The thunderous blow upon the desk top mingled with Ryt's bellow of fury. Together, the sounds shook the room and nearly disintegrated Krembyl's hastily reassembled body.
"Dolt! Ass!" screamed Ryt, his body assuming the blackness of the dust cloud of Orion. "You failed to stop them on Sol V! You not only let them blow the planet into tiny bits, but you also let them escape to Sol III! And here all your efforts of extermination have failed again and again!"
He wheeled to look through the lens again. Three brilliant flashes, greater than the others, sparkled almost simultaneously upon the planet's troubled surface, sent up mushrooms of dust and shattered atoms. "And is this what happened on Sol V?"
"Y-yes," stammered Krembyl. "The same thing. Just before ... just before...."
He could not bring himself to complete the statement.
Ryt leaped from the seat at the desk, his body black and bloated. "Then there is not a moment to lose! Exterminate before this planet is destroyed! And let none escape!"
"But, sir," pleaded Krembyl, "I have tried everything—fire, floods, ice...."
"Then try something else!" Ryt roared.
Krembyl drifted slowly towards the door.
"Wait!"