A bitter wind blew, colder than charity.  Even if you were protected by a heated space suit, it still seemed to chill you to the bone.  Or perhaps that was just the effect of the dead landscape - an immense plain broken here and there by short, jagged outcrops of rock: mostly quartz and granite.  Everything else had been worn away.

The surface of Argolis was gritty underfoot and covered with a kind of coarse dust, a couple of centimetres thick.  It was like walking on ash, which is precisely what the surface layer was composed of - ash and cold cinders.

The colours which blazed in the sky overhead somehow made the scene look even more desolate.  Once outside the Leisure Hive you realized that the air - or at least the gales that roared across the planet - were full of tiny fragments of glittering dust which reflected and refracted light from Argolis' suns.

Somewhere in this brilliant world of colour ash stirred and rose and was snatched away in the wind.  Webbed feet left tracks which were instantly erased.  Something was moving cautiously across the barren plain in the direction of the Hive.

They - for by now it was clear there were at least two of them - had planned their advance with care.  Out of sight of the great observation domes, which erupted from the building like enormous transparent blisters and were crowded with holidaymakers, they approached the rear of the Hive.  They followed the wall round to where the storerooms, offices, laboratories and other service areas were located.  There they attached a sensor to the exterior wall, and listened.

There was the sound of movement within; some Argolin was checking equipment in a storeroom.  They waited patiently under the lee of the wall, their breathing harsh and laboured in the poisonous air of Argolis.  At last, when their detector confirmed that the Argolin had gone and the storeroom beyond was empty, they began work.

Getting into the Hive took a matter of minutes.  They attached a small box to the wall, then drew it slowly down the side of the Hive, so that it traced out a circle - a circle large enough to permit their access.  Inside, in the darkness of the storeroom, the circular lines glowed and the wall itself bubbled as if attacked by acid.  When the circle was complete, a slight pressure from a clawed hand was enough to push the segment of wall inwards.  The figures entered the Hive.  They replaced the cut fragment of wall and, using the same device, reversed the cutting process.  The opening was sealed shut, and to the casual observer there was no sign it had ever existed.