A harsh, grating voice made Janno turn.

Welcome, Trigan! I have been expecting one such as you.

My instruments detected that your craft was specially equipped, so I had to encompass its destruction.

So you are responsible for this fiendish business!

Not so fast!

Calm yourself and I will show you something that will fill you with awe and wonder.

Aaaaaah!

Helpless, Janno was dragged out on to a terrace.

Watch carefully . . . 

There came a rumbling of heavy machinery. The floor of the valley moved aside and a vast disc of bright metal rose skywards.

What . . .  What is it?

It is the heat controller! By means of its power, I am able to dictate the terms of life or death to all living things on this planet!























You have seen its effect in certain mild demonstrations recently. What you have not seen is the heat controller at full power.

The old man pointed across the ageless glacier.

Regard that mountain! It has carried snow and ice on its crest since Elekton was formed. Now observe . . . 

Janno’s aged captor touched a control on his chair. Instantly, a band of purple light stabbed from the heat controller.

They saw it all quite clearly . . .  snow and ice turning to super-heated steam . . . a cataclysmic avalanche . . . and the peaks changed to MOLTEN ROCK!

Soon the whole mountain had been reduced to a heap of smoking ash.

Who are you, and what are you trying to do?

My name is Slatta. And, as the inventor and builder of the heat controller, I claim that it is I—and not Peric—who deserves the title of Elekton’s top scientist.

You have seen what I did to the mountain. This I can also do to individual cities. Unless the nations of Elekton bow to my dictatorship, they will all be destroyed!

At a signal from Slatta, two burly guards came forth.

This Trigan can be of some use to me. Take him away. Break his spirit and his will, and then lock him up!

This instalment was originally published in Look and Learn issue no. 684 on 22 February 1975.