THEY WERE DASHING DOWN A SMOKE-FILLED HALL

way, chased by angry shouts and occasional bolts of I shimmering lightning, when an abrupt detonation rocked the floor plates. A wall of air struck the two humans from behind, knocking them off their feet.

We've had it, he thought, figuring it must be a weapon, used by the pursuers.

Glancing over his shoulder, however, Lark saw the robots suddenly turn and head the other way! Into a noisome storm of roiling black soot pouring out of the control room.

"Do you think . . . ?" he began.

Ling shook her head. "Jophur are tough. I doubt they were more than knocked around by the explosion."

Well, he thought. It was only a little piece of rock.

He felt its absence acutely.

Lark helped her up, still wary of returning robots.

"I guess now they know we're here."

They resumed running. But a few duras later, Ling burst out in laughing agreement.

"Yeah, I guess now they do."

Gillian RPSI-DISTURBANCE WAS DETECTED, EMANATING briefly from the planet. Soon after that, the detection officer announced a change on the tactics screen.

"Will you looka that-t!"

Gillian saw it. The Jophur configuration was shifting. The bright red disk seemed to shimmer for a moment. Its "tail" of tiny crimson pinpoints, which had been bunching ever closer to the mother ship, now flexed and began to float away.

"It appears the enemy has jettisoned all the decoys they captured. I can only conclude that they figured out bow to scan them quickly and eliminate dross ships from consideration. The decoys will now drift independently toward Izmunuti, while the battleship, free of drag, will catch up with us much faster."

Gillian's hopes, which had lifted when the psi-wave came, now sank lower than ever.

"We'd better get ready for our last stand," she said in a low voice.

From the dolphins there was an utter absence of sonar clicks, as if none of them wanted to reify the moment, to make it real by reading it in sound.

"Wait-t a minute," Kaa announced. "The Jophur's decelerating! Coming about to retrieve the jettisoned string!"

"But . . ." Gillian blinked. "Could they have dropped it by accident?"

The Niss hologram whirled, then accepted the possibility with an abstract nod.

"A hypothesis presents itself. The psi-wave we detected was far too weak to have any effect on a war cruiser . . . unless it was direct-causative."

"Explain." "It might have served as a trigger that-either by accident or design-precipitated the release of potentialities already in place . . . say, aboard the Jophur ship."

"In other words, the wave might have affected them after all. Maybe it set off events that disrupted-"

"Indeed. If this caused the Jophur to lose their control over their string of capture boxes, they would certainly go back and retrieve them, even at the cost of some delay. Because they would suspect the string's release was the intended purpose of the psi-wave."

"In other words, they'll be even more eager to check every box. Hmm."

Gillian pondered, then asked: "Has their intercept time been delayed much?"

Kaa thrashed his flukes.

"A fair amount. Not-t enough, however. We'll make it to the Izmunuti corona, but the enemy will be close enough to follow easily with detectorsss. The plasma won't make any a-ppreciable difference."

Gillian nodded. "Well, things are a little better. And a trick or two to make the odds better still."

The dolphins snickered knowingly and went back to work, emanating confident clicks. Gillian's last remark was exactly the sort of thing Tom would have said in a situation like this.

In fact, though, Gillian did not know if her scheme was even worthy of the name.

sara THEY SAID THAT A PSI-WAVE HAD COME FROM JIJO, but Sara didn't feel a thing.

Not surprising. Of Melina's three children, it always seemed that Dwer had some fey sensitivity, while she, the logical one, possessed none. Till recently, Sara had little interest in such matters.

But then she wondered. Might this be what Purofsky said we should, look out for?

Sitting at the stateroom's worktable, Sara addressed the portable computer.

"About that psi-wave-do we have a fix on its hypervelocity?"

"Only a rough estimate. It traveled at approximately two mictaars per midura."

Sara tried to work out the timing in her head, translating it in terms she knew better, such as light-years. Then she realized the machine could do it for her graphically.

"Show me."

A holo took shape, portraying her homeworld as a blue dot in the lower left quadrant. Streakerwas a yellow glimmer to the upper right, accompanied by other members of decoy swarm number two. Meanwhile a crimson convoy- the Jophur ship and its reclaimed captives-resumed hot pursuit.

The computer put down an overlay, depicting a crosshatching of lines that Sara knew to be wave vectors in level-zero hypers.p.a.ce. The math was simple enough, but it took her some time to figure out the rich, three-dimensional representation. Then she whistled.

"That's not inverse square. It's not even one-over-R. It was directional!"

"A well-conserved, directional wave packet, resonating on the first, third^ and eighth bands of-"

The computer lapsed into psi-jargon that Sara could not follow. For her, it was enough to see that the packet was aimed. Its peak had pa.s.sed right over both Streaker and its pursuer.

The coincidence beggared belief. It meant that some great power on Jijo had known precisely where both ships were, and- Sara stopped herself.

Don't leap to the first conclusion that comes to mind. What if we weren 't the beam's objective at all?

What if we just happened to be along its path, between Jijo and . . .

She leaped to her feet.

"Show me Izmunuti and the transfer point!"

The display changed scale, expanding until Streaker-was shown just over halfway to the supposed safety of the fiery red giant.

And beyond it, a folded place. A twist in reality's fabric. A spot where you go, if you want to suddenly be very far away. '

Although computer graphics were needed to make it out clearly, the transfer point was no invisible nonent.i.ty. Izmunuti bulged in its direction, sending ocher streamers toward the dimple in s.p.a.ce.

"When will the psi-wave reach Izmunuti?"

"It has already arrived."

Sara swallowed hard.

"Then show me estimated ..." She dredged memory for words she had read, but seldom used. "Show me likely hyperdeflection curves, as the psi-wave hits the red giant. Emphasize meta-stable regions of ... um, inverted energy storage, with potential for . . . uh, stimulated emission on those bands you were talking about."

Sara's face flickered as manicolored lines and curves reflected off her forehead and cheekbones.

Her eyes widened, briefly showing white all the way around the irises. She mouthed a single word, without managing to form a voice.

Then Sara clutched for a nearby pad of paper-no better than the premium stock her own father produced-and scrawled down two lines of coordinates.

Gillian Baskin answered her urgent call, though the older woman looked hara.s.sed and a little irked. "Sage Koolhan, I really don't have time-" "Oh yes you do," Sara told her sternly. "Meet me in your office in forty duras. You are definitely gonna want to hear this!"

Rety A YOUNG WOMAN SAT IN A LOCKED ROOM, ALL alone in her universe, until someone knocked.

In fact she was not entirely alone-r-yee was with her. Moreover, the knock wasn't at the door, but rapped loudly on the window below her feet. Still, the element of eerie surprise was there. Rety jumped back, scurrying away from the sound, which grew louder with each hammerlike stroke.

"it comes from over heref'yee wailed, pointing with his long neck.

Rety saw at once the pane he meant. A silhouetted figure squatted below the window, backlit by the golden haze surrounding her useless ship. The figure was distorted, distended, with a grossly bulbous head. An arm turned, holding a blunt object, and swung forward, striking the crystal once again.

This time, tiny cracks spread from the point of impact.

"enemy foe coming in!"

Visions of s.p.a.ce monsters filled Rety, but not with fear. She wasn't about to give up her domain to some invader- Jophur, robot, or whatever.

Another blow struck the same spot. Clearly it would take several more for the a.s.sailant to seriously damage the window. Emboldened to see what she was up against, Rety scooted toward the shadowy figure. After the next impact, she pressed close to the gla.s.s and peered outside.

Things were blurry at first. Then the creature seemed to notice her presence and leaned forward as well. Rety glimpsed what looked like a billowing dome of clear fabric. A makeshift helmet, she realized.

And within that protective bubble . . .

"Yah!" she cried out, twitching reflexively away, more set back than if she'd seen a monster or ghost.

When Rety went back for another look, the figure on the other side started making frantic gestures, pointing toward the side of the ship.

"Oh, yeah," she sighed. "I did lock the airlock, didn't I?"

Rety nodded vigorously so the visitor could see, and started scurrying along the canted walls to reach the jimmied door. Rety removed the pry bar she had slipped in place, to keep Chuchki from returning.

The airlock cycled slowly, giving Rety time to wonder if her eyes had deceived her. Perhaps this was just a ruse from some mind-reading creature, seeking to gain entrance by sifting her brain for images from her past. . . .

The inner door opened at last, and Dwer Koolhan tumbled through, tearing at the balloonlike covering he had been using as a crude life-support system. His face was rather blue by the time Rety helped him cut the taped fastenings, scavenged from material found on other decoy vessels during his long journey down the captive string. The young hunter gasped deep breaths while Rety stepped back and stared. Finally, he recovered enough to roll aside, lifting his head to meet her unbelieving gaze.

"I ... should've known . . . it'd be you," Dwer murmured in a resigned voice.

At the exact same moment, Rety muttered: "Ifni! Ain't I ever gonna be rid o' you?"

asx WE MUST WEIGH TRADE-OFFS AND OPTIONS. As Izmunuti commences to roil with an atmospheric storm, our tactics stack declares that we have lost valuable time.

Three target swarms flee ahead of our majestic Polkjhy.

The first will enter the storm just as we catch up.

We will reach the second as it pa.s.ses through maximum hyperbolic momentum change.

And the third?

It will make it to the transfer point, with time enough to jump into the next higher level of hypers.p.a.ce.

The sabotage attack on our control room has thus created serious problems, out of proportion to the damage done to our Captain-Leader, whose incapacity should not last long. Meanwhile, however, tactics has come up with a plan.

WE SHALL JETTISON THE CAPTURE BOXES DRAGGING AT OUR WAKE.

They are now on course for Izmunuti. If the prey ship lies within one of the glowing traps, it must reveal itself soon, or risk immolation.

THUS FREED, OUR POLKJHY WILL ACCELERATE DIRECTLY FOR THE TRANSFER POINT!.

In this manner we will be able to interpose ourselves between the prey ship and its escape path. There will be some backlash from such rapid maneuvering, but the result should be an end to all hope for the Earthlings, whichever swarm they are hiding in. Their subsequent activities should enable us to detect which ship is sapient-guided and which operate on mere automatic programs.

Hunt scents fill our bridge, eagerness for the approaching conclusion to this great endeavor. It will be most gratifying for Polkjhy to achieve conquest of the Earthlings without having to call for help from the great clan. To succeed where battle fleets have failed-this will be glorious!

BUT NOW TO OUR a.s.sIGNED TASK, MY RINGS!.

There are vermin loose on our fine dreadnought. Our damaged,soot-stained bridge was dishonored in full view of the librarian,watcher.

The vermin roust be found. I/we am the one called upon as qualified to give chase, by virtue of our/my experience with human types.

Our first recourse, My rings? Collect the remaining human prisoner! The one called Rann.

He will help us find his former colleagues. He is already so inclined.

REJOICE, MY RINGS!.

In this way we will prove useful, avoiding disa.s.sembly. If successful, this master torus has been promised a fine reward.

Quiver in antic.i.p.ation, My rings! As Polkjhy chases certain victory through s.p.a.ce, we pursue another hunt within.

Emerson ENGINES SING TO HIM IN A LANGUAGE HE STILL Understands.