red Strong calmly.

"Aye, aye, sir," replied Tom at the controls.

"Main battery, stand by to fire." Strong watched the enemy ship closely.

"Aye, aye!" came the answer over the intercom.

"Approaching target!" called the range finder. "Closing to fifty
thousand yards--forty thousand--"

"_Pleiades_ and _Regulus_," Strong called the other two ships of his
squadron. "Cut in on port and starboard flanks. Squadron B, stand by!"

Abrupt acknowledgment came over the audioceiver as the cruisers deployed
for the attack.

"Twenty-three thousand yards, holding course." The range-finder's voice
was a steady monotone.

"Stand by to fire!" snapped Strong.

"Two bandits at nine o'clock on level plane of ecliptic!" came the
warning from the radar bridge.

Before Strong could issue an order countering the enemy move, the voice
of the commander of the _Pleiades_ came in over the audioceiver, "Our
meat, Strong, you take care of the big baby!"

On the scanner screen Strong saw the trails of two space torpedoes erupt
from the side of the _Pleiades_, followed immediately by two more from
its flanking ship, the _Regulus_. The four missiles hurtled toward the
two enemy destroyers, and a second later two brilliant flashes of light
appeared on the scanner. Direct hits on the two destroyers!

"Range--ten thousand feet," came the calm voice over the intercom,
reminding Strong of the enemy cruiser.

"Arm war heads!" snapped Strong over the intercom, and, on the gun deck,
men twirled the delicate fuses on the noses of the space torpedoes and
stepped back.

"On target!" called the range finder.

"Full salvo--fire!" called Strong, and turned to Tom quickly.
"Ninety-degree turn--five degrees up!"

The Solar Guard cruiser quivered under the recoil of the salvo and then
bucked under the sudden change of course to elude the torpedoes fired by
the enemy a split second later.

As the Solar Guard cruiser roared up in a long arc, eluding the enemy
torpedoes, the Nationalist ship maneuvered frantically to evade the
salvo of war heads, but Strong had fired a deadly pattern. In a few
seconds the enemy ship was reduced to space junk.

Concentrating on the control panel, Tom had been too busy maneuvering
the giant ship to see the entire engagement, but he heard the loud
exulting cries of the gun crew over the intercom. He looked up at
Strong, and the Solar Guard captain winked. "One down!"

"Here come squadrons C, D, and E, sir," said Tom