_Nemesis_, if I got here ahead of Dunnan."

Prince Bentrik's fork stopped half way to his mouth. He lowered it
slowly to his plate. That was a theory he'd like to accept, if he
could.

"But the locals. They didn't know about it."

"They wouldn't. They have no off-planet detection of their own. Come
in directly over the ocean, out of the sun, and nobody'd see the ship."

"Is that a regular Space Viking trick?"

"No. I invented it myself, on the way from Seshat. But if Dunnan
wanted to ambush your ship, he'd have thought of it, too. It's the
only practical way to do it."

Dunnan, or Nevil Ormm; he wished he knew, and was afraid he would go
on wishing all his life.

Bentrik started to pick up his fork again, changed his mind, and
sipped from his wineglass instead.

"You may find you're quite welcome on Marduk, at that," he said.
"These raids have only been a serious problem in the last four
years. I believe, as you do, that this enemy of yours is responsible
for all of them. We have half the Royal Navy out now, patrolling our
trade-planets. Even if he wasn't aboard the _Enterprise_ when you
blew her up, you've put a name on him and can tell us a good deal
about him." He set down the wineglass. "Why, if it weren't so utterly
ridiculous, one might even think he was making war on Marduk."

From Trask's viewpoint, it wasn't ridiculous at all. He merely
mentioned that Andray Dunnan was psychotic and let it go at that.

* * * * *

The _Victrix_ was not completely unrepairable, although quite beyond
the resources at hand. A fully equipped engineer-ship from Marduk
could patch her hull and replace her Dillinghams and her Abbot
lift-and-drive engines and make her temporarily spaceworthy, until
she could be gotten to a shipyard. They concentrated on repairing
the _Nemesis_, and in another two weeks she was ready for the voyage.

The six hundred hour trip to Marduk passed pleasantly enough. The
Mardukan officers were good company, and found their Space Viking
opposite numbers equally so. The two crews had become used to
working together on Audhumla, and mingled amicably off watch,
interesting themselves in each other's hobbies and listening avidly
to tales of each other's home planets. The Space Vikings were
surprised and disappointed at the somewhat lower intellectual level
of the Mardukans. They couldn't understand that; Marduk was supposed
to be a civilized planet, wasn't it? The Mardu