Dex Calder climbed out of the smoking cockpit and stared at the wreck of his racer zord. Steam hissed from the cracked cylinder head. Red-hot metal glowed through the seams. He wanted to break the lightspeed barrier. Tonight he'd barely cleared half that speed before the engine screamed. The heat readout flickered on the dash. The numbers were ugly. Past redline. Past every safety margin the designers had written. Randy Ruby walked up, arms crossed. "Engine's done. You melted the core." Grace Emerald knelt beside the scorched housing. She ran a gloved hand along the cracked metal. "Drowning, but you're still awake for it. That's what your engine felt." She stood. "We move it to the repair bay. Now." They hauled the zord into the bright repair structure. Tools lowered from the ceiling. Grace started logging damage points. Randy locked the new cooling shunt into place and stepped back. "Rebuilt. Stronger line, bigger sink. It'll hold." Dex touched the cooled plating. The engine would run again. But Grace met his eyes. "It holds at race speed. Not at lightspeed." Dex nodded once. The zord was alive. The real attempt was still ahead.