Segment 7 and a few surprises are in store.

So here we go.

Chapter 6: Friend or Foe?

"Crush it, squash it," the Mantasphid Queen yelped as the Doctor dodged several swipes from the robot's claws. "Get it away from me!"

Then Martha shouted, "Wait, Doctor. That thing is-"

"Trying to kill me, I know!" the Doctor cried, narrowly evading another lunge.

"No, it's panicking!" Martha finished. "Doctor, I think it's frightened."

The Doctor stopped and stared at the machine. "Oh." He suddenly noticed its movements were very erratic and its head wasn't even looking at him. "Oh, Martha, you are a marvel!" As he carefully slipped his sonic from his pocket, the robot reacted again, but he held his hands out and spoke gently. "Calm down, calm down. Shh-shh-shh. I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to look at you."

He raised his screwdriver to the robot's head and started to scan it, but then the head split apart in a cloud of steam which quickly faded… to reveal the face of a terrified young human inside!

"Thank you," the young man panted, glancing around in terror. "Thank you so much. Training didn't prepare me. I wasn't-"

"It's alright, it's alright," the Doctor soothed. "Calm down, you're fine now."

"Sorry," the pilot sighed, composing himself and turning to look at them. He had cropped short hair, spoke in a soft Welsh accent and wore a helmet with a small camera and microphone by his ear. "The suit got damaged when I was taken down. There was no air left. When I saw the bugs around me, I-I thought I was gonna die," he whimpered. "I don't want to die."

"Well you didn't," Martha smiled. "You're safe and alive, and no one's going to hurt you."

The Queen however wasn't very pleased by the new arrival. "Fleshy biped," she hissed angrily. "We must be protected from fleshy bipeds. Destroy them all!"

"You can destroy them, your majesty, with the weapons you bought," Mergrass reminded her. "I'll just finish unpacking them."

As Mergrass left the cave, the Doctor turned back to face the young man in the suit. "What's your name, pilot?"

"Pilot Kelvin… sir," he added hastily.

"Well, Pilot Kelvin, what's wrong with you?" the Doctor snapped. "I mean, picking a fight with a bunch of defenseless bugs? I thought you humans were better than that."

"Eh?" Kelvin looked confused. "We didn't start this war!"

"Yes they did," the Mantasphid Queen countered. "The fleshy bipeds have been trying to exterminate us for weeks, wipe us out of existence!"

"No," Kelvin retorted, raising the robot's hands in defiance. "You don't understand! This planet Myarr – it was my home, where I was born and brought up. We were here first!"

"Is this true?" the Doctor asked, casting a suspicious glance at the Queen.

"Yes," Kelvin replied. "This used to be a lovely place. My parents had a homestead here, and then the bugs arrived and drove the people out. The Earth Command had no choice but to fight back and that's how the war started. I only joined up once…" he bowed his head sadly "…once my parents were killed."

"Killed, why?" Now the Doctor turned to glare at the Mantasphid Queen. "Why did you attack them?"

"For their land of course," the Queen replied without guilt. "So many lovely animals they had here… so much rich and wonderful dung…"

"You invaded this planet for dung?" Martha spluttered.

"Hey, don't knock it!" Kelvin cried. "It's because of that dung that Myarr's one of the last fertile planets in the galaxy. If it falls, there will be a famine like you wouldn't believe. We're already struggling to get the oil for our machines and now these bugs come in…"

Martha suddenly felt very guilty. She realized that Kaliko and her pirates would have gotten them oil at cheaper prices than the oil companies, but now that she's dead…

"Your majesty, if I may," Mergrass interrupted, returning into the hive. "My job here is done. I have now supplied you with the means to destroy your enemies. I must remind you that your contract stipulates final payment on delivery."

"Did it?" the Queen asked innocently. "Well, guess what, Mergrass… I LIED! There will be no payment. Mantasphids do not make deals with fleshy bipeds!"

Mergrass let out a groan of annoyance. "Typical Mantasphid… I knew I should have listened to the others."

"What others?" Martha asked.

"The other prisoners," the Anurian replied. "There was a Mantasphid among them. He tipped me off about this little war on here, so naturally I decided to do the deal."

"You were in prison?" the Doctor asked.

"Oh, good grief, no," Mergrass chuckled. "I was merely a broker, a dealer. I would provide letters and gifts to the inmates and in return…"

"You got well paid?" the Doctor finished.

"Of course, but the governor always said you should never trust a Mantasphid."

The Doctor scratched his chin in thought. "The governor of… which prison was this? Volag-Noc, perhaps?"

"Volag-Noc?" Martha gasped. "Wasn't that where Baltazar used to be?"

Mergrass's eyes narrowed at this. "You know of Baltazar?"

"Yes," the Doctor replied. "Now, listen. That data-chip on your-"

But his voice was drowned out by the sound of the klaxons ringing from outside.

"The fly ships, they're coming back," the Mantasphid Queen yelped. "Bugs defend us! They'll destroy us all!"

"We're going to die here too, unless we get out of here," Mergrass cried out.

"Forget it," Pilot Kelvin shook his head glumly. "You can't get far enough away."

"Why not?" Martha snapped.

"Because Earth Command can't afford to lose this planet... They'll do anything to reclaim it from the Mantasphids." He lowered his head sadly. "You see, they'd even sacrifice me."

Martha gulped in alarm and the Doctor turned to the Queen. "Your majesty, listen to me. There might still be a way."

"Ah Doctor," the Queen chirruped. "This is a fleshy biped thing, is it not? Never say die?"

"Yes, exactly," Martha yelled.

"Fleshy bipeds are very stupid creatures," the Queen retorted. "But the fight goes on. We'll win this war yet!"

"Not while Earth Command has its secret weapon," Kelvin shouted.

"Pilot Kelvin," Martha asked. "What will they do to the city?"

"Well, the plan was complete spatial disintegration of this 100 mile vector."

The Doctor's jaw dropped in horror. "They're going to burn us out of space and time, leaving Myarr free for them to reclaim."

Kelvin nodded grimly as the sounds of the war planes began to build up. "Kills all known bugs… Dead."