truments, and the Disans were thought to have no detection
apparatus. The altimeter dials spun backwards to zero and a soft
vibration was the only indication they had landed. All of the cabin
lights were off except for the fluorescent glow of the instruments.
A white-speckled grey filled the infra-red screen, radiation from
the still warm sand and stone. There were no moving blips on it,
not the characteristic shape of a shielded atomic generator.

"We're here first," Ihjel said, opaqueing the ports and turning on
the cabin lights. They blinked at each other, faces damp with
perspiration.

"Must you have the ship this hot?" Lea asked, patting her forehead
with an already sodden kerchief. Stripped of her heavier clothing,
she looked even tinier to Brion. But the thin cloth tunic--reaching
barely halfway to her knees--concealed very little. Small she may
have appeared to him: unfeminine she was not. Her breasts were full
and high, her waist tiny enough to offset the outward curve of her
hips.

"Shall I turn around so you can stare at the back too?" she asked
Brion. Five days' experience had taught him that this type of remark
was best ignored. It only became worse if he tried to make an
intelligent answer.

"Dis is hotter than this cabin," he said, changing the subject.
"By raising the interior temperature we can at least prevent any
sudden shock when we go out--"

"I know the theory--but it doesn't stop me from sweating," she said
curtly.

"Best thing you can do is sweat." Ihjel said. He looked like a
glistening captive balloon in shorts. Finishing a bottle of beer,
he took another from the freezer. "Have a beer."

"No, thank you. I'm afraid it would dissolve the last shreds of
tissue and my kidneys would float completely away. On Earth we
never--"

"Get Professor Morees' luggage for her," Ihjel interrupted. "Vion's
coming, there's his signal. I'm sending this ship up before any of
the locals spot it."

When he cracked the outer port the puff of air struck them like the
exhaust from a furnace, dry and hot as a tongue of flame. Brion
heard Lea's gasp in the darkness. She stumbled down the ramp and he
followed her slowly, careful of the weight of packs and equipment he
carried. The sand, still hot from the day, burned through his boots.
Ihjel came last, the remote-control unit in his hand. As soon as
they were clear he activated it and the ramp slipped back like a
giant tongue. As soon as the lock had swung s