A Time and a Placement

Two cars were parked side by side, a black and white checkered line painted on the asphalt in front of them. The car on the left was a bright red, brand new Ferrari of a model not yet on the market, looking powerful and sleek as it sat in the mid-afternoon sun. The car on the right was a shiny blue, and one of the fastest and most legendary race cars ever made. The FlyghtDeck Powercord Generation 6 - the first of the Powercord line that could fly. For over twenty years, FlyghtDeck had ruled the world of racing, ever since they released the first of the Powercord line in 2036. Since then, they had released a new generation of the Powercord line every few years, until their most legendary car yet - the FlyghtDeck Powercord Generation 6.

The car had been released eleven months before, and had already competed in seventy-three races, of which it won all seventy-three. This was partially due to the driver, but not entirely, as in those seventy-three races the FlyghtDeck Powercord Generation 6 had featured a total of three different drivers, each specially trained to handle both the extreme power and the flight capabilities of this particular supercar. No, the driver was only part of it. The car itself played a huge factor in winning races, both on the ground and in the air. It was incredibly aerodynamic, with enough power to reach almost four hundred miles an hour without leaving the ground. It represented the future of high-speed racing.

The driver in this particular race was the third of said three drivers, a young man of twenty-nine who had been hired by Flyghtdeck immediately after his contract with McLaren had ended about six months before. He walked out to his car, waving to the large camera livestreaming the race to millions of viewers around the world. He stopped next to the car and turned to say a few words to a member of his crew who was in the process of opening the door for him. The crewmember finished opening the door, smiled, said something to the driver, and held out his hand. The driver shook it, then proceeded to climb into the vehicle. The crewmember closed the door and walked off the track as the driver started to fasten his harness.

Another driver, this one contracted to Ferrari, approached the bright red car of some unknown model and climbed in. This race, with only two cars, was sure to be historical. While many companies had followed FlyghtDeck in producing flying cars as quickly as they could, none were as powerful as the Powercord Generation 6. Until Ferrari hired a private contractor they had worked with many times in the past to design this wonderful work of engineering, which they claimed would beat the Powercord in a one-on-one. And now, after weeks of scheduling issues and a whole lot of promotion, it was time to find out if they were right.

*** *** *** ***

“Joshua?” A voice rang out.

Joshua Kernal blinked. He was sitting at his desk in his study, looking over the design for a Ferrari he had just finished. The year was 2048, and the FlyghtDeck Powercord Generation 3 was still ruling the world of racing, even though the FlyghtDeck Powercord Generation 4 was scheduled to roll onto the race track for its first race in just two weeks. Looking at his designs, Joshua frowned. His design was good, perhaps better than the current aforementioned ruler of the racing world, but probably not nearly as good as whatever FlyghtDeck had prepared for their Powercord Generation 4, and by the time Joshua’s design came off the assembly line, the Generation 4 would be its main competitor in all the serious races.

Joshua didn’t want to build another second-place finisher. He was thinking bigger. He wanted to build a flying race car. Of course, Ferrari had no plans for flight in the immediate future, even though a spokesperson for FlyghtDeck had said they were hoping to have a flying car within the next ten years that would change racing forever. And, since he was a private contractor and not a higher-up in Ferrari, Joshua couldn’t do anything except what they asked of him.

“Joshua?” A voice rang out again. Joshua looked up to see his secretary standing in the doorway of his study. A young woman of twenty-four, Joshua’s secretary was about 5’4”, with long, light-ish brown hair, blue eyes, and a light skin tone. While she had had great qualifications and excelled at her job, Joshua had actually hired her years before because she was his cousin, and he hadn’t regretted it for even a single moment since. Now, standing in the doorway, she pointed at a phone on the corner of his desk.

“Alfieri from Ferrari is on the line; he wants to know about your progress. Should I tell him to call back later?”

“No, now’s fine. Put him through.” Joshua waited until his phone beeped, then picked it up.

“Joshua,” he stated.

“Hello Joshua, it’s Alfieri. How’s the car coming?”

“Well, the design is complete, but I don’t think that it will beat FlyghtDeck’s Gen-4.”

“Is it better than the Gen-3?”

“Yes, but-”

“That’s good enough. We don’t need to beat FlyghtDeck, Joshua. The Powercord is the king of racing, and we don’t see anyone taking that title from them. As long as we finish second in the brand new International Champions of Racing League, we still get a lot of money and a lot of advertising, and bragging rights over every car company aside from FlyghtDeck. The other cars you have designed for us were great, and if this one does what we want, there’s a six-digit paycheck waiting for you. Understand?”

“I understand. I’ll send you the design.” Joshua ended the call and looked down at the laptop on his desk. At the age of thirty-two, he was an incredibly successful race car designer, but he still wasn’t satisfied. He dreamed of the future, and of race cars that could fly. He wanted to design one. If Ferrari wouldn’t let him, he had heard that Mercedes-Benz was trying to make one, but he really liked Ferrari, and wanted one of his cars to win a title for them. He was tired of second place. FlyghtDeck had said the next ten years, and Joshua wanted to beat them. But Ferrari didn’t want to build a flying car, so after emailing Alfieri the finished design for the car they did want, Joshua closed both his laptop and his eyes and went straight back to daydreaming of the future.

*** *** *** ***

The two drivers, both at the top of their game, finished securing their harnesses as the people around their cars began to clear the track. A drone began to circle the cars, its camera pointing down at them from above, as a voice spoke out over a loudspeaker.

“Gentlemen… Start! Your! Engines!”

The drivers both complied, their engines revving loudly, much to the delight of the crowd. Of course, the engines of both cars were completely electric, but the engineers responsible understood the importance of a powerful-sounding engine on the racetrack, and had therefore programmed the revving noise into high-powered speakers they had managed to hide inside the hoods of the two cars.

The lights in the air in front of the cars meant to signal the start of the race lit up as the drivers flipped switches and pressed buttons, getting their vehicles ready for maximum speed. The lights went from red to yellow, and both drivers set their wheels spinning, but neither car moved forward. As the lights turned green and the green flag was waved, the drivers each threw a lever and their cars surged forward, going from 0 to 60 in only a single second. The two cars rounded the first bend, and then moved a little farther apart as they neared a ramp. Beyond the ramp was a wide field, currently occupied by two cows, grazing on the tall grass. If either car were to land in the field, the race would be over and the other car would win.

But it was not to be. As the two cars started up the ramp, wings began to unfold rather elegantly from the sides, and the spoilers on the back installed to enable the cars to race on the ground without taking off folded down and out of the way. The FlyghtDeck took off first, gliding into the air and re-angling itself to fly through a large ring that was held up by a thick metal pole. Then the Ferrari followed, its solar-powered turbines spinning incredibly fast to power the speed it was using.

The two cars proceeded to fly through various rings, making incredibly tight turns that often required them to fly at a ninety degree angle from the ground. At one point, the FlightDeck Powercord Generation 6 was completely upside down, and once the crowds started cheering, the driver began doing barrel rolls as they neared the third section of track: an underground tunnel that they wouldn’t be able to fly through, as it was too narrow and too short. The opening was poking out of the ground in no inviting manner, and it would be incredibly difficult to get inside the tunnel without slowing down or damaging the wings, as the wings wouldn’t fit inside the tunnel if they were out. Thus the drivers would be forced to close their wings as they made their approach and hope that they had the right speed to carry them into the tunnel.

Of course, these drivers had spent weeks preparing for this particular stunt, and were very good at what they did. Showing off for his fans, the ex-McLaren driver in the Powercord Generation 6 continued to do barrel rolls in mid-air as he flipped the switch to fold in his wings, the spinning only stopping as his wheels hit the pavement and he disappeared into the tunnel belowground. However, this move had cost him several seconds, and just before he landed, the Ferrari dove from the altitude it had climbed to and shot into the tunnel just half a second before the FlyghtDeck, its wings folded up nicely. While this wouldn’t guarantee victory in the race, as there were many tight turns both below and aboveground, it would certainly help the driver in his attempt to beat FlyghtDeck and win Ferrari not just a 1st place trophy, but a permanent place in racing history right alongside the Powercord line.

*** *** *** ***

Joshua Kernal was present for the first race of the first season of the International Champions of Racing League. His most recent design, the Ferrari LRX-1200, sat along with about forty other cars behind the black and white checkered line. Right behind it, the FlyghtDeck Powercord Generation 4 sat in brilliant blue, glittering in the sunlight. Just in front of it, a bronze-colored FlyghtDeck Powercord Generation 3 sat smugly, looking for all the world like a school bully that got away with picking on some poor kid. Yes, FlyghtDeck had two vehicles in the first ever race of the first ever season of the International Champions of Racing League, and they had paid a lot of money to make it happen. They were counting on the placement rewards for finishing twice at the top of every race to pay for it.

The green flag dropped, and the cars took off. Around and around they went, at incredible speeds. Joshua watched with pride as his design passed car after car, climbing lap after lap. Then, with ten laps to go, the Ferrari LRX-1200 passed both of FlyghtDeck’s Powercords, and Joshua thought he might faint. But the Powercord Generation 4’s driver saw this as a challenge and pressed down so hard on the accelerator that he could feel it bending slightly under his foot. As they entered the last lap, the two Powercords were pulling up on either side of the Ferrari, only slightly behind. The Generation 3 was on the inside, but didn’t have enough speed to pass. The Generation 4 was on the outside, and shouldn’t have had enough time to make up the distance. But the driver flipped a switch, there was a loud noise not unlike that of a small explosion, and the car sped around the Ferrari to cross the finish line half a second ahead. The race was over. The official placements: FlyghtDeck Powercord Generation 4 in 1st, Ferrari LRX-1200 in 2nd, Flyghtdeck Powercord Generation 3 in 3rd.

After that race, Joshua received the paycheck he had been promised. But he still wasn’t satisfied. He had expected to come in second. His cars always had. But he wanted to come in first.

Maybe next race… Joshua thought. But as the season progressed, the Ferrari LRX-1200 picked up 2nd place ribbons over and over again. The regular season ended, and before long, the championship race was only days away. A victory in the championship would mean the world to Joshua, but he was already resigned to 2nd for this season. He wanted to try again, but didn’t know where to start. And so, as he always did when he was lacking in inspiration or when he found himself in a slump, he let his mind drift off to a fantasy world in the future.

*** *** *** ***

No one could see the two cars as they sped through the tunnel. No one could tell who would come out first. Until one did. The unnamed Ferrari shot out half a second before, landing on track as it skidded around the third-to-last turn. However, the FlyghtDeck Powercord Generation 6 was right on the Ferrari’s (rear) wheels as the two cars reached the second-to-last turn.

*** *** *** ***

“Aren’t you sick of second place? Don’t you want to win? Don’t you want to go down in racing history as the company that beat FlyghtDeck?” Joshua asked Alfieri over the phone.

“Let’s just see how the championship race goes.” Alfieri responded calmly.

*** *** *** ***

The two cars made their final turn side by side and sped down the final stretch. This last part of the track was arrow-straight, and stretched out two and a half miles. The end of the race was all about speed.

*** *** *** ***

“You know how it will go. The same way it always does! We’ll never beat FlyghtDeck if we play by their rules!”

As it turned out, Joshua was right. Ferrari placed second in the championship race, and while they got a nice hefty sum of prize money and a lot of the spotlight, Alfieri was getting tired of losing to FlyghtDeck. Not because the people at FlyghtDeck were rude about it, they were actually very polite people, congratulating Ferrari on 2nd and remaining humble, claiming it was a difficult fight for them to win. Alfieri just didn’t like losing year after year to the same people, no matter which racing league he entered.

*** *** *** ***

The two cars were moving almost too fast for the eye to see, covering the distance in about twenty-two seconds. And then it was over. Both cars had performed incredibly well. But the Ferrari had lost. The FlyghtDeck Powercord Generation 6 had crossed the finish line less than a quarter second ahead of the Ferrari, but the amount of time didn’t matter. It had won. The two drivers climbed out of their vehicles and shook hands on the track only moments before their pit crews and the press reached them, swarming the area. It had been a good race, but it was over. Ferrari had lost.

*** *** *** ***

“Joshua?” Joshua’s cousin called from outside his study, “It’s Alfieri.”

“Put him through!” Joshua called back, opening his eyes.

“Joshua.” Joshua stated, after he was connected.

“Hey, it’s Alfieri, and I’ve been thinking. Maybe you’re right. Maybe we should play by our own rules.”

Joshua sat up straight, now wide awake. “What do you mean?”

“I think we should try to beat FlyghtDeck to the whole ‘flying race car’ thing. Would you be willing to-”

Joshua didn’t let Alfieri finish his sentence. “I’ll do it. I’ll do it right now. If our car is out first our drivers will have more time to train, and we should win every race. Also, I’ve already got an idea on the design.”

“So you’ve thought about this already?” Alfieri asked.

“Let’s just say… I have a vision.”