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be quite safe here, but whoever is in that ship seems to have some idea of how we go about defeating the Waro.'

Shuskin nodded, and she, Yates, and the UNIT troops began to move in the direction of the towering pillar of acrid smoke some mile or so distant. Liz gave the Doctor a last, sad smile, and hobbled after the soldiers.

'It looks like it's all over,' sighed the Doctor, once they were out of earshot. The last of the USAF experimental craft had long since been destroyed.

Now the Waro, moving as one amorphous creature, began to sweep down towards the air force base.

There had been a strange calm within the Nedenah craft as it plummeted to the ground.

The flames on the outside of the ship had seemed close enough to feel, the Brigadier almost putting out a hand towards them, then flinching back as if terrified that touching the walls of the ship would puncture the illusion and send them all to the ground that much more quickly. But, beneath his feet, the desert had been rushing up pretty fast anyway.

'We're in free fall.' he had said, shaking his head. 'What do we do?' The first response he had was from the professor, still hunched in a ball but animatedly shouting that they were all going to die, and that it was all his fault. Lethbridge-Stewart had turned wearily to the Nedenah.

One of the creatures - its hands were still clamped on the guidance sensors - had turned towards the Brigadier. 'Do not worry,' it said in a childlike voice. 'You will be...' The creature paused, as if searching for the correct word. 'Unharmed.' it said at length. 'Safe' was clearly not a word the Nedenah had had much call for during the previous twenty years.

Then the Brigadier had blacked out.

Once he was conscious again, he looked around with amazement. The invisible bubble of the ship was still intact, keeping the flames at bay. It seemed to have landed on the desert floor.

'What's burning?' Lethbridge-Stewart asked through clenched teeth, his head still throbbing.

'We are discarding one layer of the hull.' replied one of the Nedenah while working calmly at a near-visible console.

'It can be replaced, in time. 'The Waro will think that we have been destroyed.'

'Ah.' The Brigadier smiled. 'Good plan.'

The Nedenah pressed a sensor, and the walls sprang back into focus, a burnished silver blocking out the angry red of the desert. The door appeared in the bottom of the craft, falling downward to create a ramp.

'Please.' said the alien. 'There is much to be done, and this craft is now inoperative. We must evacuate it immediately.'

The Brigadier nodded, then patted the groaning professor on the shoulder. 'Come on, old chap.' he said gently. 'Let's not get in the way.'

The Nedenah craft had landed on a small ridge behind the air base. From here, Lethbridge-Stewart could see that the horrific war in the air was over. The desert floor was strewn with the bodies of thousands of dead and dying Waro, and yet their numbers in the air - now diving down towards the base - seemed undiminished.

Numerous craft lay wrecked on the sand. The Waro crawled over the debris, searching for survivors.

'Carnage.' said the Brigadier.

Trainor didn't reply. He just stared coldly at the killing grounds, a blank expression of utter incomprehension on his face. 'Rose told me they wanted to be our friends.' he said at last.

'I imagine that's what they told him, too.'

'Oh, no.' continued the professor. 'Rose knew what he was doing. Power corrupts, Brigadier. And absolute power corrupts absolutely.'

There was a noise behind them, and they turned to find several of the Nedenah emerging from their craft, bringing with them a bulky cylindrical container.

'We have revived a number of our kind from suspended animation.' explained the leading Nedenah.

'With all due respect.' said the Brigadier, 'I think we have more important things to worry about than waking up your comrades.'

All the Nedenah made simultaneous sideways movements of their heads, as if to disagree. 'This chemical.'