Taul looked out from behind the bars in his small prison cell. What he saw was an oblong antechamber with two beds, a refrigerator, and an open door, which led to a bathroom. There was an assortment of other furniture used for living accommodations. Two of his elite guard were hurrying to and fro setting up surveillance and communications equipment on the counter along the side of the east wall.
It was like a whirlwind of circumstances which had brought him to this place, without so much as a pause in this attempted take-over. He had been bound and hooded and then whisked away to some place he knew not where, but he knew from the hum of the engines he was being transported in a G15 destroyer. Finally, he was brought to this small cell. The handcuffs and the hood had been removed, and now he stood in disbelief as he watched two of his own elite guard who were obviously part of the usurpation. One of them was his chief security guard, Mordrous and the other was Frostadeem.
For the first time in his life he was concerned about his own well-being.
As he watched these two men going about their business, he realized they must have been offered something astronomical, or something unbelievably valuable. The Galaef’s elite guard were a group of computer chosen men picked, above all, for their psychological scores in loyalty. Whatever had turned them into criminals, he could not imagine, but because of this scenario he knew that if he used strong-arm threats against them, they would not work.
But, on the other hand, what else could he do? "Do you men understand what you are getting yourselves into?"
They ignored him and went about setting up the equipment.
"Release me at once" he ordered in a commanding voice.
They continued to ignore him
“Do you not hear me?” he yelled in frustration. “You must help me against Thorne and his evil plot. Only then will I spare your lives and the lives of your families.”
Mordrous stopped what he was doing and walked to the Galaef's cell to confront him. "Sir, we hear you very plainly, and we understand the seriousness of the situation, and in spite of that, we have orders that if you persist in talking to us, we are to bind and gag you."
The Galaef became furious. "Damn you," he yelled. "I will see to it that you and your families and all your relatives are thrown into the Zi pits."
Mordrous shuddered at the thought of it. "Sir," he said, "you must become quiet, or . . ."
The Galaef was still furious. “Whatever happened to the phrase, 'Elite and loyal to the end?'"
Mordrous pulled his phasor from of its holster. "Sir," he said as he pointed it at Taul's chest, "this is your last warning. You must not say another word."
Seeing the phasor, the Galaef quickly became quiet and sat down on his bunk to mull things over. How could Thorne pull this off? There were too many failsafe systems, too many obstacles to overcome in order to depose the ruling Galaef and take over command of Galactus VII and the Galactic Armada. How could he have devised a plan which would override all the computer's failsafe systems? How could it be possible?
It wasn’t possible. The computer would never give him command of the Galactic Armada. Or, had he found something that would make it so?
The Galaef sat there for two hours trying to figure out what had happened, why it had happened and where it was going to take him.
An hour later Mordrous and Frostadeem had finished setting up the equipment and were standing next to the far wall talking in whispered voices.
Just then the door to the small building opened and Thorne walked in. He was alone.
As he approached the small prison cell Taul stood up and peered between the bars.
Thorne sneered. "You're a fool. All these years I've been planning to take over as Galaef, and you never once noticed or suspected my actions. Always too busy positioning and repositioning the warships in the armada and too busy with planetary heads of state and too busy resolving squabbles between planets and then the latest and most ludicrous—you ran off to this nowhere planet to chase a myth. Now you see your folly. Don't you?" he growled in contempt.
"I see your folly," said Taul with a venomous threat. "I see that you're attempting a feat which cannot possibly succeed. You and all your cohorts will fail. Even if you kill me, you cannot succeed."
"You took the thoughts right out of my mind," retorted Thorne. And then he whispered in a low voice, not wanting the guards to overhear. "Not only will I succeed, but I will kill you, too."
Taul was taken aback by the sincerity and ruthlessness in Thorne's voice. "You can't succeed," he said again in a more subdued and tentative voice. He suddenly realized Thorne wouldn't have gone this far if he didn't have a scheme which propounded reasonable success.
"Success is already assured. Even Myra knew it, and that's why she fled," said Thorne stiffly. "Which brings me to the reason I'm here, and why you're still alive." His mouth twisted slightly. Apparently it aggravated him that his plan hadn't gone exactly as it should have. "I need to know which planet Myra is from, and if you tell me and I find her with relative ease, then your death will be quick and painless, but if you lie to me, and I have to use the information extrapolator, and if I have to wrench your brain apart to find what I need to know, then your death will be long and horrible."
Taul began to suspect that Thorne had discovered Myra's secret job description. Still he was puzzled. All Thorne had to do was check the computer files. As second in command he had the authority to do it. "Why do you want her?"
"Let's not play games. You know, and I know she is the bearer of the ring. So, let's have it. Where is she?"
"I can tell you where she comes from, but that doesn't mean that's where she went."
"I'll worry about that. You just tell me her home planet."
The Galaef wasn't interested in being part of a mind melt. And besides the three or four weeks that it would take for them to find her might be enough for him to get free; especially if he could work on the guards. "Okay," he said. He looked Thorne straight in the eye. "She's from a planet called Rignon of the solar system Jag."
"You think I'm some kind of fool," yelled Thorne in a loud, booming voice. "Tell me now, or I will order the equipment needed to turn you into a mindless idiot."
Taul started to look surprised and started to protest when in the same instant he realized that Thorne had already checked out the planet Rignon, probably several months or several years back, and that was why Taul was still alive. Suddenly, Taul realized that Myra's documents had been falsified and never discovered. He wondered what the hell was going on with the security checks. Nevertheless, it was this instant of realization that saved him from a mind melt and certain death. "You're right. You're right," answered Taul. "I'm so used to telling people where she's from, it just slipped out." He stepped closer to the bars as if he was about to tell a secret, when in actuality his mind was racing to figure out the planet which would be reasonable for her origin and at the same time the most inaccessible for Thorne and his cohorts. "The truth is," he said in a low voice, "she's from a small planet called Rison in the Prim solar system. We keep it a secret," he continued as his mind kept racing to keep the lie going, "because she's from a race of people who have special mental powers, and we don't want it to get out to those who might use these people for selfish purposes."
"You and all of your advisors are a bunch of idiots," said Thorne. “And, by the way, just on the off-chance that you escape from the prison—give me your ring.”
“It won’t do you any good. It only works for me.”
“You’re so stupid. Didn’t I just say, ‘in case you escape?’ The odds of you ever getting back to Galactus are almost nil, but just in case, I want to make sure you have no way of getting into the computer complex. I don’t want you to give the computer orders to keep me out. So hand it over.”
Taul took the ring off his finger and held it out to Thorne. As he took the ring Taul said, "You know you can't succeed. There are too many fail-safe systems." Speaking these words ma
de Taul feel more confident. It was like giving himself a pep talk.
Thorne started for the door, then stopped and over his shoulder said, "You're the biggest idiot of them all."
And he left the building.
Chapter Forty-Three