Jacen sat in the seat of a swoop bike, listening to the noise of engines being tested in the hangar around him. His eyes were closed and he was relaxing, visualizing the race before it began. It was a technique he had always found helpful, it helped him to feel confident. As he imagined himself crossing the finish line, he opened his eyes and looked around him. There was twenty minutes until the race started, and he had to get his bike out onto the track before that time.
Jacen wasn't exactly nervous, he just felt apprehensive. He finished two of Kanortine's challenges, but there were still four more to go. His major concern was that even if he won, Kanortine would still not let them leave, it was hard to trust the word of a pirate. He knew that Tenel Ka would be working up escape plans, even if he were winning, but that didn't change the way he felt. He wanted to win and get the entire experience over with, every second they spent here was another second she wouldn't be able to spend on Dathomir. Jacen wished they'd had more time to talk. Going to Dathomir together would mean that he talk to her more, help her understand the vision she'd had. Jacen knew that Tenel Ka could seem rather cold and aloof, but he knew the real person underneath the tough exterior. There was a brave, loyal and intellectual person there, with insecurities and fears just like anyone else's. He knew she felt worried about the future of Hapes, especially about the heir to the throne issue. He could see Tenel Ka being a queen just as easily as he saw her as a princess, she would be fair and generous, but she would hate the job at the same time. Tenel Ka hated politics. Yet here she was, held captive and being embarrassed not because of whom she really was, but because of someone she didn't even want to be. The idea was infuriating.
Jacen sighed and got the bike ready, prepping it for flight and maneuvering it out of the hanger, trying to push away the pressure he felt building as he did so. One race, one loss, and then he and Tenel Ka could be here a while trying to get out because despite what Kanortine offered, Jacen couldn't just leave her. It seemed so hard that one little mistake could cost so much. It didn't seem fair.
Reality check Jacen, life isn't fair. It should be, but it isn't.
Jacen shook his head and put on the special helmet. Unlike other races, these were not monitored by outside holorecorders, but were recorded and live fed to holoscreens everywhere by two holorecorders attached to the helmet. While observing the race, the viewers would see everything the way the racer saw.
The other contestants lined up, and from the private viewing stand over the announcer's box, Jacen saw Tenel Ka and Kanortine watching. Her dress today was perhaps even more stunning. The neckline alone, which dropped down to her belly button, would make most men stare, and the glimmer of emerald jewels embedded against a rich green fabric was gorgeous and alluring. The bottom was loose and long, falling down around her like waves. Her hair was straight and fell gracefully down her bare back and shoulders. Jacen could tell that Tenel Ka hated it beyond belief.
He gave her a grin as the announcer ran through his usual introductions, then turned back to face the course. Jacen knew he should have been nervous, swoop racing was even more dangerous than pod racing, but as he gunned the engines in anticipation, he felt a thrill of excitement run through him. He knew his dad had been one of the greatest swoop bike racers on Corellia when he was Jacen's age. Jacen hoped the talent was hereditary.
"Observe, unworthy scum, the deadly past-time of swoop-bike racing!" cried Romany.
Jacen wondered why Romany was here when all the spectators were watching it on holo. He was probably being recorded too.
A timer turned on above him and Jacen gripped the handlebars tightly, straining his ears over the engine fire to hear the countdown. He wasn't sure whether or not he was hearing the right language. He used the Force to amplify the voice, and just in time, for he only heard, "Two… One!"
Partly out of panic and partly out of reflex, Jacen slammed down on the gas, and his swoop roared ahead out into the midst, ahead of the other eight racers, for some had died in the gladiator matches and pod-races.
Yes! He cheered mentally in exultation, Finally a good start!
Jacen throttled the engine a little more, trying to put some distance between the other contestants and him. The first obstacles he encountered were the same trees he'd been introduced to in the pod-race, but at a different part of the forest. He swerved left and right, ducking in and out between the deadly plants, trying to avoid crashing into one of the trunks. It seemed whenever he moved in one direction to avoid a tree, another would be blocking the way.
Jacen had rarely experienced something this much fun. Even flying a pod-racer was no match for swoop racing, where speed drowned everything else out and your own quick reflexes were the only things keeping you from sudden, fiery death. It was thrill seeking and piloting at its very height, depending only on courage, strength, and raw talent.
Jacen wasn't sure about the raw talent department, but he knew that some of his father's skills had been passed down, and he was lucky Jaina didn't have all those Solo genes.
Pulling out of a near collision with one of the larger trees, Jacen discovered he was no longer in the forest. The scenery had changed to a rockier terrain, the foothills of the mountains that Jacen had raced through a short time before.
He almost didn't see the rift before he came to it, but at the last second, Jacen realized there was a deep, wide fissure in the ground and he clenched his teeth and steered precisely down the cliff side. He dodged haphazardly around boulders and rock pillars and glanced briefly down at his directional screen. The course kept going straight ahead, so it meant no turning sideways to follow the valley. Jacen braced himself for the other side of the fissure, ready to send his swoop into a steep climb upwards, but the cliff side came up so unexpectedly when Jacen ducked around a giant rock that he just barely wrenched the handlebars backward at the last second. He wasn't quite in time and the bottom back end of his swoop nicked the rock, nearly toppling him forward into the cliff face.
Jacen wiped the sweat off his brow and wiped his pants as he cleared the fissure and greeted the clear blue sky again. He was glad for the goggles, the wind was whipping against him so violently his clothes outlined his abdominal muscles, so he couldn't imagine what it would be like if his eyes weren't covered.
Straight ahead of him, Jacen saw a blue shimmering expanse and he blinked for a second
Wondering what it was that he saw. At first he thought it an expanse of desert, with heat waves radiating off of the sand, but as he sped closer, he saw it for what it was, an expansive lake stretching nearly two kilometers in length.
Jacen was confused for a moment, because the lake wasn't hazardous or particularly onerous to race across. Then he realized by looking at his display map that the course was taking him to the north side of the lake, where the foot hills grew noticeable again and a thick forest hugged the edge of the water. He braced himself for another tree run, but was rescued from that challenge as he realized there was a wide river that probably fed into a mountain glacier's run off stream.
He turned sharply into the path and sped up a notch, reasoning that this course would be fairly easy.
He heard the roaring before he saw it. Yet Jacen had been so confident in a smooth ride that the sudden drop caught him almost unaware. The swoop jerked forward and nearly threw Jacen off, before he took control and wrenched the handlebars upwards, righting himself. The swoop was still tilted forwards and all Jacen's efforts couldn't keep the front end from hitting the rushing water straight on.
Jacen cried out, and yanked even harder to right the swoop, but it was too late and the damage had been done. The swoop plunged briefly into the churning, shallow waters at the bottom of the waterfall and as it did it hit one of the protruding rocks and Jacen immediately felt the vehicle slow down and lose altitude.
"Kriff, kriff, kriff, kriff!" cursed Jacen vehemently, surveying the damage as he came out of the dive down the waterfall at half the speed he'd been going before. He looked around quickly to survey the damage and discovered that three-quarters of the engine's power cells were gone and all maneuvering on his left side was shot.
He would never make it back on this swoop.
"Did I mention kriff?" Jacen complained to himself. He knew he was in big trouble now. He was ahead, but he didn't have enough of a lead to make it back ahead of the other racers at his present speed. He tried to think desperately of a plan, but the only thing he could think of doing was somehow using the Force to propell himself faster towards the finish line. He knew that could never work, he didn't have the expertise with machines that his sister had and the swoop would not be coaxed by him to put itself through the agony. There was no way he'd have time to fix it either, because he could hear the engines of the other swoops approaching.
Jacen bit his lip and hit the control screen with his fist. What could he do? Defeat wasn't an option, every race mattered, there were no second chances, no extra tries. There was only loss and after that, imprisonment. Kanortine wanted him to win every race because it built of pressure and bets for each following race, if Jacen lost one, then all the expectations and excitement went straight back down to a normal level.
So the question now was, how, in the name of all things sacred, could he win this race?
The idea dawned on him, and it was so simple in it's existence that Jacen nearly hit himself for not thinking of it beforehand.
Jacen allowed his engines to list a little to the side, making it seem as though the swoop was in worse shape than it was and that Jacen was having trouble controlling it. He could feel the closest racer, cruising about fifteen seconds ahead of the others. This would have to be quick.
Jacen's target moved closer and closer to the intercept point. When it seemed he could wait no longer, Jacen felt the racer move into the required area. At that precise point, Jacen cut sharply to the right, nearly running into the other contestant's swoop. He used the Force to give the man a push off the swoop bike, feeling the surprise and unexpected anger of the man as he fell into the river, and somersaulted through the air, landing lightly in the good swoop's seat.
"Phew," Jacen breathed, and throttled the engine hard. The course branched off from the river into a mountain valley. Jacen rode his hardest, full out here, keeping nothing reserved or restrained.
He could almost feel the rock brush his arm as he shot through the narrowest crevice he'd known a pilot to squeeze through, but once out, the course rounded around an outcropping and then to the finish line.
Jacen braked carefully to a stop and removed his helmet as he jumped joyfully off the bike. He waved and grinned at Tenel Ka, who gave a reserved smile in return. Despite her reticence, Jacen could feel her gladness and relief coming in waves through the Force, crashing into him and elevating his spirits, which could possibly be any higher than they were now. He'd beat the odds again.