“Of course I had heard of the Grenfell-Maxwell Marathon, it was the most interesting event of the twentieth century. Well, discounting the first World Wars and the invention of computers and the airplane, and the creation of the Internet, and the first automobiles, and the Cold War, and. . .”221Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfvoxTm0Wej
The man outside the sound booth waved his hands. 221Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn8RUPi0OXv
Right, “Be concise. Be positive."221Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRr1pTnF5AW
“But, those had been covered to death in countless contemporary works. But, even when compared to those monumental historical developments, the Grenfell-Maxwell Marathon holds a certain special place within my heart due to the sheer number of mysteries surrounding it. These mysteries were no doubt aided by the small amount of coverage of the race as few at the time bothered paying attention to it for a multitude of reasons. 221Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTsUR0SkN5J
“Its starting day came with claims of a new land-speed record for a horse and an open-air motorcycle. The moment these records were made conveniently occurred while the cameras were all turned off for fear of the kicked-up dust damaging equipment. And, no one could take the announcer’s word for it, Motorcycles wouldn’t be able to reach that speed while remaining open for several decades, and horses. . . well, horses have never been able to run that fast.221Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ20vG4pOEBt
“That gaffe not only led to the death of the announcer’s career, but it also resulted in a loss in credibility regarding everything about the event. Investors and advertisers stopped promoting it, and only local newscasters bothered to appear at stage finishes. Despite the trivial amount of official records being made for the race, anecdotal reports of violence and disappearances accompanied the marathon throughout its course.221Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4UKeX8e1XN
“These reports were never officially investigated, but the loss of life among the competitors was evident. Of the quarter-million teams initially in the race, less than one thousand arrived at the final stage’s finish line. Many of the missing competitors were retrieved by expedition teams hired by Mr. Grenfell, and scattered autopsies claim lacerations, gunshot wounds, and other, stranger causes of death. 221Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoYxii6jYT4
“The two major sponsors of the race, Mr. Grenfell and Mr. Maxwell are probably the most well-known people connected to it. To this day, their names are synonymous with impossible yet believed promises, people with unknown sources of wealth, and well-meaning mistakes. Despite their historical staying power, little is known about them, their first recorded appearance was in India where they promoted the marathon, the total amount and source of their wealth was never disclosed, and they never appeared publicly after the race’s finish.221Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgpLLItHJSU
“Despite the loss in credibility worldwide, the skepticism surrounding Grenfell’s and Maxwell’s wealth, and the ever-present danger throughout the race, the nearly one million competitors saw the race as their road to riches and glory. The sensational promise of a wish to the victor had no small influence on the people’s fervor, and the competitors were more than willing to risk everything to gain that fabled prize.221Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOeR5N6XPgN
“And that. That passion from an almost magical source that overtook these people and the mystery of how it all happened is what brought me and my crew back almost three-hundred years.” I took a deep breath. Speaking for such long periods was not a skill I possessed, “There. Was that take good enough for you Samuel?”221Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRDeab2ZRcQ
The man clicked a button and his clearly annoyed voice came through a speaker within the room, “That was fine, but I’m Madden.” The man pointed to a person sitting beside him, fiddling with a camera, “He’s Samuel.”221Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVCUa1tJFh8
I nodded and left the sound booth, “Have you gotten the footage yet?”221Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPwv8U1LXmQ
God, why was this the only job I could get?221Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhvQBAHpstK
The man looked at me, though he wasn’t the one I addressed, “Yup, I got the generic B-roll for the intro, and our outdoor cameras are trained on the other competitors of interest.”221Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2pghG50xCS
A waste of my talents, and on what? A fucking documentary.221Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqRwHVMYl0p
I approached the man and surveyed the numerous electronic screens. I recognized the plane as belonging to Jacqueline Santos-Dumont, and the nearby horse and motorcycle that were supposed to break records, but none of the other people were familiar.221Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIFbh2Hx1B8
Not only a documentary, a documentary on this stupid race. Nobody remembers it, and those that do, know it was nothing but a sham to see how desperate people could become. Unlike me, of course; I’m not desperate. I just. . . can’t be picky with my jobs at the moment.221Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpqztgmjkgF
When the race began, we kept our eyes on the alleged victor, Sheri Parfit; the lost pilot, Jacqueline Santos-Dumont; and Etteilla Laveau, the owner of history’s “fastest” horse. The plan was that I would provide on-site commentary, and we would later create a more fleshed-out script for the footage when we returned to the present.221Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWFhLeHXFKN
We were surprised when our cameras recorded Etteilla’s teammate shooting Dumont’s plane. Even more so when our Sound Isolator detected Dumont mentioning the loss in fuel.221Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFr7rqlLmzx
Huh, cheating so early, and by Grenfell’s favorite team no less.221Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvF7UaEIrWS
“Strange,” one of the crewmen said, “If Dumont knew of the leak, why would she take off?”221Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOd1bdRi881
His question was answered when the team behind her, a hitherto unknown group hijacked her plane and launched it themselves.221Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqdOjO4JfLT
What. 221Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡITTaq0YBM4
I’ve done a little preliminary research for this thing. . .221Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLSFnW45MDl
I’m out of luck, not talent.221Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCcelHhdaea
. . . but, not once in my research did it mention that Dumont was hijacked by a group of wannabe cowboys.221Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuniQYAjv6X
We barely had time to be surprised at that moment as the cameraman pointed out something far more astonishing, Sheri was gone. Her truck had vanished from outside. He hastily cycled through the cameras until he landed on the micro-camera we had placed on their hood. With its view on screen, we could plainly see the city of Flores.221Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ4ZkMl6HKh
What.221Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5c6uKDM4GM
The implication that practical teleportation existed centuries before we had believed would be revolutionary. 221Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwgy2efJEsb
Perhaps it could even revitalize my career.221Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLXB5JNilFU
As our astonishment began to fade into acceptance, our recorder set to the race announcements radio station picked up that Etteilla had broken ahead. We mocked the statement; it was well known that it was impossible for a horse to travel that quickly, and the sound bite was an infamous example of bad journalism. 221Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0WXWHW9Sk2
An example I had hammered into me countless times.221Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ27Ku6P7NSf
But given what else had happened. . .221Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV53XPFKBzH
Samuel switched to the camera he had placed at the edge of the salt flats. On it, we could clearly see that two people had breached the dust cloud surrounding the racers. Samuel zoomed it in. One of the people was on an open-air motorcycle, the other. . . a horse.221Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡM86MGNuqJr
What.221Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr7i7Gn6pJq
Nothing else. Just what.221Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOkyKLzs8RK
The four people we had planned to follow all well beyond our vehicle's reach, at least beyond it without drawing attention to ourselves. One of the two men took direct control of the micro-camera in Flores and launched it to get a few aerial shots of Sheri’s victory. Meanwhile, the other retired to the cabin and began to weave us through the crowd and towards the other competitor of interest, Urho Häyhä. There weren’t any reported incidents involving him today, but we know that something happened before he reached Flores, and given what else had already happened. . .221Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6Rj9Kou44F
I urged him to drive faster and began to smile. This was the first natural smile I had done in. . . I don’t even know how long.221Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd7RwRXUpje
I am Revatti Alcubierre, and this race is how I rediscovered my calling.221Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrNA3Rn5TIG
