Nansalian fleet seemed to burst into sudden,
inexplicable flame and fall blazing against another of their own ships!
It seemed as though some irresistible attraction drew the ships together
and smashed them against each other in a blaze of electric flame, while
the ships of Sator did nothing but stay far off to one side and dodge
the rays of the Nansalian ships.

Quickly, Arcot turned to Torlos. "Torlos, go out! Leave the ship! We can
work better when you aren't here, since we don't have to worry about
exposure to magnetic rays. I don't like to make you miss this, but it's
for your world!"

Torlos showed his disappointment; he wanted to be in this battle. But he
realized that what the Earthman said was true. Their weak, stone bones
were completely immune to the effects of even the most powerful magnetic
ray.

He nodded. "I'll go. Good Luck! And give them a few shots for me!"

He turned and ran down the corridor to the airlock. As soon as he was
outside, Arcot lifted the ship.

It had taken less than a minute to get into the air, but in that
minute, the Nansalian fleet had taken a terrific beating. Arcot noticed
that the few ships of Sator that had been hit smashed into the ground
with a terrible blaze of violet light that left nothing but a pile of
fused metal.

"They've got something, all right," Arcot thought to himself as he drove
the _Ancient Mariner_ into battle.

It would be impossible for the Nansalians to lower their magnetic
screen, even for a second, so Arcot simply aimed the ship toward it and
turned on the power.

"Hold on!" he called as they struck it. The ship reeled and sank
suddenly planetward, then it bounced up and outward. They were through
the wall.

The rooms were suddenly oppressively hot, and the molecular cooler was
struggling to lower it. "We made it," Morey said triumphantly, "but the
eddy currents sure heated up the hull!"

They were out of the city now, speeding toward the battle. Following a
prearranged system, the Nansalian ships retreated, leaving the Earthmen
a free hand. They needed no help!

Wade, Fuller, and Morey began to lash out with the molecular beams,
smashing the Satorian ships in on themselves, crushing them to the
ground, where they exploded in violet flame.

Wade and Fuller began to work together. Wade caught one ship in the
molecular ray, and Fuller hit with a heat beam. Like some titanic broom
they swept it around at dozens of miles a second, leaping, twist