Juliette's Space Race: A Near Future SciFi Thriller Short

by Randal Sloan

  #

  The task to build the custom station went to Joey and Sam. Juliette had insisted that Storm needed a place to stand where he could see what was going on, and a place in the back of his station where he could curl up and snooze when things didn’t require his attention. When they looked askance at that, Juliette expounded a little, “Storm is going to be part of the team. I don’t know what that means exactly, but I know it’s true. So we’re going to do our best to accommodate him, just like we would do for any of the rest of us. You guys can figure it out, you just don’t want to.”

  So they worked out the design for Storm’s station and then went aboard the ship to put the pieces together and set it up. It didn’t actually take them that long and they VR’d Juliette to tell her they were ready. Meanwhile Juliette and Katie had found a good-sized box and fixed it up for Storm. Juliette then told Storm that it was time to move, and to Katie’s surprise, he climbed right in the box, circled it a couple of times and then settled down. Carefully, closing the top so he would still have plenty of air, Juliette carried him out the maintenance tunnel, down the corridors to the hangar, and finally onboard the ship. She passed very few people and all they saw was a girl carrying a box. Storm remained very still and very quiet as if he knew he needed to.

  When she opened the box next to his station, Storm quickly jumped out of his box and walked around the platform sniffing it. He looked up at Juliette and the rest of the team and gave them a quiet meow of approval, bringing a smile to the team’s faces. Then he curled up on the sleeping platform. Mentally, Juliette felt something click in place. The team was complete.

  They had a number of tasks to finish and the team quietly went about those. They converted a large storage bin into a sleeping room for Storm, with a separate section they had set up for a litter box. It was one of the new ones that processed the litter and produced an odor-free disposable cube as the output, something that none of them could figure out how Juliette had smuggled aboard the station. But they didn’t ask, knowing she would never divulge her secrets. When she produced a water and food dispenser that she had them install in his sleeping area, they just nodded and went about doing it.

  Fortunately for them, Juliette’s dad had an issue come up that kept him busy, so he wasn’t there to see what they had done. But Juliette knew that evening she would have to come clean with both her parents. She also knew she would have to explain to them why it would have to be just her team and not Juliette’s dad that would fly the race with her. She knew this one was going to be a challenge.

  Juliette put it to the team plainly, “Sorry, guys, but this time it’s all of you are going to be there when it’s time to face my parents.” She smiled at their reaction. “This one is for the team to deal with, not just me.”

  Laughing at the grimaces on their faces, she sent a VR to her mom, telling her that Katie and Joey would be eating with them that night. The two similarly told their parents the same thing.

  Before they left the ship, Juliette stopped to talk to Storm. “We have to leave for a little while, Storm. But you have your new home, and I’ll come back to see you tonight. I know you miss your park, but I promise you’ll get to see all kinds of new things really soon.”

  Storm gave her a little meow as if he understood, rubbed against her leg, and then went into his cubbyhole.

  “Let’s go, guys,” Juliette told them, the lot of them staring at her and Storm. “He’s a very smart cat. What did you expect?”

  At that, they all grabbed their stuff and headed out the door. Juliette made doubly sure the ship and hangar were secure before she left.

  #

  At dinner, everyone seemed to have an unspoken agreement to enjoy their dinner first and then they would talk. Juliette’s mom had ordered pizza, something she knew the kids would all enjoy and the adults liked too. In fact, she and Zeke had eaten pizza when they went on their first date, she remembered with a smile. Back then she had still had amnesia and had been told that her name was Miranda instead of Julie. And with no memory, she had believed it to be true and had used that name when she first met Zeke. His acceptance of her real identity when she revealed it to him was one of the things that had cemented their relationship. Looking at her son and daughter and their friends interacting together so well, she knew that something was to happen regarding all of them tonight and something else. That something else was what she hadn’t figured out yet.

  The meal complete, they all slipped out of the kitchen into the larger family room, but Juliette made a detour toward her room. She came back quickly with a covered canvas in her hands. She knew her mom was onto her, so she didn’t waste any time. “Mom and Dad, I want you to meet the latest member of our team.” She uncovered the canvas, showing a picture of a young white cat with one paw up in the air and looking at her with an intense look. “This is Storm and he just joined our team today.”

  Julie had thought she had some idea of her daughter and her plans, but this one caught her entirely by surprise. She could only stare at the picture. But inside, she knew it to be true, the last piece she had been trying to see and understand about some part of her son and daughter’s future. She caught her breath, tears in her eyes as she caught a glimpse of the future where this cat would play an important part, but not without pain.

  Zeke had started to protest, but at Julie’s indrawn breath he stopped. Looking at her, he saw the tears and mentally asked her quickly, “Love, is everything all right?”

  “Yes,” she told him. “I’m alright, but she’s right. The cat is a very important part of the team. And I suspect he is aptly named.”

  Juliette had been prepared to launch into her speech, explaining how important Storm was to her, but seeing her mother’s reaction, she stopped. “Mom?” she asked with concern. “What is it?”

  “It’s ok,” Julie told her daughter. “You’re absolutely right. Storm is now a member of your team and I agree with you one hundred percent. And I’ll help in any way I can to see that you can keep him with you.”

  It was Juliette’s turn to be caught speechless. She had not had a clue that it would go like this and she looked at her team, all of them caught with the same look of surprise. Finally, she went on. “Mom, then I hope you can agree with the rest. It has to be my team with me in the race, instead of Dad.”

  Julie came to stand in front of her daughter and looked her in the eyes. “I know,” she told her. “But you have to excuse a mom for being worried about her babies. And you two will always be my babies, no matter what.” Juliette nodded, and when Julie looked beyond Juliette at Sam, he nodded too.

  “I know, Mom. And you know we’ll do everything we can to do this right. No one has a better team than what we have.”

  “Yes, the Explorers, including your grandfather, have no idea of what’s coming. But first, we have to get through a race, I do believe.” Julie was trying her best to be strong, but it just wasn’t easy to let the fledglings fly out of the nest. Especially in the big world that was out there before them. She had some idea of the dangers out there, having faced a few along with Zeke in the past.

  They spent some time talking about the race and the changes to the ship roster. Zeke told them he would submit the changes to the race committee the next morning. While usually the sponsor flew with his team, it was not required. He knew that submitting Storm as the team mascot would raise an eyebrow or two, but he didn’t think they would fight it. After all, no one expected his daughter to win. Boy, were they in for a big surprise!

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  The Race

  Juliette was really nervous the morning of the race. She had finished up all her exams a couple of days before, and already knew she had really pulled it off with her grades. If she could win the race, her seat in pilot’s school would be guaranteed. She was determined to win. So she dressed quickly and headed down to the family rooms. Down being relative, of course, all determined by the gravity plates.

  When she got down to the fami
ly room, she was surprised to see gathered there her whole family, her friend Katie and her mom, and her Aunt Emily and Joey. “Surprise!” they all yelled, her brother Sam and his friend Joey yelling the loudest. A VR image of her ship went flying across the room.

  That brought a huge smile to her face. “You guys are the best! It’s only a little race,” she told them with a laugh. But the ice was broken and she was no longer worried. The race would happen come what may. She would always have her family and friends. She spent a few minutes talking with them all and eating a few of the catered brunch items. But then it was time to go, everyone having places to be for the race. Caitlin and Emily both hugged their children, and wishing them all luck. They would be watching closely with Julie and Zeke.

  Julie stood there looking at her two children and their best friends. “I don’t know what yet, but I see something bad happening in this race. I want your team to be ready. And you, young lady,” she turned to look directly into her daughter’s eyes, “I need you to keep your head on straight. And also, I need you to be listening for me. If I see something, you may only have seconds to react. I know you have your heart set on winning this, but just remember, whatever happens, you’ve got all of us here and our love for you will never change.”

  Juliette smiled when her mom brought up her family and friends. “Yeah, I’ve already figured that last part out. The people here this morning are what really matter.”

  Juliette paused a minute and then went on with a little laugh. “I’m still going to win!” she stated emphatically. “And I’ll be listening, Mom. I promise.”

  “Ok, you two. Go win that race!”

  #

  A couple of hours or so later, Juliette and her team were waiting at their assigned coordinates. A space race wasn’t run like the old earth car races. They didn’t all line up in a huge group. Every ship was given assigned coordinates and a monitor ship to verify that they were in position. All of the ships were now in position and showing a status of green.

  Earlier, there had been a problem with the Wilson ship. The pilot had gotten extremely ill at the last second and had pulled himself off the ship. The backup pilot would have to fly the race, but that had been quickly sorted out. Her countdown counter had stopped for a few minutes until the pilot was clear, but it was back running.

  Juliette looked around at her team. Although as pilot, Juliette would be managing the overall controls to the ship, each position had an important part of the handling of the ship. Sam was at the backup pilot station, second seat as it was often referred to. He would be managing the ship’s primary systems, including power, drives and shields. In the case of their ship, that included the pulse drive, where his work would be integral to the handling of the ship.

  Joey was in charge of this sensors. His job was to make sure they didn’t get near any objects or ships that might be close to the flight path. His scans were a direct input to the ship AI. He had a knack for spotting things earlier than anyone else and he took his job quite seriously. Juliette knew there would be no snoozing on his watch.

  Katie would keep a watch over all of the others, making sure they communicated everything that was happening between each other. As Juliette told her, she was the one that held the whole team together in their optimal position. She also was the one in charge of all official communications between the ship, the Space Race team, and the Space Tech traffic control center.

  Storm had kept an eye on everyone as they woke the ship up and then moved to the starting position. He had since been taking a catnap, but Juliette noticed he was now working quite seriously on a major bath. If Juliette didn’t know better, she would have thought he knew he had to be on his best form for any VR photos to be taken at the end of the race. On second thought, he probably did know that. Everyone on team now thought of him as a full fledged member.

  They were down to two minutes when she received a VR from her Dad to see a big grin on his face. “It’s almost time,” he said with a laugh. “You should see yourself. You’re almost bursting with anticipation.”

  “I know,” she answered. “This has been a long time getting here. We’ve been working on the plan for this for most of the year and the pulse drive for at least three months.”

  “I just wanted to wish you good luck and Godspeed,” he told her. “We’ll be watching you on VR and on the feeds you’ll be sending us back from the ship.”

  “Juliette!” she heard, her Mom popping into her head.

  “Mom,” she answered quickly, a little nervous that she was calling her this soon.

  “Just seeing if you were listening,” came the reply. “I love you!”

  “I love you too, Mom,” Juliette told her. “I’m listening.”

  The team watched as the countdown continued, only seconds remaining. Storm had picked up on the excitement and finished his cat bath. He now stood in his station, looking straight ahead. As the count neared zero, Juliette’s hands hovered over the VR controls. The AI would actually start the race, one of the ways the race committee used to verify the race start was clean. But once they were moving she intended to override the controls and start adding to their speed. She wanted to get some distance from the others and then she would let the AI fly the ship. She would take back control as they neared their first destination, a close fly-by of earth where she intended to cut the corner very fine. She expected to be able to gain a couple of minutes there.

  The countdown hit zero and the AI kicked them off. A split instant later, Juliette had the controls and she added two percent a second until they were at one ten percent and then she hit the pulse drive. As she expected, they topped out at one twenty-four percent and she was able to hold that for several minutes, finally letting it drop slowly back toward one hundred percent. She didn’t know how, but Sam had somehow gotten even more out of the system than she had expected.

  The whole team awaited anxiously as they approached the first status beacon, a trick the race committee used to increase the excitement of those watching the race. A few moments later they would receive the results and they would all dance with excitement. They was already over a whole minute ahead of the competition. It would be a long race, but they would be chasing her. Juliette engaged the autopilot and took a break to look over the results.

  The Reynolds ship was the closest with the Wilson ship vainly trying to keep up. Their backup pilot wasn’t very good, she thought. He should have been able to keep closer than that. The Jackson ship was already out, reporting a catastrophic failure of their control systems. That smacked of sabotage to her, but it would be up to the race committee to sort that out. Several others were just behind the Wilson ship, all of them just a few seconds apart in their times. If any of the leaders slipped up, they would be waiting to jump ahead. It had happened before.

  Earth had been growing bigger in their VR viewscreen, with Joey constantly updating their position for the AI and Katie plotting their best course based on their preflight planning. After a few minutes, Juliette took back over her controls, tweaking the fields to handle just a touch of atmosphere. She felt a little twinge to the link she had with her parents and could tell that they were sharing some big secret. She got just a touch of the link between them and somehow she felt her mother crying tears of happiness. Suddenly, she realized what was happening and she couldn’t help but smile. This was the vision that they’d had of her all those years ago before she was born. She would have to ask about that later, but right now she had to concentrate on her task and so didn’t have time.

  Juliette was bringing them into their fly-over just minutely steeper than the AI course. She knew with the fields tweaked to the front just a little bit and her slight aerodynamic advantage over everyone else, she could take that tight course and not lose time over the others. But because her distance traveled was slightly less than theirs she would gain over them. The move worked to perfection, a couple of times Juliette somehow sensing a variance in the fields, requiring her to adjust oh so slightly to a
void something that would cause turbulence and slow her down.

  Finally, they were clear of the Earth and she was passing the next status beacon, already tweaking the fields back and hitting the pulse drive to push their speed up again. But she didn’t push it as hard this time, knowing she might need it later. So a few minutes later she gave control back to the AI and looked at the race status board. She couldn’t believe it. She had more than doubled her lead!

  She caught a mental flash from her dad. She could almost see his big grin. “This race will never be the same again,” he told her. “And I bet it will be a long time before anyone can duplicate it, if ever!”

  “Dad. You could do it!”

  “Nope, not that last bit. I have no idea how you were doing it. Somehow you were feeling the fields like your mother does all the time and reacting. By the time I would have seen the change, I wouldn’t have been able to adapt the course. Maybe if your mother and I were flying it together we could have done it. We’ll have to give that a try sometime; I think that would be a lot of fun.”

  “Dad, that sounds a little too mushy for me.”

  “You’ll understand one day, daughter. One day.”

  #

  Back at Space Tech station, the race announcers were going wild. The Caldwell ship, the dark horse of the whole race, was leading the race. And not just leading! She was blowing everyone else away. When she had passed the first beacon, it was a big surprise, but often the early leader would not be the one who won a race, so at first it wasn’t that big a deal. One of the commentators had speculated that maybe her AI had somehow had a glitch and had given her an early start. Another commentator had suggested that maybe she had gotten an extra kick out of her engines somehow on the first start. But he didn’t figure it would last.