‘I haven’t seen her,’ said Chantelle, ‘I thought she’d be with you.’ Quickly she told them all that she and Kim had been through, as the Doctor crouched beside the remains of the robots and scanned them with the sonic. ‘Programmed for psychosurgery, live grafting and interspecies vivisection. Whatever they’re up to, it’s nasty. Very nasty.’ She stood up. ‘We need to get all the abductees into the TARDIS, keep them safe—’

She broke off as an energy ray whizzed past her and struck the side of the TARDIS. A squad of Ratts was scurrying down the corridor. The Doctor quickly scrambled behind the police box, and her friends did the same, sheltered by its cover as more gunfire sounded.

Graham groaned. ‘Couldn’t have parked this thing the other way round, could you!’

‘Those things are hanging back,’ Ryan realised. ‘Must think we’ve set a trap.’

‘We wish,’ Chantelle muttered.

‘I’ve got one more Nitro-90 capsule,’ said Ryan.

‘Save it,’ said the Doctor. ‘You could bring the roof down on us all this time.’

‘So what is the plan?’ asked Yaz, hefting the bat.

‘Take Ryan and Graham. Follow that nice man back to the other abductees. Defend them. I reckon the Ratts’ll be all “phasers on stun” cos they won’t want to kill their victims after whatever’s been done to them … but please, don’t take any needless risks.’ She grabbed the silvery squid from Graham. ‘Or Squidget.’

‘I’ll show you the way,’ Chantelle told Ryan.

‘No, you’re with me, Chantelle.’ The Doctor winced, as another blast of energy smacked off the TARDIS. ‘I need to get a sense of the overall layout. That plastic sheet you signed just by looking at it opened the front door. With some help from the sonic and Squidget, maybe it can open a few more.’

‘Sick.’ Ryan nodded. ‘But how are we gonna get anywhere with all them armed Ratts there?’

The Doctor put down Squidget, reached into her coat pocket and then pulled out something shiny and red with white stitching. Then with a high-pitched yell she hurled it over the roof of the TARDIS towards the Ratts. ‘Incoming!’ she yelled.

The Ratts scattered … as a cricket ball bounced its way along the shattered corridor.

‘All these faces later, still got it!’ Beaming, the Doctor shooed her friends away. ‘Go on. I’ll see you soon.’

Ryan looked at her, sad that the reunion was so brief. ‘You’d better.’

With Yaz and Graham beside him, Ryan made his way back towards the holding area.

Chantelle trailed after the Doctor as she strode through the corridors of the Ratt palace. ‘How do you know this is the way?’ she asked. ‘I can’t tell, it was pitch dark, I was grabbed by one of those robots, it carried me …’