A soft, shuddering sigh arose from her helmet, followed by Dorren's voice, thinly and inadequately amplified. 'My dear lady, this time we're in the same boat. Will you let me explain?'

    Driven to viciousness, Ataine said, 'Don't try. Just take me back and collect your commendation from the Commander.'

    'Ataine.' His breath caught. 'Ataine.' And the quaver in his tone spilled chills down her back. Something was wrong.

    Ataine rose and pushed off for the hatch, unable to stop her reaction. Hatred withered as, incapable of denying the link, she stopped fighting. Dorren was ill, and in trouble, and afraid for her life.

    Too bewildered to analyze, she caught the seal ring and passed through into an air lock no Sabre ever built could possess.

    Ataine paused, arrested by shock. 'They sent you after me in the Challenger!'

'No.' Dorren's voice sounded queerly strangled. 'I stole it.'

    He was wrestling nausea, Ataine realized, because he'd forgotten, or had no time, to take drugs against the effects of the direct-link system. He hadn't lied. Puzzled, she left her helmet weightlessly adrift and headed for the cockpit.

    The companionway door opened into gloom punctured by the glow of instruments. Dorren shivered in the pilot's seat, drenched in

sweat. Ataine fought off an overpowering urge to go to his side. 'Why?' she said quietly. The word carried multiple meanings. Dorren shuddered, faintly amused even through his discomfort. 'Because if I'd let you close to me, I'd have lost my cover. Government sent me to Station to acquire proof of an anti-national defection bigbet up. They suspect the man responsible for security screening of officers. But you bolted before I had finished, and the Challenger was the only craft left unguarded at Station.' He pressed wet hands against his forehead. His final lines emerged muffled. 'There's an armed squadron of Sabres on my tail. Had I not stood between you, they'd have scorched the. Quest out of space. Now, fly us out of here. I'm going to be sick.'

    Ataine left the companionway. Bruised by the details left unsaid, she swung herself into the co-pilot's seat. Dotten had wrecked another trust to save her, left anti-nationals free to murder back at Station. She reached stiffly for the headset, wounded by the integrity he had sacrificed because he could not tolerate her death. His self-disgust left her hollow.

~o6