Terran technology, was literally the battleship to end
all battleships. Ending battleships--and battles--was, in fact, her job.
And she did it well. For the first time, the galaxy was at peace.

* * * * *

With a relaxed sigh, Heselton leaned back to gaze at the stars and
contemplate the vastness of the universe, compared to which even Big Joe
was an insignificant dot.

"Well," said Rogers, "time for another course check. I'll ..." He jumped
back, barely avoiding the worried lieutenant who exploded upon them from
the radio shack.

"A signal, sir! Damn close, on the VHF band, their transmission is
completely overriding the background noise." He waved excitedly to
someone in the radio shack and an overhead speaker came to life emitting
a distinct clacking-grunting sound. "It's audio of some sort, sir, but
there's lots more to the signal than that."

In one motion Heselton's chair snapped forward, his right fist hit the
red emergency alert button on his desk, and his left snapped on the
ship's intercom. Lights dimmed momentarily as powerful emergency drive
units snapped into action, and the ship echoed with the sound of two
thousand men running to battle stations.

"Bridge to radar! Report."

"Radar to bridge. All clear."

Heselton stared incredulously at the intercom. "What?"

"Radar to bridge, repeating. All clear. Admiral, we've got two men on
every scope, there's nothing anywhere."

A new voice cut in on the speaker. "Radio track to bridge."

Frowning, Heselton answered. "Bridge. Come in radio track. We're
listening."

"Sir," the crisp voice of the radio track section's commander had an
excited tinge. "Sir, Doppler calculations show that the source of those
signals is slowing down somewhere to our right. It's acting like a
spaceship, sir, that's coming to a halt."

The admiral locked eyes with Rogers for a second, then shrugged. "Slow
the ship, and circle right. Radio track, can you keep me posted on the
object's position?"

"No can do, sir. Doppler effect can't be used on a slow moving source.
It's still off to our right, but that's the best I can say."

"Sir," another voice chimed in, "this is fire control. We've got our
directional antennas on the thing. It's either directly right or
directly left of the ship, matching speed with us exactly."

"_Either_ to our right or left?"

"That's the best we can do, sir, without radar help."

"Admiral, sir," the lieutenant w