Posted on August 23, 2025August 29, 2025 by YarriThe Mind Controller (continued . . .) Janno was tried before the High Court of the Empire. The facts are plain. Does the defendant offer any evidence on his own behalf ? No, Excellency. He pleads guilty and asks for no mercy. No mercy will be granted ! This was the deliberate theft of the valuable property of the ruler of a friendly state. Nor will the guilty person’s membership of the Imperial family count in this court . . . Janno !— I sentence you to ten lunar years on the Isle of Despair ! The Isle of Despair ! Grim prison-fortress of the Trigan Empire. The place where the most dangerous and hardened criminals were sent to suffer their bitter years of punishment. The condemned air-fleet pilot was taken direct from the roof of the courthouse by police heli- jet. A great crowd watched the departure—including Janno’s comrade-in-arms Roffa. Good-bye, Janno ! Few survive ten years on the Isle of Despair ! If you ever come back, you’ll only be a wreck of your former self ! Roffa was himself watched . . . Subject has left the vicinity of the courthouse and is walking towards the Great Square. The situation is perfect . . . Roffa walked in a daze, his mind turning over the baffling facts of his friend’s arrest and imprisonment . . . I’d have staked my life that Janno would never have done such a thing . . . And then . . . it happened ! AAAAAAAGHHH ! Help was swiftly on the scene. We’ll give him a blood transfusion on the way back to the hospital. That evening, Roffa was well enough to receive visitors— Keren and another pilot from his squadron. And you say this fellow never stopped ? That’s right, Keren. In fact, from what all the onlookers said, it looked like a deliberate attempt to dispose of me ! Within a few days, Roffa was able to return to duty. His first task was to flight-test a new fighter-craft that had just been delivered to the squadron. And then—suddenly and without warning—a voice spoke to him ! Roffa !—You will do as I say ! . . . Understood ! Yu-yes ! Yes, of course ! You will dive this craft straight into the ground— at maximum speed— understood ? Into the ground . . . maximum speed . . . understood ! Those in the control centre below saw the fighter-craft go into a plummeting dive, engines screaming at full throttle . . . down . . . down . . . down ! All right, Roffa—that’s far enough ! Pull out, Roffa ! Roffa . . . pull out, before it’s too late ! This instalment was originally published in Look and Learn issue no. 710 on 23 August 1975.
