If the Boskonians could have emerged from a tube's terminus in the moment of its appearance, it is quite probable that nothing could have saved Arisia. As it was, however, the enemy required seconds, or sometimes even whole minutes, to traverse their tubes, which gave the defenders much valuable time. One of the observers--an Arisian or a Third-Stage Lensman--at first perception of a terminus erupting, noted the number of the threatened space-cubicle, informed the Rigellian operator upon whose panel the number was, and flashed a message to all other observers that that number had been "handled." The observer flashed the number to the Communications board of the flagship of the fleet covering that space; a flash which was automatically relayed to every Communications and Navigations officer of that fleet, and which also automatically called upon Reserve for another fleet to take the place being vacated. Without further orders, the fleet drove toward its target cube. En route, tube-locators mapped the terminus and marked its exact location upon each vessel's tube plates. Upon arriving, the fleet englobed the terminus and laced itself, by means of tractors and pressors, into a rigid although inertialess structure. Then, if there was time, and because the theory was that the pirates would probably send a negasphere through first, with an intrinsic velocity aimed at Arisia, a suitably equipped loose planet was tossed into "this end" of the tube. Since they might send a loose or an armed planet through first, however, the Fleet Admiral usually threw a negasphere in, too. What happened when planet met negasphere, in the unknown medium which makes up the "interior" of a hyperspatial tube, is not and probably never will be surely known. Several highly abstruse mathematical treatises and many volumes of rather gruesome fiction have been written upon the subject--none of which, however, has any bearing here. If the Patrol fleet did not get there first, the succession of events was different; the degree of difference depending upon how much time the enemy had had. If, as sometimes happened, a fleet was coming through it was met by superatomic bombs and by the concentrated fire of every primary projector that the englobing task force could bring to bear; with consequences upon which it is neither necessary or desirable to dwell. If a planet had emerged, it was met by a negasphere-- Have you ever seen a negasphere strike a planet?