'It's all right. You can tell me. I'm a doctor.'

 Costello was unsure what to do. Could he trust this Doctor, or should he just fob him off with some clich answer?

 'Do you believe the ends justify the means?' Costello asked.

 The Doctor paused. He turned away from Costello and looked at something else, anything else. The truth Doctor, tell him the truth.

 'I did once,' he replied eventually, 'but people got hurt, people I knew, people I called my friends, people I,' he paused, unsure of the right word, 'loved. But you don't do that sort of thing to your friends, do you?'

 This time Costello paused, not sure if the Doctor was trying to lead him to reveal something, or if he was somehow seeking absolution. Costello decided not to say anything.

 The Doctor pushed a few buttons on the main computer terminal. 'Most of the stations systems were fried when we passed through Arcis,' stated the Doctor, without seeming to change the subject. 'But some of the external sensors are still operative. Shall we have a look at what's outside?'

 A few more buttons were pressed and a hologram rezzed into existence in the center of the control room. A large wire-frame funnel replaced the floor. Hanging above it was the station and a very large fleet of alien space ships.

 The Doctor counted twelve thousand ships, at least, all various shapes and sizes. There was something slightly organic about their appearence. One of the ships was noticably larger, possibly the command ship. He pressed a few more switches and the display zoomed in on the station. One of the smaller alien ships was docking with the station.

 'Well, Mister Costello, I do hope that you have a plan for this, because we are about to have some visitors. I'm not ready to meet them just yet.'

 The Doctor pressed more buttons. The station faded and 13 small red dots appeared at various places. Two in the central control room, one in a shop just off the concourse that the TARDIS was parked on, [nine more people], one moving in a turbolift moving towards the command level. The dot [somewhere] flashed once and then faded.

 'Out of the 3,658 people that were on this station there are now 12!' the Doctor quietly. He turned on Costello.

 The door opened and Angela ran into the room. The Doctor didn't even look at her, he simply held up his hand *STOP*.

 'Tell me, where are we?' The Doctor stared into Krevell Costello's eyes, forcing the man to look back, forcing him to answer.

 'X-774.'

 'And what is X-774?'

 'I don't know.'

 'What are *they*?'

 'Rsand.'

 The Doctor blinked and the spell was broken.

 Angela took a step forward, and watched as the Doctor's expression took on a much lighter shade. He smiled at her.

 'I thought I told you to go back to the TARDIS.'

 'Wil has been hurt,' she said. 'Badly.'

 'Tell me on the way,' and they were out the door, leaving Costello to his plan.

 Don't stop, don't think, just move.

 He was running still, along the outside edge of the room and through another doorway before any of them had had time to react.

 The ship was huge, and strange. The corridors weren't straight, they twisted, sloped and turned. It looked more like it had grown than been made. The walls weren't the soft sort of organic structure that Jadi was familiar with, they were hard. Like chitin. Appropiate.

 He came round a bend and ran into a squad of three Rsands. He hit the first one before they realized he was there. Duck, roll, grab, spin, shoot. The other two fell to the ground. Keep moving.

 His hospital gown flapped behind him as he rounded the next bend.

 The Otherwil bent down and whispered in Wil's ear. 'Interesting, isn't it?'

 Wil looked at the Otherwil. How do you defeat the Trickster? With a trick.

 'What is it?'

 'Visual representation of your unconscious state.'

 Wil looked at the black again. It didn't look like anything.

 The Otherwil looked up sharply and then ran off into the distance. Wil could make out another figure. The Otherwil was talking quickly, with a lot of hand movements. Finally the Otherwil and the figure moved closer. The figure became the Doctor.

 'Hello, Wil,' the Doctor said as he bent down to examine Wil's injuries.

 'Doctor... I guess you're just a projection of my unconsciousness.'

 'No, I'm real. That's why your friend doesn't want me here.'

 The Otherwil had suddenly become quiet.

 'Wil, how did this happen?'

 'The bombs went off and threw me into the TARDIS.'

 'Ouch.'

 'Doctor, what's going to happen to me? The other me said I had a really small chance of ever being able to do anything.'

 The Doctor paused. Comfort him or tell the truth? 'It's not as bad as that. I have a few tricks up my sleeve.'

 'You don't know, do you?'

 'No. But don't believe what he says.' The Doctor pointed to the Otherwil. 'He's just here to get your spirits down. I've got to go.'

 The Doctor faded.

 Angela looked concerned. 'He's bleeding,' she said.

 'No he's not,' the Doctor said as he put his finger in his mouth.

 Angela wiped the blood off Wil's forehead. There was no sign of a wound. She looked at the Doctor. 'You're bleeding?'

 The Doctor nodded his head.

 'What, how, why?'

 'I humble baaadst whiel shume nannnnts.'

 Angela grabbed the Doctor's hand and pulled his finger out of his mouth. 'What?'

 'I had to give Wil some of my nanites. He'll either make a complete recovery or die from the stress. I hope I don't have to regenerate any time soon.'

 'So now what?'

 'Well, you go and get the TARDIS key; Wil left it in the staff cafeteria next to the coffee pot. Then you meet me at the TARDIS.'

 It's alright old thing, you've been through worse, it was only a nasty old black hole, You're much better off than Wil.

 The Doctor spun through the library.

 I know you don't want to be disturbed right now, but I need some information -- the Rsand.

 The Doctor performed a triple somersault and pushed himself off a semi-solid wall.

 What do you mean you don't know?

 He rolled over into a lazy backstroke.

 Oh. Well, I guess I'll have to do this the old fashioned way...

 She got back to the front of the TARDIS and noticed that the door was opening. The Doctor fell out and Angela caught him.

 'Are you all right?' she asked quickly.

 He stared at her, through her, with her. She felt like she had been dissected and put back together, the creepy feeling you get when you stand on your own grave, the sound of metal scraping on metal, the feeling that the glass pipette you're holding may suddenly shatter and cut your hand up so badly that you'll never be able to play the piano again.

 *FORGET*

 The Doctor was standing above her. She hadn't the faintest idea why she was lying on the ground.

 'You got the key?'

 'Yeah,' she said as she stood up. 'Here.'

 The Doctor pocketed it.

 'What's wrong with the TARDIS? There isn't a lock on the door.'

 'She's not feeling too well. But she'll be fine in about an hour. She just has a little trouble with artificial black holes.'

 Jadi turned a corner. He had to find somewhere to stop and think. He tried the first door he found.

 A small office type room. He leaned aginst the door and slid to the floor.

 Time to think.

 For the life of him Jadi couldn't work out why he was thinking about Ferris. She was a mystery and one he hadn't been able to keep out of his head since that conversation with the Doctor.

 'So tell me, Mister Morok, what is the bounty for Angela's safe return?' asked the Doctor.

 'Enough.' Jadi didn't want to talk about it.

 'Enough for someone like you to retire and never have to work again?' the Doctor sipped his tea and watched Jadi closely.

 'Yeah.'

 'But you're a man of taste; you would want a good life, and you're not that old. So I'd say it would have to be a very impressive sum of money.'

 'Whatever.'

 'And why does whoever it is want Angela?'

 'She stole something.' Jadi stopped, suddenly realizing that the Doctor was leading him somewhere.

 'What did she steal?'

 'I'm not sure exactly, it wasn't really part of the briefing. Non relevant information.' Jadi couldn't help himself; he had to know where the Doctor was taking this. He had to know what it was the the Doctor had already worked out.

 'Could whatever it is possibly be worth the bounty you were offered?'

 'I don't know. Given the people involved, probably not. Oh.'

 The Doctor sipped his tea again.

 'What are you saying, Doctor?'

 'That our Miss Ferris is not a common thief; I doubt there is anything common about her at all. Personally, I think we should spend a little bit of time finding out what exactly is going on before you hand her over to whoever they are.'

 Jadi decided that if he got a chance he would have to ask Ferris some questions.

 He looked around the room. There was a computer display on one wall. He quickly navigated through the menu and useless information. He found a map of the ship and a list of security patrols including routes. Good; he should be able to sneak around now and not get caught.

 Then he found what he was looking for.

 'So, how come they haven't gotten on board yet?' she asked him.

 'Well, er, I kind of changed the security codes when I was in ops.'

 'What, your hand just happened to hit the buttons to do that, did they?'

 'Something like that.'

 She looked at the door. The invaders had almost finished cutting through the hatch.

 'So, what's the plan?' she asked.

 The Doctor looked at her seriously. 'I thought *you* had the plan.'

 Angela was rather nonplused by that. Then the Doctor broke into a huge grin. 'I thought we would try the classic "Take me to your leader" routine,' he said. 'Oh, that reminds me--'

 He reached out and slapped something onto Angela's shoulder. 'You're now invisible. I want you to sneak on board this ship, get over to their main ship, find and rescue Jadi.'

 The cut-out section of the door fell to the floor in front of him. Two rather large bi-pedal insectoid creatures stepped through the opening.

 'Take me to your leader!' the Doctor exclaimed.

 He sat in the maintenance crew changing room, slowly taking off all his clothes. The air was damp and cold, just like every space station he had ever been on.

 He then picked up the space suit and put it on.

 It was a long process; you had to make sure that you did up all the buckles, that you hadn't missed a seal.

 Finally, he stood there in the full EVA suit, ready to go for a walk.

 Then he remembered being slammed into the TARDIS, his spine shattering, the Otherwil taunting him.

 The Doctor had done something. He didn't know what, but it seemed he was back in one piece again.

 He looked out of the shop and saw the TARDIS standing in the center of the concourse. What to do Gwilym, what to do?

 He could go and hide in the TARDIS until everything was sorted. But that idea just didn't seem like the right thing to do anymore.

 So he came up with a better plan. Try to find the Doctor. Failing that, help as many people as he could.

 Now where would the Doctor be? Command Center.

 Now he stood on the bridge paying very close Time Lord attention to everything.

 His guards whistled, clicked and sung to one of the other Rsand. Probably the captain, or some other position of command, close enough to a leader.

 The Doctor waited.

 'Yooo wwanted to zzee me hooman?' the captain said.

 'Yes, please don't bother with the speech patterns; I'm quite capable of understanding your native tongue. You see, I need to ask you a few questions.'

 The Rsand captain said nothing.

 'What are you doing?' the Doctor tried.

 The captain looked like he was about to answer. Yes that's right, tell me all your plans, show me how to win.

 'We are going to invade your universe!' sang the captain.

 Oh, is *that* all? thought the Doctor.

 Angela checked her pockets and of all things she found a bioscanner. She had a feeling the Doctor had put it in her pocket at some point. Scan for human life forms. Other than herself there was only one.

 It took her about ten minutes to get there. She opened the door and tried very hard not to laugh.

 Morok was standing in the middle of the room pulling his jeans on. On the floor was an apparently unconscious Rsand.

 She closed the door, turned off her cloaking field and smiled at Jadi.

 'Are you two finished, or should I come back latter?'

 Jadi smiled back at her. 'No, we're finished. What took you so long?'

 He grabbed his shirt and jacket from the bench they were on, leaving the hospital gown behind.

 They both disappeared out the door and headed back to the docking port.

 He called up some info on the computer. Red dots were life signs that the computer recognized, blue dots were unidentified aliens.

 As he watched a small group of blue dots cornered four red dots. Then the red dots flashed and faded.

 That still left six people alive. Wil had to get to them first.

 But there was no going back now.

 Above him hung the entire Rsand fleet, waiting to drop into Arcis and completely decimate his home universe.

 Beyond them was Arcis itself. A swirling mass of purple, blue and indigo. He had no idea how a black hole could suddenly have colour, but that wasn't important.

 He shouldered his gun and aimed at the center of the black hole. One shot should do it. But just to make sure he fired three times.

 The first blast missed and hit one of the Rsand ships, knocking it out of balance. The ship vanished into Arcis. The second and third blasts held true.

 That gave him about an hour. He started the long walk back to the inside of the station.

 Time for the next stage of his plan.

 To be continued in chapter 7 of 'The Storm of Harmony'...