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Keefer rubbed the soft seeds in the palm of his hand. The genuine article was expensive back home; gods alone knew what it was worth out here. Wealth was an abstract, meaningless sort of idea, and then occasionally you got a glimpse of what it could do.

„It‟s a good choice,‟ Finbar was saying. „If you work your way into it it‟ll help cushion you during lift-off.‟ He took an inhaler from the medical supply locker and gave it to Keefer together with the remote. „Ship runs fully pressurised okay?

So the breather‟s only for emergencies. Gives you thirty minutes if you don‟t panic.‟

„What about the altered mass?‟ Keefer asked. „It‟ll show on the launch check.‟

„Don‟t worry, I‟ll amend the cargo manifest. I‟ll stick you in as a couple of cases of freeze-dried driftfeeders.‟

Keefer pulled out the rest of the cash he was carrying. „Just so long as that‟s not how I end up,‟ he said and handed the money to Finbar.

„This is more than we agreed.‟

Keefer stepped down into the lecea. „Any last words of advice?‟

„Watch out for the Fat Boys. They‟re faster than they look,‟

Finbar said and pulled the gun.

The suddenness of the move and the speed of the draw took Keefer completely by surprise. He stayed perfectly still, cold and ready to kill when the chance to counterattack was offered.

Finbar grinned. „I practised that a lot,‟ he said. „I‟ve never actually fired the thing, of course.‟ Still pointing the pistol in Keefer‟s direction he checked it quickly and then flipped it over and handed it across butt first. „I think it works but take care where you use it. Don‟t go punching holes in pressure walls. You don‟t gain much of an advantage that way.‟

It was a problem of his own making, but one of the Doctor‟s difficulties was that he had developed feelings of responsibility towards his duellists. While they were in his imaginary school and he was their phoney agent they were safe enough, but what was he going to do with them? He had come to realise that his quixotic notion that he could effect a change in attitudes towards duelling and then bring about a change in the Rules of Attack was just that: quixotic, he was tilting at windmills. What had he been thinking of? This world was not the way it was because of the efforts of one person, and it wasn‟t going to be changed by the efforts of one Time Lord, not even a brilliant one like him. In the meantime, Leela did not seem to be planning to report back -

why did that not surprise him - and he was responsible for her too. When did he take on all these responsibilities, he wondered? Why did he take on all these responsibilities? He looked at the TARDIS standing ready in the corner of his ridiculous office. Perhaps he should go inside and relax for a while; give himself a chance to think. Once there he might even try a very small temporal adjustment, just the tiniest non-parallel non-fluxed shift, so he could start again. Given a second chance he might not get it right but he could get Leela and they could get out. Of course if it went wrong and he spun off into who-knows-where it wouldn‟t be his fault: he would just have been doing his best to put things right and...

He smiled to himself: too late, he thought. „If you‟re going to lie to yourself,‟ he said aloud, „you do at least have to be convincing.‟

He turned away from the TARDIS as Benron burst into the office and announced loudly, „It was my father. I cannot believe it was my scuffling father.‟

„What was your scuffling father?‟ the Doctor bellowed back.

Benron took the hint and lowered his voice slightly. „It was my father driving the runner that Leela left in. That scuffling old scuffwit cannot keep out of my face.‟

„At least he can tell us where he took her,‟ the Doctor said.

Benron shook his head. „Not yet he can‟t. The runner‟s back but there‟s no sign of him anywhere.‟

„Is that normal for him?‟

„What would be normal for him? You saw him in action, waving empty guns about, taking you and Leela prisoner.

Man‟s not the full dollar, never has been.‟

Was that true, the Doctor wondered, was he unbalanced?