Robin and Niu sat in front of her Speedy, a white Apex Jolt V2, and drank cold beer. They both had finished their races and were using the time to relax and talk about random stuff. Robin came to understand the seemingly always happy woman a bit better. She was the sole daughter of a prominent family and burdened with lots of political responsibilities. The Alaris family was in the real estate business and her parents had high hopes for their daughter. They planned her educational journey and early on prepared her for taking over a branch in the Mereus Cluster.

When Niu grew up however, she showed no interest in this field of work at all. She liked the big spaceships her family owned and always dreamed of becoming a pilot - having the ability to control such huge ships and the freedom to go wherever she wants.

Getting the Class C - Highspeed Reflexes as her mutation, she saw as the final confirmation to change her path. She rebelled against the Alaris family and signed up to a UAS academy, training to become a pilot for intergalactic cruisers.

Today, the relationship with her parents was somewhat stable as she excelled in the academy and even gained some fame for the family by getting good results in races like this Apex Highspeed Cup.

“Flying my ship in these races gives me the feeling of freedom and adrenalin. It makes me forget all the political shit my family throws at me again and again.” Happy had explained to him. Also, Robin got the feeling that her happy mood was more of a mask she used to hide herself from the world around. But hell, he knew her for just a few hours, so how could he be sure? Her life’s story sounded like what you read about the main characters in dramatic novels, he was out of his field of expertise by far.

He liked her ship, though. The white painted vehicle was really optimized for racing - same as the V3 it was 10m long and not even 2m wide. Its power came from four Ion Thrusters that were mounted to the ship’s side comparable to external tube-formed jet engines, two in the front, two in the rear. The thrusters were moveable a bit and could help the vents to change directions of the ship more easily. All in all, it was a monster, created solely for winning the next race.

***

They arrived back at the viewing platform atop the Nova when the last pilots prepared for their races. Robin didn’t want to miss Hopewing’s turn and if one took a look around on the platform that was crammed with people, it was obvious that everyone else thought the same. After the last pilot finished his final lap and Hopewing took his position at the start, Robin sighed with relief. His rank dropped over the day one by one and he now was listed as 23rd, as only one race was left, Robin finally had certainty: he passed the first round!

He cheered for himself a bit. He once again took a step toward his goal, not giving in even in front of so many racing pilots.

A nudge from the side tore him out of his thoughts.

“Congratulations! It’s a great achievement for your first tournament. You should be proud!” Happy whispered.

“Thanks, thanks a lot!” he smiled and looked back to the track outside.

Moments later the chattering all around calmed down and everyone watched as Hopewing began his first lap. He was fast, insanely fast. He definitely flew with speeds way above what even Happy had managed but still took every curve with astounding grace and without slowing down too much. Sure, he didn’t go as fast as Robin on his final straight, but his overall speed was much higher.

“How is he not drifting? The g-forces should drag his ship off the track in the curves…” Robin mumbled under his breath, honestly surprised by what he witnessed.

“He rotates his ship in the perfect angle and his vents are heavily tuned. They can maximize their power output to nearly double that of other ships.” Niu said as they watched him flying along the track like a flash.

“Is that allowed? Why doesn't everyone tune them like that?”

“It’s allowed, of course! But the enormous power of the outlets entails huge risks. If he doesn’t align his ship in the perfect angle or misses the exact timing to power them up, his ship will become an uncontrollable mess. One mistake and he is done for, that’s not something you would be able to recover from, since the whole ship would probably just flip.” She explained with reverence in her voice and he heard a few people give approving grunts.

Robin was confused, if it is so risky and unlikely to achieve, why is no one questioning that?

“How does he do that? Is it his mutation?” He asked, it was the only plausible excuse.

“No one knows what kind of G-Anomaly he has, but the most prominent speculations incline to a Class B variation of Highspeed Reflexes. And I approve of that, my Class C ones are definitely not enough to reach such a level!”

He thought about that and then tried to match what he heard with his information from TechnoBlood.

“Could he use an automated system for that or does that already count as a prohibited auxiliary tool?” He asked her with a whisper.

She gave him an incredulous look.

“Don’t start looking for ghosts! That would be difficult to implement technically and also isn’t allowed. Hopewing is just really talented, that’s why he has so many fans. I, too, learn from him every time I see how he optimizes a curve to the limit.” She laughed and shook her head.

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‘Oh damn, I have a good idea now on how he may be cheating, but I’m pretty sure I’ll burn my fingers if I set his career on fire…’

Robin's shoulders slumped a bit and he watched on in silence as Hopewing completed his last lap. With a final time of 02:31 he was two seconds faster than Niu and took a solid first place. Niu was pushed to the 4th and Robin dropped to rank 24.

When everyone was still cheering and loudly discussing Hopewing's race, Robin went down to leave the Nova. He wanted to take a look at the ship, maybe he would find a lead with his senses.

He wasn’t alone with his idea. Many people, pilots and staff alike, met at the parking location for Hopewing's Jolt V3. The red and silver ship hovered over moments later and Robin immediately used his energy senses. He kept his eyes open to be not too suspicious in the crowd and began to analyze the slowly forming image. To use his mutation like that he had to concentrate with everything he could muster. One after another blue lines formed as an overlay in his vision, highlighting the parts of the ship where the most energy flowed. It began with the generator that powered the four Ion-2 thrusters, followed by a few vents that were in his range and even one thruster itself became visible. Only after all high energy parts showed up, Robin saw the smaller systems that were connected to the ship’s electricity supply. A faint blue light began to form in the cockpit, visualizing a dense network of cables. His vision became blurry as more and more systems were detected and highlighted by his mutation.

‘It looks like a normal ship, how the hell am I supposed to find anything with so many different parts and systems crammed in one small space? It’s like everything just becomes one blue glowing mass…’ Robin struggled to keep his mutation active as his senses were flooded with inputs. He tried to filter specific elements, but couldn’t achieve much in his first tries. Soon afterwards Hopewing stopped and the ship’s engine powered down. Many blue lines in his vision vanished as only the electric system was still running. Robin managed to catch a glimpse at some systems that went out before the ship was completely turned off, but nothing specific he could work with.

Slowly it dawned on him that not all the changes in his mutation were outright helpful. He would need to train his skill to be able to select on which part he wants to focus. As it was now, there was too much information, making everything overwhelming and impossible to process.

‘I need to do some research, too. I have to know what I’m looking for or else I’ll find nothing in the short windows of time I get.' He only had two more chances, one before and one after the next race. He needed results by then.

Deep in thought he left Hopewing and his fans. It was time to make a deal with Happy and Patience, he needed training before anything else. He must use the coming weeks to become a better pilot to raise his chances of reaching the top 10 and to become a better fighter to be prepared if something unexpected happens again.

***

“Sir, I’ve collected everything I could find about him.” Landom Walzor stood in the office of his superior and was in the middle of his report, “The only noticeable thing about him is his piloting license for small atmospheric vessels and the fact that he has built his own little ship, callsign Melody II. In any other regard he is the definition of a normal guy. He works at a workshop in Quantum Forge District as technocrafter, lives alone, has few friends and no family anymore. He has a Class E - Minor Energy Senses G-Anomaly and there were no suspicious transactions on his bank account and no indications of any connection to criminal organizations whatsoever. ”

“But that changed?” The man who sat behind the office’s desk asked.

“Yes, a few months ago. Since the weekend he had his first trip with the Melody II, his record shows dozens of anomalies.” Landom tapped on his datapad to open some other files and began his listing.

“On his first trip he visited three excavation sites, a Wuranger ruin and a Vanguard facility. The last one was the smuggler's hideout he stumbled into. After that he visited a stitch in RustHollow Quarters for unknown reasons and finally made his way to Beakrath. There he stopped by the workshop that blew up shortly afterwards, his bank transactions incline a transport job for the stitch. I’ve also read the report from Beakrath Security, it really seems like he once again stumbled into something by happenstance.”

“So you are saying he’s an unlucky boy? That’s unfortunate but not a crime…” Landom’s boss chimed in, not seeing where all this was leading to.

“What’s really interesting is where he went after his night in Beakrath. I think the transport job was just a chance to earn some quick money for him, his real goal was outside the city. I got his flight route from Flight Control and he didn’t go straight home but took some detours over the greenhouses. At two unassuming locations he circled a few times and even landed once before continuing. I had to dig deep into our archives to find out what was there before we built our production facilities.” Landom explained and made a meaningful pause.

“Mr. Tulward circled exactly above the old locations of another two ancient relic sites! Those are gone for many decades and nothing is left, but he still found some information and went looking for them.”

“So in the span of a few weeks he visited four different alien relic sites? It’s rare to find information on even one of these, where did he get it?” Walzor’s superior mused while rubbing his chin.

“That’s the main problem here.” Landom finally came to the point, “While it is very tedious to find anything online, it’s not impossible and there are a few alien fanatics that collect all the data they can get their hands on. However, that’s only for three of the four sites. The remaining one was a Keeper Info-Station that was once found near today’s Beakrath…”

“A Keeper’s facility?” Finally Landom’s superior was intrigued and sat up straight.

“The UAS stays tight-lipped about everything concerning the Keeper, there is no way you could just find locations of them only because you are looking hard enough! You were right, Walzor, we need to know where he got his information from!”

“Sir, I think the more pressing question is: What is he looking for? His data seems outdated as he obviously doesn’t know if the relic sites still exist before going there personally. But despite that he still keeps searching.” Landom pointed out.

“What is he doing right now?” His boss asked and he had to take a deep breath before answering.

“He is taking part in the Apex Highspeed Cup and just advanced to the second race.” he said, scratching his head.

“He is a racing pilot?”

“No, Sir, he is not…”

“So, what is he doing there?”

“I have no idea Sir…”