"Not so fast," Allenson said. "I'll let the others speak for themselves."
The general contained himself with difficulty. "Remember," he said, "according to your own figures, the leech is growing at the rate of twenty feet an hour."
"And speeding up," Allenson added. "But this isn't a decision to be made in haste."
Micheals found his mind wandering again, to the lightning bolts of Zeus. That was what they needed. Or the strength of Hercules.
Or—
He sat up suddenly. "Gentlemen, I believe I can offer you a possible alternative, although it's a very dim one."
They stared at him.
"Have you ever heard of Antaeus?" he asked.
The more the leech ate, the faster it grew and the hungrier it became. Although its birth was forgotten, it did remember a long way back. It had eaten a planet in that ancient past. Grown tremendous, ravenous, it had made the journey to a nearby star and eaten that, replenishing the cells converted into energy for the trip. But then there was no more food, and the next star was an enormous distance away.