Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace by Patricia C. Wrede

Author:Patricia C. Wrede
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Junior Novel
Publisher: Disney Book Group

Anakin felt a familiar surge of excitement as his engines began to roar. Excitement, and fear—but Podracing fear was the only kind of fear that felt good. He could forget about Watto, and about being a slave. When he raced, he was in control of his fate. If he crashed, if he won, it was because of his own decisions, not his owner’s. He had tried to explain to his mother once, but she was so worried about his racing that she didn’t really listen.

The starting light flashed green, and Anakin forgot everything but the race. He shoved the control levers, hoping to establish a good position from the very beginning. The Podracer leaped forward…and the engines coughed and died.

No! They can’t do this! Frantically, Anakin worked the controls as Podracer after Podracer swerved around him and vanished into the desert. Finally, he saw the problem—the fuel regulator had been manually adjusted to full open, and the engines had flooded. How did that happen? Artoo checked it; Kitster checked it; I checked it.…He lost more precious seconds waiting for the extra fuel to evaporate and the engines to start again. At last, they ignited.

Without waiting to see if the engines would keep running, Anakin sent his Podracer screaming after the pack. As he rounded the first turn, he glimpsed a smoking fireball smeared across the base of a rock formation. Somebody swung too wide and crashed. Got to remember to watch that on the next lap.

He sped easily through the series of stone arches; without other Podracers getting in his way, they were simple. The trailing Podracers came into view ahead of him. I’m catching them! Again, he worked the controls, feeding power first to one engine, then the other. The Podracer swept around the other stragglers, one after another. If I can get out of this bunch, I can really catch up.…

A Podracer just ahead of him slid sideways, blocking him. Anakin veered to the opposite side, but the other driver seemed to expect it, and cut him off again. And again. Anakin frowned in concentration. There’s a drop coming up—where I wiped out, two races ago. He pulled back, leaving an extra length between his Podracer and the one that blocked him. Then, just as the other driver went over the drop, Anakin shoved both engine controls full open.

The Podracer surged forward. It flew off the edge of the cliff and over the blocking racer, barely missing the other driver’s engines. The Pod came down with a jolt that rattled Anakin’s teeth, but a quick check showed all the warning lights still shining green. It worked! Too bad it happened way out here; I hope Padmé was watching a view screen.

At the canyon dune turn, he saw another wreck ahead of him. Some instinct made him veer to one side, though he was nowhere close to the burning Podracer. An instant later, a shot bounced off the rear of his Pod.

Tusken Raiders! Good thing I dodged in time. He sped up unevenly, trying to make the Podracer a hard target to hit.

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