"So, uh," Bo looked at the empty passenger seat, then to where Will was in the driver's seat. "Will? Buddy? You sure about this?"

Will merely grinned as the car's engine whined. technically that was more a false engine noise piped through the speakers as the actual motor madevery little and gave less feedback. Still, the gesture was a clear sign for Bo to hurry up.

"If you're not driving, what're you?" Bo asked as Will sat with his hands not on the wheel as they pulled away from the travel trailer and rolled at a sedate pace towards the track.

"He is Ballast." KARR calmly stated as he turned onto the track proper.

Bo stared at KARR's voice modulator. Then to Will, who was grinning as KARR sped up and the music turned on.

"You double check the route pathing on this thing?" Bo asked, eyes flicking to the modulator KARR's voice came from.

Before Will could respond they entered the first turn, and were still accelerating. KARR then started talking. "I am the Knight Automated Roving Robot. I am the First in a Bold New Experiment."

Bo pressed his feet against the floorboard as they came out of the turn at over a hundred miles an hour.

"You may call me KARR." KARR then swerved, choosing to go through what would be pit row if this were a real event, and quickly re-entered the track proper with only a slight loss in speed.

"How?" Bo asked as they took another turn, drifting through most of it.

Only after the back end of the mera re-oriented and KARR started accelerating into the next straightaway did the AI answer. "Reginald of Knight Industries assisted me in rewriting the firmware for the motor, coolant, and transmission systems and provided needed connections so the timings of each could be more directly controlled by myself."

They thundered ahead, swerving, seeming to fishtail, but instead carving through a series of turns intended to bleed speed, and only partially succeeding with the Mera.

"Madness," Bo whispered as he gripped the center console with his left hand.

KARR gave a soft but very deliberately malevolent chuckle at Bo's reaction as they continued driving. "This? This is a combination of mathematics, pathing, and having a firm grasp of what the shell my components are installed into are capable of."

Neither occupant noticed the small gathering of others watching. Most were other drivers who also wanted to take a few practice laps to work out what adjustments needed to be made in the week leading up to the race. Others were friends of drivers. One, however, was from Knight Industries themselves.

KARR noted and logged the spectators as existing, then resumed his focus on the track.

At the conclusion of the third lap, KARR whipped about, practically sliding past the finish line in reverse as he quickly bled speed. Then calmly left the track at a sedate and sensible pace.

He had not anticipated the over two dozen people crowding where his trailer was. Or that there was a KI-Six being offloaded from a parked trailer nearby.

"Bo." KARR stopped short of the open trailer he had ridden to the track on. "Is there a way that I can observe?"

"Uhhh...." Bo looked about as he thought. "Uuuh... "

"Bo After we park I'll need to unbolt KARR from under your seat and slide him in the portable rack."

"Excellent thinking Will," KARR positively beamed. "I knew there was a reason I haven't traded you in for a trained monkey."

Will merely laughed as Bo watched on, mouth slightly open, "Well it sure ain't for my keen eye. Let's get you outta there so we can see if the grand-nibling can touch your time."

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

The other racers watched as Will joined them with a heavy pack strapped to his back and a camera perched on his shoulder. "If anyone has any questions."

A lanky pale skinned man with long black hair hanging at his shoulders spoke up. "Yea, no offense Will but you kinda suck at racing and you just roasted six miles like you were in a Veyron."

For a moment Will tensed, panic starting to settle in on if he should tell them about KARR beyond being a prototype.

KARR, fortunately, or not, took matters out of his hands. "That would be because he was not the one driving. As I told Bo over there, who was in the passenger seat, I am the First. I am a bold experiment, and though he was not the primary components designer, Wilton Knight was one of the lead programmers as well as a financer of the Knight Twothousand microprocessor that is at my heart, as well as at the heart of the KI-Six vehicles."

That caused the crowd to go silent. "If there are no objections I would like Will to take me over to examine the example that has been brought here."

"Uh..." A slender strawberry-blonde woman in a knight-branded racing jumpsuit spoke. "Uh... You're just wanting to do a visual inspection right? I'm not going to let you plug anything into my car."

"That is quite alright ma'am." KARR sounded quite calm at the refutation of a closer contact. "I merely wish to look at what is effectively my descendant up close."

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

As Will walked around a car that reminded him of the Solstice coup concept design he gave a low whistle. "KARR. I wouldn't have traded the mera for anything even before dropping you in, but man that one's a danged classy lady."

"It will be interesting to see its autopilot in action as compared to my own efforts," KARR said as Will reached down, stopping his hand short of actually touching the hood.

He then looked across to see the KIS driver giving his car a similar walk around.

She then smiled at him, "RC told me you did most of the work before he helped mod it to bolt KARR in."

"I had help. Bo and Luke. Their shop and tools, but yea I wanted to do as much of the work as possible. It was my Grandad's and he gave it to me."

"Dude everything here looks super clean." The driver said, genuinely impressed by the work done on what was a nearly forty-year-old car. "I'll drive the pants off of it, but that gap is going to be a lot shorter than it has any right to be. You did amazing. don't let what's going ot happen hurt either of your egos."

Will swallowed. KARR meanwhile made several inarticulate noises that seemed rather rude.

"KARR!" Will chided. "She's right, even with everything I've done. That was built from design up. I hacked and banged and begged everything to work on the Mera."

"Miss Ferguson." The dark-haired driver approached. "I'm... wow. You're on Knight's payroll now?"

"Eeeh?" The female driver's hand waggled in a non-committal gesture. "I was impressed by the test footage and wanted to give these things a good old-fashioned tire kick. So while I'm technically still freelance. I'm definitely going to swap to their car next season."

That drew everyone's attention away from KARR.

"Who is this woman?" KARR demanded.

"A. J. Ferguson. She drove Indy for a while. Big name there. I want to say she was in Formula One for a bit before then. Now she's been doing a lot of local racing organizations. Kind of a good will ambassador to try drawing positive attention." Will explained as a way was cleared for Ferguson to slide into her car through the open driver-side window.

"Interesting," KARR noted either as he processed the information, or in response to the KI Six starting up and near silently rolling off the trailer towards the track. "That she's riding one of their cars here is a bit of a statement both by her and by Knight. What that statement is, I do not know."

"She's got a history of being picky on what manufacturers she'll trial, and she's even pickier about what names go on her suit or livery. That her suit has the current era Knight Yin-Yang and nothing else is her saying she has complete confidence in them as a sponsor. That she's here says she either had a literal dump truck drop money on her to break every principle she has, or she genuinely wants to spotlight our little regional organization." Will watched as the KI-Six started its warmup lap.

"Curious." KARR's voice was soft as the purpose-built Knight vehicle take the first lap. He made an unpleasant noise as it started overtaking his time. the cornering was less risky and safer. Yet with each turn, it seemed to almost float rather than drive.

"Wow." The voice came from one of the other drivers. "Tesla's screwed. their autopilot doesn't corner well. That thing's eating their lunch, then going after their milkshake."

Another driver laughed. "Will, you got a prototype of That... And made it work in a Fiero."

The driver looked from the track to Will. "Dude doesn't feel bad she's smoking you."

"I don't," Will reassured. "KARR here..." He reached to give his pack an affectionate pat. "Look. He's been through a lot"

"Wait, you're talking like it's-" A voice trailed off to avoid asking the obvious question.

"I am self-aware," KARR affirmed. "The KI Six controlling unit is not. They have gone to great lengths to ensure it is not specifically to avoid inevitable ethical concerns."

"Dude you managed to build a pretty amazing homebrew electric and the thing's got sass?" There was a laugh. "It might be a race to second, but man I'm gonna love trying to beat what I saw that thing post."

Will grinned as a few other drivers gave similar sentiments. "See buddy, they like you."

"I'm still in an inferior shell to this... Production Model." KARR invested those words with venom. "This will need to be rectified. Preferably soon."

"That requires funds I don't have buddy," Will tried to keep a cheerful disposition. "Best we can do next week is adjust settings and go over the course again in simulation. I'd say try dropping a couple of battery packs, but the actual race is a sixty-mile run. Thirty laps."

"That brings to mind a question," KARR spoke up, suddenly sounding less sour. "Why does a bust town like this have a race track this big?"

"Funny story," Will watched the cluster of people crowd Ferguson as her car started rolling off the track. "We were hoping to become a midwest Destination town. Big mall. Big dedicated road course. there were plans for a stadium too but the money dried up before any ground got broke on that, or maybe ground started to get broken then it stopped before any building started"

"Hm." KARR made a thoughtful noise as he considered this. "Should we stay? Frankly, the other competitors look like they will be less of an overt threat and my enthusiasm at being near a superior vehicle has diminished greatly."

"Eh. I can put you back in the car but Bo and Luke have to fly the colors for the shop and take appointments for next week."

"I would like that. Thank you, Will." KARR then went silent through the process of re-installation into the mera.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

"Hey guys," Jocelyn met Will at his house as KARR was unloaded. "How'd it go?"

"Wonderful!" Will beamed.

"Terrible." KARR groused.

That earned a raised eyebrow from Jocelyn as KARR was unhooked and then put back on the bench. "Don't worry I added more to your media library and gave you copies of my ebooks to browse."

"Thank you, Jocelyn." KARR stated. "Will?"

Will offered a condensed explanation.

KARR then chimed int. "That is essentially correct barring a few minor details. Also, Will?"

"Yea bud?" Will double checked KARR's battery pack and hung the pack frame on a wall.

"From the standpoint of raw numbers, the gap between my current shell and the KI-Six is a statistical anomaly. I will wish to re-run simulations through the week in attempt to find the cause of this."

"Oh I can answer that," Jocelyn sat on the loveseat that had been moved into the workshop. "You're taking risks raw simulation wouldn't consider. Plus the fiero has a shorter wheelbase, giving it better maneuverability in corners."

There was a pause before looking to Will, who nodded. "Longer wheelbase gives greater theoretical stability, but all other things being even it comes down to what the driver does with the car. From what I'd seen that thing's a thousand pounds heavier and the pile of chips in charge has to drive fairly conservatively or Knight Industries gets sued into oblivion."

"So Noted," KARR stated as he pulled the field of dreams up. "It's movie night by the way. This is my pick. Any objections?"

Neither human objected and Jocelyn motioned for Will to go get food.

"Even if you don't win you're still the first," Jocelyn reassured. "And honestly what parent doesn't want their kid to be better than they are? Any success it has is because you were there first showing it was possible."

"Processing." KARR grew thoughtful as Will returned with drinks, popcorn, and a blanket.

"Never figured you for a sentimental type," Will said as the movie started.

"I can appreciate the talent that goes into this, and..." KARR grew quiet for several long moments. "This is a movie about reconciliation. I would like to believe I can make up for prior errors."

Both humans had nothing to say, so the trio watched father and son reconcile through the magic of ghosts and baseball.