It happened in the great square of Trigan City in broad daylight . . .

Spare a coin for an old soldier, master.

Don’t pester me, fellow!

Second thoughts.

I was harsh to that beggar . . . after all, he did fight for his country.

By all the stars!—He’s vanished!

There was only a pile of ragged clothing—that, and a handful of small coins!

All that’s left of him! This is—fantastic!

Meanwhile—at Air Fleet base . . .

Alarm! Alarm! All interceptor craft get airborne! Unidentified intruder in sector red-zero-zero!

Janno led the dash to the waiting interceptors.

Every pilot had his own altitude in which to operate. Janno’s was at the very highest—in the sub-stratosphere.

Approaching operational height now  . . . nothing in sight . . .























And then—Janno saw a tell-tale ‘blip’ on his screen.

Contact ahead!  . . . and it’s high up . . . in the stratosphere!

Up—up—up—the intrepid pilot followed his quarry. And then he saw . . . IT . . . and experienced a pang of disappointment.

It was only an echo from that old abandoned weather station!

Better get down to my operational height. This craft isn’t fit to operate for more than a very short while in the stratosphere.

A pair of eyes watched Janno from the seemingly deserted city in space.

BLAM!—BLAMM!—explosive projectiles slammed into the little interceptor! 

By all the stars . . .

Aflame and out of control, Janno had only one thought . . .

Elekton’s gravitational pull is strong enough to take me down—but will the craft burn out and me with it before we reach the ground?

This instalment was originally published in Look and Learn issue no. 754 on 26 June 1976.