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inviting.
    “There,” she whispered
to Artorius. “That’s our way out of here.”
    “You’re going to steal
a transport?”
    “Borrow it,” Ravana
corrected him. “Hopefully.”
    She scurried to the
transport and activated the control to open the rear hatch.
Artorius and the greys followed more hesitantly, but before long
Ravana was hastening them up the steps, through the airlock and
into the passenger cabin. She sealed the hatch behind them.
    The lights came on as
they entered, revealing bare metal walls with bench seats and
overhead lockers on either side. Ravana hurried forward to the
cockpit and dropped into the driver’s seat. Sitting before the
console felt reassuringly like being on the flight deck of the Platypus to give her confidence, though she had precious
little experience driving anything with wheels. Both the dome above
and the design of the transport suggested that wherever they were,
the world outside was far from welcoming.
    “Nowhere to run?” she
muttered. Their escape had been remarkably easy to far. She hit the
start switch. “We’ll see about that.”
    The hydrogen-powered
engine roared into life, louder than she expected. Seconds later,
alarms began to ring and the dome lit up with flashing red warning
lights. Artorius and the greys quickly added to the confusion with
a barrage of mutterings and nervous screeches. With a hand on the
steering wheel, Ravana shoved the gear level into ‘drive’.
    The transport
shuddered into motion towards the closed door of the dome airlock.
She looked for a remote airlock control on the console before her,
then in desperation closed her eyes, brought up the implant images
in her mind and gave a panicky mental stab at the one that seemed
most likely. To her relief, the airlock door ahead began to slide
open.
    The transport trundled
into the chamber. Automatic sensors got to work to seal the door
behind them, ready to let them loose onto whatever lay beyond.
Ravana found the control for the rear-view camera and caught a
glimpse of two figures running from the fake hospice towards them
before the airlock door sealed them from sight. There was a
metallic clang as the door in front began to slide open. A sudden
shaft of daylight broke through and Ravana raised a hand to shield
her eyes.
    “Wow!” exclaimed
Artorius. “A proper alien planet!”
    The door revealed a
bleak desert landscape against an arid pink sky. Ahead, a black
gravel road ran to the horizon across a sea of red dunes. Ravana
saw straight away that the bright yellow sun was not the distant
light that Epsilon Eridani was to Daode, nor was it the bloated red
disc that was Barnard’s Star from Ascension. Now she remembered
everything.
    “Falsafah,” said
Ravana. “It looks like I never left Tau Ceti after all.”
     
    * * *

Chapter
Two
Down and out in
Newbrum
     
    [Chapter One ]
[ Contents ] [ Chapter Three ]
     
    ADMINISTRATOR VERDANDI
sat back in her chair and frowned. She had long ago learned that
the art of delegation was a delicate balancing game; it was all
about giving subordinates just enough power to keep things running
smoothly, but not enough to totally screw things up. It was a
philosophy that had served the domed settlement of Newbrum well for
many years, not to mention one that had made her the
longest-serving city Administrator ever on Ascension and favoured
candidate to fill the vacant post of planet-wide Governor come the
elections next year. Her tall, imposing presence was often all that
was needed to spur others to get on with the job, for the brisk
mind beneath her tightly-secured blond hair was perfectly
encapsulated by her equally sharp suit and boots. The thud of the
latter could make any of her staff cut short their lunch break.
    Nevertheless, the
arrival of the refugees from the asteroid colony ship Dandridge
Cole had proved testing. Every day there seemed to be yet
another problem that demanded her personal attention. Verdandi was
beginning to suspect that her