Fiona Starlight, and also Max. (The Co-pilot)
Fiona Starlight, the fastest Sun-slinger in the galaxy. Join Fiona on her rip-roaring adventure in the 49th annual sun-shot race. Also, her co-pilot Max. (For the Iron-Age Media prompt)
The sun is beating down, cameras are popping and clicking as the press swarm around Fiona Starlight, the fastest Sun-Slinger in the galaxy. She poses up on a rock, leaning against the nose of her ship, the Lady-Luna. She tilts her head and smiles at the camera before turning her back and throwing a cheeky smile over her shoulder; fluttering her sparkling brown eyes at the crowd.
The showground is bustling with people hurrying to see the sun racers perched upon their landing pads. The gleaming ships glitter in the mid-day sun as the atmosphere rings with the sound of carnival games and kids begging their parents for the giant toys hanging on their walls. On the far side of the showground, onlookers cheer as a rather wide man with golden hair and a tight blue suit flexes his muscles in front of his ship.
Max watches Fiona basking in the attention, flicking her hair and waving at the people below when two tall white haired men in dark green suits push him from behind. They smile at Max like a shark smiles at a fish.
“Guten Morgen Maxy.” The Gawper twins. Max is never sure which one is uglier. “Don’t let you’re little girlfriend cry when we beat you zis year”. He turns his back on them as they barge through the crowd. Suddenly, two voices bellow from the speaker towers. The whole crowd turn at once to a giant video billboard as two men appear, sitting in a studio in brightly coloured suits.
“Ladies, gentlemen and little racers, it’s almost time for the 49th annual sun-shot raaaaace”
“Thats right, Larry and it’s time for the racers to make their way down to the team tents and get ready for another gripping year, sponsored by Latex Shorts”
Fiona looks at Max who is standing at the back of the crowd in his grey flight suit. He salutes her with two fingers to his forehead. She blows a kiss to the crowd and waves goodbye with a glowing smile across her face which she holds without a flinch all the way down the side of the rock until she’s behind the white screens that shield the team area. They both enter the team tent and cool air washes over them. Max smiles up at her.
“How do you do it up there, you’re not even sweating”. Before she can say anything a tiny voice shouts from the other side of the tent and a little boy in an orange jacket comes bounding out across the room with his arms in the air and a teddy bear swinging in his hand.
“Daddy” Max throws his arms around his son and Fiona steps back and watches from a few feet away with her hands clasped in front of her. She smiles at the little boy but only attracts a glance as he looks immediately back to his father with wide eyes.
“Daddy, are you flying?” The boy bounces up and down.
“Soon, very soon. Joe will let you watch from the control room” he points at a big man in a tight red shirt looking at them from across the room. He waves at them and disappears through a flap in the wall. The three of them follow. They sit along one side of a large oak table in the middle, all facing a TV screen on the other side.
“Max” Joe bellows as they walk in. “And Max Junior, you ready to see your dad race”
“Yeh” the boy shouts with big smile. Max sits right in the middle and Fiona seats herself off to the side, leaving a few chairs between herself and anybody else.
“So” Joe points at the screen. On it is a map of the solar system with the planet Oreena at the centre and it’s moon just offside. Right above it are three suns; a green one, Minos; a blue one, Lazarus and a red one, Icarus. Joe points at the screen and three lines draw outwards from the planet’s surface, circle around the moon and shoot around the suns before flying back to Oreena. “Now, all the models are telling us that Icarus is the fastest, like it does every year. But also like every year, we’ve got two point one million asteroid warnings.” Joe presses a button and red warnings begin appearing on the screen. “Amazingly, that’s half a million more than last year so, it’s either Lazarus or Minos”
“What’s the field around Lazarus” Max says, prompting Joe to zoom in on the blue sun.
“The gravity has increased this year, and the models are showing a slight advantage over Minos of about point eight seconds. Interestingly, the gravity has weakened around Icarus as well, but” he zooms over to the green sun. “Minos has cooled slightly, which means a tighter orbit. I think it will come down to skill more than anything”. Max looks at the screen and scratches his chin.
“Lazarus. Minos could be too tight, we might overshoot on the exit, and I don’t want to get that close”
“You sure, the new heat shields can handle it”.
“No, we’ll go blue this year”, Max says. Joe looks over at Fiona.
“Fiona, you agree?” She is sat with her hands folded on the desk starring down at the table. The question seems to catch her off guard and jolts her from her daydream.
“Erm… whatever Max thinks will be best”. She says infirmly.
“Sorted then” Joe barks, “I’ll lock in blue”. He taps it on the screen and it lights up. A line draws its way around the blue sun. Joe points to a dotted section that runs around the back. “Along here is where we’ll lose signal, you’ll be on your own for about 92 seconds, and we’ll pick you up again here”.
The crowd is held back by metal barriers cutting a path from the team tent to the ship. People reach over the barriers towards Fiona. She struts down the path, waving at the onlookers, blowing them kisses and stopping to talk to little kids, who’s eyes glitter and smiles glow every time they see her. The billboard suddenly changes to a map of the solar system as the two nasally voices burst through the speakers again.
“So let’s see who’s going where”, the billboard zooms into the map and little icons of each racer pop up over the suns. “It Looks like Lazarus has edged it out again this year, with six of the eight racers going blue”
“That’s right Larry, and nobody has chosen the red.”
“Aaaw” they both say together. “Poor old Icarus, but you know there’s a good reason.” A fancy graphic sweeps across the screen revealing a grainy video of a half melted ship floating beside a molten asteroid with Icarus in the background. Max and Fiona climb up to their landing pad.
“Remember the race of twenty nine”,
“I sure do Larry, when we lost a true legend of the sport”
The racers are all standing in their brightly coloured suits, sweating in the baking sun while they wave to the crowds, all except for Max who stands to attention. A claxon sounds and the racers wave a final goodbye to the cheering crowd before climbing into their ships.
Max drops into his seat and buckles up, Fiona swings her leg over the side and clamours into the cockpit. She slides herself down the seat back and wedges her long legs under the control column. The cockpit lid closes with a hiss and muffles the sound of the crowd. The electronics hum and the air conditioning whooshes to life. Three large screens across the middle of the cockpit flash blue. Max looks at Fiona.
“I think you should fly, I reckon it’ll be a fast one this year”, he says while putting on his flight gloves. She looks around the cockpit with an expression on her face as if she’s never seen it before.
“Erm, I… No, just… you keep control, I’ll monitor”.
“You sure?”, she nods. Max flips the primer switch and the ship rumbles. The landing pad begins to turn and the ship slides into its launch tube.
The crowd outside are going mad, and in the control room the team watch their screens, dozens of them, feeding telemetry back from the ship. Joe is sitting right in the middle with Max Junior sitting on his knee.
The ship bumps as the launch clamps lock onto it’s fins.
“Racers, start your engines” the speakers boom.
Fiona looks at Max, he nods and she presses the ignition switch. The engine thunders to life and the ship creaks against its moorings. Outside, the onlookers cheer as flames jet from the top of the launch tubes.
“Raceeers, its time… Ten”
Max advances the throttle to full power. Fiona grips the restraints.
“Nine, Eight Seven” the crowd outside chants.
“Four, Three” Max glances over at Fiona and then presses his head back against the seat.
“One”
The ship hurtles down the launch tube pressing the two of them into their seats. They burst from the other end and the sky quickly turns black as they speed through the atmosphere.
“Stage one” Max says. As the screens light up green
“Man, auto, thrust green” Fiona replies.
“Course stable, stage 2” The screens flash and a loud bang shakes the ship.
“Stage two green” Fiona says as she sinks deeper into the seat. “Separation in three, two one” With a sudden clang, the force of acceleration subsides, giving them a chance to shuffle about and reset themselves in their seats.
Fiona takes a deep breath. Max flips a switch on the overhead panel and the central screen flashes ‘manual control’. He presses a red button on his control column and pushes his headset mic closer to his face.
“Team, this is rocket. Stage separation complete, all green, inbound for the first throw”
“Rocket, this is team. Good launch, your middle of the pack” Fiona looks out of the window as they hurtle towards the moon. Ahead of her she sees the other ships shimmering in the sunlight. Then she spots the Gawper’s metallic green ship just off to their side. The ship is difficult to see, its mirror like finish almost camouflaging it against the darkness, except for a large white ‘3’ painted on the side. Suddenly Max grabs her attention.
“Fiona, prep for slingshot” She reaches down and flips a switch which turns the screens green. Joes voice buzzes over the radio.
“Rocket, your ten away. low pass fastest. Caution Rocket-3.”
“Roger” They watch the moon looming over them growing until it fills the cockpit window. Max looks at his screens and sees the Gawper ship on his radar.
“Team, is Rocket 3 too close?” the radio crackles.
“Rocket 3 are going wide. Too close overhead. Race controller orders. Cleared for the low”
“Cleared for the low, rocket”. He looks at Fiona and nods. She flips a switch on the forward panel and the screens flash green again. The ship rattles and pushes them into their seats. Max grips the controls and pushes forward just a little. They inch closer and closer to the moon until their fin cuts the shallow atmosphere throwing moon dust up behind them. He eases off and lets it rise a little, then the sun peaks at them from the behind the moon and the windshield darkens to shield them from the glare. Max loosens his grip on the controls and the ship gently rises away from the surface. Fiona looks out of the window and sees the Gawper ship.
“Max” she cries, but it’s too late. The ship smashes into them and sends the Lady-Luna spiralling off slamming Max and Fiona against the side of the cockpit.
Under the blistering sun, the crowd gasps as they watch a live feed of the Lady-Luna spiralling from behind the moon, panels shearing from the ship and a cloud of debris sparkling in the light. In the control room, alarms are blurting out from every station and half the screens are flashing red. The team members all start shouting at once, beckoning back at Joe who sits up in his seat. The shouts all heap into one illegible noise as Joe tries to make sense of it.
The ship meanwhile, is spinning out of control. Fiona is clutching her restraints. The planet keeps flying into view then out, in again, then out. Max wrestles with the controls, all of his screens are red and too many alarms are screaming at once for him to tell which is which. He feels a sharp pain in his side, as sweat runs down his brow. He reaches out, struggling against the force of the spin and manages to flip a single switch. The ship quickly stabilises tossing Max against the window and slamming Fiona into the ceiling.
“Rocket” the radio crackles. “Rocket this is team, are you ok”.
Joe is starring at the screens “Rocket, come in” he looks around at Max’s son. He shouts across the room “Get me a course projection, what’s the system status, do we have vitals.”
“Crew telemetry is down”, one man shouts.
“What do we have, is the radio working” Joe barks.
“Response strong, radios green” a man shouts from the end of the control room.
“Sir, Sir!”, a man frantically waves at Joe. He rushes down to the end and when he stares a the screen, his eyes widen.
“My god”.
Outside the crowd are transfixed on the billboard.
“Well Larry it looks like the Lady-luna is stabilised but, wait what’s this. Straight from the team tents, we have a course projection and… Oh my god Larry I cannot believe it”
Fiona gathers herself, she can just about make out the flashing lights on the overhead panel, an alarm is still buzzing intermittently. She rubs her eyes and feels something trickling down her forehead. She wipes it away then notices a dark red streak across her hand. It shakes her up and she focuses on the screens.
“Rocket this is team, status report… Rocket this is team” she repositions her headset and presses the button on her control column.
“Team… Team this is rocket” She says between shallow breaths.
“Rocket, thank god.” She can hear the crew in the background.
“Rocket, status update. Is everyone ok”. She looks around the cockpit, the ship appears to be stable. Then she looks over at Max, who is quivering, clutching his side and leaning against the window with blood leaking down his suit and dripping into the footwell. She leans over and tries to help, pulling on his arm. He screams and Fiona lets go.
“I’m sorry… Oh god. Team, this is rocket… Max is hurt”
“Rocket, how bad is it?” She looks at him quivering and clenching his teeth, pressing his head against the window.
“Its bad, really bad…”
Joe takes off his headset and looks down at the kid. Tears are welling in his eyes as he holds the little brown bear to his chest. Joe kneels down in front of him. “Don’t worry kid, you’re dads gonna be ok, how about you go get an ice-pop” He turns the kid towards one of the crew members standing behind them. She takes his hand and leads him away, but the little boy keeps looking over his shoulder at the screens until he’s out of sight. Joe waits until he’s gone then turns back to the screens “Rocket… I’ve got some bad news for you”.
Fiona is scanning the instruments when a map flickers onto the central screen. A red line draws from her ship and around Icarus. “The crash knocked you onto a new course for Icarus, there’s no way to get you off it, so keep to the outside of the asteroid field, at least five hundred kilometres from the surface, and don’t worry about the race, just get home”
Fiona looks out of the window. This is the first time she has since the crash. She notices the deep red sun glowing immediately ahead of them growing bigger and bigger by the second.
“Ok…” she murmurs to herself and rests her hands on the control column “Maintain four hundred, no five hundred, keep clear of the asteroid field.” She stutters into the mic. She turns the ship slightly and watches the projected path on the screen. She stares at it until the altitude dial predicts five hundred and holds the controls in place. She looks at the auto flight overhead which has red crosses on all of its displays.
“No” Max croaks, “You can’t” he splutters blood onto the window, Fiona glances over at him, trying to split her gaze between him, the sun and the navigation display all at once. “The gravity field is weaker” he croaks.
“What is?” she asks, steering the ship slightly to get back on course.
“Around Icarus. The gravity is weaker. If we go around, it won’t pull us in” He coughs. “It’ll throw us out into space, we have to go through”.
“Through the asteroids?” her voice creaks. the sun is getting closer; Max nods.
“There’s a clear zone under sixty, if the heat shield holds”. Fiona grips the controls a little tighter.
“Max, I can’t do it, I can’t take us through the field”,
“You don’t have a choice” he coughs and blood scatters onto the screens.
“Fiona, you can do it, I promise”. His throat gurgles every time he breaths, like the sound of straw sucking at an empty cup. Fiona stares at the sun as it fills half of the cockpit window. Suddenly the first bits of debris bounce off the ship, tiny little rocks on the periphery of the asteroid field. One cracks the window.
“Fiona…” he looks at her, his eyes closing. She takes a deep breath and gently turns the ship towards the sun.
“Rocket? This is team. What’s happening, do you have full control?”
“We’re going through the field” she shouts.
Joe’s eyes are wide, he shields his microphone while he stares at the projected course, the entire crew are looking at each other in disbelief. He pushes the mic close to his mouth.
“No, that’s suicide, go around”.
She can see the asteroids glowing up ahead, their molten surface wobbling as they spin. The radio crackles, and squeals.
“Rocket, do you read, asteroid field too dangerous, maintain five hundred”,
“We can’t” she shouts “Its too… Max thinks the gravity is too weak. It’ll throw us out to space. We have to go under the asteroids. Don’t we?” The radio is silent. The asteroids creep closer to the ship. Then Joe comes over the radio, quieter than usual, with an edge in his voice.
“Christ… you’re right. We screwed up the model. There’s no way around”. A single tear runs down Fiona’s cheek. She looks over at Max who isn’t moving.
“Max” she murmurs, he twitches his cheek and tries to lift his head.
“Rocket, this is” the radio breaks up. She looks ahead, takes a deep breath, wipes away the tear and focuses on the asteroids. She steers the ship to the left and misses and molten rock by inches. She sways it right and skims another. Bits of debris batter the outside, clattering across the ship. A bell rings from overhead and three red lights glow on the panel, heat warnings. She whacks the button to silence. She veers the ship left and it clips the edge of an asteroid dragging a stream of molten rock along with it. She feel the pull of the sun as the acceleration presses her into her seat. She veers left again, then right, then up, then left, dodging and spiralling around the rocks. A huge clang rattles the ship as a small stone tears a panel from the nose which spirals over the cockpit. The heat warning sounds again, she hits the button but this time it doesn’t stop. She hits it again, and again, sweat pouring down her brow, the cooling fans buzzing to no avail. She hits the button again, then looks outside, noticing at the last second an asteroid spiralling into her path.
The boiling afternoon sun bakes the crowd, but nobody notices, they’re all too busy watching a little icon of the Lady-Luna travelling across the billboard, mere moments away from the dotted line where she’ll disappear behind the sun. Some of the ship icons vanish as they disappear behind Lazarus, then others around Minos. They watch as the Lady-Luna creeps closer, and closer, then finally disappears. Total silence falls over the showground.
“Well there it is folks” the speakers squeal. “The ships are on their own until they come around the other side”.
Over in the team tent, everybody is fixed on a single screen in the middle showing the ships location. Joe is at the front, clasping his hands as sweat runs down his face. He looks up at the clock, thirty seconds have passed. He stares at the screen, and everything around him seems to fade into the background. The crew lean in closer, with one eye on the clock. Ten seconds to go.
“Come on, come on” Joe whispers when suddenly the screen beeps. The Gawper’s ship appears near Lazarus. Then another beep signals a second ship appearing from behind Minos. The screen beeps as more ships pop back into view. Beep. Beep. Beep. Joe counts the ships.
“three, five, seven… everyone’s around… hey, radio check” he shouts.
“Nothing sir, we’re not receiving”. They hear the speakers from outside.
“Well, that might be it folks. The Gawper twins are in the lead, and everyone is on the board except for the Lady-Luna, could that be the last we see of them?”
“I think so Larry, nobody in the history of Sun-Sling has ever made it around Icarus. I think it’s safe to say that, the Lady-Luna won’t be returning home”. The crew in the tent all slump into their seats. Joe covers his eyes.
A sombre atmosphere has afflicted the crowd outside. A women near the front is crying. Others hug eachother. A father in the middle, his eyes red with tears, holds his sun in his arms.
“Well folks, I think we would have seen them by now. I think that may be last we see of Fiona Starlight.”
“That’s right Larry. Even the best pilots avoid Icarus for a reason. The rescue ships are in the air, but I wouldn’t hold out hope for Mrs Starlight and her co-pilot.”
Then the icon flickers onto the billboard for half a second then disappears again. Joe hears half a beep, and peaks between his fingers. Everybody huddles back around the screen. Joe leans in and stares at Icarus, his nose almost poking the monitor.
“Come on” he whispers, “I know you’re in there somewhere”. Outside the speakers won’t give it a rest.
“Folks, it could just be a blip from the transponder, signals bouncing off the surface, echoing off of the asteroids”.
“That’s right Larry, its takes time for the signal to travel around the sun, what we could be seeing are just-“
“No, no no, tell him to shut up” Joe grumbles.
“It’s very unlikely the Lady-Luna” Joe points over the crew to the door of the tent.
“Tell that idiot to shut up” he bellows. The screen blips again.
“Come on… Where are you” he watches, and watches. But nothing appears. The crew have given up. Many of them are slumped into their chairs. One man is standing outside. Another jumps up from his seat, gripping his hair, and begins pacing back and forth all the while Joe’s eyes never leave the screen. Joe watches, and watches. He glances around at the team. One man is hunched over on the desk. Another is holding back his tears. Joe looks at the screen, his fingers crossed. Then, he hangs his head. He stands up and surveys the room. Everybody is watching. The mechanics are stood at the back clenching greasy rags. The stewards are huddled in the far corner. He dumps his headset on the table. “Ok… can everyone come closer please”. Then, something pricks his ear. Beep. Joe turns around and sees the Lady-Luna on the screen, streaming from behind Icarus. The radio crackles to life.
“Team this rocket, on the outbound for Oreena” The tent erupts into cheering, Joe flops back into his chair. Two guys behind him high five.
“Rocket…” he breathes a sigh of relief “What took you so long.” He waves his arms at the crew who rush back to their stations.
“Sir, their neck and neck” one of the men shouts. Joe looks at the other ships.
Fiona relaxes into her seat, wiping sweat from her brow. The heat alarm finally stops ringing and she can see the planet glowing in the distance.
“Rocket… Rocket. Do you hear? You’re neck and neck with the Gawpers. I repeat, you’re neck and neck with the Gawpers.”
Fiona leans over and looks out of the window, she sees the ship just to her side.
“Team, I see them”, she looks down at the controls. One of the screens is red, she cycles a switch. All of the screens turn green except for one. She cycles it again, waiting a few moments, then it lights up.
“Team. All green for stage three” she flips a switch and the ship rattles. She grips the controls and the acceleration presses her into her seat. She glances out of the window and spots the Gawper ship right along side. She can see the glint in their eyes as they stare at her from the cockpit. Her speed ticks up slowly. Suddenly, the ship vibrates and a piece of the nose cone bounces off of the windscreen. She looks past Max and sees the Gawper ship slowly falling behind, inching backwards.
Then, bang! something from behind the cockpit rocks the ship, Max’s head smacks against the window. He moans in pain but the Gawpers are almost out of sight. Then she hears a loud crack inside the cockpit, the piece of panelling impaled into Max tears away and drives itself deeper into his gut but Fiona can see the finish line flashing in the distance. She watches the speed creeping up further, the panelling tears again. Max cries, but she can see the flag ticking across hologram. Then she looks over at Max. His face is pale. He’s shaking and sweating with his hand is clutched around the wound, with his teeth clenched as blood dribbles from the corner of his mouth. She stares at him, the finish line in the corner of her eye.
She pulls back the throttle and the speed plateaus. She watches as the Gawpers sail past, followed by another ship, and another. She watches as they all blaze through the finish line ahead of her before the the lady-Luna hits the deceleration rings and begins its descent to the planet.
The green ship lands in a fenced off paddock, blowing up a cloud of dirt around it. As soon as the engines are cut, the crowd rushes towards it, journalists and photographers jostling to the front and surrounding the Gawpers as they climb down from their shimmering and slightly dented ship. They are ambushed with a flurry of questions, shouted at them all at once. They hush the crowd, smiling as they revel in the attention.
“We knew from ze very beginning that we had ze winning ship, ze winning strategy and ze winning skill, and we never doubted it for a second” Then the Lady-Luna lands in a paddock behind the crowd. As the Gawpers take questions, the crowd begins to thin. Journalists are looking over their shoulders, and before long, every person has their backs to the Gawpers and are rushing over to the Lady-Luna.
“Help. Help” Fiona cries as she pops the lid on the cockpit. The Gawpers are standing at the back on their tip toes trying to see what’s happening. Medics rush to the Lady-Luna and lift Max out, laying him in the dirt beside the ship. Fiona jumps down and rushes to him, but finds herself fighting with a crowd of reporters pushing and shoving their way past. Joe barges into the middle.
“Get back you godman vultures, back” the team shoves the crowd and the journalists gradually retreat, opening up a clearing for the medics. One medic squirts a canister of foam into the wound, another feels his pulse. Fiona pushes her way forward until she can see over the crowd. She spots a little kid darting towards Max, his teddy dangling in his hand. Joe grabs him before he reaches his dad and the little boy presses his face into Joe’s shoulder as he picks him up and wraps him in his arms.
The medics cut Max’s jumpsuit up the middle and press two defibrillators to his chest. His body arches with the first shock then slams back into the dirt. They rub the paddles together and then try again. Thud! One medic feels his neck, then shakes his head. They rub the paddles together again. Thud! Max suddenly gasps for air, coughing and wheezing as his eyes open and stare up at the clear blue sky. Joe sets down Max Jr who runs to his father and tumbles into the dirt beside him. Max wraps his arm around him and drags him closer. He looks at his son. As a tear runs down his cheek.
Joe takes Max Jr away and the medics lift the stretcher. Max lifts his head and looks at the crowd gathered around him. Cameras popping and flashing, microphones are shoved towards him as the crew wrestle to keep them away. Then he spots a pair of sparkling brown eyes peaking at him from between the heads. He looks at Fiona, raises his shaking hand, and salutes.
What a great read, it had me hooked from start to finish. I did not want it to end