Robin tried to hold his shit together as much as possible, but in the end, he barely managed to keep his 9th rank until he crossed the finish line.
With that, he did it! He qualified for the final race and obtained the chance to be the first to uncover a new Drel outpost. That was huge, that was…
As soon as the joyous thoughts wanted to overwhelm him, he pushed them aside. His eyes searched the sidelines where the other pilots that finished the race began to settle down.
He saw Hopewing entering his parking slot and remembered his other task. Should he go over there? He probably only had minutes before any evidence was gone and his last attempt to scan the ship already gave him some idea of what he had to search for: implants!
Shaking his head, he tore his eyes away and kept searching. He hoped to see the white Speedy but couldn’t find it anywhere. His heart dropped.
That couldn’t be true, could it?
“Congratulations on scoring the 9th place and thereby qualifying for the final race in two days! Please clear the area for now and secure the ship in your assigned hangar.” A monotonous voice informed him over the personal comm channel. Still looking around and unsuccessfully trying to open a comm channel to Niu, Robin maneuvered the Melody II past the few buildings and entered the hangar.
After climbing out of his ship, he saw a staff member of Apex coming over. It was the friendly woman that welcomed him when he arrived a few days before.
She wore a bright smile and opted for a handshake, “Congratulations Mr. Tulward! You have held your own against so many professional racing pilots in your first tournament. I knew from the moment I saw you for the first time that you will be the next rising star! You can call me Trish.”
“Thanks,” Robin couldn’t hide the depression in his voice and began to fidget with his fingers.
“Trish, can you tell me who had the accident and… if there were any survivors?” he asked and could feel the lump in his throat.
The smile vanished from her face, being replaced by a sad look.
“That was tragic, yes. We don’t often have such severe crashes. The pilot unfortunately didn’t survive the impact, but she probably died in an instant, if that is of any comfort for you.” The woman explained, her voice low.
“She?” Robin asked and his vision began to blur.
“Yes, it was Mrs. …”
“Heyyyy! Congratulations to my young student! 9th rank it is? You’ve not disappointed or embarrassed your master after all this training!” A cheerful voice disrupted the heavy mood.
Seeing the small woman coming into the hangar, laughing and in her always dominating happy mood, Robin felt the boulder lift from his heart. He left the Apex-woman behind and rushed towards Niu. After reaching her, he didn’t say anything and just pulled her in a forceful hug, not letting go of her for a few long moments.
“Aaaaaaare you alright?” She carefully asked, not sure where this sudden emotional outburst came from.
“I’m also happy that you’ve won your advancement, but this may be a bit inappropriate, don’t ya agree?”
“Uhm, yeah. You are right. I was just kind of overwhelmed by the moment. Sorry!” Robin let go of her and awkwardly straightened his jumpsuit.
“Also, congratulations to you, too! You should have finished before me, what place did you get?”
“Bah, 2nd again. There is just no way around that damn Hopewing! I really wanna know what his mutation is. He flies along the track as if he’s a machine, I’m absolutely outclassed.” Niu grumbled and after some hesitation she added, “I’ve thought about taking some more risks, like you probably would have done, but it’s just the qualifications for now. No need to act stupid, right?”.
“Right, there is no need for that.” Robin awkwardly chuckled, “You will get him in the next race, that’s the only one that really is important.” He laughed and turned back to Trish.
“I’ll leave for my room and take a shower, when is the next event scheduled?”
“That will be in 2 hours. It’s a small press conference and the briefing on how to proceed for the final race.” She explained.
“Thanks, I’ll be there.” He said and gave Niu’s shoulder a light patt, “It’s good that you are well and happy, thanks for visiting me. We’ll have a drink together after the briefing, right?”
Not waiting for an answer Robin rushed off to his apartment, leaving Happy alone with Trish.
“What the hell was wrong with him?” Niu asked after Robin had left the hangar, “Did he tell you anything?”
Trish was taken aback a bit and didn’t know how to answer at first.
“Well, I can only make guesses, sorry.”
“Okay, start guessing!” Niu impatiently pressed on.
“He, uhm, probably thought it was you who crashed in The Canyon. When you came in, he was right about asking for the pilot’s name.”
Stolen story; please report.
“There was an accident in that danger zone?” As the crash happened behind her, Happy didn’t get the warning and had no idea till now.
“Who did we lose?” She asked sadly.
“Mrs. Bentius, she went into a tailspin just before leaving The Canyon. Her ship crashed into the mountain’s wall at the exit. Mr. Tulward passed by shortly afterwards and must have seen the wreckage…”
“Oh, I’m sorry for her. She should have been ranked around 4th or 5th right?”
“Yes, she was just claiming the 4th position before losing control. She...also flew a Jolt, a white and green one.” Trish explained and gave some more hints.
“Yeah, shit.” Niu said after she understood a bit more, “I’ll catch up with him later. Thanks for the update!”
***
Back in his room, Robin took a shower and also tried to understand his outburst. He didn’t know Niu for long and there was no deep relationship between them. A friendship was sprouting, maybe, but nothing more and there certainly weren’t any romantic feelings or something like that involved. So why did it hit him so hard?
As the hot water splashed around him, Robin tried to analyze the situation with a more neutral and scientific approach.
“It would have been the same if I thought Patience had died, or Timothy. Probably Jim, too. For him Niu was already a friend, they just hit it off well from the start. He only had so many people in his life and Jim still was his boss first and only then a friend. Niu was a welcoming and joyful addition to their little group and gave his life a bit more color.
Slowly he began to understand what disrupted him so much. He made a mistake, a miscalculation in his plans till now.
“I always thought I found my way and now just had to follow it along. Alone and without any support. Why should anyone even help me? They all have their own adventures going on - Patience just stepped into the world of the bigger studios, Jim has his own workshop, Timothy is already exploring crazy alien ruins and Niu is about to sit in the piloting seat of a freakin’ intergalactic cruiser.” Talking to himself to give his thoughts some weight, Robin turned off the shower and jumped on the fluffy bed nearby.
“I don’t wanna lose these people, they make my life fun. But right now I took one more step towards my own goal. What will happen, when I reach that goal? I failed to think about the ‘and then?’ after I leave Rucasur.
I always dreamed of having my own ship and exploring the endless universe. But never thought about who I would be able to share this with. Do I really wanna be a lonely traveler that hops from one planet to another, with nowhere to call home and no people to accompany me?”
Robin lay on the bed and kept talking, but the ceiling just didn’t answer.
“Maybe it is time to change my course a bit. They all have their own adventures, but I at least have to share my plans and give them a choice. Maybe some want to follow me.”
He sighed and tried not to think about the ‘and if they don’t?’.
***
Just as planned, Robin and Niu sat in a cozy room that provided not only privacy but also lots of good drinks - something essential if one wanted to keep Happy happy, as Robin came to learn.
The press conference and briefing had already passed. There wasn’t much new to learn, but at least they now knew that the carrier would take them to the other track early the next morning. They would get the rest of that day for preparations and have the final race on the second day. Not much time to get used to the new track, but Niu didn’t need much anyways and Robin - well he was only interested to know where his best spot to bail out would be.
Surprisingly, that was exactly what he was trying to convey right now.
“Call me stupid, but explain that again!” Niu said, a frown on her face.
“Huh…” Robin took a deep breath and began his third try, “It’s quite simple if you break it down to the basics: I was lucky and stumbled across a map that promises a hidden, still unexplored Drel outpost here on Ruca II. I decided to take part in the AHC and reach the finals to get here and have a shot at reaching that location. In the next race I plan on feigning an accident and leave the race without anyone noticing to travel to the marked location of the relic site.” He slowly simplified his story as much as possible.
“And then you want to hand over your findings to the UAS to be showered with credits…?” Happy followed along.
“Yeah, these credits will hopefully be enough to get me a small interplanetary ship or maybe even an intergalactic one to begin my journey.”
“To find traces of the Starborn…?”
“Yup, and visit other planets, meet different races, learn new things every day!” Robin dreamed.
“And you told me all that because…?” Niu still couldn’t get her head around it.
“Ughhhh…” Robin sighed and tried a different approach as before, “Niu, today I realized some things I disregarded in my planning. First of all, I do recognize you as one of my friends - I think we just vibe really well. That goes along with the second part. I don’t wanna do that journey alone, I want you and the others to come along. Let’s make this our one big adventure!”
Niu rubbed her temples and collected her thoughts for a moment.
“Robin, it’s not that easy. First of all I do have my family and responsibilities. I can’t just leave to never come back - and don’t tell me ‘we can come back anytime’, that’s not how such adventures work out, you know that.”
“Isn’t it your dream, too, to travel among the stars?” Robin pointedly asked.
“It is, Robin… it is.” She sighed, lost in memories.
He left her to her thoughts for some time. It wasn’t that he was expecting her to immediately jump aboard this crazy idea of his, but he wanted to lay open his cards so she could earnestly think about it. There was some time left anyways, no reason to hurry.
After a moment Happy shook her head, clearing her mind and looked at him. “Thanks for being so nice to me and even inviting me, I really like that idea and will spend some time thinking about it. But right here and now on Ruca II, I cannot decide anything.” She finally said, asking for time.
“Of course!” Robin exclaimed happily - it wasn’t a No, “You have your own things going on right now and even after Ruca II. Finishing the UAS academy should probably be your number one priority.”
“Pah…” Niu spat on the ground in annoyance, “My number one priority is to push that damn Hopewing from the first rank at least once!”
“Huh” Robin stopped short and scratched his beard.
“Maybe I can help you with that!” He said, lost in thoughts, “You could kick his ass and at the same time help me solve a little problem of my own.”