Deep in thought, Curristan sat reading some notes he had found from his previous incarnation, which had been fascinating to read. However, he had one problem with them.

'Oh dear my writing was really bad then, though to be honest, it hasn't got better.'

Putting them down he got up from the writing desk and returned to the console room. The TARDIS was still in flight and he had got some leisure time in and some well-deserved rest. Jadena had been reading in the library and had been there for some time.

'Well, I am sure Jadena will soon emerge from her reading marathon at some point. I am sure she hasn't eaten yet, though knowing her she made a snack for herself.'

The console room was dark which was sometimes comforting when Curristan needed some time also to himself. He walked over to the console and began to set some controls, bringing the console room back to a lit state.

'That's much better. It is nice to sometimes have the lights off, but only when I am not flying it.'

He hummed a jovial tune as he continued to work the console, setting a new course.

'I think this way should be where we should go...I hope we don't get into too much trouble. But I won't hold my breath.'

Jadena walked into the console room and saw Curristan looking at the main computer. He seemed to have a ponderous look on his face.

"Hey, you okay?"

Curristan looked up and turned at the question. "Yes...I am okay, just trying to find a good place to go."

"I am sure you will find something..."

"Yeah...I just seem to always drop into trouble. Like my friend does."

The console beeped and the time column stopped, diverting their attention. Curristan looked down and read the information which was on the screen. "Looks like this is nineteen thousand and twenty-nine... the planet is called Netrodia. The environment looks pretty good, so we will be okay to look around."

Jadia laughed. "Yeah and we can hopefully get some sightseeing."

"We can only hope. Let's see what we can find."

They exited the TARDIS and found they were in the corner of a square, with people going about their business. They looked humanoid and Curristan had a feeling that it was a shoot-off species of humans.

'They get everywhere no matter where I go...but still they are an inventive species.'

Jadena looked around in confusion and felt compelled to ask a question. "Is this an Earth colony?"

Curristan turned to address her. "I am not sure, they have some differences so I think it's a species that came about due to interspecies breeding, or they just look like them by coincidence."

Nodding Jadena decided to reserve judgement.

Curristan noticing something began to walk away. "Come on this way, something I need to see."

Approaching an information terminal Curristan began to look through what it had, though he decided to give the terminal a little boost with the sonic screwdriver to get into the hidden mainframe which it got the information from.

Turning to Jadena he saw her looking puzzled. "Sorry, this terminal usually gives the latest news, weather etc. I have used the sonic to see the stuff people don't see. Looks like there is a mass of information hidden."

"So what have you found?"

"Well, it seems that we have a mystery to solve, reports of people going missing and the police being told to not tell the public of the true scale of this. Seems like the authorities are downplaying this, or are involved."

"Ahh, I see. Well, I am sure we can get to the bottom of this."

Nodding Curristan decided to look closer at one particular report. Scanning through he realised that there seemed to be a specific area these disappearances were happening. It looks like this was the first clue that they needed. Deciding that was all he could do, he soniced the terminal again and it short-circuited.

"Well, that will prevent anyone tracing the intrusion to here. I seem to break a lot of things lately..though all were necessary actions I assure you."

Jadena looked at Curristan sceptically but didn't make any comment.

See the look Curristan decided to not go further than that thought. "Right... let's go and see what we can find."

After ten minutes they had reached the area, though it seemed deserted. Curristan felt a little uneasy, but he was determined to figure out what was going on. Hopefully without any problems, but oh well. Motioning for Jadena to follow Curristan began to let himself move towards this warehouse, for some reason he wanted to go there. Then he stopped, realising what it was.

"Stop Jadena there is a compulsion field here, that's what is bringing the victims to that building. Let's turn it off shall we."

Pointing the sonic screwdriver up he activated it for a couple of seconds before replacing it back in his jacket.

"There that should take care of that, can't allow anyone else to be caught up in this can we?"

Curristan and Jadena approached the building and saw some security cameras, but it was odd to see no security patrols walking around. Approaching a doorway, Curristan broke the camera before sonicing the door panel. The door slid to and revealed a brightly lit white corridor with doors along both walls.

"Stick close to me, I feel that we are getting closer to the bottom of this."

The hallway was eerily quiet and there was a low hum of active machinery.

"I wonder who is operating this equipment.." Jadena whispered.

"Well we will soon find out, there is another terminal over there."

They approached the terminal and Curristan could see it was a more secure one than the ones out on the street. After a minute of typing though, he had bypassed the security and searched through the files.

"Hmm, this is interesting. I wonder who is behind this…"

"Do you have any idea who it could be?"

"Well#, it is a sophisticated operation, the level of code in these programmes seem almost familiar."

A noise made Curristan and Jadena turn around before Curristan silently pointed to a dark corner and they slipped into it. A brown-haired man in a charcoal suit and another blond-haired man in a dark blue suit entered through another doorway, engaged in a silent conversation.

Curristan looked closely as the man in the charcoal suit raised his voice and started a tirade at the other.

"Look Mr Highgate I have no need for your excuses. You must make this deadline or there will be consequences. I am the Master…and you will obey me…you will obey me…."

Curristan realising who the Master was immediately brought up his mind shields as he could not afford to let the Master know he was here. He knew the man only from stories given to him by Romana, the Doctor's oldest friend and deadliest enemy other than the Daleks. This was not a good situation…