The odds had been against his stunt anyway. Theoretically, such a small ship as the little scout he was piloting should have been able to get through the Flesso patrols easily—but in practice, the network of spybeams stretching through the entire Quadrant were efficient and near-infallible defenses, as Marten was discovering now.
But I had lousy luck too, he thought. I wandered right up to the biggest warship in the whole damned fleet. Must have come within a light week or less.
There wasn't much point in trying to break away, now. Marten was trapped—thoroughly and unarguably. The little scout ship didn't carry a tenth the power he would need to break from the grasp of the big battle cruiser. And as for the scout ship's armament, it wasn't enough even to tickle the screens of a battleship like this one. Scout ships depended on speed and indetectability, and neither attribute was of much value now.
Within minutes, the heavy tractor beams pulled the smaller ship into the yawning airlock of the huge Flesso cruiser.
Okay, Marten thought. He folded his arms, leaned back in his chair, and waited. There was nothing else he could do—until a Fless tried to enter the ship.
Time passed. The little scout ship was drawn further and further into the monster Flesso ship. It was now entirely enclosed by darkness, imprisoned within the metal hull of the huge battleship of space.
Sitting inside, Marten waited patiently. The Flesso had been wanting to capture an Earthman for a long time. Well, now they'd succeeded. They'd captured their first Earth ship.
Suddenly, Marten's damped communicator screen came back to life. A scaly, toad-like face appeared, and Marten stared blandly at the three red-rimmed, fiery eyes that confronted him.
"I see you are still alive, Earthman!"