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soon strapping himself in. The doctor took the left couch, the political officer the right.
    “Close door and lights off,” the political officer said.
    The hatchway door closed and the lights faded. Illumination now came from the holoimage of the planets hovering above them. The majority of the light came from Jupiter with its soft red glow. The rest of the light came from blue Neptune. Saturn and Uranus were presently on the other side of the Sun and were therefore not shown.
    “You’re aware of the tactical situation, I hope,” the political officer said.
    Blake had a hard time concentrating because his head hurt again.
    The political officer sighed. “Display the fleets from a wide-angle shot.”
    Three red triangles, one after the other in a line, appeared in the holoimage. The red triangles were halfway between Jupiter and Neptune. There was also a blue triangle. It was barely out of Neptune’s orbit.
    The political officer said, “The red triangles are three Trioligarchy Battlefleets. The one nearest Neptune is the Earth Battlefleet. The Mars Battlefleet follows it. Thirdly is the Deception Fleet.”
    Blake furrowed his forehead.
    “The blue triangle represents the Tyrant of Neptune’s Battlefleet.”
    “What must I decide?” whispered Blake.
    “Yes, the primary question. The answer is when to fire our lasers.”
    Blake’s head hurt worse than before. “I don’t understand.”
    The political officer checked his garments for stimsticks, coming up empty. He cursed softly.
    “Not on the Captain’s Deck,” said the doctor.
    The political officer scowled before giving his attention back to the holoimage. “Magnification on Neptunian Battlefleet.”
    The solar system holoimage vanished. In its place appeared a vast field of prismatic crystals. They shimmered with all the colors of the rainbow.
    Blake sucked in his breath, remembering now. Modern space fleets hid behind prismatic crystals. The P-Field, as it was called, protected the ships behind it from long-range lasers. The holoimage slowly shifted to a side shot. First were the P-Field s, then massive asteroid ships and then Neptunian maulers, cruisers and destroyers.
    “Wide-view,” said the political officer.
    The solar system reappeared, as did the red and blue triangles.
    “Indicate trajectories.”
    Dotted lines zipped out from each triangle, showing the present course and destination if speeds and aim remained constant. The Earth and Neptunian Battlefleets were on a collision course. The Mars Fleet followed the Earth Fleet, while the Deception Fleet headed toward the satellite cities that orbited Neptune. The nature of P-Fields made it unlikely that any of these fleets would change their present course. Blake, as any shipmate would, knew that a space vessel could only carry so many prismatic crystals in its storage tanks. If a ship or ships deployed a P-Field and then veered away in another direction, that would lose the fleet their carefully built P-Field. They would have to deploy another. It would use up their limited store of prismatic crystals. If they enemy fleet tried to do a burn through, they might not have enough left to stop the enemy lasers. Therefore, once a fleet built up sufficient velocity and deployed its P-Field, it seldom changed course or speed.
    Three years ago the Trioligarchy of Venus, Earth and Mars conquered Jupiter and Saturn’s moons. Then they accused Neptune and Uranus’s satellite cities of warmongering. Chairman Feng demanded they elect one person and send him or her to Mars for peace talks. The people of Neptune had complied. The Chairman’s media team had immediately dubbed the representative as ‘the Tyrant of Neptune.’ The talks had broken off a year ago. War was declared and the Battlefleets were marshaled.
    Chairman Feng was known throughout the Solar System as The Fox, That Sly Bastard or Mr. Devious. True to his names, he had worked out his plan well before that. Two years ago, he’d sent out a