A red light pulsed rapidly on the console near Lurton Zimbardo's chair.

Seeing the flash from the corner of his eye, he jerked his head around and stared at it as if he couldn't believe that it was lit.

"What's this?" he thought. "There's no message due now." He pressed the b.u.t.ton that deactivated the light, placed headphones on, dialed a few k.n.o.bs on the console, and pressed "Play."

Fifteen seconds later he leaped up from his chair and bellowed. With both hands he jerked the headphone cord out of the control panel. The wires whipped through the air with a noise like a scourge. Zimbardo twirled, his eyes bulging, and flung the headphones from him with all his force. The set flew through the command center and collided with the opposite wall. Everyone in the room froze and turned to look at the pirate leader, and were appalled at what they saw. He was trembling with demonic fury. No one moved or said a word. Even Gene was afraid to speak.

"They found us!!" Zimbardo shouted. "They found us! The Earthmen know where we are! They've located the fleet!! The freighters those fools destroyed yesterday were decoys! The Earthmen deployed the real probes and they've already found us! They outsmarted us!" He cursed vehemently, then growled as if his teeth were grinding on gravel. "But I've never been outsmarted! I won't be outsmarted now!"

Zimbardo jumped back into his chair. "Gene! GENE!!" He screamed like a man possessed.

"Right here sir," said the young man, coming up quickly to the pirate leader's side.

"Crank up all the power this asteroid can give me! I'm going to create the biggest electromagnetic pulse this Solar System has ever seen, and BURN every last one of those probes out of the void!! And then when we are invisible again, we'll move this asteroid to a new course and continue our plan."

"But sir," pleaded Gene, almost desperately. "That would take a lot of power! It would be highly inefficient and might work against us! I don't know the power capacity of the asteroid! It could very well burn us out!"

Zimbardo stopped moving for a moment, then turned his head very slowly around and stared at Gene. His eyes glinted with an unearthly light.

"Do it," he hissed.

Gene stepped back half a pace, then pivoted swiftly and ran to the power breakers on the far side of the room. He began to pull switches, override safety indicators, and turn power dials to maximum output.

In a little less than three minutes, he turned and looked back at Zimbardo. The pirate leader had not taken his eyes off of his a.s.sistant for a second. With his mouth slightly open, Gene looked into Zimbardo's eyes from across the room and nodded with a quick jerk of his head.

Zimbardo smiled, inclined his head slowly, and turned back to his console. He laughed out loud and pressed the switch that activated a general direction EMP.

There was a deafening sound like that of a huge metal block falling to the floor and then grinding along an uneven surface. A wailing screech filled the room and everyone but Zimbardo covered his ears. The screech increased in intensity until men fell to the floor and writhed, pressing their hands firmly to the sides of their heads. Then there was sudden silence and the lights went out. Men began to moan, and someone's voice quavered: "The atmosphere recycler has stopped!"

"Everything has stopped," said Gene from the darkness.

Twelve Firewasps came upon the eighteen pirate ships with a suddenness that took the pirates completely by surprise. The small s.p.a.cecraft moved so quickly that the pirates could get off only wild shots that never came close to any of the SE craft. The Firewasps used narrow but highly dense laser weaponlight with remarkable effectiveness. Skilled pilots and marksmen quickly disabled the pirate ships by piercing their power supply, effectively casting them adrift in s.p.a.ce. The pirates'

sheathing systems went down, rendering the ships visible.

The battle was over in less than two minutes. Captain Mary Marks-Owens and Richard Starlight received the news within minutes of each other, that the eighteen pirate ships were derelicts and their crews would no doubt be eager to be picked up by the nearest s.p.a.ce Command ships.

Without power, their air would not last more than twenty-four hours.

Richard and Commander Lewis made the next order jointly. With a few exceptions, all Starlight Enterprise and s.p.a.ce Command s.p.a.cecraft were to journey to the pirates' asteroid at once and prepare for battle.

They would bring the attack directly to Lurton Zimbardo.

After issuing the order, Richard reset his communication system to contact the Star Ranger. Now that the need for secrecy was past, he wanted to bring the returning Starmen up to date and urge them to come to the pirates' asteroid with the others.

Inside the Star Ranger, Mark cried out, "Hey! Listen to this!" He directed the communication system to public announcement mode and restarted the message from Richard Starlight. In exultant tones, Richard related the events of the previous two days, concluding with the capture of the eighteen pirate ships and the coming attack on Zimbardo's asteroid.

The Starmen cheered. They all jumped up and danced. After a moment, Zip asked, "How soon can we get to the asteroid, Mark?"

Mark sat down and quickly figured. "We're only about a day and a half away."

"What are we waiting for?!" exclaimed Joe.

"Let's go!" said Zip. "We could use a little diversion on our way back to Earth."

Mark set a new course and Joe initiated it. The Star Ranger turned slightly to intercept the asteroid where they had been imprisoned nearly three weeks before.

As the power system aboard that same asteroid screeched into disruption and then silence, a ma.s.sive electromagnetic shock wave was dispensed from its surface. A great pulse of destruction moved through s.p.a.ce at the speed of light. Although it was not strong enough to harm s.p.a.cecraft, the microwave probes were no match for its power. As the pulse swept past the probes, they winked out in flashes of golden light.

On the master screen aboard the Tempest and in Richard Starlight's office, viewers watched the golden net disappear. Although it was past midnight, Richard and John Rwakatare were wide awake with their eyes glued to the screen. From the center where the asteroid was indicated, an expanding circle of darkness went forth, gradually swallowing up all the probes. It was obvious to Richard that the microwave net was doomed.

"Computer," he said in a dull voice. "How much longer until the net disappears?"

"Four minutes, twelve seconds," came the mellow voice.

"The eighteen ships are adrift," Richard said. "We can't lose them. But if this asteroid is maneuverable, as it must be, Zimbardo can speed up, slow down, or change course and avoid our attack. He can disappear."

Richard's body tensed and he raised his voice. "How did he know about the probes?!" he exclaimed, with exasperation.

"The spy," responded John Rwakatare.

Aboard the pirates' asteroid, power was returning. An emergency backup system had kicked in, causing the lights to flicker back on and the atmosphere recycler to hum quietly back into efficiency. With covert glances back at Zimbardo, the men returned to their stations.

Zimbardo barked out a command.

"Status report!"

"Right away, sir," said Gene, taking his own seat. He attended to various dials and incoming signals.

Zimbardo stood up and walked over to the great window that overlooked the huge rocket pad outside. There were seven ships left-six belonging to the independent smugglers, Jeff Jenner, Lorry, and Captain Kimball, and his own personal ship, the Tartarus. Even the Silver Spear had been taken by Lorry. The asteroid was nearly empty of men; only his support crew, the smugglers and their crews, and a few others remained.

"Sir," spoke up Gene. His voice trembled. He spoke as one apologizing.

"Mr. Zimbardo. Mr. Lather sent in a frantic message that all eighteen ships were under attack. The transmission was cut off in mid-sentence.

I scanned their location, sir, and detected three large s.p.a.ce Command ships approaching our convoy. They are about to be captured, sir."

Zimbardo turned slowly and looked at Gene without a change in expression. "And?" he said. "There's more, I can tell. And..."

"And there is a large fleet of ships belonging to s.p.a.ce Command and Starlight Enterprise converging on our location. In less than three hours, fourteen ships will be arriving within minutes of each other.

Approximately the same number again will join them over the next twenty-four hour period." Gene hesitated, then decided to deliver the last sentence. "Even if we are sheathed, sir, with that many ships so close, they will be able to find us before long."

Lurton Zimbardo turned his eyes obliquely to the floor and joined his hands behind his back. He rocked for a moment on his feet, almost as if pondering a challenging philosophical question.

"I see," he said at last. He walked quietly over to his console, sat for a moment without moving, then began to move dials and enter numbers into the navigational program. He consulted various tables of information and referred to a number of measuring devices whose sensitive detectors were on the surface of the asteroid.

Minutes pa.s.sed. Zimbardo grew increasingly agitated as he worked. His men had stopped their own work and watched him. Where his hands had begun to move gently and carefully, they began to exhibit higher and higher degrees of animation. Soon he was pressing his keyboard vehemently and muttering under his breath. Once in a while he chortled.

Finally he shouted, "Hah! That will do it! I won't be outsmarted!" He pressed the "Enter" b.u.t.ton and then roared, "Yes! I win!" He leaped from his chair and lifted up both arms. "I win!" he screamed.