“All right,” said Bolan. “I’m switching the engines.”

“Hold on,” said Zachariah. “Let me pull the throttle back before you do that. We

don’t know what will happen if we have it wide open and then switch engines.”

“Right,” said Bolan. “Give me a signal.”

“Pulling back on the throttle now,” said Zachariah.

“Lighting main engine,” said Bolan. “Engine is engaged.”

“Opening the throttle,” said Zachariah. The Racer surged forward, sucking in air as

she went.

“Readouts are good, Zachariah,” said Bolan. He watched the flipping image squares.

“We aren’t losing anything after the switch.”

“That’s good,” said the machinist. He watched the other racers as they climbed above

him. “Once we are out of the city, we’ll open her up.”

“We’re about halfway through our first loop,” said Sola. “We have to go around twice

before we clear the wall.”

“All right,” said Zachariah. “I’ll try to keep Sir Dormir between us and the other

racers until we’ve satisfied the lap rule.”

“Right,” said Sola. “I’ll let you know when you can climb out of the enclosed part of

the city. We don’t want to be penalized on the first part of the race.”

“There are penalties?,” said Bolan.

“If you don’t stick to the visible layout, they add on time,” said Sola. “It’s the same

if they think you’re using magic to teleport the distance instead of flying.”

“Anything but pure flight is cheating,” said Zachariah. “On the other hand, if you can

demonstrate your speed in action, they exonerate you and make sure your record is

clean for the next race.”

“But until you get that, everyone thinks you’re a cheat,” said Sola. “That’s why they

put the trackers on so they know where we are all the time.”

“Some of the living things are faster than us,” said Bolan. “How are we supposed to

beat them.”

“While winning would be excellent,” said Zachariah. “We’re here to make sure our

racer can race. Next year, we will be able to take the data I’m recording and make a

racer than can go faster than anything short of a green light.”

“Faster than a green light?,” said Bolan. “Nothing is faster than a green light.”

“We don’t know that yet,” said Zachariah. “I hope to be able to travel to one of the

moons eventually.”

“Really, Da?,” said Sola. “Do you really think this thing will be able to do that?”

“I don’t know,” said Zachariah. “I have been asked to build a boat that sails under the

water to find a sleeping monster. I don’t see what difference heading to the moon and

sailing under the water could have.”

“They might be the same depending if there is air or water above the clouds,” said

Bolan. “The problem is we don’t know how the Rocket will go if there isn’t.”

“Place adding fuel tanks for exploration on the list of things for altering,” said

Zachariah. “As long as we have water, we should be able to fly using Gold Bug’s

engine design.”

“I don’t know what’s scarier,” said Sola. “We haven’t got to the quarter mark of the

race we’re in and you two are planning on flying to one of the moons, or the fact that

you two are planning to fly to one of the moons.”

“I don’t see why we can’t do two things at once,” said Zachariah.

“Because you’re going to lose the race if you don’t pay attention,” said Sola.

Zachariah looked out the window. He veered around the tree. He winced at Sir

Dormir giving him some kind of Alvas gesture. He waved back with one hand.

“Exactly,” said Sola. “Pay attention. We’re not alone up here.”

“Point taken,” said Zachariah. “But if we were able to get to a moon, it might change

everything we know about travel.”

“It might also strand us, kill us, and blow us to a million pieces because of all the

things we don’t know,” said Sola. “Let’s get through this race first, then we can worry

about sailing under the sea, or flying to a moon. I expect that you think the Rocket

can do all that with some alteration.”

“The same basic design should do it,” said Zachariah.

“The engine will run on anything so operating in the ocean should be no problem,”

said Bolan. “The moon on the other hand is a different kettle of fish since we don’t

know anything about how high things are, the effects of the planets, if the Rocket will

have problems with running on just the starter engine.”

“But the main problem will be proofing the hull for leaks,” said Zachariah.

“What kind of leaks?,” asked Sola.

“Water leaks for example,” said Zachariah. “If any water gets in the equipment, we’ll

lose the part until it can be replaced.”

“And if we lose our air,” said Bolan. “I don’t have to tell you what will happen there.”

“All right,” said Sola. “Let’s get through the second lap. Some of the others are

already heading out of the city.”

Zachariah kept an eye on the air speed number as he steered inside the wall. He

wondered how many of his predecessors had crashed into the wall before they could

climb out and head for the next stop.

“All right,” said Sola. “It looks like we only have a few more feet before we can pull

up and climb out of the city’s air.”

“Passing Sir Dormir again,” said Bolan. “He needs to go to some other speciality if

he wants to compete in this.”

“He only has to cross the finish line at a faster speed than the other racers,” said

Zachariah. “He can start out as slow as he wants and build up speed to get to where

he has to be. I am not sure a tree is a good design for this. I would have went with

something like a bird if I could.”

“Something that’s supposed to fly in other words,” said Bolan.

Zachariah nodded. He had built the Rocket on a javelin design with the engine

pouring everything out the back, the tanks for the starter engine below, and the crew

seats up front and at the top of the design. The engine didn’t need lift to help it so he

had left off wings to keep the look smooth.

The other machines needed wings to help their engines to get them in the air. He had

examined them as well as he could without taking them apart. He felt that he had

them beat with his engine.

“All right, Da,” said Sola. “We can pull up and head for Baldwin. We have a few

fliers behind us, but the front runners are probably at the first checkpoint.”

“I doubt that,” said Zachariah. “They are probably strung out in front of us, but there

is no way they are in Baldwin, unless they have some kind of super machinery that

I totally missed when I was watching them.”

“We won’t know until we get a move on, will we?,” said Sola.

“I think we should let Hardy be the navigator,” said Bolan.

“You are so funny,” said Sola. “Knife is a better engineer.”

The daemons chattered behind the two. Hardy shook. Knife made a bunch of

instruments appear and disappear to show off his skills.

“We have to win before we can argue,” said Zachariah. He looked at the changing

route squares on his instrument panel. He was almost on line with the route. “I’m

going to climb and see what happens when we get high enough in the air. Bolan,

watch the instruments for any problems.”

He pulled back on the stick. The Rocket’s nose rose off the horizon. He lifted above

the clouds. He smiled at the edge of space visible from his control area.

“The engine is out,” reported Bolan. “Our air supply just kicked in. The outside

temperature has dropped below freezing.”

“Maybe I should have put the wings on after all,” Zachariah told himself.

“I don’t think that’s what I want to hear,” said Bolan. “All right, we have weak input

coming in. The engine is firing. The main engine is turning over, but not fast

enough.”

“All right,” said Zachariah. “We now know two things about high air travel. One,

flying high enough will kill you without air and protective areas on your flying

machine. And two, the air is so thin that eventually our engine has nothing to suck in

and use for fuel.”

“All right,” said Bolan. “Everything is lighting. Main power is back on. It looks like

the upper limit is off our scale for height.”

“We never thought we could fly so high when we put the numbers in,” said

Zachariah. “Nobody knows how far the sky goes.”

“We’re going to need fuel if you want to go to the moon,” said Bolan. “We won’t be

able to depend on it between the ground and there from the looks of things.”

“I’ll put that down for the next redesign,” said Zachariah. “We’ll need personal air

supplies in case something happens to the main air for the Rocket.”

“We’ll need a way to make charts as we go,” said Sola. “Otherwise, how will we find

our way back.”

“Good point,” said Zachariah. “I’ll put that on my list.”

“We’re cruising pretty fast, Zachariah,” said Bolan. “How far away is Baldwin from

Messer’s Reach?”

“A week on a horse, I think,” said Zachariah. “Maybe a little more, or less, depending

on ground conditions. Why?”

“I think we’re getting close to their air space,” said Bolan.

“He’s right, Da,” said Sola. “That trip in the upper air must have given us some kind

of kick.”

“Really?,” said Zachariah. He looked at the small portion of his instrument panel that

was the flipping pictures of the route he was getting from Sola’s maps. “We should

be able to see it at the rate we’re going.”

The kids stood to look out the front windows. Towers reaching into the sky reflected

the sun to the right. Small airships floated on tethers to the top of some of the

buildings. A web of train rails extended beyond the metal walls of the city. Green

light shone on the Rocket and one of Baldwin’s peacekeepers floated next to the

flying machine.

“Where did I put that badge?,” said Zachariah. He started patting his pockets.

“I have it,” said Sola. She held up a yellow card for the green light to look at so he

would know they were in the race and visiting.

The flying man nodded. He waved at them to follow him. He headed down.

Zachariah lined up and started pushing the stick to get the nose down. This would be

his first real landing. He hoped it went as well as he thought it would.

“Better strap in,” he warned the children. “The last thing I need is the two of you

going through the windshield after I drive the nose into the ground.”

The children did as they were told. Their daemons took up station behind their chairs

in case they needed something extraordinary to save the day.

Zachariah pulled up on the stick within a hundred feet of the ground. He switched the

control from flight to hover. He steered into a spot pointed out by the Baldwin and

gradually cut power until the Rocket settled on skids extended from the belly.

He shut the engine down, and locked the stick in place. He didn’t want to trigger an

accident now that they were on the ground.

He triggered the cockpit to open so they could disembark. The Baldwin stood on the

ground, looking up at the bullet shape of the Rocket. The official almost smiled.

“You’re hours earlier than we expected,” said the green light. “Did you find a shorter

route?”

“I don’t think so,” said Zachariah. “I have some readings I have to go over where we

were high in the atmosphere. Maybe that will tell me what happened.”

“How high were you, Master Eight Arms?,” asked the official.

“Above the cloud cover,” said Zachariah. “The instruments weren’t calibrated for the

height. We ran out of air, and the temperature dropped to freezing according to the

ship’s readers.”

“Were you high enough to see the stars?,” asked the official.

“Yes,” said Zachariah.

“You might have caught a wind,” said the official.

“Excuse me,” said Zachariah.

“A wind circles the globe,” said the Baldwin. “Some of our people have used it help

us respond to emergencies. Most people can’t reach it with what we have down here.”

“So you know about it?,” said Bolan. “What causes it?”

“Don’t know,” said the Baldwin. “But when you’re in a hurry, you can maximize your

speed if you can hold your reality long enough. There’s a lot of conflicting things

going on, and you have to counter all the conditions.”

“That sounds neat,” said Sola.

“It can kill you,” said the Baldwin. He stared off into space. “It looks like a few more

of you will be coming in for a landing in the next few hours. Let me see your yellow

card.”

Sola handed it over. He stared at it. He handed it back. A flame was embossed on the

front of the card. She placed the card in her boot so she wouldn’t lose it.

“We have to go over the data from the instruments,” said Zachariah. “The Rocket

needs to be prepped for launch tomorrow. And I need to think about redesigns.

Anything else?”

“We have to eat, Da,” said Sola. “Let’s do that first.”