"Arggh," his body tried to scream as he tumbled over and over in the little Eagle. He heard no sound, the endless high speed somersaults made sucking in air almost impossible; his screams were silent. He felt himself losing consciousness as oxygen disappeared from his brain. Over and over he tumbled.
His vision became increasingly narrow and blood shot. The massive g-forces pushed blood into his abdomen and legs, and with it he felt consciousness departing. Clenching every muscle he could was slowing that down, just as the training officer had promised, but he realised it was a losing battle.
'I'm dead,' the panic gripped him, 'Noo, I'm dead.' After all his work finding the fleet carrier, surely his fate wasn't to be the first to die.
"If in doubt - boost!" he suddenly remembered an old friend saying. It had been his friend's motto for getting out of trouble. Sneak reached for the button, the g-forces of the spin held back his hand, the effort like pushing a lead weight. Eventually he got there and pressed.
He heard the capacitors drain as the extra energy was diverted to the Eagle's thrusters. Then a jolt slammed him against the back of the chair even as the spin pulled him to the floor. Violent forces were crushing him.
Consciousness faded, yet as he drifted away his memory clung to the fate of the friend who said boost. It made a poor reference for the proffered advice. His friend's body had later been retrieved by a maintenance crew after crashing into the back wall of a Coriolis station. One limb here, another over there, a decapitated head had been chased bouncing across pad 11 as a Python tried to land.
Would Sneak's fate be any better?
Had he blacked out? Was he still spinning? Doubled up in pain from forced muscle contractions, he didn't dare relax. Breathing seemed easier now though, he could feel the cool air pumping through his face mask. He took a gulp. Then another.
He realised his eyes were squeezed shut. Slowly he opened them. Cloudy and blood red, he could at least see the blur of light. Blinking helped clear the mist, he discovered. He blinked again, slowly his vision returned.
The Eagle had stopped spinning, the boost had increased the distance travelled per spin and slowly dissipated its effects. With a sigh he relaxed - it felt wonderful. He enjoyed another breath.
Sounds were muffled, he tried to pop his ears but it made no difference. He heard a muffled voice saying something he couldn't quite make out. Then in a fright he understood.
"Cabin Pressure Alert!" it repeated.
"Sheeeeeeet!" this time he did hear the scream.
The Eagle no longer had a canopy, his cockpit was no longer pressurised, he was going to die after all - in less than four minutes the countdown suggested.
Somehow boosting had saved him, for that he gave silent thanks to his long dead friend. But it had merely delayed the inevitable.
Suddenly light flashed around him once more. Bolts of high energy lasers poking through the sky adding insult to injury. He was still in a skirmish, they were coming to finish him off. He felt tears streaming down his cheeks as hope was cruelly ripped away. It was hopeless. He wouldn't even see out the four minutes the life support had offered him.
He had failed. His entire life had been failure. And now he would die as he had always been. He sat back, took one last breath, and braced himself for death.
Next: Vanguard