the droid, "you must destroy our home. It served
us well for a long time, but you are right. Those that come here must
not find it, nor should others be checking its serial numbers."
43 Morn nodded, took the shuttle's controls, and lifted her off. They
were almost to the ship when the top of the plateau was lit in a bright
white flash. A cloud lifted upward, then began to settle back. Morn
could imagine being down there and watching the billions and billions
of tiny crystals falling in a steady shower to the ground.
44 He always wondered why the converted matter turned into quartz
crystals when it resolidified back into matter, but it was always the
same. Some places they used conversion bombs to turn trash into
crystal, then melted the crystals to make beautiful pure glass.
"From such a terrible weapon," thought Morn, "can come things of
such
incredible beauty."
45 They boarded the ship and as soon as the bus sat down the ship was
turning and running for its leap coordinances. Morn was hoping they
would have an easy run, but it just wasn't meant to be that way. Barely
had he reached the command deck, when the Firing Control Officer calmly
announced, "Sir, we've got eight ...no, ten incoming vessels on the far
side of the system. I think they've picked us up. They're coming fast."
46 "Damn!" cursed Morn. He put the images on his own screen, and began
to study them. They were the ships the droid had shown him, all right!
"Navigation can we reach our leap point before they overtake us?"
47 "If they don't increase their rate any more than this, we should be
well away before they can reach us," Helm announced.
48 The Firing Control Officer had the images on the main screen, and
was studying them closely. "Sir," he warned, "one of those ships is a
missile carrier. The Hashons had star drive missiles with an incredible