The Black Gate

"We'll land on the outskirts of that," ordered Matthew Cross.

The Cat's Eye and five Scorpion fighters raced over the barren, lifeless landscape. In the distance ahead a dull red glow in the sky became visible to the naked eye, the source of which was still below the horizon, but could be nothing other than the geothermal hotzone. Probably the mother of all volcanoes, thought Jo cynically.

And then there it was, the cone of a shield volcano of titanic proportions towering above the surrounding mountains, its glowing caldera smoking, spreading poisonous fumes for leagues around, but at the same time bequeathing life to the land with its sustaining warmth and outgassing. Thankfully however, Jo saw Matthew Cross steering the Longbow not directly towards the volcano, but towards a hilly region some miles south of the crater, no doubt at some new discovery made by Dexter. She turned her Scorpion to follow.

The six craft landed in a shallow valley. The infernal light from the volcano glowering down on them from behind a range of low hills to the north revealed the black maw of a cave in the near hillside.

At the sight of that, Jo's heart fell. Suddenly, old memories she'd been trying hard to repress resurfaced with a vengeance, threatening to overwhelm her – memories of Rostella IV, the endless, black dilithium mines there, the horde of shambling horrors that hunted them, but worst of all, the monstrous thing that lived in the pit at the bottom of the mines, the Jelly Brain.

She still had nightmares about the terrible ordeal, of Jazz Phoenix's face as she sacrificed her own life to save the lives of her teammates.

She wondered if Max, who'd been closest to Jazz, was feeling the same thing faced with the prospect of going into another black pit.

Jo shuddered with a sudden chill, then mercilessly forced all thoughts of monsters and death from the forefront of her mind 44