Three dozen spacecraft were wheeling around in a ballet of violence. Cloaked once more, Marko flew through the battle. When he was a safe distance away, he shut off the cloak and sent a signal to his squadron. Instantly the pirate ships wheeled away, leaving the defenders befuddled by the seemingly pointless assault. Marko looked at his squadron. Fifteen fighters left - not bad. Now all they had to do was fly back to Upchuck's headquarters.
But Marko had other plans. He waited until they were flying in formation, then set the autopilot. He stood up, and climbed down a ladder into the hold.
The oily, mostly empty room was almost completely filled by the lump of reddish rock. Marko remembered what the informer had told him - shoot it with a blaster...
Marko had his blaster in his right hand, taken from the back cupboard. He aimed it at the heart of the rock, and fired.
Right at the centre of Upchuck's squadron, Marko's fighter vanished.
On Chora Luna, the last of the fighters had returned to base. Two men lost
- not many, but Bon Adams rued every death. He sat at a desk in the main
control room, surrounded by a group of ten data-gatherers analysing the
incursion.
This was a new experience for Bon. Sure enough, the computer-controlled defense system, installed at Elaine's insistence, had performed admirably. But there had been losses, and Bon hadn't been able to do a damn thing about them. All he could do, here at the nominal seat of command, was sit and push paper. For the first time in many years, Bon was chafing at the bit.
Where the hell is Elaine, he thought irritably. Okay, she doesn't have anything to do, but surely the head of Chora Luna could at least put in an appearance to keep up morale... very unprofessional.
The doorway opened. Bon saw Elaine.
"Elaine!" he said. But even before he rose to his feet, he could see something was wrong. Elaine was slumped against the doorframe as if she could barely stand. Blood oozed from a cut in her scalp, and her left arm hung at an unnatural angle.
Bon was taken aback. "What happened?" he said.
Elaine turned a weary eye toward him. "I fell down the stairs," she said.
"What are you doing here? You should be in the sick bay."
"I'll go there in a moment - I had to find out what happened with this attack."
All of Bon's previous ill-feeling evaporated, leaving only a guilty residue. "Well, I think we were lucky," he said. "Lost two men, but we managed to drive off twenty pirate fighters."
Elaine looked at him. No matter how injured she might be, those eyes were alert and alive. "None of the fighters got through the defenses?"
"None," said Bon. "Your system performed admirably."
Elaine seemed to chew this over. "Still, I wonder what their goal was."
"The ore reserves, I suppose," said Bon.
"But no freighters, or heaavy-duty fighters," said Elaine. "No, I think this was just a test run. They were probing our defences."
"But..."
"Which means they might be back," said Elaine, with a note of urgency in her voice. "And not just here. Our other bases might be under threat - Iriquois, Theta Sigma, and Pael." Pael was where Elaine kept the second of her reddish lumps of rock - this thought she kept secret from Bon. "I want the security stepped up in all sections."
Bon snapped to attention. "Yes, sir!"
Elaine roused herself from the doorframe. "I think I'll drag myself off to sick bay," she said. Refusing all offers of help, she limped off, already planning the defense of Pael. Because she knew they would strike there next.