On his way across the
galaxy by Sun-Chariot, Hercules challenges a spaceship to a race, not knowing
the other ship has been modified, leading to Herc being humiliated by losing.
Herc and Recorder 417 arrive at Port Anteris of the planet Wilamean where their
opponents Clide and Alpo demand payment of the bet: ten thousand credits. Herc
admits he has no money and they insist on holding onto the Chariot as
collateral. Herc has an idea: he has seen posters offering a ten thousand
credit reward for the rescue of Layana Sweetwater, kidnapped by pirates and
held in their impregnable island fortress. So Herc smashes his way into the
place and takes on all the guards while Recorder frees Layana from her cell
and, after Herc destroys all of the pirates’ craft, they take off with only one
casualty: Recorder’s right hand is shot off by the baddies. But when Herc tries
to collect the reward he finds the local police don’t have that kind of money;
they only offered the reward to placate Layana’s father, a powerful politician,
and didn’t think anyone could actually rescue her. So Herc decides to hold onto
the girl until they find the reward and Layana, smitten with her hero, is okay
with that….
Recorder has a new, nonmatching, hand installed and Herc leaves him behind when
he goes off with Layana for some privacy. Recorder, programmed to observe
everything Hercules does, tries peeking through a window and is promptly
arrested; in his cell he gets high on “audio-tootski” offered by his cellmate. Inside,
Herc tells Layana of his sad romantic history, namely falling for a mortal
queen but when he was summoned by Zeus he went and returned shortly, not
realizing that time passes more quickly for mortals and finding her old and
dying—and that’s why Herc resists any long term commitments. Layana responds
with her own tale of how her father sold her into marriage with the lizard-man
Count Igwanus and how, fleeing the wedding she was captured by the pirates
until Herc arrived to rescue her. And then Igwanus and a team of guards arrive
to take her away and Herc helps her escape once more, setting off a running
fight throughout the city. When Herc overpowers Igwanus, he learns that the
Count did not purchase the girl, she freely agreed to marry him; Layana
confesses that she made up the story about the betrothal so that Herc would
keep her. Herc apologizes and Igwanus pays Herc the ten thousand credit reward.
Herc spring Recorder from jail and visits Clide and Alpo in the hospital, after
they tried to sell the golden chariot but found that Apollo’s fierce horses
were rather formidable. Herc notes that he is giving the money he owes them to
the hospital to cover their medical expenses….