The Doctor fell to his knees, overwhelmed by his guilt and sorrow. He seemed oblivious to the two men who had plasma rifles aimed at his head, ready to fire. He had convinced himself that he hadn't heard the sound of grass being crunched by a foot. However, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a slight glint of light, then another....both glints were about twenty yards apart, and one seemed to be connected to what appeared to be a weapon of some kind.

 "You know," the Doctor shouted to no one in particular. "It is *extremely* rude to point plasma rifles at an unarmed man! And one who is sitting still at that!"

 Garth, surprised by this outburst, squoze the firing mechanism, letting out a short burst of light. It whizzed past the Doctor's head and exploded in the bark of a tree. The Doctor sprang to his feet and began running as both men rose and continued to fire their weapons. The surrounding air sizzled and hissed as concentrated bursts of plasma strained to locate their target. Joseph & Garth began running after the Doctor, and soon lost him at the end of the gully. With that, Garth rose and approached Joseph, engaging the safety switch of his rifle.

 "Where'd he go?" Garth asked.

 "You fool!" Joseph responded. "You should have stayed and covered him! Now we'll never find him!"

 "But who _was_ that guy?" Garth asked. "He wasn't wearing an Exploration Service suit, and no other company has warp drive technology..."

 "And if _you_ had done your job, you fool, we would have big bonuses next paycycle!" Joseph countered.

 "Yeah, right," Garth said. "It ain't like this is the _only_ solar system out there...."

 "You know, Garth," Joseph said. "If I didn't know better, I'd swear you have all the sense of a rock. It may not be, but Spinward wants to keep an edge. We are at war with IMC, y'know....."

 "Whatever, " Garth responded. "Let's just get out of here and contact our ship for further orders...."

 As the two men walked away, the Doctor stood off to the side in a very thick pile of underbrush.

 "What would Spinward being _doing_ here?" the Doctor mumbled to himself. He soon began thinking - they are wearing uniforms of a corporate security force. If they're using plasma rifles, that means they probably belong to the Spinward Corporation. They must have arrived here some time ago....but what would Spinward want with *this* world? Let's see, a primitive level of society usually provides a good source of cheap labor for a more technologically advanced level of society. This planet just *happens* to have the minerals needed for warp drive. Just the right ingredients to create a monopoly on interstellar travel....yes, the galaxy is Earth's playground, and Spinward will build it. On the backs of the Meridans, no doubt.

 The Doctor felt his confidence slowly come back to him. He began to feel much more confident, much more assured of what he needed to do. He felt like his old self. Angela, Grant, Peri.....he would not let them down. After all, it was the right thing to do. Somebody had to do the right thing, and he was going to be the person to do it. Why?

 "I *am* the Doctor," he announced to no one in particular. "Whether I like it....or not!"

 With that, the Doctor headed back, wanting to inform Carrington of these latest developments. This probably wouldn't be the greatest of news, but it might help save the crew of the Galaxion stranded in that cell. Heck, maybe see them back to Earth, and have Meridan declared off limits. The Doctor would then be on his merry way - maybe even go on that fishing trip to Magus 4 that he had promised himself for so long....

 As the Doctor headed through the thick foliage, he felt a renewed sense of vigor, and the vestiges of his depression had lifted. As he made his way towards the village, he remembered the words he told one of his companions just before a prior regeneration.....

 "Where there's life, there's hope."

 Jensen roamed around the perimeter of the campsite, trying to find some wood to fuel the already dying fire. Klein just sat there, hunched over the fire, looking miserable and almost enjoying it. One usually joined the Exploration Special Service to live up to some noble ideals - that spirit of exploration, to go boldly where no one has gone before. Yeah, Jensen thought, nobody *else* has been stranded on a world 1000 light years away, having to deal with Alfred Klein. At least now Bertram Jensen was assured of a more pleasant afterlife, since he was already presently going through hell.

 "Fine. Go ahead, and be that way. I'll have the last laugh," Klein said, poking at the fire with a long stick.

 Jensen approached the fire with a bundle of small sticks under his arm - well, it would keep the fire going for a little while longer, at least. More than *Klein* had done. Klein just sat there, took a glance upward, and tilted his head back down towards the ground. Not knowing what to do, Jensen sat across from Klein.

 "Klein," Jensen asked. "If you had to do it all over again, would you? I mean, join the Service?"

 "I dunno," Klein answered. "I mean, it all seemed nice and all, and the way things are back home, they're going to make it *very* easy to get people out of there. I mean, once you've been through all of our solar system, what the hell else is there?"

 "I dunno," Jensen mumbled, half-ignoring Klein.

 Jensen then withdrew his communicator, and pushed a small button. At the other end was simply static - no open channel, no confirmation code, no response. Both he and Klein looked at each other, and both knew what that meant - the Galaxion's communications array was *not* sending the autoresponse signal. What that meant, they had no idea, but doing something seemed better than doing nothing.

 As their fire began smouldering, Klein and Jensen caught a slightly sour odor coming from the fire. They both looked at each other - and then the fire, coming to the same conclusion. Grabbing some of the kindling, Jensen held it to his nose, then to Klein's nose.

 "If I didn't know better," Jensen said. "I would swear this wood's been chemically treated. Something....where did you get this?"

 "It was near a small lake...I didn't see anyone there, so I took it. Figured that it was wet, but not so wet that it wouldn't catch fire. I took a small drink of water, but it tasted a little funny - nothing that a processor couldn't handle, but I didn't want to risk it."

 "OK, so let me get this straight - you head up to a lake to get firewood, take some that is relatively damp, you take a drink of water - mind you, on a planet with relatively primitive inhabitants, it has this....chemically taste, and it doesn't *occur* to you to double check? To even run a minimal analysis?"

 Klein stood there, somewhat embarrassed at his gaffe. "Well," he sighed in response. "At least there's nothing *else* that can go wrong...."

 Jensen and Klein both sniffed at the air, which had an all too familiar aroma. It was the smell of burnt orchids - the odor that accompanied freshly used plasma rifles - that wafted through the air. Two men emerged from the underbrush, taking aim at Jensen and Klein.

 Finally, one of the men announced, "You both are placed under arrest as prisoners of the Spinward Corporation!"

 Jensen said nothing, but just stared at Klein. Klein knew *exactly* how Jensen felt.

 Spinward - Founded in 2025, Spinward was dedicated to developing cutting edge space exploration technology after patenting the plasma rifle (see WEAPONS - ENERGY) and the Gravitron, which served as a weather control system on Earth's moon (see GRAVITRON). Spinward also developed the first warp ships, and in 2112 developed a subsidiary corporation, the EB Corporation, to promote interstellar colonization....

 Spinward was also known for some rather unethical business practices, most notably releasing inferior versions of their technology and then making profits over fixes for that technology. (see GATES, BILL - 20TH CENTURY TECHNOCRATS). In the early years of interstellar exploration, Spinward would often send its ships out to find uncolonized and terraformable worlds, and then exercise exclusivity rights to colonization. (see ARCADIA; INTERSTELLAR COMMERCE ACT OF 2050). They were also rumored to have been involved in the hostile buyout of Galactic Salvage (see GALACTIC SALVAGE), and also lead to the uprising of several workers on Linara 8 after accidentally uploading the works of Karl Marx into the subliminal music channels. (see MARX, KARL). Their only major adversary was the Issigri (later Interplanetary) Mining Corporation, or IMC (see IMC), and although there were some conflicts in the early days of warp exploration, most of those records have been lost or are incomplete.....

 Carr turned around to her and responded, "I thought I _told_ you that I will not condone any action against the natives."

 "Oh, don't give me that respect for alien life' garbage," Chernev replied. "You know as well as I do that all first contact procedures call for the use of force to respond to hostile intentions."

 "Listen, Sargeant, technically, *we* are the intruders on *their* world. They are acting completely in self-defense of their home. All we know is that there is...was...some kind of advance force on this planet. The Doctor and I found a children's book in one of the other cells. I think this world has been - or is in the process of - being invaded by someone from Earth."

 "Oh, and who *else* would have warp drive?" Chernev asked sarcastically. "Most of the other ships are exploring other sections of the galaxy. Our ship is an experimental type - we could have just as easily blown up in midwarp as we did arriving here. What gives you the idea that somehow other humans have invaded here?"

 "Um, can we not argue? It's already really uncomfortable in here already," Adrian complained.

 The three of them stood silently, and then began pacing the length of their cell. Although there was no obvious rise in temperature, somehow the cell seemed to become hotter, and the air crackled with tension.

 Suddenly, Chernev turned and said, "Ok, Carr, just exactly what *is* your plan? I mean, you have to be more than all muscles, don't you? What is your plan while we wait for contact from the ship?"

 Carr paused. Realizing that his bluff had been called, he said, "Well, I thought we would make a break for.....well, when the Doctor came back....."

 "Just as I thought, nothing," Chernev responded. "Well, since we have no contact with our ship - and they haven't given *us* any priority, I am assuming that we're acting as an independent command group. Under the Charter of the Exploration Special Service, I hereby exercise my right to relieve you of command, and I propose that we adopt a more aggressive stance with these villagers. They have continued on their current mode of hostilities; it is time we responded likewise."

 "We must do something about the demons in our midst. They are slowly draining us, making us weak, and will lead to our eventual downfall," one villager said.

 "We know, but we promised the oddly colored one named the Doctor that we would hold the lesser three demons until he got back," another one responded.

 "Still, is it wise to trust a demon? I mean, look at his markings - they are so oddly decorated, it must be a way for him to defeat his enemies. Confuse them, dazzle them, and then....swiftly kill them," even another villager responded.

 Most of the villagers' talk centered around how disruptive the demons were, and how they must be destroyed. After about roughly an hour's worth of discussion, there was fifteen worth of silence, and the first of the elders softly spoke.

 "I remember when I was a boy, and my pastfather took me out on one of my first hunts. He told me, Peh-Du, remember: the eagle never hunts the fly.' I had no idea what he meant by that, so I had asked him. He said, A hunter never hunts that which it can easily capture. An eagle would never hunt a fly; the fly is too small, and the eagle could easily capture it. The eagle wants - needs- to hunt a creature that can fight back. Remember: when you hunt, do not hunt the lowliest of creatures; hunt something that may hurt you as easily as you can hunt it.'"

 The second elder responded, "My fellow is right; this may be a plan for a greater hunt. The demons poison us as a test; the ones who do not succumb will be the ones that serve their purpose. The demons are to be destroyed."

 "But even a promise to a demon, even if he _is_ a demon, is still a promise," the third elder proposed. "The Doctor has shown no interest in us, and claims not to be human. We have seen some proof of that; why would he want to deceive us?"

 "He is not human, nor is he one of us," the first elder countered. "Therefore, he is a demon."

 After a brief pause, the three elders faced the five villagers, and gave their vote.

 The first elder said, "We shall break our promise to the Doctor; he and the humans shall be killed at first light."

 The second elder said,"We shall break our promise to the Doctor; he and the humans shall be killed at first light."

 They turned to the third elder, waiting for his decision. He stood there in silence, aware that *his* vote would be the deciding one cast....

 All of a sudden, he drew his breath to speak.......

 To Be Continued.....