"That makes it bad--very bad," Stone reflected, audibly. "We can't expand the zone to release another ship from the control of the robots without enveloping the _Dresden_ and exposing ourselves. Can't surprise them--they're ready for anything. It's rather long range, too." The vessels of the Fleet were a thousand miles apart, being in open order for high-velocity flight in open space. "Torpedoes would be thrown off by her meteorite deflectors. Only one thing to do, Captain--close in and tear into her with everything you've got." "But the men in her!" protested Martin. "Dead long ago," snapped the expert. "Probably been animated corpses for days. Take a look if you want to; won't do any harm now. Radio, put us on as many of the _Dresden's_ television plates as you can--besides, what's the crew of one ship compared to the hundreds of thousands of men in the rest of the Fleet? We can't burn her out at one blast, anyway. They've got real brains and the same armament we have, and will certainly kill the crew at the first blast, if they haven't done it already. Afraid it'll be a near thing, getting away from the sun, even with eleven other ships to help us--" * * * * * He broke off as the beam operators succeeded in making connection briefly with the plates of the _Dresden_. One glimpse, then the visibeams were cut savagely, but that glimpse was enough. They saw that their sister-ship was manned completely by automatons. In her every compartment men, all too plainly dead, lay wherever they had chanced to fall. The captain swore a startled oath, then bellowed orders; and the flagship, driving projectors fiercely aflame, rushed to come to grips with the _Dresden_. "You intimated something about help," Martin suggested. "Can you release some of the other ships from the automaton's yoke, after all?" "Got to--or roast. This is bound to be a battle of attrition--we can't crush her screens alone until her power is exhausted and we'll be in the sun long before then. I see only one possible way out. We'll have to build a neutralizing generator for every lifeboat this ship carries, and send each one out to release one other ship in our Fleet from the robot's grip. Eleven boats--that'll make twelve to concentrate on her--about all that could attack at once, anyway. That way will take so much time that it will certainly be touch-and-go, but it's the only thing we can do, as far as I can see. Give me ten good radio men and some mechanics, and we'll get at it." While the technicians were coming on the run Stone issued final instructions: "Attack with every weapon you can possibly use. Try to break down the _Dresden's_ meteorite shields, so that you can use our shells and torpedoes. Burn every gram of fuel that your generators will take. Don't try to save it. The more you burn the more they'll have to, and the quicker we can take 'em. We can refuel you easily enough from the other vessels if we get away."