they can't report anything to Mekin that
Mekin doesn't already know. All hands ready for action!"

In twenty minutes by the ship's clocks the _Horus_ was a bare thirty
thousand miles off the planet Meriden. The new drive worked perfectly
for planetary approach, at any rate. It even worked more perfectly than
the twenty-minute interval implied. It had been off Meriden for five
minutes then.

Mekinese fighting ships were boiling up from the atmosphere of Meriden
and plunging out to space to offer battle. They were surprisingly ready,
reacting like hair-triggered weapons. Bors hadn't completed his
challenge before they were streaking toward Meriden's sky. They
couldn't have been more prompt if, say, Meriden seethed with rumors
about a pirate ship in space, which it was their obligation to fight.

According to the radar screens, there were not less than fifteen ships
streaking out to destroy the _Horus_. Fifteen to one--interesting odds.

Bors sent the _Horus_ roaring ahead to meet them.

Part Four

Chapter 10

The Mekinese did not display a sporting spirit. There were four heavy
cruisers and eleven lighter ships of the _Horus's_ size and armament.
According to current theories of space-battle tactics, two of the light
cruisers should have disposed of the _Horus_ with ease and dispatch. It
might have seemed sportsmanlike and certainly sufficient to give the
_Horus_ only two antagonists at a time, which would have been calculated
to provide odds of six hundred to one against it. Two light cruisers
would have fired eighteen missiles apiece per salvo, which would have
demanded thirty-six missiles from the _Horus_ to meet and destroy them.
She couldn't put thirty-six missiles into space at one firing. She would
have disappeared in atomic flame at the first exchange of fire. But the
Mekinese were not so generous. They came up in full force loaded for
bear. They obviously intended not a fight but an execution. Mekinese
tactics depended heavily on fire-power of such superiority that any
enemy was simply overwhelmed.

Their maneuvering proved that they intended to follow standard operation
procedure. Light ships reached space and delayed until all were aloft.
They formed themselves into a precise half-globe and plunged at top
solar-system drive toward the _Horus_. This was strictly according to
the book. If the _Horus_ chose, of course, she could refuse battle by
fleeing into overdrive--which would be expect