'You don't exactly look like a black-project scientist, Doc.'

'I may not have to. Not for a scouting mission, at least. You know, I think your insubstantial friend David Niven has provided the answer to one of our dilemmas.'

'Like what?'

'These holograms like your Maitre d' - are they common on this planet?'

'Yeah. You can assign a holo to interface with any computer-based task. All mine are old Earth figures; I got Ingrid Bergman, David Niven -'

The Doctor held up his hands. 'I get the idea. Would other buildings have the same type of system? Government buildings, perhaps?'

Chance nodded slowly. 'Well, they probably wouldn't be old Earth movie stars, maybe not even humanoid, but they'll have holograms as interfaces, yes.'

'Then if we knew what the Thor Facility's holograms looked like...' He opened the cockpit door, and grinned at Frobisher.

'Hey, what are you looking at me for?'

Chance nodded slowly. 'Who's going to question a hologram? It can pop up anywhere unchallenged...'

The Doctor indicated the datapad. 'And here we have a schedule of authorised shuttle visits for this month. Quite handy that, wouldn't you say?'

Jack grinned. 'I reckon it's time to hit the shuttle port then!

We'll snatch a flight crew, hijack one of their shuttles, and be-'

'No!' The Doctor calmed down. 'That would just alert the asteroid's security force. No, somehow we have to get there legitimately.' He took the pad back from Chance. 'I wonder what visitors are due to go in on those shuttles...'

Chance sipped his drink. 'Visitors none of the staff have met before?'

'Exactly,' the Doctor sounded pleased that he'd made that deduction, and Chance felt vaguely proud without knowing why.

Security control in the asteroid was a sprawling mass of polished consoles and winking indicator lights that were cultivated throughout a smooth-walled cavern. Armed guards were stationed at every door. In the centre of the room, a large hologram of the asteroid hung, with tiny thumbnail holograms of the security monitor's input scattered wherever there was a scanner.

Occasionally a security officer would touch one of the thumbnail images, and it would expand to give a good three-dimensional view of whatever that particular security monitor was showing.

SID Deputy Director Wei was watching the docking permissions with a careful eye. 'Hold for identification, please,' he heard someone say. Since most identifications were prearranged and automatic, this was enough to interest Wei. He went over to Kapra, who was supervising operations.

'What is it, Kapra?'

'This visitor, sir,' Kapra said. 'The shuttle pilot claims to have Professor Hoffman from the Academia Solaris on board, but the identity signal they're transmitting doesn't match the records of the Professor's appearance that were sent by the Academy.'

'Let me see.' Wei consulted the two images: the Academy record of a very professorial-looking man with a white beard, and the shuttle's transmission of the Doctor's image attached to some forged documentation. 'It's all right,' Wei told Kapra.

'The Academy transmission was in error. Let them dock.'

While they were doing so, Wei would notify Mandell that the Doctor was making a move.

The Thor Facility's main docking bay was kept thoroughly separate from the smaller bays which handled the delivery and removal of chemical or biological samples. To Monty, it didn't look much different from any of the municipal hangars he visited in his taxi, except that it was far cleaner. Every step and rail on every gantry and catwalk was chromed to an impossible brightness, and he could have eaten his dinner off the floor.

He brought the shuttle in gently, and touched down as near to the interior doors as possible. If the Doctor had to leave in a hurry, it would be best not to have to run across too much open floor first.

Monty had lived on the wrong side of the law for a whole working lifespan, and knew when something was amiss. The ease with which they had got into the facility was downright suspicious. 'This smells like a set-up to me, Doctor. Are you sure you want to go through with it?'

'That's why we're not all coming right now. I should've thought that was obvious. Now, there's no sense in both of us endangering our lives. You stay in the shuttle, and get out of here at the first sign of trouble.'

It was traditional to protest at these sort of instructions, or, more rarely, agree too readily. Monty was too experienced for either of those. 'I know the drill.'

Mandell groaned when the comm unit chirped. 'What is it, Wei?'

'It's the Doctor, Mandell lo lo. He's boarding the asteroid now.'

Mandell was immediately alert. 'Excellent! Is this him making his move?'

'I don't think so, sifu. sifu. More likely a reconnaissance trip.' More likely a reconnaissance trip.'

'Oh. Still, it's progress... Make sure he sees what he wants to see, but don't be linked to him.'

'Understood.'

'Professor Hoffman,' the Doctor said brightly, shaking Kapra's hand furiously. 'I do believe you're expecting me.'

Kapra smiled nervously. This walking mass of exuberance wasn't quite what he had expected from a professor at the leading GalSec educational system. 'Indeed, your reputation precedes you.'

'I'm sure it does,' the Doctor said agreeably. 'There can't be too many human "experts" in temporal mechanics.'

'It's been a very exclusive research field,' Kapra agreed.

'Which is why we asked you to examine it. Our own temporal engineers are competent and keep it safe, but when we heard you were in-system, it seemed a good idea to have you look it over.'

'Mmm,' the Doctor said in an affable tone. 'And right you were, too. I'm quite curious to see this set-up of yours.'

Glitz, Dibber and Chat ignored the muffled thumps from the wardrobe in the Captain's cabin of the Nosferatu, Nosferatu, which could be heard all the way down in the crew room. 'Why don't we just kill him?' Dibber asked. Though it wasn't her style, Chat was tempted to agree with him; the Professor's struggles were beginning to give her a migraine. which could be heard all the way down in the crew room. 'Why don't we just kill him?' Dibber asked. Though it wasn't her style, Chat was tempted to agree with him; the Professor's struggles were beginning to give her a migraine.

'That would be killing the golden goose, Dibber,' said Glitz patiently.

'What?'

'The one what laid the golden eggs,' Glitz explained. 'These scientific types aren't like ordinary nerks, are they? They're the ones who invent all the stuff that's worth anything.'

Dibber paused. 'Nobody invented diamonds, or machonite, or-'

'What I am saying, Dibber,' Glitz went on with exaggerated patience, 'is that people like the Prof in there have to invent stuff before we can nick it. Besides, you heard what the Doctor said: if we kill him, he'll walk out and Mandell will kill us.'

'Not if we fight back.'

'Be serious, Dibber. We've got a pair of multi-blasters and a couple of Ensen rifles, while Mandell has gunships, space cruisers and hundreds of specially trained troops. So the Prof stays put for the duration and gets out in one piece. Which reminds me: it's about time you fed him.'

'Me?' Dibber protested. 'Why do I have to do it?'

'Because you're in my employ,' Glitz said expansively. 'That means I'm the boss.'

'All right,' Dibber muttered. 'I'm going.' He pulled a few pre-packaged snacks from the food unit, and disappeared through the door into the short passageway.

Glitz shook his head. 'I sometimes worry about him, you know. He just hasn't got my best interests at heart.'

Chat closed her eyes. 'Why should he have? Neither have you.'

'Me?'

'You take too many risks, Sabalom. I think sometimes you want to get caught.' She didn't have to see him to know his expression was becoming one of over-dramatic outrage. 'It's part of the criminal image, isn't it? You have to have done some time to be a real crook, right? So you can say you survived it.'

'You've never been inside, have you?'

'No,' she admitted, 'but that's because I don't get caught.

Didn't,' she corrected herself. She was going straight now, she reminded herself, and the fear of getting caught was over.

'Anyway, you know I didn't mean it that way.'

'Eh?' Glitz was evidently baffled.

Chat opened her eyes again, and looked at him. 'Sometimes I worry about you too.' She wondered if he'd notice the difference between his supposed worry for Dibber and hers for him. Somehow she doubted it.

Kapra had taken the Doctor on a brief guided tour of the facility, which mostly consisted of sparklingly clean corridors bordered by frosted windows that didn't let anyone see much in or out.

Finally they had come to a mid-level area. Rather than a single room, it was more of an inhabited corridor that completely ringed the heart of the asteroid. Enormous corrugated machines filed along the centre of the floor all the way around. They hummed constantly, and pulsed with a strange dark light. 'What are those things?' Frobisher's voice whispered in the Doctor's ear.

'Some kind of time dams,' the Doctor answered softly, as if talking to himself.

'You mean the asteroid can travel in time?'

'No, these could only set up a static time field. Most likely these are responsible for keeping the place slightly out of phase with reality. But there's too much equipment for that here... they must be doing something else with it.'

'Another time field?'

'Probably. To set up a time field within a time field, the energy expenditure required increases exponentially.'

'Fascinating isn't it,' Kapra said proudly. Frobisher could tell from his voice that he must have a hand in building or designing all of this. He had a happy tone that was almost fatherly. 'They keep both time fields fully functional.

Expensive, but very effective. This installation is exceptionally secure. One might even say uniquely.'

Frobisher managed not to laugh, for that would betray his presence.

'It's very impressive,' the Doctor agreed, and Frobisher could tell he was being truthful about that. He went over to a console that was attached to the nearest time dam. The display showed a one-hour time field set up around the entire facility. There was a smaller patch at the heart of the asteroid as well, however. 'What exactly are these time dams for?'

Kapra smiled. 'The most secure vault is out of phase not just with reality but with the rest of the asteroid as well. I can show you the direct effects if you'd like, but it's a little warm.'

'So long as there's somewhere I can hang my coat,' the Doctor replied, 'I'd be happy to have a look.'

Kapra nodded understandingly. 'There's an office just round here.' He led the Doctor to a room that was more a cubbyhole than a real office, with barely space for a few workstations and a seat. The Doctor hung his coat on a wall hook, and left. 'You're not locking it?'

Kapra shook his head. 'Everyone here is strictly vetted.

They're not going to steal a coat.'

Their voices faded into, the distance. Once the room was unoccupied, the colours on the Doctor's coat began to run, flowing downwards like melting wax. The first part to reach the floor pooled out, forming webbed orange feet. The rest of it faded to black and white, coalescing as if poured into a penguin-shaped mould. In a few instants, Frobisher was no longer an extra layer on the Doctor's coat. It was a blessed relief to be back in a simpler form too; the stress of generating so many pigments had left him dizzy. He felt like a chameleon that had got drunk and woken up on a Jackson Pollock painting.

He wouldn't dream of telling the Doc how painful that coat was to a shapeshifter, though, not when it was for a reasonably good cause. No pain, no gain, as the saying went.