Ellie steadied her wobbling Valkyrie and swooped underneath another shattered hull. Craters dotted the skin of the dead ship where limpet mines had attached and then detonated. The chaotic battlespace of explosions, collisions and weapons blasts was destroying any semblance of coherence the fleet had left. Large parts of the fleet were now in motion, slowly freewheeling in a hundred random directions.

Her sensor sphere flashed warnings in all directions as any functioning ship not broadcasting a known IFF was automatically tagged as a threat.

Like Malachi's her sphere had zoomed in to provide a greater level of detail for the immediate threats, and there were many.

Three Cabal ships had followed her into the fleet, and were holding tight to her course. When opportunity presented itself they fired, but Ellie was determined to deny them more than necessary. She twisted, spun, banked, rolled and roared from obstacle to obstacle, delivering a masterclass in precision flying.

Cabal ships took advantage of their numbers to corral her where they possibly could. One was always on her tail, following her line more closely than any race opponent had ever done. The other two acted as outriders, moving wide around obstacles to limit her options, or firing into empty space to shut down avenues of escape.

Ellie saw a path open on her right and turned toward it. Blaster fire from an outrider tore into the space, forcing her away to find another exit. Her tail joined in, just missing Ellie's ship as she turned back. The missed shots ripped through the corroded armour of an old frigate, imparting the scuttled ship with enough energy to add a slow spin to its roll upward.

Ellie flexed aching fingers and was glad of the gloves which absorbed the sweat from her palms. She could feel another drop trickling down the back of her neck. She was glad of the tightness of the suit as she took faster, harder turns than she had ever done before, and she was glad the Valkyrie was fast.

She was glad of all these things. She needed them. This was starting to get dangerous.

Ellie glanced at the scanner. She was still not quite able to work it out. She had always flown by eye, not by instrument, and she had never needed a sensor suite to know who the other racers were. The cluster of dots and lines spinning around her in the opposite direction to her turns meant very little. She knew Malachi was excited about them, but the scanner didn't look like advanced equipment to her. She saw three dots converge on the central mark, their vertical lines shrinking quickly.

She slammed the stick hard to the left as a burst of laser fire tore past her. She pushed down, shortening the ninety-degree dive as much as she could. Her stomach leapt and she felt deep down in her belly the familiar weird sensation of gravity shifting in unnatural ways. The flight suit absorbed the effect of the G-forces but it could only do so much. More than this and she would be in danger of blacking out, she realised.

Behind her the cabal ships also dived down, following her deeper into the fleet.

Ellie dodged around a twisted metal skeleton of something she didn't recognise and saw the space ahead of her was suddenly clear. Like the Solar Forge, a huge wrecked battleship floated alone in a large void in the fleet. The nearest thing she had to open space.

Without hesitation Ellie turned toward the battleship and accelerated hard.

It was the sensible thing to do, surely? She had a fast ship, why not make use of it's speed over a straight line. Then she could use that distance to think about what to do next.

The Cabal ships entered the void and opened fire. Three controlled bursts of laser fire tore through the sky around her. There was no cover to hide behind. She was out in the open with nowhere to hide.

Ellie turned and twisted the ship though space. She twisted in her seat, craning her neck up and around to see where the shots were coming from. It seemed the answer was everywhere.

Her Valkyrie pulled up, pirouetted through a convergence of laser blasts before rolling and diving back toward the warship. It was the only cover she had a hope of reaching before her luck ran out.

Okay, so this was a bad idea.

On the scanner the lines attached to the blips which represented the ships behind her began to lengthen. Ellie could barely control the ship under acceleration like this. Her head was glued to seat-back and it was all she could do to hold on to the controls.

More laser fire blasted past her. Stray shots vanished into the blackness ahead while other shots exploded on the hull of the warship to disturb a hundred years of peace.

She had to go faster and pray they missed her. She was travelling too fast to manoeuvre now. Her only chance lay in reaching the wreck before they blew her out of the sky.

They seemed to know the same thing. Their guns fell silent as they also accelerated hard, working to maintain the distance between hunter and prey.

Then darkness as the passed into the shadow of the colossal ship. It would only buy her a second or two. But right now every second she had was a precious gift. She slowed hard, the deceleration slamming her forward as she killed her forward momentum. She needed to be quick but not so quick she couldn't turn. She yanked the controls back, beginning a slow inverted spiral around the hull, putting it between her and her pursuers.

Ellie skimmed the surface of the ship, looking for anything she could use to her advantage. It was too soon to simply pull away and head back into the relative safety of the cloud of wreckage, first she had to out fly them and give herself enough of a head start that she could escape. It wasn't going to be easy.

Cabal fighters reached the warship and separated, spinning away in three directions, casting a wider net.

The first came into view directly ahead, rising over a crater made by some giant explosion. The second rounded the giant engine housings and settled in behind her. The third curled around the horizon of the warship to come at her from the right.

Her racing instincts crashed through her limited choices in a fraction of a second.

I can't go lower, I'll hit the warship. They've covered left and right. They want me to pull up where there's no cover. They're herding me.

Screw that!

Ellie threw an angry look at the pilot on her right and did the unthinkable. She slowed down.

The pilot to her right shot forward as Ellie slowed. She moved behind him, putting him between her and the other oncoming fighter. There was no greater strategy at play than trying to not get hit, but it seemed to work.

The pilot in front of her appeared to panic. He began evasive maneuvers, sending his ship across the path of the oncoming cabal fighter. He, in turn, pulled up and over Ellie's flight line. He broke to his right, Ellie's left, and back down to the warship for cover. The fighter in the rear, the only one not worried about Ellie shooting back, pulled up and away from the ship to avoid a crash.

It dawned on Ellie what had happened as she flew over the crater.

They think I can shoot back!

True or not, it bought her valuable seconds, seconds in which the Valkyrie's sensors got to work.

A new wireframe appeared on screen, mapping out the void in space, the trio of enemy fighters and the dead warship which filled the display. The warship with a hole in it. A hole all the way through it.

Oh come on, that won't work.

Will it?

Whatever weapon had caused devastation at this scale had penetrated the entire span of the ship, and she caught a glimpse of the space beyond through a tunnel of twisted wreckage and broken metal beams.

Ellie had precious few seconds left to decide, but what other options were there? Open space where they could fire at will, or a crazy run through the side of a warship?

The Cabal had reunited at last and settled into a new formation, one where all their weapons were pointing the same way.

The sky around Ellie suddenly burst into colour as the laser fire resumed, each colourful stream a torrent of death.

She pulled up and away from the ship, gritting her teeth through the tight loop which would return her to the crater.

The Cabal followed, expecting her to run.

The Valkyrie reached the apex of its loop dived back toward the warship. She looked again at the hole which had blasted through the ship from side to side. There was room in there, but not enough to fly her ship through, the gaps were too twisted, the obstructions too close together. It would be impossible to fly her ship in a straight line through there.

She couldn't barrel-roll through the hole, the shapes were all wrong. She had a good feel for the racer now and could tell the stubby wings and tail of the ship would be the wrong shape to pass through. It looked like she could get the ship past the first obstruction, but close behind that was another. The gap there was at a sharp angle to the first. It would be impossible to fly a ship through there and turn quickly enough to make the second. It would be like trying to thread a twisted fibre through a buckled eye of a needle. No ship was designed to make turns like that.

Anyone who knew knew it was impossible,

Ellie didn't know about that, but the thought did cross her mind that you would have to be mad to try.

More Cabal laser fire flashed past her and stabbed at the rim of the crater.

Or desperate.

Now or never!

Ellie dived into the crater.

Inside the tunnel, the blackness of the interior illuminated only by the glow of her engine and the staccato blast of deadly laser blasts from behind.

Please work please work please work please work.

Instruments were useless now. She could only rely on those things she had always relied on: sensitive controls and powerful engines. Years of racing had honed her instincts, training her, and this was the moment when it all counted. There was no prize out here, no glory. Just survival. Ellie took a deep breath and held it.

The Cabal followed her in.

They don't know they won't fit. While I was looking at the warship they were looking at me. They think they can make it through because they think I can make it through.

I hope they're half right.

She decelerated hard at the first obstacle causing her to slam forward in the cockpit. The flight stick rammed painfully into her ribs. She threw the stick to one side, then back again, jinking past the first obstacle. She cut the engine. Killed forward thrust. Ellie stabbed at controls, uncoupling the landing thrusters from firing in unison. She hit the rear thruster only. The back of the Valkyrie kicked up, flipping the craft end end over end, Engines over nose. Structural beams flashed underneath the cockpit as Ellie tumbled over them.

She saw exposed deck plating on the right as she tumbled. Savage metal claws blasted into the tunnel by a secondary explosion.

Ellie wrenched the stick in the other direction, triggering the lateral thruster control which sent the ship into a spin through two axis.

Seemingly out of control, her ship tumbled and spun around the second obstacle.

With no time to read instruments, Ellie trusted her instincts. She hit the opposite lateral thruster to kill the spin. Hit the forward landing thruster to slow the tumble. Wrenched the stick to the right to roll the Valkyrie and kept on rolling. She pressed the flight stick painfully against her knee. The Valkyrie transitioned from a wheel to a spinning top.

Stubby wings and tail turning through the spaces where the warship had been vapourised. Almost flattened against the side of the cockpit Ellie stretched out for the thruster controls. The view outside spun around her in a blur, the after image of laser blasts appeared to curve around the scene outside.

Through the third obstacle, Ellie killed the spin, levelled out, succeeded in not throwing up, and reached for the main engine control.

Cabal laser fire tore into the tunnel, sparking and exploding against the internal structure. Confident in their skills, the enemy fighters followed Ellie in. At the first obstacle they jinked and spun through the narrowing space. At the second they learned the hard way that their ships were too long and too fast to make it through.

Ellie's arm floated around the cabin, disobeying her urgent instruction to restart the engine as it fought against the momentum imparted by the insane ride.

The Cabal slammed into the exposed beams criss-crossing the tunnel and exploded in a tangle of metal and fuel. Their last act became a fireball which filled the tunnel, surged forward and ignored anything in its way, as if it was their one last attempt to destroy her.

Ellie's fingertips found purchase at last. She stabbed the button to fire the main engine and it roared to life.

Gravity slammed Ellie back into her seat once more and blasted out of the side of the ship, flames dancing at the edge of her vision as she blasted free from the shock wave.

She exhaled, opened the throttle to maximum and headed back into the dead fleet.