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'No,' said Dent firmly, 'I'll handle this.'

Dent went down the connecting corridor, and then for the first time stepped onto the terrain of the planet. The IMC ship had landed right in front of the colonists' main dome. A group of these poorly-clothed, hungry-looking people were standing watching from the entrance to the dome. Dent walked over to them.

'Captain Dent,' he said. 'IMC Survey.'

A young man stepped forward. 'You've no right to be on this planet!'

An older man restrained the younger one. 'All right, Winton, let me deal with this. My name's John Ashe. I'm the leader of this colony. We have been established for some considerable time and - '

Dent cut in, 'Can't we talk inside your dome?'

'I'm sorry,' said Ashe, 'yes, of course. This way.'

Dent was led into the main meeting area. All the colonists gathered round to hear the confrontation. Dent was glad to see First Officer Norton in amongst the colonists - at least that part of the scheme seemed to have worked.

'I can assure you, Mr. Ashe,' said Dent, 'that I'm as surprised as you are. As soon as we met your friend we realised that we must make contact with you people immediately, to sort things out.'

'What friend?' queried Ashe.

'He said he was visiting your colony,' said Dent. 'A tall man, who calls himself “the Doctor”. Hasn't he returned yet and told you about our meeting? He insisted on setting off in advance of us.'

A pretty young woman spoke up from the crowd. 'Mr. Ashe, since the Doctor hasn't returned yet, couldn't you send out a search party? Something may have happened to him.'

'All right, Jo,' replied Ash, 'all in good time.' He turned back to Dent. 'Thus planet has been assigned for colonisation.'

'Not according to us,' said Dent. 'We've been granted full mineral rights. We want to move in heavy mining equipment straight away.'

Norton took his cue to speak up. 'There's plenty of other parts of the planet you could mine! Why pick on here?'

'Our survey's been done here,' said Dent. 'We know for certain the minerals are in this part. In any case, we've been granted mineral rights for the whole planet.'

'I have a photostat copy of the certificate,' said Ashe, 'proving that this planet is for colonisation only.'

'I have a copy of a certificate,' retorted Dent, 'proving the, opposite.' He didn't really, but he knew he could produce one pretty quickly once back in the IMC spaceship. 'There's only one solution to this,' he went on, 'we'll have to send for an Adjudicator.' He referred to the special Earth Government officials whose job it was to sort out claims and counter-claims.

Winton pushed his way to the front again. 'You know it can take months, years even, for an Adjudicator's decision, and by then you'll have gutted the planet!'

Dent ignored this. He spoke again to Ashe 'I'm sure you agree that we must apply the proper procedures?' Ashe was clearly swayed by what Winton had said, but he nodded and replied, 'Well, I suppose so.'

'Good,' said Dent. 'I'll use my ship's radio to ask Earth to send someone.' He turned on his heel to leave, and found himself facing the Doctor who had just entered.

'Sorry to still be alive,' said the Doctor to Dent. 'It must seriously upset your plans.' The Doctor turned and addressed himself to the whole gathering. 'This man tried to have me killed. They're trying to frighten you away with imaginary monsters that don't really exist.'

By now Dent had partly recovered himself. 'That's a very serious allegation, Doctor.'

'I know,' said the Doctor, 'and its one that I shall have pleasure in making to the proper authorities. I imagine this Adjudicator will be very interested in your activities, Captain Dent.'

Dent turned back to Ashe. 'When I first saw your friend I thought he was eccentric. Now I'm convinced he's mad. I'll send a message to the Adjudicators' Bureau immediately. Excuse me.' And with that, Dent left the dome as quickly as possible. He had never been so humiliated in his life, and he was seething to get his hands on First