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of the farm galleries. Angel Two saw me and wanted to know what I was doing."
Astra looked worried. "Did you tell him?"
Darv laughed. "I assured him, my lovely, that it was food from the
dispensers."
"That's twice you've called me that."
"Called you what?"
"My lovely," said Astra.
"Do you mind?"
Astra shrugged. "It just seems a funny thing to call anyone."
"You, my lovely," said Darv emphatically, "are not anyone."
"Challenger to shuttle," said Telson's voice from a nearby speaker.
Darv had his mouth full. "Go ahead, Challenger," he mumbled.
"Last call before we're below the horizon. Anything to report?"
"Nothing to add to our last report," Darv replied. "The androids have
excavated down twenty feet directly over the anomaly. They'll carry on through
the night. The seismic monitors indicate that they've got about fifty feet to
go before they reach the anomaly or whatever it is."
"Very good, Darv,"said Telson. "We'll be out of radio contact in fifteen
minutes. We'll leave you to sleep and give you a call in the morning on our
tenth orbit. Goodnight and out." The speaker clicked silent.
Darv said nothing for a moment as he stared out of a side view port at
the darkness. There was absolute silence apart from the hum of the air-
conditioning, and the clang and rattle of the two androids busily digging some
forty yards from the shuttle.
"I've just thought of something, Astra. Night and day controlled by the
sun. For the first time in half a million years, we must be the first people
in the solar system to be following the night and day of the sun."
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* * * *
An hour later, Angel One and Two sounded an alarm that brought Telson and
Sharna running into the Challenger's galactic resources centre.
"A flying machine or some sort of space craft moving above the surface of
Kyros," reported Angel Two as Sharna scrambled onto the telescope's couch.
Telson located the object on the radar display while Sharna touched out the
co-ordinates that swung the telescope down until it was pointing at the
planet.
"Got it," said Telson. "Course two-four-eight. Bearing eight-nine. Speed
nine zero miles per hour. Height one thousand feet. What the hell is it?"
Sharna zeroed the objective lens on the moving dot that was racing across
the face of the desert, heading towards the terminator and into the planet's
dark side. She increased the telescope's gain but was unable to resolve the
object into anything more tangible than two moving dots -- one of which was
the object's shadow chasing its parent body across the undulating dunes. The
shadow occasionally plunged into deep rills before renewing its pursuit across
the sands.
"Its present course will take it straight to the anomaly base," Angel One
announced. "It will arrive in three hours if it holds its present speed."
Telson swore. "We've got to warn Darv and Astra. How long before we're
above their radio horizon, Angel One?"
"Five hours and ten minutes, commander," Angel One replied promptly.
"What about using the main drive?"
"Our acceleration would be too slow to make a significant improvement on
that time. Also, of course, four are required in the control room."
Telson swore again. Even if two could manage, the thrust exerted by the
photonic drive could achieve only a very gradual rate of acceleration -- the
Challenger's multi-billion ton mass was not designed for tight manoeuvering
within the vicinity of a planet without many hours of preparation in the main
control room.
Sharna took her eyes away from the telescope's visor. "Surely there must
be a way in which we can get a warning to them?"
"There is no way," said Angel Two. "Perhaps it is not a flying machine or
a spacecraft although the crispness of the radar echoes we are receiving
suggests a metallic object and therefore artificial."
In sheer anger and frustration Telson drove a clenched fist into the palm
on his hand.
The gesture did nothing to prevent the mysterious object from crossing
the terminator and plunging into the dark side of Kyros. A few minutes later
it dipped over the far curve of the planet and radar contact was lost.
* * * *
The high-pitched tone lasted less than a quarter of a second but it woke
Astra. She turned on a light, moved to Darv's bunk and shook him by the
shoulder. He was awake immediately.
"What's the matter?"
"There was a sort of whistling sound just now," said Astra, glancing
fearfully at one of the black view ports.
Darv listened for a moment and frowned. "That's odd -- the androids have
stopped work. We'd better go out and see what's happened."
The idea didn't appeal to Astra. "Do we have to? Couldn't we wait until
sunrise?"
Darv was already pulling on a partial pressure suit. He paused and
grinned at Astra. "You don't have to come. Those stupid androids have probably
come up against a problem that they don't know how to deal with. You stay and
make me a hot drink or something."
"No," said Astra resolutely. "I'm coming with you."
Ten minutes later Darv settled the mask of his breathing set into a more
comfortable position and opened the outer air-lock door. He shone the arc
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lantern's brilliant white beam on the aluminium steps for Astra's benefit and
stepped onto the surface of Kyros.
"We should've worn our PD weapons," Astra muttered.
Darv chuckled "And have you blasting my head off if I trip or something?
No thanks."
The beam of light picked out George standing stock-still beside the huge
hole that the excavator android had been digging.
Darv and Astra approached him but he made no move and did not answer
Darv's question concerning the androids' lack of activity.
"Odd," said Darv, shining the lantern into the hole and illuminating the
motionless excavator android. "They've either switched themselves off or
they've received a cease activity command. You didn't sleepwalk and use the
radio did you?"
"No, I did not," said Astra with some vehemence. She glanced anxiously
around at the brooding shapes of the dunes crouching in the starlight. There
was something very wrong with the silhouette of the nearest dune -- something
that caused her suddenly to clutch fearfully at Darv's arm and point.
When Darv was a boy one of his favourite occupations had been watching
the terror videos in the Challenger's generously stocked entertainment
library. Whenever the background music and the lighting had been used in such
a way as to heighten the tension -- to suggest that something unspeakable was
about to happen, he had always experienced a curious prickling sensation that
started at the base of his spine and travelled up to the nape of his neck.
@PAGE BREAK = He experienced that same sensation as he brought the beam of
the arc lantern up to illuminate the dune. But the beam of light never reached
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