The caver spokesman said: That second Gate, on the surface? That's our return route, right?'
'Right, but not yet. Oh, we could use it all right, but we can't guarantee our reception at the other end. In Perchorsk, they've learned to be extremely cautious of things that come through the Gate. So cautious they might easily kill you in half a dozen different ways before you even got to say hello! Especially now. You've seen that stuff back in the Refuge, down in the sump? Well by comparison, that's pretty tame .. .'
'And once we're away from the Gate - what then?'
Trask looked at Nathan, who said, Then it's my problem. But this is my world and I know ... oh, several routes out of here into Sunside.'
And before they could ask any more questions, Anna Marie said, 'We're wasting time. And there's also something you may have forgotten.'
'Oh?' Trask looked at her.
Turkur Tzonov and his men could well be in the vicinity. How long is it since you saw him enter the Gate in Perchorsk? And how long would it take him to walk through? Or haven't you worked it out?'
Trask did so, and quickly. 'Maybe three and a half hours since we saw him go through - it's hard to gauge. But we know he was walking, while we were transported. Also, my watch stopped during transit, and -'
'- All of our watches stopped,' the caver spokesman told him.
And Anna Marie said, 'Whichever way we look at it, Tzonov can't be too far away from us.' She inclined her head upwards. 'Either he and his men are closing with the Gate's exit right now and will soon come through onto the boulder plains ... or they're already here, somewhere overhead, perhaps heading for the barrier mountains and the great pass into Sunside.'
Trask nodded. 'First priority, then: as soon as we're out, we choose personal weapons and hang onto them. But the last thing we need is a firefight on Starside! Okay, let's
Twenty minutes later they were out, and Nathan's single glance all about had confirmed the fact that he was home, or close to it. For, of course, Starside of the barrier mountains could never be considered 'home' in the real sense of the word. Not to men, anyway.
As for the six newcomers to this place:
All very well for Trask to warn against gawping. But this was a different world, and weird. Staring all about, what Trask and the others saw was this:
First, the Gate.