Once Kayla got all her paperwork sorted at the monitoring station and retrieved her beacon, she decided to head towards the food court before grabbing her supplies. The race lasted up to 24 hours with all the obstacles, and as her father used to say, ‘You can never be too prepared.”

As if ripped right out of a dream something hit her which caused her to stumble backwards, “What the hell?” she yelled as she scrambled to her feet before she noticed the man standing over her.

“Traitor,” he yelled as he spat in her face.

“What?” Kayla said confusion taking over.

“You’re the daughter of a traitor,” the man shouted.

Rage flared within Kayla. “My father was a hero, he was a –” her words came to a screeching halt as she some else assaulted her, sending a sharp jolt into her stomach. She looked around for the her assailant, they locked eyes as Kayla rushed forward tackling the woman to the ground, gripping her hair tightly as she pulled their faces close to one another.

“What is your deal?” Kayla yelled.

“You,” the woman struggled hard against Kayla’s tight grip. “You feel you can piss on this race with your soiled name.”

“You people are sick.” Kayla rolled off her attacker. “You have no clue as to what the hell you are talking about.” She looked around to see the crowd had grown, her fury was barely containable as she balled her fists, realizing there were to many people gathered she pushed her way through them, as they continued to send insults her way.

As she worked her way through the promenade gathering supplies. People continued to shout rude comments and leer. She had enough and grabbed her stuff she headed back to The Hammerhead. It wasn’t the first time this had happened to her, it actually happened a quite a lot when the ‘incident’ involving her father had happened. Over the past couple months it was a rarity, and she just wasn’t prepared for it in such a physical way.

She knew she should tell her Uncle, but how? ‘Hey Uncle Martin, how are you? Oh that’s good by the way I got another death threat today,’ she thought to herself. Yeah that would have went over well especially since she needed his help to get her into this race in the first place, on little slip up and he might pull her out.

***

Back at the ship she started her final preparations, getting all the supplies stowed on the ship, she connected and made sure to check that the monitoring beacon was working properly and synched with ‘The Hammerhead’. A ‘pinging’ noise came through her communications platform, which informed her that she had an incoming message.

As she turned it on the image of her Uncle came across the screen, “Kayla?”

“What’s up?” She replied in turn.

“I’m coming down to The Hammerhead to talk to you,” he said looking distractedly. “I should be there in about fifteen to twenty minutes.”

“Is everything alright?”

He didn’t want to lie to her. “We have a complication I want to discuss with you, see you in a few.”

Before she could ask anything else he disappeared from the screen, her mind started to work over all the details of the past couple days. Had he heard of her altercation in the market, or the threats on her life?. She couldn’t stand the thought that she might lose this opportunity to find out what happened to her father. She walked to the sleeping compartment where she crawled in pulling her fathers overalls over her body as tears slowly spilled down her face.

“Kayla,” she heard her Uncles voice call out.

“What’s going on?” She was out of the ship before noticing he wasn’t alone. “What the hell is she doing here?” Kayla said pointing in Macy’s direction.

“You two know each other?” Martin Sr. Asked, turning towards Macy.

“No, I’ve never met her before,” Macy said defensively.

“I know you from all the nasty messages your organization has sent .” Kayla walked up to the woman. “I’m not going to let you intimidate me. I’m racing with or without your support.” She looked at both her Uncle and the woman.

“Kayla, you and I have to talk for a minute.” Martin turned to Macy. “Can I have a few minutes to talk to my niece alone please.” He reached over and grabbed Kayla’s arm, leading her into the ship.

“What’s going on Uncle Martin?” Kayla asked quietly.

“Kayla, the TRC has come across some stuff that they believe might be cause for concern.” Martin Sr. yawned. “Sorry about that not used to the time here on Titan, they have brought some stuff to my attention with regards to your safety.”

“Did they tell you about the threats? Or the fight?” Kayla asked in defeat.

“Threats? Fight?” He lifted her chin up so they were looking into each other’s eyes, “Kayla, you know I would do anything for you, anything to protect you.” He paused briefly. “I know I haven’t been around a lot–”

“No, please,” she cut him off. “You have done so much for me–”

“What’s going on Kayla?”

She let go of the breath she had held. “Ever since the event with dad, I’ve been getting a lot of threats, not so much lately but–”

“Did you report any of them?”

“No,” she said looking away. “I thought they would just go away, and then today with the fight in the market–”

“You got in a fight?” Martin Sr. asked.

“Not really, a man pushed me down, and a woman punched me. I tackled her and made sure she was aware I wasn’t some helpless waif.”

He took a long minute to think things over, “You know that I could pull you from this race.” He held up his hand before she could protest. “I want you to think about this long and hard, I will support you either way, but think of your safety.”

Kayla took the pilots seat and looked out of the windshield. “I know you won’t understand this, you might try to pretend you do, but you don’t and that is alright. I have to do this. I have to, as the person I am, because of my father and because of ‘my family’!” She turned the chair to face him. “Will you help me?”

Martin Sr. Knelt down in front of Kayla. “Yes.”