'Well, come and get it, then,' cried Trix, skidding and slipping through the tepid water, using bodies for stepping stones. Once she landed on her b.u.m in the scented suds, waited for the killing shot to hit home. But Tinya was having the same problems, splashing and squeaking as she fell about in pursuit. The two of them slithered improbably through the soapy mire and out the other side.

Trix scrambled out and into the emergency lighting of the long, long corridor that stretched to the stage. She heard Tinya's footfalls close behind. The b.i.t.c.h was gaining on her. She kept on, some last hidden wash of adrenalin pumping her legs harder, faster.

243.

In a blur she realised she had reached the backstage area. She had to find a remote for the silver discs. She looked about her there must be one about somewhere, surely? A back-up for emergencies or something. . .

Another warning shot whizzed past her head and she set off again.

Finally she found herself on the darkened stage, barely blinking at the corpses littering the arena, hardened to the death all around her. What took her attention now was the cracked control box device from which the Doctor had concocted his forcefield.

Lying beside it on the floor was a slim handheld remote like the one they'd found at Blazar.

Trix pounced on it, clutched it to her heart, wept over it. Please let it work. Please let it work.

Please don't let the batteries be flat. She studied the controls for a way to get the TARDIS down, She studied the controls for a way to get the TARDIS down, fast. . . fast. . .

And jumped as the floor turned to splinters just beside her. She quickly hid the remote behind her back.

'Stay nice and still,' panted Tinya, covering Trix with the gun. 'Your blue box. Where is it?'

Don't look up now, thought Trix, tapping her thumb frantically on what she hoped was the right b.u.t.ton. thought Trix, tapping her thumb frantically on what she hoped was the right b.u.t.ton.

'Tell me. Or I'll blow your left leg off.' Tinya took a threatening step towards her. 'Then an arm. Then the right leg. Until you tell me.'

'Maybe you should start with my fingers,' said Trix, raising two of them in Tinya's direction.

Tinya took careful aim. 'Very funny.'

'Usually brings the house down,' Trix agreed.

High above, the discs shut off and the TARDIS went into freefall.

Trix jumped back as, with a terrific crash, the blue box struck the stage.

She was shaken off her feet, landed flat on her back, winded. Desperately, she scrambled back up.

The TARDIS had crashed right through. Only its roof and light were visible poking through the hole.

On the other side, Tinya was staring, panting, agog with shock. She'd been millimetres away from being squashed flat. The gun lay forgotten heside her.

'I always was a lousy aim,' Trix admitted, picking up the gun and holding it to Tinya's head. 'But even I couldn't miss from this distance.'

'Why don't you just shoot?' said Tinya distantly.

'What, and have no one left alive to gra.s.s up Falsh?' Trix shook her head.

'Not to mention those shadowy playmates of yours back at the shed. No, you've got too many stories to tell, Tinya. And a h.e.l.l of a lot to answer for.'

244.

The Doctor showed up in the end. Tinya had fallen fitfully into sleep, and Trix was struggling not to topple after her. She thought she was dreaming at first half-crazy with fatigue and her gun-arm nearly dropping off as there was quite a crowd.

There was Fitz by the Doctor's side bloodied, battered but still smiling.

Halcyon had lost his shades and was steering a floating stretcher upon which lay Sook. The redhead had looked a lot healthier the last time Trix had seen her.

More surreally, there was a very large lady bringing up the rear, holding in her arms a drowned weasel of a man with wringing wet clothes. Trix blinked and realised he was the man from the news, the finder of the slugs. A few suds still stuck to his grotty 'cache.

Fitz looked at her. The Doctor looked at his sunken ship and sighed happily.

Trix got up stiffly, took a few steps towards them.

The three of them met in the middle, on top of the TARDIS roof, and had a long, close hug.

245.

Chapter Thirty-two.

The cleaning up was in progress, Callisto slowly starting to recover. All those who'd witnessed the great lightshow were lured out of their darknesses soonest. The unconscious or sleeping regained their wits too, more slowly, now the slug-signals had ceased transmission.

The numbing death toll was estimated to run into thousands. It would take weeks for the true scale and cost of the attack to be known, for the true facts to come out in the open. Tinya was being questioned by Pentagon Central.

Klimt's corpse had been collected for verification and public disposal.

But lives had been saved, too; that was emphasised and celebrated. Aid-ships flooded in from all over the Empire and beyond, and welfare camps set up on the scattered handful of surviving moons.

The Doctor and his friends were recovering too. A day had pa.s.sed resting and sleeping, and now they were sprawled in Halcyon's dressing rooms with warm champagne and wilted salads.

Halcyon and Sook were talking quietly Sook was looking peaky, and the news of Roddle's death had hit them both hard. But Trix caught her smiling once or twice. Now her boss's specs had come off, she couldn't seem to stop looking into his eyes.

Fitz was pretending not to care about their intimacy, throwing them little looks, knocking back his drinks and getting more than a little smashed.

To Trix there seemed something a little unreal about their cosy gathering.

She thought of the chaos that had swept Callisto, the misery and bereavement that now gripped so many. But then the thought of all those lives saved, and the part she had played in bringing that about, made her feel that maybe she had earned a swig or two of warm fizz.

'Halcyon,' said the Doctor thoughtfully, after a deep draught from his crystal goblet. 'I trust that after all this you'll leave the rest of the universe alone?

After all, you're the man who saved the solar system. It wouldn't do to whittle away any more of it.'

'You're taking no credit, then?' Halcyon asked keenly.

'Not likely!' retorted the Doctor, putting down his gla.s.s. 'Give your interviews and take the glory by all means. And use it well.'

'Won't Mildrid have something to say about that?' asked Sook.

247.

'She asked me to say goodbye,' said Fitz. 'She and Gaws are retiring from the Empire Trust. He's realised that as the bloke who found the slugs, he could get the blame for setting up this whole, horrible circus. He's not so keen to give interviews now.'

'Nevertheless, Mildrid's standing by her man,' said the Doctor wistfully.

'Said something about developing their sudship business. . . '

Sook shrugged. 'Good luck to her.'

'Really, must we dwell on that fearsome woman?' said Halcyon. 'You talk as if you've known her for some time, Sook!'

'Hardly, Halcyon,' she said sweetly with a glance at Fitz.

'Well, in any case,' said the Doctor, quickly changing the subject. 'You may reconst.i.tute Carme, Halcyon, but this Ancient Twelve aesthetic of yours won't hold for long. Something the size of Jupiter will soon drag in all kinds of old flotsam and jetsam. It's inevitable.'

'And this time, I suggest you keep that clutter,' said Trix, swigging back her last gulp. 'You never know when it may come in handy.'

'Well said, Trix,' said the Doctor. 'From time to time we may all come to resent the clutter of the past. The thought of clearing it all out can be irresistible it can feel liberating to let it all go. You could say you're left with a blank canvas, a fresh start.' He ate the last sausage roll from his plate. 'Or you could say you're left with nothing at all.'

Halcyon bit his lip and nodded sagely, worried perhaps that the Doctor would change his mind about letting him hog the limelight. 'I was thinking, in fact, of turning my sights on old Earth. . . ' He smiled at Sook. 'Now, there's an awful lot of improvements we could make to that planet to bring business back to the heart of the Empire.'

'I'm sure the President will be supportive,' said Sook.

'Whatever your vision, Halcyon,' said the Doctor meaningfully. 'Keep it twenty-twenty, hmm?'

'He will,' murmured Sook. 'Whatever we do.'

Fitz winced slightly at the word 'we' and rose up abruptly from his chair.

'I'm just going to see if they've got the TARDIS out yet.'

'Oh, I took care of that, Fitz,' said the Doctor. 'The discs towed her out in minutes. And now Trix has got her hands on the mercury '

He reddened. 'I think I'll just check anyway.'

The Doctor nodded, poured himself a little more to drink, let Fitz slip away with nothing more said. Trix clocked Sook watching him go.

'You're sure sure you won't reconsider my offer to market your blue boxes?' said Halcyon for what had to be the hundredth time. you won't reconsider my offer to market your blue boxes?' said Halcyon for what had to be the hundredth time.

He received the Doctor's hundredth dirty look for his pains.

248.

'You know what's a shame?' said Trix suddenly. 'The thought that Falsh could get away with this.'

'The authorities will catch up with him in the end,' said Halcyon.

'How many years will that take? And in the meantime, he's free as a bird!'

'As a lovebird,' said the Doctor, a small smile turning up his mouth as he downed more of the flat champagne.

Falsh had decided to wait out in the fringes of the industrial area, away from the major casualty zones. He'd given Nerren the details of where he was hiding, and a ship was already on its way.

The rush and whine of engines close outside came sooner than he could have dared hope. He ran out of the derelict building he'd holed up in, chuckling, grinning, radiant.

And saw a large, sleek ship, shaped like a silver arrowhead, touch down.

Cold flooded through him. He skidded to a stop, turned and ran back inside.

Straight away he heard footsteps approaching. Looked around for some kind of weapon, anything he could use to defend himself.

But the Agent from Icthal was already coming towards him.

'Stay back,' said Falsh. 'I sent you away. How can you be here?'

'I intercepted your transmission,' it said in that flat, dead voice.

'I mean, how can you be here in Joves.p.a.ce? I sent you back to your system to report to your people!'

'I love you,' said the Agent, its gills quivering. 'I must run away with you and make you mine forever.'

Falsh stared. ' What? What? ' '

The alien advanced on him. 'I must make you mine forever.'

It was speaking the words soullessly, but its blank eyes were alive and squirming with something like l.u.s.t.

The Alien had been put under the paint's influence on the podule but the Doctor had shammed it. Doctor had shammed it.

'Your head's been messed with!' Falsh shouted. 'Posthypnotic suggestion.

Look at yourself, this isn't rational!'

'Love is not rational,' agreed the creature, coming closer. Its tongue snaked out and flapped like a dead fish against his face. 'I must run away with you and make you mine forever.'

'No!' screamed Falsh as the creature picked him up in its fish-stinking arms.

'Put me down!'

'Mine forever,' sighed the Agent, content.

Sook knew it was goodbye time. The Doctor was ready to slip away, and Trix seemed more than happy to ride his coat-tails into the distance.