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

and forth. “There’s no actual reference to adjusting your communication features, which means we could dispute any objections.”

“As if the Board is going to ever side with us,” I said. “I don’t care how much money SeaTech has. He goes up against the other Primaries on anything, he’s toast. Go ahead. Let’s load this modification.”

“Perfect. And, Arlo,” she said as I started away.

“Yes?”

“Good work today. That was quick thinking.”

I returned to my seat smiling.

 

 

 

Fifteen

I woke to the sound of alarms. That was never a good sign in space, and a terrible one during the Race. I was on the bridge in two minutes, my jumpsuit undone to the waist.

“What’s going on?” I asked, trying to understand what the issue was. Holland hopped from the seat, and I took over.

“Nothing to worry about. We just encountered some debris that wasn’t on the radar,” Luther said.

“Are we in danger?” I asked.

“Nope.”

“Then shut the damned racket off.” I rubbed my temples. I’d only been resting for an hour, and when I checked the map, we were twenty-five minutes from the fourth Ring, but we’d closed the gap on Espace.

Luther was onto something. “R11, any read on the waste?”

“Appears to be manufactured composite material,” the robot replied.

“Someone dropped it behind them, hoping to slow us,” Luther surmised.

“You think so?” I stared at Espace’s ship, a sleek and small Racer model. It was surprising the craft could even house a Pod, let alone four crew members and their robot.

“Definitely. There’s a lot of composite in their ThermaSuits, isn’t there, R11?” our tactical officer asked.

“Correct. This was their equivalent of dumping marbles on the track behind them,” R11 said.

“What’s a marble?” Holland piped up.

“Never mind, we know how to deal with this,” I said. “Jade, did you finish that modification yet?”

“Sure, a while ago.”

“Is there any way to have a message redirected through Primary City and back to Espace?” I asked.

Jade stayed quiet while she considered it, and I smiled when she finally responded, “I think so.”

I couldn’t stop grinning. “Send a message, telling her the Race Committee saw her malfeasance, and she’s being given a ten-minute penalty as a result.”

She didn’t seem to love my idea. “Are you kidding?”

“Come on, we’ll bluff her out. If she did try to screw us over, she’ll stop. If she didn’t, she’ll argue the fact and continue on.”

“I’ve watched the feeds in slow motion, and I do see matter blasting from their vents. It looks like they released it with their waste, trying to hide it,” Holland said. His obsession with the feeds was paying off.

“We have a half-hour until the next Ring. Let’s do this and pass into sixth.” I spun in my seat, seeing Jade finally side with me.

“Okay, but it’ll take me a moment to encrypt this. I don’t want anyone tracing it to Pilgrim.” Jade started working on it, and I winked at Holland.

“I didn’t know it was going to be like this. I thought it was honorable, based on our skills and creativity,” he said.

“Little in life is ever so easy. Each of these teams has scraped their way here, to the top of their fields within their Corporations, and they’ll do anything to win. Just like their CEOs will do whatever it takes to turn a profit. There’s nothing honorable with how they run their businesses, and this is no different.” I made the speech and felt the power of it. I wished there was another solution, but we were being forced to play the same game as the other teams.

“I know, but…Dad isn’t like that.”

“You think so, but the road to success is messy,” I told him.

Holland didn’t reply, and we flew in silence, the Espace Racer only a kilometer in front of us. I checked behind and saw Barret was five minutes behind us. The race was close. Sage was nearing the Ring, a good twenty minutes ahead. What was Varn doing to maintain that lead?

“Message is ready. You positive this is the right move?” Jade asked.

I glanced at Luther, and then to Holland, who gave me a tight-lipped smile. They were supporting the decision. “Good to go.”

“Sent.”

We watched and waited while racing for the next Ring. Lotus entered a good chunk of time ahead, followed closely by Luna Corp, with five minutes between them and Oasis. Travis was making the best of the opportunity. Orion started losing ground, and they were a few minutes ahead of Espace, who was my next target to pass.

“Nothing’s happening,” I muttered. “Holland, bring up the feeds. Give them some volume, I want to hear this.”

“No huge surprises over this last section, Baru, but SeaTech is gaining ground on Espace. Couldn’t have seen this coming,” Yon said. The commentating duo was starting to look tired, and I wondered when their shift would end.

“What’s this?” Baru almost stood in his seat. “Espace is slowing their thrusters! They must have a malfunction, because there’s no reason they’d be decelerating so close to the next checkpoint.”

I watched the feed from the drones following Espace’s number six-labeled Racer. The thrusters went from full to zero within a minute, and we raced under them, moving into sixth position.

“Wooooohoooo!” Luther shouted. “Damn if we don’t have a killer captain.”

“We have some work to do.” Orion was number five, and I wasn’t going to be happy until I passed them too. One at a time. That was all I needed to focus on. I couldn’t worry about Sage at the lead or Lotus taking second. All I could control was my own future, and that meant rising through the scoreboard sequentially.

“Someone better tell them there’s a race going on, because this is unprecedented.” Baru was at his wit’s end, and it made me even more excited over our position.

The Ring was ahead, and a few minutes after Orion entered, I guided Pilgrim through. A timer started to the final checkpoint before we landed at Mars for the Pod race, and it was an estimated seven hours, the longest leg of