‘I was aiming for the data store, but it’s hard to say. This place is a long way gone,’ the Doctor said sadly. ‘Breakdown of core systems means the superstructure’s just rotting away …’

‘There’ll be nothing left to break up in the atmosphere at this rate.’ Yaz almost fell over as the station lurched and a deep, belching roar shook the floor. ‘How is your gadget going to get any good intel out of this wreck?’

‘Remember when we first arrived and Graham accidentally disconnected the cloaking circuit?’ The Doctor strode out into the heaving corridor, waving Squidget in front of the wall to her left like a big silver slug. ‘That command sent a temporal shiver through the whole station.’

‘Yeah, time dilation, you said. The cloaking thing turned off in the past.’ Yaz’s head hurt. ‘I still don’t get how that’s possible.’

‘Time Dilation Syndrome is common to crafts like this that crunch subatomic particles to open up a split in the space-time continuum.’ The Doctor watched as Squidget began twitching, sniffing the wall like a hound. ‘You know, the Wraiths used these stations in a concentrated formation to push whole fleets into the heart of enemy territory for surprise attacks.’

‘Very nice. But how does the time dilation help us?’ Yaz paused. ‘Wait a moment. You think you can return the whole station to 24 hours ago, when it was still working properly?’

‘That’s right! Not all of it, and not for long. But maybe just a little section.’ The Doctor pulled a face. ‘Course, ultimately it’ll mean the station blows to bits way faster, but you can’t have everything.’

Yaz felt sick. ‘Blows up with us still on board?’

‘Not ideally.’ Suddenly Squidget lunged forward and buried its nose in the wall with a wet squelch. A clean, clear ‘BEEP’ quickly followed.

‘Yes!’ the Doctor cheered. ‘He’s found the main interface. He’s connected.’

The next moment Yaz felt the hairs on her neck rise and a dizzying headache as the walls around her lost their burnt stickiness and became that familiar – and disquieting – shining, sticky brown. ‘Oh, God … it worked!’

‘Now, keep going, Squidge!’ the Doctor told the metal animal, which seemed to be chugging at the wall as if swallowing whatever was inside. ‘You’ve got to get into the data store and download the transference log …’

‘How long do we have?’ Yaz asked.

‘Oh. Ages. Probably.’ The Doctor’s smile was looking more strained than usual. ‘I was wondering how whoever or whatever inherited this collector station got full access to the Wraiths’ systems access codes. They’d have taken them to their graves …’

Squidget gave a warning burble.