Chapter 1

For half a second, Vega was still.  Then, at precisely 6:30, the whirr of a hoverboard motor cut the stillness.  There was a shout of laughter, a whip of black and silver hair, and suddenly everything was as quiet as before.  Tallia Sen had vanished without a trace.

          Of course, she wasn’t really gone.  She had just managed to slice the speed limit wire correctly for the first time, and was living it up like the daredevil she was.  A blur to everyone not watching and waiting just for her (being the person she was, the total of those such people amounted to 0), she zoomed down streets, leaving the usual litter of hoverboard parts in the streets clattering in her wake.

          She felt the board grow hot beneath her feet and, knowing the speed limit wire was usually in place for a reason, hastily decelerated.  To Lillith Kernero, standing outside the entrance to Main Vega,  the city of light and sound, it looked as though a teenager with bright silvery green eyes and pale skin had just appeared out of thin air, skidding to a halt right in front of her.

          Lillith was small, with china blue eyes contrasting sharply with her flaming bushy hair.  She was just starting to learn the ropes of hoverboarding and nearly fainted when she saw the Tallia Sen, a legend of the sport.  She was actually going to be in the Black Fire Centuria at Ajulak!  Of course, if Lillith was the regular passage-opener she would have seen Tallia many times before, but since she was just filling in for her lazy teenage sister, Avliss, as the latter ate dinner, this sight was completely new.  She looked completely paralyzed as the older girl held out her pass key.

          “Just open the door, Lil.”

          The fact that Tallia knew her name was almost enough to make her faint on the spot, but if she knew that Tallia only knew her because she was enemies with Avliss, it would have been a horrible experience for her.  Lilith weakly pressed a button on the side of the gate, which slid back with a squeak.

          “Thanks,” shrieked Tallia in passing, but she was going so fast already that Lilith barely heard her.

 

*                  *                  *

 

          Main Vega was amazing at night.  All the lights blinked on at the very moment the sun set.  Every day at 6:35 so exactly you could set your watch by it (though obviously no-one wore a watch anymore, in the year 3200) Main Vega was set aglow.  Perched atop the highest building was the emergency receptor, a bright silver rod that flashed red whenever there was an emergency (only three cases"disease, flood, and invasion by unfriendly species).  Today it stood erect and silent as ever.

          Tallia stomped the time attachment on her board and the time was projected at eye level in flashing green LED numbers"6:32.  Time to break all records.

          Urging her board forward, Tallia fell over the gigantic glass waterfall, sloping downward and curving this way and that, even upside-down.  Main Vega loomed far below.

          Then the path went vertical.

          Screaming with delight, the girl swept neatly to the side, falling off the road altogether.  It was scary, but at least she had a hoverboard underneath her that she could swerve back into the road with easily.  It was much safer to keep to the road"it caught you securely in case of a fall"but much faster to just plummet.  The oldest existing record of the fastest gate-to-Main-Vega hoverboarding was set by Tallia’s hero, Dexx Braili, at 2 minutes and 11 seconds.  If she could reach the city before the lights flashed, she would go down in the history books.  Since her modification to the board, it should be not only possible, but absolutely effortless.  Of course, she failed to incorporate the dangerous side of the plan.

          She was going so fast at this point (90 Xeas per minute) that the board finally couldn’t take it.  The circuits all blew together and smoke poured from the various heat openings in the surface, sending a weak jolt into its rider.  The usually lightweight board now started to fall much faster than her.  Normally the energy flowing through it protected it from crash damage, but now it hit the road, splintering the bulletproof glass into millions of spidery cracks.  And now Tallia was defenseless, at the mercy of the open sky below her, her hair streaming behind her like a shimmering black-and-silver flag.  The wind had caught the board, but Tallia was far enough from the road to miss and keep falling past Main Vega.  The last exploration bot sent down there was still going…and its mission had started more than 100 years ago.  Normally there would be unbelievable traffic, and normally anyone would swoop from the crowd to scoop her up.

          “Kirichu!”  Tallia screeched at the empty, silent road, the meaning of which I cannot reveal in writing.  Let’s just say it is very, very bad.

          And then Miro Mizuno swooped down and caught her by the wrist, smiling a dazzling, perfect smile.  She was so glad to see him that her wrist forgot to ache at all.  He was a gorgeous specimen, with chestnut hair and chocolate brown eyes, even a perfectly straight nose, an all-over sense of perfection.  Miro was one of those all-natural types that needed no surge to make them better.  Surges were just random works of tweaking the appearance, or making you more cybernetic, such as night-vision.  And obviously, Tallia had a total crush on him.

          “Language, Tal,” he smiled, eyes glittering like two diamonds, set against his impeccable face.  He also happened to be one of her best friends.  Miro pulled her onto the board just as the lights of the still-far-away Main Vega flashed on, an eruption of unfocused color.  “What would your mother think?”

         

          “I’d already be dead,” she said cheerfully, but then her face fell.  She had momentarily forgotten that her parents had abandoned her and her twin brother with almost no money and an apartment in Old Vega, but now it returned.    

          They pulled back onto the glass road and saw it had broken in places, now coated in various bits of hoverboard rubble.  Tallia stared glumly at it.

          There goes three month’s salary, she thought miserably.  You might think Tallia was not the sort of person you could imagine working anywhere, but she did; at the Lake, Vega’s only bit of nature.  Those who had large families or little transport to take them to Shanalade, the water town, merely stopped there and gazed over its endless rippling waves.  The Lake contained a strange chemical combination that reacted with the water to change color seven times a day, which made it a popular attraction (but of course, no one swam in it; it would be toxic and possibly deadly).  Tallia was a lifeguard there, being one of the only Vega residents that could swim, on weekends.

          “So, where are you headed?”

          She found her voice, wrenching herself out of la-la land.  “Alexi’s, for a soda.”

          “What a coincidence,” he grinned, and it was like a ray of purest sunshine.  “Now hold on!”

          She felt electricity flare inside her as she threw her arms around his neck, and, a little wobbly but still as romantic as she could have hoped, they flew into the night.

 

*                  *                  *

 

          Alexi’s Fountain was a small but crowded teenager’s sort of bar.  It was their generation’s favorite hangout.

          When Tallia and Miro strode through the door, the ‘bartender’ welcomed them in with a cry of “Tal!  Miro!” and most everyone turned half around in their seats to see the new arrivals.  Most went back to their drinks and relaunched their hoverboard argument, comparing the Z-models to the new brand just released in Ajulak.

          “What’ll it be?”  Alexi herself (as her name badge said) asked sweetly, popping her gum (Dr. Quiroz’s new formula"Bad-Breath-B-Gone in seconds) as they plunked themselves at the counter.

          “Two Cherry Sparkletts,” Miro replied, possibly even sweeter, but his eyes lingered on Tallia even as the girl mouthed ‘call me’ and made a signal with her hand.

          The soda fountain started pouring out large amounts of violently red liquid just as a hoverbot slid two cups neatly beneath the spray, switching them around when the first one was full.  “Zee,” Alexi called over her shoulder, “Bring ‘em up!”

          The robot extended thin, spidery legs, which immediately grasped the tray carrying the drinks.  Whirring over, it dropped the tray in front of the two, saying “Enjoy your drinks” in a cool female voice before retreating like an indecisive army.

          Tallia sipped the drink that Miro had recommended earlier and found that she liked it immensely.  It was spicy and slushy and cold.  She licked the slushy reddish ice from her cheeks and grinned for no reason at all.

          “Good, huh?”

          She nodded, but hastily wiped her face with the back of her hand, fearing she looked like a little kid with her drink all over her face.

          His expression fell.  He had noticed"in fact, he noticed just about everything with his sharp eagle’s eyes.  “You don’t like it?”  He said quickly.  “I could get you a"”

          “No, really, it’s fine,” Tallia said, trying to sound cheery, and dredged up a weak smile.

          She wished he wasn’t so dang observant.

          “So, do you think you’re getting a new hoverboard soon?”  He asked, as keen on changing the subject as she was.  “I saw the pieces,” he added apologetically, as though it was his fault.  Obviously, it was anything but.  “They don’t look like they’re going to be flying around anytime soon.”

          She grimaced.  “Hopefully I’ll have enough to buy a good one for Black Fi"”

          “Black Fire Centuria,” he finished.  “In Ajulak.”

          His voice had gone all stiff.

          “Yeah, what about it?”  She tried to breezily sip her drink, as though she was not bothered in the slightest about the location of the race.

          “Dangerous, much?”  He asked, sounding like an overprotective older brother.  “Perfect place to ruin your new hoverboard…or you,” he finished, staring hard into her eyes.

          She opened her mouth to argue, but never did because Ella Veras had just plopped down next to her, a fizzy blue soda in her hand.  “Hi-ay, Tally-ay.  Hi-ya, Mi-ro,” she sang.

          “Hey Ella,” they said monotonously in unison.  Tallia eyed her off-the-wall BFF, taking in her mussed deep reddish-brown hair and unfocused caramel eyes.

          “With Jasper?”

          “With Jasper,” she agreed dreamily, stirring her drink in sugary circles with her pinkie.

          “He kissed you, huh?”

          “Most definitely,” she puckered her lips and laughed.  Miro and Tallia joined in uncomfortably.  They never shared her worship of Jasper Galindo, who was a dropout and a freak.  But obviously, Ella liked him, so there was nothing they could do about it.

          “Sooo, Miro, huh?”  She continued as though he wasn’t sitting on the other side of me, looking confused.

          “My hoverboard…powered out on glass road,” Tallia explained, a little impatiently, editing the I-ruined-everything-in-the-first-place-in-the-pursuit-of-speed out of her version.  “He picked me up"and he was on his way here in the first place anyway,” she added quickly.

          She looked dubiously at the nearly-empty soda glasses in front of the two of them.  “It sure looks like a date to me!”  She giggled confidently, tapping Tallia on the top of her silvery-haired head.

          Tallia frowned, and then tipped Ella’s cup over her head.

          “I’m out,” she said calmly to Miro as Ella sputtered and blinked blue soda out of her eyes.  “I’m going board shopping.  Hopefully have enough for a respectable Z-11.  Have to get home, eh?”  The glass road was off-limits to walkers"who could complete almost half the journey straight up on foot?

          “No,” objected Miro.  “I’ll"”

          She knew exactly what he was going to say but didn’t want to deter him from going about his business, even if it meant her keeping him all to herself.  “Really, I’ve gotta go.”  She bent down and, feeling a swooping sensation in her stomach as she did so, kissed him lightly on the cheek.  “Thanks for the ride.”

          He put a hand to his cheek as though she had slapped him instead of kissed him.  His eyes had an empty sort of look.  When she strode out of the shop, not even his blank eyes were there to follow her.

 

*                  *                  *

 

          “Nix, I’m at the Budget Boarder.  Just buying a new one"mine went out on glass road.  BRB.”

          Tallia hung up the phone, sighing, and stowed it regretfully in her pocket.  That was all she ever got from her twin brother these days; the answering machine.

          She strode out of the store twenty minutes later with a thin Z-11 under her arm and no money in her account.  It powered up smoothly, rising to waist level and dipping slightly under her weight until the lifters compensated.

          “Not too fast,” she reminded herself sternly, climbing on.  Power surged beneath her.  Well, my old one was such an…old thing.  This will surely be able to cope…much better.  She managed to talk herself into flooring the gas step the whole way there.  Nix is probably already steamed that I’m late… (She stomped the time attachment and green LED figures materialized at eye level: 8:42 PM.)  She nudged the board forward and it accelerated to 30 XPS before she could find the brake pedal.  (XPS meant Xeas, the unit of Vegan measurement, per second"miles were sooo 21^st century).  Perfect…she’d easily gotten her money’s worth.

          Now"to get home.  She was a speck in the distance before you could even say ‘go’.

*                  *                  *

 

          Why did every apartment in old Vega have to look the same?

          Despite having a super-fast brand-new state-of-the-art hoverboard, she was still Tallia Sen, who was the worst person with directions this side of Ajulak.  She had spent an hour and a half randomly zooming around, but it was now past ten and Nix would be screaming until Tuesday when she got back.  She had to find…

          Suddenly she screamed “Kirichu!” and slapped herself hard on the forehead with the palm of her hand.  She had a locator, dang it!

          “Locator,” she murmured grumpily, clicking a switch with her toe.

          “Address?” A mechanical voice said coolly.  If she had to give the voice a gender, she would hazard a guess at male, but only because of the annoyed tone.  She had hooked up to the tech whizzes at Vega Mainstream, who were pulling up a map of the city as she spoke.

          “Now,” she peered at a street sign in a gloom in front of her, “the corner of Rift Pointe and Annet.  Desired location, 500 Abraxus Court.”  She spoke the words with a learned-by-heart monotone, because she was constantly using this system and knew the format.

          “One moment.”  Cheery elevator music issued loudly from the speaker.  Tallia said “ugh” under her breath and bent down to cover the speaker completely with her hands, so that she could barely hear the music.  She didn’t want the senior citizens on this street to wake up and call her ‘that shifty-eyed little punk’ again.  When Nix heard about it, he nagged her for a week.

          Finally, the voice said “Turn right on Rift Point to Annet Road.”

          Seventeen streets later, Tallia was soaring through the window of building C, room 500, Abraxus Court.  It was now eleven o’clock, because she had to keep pausing as the so-called whizzes kept rechecking their maps.  Twice, she had to double back at their errors, grinding her teeth the whole way.

          At least Nix wasn’t actually in charge of her.  Only six minutes older, but acting the part of 10 years older, he couldn’t do anything to her (even though he was constantly gruff and bad-tempered about it).

          “Tallia?”  Came a curt voice.

          She rolled her eyes and replied “Yes.”  In her mind she loudly said “Who else would it be?”  He was on a short fuse as it was, and he had once slapped her when she replied snippily like that.  She didn’t want that to happen again.  Though twins, he was much stronger than her.

          “Where were you?”

          Nix Sen came around the corner, gelled black hair quivering in wet-looking spikes.  His pale skin, exactly the same shade as his sister’s, was a total contrast to the hair and his coal black eyes, which managed to be dull as unpolished rock and sparkly as black ice at the same time.  He was exactly the sort of boy Tallia would stop in midair to look at.  She tried to push the thought out of her mind"admiration of the enemy was never good in what was promising to be a shouting match.

          “How about you check your phone and find out?”  Tallia retorted spitefully.  Why did Nix insist on jumping down her throat about nothing every time she came home?  “Probably out with Avliss, I expect,” she continued, a glow of satisfaction eclipsing her anger as Nix went a blotchy red.  Mostly the only reason for Tallia’s hatred of Avliss was that she dated Nix"and the fact that she was able to talk Nix into screaming his lungs out at home, because if he started pouring his troubles on her, it would be so depressing.

          Nix tried to press on, but he stumbled a little and Tallia smugly watched him crumple under her gaze.  “Were you in Ajulak?  That’s why you were gone all day!  Yes, of course!”  (During an argument, he would never check his phone, and besides, she might just have said she was buying a new board, to keep her disguise, thought Nix irritably, even though he was just running on empty, hoping that Tallia would give up as his excuses became wilder and wilder…).

          “I WASN’T IN AJULAK, YOU LOSER!”  Screeched Tallia, green eyes flashing"literally.

          “You got an eye surge?!”  Moaned Nix.

          “So?”  Tallia snapped. “Night vision sure beats the heck out of normal vision.”

          “Mom and Dad would’ve never"”

          “We don’t even have a Mom and Dad, much less one we know, much, much less a pair that cares about us at ALL!”  Tallia bellowed, her surge burning away the unwanted tears"a useful feature.  “So you can just shut up and leave me alone!”

          It hurt more that he hadn’t noticed the surge (an act of defiance) for a month, more than the yelling.

          “Don’t follow me.”

          She leapt out the window, hoverboard out and ready in a second as she tore down the road.  He did, of course, but despite having a state-of-the-art Z-12 model, sleek, red, and with every attachment known to Vegans, he had always been the uncoordinated one and by the time he had finally limped back to the window with it (having tripped on a stack of textbooks and stubbing his toe on a door frame on the way there and back) his little sister was long, long gone.

 

_

 

Honorable Mention

Aug 1, 2009

• Get Your Name Out There!
• A Losing Battle

second place darkness writer

Aug 5, 2009

• darkness books
• A Losing Battle

award winning fantasizer

Sep 21, 2009

• Inspire me! I welcome all but vampires! (It's nothing personal)
• A Losing Battle

I May Just Read This...

Feb 26, 2011

• Books!
• A Losing Battle

Better Than Nothing

Mar 23, 2011

• What's In Your Chapter 1?
• Chapter 1

Best Characters

Mar 28, 2011

• Books in a Day
• A Losing Battle

Author's Note

:)

Reviews

[Silvario]

Wow!
You have created an extremely vivid and realistic world here. Not to mention interesting and excitable characters.
You have a very smooth, fluid and pleasant writing style. I love the details and descriptions you provide. You have talent.
The story itself, thus far, is also very intriguing and I'm anxious to read on and see what becomes of Tallia in this truely creative, futuristic world. :)

Will move on to the next chapter as time allows.

Once again, nicely done. :D

[J.R D'asti]

This is an excellent world that you have here. It's a little confusing, but I'm sure that will be resolved as the story progresses. You switched to first person once, but that's alright. This could be a winner.

[Frifthor (D^2)]

An excellent story. Your decision to put it in the perspective of an average person adds to the appeal here. She sounds like a person, which is great. Your writing is excellent, no noticeable spelling or grammar things that would detract from the writing. On another note, I've tried to access your other writing, but all I get is a title saying My First Novel, and nothing else. I am running Google Chrome, do you know if that could be the problem? I'll try it on another browser, but just thought I'd ask. Once again a great work, and I look forward to hopefully be able to read the other chapters.

[Jenthura]

Totally, all the above, never stop writing this, perfect. A sci-fi world was created before my yes, and your description was so...so skeleton-ish but with enough meat left on the bones so that I could understand and form my own idea. Wicked way to ride.

[Chaos Stone]

i love this
its highly imaginative and creatively written, especially for your young age
im envious of the way you use totally made up words for things, such as the curse and the descriptives for the futuristic things. i need to do more of that in my book. :)
the names are also fantastic, very sci-fi sounding and original. although the planet, if it belongs to the star Vega, would be designated Vega b, or c, etc, depending on how many planets there are. thats how astronomers name extrasolar planets, but i guess if it were colonized the inhabitants could call it whatever they wish, but it would be confusing if it had the same name as the parent star. i think it would be great to add such a thing to the story, since it could help the sci-fi realism. i also think theyd still have watches, since theyre such a great invention: to simply look down and have the time at your discretion, without pressing a button or opening a phone. it could also have alot of great sci-fi stuffs, even though james bond 007 watches have been done to death, you could do something to make it your own. if you wish to keep this story updated as you mature as a writer, which i think you should, you should keep yourself abreast of technology aspects, because youve got a good thing going here. i also think it would help the ambiance, the world around them, which i think needs a little more work, more description, to make their world seem more real, more visual. such as the 'glass waterfall' (a great metaphor btw) which could use a little more detail to help it spring to life from the imagination.
i also like the tween aspects, which is a great way to reach young readers, because younger people read less and less these days (save for text messages lol)
and like silvario, i also plan to move on to the next chapter as time allows, to see how the relationship between your characters develops, which is the most important thing for a good story and a showcase of a good writer.
good luck and keep on writing!

[Lyzzy Redd]

I agree with Silvario--you DID create an extremely vivid and realistic world. The characters jump to life, and I can imagine Tallia standing right next to me, talking to me about how miles are out and Xeas are in. I love the futuristic style to this. VERY creative. AWESOME! =)