Robot Awareness: Special Edition

by B. C. Kowalski

  “How is she?” Kenpur asked, watching the holograms of a pair of announcers selected to provide the play by play of the race. Both wearing expensive suits, they were currently talking about the prospects for the day’s contest

  “As feisty as ever,” Porter muttered, shaking his head.

  “Good,” Kenpur said. “Feisty will serve her well.”

  They stopped and listened to the announcers:

  --- "Also in this year's line-up, Jexus Frine is poised to make a huge leap from last year's standings; she's already even with her points standings last year, and there’s plenty of season left to boost those numbers."

  --- "That's right, Jeft, she launched herself all the way from 103rd up to the 33rd position, and in theory today’s race could see her as high as the No. 10 spot."

  --- “Brill, I don't think anyone at the start of this season had any thoughts that Frine would climb this high, do you? I mean, we haven't ever seen a standout year from her that I can think of…”

  --- “You just never know with who's going to come out of their shell in this league. And with a field of only 40, anyone could surprise the pack today. I think …”

  "Do you think Isellia can win?" Stephen asked, lowering his eyes to Porter once he finished speaking.

  "She doesn't need to win," Porter said, absently watching the pre-flight show on the holoscreen. "She just needs to make the top five."

  "Why?"

  Kenpur stepped in. "The next race is on the other side. Top five gets her entry into a higher tier race. Where Rex is."

  "You mean?"

  Kenpur only nodded; they all knew, without him having to say so out loud, he meant the Inner Circle.

  --- “ … and perhaps our biggest story today, Isellia Antoinette, still a teenager, making her return to racing. Jeft, I didn't think she’d ever be back after what happened in her last appearance.”

  --- “It's surprising, Brill, to say the least. For those who haven’t been watching XR very long, they might not even know who we’re talking about, but Antoinette, one of the youngest to ever enter an XR race — and then a spectacular burnout, a crash like no other. I haven’t seen anything like it before or since, have you Brill?”

  --- “Definitely not, Jeft. Not ever. How she survived is beyond me.”

  --- “If she makes any kind of splash today it’ll be the story of the day. Either way, Brill, I think this race today in Farven Point is going to be talked about for some time.”

  -- “I would agree with that. What would she have to do today to win this race?

  -- “Well, she would have to finish, first of all, Brill. As you know, Antoinette has yet to finish an XR race.”

  -- “Yes, that was a disappointment for sure. I think a lot of people were expecting big things out of Antoinette. Daughter of the late, great racer Wallace Antoinette — who, as you know, most people just called him Wallace, he was so well known — high expectations for her, and her first time out, she crashes toward the finish.”

  --- “There had to be a lot of pressure, her being the daughter of Wallace, and I think that pressure might have got to her a bit out there, you think?”

  Porter, Kenpur and Stephen listened in silence, giving each other occasional looks of surprise. It was new info to them — mostly.

  --- “I didn't get to speak with her, but I looked over her XR, and it looks fast today.”

  -- “Do you think the pressure is off, compared to her first appearance, Brill?”

  --- “I do. I think most eyes aren't on her today, she's coming in with little fanfare — you know, there just isn't going to be that pressure on her today that she had in her first and only season.”

  --- “And let's not forget, she was leading at one point in that race she DQed, Brill. I'm not saying she comes out and dominates this race, but I think we might see a surprise out of her today; I mean, a decent finish, she might be back on the circuit in a big way. And with a 13 — you hardly see anyone fire up one of those on the start line, huh?”

  --- “I think it’s been a couple seasons since I saw one. The retired Jo OOlo used one his last season. Well, a tenth place would be a fantastic result for Antoinette, and only time is going to tell on that one. But on the other end of the spectrum, let's take a look at the favorite today, picked to win by most odd-makers leading up to today’s start. Veda Gibson has been dominating this field for the last several races. Can anyone — or anything — stop her today?”

  "Looks like they got the race all decided," Porter smirked.

  "They know what everyone else knows," Kenpur huffed. "Only we know what Isellia's got."

  "Well, she's got spunk," Porter said. “And that’s out in spades today.”

  "No," he said. "Something else. Something she doesn't show people. But I think she'll show us all today.”

  Porter was about to crack a joke until he noticed the look on Kenpur's face and thought better of it; Kenpur was serious. Porter couldn’t have put it into words, but he knew what Kenpur meant.

  ***

  Isellia flicked on her ship’s ignition switch, its red finish worn away in the center, revealing a black surface underneath. The engines in response roared to a scream; electrons sped through the circuits of the ship, the turbines began to spin at impossible speeds.

  She leaned back in her flight seat, closing her eyes as her pink hair rested on the leather contours, taking a moment to revel in the hum of her ship. Someday she would upgrade to a new flight chair without frayed edges and seams taped together, but today it was her chair, and she loved it as she loved every single rivet of her craft.

  Today would be different. Different than the past races.

  As the bundle of nerves wrenched her stomach, a feeling she’d almost forgotten about, she breathed deeply, not trying to fight the nervous energy, but embracing it, channeling it. She actually didn’t exactly know what that meant, but it sounded nice when Kenpur said it during his little pep talk, and at any rate the deep breathing seemed to be helping.

  But enough was enough. This was no time for meditating. As the engines continued to roar, she looked over each gauge on its console, having long memorized exactly where each needle should be — even the engine temperature gauge, the needle of which always pointed a couple of notches above the “normal” indicator. Her machine tended to run a little hot — she liked it that way. You could pull that off in an XR-13; it was quirky like that.

  She double-checked the seals around the cockpit window, then glanced out at the other racers. She was positioned toward the back — she had a few disqualifications on her record, after all, so there’s no way her seeding could be good. She could see a wave of afterburners glowing in front of her, and a lot of empty landing strip behind her.

  Veda had a front-line position, but was near the right side of the launch pad, so Isellia could see her. A new paint job made Veda’s light green craft stand out among the field, and it looked much more expensive than any other XR at the line.

  Veda’s looks nice on the outside, but I got it where it counts — under the hood, Isellia thought.

  But even she didn’t believe her own bravado. She still remembered Veda blasting by her during their test flight. She wondered if she’d done enough to match. She’d have to trust the robot’s repairs.

  The crowd roared as the announcers introduced one of the racers, toward the back. Then Isellia heard her name called, and the crowd cheered — they cheered for just about everyone, regardless of whether they'd ever heard of the racer before. It was part of the ritual. She couldn’t help but grin at hearing her name called, though. She missed the way they used to cheer her father, who garnered ten times the crowd volume with an audience half this size.

  She took a moment to look around, the triple decker stands at the launch pad filled to capacity, only the day before empty as a desert. She took in the echoing sound of the announcer, the roar of the crowd, the smell of grease and oil, the sound of engines purring to life, its vibration and the other XRs rumbli
ng her craft, and her heart started racing. This is what she lived for, and it had been too long. She longed to show them all — her father, Porter, Rex, even the kid and Stephen — just what she could really do. She didn't know what Kenpur was up to and she didn't care. She is here, doing what she loves, and at least for now that's good enough. It's —

  Lights positioned in the middle of the track turned on, five vertical lights flashing red. The same lights flicked on in her cockpit monitor, synced up with the main race computer in succession. The second light from the top turned orange, the middle yellow, the next yellow, and bottom one...

  ***

  --- “They're off! My god they look fast today, don't they look fast Brill?”

  --- “You can say that again, Jeft. In case you're just joining us, we're here at the start of the Farven 400, one of the qualifying races of the XR Grand de Lix circuit.”

  --- “Veda’s out to an early lead in the taxi up to the first ring, with Tenner Vrex on her tail, followed by Bao.”

  --- “No early surprises here, Jeft — whoa! And we have engine troubles, smoke everywhere. What is — I can't see anything down there, but someone had a troubled start!”

  --- “It appeared to come out of the main pack, no one in the leading group involved. I see them pulling clear. It looks like... OK, we're going to replay, right there, here, there's where it starts, you can see the exhaust manifold — I think that’s Ghust LUX! — the exhaust manifold just explodes with black smoke. Brill it’s going to be a rough day for him.”

  --- “Jeft, looking at the race's progress, it looks like three ships have been held back, Ghust, 23 and, oh, and it's Antoinette?!"

  --- “Oh, that is not looking good for Antoinette, trying to make a comeback after a long stint away from racing.”

  --- “And after such a rough start to her career. The daughter of the late, great Wallace is not behind as much as the other two, but she's going to have a tough time catching back up.”

  --- “She's going to have to watch for a mistake from the leader and pounce on it, if she's going to have a chance today. I don’t know if we’re going to get our comeback story in this race.”

  --- “Top five are going to qualify today, it looks like we got Veda taking a slight lead…”

  --- “And that's no surprise, she has just dominated this series this year. It has been out of control, and right from the get-go today she was in the lead group.”

  --- “Jeft, talk about her season so far. She's got the top points in the series, really a commanding lead from anyone in the rest of the field, isn’t that right?”

  --- “Top points in the series. She's won four out of five qualifying races and a handful of non-qualifiers — this might be her main race before the final circuit. She could have the points pretty much wrapped up before the Grand de Lix. No need to take any risks after that point, she can rest up and prepare for the big race.”

  --- “It would almost be unfair if she did.”

  --- “Brill, we're coming on the break point, where they'll leave the atmosphere and start the ring series.”

  --- “While we wait for them to get there, let's look at today's course. They enter the ring series here, various obstacles between each ring, until they get to the turnaround…”

  --- “The turnaround can make or break the race, can it not?”

  --- “It has before, Jeft. A good rider can use the centrifugal force to their advantage with the right entry speed and timing…”

  --- “They'll come out of that turnaround, and we'll see a flip in the rings. Riders will be facing a completely different set of obstacles the second time around. And Brill, that is a feature unique to Farven Point.”

  --- “That's right, Jeft. And no one — not us, not them, not anyone — knows what those obstacles will be until the riders get there.”

  --- “When we come back, they should be right to the point. For now, here's a word from our sponsor — we’ll be right back with the Farven Point 400! Don’t go away!”

  ***

  MaBrown’s Holovision sprinkled his face with light, the only glow illuminating the rectangular, cluttered room in his tiny apartment. On the holovision announcer talked about the race coming up the following day, interviewing racers, making predictions, telling back stories. Small XRs from past Farven Point 400s raced through a small part of his apartment as if they were right there in the room, a holographic glow of the stars beyond them. Better models had almost corrected the translucence, and would have completely hidden the back wall from view, as if a person were really watching a miniature version of the race.

  The Farven Point 400 was the biggest event in Farven Point, held every year at the same time. The day after the race MaBrown knew he would be stuck covering the festival that always followed the day after the race. Not that he minded the event itself — the crowds, music, people dancing and in a jolly mood gave him a good feeling. He always ran into people he knew, sources from his beat. Through his job, he knew so many people. It sort of gave him the illusion of being popular.

  But covering it was another thing. It was hard not to write the same boring story every year. He certainly could — scribble out a few of the same words every year, and call it an easy day. But that wasn’t like MaBrown. So instead, he’ll spend a whole day wandering around, looking for a new food vendor or gizmo that was the latest fad when he could be digging into real stories.

  But none of that was on his mind at the moment, nor the miniature XRs that sent a dancing glow off his face.

  The story that would be in today’s paper was. He knew the impact, and he knew how troublesome a mistake could be. It's what journalism was to him — a constant weight. One had to be the most self-doubting, second-guessing neurotic crazy person until deadline, and then find a way to completely put it out of his mind. It’s like you had to be obsessive compulsive by day and have a short term memory by night. The reward? Mostly the satisfaction of upholding the fourth estate, with a meager salary to boot.

  MaBrown took a sip from a beer, half paying attention to the preview show until a familiar face briefly graced his holo.

  Chapter 33

  --- “Brill, I can't believe what we've just seen! Isellia Antoinette, the comeback girl that no one thought had a chance, just blew by Allister Barkley and is hovering in second place!”

  --- “Jeft, you could have knocked me over with a ratchet. Let's take a quick look on replay. Now, you see here, at the bottom of the field, Isellia's just creeping her way into fifth, but then look — only the smallest of gaps opens up, and in the tiny space that followed she shot through, barrel rolling through that gap as she eased into the second best position. That’s a tight fit, Jeft!”

  --- “Well, if she can maintain this into the turn, it could be a surprise podium finish for her. She’s certainly put herself in good position for it. It's likely today that the top five would pass through to the Gran de Lix Cup qualifier, the first stage in the Grand de Lix circuit. How about that, Isellia looking real good coming into the second obstacle field.”

  --- “That’s an amazing comeback from barely getting off the start line. She had some serious troubles, along with a couple other racers. Usually getting that slow of a start ruins anything close to a decent race. … We've got a long run out to the next obstacle, so let's recap. You see here the smoke just rolling out of the fuselage of Isellia's XR, that old 13 model I can't believe anyone still uses today, frankly. OK, in this frame, she's out of the cockpit, and — is that a robot she's kicking, Jeft?”

  --- “I think it is, Brill.”

  --- “Well, none of my business what she has in the crew, huh? This isn't Company C territory and they're not going to be bothering us at the race here! Anyway, you see the robot reach in, and suddenly the smoke clears and the ship looks ready to fly. Just reached right into the undercarriage there. Antoinette seems to berate the robot a little more, and then she's back in the cockpit.”

  --- “Her progress from there is unbelievable Brill.
You see her catching the last competitor and then — OK, look here at this screen, she's just weaving through competitors. How she made up for that kind of lost time is beyond me.”

  --- “One minute we were getting cutbacks to the launch pad, empty except for Antoinette, then suddenly we're getting videos of her cutting through the back row of competitors. Unbelievable!”

  --- “Meanwhile, Barkley is holding tight, he's been steady this race. But no one has touched Veda today.”

  --- “Jeft, she's just been unstoppable from the get-go. We saw the typical confidence from her in the pre-race interview. Her mechanic was confident today. I'm thinking she's just going to cruise through the rest of this race.”

  --- “Just while you were talking Brill, Barkley just overtook Antoinette there as they approach the next ring. Picked up a burst of speed and now he's gunning for Veda. Antoinette's fallen back into third.”

  --- “This trio in the top three would make some interesting headlines, Jeft.”