“Up. Is time.” Tilly was too weak, she discovered, to get on her feet without the aid of a nano-suit. He grabbed her arm and hauled her up. She struggled to put one foot in front of the other as he half led half carried her back to the room where the others waited, but it felt as if her legs were made of jelly. She didn’t get the chance to go back and sprawl on the floor to recover. When he opened the door, he ordered all of them out. They were marched down the corridor and then down the gangplank. The first ‘taste’ of the alien world came as they left the ship. Even the air, Tilly thought dully, smelled alien. Despite the fact that the spot where they’d landed appeared to be a desert, it was also cool and windy. But then she was still heated from the horrendous climax she’d just experienced. Maybe, she thought vaguely, she wouldn’t feel as if she was freezing to death if not for that.
