In the Great Audience Chamber of the Imperial Palace at
Torquas, where a million years ago white Jeddaks had given the
orders that sent mighty fleets out upon the waves of the vanished
Throxeus, a green Jeddak glared at the source of the interruption."Issus take you, can you not see that I am involved in important affairs of state?" Indeed, the Jeddak held in his lower left fist a small black thoat, captured from his opponent and removed from the jetan board only seconds before the scout appeared at the door. His opponent was the Jed of one of the larger clans making up the Horde of Torquas, and would soon be a formidable challenger for the rulership. It was important that he be kept in his place, and a victory at jetan over his liege lord would be an unthinkable impertinence.
But the intruder, though nervous, stood his ground. He was a young warrior who had but recently won his second name, and the solitary circuit of the city's perimeter was his first major assignment of trust. Executing the martian equivalent of "present arms" with the sword in his upper right hand, he clutched at a squirming object with the other three. "I thought it might be important," he said.
"Well, what is it?" snapped the Jeddak.
"I don't know, sir," replied the guard. "I found it out on the desert, making amorous advances at one of the rocks. There was a landing platform with several deflated balloons a short distance away." He held the thing out, revealing it to be a metallic rectangle somewhat smaller than his breastplate, with a reflective surface apparently made up of a number of small mirrors, and six wheels that spun crazily in various directions. "It seems to be very stupid."
"Let's see it," ordered the Jeddak, setting down the captured jetan piece and reaching for the object. It seemed to sense somehow that it was being transferred from hand to hand, because in addition to the spinning of the wheels, a strange spring-like motion of the axles caused it to seem to buck.
"No, Dork Dufus, it is not stupid," replied the Jeddak, examining it carefully. "It is terribly clever, for it is a machine -- some sort of spying device no doubt, and probably sent out by one of our enemies. Helium, maybe, or Ptarth or Jahar. The scientists among the red men are quite skilled at making this sort of fiendish device."
He scrutinized the thing more closely, and noted the small lens at the front.
"See, here is its eye, to observe our deployment --" He took his dagger and smashed the lens with the pommel. Then, reaching around to the back of the strange object, he ripped off the antenna. "And here is its transmitter, to send images of what it sees to our enemies. Well, it will see no more, and it will report nothing."
He turned to the wall behind him, hung with banners, helms, swords, and even the propeller of a flier, all captured in battle. Finding a bare space on the wall of approximately the right size and shape, he looped a length of thoat hide around the middle of the object and hung it up.
"You have done well, Dork Dufus. Once again the enemies of Torquas have been foiled in their attempt to destroy us with their cowardly and underhanded tricks."
The trophy, with its solar panels turned to the wall, slowly decreased its struggles, like a dying insect, and was finally still.