response time. The crews could only monitor their screens while the Dreel closed, then suffer the jolts and unexpected accelerations as the automated defenses took over; the projector crews experienced pulsed vibrations as very short bursts of Zinder feedback were used.
Then the Dreel just weren't there any more. Not only did they vanish suddenly, but so did all other matter within the disks' foci. Light, even gravity vanished, annihilated; briefly a great hole opened around the task force, one in which absolutely nothing, not even a hard vacuum, existed. A scientist checked his instruments, frowned. "That shouldn't have happened. The device was to annihilate matter, not energy."
Scientists fell to, trying to locate the flaw. The military didn't care; their forces were committed and the thing worked. The task force accelerated and headed for the known command center of the Dreel. Meanwhile Dreel counterattacks not only continued, their intensity increased. As yet the Dreel had no idea of the danger they faced, could not understand what was involved.
The unwanted total annihilation was observed dozens of times before the science monitors had doped the problem out: Their relatively puny computers were unable to discriminate properly between matter and energy, and the violet ray was not fully controlled. The device had been designed for transmutation and re-creation by Zinder, not as disintegration weapon. Without the supercomputer the carrier was wild; it nullified everything it struck. Everything.
"We're tearing a hole in the fabric of space-time itself!" one of the scientists exclaimed. "Thanks to the pulsed field we've been able to let things repair themselves—but sustained nullification on a huge scale might be beyond nature's ability to counteract!"
"The Markovian brain might not be able to handle such a huge gap," another agreed. "The rip might be impossible to close!"
They rushed to communicators to warn the military leaders who made the decisions, but the military's response was an unexpected one. "We have lost almost a third of the Com; we face certain destruction. This is the only effective, deployable weapon you have managed to produce. While it is true that we might condemn ourselves by using it, we most certainly will condemn ourselves by not using it. We go on!"
As its forces simply winked out of existence, the Dreel Set did what any intelligent beings would do. They started a retreat, withdrawing as quickly as possible. For the bulk of their forces this was simple because they were faster than anything the Com could muster. But for the mother ship, an artificial planetoid over ten thousand kilometers in diameter, such flight was not possible. While the mother ship could attain the speeds required, powering up and the preparations necessary to prevent killing all aboard would take perhaps three days. In its present shape the mother ship was not as fast as the Com ships pursuing it.
Due to the limitations of their power sources, the Zinder Nullifiers had an effective range of under one light-year; they had closed to within a parsec of their quarry when it started to move.
The Dreel knew they could not outdistance the Nullifiers, but those aboard the task force did not.
"Turn the forward disk on and keep it on, aimed at the Dreel mother ship, unless needed for defense," ordered the military men; the military computers agreed that it was the only thing to do.
A hole opened before the Com task force, a hole in space—time. Not having enough experience to appreciate the effect of the Nullifiers, the fleet officers suddenly discovered that they could no longer see their quarry on the other side of the hole. Even light was destroyed— and they were moving into the very hole they had created!
Scientists all over the task force held their breath.
Something winked, momentarily producing an effect like a photographic negative, then there was nothing, not even Nullifiers.
The hole, though, didn't stop; it
Then the Dreel just weren't there any more. Not only did they vanish suddenly, but so did all other matter within the disks' foci. Light, even gravity vanished, annihilated; briefly a great hole opened around the task force, one in which absolutely nothing, not even a hard vacuum, existed. A scientist checked his instruments, frowned. "That shouldn't have happened. The device was to annihilate matter, not energy."
Scientists fell to, trying to locate the flaw. The military didn't care; their forces were committed and the thing worked. The task force accelerated and headed for the known command center of the Dreel. Meanwhile Dreel counterattacks not only continued, their intensity increased. As yet the Dreel had no idea of the danger they faced, could not understand what was involved.
The unwanted total annihilation was observed dozens of times before the science monitors had doped the problem out: Their relatively puny computers were unable to discriminate properly between matter and energy, and the violet ray was not fully controlled. The device had been designed for transmutation and re-creation by Zinder, not as disintegration weapon. Without the supercomputer the carrier was wild; it nullified everything it struck. Everything.
"We're tearing a hole in the fabric of space-time itself!" one of the scientists exclaimed. "Thanks to the pulsed field we've been able to let things repair themselves—but sustained nullification on a huge scale might be beyond nature's ability to counteract!"
"The Markovian brain might not be able to handle such a huge gap," another agreed. "The rip might be impossible to close!"
They rushed to communicators to warn the military leaders who made the decisions, but the military's response was an unexpected one. "We have lost almost a third of the Com; we face certain destruction. This is the only effective, deployable weapon you have managed to produce. While it is true that we might condemn ourselves by using it, we most certainly will condemn ourselves by not using it. We go on!"
As its forces simply winked out of existence, the Dreel Set did what any intelligent beings would do. They started a retreat, withdrawing as quickly as possible. For the bulk of their forces this was simple because they were faster than anything the Com could muster. But for the mother ship, an artificial planetoid over ten thousand kilometers in diameter, such flight was not possible. While the mother ship could attain the speeds required, powering up and the preparations necessary to prevent killing all aboard would take perhaps three days. In its present shape the mother ship was not as fast as the Com ships pursuing it.
Due to the limitations of their power sources, the Zinder Nullifiers had an effective range of under one light-year; they had closed to within a parsec of their quarry when it started to move.
The Dreel knew they could not outdistance the Nullifiers, but those aboard the task force did not.
"Turn the forward disk on and keep it on, aimed at the Dreel mother ship, unless needed for defense," ordered the military men; the military computers agreed that it was the only thing to do.
A hole opened before the Com task force, a hole in space—time. Not having enough experience to appreciate the effect of the Nullifiers, the fleet officers suddenly discovered that they could no longer see their quarry on the other side of the hole. Even light was destroyed— and they were moving into the very hole they had created!
Scientists all over the task force held their breath.
Something winked, momentarily producing an effect like a photographic negative, then there was nothing, not even Nullifiers.
The hole, though, didn't stop; it
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