and destruction among the massed ships of the Misfits.
They had no Guessers. (Or no _trained_ Guessers, he amended. The
potential might be there, but certainly the actuality was not.)

And it occurred to him that the Misfits might have another kind of
trained talent. They seemed to be able to search out and find a single
Aristarchy ship, while it was impossible to even detect a Misfit fleet
until it came within attacking distance. Well, that, again, was not his
business.

* * * * *

But none of these considerations were important in the long run; none of
them were more than minor. The thing that made up The Guesser's mind,
that spurred him into action, was the woman's admission that she had a
plan for actually reaching Misfit planets.

It was quite simple, really; they were to be taken prisoners.

"They spaceships got no people inside, see you," she said, just as
though she knew what she were talking about. "They just want to catch
our ships, not kill 'em. So they send out a bunch of little ships on
they own, just to ... uh ... cripple our ships. It don't matter, they
little ships get hit, because they no one in them, see you. They trying
to get our ships in good shape, and people in them and stuff, that's
all."

"Yes, yes," The Guesser had said impatiently, "but what's that to do
with us?"

She waved a hand, as though she were a little flustered by his
peremptory tone. She wasn't, after all, used to talking with Class
Threes as equals, even though she knew that in this case the Three was
helpless.

"I _tell_ you! I _tell_ you!" She paused to reorganize her thoughts.
"But I ask you: if we get on a ship, you can keep it from shooting the
Misfit ships?"

The Guesser saw what she was driving at. It didn't make much sense yet,
but there was a glimmer of something there.

"You mean," he said, "that you want to know whether it would be possible
for me to partially disable the fire-control system of a spaceship
enough to allow it to be captured by Misfit ships?"

She nodded rapidly. "Yes ... I think, yes. Can you?"

"Ye-e-es," The Guesser said, slowly and cautiously. "I could. But not by
just walking in and doing it. I mean, it would be almost impossible to
get aboard a ship in the first place, and without an official position I
couldn't do anything anyway."

But she didn't look disappointed. Instead, she'd smiled a little. "I get
us on the ship," she said. "And you have official