The trick, of course, was in the timing, and the was that Bors what he was doing, while those who him did not. Bors had himself a on Tralee, and here off Garen he'd the same status. But no Mekinese, as yet, why he'd himself, his purpose in a line to fight. It like the raving, of men with no but hate. But it wasn't. The Isis have sent a with a limited-yield if its only purpose had been to kill or to destroy. He have the without and it was that it was to send up counter-missiles in its own defense. But he'd have had to else in the at the same time.
Therefore he'd left his two space-boats in low on the night of the planet. In thirty minutes or so they'd arrive near the spaceport, where there was a large cargo-ship with foodstuffs, for Mekin. Bors wanted that cargo.
So when the Mekinese came up to space, with her missile-tubes and bristling, Bors the Isis. It was not flight. It was a move designed to make sure that when the there would be no on the planet.
Unseen, the Isis's space-boats in darkness. They ten men each, with small arms and light bombs. They to such of as came from the night them. Boat Number One up a news broadcast, and when it was finished, the officer in free the tape that had recorded it and it in his pocket. There were of on it.
The Isis came to a stop in space. The rose and rose. It did not drive toward the Isis. There was a maximum which space-combat was impractical; which moving almost at and each other without to loyalties. There was also a minimum distance, which were again and not the on which they were launched.
But there was a wide area in between, in which was practical. The Mekinese a where it on solar-system drive without rockets. It might, of course, into and be gone thousands of millions of miles seconds. But that would be flight. It would not return to the of the fight. So not be used as a tactic. It be used only for escape.
Near the planet, where the two space-boats floated, the appeared at the world's edge. The space-boats about, backward, and power for deceleration. They into the and out again, and in again—more deeply—and then once more to along their course. They a long, shallow, from the limits of the planet's atmosphere.
Out where the sun of Garen was a of and heat, the on its way. It would that its the Isis's terms of and moved to the position where his would be most deadly. His ship's launching-tubes were at the ready. It should be able to out a cloud of missiles. In fact, a voice came from the battleship.
"Calling pirate," said the voice.
"Yes," said Bors.
"If you wish to surrender—"
"We don't," said Bors.
"I was about to say," said the voice, "that it is now too late."
The radar-screen out from that larger which was the battleship. They came toward the Isis. Bors them. A ship of the Isis's class eighteen launching-tubes. She should be able to fire eighteen at a time. The Mekinese ship had nineteen. If the Isis opened fire, by all the previous of space-combat, she would need to use one to every one of the battleship's, there would still be one left over to the Isis—unless she a second spread of missiles, which was she would be hit.
It was by the of the battleship. He was much at the idea of with this small, vessel. But Bors did not try to match him for missile. He said evenly,
"Fire one. Fire two. Fire three. Fire four."
He stopped at four. His four wildly, in the direction, only, of the enemy.
On the Garen two objects came to ground. Men out of them and toward a small town, a settlement, a group of houses larger than a village. One man by each space-boat, and then ran to overtake the others. Local appeared, to and to wonder. The two landing-parties, ten men in each, did not pause. They into the village's single street. There were ground-cars at the street-sides. The men of the landing-parties themselves briskly. One of them a by the arm.
"To with Mekin," he said conversationally. "Where's the office?"
"Wha—what—?"
"To with Mekin," the man from the Isis, impatiently. "Where's the office?"
The civilian, suddenly, pointed. Some of the landing-party to it. Four in. There were the reports of blast-rifles. Smoke and the of out. Others of the men the street, each ground-car in turn. One of them his hands and for the of citizens:
"Attention, please! We're from the ship Isis. You have nothing to from us. We're of Mekin's of Kandar. You will co-operate with us, and no will come to you. Your ground-cars will be so you can't report us. You will not be for this! Repeat: you will not be punished!"
He the announcement. Others of the swiftly-moving landing-parties the ground-cars away from the streets. The a blaster-bolt apiece. In seven minutes and thirty from the landing of the small space-craft, a of out of the village, for the city of Garen. As the last car the houses, there was a explosion. One of the space-boats to bits. Before the had vanished, there was a second explosion. Another space-boat in and debris. The landing-party had no way to return to space. The of the village had no way to report their in person and by traveling some on foot. They were slow in making that report. The men of the space-boats had said they were pirates. The people of Garen no toward pirates. They only Mekinese.
Out in space, away from the small ship Isis. They did not directly at the battleship. They in wide arcs. The already-launched Mekinese to them. They failed. More from the battleship, to intercept. They also failed. The to out every it possessed, in a to out the Isis's missiles, which neither were able to to a pattern of destination.
Half a dozen ground-cars through the of the city of Garen. They did not to be crowded. One man or at most, two, be in each car, but they as a unit, one close another, at a pace. When they needed a clear way, the its warning-note and the others joined in as a chorus. Half a dozen together have an authoritative, sound. The way was when that it.
They under the landing-grid. They and across the clear surface which was the spaceport. There a giant, cargo-ship, pointing skyward. There were ground-trucks still for its nearly filled-up holds.
The six ground-cars braked, making clouds of dust. And there was not one or two men in each, but an number. They what they were about. Five of them into the ship. Others off the ground-trucks. Uniformed men ran from the of the toward the ship, yelling. One ground-car started up again, to the control-building, as a crash into it inevitable, and something out on the ground. It to the other about the cargo-ship. The hold-doors were closing.
The object by the control-building off. It was a chemical-explosive bomb, but its power was adequate. The of the in. Flames out of the heap. The landing-field would be out of operation.
The last car to a stop. The two men in it ran for the boarding-stair of the cargo-boat. There was nobody of their party now. The landing-stair after them.
Then monstrous, of and steam from the of the space-ship. It lifted, slowly at first, but then more and more swiftly. It to the sky. It a speck, and then a at the end of a of white emergency-rocket fumes. Then it vanished.
Far out in space, there was an than the sun, and then a second and a third. There was a cloud of metal vapor. Presently a its target-seeking by the metal steam. It into with that stuff. It exploded. Two or three more exploded, like the first. Others harmlessly.
A voice said, "Cargo-ship reporting. Clear of ground. Everything going well. No casualties."
"Report again when in clear space," said Bors.
He waited. Several long minutes later a second report came.
"Cargo-ship reporting. In clear space."
"Very good work!" said Bors. "You know where to go now. Go ahead!"
"Yes, sir," said the voice from space. Then it asked apologetically, "You got the battleship, sir?"
The voice from space as if the man who spoke were grinning.
"We'll that, sir! Good to have with you, sir."
Bors the Isis and on solar-system drive to well away from Garen. He the which was the ship as it to a very, very long time. It was aiming, of course, for Glamis, that totally around a where the of Kandar in frustration.
Bors got up from his seat to his muscles. He had sat and for a very long time. He ached. But he a of satisfaction. For a ship of the Isis's class to have a to combat, to have and waited for it to choose its own battle-distance, and then to let it its first.... It was no ambush! Bors did not of this fight. He'd according to the of a man who his enemy the to use what the enemy has chosen, and then him.
His second-in-command said, "Sir, the cargo-boat is gone. It should be in now, sir, for Glamis."
"Then we'll it," said Bors. Suddenly he how his second-in-command must feel. The landing-party'd action—for which Bors them—and he'd he in the ship in what he safety while they their lives. But his second-in-command had had no in the at all. Bors had all and all orders, the ones, since Tralee.
"I think," said Bors, "I'll have a cup of coffee. Will you take over and for Glamis?"
He left the control-room, to let his for a time. He'd seated himself in the mess-room when the voice of his second-in-command came through the speakers.
"Going into overdrive," said the voice. "All steady. Five, four, three, two—"
Bors prepared to wince. He put his coffee cup and himself for the sensation.
Suddenly there was the rasping, of a high-voltage spark. There were shouts. There were and the of metal and insulation. Then the compartment-doors closed.
When Bors had the damage, and the emergency-purifiers had taken the and out of the air, his second-in-command looked gloomy.
"It's business," said Bors wryly. "Very business! But I should have mentioned it to you. I didn't think of it. I wouldn't have of it if I'd been doing the myself."
The second-in-command said bitterly;
"But I you'd the new low-power overdrive! I it!"
"I left it in," said Bors, "because I we might use it in the with the battleship. But we didn't."
"I should have that it was off!" his second. "It's my fault!"
Bors shrugged. Deciding fault it was wouldn't repair the damage. There'd been a error. Bors had approached Garen on the low-power that Logan had for him. There was a special to cut it in, of the overdrive. It should have been cut out when the was used. But somebody in the engine-room had the main-drive when for travel began. When the ship should have gone into overdrive, it didn't. The two to an short-circuit. Generators, condensers—even the in their the hull—everything blew.
So the Isis was left with a solar-system drive and and nothing else. If the drive used only in were put on full, and the Isis for Glamis, and if the food and water out, it would arrive at that world in eighty-some years. It Tralee in fifty. But there were for a only. It was not that repairs be made. This was no occasion calling for to make some of jury-rigged drive. This was final.
"I've got to think," said Bors heavily.
He to his own cabin.
Talents, Incorporated couldn't or or an answer to this! And all previous plans had to be cancelled. Absolutely. He at once and for all time the idea that the Isis be repaired of months in a well-equipped space-yard on a planet. She should be up, after pains were taken to any in her make-up. There were the tables of Logan's calculation. Bors himself that Logan should be he had no of to Kandar, and as satisfy his for in the Mekinese service as in Kandar's. The crew....
That was the of the situation. The Isis not be salvaged. She should be destroyed. There was only one world on which beings live. That world was Garen. The Isis on Garen, her crew, and be up Mekinese interfere. Perhaps—possibly—her try to on Garen as pirates, as outlaws, as against the government. But they too much. Every man how the interceptor-proof worked. Logan might be the only man who had calculated the tables for their use, but if any of the Isis's were and to talk, he tell for Mekinese to start work with. If Logan were he tell more. He re-compute not only the tables for the missiles, but the data for low-power which would make any invincible.
And there was the Kandarian fleet. If its known, it would the of Kandar. Every of all its millions would die with every tree and of grass, every flower, and bird, the in its seas.
Bors had at the of his life when his said curtly:
"Captain Bors, sir. Space-yacht Sylva calling. Asks for you."
"I'm here," said Bors.
Gwenlyn's voice came out of the speaker.
"Are you in trouble, Captain? One of our Talents that you are."
Bors swallowed.
"I you'd gone on as you were to do. Yes. There is trouble. It to shipwreck. How many of my men can you take off?"
"We've of room!" said Gwenlyn. "My father most of the Talents with him. We're your way, Captain."
"Very good," said Bors. "Thank you." He was grateful, but help from a woman—from Gwenlyn!—galled him.
He her off, and shivered.
Presently the Sylva was alongside. The transfer of the Isis's began. Bors over the ship for the last time. The ship's the Sylva, as did Logan's calculated tables for low-power overdrive. Bors sure that nothing else be from the Isis. He looked and when he into one of the on the Isis left by the of two space-boats in the Garen cutting-out expedition. A from the Sylva was there to him.
"Technically," said Bors, "I should go with my ship, or with it. But there's no point in being romantic!"
"I'm the one," said his second-in-command, "who will court-martial!"
"I it very much," said Bors. "They can't court-martial you for something they're in trouble for at. Into the with you!"
He a and entered the boat. The opened. The small space-boat free. Its drive and it and away from the but Isis. Bors looked at the light cruiser. Sunlight on its hull. Somehow a slow motion had been to it the of ship. The little ship pointed as though at all the about her, to none of which she would drive again.
The Sylva up. The last space-boat into its and the clanked. The closed. When the air-pressure normal and green lights and flashed, Bors got out of the and to the Sylva's control-room. Gwenlyn was there, the operation of the by to its official skipper. She and at Bors.
"We'll off a way," she observed, "and make sure your time-bomb works. You wouldn't want her and salvaged."
"No," said Bors.
He by a as the Sylva away. The Isis to be a shape and the most minute of motes. Bors looked at his watch.
"Not yet," he said depressedly. "Everything will go."
The on. Fifteen—twenty minutes at solar-system speed.
"It's about due," said Bors.
Gwenlyn came and him. They looked together out at the stars. There were upon of them, of all the colors of the spectrum, of all of brightness, in every possible distribution.
There was a in remoteness. Instantly it was more than a spark. It was a of deadly, blue-white incandescence. It as all the Isis's fuel and the on all its to pure energy in the hundred-millionth of a second. It was many times than a sun. Then it was not. And the of the was such that there was not metal-vapor where it had been. Every of the ship's had been and through so many thousands of miles of that it did not as a mist.
"A good ship," said Bors grimly. Then he growled. "I wonder if they saw that on Garen and what they about it!" He himself. "How did you know we were in trouble?"
"There's a Talent," said Gwenlyn matter-of-factly, "who can always tell how people feel. She doesn't know what they think or why. But she can tell when they're and so on. Father her to tell him when people lie. When what they say doesn't match how they feel, they're lying."
"I think," said Bors, "that I'll away from her. But that won't do any good, will it?"
Gwenlyn at him. It was a very smile.
"She tell that had gone with the ship," she observed, "because of the way you felt. But I've her to tell when someone to me or anything like that. I don't want to know people's when they want to them."
"Fine!" said Bors. "I better." Standing so close to Gwenlyn, he also light-headed.
She at him again, as if she understood.
"We'll for Glamis now," she said. "The there should have a great of what you've done."
"It would be my of luck," said Bors joking, "for it to have for the worse."
It had.
