Their convoy left the city and headed south. They travelled through low hills to the open plains and nearby forest that would be their race course.

Behind them, the spires of the city nestled in the ancient rock walls of the extinct volcano.

The three friends fitted comfortably into Jayce’s street cruiser. Malachi chatted easily with Jayce about their respective lives. Each of them was fascinated by the other. Jayce learned of a world he had never known. Malachi learned how the worlds he had known had changed, and how much had stayed the same since his father left civilisation behind.

Tila had refused to allow Ellie to sit up front next to Jayce, so Ellie had resigned herself to staring at the back of his ear and wishing she could swap places with Malachi. She also wished that Tila was travelling in a different cruiser. Ideally on a different planet.

Tila was uncharacteristically nervous, both for her friend and for their situation. For one, they were surrounded by excitable people that Jayce called friends, but she didn’t know them. Neither did she have any reason to do so.

For another, everything about this race was too new, too sudden. The course was unknown. The vehicles – skimmers, Jayce had called them – were unfamiliar, and word of the bet Ellie had made had quickly spread. That meant attention they didn’t need.

Eventually Tila decided she couldn’t say silent any longer.

‘Ellie, we shouldn’t do this.’

‘Why not? It will be fun. We’ll make friends and then you’ll get the meeting with Mr Conway.’

‘If you win.’

‘I’ll win.’

‘Could you at least look at me, Ellie?’

Ellie tuned out the views of the countryside and Jayce’s ear and looked at Tila. ‘Of course I’ll win,’ she snapped.

‘Ellie, we don’t know anything about this place, or the course. Even the other racers.’

‘Hey, no problem,’ said Jayce, over his shoulder. ‘I’ll be able to show her around, make sure she’s comfortable with everything.’

‘I’m sure,’ said Tila flatly.

‘And we’ll get in some practice laps, no worries.’

‘I don’t want her to kill herself, Jayce.’

‘Relax. She’ll be safe enough. You know how to relax, right?’

‘Tila doesn’t like to relax,’ said Ellie.

‘I do, just not here and not now.’

‘I can help with that, you know,’ said Jayce.

‘Oh?’ said Tila.

Malachi craned his neck around to see Ellie. ‘This’ll be good,’ he said. She grinned in reply.

‘Yeah. After this is over, and you’ve had your meeting or whatever with Conway, why don’t you come back to my place for dinner? I’ll invite some friends. It’ll be fun. Relaxing. Trust me.’

‘But I don’t,’ Tila said.

‘You don’t trust me?’ he said, sounding surprised.

‘No.’

Jayce grinned and winked at Tila in the mirror. ‘You will.’

They pulled off the highway onto smaller roads and then turned from these on to the plains. The last of the hills blended into the plains by way of a long slope to the south. A perfect vantage point from which to see the races.

Jayce drove an anti-grav cruiser, so they felt no difference as the terrain beneath them changed. His friends in wheeled vehicles quickly fell behind as they were forced to slow over the rough ground.

Tila watched the activity all around them as they drove past crowds of people and rows upon rows of cruisers and skimmers. This was a bigger event than she realised. Ellie’s Juggernaut races were small events. They attracted only a handful of competitors, and probably no more than a hundred spectators each time. Here, they had already passed a hundred cruisers at least, neatly parked in rows on the northern hillside. Downhill, where the slope was almost flat, vehicles Tila didn’t recognise – the skimmers, she supposed – were spread out. Each one was the centre of a pool of activity.

Somewhere in the distance, colours blurred across the open ground to the sound of cheers.

This was a rich kids’ playground, and they didn’t belong here at all.

Jayce pulled his cruiser into a space, jumped out and clapped his hands together. ‘This is gonna be a great day!’

Tila stepped out slowly, already regretting the decisions which had led them here. Ellie, Malachi and Jayce were already on their way down the hill.

‘Where’s your racer? I mean skimmer,’ said Ellie.

‘Down in the pits. I had the staff bring it here earlier.’

‘You have staff?’ said Malachi.

‘Doesn’t everyone?’

‘No,’ said Tila.

‘Tila, you coming?’ Malachi called.

‘In a minute. I’m going to look around, okay?’

‘Okay. We’ll be down there.’ He waved vaguely in the direction they were walking.

Tila turned in the opposite direction and walked up the hill for a better view of the event.

The land before them was broad and open and fell away to the south in ripples of green hills. To the west, the grassland gave way to scrub, which in turn gave way to a forest. Tila didn’t know much about trees, and it had been a long time since she had been near one, but these were bigger than any tree she remembered.

To the east was the grey line of the highway on which they had travelled, and beyond that, near the horizon, was the sea.

And all around her was the crowd.

Hundreds of people, most of them around her age, sat on the grassy slopes to the west. From here they commanded a view of the start and finish of all the courses and the area reserved for race prep. Tiny camera drones hovered in the sky above them, darting over the racers as they made last-minute adjustments to their skimmers, or drifting over the starting line.

Somewhere down there was Blake, Ellie’s new target. Jayce had explained to them on the way here that Blake had the experience, money and ruthlessness to win every time. Maybe that was why Jayce had also told them that word of Ellie’s challenge had quickly spread, and that most of the spectators were secretly hoping Ellie would win.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

But that’s hardly reassuring. I can afford to lose the staff, but I can’t lose Ellie. If racing against this Blake was as dangerous as people said, it was too great a risk.

And to top off all of this, Tila still didn’t trust Jayce. Whatever his real agenda might be, it didn’t appear to preclude him helping them. Tila wasn’t used to someone being so keen to offer help. It worried her. This whole situation worried her. So far today, nothing had gone to plan.

Tila scanned the pit area for her friends and soon picked out Ellie’s fair hair and Malachi’s dark hair among the figures clustered around Jayce’s skimmer. It looked like they were arguing over something. At least that was familiar. They always disagreed on something before a race, usually because Ellie wanted Malachi to do something impossible, while he insisted on only delivering the improbable.

Tila half-smiled at this thought, but still sided with Malachi on this issue. He never met a rule he wanted to break. Why should the rules of physics be any different?

Tila started back to the pits when the crowd began to roar. A new race began, and camera drones zipped forward to follow the action. All across the hillside, spectators stood for a better view. The engine noises rolled up the hill and drowned out the crowds. Their sounds fell in pitch and volume as distance and doppler shift combined.

By the time she reached the pit, Malachi had cracked open the maintenance hatches on Jayce’s skimmer and began his assessment of the vehicle’s capabilities. Ellie was wiggling into the cockpit and taking in her surroundings with a look of intense concentration.

Tila banged on the window to get Ellie’s attention and made her jump. Ellie’s hand leapt to her heart.

‘Is it like your racer?’ Tila asked.

Ellie lowered her hand and used it to take in the whole cockpit with a sweep. ‘This has a lot of controls. I thought it would be simpler than a spaceship.’

‘If you’re worried…’

‘I’m not worried! Jayce said not to worry about most of them, anyway.’

‘Oh, well, if Jayce said…’

‘Stop being mean to him.’

‘To the boy we hardly know?’

Ellie ignored her and leaned out of the other side of the cockpit. This meant she had to turn her back on Tila, which at this moment Ellie considered a bonus.

‘Well?’ she said to Malachi.

Malachi dropped the hatch cover back into place and scratched his neck.

‘Hmmm,’ he said.

‘Hmmm? What’s “hmmm”?’

‘It’s not great,’ said Malachi.

‘Not great? Not great?!’ said Jayce. He proudly rapped his knuckles on the engine housing. ‘This baby cost a fortune. It’s the best money can buy!’

Tila hopped up on the skimmer’s nose and folded her arms. Malachi was about to make Jayce look like an idiot and so she wanted a good view.

‘How can I put this, Jayce?’ said Malachi. ‘It’s… not.’ He felt bad for Jayce. He seemed like a nice guy, but he was obviously clueless about machines. Malachi explained while Jayce’s face fell with each sentence. ‘This engine model was phased out two generations ago. The AG impellers are showing signs of metal fatigue, and if the air intakes are in the same poor condition as half the other components then you probably have a risk of overheating too. Have you ever had this thing serviced? Properly?’

‘It’s less than a year old!’

‘How much did you pay for it?’ asked Malachi. Hopefully not a lot, he thought to himself. Maybe Jayce just thinks this is expensive.

Jayce told him.

‘Oh,’ said Malachi. It was expensive.

‘Looks like money can’t buy you wisdom,’ said Tila, unhelpfully.

Ellie took pity on Jayce, only partially to annoy Tila, she told herself.

‘But it can still fly and race?’ she asked.

Malachi considered the question.

‘It can fly, but I don’t know if it can win. Sorry, Ellie.’

‘Malachi, pilots win races, not machines.’

‘Oh, brother,’ said Tila. ‘Ellie, you can’t win a race on confidence alone,’ she chided. ‘You have to be able to back it up with something.’

‘I do have something. I have Malachi. He can get this skimmer fixed and ready in time. Right, Mal?’

‘Oh, sure. Right. No problem,’ said Malachi. ‘With what, exactly?’

‘What about that?’ said Tila. She pointed up the hill at the cruiser they arrived in.

‘But that’s not a racer. It doesn’t have any high-performance parts,’ said Jayce.

‘Neither does this,’ said Malachi. ‘Let me look at it. Do you have the manual for your cruiser?’

Jayce wordlessly called up the information on his datapad and handed it over. Malachi tapped some controls on the display and the view zoomed in on an exploded diagram of engine parts.

Jayce tilted his head to see what Malachi was looking at.

‘What are you going to do?’ he said.

‘I think we can swap some things around before the race starts.’

‘What things?’

‘Things to help me win?’ asked Ellie.

‘Maybe,’ said Malachi. ‘But I’ll settle for things that stop you blowing up. I’ll be right back.’

‘As long as I win.’

Malachi handed the datapad back to Jayce.

‘I’ll do what I can with this, but that means you have nothing to practise in. Jayce, can we borrow another skimmer? We can’t let her go out in this if she hasn’t flown one before. And I need a tool kit.’

‘Yeah, I can arrange that. You’re sure you need to take my cruiser apart to do this?’

‘I have to get the parts from somewhere. You get Ellie some practice laps so she can get used to how these things handle and I’ll get started here. How long until your race starts?’

‘A little over an hour.’

‘How long is that on Parador? Is it a standard Commonwealth hour?’ said Ellie as she climbed out of the cockpit.

‘Who do you think made it the standard?’ said Jayce with another wink.

Malachi said, ‘Ellie, this is going to be very different to the races you’re used to. Remember, you’re flying in an atmosphere now. You’re going to have resistance, and other things you’ve never had to think about.’

‘Like?’

‘Like turbulence and cross-winds, and gravity.’

‘I’m used to gravity, Malachi. I walk about it in every day!’

‘Right. You walk. You don’t fly. Here, you won’t have three-sixty movement in all directions. If you make a mistake here, you’ll crash.’

‘She won’t crash, there’s a safety cushion under the skimmer,’ pointed out Jayce.

Malachi waved away Jayce’s fact.

‘That’s not the point. The point is, she has to think about gravity. It’s a new variable.’

‘This isn’t a maths lesson, Mal,’ said Ellie.

‘Look, just listen to me. You can’t get around this. You can’t fly your way out of a hole. I don’t want you to crash.’ Malachi finished his speech in a tone that was a mix of exasperation and concern.

Ellie turned to Jayce. ‘See? He loves me!’

‘Yes, but Tila will kill me if anything happens to you.’

‘That’s true,’ said Tila, speaking up again.

Ellie dismissed this concern with a wave. ‘Whatever. She just wants this over with so we can get back to the city.’

‘Also true.’

‘Either way,’ said Malachi, ‘I want you in one piece when we do get back, okay? Now listen up. You can’t turn too fast in this skimmer. I know you’re used to making four-g turns, but I’m not sure this thing can take it. I don’t think even the good skimmers are used to stress like that. This is different. I don’t want you tearing this thing apart.’

‘No offence taken,’ said Jayce looking on. He wondered if a refund was still possible.

‘What about straight lines? How fast can I go?’ said Ellie.

‘Only about a hundred and fifty. Nowhere near as fast as your racer, I know, but it’s going to seem faster – much, much faster – because you’ll be so close to the ground. Plus, there will be drag from the air, and turbulence from the other skimmers if you get too close.’

‘I never get too close.’

Malachi gave her a sceptical look that well understood Ellie’s loose understanding of the phrase ‘too close’.

‘Just keep a safe distance from everyone and everything. Remember, you won’t have to thrust to descend. Gravity and your flaps will take care of that. Got it?’

‘Got it. How high can I go?’

Jayce chimed in, trying to be helpful. ‘Four metres is the standard flight ceiling for a skimmer.’

‘What’s non-standard?’ said Ellie.

‘Good question! Is there a rule about the maximum flight ceiling?’ said Malachi.

‘It’s whatever you can make it if you have the time and the money and the know-how. There’s no rule.’

Ellie pointed at Malachi. ‘He has the know-how.’

‘Why do you always assume I can do anything you want?’ Malachi complained.

‘Because you always do.’ She asked Jayce, ‘How much time do we have?’

‘Not much. Less than an hour until the race starts,’ said Jayce. ‘I have money though, if that helps?’

‘We know,’ muttered Tila.

‘Do you have enough to buy us a new skimmer in the next forty-five minutes?’ Malachi said.

‘Not this far from the city I don’t,’ said Jayce.

‘Then one-out-of-three will have to do. Know-how plus whatever I can pull out of your cruiser. Ellie, you go and practise with Coral while I get to work. We’ll talk more when you get back.’

‘About what?’

Now it was Malachi’s turn to wink at Ellie before he turned in the direction of Jayce’s cruiser.

‘About how you’re going to win, of course.’

‘Ellie, I’m still not sure about this,’ said Tila, after Malachi had gone. Malachi was by now already absorbing the technical readouts on the datapad. ‘If this race is so dangerous, and if you can’t win, we need to find another way.’

‘Who said I can’t win?’

‘Isn’t it obvious?’ Tila slid back to the grass and began counting off fingers. ‘You don’t know where you’re going, you don’t know what you’re doing, and you don’t even have everything you need to try.’

‘So we’re the same.’

‘What are you talking about?’

‘Do you know where you’re going? Or what you’re going to do next? You don’t have everything you need either, remember, which is why I’m entering this race!’

‘It’s not the same thing, Ellie.’

Ellie shook her head like something obvious had just occurred to her. ‘You’re right. It’s not. I’m here because I believed you. Because I still believe in you. Because I trust you. I forgot you don’t feel the same way.’

‘You shouldn’t be in this race!’

‘Stop telling me what to do!’

They wrestled each other’s gaze, each waiting for the other to back down first. Surprisingly for her, Ellie won. Tila snatched up her pack and staff and turned away.

‘Fine! I’ll be back when it starts. I’m obviously not needed here.’

Jayce, who had been watching this exchange in quiet confusion, leaned back on the stubby wings and turned his head to follow Tila’s exit.

‘Wow. Are you sure you guys are friends? You don’t act like it.’

Ellie didn’t watch Tila disappear into the crowd.

‘No, I’m not.’

Jayce struggled to parse Ellie’s reply. ‘You’re not sure you’re friends, or you’re not sure you act like it?’

‘Yes,’ she said.