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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Capellan" data-source="post: 2116301" data-attributes="member: 6294">"Total Escape" - Part 3"That's great, Doc.  I'll clap with glee as soon as I'm done dangling from this precipice.""I vill get a vine and we will pull you up." Gustav begins searching through the undergrowth for a suitable article of vegetation, discarding several due to their razor-sharp thorns or extrusions of poisonous sap.  Finally he exclaims in excitement and grasps a sturdy but apparently non-lethal vine in both hands. "Ve vill have you rescued in just a moment, Captain!"The Doctor strains valiantly, what passes for his muscles bulging with the effort, but the vine shows no sign of budging until S'Ondra appears at his side and gives it a mighty heave.  Then, with a sound of tearing vegetation and a shower of reddish dirt, the vine comes free.Quickly, foster-father and daughter return to the edge of the cliff, and S'Ondra casts the vine down to Fury.  The camera, however, lingers on the clump of vegetation from which the vine was dragged.  Slowly, the mound begins to swell and stir, something rising out of it."Here, Captain!" S'Ondra calls, leaning forward over the ledge in what will become the most video-captured moment of the DVD.Fury grabs the vine as it flails beside his hand, then slowly clambers back up the cliff, shirt tearing against the jagged rocky outcroppings.  As he hauls himself over the ledge, we see his eyes widen in shock.  An immediate switch to a point of view shot reveals what he has seen: a huge plant-monster, easily eight feet tall, looms behind the group, its massive tulip-like head wobbling back and forth as it stalks toward them.Sensing Fury's alarm, Archie spins in place.  Lights flash in his transplanted brain as he analyses the threat."Doctor, I think we should postpone discussing how interesting this creature is until it is dead."The robot's words signal the start of the battle, and S'Ondra immediately rushes to the fray, stabbing the creature twice with her heat lance.  Sticky white sap sprays from the wounds, spattering on her face like something that probably should have been censored.The creature staggers from the assault, flailing pathetically as Fury and Gustav redouble its woes by striking it with fists and wrench respectively.  It is left to Archie to put it out of its misery, however: a short-range laser beam scythes out of the builder-bot's nose, cutting into the monster and sending it crashing to the ground."What's the matter, Princess?" Fury notices a frown on S'Ondra's face. "Don't tell me that's just the baby and the mother-monster's going to be along any second?"The Princess shakes her head,"I thought I heard thunder." As she speaks, a distant rumble confirms her words.Fury shrugs,"A little water never hurt anybody."S'Ondra and Gustav exchange a look.  Fury sighs,"Venusian rain isn't water, is it?""Of course it is!" the Princess denies, hotly. "Mostly.""Ze water has a high concentration of certain molecular acids." Gustav explains as a much closer rumble of thunder shakes the set, "It is not harmful to natural materials, but wiz certain synthetic fabrics, zere is a more noticeable chemical reaction.""What sort of 'chemical reaction'?"Rain pours from the heavens in answer.  Immediately, steam begins to rise from the clothing worn by Fury, S'Ondra and the Doctor."Zey dissolve."The group struggles on through the night, slipping and sliding in the muddy conditions as their clothes are eaten away, until only a few scanty scraps of cloth are left in strategic locations.  By the time the rain ends and the sky lightens with the dawn, the three flesh-and-blood members of the crew are covered in dirt and grime and strange Venusian goop, and clad only in rags.The resemblance they now bear to typical savage Venusians is quite uncanny, not to mention narratively convenient.Archie, completely unaffected by the night's downpour and better equipped to handle the muddy conditions, is the first to crest the ridge that overlooks the Targ Camp.  He immediately comes to a halt, then scurries back down the slope to alert his struggling companions."The camp is just ahead." He announces, lights flashing worriedly. "As we have now reached our destination, I must once more request that you immediately conduct a level four cleansing operation.  Your current level of cleanliness contravenes eight hundred and eleven of my programming parameters.""How 'bout it, Princess?" Fury flops down in the dirt - prompting another squawk of horror from Archie - and peers over the ridge at the camp, "I'll scrub your back, if you like.""I'd prefer to stay dirty.""I vould be happy to let you scrub mine, Captain."And so are a thousand slash-fics launched.We switch to a view of the Targ Camp.  It is a large encampment, perhaps eight hundred yards long and five hundred wide, and is clearly a left-over set from a World War Two prisoner of war show, with a couple of science-fiction widgets added to the mix.  Two barbed-wire fences ring the camp, which is watched over by five towers.  Each tower mounts a pair of large searchlights.Within the fences are three prisoner barracks, a guard barracks with parade ground, and two other buildings.  The first is a huge, corrugated iron warehouse, while the second is emblazoned with many Trag symbols, and seems to be the centre of a great deal of activity.  A clump of Venusian children are herded out of it, then a second clump are herded in, followed a few minutes later by a single adult Venusian, prodded at gunpoint by two Targ guards."Okay.  We've found the place." Fury glances at the others, "Now what?"</blockquote>

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