"Yes."
"I'll make no move against Mars, understand."
"I'll not ask you to. You'll go to—"
The radiation alarm broke.
"What's up?" asked Maynard.
"Nothing dangerous. We just uncovered a Terran crate trying to run through us under a barrier."
Maynard looked at Monogon. "We'd better hurry," he told the Martian. "They'll be tearing up the Solar System before we can stop them."
The combined fleet increased its acceleration towards Mephisto.
The spaceport on Mephisto became a mad place. Terran ships stood plate to plate against Martian ships, and the sky above the port was interlaced with the invisible communication beams that connected incoming and outgoing ships. At no time was the sky ever completely clear of spacecraft.