we
cross the north pole again, we're apt to detect the fleet signalling
frantically to itself, sorting itself out, trying to get into some sort
of order. It'll be stirred up as if with a spoon. But if we come around
the planet's pole--and they don't expect us to be out here waiting for
them--we'll be in combat-ready formation. We may be able to tear into
them as an organized unit before they can begin to co-operate with each
other."

A longer pause. Then King Humphrey said grimly;

"_There is one weak point in your proposal, Bors. Only one. It is that
Talents, Incorporated may be wrong about the time of breakout. The more
I think, the less I believe in what they have done, or even what I saw!
But we'll be prepared, however unlikely your idea. We'll be ready._"

He clicked off. Only minutes later, the combat-alert order came through.
In the next ten minutes, Bors's ship hummed for five, was quiet for
three, and then, two minutes early, all inner compartment doors closed
quietly and there was that muffled stillness which meant that everybody
was ready for anything that might happen.

In the control room, Bors watched out of a direct-vision port, giving
occasional glances to the screens. There were flecks of light from
innumerable stars. Then the shining cloud-bank of the gas-giant planet
went black. Screens showed all of the fleet--each blip with a nimbus
about it which identified it as a friend, not a foe. There was the blip
of the leading ship, the "point" of the formation. There were the
flanking ships and all the martial array of the fleet.

Then the screens sparkled with seemingly hundreds of blips which seemed
to swirl and spin and whirl again in total and disordered confusion.

Gongs clanged. A voice said, "_Co-o-ntact! Enemy fleet ahead. Wide
dispersion. They're milling about like gnats on a sunny day!_"

A curt and authoritative and well-recognized voice snapped, "_All ships
keep formation on flagship. Course coordinates...._" The voice gave
them. "_There's a clump of enemy ships beginning to organize! We hit
them!_"

The fleet of Kandar came around the gas-giant world and flung itself at
the fleet of Mekin. It seemed that everything was subject to intolerable
delay. For long, sweating, unbearable minutes nothing happened except
that the fleet of Kandar went hurtling through space with no sensation
or direct evidence of motion. The gas-giant planet dwindled, but not
very fast. The bright specks on the sc