The Tigresstipped on its axis, pitching the deck up. Nelson, grabbed a structural girder and held on, then pulled himself forward. Sinking to his hands and knees, he scrambled uphill, then somersaulted forward as the ship violently righted itself. A wave of dizziness passed over him, then he regained his feet and started running forward again.

Around the curve of the ship he saw the access hatch to the escape pod. He ran to it and slammed his right palm down on the panel switch to open it. The hatch irised open, revealing the dark interior of the womblike pod.

As he started to step into it, a bandit grabbed the upper part of his left arm and pulled him away. "Where do you think you'regoing?"

Nelson slumped his shoulders in defeat, then balled his maimed fist. He swung it down in a short arc that terminated in the bandit's groin. As the man squealed and bent over, Nelson brought his right knee up. The man's nose shattered in a spray of blood, then he dropped to the deck.

Nelson pulled the pistol from the bandit's holster and pumped two bullets into him. Clutching the gun and scanning the corridor in both directions, he backed into the pod. He used the gun barrel to punch the button that closed the hatch, then he felt his ears pop as the pod pressurized. He reached out with his half-hand and hit the launch sequencer.

"Countdown commencing. Ten, nine, eight . . . ," droned a computer voice.

Nelson heard a thumping on the pod hatch, followed by the sight of a face pressed against the glass. He pointed the gun at it. "Override. Launch immediately."

"Affirmative."

Heavily padded panels slid down over the hatch and the controls. Three small explosions rippled through the pod, then he sank deeply into the padding as one final blast hurled the pod out and away from the Tigress.The rocket motor's roar filled the pod, rattling Nelson's teeth and making his ears ring, but he couldn't have been happier.

I'm free. I can go home again.The pod's viewport pads retracted, giving him a central view of the space battle raging around the DropShips. I can go home again, but only if I survive the attempt to kill the Red Corsair and all her people.

* * *

Caitlin had a bad feeling as Mulligan turned around to make the second run. He pushed his speed for going back, which did not make much sense because the DropShips were coming toward them. She knew Mulligan was addicted to velocity and he obviously thought that the DropShips were not a danger. "Careful, Raven Deuce."

"Roger, Raven Leader. I'm going in."

Despite the excitement in his voice, Caitlin knew Mulligan was being careful and she had come to respect his abilities ever since they'd been paired in the squadron. He brought his ship over and around in a barrel roll that lined him up perfectly on the Tigressand then onto her sister ship.

She smiled and pushed her fighter after him as Mulligan burned in close and skimmed the surface of the Tigress.Their laser and PPC shots burned parallel paths through the ship's armor, and she saw one autocannon turret flame out as their PPC beams met at its location. "Deuce, your nine!"

The escape pod looked like a comet as it streaked up and away from the Tigress.Mulligan rolled down and away from it, but sailed directly into the spreading debris cloud from the autocannon turret they'd taken out. Caitlin saw something hit his Stingray,then he spun away and flashed on toward the Lioness.

For an instant or two as she chased him, Caitlin thought Mulligan was in command and just finishing up his attack run. As she came around onto his aft, however, she saw damage, to his left wing and a jammed vector-thruster. "Clear, Mulligan. You've lost maneuvering on port."

Getting no response, she pushed herself forward just enough to see that his cockpit was gone, then she pulled up and away from the Lioness.She popped up on her left wing, then came down and through in a loop that shifted her perpendicular to her previous course. She let the change stand for three seconds, then rolled up on her right wing and reversed the maneuver to take her in a circular course outside the Lioness'lethal perimeter.

Mulligan's fighter arrowed into the Lionessnear the ion engines, and went from being a small pellet of steel and ceramics to a boiling ball of plasma. At first the bright blossom of fire seemed far too small to have affected the ship, and even the amount of debris that geysered out into space through the hole it left behind hardly seemed fatal. Caitlin shuddered, thinking her friend's death should have counted for more.

Then one of the DropShip's four ion engines winked out, making the Lionessbegin to spin faster and start to wobble in its course. The rotation picked up speed, which smoothed out the course irregularities, but when the directional rockets fired to bring that back under control, the ovoid craft twisted in its axis and the two ends began to circle out of sync with each other.

Caitlin knew the Lionesswas in trouble as it fired maneuvering rockets in sequence to somersault the ship around to reorient the boosters for a retreat. The wobble transformed that maneuver into a spinning, skidding tumble through space that was utterly out of control. Jets pulsed out energy to try to regain control, but merely lit the ship up like a meteor hitting atmosphere.

The Lionesscaromed off an asteroid twice its size into the thick of the asteroid field. Miraculously it sailed between two whirling giants, and for a moment Caitlin wanted the ship to survive. Then the Lionessimpaled itself on a smaller asteroid that punched a hole right through it. The ship's hull surrounded the asteroid like a corona for a moment, then split apart into glittering fragments that shattered and spilled through space like droplets of quicksilver.

* * *

Poised on his hands and knees, Nelson saw the Lionesscareen into the asteroid field. The first collision crumpled the ship, and debris trailed after it. He winced when it hit the final rock, the metal running like water over the asteroid's surface. Frantically looking to spot any 'Mechs, any people, anythingthat had survived the crash, he felt both victorious and horrified when he could not.

Looking up from the viewport in the pod's belly to the one at its head, he caught sight of the Tigress.It had been damaged, but compared to the other ship, it was pristine. As he watched, the ship executed a forward roll that reversed the main thruster position. The ion jets pulsed brilliantly, then the ship slowed, beginning the sharp ascent back up toward where the Fire Rosewaited.

The fighters swarmed in at the lone DropShip, but the Tigressno longer had to idle part of its awesome firepower. To make things even worse, the Fire Roseused its large laser batteries to strike at the fighters that flew ahead of the Tigressand waited to attack.

As much as Nelson wanted the Tigressand the woman who ruled her to die, he admired them both as they fought off the enemy fighters. Before the Tigresshad completed half the distance back to the Fire Rose,the fighters broke off their attack. The DropShip completed its rendezvous with the JumpShip and then the mated ships winked out of existence.

Nelson watched them go with relief and sadness. Though happy to be free, he regretted that it meant abandoning his comrades, who remained captives of the Corsairs. He knew that he was still responsible for them, even if they hated him for his association with the Red Corsair.

Seeing two aerofighters heading his way, each deploying a pod capture net, he smiled and made a solemn vow. "I'll find a way to get you guys back. I'll do it, or die trying."