orpedo message from
flagship Y427W resumed at point of interruption," the report from the
ill-fated vessel continued the story of its own destruction, but added
little in the already complete knowledge of the disaster.

Fenor of the Fenachrone leaped up from the table, his terrible,
flame-shot eyes glaring venomously--teetering in Berserk rage upon his
block-like legs--but he did not for one second take his full attention
from the report until it had been completed. Then he seized the nearest
object, which happened to be his chair, and with all his enormous
strength hurled it across the floor, where it lay, a tattered, twisted,
shapeless mass of metal.

"Thus shall we treat the entire race of the accursed beings who have
done this!" he stormed, his heavy voice reverberating throughout the
room. "Torture, dismemberment and annihilation to every...."

"Fenor of the Fenachrone!" a tremendous voice, a full octave lower than
Fenor's own terrific bass, and of ear-shattering volume and timbre in
that dense atmosphere boomed from the general-wave speaker, its
deafening roar drowning out Fenor's raging voice and every other lesser
sound.

"Fenor of the Fenachrone! I know that you hear, for every general-wave
speaker upon your reeking planet is voicing my words. Listen well, for
this warning shall not be repeated. I am speaking by and with the
authority of the Overlord of the Green System, which you know as the
Central System of this, our Galaxy. Upon some of our many planets there
are those who wished to destroy you without warning and out of hand, but
the Overlord has ruled that you may continue to live provided you heed
these, his commands, which he has instructed me to lay upon you.

"You must forthwith abandon forever your vainglorious and senseless
scheme of universal conquest. You must immediately withdraw your every
vessel to within the boundaries of your solar system, and you must keep
them there henceforth.

"You are allowed five minutes to decide whether or not you will obey
these commands. If no answer has been received at the end of the
calculated time the Overlord will know that you have defied him, and
your entire race shall perish utterly. Well he knows that your very
existence is an affront to all real civilization, but he holds that even
such vileness incarnate, as are the Fenachrone, may perchance have some
obscure place in the Great Scheme of Things, and he will not destroy you
if you are content to rem