text: [Themes: sci-fi]
  
  You find that you can dig quite a hole in the stream bed, which promptly fills with water. The act of digging clouds the water with sediment, but once that settles the water is perfectly clear. The process of filling the rubber bladders is painfully slow, though, so you and Ibanz try digging another hole downstream.
  
  What you discover, though, is that given the tools and time at your disposal, there is only so much water you will be able to tote back to the wreckage. You cannot see the sun from inside this basin, but the light on the upper slopes of the mountain is starting to turn golden, suggesting that you are nearing sunset.
  
  "None of us have WristComps," you point out, "so if we turn back now we'll still have time to make a visual bearing before setting off across the desert in the dark."
  
  "True," Oviedo-Nandez says, "but we'll be going back with at best six liters of water, and that's not nearly enough for everyone. We can stay the night right here, fill up every one of the bladders, and return to camp at dawn."
  
  > If you spend the night here so you can collect more water, turn to page 120.
  "I've got a good feeling about this spot," Oviedo-Nandez says. "This is a natural campsite. Let's assume, worst-case scenario, we return to the ship in the morning and learn, for whatever reason, help isn't coming right away. We now know we have a place we can retreat to. Maybe I wouldn't want to live the rest of my life here, but it's easy enough to find, and we should be able to get everyone here by modifying the grav plates from the ship. We can fab some shovels, dig out this water hole a little better, and rig ourselves some decent shelter."
  
  You appreciate the way his mind works, always looking ahead to the next step, and the next. "Well in the meantime," you say, "if we're going to spend the night here I don't want to sit in the dark. Can I borrow your plasgun?"
  
  He watches with interest as you start gathering dry wood and tinder. When he and Ibanz see where you're going with this, Ibanz steps up to help, and the liutenant builds a primitive fireplace out of rock. Then you set the plasgun to its lowest possible setting and focus a beam of concentrated plasma energy onto the dried vegetation you collected as tinder. A flame leaps to life with no coaxing at all.
  
  > Page 121
  All you have to eat are the NutriRations you scarfed out of someone's duffel before leaving. Since you had not expected to be gone long, there is only one package for each of you. But the rations were designed to be filling despite the small portions, and as you sit beside the campfire up here on the mountainside you feel surprisingly satisfied, in a way that you haven't in a very long time.
  
  A day ago you were hardly certain you'd survive the crash, and you know that in the long term your situation remains dire. None of this mountain climbing has done your cracked rib any favors. But for this moment you feel well, and you hope that Commander Andrade and Dr. Munro are meeting with just as much success at their tasks.
  
  Otherwise, besides the crackling fire and the sound of your three voices, the mountain is silent. Whatever creatures use this trail you found, your presence must be scaring them off tonight. You take turns sleeping through the night, with one person taking a shift to tend the fire and to continue filling the water bladders, two at a time.
  
  You take the last of those three shifts, and so you are awake when the sky first starts to grow light. The sun will rise on the opposite side of the mountain, but the dawn colors in the dust-filled sky above you are no less pretty.
  
  > Page 122
  In the end you've managed to collect 36 liters of water, using all eighteen of the 2-liter bladders you fabbed at the ship. You each fill your duffels with six bladders and sling them onto your backs.
  
  With the fire smothered with wet gravel, you set off back to the wreckage. Even going down the mountain, the twelve liters of water on your back is a heavy burden to carry. You feel it mostly climbing back up the foothill. From the top you have a clear view back across the desert plain, with the wreckage of the ship 4 kilometers out--and another ship parked beside it!
  
  "Is that one of ours?" Ibanz asks.
  
  "I don't think so," you say. "An Astral Navy ship wouldn't be black like that."
  
  Oviedo-Nandez studies the distant scene for a minute and concludes, "That's a Katanyan ship. I'll bet some trader detected the crash and hoped he'd be able to claim the salvage rights."
  
  "I think you're right," you say.
  
  "Then that begs the question," Ibanz says, "is he here to help, or is he here to plunder? It's hard to figure the way a Katanyan thinks sometimes."
  
  The lieutenant agrees. "All the people we left behind yesterday could be in danger."
  
  > If you venture out across the desert with the plasgun drawn, turn to page 92.
  "We left two little kids and quite a few injured people back there," you say. "We have to assume they're in danger."
  
  "Well, let's hope there's only one Katanyan down there," the lieutenant says, "because that's the number of plasguns we brought with us."
  
  "That should be enough," Ibanz says. "Katanyans are usually pretty solitary creatures."
  
  With a renewed sense of purpose the three of you run down the hillside, with 12 liters apiece of water sloshing in your backpacks. Then you begin the long trek across the desert plain. The Girian sun is warm even though it is filtered by the dusty sky, and the crashed transport vessel and the alien ship appear to be reflected in a pool of shimmiering water--which you presume to be just convection currents in the warm air. You see no signs of movement ahead of you at the crash site, which only adds to your apprehension as you draw near.
  
  But there are two unsettling scenes as you approach the remains of the EWR210819. First is the skeletonized remains of a human lying in the desert just 100 meters from your ship. From the tattered clothing you recognize Dr. Munro instantly, although not much else is left of her.
  
  Second is the sound of something large rummaging through the cargo hold.
  
  > Page 108
  You hear no voices, see no signs of the survivors you left here just one day ago. Was the Katanyan responsible for Dr. Munro's death? Did he eliminate the others as well to claim salvage rights to the downed ship? It's hard to say, but so far the clues aren't painting a pretty picture.
  
  Oviedo-Nandez is carrying the one plasgun in your possession. Silently he gestures that you and Ibanz should position yourselves behind the charred hulk of the crashed ship. There you find another skeletonized body--Chief Gunder.
  
  It is a horrific discovery, and your companions suddenly look angry. Ibanz picks up another plasgun near Gunder's remains, and with the lieutenant at his side approaches whoever is making all the noise in the cargo hold. From a safe vantage behind a piece of the wreckage you watch what happens next.
  
  With their plasguns raised and set to kill, they stop just outside the gaping entrance to the cargo hold. The inside is filled with shadows, but you can clearly the back end of the Katanyan sticking out into the sunlight. The alien has been so preoccupied with the contents of the hold that he never saw you crossing the 4 kilometers of open desert. Nor does he seem to be aware that he is no longer alone.
  
  "Katanyan!" the lieutenant shouts. "State your purpose."
  
  > Page 109
  The cargo hold rocks as the alien jumps in surprise, knocking something over inside that he had apparently stacked up into a tall pile.
  
  He turns and emerges from the shadow, his strange form now in full view. His body is segmented and soft like a giant caterpillar, with four legs to support his bulky body and two arms extending from his upright torso. In his hand is an empty duffel bag.
  
  "Go!" he says. "I claim right of salvage."
  
  "This is our ship!" Oviedo-Nandez counters. "And you killed our people!"
  
  "Humans dead when I landed," the Katanyan says, his lipless mouth and bristle-like teeth struggling to speak your language. "Ship is mine. Salvage mine!"
  
  In a vengeful state after discovering the remains of their comrade, the two engineers shoot, but the plasma beams cannot penetrate the alien's armored clothing. In anger the being rises on its two hind legs and stands nearly three meters tall, towering over the two humans. The Katanyan unholsters a plasgun of his own and shoots them both dead.
  
  "Humans dead when I arived," he says again, now to himself alone. "Giri desert do the killing. I only kill who try to kill me."
  
  He drops back down to his four feet and searches their backpacks, finding the water they had carried from the mountain. He tosses the packs onto his pile of loot. For the first time you feel frozen by fear, with no idea what to do next.