The little ship was buffeted by the atmospheric turbulence as it tumbled towards the rock strewn surface of the planet. Storm clouds surrounded us and lightening filled the interior with flashes of light. We all braced ourselves for the inevitable destruction as we neared the surface at tremendous speeds. John fought frantically with the controls and the thrusters momentarily burst into life correcting our angle of descent slightly.

The impact was tremendous. A huge cloud of dust was thrown up into the air and the shuttle skidded along the surface for some time until it's progress was abruptly halted by a huge outcrop of rock. The metal exterior of the little ship buckled at the point of contact and we were crushed against the opposing bulkhead. Debris and metallic shreds showered down, but by then we were unconscious and unaware of the mangled wreckage surrounding us.

I came round to find myself coughing and choking on noxious gases, as fuel leaked from the drive section and evaporated in the hot Valcrumny atmosphere. A sharp pain in my leg brought my attention to a huge gash in the flesh which poured with blood. Pushing a piece of what had previously been the flight console off of my chest I looked around for something to use as a tourniquet to stop the bleeding.

Beside me lay Angie's body. The face was turned towards me and the eyes were wide open. Startled I pulled away and then noticed that I was laying partially on top of Elizabeth. She was regaining consciousness, I smiled and let her wriggle free from under me.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

Checking herself over she nodded. "Your leg looks bad, let me find something to stop the bleeding." She scanned around amongst the debris and broken metal but the only thing that she could find was the remnants of Angie's denim shirt. "You won't be needing this any more." She looked over at me, and I signalled my approval, she carefully tore some fabric from what remained of the sleeve and tied it around my leg.

John was also coming around. He was still sitting in the pilots seat but this had been wrenched from it's mountings and was laying on it's side at the back of the compartment.

I motioned for Elizabeth to check on her husband. "Go to see if he's all right, I'll be okay for a few minutes."

She stepped over the fragments that littered what was left of the floor, then with all the strength she had left she pulled John into an upright position. "John, it's me love, how do you feel?"

"Like I've been run over by a ten ton truck." He chuckled. "But I'm sure glad to be alive. Where are the others?"

I pulled myself up so that I could see him more clearly. "Over here John, my legs cut up badly but I'll survive. Can either of you see Kohlarn?"

They frantically looked around them but he was no longer in the shuttle.

"He must have been blown clear as we impacted." Said Elizabeth, her face showing the strain. "I'll go outside and look."

"I think that, with this much fuel leaking, it would be wise for us all to get clear just In case it causes a fire."

They nodded and helped me to my feet then we all stepped through the gaping hole in the side of the ship and gazed around the alien landscape.

Kohlarn could be seen clearly a few metres away from the wrecked ship. He was face down in the dirt and still unconscious. While I rested against a nearby rock John and Liz turned him over to examine him closer. "He's alive." Shouted John with relief. "There's a nasty wound on his head but I don't think that it is too serious."

I hoped that they were not just saying this to spare me any more pain. The loss of three members of my family was as much as I could bare at the moment but giving me false hope would only prolong the inevitable anguish.

Carrying him back they laid him down beside me. Elizabeth could see my worried expression and placed a comforting hand on mine."He'll be okay, I'm sure of it."

"Thank god! I don't think I could take much more."

John returned to the wrecked ship and started to retrieve Angie, Gabkhan and Susan's bodies. After she had made Kohlarn as comfortable as possible, Elizabeth went over to help him as he struggled to lift them over the debris. They laid them down a short distance away from where I sat.

"We are not going to leave their bodies on this god forsaken planet if I can help it." John muttered angrily as he worked.

Eventually, we all sat in silence against the rock while they recovered from their exertions. I had had the most time to consider our predicament. Now seemed as good a time as any to broach the subject.

"You do realise that this is the Valcrumny home world, and as soon as they locate us we are probably done for?"

"Don't be such a defeatist." Snapped Liz. "We've come through so far, all we need is a bit more luck. Given time we are bound to be picked up by a passing Federation ship."

Despite this brave talk I was sure that she did not believe a word that she said.

John was thinking the same as me. "There are no Federation ships in the area, and even if there were we don't have any way of contacting them without giving away our position. Let's face it there is no way out of here. If, no, when they do find us we would not stand a chance in a fight against thousands more of those disgusting things, especially with Stephen and Kohlarn's injuries."

Staring at the ground for what felt like an eternity all that we could here was the roar of the distant wind. John suddenly stood up and walked away from us. Liz started to get up to follow him but I placed my hand on her shoulder. "Best to leave him for a while." She nodded and sat down again. As the sun began to sink, and the temperature dropped, we huddled together in this inhospitable place.

It was almost dark when John rejoined us. Kohlarn had come round and was muttering incomprehensible phrases while Liz wiped the blood from his head wound.

"Thirsty." This was the first intelligible thing he had said. "Liz I'm thirsty do you have any water?"

She looked at me in desperation. "Just lay quiet and I'll see what I can do."

We both knew the futility of what she had said. Despite the humidity of this planet we had found no surface water or vegetation. Even if there had been some, I would not have recommended that any of us drink it. The aliens were composed of some kind of acid like compound and the liquid on this planet probably had similar lethal qualities.

John realising what Kohlarn was asking for went inside the hull of the wrecked ship to search for an emergency survival kit. At least this kept his mind off the inevitable confrontation with the Valcrumny.

"It would have been better if we had all died in the crash." He said as he returned empty handed. "At least then we would not have to face the uncertainty of either dying of thirst or having our brains sucked out."

"Don't talk like that!" I retorted "You were as desperate to survive back there as any of us. It was thanks to you that the thrusters fired at the last minute and it levelled our descent."

"I don't recall the thrusters firing." He sounded surprised. "The drive section was completely dead in my hands. All I could do was to brace myself against the impact."

Kohlarn stirred from where he lay. We had not realised that he had fully regained consciousness. "Yes they did, I distinctly remember the feeling of lift as the nose of the craft tilted upwards. If it had not done so we could have impacted in a huge explosion instead of skidding along the surface to stop here."

I was intrigued by this discrepancy in our recall of the events and turned to Liz for corroboration.

"Don't look at me." She said "All I can remember is the terrible scraping sound as we careered out of control along the ground. But, thinking about it I do recall us levelling off some how just before impact. How could that have happened if the thrusters were totally inoperable?"

The question hung in the air between us for many minutes then Kohlarn heaving himself into a sitting position put his thoughts into words. "Perhaps we used telekinesis to act like the thrusters would have, it could have been an instinctive survival sort of thing that we did without realising we were doing it."

"Influencing such a large object is way beyond any of us here." Commented John. "Even our combined powers would not be strong enough to make a difference. And anyway my mind was far too occupied at the time to think of anything like that."

"Me too." Added Liz.

"Then what exactly happened?"

I could just make out the features of John's face in the twilight. He seemed to be formulating an idea. "I don't think that you are going to like this suggestion, but there is one amongst us who would have enough power to influence the craft."

We all looked around at the bodies of Angie and the others laying a short distance away. Liz was first to her feet, rapidly followed by Kohlarn. John helped me to rise and I joined them for another examination of the corpses. Liz felt Angie's neck for a pulse then shook her head.

"She is definitely dead." Squatting there in the darkness we all struggled to come to terms with the inevitable.

"Let's go back over the events as we left the Valcrumny ship." Suggested John.

"We used the trilithuim..."

"No before that." He interrupted. "When we were fighting them off."

"You came round the corner just after those slimy things had separated us into two groups." Began Elizabeth.

"Then I called out to Angie when I realised what was about to happen."

John took up the story. "And they turned to look in our direction just before they fell beneath the aliens. We pushed our way over to you, then we all ran down the corridor assuming that they were being devoured behind us."

"But when we went back their lack of serious injury surprised me." Said Liz, articulating her line of thought. "We carried them back to that elevator tube thing and after a while came out in the cargo bay."

"I thought that was a lucky break." Added Kohlarn excitement growing in his voice. "At the time I thought that it was just chance that we found the shuttle ready for take off as we did. That elevator could have taken us anywhere on the ship. Unless it was guided by something, or someone..."

We frantically re-examined the bodies but there was still no sign of life.

John took up the commentary again. "Once clear of the hull the Valcrumny started firing at us. Then the Paldrinian ship arrived. How did they know exactly where to materialise in order to save us like that?" Without waiting for a reply he continued. "Then, the engines seemed to fire just in the nick of time. And we all survived what was a devastating crash. The chances against that happening alone are thousands to one."

It was my turn to comment but all I could think of was the chance that she was still alive. I reached forward and started to frantically shake Angie's body. Nothing happened and eventually I gave up.

"Let's just suppose that they did not die in the Valcrumny attack but in fact left their bodies somehow."

Liz looked at me in disbelief. "That's impossible, we are all linked to our bodies."

"In Manyarnern religion." Said Kohlarn very matter of factly. "They do believe that the mind can exist outside of the body as long as it can find a suitable receptacle with enough psionic energy to sustain it. This is known as Astral travelling on earth."

"Yes, yes, I've heard of it. I've even seen Tyso do it." She remarked "But this sort of travelling is usually when the body is asleep not dead like this." She lifted Angie's limp arm and it fell back lifeless onto the dirt.

John, sensing the tension building between us, continued the discussion. "Let's just suppose that they could leave their dead bodies. This would be a good way of surviving the Valcrumny. Do you remember what their leader said, 'dead flesh is useless to us.' perhaps they figured this out and left just at the moment that they were engulfed by the aliens."

My excitement was mounting again. John's argument made perfect sense the only problem was where could they have gone.

"Perhaps they are inside us." I blurted out.

The others looked at me incredulously then we all linked hands and merged our minds. We searched into the depths of each others consciousness for a long time but eventually separated and opened our eyes.

"Nothing." I said at last. "If what we suspect is true they are definitely not within any of us."

We said no more as we huddled together in the cold night air and slept fitfully through the Valcrumny night.

I was woken in the early morning light by a low rumbling sound coming from over the horizon. Leaving the others I hobbled around the rock outcrop to get a better view. In the distance and approaching rapidly was some kind of huge tractor like transporter. The Valcrumny had found us, well it was inevitable that eventually we would have to face them again. I turned around to join the others and found John behind me looking at the approaching alien vehicle.

"That's it, the games finally up." He said flatly. "Without water we would not have made it through another day out here anyway."

We returned together to tell Elizabeth and Kohlarn. Shaking them awake we debated what our next move should be.

"Perhaps we could hide somewhere." Suggested Kohlarn desperately. "Then at least we might last a while longer."

"And just how long can we survive out here?" Elizabeth motioned at the barren surroundings of the planets surface. "We have no food or water and you and Stephen are not in the best of shapes for putting up any kind of fight."

John made a suggestion. "Now that they have located us it won't hurt to jaunt away from them. If we can keep our distance for long enough maybe we'll be rescued."

"You're forgetting that I can not Jaunt. It was one of those abilities I did not inherit." Remarked Kohlarn sarcastically. "And even if we did where would we go? We could only do line of site jaunts and they would soon have us surrounded."

"Then maybe it would be best to just give ourselves up." He snapped back.

Elizabeth looked angry enough to slap his face. "I'm going into the ship to find the blaster we had earlier. If I'm going to die then I'm taking some of them with me."

We all realised the futility of what she had said. Even in a situation as desperate as this we knew that we could not bring ourselves to kill any of these creatures. We stood and joined her in the futile search. At least rummaging, thorough the wreckage, looking for the weapon, gave us some sense of purpose.

After a while the rumbling noise grew louder as the craft carrying the aliens came into view. Kohlarn was frantically pulling at a large metal plate wedged between the ruptured fuel tanks and the structural beam which had cut into my leg during the crash. He pulled it clear and a tangle of micro-fibres from the ships limited computer network was revealed.

"Did you see that?" He asked me as I worked beside him.

"See what?"

"There was a flash of residual energy in the computer fibres just then."

"Impossible!" Said John from across the compartment. "This ship has no independent power supply, it relies on energy converted from the liquid fuel cells."

Kohlarn bent down closer to the mangled mass of fibre optics and bioelectric circuitry which had once formed part of the limited navigation systems. "There it was again!" He exclaimed.

"I saw it as well that time, perhaps there is enough residual energy trapped here for us to get the communicator working and call for help."

Liz looked out through the gaping whole in the side of the ship at the approaching hoard of green slimy blobs. "Whatever you are going to do you had better make it quick here they come." She shouted.

I tugged at the mass of fibres and they came away in my hand. The energy bolt flashed up my arm running along the nervous tissue at an exceptional speed. As it entered my brain the situation became crystal clear. Much to the others surprise I started to laugh uncontrollably.

"Father what the hell's got into you?" Said Kohlarn beside me.

I was unable to respond and pushed him out of my path as I left the small craft.

John and the others tried to grab at my tattered A.E. suit but they stumbled around and lost their footing on the debris strewn floor of the shuttle.

In no time at all I was standing in the clearing in front of the rock escarpment. The Valcrumny were just a few metres away and began to lift up their gelatinous form for one combined assault.

Slowly my body began to change shape, I had the eerie feeling that I was outside of myself looking at the strange scene as if it was a slow motion movie. The familiar form of Angie now stood in the clearing facing the approaching Valcrumny hoards. Lifting her hand above her head she gave a maniacal laugh and summoned the light.

The atmosphere around her crackled as a mass of static electricity filled the air and grew to a crescendo of energy. Then it happened. A huge fireball formed over her head and flashed out to engulf the creatures. They exploded into a cloud of acrid smoke.

But it was not over yet the fireball did not abate, instead it grew in size until it filled the whole cavern bordered by the rock outcrop. The noise was deafening but it hardly seemed to bother me. The energy grew and grew then suddenly discharged in all directions. It was like a nuclear explosion with us in the epicentre untouched by the force of the blast. The shock wave spread rapidly along the ground churning up dust and rocks many metres into the air.

The energy moved across the landscape destroying every Valcrumny for thousands of miles. Eventually she stood alone in the silence as the dust settled once again. A shocked John made it to her side as her from changed again. I suddenly found myself standing in the empty clearing. John placed his hands on my shoulders and shook me back to reality.

"What on Earth did you do?" He said, disbelief, at what he had seen, showing in his face. I did not respond immediately but turned and walked towards the lifeless bodies of my family. John followed me in stunned silence.

Kohlarn and Elizabeth joined us beside the corpses. I bent down to touch each of them in turn on the forehead.

Their jaws dropped open as the bodies slowly returned to life and stretched up towards the sky.