Thor
and his companions (Sif, Balder, Tana Nile, Silas Grant) are stunned by the
sight of the Black Stars, displayed on a viewscreen aboard the Rigellians’
ship. Thor is filled with despair, concluding their mission is in vain. Sif
encourages Thor so Thor and company board the Starjammer and head for one of
the space-scoops…
…where
a giant robot called Avalon sees them approach and wonders if they could be the
ones to free his people from bondage. Avalon reaches up for the arriving ship
and accidentally crushes its wooden hull. The Asgardians take this for an
attack and so they fight against the robot who proves immensely strong, drawing
energy from the scoop though his feet. After a skirmish, Avalon throws them off
and explains that he welcomes them as friends but first had to test them and by
way of explanation, he takes them below….
In
Asgard, Hildegarde asks of her parents what has happened to her sister Krista
and is told she has isolated herself in her room and does not come out.
Hildegarde mounts the stairs to talk to her and finds Krista sitting and gazing
at the crystal she found (issue #217). Suddenly there is a bright flash and
Krista is gone….
Avalon
explains to Thor and company that his people, the Sub-Worlders, are robots made
of living metal, created by the Masters of the Black Stars to service that
space-scoops and that Thor and his party are the first organic beings they have
seen in ten thousand years. They are slaves but they cannot leave because they
must draw energy from the surrounding machinery to survive. The Rigellian
mutates beg Thor to help the Sub-Worlders just as he helped them. Thor agrees
so he and Avalon go to the surface of the scoop as it is being withdrawn to its
planet of origin. But a globe, launched automatically to deal with the
rebellion of the Sub-Worlders, discharges a burly robot called the Protector to
defeat them. The Protector overcomes Avalon in seconds then turns its attention
to Thor. Thor clouts it with Mjolnir but his foe shrugs off the attack. Boasting
that it has overpowered Thor, Protector picks him up in it arms and squeezes.
Thor merely hemmers it with successive blows rendering the Protector into
scrap. As they ride the scoop back to the planet, Thor and Avalon are suddenly
stunned by what they see….