'There is a great void here, in this moon... an empty place, and yet not empty. It is filled with something I cannot describe, but I know it is this moon's darkest secret.' Jaal's eyes seem to glow brighter. 'And there is a door...'

'I hate riddles,' complained Tegan.

'A door to what?' asked the Doctor.

'The void. The non-void' Vega Jaal hesitated. "The...

hunger. The craving.'

'We're going around in circles now,' Tegan muttered.

'Hush,' said the Doctor. 'This could be important.'

'But I have said more than I know already,' said Vega Jaal. 'And it can sometimes be difficult to separate feeling from conjecture. I could simply be mistaken!

'But?'

Vega Jaal fixed the Doctor with a baleful glare. 'I am certain that the door will be found, Doctor. And that it shall be pa.s.sed through.'

'Into the void?' asked Nyssa.

Jaal shrugged. 'Or the void may come through to find us.'

'Hey, Jaal!' echoed a voice from further down the tunnel.

'Come and lend a hand with this.' the scanner's still messing us about.'

'I must go,' said Vega Jaal. He bowed stiffly and followed the pa.s.sageway towards the voice.

'What was all that about?' Tegan wanted to know. 'Doors and voids and things.' it doesn't make any sense.

'Well, Vegan geology relies as much on mysticism as scientific fact. Plus a healthy dose of good old-fashioned extra-sensory perception.'

'Terrific.'

The Doctor seemed to reach a decision, and said, 'If we're going to get anywhere here, we'll need Stoker's help.

Come on'

'Where are we going?' Tegan asked, as she and Nyssa fell into step behind him.

'To make ourselves useful!'

They found Stoker crouching over a bulky machine, surrounded by nearly everyone in her team. Like most of Stoker's equipment, the machine looked worn and frequently repaired: one of the access plates was held on with gaffer tape.

Jim Boyd was sitting at a seat in front of a keyboard and screen, tapping at the controls without effect. 'See? Not a spark. We can't do anything unless this heap of junk actually works.' works.'

'Hey,' said Stoker. 'This heap of junk cost over forty grand. You've got to treat it with care' She banged it hard with the flat of her hand, raising a laugh from the men.

'Is that a spectron a.n.a.lyser?' asked the Doctor, inserting himself between a couple of the men.

Stoker looked back at him. 'What if it is?'

'I might be able to fix it. I'm quite a whiz with computers'

A pause. 'And the gentleman is quite right.' you'll never find what you're looking for without it'

Stoker sat back and crossed her arms. 'You've got it all worked out, haven't you?'

'This is no archaeological dig,' said the Doctor bluntly.

By now, the entire team was listening intently to the exchange. Stoker was watching the Doctor with a shrewd, slightly amused expression. 'Go on.'

The Doctor took this as an invitation to start work. He leaned over and began to tap the keyboard in a rapid, confident manner. He talked as he worked. 'As I said, in my experience archaeologists rarely use high explosives - or even army surplus controlled-gravity bombs. That in itself was enough to get me thinking.' The Doctor glanced apologetically at Bunny Cheung before adding, 'And then there were your credentials. All forgeries, I'm afraid.'

'Forgeries?'

'There is is no Department of Alien Antiquities at the University of Tyr. It specialises in temporal compression research? no Department of Alien Antiquities at the University of Tyr. It specialises in temporal compression research?

Stoker looked at Bunny. 'You knucklehead.'

'And then there's Vega Jaal,' said the Doctor, his fingers rattling over the keyboard. 'He correctly identified a lump of natural porizium ore on sight, the sort of thing an experienced miner might be capable of, but not an archaeologist. And while that might not be unusual for a Vegan, it confirmed that I was on the right track. This moon could be rich in many kinds of minerals. All your equipment, including this machine, is calibrated for mineral a.n.a.lysis. And the fact that you're all in such a terrible hurry is the final clue.' at a guess, I'd say you want to secure exclusive mining rights for this moon before anyone else has a chance to jump your claim.'

'Such as you?'

The Doctor made a series of final keystrokes and sat back. 'I'm not a claim jumper.'

'I'm glad to hear it. OK, so you've seen through our little deception. We can't be too careful in our line of business, I'm sure you realise. But there is one question I'd like an answer to, right now'

'What?'

'Can you fix our a.n.a.lyser?'

'I already have.'

Jim immediately moved in, checking the readouts thrown up on the a.n.a.lyser's screen. 'He's right. This thing's running like a rabbit. It's scanning right now.'

'What's it do?' Tegan asked Nyssa.

'I think it's designed to scan the surrounding rock for particular minerals. It probably utilises some kind of isotopic recognition wave.'

'Well done, Nyssa,' said the Doctor.

'Will you look at this!' exclaimed Jim suddenly, his whole body stiffening. 'Hot d.a.m.n!' d.a.m.n!'

Everyone crowded in to see the screen. Numbers and graphics scrolled up in a rainbow of information.

A strange quiet came over the group as the readings settled down.

'Is that what I think it is?' asked someone.

'It's lex,' said Stoker simply. Then, shouting, 'It's lex, lex, for crying out loud!' for crying out loud!'

'But it's practically off the d.a.m.n scale!' said Jim. His voice rang with disbelief.

Suddenly, Bunny Cheung let out a ma.s.sive whoop! whoop! of joy and Tegan yelped in surprise. of joy and Tegan yelped in surprise.

'By all that's good and holy,' Jyl Stoker was shaking her head in disbelief.

'You've done it, Jyl,' said Bunny Cheung. 'You've done it!' done it!'

'Done what?' asked Nyssa, raising her voice to be heard over the sudden clamour of excited shouting and laughter.

'What's going on?'

'The a.n.a.lyser's detected a huge seam of a very rare mineral called lexium,' explained the Doctor.

'What does that mean?'

'Fortune and glory!' shouted Stoker with relish. 'Fortune and glory! We're gonna be rich!'

Chapter Five.

Tegan hadn't been to a party in ages.

In fact, when she thought about it, the last time she could remember having a good old knees-up, as Aunt Vanessa would have called it, was at Cranleigh Hall in 1925.

But this was different. Here there was no fancy dress or indeed anyone even attempting The Charleston: there weren't even that many people. But between them, Stoker's half dozen had managed to fill the cavern with the shouts and whoops of people finally allowed to have some fun. There was drink of course; a pretty potent beer and even a bottle of wine. It seemed Stoker's team had come prepared for success and ready to party.

Jim Boyd was asking her something.

'Sorry,' laughed Tegan. 'I can't hear you!'

'Do you want to dance?' Boyd yelled.

'Sure!'

And why not? Tegan needed to have some fun too, if only to help blot out the chilly atmosphere of the caves. And, if she was totally honest, blot out the last few months of her life.

The Doctor watched Tegan get up to dance and smiled.

'It's good to see Tegan enjoying herself,' remarked Nyssa, noticing the Doctor's look of amus.e.m.e.nt.

The Doctor dipped his head closer so that he could hear her over the din. They were sitting together with Stoker and Vega Jaal, around a portable heat generator. It provided a happy red glow in the centre of the cave, throwing up huge wavering shadows of the dancers around the walls.

'It's good that she can relax here, Nyssa added wistfully.

'You don't share her happiness?'

'Do you?'

The Doctor appeared to think carefully about this. 'I'm still concerned about the reason we came here in the first place, Nyssa. There is danger here, somewhere. I wish it wasn't the case, but it'll find us soon enough.'

'Or we will find it.'

'Yes. We can't afford to relax too much. But on the other hand, Stoker and her men have a lot to celebrate, and I don't begrudge them that.'

The party had evolved naturally from the raucous carousing that had followed the discovery of the lexium. The Doctor had received some hearty slaps on the back for fixing the a.n.a.lyser, along with a bonecrushing hug from Bunny Cheung. Someone started pa.s.sing cans of beer around.

Someone else produced the sound system and started to play dance music. Jyl Stoker went around each of her men and shook them by the hand, touching their faces and heads and shoulders in natural camaraderie. The affection she demonstrated for these men was almost maternal. They all, to a man, thanked her profusely.

She cut an oddly masculine figure, dressed in a jump-suit of some tough, black material covered in zips and pockets.

Over this she sported a sleeveless padded jacket, and in the inside pocket of this she kept her cigars. When she had finished talking to her men, Stoker had sat down on a crate and taken out a fresh cigar with cool deliberation. Then, with equal consideration, she had lit it with an antique stainless-steel lighter. For a while she sat there, quietly watching the smoke curl away from the tip of the cigar and disappear into the darkness overhead. While the others cheered and joked and told each other how they were going to spend their share of the fortune, Stoker simply reflected on her own personal journey here.