ed to be confused, and was
fumbling almost blindly with the instruments. He twisted dials almost
at random, on the edge of panic. Thane hesitated--then realized what
it must be--Stoltz artillery. The unmarked ship had managed to get
through with it, during the microseconds of the shummer when the
screens were down.

He could feel some of the effect himself. He went through a moment of
indecision, but that was all. Then he stepped forward and shoved the
Third Officer aside. The officer looked blank, then his face reddened
in anger. As Thane tried to bring the armament to bear, the Third was
clawing at his back. Thane bent and twisted. The Third went crashing
into a bulkhead. Thane didn't even glance at him. There was no time.
He turned back to the fire control. As he did, the first disrupter
explosion came, not two kilometers ahead. The next one would get them.

Thane twisted the manual computer for there was no time to wait for
the automatic to warm up. Two small adjustments and he touched the
impeller. Instantly his disrupter burst appeared on the screen off the
starboard bow of the black enemy. Not close enough to do real damage
but enough to throw off the pirate's next shot. The shot came. Needles
danced wildly on the board before Thane. The whole ship vibrated
wildly. The power drain was tremendous, but the inner screens held. As
Thane lined up the pirate again, the intercom said, "Five seconds to
warp-line!" They'd be safe, then, after the micro second when the
screens were down. And the pirate was in position to take full
advantage of that moment. Thane's fingers moved with scherzo speed as
he fed twelve adjustments to the fire control. He let go with
everything they had on the port side, and switched off the guns, in
preparation for the shummer. It came almost simultaneously, and the
pirate disappeared as they went into the hyper-space of the warp-line.
There was no time to see if any damage had been done. His last shots
must have had effect, though, or they would never have made it back
into the warp.

Thane turned away wearily from the fire-control panel. The whole
encounter had lasted less than twenty seconds, but the strain of
fighting against the Stoltz effect and of manually computing twelve
variables had been wearing. He saw that the Third Officer was now
standing close to Astrid. He started to say he was sorry that he had
to act as he did. But the Third walked over to him, with military
precision, his