-Commodore
Hargreaves, aboard the _Procyon_," he said. "I'll take it in the
office; I'll be up directly." He rose. "Finish your dinner, and have
the rest of mine sent up," he told Paula.

Leaving the elevator, he rushed into the big headquarters room just as
contact was established with the _Procyon_, on station over the
northwestern corner of Takkad Sea, between Kankad's Town and Keegark.
The _Aldebaran_, he knew, was west of Keegark; the _Northern Lights_,
now fitted with a pair of 155-mm guns, in addition to her 90's, had
just arrived at Kankad's. He had the _Aldebaran_ sent north along the
crest of the mountain-range between the Hoork and Konk river-valleys,
where she could cover both with her own radar and other
detection-devices and exchange information with the _Sky-Spy_, and the
_Gaucho_ sent in what looked like the right course to intercept the
Boer-class freighter from Keegark. The _Northern Lights_, also with
screens tuned to the _Sky-Spy_, was sent to take over the
_Aldebaran's_ regular station. Finally, he called Skilk and had the
_Northern Star_ sent south down the Hoork Valley.

After that, there was nothing to do but wait, and watch the screens.
Paula Quinton put in an appearance shortly after he had finished
calling Skilk, pushing a cocktail-wagon on which their interrupted
dinners had been placed. They finished eating, and drank coffee, and
smoked. Most of the rest of his staff who were not busy on the
bomb-project or at the shipyards or with the occupation of Konkrook
drifted in; they all sat and stared from one to another of the
screens, which told, in radar-patterns and direct vision and
telescopic vision and heat and radiation detection, the story of what
was going on to the northeast of them.

Keegark was dark, on the vision-screen; evidently King Orgzild had invented
the blackout, too. Not that it did him any good; the radar-screen showed
the city clearly, and it was just as clear on the radiation and
heat-screens. The Keegarkan ship was completely blacked out, but the
radiations from her engines and the distinctive radiation-pattern of her
contragravity-field showed clearly, and there was a speck that marked her
position on the radar-screen. The same position was marked with a pin-point
of light on the vision-screen--some device on the _Sky-Spy_, synchronized
with the detectors, kept it focused there. The Company ships and
contragravity vehicles all were carrying topside lights, visible only