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By Root 209 0

to sit on. He had volunteered for the job because it would be recorded in his personnel file, and he earnestly wanted to become a First Officer so that he would get a bigger living unit on Earth. His arms ached through trying to hold the binoculars with one hand and his high-powered rifle with the other. Then he questioned why he was holding the rifle, since all the colonists were in their spaceship. He put the rifle down, and now he was able to use both hands to hold the heavy binoculars. Almost as soon as he had put down the rifle, Winton sprang at him from the darkness, battering at him with a knife-sharp rock.

Jo stood by while Caldwell fixed one of the front wheels of the buggy. In the darkness they had hit a rock, knocking out the track of the buggy's steering gear. More than once they had lost track of the footprints and track marks that were guiding them to the entrance of the Primitives' underground city. Caldwell straightened up.

'That should be all right,' he said. 'Get back on'

As Jo climbed on the seat next to Caldwell they both heard the distant roar of the old spaceship's rocket motors. They turned and looked. The spaceship rose slowly into the night sky, a downthrust plume of flame lifting it higher and higher.

'Well; said Caldwell , starting up the buggy, 'they made it.' He grinned with relief, and the buggy began to more dowly forward.

All at once a brilliant flash lit all the land around them like daylight. It was followed by a momentous explosion as the colonists' spaceship disintegrated.

Caldwell stopped the buggy. He was unable to speak.

'All those poor people,' said Jo.

'Yes,' said Caldwell at last. 'All those poor people. Dead.'

He started the buggy again and they drove ahead slowly and in total silence.

The Doctor and the Master stood with their backs pressed to the silvery-coloured wall as two more priests entered carrying with them a casket. 'If you play your telepathy trick,' whispered the Master, 'and warn them of our presence, I shall shoot you instantly.'

'If they know of our presence,' whispered the Doctor, 'there will be no need for you to shoot me. We shall both be killed.'

The priests all made a ritual bow to the drum-like control console in the middle of the room. Then they turned towards the hatch in the wall and opened it. Heat from the furnace inside filled the room. Two priests went forward with the casket, a third with long tongs. The lid of the casket was removed and the S-shaped ends of the tongs were dipped into the casket. When the tongs were lifted, they gripped an isotope - fuel for a nuclear reactor. The priest slowly thrust the isotope deep into the white hot furnace.

The Master whispered, 'They most be refuelling the weapon.

'My guess,' whispered the Doctor, 'is that it's a religious ceremony with a scientific basis. It most have been going on for generations.'

The otter faced priests slowly backed away from the now closed hatch, and backed out through the two, huge doors. The doors were closed from the outside. The Master moved away from the wall , 'Now, Doctor,' he said, very reassured again, 'let us see what the Doomsday Weapon can do.' He inspected the controls on top of the drum-shaped console, then pressed one of the buttons. The colour of the whole of the wall on one side of the room changed from silvery grey to dark blue and then to black. Little spots of light appeared. 'How ingenious,' said the Master; 'before our eyes, the galaxy.' He turned a calibrated knob on the control console, and the little spots of light started swimming towards them at enormous speed. The picture of the galaxy was focussing down to one particular spot of light in the centre. After some moments this central spot of light had increased from a spot to a small white disc. Now the Master touched another control and the picture of the galaxy settled and stopped moving. 'That disc,' said the Master, 'is the sun of the planet Earth that you're so fond of. As you know, that sun will eventually burn through to its own core and explode - in about ten thousand million years' time. But