Most in the dome had not slept. Everyone except children and those with very important duties was out in the dense greenery, hunting for the two missing girls, Elissa and Olivia. Even the leader of the colony was out looking, considering a missing daughter more important than the managing of the colony on Minerva. He could miss one day of work, surely. He felt the colonists would understand – and from the looks of things, they were!
For the last ten hours, generous colonists had given their time up to look, but had turned up no trace. They had shouted loudly, covered the dense forest in a ten-kilometre radius (which was slowly spreading to eleven-kilometre, then twelve-kilometre, and so on), but to no avail!
Holmes wondered what could possibly have happened to the young scientist and his younger daughter. There were plenty of places they could have gone. The forest area surrounding the dome stretched out for hundreds of kilometres, and was not easy to navigate in. A nearby river supplied water – and Elissa and Olivia could have fallen into it. Maybe they'd stumbled into a Niagorn group...
Holmes shook his head. They'd only been gone ten hours. That was short enough to remain hopeful.
"Do you want to continue the search, sir?"
The unreasonably cheerful female voice startled the man, who had obviously been absorbed in his thoughts.
The man turned to look at the teenager, who was fifteen, and short despite her confidence.
"Yes," he replied, vaguely aware of what he was saying, "but you can decrease numbers. Everyone needs their sleep."
"Right," the girl replied, nodding. "Maybe you should sleep then, sir." Satisfied that she hadn't said the wrong thing – which she had – she went off into the forest to recall colonists.
The girl was right, of course. He did need sleep. Unfortunately, being the colony's leader meant that he would have to assure those asleep and peacefully unaware of the disaster unfolding outside. He would be exhausted by the time the day was over, he was sure.
Elissa Castle had a lot to explain.
Olivia Holmes stirred. Luckily for her, it was summer on this alien planet, and therefore quite warm, but she was still uncomfortable.
Olivia opened her eyes. She was still trapped inside the underground stone structure. She could understand her scientist friend's astonishment, but still wasn't sure why she was interested.
Similarly, she also couldn't understand why Elissa was awake and enthusiastically examining some alien inscriptions on the wall.
"Did you eat all the food?" Olivia mumbled.
Elissa turned. "Oh. I'd rather distracted myself," Elissa replied. "We haven't been given any. And these inscriptions are rather more fascinating than moaning about an empty stomach."
Olivia stared at the seemingly random shapes on the wall. "What do they mean?" she asked suspiciously.
"Well, I've got no idea. I'm sure they'd be even more fascinating if I did know," Elissa said by way of response, turning around to examine them again.
"You're not going to try and learn, are you?" Olivia asked, groaning. "We should be trying to escape."
"Don't be ridiculous," Elissa snapped. "We've never known anything about Niagorn culture before, and now we have this big chance... oh, and, besides," she added hastily, "there isn't a way out. I checked."
Olivia doubted Elissa had actually been looking for ways out at the time, but she had to admit that it did seem that way. Right near the ceiling there were a few holes that might have been big enough to accommodate them, but it was several metres above their heads.
"I'm hungry," Olivia complained.
"Well, wait," Elissa instructed. "I doubt we can find any food in here."
"Hmpf," Olivia grumbled. She almost wished it had been winter, just so she'd have another thing to complain about.
"Oi!"
Leela and the Doctor halted at a man's shout. Before long, a brown-haired man ran up to the duo.
"Who are you?"
The Doctor stared at the short man for a moment before replying. "I'm the Doctor," he said, "and that's Leela. Who are you?"
"Where'd you spring from, then?" the man continued.
"Well, Mr Where'd-you-spring-from-then, I'm very pleased to meet you," the Doctor smiled and tried to shake the man's hand.
"That's not what I mean," the man snapped. "Where'd you come here from?"
"You wouldn't believe me," the Doctor warned.
"Try me."
"Pluto," the Doctor told him. "I told you you wouldn't believe me..."
"You didn't seriously expect me to, did you?" the man snapped.
"You asked us where we came from and we told you," Leela told the man. "You did not want us to make something up?"
The man's eyes happened across the knife held at Leela's side. "Um, no..."
"Hey, Nicko!" added a new voice. Before long, a dark-haired teenager bounded towards the small group. "You should be in bed," she added.
"Is your name really Nicko?" the Doctor snorted.
The man termed Nicko glared at the teenager. "No," he growled. "That's what my baby cousin Anger calls me. My name's Nicholas."
The teenager pulled a face. "Not Anger," she snapped. "My name is Angela." She turned to look at the two newcomers. "Hi," she beamed. "Do you know anything about two missing girls?"
"Angela!" Nicholas shouted.
"What?" Angela looked stunned.
"They might have had something to do with it!"
Leela unsheathed the knife at her side. "Do you think we kidnapped two girls?" she demanded.
"Now, now," Angela protested. "You can't go waving knives at people like that. Of course we don't, do we Nicko?"
Nicholas glared at his cousin. "No," he growled, "we don't."
"Good," Leela said, sheathing her knife again.
"I don't suppose you could show us to where you're staying?" the Doctor asked politely.
"'Course," Angela smiled cheerily. "As long as your friend keeps her knife sheathed, at least."
The Doctor stared at Leela as an instruction to do what Angela said.
Leela sighed. "I will."
Aaron Holmes was not remotely cheerful. He was exhausted as well, having stayed up half the night anxiously hoping his daughter would turn up.
"Sorry, sir," Angela apologised, as she, her cousin, the Doctor and Leela all stumbled into the room.
Holmes rubbed his eyes. "That's all right. Who are these people?"
"Ah, well, I'm the Doctor," the Doctor informed the sleepy man, "and that's Leela. Who are you?"
"Aaron Holmes," Holmes said, then proceeding to yawn. "Forgive me, I didn't get any sleep."
"Something to do with the missing girls?"
"Who told you about that?"
"The girl standing behind me," the Doctor explained, pointing behind him at Angela.
"Angela!"
"I know, I know," Angela made a face. "Nicholas already told me."
"Anyway," the Doctor began, "maybe Leela and I could help in some way?"
"You don't even know what Olivia looks like," Holmes moaned. "Oh, and nor Elissa."
"Well, no... but could anything possibly have happened to them? Such as falling into a ravine, or..."
"Only the Niagorn," Holmes stated. "I hope the Niagorn didn't capture them – they're only animals."
"Ah," the Doctor said. "What do you know about the Niagorn?"
"Not a lot," Holmes admitted. "We do a survey once every six months, but we don't learn a lot... just that the Niagorn population is declining."
"Declining?" the Doctor queried.
"I don't know why," Holmes said wearily. "We think it has something to do with declining food supply."
"Oh. Is it possible that these Niagorn are intelligent in some way?" the Doctor asked.
Holmes shrugged and yawned. "Maybe," he said dazedly. "Probably not, though."
The Doctor considered this. "Aaron," he declared. "I've decided that Leela and I will search for your missing loved one and her friend."
Before giving anyone the chance to protest, he strolled out of the room – rapidly pursued by Leela.
"How did he know...?" Holmes asked in wonder.
"Sir?" Angela chirped.
"He knew Olivia was close to me," Holmes sighed. "Or am I dreaming?"
Nicholas and Angela exchanged a glance. "You ought to get some sleep, sir," Angela told the man.
Holmes yawned again. "Maybe, Angela, maybe..."
"You're not understanding any of that," Olivia snapped at her friend.
"I don't need to," Elissa replied. "I mean, just look at these lines!"
"I don't want to," the younger girl mumbled. "I want food, not a lesson..."
"They haven't been carved," Elissa told Olivia, unperturbed. "The lines are far too smooth... and straight... or else perfectly curved..."
"Who cares?"
Elissa turned to glare at the girl. "Don't you possess any scientific curiosity?" she demanded. "To get those lines so smooth, the Niagorn would have to have a... a laser of some sort. And that's always been assumed too technological for these creatures to achieve..."
"But," Olivia grunted, "that doesn't explain why you've been staring at those funny symbols for half the morning."
"Oh, I haven't been solely staring at them for half the morning," Elissa smiled. "I've been thinking about the food supply, too. While you were complaining about it."
Olivia glared at her friend. "But I'm hungry," was her feeble excuse.