ols on the side. Palatal unvoiced sibilant, rounded----"

"I don't read Kerothic, major," said the captain. "I----" Then he
blinked and said, "_Shudos!_"

"That's it. The _Shudos_ of Keroth. The flagship of the Kerothi Fleet."

The look in the major's eyes was the same look of hatred that had come
into the captain's.

"Even if its armament is still functioning, we have to take the chance,"
Major Thornton said. "Even if they're all dead, we have to try to get
The Butcher's body." He picked up the microphone again.

"Attention, Group. Listen carefully and don't get itchy trigger fingers.
That ship is the _Shudos_. The Butcher's ship. It's a ten-man ship, and
the most she could have aboard would be thirty, even if they jammed her
full to the hull. I don't know of any way that anyone could be alive on
her after fifteen minutes at fifty gees of atomic drive, but remember
that they don't have any idea of how our counteraction generators damp
out spatial distortion either. Remember what Dr. Pendric said: 'No man
is superior to any other in _all_ ways. Every man is superior to every
other in _some_ way.' We may have the counteraction generator, but they
may have something else that we don't know about. So stay alert.

"I am going to take a landing-party aboard. There's a reward out for
The Butcher, and that reward will be split proportionately among us.
It's big enough for us all to enjoy it, and we'll probably get
citations if we bring him in.

"I want ten men from each ship. I'm not asking for volunteers; I want
each ship commander to pick the ten men he thinks will be least likely
to lose their heads in an emergency. I don't want anyone to panic and
shoot when he should be thinking. I don't want anyone who had any
relatives on Houston's World. Sorry, but I can't allow vengeance yet.

"We're a thousand miles from the _Shudos_ now; close in slowly until
we're within a hundred yards. The boarding parties will don armor and
prepare to board while we're closing in. At a hundred yards, we stop
and the boarding parties will land on the hull. I'll give further
orders then.

"One more thing. I don't think her A-A generators could possibly be
functioning, judging from that dent in her hull, but we can't be sure.
If she tries to go into A-A drive, she is to be bombed--no matter who
is aboard. It is better that sixty men die than that The Butcher
escape.

"All right, let's go. Move in."

* * *