by Sean Kennedy
“I know enough to know you’re not going to have a chance if this thing’s stock,” Mac said as he pulled his Immersion goggles up from around his neck.
“A Kowazuki eh? Fast, but it won't take much of a hit. We can tweak it by disabling the auto-flight systems, it will be a bit like learning to drive a rocket, but it’s the only way you’ll have a chance.”
Vince’s expression darkened with a growling cough. “You think this is a good idea?”
“Well it's an idea,” Mac said slipping his goggles onto his forehead. “I don’t know how good it is, but the bet’s been placed.”
“You should walk away from the whole thing,” Slate said. “This Posse that attacked you will be looking for payback.”
“They don’t know we’re racing, Uncle Vince, and like Uncle Mac said, Teeva has already placed a bet.”
Intensity flared behind Slate’s eyes as he looked down at the table. “Very good,” he said, and leaned back against the counter, folding his arms.
Mac carefully lifted the drone from the case, inspecting the four rotor fans with calibrated eyes. “I can print you a better rotor mix for this, but with the extra lift it’s going to be tricky.”
“With your mad skills bro, you’ll be fine,” Teeva said.
Jacob smiled but didn’t feel as sure. He wanted to slip into the drone to feel it.
“How long will it take you to make the changes Uncle Mac? The race is the day after tomorrow.”
Slate coughed deeply again, clearing his throat. “That's pretty tight,” he said.
“A few hours at most, but Vince is right. I wish you would reconsider. That gang will be looking, especially since you took their t-droids,” Mac chuckled, “which was a nice touch, by the way.”
Mac looked to Teeva, “Do you have defenses at your ship?”
“No worries Mister Mac, we got a power jammer hooked into the antennas. None of that skank crew can close with the kind of wattage we’s cranking out.”
Jacob heard the hissing stop behind the bathroom door.
“Besides, they got less droids in their posse these days,” Teeva sneered and bumped fists with Jacob.
The bathroom door opened and a moment later Joni walked into the kitchen looking fresh, her hair wild and damp.
“Oh my god! Teeva you have got to try that!” She said with more enthusiasm that Jacob had ever heard in her voice.
“Pshhh! You don't gotta tell me twice!” Teeva said as he slipped through the doorway behind her.
“You’re good?” Mac asked.
“I'm going to have some bruises, but nothing too rough. I’ll be pretty sore tomorrow,” she said with a musical laugh that echoed off the kitchen tile. She sat in Teeva’s chair, and Jacob thought she smelled like the rain, and for the first time in days he felt tired.
The hissing sound from the bathroom returned. “Oh my god Bro!” They heard Teeva shout through the door.
Joni laughed again, “Thanks very much for the shower!”
“No trouble ‘tall,” Mac said, sliding the drone back into its case.
“Mac said the drone doesn’t need too many upgrades, just to remove some autopilot features and put new rotors on in,” Jacob said as Mac snapped the plastic latches closed.
“Remove the auto pilot, and give it bigger fans?” Joni said shaking her head, “You’ll crash the first time you fly it! These Kowazukis are touchy to begin with, but without any auto stabilization...” she caught herself when she saw Mac’s curious smile, “I mean, whatever to you Uncle thinks is best, I guess.”
“She’s right again Jacob,” Mac said, “Kowazukis are notoriously hard to fly, but that's why they still race rotor drones. It's got less to do with the drone and more with the pilot, and I think that’s what will give you the edge,” he shrugged, “but she’s entirely correct. Worst case scenario, you get wiped out in the first race and bounce back home for dinner, a little richer for the experience.”
“The worst-case scenario,” Slate said in a low growl, “is Jacob gets killed.”
Jacob tried not to hear him, “What do you mean the first race? How many are there?”
“Usually two, but sometimes three,” Joni said. “It's about elimination. The first race is a trial, and if you place high enough, you move on..”
“I don’t like it,” Slate said, shaking his head. “What in the world possessed you to enter a drone race? Did Teeva talk you into this?”
“No, it was my idea, right Joni?” Jacob caught Joni mid yawn, covering her mouth as she began to nod.
“It’s true,” she said, “I just wanted to buy a pelvic crown and the next thing I knew they had entered the race. I told them it was a bad idea.”
Jacob thought about it, what he’d been so sure about seemed strange now, but deep down he still felt the strength of his new talents. He’d have to get inside the droid to know for sure.
The water’s hiss stopped. “I'm definitely going to...” Jacob paused with a yawn caught from Joni. Teeva bounced into the kitchen, his hair dripping wet and clothes stuck to his body.
“Bro! That... is... AWESOME!” He said, pointing back to the bathroom.
They burst out laughing. Even Slate shifted his expression as Teeva raved, “That is the best thing ever bro! Have you used that yet?!’
“Not yet,” Jacob said,
“Get in there bro!!”
Jacob shifted in his seat, “What about you and Joni? What are you guys gonna do now?”
“We should get back, the Clan will be worried,” Joni said as she stood from the table, stifling another yawn. “Oh man! I feel like I’m made of sand!”
“Fighting does that,” Mac shrugged, “I'll ask the Kaizen to take them home Jacob, you’ll need to take it easy for a bit.”
“Sure, sounds good,” Jacob said and shifted nervously in his seat.
“Once you use that shower Jacob, you'll never be the same,” Joni said.
“You’re welcome to come by anytime to use it,” Mac said.
“What I’d rather do is find a way to build one in the Dojo.”
“If you need any parts, we do have quite a collection here you know,” Mac said.
Vincent turned and left the room without saying a word. His footsteps echoed as he marched across the living room and out the front doors, closing them before Jacob heard a muffled explosion of guttural coughing. All three looked to Mac.
“He’s like that. It’s nothing you’ve done.”
Teeva stood and followed Joni out of the kitchen. Jacob and Mac trailed through and out onto the veranda in time to see Slate vanish between stacks as he moved towards the shop.
Mark was waiting at the base of the mismatched steps, still holding the smashed t-droids in its loading claws. It shifted the open cab towards Joni as she braced herself against the railing, carefully walking down the stairs.
“Make sure they get home okay,” Mac said, and Mark’s shoulder strobes flashed.
“I’m totally gonna ride the cockpit this time,” Teeva said, but as he reached to climb in, the huge Kaizen backed off, rolling away from his grasp.
“Oh c’mon bro!” Teeva said, “Don't be like that!”
“The Kaizen are easily offended,” Mac said.
“It’s okay Mark. He didn’t mean anything by that. We've just never really met anyone like you before.” Joni said, and the Marine loader shifted, rolling towards her. She reached up and grasped the crew bar to ease herself into the sheltered cab.
“You do know Kaizen,” Mac said with a raised brow.
“I'm starting to...” she said, but another powerful yawn pushed her back into the yellow seat.
“You do have some interesting friends Jacob,” Mac said and patted Jacob on the back. It shook off some of the heaviness, but he felt the hourglass sand starting to fill his head again.
“Mark,” Teeva said, holding his hands open, “I'm sorry bro, I really didn’t mean anything by that. After all, you’ve saved my butt twice bro!”
The
loader responded by lowering its lifting arms and dropping a side booster seat as it turned towards Teeva.
“Thanks bro, you’re the business!” Teeva said and slowly pulled himself up, placing his sword satchel on his lap after fastening the seatbelt.
“Catch you online bro!” Teeva called and winked at Jacob, who waved back as the great cargo droid spun and slowly rolled through the stacks towards the road. They watched until Mark disappeared into the cargo forest.
Mac turned to him. “You need to hit the shower and get some rack, Jacob. It's been nonstop for you my lad.”
“Sure,” Jacob said and felt anxiety building. He followed Mac back into the house
“If you need a hand getting the suit off, I 'll be right outside,” Mac said as he held open the bathroom door.
Jacob tried to smile, “I’ll be okay,” he said, and Mac gently closed the door.
He looked at the spaceman in the mirror and took a deep breath, steadying himself against the pedestal sink.
“You still okay in there?” Mac called through the door.
“Yeah!” Jacob said, but he didn’t feel okay. He felt a sickening fear at the thought of removing the suit. Fear of weakness, of exposure, a fear of things that he didn’t know, and it made him more afraid that he didn’t know them.
“It shouldn't take me too long to find a helmet. I'll run it up to your room. Get some rest!” Mac called as his footsteps echoed across the hardwood.
Reflected in the mirror, Jacob saw a pipe stretch and bend like a hook in the shower stall. Beneath it, was a single rotating flow controller, with faded red on one side of the dial transitioning to dull blue on the other.
He reached in and pulled the chrome lever towards him, sending water pressured surging against the walls and floor of the shower stall. Turning back to the mirror as steam began to rise, he reached up and unhooked the magnetic flap to reveal his suit’s airtight zipper seal.
He took another deep breath and drew the zipper down, feeling his hands tremble like he was peeling off his skin. With the zipper down to his crotch, he took another controlled breath and pulled the suit off one shoulder. He had to hold onto the tips of the fingers to pull his hands-free from the glove. By the time he slipped out his arm, he was hyperventilating.
With his arm free, Jacob could see how badly he was shaking. He steadied himself by gripping the glove of his opposite sleeve and tried to not think of anything, focusing through his internal screaming.
He pulled, skinning his other arm from its protective shell, but once the envirosuit fell away from his chest, the shaking grew worse. He clenched his jaw to stop his teeth chattering, but nothing could slow the compounding pressure in his mind. Panic, fear, anxiety all fed a flame that burned away his will.
It would have been easier to pull a blade through his stomach than it was to pull off this suit. He reached down to undo his cinched waist, but when he grasped the inner belt, his fingers stopped responding.
He felt his pulse hammering in his sinuses and teeth, and his rapid breathing was making him lightheaded. Again, he tried to detach the inner belt, but his fingers only gripped it and shook. All strength drained from him as his tears mixed with sudden sweat.
He tried to hold his breath, but it was too desperate to be caged, and his balance gave way, and he had to lean against the shower door to steady himself. Tiny misting water droplets kissed the bare skin of his back, triggering a new surge of strength.
On their own, is arms slipped back into the suit’s sleeves, and Jacob felt himself pull it back over his shoulders as he forced his fingers back into the gloves. As soon as a fingers seated, he fumbled for the zipper and pulled it up to his neck, sealing the magnetic flap. With the safety of the suit around him, he felt stability returning. His breathing started to slow, and he closed his eyes.
He reached back through the shower stream, feeling the water through the suit’s sensors as he pushed the chrome flow lever back into place. The hiss became tapping drips as he stepped from the stall.
Jacob reached for a zipper in the small of his back and opened it, unraveling the sanitation intake tube he knew waited there. He attached the universal fitting to the pedestal sink faucet, and rotated the connector, shrinking the fitting into a watertight seal over the spout. Reaching to his inner thigh pouch, he undid a similar micro toothed zipper and withdrew the outflow tube, slipping the end under the lid of the toilet seat and into the bowl.
Jacob rested his power-bok boot on the toilet lid to hold the hose in place and opened the sink’s hot and cold taps. The water surged through him, circulating through the separate internals of the suits sanitation system. Jacob leaned from side to side, letting the water flow around him and feeling its circulating caress. He heard the toilet flush automatically, and he waited until it flushed a second time before lifting the lid, holding the outflow hose in place to see if the water was running clear.
He turned off the taps and shook out the outflow hose before unscrewing the universal valve adapter from the tap. He blew hard into it, sending the last surge of water through the internals and heard his breath whistling through the tube. He carefully dried the hoses with tissue, and coiled them up before returning them into their nearly invisible pockets.
This is as good as any shower, he thought, better probably and certainly more efficient.
Leaning against the sink, he felt twice as tired as when he entered the bathroom. He flushed the toilet and opened the bathroom door, happy to see Mac wasn’t waiting with any awkward questions.
He crossed the living room quickly, and his power-boks clunked as he climbed the narrow staircase. At the top, he left his attic door open and rushed to his bunk to collapse. There, face down on the pillow, in the flushed safety of his envirosuit, he passed out.
Chapter 15
“Mother!’ Jacob cried out, lost for a few moments.
House.
Kaizen,
Joni.
Visions slipped into his mind, and then, still breathing heavy, Jacob remembered. He reached out, touching the bedside lamp on his bedside crate and a small patch of light chased uncertainty away.
He laid back on the bunk, listening to his breathing slow as he stared at the attic ceiling. He tried to remember his nightmare. Something. Anything; but it was gone. There was only the lamp’s light stretched oval by the roof's pitch above him.
He rolled onto his side and noticed a water bottle had been placed at the far edge of the bunkside crate, away from where it might be knocked over. Past it, the lamp light fell on the Kowazuki hard case, under a brand-new Kaizen envirosuit helmet.
“Alright, Uncle Mac!” Jacob whispered, and the warm feeling in his heart rekindled. He swung his power boots over the bunk, thumping against the hardwood. The sound seemed louder in the night. As gently as he could, Jacob crept across the floor to the case.
He snatched up the helmet, feeling it was heavier than his old one and painted the same green as the Rainwalker. He slipped it on and immediately felt better, as the lining sensors touched his scalp.
His body warmed the fabric as it’s mag-seal connected with the high collar of the suit, automatically becoming airtight. In a crisis, little features like the automatic seal could make the difference between life and death.
There is no time, only the remaining now.
The downed visor showed a pairing request, and after he permitted it, he felt a tickling sensation on his scalp as the helmet adjusted to a comfortable snugness.
He took a breath and tasted the air; it was light and clean through the helmet’s rebreather. During system initialization, the default was to have the internals recycle the air for the same reasons as the mag-seal.
The neural link felt somehow stronger with this helmet, and after agonizing moments watching the cursor blink, the familiar Hummingbird heads up display snapped into view. He saw Mac had pre-configured the neural network connection to the tunnel router, and noted a solid link to Immersion in the passing specs.
The envirosuit's schematics flashed in the display, and after he authorized atmospheric use, the oily taste of quarantine air returned. It was tempting to keep breathing the sweet filtered air, but even the few breaths he cycled during boot-up could come back to haunt him if he needed it.
He crept to the tall mirror in the attic corner. The man who greeted Jacob in there was intimidating. The fierce void of his black one-way visor inhuman as it stared back. Jacob clenched his fists, feeling the power of his new connection. He wanted to gate to the Dojo, maybe show up and surprise them with his new rig, but the display said 3:23 am, and with the day they’d had he decided to let them rest.
Jacob grabbed the drone case and retreated to the soundless safety of his bunk’s mattress. The latch’s popping were like gunshots in the stillness but after four blasts, he swung open the lid and gasped.
Mac had changed the blades on the four rotors, and they now reflected polished chrome against the black Kowazuki body. He thought it looked mean, like he did with his new helmet. Gently, he lifted the drone from its case and inspected it.
Jacob found the power button just under the rotating camera housing, near the front of the drone’s body. He held it down until the small green LED pulsed to life under his finger.
A prompt appeared. 'Transfer to Kowazuki Racing Droid?' and with a thought, Jacob authorized the connection, watching the small drone spin its rotors and flex its frame. Its single claw twitched and rotated as it awakened, stretching its wings to shake off the long slumber. The initial boot up sequence completed and a prompt appeared confirming control.
He did very much, but he paused, looking to the attic’s closed windows. Slipping off the bed, he closed the case and placed it under the bunk before thumping across the floor to swing open the windows.
The moon had cloud silhouettes creeping across it, but was still bright enough to cast shadows between the cargo stacks below. He returned, picking up the drone, now humming with power, and set it in on the floor before stretching out on the bunk. Laying on his bunk, with his helmet on the pillow, Jacob made the second authorization.
Jacob twitched and found himself laying on the floor, looking forward through the droid's swivelling lense-ball. He became aware of his new body, exploring the four rotors and the slight flex to his frame. Rotating his vision to the right, he saw himself lying on the bed, the visor hiding his features.
