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Vicki’s heart.
     
    ‘You never gave them a chance,’ she whispered. Then the anger erupted inside her. ‘You could have...’ she spat passionately. Then her voice seized and she hung her head again. ‘I am sorry,’ she murmured. ‘Please forgive me for my outburst.’
    Koquillion glowered at her in silence for a moment.
    ‘You should be grateful to me, you and Bennett!’ he suddenly rasped, his voice like the sound of clashing blades. ‘It is only my intervention that prevents my species from destroying you. Do not forget: I am your only protection!’
    Vicki knelt before the hideous spectre and clasped her hands together as if in prayer. ‘Yes, I know, Koquillion...
    And we are grateful. Believe me, we are grateful.’
    The monster’s unblinking eyes gloated over her for a moment. Then it turned and manoeuvred itself through the internal hatch and hacked its way through the maze of cables and pipework to reach Bennett’s compartment.
    Vicki relaxed a little as she heard it rapping at the shutter. Then she heard Bennett’s voice. ‘No, you cannot come in...’ it snapped in the staccato mechanical tone Bennett often used when she knocked with his food or water and then tried to open the shutter. How like a robot he sounded, she had often thought.
    ‘It is Koquillion! Open the hatch!’
    Vicki heard the customary click and then the grating slide back as the monster thrust the shutter open and closed it savagely. With pounding heart she crept over to the internal hatch and listened. But all she could hear was a faint, blurred buzz of voices and she could make out nothing at all of what was being said.
    A muffled groan from the bunk made her jump. She had temporarily forgotten all about her secret during the ordeal with the alien. After a struggle, she finally managed to close the internal hatch partially. Then she ran to the bunk and pulled the blanket aside. Barbara’s lacerated face stared up at her with dazed and frightened eyes. Barbara tried to say something, but Vicki put her hand over Barbara’s mouth.
    ‘Koquillion saw me helping you,’ she whispered accusingly, as if she were blaming the bewildered stranger.
    ‘I knew it was stupid to try... I knew he would find out...
    Koquillion knows everthing... Everything...’ Overcome with panic, Vicki clutched Barbara’s hand convulsively and bowed her head, tears starting in her big terrified eyes.
    Still groggy with shock and the effects of concussion, Barbara neverthless tried to sit up. ‘Who is Cowkwildion?’
    she asked in a muddled but loudish voice.
    Vicki put her hand back over Barbara’s mouth, trembling with dismay at her outburst. ‘Quiet! He’ll hear you!’
    In spite of the consequences of her appalling experience up on the ridge, Barbara quickly sized up the situation and redoubled her efforts to get up from the bunk.
    Vicki pushed her back firmly. ‘Do not move. Please stay there,’ she begged. ‘It might return any moment. You have no idea...’
    If Barbara had known who the girl was talking about she would have retorted that she had plenty of idea. But she lay back on the pillow and massaged her throbbing temples. ‘All right...’ she murmured weakly. ‘But who are you?’
    ‘I’m Vicki.’
    Barbara tried to smile, but winced with pain instead.
    ‘Short for Victoria?’ she asked.
    Vicki looked blank. ‘Victoria? No, not short for anything. Just Vicki.’ She cast an anxious glance towards the partially closed shutter, then turned back to Barbara, a little calmer. ‘Are you from.. You are not from the Seeker ?’
    she said hopelessly.
    ‘The Seeker ?’
    ‘The rescue craft.’
    Puzzled, Barbara frowned and gingerly touched her scratched and bruised face. ‘Rescue craft? No, Vicki, I am from the... My name is Barbara,’ she said kindly, managing a sort of smile.
    Vicki seemed reassured. She wiped away her tears and returned Barbara’s smile as she sat herself on the edge of the bunk.
    Barbara was now feeling much more