the Crab Race on Alpha Centauri

the Crab Race on Centuri

593 words

When the Earth Federation discovered interstellar travel in the year 2300, they set out to explore nearby star systems and discovered many interesting civilizations. Their lead ship was the Enterprise named after the famous star ship from the 20th-century TV series which had been re-discovered during the building of the star fleet. Much of the structure of the fleet, Star Fleet Academy, etc were modeled, after themes first discussed in the Star Trek franchise.

One of the more interesting and colorful species was the crab people on the planet Centauri. The crab people every year had an annual crab race to choose the king of the crabs who would then rule the crab Kingdom for a year. The fastest, most dangerous crab who outlasted all the other crabs in the competition which was to the death would then be crowned as the King of the crabs.

The King would rule for one year, until the next crab festival. The crab festival was a weeklong festival dedicated to reproduction, as the crab species only reproduce once a year. The rest of the year they were celibate. Baby crabs were raised in public schools until age 15. which was the age of maturity among the crab people. They would work until age 70 and then retire.

Everyone went crazy for a week, culminating in the crab race to determine the king of the crabs. The king was an absolute dictator but because he only served one year the feeling was they could not cause too much damage and the permanent bureaucracy, the deep state of the crab state managed to keep the crab king from causing too much damage.

It was an interesting political spectacle to watch.

They had arrived on the planet a week before the festival. and met with the previous king who was excited to meet outsiders because although the crab people were aware that there were other civilizations, they had not yet discovered interstellar travel techniques of their own, but were very close to doing so.

The Earth people were invited to stay to watch the festival including the famous crab race and they were also told that part of the custom of the crab race was that you could bet on the winner so the Earth people decided what the hell they stayed for two weeks and watched the crab races and watch the population go crazy.

At the end of that one week everybody calmed down and then the new king was crowned a week later.

They met with the new king who promised to enter the discussions into recognizing the federation of planets. It was a great diplomatic success.

The crab race was fun to watch as the crabs were very fast, crafty and deadly - fighting to the death until only one remained.

Joe Lewis the captain of the USS Enterprise commented to his staff after the games were over,

“Perhaps this might be a way for us to decide our elected leaders. I mean it would be a lot cheaper just to have a big race to the death and whatever is the fastest, meanest SOB would become the president of the federation for one year. I think that's a good idea. |

Everybody laughed but of course, that idea never went anywhere.

They stayed for a month, negotiated a recognition agreement, and promised to provide technical assistance to the Crab people to develop space technology. They brought back with them a delegation to visit Federation headquarters, and they left a few people behind to provide technical assistance.



Tomorrow, February 17, is Champion Crab Races Day! Write a story or poem about a crab race.