The ten second light flashed. Orion steadied his breathing, idled the engines, and waited. In the simulation the twenty ships were lined up in a docking bay at a space station. The first quantrex was a race to the moon Eddle. This part of the course was about speed, laser fire, and avoiding laser fire. The sim-crafts were equipped with vibration sensors and gravity plating for thrust sensation. It would feel almost like the real thing. Almost.
A smile crossed the pilot's face as the countdown concluded. "Three, two, one." A loud buzzer sounded. He smashed the throttle to full power. They were instantly pushed into their seats as they rocketed forward. The audience cheered and chanted the names of their favorite teams.
Orion gave his customary war cry as they blasted into space, infusing him with a boost of reckless energy. Celli and Fel both smiled at the sensation of velocity and adrenalin.
When they had cleared the station Fel began firing the laser cannon, furiously attempting to disintegrate their opponent's energy shields while they were still in close range.
"Three early starts," Celli reported, "teams five, eleven and eighteen – fifteen mec penalty."
"Where are the Gammalaar?" Orion said as he turned a sharp left to avoid a ship which had just struck a laser mine.
"They're right on out tail," Celli responded, "and their torpedo bay is powering up!"
"Not if I can help it," Fel said. He aimed carefully and deployed a close-range stealth mine which exploded underneath the Gammalaar's ship throwing them back behind team number fifteen. "Yes!" shouted Fel. "That was close," he said to himself.
"Gammalaar shields down by seventeen percent," Celli reported. "Good shot Fel!"
***
After eight minutes of fierce open space gaming, they neared the moon Eddle where they were required to navigate a maze of tunnels and drop markers in six designated locations before leaving the moon for the Stealth quantrex. The game simulation was programmed with naturally changing conditions. The course was never the same, like the real games.
"Cynor tunnel coming up on to the right at 44-C-3," Celli said as her fingers flew over the keyboard.
Orion nodded. "Anybody on our tail?"
Their laser cannon fired three times. "Not anymore," Fel said.
"Then we're good to go. Lock in stabilizers."
Celli pressed a button and four short wings ejected from the sides of the ship. "Atmosphere in... three, two, one..." The ship rocked and shuddered as it entered the moon's thin atmosphere. "Should be right behind that dust cloud," Celli said. "There!"
"Got it... Hold on!" Orion applied the retro boosters to slow the ship down. "Almost there."
"We got company!" Fel called. A ship had followed them through the dust cloud and was attempting to beat them to the tunnel entrance. Orion moved right to cut them off and Fel fired the cannon, but their competition made a brilliant spiral loop and slipped past them into the tunnel.
"Doomstar!" Orion cursed, "who was that?"
"Trimaal," Celli said scanning a map on her screen. "But I think I found a way to cut them off. It'll be tricky..."
"We like tricky." Orion said as he dogged a huge stalactite.
"Make a hard left at 55-P-3. I'll try to give you a count when we get closer. This will take us back to Cynor just before we have to drop the first marker. Ready?... five, four, three, two, one, and left!"
The ship's powerful spotlight illuminated the entrance to the side tunnel which was smaller than they had anticipated. It took all of Orion's skill as a pilot to keep from hitting the sides as they wound through deep underground.
"There's going to be a vertical shaft in ten."
They all yelled as the ship hit hard against an outcropping of rock. They swerved to the right, but Orion managed to gain control just as they reached the shaft.
"Vertical assent now!" Celli called.
Orion pulled back on the controls and they rocketed straight up. "We'll come out right into the floor of Cynor!" Celli called as the ship shuddered from the gravitational pull. "You'll have less than a mec to straighten out!"
"Got it!"
"Fel, you'll have about seven mecs before the first marker drop."
"Ready."
"Here we go!"
They burst into Cynor tunnel just ahead of Tirmaal, who were taken by surprise.
"Fel!" Celli called.
"I see'em!" Fel instantly fired the laser cannons and managed to stall their left thruster. "Yes!" Fel exclaimed, laughing. "Lesson learned, Tirmaal."
"Fell, three mecs. Do you see it?"
"I see it." Fel called back. He concentrated on the com-display in front of him and pressed the trigger. An indicator lit up on the screen. "It's in!"
"Yeah!" Orion exclaimed.
"Nice work Fel!" Called Celli, "five more to go."
"What's the damage from the collision, Celli?" Orion asked.
"It took out seven percent, but other than that I think we're okay. We regained our lead on Tirmaal and stalled them so it was worth it. Nice work team!"
Orion and Fel smiled.
"Anybody out of the race yet?" Orion asked.
"No, all twenty teams are still in."
"What's our position?"
"Can't say exactly; somewhere in the first five."
***
They successfully dropped four more markers. There was only one left to go. "This one's gonna be dicey," Celli reported, "we've got a five-tunnel intersection and the drop zone is right in the middle.
"Shouldn't be a problem," Fel responded confidently.
"Except we've got four other ships coming into the zone and..." Celli strained at her display, "It looks like we are all going to arrive at the same time."
"How long?" Fel asked.
"About fifteen mecs."
Fel furrowed his brow as a bizarre thought appeared in the center of his brain. It struck him with such force that it would have been difficult to oppose it. It was accompanied by a sensation in his stomach that said: this is real. "Orion!" Fel's voice was urgent. "Put on the brakes and let the other ships in first!"
"What?! We'll lose our lead." Orion answered.
"Trust me." Fel said, in an uncharacteristic display of leadership.
"Okay," Orion responded. "Celli, tell me when."
Celli looked at him dubiously, but it was Orion's call. "On my mark... Now!"
The three gamers were pulled forward as the ship came to a full stop at the entrance to the underground intersection. The four other ships flew out of their tunnels at almost exactly the same time. Two of them collided and were out of the race. A third turned sharply to avoid hitting them and was forced to crash-land on the rocky floor of the tunnel. Only one of them managed to drop their marker, but they weren't able to make it to the exit tunnel in time and instead had to dodge into one of the other tunnels, heading in the wrong direction.
Orion and Celli looked at each other in shock. They both turned to Fel.
"Let's move!" Fel said. "We're in the lead!"
Orion snapped around and pushed the controls forward. Fel dropped the marker and they rocketed down the exit tunnel.
"Fel!" Orion exclaimed, "I don't know what to say."
"Neither do I," Fel responded. "It's weird, it's just like I got this feeling, real strong; right from my stomach," he punched his midsection with his fist for emphasis.
Orion shook his head, "Good call buddy... good call."
Celli looked back at Fel in amazement.
They completed the tunnel and flew up into the pinkish Eddle sky. "We're outta here!" Orion said with excitement. "Prepare to retract stabilizers."
Celli nodded.
Once they were back in open space, they had a few mecs of relative calm without other ships on their tail. "If you get another one of those 'gut feelings' let us know," Orion joked.
"You know, it weird," Fel said shaking his head, "I can't think of where that came from; it's not like it ever happened before – and it probably won't happen again," he laughed nervously. "It just saw it in my head – bang! – Like a flash." He shook his head again to try to dislodge the strange sensation. He was shaken by the intensity of the feeling and the result. "What's our lead?" Fel asked, changing the subject.
"About twenty-five mecs."
"Whew, if we can keep this up... just might be our ticket!"
Orion was elated; he lifted his fist in the air without taking his eyes away from the windshield. "This is what I'm talkin' about!" Celli joined fists with him and Fel pointed his in their direction. "Calabar!"
They made the Stealth and Filamon quantrexes with no other teams near enough to do them damage. The audience was going wild, chanting their name. This was turning out to be a good game. Four ships were out of the race and three more had technical difficulties that were slowing them down.
"That leaves thirteen," Celli reported, "and we're still in the lead by a long shot." Orion relaxed a bit and exhaled slowly.
"Hey, I'm getting bored back here," Fel joked, "want me to get you guys a snack or something?" they all chuckled. "I have some poglo sticks in my backpack."
Celli leaned back in her seat and smiled. At once her smile dropped. She craned her neck and looked straight ahead. "What's that?" she said urgently.
"What?" Orion asked, regaining full vigilance.
"That!" Celli pointed in front of them.
"I have no idea. Check the charts."
Celli did. She shook her head. "It's not on them. Must be some kind of anomaly."
Before them lay a purplish cloud, the likes of which none of them had seen before.
"What do we do?" Orion asked.
"It's big." Celli said, analyzing the data from the scanners, "but I think it would be better to go around, whatever that stuff is it doesn't look stable."
"Fel?" Orion asked for his confirmation.
"Sounds good to me."
"Changing course," Orion announced. "What the..."
"What?" Celli asked, realizing that something was very wrong.
"I don't know! The controls are jammed! I can't change course."
"Try the retro boosters!"
"No response! All the controls are out!"
They looked at each other in alarm. Two seconds later they plunged into the purple mass. The ship shuddered uncontrollably, spinning and tumbling through the cloud.
Celli closed her eyes and thought hard. "Fel," she yelled above the noise of the shuddering cockpit.
"Yeah!" he answered.
"Do you have any stealth mines left?"
"Three, why?"
"Deploy one right underneath the hull."
"What?!"
"Just do it!"
Fel had no idea why, but he prepared the mine and filled the order. A second later they felt a violent blast that sent them spinning out of the top of the cloud. A few more seconds and the com lights flashed blue.
"We're back on line!" Orion said in surprise. He worked hard to bring the ship back under control. In ten seconds he had them straightened out. He hit full power to get them back to the course. "Celli," he said in amazement, "how did you do that?"
"Gut feeling," she said in a shaky voice. She had no idea the mine would improve their situation, only that she could not ignore the feeling in her stomach and the burning idea that had appeared in the center of her brain.
"You've been doing your homework," Orion smiled,
"Nice work indeed," Fel called from the back.
"Guys," Celli said seriously, "I didn't know that the stealth mine would do that." Orion glanced over at her. "It was like you said, Fel," she tried to explain; "it was a gut feeling, or something in my head... somehow, I just knew it was going to work."
"Good call," Orion said.
Fel nodded.
Celli lost focus, confused by the experience.
"How close are we Celli?" Orion asked.
Celli snapped back to the present. "We're almost there." She tapped on her keyboard. "We lost our lead, but it could have been much worse; we're in seventh place, twelve mecs behind the leaders. We'll be in the asteroid quantrex in about two mec-tah."
"Okay," Orion said, "this one is our specialty, so if we're gonna come in even fifth, we've gotta make our gain here, if not then we've just lost our entry fees."
Losing their entry fees is not something they wanted to do if they could help it, they had precious little credit as it was. Calabar buckled down for the fight of their short mrith gaming history.