Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Captain Bors wore the full-dress uniform of the space navy of the planet Kandar. It was still neatly pressed but was now smudged with soot and smeared with ashes. He had burned a great many papers today. Elsewhere in the Ministry other men were burning other documents. The other papers were important enough; they were confidential reports from volunteer- and paid-agents on twenty planets.
Morgan's errand had been to make a prediction and give a warning, to gain credence for what he could do later. The prediction was fulfilled. But the warning.... An enemy cruiser in ambush on Kandar was a possibility that simply hadn't been considered hadn't even occurred to anyone. But once it was mentioned it seemed horribly likely.
I'm going to ask the king to insist that the Sylva get away from here fast! Before the Mekinese turn up." Gwenlyn shook her head, her eyes searching his face. "The Sylva's not here. It's gone to Kandar as a sort of dispatch-boat." Bors groaned. "Then I'll try to get another ship assigned to take you away," he said formidably. "Maybe one of the captured cargo-ships I sent back."
We're leaving for Kandar now." He nodded to the young man at the control board. He noted with approval that he'd kept the Liberty's aim exact while Bors talked to Morgan. "Proceed," Bors ordered. The young man said, "Five, four, three, two, one " There was the familiar dizzying sensation of going into overdrive. The Liberty wrapped stressed space about itself and went hurtling into invisibility.
For the first time, both of them seemed doubtful of the value of Talents, Incorporated information. Again, far away, the fleet of Kandar rushed through emptiness. On its various ships, junior officers had come threateningly close to mutiny. There was now a sullen, resigned submission to discipline and what orders might be given, but the fleet was fighting angry.
But, what might be termed the position of the fleet, changed with remarkable swiftness. It traveled light-hours between breaths. Light-days between sentences. Light-months and light-years.... But it would not arrive on Kandar for a long while yet. Not for three whole days. The small fighting ship lifted swiftly from the surface of Kandar.
He listened with attention, and agreed with most of what Bors had to say. "I'll push the idea of a sentry over Kandar," he said confidentially. "I'll make it two ships or three and take command. I want to send some of my engineer officers to get the details of that low-power overdrive. A very pretty tactical idea! It should be spread throughout the fleet."
The axes and choppers, used for breaking up firewood, were the best of these arms, but the number of these was limited, most of Tŭngku Aminâh's gallant three hundred being provided with no better weapons than the kandar sticks, on which water pails are carried; spits made of wood hardened in the fire; cocoa-nut scrapers lashed to sticks; and a few old pocket-knives and fish-spears.
Instructions were already distributed and would have been studied and understood. The fleet would then go to Kandar if it appeared that the Mekinese grand fleet would go there and set up a dummy fleet of target-globes in war array. This would be a fleet, but not of fighting ships. It would be a fleet of metal-foil inflated balloons.
"I have to express my admiration for the men of my fleet," he said drearily. "An unexampled victory over unexampled odds is not only in keeping with the best traditions of the armed forces of Kandar, but raises those traditions to the highest possible level of valor and devotion.
Word Of The Day