The Bescot left the habitation block a few minutes later and set off for the block on which Thomas had seen a flashing light. The only block they'd seen that showed any kind of activity. Any evidence of surviving life.

It turned out to be a much larger block than the one they were leaving. It was the size of a small city all in itself, and as they approached it, manoeuvering carefully between the tether cables, it was soon dwarfing the smaller blocks that surrounded it on all sides.

"That looks like an opening in the side," said Tager Yee as they drew close. "A doorway. Could it be the entrance to a harbour of some kind? A mooring place for ships of space?"

"The flashing light's right beside it," added Saturn. "To guide ships in, perhaps? Look, there are other lights spaced around the opening, all dark. Once, the opening was ringed with light."

"It looks large enough for us to take the ship in," said the felisian. "I'd feel a lot safer inside. After the attack on your ship, I feel horribly exposed out here."

"By all means take the ship in," agreed Saturn, his single eye staring eagerly at the image in the viewscreen. "There might be docking cradles we can moor to. Maybe even airlocks large enough to accommodate the whole ship."

That last turned out to be nothing but wishful thinking, but as the felisians eased the ship in through the square opening and they were engulfed in darkness, Tager Yee ordered the external lights turned on so they could see what the vast chamber contained, and as the searchlight beams swept the bare metal walls they revealed a sight that took all their breaths away.

There were at least twenty other ships of space moored within the great open space that, they could now see, accounted for fully two thirds of the volume of the block. The entire block, it appeared, was a space harbour. A place where ships of space berthed themselves upon arriving at this world. Probably one of several scattered throughout the ring. The ships were of several distinct designs, seeming to suggest that they came from different civilisations, but most of them had large funnels at one end, the rear end as far as they could judge, with complicated systems of pipes, struts and spars all across their outer surfaces.

The exceptions were gathered together on the opposite side of the space harbour from the opening they'd come in through, and the felisians gasped in astonishment at the sight of three ships identical to the Bescot in all but minor details.

"Masters!" one of them cried in near panic, his yellow eyes widening in terror. "Masters, here!"

Tager Yee barked orders and the Bescot halted dead in space, then began to reverse slowly back the way it had come. "Probably dead ships," he remarked. "As dead as the rest of the ring, but we can't take the chance. We know that the Masters were alive just a few decades ago. We can't ignore the possibility that there are live Masters here."

"If there are, they'll already have seen us," said Saturn calmly. "Moor the ship, commander. It's too late to run, and besides, what hope does one ship have against three?"

Tager Yee stared at him for a moment in undisguised fear, but then he nodded and gave new orders to his men. The felisians stared at him in terror, then tapped the controls with trembling hands.

There was no sign of activity as the Bescot drew in alongside the other three ships, though. They saw that the ships were attached to metallic extensions that reached inwards from the harbour walls, and Thomas named them piers, correctly deducing that the crews would have used them to move to and from their vessels. Saturn directed them towards a vacant pier, which they saw was designed to attach to the airlock of a visiting ship.

"I'm not sure we can manoeuvre that precisely," said Tager Yee doubtfully. "It look as though you have to approach with an accuracy of inches. We're used to just landing on a planet's surface, somewhere within a few yards of a designated landing spot."

"Try anyway," replied Saturn. "What have we got to lose?"

"We could damage the ship," stated the felisian. "I'm sorry, but I can't take the chance. It's not just your lives and ours. This ship is too important to our race."

Saturn was about to reply, forcefully by the look of it, but a shout from one of the crew shut him up. "Commander! There's something happening!"

Everyone spun around to look at the viewscreen before realising that the crewman was referring to something happening inside the ship. A whole bank of indicator lights had come alive, with lights flashing and strange symbols writing themselves and scrolling upwards. At the same time the ship began moving of its own accord, turning about its axis and moving slowly towards the pier.

Saturn hurriedly cast a translation spell on the text and peered closely at it, his forehead creasing in concentration. "Most of it I can't make head or tail of," he admitted, "but there's one bit... It says our ship is under the control of the harbour master. That's not quite it, the words are difficult to translate, but it's as close as I can get. I don't think we're in any danger. I think we're just being helped to moor ourselves. Quite a bit of luck, really."

"I'm glad you're pleased!" cried Tager Yee, sounding close to panic. "All I can see is that we're under the control of an outside force. Possibly a hostile force. Helmsman, break us free! Get us out of here!"

"Belay that order!" roared Saturn, and there was such force and authority in his voice that the commander jerked like a puppet whose strings had been pulled. "I am in command of this mission! We will allow the berthing process to take place, then emerge to explore this place. Show some backbone, man! You're supposed to be a leader, a commander! Show some spine, for the sake of the Gods!"

"I am a commander," replied Tager Yee, glaring at him resentfully, "and that makes me responsible for this ship and the lives of the men aboard it. Including yours." He backed down, though, and gestured to his men to stand down, to do nothing to interfere with the berthing procedure.

There was a hollow clunk as the Bescot made contact with the pier, and Saturn, still examining the text scrolling up the bare metal bulkhead, declared that the docking had been successfully accomplished. "At least according to this," he amended. A moment later, though, the text and symbols disappeared from the bulkhead, leaving nothing but bare, seamless metal where it had been. Saturn touched the cold steel with the tips of his fingers, feeling the bare smoothness of it, before raising his straggly eyebrows in admiration at the feat. "This could have been imitated by quite simple magic spells," he said, "but I cannot imagine how it could be done by mundane means."

They thought at first that they would have to wait in the Bescot until the next day, when Saturn would once again be able to cast his air spell, but a cautious opening of the outer door revealed that there was already air beyond. Whether it was breathable they didn't know, but it didn't matter so long as they were wearing their Necklaces of Vacuum Breathing. It would allow them to speak to each other, and that was enough. The Tharians went through the airlock, therefore, and found themselves in a long steel tunnel that ran along the centre of the pier. Saturn still had his own personal gravity and strode regally along the corridor, while the others grumbled as they did their best to swim along after him.

Behind them, the outer airlock door closed, then opened again as three felisians emerged wearing breathing apparatus adapted to the size of their heads; much smaller than the heads of the Masters, to whom they'd originally belonged.

"Where are they going?" asked Matthew.

"They are going to inspect the other ships of the Masters," said Saturn. "They want to find out whether they're recent arrivals. If they are, then the Masters are still in the area. I gave them my permission, so long as they're all back aboard when we want to leave."

"And if the ships aren't recent arrivals, maybe they can salvage them," said Timothy with a smile. "They may be glad we brought them here after all."

"Indeed,' said Saturn with an answering smile.

There was another airlock at the other end of the pier, and Saturn examined it for some moments, trying to make sense of the strange symbols clustered around the controls, presumably instructions for the door's operation. Even with his translation spells, though, he wasn't able to make sense of them, so he simply raised his wand and disintegrated his way through. No sooner had he done so, though, than a loud wailing filled the air and lights began flashing red along the walls and ceiling.

The Tharians stared at each other in alarm, Drenn Pietar and the soldiers reaching for their weapons. Thomas tried to stare in all directions at once as he brought the words of defensive spells to the forefront of his mind. Saturn simply strode through as if nothing had happened, though, and then looked back at the others with a pitying condesdension, as if unable to believe that grown men could be so timid.

Chastened, the others pulled themselves together and tried to regain their composure as they followed Saturn through.