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By Root 293 0

of a communications unit as he approached the control room, even over the throaty growl of the Beetle's engine. The car wouldn't fit through the doorway, so the Doctor pulled up on the handbrake, turned off the engine, flung open the door and skidded over the bonnet to answer the noise. He looked around, trying to ascertain exactly what was beeping. Then he strolled over to the slim grey grille mounted in the wall near the control console.

'Vasid, is that you?'

'Who else would it be?'

The Doctor almost flinched from the fear in Vasid's voice. 'Vasid, what is it?

What have you found?'

'Vost. I can't believe it.'

'What?'

'He's an agent.'

The Doctor stared blankly at the grille.'A cleaning agent? An estate agent?

What do you -'

'Vost is an agent for the K'Arme. He must be.'

"The who?'

'The K'Arme, you idiot. The Justice Control Force from the Homework!.'

The Doctor frowned, then nodded furiously. 'They're your police?'

'They own the police throughout this system. And who knows what else?'

'Let me guess: they helpfully make all your government's decisions for them, control the populace by covert means and lurk menacingly in the background at every state parade.'

'You can joke, Outer. No one knows exactly how powerful they really are.'

'But your people like to err on the side of caution. Look, why don't we talk face to face? You can show me your evidence then. I'm feeling silly talking to this grille.' There was a pause.'Vasid?'

'Wait.'Vasid's voice was hoarse. Tension and dehydration, the Doctor decided as he wandered over to the car and slid across its bonnet to get to the boot. The grille remained silent, so the Doctor called across, helpfully,'I'm still here!'

The silence continued as he pulled the long tangle of jump leads from the boot and then reached inside to release the bonnet clamp. As he was finishing connecting one end of each lead to the Beetle's battery, a bizarre sound echoed out from the speaker grille: wild laughter. 'Vasid?'

'This is crazy. Oh,Vost. No wonder you left us to it.' 'What is it? What have you found?' Silence.'Vasid!' 'Vost got mixed up in something big. So much for the proud repatriated citizen. He did his deal for the K'Arme after they found out he'd been helping the rebels.' The Doctor stared bemusedly at the grille as the unsettling sound of Vasid's laughter filled the control room.

***

The curled-up slug of a spaceship powered through the void, compensating almost instinctively to stay on course despite the distant pull of Hirath's sun.

The Leader lay back on a wire-mesh bunk, trying to rest. They were close now. So close. He had to be prepared.

With a mechanical belch, a small point of light began flashing on his monitor screen.

'Another ship?' he ventured.

'Yes, Leader,' came the rumble of the technician in the darkness, as if praising a small child. 'At the periphery of our forward scanners.'

The Leader ignored any intended patronising. 'What is its intended course?'

'Early indications suggest Hirath. It is too far out to attack unless we change course.'

'No,' sighed the Leader.'We must not attract undue attention here. It is unimportant to our mission.'

With a familiarly crushing sense of disappointment, he contemplated the tiny speck of light and their inability to wipe it out.

***

Tanhith looked down at the figure on the bunk, wiping a hand through his thick blond hair, feeling how damp it was with sweat. A rush of frustration surged through him at the relentless heat. He saw the perspiration standing out on the young creature's forehead like little beads, and wiped his finger in a circular pattern over them to crush them.

She was alien; but rather than being repulsed, he found himself fascinated.

He parted her lips, and saw one tongue lying slack inside, not two. Yet he was sure she was female. Her bones were small, she had a thin waist, her chest was clearly designed for suckling the young. But the yellow hair, the blue eyes with their tiny lashes, the single tongue... Even the nose was