His deputy was clearly struggling to make a difficult decision. Finally, with a dark look at Bragen, Quinn said, 'I didn't attack the man. I had no reason to. After all, I was the one who sent for him.

Hensell reeled back as if he'd been punched in his ample stomach. 'You did what? what? ' '

'It was necessary,' Quinn said coldly. 'In the circ.u.mstances, I would hardly be likely to damage the communications either. I had every reason to want the lines to Earth to stay open.'

Hensell was still having trouble fathoming out why his a.s.sistant had gone behind his back in this manner. 'Why, Quinn, why?'

'Because of the rebels,' Quinn said.

'Rebels!' Bragen exclaimed. 'They are nothing more than one or two foolish fanatics. Unless...' His eyes bored into Quinn. 'Perhaps your purpose was to publicize the existence of these rebels. The Governor and I know the truth about the whole affair: that these acts of petty sabotage are nothing more than the work of one or two embittered, frustrated maniacs.'

'You know better than that, Bragen,' Quinn shot back.

'However,' the security man went on smoothly, 'you sent for an Examiner from the Earth. Why? To prove that there's trouble here when there isn't? To prove that the Governor can't handle things when he can?'

That alarmed Hensell, as Bragen had obviously meant it should. 'What? Explain yourself, Bragen.'

'If you're removed, Governor,' Bragen amplified, 'then who will take your place?' He swung around, pointing his finger at Quinn. 'The Deputy Governor, of course. And that's the real reason you've made all this trouble, isn't it, Quinn? To take control of the colony. You attacked the Examiner to make him think that the rebel situation is so desperate here that he isn't even safe. Then you wreck the communications systems to make the rebels look better organized than they really are. Admit it, why don't you?'

Quinn looked helplessly from accuser to accuser.

'Governor, you should have listened to me,' he said.

'Bragen, I swear I'll break you for this!'

Bragen leaned down on the desk to stare Hensell in the face. 'I tell you, he's blown one or two tiny incidents up to make them look like there's a full-scale revolution in progress here against which you are incompetent!'

Hensell glared at Quinn in utter disgust. 'Get him out of my sight!' he ordered.

Triumphantly, Bragen turned to gesture to the guard.

The man grabbed Quinn's shoulder. The Deputy Governor tried to shake free of the restraint. 'Don't believe him!' he begged.

The guard drew his gun, swinging it in a short arc. The b.u.t.t slammed into Quinn's head, dazing him. Before he could recover, the guard dragged him from the room.

Hensell climbed unsteadily to his feet. 'Chose him myself,' he said dully. 'Trained him... He'd have had my seat in a few years anyway!'

Bragen nodded sympathetically. 'For some ambitious men, a few years is too long to have to wait.'

The Governor banged his fist on his desk in anger. 'As if I don't have enough to do! Now this happens!'

Bragen inclined his head again. 'If there's anything I can do to help, Governor, you only have to give the word.

If I might go now?' He started to withdraw.

'Bragen,' Hensell called. The security head's back was to Hensel!, so the Governor couldn't see the look of hungry antic.i.p.ation on Bragen's face. 'Loyalty must be rewarded.

Since I seem to have lost a deputy, from this moment you shall a.s.sume his duties. As of now, you are officially Deputy Governor of Vulcan.'

Bragen managed to control his exhilaration enough to turn and give a short, formal bow. 'I'll do the best I can.'

Then, before he could betray himself, he spun around and marched out of the room. Once the door was closed behind him, he laughed aloud.

Everything was going perfectly, just as he had planned.

Now for the next step.

15.

You've Done Nothing But Meddle The Doctor sat in his room, staring into nothingness. Ben and Polly stood by, trying hard not to fidget. Suddenly, the Doctor leapt to his feet, grabbed one of the omnipresent plastic chairs and slammed it down hard on to the communications unit that was built into the wall. Then he tossed the chair aside and brushed shards of plastic from the shattered unit.

'I don't care who you think I am,' he said over his shoulder as he examined the exposed circuits, 'we must work together against the Daleks. These people here are already fighting amongst themselves. We mustn't.'

Ben stared over the Doctor's shoulder at the mess. 'I just hope you know what you're doing.'

'So do I!' the Doctor agreed fervently. He rummaged around in his pockets until he found the Swiss army knife again. This time he pulled out the screwdriver blade and began to disa.s.semble the broken unit.

Ben threw Polly a despairing glance. 'He's a regular delinquent, isn't he?' Privately, he felt that this latest action was one more reason to accept this odd little man as the real Doctor. The old man would have destroyed anything anything in his path to get at what, he needed. Ben began to see that though this strange person acted in very different ways from the old Doctor, there were definite areas where the two personalities overlapped. Both, for example, had a deep-seated hatred of the Daleks. And for officiousness. in his path to get at what, he needed. Ben began to see that though this strange person acted in very different ways from the old Doctor, there were definite areas where the two personalities overlapped. Both, for example, had a deep-seated hatred of the Daleks. And for officiousness.

Now there was this tendency to ransack what was available to create what was needed. Ben's resistance to the idea that this was the Doctor stood in severe danger of crumbling entirely. 'Look,' he said to to the Doctor. 'I don't want to appear dim, but how's this bit of vandalism going to do the Daleks in?'

'They believe Lesterson's the driving force,' the Doctor said, ignoring Ben's question, 'but I don't. The Daleks are simply using him. Now, if we can destroy the Daleks, then the people here will either lock us up or kill us. If we leave the Daleks alone, everyone will be killed.'

Ben weighed this up and found the logic severely lacking. 'Either way, we're for the chop,' he said glumly.

Quinn walked quietly along, slightly ahead of his guard.

He knew that he was being taken back to the detention cells, which were quite close to the Medical Wing. Where the Examiner had been placed. As he walked, Quinn tried to estimate his chances. Bragen's goons were all chosen for their strength, not their brains. His own strength lay in intelligence, not brawn, but he had been on the university ju-jitsu team in his day... True, it had been a while since he'd felt the need to work out, but it had to be like riding a bicycle, didn't it? After a while the moves must be ingrained.

Or, at least, he hoped so.

At the corridor intersection leading to the Examiner's quarters, he suddenly rounded on the guard. The man was good. He tried to block the attack, but Quinn was moving on instinct now. His foot lashed out, and he hooked it around the back of the guard's knee, jerking the man off-balance. A swift chop to the neck sent the poor unfortunate sprawling, almost unconscious. Quinn spun around in a tight circle, noting with satisfaction that n.o.body else had seen the fight. Then he set off for the Examiner's room, a hard and determined expression on his face.

He breathed a silent prayer of relief when he saw that the door to the room was unguarded. Bragen's arrogance hadn't gone that far, then. Fighting to compose himself, Quinn pushed open the door. 'Examiner!' he said, urgently. Then he halted and stared.

The Examiner sat in the centre of a pile of electronic components. There was a gaping hole in the wall where the comm unit had once sat. The portable radio and even the digital alarm-clock from the side of the bed were both strewn about the cross-legged figure. He had a jeweller's lens screwed firmly into one eye and popped it out to glance up at the intruder. 'What do you want?' he asked.

'Can't you see I'm busy?'

Quinn shook his head to clear the haze. 'It's imperative that I speak with you,' he said. 'I was the one who sent for you.'

'Really?' The little man didn't sound convinced.

'Yes. You must must investigate the rebels. Don't let Bragen or Hensell fool you about their importance. You must discover where they hold their meetings and ' investigate the rebels. Don't let Bragen or Hensell fool you about their importance. You must discover where they hold their meetings and '

The guard jumped him from behind, dealing Quinn an agonizing blow to the kidneys. The ex-official gave a stunted cry of pain and collapsed. The guard, unsatisfied with his easy victory, promptly gave the fallen man a savage kick to the ribs.

'Stop that!' Polly cried, leaping across the room. The surprised guard quickly changed his mind about inflicting more injuries on his prisoner. Instead, he grabbed the gasping Quinn by the scruff of his neck and hauled him to his feet. It probably wasn't a coincidence that Quinn was now between him and the wild-eyed Polly.

'No, Polly!' the Doctor snapped. There was a tremendous amount of strength in his tone, and his companion slowly came to a halt. She didn't take her eyes off the guard, however. 'Don't interfere,' the Doctor added, more gently this time. 'There is nothing we can do at the moment.'

'But...'

The Doctor leaped to his feet and joined her by the door. Ben fell in behind the two of them. Looking up into the burly guard's face, the Doctor said softly: 'You will take him directly to his cell, won't you?'

'Of course,' the startled man agreed.

'Good.' Turning away, the Doctor waved his hand casually. 'Off you go, then.' As soon as the door shut behind the two men, he returned to his tinkering as if there had been no interruption.

'Is that all you're going to do?' Polly asked, on the verge of an explosion of emotions.

Ben gently laid his hand on her ann. 'He's right, Pol.

One thing at a time.'

'So we let them take Quinn off to jail?'

The Doctor spoke as he worked. 'Quinn may well have been framed.'

Polly stared at him, confused. 'Then if you think that '

'The operative word,' he interrupted, 'is "think". We don't know it for a fact. There is is proof against him, but proof against him, but well, it seems rather contrived, don't you think? But that will work itself out in time. We've more important things to occupy our minds.'

Polly was like a dog working at a bone. She refused to give up. 'It's wrong what they're doing to him. You only have to look at him to know he's innocent!'

'Oh, aye,' Ben said, with a pang of jealousy. 'And you've done more than 'look' at him, haven't you?'

Polly rounded on him. 'And what's that supposed to mean?'

'Stop it, both of you!' The Doctor held up his hand like a teacher restoring order in cla.s.s. 'As I said before, let's not fight among one another, shall we?' As his two companions looked contrite, he gave them a cheery grin. 'That's much better. Now, Polly, this is one occasion when a little injustice is better than wholesale slaughter. We have to concentrate all our efforts on the Daleks.'

'Yes, all right,' Polly agreed. With a sigh, she buried her concern over Quinn for the moment. 'But what can we do?

They won't listen to reason.'

'Yeah' Ben agreed. 'They're a right load of berks, if you ask me.'

'No, Ben,' the Doctor replied, nearing the end of his work. The device he had a.s.sembled looked like the inside of a television tube after an unfortunate encounter with an axe murderer. It was small, only about six inches square, but he hoped he'd recalled all his wave theory properly.

Not only was it a long time since he'd studied the subject, but his recent renewal had left his brains in something of a scrambled state. 'I don't think that you're being fair.

They're intelligent men in the normal run of things, but this is far from normal. They are simply blind to the danger. I'm not. You mustn't underestimate any of them.

Hensell isn't the Governor for nothing' He considered that point for a moment, then continued. 'And Lesterson's a first-rate scientific genius. He worked out how to open that capsule without any prior knowledge of Dalek mechanisms. And he managed to repower that Dalek. He simply cannot see the end result of the logical chain he has set into motion.' He gave both of them a bleak look.

'Unfortunately, I have the benefit of experience to go by.

I've seen all too much of what the Daleks are capable of doing.'

'Maybe that's the answer?' Ben suggested brightly. 'How about kidnapping Lesterson and hiding him away for a bit?'

Polly gave him a look of revulsion. 'And what good would that do?'

Ben's face fell. 'Well, it would stop him from bringing the Daleks back to life,' he said, realizing that his suggestion had fallen rather flat.

'Would it, Ben?' The Doctor jumped to his feet, slipping the device he'd just finished into one of his oversized pockets. 'That would be true if Lesterson was still the driving force. But that's no longer the case. Now the Daleks are in control and they are using him. And all the time they are feeding his ego, making him all that much easier to manipulate.'

Polly realized that the Doctor, for all his jovial appearance, was quite frightened. 'But they aren't armed,'

she said.

'And neither are we,' the Doctor replied.

'We could go back to the TARDIS,' she suggested.

When Ben snorted, she glared at him. 'I know it sounds like I'm advocating running away, but I didn't mean it like that! I meant for us to find a safe and quiet place to think.

While we're here, we're being used for some sort of power struggle. Things are happening around us that aren't connected to the Daleks.'

'So we're back to Quinn's rebels again, eh?' Ben asked.

'Yes,' the Doctor agreed, 'and Polly's quite right. The Daleks are not the only trouble here. But they are definitely the most important one.'

'So, what do we do?' Ben said, looking at the Doctor for a plan of action.

The significance of this was not lost on the Doctor. He favoured Ben with a grateful look, knowing he was now accepted for who he claimed to be. 'I think it's time we took another look at Lesterson's Daleks. Come along.' He led the way into the corridor, then turned towards the laboratory. 'And while we're going, consider a few points.

First, if there really are rebels, what are they rebelling against?'

'Hensell,' Ben replied promptly. 'He's a pompous little jacka.s.s, if you ask me'

'He's a politician,' the Doctor observed. 'It's a common failing. But that's not enough of itself. People draw cartoons or write parodies of people like Hensell. They don't start revolutions'

'Why do you think they're rebelling, then?' Polly asked.