Extracts

First Contact

“Look,” said the voice. “My name is Olympius Betelgeuse III and I’ve sent an invitation to your schools here but no one believes me. I’m rather busy at the moment, but took the opportunity of a few hours break to come in person and speak to your leader – can you take me to him?”

No one present had any training for dealing with first contact with an alien race. Most just looked on suspiciously, and it was only the fact that a spaceship was there, sitting in front of them, in Downing Street, that gave them pause for thought. Some trigger happy soldiers wanted to blast the ship to Kingdom Come, but fortunately word got to the Prime Minister who bravely came out to speak directly with Olympius.
When the door of Number Ten opened and the Prime Minister emerged, the door of the ship also opened and Olympius Betelgeuse III stepped out.

Second Contact

They talked for a while longer, the Prime Minister finding it hard to take his eyes off Olympius’ four arms, one holding a plate of custard creams, one taking notes, one holding a cup of cod liver oil and the other free to do various chores, like blowing his nose, scratching his scales, rubbing his gills and so on. Very useful.
The Prime Minister had to concentrate really hard not to forget what was happening and sometimes he pinched himself to make sure he was awake and not dreaming.
When Olympius left, great crowds had built up at the gate to Downing Street wanting to catch sight of the alien visitor and billions of people stared at their televisions, not sure whether they were watching fact or fiction.
Olympius climbed into his spaceship and the world gasped as it lifted out of Downing Street into the sky, quietly, smoothly, cleanly and zipped away into the far reaches of space.

The Nominees

Suffice it to say, these children, all aged twelve, all bright, all handsome, all top of their classes, all good or very good at sports, all became household names. A thousand others got mentions in the newspapers and their parents cut out the mentions and either framed them or stuck them into scrapbooks. It was a wonderful honour even to be considered and the parents were either over the moons of Saturn or sick as the parrots on Arcturus One (though they didn’t know this) when their children were either accepted or rejected for the draw. The bookies had the following odds:

4 to 1 : Alex Nurse, Katy McNamara, Victoria Jonquil
5 to 1 : Peter Juniper
6 to 1 : Chloe Kipper, Tabetha Turner
7 to 1 : Tanjina Urqhart, Ignatius Devine

up to 1000 to 1 for a child named Polly Blessed, who despite being 1000 to 1, was still top of her class, good at sports, nice looking and very polite.

Galactic Football

Natsyo and Mneemi, with their extra one or two limbs, didn’t have any problems co-ordinating, in fact they had skills in dribbling the others could never have. Oliver thought they should restrict themselves to two legs so as not to have an unfair advantage, but they just couldn’t function without their three or four legs. Oliver wondered how it would look back on Earth, all these unusual people from unusual worlds playing the planet’s emblem game. He wished he could film them so that he could look at it again and again until he was old, otherwise he might think it was all a dream. When the game was over, they all crowded around Oliver and asked him questions about football, who played, where they played, who was good and who was bad, how long the games were, how points were given, all kinds of questions; they were so interested. Oliver did his best to answer, telling them about the leagues and the cups and the internationals.

Discus

The stadium was full to bursting and Oliver felt countless eyes on him, not just in the stadium but all over the vast galaxy. Here he was, representing Earth, about to show a thousand civilisations how inept and clumsy an Earthboy could be. He felt like running off home and hiding and never coming out of his house again. But he couldn’t do that. He had to try. And in the shadowy light and lighter gravity he felt light-headed enough to think he might actually do it.
Crouch, twist, turn, release.
Crouch, twist, turn, release.
Crouch…
He found himself saying the words over and over again and then suddenly doing them.
He crouched.
He twisted.
He turned.
He let the discus go.

Reviews

It’s really, really good. It’s adventurous, and it made you think! I was convinced by the descriptions of the outer space ‘aliens’ and I liked all the characters. I’d like another book – a continuation about Leo and Oliver. I was a little bit disappointed at the end when it said Oliver might go and live on Leo’s planet and Grandpa planned to get married but it didn’t say whether those things happened [Maybe you’re already planning a sequel and deliberately left it hanging?] All the sporting events were great, like using a laser instead of a pole, and so were the descriptions of the planets.

Favourite bits: pre-match trips with Jez such as the Quasar/staying in the dark [sorry if i’ve got he spellings wrong!] and the speed surfing. Would like more: description about preparation for the races, what it’s like, how he feels. and description of Olympius’s space craft when he comes to earth – what does it look like, are there gadgets in it, is it like a car? I’d definitely recommend it!”
by Maxim, aged 11

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