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'Well, you had better force it open again,' said the Doctor.

They had to find a tool kit first. Bernice located one by the side of the balcony door. 'For emergency exits I suppose,' she said.

Chris noted with interest that a crowbar is a crowbar in any civilization. When he tried to lever open one side the whole front of the cabinet fell away. The Doctor picked it up and smelt the edges. 'Some kind of epoxy,' he said. 'Very low tech. I wonder why?'

'God,' said Bernice, 'would be scanning for high technology materials and equipment.

Something antique would blend right into the background.'

Whatever the thingamy doodad was it had clearly been modified. Chris saw what he recognized as a set of old-fashioned silicon microprocessors mounted on a stiff motherboard. Wires trailed from the edge connectors to various points inside the cabinet.

'Sshh,' said the Doctor. 'Did you hear that, a sort of buzzing noise?'

Chris listened. It was coming from behind the jury-rigged silicon. Very carefully he eased the motherboard to one side. Something whirred past his ear with a furious buzzing sound. 'Quick,'

said the Doctor, 'don't let it get away.'

Bernice grabbed hold of the crowbar and swung it wildly at the minute flying thing. Incredibly she hit it and it pinged away to smash into the far wall, bounced off and landed on the floor.

'Grab it,' yelled the Doctor.

'Why?' yelled Bernice.

Chris scooped up one of the drums and smashed the edge down on the insect.

'Because it's one of the bugs the ships use,' said the Doctor. He squatted down, withdrew a magnifying glass from his coat pocket and peered through it at the insect. The thing buzzed feebly and waved bent legs. 'And I'll just bet that God can identify which ship it came from.'

It got dark very suddenly.

'Who turned the lights out?' asked the Doctor.

'Er, Doctor,' said Bernice, 'there weren't any lights on to start with. This room has a skylight.'

'So what you're saying,' said the Doctor, 'and correct me if I'm wrong, is that for some reason, the sun has gone out.'

One nanosecond.

– what's going on?

– who is using a disruption field in the Spaceport?

– not me, God.

– someone's blown a chunk out of the facility.

– GPSs to rescue stations, VASs to defensive positions.

– I told you we should have gone after the Time Lords.

– shut up, P-Cor, I'm trying to think.

– now they've caught us with our metaphoricals round our ankles.

– it's !C-Mel, it's moving out of the port and into the sphere.

– somebody stop that ship.

– would you like to tell me how? I can't fire. !C-Mel's got half a million people on board.

– aghhh!

– what now?

– sorry, God, !C-Mel just blew out my drive section.

– it's going into sphere, it's going into the sphere.

– oh oh, are we in trouble now.

Two nanoseconds.

The unbreakable transparent titanium of the grav-lift shaft didn't so much break as shatter. Roz Forrester found herself sucked into empty space. 'Oh shit,' she screamed, 'this is it, I'm going to die!' She carried on screaming for a while until she realized that she was still breathing. For some reason she seemed to be surrounded by a bubble of breathable air.

'Don't worry,' said a soothing voice. 'You are probably not going to die anytime soon.'

'What do you mean soon,' yelled Roz. 'Who am I talking to?'

'It's me,' said the soothing voice, 'the S-Lioness.'

Roz looked around. She was floating away from the shattered remains of the grav-lift shaft.

There seemed to be some damage to portions of the upside-down tower as well. In the distance she could see other people suspended in temporary force bubbles. As she watched a piece of another tower slowly broke away in a cloud of glittering sparks.

'Who's doing this?' she asked.

'The !C-Mel,' said S-Lioness. 'I thought you planned this.'

'Of course I did,' said Roz. 'I just forgot how fast you ships think.'

'You should be pleased then,' said the S-Lioness.

Roz was about to say – Yes, thrilled, when her force bubble burst and she began