Willingly or not, Kir found himself being dragged along in Astra's wake. Sgt. Sarai was already in the process of moving the civilians to the treeline in response to his impromptu orders. As soon as Astra had barked a few new commands at the group, she started organizing them into work details. Kir was impressed with her composure, given the circumstances.

He turned to watch poor Trini. She had managed to throw off whatever it was that had been distracting her, but now she looked as if she was wondering why she had been chosen for the honor of supervising the military. She was a scientist for goodness sake! What did she know about setting up military base camps? And who was going to listen to her, anyway? Still, she gamely took on the job. Taking a page out of the colonel's book, she marched over to the doctor and the two men who had been dispatched to move the colonel and shouted, "Oi, you three! Pull your fingers out your collective bums, and lets get started." Kir grinned. Not a bad impression of the colonel. It was a little spoiled, though, when the doctor straightened up and turned to look at her curiously and Trini blushed. So much for being the tough military type. She turned her attention to the two soldiers and said gruffly, "Find a good place for us to pitch, and an even better place for the Doc to set up a hospital tent. In the meantime, though, sort out ground crew to help locate and bring back our injured."

The two men didn't move. They acted as though she hadn't spoken. It was obvious by Trini's reaction that she thought they were blowing her off as one of those 'civilian types', but apparently that wasn't it. They seemed to be mesmerized by something on the ground. When Trini shouted, "MOVE THE BLOODY COLONEL, THOSE ARE TEETH, TEETH, MOVE HIM NOW!!!" Astra and Kir sprinted to join them. As they skidded to a halt, Kir could see what Trini was shouting about. On the ground, nearly hidden by the thick foliage, was a huge duck-billed dinosaur. It was lying on its side, mouth gaping, and appeared to be hurt...mostly likely by the carnivorous pterodactyls during their earlier attack.

"It's okay, Trini," Kir said, grabbing her arm. "Those are only cheek teeth. Not as scary as they seem. This one must be a herbivore...and it's dying. There's another one. Dead. Looks like we interrupted an attack on the herd by those pterodactyls. No wonder they weren't very happy with us."

"Okay, but even a herbivore will defend itself when wounded! It's still alive," Trini pointed out.

A shot rang out and the creature ceased to move. "Not anymore," Astra said, calmly returning her service revolver to its holster. She glanced at Trini, who was staring at her in shock. "It was suffering. There wasn't anything else to do. Okay...get on with the camp."

Despite the fact the mission had started out as a fiasco, Trini and Sgt. Sarai did a creditable job of getting everyone organized and throwing together a make-shift basecamp. No protection from further attacks by the creatures of this world, but it would have to do until someplace more secure could be found. At least they weren't boxed in. The first tent to go up was assigned to the doc. She disappeared inside with the colonel and one young private to assist. Nobody had seen her since.

The sun had already gone down before the tents were up, the wounded tended, and the weapons assessed. A full moon had risen, flooding the camp with light, which helped everyone feel a little safer, although no one was particularly sleepy. Still, Kir thought, at least the sentries aren't shooting each other. Tomorrow at sunrise, Astra and he would be heading out to look for Hecate ... and survivors from Jinx's group. He was sorry to see Jinx hadn't returned. She would be a serious loss to the team. Not to mention that her sense of humor would be sorely missed.

Sgt Sarai and Trini had been tasked with staying behind to organize scouting parties to look for some safer place to make base camp. The four of them were meeting with the rest of the officers to discuss the 'plan of attack' (as Astra so colorfully put it), when the tent flap burst open and a bloodied and bedraggled Jinx stumbled into the tent. She marched (if you could call it that) to the command table and grabbed Kir by the arm. "Sir!" she said formally, surprising Kir with the ferociousness in her voice. Obviously she had mistaken him for the colonel...well, they were the only two over six foot members of the team. Shell shock, maybe. He tried to peer at her face, but before he could get a good look, Jinx glanced down at herself. Kir got the distinct impression she was fighting hysteria as fiercely has she had apparently fought the creatures that had attacked them.

And no wonder! The woman had been thru hell. Her clothes were in tatters; her face was streaked with blood; her hair matted with leaves and mud. He didn't even want to consider what she had been thru. "Sit down before you fall down, Jinx," he said, pulling up a camp stool and pushing her down onto it. "Somebody get her a drink of water."

"What happened to the rest of your team?" Astra asked.

"Where's the colonel?" Jinx replied, still dazed from the sudden drop in the adrenaline high she'd been riding for hours.

"He's hurt, lieutenant. I'm in charge now. Answer my question," Astra replied tersely. In the act of handing Jinx a canteen of water, Trini glanced over and frowned at the curt tone, but relaxed when she saw Astra's expression. Jinx didn't need pampering right now. She'd been thru so much a good dose of military discipline was probably the best thing for her.

Jinx drew herself up as best she could and looked at Astra. "Dead, Captain. All of 'em. Those ... things ... There were too many of them. I dropped a landslide on them ... explosives ... but it was too late. They wiped us out, Captain! I was lucky to get away with my life...."

"It's okay, lieutenant. Nobody expected anymore out of you. You did the best you could."

"But—"

"No buts! Ambushes are like that. We'll be better prepared next time."

Trini blanched at the reference to another assault, and Kir grimaced. Still, it was a distinct possibility given the fact they couldn't port away until they'd found Hecate. The calculations Kir had made said the portal would open again in two days. They had 48 hours to find Hecate and get back. He wondered if they would make it in time.