With one 'Mech unmoving because of the lucky leg hit, and the other severely damaged and progressing in fits and starts, it was obvious that it was only a matter of time before one or the other would fall.

For the next several minutes the two BattleMechs went at each other with all they had, neither one able to finish off the other, all the while inflicting brutal damage with an almost continual exchange of fire. At one point it looked as if the Hellbringermust surely fall as the Timber Wolf'slast missile salvo nearly exposed the other 'Mech's fusion engine. Still using both her Gauss rifle and her large lasers, Mandaka suddenly forced the Timber Wolfto retreat a few steps. Aidan wondered if she knew what she was doing. Her heat levels had to be approaching the limit.

Then the battle was over almost before anyone knew it. What Aidan thought was probably the last of Mandaka's Gauss projectiles must have made a critical hit against the Timber Wolf.The Wolfhad begun to tilt over backward, but the 'Mech did not quite fall.

Aidan was ready to intervene using his right to end the combat and declare Summer Mandaka the victor, when he realized that she was not yet out of Gauss ammo.

As the Timber Wolfswayed on its feet, its remaining weapons firing wildly, ineffectively, Mandaka fired one more time, the shot from the twin lasers hitting her opponent's cockpit dead-center. Its canopy exploded outward, instantly killing the pilot.

Then the Hellbringer,its heat capacity overextended, also exploded. Flames leaped to the sky from the specially designed blowout panels in the back of the 'Mech as the missiles stored in the right and left torso went up. The force of the explosion rammed the 'Mech face-down to the ground, crushing the cockpit and Summer Mandaka.

Beside Aidan, Horse remained for a moment, still staring ahead in disbelief. "Was it suicide?" he said. "She had to know she was overheating when she fired that last shot. Why did not the autoeject mechanism function—"

"She could not eject," Aidan told Horse, then explained that Mandaka had disabled her ejection seat. "She said she could not survive one more lost 'Mech. She meant it."

"So it seems."

"At any rate, we are now short a Star Commander and a MechWarrior, with no pool of unit reserves from which to draw. I believe it is my privilege to request replacements from what is available on Quarell. I do not care how you do it, Horse, but I want Star Commander Joanna and that other MechWarrior—I think her name is Diana, the one from the Vreeport debacle—transferred to the Falcon Guards immediately."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

Horse walked away, muttering. Aidan knew what his friend was thinking. It was enough that they must somehow form up a band of misfits, warriors who could barely get along with one another, and now Aidan was asking for more trouble. No love had ever been lost between Joanna and Horse, but he knew Joanna was good. Horse had to give her that. Joanna was good.

20

Joanna hated the idea. "Consider my position," she said. "I was transferred from the Falcon Guards as one of the marks of the unit's failure, and then I was demoted, which I thought was the worst thing that could ever happen to me as a Clan warrior. Even worse than being a falconer wiping the backsides of your stravagsibko. Now I am back in the Falcon Guards, and it is worse than leaving it."

"But will you become the Guards' falconer?" Aidan asked.

"Do I have a choice, Star Colonel? If I remember correctly, you are the commanding officer. I must follow your orders, quiaff?"

"Not in this case. I am asking you to volunteer."

Joanna stood at the window of Aidan's office, looking out at the drilling catastrophe that was the Falcon Guards' calisthenics. She turned and twisted her face into what was perhaps intended as a smile. In a flash of memory, Aidan recalled seeing her in just such a pose when she had been a falconer years before. Time had not been kind to Joanna, but her poise and posture were as youthful as ever.

"I volunteer, Star Colonel. We old warriors are grateful for any kind of assignment, you know. When do I start?"

"How about immediately? Start with the calisthenics, if you wish."

She nodded. "Good a place as any, I expect. Dismissed?"

"Dismissed."

At the door she stopped. "Oh. Your permission to assign MechWarrior Diana as my, well, aide in this. Nobody out there knows either of us, so there will be no past histories to interfere."

"She is inexperienced and a freeborn."

"But she is as tough as fusion-engine shielding. You will see."

"You may use any personnel in any way you wish, Star Commander Joanna."

After she was gone, Horse pushed away from the wall, where he had been observing the encounter.

"What was that all about?" he asked. "Do I detect some clever strategy on your part?"

Aidan cleared away a pile of papers at the corner of his desk, then sat down on the clean spot. Looking at his friend, he saw that Horse, too, was beginning to show age. In any other unit, the two of them would have been the old warriors. But compared to the overage warriors they had been sent for the Falcon Guards, Aidan and Horse were still young.

"If I have a strategy, it is simply that I need someone who can whip these malcontents into shape. That is Joanna's special talent, and I intend to use it. That is what leadership is all about, Horse, using one's personnel effectively. "

Horse opened his mouth to retort, but they were interrupted by the sounds of a scuffle outside. Aidan moved quickly to the window, with Horse close behind. The sight that greeted them was one of their malcontent warriors on the ground a few meters from the window, grimacing as he rubbed his jaw. Joanna stood over him. Several warriors looked on, various degrees of surprise on their faces.

"Looks to me like Star Commander Joanna has begun her task," Horse commented drily.

For the next hour Aidan abandoned command duty for the sheer pleasure of watching from his window as Joanna conducted the drill session. She and MechWarrior Diana weaved among the warriors, prodding them to speed up or to better execution or to simply remain standing when they looked ready to drop from exhaustion. Several instances of defiance occurred during the first few minutes of the exercise, but the pair of drill instructors had countered each incident with a physical response. Several old warriors were easily decked; others had to be fought more craftily. But in each case Joanna or Diana prevailed. They had the advantage of determination as well as of having maintained their own regimens; they were simply in much better shape than any of these aging or scruffy warrior-misfits. By the end of the hour, this particular Trinary of Falcon Guards was actually beginning to show some precision in its group movements. Joanna immediately ordered another Trinary to assemble in the drill zone.

Satisfied that Joanna was carrying out her mission efficiently, Aidan began to study MechWarrior Diana more intently. Something about this young woman, who reminded him more and more of Marthe, intrigued him. It made no sense, of course. He must certainly be turning a slight resemblance into something more. But it was not only that the young warrior looked like Marthe; she moved a bit like her, too. What's more, she showed exactly the kind of skills that had been Marthe's specialty. Only her recklessness was a contrast. Marthe had been methodical, meticulous. Diana's hotheadedness was more like Aidan than Marthe.