"This thought-beam gadget—the heavy-duty one."
"That's it."
"But Mephisto went down under the vortex projector. To the last man. They had these things."
"You fired and fired and fired, though. Hundreds and hundreds of vortexes. The effect is cumulative, I've heard. But for a single shot, Guy, we've got a remedy."
The ship took control as the instrument gang replaced the fuses, threw in the breakers, and reset the balancing controls. The Leoniad swapped ends, raced for the quarry that was invisible in the distance, and took over the Martian.
It was days before the combined fleets were collected again. They converged upon a million cubic miles of space, and mulled around in a mad pattern before they turned and headed for Mephisto.
The commander of the Martians came before Guy.
