“I’m sorry,” Illiun said, coming up behind them. Silus shook off the hand he placed on his shoulder. “Nothing like this has ever happened with the sentinels before. It’s this planet; those stones. Something-”

“What are those things?” Silus said, interrupting him.

“Sorry, I don’t understand.”

“The silver-eyed men; the sentinels. They’re not human. What are they?”

“Androids. We built them ourselves, programmed them ourselves. Believe me, they would never willingly attack a human being.”

“And yet they did.”

“They’ve been our guardians for generations, Silus. Shalim, you know; you’ve grown up alongside the sentinels. Your uncle was part of the team that developed the most recent model.”

Shalim was breathing hard and shaking. He looked down at the corpses of the sentinels and then towards the dawn, just beginning to pale the horizon.

“We need to return to the ship,” he said.

“But the mineral, Shalim. Without it we’re grounded.”

“And how are we supposed to find the mineral without the sentinels? Guess? Come on, Illiun, you know it’s impossible.”

“I think returning to the settlement will be for the best,” Rosalind said. “Maybe we can get the ship’s engines restarted some other way.”

“And when the entity finally finds us, and wipes us from the face of this world?” Illiun said.

“Well, we can’t stay out here! Together we stand a chance, surely?”

“Rosalind is right, Illiun,” Silus said. “Who knows what else is out here? We’ll be safer back at the settlement.”

“We’re not safe anywhere, don’t you understand that?”

But Illiun’s words fell on deaf ears, as Silus lead the party away from the circles of stones and back out across the desert.

CHAPTER NINE

They had only been a few days out from the settlement, but the return journey seemed to take longer; exhaustion and despair took their toll.