"Twenty-seven ships attacked the Observatory. Is that right?" asked Lucky,
"Right," said a commander. "No more than that."
"Good. Now let's see if I have the rest of the facts straight. Two of the ships were accounted for during the fight and a third during the pursuit. The remaining twenty-four got away, but you have one or more shots of each of them in retreat."
The commander smiled. "If you're implying that any of them landed on Ceres and are still hidden here, you're quite wrong."
"As far as those twenty-seven ships are concerned, perhaps. But three more ships did land on Ceres and their crew attacked the Massey Air-lock. Where are the pictures of those?"
"Unfortunately we didn't get many of those," admitted the commander uncomfortably. "It was a case of complete surprise. But we have pictures of them in retreat, too, and we showed you those."
"Yes, you did, and there were only two ships in those pictures. Eyewitnesses reported three as having landed."
The commander said stiffly, "And three took off and retreated. There's eyewitness evidence of that also."
"But you have pictures of only two?"
"Well… yes."
"Thank you."
* * *
Back in the office Conway said, "Now what was that all about, Lucky?"
"I thought Captain Anton's ship might be in an interesting place. The motion pictures proved it was."
"Where was it?"
"Nowhere. That was what was interesting. His ship is the one pirate ship I would recognize, yet no ship faintly similar took part in the raid. This is strange because Anton must be one of their very best men or they wouldn't have sent him out after the Atlas. Or it would be strange if the truth wasn't that thirty ships attacked Ceres and we had pictures of only twenty-nine. The missing thirtieth was Anton!"
"I could figure that out too," said Conway. "What of it?"
Lucky said, "The attack on the Observatory was a feint. That's admitted even by the defending ships, now. It was the three ships that attacked the air-lock that were important and they were under Anton's command. Two of those ships joined the rest of the squadron in their retreat, a feint within a feint. The third ship, Anton's own, the only one we didn't see, continued on with the main business of the day. It left on an entirely different trajectory. People saw it lift into space but it veered off so radically that our own ships, chasing the main body of enemy with all its might, never even caught it on film."
Conway said unhappily, "You're going to say that it's going to Ganymede."
"Doesn't it follow? The pirates, however well organized, can't attack Earth and its dependencies on their own. But they can put up an excellent diversionary fight. They can keep enough Terrestrial ships patrolling the endless asteroid belt to allow Sirian fleets to defeat the remainder. On the other hand, Sirius can't safely conduct a war eight light years away from their own planet unless they can count on major help from the asteroids. After all, eight light years amounts to forty-five trillion miles. Anton's ship is speeding to Ganymede to assure them of that help and to give the word to begin the war. Without warning, of course."
"If only," muttered Conway, "we could have stumbled on their Ganymede base sooner."
"Even with the knowledge of Ganymede," said Henree, "we would not have known the seriousness of the situation without Lucky's two trips into asteroid territory."
"I know. My apologies, Lucky. Meanwhile we have very little time to do anything. We'll have to strike at the heart instantly. A squadron of ships sent to the key asteroid Lucky has told us of-"
"No," said Lucky. "No good."
"Why do you say that?"
"We don't want to start a war, even if it's with a victory. That's what they want to do. Look here, Uncle Hector, the pirate, Dingo, might have burned me down right there on the asteroid. Instead, he had orders to set me adrift in space. For a while I thought that was to make my death look like an accident. Now I feel it was intended to anger the Council. They were going to broadcast the fact they had killed a Councilman, not hide it, goading us into a premature attack. One of the reasons for the Ceres Raid might have been to insure an added provocation."
"And if we do start the war with a victory?"
"Here on this side of the Sun? And leave Earth on the other side stripped of important units of the fleet? With Sirian ships waiting at Ganymede, also on the other side of the Sun? I predict that it would be a very costly victory. Our best bet is not to start a war, but to prevent one."
"How?"
"Nothing will happen until Anton's ship reaches Ganymede. Suppose we intercept him and prevent the meeting-"
"Interception is a long chance," said Conway doubtfully.
"Not if Z go. The Shooting Starr is faster and has better Ergometrics than any ship in the fleet."
"You go?" cried Conway.
"It would be unsafe to send fleet units. The Sirians on Ganymede would have no way of being certain an attack wasn't heading their way. They'd have to take counteraction and that would mean the very war we're trying to avoid. The Shooting Starr would look harmless to them. It would be one ship. They'd stay put."
Henree said, "You're overeager, Lucky. Anton has a twelve-hour head start. Even the Shooting Starr can't make that up."
"You're wrong. It can. And once I catch them, Uncle Gus, I think I can force the asteroids into surrender. Without them Sirius won't attack and there'll be no war."
They stared at him.
Lucky said earnestly, "I've come back twice now."
"Each time by half a miracle," grumbled Conway.
"The other times I didn't know what I was tackling. I had to feel my way. This time I do know. I know exactly. Look, I'll warm up the Shooting Starr and make the necessary arrangements with the Ceres Observatory while that's taking place. You two can get on the sub-ether to Earth. Get the Co-ordinator to-"
Conway said, "I can take care of that, son. I've been dealing with government affairs before you were born. And Lucky, will you take care of yourself?"
"Don't I always, Uncle Hector? Uncle Gus?" He shook hands warmly and whirled away.
* * *
Bigman scuffed the dust of Ceres disconsolately. He said, "I've got my suit on. Everything."
"You can't go, Bigman," said Lucky. "I'm sorry."
"Why not?"