Here is a re-write of the first Chapter and the second chapter of the novel.
I hope I addressed the issues mentioned above. I hope you like it now.
Thanks.
Tim Lockheed and the Mars Olympics
Intro.
–
Tim Lockheed has never participated in the Mars Olympics, where teenagers from all over the red planet compete in its five monumental challenges. He has no bionic powers, has never been famous, and has never worn a Cybernetic Augmentation Suit (CAS). Tim has never climbed a three-kilometer-high steep wall, has never swam upstream a Martian river, has never found his way through the infinite tunnels of a Martian mine, has never raced with rovers on the edge of a dead volcano, and has certainly never jumped down from a launched satellite. But for that which he truly desires he will test his courage in the biggest challenge in the solar system.
Chapter I
I’ll take you there…
Tim Lockheed was an unusual boy in many ways. He was a magnet for the teasing of spoiled kids. He was the preferred target of practical jokes. He was the cause of many rules. He was the main contender in many challenges, most times with the odds against him. No matter how much he battled to distance himself from other kids, he was always found in some controversy. He was said to have a problem with authority, and there were those who said he was even worse than his father in that he would never be tamed.
Tim Lockheed found himself much too awake with the morning light flooding the crowded room. He heard the chorus of deep breathing from all around. It was still early, he thought. He felt scared as he came to mind. The room was too lightened up to be as early in the morning as he was hoping. Had he slept passed six thirty?
He turned to see the time on his space-fighter-toy clock hanging on the blue color wall and confirmed the worst. He was almost an hour late. He’d spent the night before too exited to sleep, right until the last few hours of the night, and had obviously slept past the alarm to wake up. Too bad he had set the alarm to vibrate, or one of the other kids might have woken him up.
There was no time for too-bads then. Getting on time to the train station would be the first challenge of the day. Tim pulled off the colored blankets and jumped out of the top bunk that was his bed. He congratulated himself for having taken the precaution to sleep with his clothes on. It surely won him a few minutes in the morning, but it had caused quite some laughs at him the night before. The boys were teasing him for being too exited. He wasn’t exited, he thought. He was just being careful and proactive; as he knew was the right way to be when something so big was about to happen to you.
He left the bed unfixed; something that would surely gain him the usual nagging from Mr. Hyman. He grabbed the bag he’d set next to it the night before. It contained the things the information kit had said one must take with oneself. It was only underwear. He figured clothes would be provided to him for the entire event. But he chose loose and comfortable clothes and his preferred running shoes to wear that morning, just in case.
Tim pressed the button on the bag labeled “ZIP” and the bag squeezed itself until it resembled a tennis ball. He hung it on his belt and ran downstairs. There was no time for showering or even brushing his teeth. He thought he’d chew a cleaning gum in the rover on his way to the train station. It would have the same results as brushing his teethes and would be much quicker.
Tim noticed his image reflected on the mirror behind the door. His mushroom style light brown hair was in place but a little shaken. He still had the pinkish cheeks and the cherry mouth that made him seem even younger than he was. He hoped it would not be a problem for him in the competition as it was always a problem for him at the nursery. That combined with his short size for his age made him always seem more vulnerable than he really was.
As he ran out of the shared room he did a quick mental check; he had his bag, was wearing his running shoes, he had locked his few toys in the locker, One could never be too careful with ones toys; especially when one shares his room with ten other kids ones age. He figured there was nothing else for him to do but get on his way. But where was Mr. Hyman?
Tim Lockheed lived in the Hyman nursery, deep in the middle of the Molieux crater ***** on the planet Mars, for as long as he could remember. Mr. Hyman, the owner and facilitator of the nursery, had promised he would drive Tim the ninety kilometers to the Candor Chasma train station that morning. Tim was supposed to meet him in the kitchen forty minutes ago. He found it strange that Mr. Hyman had not gone upstairs to wake him up earlier.
Getting Mr. Hyman to agree with letting Tim participate was not an easy thing. Tim had made every promise he could think might interest Mr. Hyman. He had promised to care for his garden, wash the rover, clear the yard of rocks, clean the house for a week, two weeks and then a month, and it still didn’t make it. He began to make promises of things he would give up doing, like climbing out of the crater through the steep walls, or racing the bikes over the faults. Tim even promised he’d care for the new comer kids younger than him, one of the most disliked things to do by Tim; not because he did not like the playing with younger kids – in the contrary it was really fun –, but because they attracted the attention of all the mean kids in the nursery and Tim had to protect them. That meant constant fighting and vigilance and it was just exhausting.
Then, one day before the event would start, when Tim was about to loose all hope, somehow Mr. Hyman had made up his mind and agreed to allow Tim to participate. He even proposed to take him to the train station himself the next morning. Tim had no idea what had made Mr. Hyman suddenly give his permission. Tim only knew of the dozens of reasons Mr. Hyman had given why it was not right for Tim or any other kid his age or under his tutelage to go.
Whatever it was that made him change his mind, Tim was glad. He could almost taste the excitement that was rushing through his vanes and flushing his face. It gave an extra sprint to his legs and a sort of unease to his gaze. He felt like he needed to thank Mr. Hyman for being so understanding. Would it be alright to give him a hug? No, he made up his mind. Other kids might find out and then they wouldn’t leave him alone with their usual teasing. Perhaps he’d wait until he says good bye at the train station. There he would be out of sight from the other kids and hugging Mr. Hyman would not be that much improper.
As Tim ran down the stairs and through the hall to the back of the big house, he looked all around and into the kitchen. The protein synthesizer had been used. It was recycling leftovers probably from Mr. Hyman’s breakfast. But Mr. Hyman was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps he had gone outside to prepare the rover for the trip. In that case Tim had to pull out something to eat fast and take it outside with him. He had thought about skipping breakfast but he knew he would need it later during the day.
Tim made the machine prepare him a sandwich with crisp bacon and cream cheese. To drink he’d take water from the dispenser kit in the rover. The sandwich was ready in a bag in twenty seconds. He put the sandwich on a bag and headed out the back door to the yard. He ran through the many games and play-structures in the yard to reach the garage where the rover was parked. The bright morning light felt inviting to climb over some of the structures. He ducked under the swinging poles, jumped over the catapult and took a shortcut through the rolling tunnel. He noticed that it was a very nice morning to play in the yard, and being so early he would have the yard all for himself. What was he thinking? Who knows the sort of adventures that would be awaiting him once he took that train? He put his urges to play aside for a moment and did not look back at the games.
As Tim had expected, Mr. Hyman was in the garage, lying under the rover performing some last minute checks on it. Mr. Hyman dropped whatever he was doing as soon as he saw Tim come in.
“Are we good to go, little boy?” asked Mr. Hyman getting up from below the rover.
“I think we’re late. We were supposed to leave more than half an hour ago.” Tim wasted no time and began to pull the scattered tools from under the rover.
“We’re late? Oh boy. Then it’s a good thing I installed the new suspension system on Regy here,” said Mr. Hyman as he tapped his hand on the side of the rover. As he lifted the hand he noticed a black multi-finger shaped stain on it. He put his hand back on to cover it and smiled.
Tim looked at him and smiled back. Mr. Hyman ducked under the windows and spoke softly to Tim. “Regy won’t mind. I’ll clean it up when we get back.” He stood back up and went to pick up a cleaning cloth. “Isn’t that right Regy?” he asked loudly to the rover.
“Please specify your inquiry,” responded the rover.
“That we’ll get there on time,” answered Mr. Hyman as he cleaned his hands. “Especially with the new suspension. We’ll have our chance to test them thoroughly. We’ll prove Tim here you are worth your weight in gold. What do you say, Regy?”
“At the current exchange rate of gold, my equivalent weight would be worth…”
“Ah, forget it,” Interrupted Mr. Hyman. “Just trust me in what I tell you. We’ll show him there’s no better rover than Regy around here.”
Mr. Hyman would call his long time rover Regy whenever he needed something from it, and he would call it old-piece-of-junk when it could not deliver. The truth was that Regy was a fifty-year-old rover that was way obsolete in more than one way. It would be a surprise if it could deliver them on time to the train station, but nonetheless a good surprise.
“You look like you have new legs,” said Tim somehow trying to boost the spirit of the rover. Regy rocked from side to side finding its balance and testing its suspension. A squeaky sound followed its every move.
“Beautiful. You look like you dropped ten years. Open up,” ordered Mr. Hyman. The three doors rover automatically opened the two in the front.
“Hop on,” said Mr. Hyman. “I’ll give you the ride of your lives.”
Mr. Hyman took the wheel. He carefully pulled the rover out of the garage and into the narrow pathway formed by driving over and over on the same red soil. Out there in the plains was the place where Tim spent most of his time. There was where he rode his thermo-bike and where he competed to see who could make the bikes climb over large rocks and ridges without setting their feet down.
The rover rolled down the dirt lane away from what Tim knew as home; where all things dear to him stood. A minute later they were far enough from the house that it began to hide behind the many rocks, hills and accidents of the rugged Martian terrain. Soon they would be out of the medium size crater named after that prominent centuries old philosopher and reach the red sand-dunes of the Martian plains. From there on they’d be in territory unexplored by Tim.
Tim had only been once out of Molieux crater, the dry thirty-kilometer-wide impact crater where the Hyman nursery was located; and that was only because he had fallen ill and was taken to the large hospital down inside the Candor Chasma. He remembered that day because all he wanted to do was to rest and keep his arm still. The doctors wouldn’t let him, so he made them chase him up and down the hospital for hours. He had broken his arm by falling down a steep slope at the edge of the crater. The other kids had been chasing after him as usual. That was one of the few times they had actually caught him.
Tim was always chased after by people that he saw as wanting something from him. Most times it was just kids wanting to tease him. Some other times it was the regular bullies of the playground. In those rare occasions where things had gotten out of hands, it was Mr. Hyman himself who had chased after Tim to make him come back to the house.
Those early days of his life had been very hard. The Hyman Nursery served as a care center for the children of families who came to Mars to work in the mines or in the manufacturing complex. They couldn’t bring their kids with them to the job sites, so those families would leave their kids for months at a time and, once their contracts ended, they would take them with them back to where they were from, in most times never to come back. This made having longtime friends impossible, for Tim had no parents who could take him with them.
As a result Tim learned early on to avoid the pain of constantly loosing friends by having none at all. He slept in the common bedroom with other fifteen kids, ate with them in the large backyard table, and attended classes a few hours a day under the guidance of Mr. Hyman. But for the rest of the day, Tim would go alone to his hideouts in the surrounding terrain, kilometers away from the house, and would play on his own the most elaborate solo adventures.
As he grew older, Bullies had become a problem. Tim was never a troublemaker. Most times Tim would ignore the violent type of kids who came to the house. Those kids would want to control the other kids and make them be their servants. This would put them in a direct crash course with Tim if they ever tried that with him, as he valued so much his independence that he’d go probably any lengths at maintaining it. But he didn’t like violence, so he mostly avoided them and played on his own.
Sometimes a newcomer with the bully gene would take interest in him and would set himself the challenge of catching Tim. Of course this was no easy task and the knowledge of the area and the many outdoor skills Tim had developed would only make it more difficult. But bullies sometimes had the idea of gathering forces to torment the defenseless.
The day Tim broke his arm, five other kids had set out to hunt him down to beat and humiliate him in front of the other kids. Tim had been able to fend off most of their attempts in the previous weeks; but that day they had followed him right to the ends of the crater and up its edge. They had cornered him and were getting ready to grab him. When Tim saw no alternative, he waited for two of the bullies to get close enough to him, and pulled them with him to an abrupt fall down the slope. The two kids got badly bruised and Tim ended up with his left arm broken in three points. He learned many things from that experience. But the one thing that would stick in his mind the strongest was that bad guys were always a lot more effective when they fought with team-play.
“Brace yourself. This is a big one,” called out Mr. Hyman. The rover was climbing over a tall sand dune and was almost at its peak. As soon as the wheels were past the top, the rover entered into a free fall. It rose a little over the top of the other dunes and then tilted forward and dived. The red sand on the ground did not show texture. It looked the same at its level or a dozen meters high. There was no perception of height, but the fall lasted long. As the rover hit the ground all the lights of its dashboard flickered and flashed.
“It’s recommended we avoid abrupt falls,” said the rover in its mechanical tone.
“What happened old friend?” asked Mr. Hyman. “You seem like you’re not enjoying yourself.” He singled out another high sand dune and pointed the rover towards it. “Lest try it again. This time try to have some fun.”
“Enjoyment is not part of my programming,” answered the rover as it climbed the next sand peak that was even taller than the last.
Tim was gripping the sides of his seat. It was definitively fun to jump like that over the dunes, but he knew Regy wouldn’t take much more. He again felt the weightlessness of the free fall. The rover rose even higher this time. He looked in the horizon, passed the dunes, and a big series of metallic rings shinned in the distance with the low yellow morning sun.
“Those are the train rings,” said Mr. Hyman in mid-flight. The rover tilted forward again and entered the hard dive. This time it stroke the ground with more force than what the rover could take. As it jammed into the sand, many alert lights and sound indications went on. The dashboard was filled with red blinking lights.
Half buried under the sand, Mr. Hyman examined the readings on the dashboard. “I think we’re not gonna make it,” he said, as he pushed and pulled on the wheel and pedals. The rover was refusing to continue forward. Only one of the four wheels was still in its original axis and pushing against the sand. The other three were twisted and dislocated.
Tim felt an extreme agony fill his chest and grip his throat. Why had Mr. Hyman done that? Didn’t he know Regy wouldn’t take that much mistreatment? Mr. Hyman knew he was late. Why was he wasting time pulling out those stunts? If he wanted to have fun in the sands he could have done it on his way back to Molieux crater.
Suddenly an idea came to his mind. He remembered the conversation he had the day before, where Mr. Hyman had told him of the dangers of the competition. He insisted Tim should wait until next year to participate. After all, he had said, his father wouldn’t go anywhere.
Wouldn’t go anywhere… Tim hung on those three words Mr. Hyman had said. Right there it became clear to Tim. He knew what he had to do. He unbuckled himself and opened the door. He pulled himself out of the now buried rover and took some steps away without looking back.
“What are you doing?” yelled Mr. Hyman as he himself got out of the rover. “It’s a desert out there. You’re gonna get lost.”
Tim continued walking, now with a faster pace. Mr. Hyman continued calling him up. “Tim, come back. Don’t be so stupid. The desert is too dangerous.”
Tim paid no attention. Soon Mr. Hyman changed his tone and became more aggressive, like those many times he would make Tim apologize for defending himself from one of those kids from high-paying customers. Mr. Hyman yelled a few curses at him and then he paused. ”You can still make it next year,” he yelled after a few seconds.
Tim wiped a couple of tears from his chicks. He didn’t notice he was crying. Instead he began running. He ran like he never had before. Pretty soon there was nothing else he could hear but the wind and the sand giving way underneath his feet. The first challenge had turned out a lot harder than he had anticipated.
Chapter II
Amazed
Tim Lockheed just kept running. His stare had gotten blank; his lips were going white. There was enough sweat dripping down his neck to wash his clothes with, and yet his mouth was as dry as the sand below.
From time to time he got high enough to see the metal rings he saw before. He kept running towards them, up and down the dunes. Before he realized it he was there, right under a huge pillar that held one of the rings up straight. The pillar was about five meters tall and the ring was five more. It was made of a silvery metal with many details and component parts attached to the insides of the ring. Tim looked around. There was another pillar and ring to both sides; east and west, he figured by looking at the now higher white sun. And there were other rings that followed to each side. But the train station was nowhere to be seen. He made a quick choice and decided to run to the left. There was no particular reason other than he would have the wind on his back to push him and help him a bit.
A few minutes later, Tim started to feel like he was going to faint. His pace was erratic and he had trouble keeping his head up. He suddenly felt a strong pull from his back and saw his feet leave the ground. His tilted morning shadow on the sand showed him suspended in mid-air by the grip of someone behind him.
Tim turned suddenly fighting and jerking to see who was it that held him up. To his surprise, it was a young girl about his age and not much taller than him. For some reason she was as strong as a Sydonia bull.
“What on Mars are you doing out here? The train is about to get here. Go back to the station.” She put him down and pointed him in the direction he had already been running to.
Tim was about to collapse. He tried forming a few words, but his tongue felt as heavy as led.
“You don’t look so well,” said the girl taking his temperature on the forehead. “Come on. I’ll take you.” She raised him again and put him on her arms. She ran quicker than Tim had ever run and still managed to carry him with ease. Tim started to think he was probably hallucinating.
In the distance Tim heard voices, young voices like his. As they got closer he could hear the sound of other kids playing exited. His eyes were closed, but he heard some of the kids asking about him. “Who is he? What was he doing in the desert? Is he alright?” The girl set him down on a bench and ordered someone to bring some water.
“Take just a sip,” she said as she placed the container on his mouth.
Tim drank twice from the water. He opened his eyes and found a concert of terrified faces on top of him. His sight was very foggy, but he saw clear enough they were all kids. He took a second look at the girl who found him. She was terrified. Her sad blue eyes kept fixed on his.
“I think our little survivor just got hit by cupid,” said a tall and skinny boy from behind the others. Some kids made way for him to approach Tim. He came from behind Tim’s head, so Tim saw him backwards as he hovered above. “Hi. My name is Eamon Strauss. Are you here for the competition?”
Tim nodded but kept his stare on the girl.
“I guess that’s a yes,” said Eamon. “Well, you got here on time. The train is about to get here. Do you think you’re in conditions to compete?” There was a little sneer and some masked irony in his voice that suggested Tim was not.
Tim took a look around and realized that, if he didn’t compose himself, he might not be accepted to compete. He started to get up. The kids around him made room for him to move and he sat up on the bench. Tim started to look for strengths on his legs and on his back. There wasn’t much left from the long run and his thighs felt sour. He pushed against the pain and stood up, as straight as his back had ever allowed him. “I’m fine,” he said, and a wave of relief flowed through many of the faces staring at him.
“I think someone should take a look at him,” said the girl still worried.
“The Orarions from the train will take a look at him and decide if he can compete,” said the boy Eamon, dismissing the girl. Tim examined his face for a while. He was definitively taller than Tim, about half a meter, and kept a half dry smile on his face as he looked down at Tim.
“I don’t think he’s fine’ said the girl. “He might not make it until then,” she added, wiping some sweat from Tim’s face.
“Then let nerdy back there examine him.” Eamon pointed to a little boy with dark long hair shying away behind the rest of the kids.
The other kids laughed in approval. “Yeah, let nerdy play doctor on him,” one shouted.
“Alright, alright. That’s enough.” The shy kid walked towards Tim through the crowd. “Come on,” he said to Tim. “Let me take you to the bathroom. You need to wash your face.”
The boy led Tim to a small bathroom near the entrance to the station. He closed the door behind and went to open the faucet on the sink.
“Come. Dip your head in here. You need to cool off.” The boy spoke in a strange accent Tin had never herd before.
Tim hesitated.
“You have a high temperature. It’s not good for you. Trust me, my dad is a physician.”
The boy offered a handshake. “My name is Vipul. Vipul Thakkar.”
Tim took his hand and shook it.
Vipul continued. “I’m from Magellan City on the moon. We moved here five years ago. I’m thirteen now. What’s your name?”
“My name is Tim Lockheed. I’m from Moleux crater, not far from here. I’m twelve.” Tim carried himself to the sink.
“Nice to meet you Tim.”
Tim had his face under the faucet as the water poured out over him. It felt very refreshing. His clothes were very sweaty and stuck to his skin, so it didn’t matter that he poured some water over his neck and chest. “Nice meeting you too,” he said as he pulled out of the sink and went for some tissue to wipe his face.
“So, where is your CAS?” asked Vipul pointing to Tim’s chest.
“My what?”
“Your CAS. Cybernetic Augmentation Suit. I see you don’t have one. Don’t worry. If you don’t have one, they’ll provide you with a standard one when you board the train.”
“What’s that?”
Vipul laughed at Tim’s ignorance. “Oh, you’ll see. It’s the most amazing thing of the contest. Take a look at mine.” Vipul raised his hands and turned around so Tim could see his suit. Tim realized he had not paid much attention before. The suit was brown and grey and had several markings and some electronic components forming complex networks of circuitry in some patches on the lower back and on the chest. It was certainly more than a uniform.
“Where did you get it?”
“My family bought it for me,” said Vipul, with a sudden tallness he didn’t have before. “They invested years of their savings on it.”
Tim examined it a little more. The suit appeared to be made of some type of plastic or thick rubber. It didn’t shine or ripple, though. There were bumps and lumps of material where muscles should go. Tim pinched Vipul on his left arm and felt the ruggedness on the textures. Vipul flexed the arm and synthetic muscles sprung from underneath the fibers. Tim backed off in surprise. “Is that how that girl was able to carry me here?”
“Oh yes. The CAS is designed to augment your physical capabilities. Mine is a level two. Meaning I have four times the normal strength. Jewel, the girl who carried you, has a level three, like some of those other kids. Those are a lot more expensive than mine.”
Tim wondered for a while. That certainly seemed like an unfair competition. “How strong are level three?”
“It doubles from level to level,” answered Vipul. “That means it’s eight times normal strength.”
“Eight times, that’s insane!” said Tim surprised. “How much is it with the standard ones? You said I’m going to get one of those.”
“The standard models are level one. It will increase your strength twice of what it is now. You’ll have time to play with it later. Now you need to rest for a while. Lets get back out there and sit until the train arrives. You’ll need all your strengths later.”
“I’m alright. Really. I guess I’m not as bad as I look. Why don’t we go back out and you show me what you can do with your CAS?”
Vipul laughed and raised his thick eyebrows. “You will be amazed.”
They both walked out of the bathroom and back to the waiting area for the train. His foggy sight had gone away now. He examined the train station in detail. It was high and dark, compared to the outside morning. It had no lateral walls, so the winds entered freely and went out mostly uninterrupted. The structure was metal all around, but it was a darkened tone of brown. The morning light poured over half the floor of the station. There was a long ramp that ended in a grey metal platform. Tim supposed that’s where the train goes.
The kids outside were playing all sorts of chasing around games, jumping over each other to amazing heights. He noticed most of theme were wearing the same type of suit as Vipul, although their colors varied a lot and the combinations were unique for each one of them. Some were competing to see who could lift more kids at the same time. The boy Eamon was ahead with three kids his size up in the air. Three other boys about his age and height surrounded him. They laughed of every mindless joke he made or humiliations he caused on the smaller boys. Tim knew very well that kind of kids.
The sight of the amazing things those kids did was exiting and Tim wanted to find out what else they could do, but a loud shout from the other side of the station froze everyone in place in a split second. “The train is coming,” said one of the kids, and everyone just dropped whatever they were doing, including the kids suspended in midair, who abruptly fell to the ground.
Tim, like the rest of the kids, ran to the side of the train station where the infinite line of ringed pillars could be seen. The pillars were very well apart from each other, but a white silvery train was clearly punching through the rings without touching them. It was flying through, suspended in mid air.
“How is that possible?” asked Tim out loud.
Vipul looked at him and waved his arms in a magical way. “It’s magnetism,” he said in a mystical tone as he made fun of Tim. Several kids laughed with him.
The train came faster than it seemed. In a few seconds it floated into the station and parked next to a wide ramp and several doors on its side had opened. All the kids raced to form up at the foot of the ramp.
From the two open doors in adjacent wagons, two gigantic metal heads poked out. The menacing robotic faces carefully examined the kids. A few seconds later, the heads commanded the rest of their cybernetic bodies to move out from the train. Long heavy arms balanced from thick metallic shoulders. Their bodies were almost three meters tall. They each must have weighted as much as a rover.
The robots walked a few steps on the platform and took positions to each side, like guarding what was to come. A second later, another figure made its appearance from the front wagon on the train. This one had a human face and a robotic body. It was almost as tall as the other two robots, but infinitively more adorned. Its body had all sorts of colorful extensions and pylons protruding out and to his back. The most dominant color was purple, but it also had red wing-like pylons to each side.
The part human – part robot figure positioned itself between the robots and addressed the kids gathered under and in front of him. “Long live our protector the All Seeing,” said the half-man in a ritualistic deep voice that echoed through the station. Some of the kids bowed their heads in reverence; some just nodded in compliance.
This was one of the strangest things Tim had ever seen. The human parts of the man, mainly the face and neck, were very old and wrinkled. His eyes were lifeless and his skin pale. It contrasted utterly with the many exuberant accessories attached to its cybernetic body.
The half-man scanned everyone to see who did not bow. Those not bowed, nodded again as he saw them. Tim took his cues from the rest and nodded as well when the fearful eyes of this odd creature fell upon him.
“Welcome all to the Mars Olympics. We are going to board this train in the name of the All Seeing and will compete in the challenge of our lives.” The half-man raised his arms in gesture of grandeur.
“My name is Cottas and I will be the Orarion in charge of this train. You will all be under my care through the event. I will personally bring back those who don’t make it through the first challenge.”
“The Wall of Nike, named after our God of Victory. You will climb over its steep side and reach the top. The first five hundred who last longer than one minute will be accepted into the legions of the All Seeing to serve in the Red Army. Those five hundred will be able to enter into the second challenge and, it they make it through all four challenges, they will compete for the final prize.” Cottas let his teethes show in a grim smile. “A granted wish from the All Seeing himself.”
The chatter of the kids begun and dominated the echo of the station. Surely every kid there was exited about the possibility of wining a granted wish. “I’ll ask for my own space-fighter,” said one kid next to Tim. “I want a full level five CAS,” said another. Eamon Strauss was standing just behind Tim. He and his group had resolute faces full of confidence. They gave each other some complicit looks and smiles.
“What is your wish?” asked Vipul as he made his way next to Tim.
“Sorry?” replied Tim.
“Everyone has a wish. Who knows? You might make it to the end.”
“What’s your wish?” asked Tim.
“My father advised me I should ask for an import license. We would be rich. What’s yours?”
“My father.”
“Your father what?”
“That is my wish. I want my father back.”
“Why? Where is your father?”
Some of the kids started to board the train in a frenzy of excitement and energy. The two robots were guiding everyone in order in through the doors. Tim and Vipul were about to be left behind.
“It’s a long story,” answered Tim. “Come, I’ll tell you on the train.”
They both walked up the ramp and under the constant watch of the robots. Tim’s heart had never pumped with such strength.
The train was very comfortable and modern on the inside. It was carpeted all around and had very comfortable bunks facing and opposing each other. Tim sat with Vipul next to a window looking to the outside of the station. A few minutes later the train started to move. At first it felt heavy as the train elevated from the platform. But then it gently accelerated ahead without the smallest noise or vibration.
Tim was thrilled of watching the dunes move so rapidly under the window. The train was moving faster than Tin had ever traveled before, and yet if felt like it was the world outside that was moving.
Some heavy steps resounded through the wagon. The tall robot was walking half crouched down the mid-hall. It walked until a few sits from Tim. “You, you and you,” it said with it’s deep synthetic voice while pointing at the only kids who didn’t have CAS. “With me now.”
The dangerous-looking machine turned and walked out to the next wagon. Tim and the other two kids followed. There they found several boxed CASs being taken out. The robot threw one at Tim’s feet. “Put it on,” it commanded.
Tim picked it up and unfolded it. It was definitively larger than his size of clothes. “Do you have something a bit smaller,” he said as he held the suit in front of him. The legs of the suit reached and folded on the carpet.
The robot pointed to a label on one of the boxes. It r