Space Race (Space Race 1) by Nathan Hystad (book recommendations for young adults .TXT) 📕

“Is it the map?”

“Downloading now.” He whistled a flat note. “First checkpoint is…only five thousand kilometers away. And it says…”

Holland turned the volume on again. “This just in. We’re receiving word that the maps have been distributed. The first Ring is only twenty minutes from the starting line, and to spice things up, the Race committee has decided that the last Racer through the checkpoint will be eliminated.” Yon appeared delighted by this news.

“Damn it,” I muttered. “They’re trying to get rid of us.”

The Ring blinked to life on my radar, an orange blip. I zoomed out, seeing the next mark was a good one-hour flight.

Our ships each had to fall within a certain threshold for our Core drives, but slight modifications were allowed, given that the base met all proper criteria. Bryson would have developed the best technology possible, but we really had no idea what the other Racers were working with. This was going to be interesting.

Each of the ten Racers was on my screen too, with two numbers attached to them. The left digit referenced the team number, starting with Sage Industries at one, and the right indicated their current rank. We showed a ten.

A drone flew past Varn’s Racer, which was more compact than mine. Two wings tilted up at a forty-five-degree angle, and I could picture his smug smile as his fingers waited above his throttle icon.

The feed continued to show the rest of the teams, and my nerves got the best of me. This was real. A few months ago, the Race had seemed like some distant, elite event that had nothing to do with my world. Now here I was, sitting in my own Racer’s pilot seat, about to begin.

“Race clock is starting,” Luther said, and I saw the digits on my dash tick down from sixty seconds.

“Team, we won’t fail ourselves. They want us gone today, but we’re going to disappoint them. Understood?” I shifted in my seat, adjusting the straps.

“Yes, sir!” they chimed as if they’d been practicing.

“Give ‘em hell, Arlo,” Luther said supportively.

“Send their metal asses to oblivion,” R11 said, and we all went silent. “What’d I say?”

“Sure, thanks, R11. Everyone ready?” I asked. The clock was at ten, and the feeds showed throngs of people gathered at each of the Primary Corporations’ head offices, watching the event on giant screens. They’d been given the day off to celebrate. Another manipulation to televise unwavering support over the Race. The sheer number of them out in the emptied parking lots was surprising.

When the clock hit zero, I gunned it.

Nothing happened.

The other ships blasted forward, their thrusters a series of blue, orange, and yellow waste particles, depending on their Core alloys. “What’s happening?” I barked as I hit the throttle. We moved at suborbital speed.

“They didn’t reconnect the link after the tests. I must have missed it,” Jade said, her fingers actively moving across her keypad.

My screen blinked green, and I had power again. But we’d lost precious seconds. Pilgrim lurched ahead as I avoided the steady increase of the Core, pushing her to the limits.

I quickly shifted our trajectory, aiming a straight line for the Ring. I still couldn’t believe they’d added one so close, with the threat of losing after the first few minutes. Clearly they were setting me up for failure, but I had news for them. Arlo Lewis didn’t take kindly to being screwed over.

I glanced at the map, witnessing Harding, the eighth rank, drop to ninth. That was my target. Their Racer was round, almost like a sphere, mimicking the shape of their first major mine success on a planetoid found within the Belt.

“Team, Harding is the target. I want us to do everything in our power to beat them through that checkpoint,” I said.

Sage was almost at the Ring already, meaning they were farther ahead than their Core should have allowed them. If they were playing by the rules, I suspected they’d burn out a few couplers to be the first through the Ring. Varn Wallish would want everyone to know he was the team to beat, and his actions gave me an idea.

We’d crossed half the distance, with us steadily climbing on Harding. “R11, do the math. At current speed, will we beat Harding?”

His response came a second later. “We will, but the risk of damage upon entering is forty-three percent.”

That wasn’t good enough. “Jade, head to engineering. Be prepared to swap out two couplers,” I said.

“Wait, you’re suggesting we fry the drive already?” she asked.

“Did I ask your opinion, Serrano?”

“No.”

“Go to the damned room and be ready!” I shouted. Time was running out, the Ring growing closer. I glanced at the viewer, seeing five drones circling me. This was all being filmed, and I could imagine Bryson nervously watching us in last place, the threat of removal from the Race imminent. I wasn’t going to give these Corporations the satisfaction.

“In position,” Jade said, her voice tense through my earpiece.

“Hitting overdrive now.” I triple-tapped the icon, bypassing the warning it flashed on my screen. The lights of the cabin went dim, and we lunged forward. Something fell from behind me, and the dash flashed off, then on again.

The Ring was coming up quickly, and I did everything in my power to steer into it. Pilgrim sped through the opening, the energy barrier skimming the hull of my ship.

“We did it!” Luther cheered, pounding his palms on his armrests.

Jade must have replaced the fried couplers, because the lights came on again as I urged Pilgrim to the normal maximum thrust. Before I grew too excited, I checked the next Ring, and Luther was right. It was nearly an hour away, heading deeper into the system.

“That was incredible,” Holland managed. “I didn’t think that was possible.”

“I’ve done it a couple times with Capricious to avoid collapsing atmospheres, or to prevent being smashed to pieces by unmarked space rocks. I knew the theory was there…”

I glanced at the map and saw the number seven beside my icon. Wait.