text: [Themes: sci-fi, mystery]
  
  You are so enrapt by the discovery of this so-called "Anywhere Device" that none of you notice Starman Quabiss trying to attract your attention. Taking his job as the security specialist seriously, he has been maintaining a post at the bottom of the stairs leading into this chamber, leaving it to the rest of you to make sense of the portal. But as you have been standing on the opposite side of the sphere, the view of the Folvan city has been occupying the space between you and the entrance. So he comes up to you.
  
  "We have trouble," he says. "I've been hearing footsteps headed our way."
  
  "Where?" you ask.
  
  "Outside," he replies. "Several people, speaking in Folvan."
  
  "Damn," Dansmith says. "There's no way we're getting out of this building unseen."
  
  "Well yes," Dr. Wildon says. "There are two ways. Through there," and he points to the Anywhere Device, "or through there." Now he points to the entrance of a dark tunnel directly behind you.
  
  "Through there?" you say, looking quickly at the tunnel. "I think I'd rather stay here and confront whoever is coming than go there."
  
  "I'm all for staying and confronting," Hun-Spruk says. "But obviously this is your mission. You make the call."
  
  > If you stay and confront whoever is coming, turn to page 57.
  Although fleeing may be the most prudent action in the short term, the more you think about it the less effective that option seems. Where can you go? Whose assistance do you seek? You have made your choices, and they have brought you to this moment. Rather than running to yet another unknown setting, now is the time to take ownership of the current situation.
  
  Dansmith sees you broadening your stance, clearly signaling your intention to hold your position. "Staying and confronting it is, then," he says.
  
  "Yes," you say. "But spread out. If they are armed, let's not make an easy target."
  
  Your companions agree, and they move off to the edges of the bean-shaped room, with you centered in front of the Anywhere Device, listening as the voices and the footsteps approach.
  
  But something's not right. Yes, the voices are Folvan, but there is something else that you missed a moment ago: another voice, one that you've heard before. Human, speaking in CTL, the Common Terran Language, into a translator that is then repeating her words into the native Folvan dialect.
  
  Hun-Spruk gives you an anxious look from across the room; Dansmith, too, is equally puzzled.
  
  The approaching figures reach the entrance to the mound at the top of the stairs, where you can now see the first light of dawn beginning to illuminate the steps. You can't understand the Folvan language, of course, but you can now hear the human more clearly.
  
  "And who do you think they were?" the woman asks.
  
  The Folvan responds in its native voice, and a moment later comes the translation in CTL: "They were humans, just like you, but in military uniforms. As many in numbers as the elders."
  
  The figures are descending the steps. "Did they mention my name?" the woman asks.
  
  "No. They were more embarrassed about being discovered."
  
  > Page 153
  And then the two enter the room, and immediately you recognize the younger Folvan who approached you in the abandoned research post, with the comparatively small figure of Dr. Lori Munro beside it.
  
  "It looks like you and your sirrin have been fooled, Selrahc," Dr. Munro says. "I do believe these are the humans you thought you scared off of your grazing grounds."
  
  She looks around the chamber, seeing all four of your companions. But then her eyes return to you.
  
  "I know you," she says. "Giri Minor! The last surviving member of the doomed transport vessel's crew. It's good to see you."
  
  "Likewise, Dr. Munro," you say. "Though I must say, I'm very confused as to what's going on here."
  
  She looks to you, she looks to the Anywhere Device, she looks to the Folvan standing next to her, then she looks back to you. "I can imagine," she says.
  
  > Page 201
  Although it's only been four years since you last saw Dr. Munro, she's aged quite a bit. Her hair is no longer the sandy-colored bob that you remember, but gray and held back in a long ponytail. Not much socializing occurred while you were marooned in that Girian desert, so you did not have a chance to learn much about your fellow survivors. But your sense of Dr. Lori Munro and Ander Dyo at that time was that they were married professionals who enjoyed their work too much to be weighed down by the burdens of raising a family; they were both in their forties, but still youthful in appearance. Now her eyes are more care-worn, as if her time on Folvan has not been easy.
  
  "Let me guess, the Navy sent you here looking for me?" she says. "And after all the time I spent trying to keep them away."
  
  "Yes, we were concerned when we lost contact," you say. "Is there someplace private where we can talk?"
  
  The Folvan standing next to her speaks, and a moment later you hear the translation: "No, you must leave! I tried to warn you. If Skarahk finds you again je will kill you. The only reason je didn't before was because I told jim I would convince you to leave."
  
  "This is Selrahc," Dr. Munro says. "And je is right; you can't stay here. We need to get you out of this settlement before Skarahk returns."
  
  "Skarahk?" you say. "Who's he?"
  
  "Je's most certainly not a 'he'," Dr. Munro says. "There are no hims or hers on Folvan. Remember the accommodations made to CTL in regards to non-binary gender identity. Use je, jim, jer when referring to anyone who doesn't identify as male or female."
  
  You are surprised by her acerbic attitude; she was never that way on Giri Minor. And you feel like you're missing some crucial piece of information here: if Folvans aren't male or female, then what are they?
  
  "OK, then," you say, deciding to go along with her for the moment. "Who is... je?" Your mouth stumbles over the unfamiliar word.
  
  "That's better," Dr. Munro says. "Skarahk is the chief elder of this village. I'm told you met jim this morning outside my old research post."
  
  "Does he... does je wear that flat-topped cap?" you say.
  
  "Yes, that's Skarahk," she says. "Je's been spending all morning tearing that blind apart ever since you left. I think je's upset Selrahc talked jim out of killing you on the spot. The Folvans have taken a very dim view of off-worlders recently."
  
  "Thank you for the grammar lesson and for updating us on the local politics," Dansmith says, "but I think we need to discuss where we should go, if you don't think we can stay here. We've seen a lot of strange things this morning, and we have a few questions we need to ask you."
  
  "I imagine you do," Dr. Munro says.
  
  "Do you think we should go through that thing?" Dansmith says, pointing to the Anywhere Device.
  
  Dr. Munro looks at him as if not sure who he is or how to reply, and then turns back to you. "No, not through there," she says. "There would be no one left behind to point the wormhole somewhere else after we stepped through, so if anyone is looking for us they'd know right where to go."
  
  "So then what do you suggest?" you say.
  
  "Yes, Doctor," Dansmith says. "We've just arrived, and we're new here in town. But you seem to know your way around."
  
  Dr. Munro regards you with a frustrated expression, probably wondering why you are letting Dansmith take the offensive on your behalf. Indeed, the chief has become strangely upset, as if something about the way you found the missing doctor has rubbed him the wrong way. And it does appear that she wasn't missing at all, but directly interacting with the people she claimed to be studying. Hun-Spruk must be experiencing the same reservations, because she has quietly stepped forward too and is now standing at the chief's elbow. There is a strange intensity to her gaze, but it's not in her nature to act on that emotion, so she is letting Dansmith express her dismay for her.
  
  And you have to agree, everything about this situation is wrong. It's like Dr. Munro is trying to put you on the defensive, and therefore maintain control over whatever is going on here. Instead of you assisting her as you assumed would happen when you took on this mission, now she and this Selrahc person have you convinced that you need their urgent assistance to get out of this village. And that bit about chastising you over the pronouns? It was like she was trying to divert your attention from something else.
  
  "We can go up to my post on Mount Kaspoot, about eight kilometers away," Dr. Munro says.
  
  "Isn't there someplace closer we could go?" you ask. "I think we'd collapse on a hike that long in 2.3 Gs."
  
  "Look, I'll help you," she says, "but you need to trust me. There is no place closer, and Skarahk is certain to find you here. Selrahc and I were on our way to the mountain anyway, and my husband is waiting for us there."
  
  You give her a long look. The truth is you have no idea what's going on here, and Dr. Munro is the only person who can answer your growing list of questions. If you have to go all the way to this Mount Kaspoot place to get those answers, then so be it.
  
  "How big is this mountain?" you say.
  
  "Not very," Dr. Munro says. "The climb is about 250 meters vertical. But you're underestimating yourselves in regard to the gravity here. I've been living on this planet for four years. We're human; we adapt."
  
  "Well, in that case we'll follow you," you say. Both Dansmith and Hun-Spruk seem unsatisfied with your decision, but this isn't the time or place to get their input.
  
  "This way, then," Dr. Munro says. "You'll need your handlights."
  
  She and Selrahc then lead the way toward that tunnel Dr. Wildon pointed out a few minutes ago behind the Anywhere Device. And at that moment you realize you have another crisis—one of a personal nature, one that has the potential to paralyze you and derail your ability to continue leading this mission.
  
  Your teammates wait for you to follow Dr. Munro and Selrahc into the tunnel, but your muscles suddenly refuse to cooperate. You remember the last time you were confronted with a situation like this. It was during your officer candidate training on Star Base Ishtria; your instructor expected you to crawl into a space not unlike this one, long and dark and uncomfortably confining, to inspect what was supposedly a malfunctioning relay. But that was just a simulated event—there was no malfunction—so in the absence of an actual need to do so, you had refused to enter the crawlspace. You nearly flunked the course because of that episode.
  
  "Things have gotten very weird," Dr. Wildon says, apparently reacting to your expression.
  
  "This is not what I was expecting either," Hun-Spruk says, "but I'm starting to think you're right, we just need to see how this situation plays out."
  
  But they both have it wrong; it's not the circumstances of how you found Dr. Munro that has suddenly seized you with apprehension, but something far more fundamental—something that has plagued you as long as you can remember.
  
  "Come," Dr. Munro says from the tunnel entrance, and Selrahc also turns to regard you with its dark eyes. Then they disappear into the dark space, with the beam of Dr. Munro's handlight bouncing down the tunnel, creating silhouettes of her and the Folvan.
  
  You need to take control of yourself and your anxieties, so you force yourself to follow. You reach the entrance and turn on your handlight. Dr. Munro and Selrahc are standing about twenty meters down, waiting for you to catch up.
  
  The tunnel is actually a long corridor, leading to a dimly lit space way up ahead. It is taller and wider than you first thought, so maybe this won't be that bad. You enter the space and slowly make your way forward, feeling as though all eyes are on you. But when you reach Dr. Munro and Selrahc, you find they are standing at the entrance to a branching tunnel—and this one really is dark and narrow.
  
  "This tunnel leads under the prairie," Dr. Munro explains.
  
  "All the way?" Dansmith says. "Eight kilometers?"
  
  "Yes," Dr. Munro says. "Most of the way, anyway. The Folvans are a race of burrowers."
  
  "It is safer under the ground than over the ground," Selrahc says, its natural voice surprisingly soft in this enclosed space, though you haven't yet figured out where the translations are coming from. "My people have been using these tunnels for generations."
  
  "It's safe, I assure you," Dr. Munro says.
  
  She is looking directly at you, concerned by what she sees. The sense of imminent panic you're feeling must be evident to everyone by now.
  
  So it appears that you face a basic, almost existential choice: Do you confront your fear and risk the possibility of experiencing a meltdown in front of your people, somewhere underneath the Folvan prairie? Or is it wiser to admit your limitations and seek an alternate route to Mount Kaspoot?
  
  > If you convince yourself to overcome your claustrophobia, turn to page 202.
  You take a deep breath, close your eyes, clench your fists, and then unclench them. You hear Dr. Munro say, "All right, let's get going then," and then feel your companions stepping past you.
  
  "Lieutenant, are you going to be all right?" Dansmith says.
  
  You open your eyes, let out your breath. "Yes," you say. "I'll be fine."
  
  "OK," he says. "Take your time. I'll be right behind you."
  
  The others are about ten meters ahead, the corridor well lit ahead of them with all of the handlights. You and Dansmith catch up, adding your own handlight beams to the light show. Hun-Spruk is ahead of you; she turns, smiling when she sees that you have rejoined the group.
  
  Indeed, you are feeling more at ease; yes, the tunnel is narrow, but in the presence of so many people and with so much light, your panic dissipates. You can manage this, you tell yourself. But it is a long walk; you estimate a minimum of two hours for an eight-kilometer walk in normal conditions, but probably longer here since you weigh more than twice your normal weight.
  
  You have many questions you want to ask, but both Selrahc and Dr. Munro discourage talking in the tunnel. This may be because of the echoes; the walls are lined with a hard clay-like substance, so even the softest sounds hit your ears with a harsh reverberation. You assume Selrahc, with his elongated ears designed to detect distant predators across vast open spaces, must be especially sensitive, but then his... that is, jer people designed these tunnels, so perhaps the echoes aren't a problem at all for them.
  
  At odd intervals down the length of this tunnel, there are brief wide spots. At a few of these, Selrahc stops to let you humans rest, but this hike hardly seems to be an effort for him. He's holding back; you suspect he'd normally be going much faster. Or rather, je would normally be going much faster. You may never get this pronoun business straight.
  
  You admit that you're not too fond of these stops; you're holding off this panic attack that almost waylaid you at the beginning, but you'd rather not linger down here any longer than necessary. It's as if you can feel the weight of all the earth above you; the ceiling is just waiting to collapse, and the walls could crumble down and bury you at any moment. Furthermore, the events that could trigger these calamities are all beyond your control. For all you know, you may right now be at the mercy of some over-fed mumpaq standing directly above you, taxing the structural integrity of the tunnel. If you weren't crushed right away, you'd suffocate slowly.
  
  It's best not to think about that, and just focus on getting through this enormously long tunnel.
  
  It is difficult to measure your progress, though, because there are no landmarks. The tunnel has no turns, it reaches no intersections, there are no emergency exits to the surface. Other than the wide spots where you take your breaks, the only other features that you pass appear to be small burrows, where small grassland creatures have dug their own tunnels into the wall.
  
  An hour and a half passes, and Dr. Munro signals another stop. This time you notice there is no sign of Selrahc.
  
  "We still have two kilometers to go," Dr. Munro whispers. "It's OK to talk here, so long as you keep your voice real low. If a Folvan was down at the Anywhere Device chamber, je could still hear us, even this far away."
  
  "Where'd your friend go, Doctor?" Dansmith says. You can tell he is developing a list of suspicions a mile long about this situation; you'd like to trade notes with him the first opportunity you get.
  
  "Selrahc went on ahead. We were holding jim back."
  
  "He doesn't need a handlight?" Dansmith says.
  
  Dr. Munro lowers her eyebrows in disapproval at him. "Don't let jim catch you using that word."
  
  "What word?" Dansmith says. By this point you know the chief well enough to see when he's trying to provoke a response from someone.
  
  "I told you. The male pronoun."
  
  "I know he's not a female," Dansmith says.
  
  "I'm surprised at you.... what is your name again?" she says.
  
  "You can call me Chief Dansmith."
  
  "You're a member of the Astral Navy, Mr. Dansmith," the doctor continues. "You must encounter non-humans all the time, so your mind should be open to the anatomical variety of species. Folvans are an ungendered people. There are no males or females. They find the very concept of sex to be repugnant."
  
  "So that's why you programmed your translation app with those odd voices," Hun-Spruk says. You realize this is the first time she's spoken directly to the researcher—the person whom she said was a personal hero at the onset of this mission.
  
  Dr. Munro has to turn her body in the opposite direction to see your science officer. "And your name is...?"
  
  "Lieutenant Ceta Hun-Spruk."
  
  "Lieutenant Hun-Spruk, if you had read any of my reports, you would've known all this," Dr. Munro says.
  
  "Actually, ma'am, I read as many of your reports to Star Base Ishtria as I could in preparation for this mission," Hun-Spruk says.
  
  "But not the one on reproduction by asexual assisted genetic transfer, I take it."
  
  "No, ma'am," Hun-Spruk says. "I regret that I missed that one. But now that I've been to Folvan and have seen the situation for myself, I'm not sure now that I ever will read it."
  
  "Oh?" Dr. Munro says. "And why is that?"
  
  "Because even though I've only been on this planet for just a few hours, I can already see there are a few things you omitted in your reports."
  
  It is a bold moment for the lieutenant, having just accused the doctor—someone she held in esteem only a short time ago—essentially of lying. For a tense moment the researcher is face-to-face with your science officer, perhaps sensing the profound disappointment she has instilled in her today. Neither woman says anything to the other.
  
  Then Dr. Munro turns to look at the rest of you—even Starman Quabiss, who hasn't spoken a word since the doctor first appeared. Other than her husband and the two research assistants, you may be the first humans Lori Munro has seen in four years—and here you are, deeply skeptical of the person she has become.
  
  "Yes, well, I suppose I owe you a story," she says, "but not here. Come. We need to get moving."
  
  It takes another hour to complete your hike through the long tunnel. The way has been so straight you expect to see a distant light appearing ahead of you, slowly getting bigger as you approach. But the far end of the tunnel sneaks up on you; there is a zigzag bend, the clay lining on the wall fades away to reveal natural rock, and only then does daylight appear before you.
  
  You step up a slope made of plain dirt, and emerge above ground once again. Dansmith is right behind you, turning off his handlight. From the outside, the tunnel entrance looks like a large animal burrow; if you hadn't just climbed out of it, you would have assumed it was something's den and steered well clear of it.
  
  A slanted rock wall overhangs the tunnel entrance. You assume it's a cliff at first, but when you look around a corner you see that it is just a massive boulder standing on the edge of the prairie. The mountain, which you presume to be Mount Kaspoot, rises steeply behind this rock. There is a heavy rain shower already in progress, but the rock has a generous overhang; it is perfectly dry underneath, and there is room for everybody.
  
  You have not been above ground more than a minute, however, when the comm clipped to the back of your ear begins to chirp—someone is trying to contact you.
  
  "Lieutenant!" It's the captain; you recognize his voice, and he seems alarmed. "What the hell happened down there?"
  
  "Sir?" you say, not sure what he's talking about. Did something happen while you were underground, you wonder?
  
  "We lost track of you for three hours," Captain Ynthramanni says, "and now you just suddenly reappeared eight kilometers away from your last known position."
  
  "We're fine," you say. "We've found Dr. Munro. She led us through a tunnel out of the Folvan village."
  
  "Yes, well, that is quite a development. We've had some interesting encounters up here, too." There is a pause, and it sounds like the captain is talking to someone you can't quite hear. "Hold your position," he says a moment later. "We're coming down."
  
  When you turn, you see the Folvan named Selrahc sitting on a nearby boulder, staring at you and your companions with some kind of strange curiosity. Dr. Munro seems to be good friends with... jim (you catch yourself on the pronoun usage), but right now she's not exactly the best character reference, in your opinion. You remember the encounter you had with Selrahc this morning inside the research post, and his insistence that you leave... and the discovery of the armed elders waiting for you when you finally did step out of the hatch.
  
  And, of course, you remember how he just disappeared a short while ago as you were hiking through the tunnel, only to reappear here on that rock. Really, what has he been doing all this time? Selrahc is watching you now, but you can't tell what is going on behind those dark eyes. You find it hard to trust this person.
  
  Your thoughts are cut off when you hear the distinct sound of a shuttle flying toward you. You scan the cloudy sky, seeing not one but two craft flying over the grassland; you recognize one as Hinju's shuttle, and the other must be the captain's. When you had disappeared from their sensors for nearly three hours, they must have initiated a search.
  
  "What's this all about?" Dr. Munro says, noticing the approaching shuttles for the first time.
  
  "It's our captain," you say. "I think he wants to talk with you."
  
  For the first time, she doesn't know what to say or do. There is a roll of thunder, as if the rain clouds above you were colliding with the mountain.
  
  > Page 208
  The captain's executive shuttle lands closest to the overhanging boulder. You notice that there are burn marks along the side, as if the ship has had a close encounter with a plasma beam recently. The hatch opens, and Ynthramanni appears. He is wearing his duty uniform, with no field jacket. Seeing everyone gathered under the rock to take shelter from the rain, he gestures with his hand.
  
  "You might as well join us in here," he says. "The shower should pass in a little while. In the meantime I'd like to get some answers."
  
  On the surface everything seems cordial. He extends his hand to Dr. Munro as if welcoming an honored guest to a social function, and then does the same to Selrahc, without giving the slightest indication that anything is amiss by the Folvan's mere presence.
  
  You are the last to enter the shuttle, which is more than twice as wide as Hinju's personnel transport shuttle, and half again as long. This executive craft is far more posh, intended for trips of longer durations, and with piloting controls that are nearly as robust as those onboard the Orion. And you can see the captain has brought quite the entourage with him: Dr. Asmeld, Commander Andrade, and Lieutenant Wyte—this in addition to the two pilots.
  
  "Make yourself at home, Dr. Munro," Captain Ynthramanni says, gesturing to the lounge area near the rear of the shuttle. "And your friend, too," he adds, meaning Selrahc.
  
  Dr. Munro looks very apprehensive, as if this was not the day she was expecting to