Segment 10 and the danger's starting to ramp up.

Chapter 9: Bad Governor, Worse Governor

The Doctor watched grimly as Locke set to work on the governor's office door. On the way up, the android had explained that some time ago, his warders somehow turned on him, attached the inhibitor chip into his mind and threw him into the cell. The Doctor quickly guessed that this was probably an inside job done by one of the prisoners. Locke was furious at that notion, but the Doctor quickly made a deal with him; if Locke spared the prisoner then the Doctor would take the culprit off his mechanical hands.

Now Locke finished blow-torching the door. He stepped back and kicked at it, knocking it to the floor. The Doctor spotted Martha surrounded by two warders standing in front of a desk where a rather grumpy-looking man was standing. Martha turned and beamed at her friend. "Doctor!"

"Hello, Martha Jones!" the Doctor replied with a big grin on his face. "You'll never guess who I ran into in my cell."

Martha looked thoughtful. "Um, the real governor?"

"Oh, you have guessed." The Doctor then stepped up to the desk and glanced at the man. "Thing is, if Locke here is the real governor, then who are you?"

"Warder, detain that prisoner!" the fake governor ordered, pointing at Locke.

At once, one warder's arm extended out and wrapped around Locke's neck. Then the other warder floated towards him, its one hand glowing red-hot.

The man then glared at the Doctor. "You don't know what you've done, letting him out. This robot has it in for me."

"Yeah, hang on…" The Doctor pulled out a small leather wallet from his coat pocket then handed it to the fake governor. "Hold this for a minute, will you?"

The man took the wallet, flipped it open and stared at the piece of paper inside. "But there's nothing on it."

"It's psychic," the Doctor replied, taking the man's hand and turning it round so he could see the paper. "And it tells me your name is Constantine Ethelred Gurney, prisoner of Volag-Noc- ah, I see! Convicted of larceny, black-mail, fraud, blah, blah, blah, released- Hang on, you were released last month!"

"That's right," Gurney retorted. "I did my time in this rotten joint. And when I got let out, I immediately broke back in."

"Well, that's new," Martha scowled. "But why?"

"Because of him," Gurney nodded at Locke who was still struggling with his own warders. "He's been getting paid richly for watching over the prisoners, living in the lap of luxury."

"Yeah, I noticed all that gold in his safe," Martha replied.

"He's an android! He doesn't need all that wealth. But as for me?" Gurney's eyes narrowed. "There are people across the seven galaxies who still want my head on a pike, giving me funny looks everywhere I go, putting my face on wanted posters. 'Wanted: Dead or Alive.' Open brackets, 'Preferably Dead-'"

"Close brackets, yeah, I get the picture," the Doctor interrupted.

"I met quite a few people during my time in the joint; like that wack-job Baltazar and the feisty Captain Kaliko. But there was also this one guy, who sold me a nifty little program on the warders. It would make them see me as Locke and Locke as me."

The Doctor rubbed his chin in thought. "This one guy… name of Mergrass, by any chance?"

"Oh, you know him!" Gurney cried. "Great guy."

"Yeah, real charmer," Martha muttered sarcastically.

"Anyway, I quickly broke into Locke's office, loaded the program into his computer and ordered the warders to subdue Locke. And I've been keeping him safely locked up, until you two came along."

"Yeah, sorry about the mess," the Doctor said. "But this is important. I need to get the data-chip of the Infinite."

Gurney frowned at this. "Why do you want that piece of junk?"

But before the Doctor could explain, Locke broke out of the warders' grip and fired his gun at them, sending them back. "Free, at last." He then turned and glowered at the prisoner. "Now it's your turn, Gurney."

"Not now, Mr. Locke," the Doctor snapped. "We had a deal, remember?"

"No deals. Creatures like Gurney are beyond redemption. Their rehabilitation is pointless." Locke then pulled out a small disc from the computer and flung it aside. "Warders, hear me now. All prisoners on Volag-Noc are beyond rehabilitation." His eyes narrowed. "They must die."

"Understood, Governor," the warders replied. "Commencing self-sterilization at your command…"

"No, you can't!" Martha cried.

Locke ignored and simply nodded. "Do it."

At once, the computer flashed red and gave out a warning. "Sterilization in 60 seconds…"

The Doctor spun round, his face firm, and faced up to Locke. "Stop it right now! The prisoners don't deserve to die just because of Gurney!"

"I'm sorry, Doctor," Locke replied stoically. "But it's the only way to cure them."

"Well, you won't take me dead or alive!" Gurney retorted. "Safe, open!" As the vault swung open, he grabbed the laser pistol, spun round and fired an energy blast right into Locke's chest. With a garbled cry, the droid stumbled back and slumped on the wall, his body sparking violently.

"Sterilization in 45 seconds…"

"Doctor, you have to save the prisoners!" Martha yelled.

"I'm on it!" The Doctor leapt behind the computer and began to type furiously on the keyboard, but the warning still didn't fade on the screen. "It's not working; this thing won't listen to me. Gurney, quick, we have to stop the killing! I need that program Mergrass sold you so the warders won't listen to Locke's orders anymore!"

"No longer my problem, Doctor," Gurney replied, running out of the office, his arms laden with treasure. "I'm getting out of here."

As he ran out the office, Martha spotted a piece of metal hanging from one hand. "The data-chip!"

"Sterilization in 30 seconds…"

"So long, suckers!" With that, Gurney leapt onto a platform and took off towards the surface.

"I'm going after him!" Martha yelled, jumping onto another platform.

"Martha, wait!" the Doctor called. "He's still armed." But it was too late, Martha had already gone.

With a groan, the Doctor went back to work on the computer, but nothing he could do would make the warning stop.

"Sterilization in twenty seconds…"

"Wait a minute, the inhibitor!" The Doctor pulled the diode out of his pocket. "If this could stop Locke from hurting anyone, then maybe…"

"Ten… Nine… Eight…"

Acting quickly, the Doctor tore off the back of the computer and plugged the diode into the closest socket. Then he stood up and watched the screen, hoping that this plan would work…

Then at last, the warning faded and the screen switched back to normal. "Order terminated. Sterilization canceled."

The Doctor let out a huge sigh of relief. "Oh, yes! There's skill! Now then, where's my- Ah!" He picked up his screwdriver from the safe and flicked it back into his pocket. "Right, now to get after Gurney…"

As he passed Locke, he paused and stared at the malfunctioning droid with some guilt. He somehow knew that Locke must have been programmed to act as irrationally as he did before. Maybe someday, after this quest was over, he would come back and fix him up a bit…

With a sigh, he turned to go but just as he reached the exit, there was a loud crash behind him. He turned round to find that Locke had toppled forward and crashed right on top of the desk, smashing the computer to pieces. "Oi, mind, you'll do yourself a damage."

Shaking his head, he leapt onto the platform and went up towards the surface, hoping that Martha was okay…

On the surface, Martha ran across the icy plains, just as a blizzard came in. The wind whipped her hair out of place and the snowflakes caught on her eyelashes, almost blinding her, but she could just see Gurney as he approached the spot where the TARDIS was parked.

"Give it up, Gurney!" she yelled over the howling winds. "There's nowhere to run!"

As she drew nearer, he could hear Gurney panting heavily, "Got to… get away… from here…" Then suddenly, he collapsed in a heap in the snow.

"Gurney!" Martha ran up to him, but he was lying very, very still. "Gurney?"

Carefully, she reached her hand out to feel for a pulse… but then he rolled over and pointed his gun right at her face!

"Ha! Greener than a seasick kitten, aren't you, my dear?" Gurney taunted, getting to his feet. "Now get me onto your ship and take me away from this place."

"I can't fly the TARDIS," Martha said.

"Is that so? Well then, you're of no use to me, are…" Gurney tailed off as he stared into the sky then he gasped in horror. "No… it can't be."

"What?" Martha asked.

Then suddenly a loud mechanical squawk rang out above her, followed by a familiar voice. "Revenge! Finally!"

Martha whirled round to see Caw come swooping out of the clouds towards them. Then she suddenly spotted a figure on Caw's back, a figure wearing a gas-mask and a huge robotic claw on one arm and she gasped too. "Baltazar…"