Three Winds

Virgin Planet, CHAPTERs XIX -XX.

The Doctors had never had to fight but were well prepared.

There has been a lot of killing and it seems that there is about to be a lot more. Appropriately:

"Bee slipped behind Minos. The planet became a circle of blackness ringed with red flame. Of all the moons, only firefly Aegeus was visible. Stars glittered coldly forth. A wind sighed across the draining marshes, dusk lay heavy on the world." (p. 144)

The warring factions are on the surface of Atlantis, a moon of the giant planet, Minos, which now eclipses the nearer sun. Thus, redness surrounds darkened Minos. The only other visible moon is the smallest. The stars look cold. The wind sighs. The marshes drain as the tide ebbs. Dusk deepens. Everything seems to prepare for more death.

Again:

"Night and silence lay thick across the land. A salt wind whined around reddened battlements." (p. 147)

However, when further conflict has been prevented:

"Davis Bertram stood in tall grass, under a morning wind, and looked up the beloved length of his spaceship." (p. 148)

Tall grass is abundant life. The morning wind is a new beginning. The spaceship is the means by which Davis will return to civilization and will call civilization to Atlantis.