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'Company, splendid! Oh dear, you're as wet as I am. High moisture level in the air, by the feel of it.'

'I said, who are you?' The woman moved into view, holding a large rock defensively in front of her. Her hair was dark, her skin smooth and coffee-coloured, an apprehensive frown twisting her features.

'Well, I'm the Doctor and I'm more than a little surprised to find myself actually here, on Hirath, presumably, in one -' he suddenly felt for his legs with a shocked expression that relaxed into a relieved smile - 'piece. So, you must be Anstaar. Delighted to meet you, but tell me, have you seen a young girl called Sam Jones around here anywhere? You can't miss her.

She's English and noisy. You know what the young are like -'

Anstaar cut across his babble, her voice a little higher. 'How did you know my name?'

'Vasid told me. Back on the moon base.'

'Vasid? That sewer rat?' She spat at the sodden pink ground.

The Doctor looked at her, gravely. "That dead sewer rat, I'm afraid.'

Anstaar stared at him, her wide brown eyes unblinking. After a long silence she looked down at the ground. 'What happened?'

'It's a long story. Before I start it, Sam...?'

'There's no one here but me. This is where we came through from the matter transmitter.' She indicated a small platform set into the rocky floor.

'I've been sticking around here in case there was some way of getting back, but I don't know the start-up codes. Didn't have a chance to look them up before I was sent here.'

'It looks like I made the wrong choice.' The Doctor stuck his bottom lip out moodily. 'That power surge - it must've scrambled the systems. Oh, Sam.

How am I ever going to find you?'

Anstaar put down the rock and smiled apologetically. Then she sat down in front of him and moistened her lips with her tongues.

'You were going to tell me a long story.'

***

'We need you to do this, Samantha. Please.'

Sam was getting fed up with this Felbaac. He pronounced her name 'Sam-arn-tha' and obviously fancied himself the big macho leader of the Outer Worlds' rebellion. She looked coolly at him. I could tell you a hundred stories about a thousand rebellions, mate, she thought. Then she thought about her own rebellions, her own crappy little crusades. The Doctor had shown her so much, put her own mundane life into pitiful perspective. Was that why she was being so snooty now? This bloke was a creep, but he was a creep who was putting his life on the line to fight back. His and Tanhith's - and who knew how many others? She should respect that, at least.

Maybe it was because he seemed to enjoy it all so much.

'Samantha?'

'OK, OK, let me get this straight.' She sighed. 'You want me to pretend to be you for these evil, brutal K'Arme types? Isn't that going to just the teeniest bit unconvincing?'

Felbaac smiled placatingly.'No one knows who I really am. what I really look like. My name is a rallying cry, not a person.'

Oh please, thought Sam. 'Yeah, but you man, me woman? Christ, you have noticed, haven't you?'

'You have no eye-film.'

'Come again?'

'And you don't speak with the duplicitous tongues of a woman.'

'What? ' Sam was appalled.

'I mean, you have a man's tongue. Singular. You'll confuse them. In any case, Ipmuss was a mixed labour camp. And I've wiped all records of myself from Central. I don't exist.'

'Oh, God, it's Knight Rider ; she muttered.

Felbaac got up and walked about the baking room, seemingly immune to the heat.'Besides... you don't belong in this camp. The men here, they will back you up. And you're clearly not a seasoned inmate. Your clothes, your skin. And where else could you have come from if not from my ship?'

'I told you, I was sent here from -'

'Yes, yes, I know, but that story is so far-fetched it makes the little pretence I am asking seem quite mundane.'

Smug git, thought Sam.'So what do you do while I'm risking my life in the name of your cause?'

'I'm afraid I'm not at liberty to reveal my plans to you.'

'I thought you were fighting for liberty.'