They had worked with religious fervor, past the point of exhaustion. Many worked themselves to death, glad to do it, sad only that they had a single life to sacrifice to this holy project.

Seemingly in the blink of an eye the massive edifice rose from the ground. This beautiful, sacred weapon that would shoot light into the sky and destroy the source of all that was wicked and wrong. All misfortune and pain would end when they finally killed the wretched Tar-Get with holy fire.

When they were finished they wept at the sublime perfection of what they had created. It was a jagged, multicolored thing made of all the hastily plundered riches of their city. It reached up into the sky, pointing at the enemy it would soon annihilate.

The New God gave the command, and the weapon spat fire and brimstone into the heavens.

* * *

"I'm reading a power source- it's a planetary weapon of some kind powering up!" yelled Marceaux.

"Shields," said Littlecrow, but her crew was way ahead of her.

The massive ionic beam rocked the Armstrong's shields, overloading them in a single shot. A second such attack could ruin the ship.

"Lieutenant, get us out of here," said the Captain "Double weapons range, top speed."

The Armstrong was able to reach relativistic speeds just a fraction of a second before the follow-up shot would have destroyed them.

* * *

The caravan stopped to look up at the fireworks in the sky. The light from the attack was so bright it could be seen for many kilometers away.

"Well now I know where to start looking," said Mitzner.

* * *

Ensign Gul was never able to get the two survivors of his attack to answer any questions. He wasn't even certain they spoke Martian, although he guessed as much. He had tested their reactions to a few phrases.

He had already offered them what first aid he was capable of. It wasn't much but he was fairly certain they'd survive, at least the night.

An explosive conflagration erupted in the sky above him. Gul turned to look at what was happening. They was a bolt of light in the distance, stretching from the ground straight up into space.

The site of this sent the two prisoners to hysterics. They began screaming and chanting. At first Gul through they were afraid, but he quickly realized how wrong he was. This was jubilation, even worship. The men were celebrating.

* * *

Dr. Kang watched the attack from his telescope. He made notes.

The Armstrong pulled out of orbit and then fled at FTL speeds. Dr. Kang made note of this.

He would have to guess where they went. Dr. Kang was confident he could do this, much in the same way he was confident he could do anything.

The facts were straightforward. Lieutenant Guildenstern was not that complex of a mind. Littlecrow would have ordered the ship two estimated range increments away until she could assess the situation. And Lieutenant Guildenstern, lovely predictable Lieutenant Guildenstern, without an original thought in his head, would take them to bearing...

Dr. Kang carefully punched out the holes in the punchcards that corresponded to the guess he had just made. It took the better part of ten minutes to prepare all the necessary cards. Then, meticulously, he fed them into the machine one at a time.

This was exactly the sort of busywork that McAfree should be handling. Dr. Kang missed how useful she was.

Finally, all of the relevant data had been fed into the massive proto-ansible. Dr. Kang turned the hand crank for about a minute, while the primary generator warmed up. The entire interior of the building came to life with lights and whirrs and squeals.

"This is Dr. Heliodore Kang to the Armstrong," he said, into the simple analog microphone "Do you read?"

"zXxXvcxzessage garbled but czxXxxzcvcvink we can clean it uxXcxzzXx. Good to cXxxzcvczX!"

The sound was Ensign Marceaux's voice. Kang swore. He had been slightly off in his calculations. What an embarrassment.