'Down here should be fine,' the Doctor said to Bunny Cheung, indicating the s.p.a.ce where the a.n.a.lysers had been stored in the secondary cavern. It wasn't perfect, but it would have to do for now. The girl on the stretcher was starting to moan.

The Doctor immediately knelt down and rested a hand on her forehead. 'Nyssa! Can you hear me? It's the Doctor.

Everything's all right. You're in safe hands.'

It was vague and not entirely correct, but Stoker couldn't fault the man's bedside manner. Nyssa's eyes were fluttering as she started to come around.

It was Tegan who spoke next, pushing past Stoker to be with her friends. 'Nyssa! Doctor, is she OK?'

'Ah, Tegan. Nyssa's as well as can be expected, I think.

She's had a nasty knock on the head. How's the leg?'

'Painful!'

The Doctor patted her arm. 'Good, that's the spirit' He turned to speak to Bunny Cheung. 'Thank you very much, I couldn't have moved her so quickly without your help.'

Bunny clapped the Doctor on the shoulder. 'Forget it.

Always happy to help a damsel in distress'

There was a thunderous echo as more rock collapsed in the main cavern.

'And just in the nick of time too, by the sound of it,' he added with a grin.

The Doctor returned the smile. 'Absolutely.'

Bunny turned to Stoker. 'Can I take that call now, boss?

It's been waiting since before the blast'

Stoker grimaced, suddenly remembering. 'Oh, h.e.l.l, yes, if you must. But I haven't finished kicking your a.r.s.e properly yet, Bunny. So get out of here while you still can.'

With a huge grin, which took in not only Stoker but the Doctor and Tegan too, Bunny lumbered off towards the equipment area.

'He's got a personal call on hold,' explained Stoker to the Doctor. 'The big lummox can hardly wait.'

'He's as strong as an ox,' remarked the Doctor, rubbing his shoulder. 'He lifted Nyssa as though she weighed nothing'

'Yeah, he's a real hero,' Stoker said drily.

'Don't be so hard on him,' Tegan said. 'I'm going for some fresh air. Do you mind?'

Stoker shrugged. 'You won't find any of that down here.'

'I wasn't talking to you' Tegan looked at the Doctor. 'Is it all right?'

The Doctor cleared his throat. 'Certainly. I'll make sure Nyssa's comfortable here and then catch you up.'

Stoker watched Tegan limp away and raised an eyebrow. 'Is she for real?'

'She's plain-speaking,' the Doctor admitted. He looked at Stoker. 'There's a lot of it about'

The Doctor knelt down to check Nyssa again. He felt her pulse and then gently raised each eyelid to examine her pupils. She had stopped moaning now and seemed a little more settled, with some colour in her cheeks. There was an ugly swelling beneath the cut on her forehead but the bleeding had stopped. The Doctor pulled the blanket up gently to her chin and then stared at her thoughtfully for a long moment.

'Problem?' wondered Stoker.

The Doctor stood up. 'I don't know,' he said. He gave her a quizzical look. 'What are you doing here? If you don't mind me asking'

'I might ask you the same question,' replied Stoker. 'Only your plain speaking friend has already filled me in on some of the details'

Undaunted, the Doctor stuffed his hands into his trouser pockets. 'Well, then, perhaps you could answer my question with similar candour. You seem to have some kind of operation going here. What are you? Miners? Mineralogists?'

Stoker paused to light a cigar. 'Archaeologists.'

'Really?' The Doctor raised both eyebrows. 'How interesting.'

Tegan found Bunny Cheung in the comms area, a secluded part of the cave where Stoker's people had erected some kind of equipment bank. There was a chair and a communications console. Bunny had his back to her when she came in. He sat hunched over the controls like Desperate Dan tuning a wireless. Tegan was about to call over to him when a screen fizzed into life and a 3D image flashed into view.

It was a hologram of a little girl, about five or six years old, with big, bright blue eyes. She was clutching some kind of soft toy.

'Hi there,' said Bunny Cheung. 'How's my baby?'

The girl beamed. 'Hi Daddy. Guess what.' a cat poo'd in our garden yesterday and Mummy had to pick it up with a stick.'

'What, the cat?'

'No, silly! The poo. She put it in the bin. And Hannah Goodison was sick in school today.'

Tegan smiled, hanging back, and she heard Bunny laughing too. The hologram crackled and broke up a bit, as if there was a transmission problem. Tegan wondered from how far away it was being beamed.

'She's always ill. Hey, I got your message.' Bunny's voice softened to a warm growl. 'Don't be scared, princess. You're with Mummy, remember. Nothing can hurt you at home.'

Rosie digested this for a while. 'What about you?'

'Me? I'm fine, sweetheart. I'm not scared of anything.'

'Not even lions or bears?'

Bunny grinned. 'Especially not lions and bears!'

Rosie nodded solemnly. 'Will you send me a message later? Mummy says we can't talk like this too often 'cos it costs too much.'

'Sure. I'll beam a message right back at you, soon as as I get the chance. Promise. How's Mummy?' I get the chance. Promise. How's Mummy?'

'Fine. Daddy, will you be coming home soon?'

'Just as soon as I can, sweetheart. Why, are you missing me?'

'No, but Kooka's arm needs fixing again. It's come right off this time' The girl held up the soft toy, some kind of orange thing with a peculiar face and three .eyes. In her other hand was the thing's arm.

'Oh, right. D'you think he can manage until I get home?'

The girl looked dubious. 'Well... '

'I mean, it's kind of all right, isn't it?' pressed Bunny. 'A one-armed Earth Reptile, it's just like a one-armed human.

Don't you think?' 'All right,' the girl conceded the point with some reluctance. 'So long as you fix him as soon as as you come home.' you come home.'

'I will, sweetheart. I promise.'

'I've got to go now, Daddy. You said we mustn't stay too long on the hypernet. So bye.'

Bunny Cheung paused to swallow. 'Bye, honey.'

The girl gave a little wave and a grin and vanished.

Bunny sat at the console for several seconds in silence, staring at the empty s.p.a.ce where the hologram had been.

Then he pressed a series of b.u.t.tons and, making a huge fist with his right hand, inserted the ring on his middle finger into a small socket by the hologram projector. There was a series of bleeps and whirrs and then he pulled the ring out. For a long moment Bunny stared into the stone on the ring, which glittered in the lamplight.

Tegan cleared her throat quietly to get his attention.

'Long way from home?'

He turned his head, surprised. 'Blimey, do you always creep up on people like that? I could've had a heart attack.'

'Sorry. I just wanted to say thanks, for helping out with Nyssa. That's all.'

Bunny sat back in his chair, the plastic creaking ominously beneath his weight. 'OK. Sorry if I sound a bit grumpy. I was miles away. Light-years away, in fact.'

'Your daughter?'

Bunny's smile lit up his whole face. He had rather small eyes, but, as Tegan now noticed, they sparkled with genuine good humour. 'The one and only. My very own little monster.'

Tegan forced a laugh. 'She's very pretty.'

'Not at all like her dad, eh?'

'What's her name?

'Rosie.'

'That's nice. You must miss her.'

Bunny rubbed a hand down his face and scratched at the thick stubble on his jaw 'Only enormously and during every waking moment. Why, does it show?'

'I recognise a long-distance call when I see one; Tegan said as as she perched on the edge of the console unit. she perched on the edge of the console unit.

'Direct hyper-wave, bounced all around the Karula Koza system net and pulse-beamed right out here to the very edge of the galaxy It's virtually untraceable, and very expensive - but worth every credit.'

Tegan glanced at the communications suite. To her it looked lashed together, bits of various computers and transceivers piled on top of one another. These people were working on a shoestring.

Bunny caught her look. 'Just don't tell Stoker.'

'I won't! She does seem a bit sharp-tongued if you ask me.' Tegan felt uncomfortable, suddenly realising that this was like the pot calling the kettle black.

Bunny was shaking his head. 'Stoker likes to act tough.

Actually, she is is tough. But there's not a man here who wouldn't follow Jyl Stoker to the edge of s.p.a.ce and back. In fact, they already have.' tough. But there's not a man here who wouldn't follow Jyl Stoker to the edge of s.p.a.ce and back. In fact, they already have.'

'Including you?'

'Well, yes and no. Officially I'm retired, you see. Wanted to spend some time with my family' Here Bunny flashed her a quick, mirthless smile. 'But Stoker called in an old debt.'

'You owe her money?'

'I owe her my life,' Bunny said. 'But that's another story. It doesn't matter now. All I know is that when this operation's over, I'm off back to Earth and my family for good. But that's me. What's your story? How does a half-dressed girl like you wind up on a G.o.dforsaken rock like this?'

Chapter Three.

'I didn't think anything could get inside the TARDIS,' Tegan had argued.

'Ordinarily, no,' agreed the Doctor. He regarded Nyssa with a look of consternation. 'But in this case, I think it could be something rather extraordinary. Tell me about the dream again.'

'The nightmare you mean,' said Nyssa. Her voice trembled slightly. 'Traken?'

The Doctor leant closer. 'Specifically the thing in the dark, the thing you couldn't quite see.'

Tegan said, 'I thought we'd been through all this already... Can't you see she's upset, Doctor?' In truth, all this talk of nightmares was making Tegan nervous; she had suffered the night-time heebie-jeebies on many occasions during her sojourn on Earth, mostly bad dreams featuring serpents and jungles and caves and the like, which she had simply put down to her experience on Deva Loka.

Apparently oblivious to Tegan's reservations, Nyssa continued, 'It really wasn't like a dream at all. There was definitely something or someone in the room with me, in the shadows. I got out of bed and followed it into the darkness... I didn't want to, but I had to. Some kind of compulsion, I suppose. It seemed so cold, and dark, like the deep s.p.a.ce between galaxies. Empty and merciless...'

Tegan hugged herself and shivered at the thought. The cheerful brightness of the console room had become harsh and clinical. 'And then what?' the Doctor prompted softly.

Nyssa drew a deep breath. As I said, the lights came on in my room then. And it was empty. And it was empty. There was no one else there... but there There was no one else there... but there had had been, Doctor, I'm convinced of it. You must believe me.' been, Doctor, I'm convinced of it. You must believe me.'

The Doctor was frowning. 'You're saying something actually manifested itself in the TARDIS?'

Nyssa shrugged helplessly. 'But Tegan's right, surely. It's not possible for something to penetrate the real-world interface, is it?'