Odin
sends Thor to Rigel to investigate the threat of the Black Stars; Tana Nile, a
Rigellian, and Silas Grant go with him as does Sif and, a last minute addition,
Balder. They set sail on the Starjammer and Odin hopes that the recent conflict
between him and Thor is truly resolved so that if Thor dies, Odin can be at
peace….
On
Rigel, the Colonizers are evacuating the planet and seeking refuge in space;
the Grand Commissioner broods over what he sees as an act of futile cowardice
as the Black Stars will eventually consume the galaxy….
In
Asgard, young Krista returns home, hiding the crystal she found in the field
and she seems possessed by it….
The
Starjammer lands on Rigel and Thor and company find the place deserted. Then they
are attacked by the mutants who dwell underground. Thor hurls Mjolnir and it
ricochets off of the mutants, ending the fight. Their leader Jukka fills Thor
in on the situation: the mutants are the remnants of a failed genetic
experiment and the Rigellians left them behind when they fled the planet. Thor
invites the handful of survivors aboard his ship as they pursue the
Colonizers….
Then
the Rigellians watch as the Black Stars reach Rigel and blow the planet apart
then they send out space scoops at the end of long mechanical tendrils, drawing
in the wreckage of the planet to be broken down into energy to fuel the Black
Stars….
Thor’s
party catches up to the Rigellian fleet and the rearmost ship fires a space
cannon at the Starjammer; Thor, Balder, and the mutants fight with the soldiers
which emerge from the ship until they are halted by a message from the Grand
Commissioner that the Asgardians are to be treated as allies. Thor and company
come aboard the Rigellian ship but the mutants are ordered to remain on the
Starjammer as their presence on the ship would cause a riot among the people;
the seven hundred ships of the Colonizer fleet carry nine billion people and
the idea of mass hysteria is a serious concern. They colonize to relieve
crowding on their homeworld but now they are all jammed together in their
ships….
The
Rigellian also gives Thor the history of the Black Stars: a huge galactic
civilization they called Ry-Leph (Utopia) was wiped out by the Black Stars in a
single day and night, absorbing the remains for fuel and now Rigel has been destroyed.
They look at the stars: five worlds, each three times the size of Jupiter,
around a flaming sun and impossible to defeat….