As the crew scrambled for battle stations, Roysland headed up the stairway toward the control bridge. Captain Dobrin and the fire control officer were huddled over the spotterscope, conversing in low tones. Roysland walked over behind them, but he kept his mouth shut. In a situation like this, he was only a civilian; it wasn't his business to say anything now. He studied the instruments, instead. Somewhere out near the limits of the detector's range had come the faint trace of a moving ship. And the identity comparator showed it to be an Enlissa vessel. "She must have picked us up, too," said the captain. "We'll know in a few minutes." They watched quietly, tensely, waiting for the Enlissa ship to change course. If it didn't, a battleship would normally change the geodesic of its own flight and follow to engage the Enlissa ship. But not the X-69; she was looking for planets, not ships. They didn't have to wait long. A few minutes later, a trace appeared in the same octant of the scope where the earlier trace had vanished. "Same ship, all right," said the FCO. "It would take them that long to turn around. They're going to try to come in for a kill." "Signal Final Alert," said the captain. As the buzzer sizzled out its message, Roysland flexed his muscles in a subconscious desire for action. Captain Dobrin seemed to realize for the first time that Roysland was in the control room. His face was hard and tightly drawn, and only very slightly showed the strain that was beneath. "We're going to operate according to the new tactics," he said. "We'll use the torpedoes first and the _aJ_ guns last. We'll use screenbusters and files." Roysland nodded. "You're in command here, captain. I know nothing of spatial strategy." The prime officer turned back to the FCO. "Check maximum volume and englobe. It'll be expensive, but we can't afford to take chances now." "Yes, sir," said the fire control officer. Roysland watched the instruments closely as the FCO gave his orders. The first job was to feed into the calculators the exact course and velocity of the enemy ship. Then they waited until the calculators gave the most probable volume of space that the ship would occupy after the screenbuster torpedoes were sent. Take a solution to the Brownian Movement problem; add everything that is known about spatial strategy; stir well with the enemy's probable interpretation of the signals from the torpedoes--and hope like hell. The first ingredient is relatively easy to determine, the second very much less so, and the third is almost pure intuition. Figures began to pop up on the screen. The FCO watched them, unmoving, his face a rigid mask. Then suddenly, he began to punch data into the torpedo-firing robots. Roysland narrowed his eyes as he watched. The _aJ_ projectors didn't require that much computation. If the _aJ_'s were fired now, the Enlissa ship wouldn't have a chance to fire. And yet, statistics showed that-- _Why?_