oms--space-hardened veterans all--had obeyed
instantly and without question the amplifiers' gasped command to "get
tight". Exhaling or inhaling, their air-passages had snapped shut as
that dread "Vee-Two" was heard, and they had literally jumped into their
armored suits of space--flushing them out with volume after volume of
unquestionable air; holding their breath to the last possible second,
until their straining lungs could endure no more.

Costigan waved the girl to a vacant bench, cautiously changing into his
own armor from the emergency suit he had been wearing, and approached
the captain.

"Anything in sight, sir?" he asked, saluting. "They should have started
something before this."

"They've started, but we can't locate them. We tried to send out a
general sector alarm, but had hardly started when they blanketed our
wave. Look at that!"

Following the captain's eyes, Costigan stared at the high powered set of
the ship's operator. Upon the plate, instead of a moving, living,
three-dimensional picture, there was a flashing glare of blinding white
light; from the speaker, instead of intelligible speech, was issuing a
roaring, crackling stream of noise.

"It's impossible!" Bradley burst out, violently. "There's not a gram of
metal inside the fourth zone--within a hundred thousand kilometers--and
yet they must be close to send such a wave as that. But the Second
thinks not--what do you think, Costigan?" The bluff commander,
reactionary and of the old school as was his breed, was
furious--baffled, raging inwardly to come to grips with the invisible
and indetectable foe. Face to face with the inexplicable, however, he
listened to the younger men with unusual tolerance.

"It's not only possible; it's quite evident that they've got something
we haven't." Costigan's voice was bitter. "But why shouldn't they have?
Service ships never get anything until it's been experimented with for
years, but pirates and such always get the new stuff as soon as it's
discovered. The only good thing I can see is that we got part of a
message away, and the scouts can trace that interference out there. But
the pirates know that, too--it won't be long now," he concluded, grimly.

He spoke truly. Before another word was said the outer screen flared
white under a beam of terrific power, and simultaneously there appeared
upon one of the lookout plates a vivid picture of the pirate vessel--a
huge, black torpedo of steel, now emitting fla