While doing so, he questions why Osgood was at the A-Level explosives storeroom in the first place and orders Security to place guards around the other storage facilities. Osgood is discovered in a woman's quarters, bloodied and half-conscious. While conveyed by stretcher team to Medical, he experiences another vision: Michelle, again lying in the canopy bed on the lunar surface, surrounded by fire. This time, he can move and tries to run to her aid, but can make no headway. As before, she is too weak to rise and perishes in the flames. Helena tests an eleventh model of the Dorfman heart, but it fails to function for any significant length of time. Despondent, she is called away to casualty reception. There, she finds Osgood, with multiple lacerations on his arm and weak from blood loss. As she examines him, the geologist reveals a belt of explosive charges strapped around his torso, wired to a deadman switch. He allows Helena to bind his wounds, then demands to see Michelle. He intends to flee with her to the catacombs, before Moonbase is destroyed in the coming holocaust. Knowing that any physical exertion could kill Michelle, Helena begs him not to take her. A new heart is her only salvation and the doctor promises to get for it. Osgood rejects her heresy, and husband and wife leave the care unit together. In space, Eagle One encounters a dark nebula. After passing through and out the other side, Koenig and crew make visual contact with the heat source-—an enormous disc of super-heated plasma and flaming hydrogen. The fire-storm is on a trajectory for the Moon, travelling faster than the Eagle's maximum speed. Reversing course, Koenig informs Moonbase that the plasma-storm will impact in the vicinity of Alpha. Helena makes one last attempt to persuade Koenig to release . His reply is lost in storm interference. She turns to Verdeschi for a decision. He allows her to take what she needs. When Michelle's hospital name-plate is discovered deep in the caverns, Verdeschi goes underground to hunt for his friends. Intimately familiar with the catacombs, Osgood manages to keep ahead of the search parties. But his exhaustion combined with Michelle's debilitated condition has them resting too frequently. He removes the belt of explosives for fear of blowing them up by accident. He slips into another trance: Michelle is again trapped in the ring of fire.