"Nothing,—that's the hell of it. I've been kicking myself for not figuring it out before. That gadget's nothing but a fined-up subetheric communicator. We used them before the Lorcom was developed. There's an explosive charge, but the arming mechanism was burned off. And that's it."
"Not quite," Fiske said. "There was a direct neural connection. And that's why they fight as a unit. A ship's commander would have complete charge of his ship like a brain with a hundred bodies—and he's probably hooked up with a squadron C.O. And the squadron C.O.—what a system!" Fiske cut off and twisted the selector.
"Communications!" he said.
"Aye sir."
"Contact Chief Engineer Sandoval, tape his data and send it to Prime."
"Sorry sir—can't be done!"
"What!"
"Yes sir—there's an interference blanket in Cth that you can't drive anything through. I've been trying to raise Base for an hour."
"When did this come on?—Why wasn't I informed."
"It came on about an hour ago, and you were busy. We've never had anything like this before, sir. I thought I'd try to punch a beam through it before I quit."