A couple of hours before this planet's dawn, he was back, slipping through the trees like a ghost. She was annoyed by how close he'd got before she spotted him - she should have been able to do better than that when matched against someone who just a thief, albeit a very good one. In fact, her watch had been a quiet one and she'd been thinking about him. He would, she considered, have fitted in quite well with the League of Assassins - he was not without a moral code - though she was not at all sure what Nyssa would have thought of that. A.R.G.U.S. might also have suited him - he would probably have replied that he didn't join things - so what are you doing here, she might have retorted.

He moved quietly past her into the cave, where the other two members of the team were sleeping and held up a bulky metal object that she could only dimly make out.

''Maintenance tool - it had slipped down behind one of the consoles on the flight deck. I took a good around the controls, so I can back up whatever Sleeping Beauty finds out for us.''

He schooled his voice to make it sound as if it had been no more difficult than an afternoon stroll in the sunshine. In fact, he'd had to do a bit of dodging and weaving to avoid late nighters - more than he would have expected, given the nature of this planet and the base.

His voice had roused the two sleepers, so they had an early 'breakfast' for want of a better term to apply to the pre-packaged meals they'd brought along, while he described the consoles on the flight deck to Cisco. The meta would see for himself in due course, but a second perspective was always useful.

First light was filtering through the trees when they headed back towards their vantage point overlooking the camp. Sara's monitor saw something quite large - but it was at the edge of her equipment's range and soon moved off. Making themselves as comfortable as they could, they settled down to wait.

And wait. And wait - Cisco tried to copy the other three's stillness, thinking that he was probably the only one who wasn't used to this kind of thing. People in the camp got up, they evidently went to have breakfast - Cisco hoped it was no better than the one he'd had. They went to work. It wasn't until about mid-morning that Savage, Cassandra Savage, the other woman, Tandy and the two Time Masters approached the ship. The workers downed tools or came out of the buildings to watch.

''This is it'' Sara hissed in Cisco's ear.

He nodded and tightened his grip on the purloined tool.

Savage and the two Time Masters went aboard. Cisco began to vibe and watched them enter the flight deck. Caspar and Dronon slid into the pilot and co-pilot seats, with Savage standing behind them. Cisco moved his viewpoint until he was alongside Savage, feeling oddly nervous about being so close, even as a projection. He watched and tried to memorise the start-up and flight sequences, the controls that opened the breach - then the ship was going through, and he saw -

He was jolted back to the Greenworld reality by the pressure of Sara's hand on his shoulder. Her other hand was over his mouth. She took the latter away when she saw that he was fully back.

''Did I call out?'' he whispered.

''No, but you were breathing pretty heavy, and I thought -'' her expression was curious.

''I saw how the ship works - how they opened the breach -'' he closed his mouth - he didn't want to mention the other thing - yet.

Snart had eased his way over to them. Now he murmured ''Everyone's waiting around down there. Looks like this trip isn't going to take long.''

He was right - it couldn't have been more than ten or fifteen minutes before the breach in the sky opened again. Cisco projected himself back into the flight deck, where the two Time Masters were now alone and watched them close the breach and land the ship. As soon as the shut-down sequence was complete, he switched back to normal consciousness.

The hatch was already open, and Savage was coming down the ramp, a woman - his principal visitor no doubt - at his side. Thirty of her probable subordinates descended behind the pair.

The quartet on the ridge, with barely glance at each other, wriggled backwards, then turned and rose, slipping into the tree cover. They didn't stop until they were half a mile away. Then they did look at each other. For long seconds no one spoke, then Snart managed to say, gruffly ''Back to Earth 1, now. The others need to know about this''

No one disagreed.