'Jason! My telemetry just went berserk! Both of your rear magneto drives just lost all power!'

Jason grappled with his steering wheel. 'I kinda noticed that, Sally!'

Steel archways whistled past him, inches away, just as Washington's car zoomed by, leaving the Argonaut in last place.

'd.a.m.n it!' Jason yelled. 'We're screwed! G.o.dd.a.m.nit, we got so far...'

They were indeed screwed. With only four mags, Jason couldn't maintain the high levels of speed and control necessary to keep up with the others.

The Argonaut fell back. But Jason kept on driving. He was determined to finish the race - and get the 5 points for coming 6th - even if it meant limping over the line a long way behind the leaders.

He burst out from the S-bends to see the wide-open bay leading to the Port Arthur hairpin.

He saw the all-black Car No.1 bank into the final turn with clinical precision, disappearing behind the huge rocky pillar, closely followed by Barnaby - still holding off the French racer in the Renault - and then Ariel Piper swooping in close behind them.

And then it happened.

Ariel's car didn't take the left-hand hairpin.

Instead, it just kept on going straight ahead, shooting out and away to the right, heading for the open ocean.

Jason's eyes almost popped out of his head.

'What the - ?' he said.

Washington's car took the final turn - pleased now to be moving up into 4th - and headed for home.

But Jason just kept watching Ariel's hover car. It was now shuddering violently and listing away to the right - the absolutely wrong direction - shooming off into the distance in a superwide right-hand arc.

'Something's wrong,' Jason said. 'If she missed the turn, she would have pulled up by now...'

Then came the realisation.

'She's lost control of the car.'

And as he said those words, Jason saw the final hairpin approaching, and suddenly he had a choice: he could finish the race - and get the 6 championship points for coming 5th - or he could help Ariel.

The Bug pointed out that the School would send out recovery vehicles to get Ariel.

'No,' Jason said. 'Look at her. She's too far gone. They won't get to her in time. We're the only ones who can help her.'

And with that, he made his decision.

Instead of taking the final left-hand hairpin turn himself, Jason banked the Argonaut right, booming off after Ariel's out-of-control hover car.

The commentators had never seen anything like it.

That the Pied Piper had missed the final turn under intense pressure was nothing new. But that the Argonaut had shoomed off into the distance after it was!

Two orange-painted truck-sized recovery vehicles were dispatched from Race HQ - standard practice for a race mishap. They couldn't know that this was no ordinary mishap.

The Argonaut zoomed low over the ocean, came alongside the tail of the red-and-white Pied Piper, both cars turning in a wide right-bending arc.

'Sally! Get me Ariel's radio frequency!' Jason yelled into his radio-mike.

Sally did so, and as the Argonaut pulled alongside Ariel's shuddering car, Jason saw Ariel grappling with her steering wheel.

'Ariel! What's wrong!'

'I've lost power in all my right-side magneto drives, Jason! They all switched off at exactly the same time, just as I was about to take that last hairpin!'

'What kind of control have you got?' Jason asked.

'Nothing! It's like everything just cut out at once! Thruster controls are gone! Electronics are unresponsive - I can't even shut down - and my other mags are losing magnetism fast.'

This was bad. Ariel's left-hand magneto drives were bearing the weight of her whole car, and were thus losing their power twice as fast as they should have been. They were also driving the car in a wide circle, banking right.

What made it worse was the sight looming up ahead.

The southern coastal cliffs of the Port Arthur Peninsula rose up out of the ocean like a gigantic wall. High ocean waves crashed at their feet. Ariel's wide right-bending arc had brought her round a full 270 degrees: she was now rocketing northward, about to crash into the coastal cliffs.

'Ariel! You have to eject!' Jason yelled.

'No!' Ariel shouted back.

'No? Are you crazy! Why not!'

' Jason, if I eject, the Piper will smash into those cliffs, and I won't have a car anymore. And without a car, I'll be out of Race School!'

'And if you die, you'll also be out of Race School!'

'I am not going to eject!'

The cliffs were approaching. Fast. Wide. Immovable.

There couldn't be more than ten seconds to impact. Jason thought quickly.

'All right...' he said.

He gunned his engine and swung the Argonaut in underneath Ariel's speeding red-and-white car.

The cliffs rushed toward them.

Nine seconds...eight...seven...

The body of the Pied Piper cast a dark shadow over Jason and the Bug, blocking out the sun. Jason saw the underbelly of the Piper less than a foot above his open c.o.c.kpit.

Six...five...four...

The cliffs were very close now.

Then Jason pulled back on his stick, causing the Argonaut to gradually rise...

Clunk! The arched hunchback of the Argonaut clanged against the underside of the Pied Piper. Its wide flat tailfin also touched the bottom of Ariel's speeding car, providing a kind of three-point stability.

Three seconds...

And Jason gunned his thrusters, taking the weight of two hover cars with the engine of one.

The two cars rose together - slowly, painfully - one balancing on top of the other.

Rising...rising...

Two seconds...

Further...

One second...

The cliffs were right on top of them now, rushing forward. The Pied Piper was going to clear the clifftop, but the Argonaut, it seemed, was not.

Too late.

Impact.

CHAPTER SEVEN.

The radio aerial on the underside of the Argonaut was ripped clean off by the clifftop as Jason rushed over the cliff at astronomical speed.

But they'd made it, clearing the clifftop by inches, pushing Ariel's car over it.

The danger averted, the Race School recovery vehicles swept into position on either side of Ariel's car, capturing her inside a fat beam of electromagnetic energy that extended out between them. The Pied Piper's stability returned immediately and the two recovery vehicles guided it back to Race HQ.

For his part Jason pulled the Argonaut away from the recovery vehicles and returned to Pit Lane.

As they entered the pits, the Bug said something to Jason.

Jason replied. 'Shut up, you cheeky little b.a.s.t.a.r.d.'

The Argonaut cruised to a smooth touchdown in its pit bay, where it was met by Sally McDuff, Scott Syracuse and a crowd of buzzing onlookers.

Sally was smiling broadly.

Syracuse was frowning darkly.

Among the crowd were a phalanx of photographers and local journalists.

'You are one crazy little fella!' Sally roared, yanking Jason bodily from his c.o.c.kpit and giving him a friendly thump on the helmet. 'But mark my words, young man, don't you ever put my little Bug in danger like that again!' Jason smiled, turned to face Syracuse.

'Congratulations, Mr Chaser,' Syracuse said. 'You just made a name for yourself. You also failed to finish the race, which means you lost the 6 championship points that would have gone with 5th place. We'll discuss this later.' And with that Syracuse turned and left.

Cameras flashed. The journalists shouldered each other out of the way, shouting their questions, asking Jason

what had compelled him to risk his life to save Ariel. But after the initial frenzy, there came a shout: Ariel Piper had just arrived back in the pits. The media pack dashed off and Jason was left in his pit bay with the Bug and some peace and quiet.

He sat down, caught his breath. The Bug plonked down beside him.

After a few minutes, Sally came over. 'I just checked your rear magneto drives on my personal electrometer. Guess what? Those mags were only ten per cent charged when they were attached to the Argonaut.'

'What?' Jason said. 'Only ten per cent? Where did you get them?'

'Same place as everyone else,' Sally shook her head. 'The School's Parts and Equipment Department. It's where all the cars at the School get their equipment. But wait, there's more.'

'Yes...'

'You remember that other magneto drive that c.r.a.pped out on you early in the race and forced you into the pits around Lap 5? Well, I checked it too. It was also undercharged. Same level. Ten per cent.'

'So what do you think it means?' Jason asked.

'It means,' Sally said, 'that either we got galactically unlucky getting three bogus magneto drives in our allotment...'

'Or...'