'Well,' Kat said, leaning back on the bed with a deep breath as she digested what her cellmate had just told her, 'thanks for being honest anyway.'

'I didn't have much choice,' Chris pointed out, with a nervous half-laugh. He rubbed his arms and Kat guessed he was still feeling the effects of the truth drug, even so long after his interrogation. He sat beside her. 'Do you hate me?'

'What, for trying to destroy my planet?' Alarm sculpted his face briefly. She diffused it with a grin. 'Of course not. You didn't know what this "Doctor" was planning, did you?'

'No,' he muttered. 'That's the problem. He never tells me and I don't ask.'

Kat reached over and played with his hair. She still found it fascinating. 'You're too trusting, that's your trouble.'

'Too gullible!'

'But the Doctor could have his reasons, you know.'

'How can you say that?'

Kat shrugged. 'You said you liked him. Maybe what he told you about our Miracle was true; perhaps he just didn't know how much we depended on it?'

Chris shook his head. 'He knew. And if he had "reasons", then he should have told me, shouldn't he?'

She didn't answer. Her thoughts had been playing about the idea of the Miracle and, suddenly, some things he had told her were starting to gel. 'You know,' she said slowly, 'it does make sense.'

'What does?'

'These "fictional forces" you talked about. The Detrians discovered the Miracle first, right? But what if what they 87 actually found was a cloud of fictional energy, which their thoughts reshaped?'

'Into what their planet needed most!' he exclaimed, realizing.

Then something else occurred to Kat and her excitement was stifled. 'No. Into what we we needed. We humans. Subconsciously or not, those first astronauts created something that gave us an advantage over the lizard people. Something that gave us all we needed except heat!' needed. We humans. Subconsciously or not, those first astronauts created something that gave us an advantage over the lizard people. Something that gave us all we needed except heat!'

She fell silent, pondering that unpleasant thought. She recalled Thruskarr's disdain of the Miracle and she hoped he was all right, wherever he was now. To her surprise, she realized that thinking of him made her feel guilty. For what?

The affection she was beginning to harbour towards Christopher? Thruskarr had said that too; that it was not him she loved, just the idea of being daring, flirting with a lizard. How much better, then, to romance an alien? Was that what she wanted?

She focused on his face again. His distant expression mirrored her own. 'What are you thinking?' she asked, as a conversational gambit.

'I was wondering if we might end up sleeping together,' he said.

Mel winced as, not far away, another section of forest fell. The Doctor held her tight, his arm around her shoulders, as she fought back the desire to scream. The pair sat nestled in the roots of a scarlet tree on the edge of the clearing where once their prison had stood. By keeping still, they hoped to avoid detection.

'How long is this likely to go on?' Mel whispered.

'Impossible to say. Our friend evidently still likes the idea of having dinosaurs about.' She shuddered and the Doctor squeezed her rea.s.suringly. 'Don't worry, I've survived the real thing several times. When you make enemies of Silurians, you have to be prepared for their pets too.'

'I wish you'd stop advising me not to worry,' said Mel, 'at least until that becomes a sensible proposition.' She tried to give him a faint smile, but her expression became a frown 88 instead. A vague memory had surfaced. 'Just a minute. You said "Silurians". Your doppelganger mentioned them, I'm sure.'

'Oh?'

'Silurian Earth, yes that was it. He said you'd "left Silurian Earth to a lingering death".'

'That memory of yours.'

'And "wiped out" seven planets in the - Arthurian? - Althosian - System.' - System.'

The Doctor dismissed the topic with a wave. 'An entirely false account of what happened, of course.' Mel opened her mouth to press the point, but he turned away as though straining to remember. 'In fact, it was just after Silurian Earth that I met Jason. Both were part of Mortimus's plots, I recall.' He sneaked a look at her, and seemed quite pleased that he had her attention. 'Jason, although I didn't know his name then, had been given control over a unique s.p.a.ce-time phenomenon: a place known as the Land of Fiction. Within that Land, he had absolute power. He could manipulate its energies to do whatever he wanted.'

'What did you do?'

'Escaped, initially. Then asked the Time Lords to step in.

They dismantled the Land and returned Jason to his proper place and time.' He nodded slowly and seemed to drift off, as though he was now talking more to himself than to her. 'That was Earth, 1993. Eight years later, fictional forces start flooding into this dimension. The Time Lords didn't account for that possibility, and somehow Jason is able to act as a conduit for those forces. They tend towards him and he uses them, to do exactly what he wishes in reality.'

'Sounds dangerous,' Mel commented. The ground shook as a tyrannosaurus stomped through the trees, mere yards to their right. She shivered and added: 'He scares me, anyway.'

The Doctor seemed to be in a dreamworld. She watched him, looking into those sparkling, kind eyes she had once known well. They seemed inscrutable, their lenses shuttered to hide the thoughts which now dwelt behind them. He'd avoided her question, and she would learn the reason why. Not yet, though.

89.'What you are thinking?' she asked him gently.

His voice was distant. 'General thoughts. My new companions. I left them in danger.'

'Your friends can usually take care of themselves,' Mel said, trying to sound rea.s.suring.

'So long as they keep hold of the generators,' he muttered, nodding slowly. 'So long as the Detrians can't lock a beam onto them.'

'You're losing me.'

The Doctor jerked out of his reverie, seeming fully aware of Mel's presence for the first time in several minutes. 'I think . . .'

he began, then faltered and smiled. A genuine smile, from the good old Doctor. 'I think I've thought of a way out of this.'

He delved into his pockets.

'What are you saying?' the Superior snapped, leaping from her chair.

Darnak shuffled uncomfortably. 'The intruders, ma'am. They . . . left.'

'How?' she demanded, arms spread in an exaggerated gesture of bewilderment.

'They disappeared. Like they arrived.'

'And where are the rebels?'

'Their patterns are in the transmat buffer, Superior.'

'What?'

He explained hastily. 'I felt it unwise to use power re-materializing them in case they were needed later. Security have orders that, if the intruders return, they should track their coordinates and complete the transmat.' He considered this decision quite praiseworthy and looked to the Superior to tell him so.

'You are an incompetent moron, aren't you?' she hissed. 'If you'd acted faster, we could have captured the saboteurs and we wouldn't be wasting power now on those rebel animals. You do know that the prisoner confirmed his intentions, don't you?

That he and his companions are trying to destroy our Miracle and doom us all?' Darnak swallowed. 'And you, Darnak, are turning into their biggest ally!' She sighed disgustedly and sat 90 down. 'Well, let's hope they've given up. We'll have Merrioc to thank for his decisive actions if they have.'

Darnak scowled and made to leave, but the Superior stopped him with a glare. 'I want you to do something, if you're capable. Enros has requested the presence of two prisoners: the alien and the rebel leader. You can arrange for both to . . . shall we say, fall into his hands, can't you?'

Darnak coughed nervously and inspected his toes, remembering Mortannis's face as it twisted in alarm and vanished in the cubicle's red glow.

The Superior groaned with overstated impatience. 'What have you done?'

Chris sucked his knuckles and wished he could drop dead where he sat.

Kat'lanna, conversely, burst into laughter. 'I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked. I forgot the truth drug.'

He couldn't meet her eyes and he knew that his cheeks were crimson. 'That's twice I've done that today,' he whispered.

'Oh, I'm not special then?'

'I didn't mean . . .'

'Come on, give.'

'My partner, Forrester. But that wasn't real, it happened in the crystal. And . . . I don't really love her anyway. Not like that.'

The drug's requirement fulfilled, Chris looked at Kat sternly.

'Look, do you mind not asking me that sort of thing at the moment?'

'Sorry,' she said again.

A long silence ensued, during which Chris stared at his feet and wondered if the drug had revealed a few home truths to him too. He felt he didn't want to consider that yet and, with an effort, he returned his thoughts to immediate concerns.

'What are they likely to do with us?' he asked.

Kat answered solemnly. 'Anything from a caution to hanging, depending on what mood the Superior's in.'

'Hanging?'

'The Ruling Family restored capital punishment when the Great Darkness began. It means we waste less power on 91 criminals. Or rather, on those who have been labelled "criminal".' Kat thought for a moment. 'Mind you, I imagine that Enros will want you.'

'Who's he?'

'Our local religious freak. He believes that the universe exists for his pleasure and that, when he dies, it will all go with him.'

'Should be easy to prove wrong.'

'Not in his lifetime. He practically controls this planet now.

The Superior and her Family rule in name, but Enros tells them how. They like that - belief keeps people in line more effectively than deterrents.'

'But why is he believed?' Chris asked. 'There were plenty of people like him on Earth, but no one commanded that much of a following.'

'He predicted that a Miracle would save us. Right on cue, it did. Just lucky, I guess. The thing is, Enros has always claimed that pink men would come from the sky and worship him.'

'Aha. So if I don't . . .?'

'You'd shake a few faiths, that's for sure.'

'Perhaps he will want a word, then.'

'Or he'll have you disposed of in secret. It has happened.'

Chris scowled. 'The more I hear about this planet, the less I like it.' He knew from bitter experience how corruption could breed within the inst.i.tutions of power.

'Then you'll help us,' Kat said, more as a statement than as a question. She leaned forward and kissed him lightly on the forehead. The sensation was enjoyable. 'Escape from here, I mean.'

He wasn't sure. The Detrian authorities, he considered, had every right to detain him - and he had only Kat's word that they weren't benevolent. Was he letting her manipulate him into doing something rash?

Right or wrong, though, Chris decided, he did want freedom.

Unanswered questions burnt in his chest. He had to find the Doctor. Until he had spoken to him, he couldn't fully believe his betrayal.

It was for that reason, more than any other, that Chris at last 92 answered: 'Okay. Let's go.'

Frankly, he was glad too of an excuse to tear his thoughts away from that kiss.

Mel watched in fascination as the Doctor laid out a collection of bric-a-brac on the gra.s.s, from stray paper clips to rubber bands to an apple core and a child's yo-yo with a tiger face painted on it. 'It never fails to amaze me how much junk you keep in those pockets,' she commented.

'I never know when I might need it,' the Doctor said, triumphantly producing a small green cube with a flat-screen display.

'Oh, Doctor,' Mel groaned, 'you must have been able to feel that thing. It's three inches square!'

He was already prising the box open with a screwdriver. 'As you have observed, Mel, my pockets are extraordinarily capacious.'

'What is it?'

He held the screwdriver between his teeth and rummaged in the object's internal wiring, answering through one side of his mouth. 'A rather clever device of my own devising. It generates a force field. Unfortunately, it was intended to work in conjunction with two other units.'

'But you can modify it, right?'

His eyes gleamed. 'Right.'

Stationed by the cell door, Kat'lanna could hear footsteps approaching. 'He's coming,' she whispered. Chris rolled off the bed and joined her. 'How are you feeling? No, don't answer. I don't want to hear the biological details.'

It's all right,' he said. 'The drug's almost worn off now. I should be able to join in.'

A black-clothed guard appeared at the door and stared suspiciously through the bars. 'What are you two doing?'

It's all right,' Kat said. 'My alien friend here has communicated with Enros. We have been summoned to His Presence immediately.'

'n.o.body came through here.'