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universe, may have started here. The Ancients of the Universe have been an obsession of mine all my life. Many expeditions have been here; none has even found this door before, let alone come up with answers.’
    The Colonel waved towards the pyramid’s door with his blaster. ‘And you’re the lucky one who finally did so, yeah?’
    The Professor nodded eagerly. ‘That’s why I contacted the Papal Mainframe. I had worked out that everyone has always been on the dry side of Aztec Moon. But by coming here, to the damp side, I knew my calculations were more accurate than theirs. Generations of explorers wasted their lives – Kos Elwyn, the Brotherhood of Logicians, Holoon-Igma, Bates himself – and even that ridiculous fool Melville Trout – none of them realised it was here, exactly opposite to where they were looking!’
    ‘Where’s your expert?’
    Jaanson looked affronted. ‘Expert? I am the expert!’
    The Talpidian nudged Jaanson. ‘He means the archaeologist.’
    ‘Yeah, where is she?’
    Jaanson shrugged. ‘She was supposed to be here hours ago. Ridiculous, you ask for an archaeologist with a penchant for not observing the rules, and they’re late!’
    Colonel Sadkin ignored this – deliberately. The less heknew about this Professor Song (and the dubious things she was reported to have done) the better – leave that to Colonel Octavian, the Father of the Chapel charged with looking after her. Instead he yelled out to one of his men. ‘Verger Brown, get the shuttle pilots ready to leave. We’re going.’
    Brown dutifully dashed off.
    Horace Jaanson was having none of it. ‘Colonel, your orders—’
    ‘My orders were to bring you here and look after you, providing there was no danger.’ He again jabbed his blaster at the door. ‘That says “danger” to me.’
    ‘Why?’
    Sadkin passed his iVisor, and Jaanson swiped it, placing it over his angry eyes. His head went up and down a couple of times, tracing the height of the door in a series of nods. He adjusted the iVisor a couple of times.
    Sadkin just smiled at him. ‘See what I mean?’
    Jaanson slowly shook his head. ‘But that’s why I needed my expert archaeologist. This confirms what I knew!’
    Sadkin finally lost his temper.
‘You knew?
’ A couple of his men took a step back in shock. ‘You knew this wasn’t a door but the entrance to a time portal?’
    ‘I assumed so, yes. It would explain so much about the mystery. I theorised that the Ancients didn’t just die out – they deliberately vanished, went into a time portal. Hopefully this will tell us where or when. And where they took the Glamour.’
    ‘The what now?’
    Jaanson looked at the Colonel in anger, passing – well throwing, really – back the iVisor. ‘Didn’t you read my books, my papers? Why did you come if you are so ignorant of what we will discover here?’
    ‘I was assigned. Period. End of. I certainly didn’t choose to come to a blood-coloured, wet, cold, windy and smelly rock with you and your oversized mole.’
    ‘Talpidian,’ corrected the Talpidian. ‘Although I know a lot of humans who make that assumption…’
    Jaanson waved him quiet. ‘Yes, Colonel, I believe this is the access to the Pyramid Eternia – the housing to a time portal. That’s why I wanted Professor Song sent here. They say she has experience with time travel.’
    ‘It’s also probably why she’s always locked in a Stormcage,’ Sadkin countered. ‘Knowing her reputation, she’s probably already escaped en route.’
    ‘That would be most irritating,’ Jaanson muttered. ‘I need an experienced archaeologist used to dealing with the unusual and unexplained.’
    ‘Hullo there,’ yelled a new voice.
    Jaanson, Sadkin and the Clerics all turned to look at where the voice came from. Even the pilots stopped swiping their tablets again.
    Sadkin frowned. On a rocky outcrop about forty feet away were four…people.
    The person who had yelled, a human dark-haired woman, dressed in