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'Well, it's not really a creature,' she said.'It's a sort of lock. It was built by the aliens I told you about.'

'It was the Doctor who informed you of this?'

'Well... yeah.'

'How does he know such things?'

'Ah well, he's knocked about a bit. And he's basically just a know-all.'

All at once there was the grating of stone on stone and a whole section of floor slid back.

'Voilà said the Doctor.

'Good Lord!' exclaimed Litefoot.

It was not so much the movement of the floor but what was revealed beyond it that had astonished the professor. He and the others found themselves staring into the mouth of a glowing, pulsing chute, its fibrous, pumpkin-coloured walls shot through with filaments of red that looked alarmingly like blood vessels. A little uneasily, Sam couldn't help wondering whether the chute was not actually a chute at all, but part of some animal even more gigantic than the cyborgs. What she was looking at now was most probably the inside of some sort of feeding tube; perhaps she and the others were little more than plankton gazing down the throat of the whale.

Unsure exactly how to react, she looked to the Doctor for guidance. He did not seem in the least bit surprised by what he had uncovered, but then again, neither was it possible to tell whether he had been expecting it. Sam wanted to ask him whether he had ever seen anything like this before, but she kept her mouth shut. She would rather die of curiosity than betray her ignorance and inexperience in front of Emmeline and the professor.

Litefoot had taken a tentative step forward and was crouching down to examine the glowing chute more closely, his professional interest piqued.

'This is quite astounding,' he said. 'I'd swear this was living tissue.'

'It is,' said the Doctor.'That is, it's manufactured living tissue. It's part of a large, organic construction which possesses not even one iota of what you or I would consider sentience.'

Litefoot looked at him.'Preposterous.'

'Yes it is, isn't it?' said the Doctor with a smile. 'I'll go first, shall I?'

He sat down on the lip of the chute, dangling his feet over the edge.

'Wait a moment, Doctor,' said Litefoot hastily.'Do you think it's quite safe?'

'Oh, I shouldn't think so for a minute,' the Doctor replied, then gave a little wave and levered himself over the edge of the hole with his arms.

For perhaps the first eight feet he dropped like a stone. Then he struck the edge of the chute where it began to curve out of sight, and although the pulsing walls stretched and gave like rubber, he managed to come to a skidding, arm-pin wheeling stop. Sitting on his backside, momentarily arresting his progress by digging his heels into the fleshy walls, he looked back up at the others. He was grinning, his teeth seeming luminous in the strange light.'You ought to try this,' he said.'It's fun.'

Feeling like someone who wanted to be next in line for a parachute jump because she was afraid her nerve might fail if she waited any longer, Sam stepped forward. 'Out of the way, Doctor, I'm coming down,' she called.

The Doctor waved and slid-scuttled down on his backside. Sam sat on the edge of the hole.When the Doctor was out of sight she said with a cheeriness she didn't feel, 'Well, here goes,' and pushed herself out into space.

Though the speed of the drop was fast enough to make her feel that she had left her stomach behind, the initial fall into glowing space seemed endless. From above, the chute had looked narrow, but now it appeared so wide that she didn't think she would be able to touch the walls at either side even if she stretched out her arms.

Just as she was beginning to think that something had gone wrong, that some trap had been sprung and she was going to fall for ever, her body encountered a spongy obstruction. Unprepared for it, she bounced, and, rather than use her arms and legs to skid to a stop as the Doctor had, she found herself flipping over, rolling and spinning, unable to stop her momentum. For