You certainly won't be starting now.'

Cadwell smiled knowingly. 'I thought you'd take that att.i.tude, Lawrence. You always were a boring stickin-the-mud who couldn't see beyond the last line of his rule book.'

He aimed a blaster pistol steadily at Lawrence's chest. 'Now, Captain. I'm Captain. I'm afraid I must insist: the order, if you please, to take off.' afraid I must insist: the order, if you please, to take off.'

Lawrence growled. 'What's this, Cadwell? Piracy?' Piracy?'

The irony was not lost on Cadwell; a muscle twitched along his jaw and he raised the pistol. 'Survival,' he said.

The Doctor leapt forward, his hand slashing down on Cadwell's gun arm. The blaster discharged, punching a hole right through the deck.

With a sudden twist, the Doctor forced Cadwell to drop the weapon.

Lawrence picked it up, calmly adjusted the setting, and shot Cadwell with a stun bolt as he struggled with the Doctor.

With a gasp Cadwell sagged to the floor and collapsed, unconscious.

'Thank you,' the Doctor said.

'I wish I could've killed him,' said Lawrence, 'but it's against Consortium rules.'

'You're very quiet,' Tegan said as she sat down next to Jyl Stoker a little later.

Stoker looked tired and bewildered. There were dark rings under her eyes, which were still raw with tears. 'I can't think of anything worth saying,' she said. 'What's the point?'

'I think Captain Lawrence could do with a bit of help,'

Tegan told her, not unkindly.

'Don't be daft,' Stoker said. 'He knows what he's doing.'

'None of this is in his rule book, surely!'

Stoker smiled sadly. 'No, but the most important thing is: is: secure the Consortium's mining rights to this moon.' secure the Consortium's mining rights to this moon.'

'You still want to contest the claim?'

'No. I don't care about the lexium any more. He's welcome to it as far as I'm concerned.'

'Then what?'

Stoker shifted uncomfortably in her seat. 'I just wish Lawrence felt the same. But I know he wants the lex more than anything, or anyone, anyone, else.' else.'

'You don't know that?

'Of course I do. Lawrence's a Consortium man. He's trained to put the Consortium first.' Stoker smiled bitterly. 'He always did. He always will.'

'Then what are you frightened of?'

'Who says I'm frightened?'

'You still love him, don't you?'

Stoker eyed Tegan carefully for a long moment. 'I fell asleep before. Not for long, but I was exhausted. And I had a dream. You'd think I'd have had a b.l.o.o.d.y nightmare after all this, wouldn't you? But no; I had a rather pleasant dream.'

Stoker paused long enough to light one of her cigars. 'It was one of those stupid dreams where you meet the person you love.

Really love. You know: it's perfect. It feels so natural and right and good that there's no mistaking it. True love. Sounds kind of corny, I suppose.'

Tegan shook her head. 'And this person in your dream would be..?

'Lawrence, of course,' Stoker said sadly: It always is. You see, I've had the dream before.'

'Sounds like a good dream.'

'It isn't. Because when I wake up, the dream fades.'

Stoker blew out a cloud of smoke and watched it slowly dissipate. All I'm left with is cold, hard reality.'

'Does Lawrence know how you feel?'

'How can he when not even I know how I feel?' Stoker stubbed out her cigar angrily. 'This isn't the right time to find out, anyway.'

'Now is exactly the right time,' Tegan said. And I mean for both of you. At the moment, I think what you really need more than anything else... is each other.'

Lawrence coughed quietly to attract the Doctor's attention.

'Don't be so hard on yourself, man. You weren't to know what Cadwell was up to. None of us could have guessed.'

The Doctor, who had been sitting staring at the floor for the last ten minutes, looked up gloomily. 'I knew more than most: I knew the Dark was here, waiting to be freed. I knew Nyssa was under its malign influence.'

Nyssa touched his hand gently. 'You couldn't have known what would happen to Ravus Oldeman. Stop blaming yourself.'

'But perhaps I did did know what would happen: argued the Doctor. know what would happen: argued the Doctor.

'Perhaps I, too, was being influenced by the Dark.'

'Then how can you blame yourself?'

'Because anything else is just too convenient,' said the Doctor steadily. 'I refuse to let the Dark a.s.sume responsibility for my actions.'

Abruptly he stood up and faced Lawrence. 'Captain, have you reached your decision?'

Lawrence nodded briefly. 'Yes. I intend to follow your advice, Doctor, and prepare for take-off. The sooner we're away from this blasted moon the better.'

'Thank you.'

'I have to say that it irks me to think that in doing so I'm also following Cadwell's advice, though.' Lawrence added ruefully.

'Indeed,' said the Doctor. 'It is the one thing we're all agreed upon, at least.'

Lawrence paused at the door of his cabin. 'I a.s.sume that you will be accompanying us, Doctor. No d.a.m.n fool heroic idea of staying behind?

I seem to recall that was your original plan.'

The Doctor hesitated before replying, aware of a searching look from Nyssa. 'No, Captain. It's not a risk I'm prepared to take any longer. I certainly can't allow Tegan and Nyssa to be exposed to such extreme danger. Even if I did elect to stay behind, I'm afraid they would insist on staying with me.'

Nyssa smiled sadly at him. 'You know us too well, Doctor.'

'Then it's settled,' the Doctor said. 'We stay with the Adamantium.' Adamantium.'

It was with a palpable sense of relief, pa.s.sing through the vessel like the hum of its engines as they started to warm up, that everyone on board the Adamantium Adamantium prepared to leave the moon of Akoshemon. Nyssa found Tegan sitting in the mess. 'What's the matter?' prepared to leave the moon of Akoshemon. Nyssa found Tegan sitting in the mess. 'What's the matter?'

'I'm not sure. I just feel a bit down' Tegan rubbed her eyes. 'Maybe I'm just tired.'

'It's this place,' Nyssa told her with a shiver. 'The moon, I mean. The Dark must be affecting everyone in some way.'

'That's what the Doctor said.'

'Perhaps it's for the best that we're leaving.'

'Yeah. I just hope we can get the TARDIS back.'

'The Doctor says that won't be a problem: he's got some sort of remote-control device with him, and he can bring the TARDIS to us when we're safely away from the moon.'

'I won't feel safe again until we're a million miles from here and about a million years.'

Nyssa chewed her lip thoughtfully. 'It's a bit odd, don't you think?'

'What?'

'The Doctor, backing off. I've never seen him like this: it's almost as if he's frightened.'

'Probably with good reason' Tegan shrugged. 'I suppose even Time Lords get the heebie-jeebies.'

'It doesn't make any sense. The Doctor said we'd never be free of the Dark until it was destroyed, remember? That it could always find the TARDIS again in the s.p.a.ce-time vortex.

So what's the use of running away? It's not like him.'

Tegan frowned. 'You're right, it isn't. And I've never heard of any remote-control gadget for the TARDIS before, either.'

'Do you think he's lying to us?'

Tegan stood up. 'We'd better find him!'

Stoker stepped onto the bridge and felt her stomach twitch the moment she saw Lawrence. He was standing with his back to her, looking tall and ramrod straight, shoulders squared. She felt a huge rush of affection for him.

When he turned around his eyes glittered and he smiled that perfect, white smile. She noticed, too, that he had somehow found the time to shave before arriving on the bridge. 'h.e.l.lo there,' he said. His voice was low and soft.

'We're nearly up to speed: blast off in ten minutes.'

Stoker said. 'just enough time.'

He was still smiling. The decision to leave had been the right one. 'Just enough time for what?'

'This.' She walked over to him and kissed him. 'I bet that's not part of the normal take-off procedure.'

'It isn't,' he said. 'But it d.a.m.n well ought to be.'

Various control consoles around the bridge were humming into life, displays lighting and flickering. The power build-up from the ship's engines could be felt through the soles of their feet. The computers whirred happily as the Adamantium Adamantium gradually came back to life. gradually came back to life.

'I've missed you,' Lawrence said. He clasped Stoker's shoulders in his large, powerful hands. 'You're everything to me.'

Stoker felt her heart beating faster and faster as the whine of the ship's motors began to increase. 'What about the lexium?'

He flashed a feral smile that she had never seen before.

'What about it?

Let it rot on this G.o.dforsaken s.h.i.t-hole with the Dark.'

'You say the nicest things.'

He pulled her to him and kissed her again. Stoker was surprised at how cold his lips felt on hers.