It was official: Tommy was not in Angel Grove anymore. Not anywhere even close. Where there should have been tall buildings and greenery and people, there was only an enormous expanse of empty desert. For the most part the land was level, punctuated by the occasional cactus or cluster of dried-up brush. Far in the distance he could make out the vague shapes of enormous sand dunes, and tall mesas and rocky up-thrusts.

There were a lot of questions he wanted to ask - namely, "where on Earth are we?" - but he followed Trini in silence. It was surprisingly easy to be content with the fact that he was alive and able to put one foot in front of the other, even though it was scorching hot and he wasn't used to walking so far or so fast over sand.

Oblivious to, or deliberately ignoring, his discomfort, Trini trudged on ahead. She set a good pace, which had Tommy struggling to keep up at times, but did not seem to mind letting him lag a little behind. In fact, so long as he followed at a reasonable pace and obeyed whatever orders she gave, his presence did not seem to bother her in the slightest, despite her earlier animosity. Not that the rope she'd tied his hands with gave him much choice in the matter.

He had already tried and failed to worm his way out of the bindings, and had come to the conclusion that he should just accept his fate and wait for a chance to get free. And hope that Trini didn't decide to shoot him in the meantime. But since she took care to give him a share of the water from her canteen every now and then and hadn't already offed or abandoned him, he had hope even for that.

It seemed like they had been walking for ages when he realized they were heading toward the closest of the rocky outcroppings, a large mass of reddish stone. As they drew gradually closer, he could make out a dark shape at the base of the mesa. A cave? Or something man-made?

He couldn't tell yet, but he had a feeling he was going to find out.

The sun was significantly lower in the sky by the time they finally arrived. Everything seemed tinged red and pink with the dusk, and Trini finally seemed ready to stop for the day. For his part, Tommy was glad just to be walking in the shadow of the huge monolith, instead of in the sun.

He had guessed right; they went right up to the dark spot, a cave cut into the stone, but they didn't go in. Instead, Trini turned to him and looked him over for a moment.

Finally: "If I untie you, are you going to behave?"

He nodded enthusiastically. He was ready to just collapse into the shade and sleep, but if she was offering him his freedom instead, he wasn't going to say no.

She scrutinized him carefully. "You had better not do anything stupid."

"I wasn't planning on it."

She effortlessly untied the knots that had so hopelessly bound him. He gratefully rubbed his hands to restore circulation that had been impeded for too long.

"You can have a look around if you like," she told him. "I don't think you can get into too much trouble here."

"I promise I won't get in any trouble at all," he assured her. It didn't look like she believed him. Her loss.

He glanced toward the gaping black hole in the rock, wondering if he should go in or stay outside.

"Here," Trini said, digging in her pack. She drew out something that looked suspiciously like a flashlight and handed it to him. "You'll want this. It's dark inside."

She was right, of course. After some fumbling he managed to get the thing turned on, and it emitted a light bright enough to see by. Thus prepared, he headed through the doorway. What he saw took him slightly aback.

The entire mesa had been hollowed out. Inside were a series of halls and small caverns, some stocked with preserved food and barrels of what he assumed was water, others obviously intended for sleeping or living. A staircase was cut into one wall, winding its way upward.

Tommy briefly explored all of it, pleased with his newfound freedom. But there was nothing of interest. There were no personal touches in any of the rooms, no decor beyond some utilitarian blankets and a white box with a red cross on it that he guessed was a first aid kit. There were no people. And there certainly was nothing that even came close to explaining what was going on.

For that, he would have to face Trini.

He found her sitting on the stoop outside the entrance, drinking out of her canteen and watching the scenery as if it were the most perfectly normal thing in the world to do.

"You were bluffing!" he accused. Not exactly what he had intended to start with, but it annoyed him to be duped so easily. "You don't have a partner, you were just trying to scare -"

He cut himself off when she gestured lazily toward the sky to his left. He let his gaze drift in that direction and saw, much to his surprise, a strange sort of flying contraption in the air. It looked like something out of an early science fiction novel, or maybe one of da Vinci's notebooks - like the impossible offspring of a hang-glider and a motor-powered airplane. If he squinted, he could make out the form of a pilot, clad in dark material that might have been leather or something equally durable. But whoever it was, his or her face was covered by a mask and a set of large, bizarre-looking goggles. It was an ungainly vehicle; he did not know how it managed to stay aloft, only that it did.

The pilot cut the engine and slowed its approach, gliding around the mesa a couple of times before vanishing completely. Dumbfounded, Tommy stared at the place where it had disappeared around the side of the mesa. It was really too bad Billy couldn't see any of this.

"Come on," Trini said suddenly, interrupting his thoughts with her imperious tone, as if she was tempted to physically prod him out of his helpless gawking. On second thought, she probably wouldn't hesitate to do just that if he didn't get moving. "Let's go see how her patrol went."