Race Across the Galaxy, or Those Magnificent Beings in Their FTLing Machines
an excerpt

Chapter One

Rigby Davenport placed the next ceramic disk precisely in the center of the platform in the magnetic testing chamber. He marked the disk off on the sequence sheet, noting the time and date of the test, 2:32 AM on November 1, 2009. Ramping up the current to the electromagnets, he watched as the superconducting disk quavered into the air above the platform. After a few seconds, the three-inch-wide disk stabilized at a height of about one inch.
About average for this batch. Rigby powered down the magnets, removed the disk, and noted the results on the sequence sheet. "Thirty down, a hundred and twenty to go," he said aloud, for the benefit of no one but himself. This early on a Sunday morning, the lab was normally deserted. Rigby wouldn't have been there if not for the fact that he needed to write up the test results for Professor Nasir by Monday morning, and he was behind on the testing. It was his own fault, for letting Three-Peat talk him into going to the football game yesterday.