10-09-2025, 12:26 AM
Nika stared at the ceiling, palms behind her head, trying but failing to rest. Months. It felt much longer but really it had only been months. What started as a long discovery meeting morphed into a late night engineering crisis, urgent computer modeling, hurried part printing and last minute tests. The near disaster had become a week of tense, sleepless, nonstop and all-in disaster prevention.
A week incommunicado became two then three then a month of a habit broken. Nika was well into the flyaway races by then; races on the far side of home as the team stayed in South America, Australia, and New Zealand. Then her injury in Japan right before the month-long break.
She remembered only being tucked in on the straight when a tiny spark just outside her field of vision grew into a brilliant crescendo. There was an echo of a crack just preceeding. An aperture of darkness overtook the bright before a pin prick of light appeared once more to reveal Liv's face.
Only it hadn't been; the Japanese doctor didn't look anything like her. Eight more days were lost in the blink of an eye. Eight days and two surgeries for the swelling to go down.
Nika had watched footage of herself sit up briefly after the brake pad's impact, before the Ducati veered casually toward the wall on the fastest part of the track. She too had held her breath as the clutch lever guard sparked at the swiping contact, red bike wobbling ominously in what normally would have ended in a terrible crash. Only, irrefutable visual and cataloged data saw the pilot open the throttle and stabilize the bike once more. She did not recall downshifting to naught or calmly lean the machine against the wall and dismount.
Trackside media had sussed out what she'd kept repeating to the medical staff who'd sprinted toward her. “Tell Olivia I'm sorry.” Over and over regardless of the question as she was guided toward the emergency transport. Nika's earnest request drew agreement from the caretakers eventually and whatever part of her that had kept going finally shut down.
Olivia.
Nika's eyes strayed back to her wallet. Guilt and regret that was enough to bubble from her subconscious when nothing else remained had not lessened at all since she'd been woken up.
A message was already typed out on the screen and had been for a while now. There was something more here. A weight. Urgency? Desperation? She didn't know why or how but Nika knew without a doubt that this girl would change her life. It scared her more than anything.
“I am so sorry I disappeared. Can I tell you that in person?”
She hit send.
A week incommunicado became two then three then a month of a habit broken. Nika was well into the flyaway races by then; races on the far side of home as the team stayed in South America, Australia, and New Zealand. Then her injury in Japan right before the month-long break.
She remembered only being tucked in on the straight when a tiny spark just outside her field of vision grew into a brilliant crescendo. There was an echo of a crack just preceeding. An aperture of darkness overtook the bright before a pin prick of light appeared once more to reveal Liv's face.
Only it hadn't been; the Japanese doctor didn't look anything like her. Eight more days were lost in the blink of an eye. Eight days and two surgeries for the swelling to go down.
Nika had watched footage of herself sit up briefly after the brake pad's impact, before the Ducati veered casually toward the wall on the fastest part of the track. She too had held her breath as the clutch lever guard sparked at the swiping contact, red bike wobbling ominously in what normally would have ended in a terrible crash. Only, irrefutable visual and cataloged data saw the pilot open the throttle and stabilize the bike once more. She did not recall downshifting to naught or calmly lean the machine against the wall and dismount.
Trackside media had sussed out what she'd kept repeating to the medical staff who'd sprinted toward her. “Tell Olivia I'm sorry.” Over and over regardless of the question as she was guided toward the emergency transport. Nika's earnest request drew agreement from the caretakers eventually and whatever part of her that had kept going finally shut down.
Olivia.
Nika's eyes strayed back to her wallet. Guilt and regret that was enough to bubble from her subconscious when nothing else remained had not lessened at all since she'd been woken up.
A message was already typed out on the screen and had been for a while now. There was something more here. A weight. Urgency? Desperation? She didn't know why or how but Nika knew without a doubt that this girl would change her life. It scared her more than anything.
“I am so sorry I disappeared. Can I tell you that in person?”
She hit send.