Gowlan shrugged. "The Space-fleet men didn't find anything. If the _Killiver_ holed it, they would still probably be light-years away from where the ship was found." "What made them skitter off like that?" Gowlan looked at him. "I don't get it. What do you mean?" Roysland waved his hand to indicate their surroundings. The corridors and rooms of the great ship were swarming with inspectors, who were photographing and checking every square centimeter of the ship. "What happened? Why have we got this ship?" Roysland asked. Gowlan thought for a moment, then nodded slowly. "I see what you're getting at. Let's see-- "The _Killiver_ is cruising in ultradrive. They pick up a blip on the detector; it's an enemy ship. They're too far away to torpedo, but they're well within range of the _aJ_ projectors. That gets us up to the moment of firing." He stopped and his frown deepened. "Wait a second; that doesn't make sense." Roysland raised an eyebrow. "What doesn't?" "Well, look here: The gunners would have had to be awake when the _aJ's_ were fired. All right; that means they tracked the Enlissa ship, then cut in the automatics to fire the _aJ's_. They must have missed, because the Enlissa used the mindjammer _after_ the _aJ's_ were fired. "But if that's so, then why didn't the Enlissa ship capture the _Killiver_?" It was a good point. Roysland frowned and turned the thing over in his mind. A spaceship is expensive--hellishly expensive; the cost of a fleet of seagoing battleships is nothing in comparison. So you don't waste ships, even the enemy's. The whole object of a space battle is to destroy the enemy crew without destroying the ship. Even a badly-damaged interstellar vessel is worth saving. The _Killiver_ was in excellent condition. If the Enlissa ship were still in good shape after the battle, why hadn't they taken the _Killiver_? "The only thing I can figure," Gowlan said, "is that the Enlissa ship fired their mindjammer just after the _aJ's_ were fired--almost at the same time, you might say." He grinned. "Sure. That's what must have happened." Roysland nodded. "It looks like the only explanation," he agreed. "That is, except for one thing." "What's that?" Gowlan wanted to know. "Why has the same coincidence occurred in three different battles, in widely separated parts of the galaxy?" Gowlan's face lost its self-satisfied look. "Yeah," he said softly. "Yeah. Why?" "Kick that around a while," Roysland said, grinning. "If you come up with anything, let me know." * * * * * Roysland Dwyn spent the next two days sitting in his office with his feet on his desk, leaning back in a chair that creaked ominously with his weight. The only interruptions were for food and sleep--except when one of his staff called in with new data, which was rare.