human race--on which itssurvival or destruction would depend. Other remodeled ships had gone outbefore the _Niccola_, and others would follow until the problem wassolved. Meanwhile the _Niccola's_ twenty-four rocket tubes andstepped-up drive and computer-type radar system equipped her forPlumie-hunting as well as any human ship could be. Still, if she'd beenlured deep into the home system of the Plumies, the prospects were notgood.
* * * * *
The new setup began its operation, instantly the last contact closed. Thethree-dimensional map served as a matrix to control it. Theinformation-beam projector swung and flung out its bundle ofoscillations. It swung and flashed, and swung and flashed. It had toexamine every relatively nearby object for a constitution of siliconbronze and a rounded shape. The nearest objects had to be examined first.Speed was essential. But three-dimensional scanning takes time, even atsome hundreds of pulses per minute.
Nevertheless, the information came in. No other silicon-bronze objectwithin a quarter-million miles. Within half a million. A million. Amillion and a half. Two million ...
Baird called the navigation room.
"Looks like a single Plumie ship, sir," he reported. "At least there'sone ship which is nearest by a very long way."
"_Hah!_" grunted the skipper. "_Then we'll pay him a visit. Keep an openline, Mr. Baird!_" His voice changed. "_Mr. Taine! Report here at once toplan tactics!_"
Baird shook his head, to himself. The _Niccola's_ orders were to makecontact without discovery, if such a thing were possible. The ideal wouldbe a Plumie ship or the Plumie civilization itself, located and subjectto complete and overwhelming envelopment by human ships--before thePlumies knew they'd been discovered. And this would be the human idealbecause humans have always had to consider that a stranger might behostile, until he'd proven otherwise.
Such a viewpoint would not be optimism, but caution. Yet caution wasnecessary. It was because the Survey brass felt the need to prepare forevery unfavorable eventuality that Taine had been chosen as weaponsofficer of the _Niccola_. His choice had been deliberate, because he wasa xenophobe. He had been a problem personality all his life. He had aseemingly congenital fear and hatred of strangers--which in mild cases iscommon enough, but Taine could not be cured without a complete breakdownof personality. He could not serve on a ship with a multiracial crew,because he was invincibly suspicious of and hostile to all but his ownsmall breed. Yet he seemed ideal for weapons officer on the _Niccola_,provided he never commanded the ship. Because _if_ the Plumies werehostile, a well-adjusted, normal man would never think as much like themas a Taine. He was capable of the kind of thinking Plumies mightpractice, if they were xenophobes themselves.
But to Baird, so extreme a precaution as a known psychopathic conditionin an officer was less than wholly justified. It was by no means certainthat the Plumies would instinctively be hostile. Suspicious, yes.Cautious, certainly. But the only fact known about the Plumiecivilization came from the cairns and silicon-bronze inscribed tabletsthey'd left on oxygen-type worlds over a twelve-hundred-light-year rangein space, and the only thing to be deduced about the Plumies themselvescame from the decorative, formalized symbols like feathery plumes whichwere found on all their bronze tablets. The name "Plumies" came from thatsymbol.
Now, though, Taine was called to the navigation room to confer ontactics. The _Niccola_ swerved and drove toward the object Bairdidentified as a Plumie ship. This was at 05 hours 10 minutes ship time.The human ship had a definite velocity sunward, of course. The Plumieship had been concealed by the meteor swarm of a totally unknown comet.It was an excellent way to avoid observation. On the other hand, the_Niccola_ had been mapping, which was bound to attract attention. Noweach ship knew of the other's existence. Since the _Niccola_ had beendetected, she had to carry out orders and attempt a contact to gatherinformation.
* * * * *
Baird verified that the _Niccola's_ course was exact for interception ather full-drive speed. He said in a flat voice:
"I wonder how the Plumies will interpret this change of course? They knowwe're aware they're not a meteorite. But charging at them without eventrying to communicate could look ominous. We could be stupid, or tooarrogant to think of anything but a fight." He pressed the skipper's calland said evenly: "Sir, I request permission to attempt to communicatewith the Plumie ship. We're ordered to try to make friends if we knowwe've been spotted."
Taine had evidently just reached the navigation room. His voice snappedfrom the speaker:
"_I advise against that, sir! No use letting them guess our level oftechnology!_"
Baird said coldly:
"They've a good idea already. We beamed them for data."
There was silence, with only the very faint humming sound which wasnatural in the ship in motion. It would be deadly to the nerves if therewere absolute silence. The skipper grumbled:
"_Requests and advice! Dammit! Mr. Baird, you might wait for orders! ButI was about to ask you to try to make contact through signals. Do so._"
His speaker clicked off. Baird said:
"It's in our laps. Diane. And yet we have to follow orders. Send thefirst roll."
Diane had a tape threaded into a transmitter. It began to unroll througha pickup head. She put on headphones. The tape began to transmit towardthe Plumie. Back at base it had been reasoned that a pattern ofclickings, plainly artificial and plainly stating facts known to bothraces, would be the most reasonable way to attempt to open contact. Thetape sent a series of cardinal numbers--one to five. Then an additiontable, from one plus one to five plus five. Then a multiplication tableup to five times five. It was not startlingly intellectual information tobe sent out in tiny clicks ranging up and down the radio spectrum. But itwas orders.
Baird sat with compressed lips. Diane listened for a repetition of any ofthe transmitted signals, sent back by the Plumie. The speakers about theradar room murmured the orders given through all the ship. Radar had tobe informed of all orders and activity, so it could check their resultsoutside the ship. So Baird heard the orders for the engine room to besealed up and the duty-force to get into pressure suits, in case the_Niccola_ fought and was hulled. Damage-control parties reportedthemselves on post, in suits, with equipment ready. Then Taine's voicesnapped: "_Rocket crews, arm even-numbered rockets with chemicalexplosive warheads. Leave odd-numbered rockets armed with atomics. Reportback!_"
Diane strained her ears for possible re-transmission of the _Niccola's_signals, which would indicate the Plumie's willingness to tryconversation. But she suddenly raised her hand and pointed to theradar-graph instrument. It repeated the positioning of dots which werestray meteoric matter in the space between worlds in this system. Whathad been a spot--the Plumie ship--was now a line of dots. Baird pressedthe button.
"Radar reporting!" he said curtly. "The Plumie ship is heading for us.I'll have relative velocity in ten seconds."
He heard the skipper swear. Ten seconds later the Doppler measurementbecame possible. It said the Plumie plunged toward the _Niccola_ at milesper second. In half a minute it was tens of miles per second. There wasno re-transmission of signals. The Plumie ship had found itselfdiscovered. Apparently it considered itself attacked. It flung itselfinto a headlong dash for the _Niccola_.
* * * * *
Time passed--interminable time. The sun flared and flamed and writhed inemptiness. The great gas-giant planet rolled through space in splendidstate, its moonlets spinning gracefully about its bulk. Theoxygen-atmosphere planet to sunward was visible only as a crescent, butthe mottlings on its lighted part changed as it revolved--seas andislands and continents receiving the sunlight as it turned. Meteorswarms, so dense in appearance on a radar screen, yet so tenuous inreality, floated in their appointed orbits with a seeming vast leisure.
The feel of slowness was actually the result of distance. Men have alwaysacted upon things close by. Battles have always been fought withineye-range, anyhow. But it wa
s actually 06 hours 35 minutes ship timebefore the two spacecraft sighted each other--more than two hours afterthey plunged toward a rendezvous.
The Plumie ship was a bright golden dot, at first. It deceleratedswiftly. In minutes it was a rounded, end-on disk. Then it swervedlightly and presented an elliptical broadside to the _Niccola_. The_Niccola_ was in full deceleration too, by then. The two ships came verynearly to a stop with relation to each other when they were hardly twentymiles apart--which meant great daring on both sides.
Baird heard the skipper grumbling:
"_Damned cocky!_" He roared suddenly: "_Mr. Baird! How've you made out incommunicating with them?_"
"Not at all, sir," said Baird grimly. "They don't reply."
He knew from Diane's expression that there was no sound in the