Alpha One: The Kronan by Chris Burton Page A

brought himself back to his standard seating position and powered up his twin thrusters. The ion drives would not be needed today, but if emergency thrust burst was required, he would keep them on standby.
    The Hunters lined up six abreast in a grid system, which was pre-determined by random selection. Jake’s ship was on the second row. The order to engage was broadcast and Jake fired up his thrusters to maximum for a super fast launch. Seconds later the Hunter rose into the sky, as the procession of Jump Ships began the early stages of the race.
    This was full on.
He was back in thirty-sixth place and struggling to stay with the leaders. All the contestants were exceptional pilots.
    This was an endurance race and completion was the target, so Jake set about positioning himself safely, with clear distance between those Jump Ships ahead, below, above and behind. The first section of mountain terrain was quickly approaching. A tall range of mountains, where the highest peaks fell just a few hundred meters short of the atmospheric boundary. If you chose the wrong peak to climb over, you could be disqualified in a flash. Jake opted to hug the ground closely and use his helmet telemetry to instinctively keep the ship from getting too close to the surface. Twice, he came close and quick changes to his intermix brought him back to safety. The second mountainous section followed a cruise across a large section of water. Bizarrely this was one of the hardest sections. Detecting the checkpoints over water was difficult because the gravity pull created liquid vortexes, which spurted out from the sea, if altitude dropped to low. Several Jump Ships were lost this way and. Jake was grateful, after fifteen minutes of flying that, this section was finally over, and the second less dense mountain section commenced. The great cavern fast approached and Jake began the finite adjustments required to negotiate his Hunter through the vast underground tunnel.
This will be tricky.
    Ten kilometers into the cavern, the gravitational pull decreased, the ride became firmer, and the urge to ditch reduced markedly.
    Jake was now in danger. The Hunter immediately behind him closed to less than fifty meters and was obviously trying to force Jake into a mistake. The Duke tried to force him into the side of the cavern, where the height was restricted and light was very limited. Jake instinctively pulled the stick back and allowed his thoughts to control his progress. He eased back further on the throttle and the Duke went shooting by. The Duke’s Hunter did not look back. He was clearly on a quest to reach the leaders.
    Jake was in eighteenth place and the tunnel section was proving a formidable obstacle to the Hunters limited maneuverability. Only fifty-two ships remained in the race.
    The race continued. Twice, Jake swerved to avoid protruding cave sections and on the closing section, when he could almost sense the daylight, he narrowly avoided ditching as he swerved to avoid the Jump Ship in front as the cave height suddenly narrowed to less than three hundred meters. Then they were clear and in front of them lay the Great Plains and the Antubi dessert. These were two of the fastest sections of the race, but the terrain was difficult and gravity was back to play its fullest part.
    The closing section of the race was mostly over water and when the leading Jump Ships finally sighted land, the end was in sight. The Duke came in first, proving he was a formidable Jump Pilot. Jake came passed the winning post in ninth position.
    The second and third days of the competition passed by, with five further races, narrowing the field on the final day to just twenty- two. Jake was in third place and was challenging for the lead. The final race was a time trial across the Antubi Desert, the plains and through the cavern, but now, as with the South Downs final TG, the organizers had added a simple reality check. The Jump Ships would be targeted from above and below