all, they had fought and seen action, such as no member of
their race had known in untold ages. They knew Adventure and Excitement,
and they had learned things that no member of their ancient race had
known for millennia. They had learned the meaning of advancement and
change. They had a new ardor, a new strength, a new emotion to drive
them, and those who would have held them back became enthusiasts
themselves. Enthusiasm may be contagious, but the spirit of their
decadence was rapidly failing before this new urge. Here was their last
chance and they must take it; they would!

They had lost many men in that battle on the strange world, but their
race was intelligent; they learned quickly, the small ships had been
very hard targets, while their big ships were too easy to strike. They
must have small ships, yet they must have large ships for cargo, and for
the high speed driving apparatus. The small ships were not able to
accelerate to the terrific speed needed. Once their velocity had been
brought up to the desired value, it was easy to maintain it with the
infinitely small friction of space as the only retarding force; one atom
per cubic inch was all they must meet. This would not hold them up, but
the great amount of fuel and the power equipment needed to accelerate to
the desired speed could not be packed into the small ship. Into the vast
holds of the huge ships the smaller ones were packed, long shining rows
of little metal projectiles. Tiny they were, but they could dart and
twist and turn as swiftly as could the ships they had met on that other
world--tiny ships that flashed about with incredible suddenness, a
target that seemed impossible to hit. These ships would be a match for
those flashing motes of the Yellow Sun. Now it might be that their great
transport and battle ships could settle down to those worlds and arrange
them for their own people!

And they had discovered new weapons, too. One of their mightiest was a
very old apparatus, one that had been forgotten for countless ages. A
model of it was in existence in some forgotten museum on a deserted
planet, and with it long forgotten tomes that told of its principles,
and of its consequences. Invisibility was now at their command. It was
an ancient weapon, but might be exceedingly effective!

And one other. They had developed a new thing! They had not learned of
it in books, it was their invention! They did not doubt that there were
other machines like it