The Doctor stood in front of the screen, sonic screwdriver raised in one hand. ‘That’s better!’ she said brightly. ‘Now we can hear ourselves think.’

‘Doc,’ Graham said, ‘Will reckons it’s aliens attacking us!’

‘Wish I hadn’t heard that. P’raps I should turn on the alarm again.’ Her fingers buzzed over the console’s buttons. ‘What’ve we got, then, some kind of invisibility screen, shielding them from us …?’ She waved the sonic like she was warding off a wasp.

The station shook again with a muffled clang that rang like a bell chime underwater.

Graham was pleased to have kept his footing. ‘That blast wasn’t as bad as the others,’ he said hopefully.

‘That’s because it wasn’t a blast.’ The Doctor bit her lip. ‘It was them docking.’

‘You mean they’re coming aboard?’ Graham stared aghast. ‘Who are they? What are they after?’

‘Questions, questions. Let’s start with the easy one. Who are they?’ The Doctor made an adjustment to the sonic and buzzed it at the screen, which was showing nothing but stars in space. ‘If I can just disrupt their cloaking thingie we should get a proper look at them …’

Space on the screen rippled and suddenly a shining spacecraft was revealed, looming close. It was a large spherical design with ornate latticework, spinning through space.

‘Oh no …’ said the Doctor quietly. ‘It’s an Astingir ship.’

Graham was none the wiser, but didn’t like the tone her voice had taken. ‘Is that, like, a space adjective?’

‘The Astingir are a persecuted race. They became reluctant warriors.’

‘Reluctant? They just gave us both barrels!’

‘They gave this station both barrels,’ the Doctor corrected him, ‘not us.’ She looked rapt, thinking hard. ‘Of course, this must be Wraith technology.’

‘Must be what now?’ Graham was struggling to keep up.

‘The Wraiths! A vicious, space-going race with a penchant for attacking interstellar empires that had grown too big to be effectively governed, inefficient, past their prime. They swept through the Astingir system, destroyed and subjugated its people.’

‘But the Astingir retaliated, yeah?’ Graham gestured to the screen. ‘Or else how are they attacking us now?’

‘They won the war, in the end,’ the Doctor agreed. ‘But that wasn’t enough for all of them. I know that some dedicated their continued existence to erasing all trace of the Wraiths from the universe.’

‘Well, just tell them we’re nothing to do with these Wraith things,’ said Graham.

‘I’m not sure they’ll believe us.’ The Doctor looked oddly guilty and turned quickly to the screen, crossing her fingers and almost hopping with barely repressed energy. ‘Come on, Yaz! Come on, Ryan! Get yourself safely kidnapped and I’ll be straight after you …’

‘Well. Perhaps these Astingir things don’t even know that we’re here,’ Graham suggested.