"We're going to build a space ship," he said, "a super destroyer with the most powerful atomic motors I've ever designed. We're going to take this war into our own hands--attack, rather than wait to be attacked." A call for workmen was broadcast. The response was overwhelming. All Calthedra, all Lyra wanted to help the man from Earth in the struggle to free them from bondage. With the twenty-four picked men as overseers, the work began. A flat space was selected beyond the outskirts of the city. Food depots were thrown up, together with temporary housing quarters. Like a colony of ants, the workmen labored in three shifts. At night, the work went on by the light of solar-condensor lamps mounted on towers at every point of vantage. The ship began to take form. A long cigar-shaped blue-black hull was fashioned out of "_feloranium_", a metal peculiar to Lyra which Standish toughened by the addition of five alloys. At intermittent spaces along that hull, disappearing ray guns were swivel-mounted, operated and loaded by remote control. The Earthman personally supervised the installation of the atomic motors. Each he had given the most strenuous block tests. Switched on, they purred like six gargantuan cats, alive with effortless strength. Finally Ga-Marr climbed out of the huge cabin and smiled. "It is completed," he said. "Only the heat units remain to be tested. What now?" "Now," said Standish.... But his words were never finished. From the roof of the palace the warning siren burst into a wailing clamor. Ga-Marr's face blanched. "The Sirians!" he cried. "They'll destroy all we've done." With a single leap Standish was across to the microphone of the field amplifying system. "Wait!" his voice boomed out. "If you run, all your work will be for nothing. We still have a chance, but we must hide this ship. I want each of you to bring here every movable object you can find. Do you understand? Every movable object!" The field saw strange activity then. While the siren continued to scream out its warning, an endless procession of Lyrians raced in and out of Calthedra, carrying stone blocks, furniture, doors, articles of every description. "Looks like moving day back on Earth," Standish said to Ga-Marr with a lightness he didn't feel. His fists clenched. "We'll beat them yet." He ran for the palace. Even as he raced up the inclined ramp of the rear entrance, he saw five Sirian battle cruisers land with a roar in the central square. Inside, Standish moved swiftly to the quarters of the Emperor. The old man was leaning weakly against a chair, eyes smoldering. Without preamble the Earthman explained what he had done. Then he had barely time to leap through the doorway into the adjoining room. * * * * *