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'My lord is very gracious,' said Araboam.

'The Higher is gracious to all who cling to the true way,'

stated Zaitabor. A few moments later the door thumped shut.

Jamie gritted his teeth again. When Araboam opened the wardrobe door for his robes Jamie sprang like a wildcat and clubbed him to the floor. The look of shocked surprise was visible even on his unconscious face.

Jamie helped Kaquaan out of the wardrobe. 'Time to attend our second meeting of the Brotherhood of Rexulon.'

'Your memory?'

'As the man said, it's slowly coming back to me,' said Jamie. 'Let's see if we can learn from the mistakes of last time.'

The Doctor and the Dugraq scout proceeded quickly through the underground city. The light emitted by the power station was such that the Doctor was convinced that he could have plotted the course on his own if he had to.

'What do you know about the android?' asked the Doctor as they walked.

'A little,' said the creature. 'I am led to believe that there were a good many in this city, but this one was the only survivor.'

'Does it always obey commands? Did you ever face any problems with it?'

'I do not think so,' said the Dugraq. 'Once we knew how to operate it we used it to check on the Mecrim and to try to ensure that the Rocarbies did not find a way to the surface.

It was the perfect spy, always following its orders exactly and with great efficiency. A few repairs were needed, I believe, but its essential functions were undamaged.'

'Including its limiter preventing it taking human life?'

The Dugraq shook his head. 'It was a military worker. It will simply obey an order. That safeguard would not have proved any help to us even if it had functioned.' The shrew-creature looked the Doctor up and down. 'Don't forget: we aren't human.'

'And you just gave the android to Defrabax when he asked for it?'

'We trusted him at that moment. It seemed to be a sensible course of action. As far as I am aware Defrabax took the android away and fashioned it into a passable homunculus. Since then it has functioned as his eyes and ears down here in our city.'

'We all make mistakes,' said the Doctor, smiling. 'Tell me, what do you know of this city?'

'Our legends walk hand-in-hand with our knowledge. I believe it was a large research installation.'

'Working on projects funded by the military?'

'That is correct. We've managed to access some computer terminals, but we tend to leave the main military plant well alone.'

'Because of the Mecrim?'

The scout said nothing, and the Doctor took the silence to be an affirmative.

'And what role did your ancestors have all those years ago?'

The scout paused for a moment at a junction before turning right into what appeared to be a small shopping precinct. 'There were a small number of Dugraq people kept in cages for experimentation. Despite our intelligence, we were kept by the humans because we are genetically very similar to Homo sapiens. They thought we were mere animals.' The creature snorted.

'And yet you are clearly a very trusting people,' said the Doctor.

'We greatly prize forgiveness. But we strive to remember and learn from our knowledge of how our race was treated in the past.'

'And the Rocarbies?' asked the Doctor. 'I assume that the Mecrim had a direct military function. What did the original colony want of the Rocarbies?'

'They are manufactured creatures, derived from primates that naturally occur towards the equator of this planet. The files tell us that they were being bred and manipulated as part of a programme financed by a mining company.'

'Few things appal me more,' said the Doctor, 'than when warmongers and big business climb into the same bed. I assume the mining company wanted cheap labour?'

'As always. The Interplanetary Mining Corporation —

formerly the Issigri Mining Corporation — spent millions of credits on high-tech solutions to mining problems. But sometimes only muscle gets the job done.'

'Hold on a minute,' said the Doctor. 'Did you say the Issigri Mining Corporation?