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Jo realised she could do nothing to help. The insistent ping of the Arcturian alarm system was giving her a headache. She left the Doctor to his own devices while she tried to locate the missing electronic gadget.

‘Doctor, what does this servo thing look like?’

‘Sort of... transparent... cube,’ muttered the Doctor, engrossed in his work, ‘lots of... fine circuitry inside.’

Jo was puzzled. ‘It couldn’t just’ve fallen out of Arcturus,’

she said. ‘And I can’t see it anywhere.’

‘Quite right, Jo,’ mumbled the Doctor. ‘This wasn’t an accident. You see—’

Jo’s eyes widened. ‘Someone tried to kill him?’

‘Tried’, nodded the Doctor, then frowned and continued working, frantically, ‘and they may yet succeed—unless I’m successful first!’

The shrill alarm signal was now only intermittent, and the transparent globe clouded completely. The life process would surely reach critical soon.

‘If his metabolism subsides into a catatonic state, there’ll be no hope at all...’ gritted the Doctor. His fingers were working with incredible speed, and the intensity on his face was almost frightening.

‘So whoever removed that servo-junction cube tried to kill Arcturus—and may have been responsible for all the other so-called accidents as well!’ Jo thought aloud.

‘Quite the Sherlock Holmes, aren’t you, Jo?’ mumbled the Doctor.

‘So if we could find the cube...’

‘No, Jo. That could prove far too dangerous. Just leave things to me, there’s a good girl.’

Jo didn’t give up easily. ‘I could search the delegates’ rooms.

I might just find something,’ she insisted. ‘Then we’d have some real evidence. It’d make all the difference.’

The Doctor didn’t answer. He was far too involved in beating the clock. It was Jo who saw Izlyr stride into the room and stand over Arcturus. The alarm was now so feeble as to be non-existent.

‘What are you doing to Arcturus?’ demanded the warlord.

The Doctor looked up at the Martian looming over him, but didn’t stop what he was doing.

‘Someone has disconnected and removed a vital part of his life-support system. I’m trying to save him. Go away there’s a good chap!’

For a moment, Izlyr seemed uncertain what to do, and his deep hissing breathing was the only easily heard sound in the room. Suddenly, the Doctor, extricated himself from the debris on the floor, beamed at Izlyr and Jo, and started tucking odds and ends of equipment back inside Arcturus.

‘There, old chap’, said the Doctor, patting the globe gently.

‘That should do the trick.’

‘Have you succeeded?’ demanded Izlyr harshly.

‘He’ll be alright in a little while, I think,’ responded the Doctor. ‘A bit of a near thing, though.’

As the Doctor clambered to his feet, Alpha Centauri and Hepesh appeared in the doorway. They moved forward to see what had caused the alarm. With the doorway clear, Jo took her chance. If the Doctor’s earlier suspicions were right, she knew exactly where she would find the missing electronic cube.

‘Another attack on Federation personnel?’ trilled Alpha Centauri in alarm. ‘This is dreadful!’

‘This was the work of Aggedor.’ said Hepesh in a voice of doom.

‘Absolute nonsense, ‘cheerfully observed the Doctor. ‘This was the work of a skilled technician, and your medieval monster, Hepesh, is hardly that. He’d simply try to smash Arcturus protective globe.’

‘You are not surely suggesting,’ squeaked the hexapod, turning a rich shade of purple, ‘that we of the Federation are to blame?’

‘If that is an accusation,’ hissed Izlyr fiercely, ‘I deny it!’

The Doctor ignored Hepesh and Alpha Centauri, and confronted Izlyr boldly. ‘Of course you’d deny it, Izlyr, But you do have the necessary technical know-how. Do you deny that?’

‘The technology of Alpha Centauri is also competent enough!’ exclaimed the warlord. ‘So is that of Earth. And it was you, Doctor, that we found tampering with our colleague’s life-support system!’

‘Then its thanks to me that hell be able to identify his attacker’, retorted the Doctor. ‘And that should be very shortly.