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     Shining

     Darkness

    MARK MICHALOWSKI

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2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1

Published in 2008 by BBC Books, an imprint of Ebury Publishing.

Ebury Publishing is a division of the Random House Group Ltd.

© Mark Michalowski, 2008

Mark Michalowski has asserted his right to be identified as the author of thisWork in accordance with the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988.

Doctor Who is a BBC Wales production for BBC One Executive Producers:Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner Series Producer: Phil Collinson

Original series broadcast on BBC Television. Format © BBC 1963. `DoctorWho', `TARDIS' and the Doctor Who logo are trademarks of the British

Broadcasting Corporation and are used under licence.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in aretrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,

mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permissionof the copyright owner.

The Random House Group Ltd Reg. No. 954009. Addresses for companies

within the Random House Group can be found at www.randomhouse.co.uk.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 846 07557 5

The Random House Group Limited supports the Forest Stewardship Council(FSC), the leading international forest certification organisation. All our titlesthat are printed on Greenpeace approved FSC certified paper carry the FSClogo. Our paper procurement policy can be found

at www.rbooks.co.uk/environment

Series Consultant: Justin Richards

Project Editor: Steve Tribe

Cover design by Lee Binding © BBC 2008

Typeset in Albertina and Deviant Strain

Printed and bound in Germany by GGP Media GmbH

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For Dave and Steve good luck in Scotland!

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Recent titles in the Doctor Who series:

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Justin Richards

SNOWGLOBE 7

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THE MANY HANDS

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GHOSTS OF INDIA

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Simon Messingham

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`Two and a half billion light years,' said Donna Noble, hereyebrows raised and a gentle smile tugging at the cornerof her mouth, `and you've brought me to an art gallery?'

   `Two and a half million light years,' corrected theDoctor, pulling Donna back out of the path of somethingthat resembled an upright anteater, studded with drawingpins, trundling down the street, `and it's not just an artgallery.' He sounded almost hurt.

   `If you're going to tell me it's "not just an art gallery"because it's got a shop that sells fridge magnets...'

   `It might,' replied the Doctor, glancing away guiltilyand tugging at his earlobe.

   `You,' laughed Donna, `are so transparent, you knowthat?'

   `And you,' cut in a deep, buzzy voice that sounded likea talking chainsaw, `are so in my way.'

   Donna turned: right next to them, smack bang in themiddle of the broad pavement on which they stood, was arobot. Although it took Donna a few seconds to work that

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out. From the waist up, it was like a bronze version ofsome Greek god, all bare metal muscles, jawline andattitude. From the waist down, however, it was a differentstory: instead of legs it had caterpillar tracks.

    Donna's first reaction to it was that it was an ordinaryperson (well, as ordinary as you could get, looking likesomeone had vandalised something from the BritishMuseum with a can of metallic paint) who'd lost his legsin an accident and had half a JCB grafted on.

    `Sorry,' she said automatically.

    `I should think so,' buzzed the robot and only thendid Donna realise that it wasn't a creature of flesh-and-blood. The eyes were cold and glittering, and she realisedthe skin wasn't skin at all, but a curiously fluid metal,reflecting back, madly distorted, her own face. `If you'regoing to stop to converse, I suggest you move over there.'And it raised an imperious finger and pointed to the otherside of the pavement.

    This was too much for Donna.

    `Well,' she said, drawing herself up.

    (`I wouldn't,' she vaguely heard the Doctor whisper.)

    `If you're going to be quite so rude,' she continued,ignoring him, `I'd suggest that you move over there.' Shepointed to the centre of the street, where four lanes oftraffic were whizzing by at stomach-clenching speed.`Mate.' She added for good measure.

    (`I really wouldn't,' added the Doctor.)

    The robot raised a haughty eyebrow and looked Donnaup and down.

    `Organics!' it spat, sneerily.

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    `That meant to be some sort of insult?' retorted Donna.`Cos where I come from, sunshine, that wouldn't get youon Trisha, never mind Jeremy Kyle.'

    (`Donna...')

    `Your words are gibberish,' said the robot dismissively.

    At this point, the Doctor cut in, grabbing Donna by thearm and pulling her to one side.

    `Donna! When in Rome...'

    `Sure you don't mean Pompeii?' she replied, acidly.`Who does he think he is?'

    `He probably thinks he's a local who's just come acrosstwo offworlders who don't know the rules and regulationsfor using the streets, is what he probably thinks.'

    Donna saw the Doctor flash a bright, apologetic smileat the robot.

    `Don't smile at him a simple "excuse me" wouldhave done. No need for all that attitude.'

    `Perhaps in the future,' said the robot wearily to theDoctor, revving up its gears as its base rotated (althoughits top half stayed facing them), `you could train your petbetter?'

    Donna's mouth fell open but, before she could sayanything, the Doctor put a firm arm around her shoulderand moved her out of the path of the robot which,without another word, roared off down the street.

    `Pet?' she gasped.

    `Pets are very highly thought of round here,' said theDoctor quickly but without much conviction.

    `Pet?' Donna shouted after the creature, but it hadvanished into the crowd. She turned back to the Doctor,

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open-mouthed. `Can you believe that? You said you weretaking me somewhere civilised and sophisticated. I'd getmore sophistication and civilisation at West Ham on aSaturday.'

   The Doctor gently moved Donna back against thebuilding, out of the path of the crowds streaming aroundthem.

   `For once, I'd like to meet a nice robot,' she said, stillfuming. `There must be some. Somewhere. I mean, withthe whole universe to choose from you'd think there'd beone...'

   `Remind me to take you to Napir Prime,' the Doctorsaid. `The perfect hosts well, that's what it says in TheRough Guide to the Isop Galaxy. Never been myself, butI've heard good things.'

   Donna raised a sceptical eyebrow.

   `From the robots I've seen so far, the strike rate's prettylow.'

   `Don't judge a whole class of beings from just threeexamples,' the Doctor chided, checking out themonumental skyscrapers that lined the street. `Rememberhow you were when you saw your first Ood...'

   `That was different. They weren't robots they justlooked a bit...' She smiled at him, hoping to defuse thetension a little. `Ood.'

   `That's probably what they thought when they sawyou.'

   He gestured at a glossy, dark green building just a fewyards along.

   `Come on let's see if there's any robot art in here.

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Might give you a new perspective.'

   `Not me that needs a new perspective,' Donna grumpedas she followed him through doors that said a cheery`Good afternoon' as they opened.

   `Art,' the Doctor began, sounding ever-so-slightly-pompous, `is a window on the human soul. Or theAndromedan soul, obviously,' he added with a tip of thehead.

   Donna raised an eyebrow.

   A creature a little like a squishy bedside table, with acrown of glinting, metallic eyes, paused in front of them,apparently to observe the slab of dull, grey marble in aglass case that the Doctor was also peering at. Although,Donna realised, it might have been observing them. Shegave a tiny, awkward smile. Just in case. Having alreadyoffended, however unwittingly, an Andromedan, shethought she ought to err on the side of the caution withany new ones she came across.

   `If you'd prefer,' the Doctor whispered, `I'd be morethan happy to take you somewhere filled with danger,excitement and death. Your call.'

   The bedside table ambled off, making a chuckling,coughing sound.

   Donna held out her hands, palms up, weighing up theoptions.

   `Danger, excitement and death?' Her hands moved upand down. `Art gallery?'

   `Philistine,' grinned the Doctor. `We could combine thetwo and visit the Third Stained Glass Empire of ooh,hang on!'

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    And suddenly, Donna was standing on her own,watching him dart across the black mirrored floor of theart gallery towards a large display case. With a sigh, shetrudged after him. She loved art. Really, she did. She'dhad a copy of that sunflowers picture on the wall at home.That was art. Proper art. Not just bits of stuff stuck on aboard and sprayed with grass cuttings. Or half a Minicoming out of the floor. Or a slab of grey marble.

    She caught up with him, almost colliding with a trio oftall, painfully skinny blonde women who'd just enteredthis particular room in the gallery. They looked awkwardand stilted, their faces impassive.

    `Sorry,' she whispered, skirting around them. Theywatched her go silently.

    The Doctor was leaning forwards, his nose squidged upagainst the display case inside which, on a slender glassspike, sat something that looked like a rusty truck wheel,encrusted with fragments of diamanté.

    `Donna!' whispered the Doctor, beckoning herforwards. `What d'you make of this?'

    She peered at it.

    `You're going to tell me that it encapsulates the eternalstruggle between The Pussycat Dolls and Girls Aloud,aren't you?'

    `That's next door,' he said. `No this is much better.'

    `Go on then, Sister Wendy, what is it?'

    `Well, I don't actually know what it is, but whatever itis, it's a bit more than just art.'

    `Is it?' Donna tried to stifle the yawn that she could feelbubbling up. The three supermodels or whatever they

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were had separated and were all standing around theexhibit that was so fascinating the Doctor, although hedidn't seem to have noticed them. There was somethingslightly odd about the trio, though: something measuredand shifty. Like burglars casing a house, figuring out theright time to nip in and steal the DVD. Never mind thefact that, as far as she could tell, they were all identical.

    The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver, activatedit, and waved it around near the case. Seconds later, hepulled a puzzled face and popped it back in his pocket.

    `Just wait here,' he said, looking around. `I'm going tofind the gallery's owner.'

    `Couldn't you just read the brochure?' asked Donna.

    `I have. It's rubbish. Back in a sec.'

    One of the supermodels, dressed in a plain greytrouser-suit with creases so sharp you could cut yourselfon them, glanced at her. She smiled back.

    `Art,' she said vaguely, uncomfortably. `Great, isn't it?Window on the human soul. Or Andromedan soul,' sheadded for good measure.

    The supermodel just stared at her and then at her twocompanions.

    Art-lovers, thought Donna. Don't you just love them--

    The thought was cut off as she spotted the greasy patchon the glass that the Doctor's nose had left. In the pristine,snooty environment of the gallery it looked horribly out ofplace, and Donna was tempted to leave it there.

    But she was an ambassador for Earth, wasn't she? Shedidn't want the locals going around saying what muckypups humans (and Time Lords) were, especially with

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these three women paying such attention to the exhibit.So, whipping out her hanky, she stepped forward to givethe glass a bit of a clean at the very same moment that awave of prickling static swept across her skin, and thewhole room flared brilliant, snowy white.

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    `Oi!' shouted Donna as the glare subsided, leaving

    sparkly traces on her vision. `What was--'

       She stopped as she realised that somehow they'd

    managed to redecorate the art gallery in the few seconds

    that she'd been blinded. Instead of a wide, airy space with

    a shiny black floor and white walls, they'd turned it into a

    lower, pokier space, all purply-black swirls. The walls

    around her curved, giving the impression of being inside

    half a hard-boiled egg. The display case and the

    supermodels were still there, although the lights inside the

    display case had gone out, leaving the diamanté truck

    wheel looking even more like a piece of old junk than it

    had before. It began to dawn on her that maybe just

    maybe she wasn't in the gallery any more...

       Donna spun on her heel as a door hissed open

    somewhere behind her.

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   `Oh marvellous!' deadpanned the little fat man withcurly blond hair who came striding in. He glared at thethree supermodels. `Absolutely marvellous! Who's she?'He plonked his hands on his ample hips and looked her upand down.

   `She,' snapped back Donna, `is the cat's mother. Whoare you?'

   `Hold her,' said the man, sneering up at her. Suddenly,Donna felt steel bands tighten around her upper arms andlooked to see that two of the supermodels had grabbedher. No one, she thought, least of all supermodels, shouldbe able to hold that hard.

   `Gerroff!' she grunted, squirming. But their grip wasunbreakable. The third supermodel stood on the other sideof the display case, observing her with cold, dead eyes.

   `Who is she?' asked the man, almost as if she weren'tthere.

   `I'm a woman who happens to know a man who'sgoing to be very unhappy when he gets back and finds outwhat you've done.'

   `She entered the transmat area as we activated,' intonedone of the supermodels in a dull, emotionless voice,ignoring Donna.

   `I am here, you know,' snapped Donna. `I can speak formyself.' She paused. `Transmat? I've just beentransmatted?'

   `Clearly,' said the little man in a weary voice. He staredat her with pale blue eyes that were almost as cold anddead as those of the supermodels. He wore a lapelless,dark grey business suit with a crisp shirt, striped with pink

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and white horizontal bands. Something about him madeDonna think of estate agents.

   `Who are you, anyway?' Donna demanded. `When theDoctor finds out, you're going to be in big trouble.'

   `The Doctor? Who's she? Or he?'

   `Oh, ha, ha. Very funny.' Donna twisted her neckaround to try to find the Doctor, but she realised that she'dbeen transmatted alone.

   Her head snapped back round to face the little man.

   `What have you done?' she growled. `Where am I?Who are you?'

   The man paused, his eyes narrowed.

   `My name is Garaman Havati, and you're aboard theDark Light, my ship. Who are you?'

   `Donna Noble. Spelled TROUBLE if you don't put meback exactly where I was. Now.'

   Garaman chewed thoughtfully at the corner of hismouth.

   `No,' he said eventually. `I don't think so.'

   His eyes flicked to the supermodels flanking her.

   `Put her somewhere safe.' He looked back at her. `I'mtempted to have you killed now, but something makes methink I should keep a hold of you for a while.'

   `Oh, mister,' said Donna, struggling as the supermodelsbegan to lead her away. `You have made one helluvamistake. Just you wait 'til the Doc- ow! Get your handsoff me!'

   But the supermodels took no notice, and half led, halfdragged her from the room.

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The Doctor had barely gone five paces when the flare oflight behind him made him spin on his heel. Where,moments ago, there had been the display case, Donna andthe three humaniform robots, there was now just an emptyspace and a shallow, rectangular hole in the floor.

   `Not again,' he sighed, and then caught sight of the artgallery's attendant, rushing in from the next room to findout what the flash of light had been.

   `Excuse me,' said the Doctor to the attendant, a slimman with permanently arched (and, the Doctor suspected,dyed) eyebrows and a look of utter disdain on his face.`But what just happened there? You don't use Huonparticles for anything, do you? I hope she's not going tostart making a habit of this.'

   `I was hoping,' drawled the man, arching his eyebrowseven further as he cast a glance around the room, `that youwould be able to tell me.'

   `Well, judging by the flash and the missing bit of floor,I'd say you've just been heisted.'

   `"Heisted?"'

   The Doctor nodded, squatting down on the floor wherethe display case had been standing and taking out hissonic screwdriver. He activated it and waved it around inthe air for a few seconds.

   `Heisted,' he said simply. `By transmat. At least it's notHuon particles, then.' He sprang to his feet. `Someone'sjust spirited away a valuable treasure.'

   `Hardly valuable,' said the attendant dismissively.

   The Doctor fixed him with a glare.

   `I was talking about Donna. But now you come to

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mention it, what exactly was that thing? The one in thecase.'

   The attendant shrugged elegantly.

   `Art,' he said simply, as if that were all the explanationthat was needed.

   `Oh, I think it was more than just art, wasn't it?'

   `This is an art gallery,' the man said. `We display art.'

   `What you were displaying there,' said the Doctor, `wasa very sophisticated piece of technology, judging by thereadings I picked up from it.'

   He stopped, suddenly, as he realised that whilst he wasstanding here, wasting his time debating the gallery'sdisplays, Donna was still missing.

   `If you ask me,' he said as he headed for the door, `youneed to boost your transmat scrambling field. This wouldnever happen at the Tate Modern, you know.'

   And with that, he was gone.

   `Scuse me! Thank you! Oops! Ta!'

   The Doctor raced out into the street, nipping smartlybetween the passers-by, until he stood at the edge of thepavement, watching the never-ending stream of traffic andmachinery as it flowed past like a river.

   The transmat trace he'd picked up with the sonicscrewdriver would be fading quickly. And, if he was rightabout where she'd been transmatted to, it could be justminutes before she was out of his reach for ever.

   `Taxi!' he called, leaning out into the traffic andsticking out his arm.

   Nothing happened the cars and trucks and robots justrolled on past. He tried again, but had no more success.

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Finally, in despair, he shoved his fingers in his mouth andlet out an ear-shattering whistle. On the pavement allaround him, aliens, humans and robots stopped what theywere doing and turned, astonished that such a little thingas him could have made such a noise.

   The Doctor was in the midst of pulling an apologeticface when, with a crashing tinkle of bells, something thatresembled an armoured, custard-coloured elephantshuddered to a halt in front of him. A golden eye on a stalkextended from the side of the creature's head and came toa halt a few inches from the Doctor's own.

   `Do I take it,' said a low, sonorous voice, `that you arerequesting transport?'

   `I did say "taxi",' the Doctor said apologetically.

   `Ah,' said the yellow elephant. `You're an offworlder,aren't you?'

   The Doctor looked himself up and down. `Is it thatobvious?'

   The eye blinked, its `eyelid' a mustard-coloured iris.

   `You announced yourself as a taxi,' the elephant said.`Think yourself lucky that no one took you up on it. Youdon't look exactly built to carry passengers.'

   `You'd be surprised. Look, sorry to rush you, but I haveto find a friend.'

   `Ahhh,' said the elephant after a moment's thought.`You'll be wanting the companion district then.'

   `No no no, not that kind of friend. A particularfriend...' He stopped, thinking about Donna. `A veryparticular friend, actually. I need to get to my ship asquickly as possible.'

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   `The spaceport?'

   `No, a lovely little square with a tall building like ahatpin.'

   `The Court of Tragic Misunderstandings. I know itwell.'

   And suddenly another custardy tentacle emerged fromthe elephant's flank, wrapped itself around the Doctor'swaist, and lifted him effortlessly onto the creature's back,where a comfy, form-fitting seat was already beingextruded.

   `Two minutes,' the elephant said, moving back into thetraffic seamlessly.

   `Couldn't make it one, could you?' asked the Doctor.

   `Not without tampering with my speed limiter,breaking half a dozen city regulations and probablycausing an accident in which dozens would die, no.'

   The Doctor sighed as a seatbelt wrapped itself aroundhim. `Two minutes it is, then.'

As the Doctor rode away into the traffic on the yellowelephant, he was being watched.

   The observer, a raccoon in red hot-pants and a fez,narrowed its eyes, watching the stranger's conversationwith the elephant. Its hearing was acute, and it had caughtthe entire exchange: the offworlder was heading for theCourt of Tragic Misunderstandings.

   Quickly, the raccoon pulled out a little transmitter,pressed a couple of buttons, and began to speak.

True to its word, the elephant whose name was

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Cherumpanch, the Doctor discovered, during the mostterrifying race through traffic that he'd ever had deposited him outside the Court of TragicMisunderstandings in just a smidgeon under two minutes.Still slightly dizzy, the Doctor began to root around in hispockets for some sort of payment before Cherumpanchrealised what he was doing and told him that publictransport in the city was free. With its tentacular eye, itexamined the rather unappetising item that the Doctorbrandished in front of him.

   `It's a peanut,' said the Doctor brightly if unhelpfully.

   `Thanks,' said Cherumpanch cautiously, taking thepeanut with another yellow tentacle and sucking it inside.

   `Earth delicacy,' explained the Doctor, haring awayacross the grass to where he could see the reassuringshape of the TARDIS, hugged up in the shadow of a wall.`The only one in this galaxy!' he called over his shoulder.

   `Yuck!' said Cherumpanch, spitting the remains of thepeanut out.

   `You're welc- oh, hello!'

   The yellow taxi-elephant was all but forgotten as theDoctor came to a halt a few yards from the TARDIS.Standing in front of it was a three-and-a-half-metre-tallrobot looking like the result of a high-speed collisionbetween a truck and a steel-mill, with disturbingly red-glowing eyes and a sulky-looking tanned teenager. Itwas clear that they had no intention of letting him insidethe TARDIS.

   The TARDIS that was his only way of finding Donna.

   `All out of peanuts,' the Doctor said, holding his palms

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out to them. `Sorry.'

   `We don't want peanuts,' said the boy.

   Despite looking like your average 16-year-old, the boyhad eyes harder and wearier than any teenager the Doctorhad met before. He had a thin, chiselled face, a tinydiamond set into the side of his nose, and a ratheroversized blue and black striped coat on, despite thesunshine.

   `Well that's a relief then. I might have half a hamsandwich somewhere, but I've no idea how long it's--'

   `You were at the gallery,' the boy interrupted.

   `Good eyesight!'

   The boy ignored him.

   `You saw the exhibit being stolen.'

   `Well, not exactly saw. More turned around and it wasnicked from behind my back. Along with my friendDonna, and if I don't get back inside my ship in a minuteor so,' he said, gesturing towards the TARDIS, `hertransmat trace will have faded. So, if you don't mind...'

   He tried to slip between the boy and the robot which,so far, hadn't moved or spoken or in any other wayindicated that it wasn't just a huge hunk of steel streetfurniture as the boy tapped an ugly black brooch in theshape of a star on his lapel.

   The Doctor felt the hairs on his arms stand up aseverything glowed white around him.

   `Oh,' he said with despair. `Not ag--'

   And then the Doctor, the boy, the robot and theTARDIS were gone.

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    Donna was starting to get worried. Seriously worried.

    Fair enough, travelling with the Doctor had its share of

    troubles. Getting separated from him on this scale wasn't

    usually one: normally, she had a fair idea of where she

    was, where he was. And she could usually rely on him

    finding her pretty quickly.

       But this felt different.

       She had no idea where she was. Heck, she had no idea

    where the planet was. The Andromeda galaxy, the Doctor

    had said. Twumpty billion light years from Earth, or

    something.

       Most of the other places that she'd been since she'd

    teamed up, again, with the Doctor had felt vaguely

    familiar: Pompeii had been a bit like a theme park, the

    Ood-Sphere had just been a wintry planet. Granted, the

    Ood had been a bit strange at first, but the humans there

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had given the place a sense of familiarity and, in the end,the Ood had been more human than most of the humans.This planet, Uhlala (if that really was its name: she wasn'tconvinced that the Doctor had understood what the youngwoman he'd asked was saying), felt unearthly in a waythat nowhere else had done: the smells, the sounds, thesights all of them shrieked `Alien!' The people walkingthe streets were bizarre, many of them not looking theleast bit like real people. And the robots...

    Donna's only real experiences with robots had been therobot Santas and the ones on Planet 1. And they werehardly poster children for cuddly, friendly machines. If theones around here had looked like robots big, googlyeyes like headlamps, hissing steam and the like, or cutesylittle things like she'd seen on TV then maybe she'dhave felt more comfortable around them. But too many ofthem looked like living things or weird bits of modern art or like bronze Greek gods grafted onto constructionmachinery. There wasn't enough shiny chrome and rustfor her to think of them as machines, and, quite frankly,they creeped her out. Especially the supermodels, who,now she'd had time to think about it, were probably robotstoo. No one that thin and that beautiful had any right to bethat strong. And silent. No one that thin in Heat was everthat silent. Bimbots that's what they were: bimbo robots.

    They'd dumped her in what was evidently an unusedbedroom on the Dark Light: all minimal lines, spartandécor (grey and silver very chic!) and a toilet that hadtaken her twenty minutes to figure out how it flushed. Andthey'd locked the door and left her. No amount of banging

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on it and threatening the little fat guy with what she'd doto him when she got her hands on him had made theslightest difference. She moped around the room, annoyedby the lack of a window (cheapskates, putting her in aninside room), pressed all the buttons on the intercom thingby the bed (no one answered, if it was even working), hada quick wash in the shiny black bathroom, and thenflumped down on the bed, all out of ideas.

    What would the Doctor do?

    Assuming he didn't have his sonic screwdriver (which,of course, Donna didn't), he'd probably rummage aroundin his pockets, cobble something together out of fluff,string and an old beer mat, and be out of the room inseconds. Donna didn't have any string or beer mats in herpockets (although there was a depressing amount of fluff)and the room was empty of anything that could have stoodin for them. She began a careful, inch-by-inch search ofthe place, just in case someone had dropped a keycard, orthere was a whopping great ventilation duct or exposedwires or something. Not that she'd have known what to dowith them, but it would have been something. Shewondered, briefly, if the Doctor's previous travellingcompanions had ever sat him down and got him to teachthem `Breaking Out of Locked Rooms For Beginners'.She suspected not. It wasn't like they had hours and hoursof down-time in the TARDIS. Recently, it seemed likethey'd been catapulted from one adventure to another withbarely a moment to breathe and get her hair washed. Shelooked down and plucked at the fur trim of her coat,realising how manky it was starting to look, and

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wondering whether, by the time the Doctor took her backto Earth, she'd be hopelessly out-of-fashion and everyonewould laugh at her in the street. She wondered, idly, ifthey did dry cleaning in space.

   Oh, for god's sake! she thought, launching herself upoff the bed. Locked in a room on an alien spaceship on theother side of the universe, and all she could do was worryabout her clothes!

   `Get a grip!' she told herself, crossing to the door andbanging on it so hard that she hurt her hand.

   To her surprise surprise that must have shown on herface, judging by Garaman's (was it Garaman? Garroway?Garibaldi?) expression the door opened almost instantly,revealing the little man, looking all smug and unctuous.Behind him stood one of the bimbots. For the first time,she could see its cold, unblinking expression clearly andshe shivered.

   `I think,' said Garaman, entering the room without somuch as a by-your-leave, `we need to talk.' He twirled onthe spot and looked up at her. `Don't you?'

`--ain!' finished the Doctor as his atoms fuzzledthemselves back into existence. He turned sharply to theboy and the robot, reassured that the TARDIS had comealong with him. `What is it with you people andtransmats? What's wrong with a good, old-fashionedshuttle? I could tell you some stories about transmats, youknow.' He stopped and fished the sonic screwdriver fromhis pocket. `Now...' He paused and shifted his weightfrom one foot to the other, narrowing his eyes, before

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pulling a yoyo from his pocket and experimentallybouncing it a couple of times. `Spaceship.' He looked atthe boy who was eyeing him curiously. `In orbit? Thoughtso. Right where are your sensor controls?'

   `Sensor controls?'

   The Doctor brandished the sonic screwdriver in hisface. `I need to plug this in before the trace goes cold.' Heraised an eyebrow. `And if you're half as interested inwhat was stolen from the art gallery as I think you are, ifyou lead me to Donna, then I'll lead you to that. Deal?'

   The boy considered the Doctor's words for a fewmoments before pursing his lips and nodding.

   The ship, the Doctor noted as the boy led him throughthe corridors (with the silent robot right behind him) hadseen better days. The walls were a dull, steel colour,although half-hearted patches of green and orange paintoccasionally shone through the grime and the rust. Therewas a smell of oil and heat in the air, and every now andagain the floor would shudder as though the ship wereturning over in its sleep. Or having a nightmare.

   `So,' said the Doctor conversationally, over hisshoulder, as they trotted down the passage, `been togetherlong?'

   There was no answer from the hulking great machine.For something so big, thought the Doctor, it wassurprisingly quiet in its movements. Its face a broad v-shape of dull metal with no mouth and two eyes thatburned like hot coals looked down at him impassively.

   `Mother doesn't speak,' said the boy.

   The Doctor pulled a face.

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    `Not like most mothers I've met, then. Not yourmother, I take it? What is your name, by the way?'

    `Boonie,' answered the boy as the door through whichthey were passing jammed half open and had to beshouldered aside. `And no, not my mother. It's what she'scalled.'

    They were in the control room: the Doctor appraised itwith a quick glance. Shabby, grubby, noisy butsomehow welcoming. A lived-in control room. Not likesome of the swanky show-control rooms he'd seen.

    `Nice!' he approved as he headed for what wereundoubtedly the sensor and scanning controls. A middle-aged woman with cropped, black hair, wearing a stiff,grey uniform stepped forwards, a look of alarm andconfusion on her face.

    `It's OK,' Boonie said, and the woman dropped back,still not sure.

    `I'm the Doctor,' said the Doctor brightly, sticking thesonic in his mouth to shake her hand whilst he used theother to fiddle with the sensors.

    `Kellique,' the woman said, throwing another glance atBoonie. `What's this about?'

    `The Doctor is helping us search for...' Boonie brokeoff, briefly. `For the exhibit.'

    `That what?'

    `The exhibit,' said Boonie pointedly. `From the gallery.'

    `Oh,' said Kellique, sounding relieved and a littlepleased with herself. `That. We've got it covered.'

    The Doctor's face fell.

    `You have? Well, you know how to make a man feel

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redundant. Where is it, then?' He peered at the display setinto the sensor controls and jabbed a finger at it. `Is thatit? Ahhh... so that would put it...' He straightened up,whirled round a couple of times before pointing towardsone of the walls. `About eleven thousand kilometres thatway.'

   `Give or take,' said Kellique, still trying to work himout.

   `And what are we doing about it?' asked the Doctor.

   `We're going to follow it,' said Boonie, stridingtowards a big, raggedy chair in the centre of the room anddropping himself into it. Stuffing was leaking out of thearms, and the Doctor noticed how much of the rest of itwas held together with wire and sticky tape.

   `Really? Why don't we just use your magic transmatand beam it back out? Along with Donna,' he added.

   Kellique crossed to Boonie.

   `Who's Donna? Who is this man?'

   Boonie looked up, his eyes grim and hard.

   `They were in the gallery when it was beamed out,according to our agent. They took his friend Donna.'

   `Excuse me,' interrupted the Doctor, joining Kellique atBoonie's side. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Mothershift slightly. `But who exactly are "they"? And why didthey steal that thing?'

   Boonie's glance connected with Kellique's for amoment.

   `I mean,' continued the Doctor, beginning a leisurelystroll around the room, `it's obvious that if a rathersophisticated piece of equipment, posing as a bit of

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modern art, gets lifted by a spaceship in orbit, thensomeone would know about it. Are you art police? Is thatit? Whizzing around the galaxy foiling art thieves?' Helooked around the room. `A bit Scooby Doo, isn't it? And Idon't mean to be rude, but you don't exactly look like artpolice? Not,' he added awkwardly, `that I'd know what artpolice look like. But whatever they look like, it's not youlot, is it?'

   He stopped. All eyes were on him.

   `OK, so now I'm just babbling. But it has given me thechance to examine your control room and to work outthat, if you are the art police, then art crimes aren't at thetop of the local police force's list of priorities. This ship isancient and falling apart,' he continued, despite the frownsand looks from Boonie and Kellique, `and is clearly moreof a private venture. And, financially, not a verysuccessful one.'

   He slapped his palm against his forehead.

   `Of course! You're art thieves, aren't you? You werecasing the gallery when someone slipped in before youand lifted it. That's how you knew what had happened,and how you were waiting for me at the TARDIS.'

   `Would it shut you up,' Boonie said, `if I told you thatno, we're not art thieves?'

   `It might,' replied the Doctor cautiously. `Of course, itmight just throw up more questions. And if there's onething I like, it's questions. Prefer answers, mind you, butquestions'll do for starters. Like... shouldn't you befollowing that ship?'

   The sudden urgency in the Doctor's voice made the

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two of them turn sharply to the screen set into the arm ofBoonie's chair to which the Doctor had pointed.

   The moment their attention was off him, the Doctorwas sprinting towards the door and past Mother but thedoor had barely begun to scrape open when Mother's hugemechanical hand had grabbed his collar and lifted him offhis feet. He swung there for a few moments as Motherturned him round to face Boonie.

   `Nice try, Doctor,' the boy almost grinned.

   `Well,' sighed the Doctor. `You know what they say:you don't try, you don't win.'

   `And where were you planning to go?' asked Kellique.

   The Doctor waved feebly and awkwardly, still danglingfrom Mother's hand.

   `Oh, you know... back to my ship. Out into space. Tofind Donna.'

   `I don't think so,' said Boonie, getting out of his seat.`Not yet, at any rate. Mother, have his ship the blue boxthing locked in the hold where he can't get at it. And ifhe tries anything, hit him. Until he stops.'

   Mother lowered him gently to the floor and the Doctorstraightened out his crumpled suit.

   `Good!' he said, mustering as much dignity as he could.`Glad we've got that one sorted out.'

`You kidnap me, lock me up in a room without a window without even a TV! and now you expect me to have acosy little chat, do you?' Donna stood with her hands onher hips, glaring at Garaman. `You heard of psychologicalabuse?'

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   Garaman had turned his back on Donna and wasstrolling around the room, trying to act all cool and casual.

   `The Doctor,' he cut in. `This friend of yours. Tell meabout him.'

   `I'll tell you about him,' said Donna, `when you tell meexactly when you're going to put me back where youfound me.'

   Garaman looked over his shoulder at her and made asucking noise with his teeth.

   `That might be a bit of a problem.'

   `What kind of a problem?'

   `Well... seeing as we're now heading out of the systemand I can't imagine any reason why we'd come ba--'

   `Sorry,' interrupted Donna, jabbing a finger at him andwiggling it, pointedly. `Heading out of the what?'

   `The system we've got what we need from there andnow we're--'

   `No, no. You're not listening: heading out of the what?The system?'

   `The planetary system. We've broken orbit and now theDark Light is en route to... to our next port of call.'

   Donna took a couple of steps closer to him and drewherself up to her full height, which made Garaman looklike a Munchkin.

   `So, kidnapping me wasn't enough? Now you're flyingme off to god-knows-where, leaving the Doctor behind?'

   If it wasn't bad enough that she'd been separated fromthe Doctor, that separation was now getting greater by theminute.

   `Is everyone from your planet quite so sharp?' asked

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Garaman. `Only I'd hate to cross them, I really would.Where are you from?'

    `It's called Earth, and you don't want to mess with us,you really don't.'

    `Never heard of it. And what's so special about thisEarth, then?'

    `What's so special about it is that, if you pulled akidnapping stunt like this back there you'd be in jail sofast that your feet wouldn't touch the ground.'

    Garaman's eyes widened in mock fear.

    `Oooh, you've got me trembling now! I'll have to makesure I don't cross these Earthons!'

    `Humans,' corrected Donna. `We're called humans.'

    `How confusing. Delightfully quirky, but confusing.Now the Doctor. Tell me about him.'

    Donna folded her arms sullenly and clamped her lipsshut, staring away into the middle distance pointedly.Garaman sighed, clicked his fingers at the bimbotstanding in the corridor. Silently, it stepped into the room,its hands clasped formally in front of it.

    `Start with her fingers,' Garaman said with the air ofsomeone who had a hundred and one things to do andneeded to start somewhere, just to get things moving. Therobot reached out and, despite Donna's protestations andstruggles, effortlessly raised her left hand. The skin of themachine was matt and smooth skin-coloured but lackingany texture or veins. She felt sick as she realised what wasgoing to happen.

    `The little one first, I think,' Garaman said, turningaway as if he really didn't want to witness the robot's next

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actions. `Break it.'

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    The Doctor didn't bother banging on the cell door. They

    hadn't thought to take away his sonic screwdriver, and he

    knew he could probably be out of there in a couple of

    seconds. But he suspected that they'd put someone on

    guard outside: probably a robot, possibly even Mother.

    And whilst he reckoned that a quick blast from the

    screwdriver might be enough to scramble the brains of a

    robot, that seemed a bit of a drastic step, at least for now.

    Besides, if he tried anything like that, they'd have the

    sonic off him in seconds; and, just for now, he'd rather

    keep a hold of it.

       The main thing, though, was that Boonie's ship was

    following Donna's. As long as they didn't lose it, he was

    happy to have a few minutes' quiet thinking time to

    himself.

       The exhibit in the art gallery was definitely more than

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just a piece of art: there were some rather advancedresonance coils inside it, if the readings from the sonicscrewdriver were anything to go by. He'd need to have agood poke about in it to work out what it was actually for,but if someone had gone to such lengths to steal it (and ifBoonie and chums were at such pains to track it) then hesuspected that it wasn't anything good. People didn't go tosuch efforts to steal and track the latest in toasters orhair-straighteners.

   He glanced around the room they'd locked him in: itmatched the rest of the ship smelly, grimy and poky. Ifhe'd been told he was on board a Second World Warsubmarine, he'd have believed it. A rough bed withgrubby blankets was in one corner and he wonderedwhether it belonged to one of the ship's crew. There wereno knick-knacks or ornaments or other personalpossessions about, so maybe they'd made up the guestbedroom specially for him. How kind.

   A cup of tea would have gone down quite nicely roundabout now, too, although he didn't hold out much hope forroom service.

   It was a long time since the Doctor had been to theAndromeda galaxy, and he felt a little out of his depth:there was so much he didn't know about the civilisationshere, which was one reason why he'd brought Donna.She'd been complaining that he always knew more aboutwhat was going on than she did, that it made her feel likea schoolgirl on a field trip with a particularlyknowledgeable teacher. So he'd taken her somewhere thathis own ignorance almost matched hers.

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  Maybe that had been a mistake.

  He looked up as the door screeched open.

  `Need some oil on that,' he muttered as an elderlywoman stepped silently into the room. In one hand therewas a tray.

  `Ah! Breakfast!' proclaimed the Doctor, jumping up.`Now we're getting somewhere!'

  `Stop!' barked a strange, musical voice.

Donna risked opening her eyes, half afraid that she'd openthem just in time to see the robot snap the little finger thatit now held so firmly in its cold grip. She felt her stomachclench.

    `She's proving particularly intractable,' said Garamanpeevishly. `I thought that a little--'

    `A little torture would help? Really, Garaman!'

    The voice was coming from the doorway, but her viewwas blocked by the robot. Although it didn't release her,the pressure on her little finger lessened. She peeredaround the machine to see a particularly strange figure.

    It looked a bit like something off Walking WithDinosaurs, except that it had three, thick legs, arrangedlike a tripod, a slim, upright body and three arms. Its headwas a tall, oval shape with two wide, saucer-like deep blueeyes either side of a stumpy snout. The skin was lizardy,somehow, shading from grey at the top down through abeautiful, jewel-like turquoise across its chest andstomach down to an acid yellow at the feet. Slung acrossits shoulder was a broad belt with numerous pouchesfastened to it. Other than that, it was naked. But then, it

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was a lizard.

   `Torture doesn't work, Garaman,' said the creature,moving around so that Donna could see it properly. Itwalked oddly well, perhaps not oddly, considering it hadthree legs hopping from one leg to another, and thenanother. A bit like some injured insect. `Torture someoneand all they'll tell you is what they think you want to hear.What kind of animals are we if we have to resort to that?'

   The creature looked Donna up and down with its huge,unblinking eyes, and one of its arms the one stickingright out of the front of its chest waved sinuously like asnake.

   `This is not the way to treat organic-kind, Garaman. Iam disappointed in you.'

   `You've made your point,' hissed Garaman testily,waving the robot away from Donna. It dropped her arminstantly.

   `Thank you,' said Donna, only then realising how she'dbeen holding her breath, waiting for the snap and the pain.

   `Not at all,' said the lizard. You must be Donna. I'mMesanth.'

   It raised its front hand and spread its fingers all threeof them. It took Donna a few seconds to realise that thiswas some sort of handshake. But she was in no mood tobe shaking hands with people who'd just tried to truncateone of her own.

   `Where are you from?' asked Mesanth, lowering itshand when it realised Donna wasn't going to play nicely.

   `Somewhere called Earth,' Garaman said. `But she'ssimply called a "human".'

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    `Interesting,' said Mesanth, its voice somewherebetween male and female. `That word is generally used tomean bipedal, bilaterally symmetrical, mammalianorganic-kind in our galaxy.'

    `Bi-what?' asked Donna, still playing catch-up with theweird creature's words.

    Mesanth's mouth twitched and it gestured at Garaman.

    `Humans, you mean?' asked Donna, realising thatMesanth was talking about people like her and Garaman.

    Mesanth gave an odd little chuckle from deep in itsthroat.

    `Look, sunshine,' said Donna. `Don't start getting allclever-clever, right? Just because you stopped this animalfrom...' Her voice tailed off as she was reminded ofexactly what Mesanth had stopped Garaman from doing.

    `Oh, please, no,' said Mesanth hastily. `Youmisunderstand I was not laughing at you. It is refreshingto get another perspective on ourselves. This Earth: whereis it?'

    `The Solar System,' said Donna through gritted teeth.

    There was an awkward silence.

    `And, erm, which solar system would that be? What isthe name of its primary?'

    `Its what?'

    `Its star.'

    `It's called...' Donna sighed, realising that, if these twothought she was a shilling short of a pound, she wasn'tdoing much to correct their impression. `It's called theSun.'

    `How charming,' said Mesanth gently, like a slightly

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bemused posh aunt. `The Sun.'

   `You Earthons humans,' interjected Garaman. `Areyou a newly emerged world?'

   `A what?'

   `Have you had much contact with other races in thegalaxy?'

   `Oh, loads,' Donna bluffed nonchalantly, not wanting toappear like some sort of backward country yokel. `TheOod, the Magentans, the Racnoss, the... the lizard men ofWongo.' She shrugged casually. `We're major players.'

   `Never heard of any of them,' Garaman said sniffily.

   `Well maybe you need to get out more,' Donna said.`Besides,' she added, remembering what the Doctor hadtold her. `Earth isn't even in this galaxy.'

   Garaman's eyes widened almost imperceptibly.

   `Really?'

   `Really. Our galaxy is miles away.'

   `Literally, I imagine.' This was Mesanth, sounding again as though it were laughing at her.

   `Yes,' Donna retorted. `Millions of them.'

   She caught a glance between the two of them.

   `Tell us more about your galaxy,' Mesanth said, itsarms waving around sinuously like lizard's tongues.`These lizard men of Wongo sound fascinating...'

The elderly woman that placed the tray down in front ofthe Doctor smiled tightly, apologetically.

   `The Sword of Justice doesn't exactly excel at four-starcuisine, I'm afraid,' she said, gesturing to the bowl ofswirly green soup and mug of insipid tea. `Li'ian,' she

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added, raising her palm. The Doctor matched it. She hadlong, grey hair tied up in a complicated knot on the top ofher head and big, blue eyes. Sharp, intelligent eyes,thought the Doctor.

    `The Sword of Justice, eh? Bit of a pompous name for aship, isn't it?'

    `That's Boonie for you,' Li'ian smiled.

    `I'd rather gathered that he could do with a sense ofhumour transplant. I'm the Doctor,' he smiled, `but youprobably know that already.'

    `Boonie told me. He can be a bit severe, but he's not abad sort.'

    `Rather young for commanding a ship, isn't he?' TheDoctor took a sip of the tea and pulled a face.

    `Oh, he's not as young as he looks his race ageslower than the rest of us. Sadly. He's in his forties,believe it or not.' Li'ian gave a little, twinkly smile. `Ishould find out what they put in the water on his planet,shouldn't I?'

    `And what planet would that be?'

    `He's from Dallendaf.'

    `Ah,' said the Doctor, none-the-wiser. `And you?'

    `Born on Poopop, grew up all over the place.'

    `You're kidding!' exclaimed the Doctor with a grin.

    `You know it?'

    `Nope but isn't it marvellous that there's a planetcalled Poopop! Anyway, what's all this about, Li'ian thislittle mission of yours. You're not art thieves but you'refollowing someone who is. Not police, not with a ship andcrew like this no offence.'

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    Li'ian shook her head sadly.

    `That's up to Boonie to tell you. But we're moreinterested in you.'

    `Really? Should I be flattered or alarmed?'

    `You appear from nowhere and just happen to bearound when the exhibit is stolen. And your friend justhappens to be stolen along with it.' She raised an eyebrow.`A bit of a coincidence, wouldn't you say?'

    `I like to think of it as the universe making sure I'm inthe right place at the right time. It has a habit of doingthat.'

    `And you claim to know nothing about what the exhibitis.'

    `Other than it being not just an exhibit at all?' Li'ianpaused.

    `Boonie wants to speak to you.'

    `Does he indeed? Well, I'm always up for a nice chat.'He glanced around his room. `My place or his?'

Donna knew that she wasn't exactly wowing Mesanth andGaraman with her knowledge of the Earth's galaxy. Shortof naming a few of the planets she'd been to, andthrowing in a bit of stuff the Doctor had told her (which,on reflection, she was sure she'd got half wrong) therewasn't a great deal she seemed to be able to do to impressthe two of them. But the important thing at the momentwas to keep on their good sides, to make sure they didn'tdecide she was a waste of oxygen and chuck her out of theairlock. She hoped that the Doctor was on her tail sheknew that he'd be doing all he could to find her, so all she

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had to do was to make sure that she was still alive whenhe finally did.

   Her kidnappers listened attentively, asked a fewquestions, but, ultimately, seemed a bit disappointed. Shewasn't sure what, exactly, they were after. Maybe, as theyclaimed, they were just curious. But she kept an eye onGaraman: after the stunt with her finger, she was in nomood to start trusting him just yet.

   The door hissed open suddenly, just as she was tryingto explain about the Jant and their plan to hollow outCallisto, and a robot appeared. This time, it wasn't one ofthe supermodels, but a much smaller one: milky-white andabout the height of a small child, it had a weird-lookingrow of four tiny hands jutting from its chest and afeatureless, spherical head. It made a weird, giggly noise.

   Garaman must have noticed her discomfort.

   `Not a fan of mechanicals?' he said with a smile.

   `Give me a video recorder or an mp3 player and I'mfine it's just...' She waved in the direction of the littlerobot. `Well, don't you think they're a bit creepy?'

   Garaman's eyes flicked up to Mesanth's.

   `Mechanicals are just tools,' he said reassuringly. Thenhe turned to the robot. `What?' he barked, and Donnawinced slightly.

   `Ogmunee wishes me to tell you that we will arrive inthe system in one hour,' said the thing in a fluting,childlike voice

   Garaman ignored the robot and then, when it didn'tmove, he motioned it away with a sharp gesture. The littlething toddled off.

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   `Do they...' ventured Donna. `Are they...? I mean, dothey think? Like us, I mean.'

   `Like organics?' asked Mesanth. `Not really. They canape if you'll pardon the expression organic behaviourand responses, but it's all just programmed, regardless ofwhat the promechanicals would have you believe.'

   `The promechanicals?'

   `The trendy thinking-classes who go on aboutmechanicals having rights, feelings, that sort of nonsense.'Mesanth paused and leaned closer to Donna. She couldsmell something like lavender and fish. `Do you havemechanicals in your galaxy, on your world?'

   Donna rolled her eyes.

   `Don't get me started,' she said. `Robot Santas! I mean,how wrong is that? I was kidnapped by one took me offin a taxi. On my wedding day! Can you believe it? Andthe robots on Planet 1 they were just weird.'

   Garaman nodded sagely.

   `It seems that even in your galaxy, things are the same.'

   `It's in their nature,' said Mesanth with a sorrowfulshake of the head. `Our scientists proved it decades ago:mechanicals are unable to think or feel the same way thatorganics do. It's the way they're made. Not their fault, buttrue nonetheless.'

   Donna nodded. From the bits the Doctor had told herabout his previous trips, robots were bad news. And theones she'd met here hadn't exactly endeared themselves toher.

   `It seems,' said Garaman, warming to her, `that wehave more in common than we might have imagined.

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Perhaps,' he paused and glanced at Mesanth, `we shouldbe a little more hospitable to Donna. Apologies for myearlier actions. Perhaps, when you understand the DarkLight's mission, you might find it in your heart to forgiveme.' Garaman smiled tightly, but Donna didn'treciprocate. The man had a lot of forgiveness to earn yet.

   `Perhaps, as a small gesture, you might like a guidedtour of the ship?'

   As apologies for threatening to break a finger, it was abit limp. But it was a start. And it would give her a chanceto find out more about her kidnappers.

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    The control room of The Sword of Justice was a hive of

    activity as Li'ian ushered the Doctor in. Mother was

    nowhere to be seen, but Kellique and Boonie were

    hunched over the sensor displays. Three or four robots of

    assorted and bizarre design were scuttling around, like

    shiny, hyper-trendy kitchen gadgets. The ship groaned and

    creaked unnervingly.

       `Doctor,' said Boonie, catching sight of him. `We're

    just about to arrive in the Karris system.'

       `Are we?' enthused the Doctor. `Marvellous. Where's

    that, then?'

       `Sorry I forgot that you're not familiar with our

    galaxy.'

       `Well, there're a lot of galaxies out there, Boonie. Have

    to spread myself about a bit.' He squeezed in between

    Boonie and Kellique and peered down at the sensor

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display. `So what's so special about this Karris system,then?'

   `It's where the cultist ship is.'

   `The cultist ship? Oh, you mean Donna's ship! Whyd'you call it "the cultist ship", then?'

   There was another of those looks between Kellique andBoonie.

   `Oh, come on!' exclaimed the Doctor. `You can't keeptalking in riddles like this. Imagine if we all did: "I thinkI'd like a... you know... one of those bowls with a handleon it. Full of that stuff. Liquid. Warm."' He let hisshoulders sag. `We'd be here for ever at that rate.'

   `I'm sorry, Doctor, but you've been on our ship barelytwo hours. Until we know whether we can trust you, Ithink it's better that we play our cards close to our chests.'

   The Doctor shrugged.

   `Fair enough, but Li'ian thought that maybe it was timewe were all a bit more communicative.'

   Boonie threw Li'ian a glance, which she returned.

   `It's true,' she said, holding her ground. `The Doctormight have been dragged into this accidentally, as heclaims. Or... or he might not. He's certainly not as stupidas he looks.'

   `Go on,' said the Doctor to Boonie. `Say it: "No onecould be as stupid as he looks." Believe me, I've heard itbefore. Don't judge a book by its cover. Now why don'tyou just tell me what you're up to, and I can decidewhether to help you or to stop you.' He beamed brightly atthem.

   The three Andromedans exchanged silent glances

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before Boonie finally nodded.

   `Li'ian might have a point.'

   He straightened up and walked over to his commandchair, beckoning the Doctor.

   `What d'you know about the Cult of ShiningDarkness?'

   `Good name for a band?' He pulled a thoughtful face.`Something a bit rocky, a bit glam. An album band,' hedecided. `Not much good for singles. Getting close?'

   Boonie sighed.

   `What you said about no one being as stupid as youlook...'

   The Doctor grinned back. `OK, OK this Cult ofShining Darkness. Never heard of them. What do theydo?'

   `Until a few years ago,' Boonie said, his voice low anddeadly serious, `they were nothing but a bunch of cranks.Cranks with money and brains, but still cranks.'

   `And since then?'

   `Since then since the death of their leader, a womancalled Khnu em Llodis they've been quiet. Until twomonths ago, that is.'

   `And then they resurfaced?'

   Boonie nodded.

   `So what exactly does this cult believe in? I mean, cultsnormally believe in something don't they, even if it'scomplete nonsense and it usually is. Part of the jobdescription.'

   The Doctor noticed how Boonie glanced at Kelliqueand Li'ian, who were following the conversation from the

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sensor control panel.

    `They're organic supremacists.'

    `Meaning they're not too hot on robots?'

    Boonie winced slightly. `The correct term well, themost correct term is machine intelligences, Doctor. Thecultists call them "mechanicals" which should give yousome idea of how they think.'

    `So "robots" is bad, then?'

    Boonie winced again.

    `Unless you're talking about non-sentient appliances,yes, generally. Any that rates higher than a forty on theLipanov scale is a machine intelligence.' He rolled hiseyes. `Although you ask a dozen machine intelligencesand you'll get a dozen different answers. Some prefer"designed organisms", some prefer "non-organics".' Heshook his head and gave a tired grin. `It can be a minefieldat times.'

    It was the Doctor's turn to smile wryly.

    `You know, wherever I go in the universe it's the same.'He gave a shrug. `Still, it's all about courtesy, isn't it? If avending machine wants to be called "Barbara", it'd berude to call it anything else.'

    `Exactly! And believe me, if the cultists got their way,every machine intelligence would be nothing but a"mechanical". They wouldn't even rate a name like whatwas it? Barbara.'

    The Doctor nodded and rubbed the back of his neck.

    `So: cultists not too hot on sentient rights for all, then?'

    `They refuse to believe that machine intelligences aresentient. They consider them as tools mimicking sentient

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behaviour. Despite all the evidence, they see anythingnon-organic as nothing but a collection of parts.'

   `And what does Mother have to say about this Cult ofShining Darkness?' He glanced around the room. `I noticeshe's not here. Busy?'

   `Mother keeps herself to herself a lot of the time. She'snot the Cult's greatest fan, as you can imagine.'

   `And you lot,' the Doctor said, glancing around theroom. `You're on a mission to track the Cult down?Why?'

   `Because,' said Kellique from the other side of theroom, `they have to be stopped.'

   The Doctor frowned. `Stopped? Stopped from doingwhat?'

   Boonie shook his head.

   `That's what we're trying to work out.'

   Suddenly, Kellique let out a little cry of surprise.Before anyone could stop him, the Doctor was at her side,peering at the sensor displays.

   `It's gone!' said the woman, her hands flying franticallyover the controls.

   `Hyperjumped out of the system?' the Doctor muttered,gently elbowing her out of the way. He shook his head.`No, there'd be a residual trace, even if just for a fewseconds hold this, will you?'

   He'd stripped down to his shirt sleeves and washolding his jacket out for Kellique. Silently, and stillsomewhat shocked, she took it as he began to mess withthe controls.

   `Doctor!' barked Boonie. `What are you doing?'

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   `I'm trying,' said the Doctor, pulling out the accesspanel in the base of the controls, rolling onto his back andsticking his head inside, `to boost your sensors. Judgingby the last few seconds of your sensor log, your little cultyfriends have just switched their shields into overdrive.'

   `Which means?'

   `Which means,' said the Doctor through gritted teeth ashe tugged at the circuit boards and crystals, rewiring them,`that whatever they're doing, they're rather keen to makesure that no one else knows about it.'

   Seconds later he emerged, sprang to his feet and setabout fiddling with the sensor controls again.

   `There!' he cried triumphantly. `Got 'em!'

Garaman's ship was, Donna decided (on the basis of thefew spaceships she'd seen so far) decidedly palatial.Spotlessly clean (due, no doubt, to the oodles of littlerobots running around, polishing everything to within aninch of its life). Garaman had other things to deal with, soMesanth had offered to show Donna around. Which,considering the finger incident, suited her fine.

   Mesanth was quite the opposite of the slimy little man gracious and entertaining and (appearance aside) not theleast bit threatening. She was still getting used to thecreature's odd, bouncing walk (and still hadn't summonedup the courage to ask whether Mesanth was male orfemale, so she decided to plump for male, just on the basisof `his' voice) but managed to keep up with him wellenough. Her thoughts, though, were still on the Doctor,and how they were going to get her back to him. She'd

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brought it up with Mesanth as he'd given her a quick lookin the ship's engine room. (If she'd needed any evidenceabout Mesanth's gender, that ought to have clinched it:what woman, thought Donna as she tried to lookinterested, would have suggested a trip round an engineroom, for god's sake?)

    `It's tricky,' said Mesanth, leading her back out into thecorridor where a creature a little like a huge armadillotrundled past, flicking its tail in a sort-of-wave at them.`Our... our mission is of the utmost importance to us,'Mesanth said in that slightly haughty way of his.

    `And getting back to the Doctor is of the utmostimportance to me. Can't you just send him a message?Tell him I'm here?'

    `Garaman would never allow it, I'm afraid. But look atit this way: this Doctor friend of yours he's not going toleave the planet without you, is he?'

    `He wouldn't dare!'

    `Well there you are: he'll wait until we return you tohim.'

    `And when, exactly, will that be?' Donna stopped deadin the corridor and one of the little cleaning robots achrome dome like those things that cover your food up inposh restaurants made a little detour around her feet.`Only I don't exactly get a sense of urgency about it. Andwhat if the Doctor thinks I'm dead, or gone for ever? Howlong's he going to wait before he decides I'm not comingback?'

    Mesanth shrugged with his two side arms which justmade Donna want to punch him.

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    `What can I say? Apart from Garaman's, um,unfortunate outburst earlier, I don't believe we're treatingyou badly--'

    `You're keeping me prisoner on a ship that's going inthe wrong direction!' exploded Donna. `Your boss almostbroke off my finger! It's a pretty twisted idea of nottreating someone badly!'

    A pale, haughty-looking woman in overalls was justcoming out of the control room as Donna finished hertirade, and gave her an awkward smile. Donna justgrimaced at her. In the control room, Garaman was in ahuddle with two other humans. They abruptly stoppedtalking as Donna and Mesanth entered.

    `We've picked up the ship,' said Garaman to Mesanth,eyeing Donna.

    `In the system?' Mesanth danced over to Garaman andcast his eyes over the instruments.

    `Entering it. Behind us.'

    Mesanth's gaze snapped up to Garaman.

    `It's them,' Mesanth said crisply.

    `As long as we're sure it's them,' said one of the otherhumans a bald man with ridiculously muscled arms andskin the colour of dark mahogany. `If it's anyone else, wemight be in trouble. Has she been checked for homingdevices, tags?' He stared at Donna. And not in a goodway.

    Mesanth nodded.

    For a moment for one silly, heart-stopping moment Donna imagined that maybe the Doctor had found outwho'd kidnapped her and was riding to her rescue. She

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realised she was smiling when the muscled guy frownedat her.

   `What's so funny?' he barked.

   `Nothing,' said Donna defensively.

   Mesanth turned towards her, his huge eyes wide andunblinking.

   `You're thinking that this is your friend, the Doctor,coming to rescue you?' he asked.

   The tone of Mesanth's voice suggested that he knewsomething she didn't. If it wasn't the Doctor...

   `Could be,' she said, trying to sound as positive aspossible.

   `Could be,' said Garaman. `But isn't.' He smiledtightly. `Sorry.'

   `So who is it then, Mr Know-It-All?'

   Garaman folded his arms and gave her a smug look.

   `Just a minor annoyance,' he said. `But you know whatthey say: keep your friends close and your enemies evencloser. As long as we know where they are and whatthey're doing, they're fine. Sadly for you, though, it's notthis Doctor person.'

   Donna's heart sank.

Wherever he went, the Doctor thought, it was the sameold story, wasn't it? One group of intelligent beings(whether they were robots, humans, multidimensionalentities living in a fold in space-time or whatever) decidedthat another group didn't qualify for basic rights, humanor otherwise. Sometimes it was based on biology;sometimes on culture or religion or on whether they

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preferred eating trifle with a spoon or a fork. But whatalways followed was persecution, war and death. Lots ofdeath. And no matter how advanced or civilised theywere, they always managed to justify it. To themselves, ifnot to anyone else.

    `I don't know what you did,' said Boonie, breaking himout of his reverie, `but the range of our sensors, nevermind their sensitivity, has almost doubled.' He narrowedhis eyes and stared at him. `Just who are you?'

    `I've told you I'm the Doctor.'

    `That's not a name it's a job title.'

    `Well, as long as I get the job done, isn't it enough?'

    Boonie gave him a thoughtful look. `For now, maybe.'

    `A little thank you wouldn't go amiss, either.'

    `Thank you,' said Boonie, almost reluctantly. `But I'mstill not convinced that you're on our side.'

    `Oh, believe me,' said the Doctor. `I'm not sure whoseside I'm on yet, so that probably makes us even. But ifyou want any more of my help, you're going to have totrust me. Tell me about this Karris system.'

    Boonie thought for a moment and nodded.

    `According to the database,' Boonie said, tapping at thecontrols and bringing up a set of whizzy-looking graphics,`it's not a particularly interesting system: a red giant sun,two gas planets and a small, human-suitable planet.According to records, it was once quite a nice place, butsolar flares have turned it into something of a desert.'

    `Natives?'

    `Primitive ape-like creatures called the Jaftee are at thetop of the evolutionary ladder here simple tool-makers,

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builders. No advanced technology.'

   `So why d'you think the Cult have stopped over here?'

   `Could be a way of trying to shake us off,' Booniesuggested.

   `And if they think they're still shielded,' the Doctorsaid, `then they should be on their way pretty soon.'

   `Would make sense,' Boonie agreed.

   The Doctor gave a great big stretch.

   `So while we wait to see if they do, why don't you tellme a bit more about this Khnu em Llodis woman? With aname like that, I'm sure she has an interesting story.'

                           ***

As the snowy glare of the transmat field faded, the blood-red light of Karris's sun washed over everything. Donna'sskin began to tingle, and she realised it was because of theconstant slew of sand grains, battering against her in thewind. The air smelled dry and dead, of heat and of theflinty tang of the sand.

    `Ahhhh...'

    It was Mesanth, standing by her side and letting out asigh of what Donna realised was relief.

    `Ahhh?' she muttered, squinting to keep the sandstormout of her eyes.

    `Smells like home,' explained Mesanth, flexing hisfingers like a cat kneading a woolly jumper. `Bliss!'

    `Smells of death,' muttered Ogmunee, the muscled guythat had given her such dirty looks aboard the ship. Hestood alongside her, at his back one of the bimbots, cold

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and impassive and silent.

    `Well before you start trying to sell me a timesharehere,' said Donna, casting around for somewhere toshelter from the relentless sandstorm that threatened toscour her skin down to the bone, `can we at least get undercover? Assuming there is some cover. I'm beginning towish I'd brought my coat.'

    She squinted, sheltering her eyes, and scanned thesurface of Karris. Clear to the horizon, in every direction,was nothing but flat, orange sand. It was like Norfolk,only blisteringly hot.

    She turned back to see Mesanth skipping away acrossthe sand, some sort of device in his hand bleeping andtwittering. Ogmunee scowled at her and followed him, therobot at his tail.

    `So where's this segment thing, then?' Donna gasped,racing to catch up with them. Ogmunee pointeddownwards.

    `So why not just beam us straight down there, then?Giving us the scenic tour, are you?'

    `Too risky,' said Ogmunee laconically. `The sandstormsare generating too much electrostatic interference for us tobe sure that we'd materialise at all. And we haven'tmapped the tunnels yet.'

    `Oooh!' said Donna sourly, pushing back her hair as itwhipped around her. `Tunnels! You know how to spoil agirl, don't you?'

    `Why did we bring her?' Ogmunee asked Mesanthtiredly as the creature rotated on the spot, scanning theground beneath them with his squeaking device.

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   `Despite what Garaman thinks,' Mesanth said, `Ibelieve that Donna has more in common with us than shemight believe. It's only courteous to include her in our...activities.'

   Ogmunee just grumped and scowled at Donna whowasn't sure she swallowed Mesanth's explanation. Shewondered if it were more to keep Donna out of Garaman'sface. Suited her fine.

   `She's more likely to be a liability than an asset.Garaman's losing his mind,' he said.

   A second later, Mesanth let out a little hiss. `Ah!' heexclaimed. `The entrance! About five metres this way.'

   And off the three-legged lizard went, Donna andOgmunee and the robot in hot pursuit. Mesanth paused afew seconds later at what looked like nothing more than aflattish, sand-coloured rock lying on the ground. In themidst of the sandstorm around them it was almostinvisible. He pushed at it with one of his feet and it slideffortlessly aside, rotating as if pivoted at one corner.

   `You're stronger than you look,' Donna said, casting asidelong glance at Ogmunee. `Should've got Mr Muscleshere to do it.'

   `No strength involved,' said Mesanth, slipping thescanner into one of the pouches of his shoulder belt. `It'scounterbalanced.'

   As the rock continued to swing out of the way, Donnasaw a flight of rough-hewn steps, the colour of the sand,descending into the darkness. With a glance at her andOgmunee, Mesanth stepped down into the shadows.

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    Khnu em Llodis had been a genius. Well, that's what she

    told everyone. And from what the Doctor gathered, it

    sounded like pretty much everyone believed her.

       `One of our greatest roboticists,' Li'ian said as the

    Doctor scanned the scrolling display in front of him.

       She'd taken him to the ship's `library' (little more than

    a storeroom with some rickety shelves and a desk) and

    shown him dozens of documents and transcripts relating

    to Khnu, stretching over more than a decade, when the

    scientist had been at her height.

       `So what went wrong?'

       He spun in his seat to face Li'ian. She shrugged.

       `Some say she just went mad.'

       `Happens a lot,' the Doctor agreed. `Scientists. Always

    going mad. Especially the top-class ones.' He paused and

    looked up at Li'ian. `You never hear of the second-rate

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ones going mad, though, do you? Always the geniuses.Funny, that.'

   `Some say she discovered a truth that threatened theentire galaxy.'

   `That'll be what she meant by this bit, then,' he said,turning back to the display and reading aloud. `"But thereis a dark heart to our shining empire, a dark heart that,until now, we have chosen to ignore. A dark heart that, ifnot addressed, will rise up and destroy all that we havebuilt."' He spun back to face Li'ian. `What d'you reckonshe meant by that?'

   Li'ian nodded thoughtfully and folded her hands on herlap. `Everyone assumed that she was talking aboutmachine intelligences,' she said simply. `That speech wasthe last one she ever gave. En route back to her ownplanet, after the conference, her ship was destroyed.'

   `Mysteriously destroyed,' corrected the Doctor,pointing to the screen.

   `Mysteriously destroyed,' agreed Li'ian. `There wererumours that she was killed because she was speaking thetruth.'

   `Well,' said the Doctor. `It's a very flexible thing, thetruth, isn't it?'

   `Not for her,' Li'ian said. `For Khnu, it was alwaysvery clear. Very black and white.'

   The Doctor took a deep breath.

   `Anyway,' he said. `Enough of the official documents.What do you think?'

   `Me?' Li'ian seemed surprised.

   `You're aboard a ship, tracking people who I assume

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think like Khnu did. This Cult of Shining Darkness.They've stolen a whopping great lump of technology froman art gallery, and now they've stopped off at a planet thatdoesn't seem to have much more going for it thanLanzarote. And you're still following them. You musthave some idea of what they're doing.'

   Li'ian took a breath and glanced around the emptylibrary room as if she thought she might be beingoverheard.

   `Boonie will probably have me raked over the coals forthis,' she said eventually, chewing on her bottom lip. `Butwe think they're collecting the parts of something. Somesort of device or maybe some sort of map.'

   `Really?' The Doctor was all ears.

   `When Khnu was killed when she died, whatever her little band of followers went quiet for two years. Mostof them just disappeared. Possibly killed by whoeverkilled Khnu. But then rumours began to circulate thatshe'd been working on something before her death something connected with her research field.'

   `Robotics?'

   `Robotics. Despite being a genius in artificialintelligence, Khnu refused to believe that machineintelligences, mechanicals, whatever you want to callthem, were truly intelligent. Her speech, thinly veiled as itwas, was aimed at those who considered machinesintelligences to be on a par with organic ones. Shebelieved that they simply mimicked intelligence, and thatthe organic races of the galaxy had fallen for it, hook, lineand sinker. It's reported that she foresaw a time when the

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galaxy's machine races would rise up against the organicsand slaughter us all.'

    `That's what she meant by "the darkness"?'

    `That's what they say. And the rumours are that thesethings they're collecting have something to do with it.'

    The Doctor rubbed the back of his neck.

    `Interesting.' He paused and stared thoughtfully intothe distance. `So these artefacts part of a device, or alocator or something maybe? Like one of those partworkmagazines: "Builds week by week into the ultimate robotdefence"? How many instalments are we talking? A littleone like Delia's How To Boil Water or a whopper like TheStar Trek Files?'

    `Sorry?'

    The Doctor grinned.

    `D'you reckon the cultists have got all the bits already,or are they going to be searching for ever?'

    `Your guess is as good as mine, Doctor. All we know all we believe,' Li'ian corrected herself, `is that whenKhnu died, the Cult went into a panic and scattered thepieces of the thing around the galaxy, scared that robotsympathisers would find them and destroy them.'

    `Ahhh...' The Doctor smiled. `That's why you didn'twant to go barging in, isn't it? You lot want them to findall the bits, put it together, and then you can go barging inand collect the whole set, ringbinders and all!'

    `Ringbinders?'

    He waved his hand.

    `Don't worry about it.' He leaped out of his seatsuddenly, making Li'ian flinch. `Right! Let's get this party

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started!'

   And before Li'ian could stop him he was halfway tothe door.

                           ***

    `Thanks for not telling me to bring a cardy,' Donnamuttered as the rock above them swung back into place,cutting out not only the drizzling sand and the gustingwind but the searing heat of the red sun. It suddenly feltcold and clammy. Mesanth produced a torch from hisshoulder belt and flicked it on, illuminating broad, sand-silted steps leading down into the Stygian darkness.

    `You humans are remarkably susceptible to changes inenvironmental temperature, aren't you?' he said over hisshoulder as he began the descent.

    `Some humans,' grunted Ogmunee from behind Donna.

    `At least some of us have the decency not to go aroundhalf-naked,' muttered Donna. `Anyway, what's thissegment thing look like?'

    `You've already seen the second one the artefact fromthe gallery.'

    `Oh, that! Right. So we're looking for another one ofthose, are we? Shouldn't be hard to spot. And why's ithere?'

    `Safekeeping,' said Mesanth cryptically, and then fellinto silence as, out of the darkness beneath them, came ahideous roar that echoed on and on and on.

    Donna took a deep breath. `That sounds very safe.'

    `You said this place smells of home,' Donna whispered

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as they descended. `Where's that, then?'

    `It's called Lota. Lovely planet dry, dusty.' Mesanthgave a little sigh.

    `So how come you got mixed up with Garaman?'

    `I worked with one of his associates a few years ago.She ... introduced me to Garaman and Ogmunee here andthe others. She offered me a job.'

    `Headhunted, eh? Better than temping, I bet. What kindof work?'

    `Are you always this full of questions?' gruntedOgmunee from behind her.

    `Only when no one's bothering to give me answers,yes. Why? Got a problem with that? Something to hide,maybe?'

    `Stop it!' warbled Mesanth.

    `You don't like conflict, do you?' asked Donna as thestairs began to curve around to the right.

    `The Lotapareen have evolved from highly communalherbivorous ancestors: violence and conflict are alien tous.'

    `Must make all this adventuring a bit of a nightmare.'

    `Mesanth knows what has to be done,' cameOgmunee's voice again.

    `And what is that, exactly?'

    No one answered her. Abruptly, the steps ended andMesanth's torch beam revealed that they were in somesort of antechamber, blank stone surrounding them. As theellipse of light from the torch flitted about the walls,Donna caught sight of something.

    `What's that?' she asked, taking the torch from him.

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   Most of the wall was taken up with a primitive,scribbled drawing of a huge, tentacled mass with a single,monstrous eye and a slavering mouth. And, to give somesense of scale, four of its tentacles held what looked likesquat little stick figures. One of them was being thrust intothe toothy mouth.

   `Tell me that this isn't one of those "Beware of thedog" signs,' she said.

   `The Jaftee probably worship this creature as a god,'said Mesanth with a vague air of fascination.

   `The Jaftee?'

   `The inhabitants of Karris. Primitive ape-like creatures.No offence,' he added with a sidelong glance at Donna.

   `None taken I think.'

   `We don't anticipate any problems with the Jaftee,'Ogmunee said. `We seeded their culture years ago. Theyshould see us as even greater gods than this thing.'

   `So,' said Donna, handing Mesanth his torch. `Not toobright, then, these Jaftee.'

   `Simple creatures,' agreed Mesanth, scanning the wallin front of them and running his two spare hands over itssurface. `Ah!'

   At this exclamation, there was a dull clunk and thethree-legged creature stepped back. A deep, teeth-achinggrinding noise started up and the chamber around thembegan to vibrate. Little whorls of sand drifted down in thetorch's path as a segment of the wall swung back andaway.

   `So why the robot?' she asked Mesanth as they set offdeeper into the bowels of the planet. `You said you had

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these Jaftee people trained to think you're gods.'

   `Insurance,' said Mesanth simply, and Donna saw hishuge eyes dart briefly to the wall painting of the tentacledthing. If the little stick figures being crammed into itsdribbling mouth were even vaguely human-sized, shewasn't sure that a robot even one as strong and silent asthe one they'd brought along would be enough to fight itoff.

`I don't know what you did to the sensors, Doctor, butwe've actually managed to pick up a signal from beneathKarris's surface.'

   Kellique smiled appreciatively as the Doctor and Li'ianentered the control room. Boonie was nowhere to be seen.

   `Marvellous! Picked up what?'

   Kellique gestured for him to come and look.

   `Hmmm...' said the Doctor thoughtfully. `If I didn'tknow any better and obviously I do, otherwise Iwouldn't be saying this I'd swear that that's a similarenergy profile to the segment that they stole from the artgallery. And this other signal here looks like the sametransmat energy signature that whisked Donna and thesegment up to the Cult's ship.'

   Kellique nodded and did a double-take, beforethrowing a sharp look at Li'ian. The Doctor noticed andgave a gentle shrug.

   `Li'ian here told me all about Khnu and her little bandof followers.'

   `Oh...' said Kellique, looking a little worried.`Boonie's going to be pleased about that.'

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   `Pleased about what?'

   They all turned at the sound of Boonie's voice: hestood in the doorway, his face hard and angry.

   Li'ian stepped forwards.

   `I told him about Khnu and about what we think theCult are up to.'

   `You did what?!' exploded Boonie.

   `Oh, don't blame Li'ian--' began the Doctor, butBoonie cut him off with a wave of the hand.

   `Boonie!' snapped Kellique. `We were the ones thatbrought him on board, remember? And his modificationsto our sensors are amazing: come here and look. We'vepicked up similar readings to those from the secondsegment from the gallery.'

   Boonie was speechless; and, although he glared at theDoctor, he said nothing and went to check the readings.

   `So this is the third part?' the Doctor said. `Still no ideahow many of them there are? I mean, I know I've got afairly long lifespan, but I wouldn't want to think I'll bechasing around the universe for the next forty years,looking for the other bits.'

   `Yes,' said Kellique, keeping an eye on Boonie for hisreaction, `we think this is the third one. The second onewas in the gallery and the first was hidden in a forest onChao.'

   Boonie just glared.

   `Hmmm,' the Doctor mused. `Shame I didn't get achance to have a proper look at the second one. I mighthave been able to work out exactly what the finishedthing's supposed to do.' He paused. `But now that my

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little modifications have let you find the third one, whydon't we use your matter transmitter to pop down and takea look before they beam it away?'

    He stared at them all, eyebrows raised expectantly.

    `I mean,' he added, shoving his hands into his pockets,`I know you're waiting for them to collect the whole setbefore you swoop in, but if we were to just take a teensylittle peek at it... Not take it; just a little look-see...'

    It was clear from Kellique's expression that she didn'tthink the idea was a bad one at all, but Li'ian shook herhead.

    `The Cultists have been in orbit almost an hour already.They won't waste time. That transmat trace means they'vealready sent a recovery team down there's too muchelectrostatic interference in Karris's atmosphere for themto beam it out directly without using a signal booster likethey did from the art gallery. They can just about make itto the planet's surface, but from there they'll be on foot.'

    `Well,' said the Doctor, studying the floor thoughtfullyand casually. `If you let me have a go at your transmat,you never know: I might be able to boost it like I did withyour sensors. And then we could beam in, check it out,and then be gone before they even know we've been...'

    All eyes were on Boonie: as the head of this rag-tagmission, they clearly all deferred to him. Most of the time,anyway.

    The Doctor grinned wolfishly.

    `Don't tell me you wouldn't like to know what they'reup to. And who knows? If we can work out what this thingdoes, before they've assembled it, you'll have even more

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chance of stopping them from using it.' He held Boonie'sgaze. `Go on! Live a little!'

                           ***

Donna flinched and, to her shame, grabbed hold ofMesanth as another howling roar echoed out of thedarkness ahead of them.

   `This thing,' she said slowly. `This creature. Whatexactly do you know about it? I mean, you said you'dbeen here before and ponced about dressed up as gods orsomething, right? So, you actually saw it, right?'

   Mesanth's eyes glinted in the torchlight.

   `Not... as such.'

   Donna rolled her eyes.

   `So for all you know, it could be waiting around thenext corner to stuff us into its mouth y'know, like onthat mural back there.'

   `The robot will protect us,' said Ogmunee. Donnapeered over his shoulder to where the slender, blondething stood silently, its face cold and impassive.

   `No offence, Mr Muscles, but you're out of your tree ifyou think that she it can fight off something the size ofthat creature.'

   `And I have this,' said Ogmunee, holding up a slender,silver tube. `A thermal projector.'

   Donna relaxed a little. `That a fancy term for a spacegun?'

   Mesanth said nothing, but Donna could tell from theway he glanced at Ogmunee's gun that he wasn't

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impressed.

   `Wouldn't it be an idea if blondie went first?' Donnaadded after a moment's thought, indicating the robot.

   Mesanth considered Donna's suggestion and agreed,waving the silent robot forwards.

   `Your type, then, is she?' Donna whispered toOgmunee as the robot took up position at the front.`Strong and silent.'

   Ogmunee opened his mouth to say something, but wascut off by another roar a roar that sounded distinctlycloser than the last one had done.

   Mesanth took a couple of steps back, allowingOgmunee forwards, just behind the robot.

   What happened in the next few seconds, Donna wasn'tquite sure. A horrendous howl shattered the clammysilence of the tunnel and something huge and dark surgedout of the side of the passage, striking the bimbot andslamming it up against the opposite wall with a screech ofmetal and a crash that echoed away into the blackness.

   Ogmunee jumped back, his torch skittering awayacross the floor like some mad, terrified firefly. Hebumped into Donna who fell back against Mesanth.

   As her eyes tried to adjust to the darkness, Donna sawfaint sparkles of light come from the robot as part of itsface fell away, clattering to the ground.

   `Back! Back!' cried Mesanth, whirling on his three feetand pushing Donna away, leaving Ogmunee at the front.

   `Use your gun!' shouted Donna as, dimly, she sawthrashing tentacles oozing out into the passage.

   Suddenly, the roaring subsided, and, glancing past

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Ogmunee, Donna saw that the creature's tentacles hadvanished back into the opening in the tunnel. Sprawled onthe floor, its spine snapped and folded back on itself, wasthe robot. A few more crackles of light danced within thecircuitry of its head as it turned towards them. Despite thefact that it was a robot, Donna felt vaguely sick. It was themovement of the head that made her act.

   `Help it!' she cried.

   She looked at Mesanth, to see that he was staring at herin disbelief.

   `Help it!' she said again, her voice lower and moreangry, now that the lizard man seemed to be ignoring her.

   `It's a robot,' grunted Ogmunee swinging the beamfrom his torch over it.

   `It's injured,' Donna said, unable to believe their lackof concern.

   `It's damaged,' corrected Ogmunee.

   Donna just glared at him.

   `Keep your eye out for that thing,' she said. `And yourgun for that matter.'

   And before anyone could stop her, she crept forwards,keeping her back to the wall against which the brokenrobot lay. Something inside it whirred pitifully.

   `It's OK,' Donna said quietly, risking a quick glancedown at it. `You'll be OK.'

   `What is she doing?' she heard Ogmunee whisper,disbelievingly, to Mesanth.

   `I'm trying to help it,' she answered, trying to keep thefear out of her own voice. At any second, the creaturecould be back. She checked that Ogmunee was keeping

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her back covered.

   `How are you?' Donna whispered to the robot, realisingthat this could well be the bimbot that Garaman hadinstructed to break her finger. Strangely, it didn't seem tomatter. `You're going soft,' she whispered to herself as itclicked and sparked pathetically and raised a shudderingarm towards her.

   For a moment, everything was silent and then,unmistakeably, Donna heard the sound of the creature inthe darkness, a deep, stomach-churning roar. She leaped toher feet and backed away, pushing Ogmunee and Mesanthbehind her. Something dark and sinuous flicked out of thetunnel towards them, smacking against the wall andsending little puffs of dust into the air.

   `Move!' she cried, wishing that Ogmunee would usehis gun. She felt the breeze from one of the creature'stentacles as it thrashed about, briefly catching the lightfrom Mesanth's torch.

   `Shoot it!' Donna called as Ogmunee pushed alongsideher and raised his arm. Glancing down, she saw the tip ofhis weapon glow a deep cherry red and there was aferocious howl from up ahead.

   `You've hurt it!' cried Mesanth.

   `Well, d'uh!' shouted Donna. `That is rather the point!'

   Ogmunee fired again, and they heard the creature roarin pain.

   `Keep firing,' Donna said.

   `Maybe we've hurt it enough,' whimpered Mesanth.

   `Not as long as we can still hear it, we haven't.'

   `I don't like this,' Mesanth said, and Donna could hear

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the distress in his voice.

   The tentacled thing seemed to have gone quiet, thoughwhether it was dead or just licking its wounds, Donnawasn't certain.

   `Isn't there another way through?' Donna askedMesanth, who started fiddling with his scanner. The coldlight lit up his face from below, and she could see his lipstrembling.

   `This is the only way through,' he said. `That creatureis obviously a guard dog.'

   `So we either go on and try again, or we go up andback to the ship?'

   `We aren't leaving here without the segment,'Ogmunee said, catching Mesanth's eye. He hefted thethermal gun in his hand, pointedly. `So put away yourscruples, Mesanth. The projector hurt it, so we know it'snot invulnerable.'

   `Yeah,' said Donna. `But neither are we.'

   Cautiously, the trio moved back towards where thedamaged bimbot lay, Mesanth bringing up the rear,Ogmunee at the front. As they made their way, Donna'sfoot caught on something and she waved her torch arounduntil she found what it was: a scorched, crisped piece oftentacle.

   `Maybe it'll have learned its lesson,' Ogmunee saidwhen he saw it.

   `Yeah,' added Donna, `or maybe it'll just be ten timesas angry.'

   But as they approached the broken robot again, thecavity of its head still sparking and flickering, there was

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neither sight nor sound of the beast.

   `Help me!' called Donna, slipping an arm under thebroken robot. She glanced back to check that Ogmuneewas keeping an eye on the side tunnel where the creaturehad come from before. But neither of them moved toassist her.

   `Can you speak?' she asked the robot, its arm stillshuddering. It turned its head the face still creepily half-missing towards her.

   `Pri-pri-primary functioning imp-imp-impaired,' itstuttered.

   Its voice was dull and raspy and so at odds with howDonna had expected such a glamorous creation to speak.

   `Can you stand?' she asked, realising that the robot wastoo heavy for her to lift, despite its size-zeromeasurements.

   `Mo-mo-motor functions failed,' it said, and Donnawasn't sure whether she imagined the hint of sadness in itsvoice. It was a robot, after all, and robots didn't feelsadness.

   `We have to keep moving,' Mesanth said.

   `Can't we transmat it back up to the ship?' askedDonna, extricating her arm from underneath it. `Get itrepaired?'

   `Too deep,' Mesanth said. `And we only have oneaugmenter.'

   `One what?'

   Mesanth patted his pouch.

   `Transmat augmenter. We need it for Garaman to get alock on the segment when we find it. Otherwise we'd

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have to drag it up to the surface.'

   `Well use it on... on her, and get Garaman to beamdown another.'

   Ogmunee pushed forward and before Donna could stophim he aimed his thermal gun at the bimbot. With barely apause, he pressed the button, and the robot's head fizzedbrightly like an ember caught in a breeze and thenwent dark. Its head lolled and its whole body saggedagainst the wall and lay silent and dead.

   `You killed it!' said Donna darkly.

   `It was a tool, it was broken, and it was holding us up,'Ogmunee corrected her. `It was holding you up.'

   Donna got to her feet, barely able to contain the angershe felt.

   `It could have been repaired,' she said slowly, spacingthe words out for effect, right into Ogmunee's face, notcaring about the fact that he weighed at least twice asmuch as she did and had a gun in his hand.

   `We have others,' he retorted. `Now move!'

   `Or what? You'll shoot me too?' She stood her ground,squaring up to him. `Come on then, what's stopping youbig man?'

   `He will not shoot you,' Mesanth intervened. `You'reorganic. We do not kill organics.'

   `No,' said Donna determinedly, facing the lizard manand his gleaming eyes. `You just threaten to break theirfingers off, don't you?'

   Mesanth said nothing, but turned away, as if tooashamed to admit the truth of Donna's accusation.Ogmunee gave an annoyed sigh and, brandishing the

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torch, strode off down the passage. Donna stared at himfor a few moments before catching Mesanth's eye.

   `Nice company you keep,' she said.

   And with a final glance at the dead robot, she headedon into the tunnels.

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    `You do realise,' said Li'ian as the darkness of the

    tunnels folded in around them after their materialisation,

    `that Boonie's never going to want to let you go?'

       `The trick with the transmat?' asked the Doctor

    cheerily. `Oh, that was nothing!'

       `It's let us beam straight down into the tunnels,' Li'ian

    pointed out, handing a torch to the Doctor. `You're turning

    out to be quite a catch, you know, what with that and the

    sensors. What other little gems have you got up your

    sleeve, eh?'

       `Oh, keep me around long enough and you'll find out.

    Besides, it was the only way to get Boonie to let me come

    down with you.' The Doctor glanced up at the shape of

    Mother, hulking alongside him.

       `And how're you doing, Mother?' he asked.

       With a faint whirr of gears, Mother's head tipped to

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face him. Behind the impassive steel shutters of her face,her eyes glowed red.

   `Y'know,' mused the Doctor, `I'd have a rethink on thered.' He pulled a face. `Never a good colour for eyes, red.Trust me. You've never met the Ood, have you?'

   Mother stayed silent, staring down at him. Somethinghummed and whirred inside her vast head.

   `I wouldn't antagonise her,' murmured Li'ian.

   `Really? Oh, I think Mother's a lot more friendly thanshe makes out.' He turned back to the robot and winked.`Aren't you?'

   There was no reply, so the Doctor shrugged andwiggled his torch around.

   `Right!' he said brightly. `Allons-y!' He stopped.`Smells like someone's been having a barbecue aroundhere. Come on!'

   The Doctor strode off ahead, with Li'ian and Motherbringing up the rear.

   For such a whopping great metal thing, Mother wassurprisingly quiet, thought the Doctor, as he followed thelight of his torch beam. Which was probably a good thing,considering that they were sneaking around in tunnels onan alien planet; considering that they wouldn't be the onlyones sneaking around in tunnels on an alien planet.

   The Cultists had an hour's lead on them; and, althoughthe Doctor knew that without his own special brand oftransmat fiddling they'd have to beam down to the surfaceand make their way underground, he didn't want to wasteany time. Donna was he hoped still aboard their ship;and if they managed to find what they were here for and

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get away before he could find them, he might lose her forever.

   Coming to the Andromeda galaxy had been his idea,and he was beginning to wonder whether he hadn't madea big mistake. They'd barely gone twenty metres into thedark passage when the Doctor brought them up sharply.

   `Whoa!' he said, raising a hand. `Barbecue anyone?'

   He cast the pool of light from his torch around in frontof him. Blocking most of the tunnel, a huge, smoulderingmass lay in their path. Spirals of smoke curled upwardsfrom it, forming a thick layer at the top of the passage. Heput a hand over his mouth.

   `What is it?' asked Li'ian, moving alongside him.

   `An animal, I think well, it used to be. Either it's beenplaying with matches or someone decided that they'drather it was an ex-animal. Not much we can do for thepoor thing now, I'm afraid.'

   In silence, they squeezed past the charred remains,trying not to breathe in too much of the smell of charredmeat that was now so much less appealing than it hadbeen before. Mother didn't seem to share the Doctor andLi'ian's distaste for actually walking on it behind him,he heard her massive metal feet crunching and squelchingon the poor beast's remains.

   Beyond the creature's lair, the tunnel roof becamedecidedly lower the Doctor and Li'ian only had to diptheir heads slightly, but Mother was too tall for that:instead, she dropped to all fours and trotted along behindthem like a great big metal cow.

   Just ahead of them, something grabbed the Doctor's

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attention: the broken and charred corpse of a robot,slumped against the wall.

     `What have we here, then?' he whispered, dropping to acrouch beside the machine. Popping his glasses on, hetook the melted head and turned it in his hands, like adoctor investigating a patient's neck problems.

     `Still warm,' he commented without turning. `Lookslike whatever weapon finished off that thing back therewas used on this one. See?' He turned the half-meltedface, with its cavity of dead circuitry, towards Li'ian.Behind her, in the darkness, there was a faint whine fromMother.

     `The Cultists?' whispered Li'ian, flicking her torchalong the tunnel, but there was no sign of movement.

     `That'd be my guess. From what we saw of the creatureback there, I'd guess it didn't build these tunnels. Soeither it's an intruder here, a pet... or maybe some sort ofguard-dog. Maybe the Cultists came across it and killedit.'

     `And the mechanical?'

     The Doctor shrugged.

     `Maybe the creature got to it and it was destroyed whenthey fired on it?'

     The Doctor unfastened the clothing of the robot,whipped out his sonic screwdriver, and within secondshad access to the robot's chest cavity.

     `Completely dead,' he said after a few moments.`Thought there might have been some flicker of life,backup circuitry or something.' He sighed and stood up,taking off his glasses. `Nothing.' He looked back at

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Mother, still on all fours, her face tipped at an angle as shelooked at the robot. `Sorry, Mother.'

    There was another whine from her. Whether it was justa response to his apology or to the fact that it was a robotthey'd found dead, he wasn't sure. Although he had agood idea...

    Donna was beginning to wonder how much farther theyhad to go: since the encounter with the tentacled thing andthe destruction of the robot, they seemed to have beenwalking for miles. In silence. She was still simmeringover the destruction of the robot and Mesanth andOgmunee's cavalier treatment of it. She knew that theyhad no great love of robots that much had been clearfrom their attitudes aboard their ship. As Garaman hadsaid: robots were tools. And that particular tool could wellhave been the one that had been about to break off herlittle finger. But still... it didn't seem quite right,abandoning it like that when they could have beamed itback up to the ship for repair. Maybe she was getting sillyand sentimental. After all, before this trip the only robotsshe'd encountered had been pretty unfriendly, either intenton kidnapping her, killing her or ruining her clothes. Or,like the bronze god on Uhlala, just plain rude. MaybeGaraman had a point. Maybe robots were just machines,just faking being human or intelligent or sentient orwhatever they called it. Nothing made of circuits and cogsand metal could really feel, could it?

    Ogmunee the big, butch show-off that Donna realisedhe was had moved to the front of their little party,waving his torch and the thermal gun around like some

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sort of silly Rambo. There had been no sign of the Jaftee the people that lived here. Donna wondered whether theyhadn't all been eaten by the thing with the tentacles.

   `Ahh,' said Mesanth, breaking the silence and makingDonna jump. He was looking down at the glowing screenof his detector. `Not far now.'

   Suddenly, Donna heard a squeaking, chattering noisefrom up ahead. She tensed up, half expecting anothertentacle-monster to throw itself at them. But instead, asthey turned a corner, they found themselves on a wide,rocky ledge looking down into a broad, circular chamber.

   Well over a hundred metres across, the floor wasstepped in a series of rings, like an amphitheatre, all hewnout of the same sandy rock as the tunnel walls. Scatteredaround the chamber, singly or in groups, were dozens ofsquat little monkey-things. A bit like chimpanzees, theirarms were much shorter and more powerful-looking andtheir heads and shoulders were covered with long,coppery-coloured hair that flowed down their backs.

   `Oh,' said Mesanth simply, the disappointment evidentin his voice. `Where is it? It should be here.'

   He consulted his scanner again.

   `Hmm...' he trilled. `One hundred and twenty metresthat way.' He waved his right arm vaguely.

   `Why isn't it here?' said Ogmunee. `It should be here.We left them worshipping it.'

   `Maybe they got bored with it,' Donna suggested. `Notlike it actually does anything, is it?'

   Mesanth shook his head worriedly.

   `But they were so excited about it,' he said. `So in awe

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of it. Of us.'

   `Maybe they've locked it away for safekeeping,'Ogmunee said.

   `Let's hope so,' trilled Mesanth, but Donna could hearthe concern in his voice.

   Had the Cult of Shining Darkness done a bit moreresearch on the Jaftee, they'd have discovered that theycollected religions like other people collected chinaornaments or pictures of the Queen.

   In fact, they often had two or three on the go at once,quite often mutually incompatible. It wasn't that the Jafteeactually believed any of them oh no, they were toosmart, too rational for that. They knew that it wasnonsensical to believe in some mysterious, invisible, all-powerful being (or beings) that, despite all the evidence tothe contrary, were actually interested in the lives of suchtiny and insignificant beings as themselves.

   But so the Jaftee reasoned the pinnacle ofsophistication and cleverness was to believe in somethingtotally and utterly without proof.

   Anyone, they thought, could believe in somethingwhen there was proof: anyone could believe in gravitywhen they saw things fall to the ground; anyone couldbelieve in the power of a sun when they saw how itwarmed and burned; anyone could believe in the ferocityof the temple beast when you saw it gobble up your bestfriend for not getting out of the way quickly enough. No:it took a very special kind of person to believe insomething when there wasn't the teeniest shred ofevidence for it.

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   And so, considering themselves pretty special peopleall round, the Jaftee were always on the lookout for newreligions, new things to worship, new rituals,newnonsense.

   So when, two years ago, four creatures from anotherworld appeared and announced: `We are your new gods you will worship us!', the Jaftee almost wet themselveswith excitement.

   `We have heard,' said the aliens (three rather dull oneswith just two legs and arms each and a more interestingone with three!), `that the Jaftee are most hospitable totheir gods.'

   This declaration made in the central meeting pit ofthe Jaftee underground city was greeted with whoops ofjoy and excitement. Just think, the Jaftee whispered tothemselves, for once we don't have to come up with newgods to worship. These gods (although they knew theyweren't really gods, but they didn't like to say anything incase it made them go away again) had come to them.

   (There had been much debate about whether these newgods could really be gods: by the Jaftee's own logic, theycould only believe in things for which there was no proof.And surely the actual appearance of them was all theproof needed for the Jaftee to not believe they were gods.Others pointed out that just because the newcomers calledthemselves gods, it didn't prove they were. The debate hadraged for all of a week before someone had decided that itwas an exciting enough development that the `gods'should be given the benefit of the doubt. For a while,anyway.)

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   `And,' continued the gods, trying to sound all deep andpowerful and, well, godlike, `we have come to bring theShining Darkness to you all!'

   There was a chorus of shouts from the Jaftee. They hadno idea what it meant, but it sounded terribly exciting:Shining Darkness. Darkness, they muttered in awe, thatshone! Cool!

   `So what must your followers do?' asked Enchikka,High Priest of What We Believe Today, doing the low-bowing and abasement thing that seemed to meet theapproval of these Gods of Shining Darkness. `How can wemake you happy?'

   `The Gods of Shining Darkness need your help, ohfaithful followers,' said the three-legged, three-armed one.He raised an arm and pointed upwards, towards theceiling. `In Heaven, we are at war with the forces of evil,'he said. `A war for the very survival of organic-kind.'

   There was more cheering and shouting from the Jaftee.They didn't know what `organic-kind' meant, but itseemed awfully impressive. And there was mention of awar and wars were always exciting, weren't they? Lotsof fighting and shouting and maybe some killing(although, as a rule, the Jaftee weren't that keen on thekilling, unless it was particularly spectacular and showykilling). And Heaven, of course, which the Jafteeparticularly loved mainly because Heaven was anotherof those things for which there was no proof whatsoever.Which meant that you could make it as fabulous or asstrange as you wanted to, and no one could ever prove youwrong.

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   `And how can we help the Gods of Shining Darkness?'asked Enchikka, loving the fact that there were lots ofcapital letters. Capitals were good when it came toreligions.

   `Oh faithful followers,' intoned the three-legged oneagain (more cheering). `Your faith is so pure and strongthat our enemies would never dare to intrude into yourcity. For that reason, we wish to entrust to you a SacredArtefact--'

   At this point, the three-legged one (whom the Jafteelater discovered was called `Mesanth') was completelydrowned out by an almighty roar of Jaftee voices. Thiswas a really good one: Sacred Artefacts were just thedog's doodahs. You could put them on display, worshipthem, kiss them, charge money to touch them. You couldhide them away and let only the High Priests see them,which made them all the more special. If you could bebothered (and, frankly, the Jaftee usually couldn't becauseby that point they'd normally moved on to somethingelse) you could `lose' the Sacred Artefacts and then spendages having quests to find them.

   The Gods of Shining Darkness seemed particularlypleased at this response from their faithful Jaftee. And,within hours, they'd brought down from Heaven (theJaftee thought it best not to let on that they knew the Godswere probably flying around in the sky in some big, metalbox and hadn't actually come from `Heaven') a whoppinggreat circular thing, all crusty with bits of metal andglittering crystals. As Sacred Artefacts went, it was thebusiness!

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    The Jaftee with lots of bowing and murmuring andwailing helped the Gods to install it at the centre of themeeting pit on a stone pillar. It looked fab, especiallywhen they'd installed a few extra flaming torches aroundit sparkly and just a bit tacky.

    `Keep our faith,' said Mesanth gravely. `The faith ofShining Darkness.'

    The Jaftee hollered and waved their hands in the air,each holding a little burning stick. They liked this religion.

    But, as was the way with the Jaftee, mere weeks afterthe Gods of Shining Darkness had returned to Heaven,promising to return for the Sacred Artefact at theAppropriate Juncture, one of the Jaftee discovered a crackin a wall that bore an uncanny resemblance to a particularconstellation in the night sky. And so the Adorers of theFractured Stars were born, the Gods of ShiningDarkness's Sacred Artefact was dragged off its plinth andshoved in a storeroom, and the Jaftee forgot all about it.

    The first that Enchikka knew about the return of theGods of Shining Darkness was when someone spottedMesanth or, at least, someone very like him along withtwo others, wandering through the city's passages. Itseemed that they'd managed to get past the temple beast(which was no great surprise, since the temple beastwasn't actually that impressive, despite all the noise itmade) and were on their way to the meeting pit. Theywere considering letting the temple beast starve to death,to be quite honest. It kept killing the Jaftee sent to feed it,and it was getting harder and harder to find people willingto do it.

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   `Have we still got it?' Enchikka asked one of hisunderlings breathlessly as soon as he could find her.

   `Have we still got what?' Narucchio seemed puzzled although her attention was clearly divided betweenanswering Enchikka's question and adjusting herfeathered headdress (a chicken had, reportedly, been heardto say that the end of the world was coming; and so theJaftee had slaughtered it, examined its entrails for any signthat this might be true, and then decided to worship it asthe Chicken of the Apocalypse. Well, the bits that wereleft of it. Most of which were now adorning Narucchio'scoppery hair.)

   `The thing,' said Enchikka, a little flustered. `TheSacred Thing of the Flaming Shadows.'

   `Oh, the Shining Darkness one, you mean?'

   `Yes, whatever. What did we do with it?'

   Narucchio gave a shrug, tipping her head this way andthat as she examined herself in a shiny mirrored bowl.

   `Didn't we put it in a cupboard?'

   `Well find out!' snapped Enchikka, swipingNarucchio's headdress and holding it out of her reach untilshe agreed to go and search for the wheel-thing. `Ifthey've come back for it, they might not be too happy thatwe've stuffed it away in a junk room. They might thinkwe weren't taking them seriously.'

   `What they going to do about it?' asked Narucchiogrumpily, keeping an eye on her feathers.

   `Dunno,' replied Enchikka tightly. `But they're gods,aren't they? They might do something godly smite usdown or plague us with boils or lice or--'

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   `Point taken,' said his underling, raising a hand. `I'llget someone onto it.'

   `No,' said Enchikka firmly. `You'll get onto it. They'rehere now, and there's only so long we can fob them offwith feasts and dancing.' He fixed Narucchio firmly withhis yellow eyes. `And if they start demanding sacrifices,you know who's going to be first on the list, don't you?'

   Enchikka didn't see Narucchio's leathery little feet fordust.

   `So,' said Donna as they realised that the Jaftee hadseen them, sheltering in the entrance to the ledge. `Who'sgoing to ask for your ball back, then?'

   Mesanth gave a weary sigh and stepped forward. As hedid so, half a dozen of the Jaftee jumped to their feet andbegan pointing at them, muttering and whispering.

   Donna and Ogmunee followed him out onto the ledge,which caused even more excitement amongst the Jafteewho started jumping up and down, their hair bouncingaround like tacky fun-wigs. It was like being at aparticularly bad Cher convention.

   `Faithful Jaftee!' said Mesanth, holding his device infront of him: it picked up his voice and amplified it,sending it booming out across the pit. Even Donna wasimpressed.

   The Jaftee fell silent and stared up at them.

   `Faithful Jaftee!' said Mesanth again, warming to hisrole. `Your Gods have returned!'

   He paused. There was silence. Even from their highvantage point, Donna could see the Jaftee glancing at eachother with their tiny, dark eyes.

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   `Shouldn't they be kneeling or wailing or applauding orsomething?' Donna said, getting a bad feeling in the pit ofher stomach.

   `Your Gods have returned,' Mesanth said again andthis time his voice didn't sound quite so godlike, `tocollect the Sacred Artefact with which we entrusted you,many moons ago.'

   `Karris doesn't have a moon,' Ogmunee pointed outsourly. Mesanth glared at him.

   `Doesn't look like it has a Sacred Artefact, either,'added Donna, unhelpfully.

   `Perhaps one of you would rather do this, then,' saidMesanth, moving the device away from his mouth.

   `They are more familiar with you,' Ogmunee said,folding his arms. It was obvious that he didn't want therole of God in this ridiculous pantomime. And Mesanthseemed to be losing his confidence.

   `Oh, give it here,' snapped Donna, snatching the devicefrom him. `Amateurs!'

   Mesanth reached out to take it back, but it was too late Donna drew herself up to her full height and raised thescanner.

   `Where is your High Priest?' she shouted, and wincedat the amplification the device gave her voice. Even theJaftee flinched. `Bring forward your High Priest!'

   She moved the scanner away and spoke out of thecorner of her mouth.

   `They do have a High Priest, don't they?'

   Mesanth nodded and raised his front hand, pointing.

   A Jaftee wearing some sort of feathered headdress,

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followed by another one with its hair all tied up in a messybeehive on top of its head, were striding up onto theplatform at the centre of the pit. At this, the other Jafteefell to their knees in abasement.

   `Why didn't we get that?' grumped Mesanth.

   `Welcome!' called the one with the beehive. `I'mEnchikka, High Priest of What We Believe Today. Andyou are...?'

   `We are your Gods!' boomed Donna. `And we've comefor the return of our Sacred Artefact. The big round one,'she added, in case there was any doubt.

   `Ah,' said Enchikka. `Yes. That one.'

   `Yes,' repeated Donna, getting the very strong feelingthat things were starting to go just a little bit awry. `Thatone.'

   `Well,' said Enchikka, looking just the teensiest bitshifty. `We have, um, placed it away for safekeeping.'

   `Oh, well, that's good, Enchikka. Your Gods arepleased.' She turned and grinned at Mesanth. Godhood?Piece of cake!

   `The thing is,' Enchikka continued, `we have othergods now.'

   `Sorry,' said Donna repeating it because she'd let theamplifier slip a bit. `Sorry what d'you mean, you haveother gods now?'

   Enchikka gestured proudly towards the pillar next tohim. Donna had to squint to see anything it looked like afew chicken bones and some feathers, laid out on the top.

   `The Chicken of the Apocalypse,' Enchikka saidreverently.

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   `The what?'

   `The Chicken of the Apocalypse. In its entrails we haveseen the future.'

   `You're kidding, right?'

   `More gravitas!' hissed Mesanth in her ear. `Sound likea god!'

   Donna cleared her throat.

   `Your Gods are displeased,' she called. `You shall haveno gods besides us.'

   Enchikka gave an awkward little shrug.

   `It's just...' he began. `You know how it is. Thingschange. New gods come along...'

   `Your chicken is a false god,' declared Donna suddenly,starting to get the hang of it.

   `Is it?' asked Enchikka, his eyes suddenly bright. `Afalse god?'

   `Yes do not anger the True Gods by turning awayfrom them!'

   Despite the fact that it was all rather silly, Donna wasenjoying this deity business.

   `Your Gods are benevolent,' she said solemnly, `butalso capable of great anger.'

   There was a muttering and a chattering amongst theJaftee. Donna couldn't tell whether it was a goodmuttering and chattering or bad muttering and chattering.She suspected the latter. Right, she thought. Let's grab thisSacred Chicken by the horns!

   `The Chicken of the Apocalypse is a false god, and youmust turn away from it.'

   She heard Ogmunee sigh behind her.

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   `But you are old gods,' shouted Enchikka, almostapologetically. `We have moved on the Jaftee look to thefuture, not to the past.'

   `These lot may be old gods, sunshine,' Donna said,jerking her head in the direction of Ogmunee andMesanth, `but I'm certainly not. I am your new God your new Goddess,' she corrected. She gestured up anddown herself dramatically. `Behold: me!'

   There was more chattering, and she noticed how someof the Jaftee had started to touch their own hair. Their ownred hair.

   `Yes!' she cried. `Behold me behold Donna.' She tooka step forward and shook her hair like someone in ashampoo commercial. `Behold The Ginger Goddess!'

   `The Ginger what?' boggled the Doctor to Li'ian, hiseyes wide with disbelief.

   The two of them were watching the proceedings from asmall tunnel entrance on the opposite side of the ledge. Bykeeping flat to the floor, they'd avoided being seen by theJaftee. Mother lurked in the shadows of the tunnel behindthem, still on all fours.

   Not long after they'd encountered the broken robot,they'd heard Donna and her two companions bickeringand sniping at each other, and had managed to stay backuntil they could find a way around them. It had taken awhile, but eventually they'd emerged onto the same ledgeas Donna and the others, but at the far side of the Jaftee'samphitheatre.

   `She's impersonating a goddess,' said Li'ian withdisbelief in her voice.

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    `Must be something about travelling with me,' theDoctor said with a grin. `They're always doing it.'

    `Shouldn't we go and find the segment? I thought thatwas what we were here for.'

    `Let's see what happens here, first. If she persuades theJaftee to go and fetch the segment, we might get caughtwhile we're poking at it. And I'm not sure the Jaftee cancope with another set of gods, just at the moment.'

    Enchikka's little heart almost burst with excitement.

    To be honest, he hadn't been all that impressed with theChicken of the Apocalypse. It had kept the Jaftee busy fora couple of weeks, but there was only so much mileageyou could get out of a bird's carcass only so many waysyou could arrange the bones, only so many headdressesyou could make from the feathers.

    No one had expected the Gods of Shining Whatsit toreappear they'd been visited by gods from the starstwice before, and none of them had left anything behindand none of them had returned. So they weren't reallyexpecting these new ones to come back either. Although,mused Enchikka, if they'd thought about it for a fewmoments, it might have been obvious: people gods,particularly don't usually dump something as big as theSacred Artefact on you, ask you to look after it, and thenclear off never to be seen again. Until the Ginger Goddesshad spoken, Enchikka would have been just as pleased ifthe Gods had stayed away. He wasn't sure what shapetheir Sacred Artefact would be in, and he suspected that ifit had been broken or battered that they might not be toohappy.

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   But this Donna this Ginger Goddess... Now she wassomething new! And she had hair a bit like the Jaftee. Notquite like the Jaftee (it was darker and curlier) but closeenough. The Jaftee were going to get some mileage out ofthis particular Goddess!

                           ***

`The what?' gasped Ogmunee, echoing the Doctor'sdisbelief way across the other side of the Jafteeamphitheatre.

   `Sssh!' hissed Mesanth. `Look! They're bowing down they're swallowing it.'

   And indeed they were: as Mesanth and Ogmuneewatched, the Jaftee began to chant. Gently at first, it builtup slowly, more and more voices adding to it as the otherJaftee picked up on it.

   `All hail the Ginger Goddess!' they sang. `All hail theGinger Goddess!'

   The priest, Mesanth noted, was whispering to the otherJaftee the one with feathers in its hair. It pulled themout, threw them to the ground, and rushed out of thechamber.

   Donna would never have admitted it to anyone, but shewas actually getting quite a buzz out of this deificationbusiness. How many people, she thought, got to begoddesses? Especially ginger goddesses. She'd spent herwhole life laughing thinly at ginger jokes and comments;occasionally, she'd shouted back (or even, on oneoccasion, slapped a guy for comparing her to a Duracell

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battery). But she'd never really been happy with it. As achild, her hair had been brighter almost as coppery asthe Jaftee and she'd been teased relentlessly. Her mumhad told her not to be so sensitive (way to go, Mum!); herdad had told her that `red-haired' (he never used the g-word) children were special. Quite how, he'd neverexplained, but Donna had appreciated the effort.

   But now here she was, on an alien planet, beingworshipped for her gingerness. If only her dad and grampscould see her now see how special her hair had madeher! And for one silly moment, she even wished her mumcould be there to witness it. Maybe Mesanth had a videocamera in his shoulder belt...?

   The chanting was getting ridiculously loud by now:`All hail the Ginger Goddess!' they were shouting, overand over. David Beckham, eat your heart out!

   It was all well and good, Donna realised as she heardMesanth cough politely behind her. But she had to findsome way to turn it to their advantage, to get hold of theprecious segment that they'd come here for.

   She raised her hands in what she hoped was a goddessygesture and the chanting began to fade away.

   `My people!' she shouted, bringing the amplifier closer.`My faithful people!'

   There was more cheering. This was becoming a bitembarrassing. She glanced back to see Ogmunee rollinghis eyes.

   `My first commandment!' she called. `My firstcommandment is that thou shalt have no other gods!'Talking in that cod-Biblical way sounded a bit naff. This

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was the twenty-first century after all. She cleared herthroat. `You will have no other gods,' she said althoughit didn't sound any less silly. She wondered if she wereabout to be struck by lightning for blasphemy.

   `No other gods!' the Jaftee began to chant. `No othergods!'

   Donna raised her hands again. This was going to takefor ever.

   `All your religious bits and bobs,' she said, wincing abit at the words, `all the stuff from your previousreligions. It must be cast out!'

   `Cast out!' they chanted. `Cast out!'

   She nodded.

   `Bring everything here all of it! I must see it before Idestroy it! Bring it now!'

   `What's she playing at?' she heard Ogmunee whisper.

   `Oh,' said Mesanth in a low voice. `Donna is clever. Iwas right to bring her down with us. She knows whatshe's doing.'

   Too right I do, mister, Donna smiled to herself.

   `Go now!' she called to her followers. `Go now andbring all the blasphemous articles to me all of them!'She widened her eyes in what she hoped was a mad furykind of look.

   There was a brief flurry of activity down below, and backing away from her the Jaftee began to stream out ofthe chamber.

   Narucchio eventually found it mouldering away at theback of a storeroom full of chipped stone statues, sillycostumes and paintings of things with one eye, or dozens

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of them. They were all the relics, the props, from previousreligions. Occasionally, some Jaftee or other would get itinto their head that they should have a jolly good clean-out and get rid of them all; but then some older and wiserJaftee would point out how things inevitably went incycles, and that if they binned everything the chanceswere that within a couple of years they'd need them allagain to celebrate some new belief system.

   Once she'd found the Wheel of Shining Thingummy,she got a crowd of Jaftee to roll it, quick-sticks, out of thechamber and along to the meeting pit.

   `I'm impressed,' said Mesanth in a very flutey voice.`You handled that like you were born to it, Donna.'

   Donna grinned and gave an imperious little bow.

   `Goddess Donna,' she corrected him before catchingsight of Ogmunee's scowl.

   `Do you ever smile?' she asked him. `I could get themto make you smile, you know. In fact,' she added,narrowing her eyes evilly and pushing her face right infront of his, `I could probably get them to tear you limbfrom limb and flush the bits down the loo if I wanted. Mypeople,' she paused hammily, `will obey my will!'

   `Don't push it,' said Ogmunee. `Let's wait until wehave the segment before you get too smug.'

   Donna just raised an eyebrow and turned back to thechamber. The handful of Jaftee left including Enchikka were staring up at her.

   `Ginger Goddess!' called Enchikka. He'd let down hishair and was trying to muss it up into an approximation ofDonna's own, but it wasn't working very well.

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   `Yes, oh faithful um, what was your name again?'

   `Enchikka, oh Ginger Goddess.'

   `Yes, oh faithful Enchikka?'

   `May I humbly crave that you descend to be amongstyour people?'

   Donna pulled a face.

   `Don't see why um,' she'd forgotten the amplifier,which was probably as well, considering how she'dforgotten to do the voice. She lifted it up again. `TheGinger Goddess sees no reason why she should not comeamongst you.'

   She covered up the amplifier and glanced back at theother two.

   `We're going to have to go down there to get thesegment, aren't we?'

   Mesanth nodded hesitantly.

   `OK then you two better shush, though. It's methey're worshipping. Don't want you two spoiling it.'

   She glared at Ogmunee in particular, fluffed up her hairagain, and set off along the ledge towards where she couldsee a flight of steps leading down to the floor of thechamber.

   Behind her, Mesanth and Ogmunee followed.

   `What's she doing?' asked Li'ian, pulling herself closerto the rim of the ledge.

   `I think she's getting ready for panto season,' theDoctor muttered. `I hope she knows what she's doing.'

   `We're not going to get a close look at the segment, arewe?'

   `I don't think so not close up, no.'

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   Li'ian sighed.

   `Maybe we should just get back to the ship, then.'

   The Doctor shook his head.

   `Not yet. I want to make sure that oh! Hello! Look!'

   He gestured down to the floor of the chamber. Throughthe doorway, a whole host of Jaftee were dragging anassortment of costumes and props and bits of wood andmetal.

   `There's more junk down there than in my pockets ahh! There it is!'

   Bringing up the rear of the bizarre little procession, atleast a dozen Jaftee were rolling the segment along on itsedge, bumping and banging it as they went. It was thebiggest artefact they had by far. Although at this rate,thought the Doctor, it might be one of the smallest by thetime they got it to the centre of the chamber.

   `Ouch!' he winced through his teeth as it rolled looseand slammed over onto its side.

   `I wouldn't worry,' said Li'ian. `Half of that is probablyjust protective packaging.'

   `Let's hope so,' replied the Doctor, not at all convinced.

   They watched as the Jaftee dragged it into place alongwith all their other religious bits and bobs in the centre ofthe chamber and then backed away, sinking to their kneesagain in supplication as Donna and her two accomplicesdescended to the floor.

   `The Ginger Goddess,' announced Donna, soundinggracious, `is pleased.'

   `Why d'you never have a camera when you need one?'sighed the Doctor. `I wonder who the other two are the

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tripedal one: would that be Mesanth? He was mentionedin some of those records you showed me.'

    Li'ian nodded.

    `The other one, I think, is Ogmunee. Tactical specialist,if I recall correctly. What's happening now?'

    Li'ian shuffled closer to the edge to see.

    Donna stood proudly at the edge of the platform at thecentre of the chamber, Mesanth and Ogmunee behind her,like faithful acolytes.

    `You've done well,' Donna was saying, waving herhand magnanimously at the collected relics. `The GingerGoddess will now take them away to the heavens for...'she gestured theatrically towards the ceiling `... for...disposal.'

    `She sounds like she's clearing asbestos out ofsomeone's attic, doesn't she?' the Doctor grinned. `Goodold Donna!'

    `There's no need, Oh Illustrious Ginger One,' saidEnchikka with a little bow of the head. He spoke loudly sothat the rest of the Jaftee congregation could hear. `It isour honour, our duty, to serve the Ginger Goddess bydestroying these false relics for you.'

    `Oh-oh,' said the Doctor.

    For a moment, Donna's face was a picture.

    `Ah,' she said. `No, really.'

    `Please,' simpered Enchikka although there was anedge to his voice that didn't bode well. `Allow us todemonstrate our devotion to the Mighty Ginger One bydestroying them here, before Her eyes.'

    `The Ginger Goddess appreciates your offer,' Donna

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said and the Doctor saw her glance nervously backtowards Mesanth and Ogmunee who were starting to lookvery worried indeed. `But you have already shownyourselves to be worthy followers.'

   `But not worthy enough,' countered Enchikka, `if youwill not allow us to perform this duty for you.'

   Donna smiled a tight, slightly less than deific, smile.

   `I am your Goddess,' she pointed out.

   `You are indeed, Oh Ginger One. But as you yourselfhave said, there shall be no other Gods besides you.'

   Enchikka gestured with a paw, and, after a moment'spause, the assembled throng of Jaftee probably abouttwo hundred of them, the Doctor reckoned rose fromtheir knees.

   `I suspect that you have duties in the Heavens that willtake you away from us soon,' Enchikka said. `And thatyou may not return. If we are never again to lay ourunworthy eyes on Your Flaming Beauty, then we mustinsist we perform this last duty for You. We will destroyfalse relics and false gods alike in Your Name.'

   `Sorry?' said Donna, forgetting her character for amoment. `False gods?'

   Enchikka dipped his head again and made a littlegesture with his paw. Suddenly, two or three dozen Jafteebegan to move, encircling Donna and the other two.

   `You have no need to fear, Oh Ginger One,' Enchikkasaid. `It is those two the gods whose position You haveusurped in our hearts that are false. Together with thefalse icons...' He paused for effect. `They will burn!'

   One minute they were worshipping at her feet, thought

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Donna, her heart plummeting, and the next they wereplanning to turn Ogmunee and Mesanth into Joans of Arc.

    `No!' she shouted, raising her hands.

    For a moment, the Jaftee paused. But it was only for amoment. Seconds later, they began moving again, drawingcloser with a weird mixture of awe and ferocity in theireyes.

    `The thing,' hissed Donna over her shoulder. `Use thething the augmenter.'

    `Not close enough,' said Mesanth, his voice wobblingand warbling all over the place. `No!'

    At this last cry from Mesanth, Donna turned to see thatOgmunee had pulled out his shiny little gun and wasaiming it at the encroaching Jaftee.

    `We've no choice,' grunted Ogmunee, although Donnacould see a malicious glee in his eyes. For once, though,she couldn't argue with his line of reasoning: they wereabout to be killed by the Jaftee. She could hardly blamehim for pulling a gun on them.

    Unfortunately, even though the Jaftee probably didn'tknow what the chromed tube in Ogmunee's hand was,they clearly had a good idea that it wasn't somethinggood; because before Ogmunee could fire it, somethinghurtled out of the crowd and knocked it clean from hishand. It went tumbling away into the throng where someof the Jaftee pounced on it.

    `The false gods must be destroyed!' cried Enchikka. `Itis the Will of the Ginger Goddess!'

    Donna opened her mouth to cry out that no, it wasn'tthe Will of the Ginger Goddess; that the Will of the

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Ginger Goddess was that they all just cleared off and letthe Ginger Goddess get on with stealing the SacredArtefact.

    But it was too late: enraged by Ogmunee's mysterioussilver wand, egged on by Enchikka, the Jaftee began toswarm towards them, a murderous, religious zeal in theireyes. And Donna had a horrible feeling that once they'dkilled Mesanth and Ogmunee that they might well decidethey were bored with their Ginger Goddess and do thesame to her. Weren't religions supposed to be about loveand peace and extra Bank Holidays?

    Suddenly, away across the other side of the chamber,Donna saw something move high up on the ledge. Alittle dark shape, ducking out of sight before she'd evengot a good look at it.

    And then there came a mighty grating and grinding.

    All eyes turned to look: the Jaftee, Mesanth,Ogmunee... all of them were looking up to the ledge. Andthen, out of nowhere, a massive block of sandy stonecame into view, as if pushed from behind. It reached theedge of the ledge, sand and dust drifting down into theJaftee amphitheatre as it paused before continuing toslide out and over.

    It teetered on the brink and then, almost in slowmotion, it tipped and plummeted to the ground with ahuge crash, a cloud of dust, and a rain of chippings thatDonna could feel pattering against her skin. None of theJaftee seemed hurt they'd all been over on her side ofthe chamber. But it set them off screaming and chatteringand wailing, running this way and that. They jumped up

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and down, trying to see what had happened.

   `Quick!' hissed Donna, taking advantage of thedistraction. `Come on!'

   And with that, she bounded across the platform to thepile of religious knick-knacks. Ogmunee was right behindher, but Mesanth seemed frozen into immobility by thefalling block of stone.

   `Mesanth!' bellowed Donna, rolling her eyes. `Move!'

   But the Jaftee had seen them, and, forgetting about themysterious falling stone, began to scamper towards themagain, Enchikka standing there looking like he mightexplode with the excitement of it all.

   Mesanth, trying his best not to panic, was doing exactlythat: shivering and shaking, he was frozen to the spot,scared to stay, scared to move.

   `The thing,' urged Donna. `Get it out! Come on!'

   She pointed to his shoulder belt, which seemed togalvanise him, giving him something to think about otherthan the encroaching Jaftee. He flapped about, pulling itfrom its pouch, as he suddenly sprang along the ground.The weird, dancey way he ran seemed to throw the Jafteefor a moment and it was just enough.

   As he reached Donna and Ogmunee, up against themountain of icons and costumes and tat, he squeezed theaugmenter in his three-fingered hand.

   And as Donna felt the familiar tingle of the transmat,she glanced up at the ledge from where the stone blockhad fallen.

   Peeking over were a familiar pair of eyes and a veryfamiliar shock of hair. She grinned and then everything

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flared white.

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    Disappointed though he was that he hadn't been able to

    examine the segment, the Doctor could at least take

    comfort in the fact that Donna was alive and well. Better

    than well, if her performance as the Ginger Goddess was

    anything to go by. He grinned at the recollection, but

    reminded himself that until he had her back and by his

    side it wasn't really a laughing matter.

       Boonie, for his part, was just glad that the three of them

    hadn't been spotted. He'd started to have a go at the

    Doctor for risking revealing his involvement, until Li'ian

    had pointed out that, without the distraction that he'd

    engineered, the third segment could well have gone up in

    smoke. She had a smart head on her shoulders, thought the

    Doctor, and it was clear that she had more influence on

    Boonie's plans and strategy than Boonie would probably

    admit.

       The Cult's ship had wasted no time in leaving Karris,

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and The Sword of Justice had no difficulty in following it,thanks to the Doctor's work on the sensors.

   The Doctor had yawned hugely, stretched like a cat,and said he thought he'd have a little nap before theyarrived at their next port of call, wherever that was.

   Li'ian disappeared to do whatever it was that Li'ian didand Boonie got into a deep conversation with Kellique, sothe Doctor asked Mother if she could show him back tohis room since he'd quite forgotten where it was.

   Of course, the Doctor didn't need a nap, and he knewfull well where his room was. But he wanted a quiet chatwith Mother. In private.

   `You'd think,' said the Doctor to Mother although hesuspected he wouldn't get a reply, `that Boonie'd begrateful to me, wouldn't you? I mean super-boosting thesensors and the transmat. You'd pay a fortune to get thatdone normally.'

   Mother said nothing, walking silently ahead of him.

   `And I couldn't help noticing your response to the deadrobot back there,' he said casually as they arrived at hisroom. `I'm so sorry that we couldn't help it. For allLi'ian's professed caring for machine-kind, I'd haveexpected a bit more... well, a bit more emotion.'

   The door hissed open and the Doctor stepped in,Mother staying in the corridor, looking down at him withher fiery eyes.

   `You look like a bellboy waiting for a tip,' the Doctorgrinned. `Come in,' he said airily, stepping back from thedoor; but Mother stood out in the corridor, impassively.

   `Oh for goodness' sake, I'm not going to hurt you.

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Come on come on in. There's something you can helpme with.'

    There was something almost endearing about thecautiousness with which the huge robot entered the room,like a cat sniffing the outstretched fingers of a strangerbefore letting itself be stroked.

    `Here,' said the Doctor, tossing something through theair. Mother's massive, claw-like hand snapped out almostas fast as the eye could see and caught it perfectly. Shetilted her head and examined it: it was a chunky brasscube, etched on all six surfaces with a pattern of circuitsand connections.

    `It's the memory core from the robot we found downon Karris,' said the Doctor casually. `But I don't supposeyou need me to tell you that.'

    Mother raised her head and looked at him.

    `Why have I got it?' the Doctor guessed at herunspoken question. `Well... The robot sorry, is "robot"all right with you? Would you prefer "machineintelligence"? "Mechanical"?' Mother nodded her headthe tiniest of amounts. `Ah, right mechanical it is. Themechanical had clearly only just been killed, so I thoughtthat there was a good chance that its non-volatile memorywould still be accessible, and that, maybe, some of itspersonality constructs would still be there.'

    He watched Mother carefully as she turned thegleaming cube over in her hands. What was she thinking?

    `Now,' he said, with an exaggerated sigh, `all I need isa way of accessing it, see if we can do anything with it maybe transplant any consciousness there into another

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mechanical. It might give us a clue as to what theseCultists are doing. It might even allow the mechanical tolive again.' He paused. `What d'you think?'

   Mother examined the cube again, before suddenlysinking to her knees before the Doctor. Even in thisposition, her eyes were still a good six inches above theDoctor's, and he realised quite how powerful this muterobot was.

   The vast, v-shaped body, mirroring the v-shaped head,faced him, gleaming a dull silver in the room's lights.Suddenly, with a gentle click, a circular section in thefront of her chest split down the centre and the two halvesparted, followed by a wider section that slid down toreveal a complex mass of circuitry. Out of the rat's nest ofwires and components, like a metallic worm, a slim tendrilextended outwards several centimetres. Fascinated, theDoctor watched as Mother lowered the memory core tothe tendril and the tendril locked itself onto the terminalson one of the cube's faces. As he watched, he noticedsomething else something nestled in the complexinnards of the robot. Something that looked decidedly outof place...

   A few moments later, there was a hum and a brief buzzand Mother disconnected the cube, handing it gently backto the Doctor.

   `And...?' said the Doctor.

   He jumped as suddenly, hovering in the air betweenhim and Mother, was a flickering rectangle of pink light.

   `Ahhh! A virtual screen!'

   The screen fizzled and crackled and then, in red:

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   >MEMORY ARCHIVE PARTIALLY INTACT.

   `Marvellous! How intact?'

   >INSUFFICIENT          FOR        RECONSTRUCTION.THERMAL          DEGRADATION            HAS      CAUSEDIRREPARABLE DAMAGE.

   `Oh.' The Doctor's face fell. `That's a shame. Is therenothing about the Cultists or their mission? Nothing that itoverheard?'

   >NO. THE MECHANICAL DESIGNATED ZB2230/3IS NON-VIABLE AS AN ENTITY. THE MEMORYBUFFER CONTAINS ONLY RECENT EXPERIENCES.WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE THE AVAILABLEVISUAL MEMORY?

   The Doctor's eyes lit up. `Visual memory? Why not?'

   The screen crackled again and suddenly, the Doctorwas seeing from the point of view of the dead robot.Seeing Donna!

   There was no sound, but it was clear that Donna wastrying to help the damaged robot in its last minutes of life,arguing with someone out of shot.

   `Ahhh, Donna!' he sighed. `The indomitable Donna.'

   >THE GINGER GODDESS?

   The words overlaid the image as it froze on Donna'sworried face. The Doctor grinned up at Mother.

   `The one and only.' He paused.

   >WHY IS SHE WITH THE CULTISTS?

   The Doctor looked up in surprise: for a mute robot,Mother was being surprisingly chatty.

   `They kidnapped her.'

   >WHY?

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   `I think it was by accident. Not that that excuses them.'He looked up at Mother's face. `D'you mind my asking why are you called "Mother"?'

   >IT WAS MY FUNCTION.

   `Your function? Well, I've heard it called some thingsin my time, but "function"? Children?'

   >GONE.

   The word flickered in the air.

   The Doctor felt a lump in his throat. He blinked.

   `Where?'

   >THEY WERE TAKEN.

   `I'm sorry. Who took them?' He stopped. `If you don'tmind talking about it, that is.'

   >IT IS NOT AS PAINFUL TO REMEMBER AS ITONCE WAS.

   The words hung in the air between them, a bondbetween them. There were people that the Doctor, too, hadlost. And although he knew he'd never forget them, healso knew that the cliché about time being a great healerwas a cliché partly because it was true.

   Mother continued:

   >I AM WAS MOTHER TO A GENERATION OFMECHANICALS. WAR MACHINES. I WAS BORN INTHE RESEARCH LABORATORIES OF MEETA-CORIN. FROM MY BIRTH I WAS CONNECTED TOVIRTUAL WAR SIMULATORS. THEY STUDIEDHOW I RESPONDED TO DIFFERENT SCENARIOSAND TOOK THE MOST EFFICIENT OF MYSUBROUTINES AND IMPLANTED THEM INTOOTHER WAR MACHINES. MY CHILDREN. WHEN I

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DISCOVERED WHAT HAD BECOME OF THEM...

   Mother paused and the Doctor saw how her handsclenched in an all-too-human gesture of despair.

   >I DID NOT WANT TO BE A PART OF IT ANYMORE. I... I DAMAGED MYSELF IN AN ATTEMPTTO MAKE MYSELF USELESS TO THEM.

   `This damage,' guessed the Doctor. `It made you mute,didn't it?'

   >I TRIED TO END MY OWN EXISTENCE, BUT IFAILED.

   Even through the medium of the floating red letters,Mother's sadness shone through.

   `The survival instinct's very strong, isn't it? Even inthose who want to die. What happened then?'

   >THEY ABANDONED ME.

   `Thrown on the scrapheap, eh?'

   >LITERALLY. I HAD BEEN SCHEDULED FORDESTRUCTION. BOONIE AND HIS FRIENDSRESCUED ME. HE OFFERED TO REPAIR ME, TOMAKE ME SPEAK, BUT I REFUSED. IT IS APERMANENT REMINDER OF WHAT I WAS PART OF.I MUST NEVER FORGET.

   The Doctor reached out and took hold of Mother'shuge hand, squeezing it gently.

   `That's very honourable,' he said softly. `If yourchildren could know you, they'd be very proud.'

   >I CAN'T BE SURE OF THAT.

   `No,' said the Doctor. `But I can.'

   Mother inclined her head again.

   >IN YOUR GALAXY, WHAT IS THE STATUS OF

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MECHANICALS?

   `Oh, much the same as here, really. Organics are muchmore prevalent over there far fewer mechanicalcivilisations. And, sad to say, many of the ones that thereare don't get on too well with the organics. The morethings change, the more they stay the same, eh?'

   Suddenly, Mother let go of his hand.

   `What is it?'

   >BOONIE IS REQUESTING MY PRESENCE.

   `Oh... and we were having such a lovely chat. Maybewe can talk again later?'

   >PERHAPS.

   `And if you get the chance, can you see if you can getme an upgrade to a better room? One with a windowwould be nice.'

   Donna jumped as the door to her room slid open. She'dspent a boring hour mooching around the ship well, atleast the areas of it that weren't off-limits to her.Numerous doors refused to open, and the senior crewwere off doing whatever it was that they were doing probably checking the segment, making sure it hadn'tbeen damaged beyond repair on Karris.

   For the first time since Garaman had kidnapped her,she was starting to feel lonely. Until now, there had beenenough happening to keep her occupied; but the trip toKarris and the discovery that the Doctor was, indeed, onher tail simply highlighted how out of her depth she washere. For a moment, after they'd returned from Karris,she'd been tempted to tell them about the Doctor, to rub inthe fact that he was right behind her. But after giving it a

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few moments' thought, she'd realised that it made sense tokeep this bit of information to herself. The Doctor couldhave made his presence known on Karris, instead ofhiding, and he didn't. Therefore, Donna had reasoned, hehad good reason to keep hidden. She didn't want to gowading in with her size sevens and jeopardise any planshe had.

   Donna knew that the ship had now left the Karrissystem, bound, no doubt, for the next piece of the puzzle.No one had bothered to tell her exactly how many piecesthere were. It wasn't impossible that she could spend thenext ten years of her life haring around the Andromedagalaxy, picking them all up with the Doctor just a stepbehind.

   It wasn't even as if she'd managed to make any friendshere the robots seemed totally lacking in any kind ofpersonality (due, no doubt, to Garaman's dislike of anythat showed even a flicker of intelligence), and the humanones just gave her sniffy looks and refused to talk to herabout anything other than the basics.

   Bizarrely, Mesanth seemed to be the closest thing shehad to a friend: not the kind of friend you'd go for a drinkafter work with, though. More the kind of friend that sayshello to you at the photocopier and goodnight at the end ofthe day.

   And it was Mesanth who was now standing in thedoorway. He hovered uncertainly for a few seconds beforeDonna sighed and beckoned him in.

   `We will be arriving at our next destination shortly,' hesaid as the door closed behind him. `I thought you should

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know.'

    `Why?' said Donna, realising that it came out moresnarkily than she'd intended. `I mean, what differencedoes it make if you tell me or not? Face it, Mesanth I'ma prisoner here. Oh, very nice room, thank you very much although the lack of a mini-bar is a bit of a let-down.But I'm still a prisoner.' She sat up on the bed. `Howmuch longer is this going to take, eh? A week? A month?'

    Mesanth sighed and looked away from her awkwardly,his three hands flexing with agitation.

    `Garaman is disappointed by the attitude you displayedon Karris.'

    `Me? Attitude?' Donna boggled. `Attitude!? Whatattitude?'

    `We were of the impression that you were...' Mesanthstumbled over his words. `Of a similar mind to us,' hefinished carefully. `Taking you down to Karris was a sortof test.'

    `In what possible way,' said Donna through grittedteeth, rising to her feet, `could I be of a similar mind toyou? And why would you want to test me?'

    Mesanth looked away awkwardly, his fingers flexingagain. Donna was beginning to think she could read someof the creature's body language, and he was lookingdecidedly uncomfortable.

    `To find out how similar to us you are, whether youshare our attitudes, our beliefs.' He paused and glancedaway. `You've experienced, first-hand, what mechanicalsare capable of. You mentioned these "robot Santas" onyour homeworld. You know how little regard they have

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for organic life. But on Karris...' He tailed off.

   `You mean the robot? The one that got smashed up?The one you didn't try to help? That robot?'

   `It did not suffer, if that's what you're thinking. Theycan't suffer: they're just components circuits, wires.That one didn't even have a positronic matrix.' Mesanthpaused for a moment and then turned and gave the door ahefty kick. Donna flinched.

   `What was that for?' she asked, astonished at such adisplay from Mesanth a self-confessed scaredy-catplant-eater.

   `Interesting,' the lizard-man said, returning to Donnawith a very slight limp.

   `What?'

   `You express concern for a damaged mechanical butyet no concern for the door.'

   `What?'

   `Is it because the mechanical was humaniform because it looked human?'

   `No, of course it's not.'

   `Then why?' Mesanth seemed genuinely puzzled. `Themechanical had little more self-awareness than the door; itwas no more able to feel pain or hurt or distress than thedoor. And yet it elicited in you an emotional response thatthe door did not.'

   `I can't believe we're having this discussion,' Donnagawped. `That robot was nothing like that door and youknow it.'

   `But in all important respects, it was. It is.' Mesanthshook his head again, and Donna realised that he really

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was having a hard time understanding the difference.

   `It,' she said, as emphatically as she could. `Was. A.Door.'

   `And,' retorted Mesanth, matching her tone. `It. Was.A. Robot.'

   `Boy,' sighed Donna. `This is going to be hard work.'

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    77141 shifted in his seat, noting with alarm that one of

    the hinges was squeaking in a manner indicative of

    imminent failure. Again. He'd only replaced it a month

    ago, from the fuselage of a Bindir passenger shuttle. The

    Bindir might have bottoms shaped exactly like his, but

    they didn't build things to last. Lazy, that's what the

    Bindir were. Lazy.

        77141 reached across his huge control panel and

    flicked a switch. And with a deep, rumbling sigh, he spoke

    into the floating microphone that constantly attended him.

        `Unidentified vessel,' he growled in his most

    authoritarian and threatening voice. `You are entering the

    greeny-yellow province of Junk. Please supply your

    credentials immediately or you will be reported to Junk's

    traffic management authorities, who will, I can assure you,

    manage you with severe prejudice.'

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   He scratched one of his frontal lobes with a spinedfinger and waited for the usual excuses and explanations.Instead, through the window of his monitor tower, fromwhere (on a good day) he could see the whole of greeny-yellow province, he saw a brief flare of light down insector K.

   `Bleeping transmats,' 77141 grumped, leaning forwardto flick another button.

   `Ahem,' he coughed into the microphone, causing it todo a dizzy little dance away from him. `Your arrival bytransmat has been noted,' he growled, pausing to hear hisown words echo away across the darkness of greeny-yellow province from the speakers set around his monitortower. `Do not move away from your arrival zone. Anysuch move will be considered an act of invasion, andunder the authority vested in me, 77141, manager ofgreeny-yellow province--'

   77141 stopped suddenly when he realised that hiswords were no longer being blasted out of his towerspeakers. In fact, they'd been replaced by a verydisturbing creaking noise. A creaking and groaning noisethat seemed to be coming from the tower itself. Hegrabbed the arms of his chair as the tower shook and oneof them came off in his hand.

   `Bleeping Bindir,' he grunted, flinging the arm awayacross the room just as something smashed in throughthe window behind him.

   Before he could raise an alarm, cry for help, or evenopen his mouth, a huge metal hand torpedoed through thegaping window and grabbed him by the neck; and 77141

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found himself looking up into an impassive steel face,eyes as red as coals glaring at him.

   `Hello,' said a tiny, cheery voice from the doorwaybehind him. `I'm the Doctor, this is Mother, and my frienddown there is Boonie. D'you mind if we have a pokearound your scrapyard?'

   77141 wasn't accustomed to fighting. To be honest, hewasn't particularly accustomed to moving. He spent mostof his 30-hour shift sitting in his chair (when it wasn'tbroken) and overseeing the `scrap-drop' flights that visitedJunk at all times of the night and day, dumping theirunwanted, obsolete or broken technology. All theprocessing, sorting, dragging, arranging and in the caseof the older stuff that it was clear no one in their rightmind would want crushing and catapulting into the sunwas done by service bots, many of which spent their daysand nights scuttling, like rats, up and down the rows androws and rows of piles and piles and piles of junk.

   So, when one very large bot and a very much smallerhuman smashed their way into his monitor tower, hewasn't quite sure what to do. Actually, he was sure what todo. Nod and say yes.

   `Help yourself,' 77141 said, eyeing up the bot with thered eyes that hunched in the corner of the control room,trying not to poke a hole in the ceiling with its head. `I justwork here.'

   `Most kind,' said the one who'd called himself `theDoctor', before pulling out some sort of metal pen,making the end of it glow blue, and waving it around.

   `Aaah,' he said eventually, peering out of the broken

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window over sector J. `Got it!'

    `D'you mind my asking,' 77141 asked, trying not tosound at all awkward or confrontational. `But whatexactly is it you're looking for?' He had a bad feelingabout this.

    `That's the question: what, indeed, are we looking for?I'll tell you that when we find it. Now, before we go a-hunting, it'd be quite useful to know whether anyautomated defences, orbital weapons platforms, remote-control attack drones,' he waved his hands aroundvaguely, `that sort of thing, might be breathing down ournecks. It's just that, well, there might be some otherpeople along in a short while, looking for the same thingwe're looking for. And since we'd really rather get to itbefore they do and trust me, we're the good guys it'dbe nice to have a bit of advance warning about anythingthat might get in our way.'

    The Doctor raised his eyebrows.

    `Well,' said 77141 cautiously, one eye still on the botthat the Doctor had called `Mother', `um, no.'

    `Good!' beamed the Doctor. `In which case... sorry,what was your name?'

    `77141.'

    `77141 strange name. You're not a mechanical areyou?'

    `No, but if you heard my real name you'd know why anumber's more practical.'

    `Fair enough. Anyway, 77141, we'll be off. Well, I'll beoff. Mother here will keep you company for a while.'

    And with that, the Doctor was out of the door and

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whizzing down to ground level on the tower's lift.

   77141 turned his eyes back towards Mother who wasstaring at him, her head cocked on one side like a dogwondering whether to attack or not.

   `Lovely weather,' said 77141. `For the time of theyear.'

   `I've no idea how much of a lead we have on them,'gasped the Doctor and he skidded to a halt beside Boonie,waiting in the shadow of one of Junk's vast piles ofrubbish. `So we'd better be quick. I hope you're beginningto appreciate what an advantage my tinkering with yoursensors has given you. We didn't get there in time onKarris let's get it right this time.'

   Boonie gave him a look that suggested he still wasn'tconvinced. The Doctor pulled out his sonic device andbegan waving it around.

   `This way,' he said, pointing down the row.

   As they made their way along the aisles of discardedtechnology, the night silence only broken by the distantcrash of more junk being added and the occasional roar ofa rocket engine, Boonie asked about Mother.

   `She's keeping an eye on the supervisor for us. If itturns out we need some muscle to get to this segment, wecan call her up. Fascinating mechanical, Mother. We had anice little chat earlier.'

   Boonie gave a dismissive snort.

   `Told me all about her start in the weapons industry,how she made herself mute, how you rescued her frombeing scrapped. She's been through a lot. But then youknow that.' He threw Boonie a look.

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    `She told you all that?' asked Boonie incredulously asthey walked down the wide street of discarded technology.

    `Why not I'm a good listener. Wouldn't do you anyharm to give it a go, either. Just because she can't speakdoesn't mean she can't talk.' He paused. `Or should it bethe other way around?'

    They came to the intersection of two aisles. Overhead,illumination globes swayed in the gentle breeze, castingdancing shadows at their feet.

    `I listen when there's something worth listening to,'Boonie said sullenly.

    `You listen when there's something you think you wantto hear. There's a difference. Y'know, it's great to have agoal in life something to get you motivated, get you outof bed in the morning. But sometimes a goal can becomean obsession. And obsessions are never good things.Believe me, I've had a few of them myself.'

    `You think this is an obsession? Tracking the Cultists,finding out what they're up to? An obsession?'

    In the cold light of the lamps above them, the Doctor'seye sockets were unreadable pools of darkness.

    `I'm not saying you're not doing the right thing; but it'seasy to get carried away with the bigger picture to thepoint where you can't see the details.' He paused andtipped his head back to look up at the night sky. `Donna my friend. Up there.' He gestured at the stars. `She's a bitlike you, only in reverse. Doesn't always see the biggerpicture, but you can't fault her on spotting the details.' Hegrinned at the thought of Donna and her down-to-earth-ness. Well, apart from her stint as a goddess.

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    Boonie sighed. `And the point of this is...?'

    The Doctor looked back at him, his eyes once moredark and unfathomable.

    `The point is that if you're going to stop the Cult ofShining Darkness then you need to start trusting people abit more, let them in. And that includes Mother,' he addedcryptically. `Haven't I already shown that I'm on yourside? Without me, you wouldn't have been able to plot thetrajectory of their ship, detect this segment and get herebefore them. Without me, they'd have been here beforeyou, grabbed it and scarpered before you'd even arrived.Give me a bit of credit, Boonie.' He grinned. `OtherwiseI'll begin to think that you don't like me very much.'

    `Heaven forbid,' sighed Boonie. `Now stop talking andlet's find the segment before they do beam it away.'

    `Shouldn't be much further,' said the Doctorthoughtfully, consulting his sonic device again. `In fact...'He took a breath and held out his hands. `Ta-daaah!' Hegrinned. `Always wanted to say that.'

    Boonie stared in disbelief at the pile of junk the Doctorwas pointing at. At least fifty metres tall, it towered overthem like a metal mountain.

    `Time we called in the muscle,' said the Doctor. `And ifthe mountain can't go to Mother, then Mother will have tocome to the mountain.'

    Mother was there in under a minute her red eyesglowing as she lumbered quietly along.

    `It's in there somewhere,' said the Doctor, gesturing tothe huge cone of discarded technology. `Now be careful I'm sure these things were designed to resist a fair bit of

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battering, but there's no telling how much other stuffthey've been buried under all these years. Must admit, it'squite a nifty hiding place for a piece of machinery.Assuming, of course, that it doesn't get snitched by somewandering collector, looking for something glitzy to goover their mantelpiece. These Cultists,' he said, turning toBoonie as Mother began to dig into the pile, `they musthave been well connected once upon a time.'

   `They had followers all over the galaxy,' Boonie said,stepping back as a refrigerator came tumbling down theheap to crash at their feet. `Why?'

   `Well, one segment in an art gallery, one in a forest on,where was it Chao? one under the surface of a desertworld, one here. Can't be a cheap business whizzing allover the galaxy hiding bits and bobs. And you've probablygot to pay people to keep an eye on them. Or make themthink you're gods, at least.' A sudden thought came to himand he turned to look up at the monitor tower where77141 was hopefully still sitting. `In fact, now that Ithink about it, I really should...' His voice tailed off as hebegan to fiddle with his sonic gadget. After a fewmoments it gave a low-pitched hum. `There!' he said.`Scrambler field.'

   `Scrambler field?'

   `Should stop the Cultists from just beaming their littletreasure out of here. And if I'm right about 77141 upthere, it won't be long before the Cultists know that we'rehere anyway. Wouldn't stop them beaming downsomewhere nearby and getting here on foot, but it'll giveus a bit more time.'

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    More rubbish came tumbling down the pile, narrowlymissing them. Mother glanced down as if to apologise asshe ploughed deeper and deeper into it.

    `A bit more time to do what, exactly?'

    `Oh, don't worry I'm not going to stop them gettingit. I just want to have a closer look, see if I can work outwhat it's all for. Soon as I've done that, they can have it.'He paused. `You sure you know what you're doing, don'tyou, Boonie? Once the Cult have all the pieces of thisthing, they're going to do something with it: buildsomething, find something. Destroy something. Are yousure that's a risk you want to take?'

    `You're suggesting that we steal this part, are you?'

    `It would stop them. And isn't that what you reallywant?'

    `It might stop them in the short-term. But I bet theyhave the resources to make duplicates, even if we take thisone.' He thought for a moment and shook his head firmly.`No. They know we're following them. If they go toground, we might never find them again. This is the way ithas to be. They need to keep believing that they're just abit cleverer than us.'

    The Doctor gave a big shrug.

    `For the record, I think you're mad, you know that. Ifyou weren't quite so driven by all this, so determined tosee it through to the end, you might realise that. But this isyour game. Play it your way.' He peered up at where thesteel pistons of Mother's hydraulic legs could be seen,sticking out of the pile.

    `Any luck?' he called.

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   `I don't like this,' Garaman said.

   `Perhaps the interference is from some piece ofdiscarded equipment on the planet,' Mesanth offered. `Thepresence of all that technology is one reason why Junkwas chosen for--'

   `Garaman!' called Ogmunee from the communicationsstation. `A message from the supervisor on the planet.'

   `Put it through.'

   Seconds later, the sound of a very shaky 77141 camethrough on the speakers.

   `However much you're paying me,' he grunted, `it'snot enough to compensate for what I've just been through.Are you listening?'

   `With the utmost attention,' said Garaman, wearinessdripping from every word. `What's happened?'

   `I've just had visitors.'

   `Visitors?'

   `A bot the size of a house and a human. They've comefor your precious device, I know it. They're in sector Jright now. They've done something to the surveillancecameras so I can't see what they're--'

   `What did they say? Have you spoken to them?'Garaman cut in.

   `Of course I've spoken to them. And you owe me for anew window. And,' 77141 added after a moment, `a newchair.'

   `A new...?' Garaman shook his head. `We'll be downin a moment. There's interference preventing us fromrecovering the device from here.'

   `That'll be his electronic pen thing,' grumped 77141.

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    `Whose electronic pen thing?'

    `He called himself "the Doctor".'

    Garaman's eyes widened.

    `Five minutes,' he snapped. `And you might want tocall in some reinforcements. Big reinforcements. Thismight be a tad messy.'

    If the two of them hadn't been quite so nimble, Boonieand the Doctor would have been flattened a dozen timesover by Mother's careless chucking-out of bits and piecesfrom the pile. Whilst Boonie gritted his teeth and madesure he stood well back, the Doctor seemed to take aperverse delight in examining every single thing thatMother threw down to them whether it was (in theDoctor's words) a `transfluxial rectifier', an ion drive or acoffee percolator.

    Boonie still wasn't sure whether to trust the Doctor but,on the evidence so far, he had no reason not to trust him.For Boonie, though, that wasn't quite enough. He'd spenttwo years listening out for Cult activity, scraping togetherfunds and supporters in order to keep an eye on them.He'd been to worlds, governments, federations andalliances across the Andromeda galaxy, trying to persuadethem that, just because Khnu em Llodis was dead and herfollowers scattered, it didn't mean that they weren't stillplanning something. Boonie had spoken to some of theCult's ex-members, and he knew what a devious and long-planning bunch they were. Time and time again he keptcoming across rumours of a plan or `The Plan' asBoonie always thought of it. Something huge, somethingso big that no one person perhaps apart from Khnu

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herself was privy to all the details.

    But there were always people willing to talk if the pricewas high enough. And using what meagre resources he'dmanaged to gather, he'd persuaded one or two people tospill at least a couple of beans if not the whole tin. Enoughto convince him that if the galaxy's authorities wouldn'tdo anything about the Cult, then he had to.

    And two names that he'd come across, time after time,were Garaman Havati one of Khnu's chief scientists atthe time she'd been killed and Mesanth, a Lotapareenand another of Khnu's scientists. They'd vanished at thesame time, in circumstances equally mysterious. Therewere no reports of their deaths or their captures by theauthorities. But the galaxy was a big place to hide in orto die in. It was only when word filtered through toBoonie and his little band of Cult-hunters that aLotapareen answering the description of Mesanth wasreportedly showing an interest in a collection of Khnu'sunpublished work that alarm bells started ringing.

    Months and months of surveillance followed, duringwhich time Boonie accumulated more and more evidencethat this was, indeed, Mesanth, and that he was workingwith others to bring together Khnu's research.

    The whole thing was so maddeningly nebulous thatBoonie had been close to giving up on more than oneoccasion. The only thing that drove him on was hisconviction that he was right: that the Cult were still active,still planning something something to do with Khnu'sopposition to machinekind's being accepted on the samefooting as organics.

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   And finally finally! when one of Boonie's spiesreported that Mesanth and brought together a team andhad bought a spaceship, he decided that it was time to act.

   Boonie, Mother and the rest of the anti-Cultists hadfollowed the Cult ship at a distance as it had entered orbitaround the planet Chao. They'd registered the operation ofa transmat, bringing something up from the depths of theplanet's jungles, before the Cult ship had sped off out intospace.

   Something even to this day, Boonie couldn't put hisfinger on what it had been told him that this was it. Thiswas the start.

   And from then on, for the last month, they'd been onthe Cult's tail.

   Boonie watched the Doctor scampering about amidstthe growing pile of machinery that Mother was throwingdown and wondered whether bringing him aboard hadreally been the right thing to do...

   `What's that?' said the Doctor suddenly, tipping hishead back as if he were sniffing the air.

   For a moment, Boonie had no idea what he was talkingabout, but as he listened, he heard it: it sounded likedistant peals of thunder. Each one was like a distantairplane, crashing into the planet. And each one wasaccompanied by a shudder through the ground beneathhim.

   Instinctively, Boonie glanced up at Mother but shewas still somewhere in the pile of junk, pushing bits andpieces of it back out as though she were digging a nest forherself.

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    `Explosions?'

    `Hmmm,' mused the Doctor thoughtfully. `Could be.'He paused, staring over Boonie's shoulder into thedarkness. `On the other hand...'

    Boonie turned at the Doctor's raised eyebrows.

    For a moment, Boonie couldn't quite work out what hewas seeing. His first thought was that two of the piles ofrubbish had somehow come crashing down and werebowling along the ground towards them. But as hewatched, he realised what he was looking at.

    `Mother,' said the Doctor over his shoulder. `Youcouldn't hurry it up a bit, could you? I think we've gotcompany.'

    If the Doctor had thought that Mother was a big lass,the two machines bearing down on them were positivelyginormous!

    Side by side, they barely fitted into the wide aislebetween the piles of junk. As they drew closer, their stepsthumping and vibrating the ground beneath them likeminiature earthquakes, the light of the floating globesilluminated them.

    The one on the left was built, it seemed, out of acollection of metal spheres of various hues steel, pewter,bronze, gold all strung together to make a vaguelyhumanoid form. It was a house-and-a-half tall but movedwith surprising grace. Its head, a coppery-coloured spherewith two dark pits for eyes, tipped slowly downwards as itapproached.

    The one on the right was altogether stranger: its bodywas, proportionately, quite slender and could quite easily

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have been built out of a random assortment of rubbishfrom the piles around them. Much slimmer than the first almost spindly it had huge, splayed-out feet, not unlikethe grabber that had attacked him on the Ood Sphere. Butwhat stood out most were the creature's arms: they werevast, half the size of the thing's body, ending in evenbigger, four-fingered hands.

   The Doctor had no doubt why the two machines werehere.

   `They say size isn't everything,' sighed the Doctor,tipping his head back as the two machines drew to a halttwenty metres from them. `Someone should have told youtwo.'

   `Stop!' boomed the one made of metal balls.

   `Yes,' said the other one after a second. `Stop!'

   The Doctor raised his palms.

   `Not that I'm one to argue well, not usually, and notusually with fellas quite as big as you two but, d'youmind my asking... why?'

   `Why what?' asked the first.

   `Why stop? I mean, it's not like we're doing anythingbad, is it? Just going through some old junk, looking for abit of rubbish no one wants. You ever heard of Wombles?Well, think of us as Wombles.'

   `Sorry,' said the first one, `we've got our orders.'

   `Yes,' agreed the second. `And orders is orders.'

   `Are orders,' corrected the first. `Orders are orders.'

   The skinny one turned its car-crash of a head.

   `You always have to do that, don't you?'

   `What?' thundered the first.

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   `Correcting my grammar. I don't correct yours.'

   `That's because I always get it right. I only do it tohelp, you know.'

   `Well, why d'you always do it in company?'

   The first one glanced back at the Doctor and Boonie.

   `Hardly company,' the robot muttered.

   `It's the principle. I know why you do it, you know.'

   `Oh,' said the first, archly. `Do you? And why's that,then?'

   `It's because you're insecure, isn't it? The only wayyou can make yourself feel good about yourself is to putother people down.'

   `That's just rubbish,' scoffed the first. `What have I gotto feel insecure about?'

   The skinny robot spread its massive arms wide,knocking the tops off two piles of junk in an almightycrash.

   `Where do I start?' asked the other one, as if this werean old, old argument between the two of them.

   `Um,' said the Doctor awkwardly, watching the debristumble to the ground around them.

   `Just a moment,' said the first, raising a powerful,blobby hand.

   `Fine,' said the Doctor, folding his arms. `You two goright ahead. We'll just wait here, shall we?'

   `Let's talk about this later,' the round one said to itsfriend. `We've been told to sort these two out, so let's getthis done first, shall we? Save the domestics for--'

   `We're not having a domestic,' said the thin onethrough gritted teeth (or through what passed for teeth in

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its mighty metal head). `You always do this as well, don'tyou?'

    The Doctor sighed and planted his hands on his hips.

    `Well, it sounds like a domestic to me,' the Doctorcalled up. He glanced over his shoulder to where Mother'sfeet could be seen sticking out of the hole in the side ofthe pile of junk. More bits tumbled down as she wiggledher legs to get in deeper. `But I think it's probablyimportant to get these things out in the open, so feel free go right ahead. We'll still be here when you've finished.'

    `Firstly,' said the thin one, `we're not having adomestic, right? And secondly who on Junk are you?'

    `I'm the Doctor, this here is Boonie, and that there upthere, yes, I know you can only see her feet but that'sMother.'

    `A mechanical?'

    `Yes,' the Doctor said. `That OK?'

    The skinny robot turned to its friend.

    `77141 didn't say there was a mechanical involved.'

    `Ahh,' said the Doctor as the penny dropped. `77141sent you, did he? Now why aren't I surprised at that?What's your names, then?'

    `What are your--' began the blobby one before theskinny one cut him off.

    `Oh do give it a rest, Chuck.'

    `So you're Chuck,' interrupted the Doctor. `And youwould be...?'

    `I'm Crusher,' said the thin one.

    `Nice to meet you,' grinned the Doctor. `Now, youwere saying... 77141 sent you, did he?'

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   `Trouble in sector J, he said,' boomed Chuck.`Intruders.'

   `Despatch with the utmost force,' added Crusher.`That's what he said.'

   `Oh,' said the Doctor, almost sadly. `That means you'llbe wanting to kill us, won't you?'

   Crusher gave a shrug with his entire body, the metalparts screeching and grinding on each other. `Orders isorders.'

   `Orders--' Chuck began but stopped as Crusher turnedsharply to him.

   `OK,' said the Doctor, not fancying another round ofbickering. `Orders is or are orders. And what is or arethose orders, exactly?'

   Chuck sounded almost apologetic.

   `Kill you all, I'm afraid. Sorry about that.'

   The Doctor raised his eyebrows.

   `Well, can't say I'm too pleased about it either, butthere you go. Orders is hang on: did 77141 tell youexactly why you had to kill us?'

   `That lazy good-for-nothing never tells us nothing,'grumped Crusher (and the Doctor winced at the thought ofanother domestic over his double negative). `But he is theboss....'

   `So we do as he says,' Chuck finished the sentence.

   `And very right you are to,' the Doctor said. `D'youmind my asking something? It's about your names.'

   `Well, I'm Crusher,' said the skinnier one, `cos I crushstuff up.' He raised his hands and flexed the immensefingers with the creak of metal on metal and the hiss of

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hydraulics.

    `And I'm Chuck,' added the fatter one, `cos I chuckstuff into the sun. Not the good stuff, mind,' he added, asif the Doctor might think he were just a vandal. `Just therubbish that no one wants.'

    `Into the sun, eh?' said the Doctor admiringly. `Thatmust take some skill.'

    `Oh it does,' agreed Chuck, flexing his fingers. `Peoplethink it's easy they think it's just brute force,overcoming gravity and all that. But it's not. There's a lotof maths involved otherwise, it just goes into orbit ormesses up the system. Gotta get it just right.'

    `And crushing isn't as simple as it sounds,' addedCrusher, clearly feeling left out.

    `Not as hard as chucking,' said Chuck.

    `Well, maybe,' agreed Crusher awkwardly.

    `Ladies, ladies,' cut in the Doctor. `Or gentlemen,gentlemen. I'm sure you're both very special and veryunique, and me and Boonie here are very impressed. So77141 has given you orders to come and crush andchuck us, has he?'

    `Fraid so,' said Chuck, almost regretfully.

    The two of them took a mammoth step forward and theground shook. Crusher raised his hands in front of himand flexed his fingers.

    `Who's first, then?' he asked.

    `Probably me,' the Doctor said. `But before you startwith the crushing and chucking, I don't suppose it wouldmake any difference if I told you what we're doing here,would it?'

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   `Shouldn't think so,' replied Chuck.

   `But you could always try,' Crusher added, clearlytrying to be reasonable.

   The Doctor glanced at Boonie who, throughout thewhole conversation, had hovered nervously in theshadows.

   `You ever heard of the Cult of Shining Darkness?'

   `Those nutters?' laughed Chuck.

   `The anti-machine nutters?' added Crusher. `Themechanet was full of stories about them a couple of yearsago. Didn't they fall apart or something?'

   `The woman leading them died, didn't she?' askedChuck.

   `That's them,' the Doctor agreed, wincing at his owngrammar and hoping it didn't set Chuck off again.

   `So what have they got to do with you?' asked Chuck.His voice suddenly went very growly and low and he bentforwards. `You're not with them, are you?'

   `Oh no!' exclaimed the Doctor. `No, not at all in fact,we're on the other side. The goodies, as it were. AskMother up there well, when she comes down.'

   Chuck straightened up slowly, but clearly wasn'tconvinced.

   `But your 77141,' the Doctor went on slowly. `Nowhe's a different matter.'

   Chuck and Crusher exchanged glances.

   `You're kidding,' said Chuck. `77141?'

   The Doctor reached down and dragged a finger acrosssome of the junk at the bottom of the closest pile beforeholding it up to show them the muck on it.

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   `How long is it since sector J had a good clean-out?'

   `Must be at least two years,' Chuck said, and Crushernodded.

   `And is that at all unusual for Junk?' asked the Doctorcasually.

   Crusher and Chuck looked at each other again.

   `Well,' said Crusher, `now you come to mention it, it isa bit odd.'

   `Most stuff round here's on a one-year rotation,' Chuckadded. `You know how quickly technology gets out ofdate. If it's not been reclaimed or recycled in a year, meand Crusher usually get to work on it, crush it up realsmall and send it on a one-way cremation trip.'

   The Doctor nodded thoughtfully.

   `So the fact that this particular lot of junk hasn't beentouched for so long is a wee bit suspicious, you'd say?'

   The two robots swapped glances again.

   `Y'know,' said Crusher slowly. `You might and I saymight be onto something there. Masher, over in sector E,was going to bring the remains of a Hajaveniakii stasischamber over here, but 77141 made him carry it all theway over to T. He wasn't happy, I'll tell you.'

   `So,' said Chuck, straightening up. `Let me get thisright, Doctor. You're saying that that lazy lump up in thecontrol tower is somehow in league with these daft cultytypes and they've paid him to keep people away from thissector, are you?'

   `Well, either paid him or he's doing it out of thegoodness of his heart.'

   `Paid,' said Chuck. `Lagacteons don't have hearts.'

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   `Or goodness,' added Crusher.

   `I don't suppose you've got any proof?' asked Chuck.`I mean, it's a bit of an accusation to make, isn't it,regardless of whether he's a lazy, fat, heartless lump ornot?'

   The Doctor sighed.

   `No proof at all, I'm afraid. Not unless you count thefact that he's clearly so worried about what we're doinghere that not only has he sent you two, but he's sent thoseas well.'

   As he spoke, the Doctor raised an arm and pointedback down the aisle.

   Illuminated in the cold glow of the light spheresoverhead, a tide of crawling, creeping, scuttling machineswas flowing towards them.

   Boonie squinted into the darkness: it was as though theground itself were wriggling and shifting.

   `Now tell me that's normal,' the Doctor said, andBoonie realised he was talking to Chuck and Crusher.

   `What's he playing at?' whispered Crusher althoughhis whisper was louder than most people could shout.

   `Your boss clearly doesn't trust you to get the jobdone,' said the Doctor. `He's called in reinforcements.'

   `Has he indeed?' said Crusher in a low, serious voice.`Well, we'll see about that. There's union rules about thissort of thing.'

   `We're not in a union,' Chuck pointed out.

   `Well, maybe we should be.' Crusher raised his headand swivelled it through 180 degrees until it was facingback towards 77141's tower. `Oi!!' he bellowed in a voice

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like thunder that rolled on and on and on. `Boss! What'sgoing on here?'

    Seconds later, amplified by 77141's speakers, the replycame back.

    `I gave you two bots a job to do, and instead you'restanding around gassing. You can't carry out simpleinstructions? Fine! Then let these bots do it instead!'

    There was a grinding, crunching groan from insideChuck, and Boonie saw how he clenched his blobbyhands.

    `I've told him about that,' he muttered, gears whirringinside him. `We're not bots. We're mechanicals. Howmany times...?'

    `Calm down, pet,' said Crusher. `He doesn't meananything by it.'

    `Don't tell me to calm down,' grunted Chuck. `And yeshe does mean something by it: he means he's too lazy totake any notice when I say I don't like being called abot!.

    And with that, Chuck bent low and swiped his righthand across the ground in the path of the dozens of serviceand maintenance robots that were scuttling towards them,sending them tumbling and clattering into each other,bouncing end over end like kicked marbles.

    `He's not going to like that,' warned Crusher with aworried shake of the head.

    `Stuff whether he likes it or not. Let him have his wayand, before you know it, we'll be on the scrapheap literally and these... these appliances,' he spat the word,`will be doing our jobs for us.'

    But the little robots just kept on coming, legs clicking,

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caterpillar tracks whirring.

   Boonie backed towards the Doctor who was lookingworriedly up at Mother's feet, still sticking out of the heapbehind them.

   `We need to get out of here, Doctor,' he whispered,hoping that Crusher and Chuck's hearing wasn't goodenough for them to pick up his words.

   The Doctor's face fell, like a child who's been told hisholiday had been cancelled at the last minute. He wasclearly enjoying it.

   `If the service bots don't get us,' Boonie continuedurgently, `those two will. It's not worth the risk.'

   `Oh, it's always worth the risk, Boonie,' the Doctorsuddenly grinned as, emboldened by Chuck's stanceagainst the little robots, Crusher joined in, sweeping hisfreakishly long fingers along the ground and sendingdozens and dozens of the little `appliances' bouncing endover end. `This is what living's all about get rid of therisk, what's the point of it all, eh?'

   The two of them seemed forgotten by Crusher andChuck as they clearly started to enjoy their battle againstthe little machines. Wave after wave of them clattered andclicked their way across the ground and over the bases ofthe piles of junk around them, like a plague of mechanicalinsects. But as they did, working as a perfect team, Chuckand Crusher cleared them out of the way, almosteffortlessly.

   `We're gonna get the sack for this,' said Crusher andglanced at Chuck.

   `I know,' Chuck replied, laughing. `But you know

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something I reckon it's worth it!'

   And with that, Chuck gathered up a handful ofwriggling, squirming appliances, took aim, and lobbedthem with frightening accuracy in the direction of77141'sobservation tower. Boonie held his breath for amoment until he heard the sound of multiple crashes andbangs. As he watched, the lights of the tower wobbled andbegan to move, describing a slow arc as it began to topple.

   `Bullseye!' cried Chuck, punching the air.

   With a final, echoing crash, the tower hit the ground and to everyone's surprise, floating out of the darkness,there came the sound of cheers. Not just from onemechanical, but from dozens, all over the place.

   `Sounds like you two are heroes,' commented theDoctor.

   `77141 always was a fat, useless lump of lard!' laughedCrusher as he squeezed another handful of appliancesuntil their cogs fell out. He tossed the motionless remainsonto one of the piles at his side.

   `Now...' Crusher dusted the remains of the brokenmachines from his fingers and bent low over the Doctorand Boonie. `What we gonna do with you littleSquidgies?'

   `Squidgies?' said the Doctor.

   `Sorry,' apologised Crusher. `It's what we call youorganics. No offence.'

   `None taken, Crusher.' The Doctor paused. `Can youtap into records of recent planet-to-ship communications?'

   Crusher glanced a little shiftily, Boonie thought atChuck, who was still at work flinging the last wave of

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robots into the air.

   `Not officially, no.'

   `OK, well, say you were to unofficially tap into them.Just, y'know, theoretically.'

   `Yeeesss,' said Crusher, dragging the word out.

   `And,' continued the Doctor, pulling a face and kickingthe ground with his toe, `say you were to check whether acertain ship currently in orbit had been speaking with77141...'

   `Go on.'

   `Would one of those communications be about makingsure that we didn't get our hands on--'

   `He's right!' cried Chuck suddenly. `I've found themessage! The scheming, bloated, sack of--'

   Chuck was cut off by the sight of Mother, emergingfrom the junk mountain and holding something aloft something huge and circular. She held it in one hand as ifit weighed next to nothing as she clambered carefullydown, sending a shower of debris clattering down theheap as she did so.

   `Crusher, Chuck meet Mother. If you're in any doubtabout our credentials, ask her she'll tell you.' TheDoctor checked his wristwatch. `But you're going to haveto make it quick: they're going to be here any minute,' hesaid, motioning for Mother to lay the device on theground.

   `So what's that, then?' asked Crusher, stomping on thelast, few straggling appliances.

   `That's what we want to find out,' the Doctor saidgleefully, bounding over to the segment.

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   In the dim light from the floating globes overhead,even Boonie could see that the device had received aconsiderable battering. The wheel-shaped casing wasdented and scraped. Hardly surprising considering themass of junk that had been piled on top of it.

   `Is it damaged?' he asked anxiously.

   `Well, give me a chance to examine it and I'll tell you.'The Doctor rolled his eyes. `Look, if you want somethingto do, go and check how 77141 is. He looked a tough oldthing and he may well have survived the fall. If he has, hemight already be telling the Cult what's happening. Theymight be planning on coming down with somereinforcements. Take Mother with you you might needher.'

   Boonie was torn: he didn't fancy leaving the Doctorhere with the device, but, equally, he didn't want to becaught by the Cultists. `Go on,' said the Doctor whenBoonie didn't move. `Shoo! Go on!'

   `What are you going to do?'

   `I'm going to see if it's damaged and if I can workout what it does.'

   `You're not going to sabotage it, are you?'

   The Doctor frowned.

   `Sabotage it? Why would I do that?'

   `To stop the Cultists.'

   `Oh, that. Nah. You know, you've piqued my curiosity,Boonie. I'm almost as curious as you are to find out whatit does. And like you say, if they don't get this one towork, they may just go to ground again. And much as I'veloved my trip to your galaxy, I really can't hang around

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for ever to help you track them down again. Now go!'

    With a shake of the head, Boonie beckoned Mother andthe two of them headed off to the monitor tower.

    `You're sure you don't need our help?' asked Crusher.

    `You two have been wonderful,' the Doctor grinned upat the machines. `A credit to machinekind everywhere.'

    `Hear that?' said Chuck proudly.

    `We like to do us bit,' Crusher added.

    `Our bit,' Chuck corrected him.

    `Here we go again,' sighed Crusher with a shake of thehead.

    `Lovely couple,' the Doctor said to himself with asmile as he watched them go, still bickering. `Right, youlittle beauty,' he said with glee as he hunkered down nextto the segment. `Let's see what you're made of, eh?'

    He pulled out the sonic screwdriver, checked that it wasstill emitting the scrambling frequencies that he'd set it toearlier, and activated the secondary circuits. Gingerly, hebegan to play its blue light over the surface of thesegment...

    `Doctor.'

    He looked around, wondering where the voice hadcome from.

    `Boonie?'

    `No, Doctor.'

    Cautiously, he stood up, the sonic still in his hand.There was no sign of anyone not Boonie, not Mother.No one. And then he saw it. It had been hidden by therandom piles of machinery thrown down by Mother andthe broken bits of appliances left by Crusher and Chuck,

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but once it moved he saw it.

    It was a robot, about the size of a large child. Its upperbody was a scratched, pale blue cube, its lower body aninverted pyramid from which sprouted two segmentedlegs ending in flat, circular feet. Two similar, flexible armsextended from the sides of the cube. A small screen wasset into the front of the body near the top, glimmeringbluey-white. It had no visible head.

    `I don't think I've had the pleasure,' he saidcharmingly, reaching out a hand. But the robot remainedwhere it was, ten metres away.

    `I'm using this servitor as a conduit to speak to you,'the voice said. It sounded surprisingly lively, but theDoctor had no idea whether that was its real voice, thevoice of whoever was speaking through it, or just adisguise.

    `Who are you?'

    `You don't need to know that.'

    `Oh. OK. What do I need to know?'

    `You need to know that if you attempt to interfere withthe device at your feet, in any way, that you will not seeDonna Noble alive again.'

    The Doctor clenched his jaw.

    `I don't take kindly to threats,' he said sourly.`Particularly not ones directed against my friends.'

    `Then don't take it as a threat, Doctor,' the voice said,its bouncy nature sinisterly at odds with its words. `Take itas a promise. Interfere with the segment and Donna dies.'

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    `How do I know you'll honour your word?' asked the

    Doctor.

       `You don't. But if you do anything to the segment then

    you can be sure that we will. This is not your fight,

    Doctor.'

       The Doctor sighed and stuck his hands in his pockets,

    kicking at a bit of scrap on the ground.

       `Now, y'see, threatening Donna is the fastest way to

    make sure it is my fight. You really haven't thought this

    one through, have you? If you'd just given Donna back to

    me, then things might have been different.' He shook his

    head ruefully. `But you had to go and do the threatening

    bully-boy bit, didn't you? I mean, assuming you are a

    bully-boy and not a bully-girl. There're plenty of those

    around. It's not big and it's not clever.'

       The Doctor stopped as he caught a brief flare of white

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light from one of the side aisles.

   `The recovery party beaming down, eh? Hope Donna'samongst them. I want to make sure she's OK before Iagree to anything.'

   And to hammer home his point a little more, he took astep up onto the segment and began jumping up and downon it.

   `Hello!' he said cheerily as two figures a muscledblack man with a grim, angry face and a thin, blonde,humaniform robot stepped into the light. He lookedaround in mock puzzlement. `No Donna?'

   As if in answer, there was another flash of light and aslightly bemused Donna materialised a few metres to theside of the new arrivals. She squinted in the darkness,getting her bearings, before she spotted him.

   `Doctor!'

   `Hello again!' he grinned, hands in pockets, stilljumping up and down on the segment like a child full oftartrazine. `We're really going to have to stop meeting likethis. People'll begin to talk. Especially with you being agoddess an' all! "Too good for him!" they'll be saying.'

   `They wouldn't dare,' laughed Donna.

   Donna started to head towards him, but the manstepped forward with an outstretched hand to stop her. Shepulled an apologetic face at the Doctor.

   `Looks like I can't come out and play just yet,' shesaid.

   The man indicated that Donna should stay where shewas, and then he and the blonde robot crossed to theDoctor and stood a few feet from where he'd finally

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stopped his bouncing.

   `You've set up some sort of interference field, haven'tyou?' asked the little, boxy robot chirpily.

   The Doctor smiled and pulled out the sonicscrewdriver, the tip of which was glowing a gentle blue.

   `Turn it off and step off the segment.'

   Keeping an eye on Donna, the Doctor jumped down;the man and the robot came and stood right next to thebattered artefact.

   `The interference field, Doctor,' the little robotreminded him.

   `Oh yes.' He fiddled with the screwdriver for amoment.

   `Good,' said the robot. `Thank you. Goodbye, Doctor.Let's hope our paths don't cross for a while. I'd hate tohave to be the one to inform you of Donna's death. Onenever knows what flowers to send, does one?'

   `What?' called Donna, not understanding what the littlerobot was on about.

   `Donna!' called the Doctor, stepping back from thesegment as he felt the hairs stand up on the backs of hishands.

   `What?' `Catch!'

   And with that, he flicked the slider on the side of thesonic and sent it spinning through the air in Donna'sdirection. As he did so, he waved cheerily and jumpedback up onto the segment, just as the snowy glow of thetransmat enveloped it, the muscle man and the blonderobot.

   And him.

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   Reflexively, Donna caught the sonic in time to see theDoctor and the rest of them vanish.

   `Oh,' said the little blue robot, surprised. `I wasn'texpecting that.'

   `What happened?' came a voice it was a young whitekid with a nose-stud, sprinting towards them, and amassive great robot, thundering along behind him.

   `The Doctor he's gone,' said Donna, still trying towork it all out.

   `Gone?' said the boy. `Where?'

   `Garaman's ship. They've beamed him up.'

   Suddenly, there was a clattering noise, and the littlerobot fell over, its arms and legs flailing about all over theplace.

   `Garaman?' said the boy, ignoring it. `GaramanHavati?'

   `You know him?' asked Donna, still trying to work outwhat had just happened. It was all going too fast for her tokeep up. But the boy didn't answer. He touched somethingon his lapel and then pulled a face.

   `Kellique says there's some sort of interference fieldhere, stopping us from beaming up.'

   Donna held up the sonic screwdriver.

   `This?'

   `The Doctor's device? That'll be it turn it off, quick,otherwise they'll be long gone. We need to beam up to ourship, quickly!'

   Confused and dazed but still a little suspicious Donna slid the slider on the sonic and the glow faded. Theboy touched his lapel again.

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   `What about that one?' Donna asked, pointing to therobot that had spoken to the Doctor earlier. `It was havingsome sort of argument with the Doctor. I think it might beone of theirs.' It still lay motionless, looking just likeanother piece of the scattered debris that surrounded them.

   `Fine,' the boy said. `Come on oh,' he added to therobot looming over him. `Mother, can you...' He pointedto the little robot.

   Silently, the giant robot strode over and picked it up inits hand. It looked like a doll. The two of them stoodalongside Donna, and the boy tapped his lapel again.

   `You know something,' said Donna with a sigh as shefelt the familiar tingle of the transmat. `I'm getting bl--'

   `What's he doing here?' shouted the muscled guy oncethe disorientation of the transmat journey had passed.

   The Doctor had already jumped off the segment andwas peering around the purple room aboard the ship.

   `You should let Boonie have the number of yourinterior designer,' he said. `Very chic!'

   `Hold him!'

   Realising that resistance would probably just get himinjured or worse he let the blonde robot grab his wristsand restrain him.

   `Ow!' he yelped. `You don't know your own strength,you don't. Problem with your feedback receptors?'

   The man didn't answer, but caught sight of somethingbulging in the Doctor's pocket. Without so much as a by-your-leave, he reached in and plucked it out.

   `What's this, then?' he asked, holding up a shiny redsphere, the size of a tangerine.

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   `Oh...' said the Doctor casually. `That. You wouldn'tbe interested in that. Trust me. If you just let me have itback, we'll say no more about--'

   `This is not your ship, Doctor,' Ogmunee interruptedhim. `Don't presume to lecture me on what I would andwouldn't be interested in here.'

   He examined the sphere, turning it over in his hands ashe tried to make sense of the blocky black markings on itssurface.

   `What is it?'

   `Something bad, I imagine,' replied the Doctor, hopingthat Ogmunee wouldn't try to open it. He'd fail, of course the Doctor had tried himself until he'd realised what itwas. `I mean, it's not likely to be a Christmas bauble is it,looking like that?'

   Ogmunee just raised an eyebrow and tucked the sphereawkwardly into his own pocket.

   `I'll have a look at it later.' He sighed theatrically. `Soyou're the Doctor, are you?' asked the man, looking theDoctor up and down with distaste. `Donna's friend.'

   `And you would be...?'

   `Ogmunee,' answered the man. He looked around theroom, suddenly realising that something was missing.`Where is Donna?'

   `Ahh,' said the Doctor a little sheepishly. `That wouldbe me. I lent her the sonic screwdriver. Hope she looksafter it. Doesn't start using it to clean her teeth oranything. It's got three settings for--'

   The door hissed open and a short, officious man withblond curls trotted in. His mouth dropped open, literally,

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when he saw the Doctor. He bounded over, looking theDoctor up and down as if were about to eat him or havehim shot.

   `This is the Doctor,' said Ogmunee.

   `What's he doing on board?'

   `It didn't seem fair that Donna should have all the fun,'the Doctor said, wriggling in the grasp of the robot. `So Ithought we'd do a bit of a Wife Swap. I must say, you'vegot a much snazzier ship but don't expect me to docleaning. Hate cleaning. Not too bad with the ironing,though.'

   The little man's eyes narrowed.

   `So you're a friend of that useless little amateurBoonie, are you?'

   `Oh, don't underestimate Boonie,' the Doctor warned.`He might be a bit of an amateur, his ship might be fallingapart, but he's a lot smarter than you give him credit for.And dedicated. And an ounce of dedication's worth awhole load of competence. What's your name, anyway?'

   `Not that it matters to you, but I'm Garaman Garaman Havati.' He looked up at the Doctorsuperciliously. `Ring any bells?'

   The Doctor thought for a moment. Someone calledGaraman Havati had been mentioned in the records thatLi'ian had showed him. He pulled a face and shook hishead.

   `Not even a tinkle. Should it?'

   It clearly annoyed Garaman that Boonie hadn'tmentioned his name but then why should he have done?According to Li'ian, they had no idea which of the

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Cultists were on board the ship. Well, apart from one...

   `How's Mesanth, by the way?'

   Garaman's eyes widened. And then narrowed as heclearly realised that, although Mesanth was importantenough for the Doctor to know about him, he, Garaman,wasn't.

   `You know him?'

   `Only by reputation.'

   Garaman's lips tightened.

   `You'll meet him soon enough.'

   He glanced at Ogmunee and the robot.

   `Bring him to the bridge. I want to find out whatBoonie and his little friends know.'

   Fearing that his arms were about to be wrenched fromtheir sockets, the Doctor let himself be dragged from theroom.

   This was getting ridiculous, thought Donna. It was likeshe and the Doctor were working different shifts and onlygot to see each other at tea time. And what was more,Boonie's ship stank.

   `Sorry we lost the Doctor,' Boonie said. `It seems heused that device of his to block the Cultists' transmat ofyou but was outside its range himself. At least you're insafe hands now.'

   `Am I?' Donna had yet to be convinced. She glancedup at the hulking silver machine apparently called`Mother' standing behind her. The blonde supermodelson board Garaman's ship might have been a bit scary, butthis thing was terrifying.

   `And what d'you mean, "the Cultists' transmat"? If

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you're the good guys, why was the Doctor so keen to getaway from you?'

    `Think about it this way...' This was Li'ian, an elderlywoman, who seemed slightly out of place amongst the restof them. `If he'd thought we were the bad guys, hewouldn't have made sure you ended up in our hands,would he?'

    Donna had to concede that that made a certain sense.

    `And who are these Cultists? You mean Garaman andMesanth?'

    Li'ian glanced at Boonie.

    `They didn't tell you about the Cult of ShiningDarkness?' she asked Donna.

    `Why would they?' sneered Boonie. `They're hardlygoing to advertise the fact that they belong to a Cult.'

    `No reason why they shouldn't,' said Li'ian. `They'renot exactly ashamed of who they are, are they?'

    Donna raised her hands for them to stop.

    `Look,' she said firmly. `I've just come from one shipwhere everything was more mysterious than a MissMarple. I'm not about to walk into a Hercule Poirot. Justtell me what the hell is going on!'

    She glared, first at Boonie and then at Li'ian. Sheignored the slight whine from the robot towering over her.It was giving her a very strange look well, as strange asa face like a jet-engine part could manage.

    `Garaman and Mesanth are leaders of what remains ofa--'

    Boonie stopped as there was a grinding, mechanicalnoise from the middle of the room.

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    They all turned to see the little robot they'd brought upfrom Junk, flailing its bendy arms and legs, trying to rightitself. In seconds it was sitting up on the rusty floor, thescreen on the front of its blue, boxy body flickering.

    `Oh my,' it said in a chipper voice and gave a shudderbefore turning towards them.

    On the screen, the cartoon image of a little man's faceappeared. The mouth moved in exaggerated astonishmentas the short pen-strokes of eyebrows went up.

    `Oh my...'

    `Mother...' Boonie said, gesturing at the robot as itswivelled its upper body to look around the room. Inseconds and with surprisingly little of the earthquake-style ground-shaking that Donna had expected from sucha hulk Mother was at the robot's side, looking down onit. It tipped back so that it could look up: the sight ofMother, towering over it, must have scared the thing halfto death, thought Donna.

    `Oh...' it said again.

    `Yes, yes,' snapped Li'ian. `We get the point. You'reshocked. Now why were you arguing with the Doctor?'

    `What?' The face on the robot looked genuinelysurprised but then, thought Donna, that damnedpaperclip that popped up on her computer when shestarted writing a letter looked genuinely helpful. `Who?'the robot added, twizzling around again. It tried to get up,but Mother's firm, metal paw came down on its top,pinning it to the floor.

    `The Doctor,' said Donna grimly. `The man you weretalking to about my death and what flowers you'd send to

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my funeral.'

    `The who, the what?' The robot flailed its arms around,slapping them ineffectively against Mother's hand. `Ohmy, this is all very unexpected.'

    `Oh, sunshine,' said Donna, crouching down so that hereyes were on a level with the robot's screen. `You have noidea what other unexpected things we can come up with ifyou don't start telling us the truth.'

    The cartoon face flashed to astonishment.

    `Of course I don't, otherwise they'd hardly beunexpected would they? Although, of course,' his facewent all thoughtful, `events could be both unexpected andyet not unknown, since "expected" could be seen to applyto their timing as well as to their nature, couldn't they?'

    `What?' said Donna.

    `I said--'

    `I know what you said. Now look, either you starttelling us who you're working for, or... or...' Donnafloundered around, trying to think of something tothreaten the robot with. `Or I'll get Mother here to crushyou into a ball of scrap so small that you won't even beable to get a job as a doorstop.'

    There was a sharp intake of breath from just behindher. It was Li'ian. Her hand was halfway to her mouth inan almost comic gesture of concern.

    `It's just a robot,' said Donna, rolling her eyes. `Ifnecessary, we'll take it apart, circuit by circuit...'

    Donna stopped at the expressions of outright horror onthe faces of Boonie and Li'ian. She turned sharply as evenMother joined in with a deep, electronic groan.

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    `Barbarian,' whispered Boonie.

    `Come again?' Donna still wasn't getting it.

    `I'm finding it hard,' said Boonie grimly, `to believethat the Doctor spoke so highly of you. How dare youcome aboard my ship and start threatening people likethat? What kind of a civilisation do you come from?'

    `Threatening people?' echoed Donna. `I'm notthreatening people, for god's sake.' She gestured at therobot, its cartoon face a picture of amazement eyes andmouth wide open. `It's. A. Robot.'

    Donna sat back on her haunches how could she makeit any clearer? What was wrong with these people?

    `Don't you want to know who it's working for?'

    `What's your name?' Boonie asked the robot, ignoringDonna.

    `Weiou,' the robot said.

    `Right, Weiou. Donna here says that you threatened theDoctor. Is that true?'

    `Me? Threaten the who?'

    The robot looked around, looking genuinely confused.

    `Just a mo,' he said, screwing up his cartoon eyestightly. His screen face went dark for a fraction of asecond.

    `What's he doing?' asked Donna suspiciously.

    `Connecting to the mechanet,' said Boonie.`Resynchronising his clock.'

    Weiou shook his face as though he were clearing awaycobwebs.

    `Oh my,' he said, eyes wide. `I've been hijacked! I'mmissing eight minutes and thirty-seven seconds.'

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    `You're saying you can't remember what happened toyou?' Donna wasn't sure whether it was telling the truth.`What's the mechanet, then? Some sort of internet forrobots?'

    Weiou nodded.

    `I'm missing eight minutes and thirty-seven seconds,' itrepeated, as if this were the most unbelievable thing ever.

    `Weiou,' said Li'ian gently. `Can you come with me? Ican run a couple of diagnostics on you see if we canwork out what happened to you.'

    Donna glowered at the woman: she was treating therobot like some sort of dizzy elderly relative when theyshould have been taking a screwdriver and a spanner to it.There was little she could do clearly they were moreconcerned about not upsetting the thing than trying to getthe truth out of it.

    `Meanwhile,' said Boonie, as Mother helped the robotto its feet, `we need to get after the Cultists' ship. Kelliquesays the Doctor's modifications to the sensors mean we'restill tracking it.' He threw a sneering glance at Donna.`You'd better come with me,' he said, turning away andheading for the door. `The Doctor clearly sees somethingin you, although god knows what.'

    And before Donna could respond, Boonie swept fromthe room.

    `Doctor,' Donna whispered to herself. `I hope you'rehaving as much fun as I am...'

    A chair had been brought into the control room ofGaraman's ship, bolted to the floor, and the Doctor tied toit. The blonde robot stood silently at his side.

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   `Why did you get yourself beamed aboard our ship,Doctor?' asked Garaman, hands on hips.

   `Oh, you know how it is change of scenery and allthat. Besides, I've been hearing so much about you youand your little cult that I thought it was about time I metyou face to face.'

   At the mention of the word `cult', Garaman's eyebrowsrose and he glanced towards the door that had just hissedopen.

   `This,' Garaman said to someone out of sight, `is theDoctor, Donna's friend.'

   `Garaman,' sighed a warbly, fluty voice. `I'm seriouslybeginning to wonder about you. Is there any need to tiehim up like this? Have you learned nothing from the wayyou treated Donna?'

   Into view came a three-legged, three-armed lizard, itshead shaking sadly.

   `I'm Mesanth,' the creature said, looking at the Doctorwith wide, unblinking eyes. They were slate grey, thepupils diamond-shaped.

   `Ahh! The infamous Mesanth!' said the Doctor, smilingcheerily.

   `Infamous?' Mesanth looked alarmed.

   `Well, you know what Oscar Wilde said about beingtalked about...'

   `No,' Mesanth replied simply. `What did he say?'

   `That it was better to be talked about than not to betalked about. Pleased to meet you. I'd shake your handbut, as you can see...' He glanced down at his hands andwiggled his fingers.

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    `Oh, for goodness' sake, Garaman untie him,'exclaimed Mesanth. `What good is this going to do?Which bit are you going to threaten to remove, hmm?How about his head?'

    The Doctor felt momentarily alarmed. He was quitefond of his head and he was pretty certain that if theychopped it off it wouldn't grow back. Although if it did,maybe it'd be the ginger one he'd always wanted. Goquite nicely with his friend the Ginger Goddess.

    `You deal with him, then!' spat Garaman, waving hishand dismissively. `We're reaching Sentilli. I can dowithout the distraction.'

    With a bitter shake of his head, Garaman waddled offto the bridge's control chair.

    Mesanth set about untying the Doctor with two of histhree-fingered hands.

    `Ahh!' exclaimed the Doctor, rubbing his wrists.`Thank you!'

    `My apologies,' Mesanth said humbly, waving theblonde robot away. It went to stand quietly near the door.`Garaman tends to be a little overeager.'

    `Oh, don't be too hard on him. I like enthusiasm. AndI'm sure he's got enough on his plate, what with collectingall these segments and finishing off Khnu's plan what?'

    The look on Mesanth's face was priceless: his fingersflexed and writhed suddenly, like agitated snakes.

    `How do you...' began Mesanth. `How do you knowabout Khnu?'

    `It's all there in the records,' replied the Doctor. `Well,not all. That's the thing: there's no mention of what,

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exactly, she was up to. That's why I thought it might begood to come aboard and have a chat to the people who'reactually doing it, y'know, "living the dream". So tospeak.'

   He stretched his arms and looked up at the lizard.

   `So...' He beamed. `Where shall we start?'

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    Donna      was beginning to wish she'd stayed with

    Garaman and Mesanth: the former might have threatened

    to break her little finger, but they hadn't shown the

    outright hostility to her that this lot had. And all because

    she'd tried to get information out of Weiou.

       Although they hadn't locked her up, they seemed to

    have assigned Mother, the hulking great steel robot, to

    look after her. Which was as good as.

       `Why do they call you Mother, then?' she asked, sitting

    in a room that they laughingly called the cafeteria. `Oh,

    sorry forgot: you don't talk, do you?'

       It was frustrating: just seconds away from being

    reunited with the Doctor, they'd been snatched apart

    again, and now she had to get to know a whole new set of

    weirdos. The way they talked about the Doctor suggested

    that they'd gotten on well, but she suspected that whatever

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goodwill the Doctor had built up with them had well andtruly been lost by her. She didn't understand it: theirattitude to robots was seriously screwy.

    As she ate something that tasted like a cheese sandwich(but looked like fish pie), Mother stood there silently,glowering down at her.

    `D'you have to stare at me while I'm eating?'

    Mother inclined her head slightly. It was as though shewere trying to figure her out, like she'd never seen ahuman before (and could a robot be a `she'? How did thatwork, then?).

    `So what did the Doctor say about me?' she asked,pushing aside the remains of her lunch. `Gorgeous? Witty?Stylish in a practical and down-to-earth sort of way?'

    Mother just stared but then, as the only other crewmember in the room left, the robot glanced around in acuriously human way before kneeling on the floor on theother side of the table. Donna wondered if Mother wereabout to whip out an engagement ring and propose to her.

    Suddenly, a tiny spot of pink light appeared in themiddle of Mother's chest, and a pale, flickering rectanglesprang up in the air between them.

    >DONNA. THE GINGER GODDESS.

    As red as Mother's eyes, the words were sketched outin front of her.

    `How d'you know ab- oh!' She smiled. `The Doctortold you.'

    >I WAS THERE.

    `You were? Where?' It suddenly hit her. `It was youthat pushed that rock, wasn't it?'

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    >YES.

    `Well, thank you,' Donna said. `Without you, we'dprobably have been burned at the stake. Well, Mesanthand Ogmunee would, at any rate.'

    >YOU'RE WELCOME.

    Donna stopped as, overlaid on the words was a movingimage it was her! The image showed her approachingwhatever camera the video had been taken with, hermouth moving silently as she looked over her shoulder,clearly arguing with someone. The picture froze and thenrepeated, looping round and round.

    `Where's this from?' she asked.

    >YOU TRIED TO HELP MECHANICAL ZB2230/3ON KARRIS.

    `Oh!' It all came back to her. The bimbot. `That!'

    >WHY?

    Donna was thrown for a moment.

    `Well, it was hurt.'

    >ITS LIPANOV RATING WAS 23. IT WAS NOTSENTIENT. YET YOU TREATED IT AS IF IT WERE.`Its what?'

    >LIPANOV RATING A MEASURE OF MACHINESENTIENCE. MECHANICALS WITH A LIPANOVRATING OF 40 OR MORE ARE GENERALLYCLASSED AS SENTIENT. THOSE BELOW ARE NOT.

    The words scrolled off the edge of the screen areafaster than Donna could read them.

    `Whoa!' she said. `Back up there a bit, sunshine.'

    Mother's words scrolled back round again, slower thistime.

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    `And what's yours your Lipanov thingy?'

    >80.

    `Oooh,' said Donna, trying to sound impressed. `A rightlittle brainbox!'

    >IT DOES NOT INDICATE INTELLIGENCE ONLY SENTIENCE, SELF-AWARENESS.

    `Right,' Donna said carefully, not at all sure that sheunderstood the difference.

    >WEIOU RATES 68 AND YET YOU ATTRIBUTELESS SENTIENCE TO HIM THAN TO ZB2230/3. ISTHAT BECAUSE OF HIS APPEARANCE?

    `Um,' said Donna, starting to lose track.

    >BECAUSE HE IS LESS HUMANIFORM, clarifiedMother, YOU ASSUME THAT HE IS LESS SENTIENT.WOULD THAT BE ACCURATE?

    `What?'

    >YOU JUDGE HIS WORTH BY HIS APPEARANCE.

    Donna's mouth almost fell open. She remembered theconversation she'd had with Mesanth about the differencebetween the bimbot and the door.

    `What are you saying?' she demanded. `Are you sayingwhat I think you're saying?' She felt her face redden. `Areyou calling me a racist?'

    >THAT WOULD BE TO JUDGE BY RACE. YOUJUDGE BY APPEARANCE. THAT IS DIFFERENT.

    Donna closed her mouth tightly. And then opened itagain, ready to rebuff Mother's words with somethingclever and sharp and witty.

    But there was nothing there.

    Mother had accused her of judging robots by what they

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looked like, not by how sentient they were: how differentwas that from racism? And if she couldn't argue againstthe first bit, how could she genuinely, hand-on-heart,argue with the second? She wasn't racist. She knew shewasn't. But no matter how she turned it over in her head as Mother knelt and watched her, silently there wassomething horribly inescapable about the robot'sconclusion.

   `Where I come from,' Donna started carefully, chewingat her bottom lip and carefully avoiding Mother's gaze,`things are different.' She summoned up the courage tolook up into Mother's implacable face. `We don't have...'She nodded towards the machine. `Robots. Not like you.Not like Weiou.' She paused again, struggling to find theright words. `You lot all of you Andromedans you'reso... so ...weird. No offence,' she added hastily. `Notweird, exactly. Just strange. Different. Back home inChiswick, the closest I'd ever get to a conversation with amachine is shouting at the photocopier.' She shook herhead again. `It's only natural to see something that doesn'tlook human and doesn't act human and to assume itdoesn't think human, isn't it?'

   >IT IS UNDERSTANDABLE, agreed Mother.

   There was a long silence.

   `It doesn't make it right, though.' Donna said quietly.`Does it?'

   >NO. BUT WE ARE ONLY AS IGNORANT AS WECHOOSE TO BE.

   Donna gave a bitter little laugh. At herself.

   `Meaning it's up to me how much I learn about other

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people? Now you're just being nice,' she said.

   >IMPLYING THAT YOU ARE IGNORANT IS NICE?

   `Believe me, it's better than what you could have calledme. I'd say sorry, but sorry doesn't really cut it, does it?Not over something like this.'

   >WE       ARE       ALL      PRODUCTS        OF     OURPROGRAMMING, OUR EDUCATION, said Mother. ITIS HOW WE TRANSCEND THAT PROGRAMMINGTHAT DEFINES US. I WAS CREATED AS A WARMACHINE. I HAVE CHANGED. WE CAN ALLCHANGE.

   Donna chewed on a fingernail, recalling the attitudes ofMesanth and Garaman and their absolute certainty thatthey were right. How could people so right be sowrong?

   `But robots can't feel, can they? I'm not being horrible,but...' She struggled for the words. `But robots are justthings, aren't they? I mean, they're built, made out ofmetal and circuits and stuff. They're not alive. Not really.'

   >YOU MAY NOT BE MADE OF METAL, BUTYOU'RE STILL `MADE OF STUFF'. WHY DOES ITMATTER WHAT THE CONSTRUCTION MATERIALIS?

   `But Mesanth says that robots are just mimickingthinking and feeling.'

   >AND HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT YOU ARE NOTJUST MIMICKING THINKING AND FEELING?

   `Because I know I'm not.' Donna tapped the side of herhead. `It's all in here. I know what I feel.'

   Mother raised a steel hand and repeated the gesture,tapping the side of her head.

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    >ME TOO.

    Mother had given Donna a lot to think about, but shewasn't going to be allowed the luxury of time to herself toget it all straight in her head. Boonie called the two ofthem through to the control room, where Weiou wasrunning around like an overexcited child, chatting to theother robots (even the little service ones that, Mother hadassured Donna, were so low on this Lipanov scale thatthey barely counted as food mixers).

    `He's innocent,' said Li'ian. `Someone someone witha pretty good knowledge of robotics and communicationssystems hooked into him and used him as a mouthpiece.I've checked his memory out and he's just got a blankspace there.'

    `Garaman?' suggested Donna, feeling vaguelytraitorous for suggesting it, despite the conversation she'dhad with Mother.

    `Who else?' glowered Boonie.

    Weiou caught sight of Donna and came over, hiscartoon face a picture of distress.

    `Sorry,' he said.

    `It's OK,' said Donna, giving him a little pat that shehoped didn't seem too patronising. `It's not your fault.Sorry I was such a bully. I was just worried about theDoctor.'

    `S'OK,' said Weiou. `Still,' he added, his upper bodyturning as he gestured to the control room and itsoccupants. `Wow!' His eyes went wide. `You've no ideahow exciting all this is, you really haven't. I mean, all thisjetting about space and chasing bad guys and stuff it's

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probably all in a day's work to you lot. But I've spent allmy life on Junk cataloguing, sorting, organising.' Hemade a typing gesture with his fingers. `This is the kind oflife some of us can only dream of. What's next? Where arewe going now?'

    Donna had to smile he was like a little puppy. Andwhether Mesanth was right, and he was just imitatingenthusiasm or Mother was, and it was all genuine Donna couldn't help but be infected by it.

    `There are two possible systems on the hyperspacetrajectory that Garaman's ship took,' Kellique said, and atransparent, holographic display sprang up in the air at thefront of the control room. `The Sentilli system, which hasa black hole as its primary, and Pew, which has a binarystar. If they're looking for an inhabited world, Pew is themore likely, although all sixteen of its planets are in veryerratic orbits. Sentilli has thirty-six planets, but they're allpretty much washouts as far as life goes because of thenature of their sun.' She shrugged. `Until they emergefrom hyperspace, we won't know for sure. Another hourand we'll have a better idea.'

    `Meanwhile,' said Boonie, turning to Donna, `I thinkwe need to talk.'

    Donna nodded.

    `I'm really, really sorry about what I--'

    `No, no,' Boonie cut in. `Not that. That's something wemight have to discuss later. I mean Garaman and his littleband. We need to know anything that might help us workout what they're up to anything they might have said, nomatter how insignificant. Take your time let's see what

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we can come up with.'

   `I was quite warming to your friend Donna,' Mesanthsaid. `She had some... strange views, but I think she wasan essentially good person.'

   `Can we talk in the present tense, please,' said theDoctor. `Hopefully, she's still alive. And yes, she is a goodperson. Why, what's she been saying?'

   `Her experiences with mechanicals are interesting,'Mesanth said, and the Doctor noticed how he smelled offish and lavender. Not the most usual odour, but certainlynot the most unpleasant that he'd encountered.

   `Told you about the robot Santas, did she?'

   Mesanth nodded. `She gave the impression that yourgalaxy has far fewer mechanical civilisations than ours.'

   `It would seem so, yes,' the Doctor agreed. `But thenboth galaxies are so huge that it'd be a bit unfair to drawconclusions from the little bits of them that I've seen.Wouldn't want to seem like I'm generalising. Never agood thing, generalising.' He winked at the joke, butMesanth didn't seem to get it.

   `Of course,' agreed Mesanth (a tad overeagerly, thoughtthe Doctor). `But you must agree that there has alwaysbeen friction between mechanicals and organics.'

   `Oh, always is such a big word. It's on a par with"every" and "never" and "they're all a load of lazy,scrounging gits and they should get back to their ownplanet" isn't it?' He smiled at Mesanth, but his eyes werehard and humourless. `What were we saying aboutgeneralising?'

   `Ahh,' said Mesanth after a moment's pause. `You're a

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promechanical.'

   `Am I? Really?' The Doctor sounded quite excited atthe suggestion. `I like to think of myself as pro-humanity,whatever shape that humanity comes in.' He raised a handas Mesanth began to speak again. `And if you're going tostart arguing with me that mechanicals aren't really alive,then I'll stop you here, save you the time. Stop thinking ofsomeone as being like you and it means you can starttreating them differently. And usually treating them worse.That's the kind of thinking that leads to segregation andprison camps, isn't it?'

   `Facts are facts,' Mesanth said.

   `And arrogant, opinionated nonsense is arrogant,opinionated nonsense and I really don't have time to listento any more of it. I'd much rather you told me about thisthing that you're collecting the parts for.'

   Mesanth's hands began to flex again.

   `The way I see it,' the Doctor continued, breezily, `isthat if you genuinely believe all this tosh, then you oughtto be quite proud of it, and more than willing to go onabout it at length to me. All this organic supremaciststuff's a bit old hat, isn't it? "We're better than you coswe're made of goo rather than metal," etc, etc. You seemlike quite an intelligent fellow d'you really believe it, oris it just something to do at the weekends? Like re-enacting military battles or getting drunk on cheap cider.You can't really believe it.'

   `You haven't experienced what we have,' Mesanth said.`Our galaxy is being overrun with machine intelligences.Given enough resources, they are capable of reproducing

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at a much greater rate than most organics.'

   `Granted,' agreed the Doctor. `But they haven't, havethey? How long have you had peace here? How manycenturies have organics and non-organics lived, side byside, with barely a war or a skirmish? How much haveorganics and non-organics contributed to each other'scultures?'

   `The point is,' Mesanth said firmly, `that that can'tcontinue for ever.'

   `Why not?' The Doctor leaned forward, his face right infront of Mesanth's. `It's worked pretty well up to now,hasn't it? If the people of my galaxy could see yours,they'd be astounded at the way you've all gotten on up tonow. Wouldn't you rather be seen as leaders in interstellarpeace and harmony than yet another galaxy of bickering,scrapping kids?'

   `It must seem very simple to you, as an outsider,' saidMesanth. There was a hint of frustration in his voice, theDoctor thought. `You have no understanding of the issuesinvolved here.'

   `Oh,' retorted the Doctor, `I think I have. Anyway, I'mnot going to convince you, and you're not going toconvince me, so why not just tell me what it is you're upto, what Khnu's grand plan was, and then I can go back toDonna and we can leave you to get on with it?' Hegrinned, but there was an edge to his smile.

   Mesanth eyed him warily when suddenly Garaman'svoice squeaked over the intercom.

   `We're entering the Sentilli system,' he said. `All crewto their stations. Repeat, all crew to their stations.'

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  `Oh,' said the Doctor, crestfallen. `And you were justabout to explain your plan to me. Don't you just hate itwhen that happens!'

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    The Doctor watched, appalled at his own stupidity, as the

    assembled device rotated in space, just half a kilometre

    from the hull of the Dark Light. Now that the four

    segments were stacked upon each other, the Doctor could

    see how they formed a cylinder obvious, really, with

    hindsight. But then wasn't everything? Each segment

    rotated independently as the whole device turned silently

    until one end was pointing towards the black disc of

    Sentilli.

       `You're going to open up a black hole!' he said slowly

    and turned to Garaman. `I should have guessed.'

       `Why should you have guessed?' asked Mesanth.

       The Doctor shrugged.

       `Well, the bit you collected on Uhlala contained some

    rather nifty dimensional resonance coils; the one on Karris

    had some sort of zero-point energy converter in it, from

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the sketchy readings I picked up; and the one on Junkgave all the signs of being a spatial dephaser. Put 'em alltogether and you've got the galaxy's biggest can-opener.'

    He grinned at his own cleverness. `Normally, I'd saythat's brilliant. But I've got a feeling that it's not going tobe brilliant for anyone apart from you.'

    Garaman laughed dryly.

    `Can-opener. I like that. There was a point,' he said,`where I thought you were going to work out what it does.But now it doesn't matter.'

    `Oh, I think it matters a great deal,' said the Doctorruefully. `But I don't think there's much I can do about it,is there?'

    Garaman just smiled.

    `So what's in there? An army of organic beasties justwaiting to be awoken and take on the might of yourgalaxy's machine intelligences? Or is it some kind ofrefuge? A little Shangri-La where you and your organicsupremacist friends can live without worrying about yourparanoias? A Little Andromeda, if you like. A paradisefree of machinekind?'

    Garaman said nothing. Instead, he gestured at thescreen.

    At one edge, closest to the Dark Light, was the tiny,jewel-like shape of the can-opener, sparking blue lightningdancing around it. And at the other, away in the distance,was the jet-black disc of Sentilli, the black hole at theheart of the system, visible only because it obscured thestars behind it.

    `Activate,' whispered Garaman and Mesanth tapped at

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the control panel.

   The glow around the can-opener began to grow,deepening to an almost painful purple as it shifted out ofthe range of the ship's scanners, before the device seemedto turn completely black.

   `Dephasing has begun,' said Mesanth, and the Doctorcaught the look of almost Messianic glee on Garaman'sface.

   `Watch, Doctor,' said Garaman. `Even though you'vebeen a pain in the backside, I have to admit that it's quitenice to have a witness for this moment.'

   The Doctor squinted as Garaman called for Mesanth toincrease the scanner magnification. The image leaped,picking out the edge of the black hole from where,silently, like a sleek ocean liner emerging from fog,something huge was rising from the depths of thedarkness.

   It was vast, and the resemblance to an ocean liner grewas the vessel exited the black hole and headed towardsthem: its main body was slim and pointed, like asharpened grain of pale green rice. Numerous antennaeand struts jutted from it at right angles to it, giving it aspiny appearance. Towards the rear, the density of thespines increased greatly, making it look not unlike anenormous loo brush, thought the Doctor. As it headedtowards them, tiny pinpricks of light began to spring upon its surface.

   `We call it The Torch,' said Garaman in a whisper.

   The Doctor humphed. `You do love your light-and-darkmetaphors, don't you? Shining Darkness, Dark Light, The

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Torch. What next, The Candle in the Wind? Still, I'mimpressed. Must have taken you years to build this especially in secret.'

   `Oh, it did. Years and years and years. Keeping it secretwas the hardest part, employing ironically teams ofprimitive robots to build it.'

   `And then wiping their memories when they'd donetheir part.'

   `Exactly. If only they'd had real sentience, they mighthave realised that they were orchestrating their owndestruction.'

   `Their own genocide would be closer to the mark,' theDoctor corrected grimly, but Garaman just smiled tightly.

   The Torch, as Garaman had called it, pulled away fromSentilli and began to slow as more and more lights cameon across it.

   `Just received a signal,' Ogmunee said suddenly,glancing at the Doctor.

   `From?' asked Garaman before his cherubic mouthformed into an `o' of realisation. `Safe?' he asked and hetoo looked at the Doctor. There was something the two ofthem weren't sharing with him. Ogmunee nodded andsmiled.

   `Right!' said Garaman suddenly. `One more thing toattend to before we get on with the business at hand.'

   Ogmunee was standing by the weapons systems controlpanel, a cold smile on his face that suggested he knewexactly what was coming.

   `Have the weapons charged to full,' Garaman ordered.`Time to put Boonie and his robot-lovers out of our

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misery, I think.'

   `What're you doing?' the Doctor demanded asOgmunee turned back to the controls and began operatingthem.

   `You didn't think I'd leave that rag-tag little band ofno-hopers a chance to interfere any more, did you?'

   `They can't hurt you,' the Doctor said levelly, keepingone eye on Ogmunee. `Let them go.'

   `I don't think so,' Garaman said. `It's not over till it'sover, and I'd rather not take any chances. Not so late inthe game.'

   The Doctor drew himself up.

   `You do realise that if you kill them, I'll have no reasonnot to do everything in my power to stop you, don't you?'

   Garaman raised his eyebrows wearily.

   `You're suggesting that if I let them live you'll let mefinish what I came here for? I hardly think that's likely.You know, I'd quite like to have you killed now, butMesanth and his conscience would probably havesomething to say about it. And I could do without himthrowing a hissy fit. Besides, I'd rather see the look onyour face when you find out what's actually aboard TheTorch. Call it professional satisfaction. Or showmanship.'

   He glanced over at Ogmunee who nodded.

   `Ready,' he growled.

   `Say goodbye to Donna, Doctor,' Garaman smiledbefore nodding at Ogmunee. `Fire,' he said, and Ogmuneepressed the button.

   Boonie's ship shuddered and from somewhere deepinside it, Donna heard a rumble that echoed on and on.

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She gripped the edge of Boonie's chair to steady herself asthe floor vibrated beneath her.

   `What was that?'

   `They've fired on us,' Kellique said, disbelief writtenall over her face. `They've fired on us!' She checked thedisplays again. `Damage to drive unit. Decks three andfour are heavily breached. We're venting atmosphere.'

   The Sword of Justice lurched again and Donna wasthrown against the wall. Mother swayed on her feet, thehydraulics in her legs hissing as they compensated.

   `Can we seal off those areas?' shouted Boonie over thesound of a warning siren. The bridge was plunged into ablood-red gloom as emergency lighting cut in.

   `Too late,' Kellique said after a moment. `We've gotcoolant leakage from the drive it's eating its waythrough the hull. Estimated time until we lose hullintegrity eleven minutes, give or take.'

   Boonie clasped his hands to his forehead.

   `No!' he said through gritted teeth. `No!'

   `Boonie,' said Donna, trying to remain calm. `Lifeboats, life pods, whatever you call 'em. D'you have any?'

   `What?' He looked at her as if her words werenonsense. `Yes, yes.'

   `Good get everyone into them. Crew, robots, the lot.If the ship's going to blow, they'll stand more chance inthem, won't they?'

   Boonie just stared at her, paralysed by everything goingon around him. Donna could see the despair in his eyes.

   `Oh my,' said Weiou, his cartoon eyes wide with shock.`Donna's right, you know. Bagsy me first!'

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   `Shut up!' snapped Boonie, running his fingers throughhis hair. Donna was reminded, momentarily, of the Doctor,and she wondered what he was doing right now...

   `Kellique give the order!' shouted Donna. `Geteveryone off.'

   Kellique looked to Boonie for confirmation: for amoment, Donna thought he was going to go to pieces, buteventually he nodded, grim-faced. Kellique grabbed amicrophone and began bellowing orders at the ship's crew,ordering them to the escape pods.

   `Whew!' said Weiou. `That's a relief so what are wewaiting for?'

   `We're not waiting for anything,' Boonie said. `We'restaying here I'm staying here.'

   `You heard what she said,' Donna shouted, grabbing hisarm as yet another explosion, somewhere deep in thebowels of The Sword of Justice, threw them around. Shestumbled against Boonie's chair, catching her hip,painfully. `The ship's going to blow. What use is stayinghere? It's not like in a film you know. You won't bestanding proud on the prow as the ship sinks witheveryone thinking how noble you were.' She grabbed hiswrists and pulled him round until he was looking at her.`You're going to die.'

   Boonie licked his lips feverishly, pulling away fromDonna.

   `Not alone, I'm not,' he said. He raced over toKellique. `Do we have any sort of drive power?'

   `Only attitude thrusters, why?'

   Boonie considered for a moment, rubbing his forehead.

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    `It's enough,' he said. `Get them online. If we're goingdown, we're taking them with us.'

    `We're what?' shouted Donna above the wail of thesirens.

    `That ship,' Boonie said, jabbing his finger towards thescreen on which they could see the spiky behemoth thathad emerged from Sentilli. `That's their big weapon. It'swhat they've been working towards all these years. AndI'm damned if they're going to get their hands on it.' Hefixed his eyes on Donna as he gave the order to Kellique.`Ram it,' he said. `This ship's the only weapon we haveleft, and we're going to use it!'

    `Stop it!' roared the Doctor, rushing towards Ogmunee.

    At a single gesture from Garaman, the blondehumaniform robot stepped in and wrapped its arms aroundthe Doctor, hugging him in a vice-like grip to its chest.The Doctor was powerless. If he'd had his sonicscrewdriver, there might have been a chance that he couldhave deactivated it, scrambled its circuits. Something. Buthe didn't, and his arms were pinned to his sides.

    Suddenly, the door slid open and Mesanth came trottingin.

    `What's happening?' he demanded to know ofGaraman. `You're firing the weapons why?'

    `Our little nemesis, Boonie,' he said and the Doctorcould see the annoyance on his face at Mesanth's arrival.`Time to put an end to him.'

    `You can't,' Mesanth said, his face a picture ofconfusion. `There are organics aboard that ship.'

    `Barely,' Garaman growled. `Besides, you didn't really

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think that our whole plan could be achieved without anyloss of life organic life did you?'

    Mesanth waved his hands helplessly.

    `No, but... You said there would be no unnecessarydeaths. You said there'd be no need to destroy their ship.'Mesanth sounded close to tears.

    `Well then, just think of this as the first in a series ofsad, but ultimately necessary, casualties.'

    `Tell him, Mesanth,' grunted the Doctor, struggling tobreathe in the grip of the robot. `Tell him to let them go they can't do any harm now. You've probably alreadycrippled their ship. They might even be dead. Call off theattack. You claim to care about life, about organics. Proveit. Make him stop.'

    Mesanth opened his mouth and looked at Garaman.

    `After all this time,' Garaman said, almost reluctantly.`After all this planning... You want to let a bit ofsentimentality ruin everything.'

    `But...but what if the Doctor's right? They can't doanything to interfere now.'

    `You want to take that chance, Mesanth? Really?'

    `Garaman,' Ogmunee cut in carefully.

    `What?'

    `The ship Boonie's ship. It's moving.'

    Garaman turned sharply to the main screen andOgmunee brought up an image of it.

    `They're trying to escape,' Garaman murmured, a cruelsmile playing across his cherubic lips.

    `No,' Ogmunee said, frowning. `No, they're not.They're going the wrong way. They're heading inwards.'

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    The Doctor realised what was going on before anyoneelse did.

    `Oh dear!' he said, tugging against the robot. `Seemsthey're not so helpless after all!'

    `What are they doing?' said Garaman, slowlyapproaching the screen as The Sword of Justice picked upspeed. Tiny flickers of light from the attitude thrustersshowed that the ship didn't have much motive power butit had enough.

    `They're heading for The Torch,' Ogmunee said, almostdisbelievingly.

    Mesanth gave a little warble of alarm.

    `They're going to ram it,' he whispered.

    `Oh no they're not,' Garaman said through grittedteeth. `Target them again this time we're going to finishthem. For good.'

    `Emergency pods are detaching,' Kellique said,counting them off as they left, spiralling away into thedarkness. `The crew are all safe.'

    Donna had no idea whether the escape pods would beable to make their way home, or whether they'd just floataround in space until they ran out of air and power. But itwas better than sitting around on The Sword of Justice,waiting for it to hit the Cultists' supership. Weiou flappedhis hands helplessly.

    `We should be going,' he said, over and over. `Weshould be going. I didn't sign on for this. Oh my.' Weioupaused as he caught sight of the display in front ofKellique. `The escape pods they've all gone.' He did acomedy gulp.

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    `Weiou,' said Donna brightly.

    `Yes?' The little robot looked up at her.

    `Shut up.' She turned back to Kellique. `How long untilwe hit that thing?'

    Her mouth was dry and her pulse racing. There wasevery chance that they were going to die, but something maybe it was the adrenalin, maybe just the rush ofeverything that was going on kept her going through thepanic that she could feel battering away at the back of hermind. She fought it down again as it rose up, threateningto overwhelm her and turn her into a screaming ball ofmush, cowering in a corner. It's what the Doctor would do,she kept telling herself. It's what the Doctor would do.

    `Eight minutes,' Kellique said, and Donna could hearthe tremor in her voice.

    `Eight minutes,' Donna repeated, more to herself.`Right. Can the ship be left on autopilot to ram thatthing?'

    Kellique nodded.

    `Good! Do what you have to lock the controls,whatever. We're not done yet.'

    `But all the escape pods have gone,' protested Weiou.`All of them. Every last, single one--'

    `Weiou,' said Donna gently, crouching down next to therobot. `D'you remember what I threatened Mother woulddo to you when you came aboard? Well if you don't shutup, I'll do it myself. We still have one escape pod.'

    `We don't,' protested Kellique. `Weiou's right they'veall gone.'

    `Oh no they haven't,' said Donna with a smile. `Come

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on!'

   Donna hovered in the doorway as Kellique set thecontrols on auto.

   `I hope you know what you're doing,' glowered Boonieas Donna waved him and the others out into the corridor.

   `Trust me,' Donna grinned, gripping the doorframe asanother tremor shot through the ship. `I might not be adoctor but I've learned a few things from a pretty goodone.'

   It took them almost five minutes to make their wayback through the deserted, broken ship. The main corridorwas blocked by fallen debris, but Mother made light workof it, lifting the twisted beams and wall panels out of theway as if they were cardboard and polystyrene. Weiou wasusually the first to scoot through the gaps Mother created,until Boonie pointed out that they had no idea what laybeyond every corner, after which he huddled in the middleof the little band.

   `Nearly there,' Donna said as they reached theirdestination: the ship's small cargo hold. It was only thenthat Boonie realised what she was up to, and his normallymiserable face broke out into a grin.

   `If you ever want a job on my ship well, on my nextship--' he began, but broke off as he saw the look onDonna's face.

   She was staring through the grimy porthole of one ofThe Sword of Justice's bulkheads into the cargo hold. Abulkhead that was sealed shut. A bulkhead that, by allrights, should have given them access to the TARDIS. Theultimate escape pod.

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   All Donna could see through the thick glass was a bitof floor and then nothing. Nothing but empty space: theroom where Boonie had stowed the TARDIS had beenblown clean open in the attack, and the TARDIS, theironly way off the dying ship, had gone.

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    `I am in so much trouble,' she whispered. She'd only

    gone and lost the TARDIS, hadn't she? `Apart from the

    fact that we're all going to die, of course,' she added.

       Another explosion rocked the ship, the distant screech

    of torn metal galvanising her into action. She turned to

    Kellique.

       `Right,' she said. `No TARDIS. You're sure there are

    no other escape pods? Not even an emergency one...?'

    Donna shook her head. `What am I on about: all escape

    pods are emergency ones, aren't they? And you're sure the

    transmat is down?'

       Kellique nodded.

       `What about pod eight?' said Boonie suddenly.

       `Eight's been out of action for months,' Kellique

    reminded him.

       Donna jumped at this. `Out of action? Why?'

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    `The locking mechanism's seized up the externalclamps have become vacuum welded.'

    `So what you saying? That it'd work if you could get itunwelded? Never heard of WD-40? Never mind,' Donnaadded at their blank faces. `Can't we wiggle it loose? Cutit free?'

    `Not from inside, we can't, and the EVA suits are allgone. And besides, they're four-person pods and thereare five of us. And Mother's not exactly compact...'

    Donna ran her hands through her hair and was thrownagainst the wall as the ship bucked beneath their feetagain. Think, Donna, she told herself. Think!

    And then she caught sight of Mother.

    Mother!

    D'uh!

    `You sure this is designed for four people?' grumpedDonna as she squeezed through the tiny hatch into podeight alongside Boonie and Kellique. Arms and legs andelbows were everywhere. `Four midgets, maybe.'

    `Oi!' squeaked Weiou as he, too, tumbled into one ofthe padded seats set around the inside of the little vehicle.`Nothing wrong with midgets!'

    Kellique shook her head as she buckled up. `You surethis is going to work?' she asked Donna.

    `No,' replied Donna sharply. `Of course I'm not surethis is going to work, but if you've got a better idea, nowmight be quite a good time to tell us about it. Mother!'Donna craned her neck to see Mother, still outside thepod's hatch. `You ready?'

    Mother nodded silently and with a dull clang the

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hatch sealed itself.

    `Well,' said Donna, sitting back and smiling. `Isn't thisnice? Very cosy. How long will it take her, d'you think?'she added as they were rattled by another much bigger,much closer explosion from somewhere on The Swordof Justice.

    `Now there's no one left on board,' Boonie said,checking his watch, `Mother can just open the bulkheadand get out that way. If this is going to work, we'll knowabout it soon. One way or another.'

    Donna took a deep breath. She only hoped she wasn'tcondemning them all to death in the escape pod. Therealisation that, even if they could get the escape pod free,there wouldn't be room on board for Mother had been thetrigger: in a flash Donna had realised that, of course,Mother didn't need air. (Neither did Weiou, but Weioudidn't have the brute strength that Mother did).

    The plan was obvious in its simplicity. Maybe tooobvious which made Donna a bit suspicious of it: thethree humans and Weiou could get in the pod, Mothercould clamber outside the ship and free the dockingclamps before hitching a ride on the outside of the pod.Kellique had checked that the pod's thrusters were stillworking, so there'd be no problem in steering it towardsthe space station that had emerged from Sentilli.Obviously, there was no way to tell what kind of welcomethey'd receive when they got there; but it had to be betterthan staying to be blown up.

    All four of them started as a sudden harsh, metallicclanging sounded through the pod's hull. And then

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another. It was like something monstrous was trying totear its way in.

   `Sound worse than it is,' said Kellique, registering thelook on Donna's face. `Trust me. Even if I'm not a doctor.'She smiled grimly.

   There were more clangs and then an ominousgrinding sound.

   One final clang and a creaking, tearing groan thatseemed to drag on for ever before it ended in silence.

   `She's done it!' cried Kellique. `That's the clampsdisengage- whoa!'

   The pod suddenly lurched, and it was only the fact thatthey'd all belted themselves in that stopped them frombeing flung around the cramped interior. The lightssuddenly dimmed to red.

   `What is it with the red lights on spaceships?'complained Donna. `It's not like we need a status reportfrom them, is it? Oh God, I feel...'

   `Gravity's offline,' said Kellique.

   `Never have guessed,' said Donna, trying to keep a gripon the contents of her stomach.

   `Whoo!' cried Weiou excitedly. `Hang on everyone here we go!'

   Anyone watching from outside would have beenclenching their fists in anticipation: a line of explosionswas bursting out from the skin of The Sword ofJustice,rippling along it, twisting and warping the vessel'shull, heading towards the tiny blister of emergency podeight. And, hugging itself tight to the pod was Mother,spreadeagled on the top of it and clinging on for dear life.

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   With a flare of blue light, the pod's thrusters fired upand it popped free of the ship, as the wave of explosionsswept across the mothership. Slowly, but building upspeed rapidly, the pod jetted out into the cold blackness ofspace, a tiny, silhouetted spot against the raging inferno itwas leaving behind.

   In mute disbelief, still held in the robot's steelyembrace, the Doctor could only watch as The Sword ofJustice slowly accelerated through the Sentilli system, ona collision course with The Torch.

   It was a brave but futile hope.

   Streams of gas and fuel trailed out behind the pathetic,battered wreck of a ship, turning it into an artificial comet.All across its hull, lights were going out. Tiny explosionserupted all over its surface, sending clouds of sparklingdebris out into space. The absence of a sun made it hard tomake out any details, but the Dark Light's sensors wereenhancing the image, showing the death throes of the shipin all their sad glory.

   Donna...

   The Doctor could only hope that she'd either escapedin a lifeboat, or that she'd had the sense to take shelter inthe TARDIS. Assuming that his lovely little blue boxhadn't already been blown out into space.

   `Target acquired,' said Ogmunee with relish, catchingthe Doctor's eye and flashing him a cruel, toothy smile.

   `Finish it,' Garaman said, almost wearily. `We've gotmore important things to be getting on with.'

   From the side of the screen, a thick pencil of deeppurple light sprang up, stretching away into space,

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skewering The Sword of Justice through its flank like itwere a kebab. For a moment, nothing happened the shipcontinued to move, allowing the beam to slice it openalong its side. And then a cascade of explosions started up,glowing boils of gas erupting into the darkness, one afteranother. Finally, the little ship could stand no more. As thepurple ray reached the tail of the ship, its innards began toglow first a dull red, and then upwards, faster and faster,through yellow and white through to an eye-searing blue.And then the screen flared white and the Doctor closed hiseyes.

   Donna.

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    `This     must have cost a small fortune,' the Doctor

    whispered in awe as they made their way through the

    darkened space station. He was in a grim mood after the

    destruction of Boonie's ship.

       The Torch, it became clear as soon as Garaman,

    Mesanth, the Doctor and the blonde robot had transmatted

    aboard it, was more than just a spaceship.

       `Several fortunes,' said Garaman proudly. `And none of

    them small. You'd be surprised how many philanthropists

    are behind us, even if they can't come out and openly

    admit it.'

       `And what have you promised these philanthropists?

    What do they get out of whatever little nutjob scheme

    you've got planned?'

       `Satisfaction, Doctor. The satisfaction of living in a

    galaxy where organic beings are where they should be at

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the top of the heap.'

   It was like strolling through a vast warehouse: huge,open spaces, unlit and echoey, were all around them. Theceiling was so high it was lost in the darkness. And therewas a cold fustiness about the air. Like a tomb, unopenedfor centuries. The smell of metal and electricitysurrounded them, and their footsteps clanged and echoedon the floor as they walked.

   `You're going to keep me guessing, aren't you?' saidthe Doctor as they passed through into another chamberthe size of an aircraft hangar. Several spangly newspaceships sat side by side, silent, waiting to be used, theirhulls the same pale green as The Torch.

   `About what? The purpose of all this?' Garamanchuckled. `Yes, I think I probably am. Humour me. If ithelps, this ' He waved a hand around him ` is all a bit ofoverkill really. Before her death, Khnu was constantlyscared that she'd be caught, brought to trial on sometrumped-up charges by the promechanicals. She wanted tomake sure that if she ever had to go into hiding that she'dhave somewhere decent to continue her work. To spendthe rest of her life, if necessary.'

   `So she designed her own prison, did she?' The Doctorwas unimpressed.

   `Oh, far from it. Just think how sophisticated this placemust be to hide itself inside a black hole, Doctor, withoutbeing crushed into the singularity at the heart of it. It's amasterpiece the perfect bolt-hole. Not a prison.'

   `You say tomato,' sang the Doctor without muchenthusiasm. `I say to-may-to. A prison's a prison, no

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matter how chintzy the curtains are. Still, she'll never getto find out now, will she?'

   `Sadly,' said Garaman although his face showedanything but sadness, `she won't, no.'

   `You're not going to tell me that it was you thatengineered her accident, are you?'

   `Doctor!' Garaman looked genuinely shocked. `Ofcourse not! I worshipped that woman. She was a genius.Without her, none of this would have been possible.'

   `Hmmm,' murmured the Doctor. `But at least now youget it all to yourself, don't you? And what about you,Mesanth? What d'you think of your new home?'

   `It's not a home,' Mesanth said primly. After thedestruction of The Sword of Justice, some of the fireseemed to have gone out of him, and he'd hardly spokentwo words since they'd beamed aboard The Torch.

   `Still worrying about all those dead people, are you?'the Doctor said mildly, with just the hint of an edge to hisvoice. `The ones that died because of you. The ones thatburned, out in space. Those people.'

   `Their deaths were unfortunate,' Mesanth said,avoiding looking at him, `but necessary.'

   `That's right,' said the Doctor. `Just like Garaman said.You keep telling yourself that. Doesn't make it true, but itmight make you feel better. And whilst you're thinkingabout deaths, necessary or otherwise, remind yourself thatthey aren't going to be the last.'

   `What?'

   `Oh, there'll be more deaths to come, mark my words.There always are with people like Garaman in charge.

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Whatever little plan you two are cooking up, whateverrevolution you're bringing to the galaxy, it's going toinvolve death. Lots of it. Buckets and buckets of it.Organic and inorganic, human and machine. And Iwouldn't be surprised if a few energy and gas beings getcaught up in the crossfire.' The corner of his mouthtightened. `Bad business, war. No one comes out of itunscathed.' He paused. `Believe me.'

   `It's necessary to break eggs,' said Garaman, `to makeomelettes.'

   `Oh,' retorted the Doctor, rolling his eyes. `That one.I'd have thought someone of your intelligence could havecome up with a slightly better justification than that.'

   `I don't need to justify myself to you.'

   `So why are you? Feeling a bit guilty? Trying to makesure Mesanth here stays on-side right until the end? Andwhat's your part in all this, Mesanth? You just along forthe ride? I don't know much about your species whereare you from, by the way?'

   `I am a Lotapareen from Lota.'

   `Well, I don't know about the Lotapareen, but I'msurprised that you've got much in common with Garaman.Well, apart from the hatred of machines. It's a great thing,hatred: sits very well with fear. And that's what all this isabout, isn't it? Fear. Fear of difference, fear of the unlike,fear of things you don't understand. Fear of things thataren't like you.'

   `I don't fear machines,' Mesanth replied levelly as theystepped into the wire cage of a lift that began to sink intothe depths of the space station. `I simply want organic life

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true life to take its rightful position in the galaxy. Ihave nothing against machines.'

    `Of course not,' mocked the Doctor gently. `Everyhome should have one. They're great at building thingsand picking up heavy weights, but they really need toknow their place, don't they? Don't want them getting allabove themselves. Where does it stop, though, eh? Firstit's machines. Then what?' The Doctor threw at glance atGaraman. `Got a thing against tall people, maybe,Garaman?' He pulled a dismissive face. `Get rid of 'em,eh? Oh, and then there's thin people don't like thinpeople, do we? Ship 'em all off to an island where theycan be with their own kind. And reptiles. What aboutreptiles, eh, Garaman?' He looked Mesanth up and down.`Shifty lot, reptiles. Like it hot and dry, not like ushumans. Can't be trusted, I say. Let's get rid of them, too,shall we?'

    The Doctor saw Mesanth's eyes widen, justmomentarily.

    `And before you know it,' finished the Doctor, foldinghis arms, `all we're left with is a universe of Garamans.Little, scared, power-mad Garamans. All the same, allwith a chip on their shoulder, all blaming everyone elsefor how the universe has turned out.' He leaned forwardsand peered down at Garaman. `And when you've done allthat, and you look around and find that the universe isn'tany better after all, what d'you do then, eh?'

    `It won't work,' said Garaman through gritted teeth.`Trying to set Mesanth against me. We've worked togetherlong enough to know what we both think, what we

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believe. A few clever-clever words from you aren't goingto upset that.'

   `Are they not?' The Doctor sighed. `Oh, well, I won'tbother, then.'

   He plunged his hands into his pockets and stared at theceiling as, in silence, the lift fell along the length of TheTorch towards the control centre.

   As they dropped through the roof of the control room,the Doctor mused on how much effort how muchmachine effort must have been involved in constructingthe station. It was the size of a small town, and to buildsomething so huge without anyone outside suspecting,was an enormous achievement. But like so manyachievements, it would be how it was put to use thatwould ultimately define it, and he wasn't hopeful. Hehadn't said anything to Garaman and Mesanth yet, but thespines at the rear of the station looked suspiciously likeBishop converters, designed to extract energy from blackholes. What could they need so much energy for...?

   They stepped out onto the floor of the control room,and lights flickered and flared around them. They were ona broad, circular platform, darkness receding on all sides.Curved banks of instruments and controls were arrayedaround them, each in its own little pool of light. It feltmore like a museum than a command centre.

   `Nice, don't you think?' said Garaman.

   `As hunks of metal go no offence,' he added to thesupermodel robot that hovered at his side, `it's very nice.But what's it for?'

   `Liberation!' said Garaman dramatically. `Think of it as

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the pearl in the oyster of this station.'

    `Abandoned your light-and-dark metaphors, have you?Don't blame you really they were getting a bit strained.So we're onto the seafood ones now, are we? Don't beshellfish, Garaman tell us what it's for.' He grinned athis own joke, but no one else did. `Suit yourselves,' hegrumped. `Why's this place so important?'

    Garaman dropped his shoulders mockingly.

    `Oh, very well,' he said. `If I must...'

    `Oh you must,' encouraged the Doctor. `You reallymust.'

    `You don't want to have a guess? Oh come on, Doctor,you must have some idea. After all, you're a clever man.'

    The Doctor was surprised.

    `You mean this whole station isn't just a place for youlot to hide? Not a nice little pied-à-terre for you to hole upin whilst the galaxy goes to hell in a hand-basket?'

    `You really think I have the patience to wait for that?'

    `Well,' mused the Doctor. `Considering it's been hidingin a black hole for all these years, you must have somepretty good temporal and gravitational shielding. Youcould gather all your little followers together and sit insideSentilli, waiting for the galaxy to go to war, the machinesto be defeated, and then come out and, what, barely amonth would have gone past.'

    `It's always an option,' Garaman conceded. `But no.I'm not that patient, Doctor. Nor am I that convinced that,if such a war between organics and inorganics came, thatour side would be victorious.'

    The Doctor thought for a moment and then pulled his

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face into a shrug.

   `Nope, you've stumped me there. Come on spill thebeans. What's this place for?'

   `I'm disappointed, Doctor, I really am.'

   `Oh, stop gloating,' the Doctor snapped. `It's veryunattractive. We all have our off days.'

   Garaman thought for a moment and then nodded,beckoning to the supermodel robot. It stepped forward,silently.

   `Access Garaman AC001,' he said to the robot.

   Instantly, the machine raised its right arm, palm up, andpushed up the sleeve on its immaculately tailored jacket. Along, thin panel opened in its arm. And with the faint hissof compressed air, a slender, black-and-yellow-stripedcylinder rose out of the slot. Garaman took it and thepanel closed before the robot lowered its arm.

   `This,' Garaman said, handing the cylinder to Mesanthwho took it in trembling fingers, `is the activator.'

   The Doctor deftly reached into the inside pocket of hisjacket and pulled out his glasses. He popped them on hisnose, pushed them right up with the tip of his finger, andpeered at the device.

   `The activator?'

   Garaman smiled like a cat that had just trapped thebiggest, juiciest mouse in the house. And then discoveredit was filled with cream.

   He turned to Mesanth and handed him the cylinder.

   `How long will it take?' Garaman asked.

   `Half an hour or so,' Mesanth answered, his voicemusical with excitement. It seemed like he'd already

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forgotten all the deaths. The Doctor felt suddenly andstrangely sad.

    `Plenty of time to fill you in on the details, then,'beamed Garaman to the Doctor. He looked up at Mesanth,clutching the activator in his trembling fingers. `Go on I'll be up later.'

    With a last glance at the Doctor, Mesanth set offtowards a broad, spiral staircase at the far side of theplatform. The Doctor scanned upwards to where it reachedan overhead gantry, but the darkness shrouded everythingup there.

    `Where's Mesanth off to, then? Anywhere nice?'

    `He's off to finish installing and calibrating theactivator.' Garaman almost clapped his hands together inglee. `Ah, yes! I was just about to tell you what theactivator does, wasn't I?'

    `Finally,' said the Doctor, eyes rolling. `Your masterplan.'

    `Yes,' said a familiar voice from the darkness. `Tell usabout your master plan, Garaman. We're all ears.'

    And out of the shadows that surrounded the platformstepped Donna: behind her were Boonie, Kellique, Mother and the little robot from Junk, the one that hadthreatened him.

    `Donna!'

    `Doctor!' laughed Donna.

    `Good to see you,' the Doctor said, grinning broadly,`although your timing could have been better. As theGinger Goddess, I'd have thought you'd have knownbetter.'

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   `Never mention that again,' she said with a raisedeyebrow. `And anyway, my timing's always perfect,' sheinsisted, as Boonie pulled a gun from the holster at hiswaist and aimed it fair and square at Garaman.

   `But Garaman was just about to tell me his plan foruniversal domination, weren't you?' He turned toGaraman who glowered at him coldly, clearly not surewhat to do now.

   `Mechanical!' Garaman commanded suddenly. `Protectme!'

   Moving so quickly it was almost a blur, the supermodelrobot positioned itself between Boonie and Garaman,raised its arms, and began to advance on Boonie. But ithad gone scarcely a step, knocking the gun from Boonie'shand and sending it flying into the darkness around them,when Mother made her move. Almost as swiftly as thesupermodel had acted, Mother took a couple of huge stepsforward and slapped the robot across the side of the head.With an almighty crash of metal, the robot's blonde headleft its shoulders in a shower of sparks and went tumblingaway into the darkness; the rest of its body, taking upsome of the momentum of the mighty swing, flew acrossthe platform and toppled onto one side, arms flappingabout pathetically.

   The little boxy robot raised its hands to its face andcovered its eyes.

   `Oh dear,' it muttered. `I hate real violence. It's not likeon TV at all, is it? At least there's no oil that'd just begross!'

   Garaman took a step back, realising that he was

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outnumbered and overpowered. He glanced up into thedarkness, clearly trying to see where Mesanth was.

   `You know,' said the Doctor, `I almost feel sorry foryou both. I mean, all these years of planning, all thiseffort. And for what? The irony of being beaten by amechanical? Just Mesanth to sort out and we can all behome in time for tea. Now, Ms Noble, what about thathug?'

   `Don't I get one too?' came another voice and fromout of the darkness stepped Li'ian, her face and the bluedress she wore smeared with dirt and oil. There was a tearin one sleeve: she looked like she'd been through thewars.

   `Li'ian!' cried Donna. `We thought you were dead!'

   `How did you get off the ship?' asked Boonieincredulously.

   `Oh, I imagine she used the transmat,' said the Doctorblithely. `Once she knew that The Sword of Justice wasabout to get its edge blunted. Why don't you tell them,Li'ian?' He folded his arms and narrowed his eyes. `Tellthem how you're actually one of the Cult of ShiningDarkness.'

   `What?' frowned Donna, looking between the two ofthem.

   `Oh, there's a lot of secrets round here, aren't there?'He flicked a glance at Boonie, but Li'ian gave a wry smile before whipping a gun out of her pocket, grabbingDonna by the arm and pulling her close. She pressed thetip of the gun barrel to Donna's temple and dragged herback to the edge of the platform, making sure she could

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see everyone clearly, and that no one could sneak up onher.

    `Ha!' exclaimed Garaman, clapping his hands togethertriumphantly. `Well done, Li'ian!'

    Li'ian threw him a scornful look.

    `Oh shut up,' she said and shot him, right between theeyes.

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    Just when she thought she had the whole thing sussed, it

    went and got all complicated again.

       The journey from The Sword of Justice to the space

    station had been a rackety, terrifying one, even with

    Kellique at the thruster controls. They had no idea

    whether Mother had damaged the pod as she'd freed it,

    though. Every second of the trip, Donna had been

    expecting the pod to suddenly spin out of control, or begin

    leaking air or explode or something. And they had no idea

    whether Mother had managed to cling on, or whether,

    even now, her atomised remains were mingling with the

    wreckage of The Sword.

       A tiny videoscreen had showed them their approach to

    the station as, with deft hands, Kellique had spun the pod

    about and backed it up to the station's own airlock.

    Fortunately, thought Donna, whoever had designed all

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these ships and escape pods had thought to fit them withadaptable `universal' docks, something she wished werethe case with her mobile, her camera, her mp3 player andher computer at home. When she got back, she'd bewriting a few choice emails to the manufacturers...

   But she needn't have worried: by the time the pod hadlocked on and the airlock opened, Mother was alreadyaboard the station, waiting to greet them like an oversized,metallic bouncer. She'd almost expected the robot to raisea hand and say, `If your name's not down, you're notcoming in.'

   It hadn't taken them long to find the control centre Weiou had interfaced with the station's main computer toget directions and here they were, waist-deep in intrigueand mystery.

   Again.

   Admittedly, thought Donna, she could perhaps havewaited a few seconds for that little creep Garaman toexplain his master plan; but strike while the iron's hot, shethought. If the gun against her head went off, it wouldn'tjust be the iron that was hot. Way to go, Noble, shethought. Way to go.

   Only it was Li'ian holding the gun to her head, andGaraman lying dead at their feet. Could this galaxy getany more upside down?

   `You harm a hair on her head,' said the Doctor,pocketing his specs and glaring at Li'ian, `and even theAndromeda galaxy won't be big enough to hide in,believe me.'

   `What's going on?' wailed Weiou. `Oh dear, this isn't

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good, is it?'

   `Not for you it isn't,' said Li'ian. `No.'

   `Donna's on our side,' Boonie protested, clearly notbelieving that Li'ian could be one of the Cultists.

   `She's on your side,' Li'ian corrected him. `Now shutup or I'll drill a hole in her head like I did with Garaman.'

   Stunned, Boonie could only comply. Donna noticedMother shifting her weight from foot to foot. She wasn'tthe only one that noticed.

   `If Mother makes a move,' Li'ian warned, `Donna dies.Keep that in mind.'

   `What the Hell is going on, Li'ian?' Boonie demanded.`We're on your side.'

   `Oh, I don't think you were ever on the same side, wereyou Li'ian?' asked the Doctor, folding his arms.

   `So whose side's she on?' asked Kellique, her eyes onGaraman's body.

   `I think Li'ian has her own agenda, don't you? Youwere working with Garaman before, weren't you? Plantedwith the anti-Cultists to keep an eye on them, find outwhat they knew and make sure they didn't get too closeand at the same time thought they were right on it.'

   Li'ian just smiled.

   `You were the one that took control of our little friendover there.' He nodded in the direction of Weiou whopulled another astonished face. `Quite a robotics expertyourself. When you showed me those records, the ones ofKhnu's history, you did a good job of removing yourname from them all. I might not have suspected anything.'

   `So what gave her away?' asked Boonie, still clearly

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confused.

   `You might have edited out all the textual references toyourself, but you missed one of the pictures. There's avery nice one of you and Khnu smiling together atacybernetics conference on Cita. Lovely picture, too. Andfor someone so opposed to them, you were a little bit tooadmiring when you spoke of her achievements, as well ashaving rather too much knowledge about the segments ofthe can-opener.' He caught sight of Donna's puzzled face.`The thing that opened up the black hole and let this littlebeauty out.'

   `Very good, Doctor,' said Li'ian. `Very clever. Still...too little, too late, really.'

   `So why kill Garaman?' Kellique asked.

   `Because he was an idiot,' Li'ian said simply. `Andbecause he didn't fully appreciate the potential of what wehave here. Not like Khnu did.'

   `Oh yes,' said the Doctor. `That. What exactly do wehave here? Garaman was about to explain it all when youput the final full stop to his sentence, as it were.'

   Li'ian manoeuvred Donna around to make sure no onecould sneak up on her.

   `How much do you know about the mechanet?' Li'ianasked.

   `Ooh!' said Weiou, sticking one hand in the air. `Iknow! I know!'

   `Go on,' said the Doctor, trying not to laugh at the littlerobot's enthusiasm. `Tell us about it. What's your name?'

   `I'm Weiou,' said the robot, `and the mechanet is--'

   `It's like the internet, but for robots,' cut in Donna

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grimly, feeling Li'ian's grip on her arm and the gun stillagainst her head.

    `Oi!' called Weiou. `I was going to say that!' A poutyface appeared on his screen for a moment. `It's like theinternet, but for robots. Well,' Weiou added. `For somerobots. Us sensible ones keep away from it, apart fromwhen we need to sync our internal clocks or downloadsoftware upgrades.' He pulled another face. `Generally,it's just full of nerds and losers complaining about howmachinekind's not as good as it used to be, or circulatingrumours about "organic agendas" and nonsense like that.'

    `And what's your interest in it, then?' the Doctoraddressed Li'ian.

    `Our little appliance there's selling the mechanet short,'she said, `although it does have a point. Its main feature isthat almost every mechanical in the galaxy apart fromthe most basic servitors and appliances hook up to it atleast once a week. They claim that they're all above it,like Weiou does, but they can't help firing up theirtransspatial links and having a quick poke about.'

    Weiou's cartoon mouth had dropped open, as if inshock.

    `And don't make out that you don't, Weiou,' Li'iansaid. `Robotic communications is my field, after all. WhenI was pretending to run diagnostics on you before, I had agood old root around in your memories. If people knewsome of the things you'd been, ahem, "researching" on themechanet they'd be very surprised.'

    To Donna's surprise, two little patches of red swelledup on Weiou's onscreen cheeks.

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   `Oh stop embarrassing him,' said the Doctordefensively. `So, this mechanet...' He paused as therealisation of Li'ian's plan hit him. `Ahhhh... I'm aheadof you now.'

   `Only just,' said Li'ian dryly. She was manoeuvringDonna around the platform, towards the staircase upwhich Mesanth had disappeared.

   `This activator thingy,' the Doctor continued, hands inpockets, `it's going to give you the power to reach into theheads of almost every robot in the galaxy and turn it off,isn't it?' He pulled a face. `The Bishop convertors that'swhy you need them. To broadcast across the entire galaxysimultaneously takes more than a five-volt battery.Genocide at the flick of a switch.'

   `That would be just too easy,' Li'ian said, cruellaughter in her voice. `That was his plan.' She gestured,quickly, with the tip of her gun at Garaman's body. `Theyhad the right ideals, they just couldn't take them the extrastep that they should have done.'

   The Doctor fixed Li'ian with a steely gaze.

   `That extra step... Aaaah... you don't want to just turnoff all the mechanicals, do you?' He paused, narrowing hiseyes. `You want to control them.' He sounded almostadmiring.

   `Finally!' laughed Li'ian. `Yes why waste such aresource. Robots, mechanicals, machine intelligences everywhere, throughout the galaxy. If I just turn them off,someone will come along and develop new ones, onesresistant to the activator. Or they'll find a way toreprogram themselves or cut off the mechanet's signals.

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No, I can't let that happen. Once I have control, Doctor, Ihave to keep control. I have to make sure that themachines can never again have the upper hand. And thereare robot races out there that have no contact with themechanet at all I'll need troops to overcome them.'

   `You take control of the galaxy, using non-organics asyour army, your police force, just to make sure that yourown little warped view of what's right and what's wrongprevails?'

   He scratched the back of his neck thoughtfully.

   `As audacious schemes go, I have to give it to you this one's up there with the best of them.'

   `From you, Doctor, that's quite a compliment.'

   `It isn't meant as one.' His voice hardened. `Have youany idea of the suffering and death you'll cause when youturn on the activator, never mind the suffering and deathyou'll inflict when you actually start to build your littleempire of steel? All over the galaxy, maintenance robots,healthcare machines, aircraft, spacecraft cars themoment you take control of them, they'll all stop working,like that.' He snapped his fingers. `People will die in theirmillions, Li'ian. And that'll only be a taste of what's tocome once you start.'

   All Li'ian could do was shrug. Donna clenched her jawand started to move, but Li'ian pressed the tip of her gunback against her temple. Slowly and carefully, Li'ian wasbacking up the staircase, taking her with her.

   `Don't try anything,' she whispered. And then, moreloudly so that everyone could hear: `You're probablyweighing up whether it's worth risking Donna's life for

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the sake of however many it is you think will die. I'ddispute your figures, of course, but I rather suspect thatmy position's getting weaker by the second. Mesanthshould be well advanced with the installation by now, and of course I'd rather like to be the one that pushes thebutton.'

   `He's a decent sort, Mesanth,' said the Doctor. `A bitdoolally when it comes to all this organic-versus-inorganicnonsense, but I reckon that when he finds out what yourplan is, how much death you'll be causing to organics aswell as non-organics he might have a change of heart.'

   `No need for him to hear any of this. By the time Idecide to tell him if I do it'll be all done and dusted.'

   Li'ian pulled Donna up a few more steps, twisting thepair of them around so that they were still facing theDoctor and the others, staring up at them from theplatform.

   `You do realise,' called the Doctor, `that I can't let youdo this. Donna or no Donna, I can't let you use thatactivator.'

   `Yes, I do,' replied Li'ian as they moved up anotherstep. `And I know that the moment my attention'sdiverted, you'll be up these stairs after me. So I think thatright now might be a good time for a little diversion anda taste of what's to come.'

   Donna felt Li'ian shift behind her.

   `Lights!' she shouted into the darkness, and suddenly,the entire area was flooded with painfully bright light.Donna raised an arm to shelter her eyes. As she blinked,she could see her friends, down on the platform, doing the

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same, looking around them, wondering what washappening.

   But Donna had the best view: standing in silentconcentric rows around the platform were robots. Dozensand dozens and dozens of the blonde supermodel robots.They stretched away to the far walls of the chamber, alldressed identically, each with its geometrically perfectblonde bob and its cold, emotionless eyes.

   `Mine,' Li'ian said softly so that only Donna could hearher. `All mine. Say goodbye to your friends, Donna.'

   They'd reached the gantry at the top of the staircaseand Li'ian pressed the gun into the back of Donna's neckas she turned her towards an open door.

   `Mechanicals!' Donna heard Li'ian shout down into thechamber. `Deactivate audio and wireless links. Locate thefive newcomers on the platform. And kill them.'

   The last thing Donna saw before the door slid shut wasthe Doctor, looking up at her, as the robots began theiradvance.

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    `Oh my,' said Weiou, scuttling between Mother's legs,

    as if that might provide protection from the hundreds and

    hundreds of robots surrounding them.

       `Oh my, indeed,' echoed the Doctor. `And Donna still

    has the sonic screwdriver...'

       With a sinisterly synchronised stamping of their feet,

    the robots drew closer, the first ones already on the steps

    leading up to the platform. Their cold, blue eyes stared

    ahead of them, utterly free of any malice or compassion.

    They were simply doing as they'd been ordered. It

    reminded him of the Jaftee on Karris only this time it

    was him that was at the heart of it all, and he had no

    Ginger Goddess to protect him.

       `Back!' called the Doctor, gesturing towards the spiral

    staircase up which Li'ian had just taken Donna. `It's the

    only way out. Move!'

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   The Doctor noticed how Mother was turning her headthis way and that, clearly trying to work out whether shecould protect the rest of them at the same time as fightingoff as many of the robots as she could. But the Doctorknew it was an impossible task. And he knew that Motherknew it was an impossible task. They were approachingfrom all directions, and they had the sheer weight ofnumbers on their side, despite Mother's bulk.

   `Weiou!' the Doctor said turning to the little robot thatwas already clambering up the stairs. `You're good atinterfacing with stuff, aren't you? Technology, machines.'He raised an eyebrow. `Robots?'

   `Um,' replied Weiou cautiously, rotating the upper halfof his body so that it faced him. `Maybe.'

   The sound of crashing came from behind him, and theDoctor turned briefly to see one of the robots flyingthrough the air, a mass of tangled arms and legs. As hewatched, Mother reached out and whacked another one,sending it careering into its fellows.

   `What can you tell us about these?'

   Weiou's cartoon face scrunched up in exaggeratedeffort.

   `I can access their ID tags, but that dreadful woman'sturned off all inputs, like she said.'

   `And...?'

   More robots crashed behind him.

   `They're Meeta-Corrin humaniform servitors, modelDF181B. Lipanov rating 23. That's about it. And thenloads of dull stuff about the software they're running.'

   At Weiou's words, there was a deep, electronic hum

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from Mother.

    `What?' asked the Doctor, turning and looking up at thebehemoth. She'd stopped battering the robots and theywere again drawing closer. Boonie and Kellique werestanding on the staircase a few steps up, looking confused.

    `Meeta-Corrin,' said Boonie. `That's the company thatmade Mother. It's where we rescued her from.'

    The Doctor turned back to Mother as her head turnedslowly, as if she were seeing the robots in a new light.

    Suddenly, in front of her and just visible to theDoctor from where he stood a rectangle of pink lightflickered, like an old-fashioned TV set warming up.Mother had activated her projector.

    >THEY ARE RUNNING SOFTWARE CONTAININGHEURISTICS DERIVED FROM ME.

    It took the Doctor a second to realise what Mother wassaying.

    `These are your children?'

    >GRANDCHILDREN              MIGHT         BE     MOREACCURATE.

    The Doctor raised his eyebrows, suddenly realising thatthis revelation could place them in a very dangerousposition: Mother was the only thing that stood betweenthe robots and them, and now she'd discovered that theywere her grandchildren.

    `You must be very proud,' he said dryly, as Motheractually took a step back, away from the approachinghorde of blonde hair and sharp tailoring. `Any chance youcould, oh, I dunno, tell them to go to their rooms?Sometimes works, you know.'

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    >LI'IAN ANTICIPATED SUCH A POSSIBILITY,flickered the red letters. Beyond them, the robots drewcloser. HAD SHE NOT DISABLED PRIMARY ANDAUDITORY INPUTS, I COULD HAVE ACCESSEDROOT COMMAND STRUCTURES.

    The robots were now moving across the platform, theirsteps still eerily in sync, their eyes cold and dead. Mothertook a step forward and swiped another three of the robotsoff the platform and into their comrades. The othersstepped over the fallen ones and kept on coming.

    `Mother' said the Doctor quietly, putting his hand onher steel arm. `You don't have to do this, you know. Notnow we know...'

    >I KNOW.

    The letters winked silently for a second.

    >IF I DO NOT DEFEND US, WE WILL BE KILLED.

    `They're your grandchildren,' the Doctor reminded her,waving Boonie, Kellique and Weiou further up thestaircase.

    >THEY          ARE         ALSO         NON-SENTIENTMECHANICALS. THEY ARE INCAPABLE OFFEELING PAIN OR DISTRESS OR BETRAYAL.

    `I know,' said the Doctor gently. `But you're not.'

    Another robot got within reach of Mother, and with adisturbing casualness, she reached out and swatted itaway: it went flying into the ones behind it, scatteringthem like bowling pins. Silently, they clambered back totheir feet and resumed their advance. It seemed likeMother had made her decision.

    >GO, Mother flashed. STOP LI'IAN.

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   `I'm not leaving you. There must be--'

   He stopped dead as something occurred to him something, in hindsight, that seemed blindingly obvious.Ironically so.

   `Mother!' he said urgently, his words tumbling overeach other. `Access to their command pathways how doyou get it? I mean, what would you have to do alpha-numerics?'

   >A 256-CHARACTER STRING TRANSMITTED TOTHEM.

   `Ha!' cried the Doctor triumphantly.

   `What's with the "Ha!"?' scowled Boonie from the topof the staircase. `They're not accepting wirelesscommands and they're as deaf as posts--' Boonie stoppedas he realised what had occurred to the Doctor. A grinbroke across his face. `But they're not blind!'

   `Correctamundo oh...' The Doctor's face fell. `I wasnever going to say that again. But yes, they're not blind.That's one input that Li'ian couldn't disable not if shedidn't want them walking into walls. Mother! Is there anychance that you could have a word with the grandkids show them the access code?'

   `Doctor!' Boonie called down the staircase. `Yourealise that it won't just send the servitors to sleep, don'tyou?'

   `What?'

   `If Mother sends the code, they'll shut down forgood.'

   `Oh.' The Doctor ran his hand through his hair andlooked up at Mother. `Your call,' he whispered. `We'll

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understand if you don't want to, you know.'

   >YOU THINK OF THIS AS MURDER?

   The Doctor didn't know how to answer.

   >THINK OF THEM AS OUT-OF-CONTROLLAWNMOWERS.

   `Well,' said the Doctor, not at all convinced. `Whenyou put it like that...'

   Mother gave a satisfied little hum as she felledanother couple of the blonde robots and suddenly a greatlong string of numbers and letters flickered across herholographic screen, faster than the eye could follow.

   `Don't worry,' the Doctor called up to the others.`They're fast readers.'

   The code continued to scroll along the screen, thecharacters just a blur now, as Mother turned on the spot, atthe very foot of the staircase, to make sure all thesupermodel robots had seen it.

   In waves, the robots just stopped.

   No fuss, no noise, they just stopped.

   First the ones at the front, the ones who had the bestview of Mother's projection. And as she turned, more andmore of them saw the command string. Silently, andinstantly, Mother's code infiltrated the robots' processorcores, and turned them off for good.

   The silence was deafening.

   `I'm sorry you had to do that,' the Doctor said, lookingup at Mother. `But thank you. Who better than agrandmother to know what buttons to press to shut thegrandchildren up, eh?'

   `Oh,' said Weiou, peering out from behind Kellique.

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   `Yes!'

   He punched the air.

                           ***

     `You know what really gets me,' said Donna as Li'ianpushed her through the door into a room, `is that I fell forit.'

     `Don't beat yourself up,' Li'ian said with a cold smile,motioning with the gun for Donna to move away. Theywere in a brightly lit room, more like an operating theatrethan the grungy industrial theme that the rest of the stationseemed to have been decorated in. It lay off a longcorridor at the top of the staircase. From down below,Donna could still hear the sound of the robots, stompingand crashing. So far she'd heard no screams or sounds thatanyone had been hurt anyone organic. But with the sheernumbers of supermodels, that could only be a matter oftime.

     `And what's worse,' she added, fixing the surprisedMesanth with a hard glare, `is that the Doctor did too.'

     `Which only proves my point,' Li'ian said. `If it's thateasy to make you think that I believe that mechanicals aresentient, why is it so hard for you to believe that they'vepulled the same trick with organics. I fooled you; they arefooling everyone. Well,' she added with a smug smile.`Not everyone. Mesanth how're you doing?'

     The lizard was standing at a complex-looking console,all three of his hands moving over the controls. Donnacould see the striped cylinder of the activator, looking like

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a cross between a wasp and a particularly large sausage,on the console in front of him.

   `I'm not happy,' he said, his normally animated voiceflat and controlled.

   `You don't have to be happy,' Li'ian said, waving thegun casually, making a point. `You just have to do thejob.'

   `No, Mesanth, you don't,' cut in Donna. `You don'thave to do what this mad cow says at all. Come on! Thinkabout it think of all the death--'

   There was a sharp, high-pitched buzz and a section ofthe wall alongside Donna exploded in tiny sparks, leavingan acrid smell in the air and a wisp of smoke.

   `Shut up,' said Li'ian, waving the gun that had justalmost killed her. `Mesanth might have scruples aboutkilling you, but I don't.'

   Donna glared at her, and then looked back at Mesanth,imploring him with her eyes not to continue.

   `Where's Garaman?' asked Mesanth, casting his eyes tothe window that ran along the length of the laboratory.

   `He got cold feet,' Li'ian said, holding Donna's gaze asshe spoke, unspoken threat in her eyes.

   `About what?'

   `It doesn't matter now he's no longer part of the plan.And the plan's... changed.'

   `How?' Mesanth's voice was getting higher in pitch.Donna could tell he was on the edge of being hystericalagain. His hands trembled as he operated the controls infront of him.

   `We're not just going to turn off the mechanicals,' she

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said, keeping her eyes steady on his. `We're going to takecontrol of them.'

   `What? Why? What was wrong with Khnu's originalplan?' Mesanth's voice shot up half an octave.

   `Oh, you idiot, Mesanth,' sighed Li'ian. `That wasKhnu's original plan.'

   `What?' Mesanth's voice jumped up another half anoctave.

   `Well, our plan. She thought it through: turn off all themechanicals and before you know it, someone wouldcome up with a workaround. Days, weeks and we'dhave a whole new load of mechanicals immune to theactivator. We'd be back where we started. Khnu knew thatthis was the one chance to gain control and keepcontrol.'

   `But we could do something,' he said plaintively.`Work something out...' He tailed off, not knowing howto finish the sentence.

   `You're starting to think like the promechanicals,' saidLi'ian tiredly. `Before you know it you'll be starting todoubt your own convictions. This is how they work,Mesanth.' She tapped the gun against her own temple.`They get in here, start making you doubt what youbelieve.' She waved the gun at the console and theactivator. `Just finish, Mesanth, and then we can leavehere go out into the galaxy, heads held high. Liberators.'

   Donna opened her mouth to say something, hoping thatthe embers of decency that she'd seen in Mesanth couldbe fanned into a flame; but Li'ian saw her and aimed thegun fair and square at her head.

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   `One more word,' she said softly.

   The Doctor shooed Kellique, Boonie and Weiou up thestairs ahead of them.

   `I'm sorry,' he said to Mother, surveying the chamberfull of fallen and frozen robots. `If there had been anotherway...'

   >NO APOLOGIES NECESSARY, flashed Mother.THEY WERE NOT SENTIENT AND THERE IS MOREAT STAKE THAN MY FEELINGS.

   The Doctor shook his head and rubbed the back of hisneck.

   `You know,' he said, `I'm not sure I'll ever reallyunderstand the machine mind.'

   >I KNOW, replied Mother. WE ARE MUCH MORECOMPLEX THAN YOU ORGANICS.

   The Doctor narrowed his eyes.

   `You have a very dry sense of humour, you know that?'He reached up high and slapped her on the back. `Comeon let's go and sort Li'ian out before she plunges yourgalaxy into a somewhat less-than-shining darkness!'

   The others were waiting for them when they arrived:Mother had found it easier to clamber up the outside ofthe spiral staircase because of her bulk. The corridor,though, was high enough for her to stand upright.

   It didn't take them long to find Li'ian, Donna andMesanth: they were in a brightly lit room, a laboratory,with a huge window facing out onto the corridor. Li'iangave a start when she saw them, and the Doctor could seethe fury flare in her eyes.

   `Mother didn't take kindly to her grandchildren running

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amok,' the Doctor called through the intercom set into thedoorframe. `Had to have a quiet word with them. They'retaking a nap.'

   `Doctor!' called Donna, waving.

   `Destiny seems to want to keep us apart,' said theDoctor. `Like Romeo and Juliet.'

   Donna flashed a none-too-convincing smile.

   `Don't push it,' she said.

   `Fair enough. Anyway, Li'ian, I take it you're holdingDonna at gunpoint and will threaten to shoot her if wedon't go away and leave you in peace. That about sum itup?'

   `It'll do,' agreed Li'ian, showing the Doctor her gun.

   A few metres away, Mesanth busied himself with theactivator, risking a nervous glance over his shoulder. Hewas visibly shaking.

   `You don't have to do this--' the Doctor started to say.

   `Been there,' Donna cut in. `Done that. Got the brush-off.'

   `And in case you're thinking of getting Mother tosmash her way in,' called Li'ian, `I should point out thereinforcement that's gone into this room's construction.Nothing short of a bomb will get you in here. And in, ooh,about ten minutes, the activator will be ready and it'll betoo late.' She smiled, almost sadly.

   The Doctor shoved his hands deep in his pockets andshrugged.

   `Well it's a good job that we've got a bomb, then, isn'tit?'

   `We've got a bomb?' said Weiou, who kept jumping up

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and down in order to see what was going on in theactivator room. `Where?'

   The Doctor looked at Boonie.

   `Are you going to tell them, or shall I?'

   `What?' Boonie suddenly looked very evasive. `Whatbomb?'

   `A bomb?' echoed Kellique.

   `And not just any bomb,' said the Doctor. `Anantimatter bomb. An antimatter bomb that will take outthis whole station.' He paused, his eyes wide. `That's abig bomb.'

   `You're bluffing,' laughed Li'ian. `And not very well.'

   `A bomb?' repeated Kellique pointedly.

   `Tell her, Boonie,' said the Doctor.

   Boonie just looked from the Doctor to Kellique andthen to Mother, where his gaze stayed.

   `I don't know what you're talking about,' he said.

   `Oh, I think you do,' countered the Doctor. `I think youknow exactly what I mean. Go on, Boonie tell us allabout the bomb. The one that you hid inside Mother.'

   There was a stunned silence: everyone's eyes flicked toMother and then back to Boonie.

   `What? I don't know what he's talking about. He'smad.'

   But there was a tremor, an uncertainty in his voice thatkept everyone's eyes on him.

   `You might as well tell them, Boonie,' said the Doctor.`In a few minutes, Li'ian's going to turn that thing on andmillions and billions of the machines that you've devotedthe last few years of your life to protecting are going to

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die. It might be the only way to stop her, mightn't it?That's why you put it there, after all. No need to be aretiring bride on the day of your wedding.' He glancedthrough the window at Donna and pulled a face. `Not mybest metaphor, but still...'

   Boonie looked at them all, and his shoulders sagged. `Iwas going to tell you,' he said awkwardly, looking up atMother.

   `What?' twittered Weiou, turning this way and that totry to follow the conversation. `Tell who what?'

   `Were you?' asked the Doctor of Boonie. `When wereyou going to find the right time to tell Mother that you'dhidden a bomb inside her? Not the kind of thing you canjust throw into the conversation, is it? "Oooh, look at thatbeautiful nebula oh, and by the way, there are a fewgrams of antimatter tucked away inside you waiting forme to detonate them." Bit of a showstopper, that one, isn'tit?'

   `How did you know?' asked Boonie, his eyes narrowand suspicious.

   `When I was aboard your ship, me and Mother had abit of a chat and I happened to notice it.'

   Boonie looked shocked understandably, thought theDoctor.

   `I'm sorry,' he said, falteringly, to Mother. `I didn'tthink I'd ever have to... use it.'

   >THAT IS HARD TO BELIEVE, Mother flashed incrimson letters. YOU MUST HAVE CONSIDERED THEPOSSIBILITY THAT YOU WOULD HAVE TO USE IT.

   `It's not like that,' Boonie said, clasping his head in

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frustration. `It was just an insurance policy. I didn't knowwhat the Cultists were up to I had no idea what wasgoing to happen. I had to...' He shook his head, realisinghow weak his own arguments sounded. `I had to be able tostop them.'

   >WE WERE FRIENDS.

   `We were we are.' Boonie shook his head, unable tomake eye contact with Mother.

   >FRIENDS DO NOT TURN EACH OTHER INTOBOMBS.

   `If I could have implanted it in myself, I would havedone.'

   >THAT MAY BE TRUE. BUT YOU COULD HAVETOLD ME.

   `I was scared you'd say no,' Boonie said. He blinkedaway the beginnings of tears and rubbed his nose with theback of his hand.

   >THAT IS A RISK WITH TELLING THE TRUTH.BUT IT IS ALWAYS PREFERABLE TO A LIE. THATYOU WOULD BE WILLING TO KILL ME, EVEN INTHE PURSUIT OF PREVENTING THE CULT FROMACHIEVING THEIR ENDS, IS A DISTURBINGTHOUGHT. PERHAPS YOU ARE CLOSER TO THECULT OF SHINING DARKNESS THAN YOUBELIEVE.

   `No, no. I'm nothing like them.'

   >WOULD YOU HAVE BEEN SO WILLING TOIMPLANT THE BOMB IN AN ORGANIC? MYMACHINE NATURE MAKES ME DIFFERENT.DISPOSABLE?

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    `It's not like that,' Boonie pleaded again. `If I'd everhad to use it, I would have been there by your side, rightat the end. I couldn't have put it in myself it would haveshown up on all sorts of scanners. Inside you, no onewould have been able to tell that it wasn't part of you.'

    `What's going on?' called Li'ian, and the Doctorrealised that from where she stood she wouldn't be able tosee Mother's display screen: all she would have heardwould have been Boonie's side of the conversation,relayed through the intercom.

    `Oh, just talking amongst ourselves,' the Doctor saidairily. `Antimatter bombs, friendship, that sort of thing.Getting a bit soapy to be quite honest, but hey, what canyou do? With you in a mo.'

    `Explosions always make me feel bilious,' mutteredWeiou. `There's not going to be one, is there?'

    >THAT IS BOONIE'S DECISION, Mother said. HEHAS THE ACTIVATION CODE FOR THE BOMB. IFHE CHOOSES TO USE IT, I CANNOT STOP HIM.

    Boonie looked from Mother to the Doctor.

    `What do we do?' he asked, almost in a whisper. Hisface was blank, streaked with tears that cut pale tracksthrough the dirt and grime of their escape from The Swordof Justice.

    `Dunno,' said the Doctor casually, rubbing the back ofhis neck. `You're the one with the code for the bomb.' Herapped on the window. `Mesanth sorry to bother you,but how long have we got left before your littleArmageddon-o-matic kicks in?'

    `Five minutes,' said Mesanth. He didn't look happy.

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Li'ian threw him an angry look.

   `Doctor!' called Donna. `I'm sure you've goteverything well in hand out there; but all this talk ofbombs and stuff is making me just a bit edgy.'

   `He's bluffing,' said Li'ian. `I know his type.'

   `And you're very good at that, aren't you,' the Doctorsaid sarcastically, `knowing types. That's how you think,isn't it? Forget individuals, forget people everyone's justa type to you.'

   The Doctor noticed the look of concern that passedacross Li'ian's face. Keeping the gun aimed at Donna, shemoved over to join Mesanth at his workstation andwhispered something to him.

   `Whisperers tell lies,' the Doctor taunted.

   Li'ian ignored him.

   `By my watch,' the Doctor said, looking at his wrist,`I'd say we've got about four and a half minutes beforeMad Mary in there flicks the switch. How long is thetimer on the bomb?'

   Boonie lifted his eyes from the floor. `A minute.'

   `Okaaaay,' said the Doctor. `So we've got three and ahalf minutes to bicker and argue and point blaming fingersbefore we have to decide.' He took a deep breath. `Good plenty of time then off you go: bicker away!'

   He folded his arms and leaned against the wall.Everyone stared at him in silence.

   `Go,' Boonie said suddenly. `All of you, go, find ashuttle me and Mother will stay.'

   The Doctor's shoulders fell.

   `Not the heroic sacrifice bit?' he said wearily. `Isn't that

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a bit old hat?'

    `Just go,' Boonie repeated. `We'll finish this place off,won't we, Mother?'

    He looked up at her, and the Doctor could see that therewere tears in his eyes again.

    >YES, she said, after a moment's consideration. I AMNOT HAPPY ABOUT THE DECEPTION, BUT YES,WE WILL. THIS IS MORE IMPORTANT THANEITHER OF US.

    `All of you,' Boonie said urgently. `Go.'

    The Doctor took a deep breath.

    `Well it's very nice of you to offer to blow yourselvesup, but we're all in this together, aren't we?'

    `Are we?' squeaked Weiou worriedly.

    `We are,' said the Doctor firmly. He looked through thewindow at Donna.

    `You ready to be blown to smithereens to preservegalactic peace, Donna?'

    `Oh yeah,' she called back blithely. `Always. Just likePompeii all over again, isn't it?'

    `Go on, then,' said Li'ian, smiling again. `I dare you.'

    `D'you hear that, Boonie? Mother? Li'ian's daring you!Not going to let her get away with that, are you?'

    Boonie looked up at Mother and then around at thelittle group gathered in the corridor. He caught theDoctor's eyes.

    `Activation code,' Boonie said, his voice audiblytrembling. `Shining Darkness 111.'

    Mother's      virtual    screen     flickered:    >CODEACCEPTED. CONFIRM?

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   For a moment, Boonie paused, and the Doctorwondered if he was actually going to go through with it. `

   Confirm,' he said.

   Abruptly, Mother's screen flickered again and turnedblood red. In large digits, the number 60 appeared inwhite, and as they watched, flicked over to 59. Motherturned so that Li'ian could see the display

   `It's a bluff,' she said, although the Doctor could seethat she suddenly wasn't so sure.

   `Your choice,' said the Doctor. `Fifty five seconds todecide whether it is or it isn't. You might be right itmight all be a clever plan cooked up between us.' Heexamined his fingernails. `Or it might not.'

   Li'ian leaned in close to Mesanth and said somethingurgently, although the Doctor couldn't catch the words.Donna, he saw, was looking for a chance to grab the gunfrom Li'ian, but when she caught sight of him, he gave atiny shake of his head.

   `You're right,' said Li'ian suddenly, moving to anothercontrol panel. `It might and it might not. And themoment I surrender, I imagine you'll cancel thecountdown.'

   `It can't be cancelled,' Boonie said grimly.

   `What?' wailed Weiou. `But I thought that was theplan! Oh my!'

   `Seriously?' asked the Doctor, his eyes wide.

   `Seriously,' Boonie said.

   Kellique's eyes matched the Doctor's.

   `We're going to die,' she gasped, grabbing Mother's legfor support. `What about escape shuttles?'

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    `Sorry,' said the Doctor. `I don't think ' he checked hiswatch again ` eighteen seconds would be enough to getto one.'

    There was a flurry of movement from within the room.Li'ian and Mesanth were unplugging bits and pieces fromthe console and gathering them up, including the waspycylinder of the activator.

    `Probably not,' Li'ian said grimly. `But it'll be enoughto transmat back to our ship. With this.' She held up theactivator as she jabbed at a control panel and spoke at it.

    `Bring us back!' she said, her eyes glintingtriumphantly.

    `Oh great!' enthused the Doctor without muchenthusiasm. `Just when the party's getting started!' Hefolded his arms grumpily. `Go on then, off you go. Leaveus here to clear up the cans and empty the ashtrays.'

    `I still think you're bluffing, Doctor,' Li'ian said,making sure she had all her bits and pieces. `But if thestation hasn't blown up in a few seconds, we'll be back.And if it has...' She gave a great big shrug. `It might takeus a few weeks or months to hook the activator intoanother transmitter powerful enough to do the job, butwe'll get there. We've come too far to be stopped now.' Ashimmering, snowy glow enveloped her and Mesanth.`And when we've finished in our galaxy,' she called, hervoice fading into sizzling static, `maybe we'll pay a visitto yours...'

    The glow built to a crescendo and then faded abruptly.Li'ian and Mesanth were gone. Everyone turned toMother and her countdown.

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   >5, it said.

   `Stop it!' cried Weiou. `Stop it! Go on I know that'syour plan. I know it is!'

   But the Doctor just looked down at the little robot andshook his head.

   `Sorry, Weiou. Boonie was right. I can't.'

   >4

   >3

   >2

   Inside the room, Donna rushed to the door, jabbing atthe buttons to open it.

   >1

   >0

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    `What happened?' asked Ogmunee, the moment that

    Mesanth and Li'ian materialised.

       `View screen on,' Li'ian barked. `Show me the station!'

       Ogmunee pulled a sniffy face but turned to the display

    controls anyway.

       `Oh,' he said, suddenly remembering something. `This

    thing I took from the Doctor.' He picked up a shiny red

    sphere, the size of a tangerine, from the console. `I've not

    been able to open it. It's just started flashing. Any idea

    what it--'

       In the vacuum of space, exploding spaceships make no

    sound: there's no air to carry the vibration. But anyone

    watching the Dark Light wouldn't have needed to hear it

    to know what immense energies had just been liberated.

       Within the red sphere, a magnetic containment field cut

    out, and a few billion atoms of matter were allowed, at

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long last, to mingle with a few billion atoms of antimatter.It was like long-lost friends meeting at a party. A veryloud, very noisy party. The sort of party that has theneighbours banging on the walls.

   A flower of intense blue-white light erupted at the frontof the ship, expanding like a star, expanding outwards andoutwards, consuming the rest of the vessel in less than asecond, blasting the remains far, far out into space until,like dying sparks, they flickered and went dark.

   Not even looking at Mother's screen, not wanting toknow the exact moment that her life ended, just wanting itto be quick and painless, Donna pressed herself againstthe Doctor in a hug that nearly knocked him off his feet.She buried her face in his chest, holding her breath,waiting for the end.

   As she waited, she felt a gentle tap on her shoulder andlooked up to see the Doctor looking down at her. A smiletwitched at the corner of his mouth.

   `Oh you git!' she said after a moment, pulling away andpunching him in the chest. `It was a bluff, wasn't it?' Shestared at him, open-mouthed. `You complete and uttergit!'

   `No,' he said, the smile subsiding. `It wasn't. And yes, Iprobably am.' He grinned rakishly. `A bit.'

   Donna looked up at Mother. Her screen had vanished.She looked around. Everyone was either staring in shockor just looking puzzled. And of them all, Boonie lookedthe most puzzled.

   `How did you...?' he said to Mother.

   `She didn't,' answered the Doctor, popping on his specs

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and slipping past them to enter the room where Li'ian andMesanth had been working on the activator. Theyfollowed him in.

   `So we're all dead and this is... the final upload?'whispered Weiou. He glanced at the Doctor and then,magically, a pair of glasses just like the Doctor's,appeared on his cartoon face. He reached out to touch awall as if he thought his fingers might go through it. `Ohmy.'

   `If it is,' said the Doctor, playing with the controls, `it'sa bit unimaginative, isn't it? There!' He waved at a screenon the console.

   The screen showed the blackness of space, pepperedwith a few cold, hard stars.

   `What's that, then?' asked Weiou.

   `That's what's left of the Cult of Shining Darkness.Ironic, eh?'

   `Uh?' Weiou leaned back to look up at him, peeringover his specs.

   `They've gone?' said Kellique. `Where?'

   `Where we're all going to go in the end.' The Doctorsounded almost regretful.

   `They're dead?' asked Donna.

   The Doctor just narrowed his lips.

   `The bomb,' said Boonie. `Mother's bomb. It was ontheir ship, wasn't it?'

   `I did tell Ogmunee that he really, really didn't want it,'said the Doctor, but there was no humour in his voice.`But some people just won't listen, will they?'

   `How?' Boonie shook his head. `I mean, when...?'

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   `When I found it inside her. It didn't fit. Not justphysically, but it was all wrong for her. So I...' He pulleda slightly sheepish face. `Pocketed it. She didn't evennotice it was there, never mind when it wasn't. And thenOgmunee took it off me.'

   Donna's eyes went wide.

   `Can I just say,' she said, `that if you're ever checkingme over and decide to remove one of my internal organs,on a whim, I'll have you struck off.' She fixed him with atwinkly glare. `You remember that, Doctor.'

   `That's one thing you can say for organic life forms they don't cope well with having bits of them taken out.'The Doctor took a deep breath. `Still...Live by the sword,die by the sword.'

   A heavy silence descended on them all as they stared atthe screen. Suddenly, the Doctor leaned forward andsquinted at it, before his fingers did a little dance over thekeyboard. The image leaped towards them: floating in themidst of the darkness was a familiar, welcoming shape.

   `Thank god!' sighed Donna, staring at the tumblingblue box. `I was trying to work out how to tell you that I'dlost the TARDIS.'

   `She's a hard thing to lose we can use one of thestation's shuttles to pick her up. And sooner rather thanlater. Wouldn't want her falling into Sentilli, now, wouldwe?'

   Donna linked her arm with the Doctor's. `No, wewouldn't. Let's go home, yeah?'

   `Home,' agreed the Doctor. `Give me a few minutes toget the engines going we'll send this thing back into

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Sentilli without its shields on. It'll be gone before youknow it. And after we collect the TARDIS and a quickstop-off to take our friends back to their homes, I think theold Milky Way beckons, don't you? Where's it going tobe, ladies and gentlemen? Uhlala? Dallendaf? Or...'

   `Pasquite!' cried Weiou suddenly. `Let's go to Pasquite!Can we? Can we?'

   `What's on Pasquite?' asked the Doctor.

   Weiou rolled his eyes behind his fake glasses.

   `D'uh!' he said. `Only the bestest machine theme parkin the galaxy. They've got a simulator that shows youwhat it's like to be organic all that Squidgie stuff. It'sreally gruesome, with blood and innards and sick and--'

   The Doctor raised a hand to cut the little robot off.`Sounds rather fun! Pasquite it is,' he grinned.

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    `Is that the end of them, then the Cult of Shining

    Darkness?'

       Donna and the Doctor stood by the TARDIS and

    watched the bizarre little group, led by a jumping,

    squeaking Weiou (who'd clearly become so attached to his

    new specs that Donna suspected he'd be wearing them for

    ever), head off into the distance. In the valley below them

    was the biggest theme park she'd ever seen. From a long

    way off, they could hear the cheers and screams from a

    thousand mechanicals, all keen to find out what it was like

    to be a Squidgie.

       `Shouldn't think so,' said the Doctor. `It's a state of

    mind more than an organisation. There'll be millions more

    like them out there. Thinking the same, mean-spirited,

    tiny-minded thoughts. Scared of anything that's different,

    that they don't understand. And they'll always be there,

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ready to blame someone else for the state of the universe.'

   Donna sighed and linked her arm through his.

   He looked at her. `You OK?'

   Donna pulled a `maybe' face, gazing down into thevalley.

   `You go through life, you know,' she said. `Thinkingyou're a good person. Well, maybe not always a goodperson. Sometimes just not a bad person. You get up everyday, go to work or college or whatever,' she added. `Youwatch the telly, go on holiday. All that stuff. And you justassume it's the way it is. What your mum and dad tell you,what you see on the news, what you read in the papers.You don't question it, unless it's something about Posh'slatest frock, or the Royals or what-have-you. You just,y'know, take it all in, thinking that anyone who thinksdifferent is wrong.'

   `Welllll,' said the Doctor slowly. `They usually are.Especially when you're a Ginger Goddess.'

   Donna banged her head against his shoulder.

   `Nah,' she said dismissively. `It's not all that,godhood.'

   She paused and breathed in the alien air of Pasquite, sofull of strangeness that it almost hurt. `Travelling withyou...' Donna stopped. `Travelling with you, seeing allthis stuff, risking life and limb it scares the willies out ofme, you know that.'

   The Doctor raised cautionary eyebrows.

   `We can always go home, you know. Back to Chiswick,back to temping, holidays in Egypt although I'drecommend Mexico, by the way back to normality...'

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   Donna smiled and shook her head.

   `Meeting all these robots all these machines, all thesealiens...' She paused. `What is "normal" anyway?'

   The Doctor pointed to little group, a few hundred yardsaway: two machines, looking a bit like upright sunbeds,were walking along. On their shoulders were two kids two Squidgie kids laughing and squealing as thesunbeds leaned this way and that, pretending they wereabout to drop them.

   `That's normal,' he said. `Just people, being people.'

   They stood in silence for a while, watching Pasquite'syellow sun drift towards the horizon, listening to thenoise, breathing in the smells of food and flowers and oil.

   `People,' echoed Donna. `Just people.'

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                    Acknowledgements

Thanks, as ever, to my faithful proof-monkeys Stuart Douglas, SimonForward, Michael Robinson, Paul Dale Smith and Nick Wallace.

To Justin Richards for giving me another bite of the cherry.

To everyone who enjoyed my other Doctor Who novels.

To Mark Morris and Simon Messingham welcome back on board.

To Steve Tribe for his eagle eyes.

And to Russell T Davies and his team for giving us all back such awonderful playground.

Oh my!

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                         David Tennant reads Pest Control

                               Written by Peter Anghelides

          Launching a new series of audio exclusive stories from BBC Audiobooks

                                  Also available from BBC Audiobooks

    Abridged readings of the Doctor Who novels by cast members from the BBC TV series, with bonus

                                          author interviews

       The Stone Rose              The Feast of the             The Resurrection Casket

      by Jacqueline Rayner            Drowned                           by Justin Richards

            Read by                  by Stephen Cole                         Read by

         David Tennant                   Read by                          David Tennant

                                      David Tennant

      The Nightmare of                The Art of                  The Price of Paradise

        Black Island                  Destruction                         by Colin Brake

         by Mike Tucker              by Stephen Cole                         Read by

            Read by                      Read by                          Shaun Dingwall

         Anthony Head                Don Warrington

     Sting of the Zygons            The Last Dodo                       Wooden Heart

        by Stephen Cole           by Jacqueline Rayner                    by Martin Day

            Read by                     Read by                              Read by

         Reggie Yates               Freema Agyeman                         Adjoa Andoh

           Wetworld                Forever Autumn                         Sick Building

     By Mark Michalowski             By Mark Morris                       By Paul Magrs

           Read by                      Read by                              Read by

       Freema Agyeman                  Will Thorp                           Will Thorp

         Peacemaker                The Pirate Loop                        Wishing Well

       By James Swallow            By Simon Guerrier                   By Trevor Baxendale

            Read by                     Read by                              Read by

           Will Thorp              Freema Agyeman                        Debbie Chazen

                               Available on CD or as a digital download

                                AUDIO BOOKS ON THE GO

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                  Also available from BBC Books

                  featuring the Doctor and Donna

          as played by David Tennant and Catherine Tate:

                     The Doctor Trap

                        by Simon Messingham

                       ISBN 978 1 846 07558 0

                   UK £6.99 US $11.99/$14.99 CDN

    Sebastiene was perhaps once human. He might look like a

     nineteenth-century nobleman, but in truth he is a ruthless

         hunter. He likes nothing more than luring difficult

     opposition to a planet, then hunting them down for sport.

    And now he's caught them all from Zargregs to Moogs,

                     and even the odd Eternal...

      In fact, Sebastiene is after only one more prize. For this

     trophy, he knows he is going to need help. He's brought

    together the finest hunters in the universe to play the most

        dangerous game for the deadliest quarry of them all.

        They are hunting for the last of the Time Lords the

                                Doctor.

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                   Also available from BBC Books

                   featuring the Doctor and Donna

           as played by David Tennant and Catherine Tate:

                       Ghosts of India

                            by Mark Morris

                        ISBN 978 1 846 07559 9

                    UK £6.99 US $11.99/$14.99 CDN

     India in 1947 is a country in the grip of chaos a country

      torn apart by internal strife. When the Doctor and Donna

       arrive in Calcutta, they are instantly swept up in violent

                                  events.

    Barely escaping with their lives, they discover that the city

     is rife with tales of `half-made men', who roam the streets

      at night and steal people away. These creatures, it is said,

    are as white as salt and have only shadows where their eyes

                                should be.

       With help from India's great spiritual leader, Mohandas

         `Mahatma' Gandhi, the Doctor and Donna set out to

                       investigate these rumours.

     What is the real truth behind the `half-made men'? Why is

     Gandhi's role in history under threat? And has an ancient,

     all-powerful god of destruction really come back to wreak

                     his vengeance upon the Earth?

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                   Coming soon from BBC Books:

           The Time Traveller's Almanac

                            by Steve Tribe

                        ISBN 978 1 846 07572 8

                               £14.99

         Who are the eminent artists of the 16th, 19th or 21st

      centuries? What are the mysteries of Carrionite science?

      Where do the Daleks come from? Answers to all of these

        questions and more are found in The Time Traveller's

            Almanac, the ultimate intergalactic fact-finder.

      The Almanac draws on resources far and wide, from the

       beginning of time to the end of the universe, to provide

         information on key historical events and great lives,

    important issues in science, technology and the arts, and the

                   stories that have defined each era.

         Fully illustrated with photos and artwork, The Time

     Traveller's Almanac provides an essential biography of the

                         Doctor Who universe.

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