To make the needed repairs to the Argo, Avatar orders the battleship to sail for the asteroid belt remains of Minerva, the 10th planet in the Solar System -- the first to have been destroyed by the Gamilons. To hide the battleship from Gamilon radar ... (more)detection, Sandor devises a plan to cover the hull with asteroid fragments. Meanwhile, Colonel Ganz orders his fleet to locate and destroy the Argo. When the Gamilon fleet loses track of the Star Force, Ganz initially suspects the Earthlings of performing a space warp. But when his crew locate the Argo in the asteroid field, he seizes the opportunity to attack. To repel the Gamilon fleet, Sandor advises Avatar to reverse the polarity of the magnetized asteroid fragments covering the ship. This results in the creation of a defensive asteroid ring that blocks incoming Gamilon fire. When the Gamilon fleet closes in on the Argo, the battleship releases the revolving asteroid fragments, causing them to scatter in all directs. In their attempt to avoid being struck by the fragments, most of the Gamilon ships end up colliding with one another, which results in the destruction of the fleet. Although the escorts are destroyed, Ganz's flagship is undamaged, and lurches directly toward the Argo on a collision course. To prevent the two ships from colliding, the Argo fires a rocket anchor into the Gamilon commander's ship, knocking off course just enough to narrowly avoid impact. Ganz's flagship then careens into an asteroid and explodes. Earth has 338 days left.