I'm gonna hit you with sonic speed...

[Jens Vec]

Ever since the Empire took over the Republic, the democracy-loving citizens of Naboo have been members of the Rebellion. Everyone, from the oldest senior citizen to the newest-born baby, is actively defying the Empire somehow. Babies projectile vomit at Stormies. Old men take their time crossing the road when there’s an Imperial craft driving down it. Young adults formally join the Rebellion. And the teenagers? We break the law.

Unapproved gatherings are not allowed on Naboo. If you want a ton of people to get together in a public place, you file with the city government. Tell ‘em what you wanna do, where you’re gonna do it, when you’re gonna do it, how many you expect to show up, and if you get approved, you meet at the specified time, at the specified place, with some Stormies to make sure you’re not gonna revolt. We teens don’t like chaperones, so we hold our meetings in private, late at night. We all gather underground, in one of the city’s big maintenance access tunnels. We draw a line on the durracrete and gather crowds to either side of the tunnel. Then, we line up a bunch of hotshot daredevils with hovering skateboards in front of the line, set some fast remote-camera droids on them, and count down to the mission.

There are two missions. Mission one says we’ve got to find the natural ramps and jump points of the city and do our biggest tricks to get the stormies’ attention. While they’re off chasing us, our audience breaks into wherever they’re guarding to steal and vandalize the imperial stuff. We move whatever we’ve stolen into a safe warehouse, then a few days later do the second mission. Mission two says all we’ve got to do is break the speed limit in an illegal, three-lap race to get the regular cops on us. With them out of the way, we’re free to move the stuff secretly throughout the city to special points where we hope Nubian members of the Rebellion will find it and ship it out to help the resistance. We’re never certain about the drop points; we just make our best guesses at where members of the Rebellion would go to hide and transport contraband. The stuff disappears, so somebody’s getting it. If it’s the Rebels, we done good. If it’s the Nubian citizens, still good. If it’s the Stormies? Well, that just gives something to do late at night, doesn’t it?

Tonight’s Mission 2. The line is drawn; a thick white line of chalk that will be washed away at the end of the night’s activities. We’ve got 7 racers tonight, all of us equipped with air boards. They’re the best for this sort of thing. Being built for tricks, they’re small and lightweight, which makes them easy to maneuver and easy to speed up. If you gotta accelerate, drive your leg by the side like you’re pushing off the ground and it works harder to get you moving. To turn, just lean and it’ll do the rest for you. Easy. The crowd counts down from three to start the race. At zero, we all hop our boards and start driving to build speed. The seven of us shoot out of the service tunnel and onto the highway, heading straight for the heart of the city. I’m in 5th, but that’ll change soon. My name is Jens Vec, and I’m the best teenage rebel on the planet.

[Ariesa d'Veldrin]

Arie had gathered with many of the other teens on Naboo to watch the start of the "race" to distract the stormies, as the teens called them. Her eyes remained on one imparticular, Jens Vec. Possibly one of the hottest guys in the universe as far as many of the girls on Naboo were concerned. And many of the girls had their eye on him tonight. Nothing Arie could do about it though.

As daughter to one of the high standing members of society on Naboo, Ariesa's father had often told her to stay away from the ruffians that went to unplanned events like this. He wanted to keep her hidden away for no one to see. She hated it. All she wanted to do was to be a normal kid like the others that surrounded her tonight. Sure there were other upstanding society kids around, but almost all of them had as much of a stick up their... yeah... as their parents did. She grew bored of them and often disappeared to the begining of these races. But even then, she would never dream of taking part in the "after start activities" as many of the kids called them. She would not risk her father's reputation that badly. Maybe one day.

But for now, she just watched the start of the races and the eye candy that happened to be there and be one of the racers. A thought crossed her mind as she stood there, waiting for the count down. What would happen if she brought some guy like Jens home to Daddy. 'Heh. He would freak out.' She thought to herself. And it was true. Her father would throw a fit about it. 'Mum would understand. I bet Mum would talk Daddy into letting me date a guy like that.' Arie's mother had a way of talking her father into things. "The man might be the head of the family, but the woman is the neck which turns the head what ever way it pleases." her mother had always told her. It always made Arie smile.

And at that, the count down began. The entire croud started shouting out for the racers to start.

"3....!"

A brash idea came to Arie. She took it.

"2....!"

"Good Luck and Force Speed, Jens!!" she shouted above the croud.

"1....!"

And the racers were off.

[Jens Vec]

When you're doing these races, there's a few things to consider:

1: The service tunnels we use for starting areas are for the inter-city tunnels that connect the cities of Naboo without disturbing the environment. They're 1.5 kilometers north, west, east, and south of the city. Right now we're northbound.

2: 30 meters from the tunnel entrances, there's a huge gorram sign welcoming visitors into the city.

3: There are no speed detection devices on the open road. Motorists tend to speed the rest of the way into town once they hit the surface. Cops hide behind the sign to bust them.

4: Hey, wait a minute. Some girl at the starting line just cheered for me by name. I didn't see her face. Man, I hope she's hot.

5: It's late at night. The cops are probably cooping.

Anyhow, the result is that we can nice straightaway to build speed and enter town causing the maximum ruckus possible, which will divert every cop on patrol onto us. But there's no fun in that.

As soon as we hit air, I divert to the sign and run between two cops parked back there, hammering their doors as I speed by. I'm dead last now, but that doesn't matter much to me for now. Our other friends are moving the contraband in the northwest corner, where our last loop on every lap is. These guys are gonna have every cop in town headed south to cut us off. There should be plenty of time for them to move it all out before we even finish lap 1.

Laps go in a cloverleaf; we cut straight through the city on Main Street, hang a right at the edge of town and follow a curve through to Zero Avenue. Go straight down zero, hang a right...you get the idea. Do it 4 times and you're back where you started. That's a lap. Do 3, then go east or west on Zero (whichver way you think is luckiest) and get in the service tunnel for one of those inter-cities. Fifty meters in is an access tunnel that runs back to the southern one.

First one back to the south tunnel and across the line wins, and it's gonna be me. More important than placing 1st though, is finding out who cheered for me. She's watching the action on handheld screen back in the tunnel, no doubt. Whoever came up with this remote droid/screen concept owns hard.

[Ariesa d'Veldrin]

Ariesa and several of the others that stayed behind for the finish of the race, sat around with view screens in their hands. Arie and three of her female friends sat on a few storage boxes that were empty watching the race. Arie had the screen zoomed in on Jens. The stunt he had just pulled was risky. He knew it as did everyone else watching or participating. She doesn't worry though. He is always doing stunts and tricks to make the croud back in the tunnels go wild, and to make the cops even angrier.

One of her friends tapped her on the back of the head.

"Hey, zoom out. I want to see how the rest of the racers are doing!"

Arie rolled her eyes and pressed the button that zoomed out on the race. All the racers were doing their best stunts and tricks over cop cars and other obsticles, trying to get as much attention as possible. And they seemed to be doing a great job at it. Jens was pulling forward, but it was hard to tell who was going to win because all of the racers were doing stunts that would either slow them down or speed them up. She glanced up around the tunnel and saw that the transport crew had already left. That ment there was nothing to do, but watch and wait, hoping that everything would come out alright.

[Jens Vec]

The pack forms a line across the road to meet the oncoming polie. Whoever designed these things they drive was a mad genius. We just put some extra weight on the back of the air boards, lift the nose, and the repulsorlifts catch the noses of the cars and fire us over their heads and into the air. It's only enough for a front flip and a simple nosegrab before we hit the city proper. The cops take forever turning around; we fly up Main in record time and make a long, lazy right into the side-streets and alleys of the north-east part of town. In the tricks and the run up Main I've managed to get up to 3rd.

Looking back past the other racers and the police who have managed to catch up, I can see the faint, dark outline of a heavy speeder, pulling away from an old storehouse slow, quiet, and unnoticed. It turns into the west side of town and disappears. I win. Well, we win. Now there's nothing left but the race. I know there's a natural ramp coming up as we enter the square from the east. The Imperial Building of Propaganda, um, I mean, the Imperial History Museum, has these steep inclines on the sides that lead up to tiny little flower beds. Well, whatever. I drive hard to build some speed and hit the incline, pressing the tail of the board down. The results are spectacular; I clear the 2nd story and land on the roof, but barely. Better than the 2nd floor entrance I was predicting.

The rooftops are the place to be. Every ledge is an brief incline; I can hop from one to the other unnoticed by the police or the other riders. I stay on course, following the cloverleaf, keeping tabs on the lead man and the cops. They're spreading now, trying to pin down the riders, but it'll never happen, not with the sloped noses of those police landspeeders. I drive on the rooftops, building up some speed, and rejoin the fray at the start of lap two in first.

[Ariesa d'Veldrin]

The tunnels cheer as someone shouts out that the transport team made it to the destination. Arie smiled as her friends around her cheered and whooped at the good news. Now all that was left was to keep the racers safe through the next two laps of the race. Some of these guys could be very risky and dare devilish. Arie just hoped that these guys didn't go nutso and do some overly dangerous trick that could get them killed... or worse, caught by the cops. But, of course, someone had to d some silly trick that could cost him his life. And, as always, it happened to be Jens.

For a split second, the entire tunnel went quiet. All eyes were on the view screen as Jens took to the air off the side of the Museum. A gasp can from a few of the people around the tunnel as it seemed his suspension in mid air lasted for hours. Then he landed... on the roof. Half a second later, louder cheers than for the transport, sounded off througout the tunnel as he succeeded in his jump. All view screens were on Jens now as he was racing along the roof tops, quickly speeding past first place before jumping down and starting into the second lap. The cheers lasted several long moments until everything had settled down.

The race was running smoothly at this point. All of the racers were doing well, with Jens still in the front of the pack. But that also ment, should any cops manage to stop the group, he was the first to run into what ever obstical they were presented. He was good, but was he that good? Then the Tunnelers saw them. The view screens had changed position and were focused from behind the riders. From the hight that the camera's had, they could see far ahead of the racers. Making a line across the road were several cop cars in a line, turned sideways. A line of Stormies were across the road, waiting for the racers, stun guns in hand. If those guns hit one of the riders, it could be bad. All of the riders out there were experienced and had gone up against troopers with stun guns before, but this many.

Arie held her breath as the racers begain to close in on the troops. Someone sent a message to the racers, who all had head sets on.

"Warning, line of troopers with stun guns ahead. Get out of there, guys!"

[Jens Vec]

The message is relayed to us in a panicked stammer. "Stormies! Forget the race! Book it! Go straight home if you want to, just don't get caught!." The other racers scatter right away, but not me. Stormies never come out to play with us on Mission 2, and I'm up for a challenge. But the shouting on the earpiece is gonna drive me insane if I do it. I bank right, looping around a building and going back east on Zero. If I can make the access tunnel they'll never find me, and I can go find out who that girl is. It's decided. A flat speed run back to base, no tricks or stunts. This'll be a rare sight, if anyone's still watching.

[Ariesa d'Veldrin]

All the racers seemed to have split. All except for Jens. He had looped around and was headed straight back for the tunnels. If a cop managed to catch him or follow him, the Tunnelers would be in trouble. Most of the kids around there started to panic a bit. About half of them bailed on them, headed out of the tunnels and back home as quickly as they could. The rest of the Tunnelers that stayed behind to make sure Jens and any other racer that desided to come back to the tunnels took up hiding positions. A few of them even pulled guns. Arie was suprised at this.

"Arie, lets go. We have to get out of here before the cops show!" One of her friends pleaded with her. She shook her head quickly and pushed them off of her.

"You guys go. I'll be fine." They didn't budge. "Just go!" She ran them off and her three friends headed home. She made her way over to one of the other Tunnelers and crouched beside him. "How long until Jens is expected to arive?"

"A few more moments. He has two cops on him, but they wont be able to keep up with him. They will pull back soon.. I hope." he said, looking down at his view screen. For a long time, the tunnels were silent, all of the Tunnelers watching their view screens. The tension in the air was thick. Sure enough, about a mile before Jens hit the tunnels, the cops pulled back. They couldn't keep up at this point. Jens was free. A sigh of relief fell across many of the Tunnelers as they waited for Jens to get back to the tunnel. They came out of hiding, but those with weapons, kept them at ready, just in case. The buzz of Jen's engine could be heard through the tunnels as he came in. Cheers erupted as soon as he came into view.

[Jens Vec]

Stormies are more persistent than cops. They won't stop til they've caught me, or lost me so horribly that they have no hope of finding me. I weave in and out of alleys, knocking over debris and trying to gain such a lead that I can make the tunnels without any problem. I lose the Stormies by moving through an abandoned fast food place. By the time they realize I didn't go to the end of the alley, I'm so far gone in the other direction they'll never catch me.

I've got 2 cops left...the first two I knocked on in the beginning. Wierdly, they back off as we reach the edge of the city; I don't even have to plan out some kind of slick evasion. They just stop. I fly into the tunnels and get into the access, enjoying the silence. Tonight was closer than usual, and it worries me. I can't think on this for long though. I zoom out of the access and into the south service tunnel to tulmultous applause, leaping off the air board with a backflip as I cross the finish. I land, make a sweeping bow, then walk over to retrive my floating plank. Now...where's that girl?

[Ariesa d'Veldrin]

A huge smile hits Arie's face as she sees him backflip off his board and bow to the croud. She joins in the cheering for him as all of the people remaining in the tunnel rush over to him to hoist him up onto their shoulders. She stood back, standing on one of the empty storage containers so she could see over the croud. They had started chanting his name and this made her laugh a bit. He really was one of the greatest rebelous teens on Naboo.. possibly anywhere else for that matter.

Eventualy, they put him back down and began cleaning up quickly. Everywhere Jens walked, though, people were still cheering him and high fiving him. Ariesa was sitting on one of the durosteel containers, watching the last of the clean up happen. Most of the others had already left but she was not looking forward to going home. Ontop of that, she hadn't really congradulated Jens on his run. She watched him walk around until he came within shouting distance of her.

"Hey Jens. Good job on the 'Force Speed.'" She said, bringing up what she had called out to him as he was taking off. She flashed a smile at him then went back to watching the others.

[Jens Vec]

Soaking up adulation is tough. No, seriously, it is. It's a rush for the first 20 minutes, then it just kinda wears down, and you wish people would stop slapping your back and high-fiving you just long enough for you to take a breath. None of these people seem to be the girl I'm looking for anyway. Grinds my gears when I can't find the girl I'm lookin' for. Lucky me, then, that she speaks up as I'm about to head on to the house.

"Hey Jens. Good job on the 'Force Speed'." Force Speed. That's her. I turn to look, managing not to look too excited, and...wow. She is hot.

"Thanks. I needed it tonight. Law everywhere, and me on this wimpy air board. It's technically not built for races; it's built for tricks."

I boost myself onto a drum next to her and lean the plank on my leg. For a brief moment I consider how I must look. Hair swept into a mess, a few small spatters on my clothes from hitting night insects at high speeds, and some dirt from my time spent in the middle of pack gracing my legs from the knees down. Racing's rough on the appearance.

"You come down here often?"

[Ariesa d'Veldrin]

She smiles and looks back at him. Even all roughed up as he was, sitting infront of her, he was still hot. But she held herself back from giggling like a crushing 13 year old. That would have looked really dumb of her. The fact that he actualy stopped to talk to her and even sat down to chat was enough to make her blush, and blushing she was. She tried to stop but it was still there.

"I come here often enough to know who you are. But that isn't saying much, is it? I learned your name, the first time I came here. Everyone seems to know you. But, yeah. I show up, every now and then."

She smiles at him again, feeling her face stop blushing. She turns to look back at the clean up, trying not to make it obvious that she was interested in him. A few strands of hair fall in her face and she brushes them back with her hand, tucking them behind her ear.

[Jens Vec]

The red in her cheeks is cute and makes me smile. I sit still for a minute to let the blushing fade.

"Well, once is enough to know my name," I explain after a bit, feeling silly talking about myself. "Jens Vec, famed underground air board racer. Best teenage rebel on the planet. Bleh bleh bleh." I open and close my hands like flapping jaws. "Kids talk about me so much even I don't know the facts from the rumors. I get told all the time about how I did something 'so freaking awesome', but I can never recall what it is they're talking about. It's just...not a big deal."

I look up at her again, having stared at my knees through most of that. "Do you think what I did tonight was impressive?"

[Ariesa d'Veldrin]

She glances over at him as he is talking. She knew exactly what he was saying. When she first showed up, she heard so many things about him, she wasn't sure which were true and which weren't. She still wasn't. But atleast now she had some stories that were true to talk about. But the same thing happened to her at time, only in a different light. In a light to try to make her father look bad or to make her look bad by the press and such.

Arie had looked away, again, while he was talking, then he asked her what she thought. She turned her head to look at him.

"I thought it was amazing. I never would have been able to do anything like that. I can't believe how brave you were to jump onto that roof. You should have heard every one around here shouting out that you could fly and stuff. And then going at those Troopers? It was..."

She suddenly relised she had been rambling and blushed again, turning away. She took a quick breath, still not looking at him.

"You were O.K."

Her eyes glanced over at him, and she knew he had noticed. How could he not have. She bit her lip, closed her eyes and started laughing.

"I'm sorry. You really were amazing out there..."

[Jens Vec]

I laugh.

"Don't be sorry. I'm fine with being O.K." I smile at her again. "You wanna know something? I didn't think I'd make the roof on that jump in a million years. I was lookin' to go through the window on the second floor."

[Ariesa d'Veldrin]

"Really? Everyone thought you were going to crash, but when you made it onto that roof... Man, it was like you could fly or something."

She smiles, relising she hadn't introduced herself and held out her right hand to him.

"My name is Ariesa," she said, desiding to leave out her last name. Her father was one of the guys acting against the rebelous teens around the city and everyone knew it. "Most people just call me Arie though."

[Jens Vec]

"Arie."

I take her hand and give it a quick shake.

"It's a pleasure to meet you. And for the record, that is the only jump like that I've ever made like that on this old plank, no matter what anyone tells you."

How'd I become such a legend? It doesn't make any sense to me. The place is pretty much cleared out by now, except a few stragglers who are watching replays on the screens.

"You ever ride an air board or hover board before, Arie?"

[Ariesa d'Veldrin]

Arie was looking around at the others in the tunnels as well. No one out of the ordinary. A distant cheer echoed from another part of the tunnels, she was guessing that they were replaying part of Jens' run this evening. She turned to him when he asked her if she had ever ridden before. She opened her mouth as if she was going to say something but then closed it again, shaking her head.

"No... I would probobly end up falling over."

[Jens Vec]

"Really? Well, be careful if you ever do. We've made them practically illegal through our efforts here." I jump down off the barrel and pick up mine. I need to get home and hide the damn thing.

"You gonna be okay? Need a ride to town, or anything?"

[Ariesa d'Veldrin]

She knew, letting this guy take her back in to town would give away where she lived and she really didn't want to spoil the night with Jens finding out who her father was. She shook her head and smiled, hopping off of the crate she was on.

"No, I will be fine. One of the tunnels opens up right near my house. That is how I get back and forth. Dad would kill me if he knew though."

[Jens Vec]

"Lucky. I have to walk back along the highway. I live in the northeast, too, so it's gonna be a longer walk than usual tonight."

I stretch and suppress a yawn. It's gotta be pushin' 3AM.

"Where do you live? We could hook up sometime."

[Ariesa d'Veldrin]

"Oh... um..."

She tried to think of something that would make it so she didn't have to give away where she lived.

"You know that club... off of Broadway? The one that lets underaged go in? I live near that."

She smiles, hoping this works.

"Maybe... you could meet me there sometime?"

[Jens Vec]

"Yeah, I know it. Sure. Works for me. Just tell me a time and a night and I'll see you there."

I pick up my plank and get ready to go.

"You're gettin' back through one of the tunnels, right? I'm walkin' back in the dark on the surface. I live on the west side of town, 2 blocks from the square and 2 blocks north of Zero. Come find me if you're bored."

[Ariesa d'Veldrin]

Arie nods and smiles again.

"All right. I'll do that sometime. And I am sure we will see each other at the next race."

She gives him one last smile and begins to walk off through the tunnels.

[Jens Vec]

I ride the board out of the tunnel and get off it once I'm out in the air, walking back to town in the darkest sections. It's an hour or so to town and another half hour to the house. I hide my board under the house then get inside, falling asleep the second I get onto the bed. It's been a good night.