Their classes, research on the Triumvirate, and preparation for the big competition took all of Riley, Auberje, and Helos’ mental energy for the next 48 hours. Up until race day, the ship went through a frantic flurry of changes. Then, on the 3rd day, the entire school was notified that classes were cancelled and the assembly, titled “Race Day” was added to their calendars at noon.

An additional notification from the headmistress accompanied the changed calendar dates. “Attention all students, the race will commence at 12:30p sharp. Your ship will be ready for scanning at noon today. Any ships failure to pass safety inspection will result in an automatic removal from the race and a failure to advance. I trust we won’t have many of those.”

Riley was distraught with fear their ship might not make it. It was an irrational fear because she had been the one to do the safety check three times just the evening before. But she couldn’t shake the feeling she had missed something. She looked at Auberje and bit her lip, twisting her hand in her other hand. He smiled brilliantly, smoothly, calmingly at her. She couldn’t help but realx slightly. The tension in her shoulders and hands eased. She was still anxious but not as much as before. Helos stood close by the pair. They made a small trio, a small triumvirate of brilliant humans among a sea of brilliant children and teens. The anxiety of the day was with her strongly, but Auberje did his best to be there for her.

They burned through breakfast as fast as the Triumvirates afterburners. Hardly alone in their quick meal, they joined the throng of students heading toward the main hangars.

As they left breakfast, the time was 11:34. Auberje nodded to Riley, “alright, we can do one more quick check and recheck of the Triumvirate’s most important systems. Not to ease your anxiety but to relieve mine!” He laughed and she shook her head laughing too.

Helos chuckled, “I don’t think I am too concerned about your guys nerves, I can barely stand up to my own today. And Auberje looks like he is off for a stroll in the park. At least I can tell Riley is as tense as I am!”

“I do what I can,” Auberje spoke softly, his voice calm and in control, “I don’t feel much anxiety, that’s never been allowed in my bloodline.”

“Speak for yourself!” Riley and Helos spoke at the same time, in nearly the same way. They looked at one another in surprise.

“Nothing to be surprised about you two! Hahhaha. I have noticed this week how similar you both are,” Auberje held his abs as he laughed at the bewildered pair.

“Are not!” Helos said, “But if I share any traits with either of you, I would rather it was with Riley.”

Feeling somewhat affronted, and then mollified, Riley nodded along with Helo’s statement as if punctuating Helos’ statement with the head gesture would make it truer.

Auberje ignored their antics, as he often had over the last 72 hours and made his way to the hanger with his companions. They were fast becoming friends, he realized. He wasn’t exactly sure when he started liking Helos, but it was a nice surprise. For a 1:1, he wasn’t half bad.

As they made it to their assigned hanger slot, they could see the Triumvirate. The ship was in perfect shape. Everything looked ready to go. They were quickly going to find out if the scans done by the school agreed with their own assessment. The "assembly" was nothing more than a huge projected set of heats with names of each team and their vessels model name on it. Their team was shown as part of heat 2, scheduled for later that day.

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For now, they couldn’t see specs, shapes, sizes, anything on the ships of their opponents, but Auberje thought it wouldn’t stay that way for long. Soon enough, he was sure they would get a lot of information from the school on their competition and on the competition. Afterall, they didn’t know much about this race yet.

He wished he had more chits left over from the last Greathing. He spent them all on leaving cool machinery, badass equipment, and all the various other supplies back in the Greathing solar system. Next time, he supposed, he should save at least one chit for the following Greathing. He really wanted to know what the race map looked like so he could start planning. It seemed like they were going to have to go through different types of checkpoints or they would just jump straight to the end.

He wondered what the point of all it was. Was there even a point? They had learned a great deal from the challenge, true. He supposed they learned engineering skills from building the Triumvirate. Sure, they had done a fair bit of creative design work, connected dozens of disparate Human designs together, smoothed them out and brought them all into a whole. It was a little like making a sculpture. One took the raw material, smoothed, shaped, prodded the various pieces into a whole. If you were really good at sculpture it even moved its viewers.

The Triumvirate was a beautiful craft. At least Auberje thought so. He was fairly confident his friends did too. They had left it in a raw titanium sheen for most of the development, but the last thing he ordered last night from the various robotic building units helping them put the ship together, was a fresh coat of wrap of color.

The Triumvirate was bedecked in black and gold and green. A beautiful mirage of pearlescence and speed paint. She looked, for it was a she as all ships are, like a trillion credits.

“What are you thinking about, Auberje?” Riley sat against him as he looked at the world beyond. Her arm touched his and he was thankful for the human touch. There were few connections of this sort in the school. Fewer still that were wanted and appropriate at this age. The ever-watchful cameras kept the children mostly safe, but abuse happened still.

Auberje was certain a couple of the upperclassmen girls were assaulted recently. He had sworn to himself that if he found out who, he would have shot them. He knew where the emergency firearms lockers were. He was also certain no locker had security he couldn’t hack into. Still, he was only 7 and he was academically sure of what assaulted meant but he didn’t yet understand the emotional impacts. He knew the statistics, of course, and was certain the abuser would strike again. It was also a matter of statistics.

“What are you thinking,” Riley asked again, poking him in the arm with a bony finger.

He shook himself, glancing across the table at Helos. Seeing only confusion on the boys face as well, he stilled himself, letting his emotions flow out through his fingertips, he turned to look directly at Riley.

“I will kill anyone who hurts you, Riles,” Auberje gave her the fiercest, most loving look he knew how to make, his face scrunchy and his teeth barring wolfen in the shadows of the booth seating.

She nodded, “Good, and Helos will help.” She pulled him in tight, her hands clasping on his shoulder. Her forehead rested against his temple for a moment, “But what were you thinking before that.”

Auberje considered her question, “I was wondering if there was a purpose to this all? To the Greathing, to the seven trials, to the purposeful testing of a ship through so many environments. Why not let us skip to the end?”

“Same reason they don’t let us graduate on day one, you have to go on the journey of school and likely this race, to understand all the subjects, to get experience, to make friends, to live,” Helos’ reply was thoughtful and automatic, like a floodgate opening into a pre-prepared sluice. Riley and Auberje stopped and stared at their companion.

“You know Riles, I think Helos’ on to something,” Auberje sounded incredulous but the small smile on his face, crinkling one side of his thin lips down, the other up, showed his approval, “I think we are friends.”

“Yes, you big dummy, we are!” Riley laughed and the boys joined her. These moments of pure human joy were rare amongst so many brainiacs and genetically gifted. There was a cerebralness amongst their cohort and coterie few schools would ever have reached in human history. This was not a… good thing, Auberje thought. They needed laughter and joy, happiness and love. Just like the humans they would one day lead in corporate life or in government. They were too academic, too gifted. Perhaps they had a hard time seeing the forest. Or that one amazing tree, he thought, not unkindly as he stared at Helos, for what they were. Human. Friends.