Lightship Chronicles Chapter 6 : The Junker

by Florin Nicoara

replies staring dumbfounded.

  "Wow!" Andee quietly blurbs, while the other three stare at their small display mesmerized. Down on the outcrop, people clustered around a few vidroms available, shout and cheer as they jump with joy. Being Carpati, they can't help but root for the underdog.

  But the Black Cross is not going to let this pass without a fight. He is riding the Junker hard. He's is nearly touching the ship, but there're just too many turns and the spaces too tight for him to make a move, yet the Cross is relentless.

  "This is a battle, a true battle!" Hondo, back in his seat, shouts giddy with excitement. "I haven't seen a battle like this in ages. Look at them. They are fighting for first like mad."

  The Cross bumps the Junker. The Junker accelerates into a hard turn and the corner of his front engine scrapes the rock. The Cross gains on him and bumps him again.

  "This isn't just a race, it's a battle. Look at them go at each other." Hondo continues shouting more like a fan than a professional announcer.

  The Black Cross is ever more aggressive. The ship is bigger and sturdier so he is not afraid to ram into the Junker here and there, although if he hits him too hard they could both crash. The Junker is no longer just racing, but fighting to stay alive.

  "I think he's going to crash him." Gono comments concerned.

  "Why isn't that illegal?" Nayaa asks.

  "Because most pilots are sane. A crash could kill both of them. This dude in the Black Cross is a lunatic." Andee shakes his head.

  "I don't want to see them crash. I like the Ghost. I want him to win." Nayaa continues with a pout.

  "I bet he's Carpati. He's going to be the next Hektor." Mykee adds nodding his head up and down.

  The two battling ships make a hard long turn on a stone wall into a more open canyon dotted with smaller caves all along its cliff walls. The Cross bumps the Junker again just as The Ghost tries to move sideways and slow down. It seems like he was about to let the Black Cross get ahead, but instead, the tip of ship5's right engine clips the tip of the Junkers left rear corner and torques him sideways, which turns the forward momentum of the ship to an angled ledge protruding from the cliff wall. Ship15 flies up the short angled ledge and leaps off the end, as if from a ramp, heading at an angle towards the cliff wall at over 200kph.

  "He's headed for the wall!" Hondo jumps out of his seat again.

  "He'll be smashed to pieces." Mando shouts.

  But just before impact, the pilot is ejected up into the air. Below him the Junker smashes at an oblique angle into the wall of stone, thumbing into the side of the cliff as if rolling on the ground. The ship shatters into pieces before the debris rain down to the bottom. The pilot in the air above also slams into the cliff wall from his forward momentum, but at a much slower speed, then bounces off the wall while quickly slowing down in the air. He then gently floats on a glow of blue light from devices attached to the chest and back of his leathery dark brown pilot suit.

  "What is that? I've never seen anything like it?" Mando stares leaning over his 3D display.

  "He's got some kind of personal photon regenerator in his suit." Hondo is equally flabbergasted.

  The pilot floats gently to the gourd landing on his feet, but as they touch he falls limp into a pile. He hit that stone wall hard.

  The image of the pilot on the 3D display is small, recorded from a distance.

  "It looks like he is hurt Hondo"

  "It certainly does, but he may still be alive, witch would not be case hand he not had whatever that device was that saved him. Wait, what? What's that?" Hondo points into the 3D display.

  The four are staring at Mykee's panel too amazed to say a word, while on the screen something large and hairy rushes out of one the small caves in the wall of the canyon and grabs the pilot by the leg, then drags him into the cave just as the other lightships speed directly above. Had he been there another second, The Ghost would have been churned into his own namesake by the levitating force under the lightships flying over him.

  "Was that a man, or some kind of creature?" Hondo asks with big curious eyes. It's close to last horizon, so the light is dim, and even dimmer down in the labyrinth of the crags. Whatever it was, it pulled the pilot into an even darker and shadowy cave.

  "I've heard rumors of strange beasts in the crags, but this is the first time I've seen one." Mando answers.

  "This world still has so many surprises for us. Another reason to love this race." Hondo adds.

  "I think it's a man." Mando points as they both focus while watching a replay.

  "Hard to tell in the dim light, but look how much bigger that thing is than the pilot. It's moving like a man, a bit, but it's too big and hairy to be a man." Hondo counters.

  "What is that?" Mykee asks baffled squinting at the very small image on his small screen.

  "I don't know." Andee answers.

  "Wow, that's crazy. I didn't know there were monsters in the Crags. I've always wanted to go there." Nayaa speaks leaning closer over Mykee.

  "Not me, I've heard of all kinds of crazy things there." Gono adds.

  "I hope it doesn't eat the pilot. He was good. If he had a decent ship he would have won." Mykee ads.

  "That's messed up. I liked 15, but the race is still on." Gono, eager, stares back at the display.

  "What a shocking turn of events Mando. Ship15 had the lead there for a while, but just could not hold on to it."

  "That's right. The Black Cross put him in an early grave."

  "Or on the dinner plate of some monster in the Crags, ha-ha-ha." Both announcers laugh with jolly.

  "Inappropriate, but funny Hondo. Now lets get back to the race."

  Andee jumps off the edge of their cove to a lower ledge.

  "Where you going?" Gono asks.

  "I'm done. I don't want to see the rest of this race."

  "Ah come on man. Crashes happen all the time."

  "You guys keep watching. I'm going to chill for a while."

  "Ok." Gono counters and looks back at the display. Andee jumps down and walks back towards the path up to the crags. Most of the crowd is on the southern edge looking at their vidroms or towards the crags. The north face is clear. Andee finds a boulder and seats with his back to it facing south, facing the stone wall where the edge of the little cove is barely visible. Nayaa's head peeks out. She leaps past Gono and out. She rushes over and takes a seat next to Andee.

  "You OK?" He nods. "That's why I never watched the races before. Just when you start liking someone they get killed in a horrible crash. If it wasn't for those stupid crashes the race would be very exciting." Andee nods again but he looks lost, staring in empty space. He is looking ahead, hard, at a spot not far from him. Nayaa studies him for a moment.

  "Are you looking at something?" Andee doesn't answer for a moment, then turns to her.

  "That spot right there." Pointing to the place ahead. "That's where I saw the guy in the blue robe the first time."

  "Ah. You still think he's real?"

  "I don't know. I only saw him twice. Here and at the market. Maybe it was all in my head."

  "Who knows? Maybe you did see something, and... I don't know, maybe it was some kind of combination of memories."

  "Maybe." There is a moment of long silence again as Andee stares at the spot. "But it was so real. Why is this happening?"

  "What's happening?"

  "I don't know. Everything." Nayaa waits patiently in another long silence. "Where's my dad? Is he really in the Badlands with cannibals? Why am I seeing some dude in blue? Why are the Bitani treating us like alcamas? Just animals that grow their food. Why are they recording me? What's the point of all this?" Nayaa leans onto him and places the side of her head on his shoulder. They sit there quietly without a word.

  Mykee and Gono are too focused on the display to notice Andee and Nayaa below, or anything else for that matter.

  "I can't believe he's falling so far behind." Mykee muses disappointed.

 
"It's his first time over the Salt Sea." Gono responds. "Those waves are tricky and he has no experience. If he goes too fast he'll leap off a wave into the air and crash nose fist in the water at 500kph. The ship will be destroyed and he won't survive. Look how the other pilots know how to read the waves, especially the Black Eye. He just passed the Pearl, and is gaining on the Red Menace. He's using the waves to his advantage surfing on them to gain extra speed."

  "Wow, look at them go on the side of that large wave." Mykee muses.

  The four top ships are all in a line riding nearly sideways on a cresting 3m wave, but just as the top of the wave starts crashing, the four ships exit in the break between waves only to ride up the next one. The trailing ships can not do the same because they have fallen further behind and are trapped in the crashing wave. Now they have to slow down even more as they smash spectacularly through the cresting wave at 100kph. They turn the water into mist as they drag it behind them accelerating again on the other side of the long wave. Ricio has slowed down even more, blow 100kph, too timid to tackle the waves. Ship13, the Winged Cone is fast on his tail, and flies past him in a haze as it comes out of the wave leaving the Silver Sickle behind in a trail of mist.

  Over the next 20km, to the end of the Salt Sea section, more ships pass the Silver Sickle. One by one, ship2 The Dragonfly follows the Cone, then ship3 the Horseshoe, ship8 the Yellow Teardrop, ship11 The Orange Almond, and ship4 the Rusted Teardrop all passing Ricio. Only ship 14, the Green Orb, with ship7, the Rusted Brick, are still trailing behind him bringing in the tail end.