A meter jumped and an alarm buzzed. Electronic computers flashed orders to the robot pilots. Joachim read the signals. “Tbaes a self-ouiding missile on its way,” he said. “No parley, no warning, no nothing-just a fission warhead tossed at us. You still want to play peacemaker with ‘em, Cnrdy?”
Trevelyan didn’t reply. He wts staring out at the ship, wondering what crew it had. They could be anything; there was Do telling. And there were so few who could see, past ugliness, strangeness, hostility, to the ultimate kinship of life. Stranger, enemy, kill it!
Light glared soundlessly in space. The Peregrine8 corn-
held a spear-shaped mast of some kind. Its metal was a coppery alloy, flaming ruddy in the harsh sunlight, and they could see that the hull was patched and pitted-old.
Trevelya.n sucked a hissing breath tl-irough his teeth. Joachim gave him a long stare. “You know that design?”
Tiunra.”
“Huh?”
“I’ve seen pictures of their smps.”
“The same otherlings who lost boats out here in the Cross, four hundred years ago-”
“X is ‘Ttunran?” murmured Ferenezi.
“It isn@t logical,” replied Trevelyan shakily. “The TiUDrans were explorers and scientists. They were neither physically nor culturally fitted for conquest. And when a technology has advanced to the point of interstellar drive, it doesn’t need an empire.”
“X,” said Joachim, “has one.” The ship was drawing
closer, matching velocities as it approached. He stepped down the magnification.
“Maybe!” snapped the Coordinator. “We do@t know vet.”
The strariger was only a hundred kilometers or so from the Pere,-rine by now, visible to the naked eye as a bl-nk of light. In the i-nag-nifying screens it was a grotesque spindle in the sky. joachim’s stubby fingers punched signals to Ms crew on the communications board.
A meter jumped and an alarm buzzed. Electronic computers flashed orders to the robot pilots. Joachim read the si als. “That’s a self—@ding missile on its way,” he said. “No parley, no warning, no nothing-just a fission warhead tossed at us. You still want to play peacemaker with ‘em, Cordv?”
Trevelyan didn’t reply. He was staring out at the ship, wondering what crew it bad. They could be anything; there was no telling. And there were so few Nvho could see past ugliness, strangeness, hostility, to the ultimate kinship of life. Stranger, enerny, kill it!
Light glared soundlessly in s The Pere ‘ne‘3 corn-
puters had intercepted the missile wth one of their own. Another followed it, to be snatched up by a gravity beam and burled back at the sender. And now the Peregrine threw her own barrage, swift gleams and hellish fury exploding
short of the target.
Constellations swung insanely across the viewscreens as the Peregrine dodged a patterned flight of shells. The crew didn’t feel it; the internal gravity generators automatically compensated for acceleration. But the crew only watched dials, fed the guns and missile racks, tending a robot’s brain as it fought for them. Flesh and blood and the human mind were too slow and weak for this battle.
Strange combat, thouLTht Trevelyan. It was a flickering shadow play of stars and bursting light, a chess game played by machines while men stood watching. The only sound was the irregular hum of the gravity-drive engines and the faint whoosh-whoosh-whoosh of ventilators.
No-wait. He beard another noise, a creak and groan in the girders of the hull. Overtaxed by the stonn, not yet inspected and repaired, the structure was giving before the stress of swinging that huge mass through the maze of
thrust, feint, parry and dodge.
And Ferenczi’s @earded hatchet face wfts grim as be looked up from the computer indicators. “We’re lagging,” he said. “Our detectors and calculators aren’t fast and accurate enough. Before long, one of those shells or missles
is going to hit us.”
“I thought so.” Joachim sprang to the communications board and grabbed the radio mike, “All boats return! All
boats back to the shipl”
This was the danger point. The little spacecraft bad to come back, enter the boathouses to be order the drive field’s action. And as they dropped in, the Peregrine bad to ease the violence of her maneuvers lest she burl them through her own outer shell. At those instants, the enemy