reconnaissance vehicles were loaned from the cruiser to take their place. Later there would be machinery and supplies of all kinds brought in by freighter ships from Athena. Time was precious and there was a long, long job ahead of them. They blasted up from Ragnarok on the morning of the seventh day and went into the black sea of hyperspace. By then the Gern commander was no longer of any value to them. His unwillingness to believe that savages had wrested his ship from him had increased until his compartment became his control room to him and he spent the hours laughing and giggling before an imaginary viewscreen whereon the cruiser’s blasters were destroying, over and over, the Ragnarok town and all the humans in it.
But Narth, who had wanted to have them tortured to death for daring to resist capture, became very cooperative. In the control room his cooperation was especially eager. On the twentieth day of the voyage they let him have what he had been trying to gain by subterfuge: access to the transmitter when no men were within hearing distance. After that his manner abruptly changed. Each day his hatred for them and his secret anticipation became more evident.
The thirty-fifth day came, with Athena five days ahead of them—the day of the execution they had let him arrange for them.
*
*
*
Stars filled the transdimensional viewscreen, the sun of Athena in the center. Humbolt watched the space to the lower left and the flicker came again; a tiny red dot that was gone again within a microsecond, so quickly that Narth in the seat beside him did not see it. It was the quick peek of another ship; a ship that was running invisible with its detector screens up but which had had to drop them for an instant to look out at the cruiser. Not even the Gerns had ever been able to devise a polarized detector screen.
He changed the course and speed of the cruiser, creating an increase in gravity which seemed very slight to him but which caused Narth to slew heavily in his seat. Narth straightened and he said to him:
“Within a few minutes we’ll engage the ship you sent for.”
Narth’s jaw dropped, then came back up. “So you spied on me?”
“One of our Ragnarok allies did—the little animal that was sitting near the transmitter. They’re our means of communication. We learned that you had arranged for a ship, en route to Athena, to intercept us and capture us.”
“So you know?” Narth asked. He smiled, an unpleasant twisting of his mouth. “Do you think that knowing will help you any?”
“We expect it to,” he answered.
“It’s a battleship,” Narth said. “It’s three times the size of this cruiser, the newest and most powerful battleship in the Gern fleet. How does that sound to you?”
“It sounds good,” he said. “We’ll make it our flagship.”
“Your flagship—your ‘
The red dot came again, closer, and he once more altered the ship’s course. He had turned on the course analyzer and it clicked as the battleship’s position was correlated with that of its previous appearance. A short yellow line appeared on the screen to forecast its course for the immediate future.
“And then?” he asked curiously, turning back to Narth.
“And then we’ll take all of you left alive back to your village. The scenes of what we do to you and your village will be televised to all Gern-held worlds. It will be a valuable reminder for any who have forgotten the penalty for resisting Gerns.”
The red dot came again. He punched the BATTLE STATIONS button and the board responded with a row of READY lights.
“All the other Gerns are by now in their acceleration couches,” he said. “Strap yourself in for high- acceleration maneuvers—we’ll make contact with the battleship within two minutes.”
Narth did so, taking his time as though it was something of little importance. “There will be no maneuvers. They’ll blast the stern and destroy your drive immediately upon attack.”
He fastened the last strap and smiled, taunting assurance in the twisted unpleasantness of it.
