The heat was growing unbearable. Even though the sun had set three hours earlier, Tony's lungs were seared by every breath of overheated air, the light canvas clothing he wore rubbing uncomfortably against his body as he and the others prepared for evacuation. They had been gradually moving all their supplies and belongings to the launch area at the top of the cliff; it was amazing what quantities of objects and clothing they had accumulated in three years of colonisation at Dover. It would take three Cargo Eagles to move everything back to Alpha -- not bad for a community of barely thirty people.

Tony was loath to leave the home he had built here, but it was clearly time to leave. The community had stayed on for as long as they could, but it was Year 13; Summer was already here and the temperature increased daily. It was only by living at night and using generators to air-condition their troglodyte homes in the cliff that the people could continue to live here, and soon, even that wouldn't be enough.

Loki took on a desert climate in the Summer, with daytime temperatures up to 100°C, hot enough for water supplies to sizzle and evaporate, too hot for humans to live in. So far, the daytime temperature had hovered around a maximum of 60°C, and the atmosphere was becoming so hot that even the nights were not enough to cool it down; the lowest temperature Maya had recorded in the last week was 24°C in the middle of the night. It was time to go back to Alpha for their two year stay.

Tony heard a rustling noise behind him and instinctively turned, stepping back in case one of the plants on the cliff above was about to fall; with the heat, the vegetation was drying out and breaking off. Patrick's daughter Mary had even had a narrow miss from a falling branch just two days earlier. But all Tony saw as he peered among the boxes around him was a bright splash of orange.

"Toto! What do you think you're doing," he said sternly. "It's too early for you to come out! Go back to Maya."

"I'm helping, Babbo," said the little boy, squatting down and beginning to pile up dry twigs.

"I'm sure you are," said Tony with a gruff smile, leaning over the brambles to pick his son up. "But you should be helping Maya. It's too hot out here."

Tony held the boy in his arms and kissed his curly blonde hair. Even though the children were mostly kept indoors during the day, Toto's skin had seen enough reflective sunlight from the white cliffs around to turn a medium brown. Every time he looked at his son, Tony was reminded of an old picture his parents used to have on their bedside table, of him and his older brother Guido sitting on a beach in Italy some time in the Seventies. Toto was the image of his father as a child; only the faint brown streaks on his cheeks suggested his half-alien parentage.

The child clung to Tony's djellaba like a little monkey as his father started to carry him back to the house. The other Doverians smiled and returned to their work as Tony passed. Toto was one of the youngest children in the settlement; combined with his unusual good looks, this ensured his popularity, especially among the women.

Tony thought this admiration was deserved of course -- his son was the most perfect child alive... although his temper sometimes left something to be desired. Knowing where they were going, and evidently not desirous to go along with this plan, Salvatore suddenly began to cry and kick.

"No! I want to help. Ti aiuto, Babbo!"

"Hey, cut that out!" Tony put him down and Salvatore kicked him petulantly in the shin. "Ow. Stop that! You're going back and that's that. Maya will be worried about you."

Aware that all his colleagues had stopped work to watch the scene, Tony seized the little boy's hand and pulled him towards the dugout. Although he could clearly have picked the child up and carried him in regardless, he had to stop as his son started screaming more loudly.

"Gesù, Salvatore, do we have to go through this every time you don't want to do something?" exclaimed Tony. He was hot and tired, and in no mood for one of the child's tantrums. "Oh, just sort yourself out, then."

He let go of his son's hand and Salvatore's mood immediately brightened. Tears still on his little brown cheeks, the little boy trotted back to the supply store and started piling up twigs again. Tony sighed as he watched his son play in the artificial lighting of the settlement. It wasn't easy to forget how much he and Maya had been through to have this one precious child.

Salvatore, the "saviour"; he was named after his grandfather, but as far as Tony was concerned, it was an apt name for his only son. The boy was the only thing that had saved his parents from the despair they had been in last Winter; after his birth, Maya's mental health had gradually improved. She resumed her duties and they moved to the agricultural settlement Patrick's team had excavated at White Bay, participating more actively in the life of the small community.

Tony shook his head and joined the others. Eddie Collins smiled as he approached, wiping the sweat off his bald head with a cloth. "Toto's a wilful little fellow, isn't he?" he said leniently.

"Oh yes, he definitely takes after his mother," said Tony with a chuckle, keeping an eye on the boy. "Stubborn as a mule."

"They're all like that at that age." Eddie could afford to generalise: he had five children of his own. "It's the 'terrible twos'. I'm sure you remember the tantrums Sue Ellen had."

I'd have tantrums too if someone wished a name like Sue Ellen on me, thought Tony, not for the first time. He was aware, though, that a lot of his American and English colleagues were under the impression his son was named after the dog in The Wizard of Oz. Perhaps it was best never to criticise a parent's judgement.

"How are we coming along with the evacuation?" he asked out loud.

"We're on schedule," said Eddie with a sigh. "The Eagle will be here in a minute. But I sure hope it's the last time we have to go through this in a long while. I know we're coming back, but it's such a wrench packing up and leaving after nearly three years. We'll have to get the kids into a different routine and everything."

Tony nodded in agreement. "It's going to be a shock moving back to Alpha. Like being in the big city after living in the country."

"Like going into a 1990s time warp, too," said Eddie. "Shermeen and I are not looking forward to working in Hydroponics again. I don't care how much they've improved it, Alpha is still a 30-year-old construction."

"Maybe it's time to build a Beta, rather than just expanding the existing base. Not that any amount of new constructions are going to make it big enough after all this."

Tony waved his hand in the direction of the landscape. The bright lights of the settlement made it difficult to see beyond the confines of Dover, but Tony knew what there was to see, and was sure Eddie understood as well. At night, the shallow lake, now dwindling in the heat of the Summer, reflected the stars from the clear sky above, while the Lucy bushes gave off their phosphorescent glow. Dover was a beautiful place -- Tony often wished they hadn't saddled it with such a prosaic name.

He looked up in the other direction as he heard the distant grumble of an Eagle in the sky. The craft's position lights were just visible against the backdrop of stars. It was time for the first Eagle-load of Alpha-bound settlers to make their way up to the launchpad.

"Look, Toto, it's the Eagle," called Tony. He crouched down and held out his arms; the little boy dropped his sticks and ran into his father's embrace. "You see, it's that light up there," continued Tony, picking Toto up and pointing to the sky. "It's going to take us to Alpha."

Toto looked up and observed the craft thoughtfully, a puzzled look on his little tanned face. "Alpha..."

"Yes, you'll be a big boy when we come back here," explained his father.

"I'll be how big?" asked Toto seriously.

"Oh at least this big." Tony balanced the child on one arm and indicated his mid thigh. "Nearly as big as Michael."

Toto was visibly impressed with this information, but then lost interest and looked over Tony's shoulder. "Maya!" he exclaimed joyously. "Maya!"

"Hello, angel," said his mother as she approached. "Have you been good?" She smiled at Tony and took the child out of his arms.

"What do you think?" asked Tony. "I think even the lot in that Eagle must have heard the screams."

"He's only little. You're too impatient with him, Tony."

"I suppose so." Tony made it a point never to argue with Maya. "I probably get confused by how well he talks and expect him to act like a five-year-old."

"That's his Psychon blood," she said proudly. "He's going to be very intelligent when he grows up. It runs in the family."

Firmly keeping his mind off what other mental characteristics ran through Maya's family, Tony smiled and kissed her pale cheek. "Of course he'll be intelligent. Now, have we got everything? We need to impress Alan with our wonderful organisation." He picked up their boxes and made way for the cable lift.

"Yes, dear," said Maya, following behind with Toto clinging to her. Tony heard her add, "We both know Babbo's the only one who needs to impress Alan, don't we, Toto?"