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acceleration right away. We have to build up velocity as soon as possible. Otherwise, the New Men might catch us before we can get deep enough into the void.”
    Fletcher stared at her. Oran Rva had outmaneuvered and outfought him. If he ran…it would mean the hated enemy couldn’t declare victory right away. And, he would keep Fifth Fleet alive a little longer. If he lost the fleet now to no good effect, the war was lost. This gave humanity a slim chance in the future, where now there was none.
    “Yes,” the admiral said. “We have to try. We can’t give up until we’re dead. Commodore, see to your people. I have some calls to make. Then, we’re going to try something different and see if we can make these New Men lose a little sleep at least.”
    An hour later, the surviving warships of Fifth Fleet increased velocity, turning toward the Tannish System less than a light-year away. The race for survival had begun.
     

EARTH
     
     
    -1-
     
    On Earth, events moved normally. It was true people knew about the golden-skinned invaders of “C” Quadrant. That ruckus had been going on for months already. Military law had gone into effect throughout the Commonwealth, but that hadn’t really changed things all that much here on the homeworld.
    The common consensus was that it couldn’t be as bad as the newscasters claimed it to be. The Wahhabi Caliphate would come to its senses any day now, throwing their vessels into the conflict. The Windsor League readied its fleets, and the Spacers would have to do something. The people who said the Spacers would simply go elsewhere didn’t have a clue. Spacers might live in giant spaceships and move around like nomads, but they made their living off trade.
    So sure, the New Men were bad, but the Star Watch would take care of it, right?
    There had been shows about Admiral Fletcher taking heavy reinforcements to “C” Quadrant. He was a fighting admiral, a bloodthirsty SOB who would take care of business.
    Besides, the fighting was taking place out on the rim, far from most of the settled worlds. It would take the New Men endless jumps to reach Earth. The enemy didn’t have enough warships for that. If nothing else, attrition would wear the New Men down.
    Maybe a few commenters were over-worried about the situation. But come on, it took weeks for mail ships to bring news from “C” Quadrant. That was the fastest messages could travel, and so far, no one had heard anything upsetting about Admiral Fletcher.
    Therefore, despite martial law on Earth and throughout the rest of the Commonwealth, life pretty much went on as it always did. People worried about the pebble in their shoe, not about a war hundreds of light-years away.
    Well, most of the people didn’t care. Those of Star Watch Intelligence worked harder than ever so others could sleep the peace of the innocent.
     

-2-
     
    In the darkness, the enemy agent gasped as he died, with blood leaking from his suit. He lay between two huge storage containers in New York City Spaceport. With a supreme effort, the dying man reached for his coat pocket.
    Reluctantly, Captain Maddox of Star Watch Intelligence aimed his long-barreled gun. He wore night-vision glasses, which looked remarkably like sunglasses. With a soft sound, he fired his suppressed gun for the second time tonight.
    The enemy agent jerked, shivered a final time and died, with his face thumping against pavement.
    Seconds passed, a half-minute. Finally, Maddox rose from his location behind stacked steel crates.
    Sergeant Riker did likewise, with his gun trained on the dead agent.
    The sergeant was an older man with leathery skin. He had a bionic eye and a fully bionic arm. The man had lost the eye and arm in a blast many years ago on a desperate mission on Altair III. In fact, the sergeant had received many wounds in his years in Star Watch. He was an old dog, handy with a gun, possessing a cunning tactical eye and fierce loyalty to the service. In a word, the man was a