Chapter 1 Never Trust A Klaxian July 2 2238 Martian Galaxy Games Village The Galaxy Games Village cafeteria was packed with thousands of aliens from hundreds of worlds The immense domed room was noisy and raucous filled with new friendships and good smells The team from Garanzi Prime had made their legendary cake for dessert rumored to be the most scrumptious and possibly delicious sweet in the known universe But the line snaked all the way to the door and Team Earth stood at the back of it This is a waste of time Felix Rip said with a flex of his biceps We should be training for the Gamatron 6
We’ve been training nonstop for days said Gemma Estrella And as our team captain I say we need a break Gemma looked over to her twin brother Jones and caught his eyes He flashed his goofy smile back at her In truth Gemma and Jones were co-captains But Jones wasn’t the type of co-captain to correct his twin sister Some break Felix said flexing his other bicep and looking over the line I’ve had more fun watching paint dry Gemma was too happy to listen to Felix It felt great to be out of that training room and among new people It didn’t matter that most of those people weren’t actually human She had been leading her team’s training for weeks preparing for the Gamatron It was the oldest and most prestigious event in the entire Galaxy Games But with all these interesting alien faces to watch it was easy to forget about the Gamatron for a while At every table she saw alien races from across the galaxy sitting 7
together mixing and laughing over forkfuls of cake As Gemma ran her fingers across the spiral galaxy patch on her sleeve the symbol of the Galaxy Games she swelled with pride What an honor it was to represent Earth at these Galaxy Games she thought What a responsibility it was to be captain of the team What a time to be alive Hey You want the cake or not Gemma snapped out of it She’d gotten so lost in thought she didn’t realize she was at the front of the line A grouchy Garanzi glared down at her with his bug-like eyes his neck gills flapping So what will it be The cake of course Gemma blurted You’re a very lucky Earthling the Garanzi said You got the very last slice Enjoy As Gemma stepped away with her plate she scanned the great room for her team A strange and throaty voice spoke to her from behind You’re going to eat that 8
