Greetings friends,
People have been talking about the sports played by the denizens of
the Trav universe. Lessee what I got here.
Games Aliens Play:
The most common K'kree game played while aboard their large field
sized ships is the ever popular sport of G'kring. It is initiated
by either the ship's captain or the steppelord aboard and allows
the entire compliment to enjoy themselves as they pass in
procession all behind the steppelord. The human name for the game
is `Follow The Leader'.
Another popular game among K'kree is G'nare. It is very similar to
the ancient game of Polo before the British civilized it. However,
it is not played with the decapitated head of an executed enemy,
but with a small live carnivorous animal as the `ball'. Should an
animal actually manage to survive the actual playing of the game it
is usually trampled by the steppelord of the winning team to
celebrate the victory.
There is an growing trade between the Two Thousand Worlds and
human space in domestic house cats.
There are rumors of games of G'nare played by the K'kree
soldier caste which use humans or vargr as the `ball'.
The Hivers play many types of sports. However, they do not
translate well into human concepts. One (probably very
misunderstood) sport is referred to as `Very Small' or `Pee Wee'
which plays off the innate Hiver curiosity. It consists of one
Hiver attracting the attention of another and directing him to face
in a certain direction. The first player then signs `Made ya
look!' to which the second player responds `I meant to do that.'
A variant of this is where one player intimates that he has
some secret knowlege and the other asks what it is. (There is
untranslated illustration of two Hiver's playing this game in an
old JTAS cartoon "Our Friends The Aliens" :-)
1st Player: `Know what?'
2nd Player: `What?'
1st Player: `That's What!'
The Ael Yael having evolved to flying many millenia ago have many
aerial games. Many of which have been adapted to zero-G
environment. Possibly the most well known of these is Yelachek.
Yelachek actually is an aerial form of dueling similar to the
honor duels of the Aslan. It can range in severity from first
blood or even to the death. However, far more common is a contest
with streamers.
The Ael Yael will tie streamers to their tails and fly passes
at each other while attempting to catch hold of the other's
streamer. This gives a slight advantage to the smaller and more
maneuverable males of the species, but the females tend to use
their greater mass for speed in a dive. Humans may compete in a
game by using grav belts.
Yelachek as played in zero-G takes place in a large chamber to
allow maneuverability. Humans will use large fans and flippers to
allow them to `fly' slowly with swimming motions while pursuing
each other.
The Zhodani have a zero-G sport played soully by Telekinetics.
Telekinesis does not ordinarily give enough force to allow the psi
to push against gravity enough to allow flight. Zero-G eliminates
this problem. The telekinetics will use their psi to push off of
the walls of the chamber (or ship) in order to fly. This allows
the TK's to fly, race, and indulge in all manner of aerial
maneuvers.
Scott 2G Kellogg