The first strike was by an entire echelon of maces, doing something no one had imagined before: instead of emerging stationary from warpspace, they emerged with momentum-surged forth. There were no organisms aboard to be crushed by inertia, and shipsmind, on Charley's order, had computed an entry velocity the sturdy maces could withstand. At the instant of emergence they began accelerating, generating shields, and achieving target locks for war beams and torpedos.

The Wyzhnyny had generated shields in advance, but still the concentration of fire wrought havoc, and within seconds the maces were deep inside the Wyzhnyny formations. Nor did they pause. A second echelon followed, at the same unexpected speed. And a third. Meanwhile a human battle wing emerged a little distance out, stationary, then accelerated toward the enemy, firing both torpedo salvos and war beams, concentrating on individual targets.

The maces had charged all the way through the Wyzhnyny battle fleet with modest losses, and dropped their shields on the run, the survivors winking into warpspace. And in warpspace, maneuvered promptly into a reverse vector, to emerge again on the fly, ripping through the same formations they'd already savaged.

By then the first-arrived human battle wing had closed with the Wyzhnyny, the two sides fighting in a close-range slugging match. And of course the other wings replicated that behavior elsewhere within the Wyzhnyny battle fleet. In those formations they attacked, less than one Wyzhnyny battleship in three was targeted, but of those targeted, most died. A few survived derelict, their matric taps blown, maintaining life support systems on backups if at all. The human battle groups ignored them, concentrating on ships still dangerous.

This drew the Wyzhnyny reserves, of course. It was their kind of fighting. Their mistake, foreseen by Charley Gordon, was to move cautiously. They'd been fooled too often. Thus the maces reached the dueling field ahead of many of them, sucker-punching and killing Wyzhnyny duelists, winking back into warpspace, then charging out again toward the oncoming Wyzhnyny intervention. And when the maces reemerged, Soong's battle groups used the opportunity to take refuge in warpspace themselves.

They did not stay there long. Warpspace was suitable for covert maneuvering, but poorly suited for actual fighting.

So far, Charley Gordon had not committed his spooks. He knew the circumstances he wanted them for, and it wasn't time yet.

The fighting continued, the Commos repeating the same tactics. Charley would change them when opportunities or difficulties required. In the vicinity of the Altai, the Wyzhnyny had killed nearly a dozen human battleships, and twice as many lesser warships. And that was only one segment of the scene. Comparable scenarios played throughout the battle zone. Wyzhnyny losses were gruesome. The Meadowlands bridge reeked with anxiety. Tualurog had chewed his cheeks bloody, and his eyes bulged wide and wild. This cannot be allowed! Those cursed robots! Sixty-two tribes depend on us! Torpedoes struck her shield, and the Meadowlands jarred. Her lights dimmed, then brightened again. The bridge screens, however, did not blink; shipsminds were powerfully buffered. Damage alarms jangled and systems checks ran. Her shield recovered, and her war beam generator rebooted.

Meanwhile another human battle wing reemerged in the vicinity. Tualurog decided, and barked a command to shipsmind, which passed it on. "All battle groups! All battle groups! This is your grand admiral! Your grand admiral! Do not allow the humans to run away! Choose a target, lock on and close! Attack, pursue and kill! Attack, pursue and kill! Do not be distracted! Do not disengage for any reason! Do not let them generate strange-space again!"

The order sounded on every Wyzhnyny bridge, in every compartment, down every corridor. And whispered in Charley Gordon's mind in the form of an intuition: it was time to call in the spooks. On Charley's order, couriers generated warpspace and radioed the waiting spook groups, which emerged at the edge of action, and received explicit orders via the Altai's shipsmind. Then they winked into warpspace again, to emerge at rendezvous coordinates with battle groups and mace triads.

Meanwhile the battle wings fought in slow motion, to permit maneuver. The maces, with their heavy shields, repeatedly disrupted Wyzhnyny contingents attempting to gang up on Commo battleships. Among the Commo battle groups, patterns of mutual support fluctuated with the need, their fire coordination adjusting constantly to threat and opportunity. And always the key was teamwork.

Most often the spooks mimicked battleships. And because they were less responsive than manned ships, they attracted much more than their share of Wyzhnyny fire.

Mostly the Commos had the advantage of two-layered shields, but not the veteran Altai. She took a heavy torpedo salvo, the energy overload collapsing her shield. Her escort cruisers saved her, two of them deliberately intercepting war beams, breaking their target locks. "Generate warpspace!" Soong snapped, and after a long moment the Altai disappeared, her battlecomp automatically steering an avoidance course "on the other side," against the high probability that more torpedos had been launched at her. They would follow, but the transition would break their target locks, letting them pass into warpspace limbo.

Soong exhaled through rounded lips, half whistling. He had, he realized, very nearly lost both his ship and Charley Gordon.

"Admiral," Charley told him, "the battle vectors have evolved almost ideally. I expect your Commos will get by without us while Engineering repairs our shield generator."

Then he ordered the navcomp to take them to a location in the F-space potentiality, one from which they could emerge outside the battle zone. Meanwhile Soong watched the array of screens, which for the moment showed only systems rundowns.

Engineering required little more than five minutes to replace the Altai's matric tap and breakers. Then she returned to F-space, somewhat removed from the fighting and unnoticed by the enemy. The battle had continued relentlessly. Few of the human ships with single-layer shields still lived, but many with two-layered shields fought on. This time Soong held the Altai clear of the fighting, and Charley began to issue directions to the fleet's battlecomps. Even during the Altai's absence, his battle programs had been decisive. Some of his simdrills and steel drills had assumed the loss of the Altai and her battle master.

Most of the spooks had died, but they'd played a crucial role. Meanwhile the Wyzhnyny could not waltz with the maces, which repeatedly disrupted Wyzhnyny formations and fire coordination. The Meadowlands had been destroyed, and no one had taken command. Tualurog's "attack, pursue and kill" order had hampered teamwork, dispersed formations, and seriously reduced responses to opportunity and threat. Increasingly fragmented, his warfleet simply followed his final order, until teamwork had almost totally unraveled.

Now Charley's main attention was on directing disengaged Commo units to strategic locations. Finally a critical point was reached at which the Wyzhnyny reactions became effectively suicidal, and their warships were overwhelmed.

The battle was over.

Soong remained on the bridge while the names of surviving ships scrolled. He had to know. When the list was complete, the Uinta was not on it. Even then he stayed, while shipsmind extracted and scrolled the identities of Commo ships destroyed.