7 The end of the exam

The physical tests were something predictable; all the applicants trained for years to reach the level they required; it didn't matter whether they had, speed, endurance or strength. After the time and dedication that the preparation required, anyone who did not pass the grade they were looking for did not want it enough and did not deserve it.

After sweating and pushing his body to its maximum, Eneas obtained a 90% grade for that exam. He decided not to go any further; he could have scratched a few tenths more, but the last test would require all his attention; it was the culmination of the exam. ... The tunnel of obstacles... It was reminiscent of when simulation cabins did not exist or were not "so advanced." They were models that, no matter how much the army tried to get rid of them, no one would want them as scrap metal, so they were used for the tenth test until one day they ran out of spare parts for them.

The entire academy grounds were crisscrossed by a network of narrow, uncomfortable and with deliberately placed obstacles. The students would be allowed to pilot old Faumer gliders, single-seat and single-engine; they were like a prehistoric version of their Amaru... Neither speed nor handling would be a problem; he just had to pass through all the check points in order, without hitting anything. It was the only test in which applicants could do real harm.

A test in which, in order to achieve the 85% mark, they would have to get the most out of an obsolete machine and still put their lives on the line, to beat the time. Three minutes to pass, and two minutes to pass the official cut—a feat only within the reach of a few.

Ten applicants would run in each round; Eneas did not have his turn in the draw until the seventh, he waited patiently and when the time came after picking up the helmet and headed to the Faumer, the damned unit 1112, but this was a second chance, a second life knew in advance what would happen.

He pressed the start of the system but not the automatic start of the engine; if he did, the slider would stall, and he would lose about 6 seconds until he managed to start it, so he proceeded to manual start, clutch and kick the pedal. With a purr, the engine managed to start when there were only 5 seconds left in the countdown.

He did not give full throttle; at first, it would take at least seven seconds for that cold engine to be at maximum performance; doing that would only cause it to lose power in the subsequent moments.

Although eight drivers overtook him at the start, he was not worried. First, first a tight left turn, while the majority of the drivers who had accelerated to the maximum had to brake to be able to take it safely. Eneas advanced progressively, being able to give gas to stop just at the moment when the escape of the curve was visible. The engine roared, as if it were a long-abandoned lover who felt alive again.

The circuit forked, just two colored dots like any identification: green, a longer route with fewer obstacles, safe but impossible to beat the 2-minute time with those things, or red, short, intricate, but full of obstacles. . Eneas' choice was clear; everything was red-hot. Only the three drivers in the lead and him chose that option.

First obstacle on the right, narrowing, then ramp... the Faumer stabilizers were anything but stable, so the first brave man who was trying to get all the gas possible out of the machine could not avoid bouncing against the ground and going to be crashing into one of the walls... Eneas did not jump; using three-quarters of a fist, he used the curvature of the tunnel to dodge and thus be able to accelerate as much as possible after overcoming the obstacle.

Sharp right turn, but he already knew it; he could choose the best trajectories beforehand; where others braked, skidded or had problems, he passed smoothly, gaining time on the clock, attacking the route and obstacles well, and giving the maximum of the engine only in the safe areas.

He only had one driver ahead of him; Eneas used the right part of the tunnel as a track and his rival the left, but the next corner showed that the choice of the area could completely change the destiny of the test. Just after the next corner, a barrier At mid-height, he forced his rival to fall to the ground, skidding with the Faumer to avoid crashing, while although Eneas had chosen the long part of the curve, he was able to accelerate as soon as he came out of it, overtaking the other driver and taking the lead.

With the track clean, I no longer had to be cautious with the random factor of the problems generated by the rest of the candidates. The engine was at full throttle; now was when skill and good memory would make the difference, trajectories with the minimum variation, avoiding obstacles only by centimeters but without slackening one bit even in the tightest curves, which made it more difficult to touch the faumer using the sheet metal itself as a guide if that allowed him not to loosen and push the engine to the limit.

The next curve brought catastrophe, a narrowing in which you could brush your knees against the walls if you wanted. In his other life, the front stabilizer of his speeder stopped working halfway through the narrowing, causing him to hit against the walls, and although when he got out of that last obstacle, he almost had to drag his vehicle himself until he crossed the finish line thirty meters later.

He breathed, accelerated, and with the skill of an acrobat, he entered the tunnel doing a wheelie, deactivating the front stabilizer manually, not to activate it again even when he crossed the finish line. Eneas' time was 1 minute, 25 seconds.

It wasn't the best record, but with the machine that he knew he would get, he couldn't do better; that 97% in this test already tasted like glory. This time there was no doubt in his mind that he would make the cut for officer school.