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As Morgan turned, Winton thrust the gun in his back. Then Morgan heard Winton emit a quiet whistle; there was a rush of muffled footsteps as colonists swarmed through the ship's entrance and along the connecting corridors. Morgan was pushed forward to the control room. The Doctor went ahead and kicked open its door.

Winton pushed Morgan inside. Dent and Caldwell looked up, alarmed; meanwhile sounds of a gun battle between the colonists and IMC guards broke throughout the rest of the ship.

'Where's Jo Grant?' said the Doctor.

Winton was now covering the three IMC officers with the handgun he had taken from one of the overpowered guards. Dent kept his hands well in sight. for fear of bring killed if Winton suspected he was reaching for his gun.

'She seems to have vanished,' said Dent, keeping very cool. This was exactly the sort of situation for which he'd been trained to well. 'I can't contact her guard. As a matter of fact, I was getting rather worried myself.'

The Doctor turned to Caldwell . 'Is he telling the truth?'

Caldwell nodded. 'I think so.'

The sound of gunfire had stopped, and the colonist Smedley came into the control room, his huge frame filling the doorway. 'Everything's under control,' he reported.

'Good,' said the Doctor. 'Winton, they're your prisoners now. I'm going to find Jo. Excuse me.' The Doctor hurried out.

Dent said, 'You realise this is an act of piracy, punish-able by death under Earth's laws?'

'We're not on Earth,' replied Winton. He turned to Smedley, 'Get their guns.'

'It's a pleasure,', said Smedley, and started collecting the handguns from the three IMC officers.

Using a captured IMC buggy, the Doctor - now back in his own clothes - and Ashe were at the Primitive ruin in a few minutes. Security Guard Allen's body lay where it had fallen. The Doctor inspected the spear in the chest. 'It seems that the Primitives are no longer friendly,' he concluded.

Ashe was looking at the large amount of dried blood near the doorway. 'It was probably in instant retaliation.' he said. 'He shot a Primitive, and then the others turned on him.'

'Where would they have taken Jo?' asked the Doctor.

'In the early days,' said Ashe, 'two of our people said they found underground ruins in some caves. Primitives lived there, and our people got the impression that the Primitives were guarding some other sort of creature that lived down there as well. They set out again, with guns, to see what it was all about.'

'What did they find?' said the Doctor.

'We'll never know,' said Ashc. 'Neither of them ever came back.'

Ashe was about to say something else, but his voice was suddenly drowned by the thunderclap roar of a spaceship in flight. Instinctively, they both looked up. Racing across the morning sky was a spaceship similar to the IMC one but much smaller. It was coloured a brilliant scarlet.

'The Adjudicator,' said Ashe. 'That's the Earth Government colour - scarlet.'

14 The Adjudicator

Captain Dent was tied hand and foot to his captain's chair. Morgan and Caldwell were tied to their lees comfortable ones. The control room was filled with colonists, and the sweaty smell of their bodies was heavy in the air that Dent had to breathe.

'You're only making things worse for yourselves,' said Dent.

Winton was busy trying to prise open a locker using a jemmy. 'You think so?'

'You heard the ship land,' Dent said. 'What sort of impression will this make on the Adjudicator?'

The colonists laughed. Winton finally broke open the locker and looked inside. 'Now what have we here?' The colonists pressed forward to see. Winton lifted out a film projector. 'What's this?' he asked Dent.

Dent thought quickly. 'Part of our survey equipment.' But Winton found the right button to press. The projector came to life and put a picture on the wall of a giant lizard. In fact, it was a very small lizard which had been filmed in close-up. 'Just as the Doctor thought; said Winton, 'an optical illusion.'

Smedley looked into the locker again and brought