Left alone in their cardboard box/prison, the three tiny captives were quite a sight. Steve and Dan were taped down in a lying position on the “floor” of the box. Thorg was pacing nervously from one “wall” of the box to the other.

“Thorg!”, Steve yelled, “are you going to just keep pacing or are you going to help us get out of this?”

“What?”, Thorg barked.

Thorg stopped pacing and looked down at Steve and Dan. “I'm not sure if that's a good idea”, Thorg said in a little bit calmer tone. “Berna will be right back and we can figure...”

“So Berna's in charge now?”, Dan interrupted. “I thought you were in charge!”

“Well...I am in charge but...”, Thorg mumbled.

The three men argued for a good half hour or so and Berna had still not returned. Steve had thought that something must have gone wrong and if the Spindrift doesn't take off in 20 or 30 minutes they will have at least saved the others from their fate of being marooned on a giant world.

“Thorg!,”, Steve said, “being taped down like this is very uncomfortable. There was no reason for Berna to do this.”

“Yeah,” Dan added. “the walls in this box are 18 or 20 feet high. There is no way we can get out!”

Thorg looked down at Steve and Dan compassionately and walked over and knelt down next to Steve and tried to pull the tape off. It appeared that Thorg had finally relented.

“Yeah, I don't know why Berna did this but there is no way I can pull this off, “ Thorg said. “This tape is way too thick!”

“Thorg, reach into my boot. I have a knife there,” Steve suggested.

Thorg grabbed the knife and cut the tape freeing both Steve and Dan. As soon as they got up, Steve took the knife from Thorg and the tiny men started looking up,discussing how they were going to escape.

Shocked, Thorg said, “Wait a second, you can't escape...you said...”

“We've been in tougher spots than this before Thorg,” Dan said as he smiled. “We'll be out of here in about 5 minutes.”

Thorg approached Dan and Steve and said, “Well I can't let you...”

All of sudden Steve yelled in anger, “Listen Thorg...either help us...or stand back but don't get in our way. We're getting out of here.”

Thorg lunged toward Steve but Dan grabbed him from the back and put Thorg into a choke hold. Steve used the packing tape and fashioned a makeshift hand cuff and ankle cuff. Dan placed a small piece of taped over Thorg's mouth for good measure."

"There”, Dan said as he smiled and put some tape over Thorg's mouth. “That ought to keep him quiet for a while.”

Steve smiled and said, “You know, the Spindrift is supposed to take off in about 20 minutes. If we're not there to pilot her out, the others will have been saved”.

“Yeah, all we have to do is run the clock for a little longer”, Dan added.

“Yep,”, Steve. “But lets get out of here. We don't know when Berna is going to return!”

Using the knife that Steve had, they were able to cut themselves out in about 20 minutes. When they got themselves out they looked around and instinctively started running toward one of the walls. Enough time elapsed by now so that the Spindrift did not take off. If nothing else happens, Steve and Dan realized that the others have been saved from the living hell of the giant planet.

But Berna had not returned yet...and now Steve and Dan were tiny people...on their own planet.

Suddenly, in a flash, Berna appeared holding a briefcase in her hand. She had obviously located her STM. She looked down at the box and upon seeing that Dan and Steve had escaped and Thorg was restrained, she yelled, “What the hell happened here?”

End of Chapter 3