earch. They went darting over every portion
of the hungry planet, land and seas alike, and there was no sign of
military preparedness against their coming. The huge ships of the main
fleet waited while the scouts reported monotonously that they saw no
sign of the stolen fleet. But the stolen fleet was the only means by
which the planet could be defended. There could be no point in a
pitched battle in emptiness. But a fleet with a planet to back it
might be dangerous.

Hours passed. The Wealdian main fleet waited. There was no offensive
movement by the fleet. There was no defensive action from the ground.
With fusion-bombs certain to be involved in any actual conflict, there
was something like an embarrassed pause. The Wealdian ships were ready
to bomb. They were less anxious to be vaporized by possible suicide
dashes of defending ships which might blow themselves up near contact
with their enemies.

But a fleet cannot travel some light-years through space to make a
mere threat. And the Wealdian fleet was furnished with the material
for total devastation. It could drop bombs from hundreds, or
thousands, or even tens of thousands of miles away. It could cover the
world of Dara with mushroom clouds springing up and spreading to make
a continuous pall of atomic-fusion products. And they could settle
down and kill every living thing not destroyed by the explosions
themselves. Even the creatures of the deepest oceans would die of
deadly, purposely-contrived fallout particles.

The Wealdian fleet contemplated its own destructiveness. It found no
capacity for defense on Dara. It moved forward.

But then a message went out from the capital city of Dara. It said
that a ship in overdrive had carried word to a Darian fleet in space.
The Darian fleet now hurtled toward Weald. It was a fleet of
thirty-seven giant ships. They carried such-and-such bombs in
such-and-such quantities. Unless its orders were countermanded, it
would deliver those bombs on Weald, set to explode. If Weald bombed
Dara, the orders could not be withdrawn. So Weald could bomb Dara. It
could destroy all life on the pariah planet. But Weald would die with
it.

The fleet ceased its advance. The situation was a stalemate with pure
desperation on one side and pure frustration on the other. This was no
way to end the war. Neither planet could trust the other, even for
minutes. If they did not destroy each other simultaneously, as now was
possible, each would ex