‘Won’t be long,’ she responded. ‘Good boy. Clever boy!’

‘Eh? What did I do?’

‘I’m talking to Squidget!’ The Doctor flashed Graham a look like he was crazy. ‘He’s managing to link this ship’s operating systems to my little porta-console here so I can trace the homing tags in real time. No mean feat.’

‘Is that why you’re using that ancient TV as a readout?’ asked Graham. ‘So the tech’s as basic a link for that thing as possible?’

‘Good boy!’ the Doctor cried. ‘Clever boy!’

‘Blimey, get a room, you two.’

‘I was talking to you, Graham!’ the Doctor protested. ‘You’re spot on. This monitor’s my way of making little Squidget’s job simpler. Oh, you’re a pet. What a clever boy.’

Graham smiled to himself. ‘All right, you don’t have to overdo it.’

‘I’m talking to Squidget!’ said the Doctor.

With a sigh, Graham wandered back into the TARDIS. The control room hummed and glowed, clean and warm and quiet. Too quiet. He missed Ryan and Yaz, their voices and banter, filling up the space.

He walked up to the two-way comms link and flicked the switch. ‘’Ere, Will. You reading me? Over.’

The voice of Will Buckland crackled from the speaker. ‘Space Defence Centre receiving you, Graham, go ahead. Though we don’t normally respond to “’Ere”. Everything all right? Over.’

‘Risking Yaz and Ryan’s lives is not all right,’ Graham said flatly. No reply came, so he added, ‘Over.’

‘I don’t like it either. Untrained civilians taking such a lead in this? It’s madness. Over.’

‘Yaz and Ryan are more trained in weird space stuff than anyone else on the planet,’ Graham retorted. ‘Except maybe your ex-ladyfriend. Over.’

‘And she breaks every rule going. Did you want something in particular, Graham? Over.’

A bit of company, if I’m honest, thought Graham. ‘Just checking you’re still keeping an eye on us,’ he said. ‘Did the Chinese manage to get their rocket off the ground?’

‘Not as far as we can tell. They’re not saying anything publicly, but it looks like technical problems.’

‘Well, if it launches, the Doc’ll need to know about it. Over.’

‘She will,’ Will confirmed. ‘But for the moment planet Earth is sleeping soundly. I’m starting to think I might never sleep again, however. Out.’

‘Out,’ Graham echoed, and headed for the doors as if it had been a command.

The Doctor was gazing at her screen, which was aglow with green numbers on a black background. In the centre, like a sweeping second hand on a clock, a needle described a circle in a steady radar sweep. Constellations of tiny yellow dots littered the background.

‘We’re good to go,’ the Doctor announced. ‘So long as the homing tags are working, when Ryan and Yaz get spacenapped I can follow them anywhere.’

‘And they are working, right?’ Graham said anxiously.