flexible hands with webbed fingers It wasn’t long before nearly everyone in the cafeteria was immersed in keep-it-up Gemma Estrella co-captain of Team Earth with her twin brother Jones leaped across a chair and just got her fingertips under the balloon The little pink balloon fluttered and seemed destined to hit the ground Get it get it she yelled at a pair of giant boots From her spot on the floor she saw a large beefy hand reach down and grab the balloon Oh no she shouted You can’t catch the But then she watched as the beefy hand 7
