The _Betelgeuse_ dives clear and her own tubes spout hellfire, a double flowering of death and destruction. The _Starsong_ wrenches away, desperate, shaken, and once more the ports are filled with fire and a red light glimmers on the board. _Fire Four._ The _Betelgeuse_ quivers strangely. With a dreamlike slowness two pieces of her appear out of the brilliance and the flame, bow and stern at odds with each other, going different ways. Then there is a white blinding flash, and she is gone. And the Orion fleet, leaderless, surprised, mauled and clawed and wounded, is pulling out. One by one, in pairs, in little groups, they turn tail and streak for open space, and are gone. The Fifth Lyra and the ships of Earth follow them, but not far. Space is empty, and in the ships there is a great silence, while the men breathe softly and look at nothing and feel that they are still alive. There is no light now but the light of the Sun and the distant stars. The Belt wheels on its way, and bits of riven metal that once were ships fall slowly toward it. * * * * * After a time, on the bridge of the _Starsong_, Garstang turned to Kirk. His face was sweating and wild, and his eyes had a dazed look. He said, "What now?" "We wait and see what," said Kirk. "Maybe nothing." "Nothing?" "Solleremos has missed his spring. I've an idea he may prefer to make like it all never happened, if we don't give any official news of this fight. I think Charteris will see it that way." Charteris did. The battle couldn't be kept secret really, but Earth's authorities pretended that it had never happened. There was no profit in starting a full-fledged war, and there wouldn't be one if Solleremos had learned his lesson. He had learned it, it seemed. From Orion there was a long silence. Then came a routine congratulation on the Commemoration. The Governor of Orion Sector, it appeared, was happy for Earth. "The so-and-so must be raging, but he won't try _that_ again," said Kirk. To him, and to the Squadron, had come another message, from Ferdias. Well done. That was all. But from Ferdias, it was plenty. And the Commemoration blazed, on Earth. The lights, the bands, the speeches, and then the fly-over--the battered mighty giants of the Fifth roaring across the sky with the even more battered Earth cruisers leading the way. From its museum they had brought the first of all the space-ships, and everyone held their breath and kept fingers crossed while it lurched, coughed and wobbled up into the sky, and labored bravely around the planet, and by some miracle came down safe again. And the great day was over. Garstang, looking strange now in the black uniform of Earth, spoke earnestly to Kirk the day before the Fifth was to leave. "You know you're pretty much a hero here now, Kirk. You'll be retiring from service in not too many years. Why don't you come back to Earth to live?"