Whatever the Doctor meant by psionic episode, psionic episode, it couldn't be good. it couldn't be good.

The Doctor shook his head emphatically. 'Now that Vega Jaal is gone, Nyssa is our best hope of maintaining contact with... with whatever it is that's causing all the trouble.'

Tegan's jaw actually dropped. 'Maintaining contact?

Doctor, you can't just use her like that!'

'I really don't have any choice, Tegan,' the Doctor said.

He sounded pained. 'Believe me. Whatever force tried to gain entry to the TARDIS via Nyssa's mind was simply using her.

That link, or conduit, to the enemy is our only connection with it; if we can use it effectively, it might provide us with some small advantage.'

Tegan folded her arms. 'I still don't like it.'

But the Doctor was losing patience now. 'Tegan, if you really want to help, then you will just have to trust me. In the meantime, can we please continue with this?' He indicated the computer screen in front of them. They were alone in the laboratory, trying to access whatever records or files they could before, as the Doctor put it, Stoker started thinking with her explosives.

'She's busy explaining to her men what's happened to Vega Jaal at the moment,' the Doctor had told Tegan as he led her back down into the lab complex. 'They'll probably bury him. But it won't be long before Stoker tries to close this place down, probably by blowing it to pieces.'

Tegan didn't think that sounded so bad an idea, but held her tongue. The Doctor was working against the clock, which was something she did understand, and she really did want to help. 'What do you want me to do?'

'We need to check through the laboratory staff complement: you've got the relevant screens up now. We need to know who was here, and what they were working on.'

'OK, Doctor, I'll give it my best shot.' Yeah, Yeah, Tegan thought sourly, Tegan thought sourly, a shot in the dark. a shot in the dark.

They buried Vega Jaal and Stoker said something awkward.

No one really remembered what. It was a miserable service, if you could even call it that: a shrivelled-up something that was once their friend, lowered into a shallow grave sc.r.a.ped out of the rock and covered with rubble.

Bunny Cheung got the men back to work afterwards, trying to maintain the rhythm of duty, not letting anyone have too much time to brood. But it was hard not to think about Vega Jaal.

'Well, there's one bright side to all this,' Nik said a little later, when he was standing in a side tunnel with Jim Boyd.

'What?'

'It means a bigger share of the lex for the rest of us'

Jim glared at him. 'You're one sick puppy, you know that?'

'Every cloud has a silver lining. Haven't you, ever heard that expression?'

'Yeah. Here's another expression: you're full of c.r.a.p.'

Nik smiled. 'You're just sore because that Tegan girl gave you the heave-ho.'

'She did not,' Jim said quickly. 'She had other things on her mind. Her friend was sick.'

'Her friend was sick,' Nik mimicked.

'You're just jealous because I pulled.'

'You call that pulling? One dance and au revoir?' au revoir?' Nik smirked. 'You need to get out more.' Nik smirked. 'You need to get out more.'

'I need some fresh air, that's for sure.' Jim agreed stiffly.

'Something stinks around here'

'Probably Vega Jaal. I said that hole wasn't deep enough.'

Jim shook his head in despair. 'Go to h.e.l.l.' he said, and walked away, back towards the main cavern.

Nik watched him go and shrugged to himself. He finished his cigarette and then ground it out under his boot. It was colder and darker in this tunnel than he had thought. He was just about to hurry after Jim when he heard something move behind him.

Tegan tapped at some of the keys and watched the information scroll up and down the screen. After only a few seconds she hit pay dirt.

'Hey, look at this: we've got a list of names.'

The Doctor peered at the display, which said: PRIMARY CONTROL: PROJECT AKOSHEMON/PERSONNEL/2319.01.12.

PROFESSOR NIJAL AMGA.

PROFESSOR JEN GARONDEL.

SCIENTIST KARL STRODER.

SCIENTIST HARK ROTAH.

TECHNICIAN RETEP MATS.

TECHNICIAN RAVUS OLDEMAN.

'Six names,' the Doctor said. 'But only five bodies. Which one is missing?'

Tegan checked the hand-written list in the Doctor's notebook. 'The last one - Technician Ravus Oldeman.'

'I wonder what happened to him?'

'I just had a nasty thought,' Tegan said. 'What if it was this Ravus Oldeman character who killed the others? That would explain why his body wasn't with theirs.'

'It's a possibility,' the Doctor conceded. 'The real question is: where is he now?' He stared at the VDU intently, as if the answer might suddenly type itself across the screen. The graphics reflected in his eyes like little green flames.

Tegan swallowed hard. 'He must have killed Vega Jaal too.'

'This is only conjecture, remember,' the Doctor cautioned. 'We still know very little, apart from the names of the people who worked here. Ideally, we need to know what they were working on.' on.'

'This Oldeman person's probably died of old age by now, if that's the date this list was compiled,' Tegan pointed at the heading on the screen, 'then it's over one hundred and fifty years ago.'

'Hmm,' the Doctor said, rather unhelpfully.

Tegan stretched. 'Ugh. My neck's getting stiff from sitting at this wretched machine.'

The Doctor patted her on the shoulder. 'We're missing something obvious here, you know.'

'What?'

'Well if I knew that we wouldn't be missing it, would we?'

The Doctor straightened up and chewed his lip thoughtfully.

'It's old age, Doctor. Even Time Lords must get absent-minded.'

'I'm not absent-minded,' responded the Doctor tartly.

'Besides, it's more serious than that: something is tampering with our perceptions, subtle changes in our brain chemistry.

Clouding our minds. I've been subconsciously aware of it ever since we materialised.'

'Speak for yourself.'

'Oh, I am, chiefly. And Nyssa. Vega Jaal felt it too, of course. It seems to affect non-human minds more easily; the psi potential is slightly greater I suspect.'

Tegan shifted uncomfortably. 'Do you mean thought control?'

'Nothing so direct. This feels almost as if something intuitively telepathic is reaching out blindly, probing in the dark for a weakness.'

'There's that word again,' Tegan noted. 'Everyone keeps mentioning the dark.'

The Doctor frowned. 'Yes, they do, don't they?'

'But humans aren't affected, right? By this telepathic probing I mean.'

'Marginally. We've all been preoccupied with one thing or another, but everyone has experienced something: mood swings, depression, anxiety. Yes, definitely some kind of psionic field effect causing perceptual inhibition. Do you realise that no one even noticed that door in the cave until Vega Jaal and I found it?'

'And don't we wish you hadn't,' Tegan muttered. 'I can't help worrying about Nyssa, Doctor. She seems pretty badly affected by this telepathic thing.'

The Doctor grunted. 'How about you, Tegan? How have you been feeling?'

'Now you mention it, I've been feeling pretty irritable and cranky ever since we arrived.'

'As I said, it doesn't seem to be affecting you very much at all.'

'All right,' said Stoker, 'let's have it.'

The man sitting at the a.n.a.lyser controls licked his lips and said, 'The lexium is spread pretty evenly through the geological structure of the entire moon, but there are heavier deposits of the basic trace ore very near the surface. I'd say seventy to eighty per cent. Possibly more.'

Stoker squeezed his shoulder. 'Couldn't be better, Jim,'

she said quietly. If you weren't so d.a.m.n ugly I'd kiss you.'

'Feel free to insult me,' Jim said. 'I'm going to be very, very rich.'

'We all are,' Stoker said. But suddenly the words sounded hollow, and with a start she realised that she wasn't sure about it any more. This place had d.a.m.n well got under her skin. Finding the lab complex had rattled her. Losing Vega Jaal had rattled her. The Doctor had rattled her. She was sick of being rattled. She slapped Jim on the back and said with greater confidence, 'We all are.' all are.'

She looked up at Bunny Cheung. His ma.s.sive arms were folded across his chest and he was glowering at the a.n.a.lyser display. Stoker thought that she could really do with a little more support from him right now. 'What's up with you?' she demanded.

Bunny cast her a dark look. 'Just thinking, that's all.'

Stoker knew what Bunny was thinking. She had known him for too long, she knew exactly how he thought. Right now he was thinking that it would be an unbearable shame if they should find all this easy lex and then have it s.n.a.t.c.hed away from them. Worst of all, that was exactly what she she was starting to think too. But the fact that it could happen, that they was starting to think too. But the fact that it could happen, that they could could lose it, made Stoker all the more determined to keep hold of it. lose it, made Stoker all the more determined to keep hold of it.

'We could get a more detailed trace if Nik looked at this,'

Jim said, tapping the a.n.a.lyser. 'He's the expert.'

'Where is Nik?' Stoker asked.

'Dunno,' said Jim. 'I left him having a smoke in the side tunnel.'

'I don't like the thought of anyone wandering off on their own,' Bunny growled. 'Find him.'