By adopting this formation, they minimised the possibility of both of them being destroyed simultaneously in the event of a sudden attack. A few hours later, they were back in the cargo compartment of their base ship, and the maintenance robots checked their serviceability. Like any other weapon, the drones needed servicing after every use in combat. Once the serviceability of all their systems had been checked, they were again ready to defend their space base against uninvited guests, as the ship’s computer told the captain without delay. “I never thought it would be such child’s play for the drones to deal with two ships,” said Steve after hearing the report that the drones were ready again. During the time since the attack, he had managed to get some rest and get his thoughts together. “Well, if the pirates had known that pilotless spacecraft like those were hunting them, it wouldn’t have been so easy,” replied Kimble. “How could they have known? I thought it was impossible to spot them.”
