'Ogron ale.'

'I'll pass,' Jack said, lifting a cover off a plate. There were some chicken drumsticks on it, most likely from the ship's original food processors. He hesitated before biting, though, as Glitz downed the pitcher of ale in one go. 'I take back what I said; you did have guts. Probably not any more...'

'Just something to wet my whistle,' Glitz said, patting his stomach. He lifted another cover off, and saw a soup bowl. A thick hunk of bread lurked in what looked like some kind of primordial slime. 'Now that warms a few cockles!' He grabbed a spoon and started digging at the bread, sure there was some choice meat somewhere in the broth, but it was as if the doughy lump was glued to the bowl.

At which point, the bread opened its mouth and told him what he could do with his spoon. Glitz dropped the bowl in horror, leaping back with the spoon held defensively in front of him. He hadn't thought even Ogron ale would be that strong... The surface of the soup bulged upwards, while the bowl grew stubby legs. In a moment, a familiar penguin stood before them.

Glitz threw the spoon away, unsure whether to be angry or relieved. 'Don't you ever do that to me again, you polar ponce!

I thought I was croaking for sure.'

'Don't all thank me at once,' Frobisher said sourly, dangling the door keys in front of them. 'If you don't like shapeshifters, that's your business.'

'I certainly do do like them,' said the Doctor, warmly shaking Frobisher by the flipper. 'Especially when they've been very clever. It's good to see you again, Frobisher.' like them,' said the Doctor, warmly shaking Frobisher by the flipper. 'Especially when they've been very clever. It's good to see you again, Frobisher.'

'Look,' said Glitz grudgingly. 'I've got nothing personal against you - I'm just nervous about there being somebody who can be anything, and I wouldn't know about it.'

Frobisher shrugged it off. Not that it didn't irk him, but he had become somewhat inured to such sentiments over the years. 'I'm still flesh and blood like you. Well, flesh anyway.

Prick me, do I not... ooze? Wrong me, shall I not come round your house with a baseball bat that's got nails in?'

'There are more important things than revenge, Frobie,'

Jack said. 'Not many, I'll grant you; but the one that springs to mind is, why are we here as well as the Doctor?'

'Ogrons,' the Doctor answered, 'aren't noted for their discrimination. I suspect they just grabbed the rest of you according to general principles. The real question is why I am still alive. Sha'ol and Karthakh have gone to a lot of trouble to kill me, so why haven't they done so yet?'

'They figure they can get more money for you alive,'

Frobisher told him. 'Personally I wouldn't bet on it.'

'Neither would I,' the Doctor said with surprising warmth.

He took his coat down from the vent. "That money talks I'll not deny, but last I heard, it said "goodbye".'

The freighter used by Chance and the others had finally been identified as the Nosferatu Nosferatu and Kala had been thrown by the revelation from central records that it had recently been the subject of a government compulsory purchase order. and Kala had been thrown by the revelation from central records that it had recently been the subject of a government compulsory purchase order.

Nevertheless, she had managed to get a ship assigned to help her track the fugitives, and so she and Jemson now found themselves standing on the bridge of the Cobb Cobb ready to pursue the ready to pursue the Nosferatu Nosferatu to wherever Chance tried to run. to wherever Chance tried to run.

Unfortunately, they had not gone anywhere, and Captain Franke was too busy to answer any of Kala's questions about what was going on. She was getting angry about the whole thing, even though she knew she shouldn't, and strongly suspected that it was stemming from suppressed fear.

Kala had been a cop all her adult life, and faced her fair share of psychos and terrorists, but she didn't like space travel at the best of times, and this didn't even remotely qualify.

She and Jemson were reduced to trying to keep out of the crew's way as a Veltrochni Mage-Dragon faced off against their ship, its quantum lances glinting malevolently. All through the Gamma Delphinus system, Dragons and Mage-Dragons were dropping out of hyperspace, while Wasp fighters buzzed between them, shepherding any ships that tried to leave the orbit of Vandor Prime.

Kala tried without success to tune out the reports of casualties from the surface. There had been no bombardment or invasion - yet - but plenty of looting and people being trampled at the spaceports.

It looked like they had just engaged in a war, and that was something she knew nothing about outside of the history books.

Franke approached with a puzzled expression. 'Officers, it seems your presence is requested in the President's office.'

'Ours?'

'Well, yours at least. There's some sort of crisis meeting going on with the President and the Veltrochni Ambassador, and you've been paged.'

Kala couldn't imagine what they wanted with her. Perhaps it was some mistake, and they'd asked for the wrong Mandell, since Nic would undoubtedly be there.

'We can transmat you directly there,' Franke continued.

Kala nodded dumbly. 'Just don't go anywhere. We'll still have a ship to chase.'

'If any of us are still around,' Franke agreed diplomatically.

In a matter of moments, both Kala and Jemson were being ushered into the President's audience chamber. The Defence Minister was there, of course, along with the Attorney General, a bunch of politicians and military types whom Kala didn't recognise, and the imposing forms of a group of Veltrochni.

Strangely, Nic was absent. She had been sure he would be here; he was some sort of intelligence adviser, after all.

'Glad you could make it,' Klein said curtly. 'Take a seat; this concerns you.'

'This... crisis?'

'Very much so,' the Veltrochni Ambassador rasped. 'We have evidence that the property whose return we have been seeking was brought to this planet by Niccolo Mandell, without the knowledge of his own government. Furthermore, he is also at least partially responsible for the destruction of our vessel Thazrakh, Thazrakh, and the murder of her commander on the planet Elchur.' and the murder of her commander on the planet Elchur.'

'Impossible,' Kala blurted. This was nonsensical. The Veltrochni were just trying the old divide and conquer trick.

'It gets worse,' the Attorney General broke in. 'As you know, the Thor Orbital Facility has been the victim of a theft. When we downloaded the security records, this is what we found...'

The recording passed by with the inevitability of death and taxes, and the Attorney General resumed his damning indictment. 'Your husband is clearly in collusion with the very same group of thieves whom you yourself have been watching. We believe that Niccolo may be trying to prevent any chance of the Veltrochni property being returned to them, since that is what was stolen. Not only that, but the previous day a vraxoin lab was found in the stations. The scientist who was in nominally in charge of that section was also seen in the company of Niccolo yesterday.'

Kala sat back, stunned. Nic involved with vraxoin, and political assassinations? Her Nic? That wasn't possible. The sort of man who was happy to talk nurseries and baby clothes wasn't the sort to deal drugs or kill people.

Her brain told a different story, of course, but her heart couldn't listen. Her heart only knew Nic the desk-jockey and loving husband who could never hurt anybody. She knew he was involved with intelligence work and security, but he was an analyst and director, whose place was behind a desk telling all the spies what he wanted them to find out. Not running around killing people for his own gain.

She tried to speak, but couldn't. How could Nic have done these things? How could she have let such a person anywhere near herself, or think of him as the father of her child?

'I want to help,' she managed finally. If nothing else, she wanted to look in Nic's eyes and see the truth when he was asked about these things.

The Attorney General shook his head. 'No.'

Kala's eyes flashed dangerously, 'You have to let me go,'

she protested. 'It is my husband we're talking about.'

'Exactly.' He folded his arms. 'Kala, there are laws about personal involvement. Now that Niccolo has been named in this case it would look bad for the department if you were involved. You can see that, can't you?'

'Yes, but-'

'But? There can hardly be a "but" to the fact that you're going to have to arrest your own husband. Whether he's innocent or guilty, the lawyers on both sides would have a field day with that one. The defence could claim you had personal bias in feeling betrayed, and the prosecution would-be wondering how long you knew about any of this. The damn thing would never be finished.' He kept his speech soft for the moment, but she heard the underlying certainty.

'Let her come,' Brokhal said suddenly.

Everyone in the room looked at her. 'Why?' Klein asked.

'Because this is a family matter for her. What could be more important?'

The service vents weren't exactly clean, and Monty had the distinct feeling that his hair was no longer white. He wasn't too sure about the state of his joints either, a man of his age wasn't made for crawling through these narrow metal veins.

He tried to remind himself that the Doctor was considerably older, but it didn't help much.

They passed occasional grilles, some of which opened on to Ogron-inhabited areas of the ship. Those were not sights that Monty would ever like to see again. Leathery skin and coarse hair engaged in every possible type of organic function from the fairly natural to eating their own dead.

The stench clogged up the vents almost solidly.

None of this seemed to bother the Doctor too much as he led the way. He paused to point down a new branch. 'That way, I think. What time do you make it?'

'Seventeen-fourteen. I hope your friend can tell time.'

'I'm sure Frobisher is used to the idea by now,' the Doctor replied.

Liang studied the others as they all surreptitiously checked their watches every few seconds, his face impassive.

'Cheer up,' Jack told him. 'Won't be that long before you can do your stuff.'

'Just passing the time,' Liang agreed. Doing 'his stuff' was always worth waiting for.

There was a small Ogron nest in the auxiliary engineering section, and the snores from it could be heard throughout this whole deck of the ship. 'What now?' Monty asked in a whisper. 'Go back and try somewhere else?'

'Never look back, Monty,' the Doctor recommended, squinting through the grille. 'Leave the U-turns to politicians.

I always finish what I start. Besides, the other areas where we might try this will be even more heavily populated by Ogrons.' He pointed to the open doorway that was on the far side of the dozing Ogrons. 'Ogrons are big, and they have plenty of stamina for distance running, but their reaction times are slow. If we're quick enough, we should be able to get into the auxiliary control room and shut the door on them.'

If they were quick enough? Monty thought. 'Doctor, I'm coming coming up on retirement age; track and field events are not high on my list of hobbies. Why didn't you bring Jack or Dibber?' up on retirement age; track and field events are not high on my list of hobbies. Why didn't you bring Jack or Dibber?'

'Because neither of them is qualified to help me make any repairs that might be needed in there. Now, we'll only get the one chance to do this -'

Monty shifted slightly, trying to ease the pain in his ribs and back. 'At least let's find some weapons first.'

'I don't hide behind guns, Monty. Hiding of any kind becomes a habit too easily.'

'Except in these ducts?'

'Especially in the ducts,' the Doctor corrected him. 'So let's get out into the open, eh?' The Doctor swung himself round into a sitting position, and kicked out with both legs. The grille was old and corroded, and fell away the first blow. The Doctor followed through on the kick by sliding right out of the vent.

Monty gritted his teeth as his old bones creaked with the effort of following the Doctor out at a reasonable speed. The sight of three Ogrons shaking their heads as they woke up didn't help his heart rate much either.

Together, both men bolted for the auxiliary control room door. Monty was all too aware of the Ogrons coming to their feet off to his left. His whole body felt as if it were on fire as he ran for the door.

He was convinced he wasn't going to make it, and could just about feel a hairy hand on his shoulder... Then the door slammed at his back, and he propped himself up against a dusty console. While he forced himself to keep pulling air into his painful and resisting lungs, Monty saw the Doctor lock the door control. 'That should keep them out,' he said, as there was a banging of massive fists on the door.

'Yes, but for how long?' Monty gasped.

The Doctor gave him an apologetic look. 'Until it occurs to Sha'ol or Karthakh to cut through the door. Maybe five minutes for them to reach here?'

Monty sank into a rotted chair. 'I might even have recovered my breath by then.'

'Hmm,' the Doctor replied distantly. He had turned to wipe some dust off the auxiliary engineering consoles with his spotted handkerchief, and now experimented with a few switches. 'Now that's a stroke of luck... There's still some power here! In fact it looks like this section is fully operational.'

Monty blinked. This was good news, in a way, but still...

'You mean I did all that for nothing?'

'Yes, luckily for us. Now it's a race between our group and the Ogrons' leaders to get here first. Not having to repair any of this gives us a bit of an advantage.' He started operating switches. Door controls, Monty noticed, and some life-support systems too.