Fighting for control of the ship was like wrestling in treacle, not only difficult but also pointless. Desperately Hann'Adou tried the auxiliary systems but they were a fried mass of circuits. There was one consolation; none of the natives of this backwater planet were going to miss the ship as it seared its way through the gaseous layer.

Mike jaunted into the lab. "What is it TIM?" Having come straight from home he was dressed casually in a light brown jacket, thin white shirt and flared jeans. Casually he removed the black and white patterned belt from around his waist and laid it down on the couch next to the jaunting pad.

TIM, a bioelectronic computer brain of extreme subtlety and sophistication, flashed his lights on and off for several seconds. "It is an unidentified craft of unknown origin."

This could mean serious trouble John thought. Tomorrow People and the Federation didn't really need space ships. "A Calanar?" He asked TIM while fearing the worst. If it was an alien ship then it probably meant trouble. He sat down on the couch and waited for TIM's answer.

TIM's lights flashed again. "Yes John, it is not of Earth or Federation design."

"You had better wake the others, I'll get the detectors ready. Put the stun guns on rapid charge please TIM."

In another part of the cosmos, in a part of reality where not much of anything makes sense, an antiquated craft hurtled along merrily. To the casual observer it appeared as a late fifties London police telephone call box, however to a time sensitive it was so much more. For one thing it was bigger on the inside than the outside and for another it had been wounded in a collision.

She opened the door and strutted angrily inside. "Doctor, what was that terrific banging?" Romana, part time renegade Time Lady and part time solver of difficult situations, walked around the main console to see if the Doctor was doing anything interesting. She was wearing little more than a dressing gown and towel around her head. Although clothes were of great significance to her she didn't feel the lack of them hampered her ability to complain. "I was in the bathroom, I nearly drowned."

The other person in the Console room looked up at Romana. "Ah Romana, I'm glad you felt it. The old girl's been nudged by something." The Doctor patted the hexagonal shaped console soothingly. The Doctor was a part time renegade Time Lord, part time adventurer, part time defender of the oppressed masses and when the situation arose part time shouter at bureaucracy. However general opinion had it that the Doctor was two straightjackets short of a loony bin. Maybe it was the wild hair; the almost constant manic grin or the mad staring eyes that gave rise to such vivid descriptions.

Romana's posture changed from angry to sympathetic as she realised it wasn't the Doctor's fault for a change. "Poor thing. You know if you updated some of these systems more often, we wouldn't get into these scrapes." Romana hugged the TARDIS console for a few seconds, she didn't want to upset it after all. "Shouldn't we get K9 to check the TARDIS for damage?"

"Romana, I have an idea. Why don't you go and get K9, he can check the TARDIS for damage." The Doctor smiled a tooth-filled grin at his best friend. "And put some clothes on, you'll catch a chill."

Pain, a world of pain. Breath comes like a thousand sharp needles in the lungs. Gas, coolant leak, its in the ship. Must open the vents. Loosing grasp on consciousness. Must open vent. Fading fast. Did I open the vent? Memory gone, darkness engulfing me.

Stephen Jameson and Elisabeth M'Bundo jaunted into the lab simultaneously. Stephen yawned loudly. "Get us a mug of coffee please TIM."

John turned to greet his fellow Tomorrow People. Both of them had become very good friends since he had met them. Stephen he had known for about a year now. They had first met when Carol and Kenny were still on Earth. Elisabeth, although breaking out recently was almost the same age he was and so they had a lot more in common. "Ah there you both are. Tell them what we know already TIM please."

TIM intoned a lengthy and complete rundown of the events so far.

Stephen sipped the hot liquid and immediately felt more awake. "So you want us to jaunt around to triangulate the ship with the life force detectors?"

John pointed to the map of London that appeared on the display screen. "I couldn't put it better Stephen. We'll start at the outskirts of London and work our way in."

"Why not the other way around John?" Liz asked. Working outwards seemed the more obvious method to her.

"For one even the saps will have noticed the ship, meteors don't turn through right angles as a rule. And secondly you know what they'll do to the pilot if they get to him first. TIM has picked some out-of-the-way locations to jaunt us to." John marked the three positions on the map using a screen writer pen.

"I'm ready when you are," TIM prompted.

The Doctor waited until the robot dog had completed its assessment of the situation. "How bad is it K9?" He spoke in a whisper. "Don't talk too loudly, we don't want to upset Romana if it's bad news."

"The TARDIS has moderate damage to its guidance mechanism."

"Well that's alright then, it can self-repair only moderate damage."

"The mechanism itself is obsolete. It should be replaced."

The Doctor put his hands on the console. "Shhh she might hear you."

"The Mistress is out of audio reception range."

"No not Romana, the TARDIS."

"This vessel is a very stupid machine and has no emotional capacity."

The console room lights dimmed and turned dark orange.

The Doctor laughed. "No emotional capacity? I think you've upset her. Say sorry K9."

"I...I am sorry. You are a very nice machine and your systems are very pretty."

"K9, you old charmer. I hope she's feeling better now. Would you like a wing nut?" The Doctor held out a handful of spares.

Romana returned to the console room. This time she sported a tight navy blue jump suit. "Do you like it? My friend Emma Peel has one just like it."

The name jogged the Doctor's memory like a stone being dropped into a lake from twenty thousand feet. "That's right, we met her before you regenerated. You didn't get on with her then."

"Well I've grown, changed, matured." Romana smiled at K9 and changed the subject hurriedly. "Has he been giving you a hard time K9?"

Stephen jaunted next to a tree. "Close one TIM, I almost appeared in an oak tree."

"Sorry Stephen," TIM's voice called to Stephen's mind.

Consciousness returns like a cold slap in the face. The air is good. Breathe in deeply, the scent of trees, the scent of animals, the scent of life. Open an eye, too bright. Pain, hurting pain. Try again, open eye longer this time. Greens, blues, yellows, grey. A world of fields and a metal icon with long wires attached to it. A primitive power grid, indications of impure species, must find weapon.

"I think we should materialise, Doctor." Romana had made up her mind and she input all the necessary re-materialisation codes before waiting for a reply. "Better to be safe than sorry."

"You see that K9, she's learning from my vast experience." The Doctor smiled at the robot dog.

"Smoothly does it." Romana held onto the console tightly. It always paid to be careful, it also paid to know what you were doing and the TARDIS landed perfectly.

"Now you're showing off Romana." The Doctor wound his scarf around his neck repeatedly. "Where's my hat?" He asked.

"You left it in one of the workshops. You said at the time you didn't know why you needed a hat."

"Did I? Well now I know."

"So why do you want one?" Romana asked curious to know the answer.

"Because I need one."

"Oh, I thought it was because you wanted people to think you looked like you know what you're doing."

Seeing that Romana had seen through him he decided to explore. "Come along Romana, there's a good girl. We don't have all day."

"We're going exploring?" Romana hurriedly pulled on her training shoes and jogged to catch up with the Doctor.

Liz jaunted inside a cornfield. She looked around for a few seconds before trying out the life force detector. She swept the horizon and was sweeping it again the other way when the needle jumped off the scale and smoke poured out of it. Suddenly in the middle distance she saw a blue police box materialise out of thin air. She continued to watch it for a few seconds until a tall man and a blonde haired woman emerged from it. "I don't think they're police," she said to herself. They were heading directly towards her. "Jaunt me back TIM, there's something strange going on here. TIM? TIM?" She couldn't feel TIM's thoughts at all. "What's going on TIM?"

"Hello." The Doctor addressed the dark skinned young woman with the slowly smouldering box. "I'm the Doctor and this is my best friend Romana."

"Hello," Romana began. "What are you doing lying in the grass with that smoking detector?" She held out a hand to help the younger woman up to her feet.

Liz got to her feet and brushed a few stray blades of grass from her corduroy jeans. "I saw you arrive. Your police box just appeared out of thin air and it caused the detector to overload." She held up the broken device to emphasise her point. Luckily it had stopped smoking now and had cooled down. She removed the lid and peered inside to see that all the circuits were fried.

The Doctor also looked down at the blackened mess of burned wires. "Yes, well the TARDIS tends to do that rather a lot to sensitive equipment I'm afraid."

"Sorry, I'm forgetting my manners." Elisabeth realised she hadn't introduced herself. "I'm Elisabeth M'Bundo, welcome to Earth." Were these aliens? She asked herself.

"That's very kind of you." The Doctor began but this isn't my first time here. In fact it's my home from home. What year is it by the way?" Knowing the year was always a valuable aid to the Doctor's memory. He then knew what he could and couldn't mention to avoid any nasty causality stuff.

"Nineteen Seventy Four of course. Don't you keep track of time?" Elisabeth wondered why the two could-be aliens broke down into hysterical laughter.

"I'm sorry." Romana finally managed to speak. "We're Time Lords, time doesn't mean much of anything to us."

This sort of made sense to Liz. After all if you travelled through time then time itself must all seem irrelevant until you arrived at your destination. "I see. So why have you come to Earth then?" It was always nice to meet friendly aliens, usually the ones they met were anything but friendly.

The Doctor breathed in before starting to tell Liz the exact details of the accident, about the ship crashing into the TARDIS just before it dematerialised into the vortex. About how it damaged the TARDIS systems and the need for repairs. "I thought it would be safer, well Romana did actually which was quick thinking on her part, but we felt it would be more appropriate if we materialised here just in case of emergencies."

"Well we think the other space ship landed around here somewhere. That's why we're using these detectors to locate it so we can help the pilot if he's still alive." Liz showed the two possible aliens her equipment.

The Doctor examined the equipment in more detail now, it was of a horribly basic nature. He was surprised it actually worked at all. "Hmm, yes it's been a while since I saw one of these. A basic design, needs a few repairs but it should do you very nicely for what you have in mind."

John's contacting me. Liz paused for a few seconds as they talked telepathically.

"Don't mind us." The Doctor turned to Romana. "Who is this girl and how come she has developed telepathy? They're not supposed to begin to emerge for another century."

Romana felt the psychic aura for a few seconds. "I know, her mind is unfocused and her powers seem limited."

Eager to distract his brooding companion the Doctor started to tell her one of his many anecdotes. "Did I ever tell you about the time I met Ky? Now he really had strong telepathic powers."

Her eyes widened. "You met the Ky?" Romana gasped. "He's one of the Federation's top advisors." She tried not to show her feelings.

The Doctor stared at the younger Time Lord and smiled. "I do believe you're blushing Romana. Have you met him as well?"

A memory flashed hot and sharp through Romana's mind. Ky standing there dressed in terrific robes, his bare legs all muscled, his strong hands clenching and unclenching and his sweet face. "Only once, when I accompanied my teacher to warn the Federation to cease its time travel experiments. He smiled at me. Is it me or is it hot out here?"

The Doctor had to restrain Romana she seemed so excited for some reason. "Stop jumping up and down Romana, I smile at you all the time and you never do this."

Romana told the Doctor of her secret liking for the Federation ambassador. "Ky, well he has a nice nose and oh, okay it was a school girl crush. I knew we could never be together but well I was young and innocent."

"You need a hot cup of tea young lady," the Doctor admonished Romana gently. "I say, Elisabeth, you don't know where we could get some tea do you?"

"Please, call me Liz. If we return to the Lab then we can find out what is wrong with TIM, he's our computer you see. He can make any food or drink you desire." Oh I forgot you can't jaunt."

"We can go by TARDIS if you like. Granted she's had a bad spell but K9 should have her up and running by now."

"Who's Canine?" Liz was curious as to why anyone would call a computer by that name.

"K9 is our computer, well he's more of a robot dog but you'll like him." Romana took hold of Liz's hand and pulled the reluctant younger woman behind her as she skipped towards the TARDIS.

Liz skipped along for a few seconds then stopped. "You're mad, no I'm mad."

"Everybody's mad," the Doctor observed. "Jelly Baby?" He held out a small paper packet of the sweets.

"Thanks, maybe this will prove all this isn't real." Liz chewed the sweet. "Nope, this is reality alright." She gave in and started skipping along again.

"Yes it is, but you can pretend it's something better if you want to. Imagine a world free of hunger, free of greed and free of oppression. Imagine a better world for yourself Liz."

"You know you're either talking nonsense or sense. I'm not sure which anymore."

"Aha." The Doctor smiled and popped a Jelly Baby into his mouth.

Look around; see that the perimeter is secure. Establish a killing zone in case it's needed. Check ammunition works on local species. Assess damage. Leg hurts: possible injury; use suppressants to deaden the pain. Relax now as the pain washes away. Think, analyse, strategise.

John jaunted back into the lab and carefully placed the sensitive detector on the nearby table. He turned to see Stephen tucking into a bowl of ice cream. He removed his jaunting belt and laid it on top of the detector. "Stephen, where's Liz? She should be here by now."

Stephen paused and turned round to face John. "I dunno John. Have you figured out what's wrong with TIM yet?"

"No I haven't. There's no damage, there's no faults. I've even checked the power station twice. It's almost as if TIM's just gone somewhere else."

The sound of rushing air and the fabric of reality being torn apart echoed around the Lab. A blue police box merged into existence with the torn reality and sealed it closed again to stand over by the entrance doorway.

"What's that?" Stephen asked John.

"I have no idea." John replied to Stephen. "Better hand me a stun gun just in case."

The doors opened slowly and a figure emerged. "Only me." Liz announced.

John lowered the stun gun when he saw Liz. "Where on Earth did you get that piece of junk?" he asked.

"She didn't get it from anywhere," the Doctor stated breezily as he walked past Stephen, then John, to sit down on the comfortable sofa near the jaunting pad. "It's my home."

"Who are you?" John asked suspiciously.

"Yes, that's me," the Doctor replied cryptically. "Care for a Jelly Baby? They're very good for you." He offered the bag to John.

John looked at the stranger for a few seconds before he shook his head. "No, and Stephen doesn't want one either."

The Doctor looked at Stephen. "Are you sure? They are quite delicious."

Stephen shook his head also and put his hands in his pockets. "I'd better not. Thanks all the same."

The Doctor was put out. "They don't like Jelly Babies Romana, definite symptoms of a badly developing society. I suppose you haven't discovered the tea bag either?" His voice carried all the way across the Lab to the TARDIS.

Need to move now, sensors report sighting confirmation. Need to avoid capture, pick them off one by one is preferable.

Romana emerged from the TARDIS, carrying a small box of teabags. She was followed by K9. "There's something wrong with the TARDIS. I was checking over the sensors but nothing was working."

John probed the ship with his mind, he felt a very familiar mental presence. "TIM!" Walking over to Romana he continued to sense him. "I can sense TIM inside your box."

This puzzled Romana. "Your computer?" How could a computer get inside a type 40 she pondered.

John was starting to get angry. "Yes my computer. What's he doing in there?"

Putting three and seven together Romana quickly deduced the truth. "I think he's talking to the TARDIS." She looked over to the Doctor for confirmation of her hypothesis. "Is that possible?"

The Doctor paused in his attempt to form a pyramid of Jelly Babies to answer Romana. "Yes, I just hope this TIM of yours is a perfect gentleman, the old girl is very sensitive."

"I've finished updating my files now John." TIM's lights started to flash again. "I have now located the position of the crashed vessel. I will jaunt you to its location."

"Really TIM? Were you a perfect gentleman?"

"Of course John." Tim's lights flashed candidly. "She is a very insightful machine and also very charming. We can proceed with the rescue plan now."

The three Tomorrow People jaunted to the crashed spaceship seconds before the TARDIS materialised there as well. They surveyed the vessel but the pilot was missing. They spread out to search the nearby area for clues as to which direction the alien could have gone in.

"He's alive, and heading that way." Stephen pointed at the large footmarks that trampled the long grass.

"We don't have much time." The Doctor pointed at the ship. "That's a Hacx scout ship, they're scouting for possible planets to invade. Luckily radio silence means the planet isn't viable so we have to stop him sending any signals."

"What's the drawback Doctor?" John asked.

"They're rampantly xenophobic and will kill anyone they come into contact with."

"Let’s go then, these tracks are fresh."

The five figures, three male and two female, crashed through hedges and over walls as they hurried after the Hacxian scout. They forded streams, ran up hills and ambled through villages in their quest. Finally they caught sight of him as he shot at a herd of cows.

"What did he do that for?" Stephen asked, appalled at such wanton violence.

"Either he's hungry or he's seeing how effective his weaponry is." The Doctor too was sickened by either option; the first one was at least understandable while the second was repellent.

"We need a decoy," Romana suggested. "I'll nip over and ask him if he wants to buy a copy of the Big Issue."

"You don't have any copies of the Big Issue to sell Romana."

Stephen faded out of view.

"What's he doing now?" John asked Liz. "He's totally irresponsible."

"Hello there. My name's Stephen and may I be the first to welcome you to Earth." Stephen got a proper look at the alien for the first time. It seemed to be an eight foot tall kangaroo dressed in a heavy suit of blue armour. There was a number of weapons on it's belt and it sensed his presence immediately.

Hann'Adou urned to look at a small biped, which was standing blatantly unarmed next to him. Only curiosity prevented him from avenging such a serious insult "Are you the dominant life form of this planet?"

"No, I'm a Tomorrow Person, I'm not one of the saps."

Hann'Adou assessed this information. Two competing species on one world was rare but not unheard of. It usually made the Hacxian task that much easier. "These saps are an inferior species to your own?"

Stephen considered giving the alien a detailed account of the Tomorrow People's evolution but decided instead to merely confirm what he already surmised. "Well sort of. My people will evolve from them over the next few centuries."

This was good news, if this was the stronger race then the weaker saps would pose no problem. "So you are weak and few in number? Good, we will easily annihilate you."

This appalled Stephen. "Why do you want to kill us?" Why anyone wanted to hurt, never mind kill, was a mystery to all of the Tomorrow People. Could none of the lesser evolved species in the galaxy see that only through peace came progress?

Proudly, Hann'Adou began to inform the weak creature of his people's superior morality. "Because you are not pure, you are not Hacxian. Only the pure can be allowed to live."

So it was a religious fervour Stephen conjectured. However a theory needed proof. "And only the Hacxians are pure?"

"Correct."

Now that he had some answers he decided to rejoin the others. "I see, thank you." Stephen jaunted quickly before the kangaroo-faced alien could fire its weapon at him.

"That was incredibly stupid Stephen." John hissed quietly. "What did you learn?"

Steven gave the others the edited highlights of his encounter. "He's a Hacxian and he's mad. He said something about only the pure being allowed to live."

"Typical jingoistic propaganda," the Doctor observed. "A self-reinforced delusion. Only the pure can live, you're the only pure people so no-one else is therefore everyone else must be killed."

"That's horrible." Liz was shocked.

"You should meet the Daleks sometime. They're truly evil." Romana still remembered her first encounter with them and a spike of cold surged down her spine.

"The peace conference of seventy two." John exclaimed. That was just after Carol broke out. We investigated that fracas and discovered the army covering up some sort of alien plot."

"The Daleks tried to exterminate the conference guests to maintain an alternate time-stream, one where they had successfully invaded Earth."

"Sounds rather callous, we thought about getting involved but there was only two of us back then and we couldn't risk having our species wiped out," John explained.

"You did the right thing, the Daleks would have exterminated you." Romana smiled at John to stop him feeling sad.

"Now we just have to persuade Fred there to leave Earth and not tell anyone about anything." John summed up the situation.

"Yes, tricky. Maybe if I had a word with him."

"He'd kill you too Doctor." Romana stated the obvious. "Can't we stun him, repair his ship and remove his memories?"

"Of course we can't..." John started. "Yes we can. TIM, you remember the memory sublimation technique Kenny and Stephen had last year...

"Of course John. It's possible but the Hacxian will need maximum stun setting from all three stun guns."

"That's a lot of power TIM."

"Yes John."

"Okay, you heard TIM. We'll jaunt in, in turn, and fire at him. Doctor, you and Romana stay here until he's asleep."

Once the three Tomorrow People jaunted away the Doctor got down to the really serious issues. "Would you like a Jelly Baby Romana?" He handed her the bag of sweets. "Take two if you like."

"Thank you Doctor." Romana took a yellow one then a green one. "Mmmm, I love the smell of Jelly Babies in the morning."

Back in the lab they put the headset on the Hacxian and TIM performed the necessary scan and removed his recent memories.

John and Liz finished their repairs to the crashed ship using replicated parts manufactured by TIM.

The Doctor and Romana settled down and played rock, paper scissors with Stephen until everything was prepared. Once the Hacxian had been sent away in his ship Romana quietly slipped into the TARDIS with K9.

The Doctor quietly gave TIM a goodbye message for the others and then he too slipped inside the police box shaped time machine. It vanished out of existence in the same manner it had arrived, leaving nothing but memories in its wake.

"Now maybe this time you'll switch on the HADS?" Romana gently reminded her friend. "We don't want to go through all that again."

"Oh I don't know." The Doctor unwound the scarf from his neck. "It seemed like fun at the time." He laughed and the TARDIS continued on its journey though the vortex towards another exciting adventure in time and space.