Now the spherical mass of it, deeper in hue and pulsing angrily, hovered in the sky just above Vaajo's laboratories. Suddenly the sphere extended, became a pillar of pulsing light trying to leap away.
And it leaped away. Faster than light, swift as thought, hurtling through the outer reaches of space.
Ketrik didn't stay to see more. He didn't need to. Even through the cold needle-fires in his brain, he had enough faculty left to know that far out in space, in that part of the heavens, swam the planet Earth. Again this night Dar Vaajo was testing ... testing the power of his curiously-alive weapon....
Ketrik reached the shop of Jal Thurlo, found the jar of vanadol and downed enough of it to put him into merciful oblivion.
VI
It was late the following day when a car, bearing the royal insignia, drew up before the shop and one of the Guards asked for "Khosan."
Ketrik was ready. He'd been waiting for this. As they drove toward the palace grounds the two Guards looked at him enviously.
"You have won great favor with the Emperor for last night's work," one of them said. "He wants personal audience with you! It would not surprise me if he made you Captain of Praana's own guard!"
"It is true you were not supposed to be on the streets at that hour," said the other. "But Dar Vaajo will overlook that, considering the circumstances."