Link's fingers drumed nervously on the steering wheel as he sat alone in the empty parking lot. The sun beat down on him through a cloudless sky and caused sweat to gather on his forehead. One arm went up to wipe the perspiration before he checked his watch as he had at least two dozen times since he had arrived. It was five minutes until ten in the morning which meant it was almost time to meet with somebody from the team as the old Sheikah woman had instructed.
Showing up a few minutes before nine he had sat in the parking lot for a little over an hour now working up a sweat in the brutal morning sun. He had been so paranoid about being at the track on time he had set multiple alarms to make sure he didn't oversleep, and had left with plenty of time to spare. And yet even with the generous cushion of time he had he was still plagued with uncertainty that he had missed something somehow.
None of this actually felt real. Even with the grandstands of the race track towering in front of him leaving no doubt of where he was it still felt like a dream. After years of hoping that he might get a shot at a professional drive he could hardly believe it now that it was actually happening. He was half convinced that something would happen to end this before it actually even started. It was all too good to believe that it would go off without a hitch.
So distracted was Link by his worrying and the nervous pounding of his pulse in his ears that he missed the sound of footsteps on the asphalt as somebody approached his car. It was not until he felt a tapping on his shoulder did he realize he was no longer alone.
"You must be that Forrester kid Impa told us about." came a deep woman's voice. Glancing up Link found the speaker towering over him. Even with the glare of the sun behind her it was easy to tell that she was a Gerudo if only from her height alone.
"I am he." Link answered, immediately wincing at his clumsy, nervous wording. If he could not even speak straight then this would be a difficult day indeed. The Gerdo woman simply stared at Link for a moment with a raised eyebrow as she appraised the young Hylian.
"Right… well then what are you waiting for? Come with me." Without waiting for him she turned around and began to walk back the way she came. Link jumped out of the open top of his car to hurry after her, only to end up turning around and coming back for his forgotten helmet, gloves, and head restraint. If the woman had noticed his delay she did not show it meaning Link had to run to catch back up with her after collecting his things.
Once he finally had caught back up with her and matched her hurried pace he was finally able to get a good look at her. She was easily more than a head taller than him, with deep red hair and a stern serious expression. She wore a loose fitting blouse and dress pants but it wasn't hard to tell that the clothing hid some impressive muscles. Link caught himself wondering what role she played in the team. Was she a driver or a mechanic? She certainly seemed fit enough for it, although were that the case she wasn't exactly dressed for a test. No the clothing meant she must have some sort of high up role in the team, which meant she was likely to be one of the ones deciding if Link got the drive or not.
The walk from the Parking lot into the track was an uncomfortable one. As Link hurried to keep up with the Gerudo woman's long strides. The lone sound of their footsteps did little to fill the silence but Link could not fill it any better himself. He felt the need to say something but could not think of what that something was. This person could very well be one of the deciding voices in whether he moved beyond this test or not. What could he say to show that her and the team's faith had not been misplaced?
By the time they approached the tunnel to take them underneath the track and into the garage area Link realized that he simply did not know what to say and perhaps it was better that he did not. They wanted him here to drive after all, not to talk.
He would have to do his talking behind the wheel.
"Quiet one aren't you?" Urbosa asked, glancing back at him with an inspecting look, "Don't worry it will be a nice change of pace. Our other driver does more than enough talking for the both of you."
They reached the underside of the tunnel and for the first time Link could see the track itself. The high banked turns towered over them and stretched out for what seemed like forever. The straight aways between the turns were long but compared to the turns they seemed so short. The grandstands which towered above even the turns were empty today but Link felt that if he closed his eyes he could almost imagine the roar of tens of thousands of fans rising above the roar of a full field of cars.
The sound of footsteps on pavement shook him out of his day dreaming. But it was not the sound of Urbosa continuing her way to the garage. When Link looked in the direction of the sound he instead saw somebody else approaching.
"This is him then? The one that Impa told us about?" Asked the Hylian woman. She was about Link's height but a bit taller. Long Blond hair fell down over her shoulders onto a blouse that was stained with oil and grease. Her pants were in much the same state, bearing the familiar scuffs and stains that Link recognized well from his hours working on his own car. Link's first guess was that she was one of the mechanics but there was something else about her and the way she carried herself that told him she was more than that.
His suspicions were confirmed when Urbosa stepped up to introduce her.
"It is." The Gerudo woman replied simply and bluntly, "Link this is Zelda. She owns and operates the team but she pulls double duty as the head engineer as well." Link held out his hand to shake hers which Zelda accepted only briefly.
"Thank you for coming here. Impa was a bit brief about your experience. You have driven an open wheel car before, correct?" Link winced at the question, already feeling his shot at the drive slipping away.
"I have not." he answered, shaking his head, "I've only ever been able to ace my street car at some short club races."
Zelda's brow furrowed at Link's answer. "So you're saying you've never driven one of these cars before?" When Link could only confirm her statement with a sheepish nod she continued.
"I see… I was expecting… Well Impa had told us…." Zelda tripped over her words before stopping to collect herself and turning to look towards her coworker, "Urbosa could you come with me, there are some matters of the car I need to discuss with you." Without waiting for an answer she grabbed the woman's arm and pulled her along, only remembering to signal Link to follow after they were already several paces away.
They began to make their way to the garage area, Link a few paces behind the women taking in the sights as they made their way through the garage. However he could not help but overhear when Zelda began to speak to her colleague in a hushed tone.
"What was Impa thinking when she sent him to us? This is going to be our last shot and we're supposed to count on somebody who's never done this before?"
Urbosa shot a glance back to Link before doing a slightly better job at speaking quietly, "Impa saw him drive so it's not like she just plucked him off the street. Besides we still need somebody to drive the second car."
"What if he crashes the car today? Zelda shot back before remembering that she was trying to be quiet, "He's never driven anything like this before and we're about to ask him to go two hundred miles per hour out there. We won't have a second car for anybody to drive if he wrecks it. And if we don't have a second car then Guardian Auto Parts isn't going to give us the money we need to run a first car!"
Link wanted to interject but could not find the words. What could he even say that would give her some confidence in him when she wasn't even wrong? He had never done anything like this before. Racing his roadster on weekends was nothing compared to what he was about to do. Link wasn't even sure how much confidence he had in himself.
"I'm sure he won't be that bad." Link breathed a small sigh of relief. Urbosa at least seemed to have some faith in him, "Impa knows what to look for in a driver. She's the one who found the Rito after all." Or at least trusted that whatever Impa saw in him wasn't just the old Sheikah's imagination. Thankfully this seemed to be just enough for Zelda, who angrily glared back at Link before letting out a huff and storming forward to get the garage.
Urbosa came to a stop and so did Link a few steps behind her. Realizing that he had overheard them she shot Link a sympathetic glance.
"I'm sorry, she's not usually like this. Don't worry, it's not like you carry blame in any of this." She let out a sigh as she looked back to Zelda who was still angrily stomping towards the garage. "It's unfortunate. She's put in more than enough time and effort into this team. We all have. And yet she has nothing to show for it." She shook her head. "So please forgive her if she's putting a lot of pressure on you, she's under a lot of pressure herself."
Link gave her an understanding nod but did not feel much better himself. He wasn't even on the team yet and he could feel the pressure. The weight of an entire race team pressed down onto his shoulders. It would have been nice if Zelda had shown some confidence in him but he could hardly blame her for not doing so.
He would just have to give her some reason to trust him. He would have to get in the car and prove to her, the team, and to himself that he could do it.
Urbosa motioned for him to follow and a few minutes later they found themselves at the open door to the garage. Link's eyes cut through the whirlwind of activity in the small work area to look at what he had been waiting all day, if not his entire life, to see. Sitting there in the center of the garage was the car. He had seen cars like it plenty of times on television before but seeing it in person made the reality of his situation set in. He was going to drive it. After years of trying and failing to get an opportunity like this he was finally going to drive one.
The car was the result of decades of work and countless cars before it refining the design into what sat before him. The entire car was low to the ground with barely two inches separating the floor of the car from the oil stained concrete beneath it. At the front a sleek pointed nose with two long wings on either side stood out to cut through the air before forming into a cone that stretched back to the cockpit, the shape uninterrupted except for the wheels and suspension pieces that jutted out just in front of the driver. On either side of the cockpit sat the side pods, designed to take in air to cool and feed the hot and hungry engine. The engine itself sat just behind the driver, currently exposed from the lack of a cover as a mechanic worked on the complex and powerful machine. At the back of the car behind the engine and above the rear wheels sat a small and sleek wing, a counterpart to the wing which stuck out of the nose of the car. Together they gave the impression that the vehicle was meant more for flight than driving. Were it not for the wheels it would have looked more like a fighter jet than anything meant to be on the ground.
He was only taken out of his gazing when the Gerudo woman next to him cleared her throat to alert the entire garage to his presence.
"All right everybody Listen up. This is that driver Master Impa told us about." She gestured at him with a thumb and a nod of her head, "He'll be testing the car today so we can see if he's worth as much as Impa thinks he is." She paused and then, as if to add some levity to the introduction added, "If we're lucky he'll at least keep the car out of the walls."
Link gave an awkward smile and wave to the people scattered around the garage. It wasn't exactly the vote of confidence from Urbosa he was hoping for after what Zelda had said but he reminded himself that he would just have to prove himself out on the track. Whether the other people around the garage shared the team owner's sense of doubt he could not tell but at least they saw him fit enough to introduce themselves to.
First up was the man who was working on the engine when they walked in. He had the familiar white hair and facial features of a Sheikah and wore over his eyes a set of thick goggles. It was not until he held out his hand for Link to shake that he realized just how short the man was, needing a step stool to elevate himself enough to actually work on the engine. However it was immediately clear that what the man lacked in physical stature he more than made up for with sheer enthusiasm as he launched into an energetic introduction.
"Ah yes yes yes! So happy to have you on board. Well at least I hope you'll be on board, we'll see how the test goes right? Either way the challenge of working with new drivers has always been one of my favorite parts of the job." He went on as he shook Link's hand, his other hand wildly gesturing with each word before coming to rest on his shoulder. "Now what did Impa say your name was? Was it Lincoln… no it was… Blink…. No wait it was Lonk."
"It's Link. Link Forrester." Link cut him off before the Sheikah man could butcher his name any further in his attempts to guess it. "And you are?"
"Hm? Me? Are you serious?! It seems I got so excited I forgot to introduce myself! I'll start over, hm? I am the lead engineer and mechanic for Silent Princess Engineering. If something goes wrong I'll probably be the one to fix it. The name is Robbie."
"Hah! Lead engineer he says." Came a high pitched, almost childlike voice from the other side of the car. Link looked for the source but did not see anybody. "Robbie's just trying to make himself seem more important. We both know he does more fixing than designing. Especially when some new idea of his goes horribly wrong."
The speaker finally became visible as they walked around the nose of the car. It was another Sheikah and this one was even shorter than Robbie was. Had the woman not been covered in grease, so much as to almost block her thick rimmed glasses, he would have assumed she was a child.
"You're one to talk about failed ideas Purah." The Sheikah man shot back to his coworker, "I seem to recall you almost burning down the shop when your last attempt to tweak the engine caught fire."
"And that modification also gave us a bit more engine power without a hit to fuel mileage." The short Sheikah woman shot back. "Sometimes risks just have to be made in the pursuit of my genius ideas."
The two engineers continued to bicker before a tap on Link's shoulder drew his attention/ Turning around he came face to face with a red and white skinned Zora woman. Link was a bit surprised to see a Zora out in this hot weather but the large bottle of water in her hand indicated that the heat was hardly a cake walk for her. Nonetheless she gave Link a warm smile as she shook his hand.
"I'm the team physician, you can call me Mipha. I'll be doing your physical and make sure you're fit to drive the car. And hopefully that is all I will be doing today." She let the implication hang. If anything went wrong today she would be the first one at the scene of the crash.
"It's nice to meet your Mipha. Hopefully I won't require your services beyond the physical." He returned her smile.
Urbosa cleared her throat to get both of their attention. "As much as I'm sure you'd like to get to know everybody we're on a tight schedule today. The quicker we get things done the more running out on track we can do."
"She's right." added Mipha. "You're probably eager to get in the car anyways so if you'll follow me we can do your physical in private and you can get down to business."
Link nodded in approval before following her out of the room. In the hallway outside of the garage sat a Rito. Realizing that he must also be part of the team Link held out his hand for a shake.
"You must be the other Driver. I'm Link, it's nice to meet you."
The Rito turned his attention from the helmet in it's feathery hands and eyed Link with a look of annoyance.
"Ahh yes. You must be the number two driver the sponsors are foisting upon on us." He stood from his seat. As he brought up his hand Link believed for a moment that his soon to be colleague was going to return the handshake. Instead however he simply brought his hand up to his forehead, rubbing it as if in great thought.
"I simply do not understand why it is they thought you necessary." He continued to speak, shaking his head as he did so, "After all this is only a silly oval race, a trivial matter to somebody of my skill level."
Link raised an eyebrow and frowned slightly, "Hateno really isn't that easy to win-" He was cut off by the other driver.
"Nonsense! It is only turning left. With the tracks I have mastered before I could probably drive around Hateno with my eyes closed."
Link opened his mouth to respond only to be once again cut off by the Rito before he could get a word in edgewise.
"I'm sure it must be quite the challenge to one such as you however. That is why I struggle to understand why the sponsors insisted on a second car. What point will it be to have their name on a car thats…." he paused to run a contemptful eye up and down Link, "wherever it is you shall finish when all the attention will be on me in victory lane?"
Link wasn't sure what to say to the Rito. He didn't even know what he could say. Assuming he could even get a few words in without the driver speaking over him again it seemed unlikely that his words would even be paid attention to. As he tried to think of something to say he realized that the Rito had not even bothered to give his name.
Thankfully Mipha chose this time to step in, rolling her eyes at the Rito driver as she spoke. "Link I'm sure you and Revali have much to talk shop about but we really must get to your physical examination." She took a hold of Link's arm and began to pull him along. Link followed without protest, simply glad not to have to be out of conversation with Revali. Once they were out of earshot Link mouthed a silent thank you to the medic who giggled slightly in response.
"Revali is actually quite a good driver. Although I'm certainly happy I'm not the one who has to be on his radio during the race."
The rest of the walk to the track's medical center was not a long one and they soon found themselves stepping through the door into the medical center. On race days the small doctor's office would be staffed with professionals, checking up on drivers who were caught up in crashes and treating those who were hurt. If the safety equipment in the cars failed this room was where the battle for life and death would take place. Link found his mind start to wander at the thought of how many lives might have been saved in this very room. It was a stern reminder of just how dangerous what he was about to do actually was.
"Hopefully you won't give me cause to use this room more than once today." Said Mipha as she gestured around the room. Stepping up to the counter she began to rummage through a bag she had left earlier. "I have a series of exams I need to run on you to determine if you are healthy enough to safely drive the car. We're going to test your reflexes, blood pressure, resting heart rate, muscle strength, eyesight, and hearing."
Link swallowed nervously, suddenly feeling much like the car that was being examined and worked on back in the garage. His discomfort must have shown on his face because when the Zora doctor looked back to him she let out a small giggle.
"Don't worry, none of this will be anything invasive." Mipha said before holding up a small rubber reflex hammer and giving Link a smirk. "Let's start by testing your reflexes shall we?"
Glad to have another chapter out. Wish I could have posted this last weekend but I couldn't finish it in time. This chapter was originally supposed to be longer and include the actual test session but then I realized that was going to be too long. I figured out too late that I would need to cut it in half. This chapter was just to introduce the other characters and their role in the team.
Also I did my best to describe the car in this chapter while keeping it relatively brief. If you're curious to see what I was describing just do a quick look for an indycar. That's what the car is since the race I'm leading this part up to is basically the Indy 500. Speaking of which the race was officially delayed from may to august this week so hopefully writing this fic will help fill that hole come memorial day weekend.
Thanks again everybody for reading and reviewing. And a big thanks to webcomixwastaken on Tumblr for giving this fic a shout out. Somebody on a discord server I'm on linked your post and I very much appreciate your kind words. With any luck you won't end up regretting telling people to read this lol.
Have a good one everybody. Stay safe and healthy in these crazy times. If you have the means I would recommend donating to a food bank to help those that are in difficult financial circumstances due to the pandemic. That and giving blood would be very helpful, I still need to find a time and place to give some.