Part 4 (2/2)

”And that a projector could be built to put an entire s.h.i.+p into hypers.p.a.ce?”

Kliu stared at him for a second. ”Kinetic energy! Built up gradually!”

He jumped to his feet. ”Come on! Let's get to the computers!”

Several hundred hours later Tulan lay watching the pinpoint on his viewscreen that represented Sennech. He'd been building up speed for a long time; he ached from the steady double-gravity. The s.h.i.+p, vastly beefed up, was moving at a good fraction of the speed of light. It wouldn't be much longer.

The cargo of carefully chosen matter, s.h.i.+fting into hypers.p.a.ce at the right instant, would be taken deep into Sennech by the momentum he'd acc.u.mulated in normal s.p.a.ce. If the calculations were right, the resulting blast would knock a chunk completely out of the planet. Each of the thousands of other s.h.i.+ps tied to him by robot controls would take its own bite at the right time and place. Providing the plan worked.

The Solar System would have a few hot moments, and would be full of junk for a long time, but the threatening fissionables inside Sennech would be hurled far apart, to dribble away their potence gradually. Kliu admitted no one could calculate for sure even how much, if any, of Sennech would remain as a planet, but Teyr, at least, with her thick atmosphere, should withstand the rain of debris.

He wondered about his family, and Jezef. Kliu had tried to get word, but the tragically few refugees were scattered.

He smiled, recalling how severely he'd had to order his staff to abandon him. He was proud to remember that much of the fleet would have come along, if he'd let them; but live men were going to be at more of a premium on Teyr than heroic atoms drifting in s.p.a.ce. Machines could handle this a.s.sault. He himself had not had to touch a single control.

The indicators began to flash, and, sweating with the effort, he hauled himself erect to attention. It was good to be winding up here in his own command room, where he'd lived his moments of triumph. Still, as the red light winked on, he couldn't help thinking how very quiet and lonely it was without Jezef and the staff.

THE END

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