'Come on, man. Everyone's waiting. It's your move.'

Cal didn't reply, his gaze remaining firmly fixed on the board. It didn't look good.

He couldn't believe he'd let Frey talk him into this. He wasn't a bad player, but this was way out of his league. He could beat Frey - comprehensively - but then Su could beat Frey, and she was only three hundred years old. This...this was another matter entirely.

'Cal?' Frey whispered.

'What?'

'They're waiting.'

'Let them wait,' he replied testily. 'I'm thinking, Frey.'

'What's to think about? You've lost. Just give it up and we'll get the hell out of here. Come on, Cal. It's getting embarrassing.'

'Frey,' Cal said, taking his eye off the board for a moment, 'I'm the one playing. If you're embarrassed, why don't you go? I could do with the peace and quiet, anyway.'

Frey raised a hand in resignation and sat back in his seat. Cal turned back to the board, and to his opponent.

Kara sat opposite him, her face a mask of concentration. If she was annoyed with his slow play, it certainly wasn't showing.

Kara was the best, the greatest player anyone had ever seen - unbeaten in over a thousand games. Despite Cal's best efforts, it didn't look like that was going to change today.

The game had started well enough for him. He'd won a few early battles, and at one point - god, it seemed like a long time ago - he'd actually controlled over half the board. He'd even entertained the notion that he might actually win. Ah, well...

He played. Small, luminescent figures began to move forward across the rocky terrain below. Plasma discharges lit up the board, bright spots of light against the darkness of the battleground.

Kara countered. Wave after wave of laser fire rained down from her warships, routing Cal's troops. The few survivors fled back to the relative - and probably temporary - safety of the base camp.

'Draw,' the adjudicator said. Cal and Kara drew cards from the dwindling pack, Cal fighting back a chuckle at the choice of words. Draw, indeed. That was a good one.

Reinforcements, he thought, please God; let it be reinforcements.

Earth. Oh, joy. Another unplayable card - that was just what he needed.

Kara began her move, the board shifting from the previous battlefield to show the black landscape of space. New terrain. She must have been getting bored after all.

Cal's fleet was reasonably strong - perhaps a hundred ships - but it was spread far and wide across the board. Kara's forces, though smaller, were expertly placed. As he watched, she played her latest card, face up. Laser light. Oh, crap.

The whole board went white, the view obliterated as Kara's fleet unleashed a devastating volley of laser fire. Murmurs of approval rippled through the crowd as the view returned. Where Cal's fleet had stood, four small cruisers and a single damaged battleship remained.

Frey was right. This was getting embarrassing.

'Draw,' said the adjudicator.

They drew. Cal turned over his card and stared in disbelief. Meteor strike. What the hell was this? Two cards, and he still had no possible move. Well, nothing that could...hang on.

He had another card. Cast aside as useless earlier in the game, it had fallen onto the floor by his feet. He'd had his foot on it ever since. Now... Oh.

The Moon. Unplayable. That figured.

'Cal?' Frey said, suddenly at his shoulder again, 'come on, man. Give it up. Let's just go home.'

'No,' he replied, turning the Moon card between thumb and forefinger, 'not yet. One more move, okay?'

'Okay.' Frey said, sighing.

Cal placed the recovered card with the others. Moon. Meteor strike. Earth.

He looked at the board, at the small blue planet he and Kara had chosen as the battle site. Kara's land troops were down there, somewhere. Her fleet sat up at the Lagrange point between the world and its satellite, waiting to finish him off.

An idea formed as he stared at the cards. It wouldn't work, of course. Still, it would be a spectacular way to lose, and that was better than the tame surrender he was currently faced with.

He played. First the three cards, opponent blind.

The meteors began to fall almost immediately - not on Kara's ships, but onto the face of the Moon itself. Puzzled whispers started throughout the crowd.

A second later, they saw it. Behind the rest, a huge asteroid came careening in at incredible speed. It collided before Kara could prepare her defence.

The force of the impact was staggering. Huge fragments were torn out of the little satellite, barrelling towards Kara's helpless fleet before she could respond. Cal saw a look of panic suddenly appear on her face.

Moon shards tore through her ships, decimating them. Some of the larger chunks hit and continued on toward their final goal. Earth.

They struck with breathtaking force, sending huge shockwaves across the small world. Everything - Cal's and Kara's troops included - died where it stood. There was no time for escape, and nowhere to go.

When the dust settled, Kara's troops were gone. Her fleet - a hundred ships or more - gone, destroyed in a moment. Cal's own troops were gone too, but he'd done it. A draw.

No: not a draw. At the edge of the board, almost beyond the boundary of the battlefield, shone a lone pinprick of light. A ship. His battleship. He'd won.

The applause was spontaneous, the entire crowd rising as one to acknowledge his victory. Kara merely sat there, staring dumbly at the board.

'What a move, man!' Frey screamed above the noise of the crowd, 'what a goddamn wham! Just like, wham!'

'Yeah,' Cal murmured, his voice inaudible even to himself, 'right. Wham.'

He stared at the smashed ships and the ravaged world, and heard the rapture of the crowd. He'd won. Oh, mercy, he'd actually won.

'Okay, Frey,' he said, putting his arm around his friend. 'I'm done. Let's go home.'