"They aren't heading for Terra," said Guy. "Well, we're being attacked, technically. Let's have at them."
The indication in the detector opened, and the pattern of the Martian fleet became clear. Guy shook his head at the perfection of the space lattice. Against the vortex, a perfect space lattice meant ruin.
Into the Martian fleet went Maynard's group. At terrific velocity, the two fleets met, and the vortexes flowed from Guy's ships and ran together in a mad pattern through which there was no place to pass unharmed.
There was a flash of MacMillan fire. Crossed beams radiated, and the space between the ships dotted with blinding flashes of premature torpedoes.
The Martians were more interested in avoiding the toroids, and their fire was desultory. The Terrans were more interested in the Martian ships, and their fire was defensive only.
Then at once, the Martians were through, passed, and inert. They sped on at zero drive, and their courses diverged.
"After 'em!" grunted Maynard. "Get 'em on detectors!"
The Martians went out of sight. The contact-detectors stretched as the two opposing velocities caused the separation to add into the unthinkable miles. Days passed before the velocity of Guy's fleet dropped to turn-back velocity, and more days passed before Guy's ships were within sight of their quarry. By then, no ship was within detector range of its fellow; the sky was clear save for the inert Martian and the pursuing ship.
Slowly, the Leoniad crept up beside the Martian ship. And then as the velocity of Leoniad approached zero relative to the Martian, there was motion in the sky, the detectors flared bright, and the alarm bells rang with ear-splitting loudness. The detector showed a Martian sub-ship at pointer range.
Its barrier had been blasted open by the huge vortex that crept and rolled towards the Leoniad.