Virn was the sand.
Some emanation from it affects the atmosphere,
even the magnetic fields of the planet,
and causes the rest of the trouble.
Ships crash, instruments fail,
nobody can protect himself.
And when the sand comes into contact
with a human body,
it sucks out the cellular energy,
sometimes fast, sometimes slowly.
I imagine that depends
on how much sand is in the vicinity.
But that's what Keller's plague was.
Not a virus, a vampire.
It killed all of them except the girl.
And then the third element of Virn's ecology
took over.
They were preserved.
It appears the sand
can nourish itself on the dead, too.
So it makes sure the dead stay edible.
And there's the unique element
we came here to find.
A preservative that acts indefinitely
without dehydration or freezing.
It could be incredibly useful.
It's also completely un-get-at-able
under Virn's built-in conditions.
A vampire?
It's an imaginative theory, Tarrant, but it's flawed.
We're still alive.
I know... and that's the nastiest part of all.
Well?
Suppose the sand can reason
in some rudimentary but quite logical way.
A food source here can last for years,
but it seems reasonable to think
that it would like more food available, fresh food.
- Don Keller and the girl.
- The last survivors here, apparently immune.
Then the girl killed herself.
She must have guessed.
Once the girl died, Keller immediately got sick.
Her death made him expendable.
It's breeding stock, Servalan.
It was keeping them alive
to breed a race of food animals for itself, a herd.
And that's our function, yours and mine.
So we get a cosy pen and good food.
Now I suppose I should be flattered.
The vampire tested me and thinks
I'm superior stock to Reeve and the others.
It reckoned it could afford to kill them
if it saved me.
And you, of course.
Yes, any number of women would be safe. A herd.
The label says,
"Earth spring water. Bottled in glass."
You'd better take it.
I don't think you'll ever see Earth again.
Don Keller, he was my lover.
I was 18.
- He's the reason you're here.
- He left me.
I grew up.
Power became my lover.
Power is like a drug.
It is beautiful.
Shining.
I could destroy a planet by pressing a button.
- I loved him.
- This isn't going to help either of us.
I don't care about either of us.
Hey.
It doesn't rain here, remember?
Avon.
There's sand all around him.
It wasn't there before.
Sand?
- Vila, get up!
- Get lost.
Oh.
Thanks.
I think I'm dying.
Avon, look.
Of course. Water!
Since you're awake, you'd see better from here.
You cry very beautifully, Servalan.
And one of your tears
did this to the sand on the floor.
At first I thought
it was just your destructive nature.
Try to remember I have a gun.
Actually, no.
His pulse is very weak.
Well, that should go very nicely
with the rest of him.
Well, there doesn't seem to be any more sand.
There wasn't much but it was everywhere.
All right, Avon, you've told us your theory.
It wasn't a plague on Virn,
it was the sand feeding off human energy.
- Does that mean we reckon Tarrant is dead?
- Not necessarily.
According to Orac's earlier information,
there's probably a woman down there.
It's just possible that Tarrant
was stronger and fitter
than the three men in the Federation patrol,
in which case he may have been kept alive
as Keller was kept alive
- and for the same reason.
- New food supplies.
Yes, but what about us?
Presumably, the sand up here
has compared Vila's wits and stamina with mine,
and concluded that I am the dominant male.
On the herd principle, therefore,
it decided that Vila was superfluous
and it could kill him.
You two, of course,
would have been allowed to live.
SOOLIN: Don't say it, Avon.
I wasn't going to say anything.
(Thunder)
How much more of this can the ship take?
Look, there must be some way
to get Tarrant off that planet.
Not unless we can do something
about the sand on Virn.
- One glass of