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'I'll take my chance,' growled Hugo.

'Then you'll take it alone,' interrupted Peri. 'If you kill the Doctor, I won't help you.'

Hugo considered the situation for a moment, then lowered his gun.

'I'm sorry,' he said, trying to sound like a little boy caught doing something naughty. T panicked. I wasn't thinking.'

'You should try it sometime,' snapped the Doctor. 'You'll find it useful. Now try pointing that gun at your feet.'

Uncertain whether the Doctor was cracking some sort of Gallifreyan joke, the young pilot looked down at his trapped boots.

'If you set your laser gun to its lowest setting you might be able to cut yourself free.'

Hugo instantly obeyed, cursing for not having thought of the idea himself. Carefully he lined the gun up with the edge of his boot and squeezed the trigger. A thin, red, perfect beam of light shot from the weapon, and slowly the hardened mucus began to buckle under the high temperature of the ray.

As Hugo worked, the Doctor whispered to Peri, 'I'm wasting valuable time.' His voice was now tense and irritable. 'I sense that something terrible is about to happen.'

Peri gazed at the strained features of the Time Lord, concerned by his sudden change of mood. 'I'm sure he won't be long.'

'But will he be quick enough?'

Peri didn't understand. Neither was she given the chance to.

'I'm off,' snapped the Doctor, and he started off along the passage, Peri following.

'Do you think it wise to go off alone when you're so agitated!' she asked.

'I am not agitated!'

Suddenly the Doctor stopped dead and Peri almost bumped into him. 'Unless you're implying I'm about to have one of my fits!'

That was precisely what Peri was implying, but thought it unwise to pursue the point. Instead she said, 'I'm concerned you may meet more gastropods. Together we might be able to defeat them. But alone you wouldn't stand a chance.'

'I have always managed alone. I was born alone. I shall die alone.

I've also come to the conclusion that it is best to spend the time between those two unfortunate events alone. Do you understand?'

Peri nodded.

'Now go back to Hugo,' snapped the Doctor. 'And when he's freed himself from the mucus, take him back to the TARDIS. I don't want either of you getting in my way.'

A moment later he had mounted a much worn flight of stone steps and, taking them two at a time, disappeared into the gloom above, watched by a confused and very worried Peri.

On reaching the top of the steps the Doctor turned into an even more miserable passage than the one he had just left. Here the hardened trails of mucus were more numerous and the Doctor increased his pace. More trails meant more gastropods and he had to find Azmael before he was discovered himself.

Up another flight of stairs, the Time Lord jogged. Along yet another bleak, dank corridor. Then quickly into an alcove and the safety of its dark shadows, as the Doctor caught sight of another gastropod. With the danger passed, he continued his quest desperately trying to remember where Azmael's laboratory was.

As the Doctor entered a large quadrangle with a corridor leading off from every corner, he was finally forced to face the fact that he was lost. To take a wrong turning now would not only lead him further away from Azmael, but deeper into the citadel and closer to being caught by Mestor's guards.

The Doctor scratched his head. What to do next? As he pondered, he heard a familiar, schoolmasterly voice echoing along the corridor nearest to him.

It was Azmael!

The Doctor broke into a run as he headed towards the pedagogic chant, delighted that his old friend was able to project his voice so well. How many times had the Doctor sat in Azmael's classroom, trying not to listen to one of his complicated lectures, only to find his deep, rolling vowel sounds breaking through the protective wall of his distracted thoughts.

This time, though, the Doctor was all ears.

As he approached the heavy wooden door, through which the dulcet tones of his old teacher boomed, the Doctor could also hear the more squeaky, less controlled voices of the