Chapter 4

"Ah, Doctor Page," Lester drawled, looking up from the papers in his hands. "How nice to see you looking so... tranquil."

Sarah took a deep breath and avoided the temptation to turn and glare at Becker. Instead she looked from Lester to the young woman standing on the opposite side of the room. The girl looked younger than herself, maybe ages with Abby, maybe a little older. She was a skinny little thing with long, straight, mousy brown hair and large hazel eyes. Sarah looked back to Lester.

"Doctor Page, Captain Becker," Lester began, rising to his feet. "Allow me to introduce Doctor Margaret Bowman, doctor of philosophy, Cambridge. Doctor Bowman is our new physicist and computer expert."

"Please, call me Meg," the younger woman smiled nervously. "We heard you needed a replacement computer geek with a sideline in theoretical physics, so, here I am."

Sarah gritted her teeth and heard the intake of breath from Becker on her other side.

"Well, not that I can replace your friend, of course, I mean..." Doctor Bowman stopped babbling and sighed. "Oh, I have put my foot in it, haven't I. I'm so sorry."

"Well, now that introductions are over, Doctor Page, I expect you'll be wanting to show Doctor Bowman the lab and bring her up to speed on our current developments. I haven't quite had the chance to explain the project to her yet. I'm sure Captain Becker and yourself will manage to fill in the details admirably."

Lester's eyes dropped down to the papers again, a sign that the interview was over. Sarah stood her ground, unmoving.

"Was there something else, Doctor Page?" Lester asked without looking up.

"I want to go through the racetrack anomaly," Sarah stated, defiant.

"Under no circumstances," Lester replied tersely.

"What's an anomaly?" Doctor Bowman asked, her brow wrinkling.

"You took this job without knowing what anomaly is?" Sarah asked, disbelief written all over her features.

"She's not the first," Lester sighed, "is she Captain?"

Becker was spared the challenge of reply by the blaring sound of the anomaly detector klaxon.

"My, what perfect timing!" Lester quipped, his eyes still perusing the wordy document in his hands. "Now you won't have to worry about explaining, Doctor, you can just show her instead. Off you go."

Rolling her eyes in a silent plea to the Almighty, Sarah turned on her heel and stormed out of the room. She could hear the hurried footsteps of the girl following her and sensed, rather than heard, the swift stride of Becker following the girl. Becker's presence was confirmed when he called down to the atrium floor for co-ordinates, then brushed past them, issuing orders to his men over his radio.

"What's happening?" Doctor Bowman's voice piped up from behind Sarah.

"Oh, just you hold tight and keep up," Sarah sighed, turning to face the new girl. "You'll find out soon enough."

XXXX

Danny held up a hand to shade his eyes from the bright sunlight that was now dazzling him. He had lost count of the number of mossy trees he had squeezed moisture from on the way from the clearing to the edge of the forest, but it was certainly dozens. He stood looking out at the sand covered beach in front of him. To his left there was sand. To his right there was sand. Behind him lay the forest. Before him lay the beach. Beyond the beach, he could make out shimmering blue water and, close enough to make out the beach and tree line, another island. The island in the distance looked small and flat. As far as the island he was on was concerned, it had been flat so far, but Danny couldn't say with any certainty that it was all like that. He couldn't say how large it was either. All he could say was, if this island had a river or stream of any kind, any outlet of fresh water would have to cross this beach to get to the sea before him. Turning to his right, away from the blinding sun, he began to follow the tree line round the island.

XXXX

Connor slumped down in the tunnel entrance and breathed a deep sigh of relief. There had been no light round the first bend, nor the second or third, but finally he had seen it. It had taken him at least another hour, an hour he wasn't entirely sure Abby could spare, but he had made it out of the tunnel. Well, not out exactly, not yet, but to the end of it at least.

He looked down the small cliff that cut away sharply from the tunnel entrance. He wouldn't be able to carry Abby down there, not unconscious. He wasn't even sure he could get down there himself. Luckily, he didn't have to. Not yet, anyway. He could reach the precious water he'd been in search of just by stretching out his arm. He pulled the water bottle from his pack and held it out under the flowing stream of the waterfall that covered the entrance to the tunnel system. The force of the water pushed his arm down to an awkward angle, but he managed to hold it there long enough to collect half a bottle's worth. He poured some over his face and drank the rest, then held the bottle out again to refill it.

If he could move Abby closer to the tunnel entrance, he could keep her cool just by pouring water over her. The current of air created by the falling water would help the moisture evaporate and lower her temperature faster than just the water itself. The waterfall was also hiding them, giving them some degree of safety from the predators outside.

Predators.

Every niche has its predators, he thought. He hadn't been able to see much in the tunnels, but now that some light filtered through from the other side of the water, he could see some damp mosses growing up the walls of the tunnel. Undoubtedly there would be something to eat the moss, and where there's prey, there's predators.

Bottle filled, Connor picked himself up and began the dark journey back to Abby's side. If he could get her to wake up, even just long enough to take a few sips of water, he'd be happier. Long enough to walk with him to the waterfall would be better, but he didn't think that hope would stand up to much testing.

XXXX

Doctor Margaret Bowman peered, mouth open, at the shining, shimmering anomaly in front of her. She leant towards it, drawn like the various metallic objects the team around her had already learnt to tie down. She'd already spotted the magnetic field of the anomaly when the pen in her hand had been wrenched away from her. Now she was taking notes with a pencil.

"What have we got?" Captain Becker barked at one of his operatives positioned at a laptop.

"We're on the last of the samples, sir," the soldier replied. "That's it. The rover is heading back now."

"Get the locking mechanism ready!" Becker called to another of his men then picked up his radio. "Search teams. Status update."

"Beta team reporting, sir. All clear," came the first reply.

"Gamma team reporting, sir. All clear here too."

"Delta team, is the perimeter in place?" Becker asked his radio.

"Delta team reporting, sir," was the response. "Affirmative, sir. Perimeter is set up."

"Delta team, maintain positions. Beta team, return to base. Gamma team, repeat building search."

Various army versions of "how high" were returned to Becker's orders to jump. Meg watched as the Captain walked over to her.

"If they're the beta, gamma and delta teams, where is the alpha team?" Meg asked as Becker stopped in front of her.

"We're the alpha team," Becker frowned and folded his hands behind his back. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to move back from the anomaly, Doctor Bowman."

"Oh, right," Meg stepped backwards once, then, seeing Becker's raised eyebrow, a few more times. When she stopped this time, he nodded.

"That's better," he said, walking towards her and past her. "Oh and look out for the rover when it comes back through. The magnetic field makes it difficult for the operator to maintain full control of it at first."

"The what?" Meg called, looking back over her shoulder as the Captain walked away.

A noise from the anomaly brought Meg's attention back to it just in time to avoid the hurtling mechanical shape that zoomed past like a pellet coughed up by an oversized owl.

Another noise sounded from the anomaly and, when Meg looked up this time, she saw that the shimmering shards had coalesced into a shining ball. She stepped forward again and reached out a hand to it.

"I wouldn't touch it while it's locked," came a voice from over her shoulder. Meg turned to see Doctor Sarah Page carrying a rectangular shape with a cover over it.

"Why not?" Meg asked.

"We don't know quite what the effect will be," Doctor Page answered. "It might unlock, or it might give you an electric shock, or it might just take your hand off. We just don't know."

"Oh, right."

"Worked out what it is yet?" Doctor Page asked wearily.

"Not entirely."

"Let me know when you do."

Meg hurried to catch up with the older woman, who was now walking away from her.

"That looks heavy," she said, indicating the contents of Sarah's arms.

"It's a specimen tank," Sarah replied. "It's more cumbersome than heavy really."

"I thought the specimens were on the rover?"

"Some of them are," Sarah nodded, "but any live ones we find are kept separate to be sent back after analysis."

"Sent back?"

"Apparently very important for the future evolution of the planet," Sarah sighed.

"What's on the other side of there?" Meg asked, pointing back at the anomaly.

"We don't know exactly," Sarah answered, setting the tank down on a trestle table. "Might be the future, might be the past. The only things we do know for certain is that it's this planet and it's not right now. Anything more than that we learn from our sample analysis."

"And what do these samples tell you?" Meg waved a hand at the tank.

"Well," Sarah began, "I'm guessing we'll have to rely on the carbon dating of the rover samples, because frankly I haven't a clue what this is!"

As she spoke, Doctor Page pulled the cover off the specimen tank to reveal a long, flat, caterpillar-like creature with a bright blue stripe down its back, hundreds of fleshy little legs protruding from its sides and a long, stalk-like antenna with a round red ball on the end of it sticking out of the top of what appeared to be its front end.