The Roaring of the Engines

            He shot across the night sky as he accelerated. Taking a corner, (perhaps a bit too fast) he routed all of his reserve power into the main thruster. “Crap!” The thermal coupler failed and now he was overheating. Of course he new he had no business being surprised. That coupler wasn’t even built for racing, let alone handling that amount of energy in the engine. Thinking fast, he disengaged the secondary coupler and allowed the engine to engage its failsafe and shut down. As the roaring of the jet turbines stopped he started gliding lower and lower. He quickly reengaged the engine and, had it worked? Yes! Yes it had! the both couplers were back online. But now he was behind Jorinn and he new that he might have lost the race altogether by letting that happen. Jorinn was the top jet-bike racer not only on his home world, but also in the entire league. He cursed under his breath, (not that he could’ve heard himself over the engine anyway) now a racer that he didn’t recognize was gaining on him. He took a risky move and went full throttle. A burst of speed, then he was neck and neck with Jorinn. He said a silent prayer of thanksgiving that his bold acceleration hadn’t blown up the engine. Suddenly Jorrin maneuvered across the horizon to the left and released a spray of  aerosol. Then, his monitor went black, his goggles with his head’s up display was gone too. He was now flying by his naked eye, an almost impossible task. He had heard of this gas before. It wasn’t gas, really, it was a substance comprised of microscopic electronic leeches. Robots that sucked all the power out of anything they landed on. He wasn’t as preoccupied with winning anymore as he was just staying alive. All his onboard computer systems were gone as well which meant that he had no way of seeing how his bike was holding up to all the power surges that he had been putting on her. He had his basic jet systems but that was all. Then, the moment he had been waiting for arrived. His onboard systems rebooted and he was back in the race and still in second since the others had slowed down as well (the only good thing about leeches was that they effected everyone who fell into the trap). With Jorinn so far ahead he decided to go big. He dumped ALL power that wasn’t absolutely necessary into his engine and gunned it. This was it, the final stretch. There was Jorinn, ahead of him. He saw the lights of the stadium, so bright he may not need his screens. He decided to risk it. He rerouted his onboard computer display and screen power to the engine. A burst of speed. And then: A photo finish. “Curses!” He had it! He hoped that the race that he had just put everything into hadn’t been wasted. He hoped the cameras saw him win.