But it didn't rain. Each day dawned clear and then grew misty as the hot sun sucked the moisture out of the ground in smoky tendrils. By noon it was clear again and at night the stars shimmered from horizon to horizon.

Early on the morning of June the eighth, 2147, the community of Ark Three met for a final Togethering. Around the Assembly, down the aisles and into the centre the Web wove itself in a golden thread that became complete in the nexus of the Four.

The power of the Web poured love and strength into the twenty who were about to set out into the unknown. Even Ruth, isolated from its full power by her different psyche, felt her throat tighten at the kindness that wrapped itself around her like arms, that warmed her like the fires of her dreams ...

And now, in response to her dreams, the twenty left the Assembly, though not yet the fulness of the Web, and walked silently to the elevator and up to the first floor beneath the Dome. Silently they shouldered their packs and trudged along the corridor to the tunnel entrance.

One by one they passed through the Door and climbed the ladders, to stand in knee-high grass under the wide clear sky. The last to climb out was Karol. He let the lid fall shut with a final thud.

They looked at each other uneasily. How huge the sky was. How vast the grassland. Charity bit her lip and looked as if she were about to cry. But the Web was still there to comfort them. The group was like a creature that had remained encysted underground for years and years. Now it had put forth a single tendril, a pseudopod, to explore the new environment. But it was still part of the main body. It was still safe.

“Come on,” said Ruth. She shouldered her pack and began to walk.

The beginning of their march led south into the grassland, with the mountain range some three kilometres to the left. The sun was high, slightly to their left and in front of them, and it cast a golden dazzle across the high grass, so that it seemed that they were wading through a green gold sea.

The air was clean and heavy with the scent of clover. Bees blundered drunkenly from flower to flower and dragonflies stitched blue and bronze patterns through the air. Ruth felt the tension fall from her shoulders like a cast-offload. She walked with a spring, in spite of the pack she carried. She looked sideways at Luke and saw that he, too, was smiling.