PRISONER OF WAR By Randall Garrett It was the first time a Flesso had met an Earthman face to face. And the Flesso appeared puzzled as to why the Earthman showed no fear! [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy June 1958 Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] Marten wasn't prepared for it when the alien tractor-beam grabbed his little ship. He had been in the Fourth Quadrant of Fless territory, threading an uneasy course through the extraterrestrials' home grounds, but he hadn't expected to be caught so suddenly or so hard. The ship stopped in mid-flight abruptly--so abruptly that Marten's head was slammed back against the rear of the seat, and for a moment he was paralyzed by the shock of what had happened. But only for a moment. His toe reached out, snapped the pedal on the subspace radio, and an instant later the voice of Earth Central's operator said, "What is it, Marten?" "Tell them I've been caught," Marten said crisply. "Tell 'em the Flesso patrols got me. And--" The radio went dead as the Flesso dampers got to it. Marten pulled himself forward and ran his eyes over the instrument panel. Against the dark velvet of space, a dull-gray Flesso warship was swelling in the viewplate, preparing to scoop up its prey. Marten had been caught like a fly in molasses. The odds had been against his stunt anyway. Theoretically, such a small ship as the little scout he was piloting should have been able to get through the Flesso patrols easily--but in practice, the network of spybeams stretching through the entire Quadrant were efficient and near-infallible defenses, as Marten was discovering now. _But I had lousy luck too_, he thought. _I wandered right up to the biggest warship in the whole damned fleet. Must have come within a light week or less._ There wasn't much point in trying to break away, now. Marten was trapped--thoroughly and unarguably. The little scout ship didn't carry a tenth the power he would need to break from the grasp of the big battle cruiser. And as for the scout ship's armament, it wasn't enough even to tickle the screens of a battleship like this one. Scout ships depended on speed and indetectability, and neither attribute was of much value now. Within minutes, the heavy tractor beams pulled the smaller ship into the yawning airlock of the huge Flesso cruiser. _Okay_, Marten thought. He folded his arms, leaned back in his chair, and waited. There was nothing else he could do--until a Fless tried to enter the ship. * * * * * Time passed. The little scout ship was drawn further and further into the monster Flesso ship. It was now entirely enclosed by darkness, imprisoned within the metal hull of the huge battleship of space.