The eighth ship was equipped with a brace of torpedoes, which were normally released some hours after the gas-carriers dispersed their invisible death. They were quite small torpedoes, since the only task remaining for them would be to ignite the surface of the planet that had been treated with the catalyst.
All those things might presently happen to Noorhut. But they would happen only if a specific message was flashed from it to the circling squadron—the message that Noorhut already was lost to a deadly foe who must, at any cost now, be prevented from spreading out from it to other inhabited worlds.
IN THIS SERIES:
Telzey Amberdon
T 'n T: Telzey & Trigger
Trigger & Friends
The Hub: Dangerous Territory
Agent of Vega & Other Stories
Baen Books by Eric Flint:
Mother of Demons
1632
The Philosophical Strangler
The Belisarius series, with David Drake:
An Oblique Approach
In the Heart of Darkness Destiny's Shield
Fortune's Stroke
The Tide of Victory
with Dave Freer:
Rats, Bats & Vats
Pyramid Scheme