readnought in a time and place not as thoroughly guarded.

And like the two younger pilots who had come so far, his mind had long
since crossed the line of rational human endurance. Now, when he
closed his eyes he saw the gray, rotted-meat faces of old men crawling
with maggots. He saw random sexual parts horribly distorted: almost
physical the effect of their ugliness upon him. His spirit had given
up all hope of survival: strange voices. His tortured neck and back
fused with the paroxysms of a migraine to form the single and
inescapable sensation of concrete and iron, bent-forward pain. He felt
he no longer had eyes, but that the image of the scope shot straight
through the empty skull-sockets and into his brain. The last remnants
of heart and courage despaired.

But now, on the verge of his thirtieth hour, with the target in reach,
it was almost as though his mind were no longer attached to the body.
Numb fatigue had shaken it off like the parting soul shakes off flesh.
Nothing remained but his mission and his will.

He was ready. He would do it. He tried to rouse himself mentally for
the last decisive seconds. He bean to slow out of light speed.

The time was now. Not too fast.....

:00- The ship in sight, minor adjustment.
:01- Locked on.
:02- Fire. WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG?
:03- Indicator light. PROJECTILE NON-FUNCTIONAL
:04- DAMN IT! Manual disengage, back to---
:05- Warp. Robot batteries aboard Dreadnought destroy the
cast-off projectile. Fan-burst of ruby lasers miss the second target,
fire again.

:57- Dorfman breaks his hand against the ceiling of the inner
hull. He had failed. "Damn it! GOD DAMN IT!"

21:12- The squadron leader slows his tiny ship and continues
to steer toward the sun, Athena. Slowing further still, he places
himself directly in line with sun and planet, close enough to Athena to
distort tracking. Sends out his sounding beam.

34:29- Dorfman continues to wait for his signal to proceed him
to Goethe. The time arrives. With the last of his e-light capacity
and deep-space fuel, he fires toward the distant speck of blue-green
ocean world.

49:50- The third echo of his signal tells him he is drawing
near. Slows to sub-light and raises entry shields, makes other
preparations to enter atmosphere.

1:13:30- Entry halfway competed: elevation 1200 K