At about half LightSpeed, he began his Drive Checklist: intercoolers at minus thirty-one hundred, time synchronizers counting in perfect congruence with the ship's clock, mass compensators running at speed, blast tubes—he touched a red panel near the Drive readouts, then paused while whining motors cracked the iris—open, overdrivers ready, HyperBoost drivers on, and reserve energy at 451,000. Everything seemed ready to go, but until he actually gated operating-level power to the big crystal, his personal future beyond the next five or so cycles was anybody's guess.
At 0.95 LightSpeed, forward vision through the still-inert Hyperscreens degenerated into a streaked, reddish muddle that worsened at 0.96 and became altogether unintelligible as the gravity generators exceeded their force curves. Heart in his mouth, Brim connected the Drive crystal to power, then pushed the plasma primer twice, keyed in start for a few clicks, and—without daring to breathe—hit energize.
With a throaty rumble that shook his little M-6B from stem to stern, the new crystal bellowed to life like some ancient god waking angry from an agelong slumber. The Hyperscreens synchronized less than a click afterward, and the whole Universe took on the look of a light-streaked tunnel through which he was passing with steadily increasing velocity. Aft, a familiar sapphire Drive plume stretched toward the receding pinpoint of light that had been Avalon a few clicks previously. Once more, he was coursing through deep space with the honor of a whole empire riding beside him, this time in a largely untried ship that would have to fly faster than it had ever flown before.
Covering the distance between Avalon and the race circuit at better than 104.29M LightSpeed, he completed the first lap at a very credible average speed of 98.81 LightSpeed, but even though it was the fastest lap he'd ever flown before, it wasn't enough to win the race. The next lap slid astern at 99.5M LightSpeed. Much better, and, it didn't look as if the new crystal was about to reduce him to cosmic dust, either—though he was still a long way from moving his damper all the way to the tape.
He charged into lap four at nearly 100M LightSpeed and arrived at Onita in a little under two cycles, then skidded into the sharp curve with such tremendous velocity that he found his vision distorted—it almost seemed some sort of object had been climbing toward his ship from the blue star looming overhead. The bunt over Laneer took significantly less than a cycle, and he returned around greenish Delta-Gahnn 1.2 cycles later for an average speed just under his 102M goal.
Starting lap five, he sent even more energy to the crystal and thundered down on Onita at 102.8M
LightSpeed indicated. Skidding into the sharp turn again, he peered ahead through the Hyperscreens trying for a more optimum line to Laneer when... this time he was not mistaken.
Something was approaching from starboard, as if it had been waiting for him. And it was clearly traveling at very high speed. Space junk? The thing was still too distant to make out more than a vague shape. Nevertheless, there was no excuse for its presence anywhere near the course; the lanes were swept every few cycles by squadrons of fast launches. He resolved to complain to the race committee as soon as he landed. Then he wrenched attention back to flying, bunted around Laneer, and sped off for Delta-Gahnn: this time his average velocity of only 99.1M LightSpeed illustrated how much concentration counted in a race.
As he blasted into lap six, he poured on the energy, determined to make up lost time. Completing the first leg in under two cycles, he threw himself into the sharp turn, only to find the "space junk" suddenly positioned off his starboard bow. It was close enough now that it looked like... one of the camera pods on the Gorn-Hoff! He could clearly see the blister on its cover.
Then it came to him!
This was no mere camera pod! It was actively searching for his particular M-6B: a diabolically intelligent HyperMine—the favored instrument of would-be assassins who were too cowardly to confront their victims face to face. Preset to cruise at speeds only slightly faster than their targets, the infamous devices traded range for speed, too quick to elude. They were also too small for most patrol ships to detect. Clearly, this one had already locked on to his M-6B and was moving in for the kill.
The bastard Leaguers had done their job well, too! As he came out of the curve and headed for Laneer, the little missile still had considerable mass to consume and his M-6 was already traveling at the top edge of its velocity envelope. "Inspection," indeed. What a fool he'd been. He watched in fascination while the device approached. He had nowhere to hide, nor any way to estimate at what distance its proximity fuse would set it off. But it was already so close he knew he'd never complete the sixty-odd clicks of the turn before... The reflecting Drive! That could stop the xaxtdamed mine.
He glanced down at the damper assembly, almost afraid to look. If it were hooked up—and working—he could outrun anything in the known Universe, including a HyperMine. But there was no sure way to tell if the Bears had even bothered to connect the reflector controls, in spite of the scan indicator, whatever that was. Of course if they had—and he switched it on—it might also blow him in to subatomic particles. However, since the HyperMine was going to finish him off in the next few moments, it really didn't seem like so much of a risk. Taking a deep breath, he peeled off the strip of metallic tape, glanced quickly through the Hyperscreens, and eased the damper beam forward.
As the tiny beam passed SCAN, the OUTER REVERSE indicator suddenly lit and the ship lurched slightly. Simultaneously, the REFLECTING indicator came on too, followed by blinking illumination of the EXTRA lamp. The Drive's velvet growl deepened. Brim glanced out of the Hyperscreens just in time to see the HyperMine begin to lose ground, then attempt to correct with a speed increase. In a moment, it had begun to narrow the distance again, its tiny Drive plume blazing brighter than before.