Second Stage Lensman

1950

As Kinnison and Clarrissa left the presence of Port Admiral Haynes and Marshal Lacy to announce their relationship to the Worlds, Mentor of Arisia stopped them. Stopped cold they were as Mentor lambasted Kim for his muddled thinking that had led him to think that the long war with Boskonia was finally over.

What the shocked leaders of the Patrol finally realised is that the apparent top, the planet of the Eich with its Council of Boskone was not indeed the controlling planet of the forces of what, for want of a better phrase, would have to still be considered Boskonia. That all their actions against Jarnevon and Jalte's base had achieved was to show the now unknown head of Boskonia how to destroy Tellus!

After a brief and, ah, testy discussion with Sir Austin Cardynge determined that while a hyperspatial tube could not be used to destroy Tellus directly, it was worked out that Boskonian forces could use them to invade Sol's system.

After making sure that war was not yet directly imminent, Kinnison took Cardynge on a whistle-stop tour of the Galaxy to assemble the Conference of Scientists. Their deliberations did not last too long, but they sent millions of miners' boats scuttling throughout Sol, placing asteroids into new orbits that would soon seen to have a reason for their positioning. However, the fleet that he feared failed to show up for the party, to his relief as the bugs were ironed out of the new weapons.

But all-too-soon the Boskonian assault was made and a hyperspatial tube popped into existence. With unparalleled efficiency, Civilisation's Fleet went to work in repelling the invading force; a screen of heavy battleships surrounding a phalanx of planets aimed directly at Tellus! Civilisation's ships dealt with the surrounding ships on a one-to-one basis, but even Civilisation's Super Maulers would find it hard to deal with those planets, mounting the defensive screens that only they could carry.

However, even a planet could not handle the controlled output of a whole star and it was this sun beam that Civilisation had developed as the ultimate defence to melt the planets' Bergenholms.

And with the defeat of the Boskonian invasion, Kinnison was able to concentrate his attentions on the main task, the destruction of the Boskonian command structure!

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