'No.' Ben had saluted. 'No, sir. Thank you, sir. Very good, sir.'

Aysha had taken the details with the same calmness, and however much he disliked her, Ben admired her. Respected her. All a good CO could ask for really. After a moment she pointed towards the corridor and Nihmrod went out, looked around and returned, shaking her head. 'Good,' the Queen said. 'What about Tamora and Tensing? How was the test?'

Aall straightened her shoulders and made her report.

'Tamora's loyal to you, I'm sure.'

229.

'I hope so,' said Chosan. 'If she were working for Lotuss, by now the discovery of the bomb would be known and Lotuss would have to find another way.'

'Wouldn't have to if the Doctor hadn't saved your hides,'

murmured Ben.

'True, anthropoid-tom,' said Aysha. 'A fact that I have noted.' She looked to Aall again. 'And Tensing?'

'Difficult to tell exactly. By rights, she's well in Lotuss's pride. However, she was certainly as astonished by the bomb as us.'

Chosan took Nihmrod's device and poked at it herself.

'Interesting. Lotuss has a.s.signed her guard duty for you, Your Majesty. On the invasion shuttle.'

Aysha c.o.c.ked her head slightly and hissed a smile, her tongue caressing her teeth. Ben noticed how sharp they were. Very sharp. He would not like to think how quickly she would be able to disarm him. Literally. 'A shuttle that we won't be taking. Lotuss has made her move slightly earlier than I expected.'

'Excuse me,' piped up the Doctor, 'but Ben and I aren't really part of all your politics and catawauling.' Ben winced, but the Doctor continued. 'Couldn't we just go back to Earth?'

'Sorry,' said Aysha without any trace of apology. 'Sorry, but we need you here. For now. We need your TARDIS, remember?'

'Why?' Ben still had not figured that one out.

The Doctor answered. 'Because, Ben, Queen Aysha has a weird idea that I can take her back forty thousand years in it, to find the beacons when they were new.'

'But I thought they were more powerful in 1994.'

'Yes, but Fraulein Thorsuun saw to it that we couldn't find them.'

Chosan joined in. 'The ridiculous creature had forgotten where they were.'

The Doctor nodded. 'So it's better to get less of something than nothing at all. Hence the TARDIS.'

230.

'But don't they realize,' Ben laughed, 'that you can't control it? If you tried to get us back forty thousand years, we'll probably end up on Venus in a million years' time!'

The Doctor frowned. 'Thank you for your confidence.'

Ben was not giving up. 'Yeah, but I'm right, ain't I?

Haven't got me and Pol back to July '66 yet, eh?'

Aysha hissed. 'Is this true? Can you not pilot your own craft?'

The Doctor cleared his throat and shoved his hands deep into his pockets. 'Yes. Well. Ben puts it a little less tactfully than I'd have liked, but fundamentally, that's true.' He looked up and grinned. 'Sorry.'

Aysha stared for a moment. Then: 'Oh well, eject his TARDIS into s.p.a.ce, Chosan. I don't need extra weight on board.'

'What? You mean the TARDIS is here?' The Doctor almost jumped for joy. 'That's excellent.'

'While we were in Baghdad, Aall located it and transported it here. Why?'

'Because, Your Majesty, I can get in it with Ben and leave. Go away. Leave you behind.'

'Then what?' Chosan was frowning in that way that cats do, Ben decided. Cats always had that haunted look back aboard ship when they thought their food was late - a sort of disdainful glare that made their eyes look heavy and therefore wrinkled their foreheads. Chosan looked just like that now.

The Doctor smiled expansively. 'Then you can invade Earth in 1994 and try to find the beacons. You'd get about two miles into the atmosphere before they launched an all-out atomic strike and you'd be destroyed in about thirty seconds.'

'Like the Z-Bomb at the South Pole?' Ben asked.

The Doctor nodded. 'Exactly, Ben, but another eight years has made their cruise missiles and the like even more powerful. Mankind has developed some very impressive weaponry by this decade, Your Majesty. I doubt you'd find 231 the combined might of the USA and USSR quite as easy to kick aside as a few Arabian peasants.'

Aysha shrugged. 'We were safe in c.u.mbria. We could infiltrate slowly and cripple their world before they knew we were there.'

Ben started laughing aloud. 'Oh, come on. Overgrown p.u.s.s.ycats? You'd be spotted in an instant - if they didn't kill you, you'd be in a zoo.'

'Ben's right. A curiosity is all you'd be, Queen Aysha.

Prodded and poked by those you despise.' The Doctor waved his hand around the room, catching one of the silk drapes and nearly tugging it down. He extricated himself.

'You could say goodbye to all this.'

Queen Aysha looked at Aall. At Chosan. At Nihmrod.

Then at the blank screen from where the Pride Mother had delivered her plea. 'You're right, Doctor. I have no desire to lead my pride to death or dishonour. I thank you for alerting me to Lotuss's bomb. It seems only fair to allow you to leave peacefully - Nihmrod, escort our . . . friends to their blue box. Cargo bay 2.'

Confused but obedient, Nihmrod moved towards the bead curtain. 'This way, Doctor,' she said.

The Doctor bowed to Queen Aysha. 'Your Majesty, I sincerely hope you return home safely.'

'Thank you, Doctor. You are most kind.' She waved a paw at the curtain.

Ben let himself bow just enough to be polite and followed the Doctor out. 'What was that all about?' he whispered. 'We can't just leave!'

'Why not?'

Ben was appalled. 'Polly! What about Polly? You can't leave her stranded in 1994!'

Nihmrod called the lift. 'Oh, she'll be all right, Ben,' she said cheerfully. 'It's only about thirty years out of time.

She'll adjust in no time.'

'Oh. And what about your famous "web of time"? Won't that be a little disrupted?' Ben couldn't believe it. Abandon 232 Polly? 'The old Doctor -' He stopped, but it was too late.

As they got in the lift, the Doctor glared at him.

'The "old Doctor what?" Ben? Hmm? Wouldn't be callous? Wouldn't dump Polly? Rubbish, Ben, you know nothing about "the old Doctor". The old me! If you ever get home, look up Ian and Barbara, my old friends. Ask them about the caveman. Or should we ever return to find poor Steven, just mention the name Anne Chaplette and see what effect that has on him. Even Dodo - she'd have some stories to tell. Don't presume to place your pathetic human morals, ideology and nuances upon me, Benjamin Jackson.'

'Oh, do shut up!' snapped Nihmrod. 'You two bicker worse than three-month-old kittens in the breeding pens!'

'Shut up yourself,' replied the Doctor. 'And - whooaa!'

The Doctor suddenly careered into Ben, pushing him against the side of the lift. The Doctor then fell back against Nihmrod, slamming her into the lift controls. An alarm went off immediately. 'Oh, do excuse me,' he said, suddenly pushing Nihmrod aside. 'I'm so sorry about that. I must be getting giddy. Let me try to repair it.' He wrenched open the lift-control panelling, and Nihmrod tried to stop him. For a second Ben, confused, angry and alarmed, saw the Doctor wink at him. And then it became clear. He was up to something - all that shouting was a distraction for Nihmrod. He was not really going to abandon Polly after all. 'Oh, what have I done?' the Doctor wailed and wrenched a few feet of clear plastic cabling out of the panelling.

'I don't know,' Nihmrod wailed back. 'I'm not a technician!'

'Hold this, Ben.' The Doctor held some cable out. 'And you.' He pa.s.sed a dead end to Nihmrod. 'Now, if I put that in here - or is it here - that should stop the alarm.' He wrenched out another cable which began sparking and spitting in front of him. 'Oh dear, oh dear,' he cried, holding the wire in front of him as if it were a snake wriggling to escape. 'Oh, Ben, I can't control it!' With which he stepped back and jammed the end against the dead end Nihmrod held. 'Ben! Drop it!' he yelled. The cable was already hitting 233 the floor as a blue arc of energy whipped around their heads, catching Nihmrod at the centre, smashing her against the back wall of the lift, unconscious. There was an uncomfortable smell of singed cat fur.

'You enjoyed that,' Ben panted.

'I did not,' the Doctor retorted.

'Yes you did.' Ben checked Nihmrod for a neck pulse.

'She's stunned.'

'Oh, good. In that case, yes, I did enjoy it. Now, let's get out of here. Can you force the door?'

'What if we're in between floors?'

The Doctor sighed. 'Oh, Ben, give me some credit. We're on level 2 - where the TARDIS apparently is.'

Ben shrugged, pushed his hands against the sliding door and pushed. And pushed. 'It . . . it's giving,' he said.

'Well, save your breath and push.'

'You could . . . help, you know,' Ben felt the door begin to give. It gave and he fell through the gap on to the soft carpet of level 2.

'You only had to ask.' The Doctor marched past. 'Cargo bay 2. This way I think.'

As the Doctor and Ben were led out, Chosan turned to her Queen. 'I don't understand, Your Majesty.'

'You will, first-sired, you will. Meanwhile, we have a litter-runt to deal with.' She looked across at Aall. 'How long before the bomb goes off?'

Aall consulted her own data-pad. 'Fifteen minutes.'

Aysha punched a control on her screen remote-control and the bridge popped into view.

'Your Majesty.' Jodi bowed.

Aysha bowed back. 'How is the conn?'

Jodi paused for the briefest of seconds, acknowledging the coded question. 'Secure at command. Helm and nav report no problems but are wary, as always.' Jodi was telling her Queen that Nypp and Tuq, Lotuss's agents, were still there. 'Tactical is calm. Communications are ever ready.'

234.

So, Lotuss was not there. Good. But Tensing was, at the communications console. She must have returned there immediately after leaving the refuse area. Which meant Lotuss could not know that the bomb had been discovered - and Chosan wondered where she might be.

Queen Aysha threw Aall a look and then back to Jodi. 'I am ready to begin the invasion of Earth, Jodi. I require Nypp and Tuq at Shuttle bay eleven in five minutes. Keep communications at standard.' In other words, Chosan realized, keep Tensing on the bridge.

Jodi paused. 'Shall I join you?'

Chosan smiled. Jodi was very good.

'No, Jodi.' Queen Aysha twitched her whiskers. 'You keep the conn.'

Jodi bowed. 'Good hunting, Your Majesty.'

'Good hunting.' Aysha smiled and broke the connection.

'When this is over, Aall, I want her promoted.'

Aall laughed. 'I understand that there could be a vacancy for tactical officer shortly.'

Chosan also smiled. 'I'll send out the application forms when we get back.'

Aysha looked serious. 'We must play this carefully. Aall, I'm risking a lot on the fact that Lotuss is too paranoid to have told anyone in her ridiculous pride about the bomb.

Therefore Nypp and Tuq will be as unaware as Lotuss.' She crossed to the doorway. 'Chosan, you and I will collect Lotuss from her quarters. Aall, prepare the shuttle. Get them aboard before we bring Lotuss.'

Aall bowed. 'Mother.' She left first.

Chosan led the way. 'Lotuss won't go to Shuttle bay eleven easily.'

Aysha laughed. 'Oh yes she will, daughter. Watch.'

Moments later they were in Lotuss's quarters. The litter-runt rose, none too quickly, from her cushion. Chosan knew she was pushing Aysha to see what she could get away with.

'Lotuss. I require your help.' Aysha smiled. 'I am leaving for Earth with Aall immediately.'

235.

'Shall I prepare you a shuttle?' Lotuss was so polite.

Aysha shook her head. 'No need, my child. The one we returned in is ready - you know how I hate to waste time.

Shuttle bay eleven will do adequately.'

'As you desire, Mother. What can I do to help?'