alf-globe formation. Again she
showed on the Mekinese screens. The Mekinese could not believe their
instruments. A ship which fled in overdrive could not reappear like
this! Having vanished and reappeared once, it could not duplicate the
trick. Having duplicated it....

There was more, and worse. The _Horus_ missiles were not being
intercepted. Mekinese missiles were swerving crazily to try to
anticipate and destroy the curving, impossibly-moving objects that went
out from where the _Horus_ had ceased to be. They failed. Clouds of new
trajectiles appeared....

A flare like a temporary sun. Another. Another. Others....

Bors turned from the viewport and glanced at the radar-screens. There
were thirteen vaporous glowings where ships had been. There were two
distinct blips remaining. It could be guessed that some targets had been
fired on by more than one launching-tube, leaving two ships unattacked
by the _Horus's_ missiles.

Both of those ships--one a heavy cruiser--now desperately flung the
contents of their magazines at the _Horus_.

Bors heard his voice snapping coordinates.

"Launch all missiles at those two targets," he commanded. "Fire!
Overdrive coming! Five, four, three, two...."

The intolerable discomfort of entry and immediate breakout from
overdrive was ever present. But the _Horus_ had shifted position five
thousand miles. Bors saw one of his just-launched missiles--now a
continent away--as it went off. It accounted for one of the two Mekinese
survivors. The radar-blip which told of that ship's existence changed to
the vaguely vaporous glow of incandescent gas. The other blip went out.
No flare of a bomb. Nothing. It went out.

So the last Mekinese ship was gone in overdrive. It was safe! It could
not possibly be overtaken or attacked. It had seen the _Horus's_
missiles following an unpredictable course, which was duly recorded. It
had seen the _Horus_ go into overdrive and move only hundreds of miles
instead of hundreds of millions. It had seen the _Horus_ vanish from one
place and appear at another in the same combat area, launch missiles and
vanish again before it could even be ranged.

The last Mekinese ship certainly carried with it the _Horus's_ tactics
and actions recorded on tape. The technicians of Mekin would set to work
instantly to duplicate them. Once they were considered possible--once
they were recognized--they could be achieved. The combat efficiency of
the Mekinese fleet would be