text: [Themes: sci-fi, science fiction]
  
  "That's odd," Hun-Spruk says. "These aren't supposed to be here."
  
  "I wouldn't be so sure," Dansmith says. "It looks like they're quite at home."
  
  "No, seriously," the lieutenant says. "These are teek-teeks. They live in the high alpine lake country of the southern hemisphere."
  
  So far, the creatures haven't noticed you. They seem to be having an argument about a large bone; the smaller teek-teek has it, but the larger one is determined to get it. It's hard to tell the significance of that one bone, because the entire ledge is strewn with them; some are getting kicked over the edge as the two creatures circle each other.
  
  "A grisly thought just occurred to me," Dansmith says. "What if Quabiss's theory about Dr. Munro is correct, and she fell victim to these predators? Her remains could be somewhere down there on that ledge."
  
  "I could tell easily enough," Dr. Wildon says, "but I'd need to get a lot closer to get a good clean scan."
  
  "We could try and scare them off," Quabiss says. "Shoot a couple plasgun blasts over their heads, convince them to leave the ledge, and give the doctor a chance to see if any of those bones down there are human."
  
  Hun-Spruk and Wildon look at each other, and then shrug as if to say they can't think of a better plan. Everyone looks to you; this is your mission, and therefore your call. You look at the teek-teeks; the large one has finally gotten the bone it wanted, and the two smaller ones are now surveying the valley below from the precipice. Are they getting ready to take off on a hunt?
  
  > If you wait to see if the creatures leave the ledge on their own, turn to page 74.
  "Look," you say. "I think they're getting ready to leave on their own. Let's hold off for a moment and see what they do."
  
  Still showing no indication they are aware of your presence, the two smaller teek-teeks scan the moonlit plain below the mountain as if looking for prey. You wonder what they could possibly see, because the moon is not particularly bright. Nevertheless something gets their attention and off they go, their enormous dragon-like wings outstretched as they soar down and out of sight.
  
  The third creature sees that its companions have left, and as if worried that it might be missing out on something important, it quickly leaps from the ledge as well.
  
  "Here's your chance, Doctor," you say, and you all stand up and scoot down the slope to the bone-filled ledge.
  
  Dr. Wildon and Lieutenant Hun-Spruk immediately set to work scanning the mess of bones with their WristComps, while Dansmith and Quabiss stand watch in case the teek-teeks make an early return. You, on the other hand, are distracted by a blast of cold air. It gets your attention because the night is otherwise quite warm. The draft is coming from a vertical crack in the rear rock wall, wide enough to walk into and with room to spare. Not only is there a cold draft emanating from this slot, but there is a trace of snow blowing over the rock at your feet, melting as soon as it hits the warmer air.
  
  You activate your WristComp, but you don't understand the readings: there is something a short distance away, but it is not registering as an object, nor is it energy.
  
  > Page 75
  You venture down the narrow passageway, which twists and turns until you can no longer see the bone-covered ledge anymore. With each turn through this small slot, snow flurries start to fill the air more and more. Wreaths made of some strange shrub lean on the ground against the rock walls on your right and left; the small leaves still attached to the twisted twigs have turned brown and brittle. They seem to be left behind as if they were ritual offerings.
  
  What is this place? The slot starts to widen again, and after one last turn you reach an enclosed space carved into the side of the mountain, open to the sky but with walls decorated with the colored handprints of what you presume to be Folvans.
  
  At the center of this chamber is a large spherical... well, you're not really sure what. It is clearly there, but you see no surface that could be touched. Through it you can see a snowy landscape, with a frozen lake surrounded by low mountains. The sphere looks more like a round lens, a three-dimensional window to another place; as you step around the sphere, the view through the lens turns with you. Wherever that place is, the weather is snowy there, and the snow blowing off the frozen lake is flying out of the sphere and into this hidden chamber. It is daytime in that other scene, and the light off the snow illuminates the chamber where you're standing.
  
  You scan the sphere with your WristComp, but the powerful minicomputer strapped to your left arm only detects the space beyond it, and not the sphere itself. It is as if you were standing in front of an open door.
  
  You are not a science officer, so you have no idea how to analyze what it is you're looking at. You are tempted to call Lieutenant Hun-Spruk over to assist you, but you know she and Dr. Wildon only have minutes to examine the bones for human remains before the teek-teeks return. On the other hand, you're very tempted to reach your hand into the sphere--because if snow from the other side can be blown in your face, then doesn't it make sense that objects on this side can pass in the opposite direction?
  
  > If you reach your hand into the sphere to see what happens, turn to page 4.
  You stand close to the shimmering edge of the sphere, feeling the full effect of the snowy breeze blowing out of it. All you want to do is stick your arm through and test your theory that this is a two-way portal, because this simple act will probably tell you more than your WristComp can at the moment.
  
  You reach in and immediately feel the bite of the winter air, as if there was nothing at all between where you stand and that frozen alpine lake, wherever that place may be. But before you can marvel at this unique situation, you are pulled through the sphere as if by gravity. In the space of a second, you feel as if you've been yanked through this unusual portal to the other side, placing you fully within the snowy landscape.
  
  The forward momentum then betrays you, however, because you are now standing at the top of an ice-covered bank, and before you can secure your footing on level ground you lose your balance and slide fifteen meters down to the bottom.
  
  You stand up and dust the snow off your field uniform after making your clumsy entrance. Wherever this place is, it is bitterly cold here! You know you are still on Folvan only because the gravity is just as strong here as it was a moment ago. Otherwise, it is daytime at this new location, and the middle of winter.
  
  You are standing on the brushy shoreline of the frozen lake, a place high in a range of low, rocky summits. There are no signs of life at the moment, but there is what appears to be a small Folvan village a short distance away. Behind you is the icy slope with the skid mark you made as you slid down it. There is another sphere at the top of it, just like the one that brought you here--except now, the view on the other side is the painted rock chamber where you were standing a moment ago!
  
  OK, you reason to yourself. The spheres are spatial portals of some kind; these two point to each other and allow people (and objects) to pass through freely. You can only assume that you have been transported to a point in Folvan's southern hemisphere--out of communications range with the Orion, and someplace where no one would ever think to look for you. Getting back to your team should be easy, with one hitch: you'll have to make your way up the icy slope somehow.
  
  > If you try and climb the icy slope back to the sphere, turn to page 18.
  So how do you climb fifteen meters up a treacherously icy slope? You didn't exactly come prepared for a winter mountaineering expedition. You do, however, have your plasgun. You adjust the settings to emit a wide, low-powered beam, and then shoot at the ice-covered ramp to carve out just enough footholds to get you to the top.
  
  Once again you are standing before the spherical portal, which now reveals the rocky chamber on the other side. You step through, feel yourself pulled as if by gravity, and then immediately relish the warmth once you reenter the chamber. The first sphere is now behind you, right where you first found it.
  
  With a sense of dread you realize you have spent far too much time separated from your team, so you race down the winding corridor back to the bone-covered ledge. When you remember the teek-teeks, you increase the setting on your plasgun.
  
  You find the others still gathered at the bone ledge, but they are no longer scanning for remains.
  
  "Where have you been?" Dansmith asks.
  
  "It would be too hard to explain," you say, trying to deflect his anger. "What's the situation here?"
  
  "Those flying monsters came back, and we fired everything we had at them just to keep them off us," Dansmith says.
  
  "Dr. Wildon took a teek-teek claw across his shoulder," Hun-Spruk says. "We need to get him back to the shuttle."
  
  "And we had no idea where you were, Lieutenant," Dansmith says.
  
  "Can you walk?" you ask the doctor.
  
  "I'll walk in any direction, so long as it's back to the ship," Dr. Wildon says.
  
  > Page 19
  Hun-Spruk helps the doctor up to his feet, and you lead the way back up the slope and over the top toward the shuttle. You can hear the teek-teeks cawing loudly in the distance, although you can't see them at the moment. "I think we finally convinced them to back off," Dansmith says, "but I have no doubt they'll be back."
  
  Minutes later, you're descending back toward the waiting shuttlecraft. True to his word, Hinju has the ship ready to take off as soon as you are all aboard.
  
  Commanders Diston and Andrade are on the Orion's flight deck awaiting your return when your ship comes in for a landing. As a medical team escorts Dr. Wildon to the Med Bay for treatment of his wound, the two senior officers debrief you on the events that occurred down on the planet. In short, you tell them you never found any sign of Dr. Munro or her people, but in fairness you never made it to one of their observation posts, either.
  
  When you mention the portal that transported you to the wintry southern hemisphere, Diston and Andrade look at each other without saying anything, as if they find your story difficult to believe. And you have to admit, when you describe the spatial portal that instantaneously transported you across this giant world, it sounds very implausible to you, too. It can't be scanned from a distance, and to go back there you'd have to face once again the fierce teek-teeks who wounded one of your people. In other words, you have just told a very fanciful tale for which there is no evidence, and no way to corroborate it without putting people in harm's way.
  
  A more likely scenario, the commanders conclude, is that you were negligent when you disappeared from your team during a moment of crisis, and that you're now trying to cover yourself with a lie.