It took Vicki a while to come out of the painful stupor the grief put her into. While the TARDIS moved on, taking the travellers away from the burning Troy, the young girl, seated in the Doctor's chair, remained silent and still, as if she had been turned to stone; she didn't even weep, she just let the tears running down her cheeks. Even when the TARDIS finally landed, she didn't move nor speak. She was lost in her world of grief, far from everything happening around her.

And then, she heard someone moaning, struggling to breathe. Almost mechanically, she moved her head to the left and saw Steven lying on the bench, a large wound opened in his side; the Doctor and a young girl she almost recognized, were attending to him. Her brain suddenly began to work again.

Steven was sick.

Steven had been wounded.

The same way Troilus was.

Which meant…

"Steven!" she cried out in horror, running to his side. "No, Steven!"

"V-Vicki…" said the man, raising a hand to reach her.

"No, no, please, not you too!" she insisted. "Doctor… you can save him, right?"

"My child…"

"Not 'my child' me!" she angrily replied. "Just cure him!"

"I am doing the best I can" answered the Doctor, trying not to get angry in his turn. "Luckily, this young woman brought him to the TARDIS in time. The wound is infected, but if, as I hope, we have landed on a civilized planet, we should be able to treat it properly."

Vicki had no argument to reply, so she left the Doctor to check his instruments and directed her attention to the girl beside her. To her amazement, it was Katarina, the girl which had been assigned to her service by Priam.

"What are you doing here?"

"Noble Cressida, you said to bring your friend to the temple…"

"The name is Vicki, and I did not tell you to come inside the temple! Doctor, why have you let her…?"

"You were busy at the moment, and I needed help" the Doctor dismissed her. "Now, please, let me check on…"

"But you… can't let her stay here! I mean, she is not… not… qualified for this!"

"Qualified?" asked her the Doctor.

"She has no idea how this works! She comes from a primitive time, she…"

"Are we on our way to the place of perfection, mighty Zeus?" asked Katarina, interrupting. At this comment of her, Vicki cast a very eloquent glance at the Doctor, something like See what I mean?

"Well…" said the Doctor, taking his moment to reply. "In a sense, child, yes, we are" he then uttered, talking to Katarina. "At least, I really hope so" added under his breath. "In the meantime, I shall be grateful if you will help us with our friend."

"Couldn't you just perform some miracle? You have the power of the gods, haven't you?" Katarina asked again. The ingenuity in her voice was so sweet and honest that Vicki felt her stomach involuntarily clutching inside her. The poor girl really had no idea what she got into, and Vicki couldn't help but tremble thinking at the moment she would realize it.

"Aah… yes" the Doctor tried to reply, embarrassed, "I see what you mean, but in order to do that, I need some substances of which I am currently short of. Now, let me look at the scanner and we then shall make some plans." With that, the Doctor turned back to the console, ignoring Vicki's look of reprehension. After all, they just needed to use just a little precaution and Katarina would be absolutely fine, just as the other young people usually travelling with him.

The scanner turned on, and on the screen appeared what looked like some kind of tropical jungle. Tall trees rose around the TARDIS, shrouding it in their shadow. Underneath them, the travellers could see some bushes whose branches ended in small, pointy extremities. The overall aspect of the place was indeed rather ominous.

"That does not seem a place of perfection," said Katarina, quivering. Vicki had to agree with her, and almost unconsciously put her hands on the other's shoulder, trying to comfort her. The Doctor, in his turn, was checking the atmosphere and their surroundings.

"Yes… yes… well, it appears we have landed on the planet Kembel, and in a rather civilized era too. Now, I want both of you to stay here and look after Steven while I'll go looking for help. Keep the wound clean, use the scanner to keep an eye outside for any sign of danger and wait for me before doing any move. Is that clear?"

Katarina nodded, and, after a moment of hesitation, Vicki did it too. Usually, she would have insisted to go with the Doctor, but she did not trust leaving Steven in so bad shape with the young, inexperienced girl. She would rather stay and watch him.

"Good girls," said the Doctor, delicately patting Katarina's cheeks and briefly holding Vicki by the shoulder. Vicki almost hugged him in return, silently praying that nothing happened to the old man she had come to know and love. With another smile, the Doctor opened the door and ventured into the jungle.

The jungle was hot and dry outside the TARDIS' door, and the Doctor took a moment to adapt to the new atmosphere before pressing on. He had tried to look reassuring in the eyes of the two girls, but in truth, he was rather worried. This was the year 4000, he saw it in the TARDIS' time scanner, but Kembel was not a planet he remembered being very civilized: all the hopes they had of curing Steven at the moment were hanging on a very thin strand of hope. Then again, he didn't have very much choice: he had no intention of losing the young man, not just for his personal fondness for him, but also because he didn't want Vicki to suffer what he suspected would have been another heavy blow after Troilus' death. He would have anything for that young girl, anything.

With these thoughts in mind, the Doctor passed on into the jungle, trying to see if he could spot any signs of civilization. And he did not have to go very far before he saw, down in a distant valley, a high concentration of lights: a city, or a town. He smiled, glad of his discovery, even when asking why on Gallifrey someone should have wanted to build a city here. Oh well, he was going to find out in any case, and rather soon. Just the time to warn Vicki and Katarina of their discovery, and then…

"Keep absolutely still," said the man, holding him at gunpoint.

After the Doctor had left, Vicki started tending to Steven with the aid of Katarina. While she washed carefully the wound, Katarina kept mopping Steven's brow with a towel, trying as hard as she could to get the temperature down. In spite of their inexperience, it seemed to work, albeit only partially: at least, Steven stopped turning and moaning, and now he seemed calmer. Slightly reassured, Vicki decided to trust Katarina alone with him for a little while: she desperately needed to change and wash. She also suspected that, quite soon, Katarina too would have needed some new clothes herself.

She had just managed to choose her new attire when she heard the TARDIS door open, which caused her to let out a sigh of utter relief. If the Doctor was back so soon, then he'd either find something useful on this planet, and they were safe, or he had discovered it was dangerous, and they would have soon been on their way – unless he found this last danger to be "fascinating", in which case they would be in big trouble. However, she still trusted, given Steven's conditions, for once the Doctor to act responsibly.

She was so eager to know what was going on, that she almost bumped into the man who stepped aboard the TARDIS, in a dark uniform and with a big gun in his hand. Luckily, he was turning his back against the door of the living quarters, and she was able to close the door just in time, just living a small piece from which to keep an eye on him. On the other side of the room, Katarina stood protectively in front of Steven, apparently unharmed. From her position, Vicki saw the man lean on the TARDIS' console, pushing some buttons and pulling some levers, in an attempt to understand something of the controls. Where was the Doctor?

Cautiously, Vicki risked opening the door a bit more, just enough to get a look at the scanner. And there was the Doctor, shut out of the TARDIS, pacing up and down in front of the machine. It wasn't difficult for Vicki to connect the dots: that man had forced the Doctor to hand over the key, and now was trying to steal the machine for some purpose Vicki couldn't possibly imagine. Which meant that, with the Doctor outside and Katarina unable to move, was her turn to prevent that from happening. She had to come out with a plan.

Luckily for her, the toolbox where the Doctor kept his instruments for repairs was just outside the door. Vicki bent over and stretched a hand, trying to grab one; her hand fell on a big wrench and carefully picked it up. The man was still bent on the TARDIS console, too much taken with his attempt to understand how it worked to notice anything else. Carefully, Vicki stepped out from the door; then, with one quick movement, she went the brief distance between her and him and smacked him on the neck with all her strength.

When the man was on the ground, Vicki gestured to Katarina to take away his gun, while she opened the doors of the TARDIS. Once the Doctor was inside, they would decide what to do with him.

"Wakey, wakey, young man!" screamed the Doctor as soon as the unknown man started to regain consciousness. "Feeling a little sleepy, eh? That will teach you to go around threatening people with no reason! No, no, it was quite useless" he added, seeing him trying to rise up from the chair they put in. "This chair is magnetic, and its force field could retain a whole pack of elephants. There is nothing you can do, and nowhere you can go."

"You fool!" the man screamed violently. "Let me out at once! The Earth is in danger, I have to warn them!"

"Oh, is that so?" asked the Doctor, chuckling. "Well, you should have thought of that before you decided to point a gun at my head!"

"Oh, Doctor, leave him alone!" Vicki interjected. She had just come back from her room after changing. She felt much better, now that she was back in her normal clothes. "After all, he has done no harm. I mean, he could kill you, instead, he just knocked you out."

"He stole something that was of my property!" the Doctor continued. "And I don't want even to start thinking what would have happened if he accidentally turned on the TARDIS! I could have lost you forever!"

"Look, I'm sorry," said the man, trying to reason. "I admit it, I was rude, but it was only because I was desperate. My ship crashed, my radio is not working, and my companions are all been killed by those bestial creatures out there! I was searching for a way to contact Earth and prevent disaster."

"Disaster? What are you talking about, man?" asked the Doctor. The man hesitated.

"You wouldn't believe me."

"Oh, you'd be surprised," said Vicki, which, despite what happened earlier, was beginning to feel sympathy for the man. "And besides, I don't think you have any other choice. We are not letting you out of that chair until you give us some token of good faith, and if we don't, you are not going to save anyone. Come on, what do you have to lose?"

"Very well," said the man, with a resigned sigh. "You want a token of good faith? I shall give it to you. Your friend, on the bench, I noticed he is very sick."

"Well?" said the Doctor.

"I have some pills in my belt. You can take them and give them to him; they will cure him."

"And how do we know that?"

"You don't, but, for the same reason I have to trust you with my mission, you have to trust me with my…"

A sudden scream from Katarina interrupted the conversation. Vicki and the Doctor turned to see the young girl pointing at the scanner, a look of horror on her face. They turned around and saw them, just outside the TARDIS, pointing their eyestalks against the police box.

"Daleks!" muttered the Doctor, his blood turning cold. At his side, Vicki froze too. She remembered too well their previous encounters: the restless chase through time and space, the horror of Winter's factory, the devastation on Shade. So much for any hope to have found someplace quiet to rest after the Trojan War!

"What is your name, sir?" the Doctor asked, now terribly serious.

"Officer Bret Vyon, of the Second Rank of Space Security Service."

"Mister Vyon, now I am going to release you from the chair, and when I do, you will give us the pills you promised us. Then, you will tell us what you are doing here, and what the Daleks are up to. Maybe this is your lucky day after all."