individualpoints. The first missiles arrived. Intricate patterns of incandescenceformed and vanished as fire-control systems locked wits.
A sudden, brilliantly planned salvo came streaking in, saturating thedefenses along its path. Ships in Tulan's secondary formation swervedfrantically, but one darting, corkscrewing missile homed on a Heavy, andfor an instant there were two suns.
Tulan, missing Jezef's smooth help, was caught up in the daze and strainof battle now. He punched buttons and shouted orders as he played thefleet to match the enemy's subtle swerving. Another heavy salvo camein, but the computers had its sources pinpointed now, and it wascontained. These first few seconds favored the enemy, who was onlyfighting the light shield in front of Tulan's formation.
Now the swelling mass of blips streaked apart in the viewers and spacelit up with the fire and interception. Two ships met head on; at suchvelocities it was like a nuclear blast.
Then Coar's ships crashed through the shield and into the center of thedoughnut. Ringed, outgunned, outpredicted, they hit such a concentrationof missiles that it might as well have been a solid wall. Shipsdisintegrated as if on a common fuse; the ones that didn't take directhits needed none, in that debris-filled stretch of hell.
Tulan's flagship rocked in the wave of expanding hot gasses. There was ajolt as some piece of junk hit her; if she hadn't already been undercrushing acceleration away from the inferno she'd have been holed.
From a safer distance the path of destruction was a bright slash acrossspace, growing into the distance with its momentum. It was annihilation,too awful for triumph; there was only horror in it. Tulan knew that withthis overwhelming tactic he'd written a new text-book for action againstan inferior fleet. He hoped it would never be printed. Sweating andweak, he slumped in his straps and was ill.
* * * * *
While brief repairs and re-arming were under way, he sent scoutsspiraling out to pick up any radio beams from Sennech or Teyr. Therewere none. The telescopes showed Sennech's albedo down to a fraction ofnormal; that, he supposed, would indicate smoke in the atmosphere. Hewavered, wondering whether he should detach more ships to send outthere. Reason and training told him to stick to the key objective, whichwas Coar's surrender. He waited only for Group Three to achieve aconverging course, then started around the sun again.
They didn't encounter even a roboscout. He crossed the sun, curved intoCoar's orbit, matched speeds, and coasted along a million miles ahead ofthe planet, sending light sorties in to feel out any ambushes. Stillthere was no sign of fight, so he went in closer where the enemy couldget a good look at his strength. Finally he took a small group in boldlyover the fourth planet's Capitol and sent a challenge.
The answer was odd. "This is Acting President Kliu. What are yourintentions?"
Tulan realized he was holding his breath. He let it out and lookedaround the silent command room, meeting the intent eyes of his staff. Hehad an unreal feeling; this couldn't be the climax, theconsummation--this simple exchange over the radio. He lifted themicrophone slowly. "This is Admiral Tulan, commanding the Fleets ofSennech. I demand your immediate and unconditional surrender."
There was something in the reply that might have been dry amusement:"Oh; by all means; but I hope you're not going to insist upon anelaborate ceremony. Right now we don't give a damn about the war; we'reworried about the race."
There was more silence, and Tulan turned, uncertainly, looking at thebare spot where Jezef ought to be standing. He buzzed forCommunications. "Connect me with Captain Rhu. Rhu; I'm advancing you inrank and leaving you in charge here. I'm going down to accept thesurrender and find out what this man's talking about."
* * * * *
Kliu was gaunt and middle-aged, wearing, to Tulan's surprise, the grayof Coar's First Level of Science. He was neither abject nor hostile,agreeing impatiently to turn over the secret of Coar's weapon and toassist with a token occupation of the planet. Again Tulan had theunreal, let-down feeling, and judging by Kliu's amused expression, itshowed.
Tulan sent couriers to get things started, then turned back to thescientist. "So you have had a change of government. What did you mean,about the race?"
Kliu watched him for a moment. "How much do you know about the weapon?"
"Very little. That it projects matter through hyperspace andmaterializes it where you want it."
"Not exactly; the materialization is spontaneous. Mass somehow distortshyperspace, and when the projected matter has penetrated a certaindistance into such distortion, it pops back into normal space. Thepenetration depends mainly upon a sort of internal energy in themissile; you might think of it more as a voltage than as velocity.You've made it very hard for us to get reports, but I understand wesuccessfully placed stuff in Sennech's crust."
"Yes; causing volcanoes. Our scientists speculated that any kind ofmatter would do it."
"That's right. Actually, we were projecting weighed chunks of rock. Whenone bit of matter, even a single atom, finds itself materializing whereanother already is, unnatural elements may be formed, most of themunstable. That's what blew holes in your crust and let the magma out."
Tulan considered the military implications of the weapon for a fewmoments, then pulled his mind back. "I see; but what about theradiation? It wasn't more than a trace when I left."
Kliu looked away for a while before answering. "When we learned you'ddefied your government, our own military got out of hand. They had acouple of days before the sun cut us off completely, and they beganthrowing stuff as soon as it could be dug and hauled to the projectors.They used high energies to get it past the sun. As we realize now, a lotof it hit the planet deeper than at first, below the crust. Under suchpressure a different set of fissionables was formed. Some of them burstout and poisoned the atmosphere, but most of them are still there." Heleaned forward and eyed Tulan hard. "We've got to get an expedition outthere to study things. Will you help?"
There was another of the palpable silences, and when he spoke Tulan'svoice sounded unnatural. "I--yes; we'll help. Whatever you want. Is ...Sennech finished?"
Kliu smiled tightly. "Sennech, for sure; and she may take the rest of uswith her. Nobody conceived what this might come to. A lot of those deepmaterializations produced pockets of dense fissionables, and they'reconverging toward the center under their own weight. When they get to acertain point, we'll have a fine monument to Man's ingenuity. Aplanet-size nova." He stood up. "I'll start organizing."
* * * * *
Tulan existed someway through the preparations, and when they were inspace again the solid familiarity of his ship helped. His staff wascarrying on wonderfully; shielding him, he suspected, from considerablehostility. Discipline held up.
A technology that had spanned five orbits and probed beyond was at bay,and the expedition was tremendous. Hardly an art or science wasunrepresented. If need be, whole ships could be built in space.
A beam from Teyr as they passed told of refugees by the hundreds ofthousands, dumped in the wilderness with a few ships still trickling in.Tulan would have traded everything he could command to hear a word ofJezef or the family, but Teyr wasn't concerned with individuals and hedidn't ask.
Sennech was dull gray in the telescopes, showing, as they neared, flecksof fire. They went in fast, using her gravity to help them curve into aforced orbit as they strained to decelerate. Thermocouples gave readingsclose to the boiling point of water; that, probably, was the temperatureof the lower air.
Roboscouts went down first, then, as conditions were ascertained, mannedships. Tulan took the flagship down once. Her coolers labored and hersearchlights were swallowed in murk within a few feet. Sounds carriedthrough the hull; the howl of great winds and the thumps of explosions.Once a geyser of glowing lava spattered the ship.
Within hours the picture began to form. The surface was a boiling seabroken only by transient mountain peaks which tumbled down in quakes orwere washed away by the inces
sant hot rain. It would have been hard tofind a single trace of the civilization that had flourished scant hoursbefore.
* * * * *
The slower job was learning, by countless readings and painfuldeduction, what was going on inside the planet. Tulan occupied himselfwith organizational tasks and clung to what dignity he could. After aneternity Kliu had time for him.
"She'll blow, all right," the scientist said, sinking tiredly into aseat. "Within half a year. Her year."
"Twenty thousand hours," Tulan said automatically. "How about the otherplanets?"
"Coar has one chance in a hundred, Teyr possibly one in ten."
Tulan had to keep talking. "The outer