Roaring, muffled by distance, engines echo across the dunescape before her. Hayden can feel a rising energy within her chest as the sound grows and the ground begins to rumble—as the racers speed closer. Closer and closer. Snarls of engineered fury, precision turned to power, ingenuity into infernal beauty.

Dust bursts from over the furthest dune. Again and again until finally the racers can be seen. Incredible motorcycles, colored bright, racers mounted atop in shining armor. Wind blasts across the audience as each bike screams past at blurring speeds. Their sounds echo beyond the straightaway, beyond the track, into the sky—followed soon by the roar of the audience. Collective passion channeled into a raw, palpable energy. Every bit of it is intoxicating. The smell of burned rubber and oil bring a chorus of inspiration that envelops Hayden’s soul, filling her with an excitement for the life that awaits her.

Maybe, just maybe, one day it’ll be her on the track. Turn by turn, drifting expertly between dunes, the master of a mechanical monster of her own. The roars fade, the winners are called, Hayden and her father walk back to their hovercraft. Her hands still tremble in excitement as the words burst from her lips:

“I’m going to be a racer!”

He tries to smile supportively, but the honest face she inherited can’t hide the doubt within. His eyes almost roll as he dismisses her. He must think she’s being childish. He doesn’t believe that she can make it onto that track. Nobody seems to believe her. Not her friends. Not her family. Her partners laugh at her, their doubt always leading to distance.

A consuming flame bursts within her. It’s wild, its energetic, optimistic, almost daunting at times. But in the coming years, she’ll learn to use it to temper herself. The many alternate paths that open up to her will already appear closed off. Because today, she has decided her course. She doesn’t push herself because she wants to race, she does it because she has to.

She needs to prove them all wrong.