When Ellie prepped her racer, her fingers would dance across the controls without a thought. The engine would spark into life, she would win, and Malachi would nag her over some action she took that he was soooo sure was dangerous. It was a simple and familiar routine, and it worked every time.

So, it was a mystery to her why these skimmers, so advanced, so simple, and so automated, would not turn on.

‘You don’t have your foot on a pedal, I think,’ said Coral. Jayce had told Ellie that Coral would be willing to show her the basics and arrange some practice laps, and he was right. Coral was friendly, helpful and willing, but she was no Malachi.

‘I thought you said not to.’

‘You have to put your right foot on the right pedal when you start, but you have to take both feet off when you switch off.’

‘Why?’

Coral shrugged, and dark hair, longer and finer than Tila’s, fell over one shoulder. She tucked it behind her ear before continuing. ‘I don’t know. You just do.’

Ellie pressed her right foot down and tried again. The engine display lit up. ‘Malachi always knows why,’ she said.

‘Does he know a lot about racing?’

‘He knows a lot about everything!’ said Ellie proudly.

‘And skimmers too?’

‘Not yet, but give him time and he will. Are you staring at him again?’

‘No,’ said Coral, quickly turning her attention back to Ellie.

‘It’s okay, I won’t tell.’

‘You won’t tell Tila?’

‘I mean I won’t tell Malachi. What’s Tila got to do with it?’

‘I thought she and him… are they…?’

‘Tila? And Malachi?’ Ellie made a face. ‘No. Never. Never ever!’

‘That’s good news,’ said Coral, and grinned to herself.

‘But there is Nina, back home.’

Coral’s face fell again. ‘Oh, so Malachi and Nina are…?’

Ellie shook her head. ‘No. Well, he’s not, but I think she is. Anyway, he should be, even if he isn’t. You know?’

‘Not really.’

Ellie tapped her fingernails on the flight stick and worked backward through her last sentence. ‘Anyway, the point is he might be, even if he doesn’t know it.’

‘Sorry?’

‘Let’s just say that he knows a lot about almost everything, okay?’

‘Shame,’ said Coral, still staring. ‘It makes sense though, I suppose.’

‘What does?’

‘That he’s not with Tila. She’s a bit…’ Coral trailed off.

‘Irritable? Impatient? Angry? Annoyed?’

‘Well, yes. Wait, I thought you were her friend!’

‘I’m her best friend.’

Coral blinked and said slowly, ‘Okay… but why, exactly? She’s so mean to Jayce.’

‘She’s like that with everyone, most of the time. You have to get to know her.’

‘Why would I want to?’

‘She has her moments.’

‘Is she going to have one today?’

‘Probably not. She thinks I’m ruining her trip, but I’m only trying to help.’

‘Can you help? I mean, can you win?’

Ellie grinned back with an endearing, impetuous confidence. ‘I always win! Now, tell me again what an impeller is and how it stops me crashing.’

Malachi, meanwhile, was getting his hands dirty again.

The skimmers were small, sleek craft built for one. Their sharp lines were designed to cut through the atmosphere without effort. Anti-gravity units did most of the lifting, but each skimmer also had small wings to help with stabilisation.

In comparison, the Rhino had all the aerodynamics of a brick, but next to these little vehicles it was a wonder it could fly at all.

Ellie had never had to worry about aerodynamics before, but Malachi was confident she could get used to it in time. The problem was that time was not something they had much of. He would have felt more comfortable if she had a week, or even a whole day, to practise flying in an atmosphere. Still, if anyone could pick this up quickly, it was Ellie.

Malachi laid out borrowed tools on the little wing and unclipped the access panel of Jayce’s skimmer. He lay the panel flat on the grass beside him after making sure he had all the space he needed and set to work. Tools went in, and piece by piece, Jayce’s engine came out.

Malachi cast a critical eye over every component he removed. Racers needed high performance parts to stand a chance of winning, but what was coming out of Jayce’s skimmer were anything but high performance.

There was nothing fundamentally wrong with any of it if all you wanted was to cruise around the city. The real problem wasn’t the engine, it was Ellie.

She would push the machine hard, like she always did in a race, so she needed a craft that could handle the stresses of her indelicate handling. Malachi had given up trying to explain design tolerances and metal fatigue a long time ago.

Jayce hovered nearby as Malachi deposited engine parts on the grass between the cruiser and skimmer. Jayce knew he couldn’t help Ellie, Coral was doing that, and Tila had made it very clear she didn’t want him around, so Jayce stayed with Malachi to watch him work.

He was starting to wish he hadn’t.

‘You do know how to put all those parts back, right?’ said Jayce with only a hint of worry in his laugh.

‘I do this all the time. Relax.’

‘Yeah, but you do that on the Juggernaut. These things are a little more sophisticated, I expect.’

Malachi’s jaw clenched at the implication he didn’t know what he was doing. They may not have had the best tech to work with back home, but that didn’t mean he was lacking in skill.

‘What do you mean by that?’

‘Isn’t everything you have really old?’

‘An engine is an engine, Jayce. They all make things go.’

‘But isn’t this, like, a really good engine?’

‘Honestly? No. It’s a standard atmospheric super-impeller dressed up in expensive bodywork and a nice paint job, but it’s underpowered for your skimmer. How much does this skimmer weigh, anyway?’

‘I don’t know, why?’

‘Because I need to check my thrust-to-weight calculations. If I’m going to adjust the impeller flow, I need to know the specifications of this unit, and the loaded weight of the ship under Parador gravity, and what Parador gravity is.’

‘I don’t know. Almost earth normal, I think?’

‘Almost above or almost under earth normal?’

‘I’m not sure. Why?’

‘Because I need to know the exact metres-per-second for the negative Y axis. If I increase the maximum flight ceiling without correlating the altitude to the AG output, then the increased velocity during descent could overwhelm the gravity cushion.’

‘Oh. I see,’ Jayce said. He didn’t.

‘I don’t want her to crash,’ Malachi explained.

‘Oh.’ Jayce checked the datapad again with more care. ‘Gravity on Parador is ninety-five per cent earth normal, it says here,’ said Jayce, tapping his fingernail on the screen. He offered the pad to help with calculations, but Malachi was already running the numbers through his head.

‘Okay, so that means gravity is pulling at nine point three-one metres a second and with an engine thrust output of…’ Malachi’s voice trailed off as he began the intense mental arithmetic he needed to make sure Ellie didn’t plough into the ground on her first corner. All Jayce heard was numbers and words that meant nothing to him, so he continued to watch, feeling useless.

When Tila had left, she picked a direction at random and found herself walking back up the hill. This time she skirted the crowd as much as possible. People were the problem here. They were always the problem, and today she wanted to avoid them, but there was nowhere to hide from the crowds. No matter how far she walked, they were all around her. They were, in every way, in her way. They laughed at and with each other. They shouted over the noise of the engines. They whooped at vehicles as they pulled away from start lines at incredible speeds. They were all enjoying life.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Had things been different it might have been her cheering with the crowd, living under the sun, beneath a blue sky, with friends and family all around.

But this was not her world any more. Was it ever? Who could say that this would have been her life if she had grown up planetside? Who could say that she would be enjoying this like everyone else, if she had had the choice?

But I didn’t. The choice was taken from me. I had to survive without the money these people have. Without their world. And I had to find a new family. Or am I still looking for them?

Her mood darkened as she continued to climb the hill until at last she was alone. The noise of the crowds still assaulted her ears, but at last her view was uninterrupted. It was enough to lift even her heavy heart.

The mid-afternoon sun was still high, but the quality of the light had changed. Instead of the bright, fresh colours of the morning, the sky had taken on a darker shade. The sunlight seemed somehow richer and thicker, and small, puffy clouds rimmed the horizon. None were close enough to cast a shadow on the events below. Tila cast shadow enough.

The trees in the mid-distance rippled through shades of green and twisted and bent under a wind Tila could not feel. The distant horizon was lost in atmospheric haze, and only the bright sparkles of reflected sunlight showed her where the sky ended and the sea began.

I’ve spent too long trapped inside the tunnels of a dead city. This is freedom. This is a sight worth seeing. What can the Juggernaut offer next to this? Malachi and Ellie might have to go back, it’s their home, after all. I’ll miss them, but I don’t know if I belong there. Or anywhere. It’s not a home to me.

Malachi will be okay, but Ellie? Can I abandon her? She needs me. She’s not safe without me. Dammit, I should be with her now. Someone has to look after her. Malachi is too interested in those stupid racers to care and Jayce is no help at all. The sooner we are out of here the better. We don’t need his help. Or Blake. We can find Conway on our own. We found the others without help.

How could I have let this happen? This is exactly what I wanted to avoid. I knew I should have left Ellie behind, and now she’s down there somewhere about to race against people she doesn’t know, in a ship she doesn’t know. She doesn’t even know the rules, assuming there are any. Racing around the Juggernaut would be safer than this. At least there if something goes wrong you can pull away from the city, head out into space and someone will pick you up. You don’t need to crash. Here she has to fight gravity just to stay up and she’s never done that before. She’s going to get herself killed. I’m going to get her killed! These people are dangerous, this race is dangerous. I need to stop it.

Tila took two quick steps back down the hill, then paused.

Or do I? Am I being too impatient? Maybe I’m not thinking clearly. If Ellie doesn’t race we don’t get to meet Conway, or so Jayce says. But we can find another investor, can’t we? We’re only working our way through Malachi’s list. Why is Conway so important? He’s a big investor, but he’s not the only one. Maybe tomorrow we can meet someone else.

But what if we don’t? What then? Our credit chips don’t work. How long can we stay here with no money? Jayce thinks our ship could be impounded if it’s found. How much time do we have, really?

Hmmm, Jayce. He’s an idiot, but he’s an idiot with contacts, or so he says. Do we need him? I don’t want to rely on him, but then I didn’t get anywhere with Suleman and Harrington. Is Jayce lying to us? Does it matter? Blake’s the one who said he could fix a meeting with Conway. Or is he lying too? Can I trust any of them? What’s in it for them? They can’t be doing this out of the kindness of their hearts. Blake surely isn’t. It’s unlikely Jayce is either. Unless… Ellie… of course.

Is he trying to impress her, or the other way around? Does that matter either? Can’t Ellie see that Jayce is a distraction? Why did Ellie have to go and have her head turned by the first boy she’s met here? This was exactly the reason that I should have left Ellie behind. She doesn’t know what she’s doing. I don’t know what she’s doing, or why. Is she in this race for him or for me?

It doesn’t matter. Maybe we do need this race, but I don’t want her involved with Jayce a minute longer than necessary. I don’t know what he wants, but I don’t want to stay here long enough to find out.

Tila marched back down the hill, headed for the makeshift pit and pushed her way through the crowd. She ignored protests and silenced any complaints with a scowl, but she heard whispers in her wake.

‘That’s the girl from the Juggernaut.’

‘The one Blake is going to race?’

‘No, the other one.’

‘Blake’s going to destroy her.’

That last one worried her, so she hurried on. Then she hesitated. Was this the right direction? The path had seemed easy enough from her vantage point higher up the slope, but on her way down she had been forced to walk around laughing groups, huddled together, or crews working on skimmers.

People are the problem.

Tila could still see the treeline. She oriented herself to that and her viewpoint up the hill and confidently changed course. After changing course twice more, she found Jayce’s skimmer at last. Malachi was underneath and only his legs were visible. She kicked him to get his attention.

‘Hey Mal, get up. Where’s Ellie?’

The figure pulled himself out from the far side of the skimmer and stood up. It wasn’t Malachi.

It was Blake.

‘What are you doing here? Looking for your princess?’ he said.

Tila swore under her breath. ‘Making a mistake,’ she said. Tila moved to circumvent the front of the vehicle.

He mirrored her path on his side of the skimmer and skipped ahead to intercept her at the front of the craft. ‘Why? Are you racing too?’

‘No.’ Tila tried to sidestep Blake, but he blocked her way.

‘Move,’ said Tila.

‘You should race, you know. That way I can wipe out two scrags at once.’

‘Wipe out? What does that mean?’

‘It’s what happens to people who think they’re better than me.’

‘I think everyone’s better than you.’

‘Careful, Juggernaut, you need me in a good mood in case you win.’

‘I don’t care about your mood. You’re making that call.’

‘That’s only going to happen if you win.’

‘Ellie will win.’

‘She should worry about finishing, not winning.’

‘What do you mean?’ Tila said, suddenly concerned.

Blake shrugged and held his hands to his chest, innocent of all crimes. ‘Accidents happen is all I’m saying.’

Tila stepped up and slapped his hands away. ‘They had better not happen to her.’

‘You worried about her safety? Not worried enough to race yourself though, are you?’

‘She’s the best.’

‘The best on the Juggernaut. Big deal.’

‘The best anywhere!’

‘Then let her race. I’ll be thinking of her, and of taking your paleotech trinket, when I power slide across the line. If she’s lucky, she might make it to the finish as well. If she’s lucky.’

‘You won’t take anything from me.’

‘Listen to me, Juggernaut. If I want something I take it.’ Blake pointed at the city behind Tila, then rested a hand on her shoulder and squeezed. ‘My family owns half that city. I don’t know what the word “no” means.’

Blake was not the first man to try to intimidate Tila, and she suspected he would not be the last, but she was at heart an egalitarian and treated them all the same. Tila clamped her fingers around Blake’s wrist and twisted hard. Blake yelped and dropped to one knee. Tila’s staff appeared in her other hand and snapped open. She pointed it at his face.

‘Shall I go on?’ she said, and twisted more.

‘N… N… No!’

She released him, stepped away, and the staff snapped back to its compact form. ‘See? You do know what it means.’

Blake’s companions rushed over to help, but Tila had vanished into the crowd.

‘Your friend won’t make it to the finish line, Juggernaut,’ he promised with a snarl.

Not even caring if it was the right direction, Tila shoved a path through the crowd.

‘Hey! Having fun?’ asked a stranger as she bumped into him.

Tila answered with a scowl. ‘No.’

After half an hour of practice laps under Coral’s patient instruction in her borrowed skimmer, Ellie returned to find Jayce. Malachi was still hard at work and Jayce was playing assistant by passing Malachi the tools and parts he asked for.

It was a task Ellie had performed for Malachi many times, so she recognised the look of confusion on Jayce’s face every time Malachi asked for something. Ellie thought it adorable.

She climbed into the skimmer and nestled into the seat while she watched Malachi. He paused in his work and stared at the engine. She guessed what he was thinking. He was mentally deconstructing the machine before him. She knew Malachi’s mind was already running through a dozen options and anticipating how each change he contemplated would affect every aspect of the vehicle’s handling.

Ellie loved watching Malachi work. She didn’t have his skills or his deep understanding of machinery and technology, but she admired it nonetheless. All he ever seemed to need was a toolbox and an instruction manual and he was good to go. Paperwork, time and tools. With those things he had enough to gain a thorough understanding of any mechanical issue and how to fix it. Malachi might lack the intuitive problem-solving skills of a genius, but he could focus on a problem relentlessly until he cracked it.

She supposed his time on the Juggernaut had provided him with the opportunity to thrive. An opportunity he might not have had elsewhere. On the Juggernaut, failure to repair something could quite literally be the difference between life and death. Perhaps if he had grown up in a world of unlimited clean air and water he would never have learned how to maintain the systems that provided them. There would have been no urgent need to survive that pushed him to learn and understand.

Perhaps in a world of disposable technology he would never have been exposed to the breadth of designs and equipment with which he was now familiar.

Everyone knew a story of the savant who seemed to acquire knowledge without effort, but Malachi was nothing like them. His gift was as valuable as it was mundane: hard work.

And hard work was bearing fruit. Malachi was making encouraging noises about the parts he had removed from Jayce’s cruiser, and the more anxious Jayce became, the more relaxed Malachi seemed.

Ellie wondered if she should get out and offer Jayce reassurance. Nothing more than her hand on his. Or her hand on his arm. It’s not like Tila was around to disapprove, although she didn’t think that would make a difference. Tila would be disapproving no matter where she was. It saved time.

It’s not like I need her permission, thought Ellie, looking around, but I’ll be quick, just in case.

She hopped out of the cockpit and was approaching Jayce when she heard a familiar voice, in a familiar tone. Tila and her disapproval had returned.

‘Ellie, stop!’

How did she know?

‘But I didn’t… wait, stop what? Where have you been?’

‘Around, listening. I met Blake. He’s dangerous. He’s going to try and stop you.’

‘Well of course he is. That’s how a race works.’

‘Be serious! I don’t mean he’s going to try and stop you winning, I think he wants to stop you finishing. He talked about wiping you out.’

‘Wiping me out? What does that mean?’

‘It means making you crash,’ said Jayce.

‘Thank you, Jayce,’ said Tila through gritted teeth. ‘Look, Ellie, everyone thinks we’re in over our heads. This is dangerous and they think you – all of us – are too naive to know what we’re doing.’

‘Do we know what we’re doing?’ said Malachi from inside the engine.

Ellie smiled at that comment. It was a question she had asked herself too, but she was here for Tila, right or wrong. If winning this race helped her friend meet with this person Conway, she was going to win.

‘I know we need to win this race,’ said Ellie.

‘But Blake knows the course. He’ll be ready for you,’ said Tila.

‘Actually, no one knows the course today, it’s a waypoint race,’ said Jayce, trying to be helpful.

‘What’s a waypoint race?’ said Tila.

‘Everyone’s flying blind. Ellie will get her waypoints by GPS after the race begins.’

‘See?’ said Ellie. ‘No one has an advantage.’

‘He still knows the terrain better than you! He’s still dangerous,’ Tila added.

‘They’re not going to be shooting at her, Tila,’ said Jayce.

Tila fixed Jayce with a look. She was liking him less and less.

‘They better not.’

‘Besides, everyone knows that ballistic ammunition is traceable. That’s the only reason it’s legal.’

‘I didn’t,’ said Tila. ‘And that’s no comfort.’

‘Relax, it was a joke. No one’s going to shoot her, but they’re going out there to win any way they can. They don’t like to lose.’

‘Then this should be fun,’ said Ellie, as she picked up her helmet and determined to enjoy herself despite Tila. ‘Neither do I.’

Malachi banged the final piece of the skimmer back into place. Jayce jumped at the sound. It was bad enough that his cruiser had been stripped for parts, but was Malachi going to break the skimmer too?

‘Umm, what are you doing under there?’ Jayce said.

‘Just fixing the flight ceiling.’

‘Did you fix it?’ said Ellie. The excitement was bubbling into her voice now.

‘Did you break it?’ said Jayce, with doubt in his.

‘It should be at least nine metres now.’

‘Great!’ exclaimed Ellie.

Jayce looked puzzled. ‘How did you do that so fast?’

‘Let’s just put it down to experience,’ Malachi said, evading the question.

Jayce opened his mouth to enquire further, but Ellie interrupted him.

‘They’re starting,’ she said. She tugged on her helmet and left it loose as she made final adjustments for the race.

‘Ellie…’ began Tila, but she had nothing more to add. As much as she hated the idea of Ellie being in danger the truth was that Tila needed her to win. The competing need to keep her friend safe and to also learn the truth of the colony mission was twisting her up inside.

‘Tila, I need to do this or this whole trip is a waste of time. I know you think I’m in the way, but I’m doing this for you. I’ll always be here when you need my help, so deal with it.’

As much as it galled Tila to admit Ellie was right, she knew her words were true.

‘Just be careful, please,’ she urged Ellie.

‘Do you really think she can win?’ Jayce asked Malachi as Ellie pressed down her right foot and started the engine.

‘I hope so, but I’ll be happy enough if she doesn’t hurt herself,’ said Malachi. Then he added loudly for Ellie’s benefit, ‘Like I tell her every time!’

‘Oh please,’ said Ellie. She secured her helmet and gripped the controls. ‘Now, watch me work.’