Potato is yum

Chapter 1 – The Right Wavelength 

Year 3001. Republic Ether Wave Testing Facility No. 3 

I stood in the long line with all my other classmates. Today marked the first year of the Republic’s establishment and to commemorate this, all members of the Republic were given the opportunity to take a free ether wave test. This was an unprecedented event as the tests often required payment with the new Republic medallions. 

With the creation of a new currency, it was extremely difficult for the common person to get their hands on any number of medallions. As such, most people couldn’t see their potential. Until now. 

I have already taken a wavelength test in my house. Because my grandfather is a so-called war hero or whatever. Not that I’ve ever seen him do anything remotely war-like. I winced as light pierced my eyes through the huge open ceiling with pillars on the side that held up the massive pane of glass that covered the testing facility. Whoever designed this, they must’ve been a genius. Where were we again? Oh! 

Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a familiar face.  As we passed each other in the winding queue I patted his shirt, “Hey David!” 

“Oh! Kaiser! I didn’t expect to see you here.” 

David ducked under the elastic band that was used to create barriers for the line. I looked up at David and asked, “How’d you get sunburned?” 

“Oh. This? You know the drill. Was welding a new engine together and forgot the body protection.” 

“Be careful my guy. Skin cancer is not fun.” 

David laughed, “You know I can’t afford that kinda crap.” 

I patted his back, “Don’t worry about it man. I got you if you need it.” 

David chuckled, “Sure. The pad is always open to you.” 

“When’s the next show?” 

“Which one?” 

“The regionals.” 

“I think it’s in a month.” 

I smirked, “You think we got this?” 

“Hell yeah. I’ve just gotta figure out the hydrogen exhaust.” 

“Hydrogen?” 

“Why don’t we recycle in another burner?” 

“The chassis can’t fit that in. It’s like stuffing too many spices in a soup.” 

“I mean we could just squeeze it in as a retrograde thruster.” 

David shot me a look, “Let me give you a different analogy. It’s like trying to juggle four different shaped objects at once.” 

“Oh, the difficulty is the tuning?” 

“Yeah.” 

We could slap a computer on it and automate the nozzles and pressure valves. I knew David hated using an AI chip. Still, it was worth a try. 

“David, why don’t we- “ 

“No. And you know why I don’t use them.” 

I nodded, “Yeah. Sorry.” 

I had no idea why. But it was better to act like I knew. I guess I kinda killed the conversation. Whatever. Let’s ask something light. 

“How’s the track doing?” 

David exhaled, “Not so good these days. Ever since the accident people haven’t been coming.” 

“Is it going to keep running?” 

“The experts said it was a fluke.” 

I nodded even though we both knew. It was not a fluke at all. It was expected. Not even the driver’s body could be recovered after that incident. I glanced at the rest of the line; we were nearing the front. 

“So. Is the track going to be alright?” 

“Obviously. It’s gotta be fine. My old man is pooling dough to buy it.” 

“Are you sure?” 

“If it gets taken, it’s all over. They plan to turn the track into an expansion of the city.” 

“I can help with some of the costs.” 

“Thanks man.” 

I glanced at David, “How much?” 

“What?” 

“How much is needed to buy out the track?” 

“Hey. Thanks for thinking about me.” 

“Huh?” 

“We haven’t fallen so low as to rip you off.” 

“But I hav-”

“See you later Kaiser. It’s my turn for the test.” 

I watched as David walked off. There was literally no reason for him to be mad. It was just a little bit of pocket money. 

“Hey David! Met at the pad Saturday!” 

He spun around. While walking backwards, he yelled, “Yeah. Sure,” and spun back as he walked towards one of the desks. 

I sighed and stood at the front of the line. That guy just never seemed to understand that I could help him out. 

“Next!” 

I looked at the lady speaking and stood there. 

“Sir? You’re next.” 

I looked behind me and realized I was at the front of the line. Damn. That’s embarrassing. I quickly apologized to the woman who was behind me and walked over to the counter. 

“Sir, can you give me your ID?” 

I shoved my hand into my pocket and felt around for a few seconds, “Uhh um, give me a second.” 

Not that pocket. Where did I put my wallet? I know I remembered it. Right? I remember remembering it. Ah. I pulled it out of my left butt pocket. Well. That’s a new place for my wallet to be found in. Huh. 

“May I see the ID?” 

“Ah. Sorry.” 

The lady at the counter handed me back my ID and pointed to a man in a bright orange shirt with the words “Staff” in large black letters and said, “Go ask that man over there where you should go. Here is your ticket for your stasis chamber.” 

I glanced down at the small paper slip that I had been handed. Better not lose it. I slipped it into my wallet along with my ID. 

The man led me to an elevator that we took up to the sixth floor which had multiple stasis chambers. Some of them were currently in use. 

“Insert the slip here.” 

I shoved my hand into my pocket. Wait. Where did I put it again? 

The man chuckled, “You put it in your wallet. Now put it in here and lie down in the stasis chamber.” 

After inserting the slip into the empty chamber, I asked the man, “So what will this tester feel like?” 

“Ah, this is a new version that uses brain imaging and stimulation. It’s much better than older methods.” 

“So, what will happen?” 

“You’ll fall asleep for a little bit and then wake up when the test is over.” 

I clicked a button on the side of the chamber after lying down, “Alright.” 

And then I somehow passed out right as the door of the stasis chamber closed. 

The district event was always a big event. Some of the best pilots in the state came from our district. It was always fun to watch new pilots race against the established ones. Sometimes, the new pilots would win. 

This year, one of the more promising young pilots had come to the competition with a corvette that he had built on his own. A custom-made generator tuned to exactly match his preferences. 

I was impressed. I’ve been working on a corvette with David for the past five years ever since my father returned from the frontline. Mother was still up there on the moon, but Dad told me to ask for any modules I would need. One of my favorite designs is called the Hornet-AR. A combat corvette that had been stripped of weapons and hollowed out for atmospheric racing components to be stuffed inside. 

When the Hornet-AR arrived on the pad, David and I stared at the craft in awe. We ripped out all the internals to understand how the craft functioned. Through a bit of testing, David and I realized the importance of stability. While very few racers were concerned with stability because they replace almost every module after a race, there were orientations that could cause a module failure while in operation of just a few short seconds. 

When a corvette rolled up on the inspection pad, I noticed three amplifiers in parallel. In parallel? That’s triple the amplitude. And worse, right after that, there were another three amplifiers in parallel. This couldn’t be right. Nine times the amplitude could rip the generator apart. I watched as more armor plates were removed from the corvette for the inspection and looked up at the specs. 

Falcon-AR17 engine specs v

20x Amplitude

Shift pi/17 ms

Vert boost +4 e/s

My eyes widened. 20 times? That’s insane. If you twist the wrong way with the flaps, the whole craft could careen through the air. Surely, the inspector would say something about it. I looked down at the pad. 

The inspector circled the craft one, two, three, four, five times. Nothing? The inspector looked up at the engineering box and raised his hand. Surely it’s a thumbs down. 

His fingers curled into a fist as he twisted his wrist and stuck his thumb. Up. What? Wait. No. I glanced over at David and saw he was staring at me. He shook his head. Yup. David noticed it. 

I quickly entered the organizer’s contact number. 

Ring. 

Ring. 

“This is the director Haribert. What’s the matter Kaiser?” 

“I just saw a corvette that looks too unstable.” 

“Too unstable? Which one?” 

I glanced at the board, “I don’t remember the racer’s ID. It’s the Falcon-AR17.” 

 The director fell silent for a few seconds, “That ship has been checked already.” 

“Are you sure?” 

“If that’s all, have a good day. beep” 

I stared at David. That corvette was going to fly anyway. I brought up the imaging drones. The race was set to start in half an hour. 

David went down to the pad to attempt to stop the corvette, but it was all for naught. Ten minutes later, I saw the craft roll up on runway three. The track was set through a mountain range that was formerly known as the Rocky Mountains. Participants in the race had to weave between the mountains to complete the track. The track was well known for the intensity of each turn making it especially dangerous. 

I looked up at the screen as an announcer introduced the other racers, “Five minutes left.” 

David slid next to me in a video room, “I couldn’t stop it.” 

“Yeah.” 

David sighed, “The guy is also using a chip to balance.” 

“That’s risky.” 

“For sure.” 

I glanced over at David and saw a sad look in his eyes. 

“You aight David?” 

“It aight. I pity that guy.” 

“Huh?” 

“Whoever his engineer is will not get a job after this race.” 

“Yeah?” 

“He’s gonna wipe out.” 

I looked at the crew tightening the armor plates and head shielding to the corvette. The falcon was a very good craft. Hopefully it is stable enough to make it through the race. 

The corvettes lined up at the back of each runway, three on each runway. Long strips of lights divided the lanes. A loud siren sounded. 

“Wave one taxi to runway.” 

Each of the corvettes turned onto the runway and started deploying various thrusters and other gadgets. 

“Is every pilot ready?” 

A series of green lights lit up above each runway. 

“Three. Two. One.” 

Bang 

Bright flames burst out the back of each corvette as the engines spun up. For a moment after the light changed to green and the cannon fired, everything seemed frozen in place. The sound of gears slipping past chains made loud audible clinking sounds. A moment later, the line seemed to disappear as the drive chains of the launch gear caught the motors. 

David and I quickly found the satellite tracking the Falcon. 

“How fast is he going?” 

“I dunno. Looks to be about mach two?” 

“We should hear th—” Boom “-ah.” 

 David tapped my shoulder, “You see the tuning on that thing?” 

I glanced at the system distribution, “Yeah? What of it?” 

“You see this?” 

Two of the bars were slightly oscillating. 

“It’s just a preprogrammed wave tune.” 

David shook his head, “Look at this.” 

He took out a seismograph like-device and let it print out a graph. The graph looked like a normal cosine curve. The other curve looked just like a negative cosine curve. They add up to a net zero. It shouldn’t be an issue. Probably preprogrammed. 

“Yeah?” 

David stared at me, “Buddy. It’s not preprogrammed. You see this fuzzy stuff?” 

Suddenly, I realized. AI Chip. I glanced at the graph, “What’s the chip doing?” 

“It’s balancing fuel and ignition chamber pressures.” 

I looked at the fuzzy part of the graph, “With the amplitude, isn’t that really bad?” 

David looked up, “It’s worse, remember the specs?” 

“Yeah, pi over seventeen milliseconds with an amp of twenty.” 

“Look at the phase.” 

“It’s normal cosine.” 

David nodded, “Yeah, two pi milliseconds.” 

I thought for a second. It wasn’t that bad. I didn’t get it, “So?” 

David’s eyes started darting left and right, “It’s pi over seventeen right?” 

“Yeah?” 

“So that’s thirty-four oscillations per millisecond with amp twenty.” 

“And? It averages to 0.” 

“Averages to 0 depending on where you start and end.” 

“Still, it’s not extremely unstable.” 

“However, thirty-four is an unusual waveform, so the standard one oscillation per millisecond does not break since the harmonic cannot create the pure tone.” 

My eyes widened, “So you end up with a complex wave.” 

“That’s outside what I know.” 

I smiled, “Maybe we’ll learn that stuff in university.” 

David smirked, “I hope. Anyway, this out of sync AI chip is slowly increasing the amplitude of its corrections.” 

“Oh. Not that fast though.” 

David grit his teeth and inhaled, “It’s not linear.” 

“What?!” 

“It’s exponential.” 

That… was not a good thing to hear. I looked at the graph and noticed how the fuzzy peaks and dips seemed to still be controllable. 

“How long?” 

“Who knows. It’s an AI chip.” 

I looked up at the video. He was already pre turning for the upcoming turn. 

“What will happen when he burns?” 

“You already know.” 

Yeah. He’ll wipe out. Blow up into a ball of flames. David and I stared at the screen as the Falcon slowly pushed up to first place. Each lap would take around 10 minutes 

We watched for the next thirty minutes on the edge of our seats as the Falcon zipped past us three times. I glanced at David, “How’s the oscillation?” 

“No notable change.” 

I breathed out a sigh of relief, “Whew, maybe we’ll be alright.” 

David stared at me, “You know what exponential means right?” 

“Yeah? It changes quickly?” 

“Yeah, thirty-four times per millisecond.” 

“Huh? Oh. Shit.” 

David nodded, “Yeah, if the base is even one percent, that would be a disastrous approximate forty point two six percent increase.” 

“Yeah?” 

“Per millisecond.” 

“What?” 

“Yeah, that would get out of control pretty damn fast.” 

“So, how’s the starting constant?” 

“Yeah, no. We can’t figure anything like that out with our current equipment.” 

I rubbed my eyes as I thought back to what the director told me, “Why’d they let them race?” 

“It’d be a good story.” 

“The guy dying?” 

David frowned, “That’d be true. He’s a rookie, you know.” 

“Ah. So they want to create a new racer for worlds?” 

“That’s what I’d guess. I dunno.” 

The Falcon was coming around for the final fourth lap. We heard the announcer yell in the stream, “Corvette Four, Corvette Five, and Corvette Eleven are neck to neck in the last four hundred kilometers of the race!” 

We looked up to see two Hornet-ARs and a Falcon-AR quickly closing in on the last turn of the track. Suddenly, a blue flame leapt from the back of one of the Hornet-AR; it lurched forward with a burst of speed. 

“Corvette four has pulled away from the first group with a small micro explosion! This pilot is truly capitalizing on the benefits of a military based racing frame.” 

David smirked, “That guy messed it up.” 

I noticed it too. I pointed to the Falcon which trailed behind the Hornet, “It’s free airflow into the engines.” 

David frowned, “Wait, but altering the air flow…” 

My eyes widened, “Oh… crap.” 

The other hornet produced two blinding flashes of light as a pair of nuclear explosions were lit behind the craft, propelling it forward with excess gases. 

“Corvette Five takes the lead with two well-timed nuclear charges. Corvette eleven seems to be funneling the air flow of Corvette four to build up an explosive finish.” 

The fifth corvette was created around a kilometer of distance from the other two corvettes. Suddenly, the Falcon seemed to sway upward. 

“It seems eleven is getting ready to break out.” 

A bright flash lit up behind the Falcon as five flame trails half the length of the corvette flared up a bright blue. 

“And eleven has engaged its final hydrogen burn and is quickly catching up to five. We’re only 100 kilometers from the finish line. Will eleven have enough hydrogen?” 

I glanced over at David, “How is it looking?” 

“Not good.” 

“Will they make it?” 

David tapped his finger on the arm of his chair and hesitated, “Probably.” 

The Falcon blasted past the last Hornet and darted towards the finish line. Suddenly, a cylindrical piece of metal flew off the back of the corvette while one of the thrusters sputtered to a dead flame. 

“It looks like one of eleven’s thrusters has melted down. Will his corvette be able to rebalance thrust?” 

David cursed, “Shit. He’s fucked now.” 

“What?” 

David glared at me and said one thing, “AI.” 

Ah. That’s why. 

The remaining thruster on the side of the craft that had the failure suddenly flared bright as the craft attempted to overclock the thruster by running excess liquid oxygen into the chamber while adjusting the nozzle. 

“It looks like eleven has rebalanced his thrust and is still at a higher velocity than the other two contestants! We are nearing thirty kilometers now. Only a matter of seconds away from the end of this race!” 

A bright flash of light appeared in the thruster that had melted down. I turned to David, “How’s the oscillation?” 

He glanced at the graph, “It’s in the negative twelfth degree of magnitude higher.” 

I stared at him. Wait. But that would mean… 

Boom

We both watched in horror as the corvette disintegrated into a blast of liquid hydrogen, oxygen, and shredded pieces of incinerated metal traveling through the air at over two times the speed of sound. One second, a corvette was flying, the next a pile of debris was careening through the sky. 

“No… That can’t be.” 

David looked down at his paper, “We… We were right.” 

My hands shook as both I and David stared at each other. We were right. Why? How? 

I opened my mouth, but nothing seemed to come out. I couldn’t believe it. I thought it was just a theory. How could ether waves actually have an impact on stability? How could an AI chip fail this poorly? How could someone not configure their tuning properly? 

David’s eyes shook, “It… It wasn’t just theory. It was REAL.” 

I switched the stream off, “Yeah… Yeah. It was real.” 

My eyes opened wide as I felt some kind of liquid coming into my nose. cough cough. 

“What the fuck?” 

In front of me was a man wearing an orange shirt with the word “Staff” written on it in big block letters. Suddenly, I remembered, “Ah.” 

The man waved, “Good morning Kaiser. Let’s go see your test results.” 

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This is just a draft and an editing pass for commas and such is still necessary. Hopefully you enjoyed this first chapter and maybe check out the book when it is posted January 4th on Royal Road.