Sook woke up and felt deceptively well awash with painkillers, she supposed. She tried to move her head round, and cried out as stabs of pain went through her.

Mildrid appeared by her side. 'I shouldn't move, dear.'

'Will I live?' she asked.

'It was touch and go. You had a lot of internal bleeding and several fractures, but the couch is fixing that up. Your left leg's a real mess. Ideally it should be replaced.'

She grunted. 'Nice bedside manner you have, nurse.'

'You're lucky.'

'I know.'

'Lucky Kreiner came into your life.'

Sook regarded her. 'I'd say we both were.' She paused, licked her lips. 'Is Kreiner here?'

'He's gone to try and see who's hijacked the ship,' said Mildrid. 'We've been doing maximum revs the last hour.'

Aching through the tranqs and numbshots, Sook's stomach felt full of tintacks. The ordeal wasn't over yet. 'Where are we going?'

Mildrid shrugged. 'I don't know. Just try to rest.'

'Does our hijacker know we're on board?'

'How could they know?'

Sook looked up into Mildrid's scared brown eyes. 'If they came looking.'

Outside the control room, Fitz peered through an inspection panel at their newly designated driver.

It was a man, an unimpressive sight, slumped forward over the control banks, his body rising and falling with uncertain breaths. Was he asleep? A large bald spot sat in his silvery hair like a big pink crater. Two bodies lay sprawled at his feet. The Rapier Rapier's pilots.

Murdered?

Fitz saw red. He had the overwhelming urge to find something heavy and blunt, and club the man over the head with it. He clenched his fists. It felt like 222 fat, boiling lumps of hate were dripping down his spine, charging his body with a sick energy.

He stalked round to the main doors, his mind uncluttered by fear or caution.

The doors were locked from the inside but his pa.s.scard overrode that and they hummed open. The Rapier Rapier's decor being so minimalist, there were no handy wrenches or hammers lying around for him to bash out the man's brains, so he'd just have to use his fists. That was all right. That was no problem.

But the murdering b.a.s.t.a.r.d was waking, turning. Grey, watery eyes stared out of his startled face. They narrowed. Now Fitz could see there was a gun placed on the console, but the man grabbed something else, a tiny little pill or something, and pushed it into his mouth.

Fitz wouldn't give him a second chance to get the gun.

The man flailed and struggled but Fitz didn't feel his fists. He felt so strong.

This must be how Bruce Banner felt before he turned big and green. He fixed his hands around the murderer's throat and watched them carefully. He felt so strong, they would probably turn green in a minute. Hulking. Incredible.

Any minute.

The man, meanwhile, was turning blue, his bulging eyes filled with hate, hair standing up in cartoon shock. Fitz's nails were rimed with blood as the soft flesh tore beneath his grip.

Red. Blue. Green. This was all wrong. This was all messed up.

Fitz bellowed in pain, let go of the man's throat. He backed away, retching, staring at his b.l.o.o.d.y hands.

Too late he realised that the man had recovered, and was charging towards him. Fitz gasped as the breath was knocked from his body. As he was sent crashing into a bank of controls, the bloodl.u.s.t washed through him again, the urge to fight back, to kill. There was a sort of metal box on the console and he grabbed for it, he could use it as a weapon. But it must have been plugged in somewhere there were sparks and a big fizz of energy, and Fitz's body bucked and twisted as shocks blasted through him.

Finally the pain and the power pa.s.sed. He fell to his knees. Dimly, still convulsing, he became aware of the man he'd just tried to kill standing over him.

'You know what I can't stand?' the man slurred, his breathing hard and shaky. 'It's the waiting. That d.a.m.ned waiting.'

Fitz toppled forwards at the man's feet and blacked out.

'Perhaps I should stay on the ship,' said Halcyon as the Doctor led him along the docking tube. 'I mean, what use can I be to you?'

'Celebrity is a healing power,' said the Doctor. 'If anyone is still alive here, then the chance to get your autograph should come as a welcome distraction.'

223.

'You're mocking me.'

'Just trying to raise our spirits.'

'If you see someone, if there's danger. . . you will tell me, won't you?' Halcyon grabbed hold of the Doctor's wrist. 'Only I shan't be able to cope alone. . . '

'You're blind, man, not helpless!' he exploded. But he lowered his voice as they stepped out on to the NewSystem reception. 'I'm sorry. Please believe me, I shan't abandon you, Halcyon.'

As back on Blazar, the reception area was followed by a cavernous white storage bay. Discs hovered far above, but there weren't many crates piled up here. Only a few bodies.

'Don't trip over the corpses,' the Doctor advised. 'We'll take it carefully.'

'Corpses?' Halcyon blanched with fear. 'The crew, you mean, affected by this. . . this bloodl.u.s.t? How did they die?'

'Knuckles and makeshift clubs, by the looks of it. Since you ask.' Holding Halcyon's hand, the Doctor pressed on through the stunted forest of outstretched limbs and stiff forms. 'We're a way off from Leda. I'd hoped that the effect would be less advanced. Then again, with the slugs in greater numbers up here in s.p.a.ce, I suppose it makes sense that the effect would intensify.'

'Quiet,' Halcyon hissed. 'Can you feel it?'

Now that the Doctor stood still, he could. A faint tremor was pa.s.sing through the base.

'Another ship boarding?' asked Halcyon. 'A relief crew, perhaps?'

'That would would be a relief,' the Doctor agreed. 'But I don't think we'd better take any chances.' be a relief,' the Doctor agreed. 'But I don't think we'd better take any chances.'

He led Halcyon just a little more quickly out of the corpse-strewn hangar and towards the control area.

'Docking procedure completed,' said the Rapier Rapier's computer. 'We have arrived.

Disembark from exit two.'

Sook leaned heavily on Mildrid outside the inspection hatch, her teary eyes fixed on the hijacker she couldn't bring herself to look at where the twisted bodies of Watts and Crossland lay beneath their precious flight controls, nor at Kreiner, stretched out and p.r.o.ne. The hijacker had stood over Kreiner's p.r.o.ne body for more than a minute, his head in his hands as if remorseful or just very tired. Then the computer's voice seemed to stir him. He stared around as if waking up now, unsure of his surroundings, rubbing at his neck.

'I'll deal with him,' said Mildrid.

'No,' hissed Sook, clutching hold of her. 'Please. I can hardly move on my own, if something happened to you. . . '

Mildrid nodded. 'All right.'

They watched as the man moved away from Kreiner without another glance 224 and left the control room; heard the doors open around the corner and quiet footsteps rushing away.

The moment the sound had died, Mildrid helped Sook up and round to the main doors.

'Is Kreiner dead?' Sook asked.

'That maniac must have thought so,' said Mildrid.

'Go to him, quick.' She swallowed. 'I'll find out where we are.' She hobbled over to the controls, using one of Halcyon's canes as a makeshift crutch, the growing pain in her body keeping her focused.

'He's still breathing!' cried Mildrid, kneeling beside him, easing his head into her lap.

'And my head is very sore,' said Kreiner reproachfully. 'What happened? I saw stars. . . '

Sook looked stiffly across at him. 'You managed to unplug a PadPad on charge. Psycho-electric feedback. Not good.'

He blinked at her. 'Should you be walking?'

'Call this walking?' she muttered, easing herself into the pilot's seat. It was still warm, and she shuddered.

'What am I even doing here? I don't remember a. . . ' He blanched. 'Oh, yes I do. That guy. I was going to kill him!'

'Not from where we were standing, Kreiner,' said Sook drily.

'I'm telling you!' He looked up at Mildrid. 'I felt like Gaws looked back in the stadium hangar. . . Does that make sense? I was wild, my head felt like it would burst, I didn't care about anything except. . . ' He started to shake.

'Jesus, I'm going mad! I am!'

'It's just the shock you got,' Mildrid said soothingly.

'No, this was before.' Fitz nuzzled his head against her matronly bosom.

'Reckon it was the shock that stopped me.'

'Weird place to run to,' Sook announced. 'We've docked with NewSystem's mobile operations unit.'

'NewSystem?' Mildrid looked at her sharply. 'The company ready to destroy Jupiter's moons?'

'We have to warn them,' said Sook. 'There's a killer on the way.'

'Let him get on with it!' Mildrid declared. 'Do us all a '

Her words were choked off as Kreiner grabbed hold of her throat and started to squeeze.

'Kreiner? What the h.e.l.l are you. . . ?' Sook instinctively jumped up. The pain bucked through her body, her gammy leg folded beneath her and she fell to the floor. She hurt so badly she could barely stay conscious. Mildrid's face was red and contorted. Kreiner's knuckles were white.

'Stop it!' Sook screamed. 'Stop it!'

225.

High in the dusty rafters, Trix tried to swing on to the main beam that would carry her over the centrifuge without spilling her supply of paint.

The floor had to be thirty feet below.

She'd tossed Falsh for the pleasure of this little mission, but lost. At least it meant he he was the one left guarding the door with a rifle plucked from a soldier's corpse, defending the outpost from any pa.s.sing homicidal maniacs. was the one left guarding the door with a rifle plucked from a soldier's corpse, defending the outpost from any pa.s.sing homicidal maniacs.

Was the slug effect eating through her sanity even now was that why she was up here? What if the Doctor didn't make it? Every time she felt a flash of anger or resentment at being up here risking her neck for maybe nothing at all, she winced, told herself to cool it. That burn of irritation might light the fuse in her brain, setting off the final countdown that would blow out all sense and leave her a mad, rabid animal. And could rabid animals hang on to dusty, creaking beams? She wasn't about to chance it.

She inched along the beam caterpillar fashion, gripping it with both arms and legs, raising her b.u.m in the air and pushing it back down to propel herself forwards. The strap of the paint tin felt like it was cutting right through her fingers. She could see Falsh, broad and impressive in his paint-splashed shoes, standing guard at the window, looking out into the gloom, while Tinya stood silent, a pale spectre watching Trix's progress without emotion.

'Keep going,' Falsh called to her. He'd got very motivational all of a sudden.

'That's it! Come on, Trix. You're going to make it.'

'I know I am!' she shouted back. 'So keep your mouth shut before anyone left alive hears and comes looking!'

She was nearly directly above the centrifuge now. Soon she'd know. She could imagine the slugs piled high in there like maggots in a milkbottle, twisting, writhing, spreading their sickness. Her head felt like it was swimming was that a touch of vertigo or a sticky slithering across her senses? She took deep breaths, held on tight to the beam, don't look down, the dizziness will don't look down, the dizziness will pa.s.s, you're so nearly there, hold on. . . pa.s.s, you're so nearly there, hold on. . .

She opened her eyes.

The centrifuge was empty.

Trix giggled. Then the giggles turned into full-blown gales of laughter. 'It's all right, no slugs!' she called. 'No slugs! Nothing at all!'

She looked across at Falsh.

He was aiming his gun at her.

'Falsh, you b.a.s.t.a.r.d!' she screamed. She twisted around as he opened fire, so she was hanging beneath the beam. The heat crackled past her fingers.

'Told you, truce is over,' he said, taking careful aim. 'And you know way too much about me now.'

'Tinya!' yelled Trix. 'Help me!'

226.

Falsh shook his head. 'I believe you told her to duck at the first sign of trouble and stay down,' he said. 'But don't worry. She'll be dying with you.'