Quiana looked away, her eyes troubled. As Dantan moved to slip off his helmet her hand came up again to stop him.
"Don't."
"Why not?"
For answer she rose, beckoning for him to follow. She stepped across the threshold into the shaft and swiftly began to climb the pegs toward the surface and the hammering of the Redhelms up above. Dantan, at her gesture, followed.
Over her shoulder she said briefly,
"We are of two very different worlds. Watch—but be careful." And she touched the device that locked the oval door.
It slipped down and swung aside.
Dantan caught one swift glimpse of Redhelm heads dodging back to safety. They did not know, of course, that he was unarmed. He reached up desperately, trying to pull Quiana back but she slipped aside and sprang lightly out of the shaft into the cool gray light of the Martian morning.
Forgetting her warning, Dantan pulled himself up behind her. But as his head and shoulders emerged from the shaft he stopped, frozen. For the Redhelms were falling. There was no mark upon them, yet they fell....