The Mekinese did not a spirit. There were four and eleven ships of the Horus's size and armament. According to of space-battle tactics, two of the light should have of the Horus with and dispatch. It might have and to give the Horus only two at a time, which would have been calculated to provide of six hundred to one against it. Two light would have eighteen salvo, which would have thirty-six from the Horus to meet and them. She couldn't put thirty-six into space at one firing. She would have in at the of fire. But the Mekinese were not so generous. They came up in full for bear. They not a but an execution. Mekinese on fire-power of such that any enemy was overwhelmed.
Their proved that they to operation procedure. Light ships space and until all were aloft. They themselves into a half-globe and at top solar-system drive toward the Horus. This was according to the book. If the Horus chose, of course, she by into overdrive—which would be to be the many-times-faster-than-light variety. If she fight, the fifteen ships on. Mekinese ships lightly. The fifteen of them four hundred salvo. No single ship such an attack. But Mekinese would not use such numbers of against one ship unless that ship was famous; unless and reports said that it was and and the of under Mekin.
The Horus very special attention.
Then she vanished. At one she was in full career toward the of enemies. The next she had an about herself and then no her, any her protection.
When she vanished, the which her position from the Mekinese radar-screens. The hundredth of a second in as to the Mekinese should have put her hundreds of millions of miles away. But something new had been added to the Horus. The hundredth of a second did not millions of miles of journeying. It meant something under three thousand, and a much more of time be and used by her micro-timer.
Therefore, at one the Horus was some two thousand miles from the lip of the half-globe of enemy ships. Then she was not anywhere. Then, the mind the of her vanishing, she was in the very center, the exact focus of the of Mekinese battle-craft. She was at the spot a Mekinese would most wish, it was from all his ships, and all their should arrive at the same when their number not be parried.
But it was more than an position from a Mekinese standpoint. It was also a point which was for the Horus, all her would arrive at the ships at the same instant. Each Mekinese would learn—without from any other—that those not be intercepted. No Mekinese would have the of the on a companion-ship, to his own actions.
The Horus appeared at that and position. She on the Mekinese screens. They missiles. The Horus missiles.
The Horus disappeared.
She reappeared, and the half-globe formation. Again she on the Mekinese screens. The Mekinese not their instruments. A ship which in not like this! Having and once, it not the trick. Having it....
There was more, and worse. The Horus were not being intercepted. Mekinese were to try to and the curving, impossibly-moving objects that out from where the Horus had to be. They failed. Clouds of new appeared....
A like a temporary sun. Another. Another. Others....
Bors from the and at the radar-screens. There were thirteen where ships had been. There were two remaining. It be that some had been on by more than one launching-tube, two ships by the Horus's missiles.
Both of those ships—one a cruiser—now the of their at the Horus.
Bors his voice coordinates.
"Launch all at those two targets," he commanded. "Fire! Overdrive coming! Five, four, three, two...."
The of entry and from was present. But the Horus had position five thousand miles. Bors saw one of his just-launched missiles—now a away—as it off. It for one of the two Mekinese survivors. The radar-blip which told of that ship's to the of gas. The other out. No of a bomb. Nothing. It out.
So the last Mekinese ship was gone in overdrive. It was safe! It not possibly be overtaken or attacked. It had the Horus's an course, which was recorded. It had the Horus go into and move only hundreds of miles of hundreds of millions. It had the Horus from one place and appear at another in the same area, and again it be ranged.
The last Mekinese ship with it the Horus's and recorded on tape. The of Mekin would set to work to them. Once they were possible—once they were recognized—they be achieved. The of the Mekinese would be as as that of the of Kandar had been,—and the of numbers would again decisive. The of the Kandarian would a hundred times worse. And Mekinese counter-intelligence would make a search for the of such improvements. Since Kandar was to have been and occupied, it would be a place of special search.
The only source, of course, would be Talents, Incorporated.
For a full minute after the enemy ship's disappearance, Bors sat rigid, his hands clenched, the the of the Mekinese constituted. Sweat appeared on his forehead.
Then he pressed the engine-room and said evenly, "Prepare for overdrive, top speed possible."
He the ship. He it up with Mekin itself, which, of course, was the one place where it would be most for a ship from Kandar to be discovered.
Very thereafter, the Horus was in overdrive.
Traveling in such haste, it is that there is much time to spare. Bors had to it. He prepared a and account of how the low-speed had worked, and its as a tactic. He'd and Logan's tables on the Glamis. He would be, of course, most for having taken on a whole of enemy ships, with the result that one had away. It be the most of catastrophes. But he his report with precision.
For seven ship-days there was no event on the Horus, as she toward Mekin. Undoubtedly the one of the enemy was for Mekin, too, to report to the possible authority what it had and experienced. It would not be much, if at all, slower than the Horus. It might be faster, and might the of Mekin the Horus out there. It had every but one. It had solar-system drive, for use a group, and it had for use the stars. But the Horus had an drive as well, which was than the enemy's slow speed and slower than the fast.
Bors on it for the of Kandar and the fleet. As the ship-days by he to have ideas—at which he scoffed—concerning Tralee. But if anything as as those ideas came to be, there were a score of other which would have to be too.
He sketched out in his own mind a of action that would be possible to after off Mekin. It did not the for planning, which always assume that if can go they will. Bors only plan for what might be done if right. But he not hope. Not really. Still, he every possibility, far-fetched.
He came to first-breakout, a light-week of Mekin. The yellow sun ahead. He his from it with very great care. The Horus into and out again, and it was well the system, though not on the plane of its ecliptic.
Then the Horus waited. She was twenty millions of miles from the Mekin. Bors ordered that for of up to five minutes no on the ship should be in operation. In those of silence, his all of space Mekin. He had no to have Mekin up radar-pulses and wonder what they came from. The of the system, though, he mapped. He two meteor-streams, and a of three in a nearly orbit, and he a ship just from Mekin by its landing-grid. It out to five and out of so as was concerned.
It had gone into and away. Another ship came around Mekin, in orbit. It the spot from which the ship had vanished. It to descend; the landing-grid had locked onto it with force-fields and was it to ground.
Bors to himself. It was not likely that this ship was the one he'd pursued, unseen, since the end of the off Meriden. But it was a possibility. If it were true, then that to Bors was forever.
Then a appeared. It was at the most limit of the radar's range. A ship had come out of near the fourth of this system.
Bors and the computer-operator its to six places of decimals. Bors set the timer. The Horus into low-speed and out again. Then the a stubby, cargo-ship, about to land on Mekin.
Bors swore. It would be days this Mekin on solar-system drive. But it must not report that an had it in remoteness.
"We alongside," said Bors angrily. "Boarding-parties in the space-boats."
Another into and through without pause. The cargo-boat was ten miles.
"Calling cargo-boat!" Bors, in what would be the of a Mekinese officer a ship. "Identify yourself!"
A voice answered apologetically, "Cargo-ship Empress, sir, from Loral to Mekin with foods."
"Cut your drive," Bors. "Stand by for inspection! Muster your crews. There's a trying to on Mekin. We'll check your hands. Acknowledge!"
"Yes, sir," said the voice. "Obeying, sir."
Bors fretted. The space-boats left the Horus's side. One onto the of the rounded, tramp-ship. The second nearby. The and the second on. The second contact. Both came to the Horus.
The screen Bors up. One of his own out of it.
"All clear, sir," said his voice briskly. "They like lambs, sir. No arms. We've locked them in a hold."
"You know what to do now," said Bors.
"Yes, sir. Off."
Ten miles away the cargo-boat itself about. Suddenly it was gone. It was on the way to Glamis and the fleet.
Another hour of watching. Another blip. It was another cargo-carrier like the first. As the other had done, it permitted itself to be by what it were of the Mekinese space-fleet, for a who might be on board. Like the ship, it was soon undeceived. Again like the first, it from emptiness, and it would be for the in its of Glamis.
The third blip, though, was a light cruiser. The Horus appeared from close it and its to in gibberish. It would be an official report, and taped, to be to ground on the there was of its reception.
"Fire one," said Bors. "The there is on his toes."
He as the Horus's in its trajectory, as the light that be out to try to stop it, while its to the stars.
There was a of light. Then nothing.
"He got out maybe fifteen of transmission," said Bors somberly, "which may or may not be up from this distance, and may or may not tell anything. He got a tape while he was in overdrive, with of time for the job. My is that he'd take at least fifteen to identify his ship, give her number, her skipper, and such things. I so...."
But for minutes he was irresolute. He'd send his own report to Glamis on the second ship. He did not need to return to report in person. He hadn't yet sent for the of the fleet. The of Mekin was an well-stocked hunting-ground for such as Bors and his themselves to be—so long as word did not to ground on Mekin.
But it did not down. From time to time—at of a hours—specks appeared in emptiness. Mekin the off-planet of its world. There would be many times the space-traffic here that would be off any other in the Mekinese empire.
One ship got to ground unchallenged. By pure accident it came out of a miles of Mekin. To have it would have been noted. But he got two more cargo-ships. Then he the Horus alongside a passenger-ship. But it couldn't be allowed to ground, to report that it had been stopped by an ship. A prize-crew took it off to Glamis.
Bors a to his crew. "I think," he told them over the all-speaker circuit, "that we got the ship which have reported our action off Meriden. I'm sure we've sent four of food to the fleet, the passenger-ship we'd have missed. But there's still something to be done. To Mekin and keep it busy, and therefore off Kandar's neck, we have to start trouble elsewhere. From now on we are pure and simple."
And he the Horus for the Cassis, which was another of the Mekinese. It was a rocky, world with many mines. Mekin on it for metal in quantities. The Horus over it and sent a challenge. One came up in defiance. But it was and Bors it. Then voices called to him, with excitement. He and and a voice said that on Cassis, who had been in the streets, had a to welcome the of Mekin.
Bors had one light and a minimum for it. He couldn't be of much help to insurrectionists. Then he artillery-fire over the communicator, and voices that the Mekinese was out of its highly-fortified encampment. Bors sent a to the of the counter-attack. Then the gave off the of and men in battle, and presently of triumph.
He took the Horus away. Its and in the was pure accident. It was no part of any thought-out plan. But he was when he had himself that Mekin needed the of this world too much to its population with fusion-bombs.
More days of travel in tedium. Bors was and appalled. Interference here would only make worse. The Horus on.
There was a cargo-ship on Dover, and the Horus and a space-boat and it up. That ship also away to Glamis where the was an number of prisoners. The that the of this ship only added to that number Bors that King Humphrey would be about the on the sent from Mekin. Unless they were murdered, sooner or later they would the about the Fleet. And King Humphrey was a man.
There was on Dover. The landing-party was from the of the spaceport. Bors not understand. He to what was going on in the Mekinese empire. He not know or not had yet Kandar. He only that there were ships near it, to use the against any single Mekinese ship that might appear, so no report would be back. But it to him that and complete was inevitable.
He about Tralee, and what the Pretender, his uncle, about his of chemical-explosive against government there. He himself again about the who'd his men of booby-traps in the they delivered. He they hadn't been caught.
The Horus at Deccan, and called the message of challenge.
There came a tumultuous, reply.
"Captain Bors!" a voice from the ground exultantly. "Land and welcome! We didn't you'd come here, but you're a thousand times welcome! We've the here, Captain! We rose days ago and we the planet! We'll join you! Come to ground, sir! We can supply you!"
Bors all over. He'd been called by name! If he was by name on this world—twenty light-years from Mekin and thirty-five from Kandar—then was lost.
"Can you send up a space-boat?" he asked in a voice he did not recognize. "I'd like to have your news."
It must be a trap. It was possible that there'd been on Deccan; he'd proof of elsewhere. There'd been of on Cassis, but he hadn't been then. He'd sent a to help the self-proclaimed there. Now he if he'd been there as, it was all too likely, he would be here. There'd been reported on Avino. There was for his men on Dover, and he might have there. But there were too many coincidences, too many.
He waited, fifty thousand miles high, with the ship at combat-alert. He cold all over. Somehow, news had him. It was truth, but there was to make his like ice.
He spoke over the all-speaker hook-up, in a voice he not keep by any of will.
"All hands attention," he said heavily. "I just called ground. We have had a reply calling me by name. You will see the implication. It looks like somehow the Mekinese have managed to send word ahead of us. They've out that no one can against us. They know we have new and weapons. Probably there have been orders to us to ground by the of a successful revolt. It would be that we can be to the point where we will land and our ship can be undestroyed.—That's the way it looks."
He swallowed, with difficulty.
"If that's so," he said after an instant, "you can what's been done about Kandar. The was assembled on Mekin. It have gone to Kandar...."
He again. Then he said savagely, "Well make sure first. If the has we'll take our and for Mekin and every of we've got. We may not be able to turn its air to poison, but if there are survivors, they won't what they did to Kandar!"
He off. His clenched. He and in the room. He almost did not wait to make sure. Almost. But he had a Mekinese man to face. He'd gone into with his uncle when that man let Tralee than be to depopulation. He'd in the Kandarian without to be in any port when a Mekinese ship was in. He'd in the off Kandar, he'd a Mekinese off Tralee, another in the Mekinese itself and a off Meriden. But he had a Mekinese fighting-man to face. Filled with such as he felt, he meant to do so now.
A space-boat came up from the ground. The Horus on it. Bors for its to the Horus in space-suits, which not bombs.
There were six men in the space-boat. They came into the Horus's room and he saw that they were young, almost boys. When they learned that he was Captain Bors, they looked at him with shining, admiring, eyes. It not be a trick. It not be a trap. He was incredulous.
The message from the ground was true.
