"Xeelee," I breathed. "There must be millions of them. Well, you were right, Qax... But I don't believe in coincidence. I haven't stumbled across the only Xeelee fleet in the area. This star cloud must be swarming with them."

"Follow them," said the Qax.

"What?"

"Activate your drive. You're a lot less likely to be noticed as one of a flock than as an individual."

"...Yeah." I spread my wings and banked sideways into the flock. Soon I was waddling along, a self-conscious duck among swans. Inside the waldoes my sweating fingers began to cramp up with the effort.

The fleet was heading for a young star. Through the crowd ahead of me I could see the star's disc, its violet light diamond-hard. As we neared the star the torrent of ships abruptly splashed sideways, as if encountering an invisible shield. When I reached the breaking radius I banked left and set off after the herd.

Twenty hours after my arrival the Xeelee completed their formation. With wings folded like patient vultures they completely surrounded the star.

"What now?" I asked uneasily.

"No doubt we'll find out."

I wished I could rub my gritty eyes. "Qax... I haven't slept since coming out of hyperspace, you know."

"Take a stimulant."

Sudden as an eye blink, bloodred threads of light snaked into the star from every ship in the fleet.

Well, from every ship except one. Mine.

It was a poignant sight: a stellar Gulliver, pierced by a million tiny arrows. The star's light flickered, oddly. And I became aware of a stirring in the ranks of the Xeelee nearest me.

"They're starting to notice me," I whispered. "How do I turn on my beam?"

"You don't," said Lipsey. "Remember that Xeelee handgun? This must be what happens at the highest setting."

A purple arch of tortured gas erupted from the star. Soon flares covered the star's surface; clouds of ejecta drifted through the cherry-red beams. Cup freighters moved in, placidly swallowing the star flesh.

It was like watching the death of a magnificent animal. "They're destroying it," I said. "But how?"

"The handgun must be a gravity wave laser," the Qax said slowly. "The coils on the butt of that handgun are small synchrotrons. Subatomic particles move at fantastic velocities in there; the thing emits a coherent beam of gravity waves which--"

"I thought you needed large masses to get significant gravity waves."

"No. As long as you move a small mass fast enough... the energy must come from the same source as your ship's -- from the structure of space itself."

"Handguns to break stars, eh?"

A shadow moved across my vision. I glanced about quickly. A dozen Xeelee slid across the blue-shifted sky and gathered into a close sphere around me.