Michael woke up with a fairly familiar sense of confusion, and then blinked through it to realize that something was actually going seriously wrong. He was - he tried to shake his head and think more - he was tied to some kind of frakking examination table. "What the heck is going on?"

For a moment, there was no reply. Then a silky and slick voice that made Michael's skin crawl came from out of the shadows. "Don't worry, Michael. It'll only take a few more minutes, and then you can go. Back to the jail, at first, I'm afraid, but if I get all that I'm interested in from this procedure, my employers will do what they can to drop the murder charges and secure you your freedom."

Uh-oh. As promising as the words seemed, Michael could tell that none of this was good news. Why not? He had to fight to think - something was clouding his thoughts, He needed to understand what the problem was, or he couldn't fight what was coming - if he could even figure out a way to fight with his limbs all secured in metal, and his powers... experimentally Michael tried to shoot a small burst of energy off in the direction that the crawly voice had come from, and - nothing. Of course a Kaaltan would have been able to take some kind of precautions, before kidnapping anybody who had an Antarian's powers.

If he'd been on Earth, if this was a dark and gloomy version of the White room, then he'd be worried about his slick captor finding out that he really was an alien. Obviously that wasn't likely to be the problem here on an alien planet, but - oh, of course! It was the other way around, here. They needed to hide the fact that they were half human, Antarian hybrids, because somebody might think of the Royal Four based on that clue. And it would be possible for a Kaaltan to figure that out based on a blood sample, or other DNA...

Okay, so that was the objective Michael had to work toward, or rather against - keep Silky from analyzing any samples - that he already had an opportunity to take when Michael was helpless. While he was restrained and helpless. That didn't sound hard at all.

"But if you don't have any other weapons at all, you can still bluff," he whispered under his breath. "Hey, buddy - you'd better let me out of here right now, if you know what's good for you! You're not going to be able to keep me here long enough to get what you need, anyway."

"And what makes you say that?" Silky stepped out partway into the light, and Michael struggled to hide a grimace at the ferociously cragged visage of an alien noticeably less humanoid than the Antarian-bred Kaaltans - maybe a Klenthorr, Michael had heard that there were several thousand of that other species in the Kaalto colony, and wasn't sure if he'd seen one before. "You're at my mercy, with no friends nearby, and nobody even knows that you've been borrowed from the jail complex."

"That's all that you know," Michael insisted, the balderdash coming quickly now that he was counting on it. "You've heard about our friend and protector, the Time Lord, right? Trust me, you don't want to make him angry, and he's keeping an eye on what's going on with all of us. He doesn't need to be watching the jail in obvious ways - he just thinks about us, and he knows how we're feeling and what we're worried about. Since I woke up, I've been pumping out enough nervous brainwaves to show up as a red alert to him, and so the only way you could possibly keep from getting your ass kicked is to dump me back where I'm supposed to be, toot sweet."

"You're bluffing," the Klenthorr scientist muttered, sounding uncertain.

"Maybe I am," Michael admitted. "I'm good at it. But I've also been telling you the truth, at least part of the time. What it really comes down to is - how big a pair of rocks do you have, buddy?"

"Alright, come on," he finally said, stepping over to the table and starting to push it out of the room, while still leaving Michael restrained upon it.

This wouldn't do, Michael realized instantly. "No, wait. Let me go."

The ferocious creature hesitated for just a moment before bowing to the mighty name of a Time Lord and unfastening the restraint. As he found a small tube, something a bit like an IV drip, that led into the skin on his wrist and pulled it out, Michael almost immediately felt his powers return. Good, that would make this next part easier.

Summoning a light first, Michael examined the alien laboratory surrounding him and tried to estimate how many different containers or machines might already contain a sample of his blood or other bodily substances. Since he wasn't sure what he was looking at, the list grew very quickly, but that couldn't be helped.

When Michael started the energy discharges, he didn't stop until everything on the list was glowing red hot and in ruins, or something like that.

When he turned and stared at the Klenthorr, the alien scientist made a sound like a doorbell sounding faintly a few times in the distance. "I... I don't care what you tell me, I am not taking you back to jail. You can try to find your own way, or - or go wherever the hell you want. I'm out of here." And he ducked around a smoking object that had once looked like a seven foot tall microscope and disappeared, leaving Michael to ponder what he actually did want to do next.

#

"Are you sure that you'll be okay in that Spartan little room by yourself, Alex?" Maria asked solicitously, as the five of them trudged up the corridor.

"Umm, I think I'll be fine, I'm really feeling much better now, why?" Alex looked back over at Maria and was surprised to see her drop her gaze to the floor instead of making eye contact. "What, were you thinking of inviting me to room with you, until our respective sweeties get back from the slammer? I'm not sure I really want to sign up to be your substitute Spaceboy."

"Well, I didn't mean it like that, obviously," Maria insisted. "But - well, yeah, I think that we could both use some company for the night. Especially since you've just had alien food poisoning and all."

"Come on, anybody would think that you weren't used to sleeping all on your own, little Maria," Kyle teased her.

"Oh, yeah, that's it," she bit back sarcastically. "The fact that we're on an alien planet many light-years from home has nothing to do with my desire for a little companionship and having a friend close by."

"Hey, alright, you've sold me," Alex admitted. "I'd be happy to move into your room for the night. The bed looked like it was big enough that we wouldn't need to be all cuddled up together or anything - because that would be awkward."

"You know, that gives me an idea," Rose mentioned. "I know that somebody said something about getting other rooms for you and I, doctor, now that we can't easily bunk down inside the TARDIS, but if the requisition actually did go through, then I'm pretty sure that nobody showed any of us where we're supposed to be, and I'm desperately weary at the thought of trying to find out anything from the Colonial bureaucracy, especially since I figure that nearly everybody has gone home..."

"It's not really that late by Kaalto time, I think," Kyle told her. "Their days are a bit longer than us, or I mean Earth's, I mean, so none of us have really adjusted to the time difference - as it were."

"Yes, but still, she does have a point," the Doctor admitted. "Are you suggesting that we can take Alex and Isabel's room - if Alex doesn't mind?"

"It occured to me," she admitted, and shot a look over at Alex. Alex, for his own part, was also uncomfortably aware of Kyle's frustrated stare, but couldn't figure out what kind of an objection he was supposed to raise to stop this without looking like an inconsiderate buffoon.

"Umm - it's fine with me. I guess I couldn't really say that Isabel wouldn't have a problem with it, but that - that's up to you guys to decide in the end I suppose," he managed to say lamely.

"Hmm - well, can anyone work out what the situation was with our accomodation more closely?" the Doctor said, looking around to the others.

"Just a moment, let me try to think, it's been a long day," Rose grumbled, reaching up to rub her fingers on her temples. Maria shot Kyle a look, and he took the hint, stepping behind Rose to rub her shoulders in a friendly way as she stood and thought. The Doctor raised an eyebrow at this behaviour from the humans, but didn't comment out loud. "We came back from the township admin station, Kyle and I, after retrieving the info from the college computers and going back via the concourse. Found workmen, setting up the fence around the TARDIS doors, and I asked about where you and I were going to sleep. He said that - that alternate facilities would be provided for us, but that they weren't ready yet, and that." She smiled slightly, nodding at Alex. "That 'the kid' had already been making a fuss on our behalf."

"Oh, was that me?" Alex asked in a slightly vague way. "Don't really remember it so clearly myself.

"Okay, then that settles it, we'll take your room," Rose declared. Kyle tried to stifle a groan. "Anything else that we need to work out before everybody turns in?"

Kyle looked up and down the corridor as if trying to find something, and everybody else shrugged. Maria led Alex into her room by the hand, keeping up a running patter line, and Rose turned to the other door - and called back after Maria and Alex. "Umm, you do have to let us in, I think, and maybe get anything that you'll need, friend."

"Oh, uh, right," Alex said, with a laugh, as he hurried back out. He was confused enough that he tried to swipe his wristband on the door to open it, before the Doctor reminded him that they were keyed to thumbprints.

"Wristbands!" Kyle pointed out, waving his meaningfully at the Doctor.

"Oh, right, yes," he agreed. "Should deal with that now, before any other complications arise - or arrive." He held the door open after Alex got the lock mechanism disengaged, and waved both Rose and Kyle inside. Alex did come just to take a quick poke at his luggage, and opened up both his case and Isabel's thoughtfully 'so that you (Rose and the Doctor) can grab anything you need that we happen to have.'

"Will you need the Kaaltan laptop that they lent us?" Kyle asked the Doctor before he entered. After receiving a considered nod, he disappeared briefly into his room to fetch the hardware, and soon the Doctor was proceeding through a boot sequence and exploring available functions.

Rose, meanwhile, couldn't seem to resist the temptation to poke through Isabel's baggage, under the pretext of figuring out what she'd need to get ready to turn in for the night. She whistled in amazement and drew out a short, see-through, and pink nightgown with thin shoulder straps, and modeled it for a few seconds by holding it in front of her still-clothed figure. Kyle's eyes bugged out a little, more at the concept than what he was actually seeing, while the Doctor, once again, just raised an eyebrow before going back to what he was doing.

"Okay, I think that I've got a short-range memory access module online, that should be just the thing to rewrite your bracelets," he announced after a minute or so more work. "What do we think, do we actually need to copy the files to this laptop, or just purge them?"

"Umm - we've got a lot accomplished with the plastic-paper printouts already," Kyle pointed out after a moment of thought. "Keeping files on the laptop is just pushing out the problem, as I understand it - we'll need to move or delete them before we give the computer back to the Kaaltans, and where do we move them to next? Buy a pocket chip that we can't access directly, ourselves?"

"Good point," the Doctor allowed. "Rose, any thoughts?"

"I understand where you're concerned, Kyle, but let's not jump too hastily," she decided. "Buying a pocket chip in the concourse shouldn't be hard, once we can use our bracelets again. And, well, it would be a useful backup - if we'll be able to access it after we leave Kaalto. Like, in the TARDIS, or maybe rigging up something special on a computer back in Roswell."

The Doctor turned to Kyle, who nodded an agreement at this point, and then the Doctor gestured that Kyle should bring his bracelet wrist close to the portable Kaaltan computer - and had him hold it there for nearly a minute. Then it was Rose's turn, and she sat down on the riser next to the Doctor so as to be more comfortable for the process."Alright, do you want to pick up a pocket chip at the Concourse tomorrow?" he asked Rose as he finished. "You've got that outfit of yours to collect, as I recall."

"I didn't even remember that we'd mentioned that to you," Rose admitted. "But yes, that sounds good." She looked over at Kyle, as if wondering if he'd come back down to the Concourse with her, but he didn't return the eye contact. "Do you want to tell us how to move the data to the chip, and clear out the traces?"

"No - it shouldn't be too hard, but we've had quite a day, haven't we?" the Doctor admitted. "If any of you try before I have a chance to give a lesson, then just ask for help mode, it seems pretty good - a similar idea to the search genies - but you weren't there for that, were you?"

"No, but we heard about them when we picked up the results of the Genie's labors," Kyle pointed out.

"Oh, right. Speaking of, did you make any attempt to clear away the traces of the Genie's activity?" Rose and Kyle shared a slightly stricken look when the Doctor posed this question. "That's okay - it wouldn't have been so easy. We should make a try when we get a chance, but I think that the encryption guards I set up on the kids' accounts should be good for a while yet."

"Well, I guess that's my cue to go back to my own room," Kyle said, wandering close to the door. "See you both for breakfast in the morning? Down in the cafeteria?"

"No, let's order in," Rose suggested. "Maria's room. We haven't had poison issues with the stuff that they bring us, now have we?"

"Can't argue with that logic," the Doctor agreed, and after a moment Kyle nodded, and made his way out the door. Rose turned around to stare at the comfortable mattress at the lowest point of the room's rounded floor, and then looked up to meet the Doctor's gaze.

"Well, as you said, it's been a long day," she said with a throaty chuckle, and quickly reached down to pop the snap at the waist of her jeans. The Doctor continued to watch, bemused, as she worked the pants down and away from her bottom, and kicked her comfortable sneakers off when they were getting in the way. Whichever way Rose had intended it, he didn't really get a 'good' look, because the plaid shirt that Rose had been wearing was fairly long and naturally fell past the tops of her thighs - but that didn't stop the air in the room from being charged with a certain amount of natural excitement.

It actually took more than one try for the Doctor to come up with something to say and make himself heard. "Teasing, Miss Tyler?" was what he finally came out with.

"Not necessarily," she insisted, stepping close and brushing a lock of blonde hair back away from her eyes. "It's sort of up to you, Mister Doctor." Admitting that much seemed to take all of Rose's forthrightness and she dropped her gaze to her own bare feet. "I mean, well, I think that you know how much I like you by now, and - we've been through so much together." She managed to look up and lock her eyes with his at this point. "We've both been circling the edges of the floor for so long - will you dance with me tonight?"

After a long moment, the Doctor smiled at her, a fierce excitement dancing in his eyes - and something in the power of that look made Rose literally weak in the knees - and left her gasping with mixed shock and dismay as she caught her body with her hands on the carpeted floor. Even though, when the Doctor hurried over to help her sit down on the mattress, there was nothing beyond the gentle kindness that she was used to in his eyes, Rose was still shaken by something that had happened to her between one breath and another, and he could tell.

"As you might have noticed, I'd like to," the Doctor admitted. "But - well, it's hard to phrase this without sounding a bit full of myself, but dancing with me can be dangerous. I'm not sure that anything you've seen so far has prepared you."

"Why should you worry so much about sounding full of yourself this time?" Rose muttered bitterly, and that got a laugh from the Doctor.

"And there's young Kyle Valenti, who's clearly so eager to - to dance," the Doctor admitted as he sat on the mattress himself, not right next to Rose, and pulled his own shoe off. "Could you really stand to disappoint him?"

"Kyle? Well, Kyle's a cute kid, but - well, I'm afraid he's not nearly the man to match you, as far as I'm concerned," Rose admitted a bit awkwardly. "I suppose that I wouldn't mind taking him for a fling, try teaching the American lad a thing or two. We're not likely to meet again, after your business with his Roswellian friends is done, I suppose."

"No, it'd probably be safer to have no contact, once I sort out the Granolith affair," the Doctor admitted, a bit wistfully. "Between that, and Serena's involvement, the timelines could get somewhat messy."

"That wasn't really what I was thinking about, but alright," Rose admitted.

"Maybe you should - try a whirlwind romance with Kyle," the Doctor said, and Rose looked at him in shock. "He's a bright boy, and has probably figured out the reasons that there's unlikely to be a long-term entanglement. But, well - ever since I whisked you away from London, you haven't had much conventional passion in your life."

"No, I suppose not - not even Mickey," Rose admitted. Though she'd seen a lot of the charming young man from her past, before he disappeared into an alternate dimension, they hadn't really fanned the old flame as such. "So are you saying that you'll be here, waiting - even that you want me to go and have my fun with Kyle before we - sort out our own thing? Sorry, I just can't repeat 'dance' one more time in this conversation." The Doctor wagged his eyebrows at her. "Except just that one time, in the quotes."

"Well - I'm not going anywhere without you," the Doctor admitted. "And - well, yes. I'm not going to insist on it, or anything - when could I ever get you to do something that you didn't want to do? But I do think that it would do you good to date somebody in your own species, before - before getting involved with something like, well, you know."

"I don't really know what I'd be getting involved in," Rose admitted softly. "But I suppose that's the point. Come on, if we're not going to flirt any more, then I'm tired enough that we should both turn in. Suit jacket, please?" She held out an arm for it, and with his best slightly bemused air, the Doctor passed it over. "Since you don't have a dressing gown here, at least I assume you don't, then maybe you'd feel just as comfortable staying in your trousers and shirt?"

"Maybe that's best, I suppose." The Doctor stretched out on one side of the mattress. "It's different, trying to get to sleep outside of the TARDIS. I can feel the planet, spinning around beneath us and flying through space. Not like it's really trying to throw us off, just - well, it's just enough to make me feel a bit dizzy."

"Aww, poor Doctor," Rose said with a laugh, putting the jacket (now folded,) on a riser. "Do you need something to help you fall... oh." Turning back around, she saw that the Doctor had his eyes closed and somehow an expression of completely restful slumber on his face. "Never mind then, I suppose."

So she lay down on the other side of the bed and thought about what tomorrow might hold for her - and Kyle Valenti.

#

Maria wandered down the corridors of some run-down sector of Kaalto, frustrated. She couldn't remember how she had gotten there, or where the rest of her friends were, but for the time being that didn't bother her. What she was aware of was Michael's voice, calling to her. She had to find him - he was in trouble, worse trouble than jail or even a murder sentence in alien prison, and nobody else was paying attention for him. At a junction of ways, she listened intently, and hurried down the left branch.

This corridor curved fairly tightly to the left after twenty paces or so, to the point that it was leading back in the direction that she had come, somewhat to the side, but Maria wasn't worried about getting lost if she could keep following the sound of Michael's screaming out her name. All of a sudden, as she finished navigating the curve, she realized that somebody was blocking the way - a Kaaltan who seemed somewhat familiar, but she couldn't say how. "Get out of the way," she grumbled, and he backed off a bit, and started to keep pace, hurrying backwards so as to keep himself in a position where he could look into her face. "Who are you, anyway?"

"I would have hoped that you'd remember my name, Maria," he muttered. "I remembered your touch."

"What? When?" she muttered, hoping that he'd understand what she was trying to ask. She didn't have time for proper grammar.

"This morning, as you began your studies."

That was cryptic, but Maria managed to place his face, and even come up with a name. "Our guide at the college, Xamev. Sorry, I'm a little - well, anyway. What are you doing here?"

"I'd like to help you. All your friends are beset by troubles, Maria, and those who serve me have much power. All that is required is for you to tell me what service you most need."

Something about this suddenly made Maria suspicious. Why did he really want her to say any such thing? Yes, 'beset by troubles' was probably understating the case for the TARDIS expedition to Kaalto, but if this kid really had any ability to help them out, then she was certain that he wouldn't do it without an ulterior motive - though that might just be trying to impress her because he was smitten. Maria was willing to give herself enough credit to entertain that possibility, but hardly enough to count on it.

"I won't say that it's the most important service in the long run, but I'm trying to find Michael," Maria admitted. "He's in trouble." Would Xamev volunteer to help Maria reconnect with her boyfriend?

"Beware." Xamev just pointed out into the hallway before them. Dimly, in the distance, Maria could see a familiar shape huddling in a corner, hurt or very frightened. More scared than she had ever seen Michael. But between them, was a great and terrible shadow in the shape of a stone creature with a fanged face, four claws, and huge wings that might be razor-edged.

"Nonsense," Maria said confidenly. "The shadows should beware of me, tonight." And with that, she charged towards Michael - but she felt the shadow creature wrapping itself around her, and her skin went ice-cold.

"This wasn't supposed to happen," Xamev complained from behind her. "Adwenit."

And with that, the shadow creature immediately fell through a hole that had been hiding behind something very small, and left for other places, dropping Maria in one of them - across Liz Parker's bed! Liz groaned and fumbled for the bedside lamp, trying to figure out what had just hit her.

"Umm, sorry about that," Maria muttered, somehow completely unsurprised at the abruptness of her return to Earth. "Isn't, err - Max somewhere here too?"

"Huh?" As soon as Liz had her eyes open, she rolled them up very far in her head. "He, umm - he left, err, about two hours ago, I think. Went back to his place."

"Oh, I see." Maria did indeed understand that much - she just hadn't realized before that she had arrived in Liz's bedroom so close to dawn. It still looked very dark outside.

"Maria - what the Antar are you doing here?"

"That, umm - that's a very good question," Maria admitted. "I went to bed with Alex - not with him, just sharing a room, it's a long story - but I remember charging through the dark corridors, looking for Michael, and he was calling out to me. Liz - Michael and Isabel are in some alien jail, and..."

"This is too weird," Liz grumbled. "Am I dreaming?"

The question hit Maria like a cascade of ice water. Whether Liz was dreaming herself or just a figment of a dream was something that she wasn't sure of, but suddenly Maria was certain that she herself was caught in a dream. Everything made much more sense that way - and in that second of realization, she felt the dream start to fragment, as it so often seemed to do, self-realization being most of the way to true wakefulness. Maria didn't want to expend the effort to try any lucid dreaming tricks at this point, but on the off-chance that Liz was actually real, she tried to express one other thought. "We found Tess - she's taken over the Antarian moon."

"I know that," a voice told her from the dark bedroom. "I was the one who told you about her, remember?"

It wasn't Liz's voice, or even Max's, and so Maria realized that she wasn't in the same bedroom anymore - she was lying on a bed with her head on a pillow, her body and limbs under a heavy blanket, and conscious of the fact that there were no windows, and only a faintly glowing string of numbers as light source - 4272. Maria freaked out at that clock reading, then forced herself to relax, reminding herself that it was perfectly sensible by the details of the Kaaltan time system that she had learned. There was also a familiar body next to her in the bed, not getting too close.

"I wasn't telling you," she said drowsily to Alex, hoping that speaking drowsily would help her get back to sleep. Surprisingly, it seemed to start working right away. "I was dreaming of Liz, and wanted to tell her, in case she remembered."

"Umm - sorry honey," he put in, "but I think that kind of logic only works if you're dreaming of Isabel." Sighed. "Which I think that I might have been, before you woke me."

"Sorry," Maria muttered, and shut up to give Alex as much of a chance to get back to Isabel as she could.

One thing bothered her as she sank back into a dreamless sleep of her own. Why had she dreamed about Xamev? Had her subconscious just brought him in as an enigmatic figure from the previous day, or was he also able to ent...

#

This time around, it was Rose who got into the bathing room first.

Kyle hadn't noticed any sounds before he opened the door. The first thing he realized afterward was that water was running, and then - wet blonde hair, creamy skin. "Ohmygawd." Somehow in the space of one second he had closed the door again, turned around one hundred eighty degrees, and closed his eyes - in case any of those two measures alone wouldn't protect Rose's privacy enough, he thought wryly to himself. "Sorry, umm, I didn't mean to - but the door wasn't locked."

"I suppose I didn't, sorry - glad it was you who prompted me, I suppose," Rose's voice came back. "How much, umm, did you see?"

"Uhh." It was with a guilty rush of pleasure that Kyle's mind replayed that split-second sight. Despite the first impressions, however, all of the 'naughtiest bits' had actually been more or less obscured, but he wasn't quite sure how to indicate that through the door. "A lot of skin, but not the full Belle, actually."

"Oh, okay." Rose almost sounded slightly disappointed - or maybe she was just still a bit upset. "One more question?"

"Sure, yeah, what's that?" Kyle wondered what would come next. It sounded as if Rose had come over very close behind him, as he rested the back of his head against the door.

"Just how do I lock this thing?" Kyle laughed and went back through his memories to try and figure out how to talk her through the alien mechanism.

When all five of them gathered in Maria's room to pick from the various breakfast foods that had been delivered to them, the mood was more than a little quiet and subdued. Maria seemed particularly withdrawn and introspective, which was definitely an unusual mood for the usually energetic girl, and Alex and the Doctor appeared to have somewhat caught the sentiment from her. (Alex was probably missing Isabel somewhat fierce, and maybe he still wasn't completely over his brush with food poisoning.)

Only Rose herself seemed to be full of enthusiasm and excitement. When Kyle had finished dressing and straightening up his room and luggage, (for whatever reason he'd felt impelled to make an efort,) and went into Maria's room, Rose was sitting at the other end of the 'sofa' from Alex, giggling at some joke in her head, and taking bites out of a spherical muffin-like pastry a little bigger than a softball.

It was the first time that Kyle had seen her in the morning, since that one accidental glance in the shower, and at first he thought that there was something slightly familiar about the light summer-y dress that she was wearing, a white background with a pattern of blue and red flower plossoms, green leaves and stems. For a few seconds after he'd recognized the garment, Kyle actually wondered why she'd have borrowed any of Maria's clothes, and then he remembered how Rose and the Doctor had been barred from the TARDIS, which still held their luggage. Would they both be reduced to begging for clean clothes for several days, until the mystery murder was solved?

It was at this point that Kyle looked for the Doctor, who was wearing the same dark brown suit as yesterday, and it seemed to be perfectly clean and crisp. Had somebody used alien powers to - no, they didn't have anybody left who could use alien powers on his behalf - at least, not any of the usual gang. Could he have asked a stranger, maybe even the kid who brought them breakfast?

Speaking of which - Kyle gathered up a baseball muffin of his own, and several other promising delicacies, and sat down on the middle of the couch. Rose had been excitedly waving him over by that point. "So, Mister Valenti, what do you have planned for the day?"

"Umm - I'll be happy to tag along, if you're still going down to the concourse, if you're still going there for your dress - and one of us was supposed to buy a memory card. I guess I can put that on my own expense account, since yours is mostly spoken for. Aside from that - no real plans. I guess I figured that I should be available in case anybody needed my help with the murder investigation, instead of making vacation plans."

"Hey, you bought some new clothes?" Maria asked from halfway across the room, at the end of the bed. "Do they look very - alien?"

"No, the girl in the shop - I don't know, she might have read my mind and pulled out an outfit idea that I sort of always wanted to make - except I can't sew for beans."

"Sorry to cut the discussion of clothes off short, but Kyle did say another magic phrase, girls," the Doctor said soberly from a chair on the other side of the coffee table. "The murder investigation."

Alex perked up slightly at that. "Yeah - do we have any leads from yesterday?"

"Just one, and it's not much, I admit," the Doctor said slowly. "Having eliminated a few possibilities, espcially with respect to motive, I'm convinced that the answer to the killing lies back close to the scene - on campus. The Bailiff might not be eager to let any of us ask too many questions around there, which is why I didn't try too hard yesterday, but we might have to - what's the saying that starts that way?"

"We may have to break a few eggs to get this omelette made," Kyle quoted with relish.

Just at that moment, perhaps,an egg that nobody expected cracked open, because the video screen on the wall brightened and let out the alien equivalent of a phone ringtone. The five of them exchanged glances, and then the Doctor stepped over to speak for them, and touched the screen to accept the call. Kyle could just make out the angry face of a Kaaltan in impressive robes, one who he hadn't met before. From Maria and Alex's reactions, though, he wondered if they had met him.

"Good morning, Bailiff," the Doctor said, calmly and with a nod of his head in greeting. "Has there been a development in the case?"

"You could say that, Time Lord." the Bailiff growled. "Your 'student' Michael has escaped from jail, and though I cannot prove that you and the rest of your friends were involved, I have my suspicions."

There was a moment of stunned silence, and then Maria let out with an impressive scream. "You lost my boyfriend, you..." Alex dived across and covered her mouth before she started to tell the Bailiff what she was thinking in any greater detail.

The Doctor seemed to think furiously for just an instant. "I'm sorry to hear that you're so suspicious of us, Bailiff. Myself, I suspect that this new development is not at all what it seems. Is it possible that Michael didn't even escape willingly. Someone might have, as the saying goes, 'busted him out' whether he wanted to come or not."

"Why would anybody want to do that?" the Bailiff sneered.

"I - I'm not sure of that yet," the Doctor admitted. "Do we need your permission to search for him ourselves? If so, may I request it?"

"Just a moment." The Bailiff's image became a slightly fuzzy greytone, and the sound cut out - he seemed to be turning his attention to a different screen on his end. Finally, after around two minutes, he came back to the Doctor. "Michael has been apprehended and is being brought back to jail in a secure transport. For whatever it's worth, his initial statements have been speaking of somebody taking him out of the jail while asleep or drugged unconscious, and experimenting on him."

"Really?" The Doctor grew concerned. "Do you have any further details on that?"

"Just this one quote," the Bailiff sighed, and read something out loud. "He said that if I co-operated, I would be returned to jail, but instead I bluffed on - on my Master the Time Lord's reputation, and convinced him to free me. At that time, I used energy discharges to destroy any samples of myself that might be in the lab, and quite a lot of his equipment there as well. At that time, the suspect - fled, commenting that he would not return me to legal custody no matter what I told him."

"I see," the Doctor said.

"Yes, a clever story," the Bailiff shot back. "On the other hand, it doesn't seem to me that Michael was attempting to return to my custody and surrender himself. In fact, my people might not have caught him in time - if I hadn't arranged them in a cordon around the township administration sector, specifically to intercept him on his way back to you."

There was a long pause. "I might be able to help explain that," the Doctor said. "I have established a low-level psychic link with my friends while they are here - it has already alerted me to an unrelated case of accidental food poisoning. I admit that I wasn't aware of Michael's situation before you alerted me, but the link might have helped him find his way here, when he was so disoriented that he wouldn't have been able to navigate directly back to Security. If he had arrived at our rooms, then after a short conversation, I would have escorted him back to your custody, Bailiff."

"You have explanations for everything, Time Lord," the Bailiff snapped. "Clever talker."

"Do the events of this morning change your word that I can continue to investigate the murder, clearing Michael and Isabel's names?" the Doctor pressed.

"I suppose not," the Bailiff grumbled. "But there are limits to my patience, and you have nearly reached them. Perhaps the opinions of my supervisors will let afford you more chances - that much I cannot say. Good day." And without waiting for a signoff, the screen darkened.

"Okay, what the hell?" Maria asked. "Who would take Michael out of jail just to - to test his DNA? That's what it seems like."

"Maybe somebody's already guessed something about us," Alex said unhappily. "About them, I mean. Whoever designed Michael and Isabel knew what they would look like as they grew up, right? We didn't think of that one when we planned to be anonymous."

"Yes, but I don't think that this changes our primary priorities," the Doctor said slowly. "The Bailiff will make doubly sure that nobody else gets at Michael or Isabel now, I think. His pride has been stung by this 'escape,' no matter who carried it out and why. We still need to get to the bottom of the original murder." He looked around. "Alex, Maria - are you both up for returning to campus with me?"

"Try and stop me," Alex muttered.

"Yeah, I'm up for it," Maria agreed. "What about checking in at the law and order station and talking to Michael first, though?"

"No, I don't want to let the Bailiff have such a good opportunity to change his mind," the Doctor said. "We'll swing by there after investigating on campus, near the scene of the crime - it isn't far, and we might have new evidence for him to consider by then, and actually get Michael and Isabel freed."

"Wouldn't that take the Magistrate's word?" Rose said. "She had them held on suspicion."

"Depends on their legal structure," Kyle said. "Here, I mean back on Earth, sheesh - you get arraigned by the judge, but the chief of police - or Sheriff - can still drop charges and set a suspect free, if he comes across good evidence that seems to justify such a decision."

"Alright, good enough," Maria said. "What about you two - Kyle, Rose?" She seemed to have a bit of laughter dancing in her eyes.

"We've got a shopping trip to go on," Kyle pointed out. "Nothing really exciting compared to your investigation, but each of us can do our bit." He considered. "Maybe we should agree on a place to meet for lunch?"

"I don't know how long we're going to be occupied," the Doctor said with a slight frown on his face. "But - there's a small cafe not far from the detention center - Maria and I grabbed something there yesterday. If you want to drop by there after you're done at the concourse, then we'll see..." He blinked, realizing something. "Oh, I nearly forgot. We picked up a few useful things yesterday."

"Who's we?" Alex asked, as the Doctor hurried out the door - and returned to the room half a minute later juggling three objects in his two hands - they were flat, and oblong shaped, and a bit smaller than a small hand held with the fingers and thumb all together.

"The cell phones, right!" Maria exclaimed happily.

"Not quite, but perhaps close enough," the Doctor admitted "We should be able to reach each other using these, and they'll be useful for finding your way around too, Kyle. I'll program the location of the cafe into it. They have a function that's somewhat similar to GPS direction finding on Earth, though they don't use satellites, just transmitters within and near the township itself."

"Alright, good enough," Kyle said. "Go team Roswell on three,and break."

Rose giggled a bit, but nobody else responded to that.