rvals, he nodded to himself. This was a warship's
reaction. It could be nothing else. That officer knew that something was
coming out from Tralee. It was on approximately a collision course. But
a ship traveling under power should gain velocity as long as its drive
was on. When traveling outward from the sun and not under power, it
should lose velocity by so many feet per second to the sun's
gravitational pull. Bors's ship did neither. It displayed the remarkably
unlikely characteristic of absolutely steady motion. It was not normal.
It was not possible. It could not have any reasonable explanation, in
the mind of a Mekinese.

Which was its purpose. It would arouse professional curiosity on the
cruiser, which would then waste some precious time attempting to
identify it. There wouldn't be suspicion because it didn't act
suspiciously. Still, it couldn't be dismissed, because it didn't behave
in any recognizable fashion. The cruiser would want to know more about
it; it shouldn't move at a steady velocity going outward from a sun.

In consequence, Bors got in the first shot.

He said, "Fire one!" when the Mekinese would be just about planning to
turn their electron-telescope upon it. A missile leaped away from the
_Isis_. It went off at an angle, and it curved madly, and the
instrumentation of the cruiser could spot it as now there, now here, now
nearer, and now nearer still. But the computers could not handle an
object which not only changed velocity but changed the rate at which its
velocity changed.

Missiles came pouring out of the Mekinese ship. They were infinitesimal,
bright specks on the radar-screen. They curved violently in flight
trying to intercept the _Isis's_ missile. They failed.

There was a flash of sun-bright flame very, very far away. There was a
little cloud of vapor which dissipated swiftly. Then there was nothing
but two or three specks moving at random, their target lost, their
purpose forgotten. The fact of victory was an anticlimax.

"All clear," said Bors grimly.

The inner-compartment doors opened. The normal sounds of the ship were
heard again. Bors began to calculate the data needed for the journey to
Garen. There was the angle and the distance and the proper motions and
the time elapsed.... He found it difficult to think in such terms. He
was discontented. He'd ambushed a Mekinese cruiser. True, he'd let his
own ship be seen, and the Mekinese had warning enough to launch missiles
in th