‘We’re extending our family to the size of an army. With Serif’s skills at influencing a child as it develops in its parent, we’ll be able to create individuals suited to particular tasks. The Aubertides, once ignored as a race, will become a major force in galactic affairs.’

Greeneye saw the piteous look on Bernice’s face and shrugged. ‘Don’t knock it, it’s something to do.’

‘So,’ Serif continued, ‘we set up one of our family as a bodysmith. He turned out to have a natural affinity for the job, restructuring the bodies of the rich to suit their desires.’

‘It was nearly as lucrative as looting and enslaving,’ Hoff muttered.

Serif continued the story. ‘We let it be known that he was in a position to give a Time Lord whatever form or mind they wanted. That’s a particular dream of Gallifreyans, as I knew from wandering through that young Interventionist’s mind. They regenerate and find themselves to be much the same, and every now and then they dream how wonderful it would be to be able to fly or be of the opposite sex or have a child. That last is a very common dream, for children on Gallifrey are very rare.’

August twirled on his heel. He seemed to be enjoying telling the tale. ‘We sent out a call along the subtler back streets of electronic dispatch, the frequencies listened to by Interventionists and assassins. After months of waiting, stuck on one planet while… our brother… went about his work, finally the call came. It was your friend the Doctor, with a great sadness about his shoulders. He wanted to be human, had even written a fictional human memory print for himself. Now, this was ideal for our purposes. Had a Time Lord arrived wanting wings, we would have attached our Biodatapod to his forehead, and he would have found himself with said appendages, but without the genetic information that made him a Time Lord. That would be contained, carefully edited and programmed, and then made ready for our use, by the most complex nanite processors ever designed, in the Pod. He’d be rather surprised by that, so a degree of force would have been necessary, particularly if he was on a mission from the Capitol.’

Greeneye nodded. ‘Interventionists have several back-ups. We were ready, when we thought up this plan, to fight our way to the vortex gate, ready for the double-cross. Since the Pod takes days to make the genetic information usable by an Aubertide, we thought we’d have to run somewhere quickly with it.’