Earlier that day, Rikki's LARP group had climbed down from the tree to continue their game. Because it had been getting late, some of the players had gone home. Rikki had stayed for a little while longer until she noticed that the shiny box thing was gone. She assumed one of her friends had taken it. Oh, well. She'd get it back later. Right now, she was tired and finally decided to leave. Under cover of day, she snuck back into her room and collapsed into bed. She had nothing to do tomorrow, so she could look forward to sleeping in that night.

At least until her mum found her.

With the lights out, it was pitch black in the observation room. Fortunately for Barbara, she had spent the past hour or so studying the layout of the room. The guards could return at any moment, so she acted quickly. She stood up and carefully found her way over to the large window. Feeling along the wall, she located the little door. It was raised off of the ground a few feet because the room on the other side was much smaller than the room she was in. The door was strong enough for a possum, but with enough force she was able to break the lock.

The problem, however, was that the door was still too small for her to fit through. She crouched on the steps and tried to figure out her next move, trying to stay calm. They had to have gotten her in here, hadn't they? Therefore it stood to reason that there had to be a way to get out. Once again, she felt around. The walls were all made of dirt, it seemed. Was she underground? Not a pleasant thought...

Her fingers brushed the wood frame of the door, then the area around it. She realised that it was actually a small door built into a larger one. It was locked, too, but Barbara reached through the little door and unlatched it. After some pulling, it slid neatly into the wall and she was free!

Well, almost. She climbed into the other room, but as it was made for possums there was no room for her to stand. At least there was a set of double-doors that would accommodate her. She opened one to allow dim light to enter the room. Looking down at herself, she decided that the first order of business was to find where her clothes had gotten to.

She tried the storage cupboard in the corner, but the only thing she could find was a piece of cloth a little smaller than a bath towel, and what appeared to be two banners with scribbly possum writing. Tied around her waist, the larger cloth made a halfway decent sarong that almost came down to her knees. The two banners, tied together, she wrapped around her chest with the ends knotted securely in front, making a passable halter top. (She had to go back in her cell to get enough room to pull off that manoeuvre.)

With her modestly restored, Barbara crawled out into the hallway of the complex. She hoped it wouldn't be too difficult to find an exit.

Susan supposed that she should really go help Ian, but the scene in front of her was just too ridiculous. In addition to the protesters who were supporting their cause, there was a small group of counter-protesters that didn't seem to like them very much. Somehow, Ian had unwittingly drawn the ire of a group of middle-aged possums, who were now attacking him with their handbags. Of course it was more likely for him to hurt them, which was why he kept trying to step away, but they kept following him, whacking his knees and squeaking angrily.

She was sure that whatever Ian was saying to her translated into something along the lines of annoyance for laughing at him.

Meanwhile, Maude had fallen asleep next to her. She was exhausted after being up all day and walking so far, so Susan had let her sleep while the mayor had gone to speak to whoever was in charge around here. Despite the fact that they could no longer understand each other, the other possums still seemed friendly towards them. Philly had come over to try and talk with her, but the Doctor had gone off with the portable translator. Her friend had stayed regardless, and was pretending to translate everything she said to the other possums. She hoped he wasn't doing too much damage. Philly was nice, but he wasn't very bright.

A few soldiers arrived and, to Ian's relief, shooed away the agitated female possums.

"Right, move back!" shouted Captain Tam, "General's orders! The Twolegs are to be approached by authorised personnel only!"

Deena, president of the Concerned Mothers group, refused to back down. "Absolutely not! You go tell Blackburn that we're not standing for this sort of thing on our planet!"

"Look, it's for your own safety, so just get back behind the line-"

"And what about the safety of our children? First they go reading those horrible books about spaceships and aliens and all sorts of immorality, next thing you know we've got aliens showing up right at our doors! How are we supposed to explain this to our children? Some of us are trying to raise families, you know." The rest of the group voiced their agreement.

"Go stand behind that line!"

"We've got every right to be here! We pay our taxes, and we're not having our children shaving themselves bald and hacking off their tails to go gallivanting around in space! You know how kids imitate what they see. We told people that Maude's books were bad news, but did they listen? No! And don't you deny that Maude's involved- I see her over there. Not enough for her to encourage bad behaviour, she's got to go and bring in extraterrestrials to corrupt our young! Well, not in this town!"

"At least stop hitting this one."

"You keep an eye on him, I know his type. Going around being all exotic and mysterious. He'll be after our daughters, you just wait and see!"

"Duly noted, now move along!"

With great effort, the guards managed to push the Concerned Mothers back behind a rope line that had been set up in an effort to control the crowd. They stood there, glaring suspiciously at Ian who had gone to sit next to Susan. "I wonder what that was all about." he said.

"Yes." she shrugged. It took a second for him to remember that she was only repeating the English words she'd learned earlier. He decided to keep talking anyway.

"Lucky the possums in the sashes put a stop to it."

"No."

"Judging by their clothes, I'd say they're military of some sort."

"Yes."

"I wonder what's taking the mayor so long? It's only a misunderstanding, right? We'll have Barbara back again in no time."

"No."

"Well, you're certainly optimistic!"

"Yes!"

About then, the Doctor returned with the mayor. "It seems we're not entirely out of the woods yet." he said, "Apparently, General Blackburn is not entirely satisfied that we are harmless. At least, that's what I heard through this unreliable old thing." he held out the portable translator, "Hmph! It shorted out. Useless..."

"But what does he want, Grandfather?"

"I don't know. Perhaps he wishes to speak with Maude?" he pointed to where the mayor was shaking her awake. The two possums chattered back and forth for a bit before Maude hurried off looking apprehensive. "Hmm. He must want to hear more than one testimony." The Doctor sat down beside Ian and Susan. "Oh, and I figured it's been a while since we had all eaten, so I found more of these." From his pockets he produced a few Bekkish oranges and passed them around.

As Susan eagerly peeled hers, she noticed several of the soldiers talking to Philly and hoped he hadn't gone and gotten himself into trouble as well.

"So you're saying you know the aliens' language?" asked Captain Tam.

Philly nodded. "Of course! It's all about getting into the right state of mind, you know? You gotta be open to other cultures and just listen. See, it's all about the vibe, and when you get the right vibe going..."

"Can you communicate with them or not?"

"Absolutely."

"Okay, I need you to inform the aliens that the General wants to interrogate them personally, and that they're to stay exactly where they are until he gets here. Can you do that?"

"Certainly!" Philly saluted, "Let me just get the vibe started..." he rubbed his temples and proceeded to hum while spinning around and hopping on one leg. "...yeah. Yeah, that's a good vibe!" He danced over to Susan who, along with Ian and the Doctor, had been watching with mild confusion. Then, he slowly and carefully shouted "THE GENERAL WANTS TO TALK WITH YOU! DON'T GO ANYWHERE!" Turning to Captain Tam, he explained, "That's the first part. Now I have to repeat that in words they know."

Susan stared as Philly began to mimic things he'd heard her say, mangling the syllables into complete gibberish, while performing elaborate gestures. When he finished, the Doctor asked, "What's this? What is he trying to say?"

"I think he's trying to ask Ian out."

"Oh, we don't have time for...tell him Ian's not interested."

"Look," said Ian, "Just because I can't understand you doesn't mean I don't know you're talking about me!"

Tam pulled Philly aside. "Did they understand that?"

"Oh, yes. They hear you loud and clear, sir!" With that, Philly went off with some of his friends. Captain Tam just sighed and instructed his troops to clear the rest of the perimeter. Oh, and to keep an eye on the Concerned Mothers. One of them was already trying to sneak back across the line.

Barbara tried not to panic. A lot of the halls weren't large enough for her, which made her choice of exit routes fairly limited. She knew that if she kept going she was bound to find a way out sooner or later, assuming she didn't get herself stuck along the way. Stuck underground in a dark, cramped, possum-infested hole. She shuddered. Yes, she knew that they weren't rodents, but that didn't make it any better. They had to have noticed she'd escaped by now, and it was only a matter of time until they caught up with her. She tried to crawl faster.

Suddenly, as she was rounding a particularly difficult corner, she heard a familiar scrabbling sound. Before she could react, six armed possums appeared around another corner in front of her. She was trapped; unable to back up. Instinctively, Barbara dropped to the ground and covered her head with her arms. She could hear the possums approaching and braced herself. Little paws started pushing at her, trying to make her go back. As if she would, Barbara thought. These soldiers probably had order to not harm her, seeing as they had yet to point any weapons in her direction. Perhaps she could turn this to her advantage. What did she know about possums?

They could see fairly well in the dark. They were nocturnal. They had thumbs on their feet. They played dead.

Wait, when did they play dead? When they were frightened. But was it an intentional trick, or a reflex they couldn't control? She'd always heard that they did it on purpose, but then again she'd also heard that they could hang by their tails. (Well, Earth possums couldn't.) But suppose it was a reflex? She'd just have to spook them enough, and they'd either faint or at least get scared enough to leave her alone. Though she wasn't overly fond of these possums, she didn't want to scare them to death.

This sentiment lasted only until one of them began to prod her with his sword. She took a few moments to prepare herself, then quickly sprang up with the most horrifying face she could make.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRGGHHHH!"

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

Now she was looking at six possums with all four paws in the air. Gingerly, she pushed them into a side passage so she had room to manoeuvre. They were all out cold, but one of them still seemed to be conscious.

Private Fritter was not having a good day. He'd overslept again, and thanks to the unusual amount of traffic in the city he'd been embarrassingly late for duty. After being thoroughly chewed out by his commanding officer, he'd been assigned to a search team. Somehow, an alien that was being held for observation had gotten loose in the building. There were more in the city near Town Hall (Fritter was sorry he'd missed that.) and this one needed to be recaptured.

Well, Fritter was excited to get to see his first alien. He hadn't expected it to be quite so large, though. Other than that, it looked remarkably like the ones described in the books he had read. His team had been discussing the best way to coax it back when it had made the most awful noise. The others had gone into defensive comas, but Fritter had never been much good at those. He always ended up fully aware yet temporarily paralszed until the effect wore off. Fortunately for him, his always lasted shorter than they were supposed to, but it was still a terrifying experience.

It seemed that the alien wanted to finish them off. It...wait, she...started to reach for them, and Private Fritter's heart pounded in his chest. Oh, actually she seemed to be moving them all out of her way. Okay, nothing bad was going to happen. Now all Fritter had to do was wait for her to pass so he could run and go get help. His paralysis was rapidly wearing off. Before he could make a break for it, the alien noticed him and seemed to get an idea.

She reached over and pulled his sword off, scabbard and all. In doing so, she managed to get his necklace tangled up with it, taking it off with the sword. Fritter gasped. It was just a polished stone on a chain, but for him it was important. His late mother had given that to him once, and he wasn't about to let it go. Fritter lunged for it, legs still somewhat shaky.

The alien looked taken aback, then realised that he was going after the necklace and not the sword. She moved her hands out of his reach and quickly wrapped it around her wrist, shaking her head no. Too late, Fritter remembered that he should go and get help, but he'd barely started running when the alien grabbed his tail, holding him there. She picked up his sword with her other hand and started scratching something in the floor.

Fritter cursed himself. He was going to get written up again, he just knew it. What was she drawing, anyway? And for that matter, why was she wearing their national flag around her lower torso?

She gently tugged on his tail and motioned at whatever she'd just drawn. Fritter looked to see a series of crude images. One looked like the outdoors, several were alien stick figures, and one was a possum like him. Pointing to herself, Fritter, and the drawings, she seemed to be asking that he lead her outside. If he could take her back to her friends, she'd give back the necklace.

Now that she wasn't growling, Fritter thought she looked a lot more harmless. Then again, he was thinking again of the aliens in his book. Hadn't they been nice? Some of them turned out to be the heroes, too. Perhaps this one was just as scared as he was. But helping her escape would be disobeying his orders. Then again...if there were others like her waiting by Town Hall, it would make more sense to keep them all together, wouldn't it? And he was certain that he'd heard somebody say that the General wanted to interrogate the aliens, so why not have them all in one spot?

He nodded to show that he'd do it. In addition to his necklace, she also had his sword and a firm grip on his tail. The rest of the team was out cold, and if she wasn't a nice alien she could very easily injure him before backup came along. Or worse. Anyway, there was a good chance they'd run into another patrol before they reached the exit.

With her still holding his tail, they awkwardly made their way down the hall.

There wasn't much they could do but wait. The Doctor hoped that Maude could say the right things to get Barbara released so they could continue their search for the translation circuit. It was terribly inconvenient without it, and he hated not knowing what was going on. Their arrival had caused a lot of commotion indeed, and while the people here had been welcoming enough the night before, he wasn't sure that their good will would hold out. Right now, the three of them were sitting under a tree next to Town Hall, surrounded by guards.

The guards could possibly be there to keep the crowd at bay. Certainly they'd been helpful when some disgruntled-looking females had crept over and began to harass Ian. (There was no way he would believe that the Doctor hadn't found that amusing.) But those guards could just as easily be there to keep an eye on him and his companions. He didn't like it.

"Grandfather?" Susan said again, snapping him out of his thoughts, "I'm going to go get a drink of water. There's a public well just over there." She pointed down the street.

"Very well. Just hurry back," he said, "and do be careful."

"I will."

Susan made her way to the well. Last night, she'd learned that indoor plumbing was a fairly recent development on this planet, but there were still many wells in operation. It was partly out of nostalgia and partly out of tradition. This one was some distance from the crowd, and while a few possums stopped to stare, she was able to get some water without being bothered. The bucket made a handy little cup, she thought as she placed it back.

She looked up and saw the strange hooded possum from earlier standing further down the street. He motioned for her to follow him.

"I've told you already, no!" she said. The possum reached into his robes and pulled out a familiar silver box. She gasped, "How did you get that?" He held it out to her, and she walked over. Just as she was about to reach for the circuit, he darted further down the road.

"You little...!" exclaimed Susan, "Bring that back! Please? We need that for the ship."

The possum dropped to all fours and broke into a run. Susan sprinted after him, trying to catch up as he led her out of the city and into the woods.