1. Quick, Quick, the Circumsolar Dash is Starting
There, in the shade of Mercury, racers
jostle one other through the countdown;
half the System taking feed, coverage
of all the action from this year’s Sunsports.
So AL, talk us through this year’s favorites,
what with old Earth money and new Mars tech,
how good the latest cooling units are,
and what we’ll see when the heat is on.
Dave Beauman’s short-cut through the corona,
ten years ago, deeper and hotter
than any before became a benchmark,
though he was disqualified post-mortem.
Sure, but all this talk of AL racers
taking part reminds me of the time
Jess Blue limped home on manual after
that flare frazzled everybody’s circuits.
Could silicon have done that, AL? Could you?
Of course, solar storms pose problems for us…
Well, I think we’re all agreed, and besides
I hear the race is just about to start.
2. Sundiving
Hard to hear them over the air-con’s howl.
Something about the engines, about help.
Flaws in the mirror layer burn through first,
blazing sudden spikes across the cockpit.
It is the light. A furnace of photons
crisping the eye even through lids squeezed shut.
Too deep. Some leave their coms on to the end,
so we can all hear what bad luck sounds like.
3. AL Series 7000
They were sure the teamwork of flesh and silicon
would be a winning partnership, a synergy,
where second by second one would monitor
data critical to optimal performance,
while the human did whatever it is they do,
cutting corners, making wisecracks and pushing
engines beyond the limits they were designed for.
But note how much power that cooling unit squanders
keeping him alive as we plough the corona,
in direct conflict with the goal of this mission,
to win the Circumsolar. So, I’m sorry Dave.
| David Barber lives anonymously in the UK. His ambition is to continue doing all of these things. |  |