‘Alright! Let’s race!’

Four skimmers slotted into position before the spectators. In front of them, the first leg of the course was visible across the rolling plain until it disappeared into the distant forest.

Ellie’s fingers danced around the cockpit one last time, her light touch committing each control to memory. She gunned the engine again, revelling in the feel and the sound of it. In space, the only sensation she had was the vibration transmitted through the frame of her racer. Here the engine noise wrapped her up in a bubble of delicious sound.

She looked to her left. A safe distance away stood Tila, Malachi, and Jayce. Jayce waved and Malachi gave her an encouraging thumbs-up. Tila was studying Ellie’s rivals’ skimmers and looked worried.

Makes a change from looking angry.

Ellie waved back, then turned her head to follow Tila’s gaze.

On Ellie’s right, four skimmers took their positions. Blake’s was on the far end, his yellow and black vehicle the most imposing presence in the line-up. To Blake’s left was a green and white skimmer. Kian, a friend of Blake, was piloting that one. Ellie would have to be extra careful there.

To Kian’s left was a red skimmer of a very different design. It was all angles and air intakes. Finally, between the red and her own vehicle hovered a white skimmer with grey and black decals. Her own skimmer shone silver and blue in the afternoon sun.

At a glance, the other skimmers appeared no more impressive than her own, but according to Jayce they had far better tech under the hoods.

But it’s the pilot that counts.

A screen in her cockpit flashed to life. The first waypoint was already locked in, dead ahead. It would be a straight sprint to the first marker. After that, who knew?

Coral and Jayce had prepared her well for what happened next. Four beeps sounded through her helmet. Each one a lower tone than the last. At the long final beep, five engines dropped an octave. Throttles smacked forward. Thrusters flared.

The race began.

Four skimmers kicked up and roared across the starting line, leaving one silver and white competitor fishtailing across the line.

Malachi’s voice spoke in her ear. ‘Relax, your power balance is off. Soften the curve. Smooth and steady, like you practiced.’

Ellie mentally slapped herself on the forehead and evened out the throttles. These vehicles needed a lighter touch than her racer.

The power bands equalised. Her ship steadied, and she was away, but already precious seconds behind. Ellie increased the power and angled the nose up, just a little, to counter gravity, just as Coral had shown her. Blades of grass turned into a green blur as Ellie picked up speed and aimed for the first waypoint.

The first part of the course was easy. The waypoint was dead ahead, just inside the treeline of the forest. From here to there would be a simple sprint down the gentle slope of the plain.

Now that Ellie was underway, the gap between her and her rivals was no longer widening, but they already had the advantage.

Malachi spoke again. ‘Jayce says that was a bad start, Ellie.’

‘Do you think I don’t know that?’

‘Jayce, she says she knows.’ A pause. ‘He says sorry.’

‘Are you going to repeat everything he says?’

‘Jayce, she says… oh, um, no?’

‘Just make sure I know what the others are doing and where those waypoints are.’

‘That’ll happen automatically. Your navigation will update each time you pass a waypoint.’

‘Doesn’t matter. Once I see where the others go I’ll follow them. It will save time.’

‘Jayce says no.’

‘No?’

‘He says… look, talk to him yourself.’ Ellie heard rustling from the mic as Malachi passed the headset to Jayce.

‘Hello? Can you hear me?’ said Jayce.

‘I hear you.’

‘How’s it going in there?’

‘Jayce, I’m flying toward some trees really fast, okay! And I can already see the others turning left. I’m following them.’

Her opponents entered the treeline and passed the first waypoint almost as one craft. The location of the next waypoint was fed into their skimmers automatically. They reacted instantly to the updated navigation data and peeled off to the right.

Ellie turned the controls ever so gently to match their course and her skimmer arced right, turning away from the waypoint in front of her.

Back at the start line, Jayce pulled the mic from Malachi and shouted in panic.

‘No! You can’t! You have to cross the waypoint or it won’t count.’

‘What do you mean it won’t count?’

‘If you don’t pass within five metres, your navigation won’t validate.’

‘But I can see where the others went. Why can’t I follow them?’

‘It’s cheating. You’ll be disqualified.’

‘Cheating? In a race?’

‘That’s the rules.’

‘Put Malachi back on!’ The earpiece rustled again. Ellie turned back to the waypoint, painfully aware that four other skimmers were extending their lead.

‘Is he right?’

‘That’s the rules.’ Ellie could almost hear him shrug.

‘You and your rules. Fine. I’ll do this the hard way.’

Malachi muted the headset and spoke to Jayce. ‘What happens if she breaks the rules?’

‘She’ll be disqualified and there’s no way Blake will keep his word if he thinks she cheated.’

‘Great,’ said Malachi.

‘Of course, even if she wins fair and square, he still might not make the call.’

Malachi stared at Jayce. ‘Tila was right. You are a comfort.’ He unmuted the headset mic. ‘Just race, Ellie. Just race.’

As Ellie powered toward the first waypoint Tila examined the drone camera feeds upside down on Malachi’s datapad.

‘How long will they be in the forest?’ she said.

Jayce shrugged. ‘Don’t know.’

‘Can we get any video coverage?’

Jayce shrugged again. ‘I don’t know. Coral?’

Coral shook her head. ‘The drones can’t keep up in the trees. They’ll fly overhead and wait for them to come out.’

Malachi reframed the image. He wanted a wider view of the terrain and the possible exit points. He wouldn’t be able to help Ellie if he couldn’t see where she was.

‘Mal, make Jayce do something useful,’ said Tila.

‘Jayce, where do you think they will come out?’ Malachi said.

Jayce’s head leaned in to join them over the video feed. He was shorter than both of them, so he mostly succeeded only in blocking their view.

‘I don’t know,’ he said after a moment.

‘I can’t watch this,’ said Tila, turning away. ‘I’ll be back when it’s over.’

Malachi pushed Jayce’s head aside.

‘Thanks, you’re a big help.’

Jayce shrugged.

Ellie zipped as close to the first waypoint as she dared and turned right as soon as the navigation system confirmed a successful validation.

Her skimmer ploughed into the forest. Low branches and shrubbery whipped past Ellie’s skimmer at frightening speeds, forcing her to slow, but hopefully forcing the others to slow too.

She was now travelling barely a hundred kilometres an hour, but it felt like five times that. Malachi was right, again.

The ground below her was a blur, as was the thick, leafy canopy overhead. The trees here were large, old, with plenty of space between them, but at these speeds Ellie still had to stay alert. She tried not to think about what would happen if the trees suddenly closed in.

Ahead, sunlight flashed on silver and red.

I can’t have caught them so soon. They must have slowed down because of the trees. It's just like the Juggernaut crash zone to me.

Ellie twisted and banked around a dead tree and looked again. Off to her right, she saw the others flying in a line, each one close behind the other with Blake in the lead. It looked like they were on a road.

But this is a forest. Where did they find a path?

Ellie fixed her eyes on the skimmers, dodged another tree, and saw it. A silver line beneath them.

They found a stream. I need to get over there. These trees are getting in my way.

She gently guided her craft left around an uprooted giant then yanked the stick hard to the right, crashing through the dead branches of the fallen tree, and sending matchstick fragments rocketing into the woods.

Ellie reached the stream and turned on to it, following the others. As her skimmer moved from earth to water, the flight cushion softened, and her ride became smoother and spongier.

Ellie accelerated along the clear path.

Red loomed in front of her, and she was close enough now for the spray kicked up by the skimmers to settle on her canopy. Self-cleaning systems reacted at once and swept his view clear.

Farther ahead, she could see that Blake was in the lead. His friend, Kian, second. White was in third place, close behind Kian, and Red was last, dead ahead.

They flew low over the stream between muddy banks where exposed tree roots clawed at the water. The lift generated by their craft blasted spray in all directions. The thrust of their engines diffused the droplets and illuminated them in a shower of colour.

It was the first rainbow Ellie had ever seen.

Blake and Kian banked sharply to the right to follow a bend in the stream. Farther ahead, through the trees, Ellie saw the silver ribbon snaking back on itself. She flew close to the left bank, on the outside of the approaching bend.

Ellie could almost see hanging in the air before her the racing line Red should take. Red’s best option was to swing wide around the bend and then pull in tight. But would he take it? She had to assume he would. That would bring him dangerously close to her ship, forcing her to slow to avoid a collision. But he would also swing up and around as he banked into the first curve to make the second curve easier. He would go higher to make the turn safer for himself while putting more pressure on her to slow down.

Ellie weaved left and right, looking for a way past Red. Ahead, Red did the same, seeking his chance to pass White, who was working equally hard to deny Red his opportunity.

Blake was too far ahead to worry about.

One thing at a time.

Neither Red nor White appeared to notice her, but even so, there was no way to pass without heading back into the trees, and a sensible racer would have to slow down for that.

Ellie knew that if she was quick enough, she could take Red on the inside of the first or second curve. That was two chances to sneak by him. It was risky, but it was the careful, sensible choice.

But Ellie saw another choice. It was less obvious and more dangerous. It certainly wasn’t careful or sensible, but in her experience careful always lost and Malachi never accused her of being sensible, anyway.

Red banked hard right into the first curve. Ellie ignored it and took the direct route.

Her skimmer kicked against the watery path and she pulled up enough to mount the bank and plunge back into the trees. Once away from the stream the anti-grav suddenly kicked hard against the unyielding ground. The jolt caught Ellie by surprise and threw the craft to one side. She yanked on the controls, narrowly missed one tree, overcompensated, missed another, and levelled out.

Then she was through. The skimmer dropped back to the water again. The anti-gravity motors whined as they complained about the rapid changes in terrain.

Then Red flashed across her path, throwing jets of water away from each side of his skimmer. He still followed his racing line around the horseshoe bend. Ellie powered forward, skipping like a stone over the water, jolting around the cockpit.

Red was halfway through his second turn as Ellie fought for control as she bounced toward the bank. This bank was steeper. Tree roots clawed out of the mud, hoping to snare her. She pulled up.

Not enough.

Against all her instincts, she braked, steadied, tried again.

Not enough.

So, Ellie did what came naturally. She accelerated, and she hit the boost.

‘Wooooo!’

The anti-gravity supercharged and released in a sudden pulse. Impellers depressed the water’s surface as if an invisible ball, the size of Ellie’s skimmer, had been dropped into the stream. The skimmer launched itself over the bank and high up through the treetops. Branches snapped like matchsticks. Leaves fluttered to the ground.

For a moment, the horizon was leafy green beneath a sky of blue, then gravity claimed Ellie once more and her skimmer fell from the apex of its curve.

But she was now clear of the trees.

Ellie adjusted power flows and moved around the controls on instinct more than training. Her skimmer flattened out, her anti-grav cushion reset ready to land on the water one more time.

Then Red completed his turn. Still slavishly following the course of the stream, and still concentrating on the skimmer before him, he had missed the skimmer above him.

Ellie landed on Red with a crash and a shower of white sparks. Her skimmer bounced forward. The impact dunked Red’s nose into the stream. His intakes swallowed up water, groaned, then spat it into his wake. Red fought back, pulled up, and gave chase.

Ellie gunned her engine. Water and mud and leaves churned beneath her. Her engines flung the wet muck into the air and blasted it back on to Red.

Red’s oversized air intakes swallowed it whole. His engine choked and died and the skimmer ploughed into the soft mud of the bank.

Red angrily threw his hands in the air and beat his fists against the muddy cockpit. He was out of the race.

Overhead, camera drones watched through a break in the canopy.

‘Yes!’ Jayce fist-pumped and held up a palm for Malachi to high-five. ‘Mal?’

Malachi looked worried.

Puzzled by Malachi’s concern Jayce asked, ‘Wasn’t that great?!’

‘Uh huh.’

‘So why aren’t you happy?’

Malachi turned around the datapad to show Jayce why. ‘The next waypoint just came in.’

‘Oh,’ said Jayce, and lowered his hand.

‘Oh,’ agreed Malachi.

The trees thinned and were gone.

Ellie’s skimmer plunged three metres as the ground beneath her vanished. The land had slipped here, creating a natural and abrupt end to the forest.

Her AG unit, unprepared for the sharp change in the ground level, was unable to compensate, and so her skimmer dropped like a stone. Her stomach leapt up as she fell, the strange sensation a perfect blend of excitement and fear.

Three skimmers were still ahead, but they hadn’t been able to increase their lead.

The stream below them was beginning to widen, and the terrain was changing. Instead of leaves and mud and branches, rocky outcrops were poking up through the ground, and the land ahead had fractured into a dozen shallow canyons.

Ellie’s cockpit beeped. They had passed the second waypoint, and she was now in fourth place.

With the tight confines of the forest behind her, and open ground before her once again, Ellie accelerated hard, relishing the contest. She tightened her grip on the controls and grinned to herself.

‘Three to go,’ she whispered.