by Randal Sloan
Juliette had been listening intently, knowing this was something really deep and that her mother was telling her the absolute truth. But when her mother made that last statement, she recognized something was not being said. She interrupted, the point too much to let slide. “What are you not telling me, Mother? What are you leaving out?”
Her mother smiled at her. “Yes, I don’t know how, but you were the one who left the messages for me and your father. I don’t know what that means, and you must not read too much into it, because none of us know how it happens or what the ramifications are. You must do whatever you would do without that knowledge.”
Juliette nodded. She had learned that with the visions of her mother and Nana. Her mother went on. “We have reason to believe that the war returns to the next generation, so that means it may be you, your brother, and your friends that will have to deal with it this time.”
Juliette had been wondering why her mother was telling her this now, but suddenly it made sense. For the first time, she saw just how serious everything was. No wonder her mother was anxious. “You think it may be already happening? Something to do with the race?”
“Maybe. We don’t know for sure. Your Nana and I both see something there, but we can’t see what it is for sure. If it is, it’s only the beginning.” Julie looked her daughter directly in the eyes. “I hope we’re wrong, but we don’t know. That’s why you’re starting your training with Nana now, and that’s why you’ll be going to the monk island to learn everything they can teach you in their martial arts training and their weapons training.”
Her mother handed her the package she had been carrying. “This is for you. I don’t know when or how, but someday it will be important that you have these.”
Five minutes ago Juliette would have torn into the package to see what was there. But by now she knew it was serious. She nervously opened the package, carefully unwrapping the paper, and even with all she had heard, she was completely surprised by the gift.
“These are very special knives.” Her mother picked one up, holding it up so she could see it, the handle end facing Juliette. “You will get training on how to use them on the monk island. These have been made by the foremost weapons expert in the world, at least in my humble opinion, and they are the most perfect instruments you’ll probably ever see. But someday, they will save your life.” By this time, tears were in her eyes.
Juliette took the knife from her, holding it long enough to get a feel for it. She didn’t know much about knives, but the balance in her hand felt perfect and she could somehow sense the quality of the steel and the perfection of its make. But it was scary too, so she quickly handed it back, handle first, just like she had seen her mother do.
She didn’t know exactly what to say, so she just said what was in her heart. “Mother, I thank you for this gift. I promise I will use it with great care and for the purpose of good, not evil.” Glad that she and her brother had both learned the monk bows from their mother years before, she gave her mother the monk bow of sincere promise.
They talked a little longer, working out the plans for Juliette and her training. She was definitely going to have a very busy summer. Finally, she hugged her Nana and followed her mom out to their ship. Juliette vowed she would work very hard to master everything she needed. Then she would be ready if it became necessary to do her part. She knew she was already driven toward her own goals, and this would probably just be another part of it.
But first and foremost, she had a race to win.
CHAPTER FIVE
The Competition
Quite a number of racing teams had signed up for the Space Tech race. Most legitimately intended to compete for the prize fair and square. Let the best team win was their motto. However, one team had a completely different attitude. The team was owned by the CEO of a tech company that had been sponsoring a race team for the last few years. Martin Wilson had come into the position at the company with the premature death of his father and he just couldn’t handle the responsibility. He knew the root of his problem; he had been getting his way his whole life and the business world just didn’t work like that. He knew a lot of their best customers had left when he tried to take a hard line with them. He still felt he had been right to do so; it wasn’t his fault they didn’t see it his way.
As a result of that and his insane ability to spend money, especially with his race team, his company was in financial trouble and he was determined he was going to get the prize money. He was willing to do whatever it took to win, no matter what he had to do. Thus, he had no intention of competing fairly. The hundred million dollar prize wouldn’t be enough to save his company, but it would be enough for him to have a little money to live on until he could sell off the pieces.
He was meeting with a couple of seedy-looking individuals in a nearby bar. “Did your man get the defective field generator into the Reynolds ship?”
“Yeah, he got it. It should fail somewhere halfway into the course. By the time they get the backup generator installed, they’ll have lost way too much time to catch up. Also, the Jackson team we’ve got covered. Our man there implanted an explosive device in their control run that will completely disable them when you transmit the activate code. That just leaves the Jones-Abernathy ship. We’ve got a man working on it. I’ll let you know when it’s done. The rest of the riffraff we can ignore.”
“What about the Caldwell ship? With her mother having access to the Space Tech wealth, she could throw money at it if she wanted to.”
“Nah, you need to see the ship. Apparently the girl designed it herself. We managed to capture a pic of it the one time they took it out of their hangar.” He flashed up a VR image of it. “It’s so small it’s barely within the specs for the competition. I guess they’ve got the girl spending her allowance on it or something.” They both laughed at that. “I figure she’ll finish last if she makes it through the whole course. She’s never even flown in a competition.”
“Ok, you get that last job done and we’ve got it, I think. You’ve got the insurance package waiting, right?”
“Oh, yeah. If anyone does get through to that point, they’ll never know what hit them. Literally.” He laughed a nasty laugh. “I’ve already started spending the bonus money. You just make sure you deliver your part.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll be sitting second seat. It’s a shame that the stress of the competition is going to cause my pilot to have that heart attack. Unfortunately for him, we’ll be just a little too far out from the station for him to get proper medical help. So all of the prize money will go to me and you’ll get your little bonus.”
“You better hope so. The man I’ve borrowed money from doesn’t take any excuses and if I’m short the money, I’m coming to get it from you.”
Not liking the sound of that last statement, Martin quickly got up to leave. Neither of them noticed the man sitting almost hidden in one of the darker corners of the dusky bar, or the evil smile he had on his face.
#
Later that evening, John Reynolds received a secure VR call. “You were right. It was Wilson. Luckily, we caught on to what they were doing and swapped out the field generator. And I’ve got what we need to eliminate him.” He played the recording of him talking about his pilot and sent a full transcript of the conversation. “All we have to do is send that to the pilot just before he’s supposed to board their ship. He’ll turn tail and run and Wilson will be stuck flying his own ship. We both know how that’ll go.”
“What’s this about an insurance policy?” John asked after reading the rest of the transcript.
“We think it’s some kind of plot to sneak a knockout gas onto the ships. We’ll be looking out for it just in case. Plus, we’ll give our pilot his own O2 supply to be absolutely certain.”
“So this idiot will take out the rest of our competition for us and we have the transcript of them talking about it as evidence. We’ll just pretend we didn’t get it until after the race. Do you agree with
their assessment of the rest of the competition?”
“With the exception of the Caldwell girl. Our intel on her says she is really smart and a very good pilot. But we figure the insurance policy will get her. Plus, just look at that ship. It really does look like a toy. I don’t see any way.”
“Ok, I think we’ve got this one in the bag. You’ll be getting a bonus of your own. I just hope you haven’t borrowed yours from a loan shark too.”
“Yeah. That was stupid. You never know. Maybe the Caldwell girl will win it after all.” They both laughed at that and John disconnected the call.
#
The race was just days away. Per the requirements for the race, Juliette went along with her dad to the designated meeting room where the competing pilots and their team sponsors were to officially sign their cyber paperwork for the race. They were given waiver forms agreeing not to hold Space Tech liable for any accidents or other incidents for the duration of the race. They were also given information designating the official rules and course for the race. Each participating team provided the evidence that their ships officially met the guidelines from a certified review panel. Finally, each participating team was given the set of coordinates where their ship would be required to be positioned prior to the start of the race.
For Juliette, it was a chance to see the people flying the ships that would be competing against her. Most of them were spacers like she was familiar with, and a couple of them she recognized from the prior year’s competition. She knew most of them didn’t think she had a chance; she’d heard the rumors going around about her ship. At least none of them laughed out loud at her.
Juliette didn’t care much for the look of a couple of the sponsors, as they came across to her as rather unsavory. One of them gave everyone in the room an arrogant glare, and she particularly didn’t like him at all. Wilson was his name and she remembered reading about him and his company which was nearly bankrupt. She had wondered at the time why he was wasting his money on a race rather than trying to save his company. She immediately knew the answer to the question now after seeing him. She wouldn’t have trusted him to give her the time of day. The other one, Reynolds, she just didn’t like and she felt he was one of those that just tried to take advantage of everyone else’s misfortune.
During a break in the meeting, Juliette decided to give herself a little boost, quickly heading over to the end of the little table of treats. She had spotted some chocolate there when she came in and was pleased to see the crowd of mostly men were practically ignoring it. She had just finished loading up one of the little plates with a few choice morsels when she literally bumped into a rather large man. He growled at her, “You little girl. You had better stay out of our way.”
Juliette had seen him with Wilson, so she wasn’t surprised at his behavior. But she couldn’t resist a laugh and a little quip. “Don’t worry. I’ll be so far ahead, you won’t have to worry about that.” She turned to leave, but he reached out in an attempt to grab her. Somehow he missed and seemed to trip—wonder how that happened?
Whatever the man was going to do next, it didn’t matter. Juliette’s dad appeared in front of him and put his hand on his chest. “You just stay right where you are and you may get out of here in one piece. You try to touch my daughter again, and I promise you won’t.”
The whole room grew suddenly silent. It felt as if the temperature in the room dropped at least ten degrees. Zeke kept a low profile, but everyone knew what had happened the last time someone had threatened his family. When a group of terrorists had tried to kidnap Zeke’s sister Emily, and in the process had killed her husband, Zeke single-handedly rescued her and wiped out the whole team of terrorists. He had then dropped a kinetic weapon on the terrorists’ home base, leaving it a smoking crater.
Luckily for this foolish man, a couple of Space Tech Security goons showed up. They quickly dragged the man out of the room. Zeke turned back toward the rest of the crowd. “Sorry for the interruption, but I’m not sorry for what I just did.” He took Juliette’s arm and led her back to their table.
“It was fine, Dad. I had it under control,” Juliette told him quietly.
“I know, sweetheart, but I thought it best to shut it down before it got any further. I already know what you’re capable of doing to defend yourself, but he didn’t and neither do the rest of these. I’d rather just keep it that way. Besides, there was no way I was sitting back to wait. You’re still my baby and you know your mother and I will always do whatever it takes to protect you. Whatever it takes!”
Juliette nodded, tears in her eyes. “I know, Dad. I know.”
The meeting resumed on a much subdued note. It didn’t take much longer and no one had any questions.
When the official meeting ended, the two Juliette had been watching were true to their character, and simply walked out of the meeting. Of course, they may have been afraid too. The others, while they might not know Juliette directly, knew her dad and they each came by wishing them luck. Of course, they all talked space talk. Many at times had experienced Zeke’s expertise in troubleshooting a problem and thanked him again for his help.
Juliette could tell that to those remaining in the room, it was just a race. While they would all give it their best shot, after the race was over, they would just continue their day-to-day routine until the next one. She knew her intense determination to win made her a little more like the first two, other than the method that she intended to use to win. She would always follow the rules to the letter, and try to win by her ship’s strengths and her own piloting ability. She knew she had both of those in abundance, but that alone wouldn’t win the race. She would have to get out there and do it. But she was ready!
CHAPTER SIX
Final Prep and a New Team Member
Katie, Sam and Joey were discretely following Juliette. They’d collectively been trying to determine where she was going for longer and longer time periods of the day, especially now that classes were out and they only had exams to go. With her super senses, it was a rather difficult task to follow her, but they’d pulled it off so far. The three had tag-teamed it and used soundless VR messages to communicate with each other.
When Juliette disappeared while crossing a maintenance area, Katie and Joey had been lost until Sam explained. He knew about Juliette’s secret spot, but he had always kept it secret, knowing she needed her privacy. He knew she often used it to paint her pictures, so he silently led the others into the maintenance tunnel. When they quietly opened the hatchway and looked out into the park, they were all surprised to see Juliette sitting cross-legged out on the ground below them, holding a cat in her lap.
Juliette, of course, had known all along that they had been following her, and had decided it was time for them all to meet. “Hey, guys,” she told them when they were all out of the tunnel. “Come on down and meet the ‘Space Cat’ Storm.”
Seeing their surprise and uncertainty, she went on. “Come down the steps behind you and then very slowly come forward one at a time. Try to do that silent thing you were doing when you thought you were following me without me knowing.” She saw the guilty look cross their faces and then each couldn’t help smiling, knowing they’d all been had.
Katie was the first to react, quietly descending the stairs to come slowly up to Juliette to look over her shoulder. Storm merely opened one eye and then went back to his snoozing. The boys were right behind her and stared in wide-eyed wonder.
“It’s ok. I think you can speak now, quietly. I just didn’t want you to startle him. He’s not used to people, but I think he knows you’re alright based on my reactions.”
Katie was again first to move. “How did you find a ‘Space Cat’ and how did you get him to be so tame? I thought they all were wild.”
“He was wild when I first met him, but he’s still pretty young and we sort of hit it off together. I think he was lonely. Somehow he got separated from the rest of them, I think.”
“Is he really all wh
ite all over? He seems so white and fluffy.” Joey was ever the practical one. He just accepted that things were the way they were and looked for the details.
“Yeah, isn’t he amazing?”
This time it was Sam that made the final connection. “You intend to keep him!” he blurted out. “Even though it’s against the rules on the station. No pets!”
“The rules say no pets. But they don’t say anything about team mascots, now do they?” Juliette responded. “Why do you think I let you follow me? I need your help to pull this off.”
That was when the team realized just how bad they’d really been had. Sam spoke up just a little too loudly, “What?” Storm opened both eyes and just looked at him. Sam immediately said, much quieter, “Sorry. But you’ve got to be crazy!”
Juliette looked at them all and then smiled at them. “We’ve always been a little crazy. All I know is this is what I have to do. Just look at him and tell him you won’t help.”
Realizing that he was now the center of attention, Storm roused a little and stretched in Juliette’s lap. He turned his big blue eyes toward them and purred loudly as Juliette stroked his fluffy fur.
Julie looked up at her team. “Once we’ve won the race, they won’t dare tell me no. We’ve just got to build him a custom station on board the ship, and then we should be good to go.”
Knowing that he had them all, Storm settled back down in her lap and went back to snoozing. He would let the silly humans work it all out. After all, he still had a little more of his catnap to finish up.
The team had considerable discussion on the subject, but when it was all said and done, it was decided to do it just as Juliette had said. As she had told her dad, it was her job to push and pull the team along, and this time it had taken a little push. But she somehow knew this was the right choice and an important one.