"But Titania Station's dead or never was, not to mention its jeep. And we've lost the Battle of Jupiter. You said so yourself," Ness asserted owlishly. "Captain's got to look after the whole fleet." "Yeah, so he kills himself fretting and the rest of us die of old age in the outskirts of the Solar System. Join the Space Force and See the Stars! Ness, do you know how long it'd take us to reach the nearest star--except we aren't headed for her--at our 100 mps? Eight thousand years!" "That's a lot of time to kill," Ness said. "Let's play chess." Jackson sighed and they both looked quickly at the dark unlined face above the cocoon, but the lips did not flutter again, or the eyelids. Croker said, "Suppose he knows what the Enemy looks like?" "I suppose," Ness said. "When he talks about them it's as if he was their interpreter. How about the chess?" "Suits. Knight to King Bishop Three." "Hmm. Knight to King Knight Two, Third Floor." "Hey, I meant flat chess, not three-D," Croker objected. "That thin old game? Why, I no sooner start to get the position really visualized in my head than the game's over." "I don't want to start a game of three-D with Uranus only 18 hours away." Jackson stirred in his hammock. His lips worked. "They...." he breathed. Croker and Ness instantly watched him. "They...." "I wonder if he is really inside the Enemy's mind?" Ness said. "He thinks he speaks for them," Croker replied and the next instant felt a warning touch on his arm and looked sideways and saw dark-circled eyes in a skull-angular face under a battered cap with a tarnished sunburst. Damn, thought Croker, how does the captain always know when Jackson's going to talk? "They are waiting for us on the other side of Uranus," Jackson breathed. His lips trembled into a smile and his voice grew a little louder, though his eyes stayed shut. "They're welcoming us, they're our brothers." The smile died. "But they know they got to kill us, they know we got to die." The hammock with its tight-swathed form began to move past Croker and he snatched at it. The captain had pushed off from him for the hatch leading forward. * * * * * Grunfeld was losing the new star at 2200 miles into Uranus when he saw the two viridian flares flashing between it and the rim. Each flash was circled by a fleeting bright green ring, like a mist halo. He thought he'd be afraid when he saw that green again, but what he felt was a jolt of excitement that made him grin. With it came a touch on his shoulder. He thought, the captain always knows. "Ambush," he said. "At least two cruisers." He yielded the eyepiece to the captain. Even without the telescope he could see those incredibly brilliant green flickers. He asked himself if the Enemy was already gunning for the fleet through Uranus. The blue telltales for _Caliban_ and _Starveling_ began to blink.