Bors got nowhere, of course. His had all the ear-marks of of purest serene. He urgently to all the ships of the with the low-power fields. It be done in days. Instructions were already and would have been and understood. The would then go to Kandar—if it appeared that the Mekinese would go there—and set up a of target-globes in array. This would be a fleet, but not of ships. It would be a of metal-foil balloons.
One ship, he stipulated, would part of this space-navy. He the Horus for it. That ship would to the Mekinese when they arrived. It would make the king's to surrender, on the Mekinese promise to the population of Kandar. If the enemy to these terms and the king him, then the true Kandarian appear and to its overwhelmingly-powerful enemy. If the to safety to Kandar's population, then the might be destroyed, but the would fight. Hopelessly and uselessly—though the new low-power drive well in action—but it would fight.
The First Admiral said stonily, "If I were in the position of the Mekinese admiral, and I to terms of capitulation, and if it were then to me that the of the terms was a deceit, I would not by my promise. When the appeared, I would blast it for my honor."
Bors looked at him with eyes. The king said drearily, "No, Bors. We must act in good faith. We cannot question the Mekinese good as you propose, and then them to in ours. The is right. We can and on our people, or we can place ourselves at the of Mekin. There can be only one choice. We ourselves, but we keep our honor."
"I deny," said Bors savagely, "that any man his who his fellows, as you will do in surrendering. I my in your service, Majesty."
King Humphrey wearily.
"Very well. You have us admirably, Bors. I wish I you were right in this matter. I would your than my convictions. Your is accepted."
An hour later, fuming, Bors and across the of a in the flagship. The Pretender of Tralee entered. The older man looked amused.
"It was a most thing to do. You your and then ordered the low-power on all ships."
"To the contrary," said Bors, "I spread the news that I had my the low-power were not to be to give us a chance!"
The Pretender sat and his nephew quizzically.
"But is it so important? To use tables of calculations of computers?"
"Yes," said Bors. "It is important. I should know. I've used the low-power in combat. Nobody else has."
The old man said without reproof, "The First Admiral is indignant. The were not ordered on the ground that they're an device and that at least once such a out, your ship, the Isis, so that it had to be abandoned."
"True," Bors. He no defense. The of the First Admiral would have been perfectly logical in ordinary times. Anything like the new intermediate, low-power should have been through channels, by a duly-appointed of officers, reported on, the report evaluated, and then and and the report on the evaluated. Then it should have been submitted to another of officers of higher rank, who would the and amount of of the new device required, its to accident and/or obsolescence, the of repair, the cost of and the length of time in-port to it. Somewhere along the line there should also have been a report on the with which it be into other and procedures, and there should have been reports on its possible value, the number of times it would be useful, the of its and the of going into and out of at would have an on morale. Under normal a ship might have been equipped, for purposes, in six to ten years, and in ten years more all new ships might be equipped. But it would be well over a its use was general.
The older man said, "Since your resignation's been accepted, you'll be put on the Sylva when it comes back. You won't be taken to Kandar with the fleet."
Bors's hands clenched.
"They'll say I to out of the fight!"
"No," said his uncle mildly. "They'll say you to avoid surrender. I'm being with you. I'm to be on the of your friend, Morgan, too. Humphrey is a very man. Abominably so. But I am of being an exile. I'd with the fleet. But he on his to our lives. I'm not sure what for, in a where such as Mekin can happen."
"They happen," Bors, "because we value peace and as much as the Mekinese do power, and much less than freedom. We compromise."
He up and down.
"Up to now," he said harshly, "every against Mekin has been defensive. Twenty-two worlds, in turn, have they only wanted to stop Mekin. It's time for some world to very to Mekin, to act with anger against a thing that should be hated. It's got to be done!"
"The time for such a resolution," said his uncle, gently, "went by long ago."
There was voice from the speaker.
"Co-o-o-ntact!"
There was the of doors closing. The peculiarly-muffled of a closed fell. The Pretender said quietly, "If this is the Mekinese fleet, is solved. But your friends of Talents, Incorporated will have to be wrong. They the will not come here."
Bors rasped, "I wish I were in that room! But at least we've got they can't intercept!"
"Except that they won't be fired, they're a great improvement," the Pretender said mildly.
He sat at ease. Time passed. Presently the air-refresher hummed, the CO2 of the air. It cut off. Bors up and down, up and down. He pictured what might be outside. It be that the of Mekin had appeared and now proudly toward Glamis. It be that the was surrender. There would be near-mutiny on many of its ships. There would be frustration. Junior officers, in particular, would have the low-power tables, and would have the reports of Bors's use of low-power against an enemy off Meriden. They would to have their ships with by which it from a place where it was a to elsewhere, unharmed, and make the enemy its target. Two with the new device might each other. But one fleet....
The said curtly:
"Captain Bors, a single ship has out of overdrive. It itself as the ship Liberty, of Cela. It that it has come to place itself under your command."
Bors stared. He had about the two Cela-built ships which the Deccan told him about—the of which had gone on a trial with a Mekinese and failed to return, and the second of which, with a Celan crew, had gone off to look for Bors and his marauders.
Somehow, it had him. It totally improbable. Bors of Talents, Incorporated. The Talents on the ship had spread on worlds apart. It was that in some way they'd this ship to Glamis.
"Very well," said Bors coldly, in the to which he was confined. "I to be put on board."
"I'll come with you," said his uncle. He at Bors, who noted, but was not at, the of the smile. "This is the ship you mentioned as to the Horus. I don't think you'll it. But I've once and I don't like it. I'd not do it again."
Compartment-doors to normal, as combat-alert off. Morgan appeared, and upset.
"What's this?" he demanded. "What's happened?"
Bors told him as much as he knew, all that he'd been told on Deccan. It was the only ship in against Mekin. It had of Bors, and it wanted his leadership.
"But you can't go now!" Morgan. "You've got to wait until the Sylva back! You have to have Talents, Incorporated to act on! You need my Talents!"
"I'm going to moving as fast as I can," said Bors. "I don't think we can wait. If the Liberty's what I think, and her what I believe, they'll action."
There was a space-boat at the flagship's lock. Bors and his uncle entered. Those already in the were men in the of ship-workers. They proudly at Bors when he took his seat.
"I don't know you know, sir," said the man at the space-boat's controls, "but we about your revolt, sir, and we were about at the limit so we—"
"I stopped at Deccan," Bors said briefly. "They told me about you. Do you want action against Mekin?"
"Yes, sir!" It was a chorus.
"You'll it," said Bors. "I'll try you out on a of Mekin ships that should be up at Kandar. How are you for repairs and changes?"
"We left Cela for a test trip, sir," said the man at the controls. There were him. He chuckled. "Naturally we had materials to repair anything that on a trial run!"
"I've got some new for missiles," said Bors, "which make them hard to dodge. And we'll want to set up a special control, which makes it easy to Mekinese ones. We can to it on the way to Kandar. How many aboard?"
He asked other questions. They answered. What Bors asked was what a officer would need to know about a new ship, and his new it. They had been and when he entered the space-boat. In the time needed to to the Liberty they confident.
His was but enthusiastic. He a inspection. The Liberty had started out with a of and no stores or arms. The ranks were now with from Deccan and elsewhere, and its storage-rooms with foodstuffs. Bors, however, only once. That was when he saw the of missiles. On Deccan they'd been in their gifts to the space-ship.
Bors into the room, about, and spoke into the all-speaker microphone.
"All hands attention! Bors speaking. A of Mekinese ships is at Kandar. We shall for that immediately. On the way I shall for some in the of the we have on board. We will and aiming-tables for their use. We will stop twice on the way for practice. Much more than your or mine on how well you do your work. We'll also the to make this ship able to do my other ships did—and more. You will work much on the way to Kandar than you before, but we have to more than usual. That's all."
He by while the ship was for Kandar. The said enthusiastically, "Prepare for overdrive. Five, four, three—"
A voice out of a speaker:
"Calling Liberty! Calling Liberty! Morgan calling Liberty!"
"Hold it," said Bors.
He answered the call. Morgan's voice, in a high of agitation, "Bors! The Sylva's just back! Just out! The will to Kandar in five days, four hours, twenty minutes! My Talent on the Sylva is sure of it. It's Talents, Incorporated information!"
"We haven't any time to spare, then," said Bors.
"Bors!" Morgan's voice. "There were three ships of our about, on watch for Mekinese. They one. Twelve came. The observation-ships attacked. They got eleven of the twelve. The last one into and got away! Bors! Do you see what that means?"
"It means," said Bors coldly, "that Mekin won't be this week. Destroying the was enough. I got one off Meriden. Now that a third squadron's out, Mekin will on somebody punished—and plenty! All right! We're for Kandar now."
He to the man at the board. He noted with that he'd the Liberty's exact while Bors talked to Morgan.
"Proceed," Bors ordered.
The man said, "Five, four, three, two, one—"
There was the familiar of going into overdrive. The Liberty space about itself and into invisibility.
This was one in which was not tedious. Bors had to the ship for combat. He had to train launching-crews to work like high-speed machinery. He had to teach the setting of for he had to how to measure. Once he stopped the ship and all the launching-crews took at an metal-foil target. The Pretender of Tralee an gift for organization. He all space the ship into sectors, one to each sector. If an order to fire came, the would in their own first. There would be no waste of on one target.
The Pretender would have an excellent officer. He was patient with those who did not immediately. He had that was not arrogance. In five days the Liberty was a ship and a one. There were edges, of course. Man for man and for the ship would not with a longer-trained and more instrument. But the on was superb and the were—to put it mildly—inspiring of hope.
The Liberty out of and the sun of Kandar yellow in emptiness. The gas-giant had moved in its orbit. It was more in line than with a direct arrival-path for a from Mekin. Bors was out from his to turn the ship into a smooth-running unit. He looked at a ship's clock.
"The Mekinese," he said over the all-speaker circuit, "will out in two hours, minutes. And we're going to set up a for them to with."
His uncle said gently, "I some rest, to be fresh for the of the ship. I'll set up the fleet."
Bors the idea, but it was not to his own by on his indispensability. He himself on a bunk. He was much satisfied with the ship and than he would have admitted. And he was dead-tired.
Around him, men of Cela and Deccan prepared target-globes for launching. The Pretender pointed out that the was to perfectly still and in ranks. Therefore, each had to be with no at all, so it would in position with relation to the others, to appear to be a of ships.
Far away the Sylva through space with a much-agitated Morgan on board. Gwenlyn, too, was frightened. For the time, of them of the value of Talents, Incorporated information.
Again, away, the of Kandar through emptiness. On its ships, junior officers had come close to mutiny. There was now a sullen, to and what orders might be given, but the was angry. The Sylva had news of a third of Mekinese by Kandar ships and blood to make a full-scale test of its own deadliness. There were ships of the which did not have a low-power unit to be into if the occasion arose. If the king not make terms for surrender, the junior officers were prepared to make a victory by Mekin a very matter.
Stretched out on his bunk, Bors of all these things. Finally he slept—and—dreamed. It was odd that anyone so should dream. It was more that he did not of the in the of his mind. He of Gwenlyn. She was crying, in the dream, and it was she he was killed. And Bors was at her grief, and then elated. And he moved toward her and she her at some he made. The of on her him put his arms around her with an and satisfaction. And he her and the was remarkable.
Half-awake, he at the of the room of the Liberty. His uncle was saying to the man at the control-board, "That's a very fleet-formation, if we do say so ourselves!"
Bors up, one-half of his mind still by his dream, but the other to business.
But all of had been to. Out the he see the in an formation. Its ships were only miles apart, and if they had been ships, every one have at any point of attack from the pattern they constituted. At a hundred miles they be only as of sunlight. At a would identify them only as which must be enemy ships the radar-blips they the of craft.
"Hm," said Bors. He looked at the clock. "The Mekinese should have out five minutes ago."
"They did," said his uncle. "They're yonder. They're for this fleet."
He pointed, not out a port but at a screen where a of the Mekinese just out of and toward the formation, itself into attack as it moved.
"The king's not here on time," Bors grimly. "We have to play his hand for him, Uncle. We haven't the right to Kandar by to ourselves. Offer surrender, as he'd wish it to be done. If they accept, he can out his part when he arrives. He'll be here!"
The spoke into a transmitter.
"Calling Mekinese fleet," he said. "Defending calling Mekinese fleet!"
In a reply came back.
"Mekinese Grand Admiral calling Kandar," the voice answered arrogantly. "What do you want?"
"We will discuss on of Kandar," said the old man. "Will you give us terms?"
He grimaced, and said, aside, to Bors, "I'm speaking for Humphrey as I know he'd speak. But I am ashamed!"
There was a pause. It took time for the Pretender's voice to the enemy and as long for the reply to come back. The reply was and and amused.
"What terms can you for?" it demanded. "You our ships. You in destruction! How can you for terms?"
The Pretender his ear thoughtfully. He the screen with regret.
"We ask life for the people of our planet," he said steadily. He was that he had to speak for the King of Kandar. "We ask that they not be for our resistance."
The men in the room looked astonished. Then they saw Bors's expression, and grinned.
A long pause. The boiling, shifting on the radar-screen to have a order. The Mekinese voice, when it came, was and overbearing.
"We will your planet," it said contemptuously, "but not you. You have to us. Stand and be destroyed, and there will be no for your world. There are no other terms."
The Pretender looked at Bors. He shrugged.
"Now what would the king do?" He looked puzzled.
"What can our do?" asked Bors.
The Pretender nodded. "We will offer no resistance," he said into the transmitter.
There was a long silence. Bors looked at the radar-screen. The of at the of the screen to have sent a it. It was actually a of missiles. They were so away that they not be up as on the screen. They were a glow, a shine, a of luminosity.
"We shift to low-power readiness," said Bors. "That is an order."
A ship-voice murmured, "Low-power in circuit, sir."
He the screen. The Mekinese at a rate. They left their parent ships behind. They were a third of the way to the drone-fleet and the Liberty Bors spoke again.
"Launch and another target-globe," he ordered drily. "We speak for the king since he was late. But we won't here to be killed as his proxy! Not without first!"
A voice, crisp: "Target launched, sir."
"Low-power toward the gas-giant planet. One-twentieth second. Five, four, three, two, one!"
There was the of going into, and from, simultaneously. The Liberty from its place in the of the fleet, but left a metal-foil where it had been. It a full five thousand miles away.
The now were brighter. They were individual, like stars. They visibly to upon the space by the fleet.
"They'll be the ships," said the Pretender mildly, "to make sure that all for their execution. This would be a if it were Humphrey's fleet. He is just to let himself be killed, on the word of a Mekinese!"
The cloud of radar-blips and came near. The also appeared on the screens in the Liberty's room. Bors and the others see the rushing, of as it through space upon the targets.
"There!" Bors pointed. "The king's ship's out! Away over at the edge. I wonder if the Mekinese will notice!"
There were very off at the of the radar-screen. They in number.
There was a flash, like the sun near for the tenth of a second. Another. Yet another. Then an of as and and of the off together. It was an against the stars. Missiles and and there to be an sun there, now and now fainter, but and shining.
It out, and left a and behind. Then, entered it and detonated. Their ceased. Then there was nothing where there had to be a fleet.
"Which," said Bors, "is that!"
Then a voice spoke from space.
"Connect all speakers for a message in clear," it commanded. "Alert all for a order."
There was a pause. The voice spoke again.
"Spacemen of Mekin," it said icily. "The of Kandar is now destroyed. Kandar itself will be also as an example of the of toward Mekin. But it should be a to others who would against our world. Therefore, in part as and in part as a to the men of the Grand Fleet, you will be allowed to land a period of two weeks. You will be armed. You may confiscate, for yourself, anything of value you find. You are not to in your toward the people of Kandar. They will be with their and no from such will be to. You will be in groups, each on a fresh area of the planet. That is all."
There was in the room of the Liberty. After a long time the Pretender said very quietly, "I will not live while such live. From this moment I will kill them until I am killed!"
"I King Humphrey that," Bors said, and a breath. "Combat alert!" he ordered crisply. "We're the Mekinese fleet. Handle your and don't try to fire while we're in overdrive! We'll be going in and out.... Choose your and fire as we come out and while I count down. Overdrive point nine seconds. Five, four, three, two, one!"
The and when the Liberty came out in nine-tenths of a second. She was in the very of a of the Mekinese fleet. Missiles away, furiously, as Bors down. "Two-fifths second, five, four, three, two, one!"
More away. Bors almost chanted, while with toward the radar-screen he out the objects near which should fall.
"Point oh five seconds." The ship into and out. It as if the from one to another the viewports. "Five, four, three, two, one! Hold fire!"
The Liberty came out a good ten thousand miles from its starting-point and the area by the enemy fleet. Three thousand miles away a among the stars. A second. A third. Six thousand miles away there were in emptiness.
"We're doing very well," said Bors into the all-speaker microphone. "A little more with the aiming, though. And read your closer! They're not our missiles. We're not them right. We try it again now...."
The to and one queasy, but there was work to be done, while a voice chanted, "Five, four, three, two, one!" Then it again and the same voice to chant. Sometimes the saw where hit, but they be sure they were their own. Then, suddenly, the number of increased. They and and quadrupled.
"All hands!" Bors. "The of Kandar is into this fight. Be to your targets! No Kandar ships! Save your for the enemy!"
Someone, man-handling for and more long-continued than any ship-designer expected, gasped, "Come on boys! Missiles for Mekin!"
It a joke, which at the time.
Nobody saw all the battle, or a part. There was a period when the Liberty, alone, like the of gadflies. It appeared in the middle of a Mekinese sub-formation, and anything be intercepted. There was no for Mekinese to home on when they got to where the Liberty had been.
Then the of Kandar appeared. It out in single ships and in pairs, and then in groups of and tens. The order for the Mekinese had been up, and the of Kandar to have gone mad.
The to in fashion, for a time. It on the its had for Mekinese to keep it in space. But presently it was alone, and the was over light-minutes, and somebody in to the engine room and in a low-power unit—providentially by a junior officer—and the of the Kandarian in erratically, where it would come out, but to a Mekinese ship to at.
The third phase of the was much more of an open fight, ship against ship, that more and more Kandarian ships were using low-power overdrive—clumsily and inefficiently, but to the very great of Mekin's fleet. The Mekinese officers not that their were doing the impossible. They confused.
The fourth phase of the of mopping-up operations in which ships were and by the of a Kandarian ship to from a mile or a mile from an enemy, one and to again and vanish.
Very Mekinese ships into overdrive. Probably most of them didn't what was happening. Perhaps four ships, out of the entire fleet, escaped.
Later, of course, there was all around. King Humphrey the Eighth on Kandar to his people that they were no longer in danger. He was embarrassed he was a in of himself. The officers were embarrassed Bors had been out of the fleet, and had them into battle.
Bors, too, was embarrassed. There was the by junior officers of the fleet. He had become, very unwillingly, a model for space-navy officers. They to pattern themselves after him in all ways, to the at which they their hats. He when they looked at him with shining-eyed respect.
He was embarrassed, also, by the necessary to the Liberty's that he was neither the leader of a in of a fleet; that he had performed all the to him. He had to that he'd only two ships, the Isis and the Horus, one of which had to be destroyed, and that when the Liberty itself under his he'd just been to his from King Humphrey. The men who'd under him were unimpressed.
The was re-supplied with food and missiles, and in one day more the major part of it would take off for Mekin. Other ships would journey, of course, to the twenty-odd, once-subject worlds. There they would—they were about it—mop up any Mekinese ships and the of Mekinese garrisons. And they would to be to the as it in about Mekin. The and the of the twenty-two worlds, together, would the government and the and the of Mekin.
There was still the of Gwenlyn. The Sylva came on Kandar, of course, where Morgan happily, pointing out the help to Kandar by Talents, Incorporated. Bors King Humphrey that Morgan medals, and he was with decorations, which would have a man.
Gwenlyn Bors in the palace, waiting until it was time to ship and for Mekin. Her father her.
"I've come to say goodbye," she said gently. "We've done what we came for."
"I still don't why you came," said Bors, who would much have said something else. "We can't possibly do anything in return. Why did you come?"
He to Morgan, who answered blandly, "One of our Talents an event. We had to come here and help it to happen. Gwenlyn was doubtful, but she's come around."
"What was it?"
"It hasn't yet," said Morgan. He produced a cigar and it. "Gwenlyn, shall I tell him?"
"Don't you dare!" said Gwenlyn hotly.
Bors said unhappily, "I'm sorry you're going away, Gwenlyn. If were—different, I—I—"
"You what?" asked Morgan. "By the way! One of our Talents has that your uncle's going to Tralee as its king again. Largely on your account. You're his heir, aren't you?"
Bors blinked.
"Hero," said Morgan, his hand. "Twenty-two you, you Mekin single-handed. Aching to work with you, you, you. Naturally, Tralee wants your uncle back. Then they'll have you. Of course," he added complacently, "our Department for Disseminating Truthful Seditious Rumors had something to do with it. But that was necessary propaganda. And you didn't let down." Then he said peevishly, "Not until now!"
Bors gaped. He looked at Gwenlyn. Her were crimson. Revelation Bors like a blow.
"I don't it!" he said, at her. He said more loudly, "I don't it!"
"Damnit," said Morgan indignantly. "She didn't it either! She said she'd come here she was curious, nothing more. But that particular Talent's missed yet! She just plain every time who—"
"Hush!" said Gwenlyn fiercely. "Goodbye."
Bors moved toward her, not to shake hands. She ran out of the door. She ran fast, for a girl. He ran faster.
Morgan contentedly. Presently the of King Humphrey the Eighth came to where Morgan had himself with smoke.
"Where's Bors?" asked the king.
"Yonder," said Morgan. He his hand. "Kissing my daughter, I think. D'you know, Majesty, I've this would all along? One of our Talents you opening next year. So I had to come out right."
"Y-yes," said the king, dubiously. "I so. But there had to be efforts, too, to it about. Otherwise it wouldn't right."
"Naturally!" said Morgan. "When one of my Talents that Gwenlyn was going to the of the Pretender of Tralee and be Queen of Tralee some day, why, it didn't a likely. But once I about that precognition, I put in a little effort...."
King Humphrey was thoughtful.
"Things look good," said Morgan expansively. "My Talents are all over the place. They tell me that this planet's going to be a place to live. Quiet and peaceful, and serene.... Gwenlyn will be on Tralee, most likely, and I don't want to be underfoot. I'll settle here. Retire, you know."
"Splendid," said the king, politely, his mind with the of a future.
"And as for Gwenlyn and Bors," Morgan added, confidentially, "I'll tell you something. My Talents've been on her future. I wouldn't tell her all of it. Some of it should be a surprise. But she and Bors are going to be what you call happy after! And that's Talents, Incorporated information! You can on it!"
