Then the intership communications system was deactivated. The pirates'
ships, being sheathed to radar, were equally invisible to each other as
to the men of Space Command, but each pirate captain knew where the
others were supposed to be. The ships usually communicated by
closed-system radio and thereby kept in close contact with each other,
but now they could not risk revealing their position by engaging in
radio contact when they were in the proximity of other ships.
Moments went by without a word being said. Lather could feel the
adrenaline surging through him. He was eager to give the command to
attack.
"One minute!" he announced to his own crew. "All hands prepare for
battle!" After the designated time had elapsed, he shouted, "Go!"
Followed by five spaceships protected by the radar bender, he sped
undetected through the sphere of Space Command warships. On the screen
before him the massive freighters loomed up. "Fire!" he shouted. "Fire!
Fire!"
A laser cannon locked onto one freighter and ripped open its hull. In
seconds the Silver Cloud was past it and through the other side of the
sphere. Behind him came another pirate ship, and then another. As each
passed through the sphere, it fired laser cannons at the freighters.
None of the lasers struck a vital point in any freighter's fuel system,
but the potent cannons, each set on highest power, ripped into the
unmanned ships and tore them open to the vacuum.
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