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It was dawn. Winton and all the male colonists were gathered round the map. He had drawn an X to show the position of the IMC spaceship in relation to the main dame. Ashe stood forlornly in the background. The Doctor was in heated argument with Winton.

'I tell you again,' said the Doctor, 'a frontal attack would be sheer suicide!'

'We've got them outnumbered,' replied Winton.

'Do you think that means anything?' said the Doctor. 'The ship's like a fortress.'

One of the colonists, a big man called Smedley, spoke up. 'Who's side are you really on, Doctor? If you don't want to carry a gun with us, then clear off!'

'I don't intend to carry a gun with anyone,' said the Doctor. 'All I'm suggesting is that we don't offer ourselves up to the IMC guns to get killed.'

Another colonist spoke up. 'The difference between you and us,' he told the Doctor, 'is that we saved and scrimped to get here, and we've worked with our hands to try to survive here! We're willing to die for our colony and you're not!' This outburst got a lot of approval from all the other colonists.

The Doctor waited till they'd quietened down. 'Back in the days when Earth had wars,' he said, 'there was a famous soldier called General Patton who told his men, “I don't want you to die for your country - I want you to make the enemy die for his country”, or words to that effect. If you all get killed, as you certainly may, nothing will have been achieved.'

'All right, then,' said Winton. 'Have you got any better ideas?'

'Possibly,' said the Doctor. 'But since I suspect that there is at least one spy amongst as, I'd rather not disclose it at a public meeting.'

As the sun rose up gradually from the eastern horizon, Mary Ashe left the main dame and walked straight towards the IMC spaceship. She carried an one arm a small handmade basket containing a few items of food. There were now two uniformed IMC guards standing at the entrance to the spaceship. They watched her, curiously, as she walked straight towards them. As it became clear she was going to try to enter the spaceship, the guards closed in on her.

'Where do you think you're going?' one of them asked.

'I believe you've got a friend of mine here,' said Mary. 'I'm bringing her some food.'

'There are no friends of yours in this spaceship,' said the other guard, amused by his own joke.

The first guard laughed, too. Then his mouth fell open, and his body crumpled, as the Doctor, who had hidden behind the spaceship, applied a Venusian karate hold to the back of the man's neck. Winton, who had also been in hiding, simply hit the back of the other guard's head with a rock. Very quickly the two unconscious guards were dragged away.

Caldwell meanwhile had slept fitfully. As soon as he woke, he rolled out of his crew room bunk, pulled on his IMC uniform, and went up for'ard to the control room. Morgan and Dent were already there. 'Where's the girl?' Caldwell enquired.

Dent looked up. 'You heard me give the order last night for her to be brought here.'

Dent turned to Morgan. 'Where is she?'

'I don't know, sir,' said Morgan. 'I passed the order an to Security Guard Allen.'

Caldwell started to say, 'If you two are playing games - ' but Dent cut in, 'I don't play games, Caldwell !' He turned back to Morgan. 'Find out what's happened, and be quick about it!'

Morgan reached for the console microphone, switched on and sent out a call to Security Guard Allen. After five repeated calls he turned back to Dent. 'His receiver's turned on and working, but he isn't answering.'

'Get over there,' said Dent. As Morgan scuttled out of the control room, Dent turned to Caldwell , 'If anything's happened to one of my security guards, you are to blame.'

Morgan went down the connecting corridor at a run. Coming from the other direction were two men in IMC uniforms. 'Hey, you two,' he said, 'I want you to come with me - ' And then he found himself staring into the gun drawn by the younger of the two men.

'Sorry to deceive