Leela advanced on the Doctor with her knife. Lynch looked on with satisfaction; this would be the end of the Time Lord.

 'Leela!' the Doctor called. He spoke slowly, distinctly, and loudly; quite unlike his usual mode of speech. 'Leela, listen to me!'

 To Lynch's apparent surprise - it was the first time the Doctor could recall seeing expression on his face - Leela halted to listen to the Doctor.

 'When I count to three, you will wake up,' continued the Doctor slowly. 'You will remember everything and be subject to no outside suggestions before or after this one. Do you understand?'

 'I understand,' said Leela.

 'Onetwothree,' said the Doctor. Lynch was caught entirely flatfooted. Leela blinked and lowered the knife. 'Doctor!'

 'How ...' Lynch started.

 'The only previous time Leela was subject to mind control, it was by a being using my voice,' the Doctor explained.

 'How did you know there was still enough residual suggestion for you to work with?'

 'I didn't,' grinned the Doctor. 'But it worked. Now, answer me this: is there a cure for the spore injection? I advise against saying "no",' he added as Leela put her knife to Lynch's throat.

 'She's been infected with the mutated spores!' Rakshan raised its weapon, which began extending toward Leela and morphing into a claw shape.

 The Doctor flipped a loop of scarf over it and pulled it out of Rakshan's hand. As before, removing possession of it from the Ajare seemed to make it revert to its default form, and perhaps even go dormant. 'Keep your shirt on, Rakshan. She's under no one's control but her own.'

 "It won't last,' Rakshan insisted.

 'Perhaps not,' said the Doctor, 'if we were to let the spores have their wicked way with her. But instead, we're going to find the Matralan, and if it hasn't got a cure handy it'll assist me in formulating one.'

 'We must find and destroy the Primus.'

 'Most likely they're in the same place,' said the Doctor and Lynch simultaneously. 'Well,' the Doctor continued to Lynch, 'you're suddenly very helpful.'

 'Your friend has made quite plain,' said Lynch with his usual imperturbedness, 'the terms under which I shall survive this day.'

 'Oh?' said Rakshan.

 'I must survive,' said Lynch.

 'Oh,' said Rakshan. 'You're its ally,' it said to Lynch; 'what are its immediate plans?'

 'It was going to assume control of the Primus and return to its lab.'

 'Then we'll wait for it there,' said the Doctor. He made as if to hand the weapon back to Rakshan, then held it aloft as the Ajare reached for it. 'You're not still clinging to that silly idea of killing Leela, are you?'

 'I will trust you in this.'

 'Good.' He gave the weapon to Rakshan, who holstered it. 'Am *I* still on your little list?'

 'No, Doctor. Your actions have convinced me that your agenda is the same as mine.'

 '"Agenda,"' snorted the Doctor. 'Don't insult me. ...Well, true, the Time Lords send me into the briar patch sometimes; but this petty human suffering is too far beneath their stuffy blue noses. The trouble would have to be on a much larger scale than this for them to have contrived my landing here. Oh, bring Andrews, would you?'

 Rakshan hefted Andrews over his shoulder as the party began moving back toward the lab. 'We certainly don't want to leave him for the Primus to feed on,' it said. 'I wish I knew why it didn't already, and where it's got to.'

 It had even vaguer memories of once being human itself. It couldn't have articulated those memories - even had it been articulate - but it retained certain impressions of whose source it wasn't conscious.

 It went into the house to search for the stairs, following two such impressions: first, that drinking certain things helps pain going away; and second, that the best things to drink are in cellars.

 'Ook,' it said to itself.

 It was again riding the tentacled thing Leela had described to the Doctor. Its voder sounded vaguely familiar to him.

 'Oh, I quite agree,' said the Doctor. 'And you're going to help me fix them. Starting with the removal of the spores from my friend here, before she rudely slits this gentleman's gentleman's throat.'

 'Very well,' said the Matralan. With no fuss it took a handheld (tentacle-held) beam emitter off of a shelf, pointed it at Leela, and bathed her in radiation almost too infrared for even the Doctor to see. 'There. The spores in her are all dead.'

 'That was easy,' said the Doctor nonplussed, having expected, at the least, an argument.

 'Too easy,' said Rakshan, brandishing his weapon. 'Where's the Primus?'

 'I don't know,' said the Matralan. 'I found leftover bits of the Mother - it must have fed on her. Quite unexpected. But that's not important right now!'

 'Why did you cure the girl?' said Lynch. (*Why is it always 'the girl'?* the Doctor wondered. *Don't villains know a woman when they see one?*) Lynch was almost surprised enough to show it.

 'A gesture of good faith,' said the Matralan. 'I need all your help - especially you, Time Lord - and once I've explained you will help me of your own free will.'

 To the Doctor this was the most astonishing thing he'd heard all day. 'That's the most astonishing thing I've heard all day,' he said. 'Go on, I'm intrigued.'

 'Doctor!!' Rakshan shouted in incredulity.

 'Sshh.'

 'Why did you *think* I came to Earth?' said the Matralan. 'Just to subjugate the natives and use them up?'

 'That *has* been your people's modus operandi for the past twenty millenia,' said Rakshan drily.

 'Doctor,' Leela whispered, 'what's that flashing?'

 The Matralan paused before answering Rakshan. 'Well, all right, maybe there's some justification to your attitude. But this was just an extracurricular experiment. Make me a little cash on the side. I've got spawnlings in need of higher education, you know? But I'm here for another reason, too!! There's a *reason* we're in need here of an army of slaves. Or a slave of an army. Whatever.'

 'Such as?'

 Investigating the flashing light Leela had noticed, the Doctor saw that it was an alarm on a viewscreen system.

 'This planet is on the outer borders of our realspace,' said the Matralan. "I was sent here to maintain a lookout post.'

 'Look out?' said Rakshan. 'Look out for what?'

 'Invasion,' said the Matralan.

 'Invasion from whom?' said Lynch.

 'From them,' came the Doctor's voice.

 Everybody turned. The Doctor had activated the viewscreen. It displayed what the Doctor recognized as a view of the outer reaches of the Sol system.

 Several hundred spaceships were on a direct course for Earth.

 The Doctor recognized the spaceships.

 'You know,' said the Doctor, 'when I next speak to the High Council of the Time Lords, I really must complain of the inadequacy of their mission briefs.'

 To be continued...