The TARDIS was incredible enough that the Naglons went completely still-faced at the sight of it; nothing moving but their mouths gaping wide. It was bigger on the inside than the outside! It was full of machines, of machines and corridors and rooms and plants and it went on and on and on! The Doctor and Jamie had to be quite firm in marching them left, right, right, left, up, around, and to the wardrobe section.

Here were clothes from a thousands worlds and satellites, leather and velvet and metal and feathers and denim, all intermingled. Armour suits stood shoulder to shoulder with gossamer carapaces, ornamental wings were racked next to Inverness capes, and shoes were here, there and everywhere like little sleeping animals. The Doctor sent Elvit and Victoria to find a dress that resembled the one Victoria was wearing now, while he and Jamie searched for something that could pass for a kilt.

"Here we are!" said the Doctor, carefully unrolling a sheaf of circuitry-printed rice paper to reveal heavy woven cloth. Jamie pointed at it indignantly.

"He can't wear that! I'd never wear that tartan, it's all wrong!"

The Doctor cast a sharp eye on the cloth in his hands, and then on the kilt Jamie was wearing. Maybe there was a little more red in the one he held, but-

"Jamie, if they can't tell people's faces apart, we can assume that the finer points of weaving will go right over their heads."

Jamie looked profoundly doubtful "Well, I suppose it'll pass - if they don't look at it at all."

"Precisely, Jamie, that's exactly what we are hoping they do." If Elvit couldn't notice the difference between the Doctor's black suit and Jamie's kilt, that seemed like a reasonable hope.

"But I'd still never wear it," Jamie added.

* * *

"Look, this dress is a lot like mine," Victoria said, pulling it out from between a green scaly cape and a leather jacket that smelled faintly of chemicals.

"I think it will fit, yes," said Elvit, paling. She touched the front of her coverall and it opened - all the way down. Victoria turned red and turned her eyes away. She couldn't seem to help it, but she hoped she wasn't being rude.

"Your face has changed colour!" Elvit said, moving close to Victoria. "It - you almost look like a person, when you do that."

"Oh, I mean, well, thank you. But I can't really change colour deliberately, the way that you can." She smiled a little desperately, darting her eyes towards Elvit and away, and held out the dress between her and the alien woman like a shield.

Elvit seemed totally unconcerned with her state of undress as she took the dress and held it up against herself. She said slowly, "The Representative is a very great man. To help us escape. He's right not to trust Therri, you know: even if he rules in our favour, Therri will still want to take us away."

She took the collar of the dress in one hand and pressed it to her lips, in what seemed to be a formal gesture. "And if his plan does not work, I will be honoured to die in this." Then her face turned an unnerving purple. "But I will fight them, before I die."

Victoria swallowed, but gamely helped Elvit put on the dress, and tied her wrap skirt over it. She stuffed a camisole under the top of the dress, to round out Elvit's chest. From the neck down they looked, well, a little similar. She didn't know what they were going to do about the alien woman's face, though. A hat? No, she wasn't wearing a hat now.

Well, the Doctor would know.

* * *

"Masks!" said the Doctor, holding aloft two flat boxes the size of large books. "Standard humanoid model, self-adhesive, and they have a rigid layer to keep your, ah, rippling from showing through."

They had reunited in the TARDIS control room; Elvit and Brot dressed in an approximation of Earth attire, matching Victoria and Jamie as close as they could. The two coveralls were draped over a hat stand. But the alien's faces were mauve with asymmetrical splotches of red here and there, and they seemed confused.

"Excuse me, but what is a mask?" said Brot.

"A mask, you know. A disguise, a false face."

"A false face? But where do our faces go?"

"No, you see my friends, you put it on over your face, and it covers it. Wearing these, you'll look like a human, and the Naglons will think that you are Jamie and Victoria!" The Doctor looked quite pleased with his plan.

Victoria wasn't quite so sure; Elvit and Brot were a bit taller and stouter than either of the humans. Maybe if they slouched it would work.

Brot was turning redder. "But - we won't be able to see!"

"No, you can see through the mask. Like this." The Doctor balanced the two boxes a bit precariously on the slanted white control panel, and opened one. He held it up in front of his face, and stared at them through the eyeholes.

"No, I mean, I won't be able to see what Elvit is saying, what she means. I can't understand her, not if I can't see her face!"

"Well, you can still hear, can't you?"

"I'm sorry, but it sounds - horribly indecent. To go out where people can see you and have your face covered, it's just - it's the rudest thing I've ever heard of," Elvit confessed, turning very purple. "I don't know if I can do it."

"Look, please, it's just for a little while. You can take them off once you're away from here," Victoria reassured them. "And you can still talk. Just - only with sounds."

"Facial colouration is a large part of your vocabulary, isn't it?" the Doctor said, putting the mask aside. "All your verbal speech, it's just - cues for your colours, correct?"

Both of the aliens were shaking their heads no, over and over again.

"I can't do it." Elvit was the deep swollen purple of a bruise, and Brot was swelling as well. "It's just - I can't imagine; you can't imagine how embarrassing, how shameful it would be, to be out in public with your face covered. No, I can't do it."

"It'll a lot more embarrassing to die in public because you won't wear 'em," said Jamie, his tone a little rough.

"You can't understand," Elvit started, and Jamie interrupted her.

"If someone told me that I had to go out in public with my mouth covered so I couldn't talk, or I'd be killed, well, I'd put up with it. For a little while."

"Oh?" said the Doctor, interested.

Jamie looked exasperated. "You don't need to show your faces, just to get out of here! You just have to say to Villet, let's go. Follow him, and you're free."

"But-"

"I'm not a Naglon, am I? I can't read your faces. But I can talk to you, I can understand you. We aren't that different, not really. Why, I could tell from the way you sat together, from the way you held each others' hands, that you were special to each other. You didn't need words for that. You don't need your colours to talk our way, so just wear the masks."

"You could tell we were in love from the way we sat?" Elvit said, and she and Brot turned lilac in unison. "Really?"

"Really," Victoria seconded, and the Doctor nodded, smiling.

Elvit made a throbbing noise in her throat, and then held out her hand. The Doctor opened the second box and handed a female mask to her, but Victoria had to help her get it positioned correctly around her eyes, while Jamie did the same for Brot.

The difference was shocking. The aliens' head tendrils now looked just like uncombed hair, sitting atop completely average-looking human faces. Their necks flushed mauve for a moment, then faded to a white very close to the humans' complexion. Behind the masks, pale eyes darted back and forth, and when they glanced at each other the couple flinched and then looked away.

"It's just for a little while," Elvit said, and Brot shuddered.

"Just a little while," and he held out both his hands. She took them, and held them tight, very tight, for a very long moment.

Then she turned to the Doctor. "Now we're ready."

"Now here is what we are going to do…."