Selene?
She’s summoned from behind the stage with the sound of her name in the loudspeaker. Her pearlescent purple hair blowing in the breeze, she waves to the cheering crowd like their queen. She makes her way to the station beside me, giving me a wink as we make eye contact.
“You didn’t tell me you were a pilot.”
“You didn’t ask,” she counters fairly.
The stage we came from is built a little higher than the black platform the pilot cubicles are set up on. Center of the platform hangs three massive display screens; this is how the audience will be able to see the race since it’s not practical to fly everyone to whatever abandoned city Lethe has us racing in this time. Olympia’s finest ten pilots rest in rows of five on both sides of the displays, a silver cord stretched from a central computer and a reclined red leather chair at each identical cubicle.
“Tell you what, flyboy… You win again, and I’ll give you a little something at the victory party, whatever you want.”
“I’ll see you there.”
She smiles and leans back in her chair.
I do the same guiding the silver cable into the network port implanted in my arm.
Opening my eyes, my consciousness is transferred into my virtual-self seated within the cockpit of my Deltacraft at the starting line. Floating about three meters above a runway of broken concrete I wait for the others to blink into their miniature cockpits.
Selene is first. Her glossy purple drone, already hovering in line beside me, is narrow and wide at the base, just like its pilot loading to form in the driver’s seat.
It’s slightly jarring shrinking to the size of a shot glass, but even more disturbing is the thought that the body you’re in isn’t really yours. This avatar looks and moves like me, but the real me is back at Olympia, unconscious, surrounded by thousands of people waiting to see history take place.
The rules are simple. A highspeed race through ruins of an abandoned city of Lethe’s choosing, three laps, the first pilot to cross the finish line wins. If you fail to fly through all the rings you lose; and to make things interesting, we aren’t the only thing that’s virtual.
3…
The augmented course before me springs to life. Great, vibrant rings of light stretch from the starting line, now glowing red, to every point in this city my drone must pass.
2…
The high-pitched whine of the engines sings to the butterflies hatched in my stomach as I pay Selene a nod through the glass of the cockpit and tightly grip the wheel.
1…
Above all else, win.
GO!
The synth-horn roars. The holographic blockade vanishes. The rotating rings of augmented light mapping out the course turn green. I slam the thrusters as I’m sucked back into my seat. Instantly, the gold from my drone flashes to the front of the pack.
I zoom through the first ten rings flawlessly and take the inside on the turn, establishing dominance.
The next checkpoints are buried inside the remains of an abandoned apartment tower, mostly piles of forgotten rubble and dusty concrete. We zoom up the stairwell following the rotating 3D rings slinging loose sand on every floor, hundreds of floors.
The pressure is intense. Everything flying by me faster than my brain can process. At this level, it’s pure instinct.
Drones are fast. Easily faster than civilian shuttles, and obviously smaller and more agile, mine can turn in almost any direction instantaneously. Aside from the fact that shuttle races just wouldn’t be as entertaining for the fans, there is also the issue of safety. If I crash in a shuttle, it’s likely game over. The Lethe catalyst can only do so much, it doesn’t make us invincible. With DeltaCraft, I’m safe and sound back in Olympia.
Less than a second after we entered the crumbling building, we punch out of it. The first unlockables wait in line for us on the roof. Three augmented rocket-spheres on the right, three boosts-spheres on the left.
I choose the boost since no one is getting in front of me this race anyway. A green light dings on my dash in the shape of a lightning bolt as I pass through the light sphere.
From the top of the tower, we take a ninety-degree turn straight down the side. Every pilot within meters of each other dashing towards the ground.
Slamming the glowing button in the center console, I activate the unlockable I collected. The surroundings narrow, everything bending to white. The feeling in the back of my gut swells, as I soar down the building and gain a nice lead before the turbo runs out. Two others close behind me, and an explosion behind them. Selene’s purple drone twirls through the smoke leading the pack for fourth. I’m slightly impressed.
The pilot of the green and orange Deltacraft behind makes a move after a few turns, but I block him with ease. The other one, a navy blue, passes us both on the outside. One tap to its rear wing sends it somersaulting through the street in flames. Oops.
Side by side we fly through the deserted streets and around the relics of a lost society until the course leads us into another building. Heavy machinery rests in the center of this vacant warehouse. Corroded metal racks are bolted to the surrounding walls, or what’s left of them.
Selene closes in on the two of us as we drift through the spiraling course in unison collecting another unlockable. Before the green lightning bolt dings on my dash, we exit out of a meter-wide hole in the roof.
Cutting through the air, we hit the street again, and swiftly weave through the half-buried obstacles time has left for us. Everything’s blurring past me, moving too quickly
