Pathways of the mind - Nano 2016

Chapter 3 - Races suck

The next morning, they woke and settled down outside again talking to Roller. He reminded them of what he had said the day before, "I organized the course better for you. There are now a number of obstacles for you to work on avoiding. Keep your speed down and practice sensing what the other person is trying to say with their bodies. Sten try and figure out why she might be resisting your input. Risty try and figure out why Sten wants you to do something. Don't forget to use your helmet communications as well. Understanding what your bodies are saying is the most important but somethings can't be passed on that way. If you have someone coming up your backside that would be something you would actually have to talk about." He flipped a card at Risty.

She caught it and activated the flyer, "Well Sten? Hope we do better today." Yesterday had been bloody annoying. What made it worse was they had used the same course for the entire day. A few changes had been made but nothing major. It had taken them all day to actually run the course completely. Thankfully today they were going to focus on a single aspect of racing. There was a time limit on the course but she wasn't going to worry about it.

Sten hoped on the back, "Just try not to kill us today. You came pretty close yesterday a time or two." He leaned forward and placed his hands on her hips and got ready for her to take off. There was another brief surge as he leaned against her back but it vanished much like the other night, "Let's go and see how bad we do today." His voice was wry when he said that.

She rolled on the thrust and lift and headed towards the beginning of the course. She did as Roller had recommended and ran the course at a slower speed. It was still rough for a good portion of the day. What didn't help was when they ran the course for the afternoon it had changed. The obstacles from the morning were in different places. They did crash several times as they misread what one or the other had said. Thankfully the safety measures kept them from anything but being jostled around.

When they finally finished, they felt like they had actually learned a fair amount. Sten relaxed in the same spot from the day before, "Well Roller I think I am starting to see what you mean. As Risty is making the subtle changes to alter the course I am starting to feel it." He gave her a sidelong look, "Now if she would quit running into things it would help a great deal. For some reason, she seemed to have an urge to test the systems on the flyer."

Risty tossed a pebble at him, "Maybe if you were a bit more gentle with your movements we wouldn't have crashed as many times. I swear you can't help but man handle me. Shove here, bump there, kick my foot. What a brute of a rider." He actually had been gentler today which had helped. It was harder for her since she had to figure out what his movements meant. For him he was mostly just a passenger much of the run.

Roller laughed at them, "You did do better today. Long way to go but both of you really did do better today." He pulled out a thin sheet of something and laid it on the ground before activating it. When he did a tri-d image of the course appeared. He set it to show the first and last race for the morning and afternoon, "You are improving though you need to keep working on it. Here are the stats for the races..." He went on to describe where they had bombed, done adequately, and did reasonably well. They hadn't had any runs which were great and he made sure to let them know that.

About the that woman walked up and glared down at them. It didn't help that the sun was behind her which made her hard to see, "I gave you skags a chance and this is what I get? Crap? I's been watchin' and ya hasn't done shit compared to the first day. You have a race Monday and ya better do well o' your scraggly asses be tossed off my team. Ya'll hasta find a place to live elsewhere." She hawked a blob of spit off to one side before leaving the area.