Through the port, they watched the other conveyor streak into view. Suddenly there was a rattling noise and a furious hissing as Ruscar opened up with rockets and machine guns. Cursing, Tedor clutched at the controls and their conveyor plummeted towards the earth. "We're not armed," Dorlup wailed. "He can destroy us at his leisure." "Maybe." Tedor brought them down to within a few hundred feet of the ground, Ruscar right behind them. The lack of anti-aircraft fire meant Ruscar had ordered the ground batteries out of action, since they might just as easily have hit him. Ruscar's craft opened up again. A rocket ripped into the hull of their conveyor and exploded, flipping it in a quick 360 degree turn and flinging Tedor from the controls. He climbed groggily to hands and knees, dragged himself back to the pilot chair. Laniq was stretched out on the floor, moaning. Dorlup sat dazed in a corner. But by the time Tedor sat at the instrument panel again, Laniq was on her feet groggily at his side. "Bad?" she said. "We're helpless, unless we can out-maneuver him." They dived again. Tedor brought them out of it at the last moment, plunging them half a minute into the past. Ruscar had stayed with them all the way. "All I need is time to release the bomb and get away, but he's sticking." Machine gun bullets ripped in through their hull, unarmed since the conveyor was not intended for aerial battle. Tedor forced the craft into a steep climb, then brought it down again in the same maneuver. But Ruscar fled into the past with him and he could not destroy the storage area and Ruscar's conveyor without also killing himself, Laniq and Dorlup in the process. Ruscar was fast converting their conveyor into a sieve and Tedor realized it would be only moments before he damaged their engine and forced them to crash. They climbed once more, dove again. Laniq looked at Tedor, tears in her eyes. They had come so close to victory.... Tedor punched the controls rapidly. The conveyor rocked, absorbed another rocket hit, shuddered. Then for an instant, it was floating calmly in undisturbed air. Tedor released the bomb and sent the ship skyward. "What did you do?" Laniq cried. "Ruscar figured I'd leap into the past again. I didn't. I tried the future, because it was our only chance. Just fifty seconds, but by the time Ruscar realizes his mistake, I hope...." They looked down below them, saw a tiny dot which was Ruscar's ship materialize. Then it was blotted out, along with the storage area, by a flash of light, a roar, a seething, rocking, thundering tempest-- Ruscar's conveyor, the storage area, the barren tundra below them--all were replaced by a huge, mushroom-topped pillar of kaleidoscoping destruction.... * * * * * Much later, in southwestern United States: "My father is going to be all right, Tedor. And have you seen the headlines?"