Opalina Outpost

Chapter 25: Undeniable, Unbeatable, Unmatched

It was all going perfectly. Better than Lio could've dreamt. He was flying in a Mastali lightship, untouchable. Silly impulse though it was, he wanted to stretch his arms out and lean into the expanse of the window before him and shout at the whole world to come see what he'd done.

Lio struggled forward in his seat, constrained by the seatbelts lashing him in place. All he succeeded in doing was jamming his kneecaps against a nav console. The nearest screen blinked at him, Mastali code unfurling across it. He itched to touch the console, but the last time his hands had gone anywhere near the glassy surface, Ravi had thundered at him not to fucking touch anything. It was possible he deserved that.

They hurtled over the desert, the lightship skimming the bellies of thick clouds. He twisted back to grin at Duhar. His friend had the glazed expression he normally wore when he was immersed in a sim, his mouth moving slightly, muttering to himself. The lightship swooped and arced as he practiced piloting it.

Beside Duhar, Aziri was bent over the slate, fingers flurrying. They were making impossibly good time. Of course they were. They were in a Mastali craft known for reaching and sustaining incredible speeds. In all likelihood, they weren't even close to pushing the ship's limits. An eager shiver buzzed across his skin at the thought of how much still remained to discover about Opalina. The only downside was that their speed left far less time than anticipated for Aziri to unlock and start the holographs that formed the first part of the course.

Aziri did not look up from the slate, but growled, "Stop staring at me, Lio."

"But you're so pretty!" He laughed louder and longer than the joke warranted. The impossible energy unspooling through the core of his bones made everything wonderful. He was tipsy on triumph.

"We'll be over Bastonar in a few minutes," Yorune warned, pointing at an approaching cluster of lights on the terramap.

"Minutes?" Orvaska asked. "How fast are we going?"

"I don't want to know," Jossen groaned.

Lio rubbed his hands together. "Excellent. It's just enough time for all eyes to be on us when we reach the course."

"You can't be serious about flying it," Ravi growled.

The one thing that could dim his enthusiasm in this glorious flight was Ravi glaring at him with ferocious disapproval through the entire experience. He didn't turn around to face the com when he answered. "We must. It's the trifecta. We powered the lightship, flew it, and conquered the Great Mastali Course. They won't be able to deny our right to crew it."

"That's not how this is going to work, Lio, and you seem to have forgotten all the fucking lightships that plowed into a wall when they tried the maze!"

He'd already considered that and had complete faith in the Mastali alloy. "If we hit a wall, it's the wall that'll be in trouble, not the ship." And they weren't going to hit anything. He tried to hike the strange, flexible metal seatbelts away for a bit of breathing room, watching the window as Bastonar's distant lights came into view.

They soared over the town, and then over rolling hills that tumbled down into the valley where the capitol sprawled. Close enough to turn on the course if Aziri could figure it out. Duhar edged them higher, well clear of the blinking lights that denoted the tops of city buildings. Illuminated streets below looked like golden threads.

He held his breath as they swung toward the ziggurat. The Great Mastali Course extended behind it.

"Fuck, that's not good," Teres whispered, pointing. Lio followed her finger to a group of lights rapidly rising from around the ziggurat. Copters. News of the lightship's flight had traveled even faster than the craft itself.