Ness

The mix of nervousness, excitement, and anticipation that was coursing through Ness was unique. She hadn’t felt it before. Sure, she’d taken difficult tests in school—tests with grades that would follow her for a lifetime—and she’d completed the arduous trials that were the diving school’s certification exams. Nothing like this though. Today was the first qualifier in the JLTC and her team was ready. Right? Ness raised her hand to her eye level and gazed at it. It wasn’t fluttering or shaking. Ness took that as a good sign.

Before her was the breakfast that her father had made for her. He’d known just what to cook: high in calories but low in weight. She’d need the energy today. Being weighed down by too much food is such a beginner’s mistake, Ness thought as she consumed the thinly sliced and fried fish strips along with a healthy portion of rich fruits. Her father, ever the wise man, had insisted she go to sleep early last night, and it’d been the right call. Even after darkness had fallen, Ness hadn’t been able to sleep until late in the night.

Ness reflected on the past six months and the training she’d done with her team. The big surprise, looking back, was that it really was her team. Lynn’s relentless efforts at dodging responsibility had eventually fastened the crown of leadership firmly on her head. She wasn’t angry, but, in the beginning, it had been somewhat confusing where Lynn’s aversion to leadership came from. Now, she knew, if not exactly: It had something to do with his family. Anytime it was mentioned, he’d grow evasive and uncomfortable. Nobody’d pressed him on an answer.

Anyways, back to the competition. Ness looked down at her plate and found it empty. It was time to go. Her team had a morning slot, one in the first batch. With thirty new teams attending this qualifier, it was going to be an all-day event. Each team had forty-five minutes to attempt to complete the given challenge. Then, there would be a 15-minute judging session where judges could ask teams about their strategy or question their decision-making process. Finally, points would be determined, and the next team would be allowed to compete. With thirty teams, five concurrent challenges, and one-hour rounds, it would take about six hours to get through every team. Then, points would be compared, and three winners would be declared. Those three would be allowed to move on to higher levels of the competition.

Ness stopped herself. She knew all these details, why was she reviewing them now? The important thing was that her team had one of the first slots, so they needed to get going now. Ness checked that she had her things, and then, along with her father, she left the house.

Finding her team wasn’t difficult, and Ness noted that the others looked about as nervous as she felt. Lynn was looking nervously at their competition, Millie and Joseph were chatting with a forced idleness, and Alex was going through some stretching routine. Janette though: She looks… completely calm? Ness only had a moment to wonder about this though as the loud blare of the head judge’s horn cut through the murmuring assembled crowd of teams.

“Attention competitors. On behalf of today’s judging team, event organizers, and the Triumvirate council itself, we’d like to welcome you to the first qualifier for the Junior’s League Triumvirate competition year 603. I’m Magister Gallegan, assigned by the council itself to run today’s competition and before we start reviewing some of the logistical details for today, I have a couple of opening remarks.”

“First and foremost, I’d like to mention how proud I am of all you gathered here today. This competition is not easy. It is, in fact, designed to be impossible to achieve a perfect score. This is like life, where improvement is always possible. For you—tomorrow’s generation—this competition is designed to challenge you and help you reach your full potential.”

“Secondly: Although this is a competition, I’d like everyone to remember that other teams are to be treated with respect. Cheating, or otherwise subverting the spirit of the competition isn’t just dishonorable, it also hurts our people as a whole. Winning is important but doing so by pushing others under the waves is against the very essence of what it means to live on our island.”

“Now, my assistant will review some of the logistical details and we’ll get this competition started in around half an hour.” With those last words, a smattering of applause rose from the assembled crowd before the assistant stepped up to the podium. The wiry man had a large ream of paper and started to read off rules, regulations, and procedures. At first, Ness listened attentively, along with the rest of her team. Slowly though, she grew confused. Was this supposed to be a joke? All the things which were being read were obvious. Rules, regulations, and procedure for the competition which had been available to teams for months. Hadn’t they been expected to know the rules before showing up to compete?

Ness looked around. Her team, like her, had expressions somewhere in between boredom and confusion. Looking around revealed a different picture though: the four-person team sitting in the dirt just left of Ness’s team was paying rapt attention, as if this assistant were espousing some fundamental secrets about the nature of the world. Didn’t they read the rules? Are we missing something? Ness didn’t get long to think about these questions, as the speech came to an end. The assistant gave a couple last remarks, and the entire crowd of over 100 others rose and started to mill about.

Team #82 knew where to go: they were in the first time slot and assigned to the third challenge area. As they walked, Ness decided to quickly quiz her team on the strategies they’d hashed out over the last three months.

“Alright, what are the three phases of the challenge… Lynn?” she asked.

Lynn, somewhat exasperated, looked at Ness and said, “Do we really have to do this now? We all know the plan, we’ve practiced, and reviewing for thirty seconds now won’t do us any good.”

“Fine, fine” Ness said nervously. This wasn’t really the place for last minute cramming. Still, she couldn’t help it and started mentally reviewing their plan.

First, recovery. We use a standard snag-line search to try to find the sunken light-tower. If the line doesn’t catch, we switch over to a switchback swim-line search and check the lakebed more closely. Once we’ve located the light-tower, we split into two teams. Alex, Lynn, and I do the diving, recover the pieces of the tower, and the twins and Millie ferry the supplies to shore.

Second, reconstruction. We all pitch in, and Joseph leads the construction effort. Jannette and Alex are responsible for fetching any additional supplies we need and Lynn’s responsible for lining up the optics on the glowstone. Anyone who’s not busy at that moment works on building some oars.

Finally, redeployment. We all heave the constructed tower into the water, make sure it floats, and fix anything that breaks. Then, I navigate us to the deployment spot on the map and we all grab a rope or an oar and pull or paddle the tower into place. Then, Alex and I dive down to anchor it while Lynn and the rest preform any last-minute fixes.

Of course, getting all these tasks done in their allotted 45 minutes was optimistically possible. The team had been able to complete every part individually in under 15 minutes, but they’d only been able to complete the challenge in under 45 minutes once in one of their practice sessions. Additionally, some parts, like the recovery phase, were very variable in the amount of time it took to complete them. You could get lucky and bump into the sunken tower on your first dive, or the water could be so opaque that it took you an hour just to find the damn thing.

The team arrived at their cordoned off competition area. Ahead of them was the lake and long ropes supported by small floaters demarcated the area that they’d need to search. It was big. On the shore with them was a small prepared pile of miscellaneous supplies for them to use, a small table with three chairs, and three judges shuffling papers. On that table, there was also the waterclock. Cheap, easy to make, but still accurate, it counted time by slowly filling a tall cylinder with water. Small lines marked off the minutes and anyone standing within a couple meters of the table could easily read it. Ness was glad. Tracking time during their practice sessions had always been a pain. Usually, she’d made do with a sundial or listening to the distant chiming of the bells. Once, Lynn had borrowed a mechanical timepiece from his house, but it hadn’t really been helpful. Sure, it kept time accurately, but it had been so distracting that everyone except for Lynn had been enraptured by the fine machinery. That training session had been a complete wash.

One of the judges told them that they’d be “ready in a moment” and the team started to look at what they’d been given. The rules stated they couldn’t go in the water or touch their supplies before the time started, but they said nothing about just having a look. Ness quickly spotted a rope that they could use for their snag-line search and the tube which probably contained the map of where they’d need to redeploy the light tower.

Of course, an actual light-tower would never be placed in a lake. They were mostly used to mark dangerous reefs or other watercraft-damaging underwater features. Light-towers were valuable and expensive—especially the glowstone at the core of the tower. The fist-sized crystalline chunk would be of a high grade and very bright when fully charged. Recovering and repairing a tower which had fallen beneath the waves was something that they might have to do as adults.

The middle judge, who was wearing a nice hat, cleared his throat and addressed the team. Then the panel of judges introduced themselves. After that, there came an awkward silence. So, do we get started now? Ness looked to the water clock, expecting one of the judges to open the valve and start their 45 minutes. Then, Ness felt a nudge from Lynn and heard him whisper “introduce us”. Oh right. Damn. The team leader wasn’t just the person who set the course, they were also the one who did things like introductions and talking to people. Well as team leader, she had to grab the rope and bear the burn.

“Uh, yes, w-we are Team #82” Ness spoke nervously.

“Just #82? No name?” Hat-judge questioned; eyebrow raised.

Ness mentally cursed herself. How could we miss something so fundamental? No team name? What will the other teams think of us? Ness thought a bit more, never mind no team name; it won’t matter anyways. With an auspicious start like this we won’t get on any leaderboards. Lynn nudged her again.

“Uh, no, just #82. Sir.”

“Very well, team #82, how about you introduce yourselves.” The judge spoke.

Ness wracked her mind. Introductions. What would be appropriate? Ah, I’ve got it! He’s asking for team roles. Luckily, that was something that Ness could convincingly invent on the spot, unlike a team name.

Ness started with herself and then motioned to her teammates in turn, “Well, my name is Ness, and I’m the team leader. Joseph is our construction and optics expert. Millie is our medical expert. Alex presides over our underwater operations. Janette handles navigation and does construction, and finally, Lynton handles land operations and dives too.”

There, that sounded suitably officious. Judging by the judge’s expressions, they too were satisfied and the one on the left, who constantly fiddled with a pen, started listing off a couple basic rules. They were mostly repeating, again, but Ness and the team paid attention. Then, the fateful question was asked. “So, team #82 are you ready to begin?” Ness felt as if she should adopt a sprinter’s pose, ready to spring into action but she suppressed the urge. Instead, she just said “yes” and without great ceremony, one of the judges turned the valve and water began to drip into the tall tube.

For a moment, team #82 just looked at each other. Then it sunk in. This is it. Almost simultaneously all six team members began to move, and most of Ness’s worries evaporated. Introductions, ceremony, and long rule-readings? She hadn’t been prepared for that. Actually completing the challenge? Yes, she and her team had prepared. We can do this.