The Legend of the Jedi Queen

8. The Race

"Are you ready?"

Nellith's eyes met Tallis's. She looked back to the other speeders ahead of them, the announcer counting down the seconds fading in her senses.

"As I'll ever be," she murmured. She glanced back it him as he nodded and grinned.

"Let's win this."

At that second, a blaster could be heard and the lights of the streets turned green. Tallis pushed the lever forward as Nellith slammed on the gas pedal, and the speeder took off down the street, barely keeping up with other speeders. Nellith's fingers tightened on the steering yoke as she made a sharp turn around the corner, nearly hitting the decomposing wall of an old Imperial office from the occupation years ago.

"Sorry," she muttered.

Tallis said nothing, glancing out the side both ahead and back.

"We've still got an edge— some people didn't make the turn, and not as fast," he assured her. "We've still got time."

Nellith nodded, making yet another turn. This was much smoother, but the speeder that preceded them most immediately was not so lucky. Their speeder collided, the thrusters falling off from impact.

With a calm that didn't match the blurred world around them, Nellith yanked the steering yoke upwards, barely gliding over the wreckage and the riders climbing out of the fiery junk heap that remained of their speeder.

With that, Nellith began navigating through gaps between speeders, trying to catch up to the front of the pack.

"First checkpoint on approach!" Tallis cried, glancing out the side again.

He ducked back in just as a blaster bolt whizzed past— just where his head was a second ago.

"Holy kriff!" Tallis shouted, and Nellith grabbed the arm of his jacket before he could glance out the side again.

"Thank the Force you built a roof on this," Nellith muttered.

"Yeah, no kidding," Tallis said, his lilac-gray eyes wide with shock.

They then felt a bang in the back, shaking the speeder.

"Can we go any faster?" Nellith asked.

Tallis looked down at his shift lever. "Not right now."

"Lovely," Nellith murmured, and she kept hammering on the gas pedal, looking for an opening to get away from whatever seemed to be continually ramming them. She pulled the ship up and out of the lanes, catching it on streams from the other speeders. They merged back in just in time for Tallis to lean out the window and hit the button for the checkpoint hanging off a building. A small horn went off, announcing their crossing of the checkpoint.

"One third of the race down, two to go!" Tallis cried.

"Awesome," Nellith said, a grin on her face.

The next stretch of the street led out of the city and onto the Corellian mountainside, where the old transit system used to be. In recent years, the trams rarely ran to the cold part of Corellia.

Staying behind the top tier of speeders, Nellith felt herself relaxing a little bit. They had this. If it was this easy so far, surely they could keep up the pace?

BOOM.

Nellith glanced over her shoulder, as did Tallis, to see a speeder behind the, repelled by an explosion and falling into the chasm along the side of the rail, down the steep mountainside. Shrapnel of another speeder tumbled down, spreading fire. A third speeder flew past, one of its riders stowing away a large blaster.