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***

The direct glare of the sun revived Fettal for a moment as she struggled to gain her balance and failed, falling to the hard dusty floor. Looking up, she saw it.

Fingers quivering and stroking the air ahead of it, its mouth twisted open in a triumphant leer at the sight of its quarry.

'No,' moaned Fettal in helpless terror as the huge creature lunged for her.

Her speckled neck was broken before even a cry could escape her parched lips.

***

Sam saw it all through the crack in the door, then fell heavily back against the soft dead weeds, shocked and outraged.

'It worked,' hissed Tanhith.'It's going.' He turned to Crichter and Sam. 'Give it a few moments, and we'll follow from a distance.'

Sam stared at him. He met her gaze levelly.'How could you?' she asked.'What were you thinking of?'

'You,' he stated simply.

'Oh, yeah, right. Thanks, Sir frigging Lancelot.' Sam turned away.

'You think I've never killed people?' Tanhith snapped. 'I've probably killed more people than you've ever spoken to.' He spun her round violently so she was facing him, but the intensity of the moment was almost defused as he fought off a coughing fit. He took a deep breath.'Life's cheap, Sam.'

'It isn't,'said Sam, pleadingly.'How can you say that?'

'It is,' insisted Tanhith. 'Even though I've spent so long convincing myself it isn't. Trying to make mine more valuable by shoring up the numbers of those lives I've taken against it. But it doesn't work. The more you think about it...'

'I thought -' Sam's voice dried up as yet more tears sprang to her eyes. 'I thought it was your - the pain...' Her hand moved to her chest, gently tapping it.

'That?' He tapped his chest too, and smiled faintly.'Legacy of my incarceration. A reminder. Now it just reminds me of everything I've done to stay alive.'

Crichter interrupted them, angrily. 'When you've quite finished -'

Tanhith turned, raising a fist in warning. Crichter stared murderously at him.

'Stop it, you two, for God's sake.'

Tanhith lowered his fist, and tried to take Sam's hand with it, but she pulled it away. He narrowed his eyes, but whether in pain or in accusation she couldn't tell.

'Come on, Sam. You're going back to the moon to your lovely little friend, aren't you?'

***

'It's working.' The Doctor had emerged from the cave mouth, and walked over to where Anstaar was lying near the shallow grave that now housed Nashaad, some way from the pile of stones that the Doctor had heaped on the Kusk.

'Is it?' she said, dreamily.

'I'm going up.'

'See you, then.'

'If everything goes well, I'll operate the platform every few minutes.You'll know it's working - it'll glow. I'll keep working it till you come through.'

'See you, then.'

He pressed a hand against her shoulder, leaving it there for a few moments. Then he turned and walked back into the cave.

***

'The engineer's life trace has been extinguished.' The technician's voice was a hollow rattle.

The Leader spun round to face him. Only five Kusks remained unaccounted for.'And the troopers in that section?'

'The signals are becoming harder to read as chronal imbalances increase.

But one trooper at least is definitely dead.'

'If the signals are unclear, how do you know the engineer is dead?'

The technician paused. 'I felt it important to monitor the progress of the engineer if it located the Prize. I diverted more power to the maenus chip in its sensor to track it more effectively.'

The Leader hissed, but said nothing. How dare the idiot place more value on the scientist than his men, particularly when the Kusk numbers were so small anyway? In total there were now four Kusk casualties, all presumably victims of freak effects of time on the planet's surface. Four dead, to add to the ever-dwindling numbers back home. Would the Kusk race reach extinction before it managed to win its greatest victory?

The Leader considered the death of the engineer. This casualty had clearly affected the