Mandell drummed his fingers on his armrest. He'd get the Core back from the Doctor's hands. Then he could claim the Doctor was behind it all. He was a rogue Time Lord, and between his concerns about the bounty hunters, and Chronodyne Industries, it looked like he could make a good report blaming them for all this.

That could work, he told himself. One way or the other, he'd still come out smelling of roses, and Kala would never know about his more... unofficial methods.

'We're approaching the planet Veltroch,' the pilot said.

'Tell traffic control who we are. Tell them we're on a mission to aid in the recovery of the Core.'

'Doc,' Jack called out. 'I think we got another little problem.'

'What is it?'

'There's a Veltrochni Dragon gaining on us. They'll probably have us on sensors by now.'

'Are they in communication range?'

'Yep. And before you ask, we can't outrun them.'

'As it happens, that isn't what I had mind.'

Jack grimaced disconsolately. 'Dammit, I knew that was coming.'

'Bring us out of hyperspace.' The Doctor sat in the co-pilot's seat, and studied the communications controls for a moment before trying them out. 'I want to speak with Pack-Mother Brokhyth of Pack Zanchyth,' the Doctor called out.

'Mother,' the Flight Director called. 'The gunship is slowing, and hailing us. They are asking to speak with Pack-Mother Brokhyth.'

Brokhal was surprised at this. Brokhyth was her ancestor, long dead. 'I am Brokhal, Pack-Mother of Pack Zanchyth.

Who is it who knows my family?'

'I am usually referred to as the Doctor.'

Kala stiffened, looking towards the speakers.

'I know of you. If you truly are the Doctor, that is.'

'I met your... ancestor along with my companions Jamie and Victoria. Brokhyth's daughter Brythal was on board -' It was him! Brokhal knew that instantly. Nobody else could have known these things about her family's contact with the Doctor.

'Very well, Doctor. What is it you wish to speak to me about?'

'I have the Core that was stolen from you by Niccolo Mandell.' Off to one side, nobody took any notice as Kala started to cry. 'My friends and I would very much like to return it to its rightful owners. I want permission to land on Veltroch.'

Brokhal was puzzled by this request. If he was sincere, why not just dock? 'Why there?'

'Because we tried a neutral setting once and you saw what happened. I want to be absolutely certain that is where it is meant to be.'

'Very well,' Brokhal said. 'Veltrochni traffic control will give you landing coordinates.'

'Thank you, Chach-kha Chach-kha Brokhal.' Brokhal.'

Her son switched frequencies. 'Mother, traffic control reports that Mandell is requesting permission to land also. It appears he is unaware of our... interest in him.'

Now that was good news, Brokhal thought. And sweetly ironic too. 'Have him directed to the same landing platform.'

Chat wrinkled her nose. She had never expected to return to this planet again. It hadn't changed at all; the grey vegetation and sweet scent of rot were exactly as she remembered.

The group descended from the gunship on to a platform carved from a single incredibly huge bole on the outskirts of the city of Great Houses. Everyone was fairly nervous, though Sha'ol was most nervous of all. Monty had jury-rigged some parts from the old holosuit to disguise him as a human, and hoped the Veltrochni wouldn't run a bio-scanner over him.

'It is unusual to be here,' Karthakh murmured. 'I had expected to be more relaxed.'

'Humans have a saying for it,' the Doctor said. ' "You can never go home again." '

'But I am home,' Karthakh replied. 'What is so impossible about that?'

'It's just a figure of speech,' Jack told him irritably.

There was a loud unnatural howl from behind them. As one being, everybody in the group turned, to see the battered gunship finally collapse off its strained landing gear. Hull plating popped, crashing into the mossy ground, and some large dark mechanism fell out through the bottom of the hull.

It smoked slightly.

Chat was horrified to think that only a few minutes ago, she had been flying through space in that pile of wreckage.

She tried to keep her legs from quivering, but gave up as dozens of Veltrochni warriors in powered armour and carrying KEM rifles ringed the landing platform. She was certain that other, shrouded, ones were crouched invisibly among the vegetation.

A Dragon was hovering a few hundred feet above, its spread wings expansive enough to blacken the sky. The only bright spot in the dimness was the green fire of an active quantum lance.

Frobisher was pretty nervous as well. This was not the same as being rousted by a couple of tired cops looking to get an arrest on their records for the month.

He had a distinct premonition that he and the Doctor were going to spend a very long time in a cell here. If they were lucky. And he didn't even have any of his Benny Goodman collection with him to while away the years.

A glow preceded Brokhal's arrival by transmat. She was accompanied by some of the cops Frobisher recognised from the Cafe Terrestriale. 'Doctor?'

'Pack-Mother Brokhal, I presume,' the Doctor said confidently, stepping forward. The sound of so many safety catches being slipped off was like a stampede on gravel. 'This is yours, I believe.'

Frobisher watched in mounting horror as the Doctor deposited the crystalline Data Core into Brokhal's massive claws. With that, the Veltrochni could wipe out whole planets' worth of people whose only crime was to have been visited by the Tzun in the past.

He knew the Doctor had a fondness for humans, but surely not at the expense of others?

Brokhal's dorsal spines quivered excitedly, and she plugged some leads from her portable equipment into the Data Core.

Her spines flattened. 'This is -'

'It's the genuine article, I assure you,' the Doctor said. 'But I took the liberty of purging it.' Frobisher blinked. The Doctor purged it? After all this? 'I think they used to call it detente. detente.

You can't use it to destroy the remaining Ph'Sor Tzun colonies, but nor can Mandell or anyone else use it to replicate Tzun technology.'

'We never had any plans to attack the remaining Ph'Sor colonies, Doctor. Had we any such plans, we could have done it centuries ago. It is disappointing that you misjudge us so.'

The Doctor winced. 'I'm afraid that I've been rather disappointed myself by people who should know better... But let us say instead that no one in the future will be able to misuse it.'

Brokhal nodded. 'It is still the last relic from S'Arl. As such it still commands great value and respect here.'

'Respect?'

'It is not an easy thing to live with, having committed genocide. This has always been a warning to us, as much as to others.'

The Doctor beamed. 'In that case, the future probably has less to worry about than I feared.'

Kala watched as the Doctor and Brokhal chatted. They looked... friendly. But they were thieves, she reminded herself.

'Stop!' Kala recognised the voice immediately. It was Nic.

Mandell was forcing a way through the assembled Veltrochni, a pistol in hand and a troop of armed Tac officers flanking him. The Tac people all looked decidedly uncomfortable under the circumstances. 'Arrest those people,' he commanded. 'They are thieves and pirates, who -'

He froze as his eyes met Kala's, and she saw a moment of loss in them. He looked like a man who had just seen his most precious possession disappear down a drain.

'Destroyed the Dragon Thazrakh?' Thazrakh?' Brokhal suggested dangerously, when Mandell failed to continue. 'Murdered the crew?' Brokhal suggested dangerously, when Mandell failed to continue. 'Murdered the crew?'

Mandell started. 'Yes! Them and their Ogron friends!'

Brokhal loomed over him. 'Who mentioned Ogrons?'

Something happened to his face then, and Kala wished she hadn't seen it. It was the look of a man who'd been caught out in a lie. And that meant that he was involved, was guilty, just like she had been told.

Compounding his slip, he looked to her for support, his eyes begging her to back him up. In them she saw her truth.

'Arrest him,' she said quietly, not quite able to get the words out properly. It was enough, though. 'For conspiracy to manufacture and distribute vraxoin; for the theft, twice, of the Data Core; for the destruction of the Dragon Thazrakh Thazrakh and the murder of her crew; and for...' What was she supposed to say? For lying to her? 'For resisting arrest.' and the murder of her crew; and for...' What was she supposed to say? For lying to her? 'For resisting arrest.'

Every Veltrochni KEM rifle on the platform moved to aim at Mandell and the Tac squad.

And some part of Kala wished they were aiming at her her heart. heart.

Mandell didn't even see the weapons aimed at him. All that was in his sight was Kala's face as her eyes iced over. There was no actual physical change, but he saw it all the same.

She knew. knew. She knew all of it; he could see that in her disappointment, in her loss, in her hatred. She knew all of it; he could see that in her disappointment, in her loss, in her hatred.

Mandell had always managed to keep guilt from his mind, even when he knew he was breaking laws. If he was doing something with good intent, then what did it matter how he did it? But now fingers of guilt did get a grip on his heart. He had crossed the one line he had vowed never to cross; he had hurt Kala.

The pistol dropped from his hand, and he didn't even notice.

'Was it worth it?' the Doctor asked.

'What?' He was lost now, unsure where his mind was supposed to go.

'All this. All those deaths, and crimes, and it's all for this.

But it wasn't worth it, was it, Mandell?'

Mandell knew that right now he should be hating the Doctor more than ever. Try as he might, he found that he couldn't do it. 'I could never hurt her... I thought I couldn't...'

The Doctor was gone, though, and Mandell knew that he had answered the Time Lord's question.

As Mandell was led away, and the warriors started to disperse back to other duties, the Doctor took Brokhal aside.