"Something is going on here that was not on my program," he announced to the alert but quiescent Loring. "One should always be prepared for the unexpected, but this may run into something cataclysmic. The Fenachrone are being attacked from space, and all armed forces have been called into a defensive formation--Invasion Plan XB218, whatever that is. I'll have to look it up in the code." * * * * * The desk of the commanding officer was a low, heavily built cabinet of solid metal. DuQuesne strode over to it, operated rapidly the levers and dials of its combination lock, and took from one of the compartments the "Code"--a polygonal framework of engraved metal bars and sliders, resembling somewhat an Earthly multiplex squirrel-cage slide rule. "X--B--Two--One--Eight." Although DuQuesne had never before seen such an instrument, the knowledge taken from the brains of the dead officers rendered him perfectly familiar with it, and his long and powerful fingers set up the indicated defense plan as rapidly and as surely as those of any Fenachrone could have done. He revolved the mechanism in his hands, studying every plane surface, scowling blackly in concentration. "Munition plants--shall--so-and-so--We don't care about that. Reserves--zones--ordnance--commissary--defensive screens--Oh, here we are! Scout ships. Instead of patrolling a certain volume of space, each scout ship takes up a fixed post just inside the outer detector zone. Twenty times as many on duty, too--enough so that they will be only about ten thousand miles apart--and each ship is to lock high-power detector screens and visiplate and recorder beams with all its neighbors. "Also, there is to be a first-class battleship acting as mother ship, protector, and reserve for each twenty-five scouts. The nearest one is to be--Let's see, from here that would be only about twenty thousand miles over that way and about a hundred thousand miles down." "Does that change your plans, chief?" "Since my plans were not made, I cannot say that it does--it changes the background, however, and introduces an element of danger that did not previously exist. It makes it impossible to go out through the detector zone--but it was practically impossible before, and we have no intention of going out, anyway, until we possess a vessel powerful enough to go through any barrage they can lay down. On the other hand, there is bound to be a certain amount of confusion in placing so many vessels, and that fact will operate to make the capture of our battleship much easier than it would have been otherwise." "What danger exists that wasn't there before?" demanded Loring.