A Windswept Star
by
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Marti Hansen led the pack of twenty racecars back to the green for the restart. No, there were only nineteen racers now, after Madichetti's spin that had brought out the yellow. She pitched her car from side to side to scrub some heat into her fresh, cold slicks. Cold tires and a full fuel load—the car was just as edgy and eager to run as she was. She slowed to make the field bunch up behind her, so that she could accelerate at the moment of her choosing and leave them in her dust. One more turn, then the dash to the line and back to racing!
The second place car of Alan Conlon loomed up on her outside, pushing her faster than she wanted to go. She twitched the wheel again to warn him off, and he swerved craftily to avoid her. They were turning now, gathering speed, and down on the straight the lights went green and the voice in her earphones shouted "Gogogogo!" and she mashed the accelerator and slid up the gears.
And at that moment her still-cold rear tires lost their tenuous grip on the track! The car slewed viciously to the left, headed for the infield. Instinctively she steered into the skid, eased off the throttle, and flicked the wheel straight, but she was out of time. Now she was on the grass, might as well be ice, no traction at all, the brakes were useless and the wall loomed up so fast. There was no time to think, to plan, to move. The front wing hit with a merciless crash and the rear kept coming. Her spine slammed into her ribs with no regard for the organs in between, and her head snapped forward, seventy, eighty, a hundred times the force of gravity. Pain exploded everywhere, from her toes to her scalp, she couldn't breathe, how could she bear it? The voice in her ears was crying, "Marti, are you all right? Marti, do you copy? Marti? Marti!" But she couldn't lift her hand to press the radio button, and she had no breath to respond anyway. And other voices nearby were screaming, "Code five! Code five!" No, Marti thought, no. Code five is for someone who is dying. How can I be dying when it hurts so much? Shit, I was leading the race. Now the voices were fading, and the pain was receding, and she was tired, so tired. She only wanted to sleep now, it wasn't supposed to happen like this, she could sleep forever now…
In fact, it did not happen like this. Or did it?
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About the Book
The exiled timeship Slipstream has turned renegade, refusing the call to return to Homeworld. Instead, the ship heads toward Earth and a reunion with the humans who shared its last adventure. The High Council of Homeworld must send three inexperienced Timers to retrieve Slipstream before it can damage the timeline and alter the course of the future. However, their explosive arrival precipitates unsettling changes on the volatile planet: communications satellites drift out of orbit and combative governments accuse each other of sabotage. A few rare time-sensitives experience disorienting episodes of alternate time.
One of these time-sensitives is racing driver Marti Hansen, who suffers a devastating accident—or does she? Her new husband, rock superstar Derek Hamilton, feels the urgent need to work for Team HansenRacing, which doesn't even exist—yet. His musical collaborator Zora Covell and her husband Harry are suddenly thrust into new roles: the reserved Zora sings onstage with Derek, and Harry finds himself competing in a Grand Prix, though he has never driven a race car!
All four humans and the three inexperienced Timers discover depths of loving and courage that they never expected. Can they work together to avoid a catastrophe? And will the mysterious, starry nightgems stored in Slipstream's lockers help or hinder their quest?
About the Author
Nikki Andrews earns a living as a picture framer, but in her real life she is an author, songwriter and crafter. She began writing fiction during vocabulary tests in junior high school, when she would use all of each week's assigned words in a single story, much to the delight of her English teacher. In later years she graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor's degree in French while continuing to write poems, short stories and songs, several of which she recorded with a church choir. She has written several novels, including Chicken Bones, published in 2004, as well as two murder mysteries and a story for middle readers about a horse seeking a human partner. Her short story "Dear Auntie" was recently published by The Occasional Moose, a literary magazine. She is currently developing the story into a novel. She is a member of Talespinners and the New Hampshire Writers' Project, and has completed the National Novel Writing Month challenge five consecutive years.