Dragonfly

Greetings ladies and gentlemen of Earth and all native intelligences of the forty planets with contestants entered in the annual Grande Trex, the only inter-universe race. This year’s event promises excitement to surpass all previous races. As many of you fans know already the route or track of the race has been increased by five thousand million kilometres, thus allowing the Grande Trex to include the B-Arc 15 system!

Dragonfly, dragonfly

Satellite; strike and fight

Laser light shot tonight

Target nullified

Gyro subdivide

Latitude; longitude

Satellite; solid substitute

Dragonfly; are revise

What’s a drag race?

Can’t you see those dragons speeding up the street?

But I learned they weren’t real;

Figments of the ancient sphere

Rapid scan; radiance

For the chance to win the Grande

Manoeuvres; pre-program windage

Won’t operate, negative;

Bearing swell

Dragons fly, they symbolise in myth and saga breathing fire

Look up, there’s one flying higher;

Faster than the SSC

Is science hiding witchery?[Spoken Interlude]

Grande Trex fans throughout the universe are well

informed on the risks the pilots take in entering this race. Re-entry into some of the alien atmospheres is tricky business which can cause a craft to implode; explode; melt; lose atomic structure and so forth, adding to the interstellar terrain that on its own is a terrific danger to the ships en route. The craft are scheduled to launch at oh-seven-five-one-hundred Greenwich Mean Time and assembled on one our very own stars, Neutron Einstar EV9. And the excitement is at a fever pitch as the countdown approaches zero!

Dragonfly, rations glide

In free fall slide

Systems nullified

Satellite; dragonfly

Surface launch; radio silence

Hover high; level off

The time space tactics saved us then

Display report present; urgent

Sequence counting; surface launch

Dragonfly destroying all!

Science claiming newest findings

Chanting, calling flying dragons

Aboard all systems optimum

Nova scheduled war continued

Half the continental shelf burned by interval;

Interval

We have retained as an added feature for daring thrills and excitement in this race—a feature which I’m sure you’re going to like—a computer override lasting three and half and hours or two gens in which pilots and copilots manually control free fall; latitude; longitude; protract gravity; revise dimensional equations, run program checks, submerge in the wild oceans of Jonrin 22, and photograph as much territory and terrain as they can in addition to the requisite three thousand automatic shots. The postulate for mischance runs high, but not as high as the tension and competitive spirit right here and all over the galaxy!Dragonfly, dragonfly

Beacons aim; space game

(Countdown is negative two hundred and I am turning you over to the control room and command central for the launch.)

Satellite; computerised

(Good luck to all the entrants and especially to our own ship, the Dragonfly!)

Hypersonic glide

(Beacons, lasers, quasars mounted on deck; rapid survey reactor; failsafe radians)

Win the race

Calibrate re-entry place

(Extra points awarded for city salvage delivered at the finish line, preferably retaining molecular identity.)

Multi failsafe