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Red lights flashing on and off in the panel in front of him warned Thorn that already a half dozen
compartments of the Cauphul had been holed and had lost their air. Down below, Gunner Welk was still
keeping his crew batteries going, pouring shell out on the encircling League cruisers, but at any moment a
hit on their rocket-tubes or power-chambers might disable them entirely.
Thorn's mind was crazy with worry for the fate of Lana Cain. The League cruiser that had hooked its
magnetic grapples on the keel of her ship was still winching her helpless craft closer. The capture or
killing of the pirate girl meant the collapse of his great plan, and the probable ruin of the four inner worlds.
"We've got to free Lana's ship! he cried to Sual Av over the thudding of guns. There's only one
way drive our ship between hers and the one that's hooked her break the grapple-lines!"
Sual Av's green eyes widened startledly inside his glassite helmet. Then the bald Venusian laughed
recklessly.
"All right here goes, John! Hold tight!'!
"Cease firing! Thorn yelled into the interphone to Gunner Welk at the same moment.
Sual Av's fingers smashed down on firing keys. The Cauphul jumped forward in space, a raving torrent
of energy streaming from her stern tubes.
The Venusian drove the ship straight toward the two craft ahead, the League cruiser and the Lightning.
The half-dozen grapple-lines had been now so far drawn in that there was not enough room for a third
ship to pass between the two.
But Sual Av steered the hurtling Cauphul between the two, anyway. Space around them seemed blazing
with continuous flares of bursting atom-shells.
Crash! The grinding shock that flung Thorn to the floor of the control-room seemed to him the end of
everything. The Cauphul, rushing in between the Lightning and the League cruiser grappling it,
sideswiped both ships with stunning force.
Thorn tried, to clutch a stanchion and pull himself up, as the control-room rocked wildly around him. He
heard the triumphant shout of the bald Venusian clinging to the controlpanel.
"We're through, John! We did it!"
Thorn's ship had crashed in between the other two, forcing its way through and breaking the
grapple-lines.
"Blast away, Lana! yelled Thorn into the audio. You're clear now!"
Like a streak of light, the silvery cruiser of the pirate girl shot upward. And with it cometed the battered
Cauphul, and old Stilicho Keene's black ship. The other pirate craft that had tried to help Lana
counterattack the League cruisers had been riddled to helpless wrecks by the heavy fire of the enemy.
But the main body of the pirate fleet had had time to cut away from their prey during the few minutes of
the furious fight below. They were shooting out like startled hawks of space, joining Lana Cain's cruiser
and the other two as they sped upward.
"Up to the Zone! pealed the girl's voice from the audio.
Rising together as they soared through space, the pirate ships streaked upward through the vault. Hot
after them raced the League cruisers, which now outnumbered the pirates.
"What in the devil's name's going on? roared Gunner Welk's voice. That crash strained our sides! It
looks down here as though the ship will crumple any minute."
"If we can get into the Zone, we can lose those cruisers, Sual Av was muttering. If she'll just keep going
until then!"
Thorn could hear the Cauphul groaning and creaking beneath the fierce thrust of her blazing
rocket-tubes. The hull of the ship, weakened by shell-fire and badly strained by the side-swiping
collision, threatened to crumple up without notice.
The pirate ships could not match the heavily armed League cruisers in fire-power. But one thing the ships
of the Companions of Space did have, and that was speed. They were drawing slowly away from the
hotly pursuing cruisers as they rushed upward.
It was a wild yet thrilling scene to John Thorn's eyes! The black vault of abysmal space around them
tapestried with countless blazing stars, the blinding flares of atom-shells bursting like exploding lightning,
the raving flame of proton-fire from pursued and pursuing ships, and the vast, vague cloud of light-flecks
of the Zone stretching above.
They were thundering up into the Zone now, Lana Cain's silver ship leading, curving sharply to avoid the
meteor-swarm directly above. But the League cruisers were pursuing them into the vast wilderness of
debris.
"Scatter! came the girl's sharp order from the audio. We'll rendezvous at Turkoon!"
"That finishes us, John, said Sual Av bitterly. We don't know the wave code. We can't navigate this
damned jungle."
But hard on the heels of his words came a quick call from the girl.
"Planeteers! Keep your ship with mine!"
The pirate ships scattered in all directions, like a frightened flock of wild fowl. Darting away through the
swarms and planetoids, navigating by means of the coded wave-signals from the projectors on every
swarm and asteroid, they melted away.
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