Nova, Part Five
by ted2112, HSM team writer
The Sodium races were held in a massive, long abandoned salt mine about a half hour train ride inland from capital city. The Misfits rode in the last car and on the train suspended from tracks high above the ground, and watched the terrain slowly turn from green fields and endless acres of trees, to the brown and stark flats of the great inland dry lakebed. Great machines once scraped up the floor of this ancient inland sea to extract the salt that lay in shallow pockets just under the ground. Over the years when the mine was in production, miles of earth was cleared and flattened, and networks of reinforced steel roads were built for the giant machinery to travel. Once the mine was shut down, it attracted amateur racers, who drove their home-built rocket sleds along the steel roads. As time went on, it bread innovation of technology and evolved into an exciting professional sport, pitting racers against each other in high speeds that was hugely popular. Favorite drivers were popular celebrities and their lives and rivalries on and off the track were followed by the media. The weekly races were attended by tens of thousands and watched by millions of people on TV.
The train stopped at the Sodium Center. The complex was almost a city unto itself – part entertainment facility, part amusement park and massive grandstands for watching the races. Multiple trains ran in close succession on race days to carry the large crowds that swamped the Sodium Center. Feeling invincible about tagging the Sports Walk, Tac suggested doing the same at the Sodium races, but was quickly vetoed by the other Misfits. The last thing they needed was another day of being chased by the cops, and unlike the Sports Walk, there was just one way out of the Sodium Center, and that was waiting for the train. Today instead, was going to be a fun day of hanging out, betting and hopefully getting into the sponsor’s tent.
The sponsor was Ybold Industries. They produced most of the world’s magnets used for transportaion. The Sky Train they rode out here ran on them, making them silent and fast modes of transportation. The jet racers also used the technology to keep their metal frames hovering just above the steel track. The teams five jet racers were painted red and black with the logo; a letter Y surrounded by a magnetic field. The company also had a reputation of putting on lavish parties at the Sodium functions, and Sam, Tac, Pence and Sephie planned on crashing that party.
Tac knew a guy that was on one of the five Ybold racer crews. He was part of a pit crew and fueled the racers, he would try to put Tac and his friends on the hospitality tent guest list. Tac was always trying to get into places he didn’t have access to. Sometimes it was through someone he knew from the gym, and sometimes just plain walking into places. Once, Tac just walked into the exclusive club x7 only to be tossed out a few moments later by security. Undaunted, Tac stood outside the entrance and loudly made a speech about equality, generally making a scene in front of the people lined up to get in until they let him in. To Tac, a velvet rope was like a red flag to a bull.
The Misfits exited the train and from the elevated platform could survey the entire complex.
“Tents?” asked Tac, snapping and pointing his fingers over to the part of the track where the hospitality tents were lined up. “I’m thirsty.”
“They have a roller coaster here,” announced Seiphie, pointing to the white super structure of the coaster in the distance. “We got lots of time.”
“That sounds good to me,” Sam answered. “If we go let’s do it now before the line gets too long .”
“Coaster,” said Pence, trying to sell Tac. “Then we can hit the sponsor’s tents.”
“Come on Tac, who knows when we’ll be back,” pleaded Seiphie.
“All right”,declared Tac in a mock fatherly voice. “Lets all stick together, children.”
“Can I have a balloon?” whined Seiphie, grinning.
The Misfits made their way to the coaster through the crowds to the back of the complex. Along the way they saw all the signs for Comet Week posted everywhere. The park had the festival planned, that coincided with the comet passing. It promised a week long celebration of fireworks and live music. The colorful posters had a picture of the comet and a sodium racer on it. The poster said “Sodium Complex Comet Festival and the End of Summer Bash.”
“Sounds lame,” noted Seiphie and snickered, pausing just long enough to cross out the words “of summer” and writing is near on one of the posters.
“There, tagged” she said looking over her shoulder. “We win!”
“That’s good. We can use this for our party invitations.” Pence took a picture of the defaced sign with his cell phone, “We’re becoming quite the vandals lately.”
“All in good fun,” said Tac. “Let’s keep moving.”
The coaster, called the Portal Racer, was fun and between that and the midway, they forgot about getting into the hospitality tents and the races for a while. They were together, living in the moment, and enjoying what they didn’t know would be their first and last time there.
∞
She was cold. Her light grew dim and thin as she pondered for a fleeting moment the sleepy memories that came out of nowhere and haunted her. Her brutal world, lost. All the people she had ever met, gone. She drew weak energy from the comet and its light became her light. She had lost her form and had become the comet, at least for now. The comet simply moved over the track it had traversed over and over for a million years. Its route had made it smaller over the millennia, time stripping off its body, and giving it a long tail. She would give back to it and give the comet purpose. It was now a journey, and at the journey’s end laid salvation.
She yearned for light and warmth, but mostly she yearned for water. The frozen crystals imbedded within the comet were of no use. She dreamed of falling into the water and having it wrapped all around her. The water was comfort, warm and blue. It was life itself and without it, she would never again truly be alive.
The comet’s tail pointed the way to her water home, but she was not going there, it lived now only in her memory. The sun that gave warmth her whole life now blinked and faded. Soon, it would be nothing but part of the black abyss, wiped clean from existence. Her only hope now was what was in front of her. The yellow star that the comet moved towards seemed closer, she held out her hand of light to try and feel its heat, but felt nothing.
Soon, she thought.
∞
The hospitality tents were behind a fenced off area. To get past the tents, you needed to have your name on the guest list, and get a color coded lanyard. Each tent had its own color, in the case of the Ybold tent, the color was red.
“Tac plus three,” declared Tac to the guy with the clipboard.
After thumbing through his clipboard, the man eyed them “Nope, not on here”, he replied suspiciously.
Tac tried all of their names, the name of the gym and his Aikido club, but none of them were on there.
“I’m really supposed to be on there,” said Tac in a protest.
“I told you,” interjected Seiphie.
“Yeah,” said Sam, “let’s go watch the race from the stands like normal people.”
“Wait,” exclaimed Tac. “Try the Misfits; we’re the Misfits.” He said waving his hands at all of them.
The clipboard guy looked kind of relieved as he checked off something on the clipboard and pulled out four lanyards from a cardboard box.
“Wear these around your necks at all times,” He said, “Last tent down on your right.”
The lanyards were a simple piece of red cardboard with the company logo, and a line below to write in a name on it. All four of theirs had the word “Misfits” written on them.
“This is so cool,” sighed Seiphie.
“You doubted me,” replied Tac, reproachfully.
“I won’t again,” reassured Seiphie examining her lanyard.
“Feeling like a rock star,” Pense buzzed.
The sponsor’s tent was huge and held many small tables arranged in the middle. Along the walls were banks of flat screen TVs showing the pre-race broadcast. Long tables off to the side held warmers of food and a bar along the other side was busy serving up drinks.
Tac pretended to wipe a tear out of his eye, and exclaimed, “I’m in heaven, man!”
The Misfits spent the rest of the day hanging out in the tent, where they ate and drank for free. Tac ran out to place bets before the start of every race, and contrary to his inside information, he lost most of his bets. He made a little money in the very last race when he bet on a long shot, just because he liked the name. The sponsors, Team Ybold, won three of the races and that helped kept things festive inside the tent. The final race was thrilling. It pitted the Ybold team against Team Outso, two of the most popular teams and bitter rivals. The race came down to the final stretch when the Outso driver, in his orange colored racer, pulled off a perfect turn and passed team Ybold for the win.
After the day’s events were over, the crowds made their way to jam-packed trains. The Misfits, quite content in the tent, and not wanting the day to end, stayed behind as long as they could. Inside the tent, the TV footage switched from the race highlights to the news.
“Do you want to head back to the Spot?” Asked Seiphie
“I’m game.” replied Sam, wanting to put off sleeping as long as he could.
“Check that out.” Pence pointed to the bank of TV sets.
The news showed the comet. The image was from a telescope observatory and showed the comet in amazing detail. The white spinning mass filled the screen and the voice-over was talking about how the comet would be passing much closer than originally thought. The news report went on to say scientist thought the alignment of the planets were the reason why the comet seemed to be turning closer, and although it appeared to be turning closer, scientists felt it would still be not pass close enough to be of concern. The image on the TVs changed from the comet to the two news anchors who reported that the Comet would put on a spectacular show at then end of the summer. The news turned its attention to the many comet festivals planned for the end of the summer.
“Man, that’s amazing,” said Tac.
“I think they’re just trying to scare everybody,” remarked Seiphie, “makes for good ratings.”
Sam couldn’t get the image out of his head. The comet on the TV looked just like the one from his dreams. Maybe they all look alike, he thought, but somehow knew better. His mind turned to Nova and all her warnings. Sam was suddenly feeling very insecure. He needed to see her again.
“Sam” roared Tac, passing him a beer.
Sam saw the rest of the Misfits were holding one and looking at him.
“Sorry,” said Sam, “zoning out.”
“One last toast,” said Tac, “to good times and good friends.”
The rest of the misfits raised their glasses and toasted back, “the end is near.”
July 14th, 2012 by ted2112 | 2 comments
ted2112 is a writer and a Bass player that has been both inspired and takes to heart Kurt Vonnegut words...."we are here on planet Earth to fart around, and don't let anyone tell you different."
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Once again you have us hanging on our seats wondering. Good read! I really like this concept.
Another great chapter! Cant wait to read more. I am excited to learn the outcome and what it all means!