Garen!_"

"Very well," said Bors. "I'll see what can be done. Will you carry a
message for me?"

"_Happy to oblige, Captain!_"

"Tell them that--" Then Bors stopped short. It was not probable that the
fleet wave-form and frequency were known to Mekinese ships. But the
possibility of low-speed overdrive travel was much too important a
military secret to risk under any circumstances. He said, "I'll be along
very shortly with some highly encouraging news."

"_Who do I tell this to?_"

"I name no names on microwaves," he told her. "Get going, will you?"

"_To hear_," said Gwenlyn cheerfully, "_is to obey_."

Her communicator clicked off. The _Sylva_ showed on a radar-screen, but
had not been near enough to be sighted direct. The blip shot out from
the planet.

Bors growled to himself. The _Isis_ floated a hundred thousand miles off
Garen. There was no challenge. There was no query from the planet. But
Gwenlyn said that there were riots down below. They could be serious
enough to absorb the attention usually given to routine. But there was
another reason for this inattention. Garen was a part of the Mekinese
empire which was not encouraged to trade off-planet except through
Mekin. Very few non-Mekinese ships would ever land there, and therefore
wouldn't be watched for. It was unlikely that a long-range radar
habitually swept space off Garen. The battleship should be more alert,
but again there was no danger of space-borne rebellion, and the affair
of Kandar might not have been bruited so far away.

But the spaceport would respond to calls, certainly. Bors considered
these circumstances. A large cargo-ship loaded with foodstuffs
requisitioned to be sent to Mekin. A population which had been
rebellious before--witness the battleship aground to overawe
resistance--and now was rioting.

Bors called for the extra members of his crew. He uncomfortably outlined
the action he had in mind. There was one part that he disliked. He had
to stay on board ship. The important action, as he saw it, would take
place elsewhere. It was so obviously painful for him to outline a course
of action in which other men must take risks he couldn't share, that his
men regarded him with pleased affection which he did not guess at. In
the end he asked for twenty volunteers, and got fifty.

He swung the _Isis_ around to the night side of the planet. Its two port
blisters opened and two boats floated free in the orbit Bors had
established. The