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pickup.
    The main screen blurred, the view shifting from Implacable to a black blur.
    "Split it," said K'Tran. "Tactical projection."
    The space view shrank to the top half of the screen as the bottom half blanked. Data slowly threaded along the margins as a three-color, tri-dee projection began to form with agonizing slowness. "What are you running, one sensor array?" asked K'Tran, frowning.
    "Even that's a risk. Counterscan could still pick us up."
    "Dump visual, then."
    An instant later the tactical projection occupied the entire screen.
    A'Tir whistled softly. "Ten times our mass," she said, reading the scan. "Weapons batteries the size of our engines. Citadel-class shielding." She looked at K'Tran. "We don't make anything like that. What is it?"
    "Something we once made, long ago," said K'Tran quietly, watching the screen. "It's a mindslaver."
    As they watched, red beams sprang from the center of the projection. "And it's about to wipe Implacable," he added.

4
    They'd told K'Raodawhat they were going to say at the briefing, taken a final look at the tacscan and left him in command. It had been quiet for a while, just he, T 'Ral and a handful of others on the big bridge. He rose, stretching, then stepped to the nearest food server, dialing up soup.
    "Incoming vessel," said the computer.
    K 'Raoda was back in the command chair, soup forgotten. "K 'Lana," he said to the comm officer, "challenge. Y'Gan, give me a tactical work up."
    "Incoming vessel does not respond," said K 'Lana after a moment.
    "What have you got?" he asked, swiveling the chair toward T 'Ral.
    "Huge," said T'Ral. "No current tactical configuration. Wait. Archival match. It's ..."
    He stood, seeing his death on the screen. "It's a mindslaver, T'Lei."
    It flashed onto the screen as K'Raoda thumbed the battle stations' tab—twenty dark miles of battlesteel, instrument pods and weapons turrets.
    "Command staff to bridge!" K'Raoda called above the klaxon's din. "Command staff to bridge!"
    "Full evasive pattern, Y'Gan. Everything she'll do."
    "Implementing," said the commander, fingers flying over the complink.
    "Engineering," continued K'Raoda, turning to the white-uniformed tech at the engineering station, "cycle to drive. Gunnery, stand by."
    Thick as a shuttle craft, cobalt blue fusion beams lashed out from the mindslaver, striking midpoint on Implacable 's shield, buffeting the cruiser like a gale.
    "Shield power down four point eight percent," said the engineering tech.
    The mindslaver ceased firing.
    "Just probing our shield," said K'Raoda.
    "Slaver holding position relative to our own," said T'Ral. Different constellations were now on main screen— the black ship still sat screencenter. "We're almost at light one!"
    "That's not astrogation," said K'Raoda. "It's magic." The battle klaxon stopped.
    "All battle stations manned," reported K'Lana. "Damage control reports compiling. Gunnery requests permission to fire."
    "I'll take your damage control," said the engineering tech.
    "T'Laka," said K'Raoda over the commnet, "hold fire. We need everything for the shield. He's going to pour it on. Jump us out of here!" he ordered the engineering tech. "Now!"
    The mindslaver fired, over a hundred batteries working
    Implacable in a carefully predetermined pattern. The shield began to glow, a sullen burnt umbra.
    "We can't jump," said the engineering tech, turning from the console. "Not and hold shielding."
    "Shield failing, sections one, five, seven and twelve," said the computer. "Failure imminent. Failure imminent."
    "K'Lana," said K'Raoda hollowly, "transfer ship's logs to drone pod and launch."
    "Pod launched," said K'Lana.
    A round ball of silver flashed by on the screen. Piercing the shield, it wove between the blaster beams and was gone.
    The shield was turning an eye-searing white. The glare eased as the computer filtered the pickup. "Shield failure," it said, "mark fifty. Forty-nine ..."
    "I'd blow us up, right in its teeth, Y'Gan," said K'Raoda above the