Alien Velocity Read Online Free

smoothly, his dad must have nothing to worry about…if Charlie wanted him to make it back alive.
    Charlie had heard of many a record attempt ending in disaster at Camp Shackleton. He swallowed hard as the looming Bluebird grew large enough to appear dangerous—her exposed rivets, her spiked wheels barely showing beneath the shield guard, her shiny metallic paintjob and the two sharp wings ready to steady her while she cut her way through the freezing air. Being sapphire blue, she already looked an icy bitch.
    He wanted his dad to win back the record, but what he really wanted, needed so much it hurt inside, was for him to return safely afterward. Nothing else mattered in the universe. The gentle crunch, crunch of his crampon boots kept perfect rhythm with his dad’s. Charlie made sure of it. Not so much for superstition as…staying close.
    “Well, what do you think of her, Charlie? Isn’t she something?” his dad asked over the com-link.
    “She’s cool.”
    Reginald smiled and patted the back of his son’s helmet. “Want to hop in for a second? Get a feel for her? She’s gonna make history in a few minutes.”
    “Yeah.”
    Twenty-five feet from nose to rocket exhaust, the Bluebird had cost Reginald tens of thousands of credits to modify into the sleekest slip of a racer Europa had ever seen. The others had all been a good four feet wider for maximum stability, but the new Bluebird was “built for speed, not for caution.” Her two stabilizers barely protracted from her sides in an arrowhead formation. Many engineers had dubbed the design highly unstable, but Reginald and his team had insisted on waiting for one of Europa’s safest gravitational windows, when its eccentric orbital path brought it far enough away from the influences of Jupiter and sister moon Io, to prove them wrong.
    He hoisted Charlie into the cockpit, onto the latex-covered seat. The sapphire steering wheel was shaped like the Batman symbol. Charlie nervously fingered its smooth edges and hoped his dad wouldn’t have to use it during the run itself. Not at those speeds. No one could steer a land vehicle at Mach 8, even if the ice was flat. No, it would be locked into position until he decelerated at the end.
    “How do you speed up, Daddy?”
    “Okay, there are two red buttons at the top of the steering wheel—one on each wing grip. The left button is for speeding up, the right is for slowing down. You operate them using your thumbs, like this.” He demonstrated the correct grip. “As soon as you break the sound barrier, the skis come down and the wheels retract, so you can really fly. All you have to do is hold on tight. Cool, eh?”
    “Yeah, very.”
    “All right, son, it’s almost time. Come on, out you come.”
    Charlie loved being picked up by his dad. It felt…important. But as he rose from the seat, his sleeve snagged on the end of the steering wheel. He glanced down as something small and metallic tore loose from his glove and fell onto the floor. He watched in horror as it bounced into a small grid-like opening at the foot of the right-hand panel. What the hell was that grid for? Where did it lead?
    He thought about telling his dad, but what if the only way to retrieve the metal object was to take the entire Bluebird apart? His cheeks, neck and the tips of his ears grew as hot and red as beetroot stew. He decided to stay quiet. The whole of Earth, Mars and every colony outpost in the system would be watching. The idea of him being the cause of ruining his dad’s big day, being seen on interplanetary TV as the screw-up of the universe, froze every thought. He’d be the centre of it all.
    No, the object was too small to cause any damage, and the grid didn’t even lead anywhere important. If it did, having a grid there in the first place would be pretty dumb. He felt heavy as titanium as his dad lifted him down, yet light as helium on the ground.
    “Wish me luck, Charlie.”
    The boy trembled in his suit. Squid tentacles