It was nighttime when Gar woke Sarah. “Get dressed,” he said. “Time to go.”

Sarah nodded and dressed with the others, pulling the red robe on as well, and making sure she had the right pack and then pulling it on beneath the robe. She grabbed her rifle, slung it over her shoulder, and followed Gar out the hole. He took a moment to scan the landscape with his binoculars, and then it was time to crawl once more.

Sarah kept looking forward to the volcano, and every time she did her heart fell. They didn’t look any closer than they had been before.

Here and there as they crawled the wind would pick up, slinging hot embers and sparks through the air, and they would all have to stop crawling, putting their faces to the hot earth to keep from burning their eyes. They could feel when they neared one of the rivers of lava, but luckily they hadn’t come to another one which they had to cross.

Through the day they had to stop seven times as ships passed by overhead, and soon the sky was lightening once more, and Gar began looking for shelter.

“Night is so swift here,” Sarah said.

“Just over five hours,” Gar agreed. It was eleven hours on his own planet, much closer to Earth's.

“All the more reason to keep moving,” Char said. “We need to finish this. At this rate it will be two more days of this.”

“And so it will be,’ Gar said, with a finality in his voice that made Char understand that his opinion was noted but he was not free to share it again.

“Okay,” Char said with a deep sigh. “What about there?”

Gar looked where the younger Zaytarian was pointing. His eyes went wide. He had somehow missed the structure when he was scanning the landscape, though he realized it was because it had been built on the far side of a rise in the earth, and couldn’t be seen until they were around the hill.

It was a building. It was in disrepair, and leaning to the side, but there was no mistaking it. It was a building made of stone, with a door of wood and a window carved into the side.

“Char?” Gar asked, and Chair pulled his rifle from his shoulder, the only weapon they had with a scope attached. He crawled ahead of the group and paused, a few hundred yards from the building. He watched it for a moment through his scope, and when he finally spoke they could hear him in their earpieces.

“It looks quiet. No movement, no one peeking through the window. I can’t be sure it’s empty though, not from this angle.”

“What is it?” Sarah asked. “Who built it?”

“I don’t know,” Gar said.

“It looks old,” Fib spoke up.

“Real old,” Sarah agreed.

“I’m going to make for it. Slowly,” Gar said. “Char, cover me. Sarah, watch the sky. Fib, you got the rear.”

Sarah rolled onto her side so she could see the sky. It was quickly fading from night to day, and surely any passing craft would have a much easier time spotting them. The night only helped so much.

Fib moved slowly, turning around on her stomach so she was facing the other way, her feet up next to Sarah’s head.

“Still clear,” Char said, and Gar started to move. Sarah wanted to watch her lover, to make sure he was safe, but she didn’t dare. She had a job to do.

Gar crawled more quickly than they had been, needing to get them in before the sun had fully risen. His stomach no longer touched the ground, instead he scurried along on his elbows and knees, his rifle slung over his back, instead of at the ready. He could reach for the handgun at his hip if he needed to in a hurry.

As he neared the building he could get a better sense of it. It was made of stone, a chalky white stone instead of the red he was crawling over, and the door was wood, so dark it was nearly black. There was a window on one side of the building, and could be more on the other sides. It was square, large enough to comfortably sleep them all, and Gar found himself hoping it was empty.

He pulled up when he was fifty feet away from the building and listened. He could hear nothing. Of course, the Aeon’s didn’t speak. They spoke through their minds, and Gar was glad he was wearing his breathing mask. It had a small strip that ran up to the temple on the right side, serving as a damper, intended to keep the Aeon’s from picking up their mental relays.

But the Aeon’s had eyes, and just as Gar lifted himself into a crouch, preparing to run for the door before another aircraft flew over and saw him, the almost black door swung open, and an Aeon was staring directly at him.

“Shit,” Sarah heard Gar and Char say, at the exact same time. Char was watching Gar’s progress through the scope on his rifle, and he took aim, even as Gar whipped his handgun out and fired at the surprised enemy.

Both energy bolts slapped into the Aeon, Char’s just below his chin, burning a hole through his neck, Gar’s slightly to the left of his chest. The Aeon flew backwards, and then Gar was diving to the side as a flurry of red bolts flew through the open door.

There were more Aeon’s inside.

A bolt found Gar, and he screamed. Sarah’s eyes went wide three hundred yards away as she heard the anguish in his voice.