g around Nova-Maurania. They
came fast and hard, and Portario and his men had at least ten hours work
left before they could fire their reactors and pray. Until then we did
the praying. It didn't help.

Mandasiva's command ship went at the third hour. A Lukan blaster got it.
By the fourth hour I had watched three of my sub-command ships go. A
Sirian force beam got one, an Earth fusion gun got another, and the
third went out of action and rammed O'Hara's command ship that had been
leading their attack against us. That third ship of mine was Pete
Colenso's. Old Mike would have been proud of his boy. I was sick. Pete
had been a good boy. So had O'Hara. Not a boy, O'Hara, but the next to
the last of old Free Companion from Earth. I'm the last, and I said a
silent good-bye to O'Hara. By the sixth hour Rajay-Ben had only ten
ships left. I had twelve. Five thousand of my men were gone. Eight
thousand of Rajay-Ben's Lukans. The Sirians of Mandasiva's O Company
were getting the worst of it, and in the eighth hour Mandasiva's second
in command surrendered. It would be over soon, too soon. And the dream
would be over with the battle. I broke silence.

"Red Stone calling. Do you read me? Commander Stone calling. Request
conference. Repeat, request conference."

A face appeared on the inter-Company beam screen. The cold, blank,
hard-bitten face of the only Free Company Commander senior to me now
that O'Hara was gone, Jake Campesino of the Cygne Black Company. "Are
you surrendering, Stone?"

"No. I want to speak to my fellow Companions."

Campesino's voice was like ice. "Violation! You know the rules, Stone.
Silence cannot be broken in battle. I will bring charges. You're
through, Stone."

I said, "Okay, crucify me later. But hear me now."

Campesino said, "Close silence or surrender."

It was no good. We'd had it. And across the distance of battle
Rajay-Ben's face appeared on the screen. The colored lights that were a
Lukan's face and I knew enough to know that the shimmering lights were
mad. "The hell with them, Red, let's go all the damned way!"

And a new face appeared on the screen. A face I knew too well. First
Councillor Roark. "Stone! You've done a lot in your day but this is the
end, you hear me? You're defending a madman in a Council crime. Do you
realize the risk? Universal imbalance! The whole pattern of galaxies
could be destroyed! We'll destroy you for this, Stone. An ionic project
without Council authorizati