They were coming now--a horde of great silver ships that lanced through the void like streaks of light, hurtling down on Gadar. The slim, sleek _Chonya_ craft were with them, too ... the dull black _Malya_ flyers; and Shane knew that his other calls had gotten through--that the worlds and the asteroids were uniting against slavery and death and chaos. A siren blasted shrill alarm. Quos Reggar's renegades swarmed onto the ramp, racing for their ships to take up the challenge. The light of battle shone in Shane's blue eyes. The reckless laugh rose in his throat. With a jerk, he levered the slaver flagship's great hatches shut. His thumb rammed home the contact button for the interlacing belts of proton cannon that girded the craft. The exploding flame of pronic blasts erupted across the short-range visiscreen's whole viewer--searing the outlaws from the ramp, smashing the slaver ships off their bases, turning the great volcanic pits to a holocaust of flaming ruin. And Shane the Earthman, _gar_ of the _Chonyas_, high lord of the asteroids, laughed his wild, bold, reckless laugh and jammed the contact button home again ... again ... again.... But now a voice came through the amplifier--Quos Reggar's voice, shaking with rage and hate and fury: "Though it costs me my own ship, I'll blast you, _chitza_! You'll sear as my men have seared--" Shane flicked the switch. "Blast, then, Reggar! Blast--but you'll blast the Lady Kyrsis with me!" Beside him, Kyrsis screamed, "No Reggar! Not that--not that! The meteors--" Shane snapped the switch. "The meteors--?" The silver woman's poise was gone. She shook her fist, and the glittering metallic hair came tumbling down about her shoulders. "You'll see, Earthman! You'll see! We have weapons such as you've never dreamed of--" * * * * * Shane's eyes flicked back to the long-range visiscreen--to the silver fleet that raced towards Gadar. It was closer now ... so close he could see the fore-jets opening for the landing. Only then, abruptly, the fleet was swerving--swinging wide in wild, irregular maneuver. And then the meteors came--bright balls of flame in swirling clouds and clusters, with cores of stone and molten iron; flashing across the screen in the path of the Federation fleet ... hurtling through space in a murderous barrage. And one ship swerved too late, and a great orange-and-purple monster crashed into it with a burst of fire and sparking shards.