Old Rivalry, New Sport (Part 1)

Posted on Mon Aug 28th, 2023 @ 5:46am by Commodore Tohru Honda & Captain Shimakaze Zh'gero & Lieutenant Commander Ryosuke Takahashi 'Ry' & Lieutenant JG Jane Sinclair

1,616 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: The Fast & The Fleet

The rain poured down on the yellow EK9 Honda Civic of Lieutenant Tyli Sh'veshron, the Chief Flight Control officer of the USS Haruna. The rain was the result of the weather setting that had been chosen for the program for her run. The Andorian woman stood against the vehicle as her opponent was lined up; the Renault Clio Phase 2 being lined up next to her EK9 was painted in a rather familiar color scheme to the former Andorian pilot racer.

That livery; it looks familiar. Could it actually be...? Tyli thought.

The door to the Renault opened and out stepped the Amazon of the Myogi, Number 81 herself, Jane Sinclair. She was soaked instantly, the rain matting her hair to her scalp and her shirt to her chest. She looked across her car to the Andorian woman leaning against the Honda and gave her a grin.

“You’re looking well, Tyli,” she said, looking her up and down. “How long has it been?”

"At least 15 years since your upset victory, but who's counting?" Tyli responded.

Now in her early 40s, Tyli had once been a rising star in shuttle racing. She had been only 27 and was poised to win the Andorian Sabers competition, a prestigious Andorian shuttle race, and in so doing, she would have become the youngest Andorian ever to win the Sabers, as the previous youngest winners had been in their early 30s.

However, in came a last minute entry; an out-of-system team from Proxima Centauri and a young pilot named Jane Sinclair. Everyone was expecting the young Sinclair to lose, as she had never raced in the Andorian Sabers before, while the rest of the field were seasoned veterans, and as the crowd favorite, Tyli initially wasn't worried.

As expected, Tyli dominated the first two stages of the race; the atmospheric dash and orbital sprints. However, when the low and high warp orienteering stages came around, it was Jane who had the better craft, and when the race ended, the youngest person ever to win the Andorian Sabers was Jane Sinclair from Proxima Centauri.

Ever since, whenever Jane and Tyli found themselves competing together, the headlines were always on their rivalry, which began their very next race together, when the big story was "Will Sh'veshron avenge her 'Andorian Sabers' loss?" Tyli naturally reveled in this publicity, and often overexaggerated her animosity towards Sinclair so as to give what the public was hearing some weight.

Of course, Tyli had long retired from shuttle racing and gone into Starfleet. When she met Captain Zh'gero several years ago, while admittedly the other Andorian woman had her problems, Tyli had admired Shimakaze's efforts to make the USS Haruna a safe vessel for Andorians to work. Which was especially important, as Tyli up to that point had been berated and belittled at every opportunity, mostly by smug Vulcans, but other species had joined in on this ridiculing.

When Tyli had first been brought aboard the Haruna, Shimakaze had introduced her to touge racing, and she was instantly hooked. She couldn't deny that shuttle racing had been fun back in the day, but admittedly, the barriers for entry were very low. Meanwhile, antique automobile racing was something of a dying art form, and Tyli spent the next several years building and tuning her EK9 to perfection, using the data from friendly races against her Haruna crewmates to improve herself and her ride.

And now, here Sinclair was, once more entering her world: Tyli couldn't help but giggle at the irony.

"And now, here you are, entering my world once again." Tyli said. "However, I think you'll find this time, I've come prepared;" She motioned to her car. "My EK9 is a downhill monster, forged into the car it is today from years of experience and friendly races against my crewmates, especially our intelligence operative, Lieutenant Th'rollo. And it's pretty decent at the uphill as well. I'm fully confident that, this time around, I have the superior rig!"

"That just means that it'll be that much sweeter when I cross the line first, after just a few weeks of training," Jane replied with a smirk.

She had been only sixteen when she pulled off the record-breaking victory at the Sabers. Only four years earlier she'd won the amateur round of the Centauri Grand Prix and been invited into Interstellar-Three. When the Andorian Sabers race was called she had just been invited to Interstellar-Two and was likely to be offered a position in One by the time she hit age of majority.

The Proximan remembered that interview a few weeks later, the one she did for Fly to Survive, when they asked about her rivalry with Tyli. Sure, she knew what the press had said all season, and how the Andorian intentionally played it up. Jane had been trying not to take the bait, but for Fly to Survive, she decided to join Tyli in exaggerating their animosity, but took it in the other direction. Her one word answer was devastating and the press ate it up:

"Who?"

After that aired, Jane joined Tyli in promoting the bitter competition between the two. The 2379 Risa Grand Prix took place the weekend after her eighteenth birthday, and her date to her party was the singer Oselias sh'Vennan. The winner of Sexiest Andorian Alive three years running was more than happy to wear skimpy clothes and engage in some PDA in front of the cameras at a few Risian hotspots to deliberately egg on the Andorian racer. Jane earning a podium finish and Tyli ending just low enough not to get any points that race could not have been more perfect.

The rivalry ended without any satisfactory conclusion, as Tyli went to the Academy and Jane went part-time after enlisting. This race seemed like a fitting end to their feud, however artificial it was.

"By the way," Jane added, "I took the liberty of contacting a friend over at FSS." She let herself grin. The Federation Sports Service was more than happy to hear about this race, though she sold it as a friendly competition, keeping the actual stakes off the record. Jane's friend had an easy time convincing her superiors to buy the holosuite internal sensor rights and stream the race on a minor subspace net channel.

"Computer, how many viewers are we at now?" Jane asked.

"Three hundred and ten thousand six hundred and twelve," the computer replied.

"And we haven't even started yet," Jane quipped. "Think we'll get a million?"

Tyli chuckled.

"I have no doubt we'll get two million;" She said. "Well, since this is being broadcast live to the Federation, shall we get this underway? I'd hate to keep such a large audience waiting..."

"Strange how eager you are to show you losing to millions of beings," Jane retorted. "But if it's a race you want, it's a race you'll get."

She got into her Clio and began checking everything over. Everything looked good. Over the past weeks she'd learned everything she could about how these cars worked, so as to best recover if something went wrong. Between that and the lessons from Takumi and Karen, she was ready.

She was Ready.

Nodding, Tyli also got into her EK9 and performed a final systems check. Her EK9 was by all accounts in top mechanical order, and she was ready to show Sinclair who was the queen of the mountain. Tyli looked ahead to Commodore Honda through her car's running windshield wipers.

"Alright, people; this is going to be a mixed run starting with the uphill!" Tohru said. "Competitors are going to race to the marked turnaround point, where they'll turn around and come back down to the finish!"

Tohru raised her splayed hand.

"Starting in 5! 4! 3! 2! 1! GO!" Tohru waved to start the race.

Tyli shifted into first and feathered the gas trying to get her EK9 to find grip off the line. She knew that her best chance would be to get the early lead, as the uphill wasn't her strong suit, and if Sinclair got too far ahead, she might not be able to close the gap, even going all out on the downhill portion.

Jane was behind off the starting line but managed to keep pace for the first few turns. Just like she'd read, the rain really was an equalizer. Her rival might have had more experience but the weather put anyone off their game. Tyli was ahead but she couldn't extend her lead. Similarly, Jane was able to keep her position pretty easily, but struggled to find a gap to pull ahead.

Up ahead were a series of turns close to each other. The muscle memory from all her training with Karen took over. Early apex, right into the next turn. The gap to Tyli got smaller and smaller.

Nice try, but I'm not letting you past that easily... Tyli thought.

Tyli pulled up on her handbrake in the next corner, swinging the EK9's tail wider than normal. This would force Jane to hit her brakes, as there was no room to pass.

Jane winced as she was forced to slow. Too close.. The next few turns she kept close but couldn’t get past. Not yet at least.

It was time for a risk. She guessed that Tyli would take the optimal exit from the final turn in the series. If that happened, then Jane would have enough space — barely — to squeeze past on the inside.

There it was. Last turn. Exiting tight on the inside…

To be continued...

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