The Mekinese ship was a cruiser, and it out of the Tralee just two days, four hours, and some odd minutes after Gwenlyn its coming. Presumably, it had the to its and measure the to be run. In there was not as yet a way to know one's speed, and at small errors up. Correction of line was important, too, a that was a second off up to hundreds of thousands of miles. But with that previous breakout, the Mekinese did not turn up close to its destination. It needed a long solar-system drive to make its planetfall.
Bors's long-range it up it was near to its to the planet—if it to at all. Most likely its program was and to appear overhead and the services of the landing-grid to it to the ground.
Bors's the and cut itself off. The of "Co-o-ntact!" through the ship and all doors closed, the ship into sections. Bors was already at the in the room. He did not accept the of Talents, Incorporated as truth. It him that such means of should be so accurate. So he in his own mind to the point where, when Talents, Incorporated gave information, it was possible; no more. Then, having so much, he on the possibility, and to be when it out to be a fact.
That was the case now. A ship had appeared in this at the time the ship-arrival Talent on the Sylva predicted. Bors scowled, and the Isis in line Tralee and the new arrival. He turned, then, and out toward it. The other ship's screens would a large which was the planet, and in direct line a very much smaller which was the Isis. The small might not be noticed it was in line with the larger. If it were noticed, it would be confusing, such should not happen. But the of Mekin were not to be easily alarmed. They a great empire, all of landing-grids were safely controlled, and though there was there was no to at operations in space.
For a long time nothing happened. The Isis to meet the cruiser. The two should be each other at a which was the total of their speeds. Bors computer-keys and got the at this from Tralee's sun. He set the Isis's solar-system drive to that exact quantity. He waited.
His own was now non-operative. Its discovery-pulse would have been by the Mekinese duty-officer. The that it did not repeat would be abnormal. The duty-officer would wonder why it didn't come again.
The astrogation-radar cut off. Then a single came. It would be a ranging-pulse. Cargo-ship high for wide and coverage. But war-vessels which measure up to thousands of miles, and by phase-scrambling among the some about the size and shape of the object examined. Not much, but some.
Bors relaxed. Things were going well. When four other ranging-pulses at second intervals, he to himself. This was a warship's reaction. It be nothing else. That officer that something was out from Tralee. It was on a course. But a ship traveling under power should as long as its drive was on. When traveling from the sun and not under power, it should by so many second to the sun's pull. Bors's ship did neither. It the of motion. It was not normal. It was not possible. It not have any explanation, in the mind of a Mekinese.
Which was its purpose. It would professional on the cruiser, which would then waste some time attempting to identify it. There wouldn't be it didn't act suspiciously. Still, it couldn't be dismissed, it didn't in any fashion. The would want to know more about it; it shouldn't move at a going from a sun.
In consequence, Bors got in the shot.
He said, "Fire one!" when the Mekinese would be just about to turn their electron-telescope upon it. A away from the Isis. It off at an angle, and it madly, and the of the spot it as now there, now here, now nearer, and now nearer still. But the not an object which not only but the at which its changed.
Missiles came out of the Mekinese ship. They were infinitesimal, on the radar-screen. They in trying to the Isis's missile. They failed.
There was a of sun-bright very, very away. There was a little cloud of which swiftly. Then there was nothing but two or three moving at random, their lost, their purpose forgotten. The of victory was an anticlimax.
"All clear," said Bors grimly.
The inner-compartment doors opened. The normal of the ship were again. Bors to the data needed for the to Garen. There was the and the and the proper and the time elapsed.... He it difficult to think in such terms. He was discontented. He'd a Mekinese cruiser. True, he'd let his own ship be seen, and the Mekinese had to in their own defense. It was not like the of a on the of a Kandarian sea, waiting to a when its on board. But Bors didn't like what he'd just done.
The wouldn't come out right. Impatiently, he sent for Logan. The mathematical Talent came into the room.
"Will you this for me?" Bors asked irritably.
Logan at the and the answer. Instantly. Without or reflection. Instantly!
Bors couldn't it. The the two was a rounded-off number, of course. The relative proper motion of the two had a large plus-or-minus factor. The time-lapse to had a and there was a error in the speed of of the ship overdrive. It was a equation, and the of the error was tricky. Bors at it, and then at Logan.
"That's the answer to what you have there," said Logan condescendingly, "but your are off. I've been talking to your computer men. They've me the on past jumps and the errors on arrival. They're systematic. I noticed it at once."
Bors said, "What?"
"There's a of error," Logan said patiently. "I the to it, then I the source. It's in your speed."
Bors blinked. Speed in not be exactly. The was very close—within a of a tenth of one cent—but when the was light-years the up.
"If you use these figures," said Logan complacently—and he swiftly—"you'll it accurate."
Having the equation, he the solution. Bors asked questions. Logan answered absently. He nothing about overdrive. He didn't anything but numbers and he didn't know how he did what he did with them. But he'd from errors in and a way to keep them out of the answer. And he'd done it all in his head. It was unbelievable—yet Bors believed.
"I'll try your figures," he said. "Thanks."
Logan proudly away, past an cups of coffee to the room. Bors the ship according to the Logan had him, setting the to the exact listed.
He was still about the of the Mekinese when he said curtly, "Overdrive coming!" He'd have a more type of warfare. He the old, that men had had to to the ages; one can an enemy honorably, but against some men count as handicaps.
"Swine!" Bors. "They'll make us like them!" Then into the he said, "Five, four, three, two, one...."
He pressed the button. The of going into was uncomfortable, as always. Bors and took his cup of coffee.
The Isis, then, in a of space. Its properties the that its particular type of travel much more than the in the of radiation, of magnetism, or gravity. And this of stress—this field—did not have a position. It was a position. The ship it not be said to be in the at all, but when the it would be somewhere, and the way it pointed, and how long collapse, in what particular it would be when it came out. But travel in was tedious.
As man's of the cosmos, it takes the fun out of it. In days a man who had to animals or go may often have gone hungry, but he was by the of his meals. A man who on often got to his late, but he was not with on the way. In overdrive, Bors's ship almost with the speed of thought, but there was nothing to think about while journeying. Not about the journey, anyhow.
While the ship on, however, the cargo-ship on Tralee its way toward Glamis and a meeting with the fleet, then in around Glamis Two. The food it would men's a little, but it would not solve the problem of what the was to do. Morgan, on the flagship, the ability of his Talents to perform the incredible, but nobody any of the to the the was in. On Kandar, the population that there had been a off the gas-giant planet, but they did not know the result. The Mekinese had not come. The of Kandar had not returned. The government met in and guesses. It at no whatever. The most probable—because most hopeless—conviction to be that the of Mekin had been met and fought, but that it was victorious, and in for it had gone away to send of bomb-carriers which would in such quantity that for a thousand years to come there would be no life on Kandar.
The light cruiser, the Isis, was of these frustrations. It in overdrive, where nothing happened.
Bors his and not but approve of them tepidly. He'd sent food to the fleet, he'd two enemy ships and he'd done what he to the Mekinese on Tralee. He'd had them publicly with well-chosen epithets. He'd the records and of the political police.... Many people on Tralee already him, without who he was. There might yet be of days.
But all end, at great of the speed of light. The bells. Taped from speakers the ship. There was a count-down of seconds, and the of breakout, and the ship was in normal space again.
There was the sun of Garen, peacefully in a with millions of minute, lights in the all about it. There was a gas-giant planet, a fifteen miles away. Further out there were the smaller, worlds. Nearer the sun, on the of its orbit, there was the Garen.
The Isis for that planet, while Bors to decide the of this was to accident or to Logan's computations.
Logan appeared as Bors was the days needed to Garen on drive, was too fast. Logan looked and casual, but he with triumph.
"I out the the factor, Captain," he said condescendingly. "The speed of a ship in as the in to the fourth. Your couldn't tell that! Here's a table for calculating the speed of a ship in according to its and the of the field."
"Fine," said Bors without enthusiasm.
"And to go with it," said Logan, his voice indifferent, but his proudly, "just for my own amusement, I a complete table of for this particular ship, with different of field. They from one point five light-speeds up to the maximum your will give. You have to for of mass, of course."
Bors was not of over the of tables of figures. He not Logan's of in the results of the of numerals. Nor had he to the of Logan's explanation.
Instead, he said politely, "Very nice. Thank you very much."
Logan's to shine. His him defiant.
"Nobody else have out that table!" he said stridently. "Nobody! Morgan said you'd my work! He said you needed my talent! But what good do you see in it? You think I'm a freak!"
Bors that he'd been tactless. Logan's Talents, Incorporated had him sensitive. He'd done something of which he was proud, but Bors didn't its magnitude. Logan to the of his vanity.
"Hold it!" said Bors. "I'm not unappreciative. I'm and about something. You just an jump for me that's the most I of! But I'm for time and we've got to two days in solar-system drive we can't make an of less than light-days! So we're forty-eight hours or more."
Logan said as as before:
"But I just you you don't have to! Cut the field-strength according to that table."
Bors was jolted. It was self-evident. Logan had said he'd a table of for the Isis which would work for anything one point five light-speeds to maximum. One point five light-speeds!
It was one of those in technology that so often go so long they are noticed. During the of overdrive, it had been the of every to the possible drive. It was that with a and a field-strength, one an speed of an figure. Men had their trying to that figure. But nobody'd to out how slowly one travel in overdrive, solar-system drive took of distances!
"Wait a minute!" said Bors, staring. "Do you I can drive this ship under two light-speeds in overdrive?"
"Look at the table!" said Logan, with anger. "Look at it! You'll the right there!"
Bors looked. Then he up quickly. He left the ship in the of his second-in-command and into a with its engineers.
He ran into objections. The whole purpose of was high speed stars. The that one had to use the possible field. If the were feeble, it would unstable. Everybody that the had to be of maximum strength.
"We'll try minimum," said Bors coldly. "Now let's to work!"
He had to do much of the labor himself, the it necessary to stop at each stage of the to why it should not be done. He had almost to to an the main unit, with a to voltage, and a complete new power-supply unit to be cut into the line while the for use without delay.
He to the room. He took a distance-reading on the off to port. He on the new, low-power field. He it for and out. It was still in sight.
The speed of the Isis, with the overdrive, was one point seven lights.
Now, of days in solar-system drive for approach, Bors into the new-speed drive and out in eleven minutes twenty seconds, and was a hundred thousand miles of Garen. He'd saved two days and the promise of many more such valuable feats.
As soon as the Isis to normal space near Garen, there was a call on the communicator. A familiar voice;
"Calling Isis! Calling Isis! Sylva calling Isis!"
Bors said softly, "Damnation! For the second time, what are you doing in this place?"
Gwenlyn's voice laughed.
"Traveling for pleasure, Captain Bors! I've news for you. We were allowed to land and then told to again. There's a below. I told you about it before. It's still there. There's a cargo-ship, too, and there are it's almost with for Mekin. Mekin is—would you it?—unpopular on Garen!"
"Very well," said Bors. "I'll see what can be done. Will you a message for me?"
"Happy to oblige, Captain!"
"Tell them that—" Then Bors stopped short. It was not that the wave-form and were to Mekinese ships. But the possibility of low-speed travel was much too a to under any circumstances. He said, "I'll be along very with some news."
"Who do I tell this to?"
"I name no names on microwaves," he told her. "Get going, will you?"
"To hear," said Gwenlyn cheerfully, "is to obey."
Her off. The Sylva on a radar-screen, but had not been near to be direct. The out from the planet.
Bors to himself. The Isis a hundred thousand miles off Garen. There was no challenge. There was no from the planet. But Gwenlyn said that there were below. They be to the attention to routine. But there was another for this inattention. Garen was a part of the Mekinese which was not to off-planet through Mekin. Very non-Mekinese ships would land there, and therefore wouldn't be for. It was that a long-range space off Garen. The should be more alert, but again there was no of space-borne rebellion, and the of Kandar might not have been so away.
But the would respond to calls, certainly. Bors these circumstances. A large cargo-ship with to be sent to Mekin. A population which had been before—witness the to resistance—and now was rioting.
Bors called for the members of his crew. He the action he had in mind. There was one part that he disliked. He had to on ship. The action, as he saw it, would take place elsewhere. It was so painful for him to a of action in which other men must take he couldn't share, that his men him with pleased which he did not at. In the end he asked for twenty volunteers, and got fifty.
He the Isis around to the night of the planet. Its two port opened and two free in the Bors had established. The ship moved on ahead.
Just at where the stood, a voice from space.
"Calling ground!" it said contemptuously. "Calling ground! This is the last ship left of the of Kandar. We're now and we're looking for trouble! There's a there. Come up and or we blast you in your spaceport! Just to prove we can do it—watch!"
Bors said, "Fire one," and a off toward the planet. It was to at the very of the of the planet's atmosphere.
It did. There was light more than a thousand suns. The long low of vanished. The new-rising sun by comparison.
The voice from space spoke with levity. "Come up with your ready! We'll give you ten thousand miles of height. And if you try to out in overdrive...."
The voice was about what it would do to the Mekinese-occupied of Garen if the fled.
It came up to fight. It do nothing else.
