fensive measures before plumping for offense.
They'd get patrol ships out to spot invasion ships long before they
worked on a fleet to destroy the blueskins. It would meet the public
demand for defense.

Calhoun was right. The Med Ship made its final approach to Weald under
Calhoun's own control. He'd made brightness-measurements on his
previous journey and he used them again. They would not be strictly
accurate, because a sunspot could knock all meaning out of any reading
beyond two decimal places. But the first breakout was just far enough
from the Wealdian system for Calhoun to be able to pick out its
planets with the electron telescope at maximum magnification. He could
aim for Weald itself, allowing, of course, for the lag in the apparent
motion of its image because of the limited speed of light. He tried
the briefest of overdrive hops, and came out within the solar system
and well inside any watching patrol.

That was pure fortune. It continued. He'd broken through the screen of
guard ships in undetectable overdrive. He was within half an hour's
solar system drive of the grain fleet. There was no alarm, at first.
Of course radars spotted the Med Ship as an object, but nobody paid
attention. It was not headed for Weald. It was probably assumed to be
a guard boat itself. Such mistakes do happen.

Again from the storage space from which supplies had been removed,
Calhoun produced vacuum suits. The four first students went out, each
escorting a less-accustomed neophyte and all fastened firmly together
with space ropes. They warmed the interiors of four ships and went on
to others. Presently there were eight ships making ready for an
interstellar journey, each with a scared but resolute new pilot
familiarizing himself with its controls. There were sixteen ships.
Twenty. Twenty-three.

A guard ship came humming out from Weald. It would be armed, of
course. It came droning, droning up the forty-odd thousand miles from
the planet. Calhoun swore. He could not call his students and tell
them what was toward. The guard ship would overhear. He could not
trust untried young men to act rationally if they were unaware and the
guard ship arrived and matter-of-factly attempted to board one of
them.

Then he was inspired. He called Murgatroyd, placed him before the
communicator, and set it at voice-only transmission. This was familiar
enough, to Murgatroyd. He'd often seen Calhoun use a communicator.

"_Chee!_" shrilled Mur