Therefore, at one instant the _Horus_ was some two thousand miles from the lip of the half-globe of enemy ships. Then she was not anywhere. Then, before the mind could grasp the fact of her vanishing, she was in the very center, the exact focus of the formation of Mekinese battle-craft. She was at the spot a Mekinese commander would most devoutly wish, because it was equidistant from all his ships, and all their missiles should arrive at the same instant when their overwhelming number could not conceivably be parried. But it was more than an ideal position from a Mekinese standpoint. It was also a point which was ideal for the _Horus_, because all her missiles would arrive at the encircling ships at the same instant. Each Mekinese would separately learn--without information from any other--that those projectiles could not be intercepted. No Mekinese would have the advantage of watching the tactic practiced on a companion-ship, to guide his own actions. The _Horus_ appeared at that utterly vulnerable and wholly advantageous position. She showed on the Mekinese screens. They launched missiles. The _Horus_ launched missiles. The _Horus_ disappeared. She reappeared, beyond and behind the half-globe formation. Again she showed on the Mekinese screens. The Mekinese could not believe their instruments. A ship which fled in overdrive could not reappear like this! Having vanished and reappeared once, it could not duplicate the trick. Having duplicated it.... There was more, and worse. The _Horus_ missiles were not being intercepted. Mekinese missiles were swerving crazily to try to anticipate and destroy the curving, impossibly-moving objects that went out from where the _Horus_ had ceased to be. They failed. Clouds of new trajectiles appeared.... A flare like a temporary sun. Another. Another. Others.... Bors turned from the viewport and glanced at the radar-screens. There were thirteen vaporous glowings where ships had been. There were two distinct blips remaining. It could be guessed that some targets had been fired on by more than one launching-tube, leaving two ships unattacked by the _Horus's_ missiles. Both of those ships--one a heavy cruiser--now desperately flung the contents of their magazines at the _Horus_. Bors heard his voice snapping coordinates. "Launch all missiles at those two targets," he commanded. "Fire! Overdrive coming! Five, four, three, two...." The intolerable discomfort of entry and immediate breakout from overdrive was ever present. But the _Horus_ had shifted position five thousand miles. Bors saw one of his just-launched missiles--now a continent away--as it went off. It accounted for one of the two Mekinese survivors. The radar-blip which told of that ship's existence changed to the vaguely vaporous glow of incandescent gas. The other blip went out. No flare of a bomb. Nothing. It went out.