Scarfield had taken over from his subordinate and began picking out details with a moving spot of light. "Rocket--see its shadow? And there--there--there. Jerry, they've got every ship they own assembled together. And it looks as if they've been running supplies to them all. Something big's due." "Attack?" Blane asked. One of the jobs of the station was to spot any clustering of military rockets that might presage a ground-based attack. Scarfield shock his head. "Not a chance. Those are space rockets, not war missiles. This is like the massed flight they sent up about two years ago, remember? We never did figure out why they had to take the whole fleet out. But with what's going on below, this must mean something important. Think we should alert HQ?" They obviously should, as soon as they were over one of their own stations. The rule was clear on that--when in doubt, shout! But meantime, they'd have to watch while still in view. There was a faint spot of light, and Scarfield grunted. "They're blasting off! Maybe we can plot orbits and--" The bright spot split into lances of fire, exploding savagely outwards! Every drop of monopropellant in the tanks must have let go at once to make such a flare. Then, before Blane could catch his breath, there was another flare and another. Suddenly the whole field was a great spread of flame as the other rockets were exploded by the savage blast of the first. Before the _Goddard_ had passed beyond view, they knew that every Russian ship on the field was totally demolished--which meant, according to Scarfield's estimate, every ship that could make the trip up to the _Sulky_. They stared at the screen in shocked silence while Blane slowly began to realize the implications. It had happened while they were directly overhead. What would that mean to the ever-suspicious people of Russia who were already conditioned to think of the _Goddard_ as their greatest enemy? What could be made of that in a world already close to the edge of panic? III By the time the _Goddard_ was over the North Pole where she could make radio contact with Alaska, the news was already out. For once, Tass had released the news of a catastrophe without delay. The ground radio confirmed the fact that every supply ship for the _Sulky_ had been wiped out, and that the detonation had been so great that even ships being assembled nearby had been wrecked hopelessly. It would be three months before Russia could again reach her station. Later news filtered in slowly. Most of it had to be picked up from the regular FM news broadcasts that filtered through the ionosphere. A couple of the scientists who had learned Russian interpreted the news from Radio Moscow on their next trip over.