Helos was on to more than just their friendship. This wasn’t a race in the traditional sense. This was about the journey.

  The trio was staring at the map of the race route. Or perhaps they should say the route of the racecourse. There were hundreds of stops, locations in ten solar systems, two nebulas and a dozen asteroid belts. Also at least five empty sections of space they apparently had to stop at. One they were required to remain at for a minimum of 10 minutes, within a 500,000 kilometer radius of a prepositioned something. The directions on the route indicated they had to get out of their ship at various points, grab certain items, or samples and then get back in their ship and zoom off. It was like a giant scavenger hunt.

  The most interesting part to Helos, Riley, and Auberje was the strange note at the bottom of the holo route chart. “Please note, you will not have the same exact route as any other student groups. You will instead all be required to collect, survey, scan, and go through a similarly challenging set of obstacles and tasks. For fairness’s sake, the headmistress has reviewed all potential routes with a panel of professors. Good luck, and good racing.

  “We don’t have the same route as everyone else?” Auberje scratched his head. He had not considered this possibility. How strange.

  “It even sounds like we won’t have the exact same set of tasks along the way. Doesn’t it seem really unfair?” Riley looked as surprised by this information as Auberje felt. “There has to be a higher purpose here. Maybe we are being sent to explore hundreds or even thousands of different systems which have not been surveilled yet. Or we’re only done by high speed explorer drones?

  Helos got in on the speculation, “Maybe we are picking up valuable samples because the headmistress and professors think there are riches out there on these worlds. We are just like, cheap labor for them, and it happens to be a good experience build too.”

  “I don’t know, the expense of having us build all these ships has to be recouped somehow, maybe it’s not about them getting rich, so much as about us helping pay for the expense of teaching us, and the Greathings, etc… I have considered the astronomical expense, and the sheer manufacturing capability required to build capital ships, space stations, all that cutting edge technology we used in the last Greathing. The Academy has ridiculous resources,” Riley rushed these words out in a deluge of gasps. She was right, Auberje thought, it was a ton of expense and it had to be recouped somewhere, somehow.

  “Our families are the various donations from the Star Academy Alumnae has to cover most of that, right? They say the research and development efforts from former students power half the human industrial might,” Auberje was aware first hand from his father’s companies of the might of the Star Academy R&D. His father’s holdings included the Aurora Borealis Train Company which used a specialized ship designed at the Star Academy, to remotely power billions and billions of tons of commerce along a “train line” some 10 light years across.

  This train line allowed ships to slip between dozens of gates along the light years at exceptionally high speeds and experience little to no time shift and none of the energy costs of instant FTL. A huge boon for cheap, fast trade between distant stars. They were already building the next line to a 50 light year distant star nation.

  “Even so, the expenditures this year have been huge. If its only a side effect of our missions on this race, it makes sense,” Helos concluded. The other two nodded. It did make sense. There was real value in exploring space and the multitude of worlds. Humans had a lot of the galaxy and basically all of the universe still to explore. The little section of the “known” galaxy might as well have been surrounded by maps saying “here be dragons.” They knew about as much as the Romans did about anything past the Rhine. Maybe less.

  “Heat two, you are to report to the Hangar for initial scanning… Heat two, you are to report to the Hangar for initial scanning…”

  They stood, stretching, they had been waiting for an hour. It was well past 1 now. Breakfast was a distant memory, and the boys were both hungry again. Riley wasn’t far from famished herself.

  “Okay, here we go guys!” Auberje clapped them both on the shoulder, as he had seen his father due to his subordinates before big battles, corporate or otherwise. The other two smiled wanly and awaited the results.

  Professor Ludar came up to the Triumvirate, hand scanner held forward. A blue ray zipped out of the scanner vertically, mapping the ship back and forth, stern to bow. The scanner blinked a few times, then Ludar looked at the trio. “Ah, first years. Yes, this ship will do fine. I see you put in a pair of laser cannons, boys, you shouldn’t need those. No, no, I don’t think you will. We are requiring each ship to take these three boxes with them. You will find a specialized suite inside for each of you. The headmistress had them specially made for each student. I can’t say more. Make sure you put them somewhere accessible from space. Alright, you passed. Get in and get the ship warmed up, you will be leaving in T-minus 10,” the professor said all of this while moving swiftly to the next room.

  Stolen story; please report.

  “No time to waste on questions apparently,” Auberje muttered under his breath, annoyed that yet again his dozen questions would remain unanswered.

  “Really not surprising. They have to do this with every ship, Auberje. That’s hundreds of them. In our heat alone we are talking about thirty competitors and there are 50 heats, some of which are larger than ours by a lot.” Riley shook her head, “Also, how sexist he thought the laser cannons were your ideas, boys. I was the one to design their housings and to argue that we should have some offensive capability, even if it is almost entirely close range.”

  Auberje ran his hand through his hair. Helos snorted, “You know, you are right, lets log a complaint with the headmistress.”

  “Complaint noted, and deleted. Please get in your ship, you three.” The headmistresses voice chimed through their PDAs.

  “Shoot,” Auberje said as he ushered the other two into the Triumvirate. He used the autoskids to bring the three boxes, each made of timber and marked with a different color paint. Green with “Auberje” on it in stenciled letters. The second box was black and gold with “Riley” painted in gold in three places. The last was gold with black letters and a single sans serif “Helos” painted on it.

  He shrugged. Given all the mysteries, what was one more? He was going to open the box as soon as they took off. He waved sheepishly to the headmistress or at least to the cameras on the side wall of the hangar, got into the Triumvirate and sat in the left seat. Riley was in the middle “captains” chair, and Helos was on the right and back a foot or two. They had all agreed. Riley would pilot and navigate, Helos would get out and grab samples, Auberje was engineering and scanners. Each to their purpose, more as a team.

  They started the systems up, one by one. Checked over all their various checklists and signaled via the ready status to both the Star Academy traffic control and each other. Usually, Star Academy traffic control was run by students. Today, it was run by professors.

  “TR-1 Triumvirate, you are cleared to leave Star Academy. You may not jump for 25,000 light years, preferred range 150,000. Good luck out there, you three,” Professor Myers, who had all three of them in their Jump Physics III class bid them fairwell.

  “T minus 1 minute to go, initiate launch sequences, the race is officially on in 50, 49, 48,47,,,”

  Auberje smiled, this was going to be fun, “Let’s go!”

  Helos looked at Riley, she looked back at him, they both stared at Auberje, “there is something seriously wrong with him.” Auberje didn’t stop smiling even as the two nervous nellies in the cockpit glared at him.

  “Lots wrong with him,” Riley said smiling, “But he’s my friend and he will be my husband someday.” With all the conviction of a brilliant seven-year-old, Riley had Helos convinced. She knew what she wanted, far be it for him to tell her different.

  “I heard that, I am pretty sure I get a say, and I say yes!” Auberje said with another laugh. He felt things were going well the last two weeks. Like a weight was lifted off him as they worked on the Triumvirate and hung out together. He needed a project.

  He flicked a switch, turning on active sensors and pinging the traffic control tower. Though bearing an anachronistic referral to a time before well, even real space travel, the traffic control tower always had the latest scanner data. Receiving it automatically, he picked a way out to 150,000 kilometers and sent it to Riley.

  She could, and would, navigate the main route, but in local space, his scanners were their best option to avoid damage and collision. They zipped out of the bay doors the second the timer ran out. They were off! The Triumvirate hummed softly as its pair of hybrid jump/space drives fired millions of accelerating at an alarming rate.

  The black, gold, and green paint shone in the starry night. This was going to be so much fun, thought Auberje. “Our first space exploration!”

  The other two rolled their eyes and did their jobs. Navigation coordinates for the first solar system were entered. Riley hit, “engage” on her console. The ship leapt forward to hit 25,000 kilometers in a matter of seconds but still at relativistic speeds. They engaged the jump drive.

  The Triumvirate hummed. The oversized jump drive whirred, shirred, hissed and then bam they were twenty-five light years away.

  “Scanning local system. Adjusting for our drift… Looks like we are off by just a few hundred thousand kilometers. Very close to where we were hoping to be, good work!” Auberje had their location pinpointed in seconds. The drive performed well within their expectations.

  “Great work all three of us, she’s a good design,” Helos said slapping the armrest of the ship just more forcefully than a pat.

  “Right, let’s get to it," Riley brought the boys to task.

  They began scanning and investigating the first worlds of their tasked route. They were tasked with finding a faint beacon upon one of the planets and discovering its secrets.