A Weighty Problem

Joan looks up from her tricorder, having scanned the prone form before us and says: "None of his bodily injuries are too serious, though his captors clearly beat him savagely. But I'm worried about the possibility of brain damage. That's something that this tricorder can't tell me, since we don't have any normal readings to compare, so we won't know till he comes round. In fact, possibly not for some time even after that, as he's likely to be severely concussed."

"Poor Gur Rathka," the princess says. She seems close to tears.

We clearly can't leave him here, as much on humanitarian grounds as because we want to gain the princess's trust. But Green Martians are big, so we have the problem of how to get him out of the dungeon. Though we have brought our magic carpets with us - as it wouldn't have been safe for us to leave them behind on the surface - we can't use them underground. The tunnels aren't high enough and there are too many obstructions - piles of fallen masonry and the like - that need to be got around or climbed over. And there's also the problem of the steep ramps between levels.

We don't have any drugs that we could safely use on an unfamiliar species to hasten his regaining consciousness.

1. So it looks as though another spell is needed.

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