nder would have made an excellent officer. He was patient with
those who did not understand immediately. He had dignity that was not
arrogance. In five days the _Liberty_ was a fighting ship and a
dedicated one. There were rough edges, of course. Man for man and weapon
for weapon the ship would not compare with a longer-trained and more
experienced fighting instrument. But the morale on board was superb and
the weapons were--to put it mildly--inspiring of hope.

The _Liberty_ broke out of overdrive and the sun of Kandar shone fiery
yellow in emptiness. The gas-giant planet had moved in its orbit. It was
more evenly in line than before with a direct arrival-path for a fleet
from Mekin. Bors was worn out from his unremitting efforts to turn the
ship into a smooth-running unit. He looked at a ship's clock.

"The Mekinese," he said over the all-speaker circuit, "will break out in
two hours, forty minutes. And we're going to set up a dummy fleet for
them to deal with."

His uncle said gently, "I suggest some rest, to be fresh for the
handling of the ship. I'll set up the dummy fleet."

Bors resisted the idea, but it was not sensible to humor his own vanity
by insisting on his indispensability. He flung himself down on a bunk.
He was much better satisfied with the ship and crew than he would have
admitted. And he was dead-tired.

Around him, young men of Cela and Deccan prepared target-globes for
launching. The Pretender gently pointed out that the formation was to
remain perfectly still and in ranks. Therefore, each globe had to be
launched with no velocity at all, so it would remain in fixed position
with relation to the others, to convincingly appear to be a fleet of
ships.

Far away the _Sylva_ hurtled through space with a much-agitated Morgan
on board. Gwenlyn, too, was frightened. For the first time, both of them
seemed doubtful of the value of Talents, Incorporated information.

Again, far away, the fleet of Kandar rushed through emptiness. On its
various ships, junior officers had come threateningly close to mutiny.
There was now a sullen, resigned submission to discipline and what
orders might be given, but the fleet was fighting angry. The _Sylva_ had
brought back news of a third defeat of Mekinese by Kandar ships and hot
blood longed to make a full-scale test of its own deadliness. There were
few ships of the fleet which did not have a low-power overdrive field
unit ready to be spliced into circuit if the oc