Luke was one of the last to leave the lecture theatre, having stayed behind to tell the lecturer a theory he had to solve the fault in the Physics department's secret experimental teleport device. As he strolled back to the college, he checked his phone, which he kept off in lectures, and saw he had a missed call from Clyde. He grinned – he loved university and had made some great friends but Clyde was still his number one mate. He dialled Clyde's number and held the phone up to his ear.
45 miles away, Clyde's phone rang. He answered it quickly before the Slitheen would hear.
"Clyde?" asked a familiar voice.
"Lukey boy! Why the hell was your phone off – I thought I'd taught you better than that!"
Luke laughed. "You're getting worse than Mum." Do you remember when she phoned me every other day in fresher's week?"
Both Clyde's look of annoyance and Rani's of amusement vanished at the mention of Sarah Jane.
"Yeah," Clyde said weakly, trying to sound amused. "Sorry but this is urgent – didn't you get the message I left?"
"No, I didn't listen to it – I thought it would be easier just to phone you. Why? What's happened?"
Clyde quickly filled him in on the situation, leaving out Sarah Jane's disappearance.
Luke's face darkened. "We only have 20 minutes? That isn't enough time for me to get to Ealing! Unless..."
"Unless what?" Clyde prompted.
"Unless I break the code to the ETD building, fix the cameras on a loop, add what the device needs to make it work, find out the library's coordinates from K9 and program it to take me there."
"Say that again," Clyde said.
"Sorry. I was thinking as I went. Oxford's physics department have been developing a teleport device in secret – ETD for short – and it's just possible that I can get it to work."
"Oxford is cooler than I thought!" Clyde remarked.
"How long do you think it will take?" asked Rani.
"Hi Rani. I honestly don't know how long it would take – it might not work at all, you see, because it's just a theory I have."
"Oh great," Clyde said sarcastically.
"Hey, when has Luke ever failed when it comes to technology?" Rani pointed out.
"Tr –" Clyde was in the middle of saying "true" when the door handle creaked down. They froze. The door opened mercilessly and in stumped Flam Slitheen, who peered around suspiciously. For a moment there was silence, other than the heavy beating of their hearts, and they both prayed he wouldn't find the phone, but then Luke's voice, made tinny by the phone, filled the room.
"Clyde, Rani?"
Wordlessly the Slitheen grabbed Clyde's phone and crushed it between his fingers.
"Hey!" Clyde yelled. "That was expensive!"
The Slitheen brought his head close to theirs so that they were almost drowning in his large, ink black eyes. "Our leader, Grol, didn't see the need to dispose of you because you're just children, but when I tell him this, he might just change his mind." Leering ominously, he left the room.
"Why do aliens always have anger management issues?" Clyde complained. "That's the fourth phone I've lost when helping Sarah Jane! And how am I supposed to explain it to mum? Oh yeah, sorry – this one got crushed by a giant green alien while I was saving the world."
Rani laughed, but her smile did not last for long – the world had yet to be saved this time, and it would seem they would be in even more trouble than ever when the lead Slitheen, Grol, heard about their phone call.