Challenge #00558 - A183: Strange Passtimes

The next intergalactic olympic sport: Human/Numidid Assisted-Launch Longflight

(aka throwing the numidids and seeing who can flap furthest)

Amity narrowly missed being the first civilisation to adopt human co-operation by a margin of two Standard Weeks. The Britanians became the first humans known as ‘mostly harmless’ to the Galactic Alliance, thanks to Ambassador Harry.

But that didn’t stop the Galactic Alliance from coming to have a good boggle.

“You’re in luck,” said the human. “There’s the Olympics going on.”

Every Terran colony seemed to have an Olympics. The Galactics had taken one look at the insane array of competitions of physical excellence and started motions to try and ban it. But they already knew the inevitability of a pan-Terran Olympics happening at some distant date in the future.

“On a centenary, we hold the event in Wiwazheer,” said the Numidid perched on the human’s shoulder. “Tradition.”

They quickly learned that the Amity Olympics included equestrian events, with both Human and Numidid riders… and one with both.

The crowd favourite was Miss Daisy, ridden by Martha Willard who was, in turn, ridden by Ku’lu.

The Human stayed in the saddle. The Numidid perched on a special harness attached to the Human.

“It celebrates the Life Run,” said their guide. A human with a Numidid-esque name of Syri. “Susan rode Calico with T’reka on her shoulder, from Wiwazheer to the base camp. And then threw T’reka towards the ladder when Calico started floundering in the sand.” Syri made an expressive, practiced gesture. “All to stop Kal’rike from firebombing the entire continent. The original coat Susan used as an improvised harness is still in the Wiwazheer museum.”

“Thanks,” managed Ambassador Hwrii in the solid tones of I-didn’t-need-to-know-that. As a Numidid herself, she was leery of the humans at all, and still in shock and awe that what should have been a backwards backwater was, instead, a thriving and prosperous planet. With in-system colonies.

That they had done so with the assistance of… deathworlders… and still survived? That was a miracle.

And another miracle unfolded below.

A competitive recreation of a race to save life.

T’reka must have been a truly mad genius to trust a human with not only her life, but all the life on this poisonous continent. Considering the tech level this entire planet was now capable of… was she trying to achieve this? Or just saving something interesting to study?

The original track raced around the starting circumference of Wiwazheer. A track that still existed, but no longer raced. There was another road that went from Wiwazheer to the nearest beach, and then took a sharp turn to the south until it reached the historical site of that base camp. It was no surprise that all the natives called it Calico’s Run.

Now they covered the same distance on a much smaller track. Culminating with a straight run where the humans hurled their Numidid passengers in a flight measured in both height and distance.

It was a gruelling contest. No wonder they saved it until last. And almost as visceral to watch as it must have been for the original participants. All that was missing was the element of lives being on the line.

All Ambassador Hwrii could think was, We’d best keep this away from the other humans. They’ll all want to play.

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