Jarl shrugged and forced the thin vestige of a smile. "A good threat, _Malya_. It might break me--if I believed it." "But you do not?" "No projector has the range to reach my ship from Vesta." "More power lies in cosmic dust than you can dream of, raider." Atak's eyes were bleak, his dark face set in a mask of menace. "You've made your choice, Corvett! Now set your cross for your own ship--and live with the decision!" The viziscreen went blank. "Jarl ..." whispered Big Ungo. "Quick, Jarl, get a cross on the ship!" The crewmen's voices were muttered echoes. With an effort, Jarl kept his movements casual. Wordless, he spun the dials. The _Ghost's_ looming bulk took form, drifting through the emptiness of space. In the stillness, Atak's voice blared through the audio unit. "Are you ready, raider? Are you watching?" Jarl cursed him. The _Malya_ laughed harshly. "I press a button...." Numb, stiff with tension, Jarl stared at the screen, hardly conscious of the crewmen crowding round him. For a long moment, nothing happened. Then, before his very eyes, the _Ghost_ began to glow. It came slowly, at first--the faintest touch of pale phosphorescence. But with every heartbeat, it shone brighter. In seconds the hull was weirdly agleam as with some strange, penetrating light. Then the ship rocked wildly. He could see the plates begin to buckle. "No--!" screamed a crewman. "No! My brother--!" Wallowing, the _Ghost_ flamed bright as a _thes_-wood torch. Proton cannon streamed blazing, aimless death. The hull began to cave, then burst asunder. Like an _eidel_-bomb exploding, it tore apart in great, flaring sections that blasted out through space, beyond the viziscreen's frame edges. Slowly, the weird light faded; died. The blackness of the void closed in. Like men paralyzed, the raiders stared unspeaking into the awful emptiness where short moments before the _Ghost_ had drifted. It came to Jarl Corvett that he was trembling. Numb-fingered, he reached out and snapped off the viziscreen. The sound of the switch triggered loose the tension. At his elbow, Ylana burst into hysterical, wildly-triumphant laughter. "You see--? Will you believe me now, when I tell you what fate awaits you?" Pivoting, Jarl slapped her across the mouth with all his might. She crashed to the floor against the carrier's farthest wall; lay there in a crumpled, moaning heap. The crewmen fell back a step, all eyes on Jarl. He could not read their stony faces. "Jarl...." Ungo's voice was shaking. "Jarl, you saw it--?" The others' words were sullen echoes. * * * * * Jarl moved away from them a fraction, till his back was against the viziscreen. He let his hand hang close to his ray-gun. He said: "We're wasting time. Even in this carrier, we still can make Ceresta."