the doors of the city are sealed with meglos trapped inside, with a hostage savant named caris for company. she soon gets the upper hand when the earthling tries another bout of resistance. in a subsequent mix up romana overpowers caris, letting meglos escape and reunite with the gaztaks, who have staged an attack on the city to rescue him. the dodecahedron is in his possession and the pirates blast off back to zolfa-thura – though three gaztaks, half the crew, have been lost.