30
"So you've got the next event?" I asked, stepping down into the communal space from my room. I'd just gotten out of a shower when Phoebe slid open the door to give me the news. I had a towel wrapped around me like a toga because why not — it was faster than dressing and this was one piece of news I was eager to get.
Yim gave me a feral grin and held up two fingers as she said, "I know the next two events."
Blinking, I glanced around the room, but no one else seemed surprised so I asked, "Is that usual?"
Yim waggled a hand in ambivalence as she said, "Some of these events require extra prep time from the contestants, so it happens from time to time. The next event is the triathlon deathrace."
I gave her a raised eyebrow, then said, "Triathlon ... deathrace? Didn't someone tell me this event wouldn't be violent?"
Nodding, she said, "Yes, but the sponsors have what amounts to a draft system to select the events. Apparently, someone pulled strings to ensure this event came up even though by now everyone knows your ... particular skillset. The three stages are the run, either another run or flight, and the last is a swim."
"I'm in trouble," I said quietly. "As soon as the race starts I'll get mobbed."
"It doesn't have to be you and no, whoever it is won't get mobbed, at least not right away," Yim said. "The competitors start in leaderboard order and the time between each is determined by the score gap. Our runner will have around a three-minute head start. After that, the next portion starts as soon as the last finishes. There'll be a baton that has to be handed off and kept throughout the race. Lose the baton and you forfeit. It's thirty miles: ten cross-country, ten aerial or more cross-country, and ten miles in the water."
I glanced at Astra and pointed at her with a big grin as I said, "I knew you were the right pick."
Astra chirped at me, feathers to either side of her face fluffing to hide her beak as her crest went up, then settled again. I knew it was a blush because I'd seen her do it before, and returned my attention to Yim as I said, "Okay, no problem, and what's the event after that?"
Yim's grin faded markedly as she said, "It's a musical competition. You need to either perform a piece from the hot one hundred, current or legacy, or compose an original piece of music. You're allowed to have help and won't be required to play any instruments, but you'll actually have to either have an ally sing, or do the vocals yourself."
"So, presuming I do an original piece, I can record the instrumentation in advance?" I asked, getting a little excited despite myself. My brother and I formed a garage band in high school since mom had put us both in music lessons very much against our will. I could play the drums and keyboard, and my brother had been a wicked guitarist. We could both sing, but spent most of our time back then screaming the lyrics ... such as they were. We'd gotten a few gigs doing covers of tamer stuff, though, mostly weddings in town. We weren't proud of those gigs but they'd gotten us running around money, and that experience would now serve me well. Once he and I signed up he'd done music as an extra duty while I ... went another way. I'd picked up the guitar in his memory, after, but never got quite as good as he'd been.
Well, maybe I was, but the music in my memory was always better than anything I could play.
When Yim blinked affirmation at me, I smiled and said, "No problem then."
"Who are you going to have do the land portion of the race?" Yim asked.
"I'll do it myself," I said, as though it were obvious. "Phoebe will do the swim, and Astra will fly."
"Are you sure that's best?" Yim asked. "You could have Pala or I do the run. Remember, allies can't be killed by competitors without disqualification. If either of us runs, you'll be safe."
"What's your best time for the ten mile?" I asked.
"I can do it in an hour and five minutes. I'm faster than mom."
"Okay then. Like I said, I'll do the run."
"Have you ever run that far?" Yim asked.
"Trust me. I'm faster than you are at that distance. Leave it at that," I said, giving her a warning look.
Her ears switched around as she gazed at me, obviously still dubious.
I said, "Let's start work on this music thing. Is there a terminal I can use? What about a recording room? I need to select the instruments and figure out the notation. Then I'll teach ... wait, who among you can sing?"
Astra's crest flexed, but her feathers were still covering her beak as she tentatively raised a wing. I nodded and smiled at her as I said, "Great! You can be supporting vocals. I'll teach you the words, once I write them. Anyone else?"
Pala glanced over at her daughter with one eyebrow up, and Yim grudgingly said, "I'm an okay singer."
"Outstanding. Two female voices on supporting vocals will work great. We'll blow the competition out of the water. I've got a song that'll crush it for sure."
"I didn't know you were musically inclined," Phoebe said, looking speculatively at me. "I've never heard you sing."
Shrugging, I said, "I usually only sing when I'm happy."
That hung in the air unchallenged, and I nodded after a moment and swept a hand as though to brush it away as I said, "So the next two events are easy."
Pala chuckled darkly and said, "While I have no idea how justified your confidence is, I'm sure right now you're giving bookies all across the planet fits."
"Let's keep them guessing. I'm going to go ahead and assume if I look out that window right now I'll see a lot of running idiots?"
Phoebe started laughing, which made her jiggle in a very fun way as she nodded and said, "Endurance runs aren't something that comes up very often and most competitors don't train for it. They're either naturally good at it or they aren't. Certain allies specialize in long distances, though."
"Like you?" I asked, and got a shark-like grin that I returned.
"How are borealans on distance?" I asked, mind inevitably turning to the only male I saw as genuine competition.
Yim glanced at Pala, who waggled a hand as she said, "They're sprinters. They can go the distance, but I wouldn't say they're particularly fast beyond about a mile. Their bodies are so fuel intensive that when pushing they tend to burn out on long distances. Inside a mile, though, they're the fastest ... and it isn't close."
"But you're saying I'll have a three-minute head start on him?" I asked.
When Yim gave me the affirmative blink, I grinned, the tune I planned to introduce to the world already playing through my mind, making me nod along. Unless Maximus could do a sustained sixty miles per hour, I'd beat him out of the first mile and after that it was all me ... though that first mile would be rough. I'd have to give it everything I had to get out of it in the four twenty that was my best time, and that would inevitably slow me up later.
That aside, the race didn't worry me that much. I might not win the land race, but as long as I beat Maximus I knew my allies would handle the rest and we'd average into a comfortable first place overall.
"So we've got two days until the race, right?" I asked. Yim nodded.
Phoebe asked, "I admit, I'm really curious about this music you seem to have in mind."
"Oooh, you'll hear it. Everyone will. I absolutely cannot wait. This is going to be the most fun I've had since those fuckers woke me up. Someone show me how I can set the instrumentals."
As it turned out, the suite had an office similar to the one they'd given us at Liminal Science, and one of the features of that office was that it could easily be converted into a sound booth at the literal touch of a button.
Drums and keyboards are apparently pretty much the same no matter where in the universe one is, and their stringed instruments came in both acoustic and electric varieties. Though they came in odd shapes and sizes, I could make do. There was also a very elaborate recording program I could use and the keyboard could synthesize pretty much any sound, so I had everything I needed.
I spent the rest of that day in a sound booth, tuning instruments, programing the keyboard, and setting up microphones and sound-capture software while I worked out the differences between the musical notation I remembered verses what these people used, which turned out to be wasted effort when I found a software function that would simply give me the notation for whatever I played. I knew anyone watching my feed would realize I had experience with this and if they'd reviewed my history would also know neither Division Four nor Liminal Science had trained me in music, but there's a point past which secrecy isn't really as useful as getting the job done. The sooner I got this song recorded, the sooner I could iron out the kinks in the live performance.
I gave the next morning over to working with the SDM staff, as had become my habit, then retired back into the recording booth to do all the various instrumentals.
The day before the race, once I finished more SDM staff chores, I brought Yim and Astra into the booth with me and taught them the lyrics I'd written. I'd had to finagle the words a bit to update the rhymes, but kept the beat the same and by the end of the day we had a very rough cut to work off of.
I knew I had a winner when — after dinner — I heard Astra absently humming her part with a happy little head bob going on.
Then the day of the race dawned, and — at least for the moment — I set music aside.
It was time to run or die.