'The security system of this complex remains functional, and should allow you to view what has occurred here. It is reasonable to assume that the Time Lord known as the Doctor will have the opportunity to view this recording. That being the case, he should know that we have taken custody of his avian companion and his associate. They will not be released until the Doctor turns himself over to us when his mission is completed.'

The image faded. Chat looked over at the Doctor; swap him for Glitz... And surely Dibber must feel the same way. 'Well, Doctor. What now?'

The Doctor frowned. 'They have Frobisher and Glitz. I should have dealt with them before... I'll have to turn myself over,' he decided. 'All we have to do is -'

'No way,' Jack said suddenly. He looked up, eyes burning.

'They didn't threaten to kill Glitz or Frobisher. I say we do the job first, either way.'

Chat supposed that was reasonable. These bounty hunters obviously knew about the arrangement with Mandell, so perhaps they had a stake in it. One them was a Veltrochni, after all... All right. How? Without Frobisher -'

'Frobisher's skills would be a bonus,' the Doctor said, 'but not actually essential. I imagine you didn't have a Whifferdill handy when you stole the cylinder originally.'

'Hardly,' Liang answered. 'Oskar was a master of disguise.

The best. And, of course, we had a couple of Veltrochni holosuits.'

The Doctor looked at him. 'Do you still have them?'

'One of them's still working,' Monty answered. 'It's back at the garage.'

'Then we can do this without Frobisher,' the Doctor reassured them. 'It's lucky for Mandell that I turned up,' the Doctor said rather grandly. 'The defences guarding this cylinder are mostly concerned with time.'

Monty frowned. 'You mean time-locks? Things that don't operate until a specific hour? That's not a problem -'

'If only it were so easy.' The Doctor let out a long breath, and Chat got the impression that he was quite impressed by the problems he had uncovered. Admiring of them, even. 'The entire asteroid is phase-shifted one hour into the future for a start.'

'So?'

The Doctor gave him a look. 'So, it's rather difficult to break into a place that isn't there yet!'

'But you got in to case the joint,' Jack pointed out.

'Yes, through the fortified main entrance. Storming it's out of the question, and although we can slip in that way, we'd never get the, er, loot, out. Worse still, the vault is phase-shifted as well. One day into the past.'

'So you can't get in, because it's been and gone?' Chat ventured, getting the hang of this temporal malarkey.

'Precisely,' the Doctor agreed. 'But it also means that even if you can steal the thing, then the guards will be waiting for you at the gate, to get you for what they already know you're going to do yesterday!'

'That's stupid,' Jack protested.

'That's temporal mechanics,' the Doctor corrected him severely. He thrust his hands into his pockets, and thought for a moment. 'Stupid it may be,' he admitted, 'but it's also very effective.'

'But you're a Time Lord,' Jack said pointedly. 'Isn't this sort of thing exactly your bag?'

The Doctor winced at this sort of colloquialism. 'My "bag,"

as you put it, is saving lives.'

'That's OK, then,' Jack agreed. 'Since if you don't sort out these time barriers we're all dead.'

'Your logic has its point,' the Doctor admitted. 'Which is why I've done a few calculations, and - being something of an expert in these matters - come up with something we can use...'

Karthakh checked on the prisoners. They would be comatose for hours. 'What now?' he asked his partner.

'Now we make for Elchur. That is where Mandell is to meet with the Doctor and deliver him to us. The journey will be short -' The Tzun fell silent as a beeping emanated from the console. 'Strange... we-are being approached by another vessel.'

'Evade them,' Karthakh said irritably. He was in no mood to have their plans disturbed so quickly. This hunt would make them so rich he need never track beings for money again. It would be good to stop.

'Naturally. I am attempting to do so, but there is a tractor beam locked on to us.'

Karthakh growled, as the forward gantries of an enormous ship passed around the gunship. 'They are docking.'

Karthakh consulted the gunship's onboard sensors. 'I'm reading several lifeforms in their airlock...' He let out a gasp of surprise. 'They are Ogrons.'

'Ogrons?' Sha'ol echoed. He hesitated. 'Interesting. They would not normally operate without the consent of an employer...'

Karthakh was less impressed by the Ogrons' enterprise; they were a hostile force to be repulsed. 'These primitive creatures are an obstruction.' He picked up his KEM rifle. 'I'll go and kill them, and be right back.'

'Stop,' Sha'ol commanded. Karthakh didn't take well to orders, but Sha'ol usually knew what he was talking about.

This turn of events may offer a minor strategic advantage. We know the Doctor has acquired the backing of an unknown number of associates. It would be prudent for us to have reinforcements also.'

'These Ogrons?' Karthakh growled deep in his chest. The Veltrochni looked after their own; they didn't run squealing for help from dirt-grubbing primitives.

'The Ogrons are a race of mercenaries,' Sha'ol said. 'They will be acquainted with such procedures.'

'You cannot trust a species which fights for anyone who will feed them. They do not honour the contract as we would; if someone offers them more, they will change sides. They are no better than guard animals.'

Sha'ol thought for a moment. 'Not if they fear the consequences.'

Gorrak was trying to ignore the constant rumbling complaints of the matriarch. Not enough food, she moaned; the gravity was all wrong; the air tasted foul; there was no stone here... It never ended.

Perhaps, he thought hopefully, the new prisoners might appease her. It had been many years since she had killed an enemy, so maybe that was what was making her so sour.

They were an odd group, even by Gorrak's standards. The little grey one was a type of alien he didn't recognise, but the big one was a Veltrochni. They were very dangerous, he recalled from his time as a mercenary. There was also a human and a bird of some kind, who were both stunned.

'You are the leader?' the little grey prisoner asked.

Gorrak laughed at his insolence. 'I big boss.'

'I am Sha'ol of the Tzun Confederacy. This is my partner Karthakh. We have a proposition for you.'

Gorrak frowned. How come the prisoners were making him offers? Behind him, he could hear the matriarch laugh. 'A good prisoner this. Funny.' Gorrak ignored her and, stumbling over the word, said, 'Proposition?'

'You and we both work for hire. We are currently on a commissioned job, and will share the payment with you if you help us.'

'Help?' The thought of the reward was interesting, but Gorrak had vowed to keep his clan free.

'Allow us to travel on this ship, and use it as a base. We may require some of your... men, but there will be profit in it for you.'

'This one has ore,' the matriarch interrupted. 'You should not listen to him.'

'Silence!' Gorrak roared. That was the decider: if the matriarch didn't want the agreement, then he did 'I agree.'

The matriarch snorted. 'You have no stone in your heart.'

Karthakh suddenly reached out and lifted Gorrak clear off the ground by his shoulders. His claws dug in to the Ogron skin. 'One thing, Ogron. Do not cross us.' He dropped Gorrak.

'I understand. Not cross partners.' Yet, Gorrak told himself.

Not until after he got over the idea that anyone could lift him like that...

Monty had gone to get the holosuit, while the others relaxed in Jack's mercifully undamaged private apartments. Jack himself badly needed a dose of Rush to cheer himself up if he was to be any good to the others during the heist. He stiffened with an oddly pained grin, as the Rush took effect.

'See, Doc, this is my favourite part of these things.' He knew the Doctor would be surprised, and wasn't disappointed. 'It's the anticipation, you see. Most people get bored and impatient waiting around, but me... This is like smelling the cooking from the kitchen, and knowing there's something good on the way, but not quite what. Like Christmas Eve.'

'The difference being that you don't go risking your life opening Christmas presents or eating out.'

Chance shook his head. 'Nah, Doc. Once something's over, it's over. But before...? Ah, that's where the excitement is.' He searched his mind for a better example. 'Springtime, yeah?

Springtime on old Earth. The air's filled with bees; the sun's heating up, the sap's flowing... But there isn't quite a new bloom yet. You're just looking for it, and encouraging it, and dying to see what soft colour it'll be. That's the best bit.'

'This isn't a game, Chance,' the Doctor snapped severely.

'Nor is it a pastoral scene. You will be risking your life out there. Aren't you just a little afraid?'

Chance barked a laugh. 'Afraid? Hah! Any fear comes near me, it gets a swift kick in the nuts.' He blinked a couple of times, remembering who he was talking with. 'Well yeah, I am in a way, but it's part of the fun.'

'Fun?' the Doctor echoed disbelievingly, eyes wide. 'Fun?

Fear is a defence mechanism, not a sideshow.'

Chance shrugged. 'Yeah, but it's life. If you ain't afraid of dying, then how do you value living? At least if you're scared, you know that you're alive; you know your life means something. You know it has value. I mean, that's why people go to fright nights in the amusement blocks.'

'And why you commit crimes?'

'Well,' grinned Chance, 'the money comes in handy too.'

Glitz's head felt like it was about to burst. For some reason, he was also bumping around in mid-air, his stomach resting on some sort of uncomfortable rock. He opened his eyes slowly, trying not to throw up.

He found that he had been slung over the shoulder of someone very large who was dressed in a rough uniform and leather armour. His carrier dropped him to his feet once it became clear that Glitz was awake. Glitz looked up into the face of his towering captor, and was both surprised and vaguely insulted.

It was an Ogron. How the hell had he he been captured by someone as thick as an Ogron? They were a species who made Dibber look like some kind of genius. 'All right,' he snapped. 'I can walk, you know.' He turned around, wondering whether he was still in the city. been captured by someone as thick as an Ogron? They were a species who made Dibber look like some kind of genius. 'All right,' he snapped. 'I can walk, you know.' He turned around, wondering whether he was still in the city.

It was obvious that he was not. From the constant engine noise, he seemed to be aboard a ship of some kind. It didn't look much like a ship - more like a cross between a bombed-out factory and a zoo. Semi-functional machinery was sprawled throughout the whole area, while some Ogron pups watched curiously from amidst them.

Several other Ogrons were escorting the captives; one of them had Frobisher in some sort of net. 'Look at this,'

Frobisher called out to Glitz. 'These goons have got no regard for other people. I mean, do I look like a fish? No, but they put me in this net anyway.'

'No talk,' Frobisher's captor grunted, and slapped the penguin across the head.

'I'll peck your eye out in a minute,' Frobisher warned.

'Walk.' A hairy Ogron hand shoved Glitz forward. As the little group made their way along, Glitz saw that it was some kind of colony ship. A network of cryogenic chambers had been filled with lice-ridden bedding for an Ogron clan, and there was no sign of the original inhabitants. Sweaty Ogrons were busy at menial tasks in the workshops, mainly hammering put metal plates and suchlike, either for the ship or into pieces of armour.

Eventually they reached a set of disused officers' cabins. An Ogron unlocked one, and Glitz immediately pulled the door open. 'After you,' he offered cheerily. Blankly, the Ogrons marched inside, and Glitz slammed the door on them.

Shaking his head at how stupid the big creatures were, he turned to leave, and walked straight into a figure that was - if anything - even larger.

This one grabbed his shirt in one massive clawed fist and lifted him bodily off the ground until they were at eye level.