Two weeks after Admiral Fletcher left the New Venezuela System, a cloaked star cruiser observed a Windsor League detachment scouring the Ankara System.

Atmospheric league fighters swept over the skies of Ankara II. The pilots broadcast their findings to the nearest hammership. Shuttles soon left the large warship. They landed with scout teams, searching the planet’s empty cities.

The commander of the cloaked star cruiser, a Methuselah Man by the name of Strand, chuckled upon hearing the landing parties’ reports.

Soon, now, he would implement the third phase of his plan. He had already detected the travel pattern of the dispersed vessels. It indicated that Admiral Fletcher still had nominal command of the Grand Fleet.

Strand had expected no less, but it wasn’t going to matter in the end. Yes, the old-style humans had proven more resilient than he would have believed. That came from four key sources: the hidebound Ludendorff, that infernal Captain Maddox with Starship Victory and the Adok AI, Driving Force Galyan.

None of those sources appeared to be with the Grand Fleet, however. That meant he could proceed with the fleet’s destruction at his leisure. Not that it would be easy to accomplish. Strand could not perceive a quick fix this time. But if the old-style humans would react as predicted—which he had no doubt they would—then he could annihilate the juggernaut Grand Fleet and continue with his overall master plan for the human race.

-5-

In his wind-suit, Pa Kur hurried through the howling gale. The sky was dark red with dust and flashes of intense lightning as if gods dueled. Far away, rain fell onto sand and cracked rocks.

The water moon of Palain IV was the sole inhabitable body in the system. It orbited a gas giant, the source for the moon’s deuterium-run factories.

In Commonwealth terminology, Pa Kur was a New Man, a golden-skinned dominant, Fifth Rank. He wore a protective wind-suit, which included a bubble helmet with fine scratches crisscrossing the tempered glass. He headed into the gale as his long strides ate up the distance to the interior landing field. He could barely make out the field’s blinking lights.

Windsor League subhumans had entered the star system. One of their hammerships headed here while the other seven monster ships maneuvered toward a Laumer-Point six hundred thousand kilometers away.

Pa Kur did not smile, as it was not in his nature to do so. Yet, he was elated. Strand had been right so far. The Methuselah Man truly was a genius, maybe even a prophet concerning the sub-men.

The lower races now dared to send individual contingents to the various systems. Before, the entire Grand Fleet had moved en masse from one star system to another.