"Alter the course of the voyage. Turn to **." Zhao Chen gave the new order.
"What?" The several petty officers upon the bridge were dumbfounded to hear it.
For they had all of them seen upon the holo-table how the enemy's fleets stood; and upon the very bearing Zhao Chen had ordered them to sail, near thirty of the enemy's warships lay.
To go there was to go to one's death, surely?
The bridge petty officers all looked at Zhao Chengcheng.
And Zhao Chengcheng said without the least hesitation: "Do as he says."
"Yes!"
And the Leader having spoken, these bridge petty officers, though there was no understanding of it in their hearts, did as they were bidden all the same.
The bearing was changed.
Straight at the thirty warships opposite!
……
An enemy T4 warship. The bridge.
All of a sudden, upon the ship's radar, which had shown no stir of any kind all this while, a point of light appeared moving at speed.
"Report, the bearing is found in which the warship carrying the enemy universe's Leader is fleeing! She is driving straight toward us!" the bridge petty officer reported in haste.
"This is bad; the enemy ship has found us too, and is turning about, and would run for it!" The marker of that warship upon the radar drew a sudden arc, and fled off upon another bearing.
"Our squad, give chase at full speed. And carry this word to the other fleets besides!" the captain said eagerly.
For here was a great merit indeed.
That warship carried the Star Alliance Leader of the enemy's universe.
And to take him would beyond doubt be a merit to shake the age.
And failing that, to kill him.
This was the newest order come down from above.
If he could not be taken, he was to be killed.
And on no account was this man to be suffered to go back alive to his own universe.
"Yes!"
Thirty interstellar warships, like sharks that have caught the smell of blood, went after the T3 Fox-Hunter-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer in the enemy's hands at their utmost speed.
It may have been that she had been fleeing too long.
For this T3 Fox-Hunter-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer was not of any great speed now.
And faintly seemed in a way to be caught.
"Do not be in haste to fire; take her alive so far as you may. And by the word we had earlier, this Fox-Hunter has been engaged several times, and her ammunition is likely not much." The captain's eyes were full of greed.
For that seemed to him no warship, but one vast merit.
A fief… power…
Ha, ha, ha, ha.
And as the distance closed, that T3 Fox-Hunter-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer began to answer them; but the fire of her answer was thin and scattered.
Which seemed to bear out what the captain had said, that this destroyer had come to the pass of her last shot fired and her last ration eaten.
"Ha, ha, she has not many rounds left in her. Get up with her for me, and hem her in!" the captain laughed aloud.
And at this a fleet of thirty warships came up opposite as well.
"Curse it! The merit-snatchers are come! Put on speed. Do not let others snatch our merit away!" The captain spat, and said it in his annoyance.
For at this moment he rather hated the sight of his own side.
And by degrees,
that T3 Fox-Hunter-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer was hemmed about; and she began sailing in arcs, seeking some place to break out by.
But there were sixty warships about her now.
And the Fox-Hunter wore every look of being spent to the last; how should she outrun hunters who had come prepared?
And it seemed that what followed would be a fine play of the cat with the mouse.
"Get me a link to their ship," the captain said, holding down the eagerness in him.
For to take him alive would naturally be best.
"Report, the other side refuses to speak," his subordinate said.
The captain gave a cold snort and said scornfully: "Come to such a pass, and that fellow still fancies himself some Leader of a universe. Does he not see whose universe this is! Pass my order: let the escorts and the destroyers close, and they may attack such places of the enemy ship as are of no weight, but they are not to attack the bridge or the magazine. And then arrange the fighters and the drones, with the marines, to board the enemy ship and take her in hand from within!"
"Yes!"
"Wait. Report: the enemy ship has put on speed all of a sudden. She is driving at our ship at full speed!" a petty officer upon the bridge said in terror at this.
"What?" The captain was greatly startled.
He looked at the picture before him.
And saw indeed that the T3 Fox-Hunter-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer was truly charging his own ship at her full speed.
And plainly the other's ship was in an overladen acceleration, and her engines had even begun to smoke, with explosions here and there upon her.
"Are they mad! Open f—" The captain would have ordered them to fire; but to fire at this moment.
He knew well that the T3 Fox-Hunter's bridge lies at the bow of her; and with the other driving straight at him, his ship's answering fire would most likely strike that very bow where the bridge is.
And then this notion of his, of taking the man alive and winning a great merit, would come to nothing.
"Captain, the enemy ship has no star shield. And if she strike our star shield full, the bridge of that T3 Fox-Hunter… may well be destroyed by the impact besides!" his subordinate put in a word.
"Madmen. Madmen!" the captain cursed.
And at this he thought of the merit of taking the man alive.
And he set his heart hard. "Shut down this ship's star shield, and stand by to take the impact! We are a T4 interstellar destroyer! One knock will not be the death of us. And we may take the chance by it to board her and fight!"
He who grudges the child will never trap the wolf.
For this T4 warship would at the most take hurt to her hull, and go into dock afterward for a great refit.
But could he take the enemy's Star Alliance Leader alive, that was beyond doubt a great merit!
"Yes!"
The T4 interstellar destroyer's star shield was shut down.
And the other warships about her began closing in as well.
And they watched with their own eyes as that T3 Fox-Hunter-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer came nearer and nearer.
And just at that moment,
they saw a thing past all believing.
"The devil! What is that!"
"At the bow of that Fox-Hunter, is there not a man standing!"
"And wearing our own outer-space gear besides!"
Those upon the bridge who saw it were in an uproar, every one.
"Magnify the picture for me!" the captain cried in astonishment.
And after it had been magnified several times over.
There was indeed, at the bow of that warship coming swiftly on, a man standing in the black outer-space suit of their own standard make.
Which black outer-space suit belongs in truth to the auxiliary branches, and is not fit for fighting.
Being commonly worn by soldiers of the supply service while under way, that they may come outside the hull and repair the structures of weight upon her.
And it has nothing in it to add to a man's fighting strength.
But it bears heat, and lets a man move freely in the setting of space, and is not easily pierced,
so that it may be counted a combat suit of a kind.
And upon this suit, black to begin with, the face of it is a mask of the same black.
Only that it was daubed over now with the figure of a skull, in a red like blood.
And the next instant,
this skull-headed man raised his hand, and two light-blade hilts appeared in it.
The one red, and the one gold.
And small though they were, in that moment they shone with a brilliant light!