Throttle Forty-One

A good few hours passed with nothing terribly eventful going on. The large ship with the jump ring was brought to a stop not too far from Waitless Station, and Diana watched with idle interest as a crew of smaller ships and tugs prepared the ring for deployment.

Once the ring was set up, a single smaller ship jumped through. It was one of those Federation military ships, with its own jump ring wrapped around its middle.

The smaller ship returned maybe an hour later, and a bigger vessel made the next jump.

When that one returned, the mood in the area changed a little. “That was the final confirmation?” Diana asked.

“Indeed. That vessel’s return indicates that the gate is fully operational, and that the return gates are functioning as well,” ChaOS said. “A signal is being sent out, declaring that the gate is under maintenance, and that all the sensors around it are currently malfunctioning and will be unable to detect the passage of any ship through the gate.”

Diana snorted. “So they’re saying that now’s the time to sneak on through?”

“Essentially, yes.”

Diana grinned and pinged the Slow and Steady, which was berthed on the asteroid station. “Ahvie, you there?”

“Ahvie is here,” Ahvie said. “Are you leaving?”

“Not just yet. Is Zil Rossi ready?”

“She’s in the Foxtail,” Ahvie said. “Should I tell her to go join you?”

“That’d be great, yeah,” Diana said.

It took a few minutes, but eventually ChaOS picked up the Foxtail leaving the station and zipping out towards them. Diana spun the Cerberus around, exposing its belly to the little fighter. A set of clamps unfolded themselves where a recess sat, a spot where the smaller ship could tuck itself away.

“Nice ship,” Zil Rossi said. “I don’t recognize it at all. Same as this fighter.”

“That’s good,” Diana said. “It’ll keep people guessing.”

“Is there room in there for me? Or will I just clamp on and stay in here?” she asked.

“Not much room in here, I’m afraid,” Diana said. It was true; other than the cockpit and a small space behind it, there was no living space aboard the ship. There was no way to exit it without taking it apart, either. “Don’t worry, we’ll be at the starting line before you know it. And Ahvie’s supposed to have packed in some snacks for you.”

“She did,” Zil Rossi said. “I just regret not bringing any entertainment.”

“We can figure that out on the way over,” Diana said. “I’ve got some favourite movies we can watch together.” It would be a decent way to pass the time too, she figured. “Oh, people are moving.”

A few ships were heading towards the ring. Ven Geddi’s miniature carrier picked up a shuttle, then started towards the gate, and Diana recognized Abatrath’s corvette cutting in line in front of the carrier with its escort wing of fighters tight-packed around it.

“Welp,” Diana said as she sat up. She started feeding the Cerberus’ engines and slid out of the edges of the station. She wasn’t the only one to start moving.

Hundreds of ships started to form a long trail leading up to the ring, and one by one they turned into disappearing blurs that shot out towards the distant stars. Diana slid between a slower freighter and a small squadron of racing craft to be just a bit further ahead in line. She couldn’t be first, but she certainly wouldn’t be the last one.

Before they hit the ring, Diana opened up direct coms to Ahvie’s ship. “Hey, Ahvie?”

“Ahvie is here,” Ahvie said. It sounded as though she was scrambling to answer.

“I’m off to the races,” Diana said. “Keep safe until I return, alright?”

“Ahvie will. You stay safe too. Or if you won’t, then… win, at least.”

Diana laughed. “I will!”

They slipped past the edge of the ring, and just like that they shot off across space.

The trip wasn’t going to be that long. Waitless Station, and the system it was in, were obviously chosen in part because of their proximity to the Bolgian system. The starting line system was even closer, more or less between the two on the galactic map Diana had ChaOS bring up.

Still, the distance she was crossing in a few hours was mind-boggling. “Have you figured out how those rings work yet?” she asked.

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“Not yet, no. The publicly available information on what passes for an electronic library here has been incredibly rudimentary, or downright incorrect.”

“How bad is it?” Diana asked.

“It is tantamount to saying that a gas engine works by burning gas to make a car move. The explanation is reductivist and redundant to the extreme. Our sensor data has been more useful, but observing a process isn’t the same as being able to reproduce it.”

“Yeah, I can imagine,” Diana said. “Well, keep at it. Maybe we’ll be able to return to Sol one of these days. Pop in to say hi, maybe collect the reward for that last race. Oh, and share the secrets to faster than light travel too. That one seems important.”

“It would render you quite famous. Or infamous.”

“Ah, don’t leave yourself out of it,” Diana said. “We need to share in the infamy, ChaOS.”

Five minutes passed before Diana remembered that she wasn’t entirely alone. She brought up a few screens: a status report on the Foxtail, and an image of the inside of Zil Rossi’s cockpit. The ktacha was brushing the fur on her face with a small comb-like device.

“Heya,” Diana said.

Zil Rossi startled, then quickly tucked the comb away. “Hello, Diana,” she said. “The communications suite on this ship seems pretty well made.”

“Yeah, it’s going to be handy once the race starts. We don’t want to lose track of each other.”

Zil Rossi leaned back into her seat. “In all the excitement, you didn’t tell me what your plan is.”

“Oh, it’s simple,” Diana said. “ChaOS will get the list of targets, and I’m going to drop right on top of the biggest, most valuable concentration of them.”

“That’s likely to be in the planetary capital. Where the defences will be strongest.”

“That’s likely,” Diana agreed. “Then we’re going to blow stuff up, rack up some points, and leave. Your job is to fly as escort to the edge of the planet’s atmosphere, then once I’m out and back into space, you’ll escort me back to the finish rings.”

“And between those two times?”

“Stay alive?” Diana tried. “Or blow up navy ships. I’d mostly suggest not antagonising anyone if you can avoid it; it’ll make escaping easier. I don’t think we’ll gain much from making things more challenging than they will be. ChaOS, can you give us a guess on the number of racers we have?”

“Three hundred and forty unique ships,” ChaOS said. “From fighters, all the way up to a single frigate-sized vessel.”

“We’re going in heavily outnumbered then,” Diana said. “But our objective isn’t to fight, it’s to race. Well, race and win.”

Zil Rossi leaned to the side, then tapped one of the touch screens that made up her control surfaces. “We have a few hours to go. Can the ship’s computer handle a simulation at the same time as it flies?”

“Yeah, sure,” Diana said. She wiggled her fingers and toes. “We can double up practice flying in formation and using all the weapons systems we have.”

“The computer that your ship has is impressive,” Zil Rossi said.

Diana wasn’t sure, but she had the impression the question was meant to be probing. “Yeah. Well, games are very popular where I’m from. Simulations too. You wouldn’t imagine the lengths some people would go just to play Deep Space Freight Hauler in as realistic a way as possible.”

“I… see,” Zil Rossi said.

Diana booted up a sim, set it up with a bit of help from ChaOS so that her actual controls were linked to the simulation, then they were off.

The hours passed by in a blink, with only a quick snack break halfway through to keep them going. Mostly, they practised fighting, because flying in a straight line from the edge of a system to a planet didn’t require great effort compared to the spinning, zero-g manoeuvres required to keep a target lock on something which could fire back at you.

“Mistress, we are about to arrive,” ChaOS said.

Diana paused the simulation. The last dogfight was over anyway. “Looks like we’re here,” she said.

Space warped and rippled, then tore apart as they burst out into a whole new solar system.

Dozens of ships were spread out around them, and more appeared every second. In the distance, a large station waited, with half a dozen jump rings just past it.

They had arrived at the starting line.

***