Moments Out of Time

by Concetta

A series of stories revolving around my (so far) favorite Companions, Jamie MacCrimmon and Zoe Heriot. *CHAPTER 6 REVISED*

11. Vignette 9: Space Pirates Needing Space

The Space Pirates

Zoe was on the floor with her hands inside the TARDIS control panel. The TARDIS was in suspension, recharging from its two jumps in Scotland. Zoe figured that now was the perfect time to test her improvements on the TARDIS' power cells. She knew the Doctor would disapprove but desperation drove her. Zoe needed a project—one that would demand all her focus and keep her thoughts from straying to a certain—

"What're ye doin'?"

Zoe flinched in surprise but did not turn from her task to face the man who was the source of her current emotional troubles.

Maybe if she looked really engrossed in her task he would go away.

"Ye shouldnae be messin' with tha'."

Then again, this was Jamie …

Zoe sighed then said crisply, "I'm just replacing the recharge circuits with a more advanced copper wiring. It will improve conductivity and lessen the time it takes to recharge after two consecutive jumps."

"I dinnae think the Doctor would agree," the Scotsman's voice deepened with disapproval.

"Oh, please, Jamie. I know what I'm doing."

"I dinnae think the Doctor will agree with tha' either."

That crack broke Zoe's resolve. She looked over her shoulder, focusing a pointed glare on him like a laser.

Jamie, not in the least intimidated, held her gaze with his arms folded over his broad chest. Zoe was no stranger to that look, but her reaction to his scrutiny was new. Her heartbeat quickened and she quickly tucked her face behind the open panel to shield the blush.

"You forget," she said cooly. "I'm smarter than the Doctor and you put together—although your intellectual addition is minimal at best."

"Now hang on!" Jamie stalked over to the control column. "Just because ye're still mad tha' I kissed ye doesnae give ye the right tae act like a shrew!"

Zoe sucked in a breath, shocked that he would bring it up so brazenly.

But, then again, this was Jamie …

And then the insult landed.

Zoe hastily stood to face him, fists balled at her sides. "How dare you!" She exclaimed with a stamp of her foot. "If I'm being shrewish it's because you're being provoking! How many times must I tell you … ?" Zoe trailed off as she stared up at the Highlander looming over her, suddenly very aware of him. To counteract this she doubled down on scorn and drew herself up to her full five feet. "What is a kiss, anyway?" She said archly. "Just two pieces of flesh being pressed together, nothing more."

Jamie's hazel eyes flashed. He put his hands on his hips and his head bobbed forward. "Oh, aye?" Weel! It meant nothin' tae me, too!"

Jamie must have imagined the look of hurt that crossed Zoe's face because when he blinked it was gone.

"What is going on here? What's all this yelling?" The Doctor's voice bellowed. "And why is the control panel open? Zoe! What have you done?"

Zoe did not have to look at Jamie to see the smug expression on his face; she knew it was there. She practically felt it.

Zoe took a deep breath and turned to the Doctor to explain what she was doing, but he pushed past her to look into the open panel to assess the "damage".

"Why do you just go ahead and do things? I told you I'd think it over!"

"That's what you always say when I bring an idea to you! I knew you wouldn't be convinced until you saw it work for yourself."

"Hm, well …" the Doctor started muttering to himself. "Well … maybe it could work …" He then turned back to Zoe. "Very well, let's test it."

Zoe brightened and then turned a smug look on Jamie.

Jamie made a disgusted noise and broodingly plopped into the Jacobean chair. "Lord save us from uppity lassies!"

Zoe ignored him and kept her eyes on the Doctor.

The Doctor circled around the control panel and looked at the readings. His dark eyebrows rose. "We're at full charge …" He checked his watch. "Five hours ahead of schedule."

Zoe's eyes slid to Jamie again. He sulkily met her look of triumph and with an "och" he waved his hand dismissively and then turned away with an obstinate folding of the arms.

"I'll punch in coordinates," the Doctor said, bringing Zoe's attention back on him. "Let's see … how does a day on the lovely planet of Primavera sound?"

Zoe smiled. "Lovely!"

….

The Doctor stepped out first. On seeing that they had arrived in a rather bare white room he said, "Oh dear."

"What's wrong?" Zoe asked. She had come out after him with Jamie close behind her.

"Well, I … I don't think we're quite where I expected."

Jamie groaned.

The Doctor crouched to look at a box shaped mechanism on the floor. "Nevermind. This looks very interesting."

Jamie bent down to take a closer look. His full lips twisted in scorn. "Interesting? A piece o' old machinery?"

"Yes, I've never seen a computer quite like this before, Jamie."

Zoe looked about at the blinking panels that lined the plain walls. "It looks like some sort of control room."

"Yes," the Doctor agreed, "but what does it control?"

Jamie, ever cautious, said, "Aye, well, I think we better get out of here before somebody catches us."

"Good idea, Jamie." Zoe said.

Jamie's eyebrows lifted in mild surprise at her easy agreement, especially in light of their tense spat mere minutes before. "There's a door in here." Zoe moved forward into the strange space and indicated a metallic portal.

Jamie's shoulders sagged and he rolled his eyes. He might have known. "No, Zoe, I meant in the TARDIS!"

The Doctor gave the Scot a dismissive wave. "Stop worrying, Jamie! There's obviously nobody here,"

Jamie put his hands on his hips and leveled a doubtful look at the Doctor. "An' how d'ye know that?"

"Well, this machine," the Doctor indicated the blinking box of machinery before them, "is prog guy rammed to operate by itself."

Zoe folded her arms and frowned at it. It certainly did not look like anything she had seen either. "But what does it do?"

"Well, I'm not sure, Zoe, but I think … I think we're on an unmanned spacecraft in a fixed orbit. We're ... we're too far away from anywhere to be a … a weather satellite. Let's see what clues we can find through here, shall we?" The Doctor reached for the door Zoe had indicated earlier.

On opening it they found themselves in a hall. But, at the end of the hall there was a group of men in silver suits and helmets holding ray guns.

The men spotted the trio and were clearly not happy with their presence. The direction of the ray gun bolts cut off their escape from the way they came. Jamie put out an arm in front of the Doctor and Zoe and pushed them back. All three turned down another corridor and entered the first door they saw.

"Naebody here, eh?" Jamie said dryly upon slamming the door shut.

"Oh, now what are we going to do?" Zoe exclaimed. "The TARDIS is back there!"

"There's only one thing we can do," the Doctor said simply. "Run!"

"An' maybe next time you'll listen tae me!" Jamie shouted as he pushed the Doctor and Zoe on ahead of him, to protect the rear.

"If there is a next time …" Zoe said dubiously.

….

Once they stopped running Zoe bent to massage a stitch in her side. Jamie laid a hand on the small of her back. "Ye alreeght, Zoe?"

Zoe forced her attention on her aching side and not on the spot of heat created by his touch. "Yes, I think so," she panted

Jamie's hand lingered where it was for a moment then dropped away.

The Doctor noticed a bar locking mechanism on the door they just passed through and pulled it down.

"There. That should hold them off for awhile."

"Why are they trying to kill us? We haven't done anything!" Zoe wondered.

"I don't know, but we're certainly not stopping to find out."

"What's tha'?!" Jamie exclaimed and pointed. "Look!"

There was an ominous crackling, hissing sound outside the door. A thin line of sparks was slowly making its way along the out perimeter of the door.

The Doctor beckoned to them both. "Come on, we'll have to find somewhere else to hide!"

The trio searched around the room.

"Doctor, there's no way out of here!" Jamie yelled.

"What?"

"Look!"

"Oh, Doctor, what can we do?!" Zoe cried.

"I don't know! If we go down there we'll bump straight into them! I'm afraid we're trapped!"

The Doctor and Jamie put their arms around each other with Zoe in the middle.

Was this it? Were they really going to die like this? Trapped like Cybermats in a corner?

Cold dread seeped into Zoe's bones.

They were about to die.

The desire to say something to Jamie rose strongly in her, though she was not sure what she wanted to say exactly … And anyway, if she was going to say anything she would have to shout it over the din their enemies were making, and Zoe would rather just die than yell, "I actually enjoyed the kiss and wouldn't mind another one!"

Despite her resolve Zoe turned her head to look up at Jamie and their eyes met. He must have already been looking at her. His hazel orbs were sad and his mouth was working as if he wanted to say something too, but could not find the words either.

Suddenly there was a loud blasting sound and they all jumped. When they realized they were all still in one piece, they separated and looked around.

"What happened?" Zoe asked.

They heard two male voices going back and forth outside, but could not make them out.

"I wish I knew what they were sayin'!"

"I believe they're trying to burn through it again," Zoe said.

"Just a minute … I think they've gone away."

Zoe frowned and cocked head to one side. "I don't understand … why didn't they come in after us?"

Jamie bit his thumbnail. "They must've known we were trapped—why nae finish us off?"

"They didn't seem very friendly, did they …" The Doctor got up to try the door, then suddenly pulled his hand back with a shout.

Jamie went to his side. "Wha's the matter?"

"It's hot! You try."

"Ach, nae thank you."

"I told you they were trying to burn through it," Zoe said.

"Well, why dinnae they?"

There was a sudden loud bang from outside that echoed through the room.

"What's that?" Zoe whispered. The Doctor raised his hands for quiet. The banging continued.

"There's something moving out there."

Zoe looked to the walls. She knew that sound. She'd heard it often on the space station when outside repairs were being made. "It sounds like somebody's on the hull."

"What're they doing?"

The Doctor gave Jamie a sardonic look. "I don't know, Jamie, perhaps they're cleaning the windows."

"Oh … Eh?"

Zoe approached the door. "Now, why don't we sneak back to the TARDIS and get out of here?"

Jamie bobbed his head in hearty agreement. "Aye, while we got the chance!"

"Sensible idea, Zoe. Are you sure there's nobody out there?"

Zoe leaned closer to the door for emphasis. "Well, I haven't heard anybody out there for ages, come on." The little astrophysicist went to operate the door control but nothing happened.

"It doesn't seem to be working anymore."

"What?"

"I can't unlock it."

"Och, let me, Zoe," Jamie said, nudging her aside. "Ye hafta eat more porridge."

Zoe did not see how consuming an earth grain would help in this situation.

The door did not budge. The Highlander frowned and threw his whole weight against it. Nothing. He sheepishly glanced over his shoulder at Zoe who was giving him her 'I-told-you-so' look.

"Jamie …" the Doctor said slowly, approaching the door. "I don't think it's any use … You know what I think they've done?"

Jamie's eyes snapped to his. "Wha'?"

"They've welded the lock!" He exclaimed in dismay. "We're prisoners!"

The trio turned to each other and exchanged mirrored looks of dismay.

"Weel, what do we do now?" Jamie sighed and began to pace.

"We think," the Doctor said.

The older man had just started to pace when a deafening explosion rocked the small room. The last thing Jamie heard as darkness swamped his senses was Zoe's shrill scream of terror.

…

The sea breeze pushed Jamie's hair into his eyes. He combed it back but the breeze persisted, blocking his view of the Little Minch.

"Jamie!"

The Highlander turned and looked toward Castle Dunvegan, squinting against the sun; there was an odd weight on his chest.

Suddenly, Jamie felt something cold smack his cheek.

He opened his eyes.

There was no sun but a sterile white ceiling with harsh fluorescent lights. The Doctor was hovering over him, a canister in his hands. The older man gave his face another spray of compressed air. The Highlander flailed against the onslaught.

"Och! Stop! I'm awake!"

The Doctor straightened and put the canister down. "Ah, good."

"Though, in all honesty, I wish I wasn't ... I dreamt I was back in Scotland …"

The Doctor grunted sympathetically and then turned his attention to Zoe. "Wake her would you, Jamie? I'd use this," he indicated the air compressor, "but I don't think she'd appreciate it."

"I didnae appreciate it!" Jamie snapped, but then a wicked thought entered Jamie's head, followed by a wicked smile. He glanced briefly at Zoe out of the corner of his eye, lying beside him. "Wait a bit, Doctor, let me see tha'."

The Doctor clucked his tongue but handed him the canister anyway. "Gently now, Jamie."

"Aye, aye, I'll be nicer than you."

Jamie sat up to take it, but as he did so he became aware of a weight on his chest—just like the one in his dream.

It was Zoe's arm laying across his body.

Her head had been by his, but her body was facing in the opposite direction, with one leg up on the steel railing they had all grabbed when the explosion occurred.

Jamie slowly sat up, easing her arm down. Then, barely suppressing a gleeful giggle, he stared down at her as he held the canister near her face. But then he found himself just staring at her and the longer he stared, the more his mischievous smile softened.

Jamie put the canister down and took up her hand, giving her knuckles a gentle pat.

"Zoe? Zoe?"

A frown creased the petite astrophysicist's forehead and her eyes fluttered open. She turned her head to blink up at him in a slow, sleepy way. The corners of her little lips lifted, almost imperceptibly.

"Jamie …"

Tenderness filled Jamie's chest and he absently stroked the back of her hand with his thumb.

Zoe blinked again, color quickly returning to her cheeks.

"Jamie, what … what happened?"

"There was an explosion of some kind. Are ye hiurt? Can ye sit up?" Jamie asked, moving his free hand to her back, to assist.

"Outside of a slight ringing in my ears, I think I'm alright." She sat up and shook her head to clear the proverbial cobwebs.

"I'm glad o' tha' …"

"How about you?" Zoe asked, her eyes running over him in quick assessment. "Are you okay?"

"Och, aye," Jamie said with a shrug of bravado. "Nae worse fer wear."

It was then Zoe's gaze dropped down to the hand that still held hers, her eyebrows lifting slightly. Jamie immediately let go and looked away, missing Zoe's look of disappointment.

The pair heard a scraping sound and they turned to see the Doctor dragging a box to the center of the room and attempting to stand on it.

"Doctor, what are you doing?" Zoe asked, jumping up from the floor and making her way quickly over to him.

"When I was on the far side of the room I saw that there was a crawlspace or a loft in the ceiling. I think I also spotted a window." He wobbled slightly.

Zoe braced her hands on either side of his hips to steady him. Jamie felt ridiculous twin stabs of envy and jealousy.

"Jamie, go stand behind the Doctor," Zoe instructed. "From where he's distributing his weight the probability of his falling forward is less than that of his falling backward and you'd be better suited to bearing his weight should he fall."

"I don't much care for all this discussion regarding my weight," the Doctor said dryly.

Jamie snickered.

"I'm not insinuating anything, just stating facts." Zoe said artlessly. "I'm considerably smaller and lighter than both of you. And though I bested Jamie in a wrestling match, I don't think I could take your full weight, Doctor."

Jamie predictably bristled. "Ye didnae best me!"

"Yes, I did," returned Zoe calmly.

"No, ye didn't."

"Yes, she did, Jamie," the Doctor interjected in a bored tone.

Jamie pouted and considered not catching the Doctor if he fell.

The Doctor's lips twitched and he went back to the task at hand. "It is a window."

"Can you see anything, Doctor?" Zoe asked.

"I'm-I'm coming down, look out …" The Doctor. Zoe's grip tightened at the Doctor's waist to support his descent.

"Weel, wha's on the other side? What' d'ye see?"

"Jamie, I … I'm afraid there's nothing on the other side … just space."

"Eh?"

"It appears this machine we're on has been blown into about eight separate pieces."

Zoe frowned. "Are you sure?"

"Have a look up there for yourself if you don't believe me."

Zoe wet her lips as it sank in. "Then that must've been the explosion!"

"Does tha' mean th' TARDIS is gone?"

"Yes, Jamie …" The Doctor said slowly, a look of unpleasant realization dawning on his face.

"Then tha' means we'll never get it back!" Jame exclaimed, stepping behind the Doctor to get up on the box and look out the window.

Zoe leaned on the metal railing toward the Doctor who was now sitting on the platform stairs. "I don't understand, why would some want to blow up a space machine?"

"Sabotage, perhaps?"

"But why would those men try to kill us?"

"I-I think they were here to defend the machine, which would explain why they were so unfriendly towards us."

Jamie climbed back down and sat astride the metal railing.

"Weel, so, what ye're sayin' is we've landed ourselves in the middle of some … war in space!"

"Now we're floating aimlessly on a bit of debris!" Zoe cried.

"No, not aimlessly, Zoe," the Doctor corrected. "There appears to be rockets attached to each part of the machine and they're all moving along together."

Jamie gave the Doctor his usual look of befuddlement then turned to Zoe. "Eh?" Despite his anxiety the Doctor patiently elaborated.

"Jamie, when something explodes in space they separate and go on separating indefinitely—but this machine has separated only just so far, perhaps a mile, and now—as I say, they are all moving along together at the same speed."

Jamie could practically see the wheels in Zoe's head turning. "Because of the rockets … Oh! I see! So, whoever broke up the rocket is sending the pieces all to the same place!"

The Doctor nodded. "It looks like it, Zoe."

Jamie was able to follow just enough. "So we can get back to the TARDIS, then, if it's only a mile away."

The Doctor gave him a look of slight exasperation. "A mile in space, Jamie, with no oxygen and no means of propulsion …"

"It might as well be a thousand miles!" Zoe finished for him.

"Oh …" Jamie frowned, not completely understanding but trying to work out just how it was different.

The Doctor tapped his lips for a moment in thought before saying, "I think I have an idea …" He pulled out his sonic screwdriver and attacked a panel on the large control board in the wall.

Jamie shrugged his shoulders and made his way over to Zoe sitting on the platform stairs. He plopped down beside her.

The small stairs were narrow and lined with metal railings so when Jamie sat down he had to sit close. Their thighs were touching. The warmth of the contact was comforting.

"Hey, lass," his tone was purposefully casual to cover the less than casual feelings swirling inside.

"Hello yourself," she replied spiritlessly, staring at the Doctor with a doubtful air.

Jamie was tempted to put a hand on her knee in a comforting gesture, but he knew other desires would flare up the moment his hand touched her bare skin. She just had to wear those short rompers. He had been trying to keep his eyes off her legs and his mind off the recent events between them. Jamie instead turned his attention to the Doctor studying the insides of the panel.

"Och, what's he doin' now?"

"I've no idea," she answered softly but with a slight edge. "Ask him."

Jamie leaned toward her too, adopting the same soft voice. "Och, wha's the use? He's got his mysterious face on."

"Well, I think he's just trying to keep our hopes up."

"Hopes?"

"By keeping busy. There's nothing anyone can do now. I'd say we have a few hours at the outside."

Jamie frowned. "What d'ye mean by a few hours?"

Zoe leaned in closer, giving him a slightly incredulous look. "Well, haven't you noticed, Jamie? Haven't you noticed how difficult it is to breathe properly now?"

Jamie felt his throat and licked his lips. He had noticed it before but thought it had to do with sitting so close to Zoe.

Jamie now noticed her own discomfort; her chest rising and falling in fuller measure and more often. His hazel eyes jumped up to hers as he realized he had been looking too long. He blushed and cleared his throat. "Sorry."

Zoe blinked at him, her eyebrows scrunched in confusion. "For what?"

"Och, naethin'." He scratched the back of his ear and quickly looked away.

Zoe frowned in confusion, then her brow cleared and she eyed him sympathetically.

It must be the lower oxygen.

…...

After fifteen minutes the pair were both starting to really feel the effects of the lowering oxygen levels, and before they knew it they had both slid to the bottom step, leaning against each other. Zoe noticed Jamie's breathing had become more labored.

"Doctor, can we have more oxygen?" Zoe asked a bit breathlessly herself.

"I'm afraid not, Zoe, we've got to conserve it."

"Och, wha's the use?" Jamie groaned faintly. "We'll never get out of this."

"Come on, you two, look at these." The Doctor gestured to the panel innards.

Jamie and Zoe struggled to their feet, their oxygen starved muscles protesting.

"Wha' are they?"

"They're solar powered magnets. It's a force field."

"Eh?"

"Well, don't you see? The explosive charge that blew this machine apart didn't damage its structure. It simply divided it along the lines of its electromagnetic fields!"

"How do you know?" Asked Zoe.

"Because there was no damage to the structure!"

Of course. Curse this low oxygen making her intellectual processing sluggish!

"You mean the machine was built in separate sections and assembled in space by magnetism?"

"Yes." The Doctor, seeing Jamie looking lost, proceeded to give Jamie a visual demonstration. "Look, Jamie." He held two magnets on strings and let them pull together and then turned them so they pushed apart. "The opposite poles attract, the identical poles repel. You see? Try it." He passed the two magnets to Jamie who repeated the Doctor's earlier action, simultaneously confused and fascinated.

"So, the explosion was just strong enough to break the magnetic attraction, but just between each section," Zoe said to the Doctor, verbally processing.

"Yes."

Jamie picked up the conversation, still holding the magnets. "Weel, tha' doesn't do us any good, does it?"

"It just might, Jamie!" The Doctor countered. "Suppose I could step up the electromagnetic supply just enough to bridge this section and the next—"

Zoe jumped onto his train of logic. "You mean draw it towards us?"

"Yes. And repeat the process with each section, and so on, until we reach the TARDIS!"

"D'ye think ye could do it?" Jamie exclaimed.

"Well, I've got a screwdriver ..." The Doctor held up the implement with and raised a slightly smug, ironic brow. "I have just a slight knowledge of electromagnetism …"

Jamie looked heartened but Zoe's expression did not change. The Doctor knew she was about to ask the obvious "what if" that was also in his mind. He hoped she wouldn't ask and worry Jamie. They had to keep calm to conserve air.

"Yes, but, there's just one thing, Doctor …"

The Doctor jumped in. "Uh, Jamie, will you help me move this cylinder out of the way?"

Undeterred, Zoe continued. "How do you know that the section next to this one is an opposite pole?"

"I, uh, I don't, Zoe …" he said low enough so Jamie wouldn't hear.

"Well, if it's similar your idea won't work, will it? We'll just shoot off in the opposite direction!"

"Zoe …" he said slowly, the veneer of patience beginning to crack under the strain. "Don't be such a pessimist."

Zoe looked at him with blank surprise as if he'd slapped her. She turned away and her eyes lighted on Jamie struggling to move the air canisters of aside. Her heart lurched at the sight. His strength was ebbing away along with the waning oxygen. Zoe approached him and tugged on his sleeve.

"No more unnecessary movement, Jamie. Sit."

Jamie blinked stupidly at her then followed her to the floor. The moment they were down the Highlander leaned heavily back against the base of the railed platform and closed his eyes.

"Sae dizzy …" he murmured to himself.

Zoe studied his drawn face and labored breathing and her heart constricted. She clasped her hands tightly in her lap.

Hang in there, Jamie.

…...

The trio breathed deeply of the oxygen, huddling around the canister like parched travelers at the watering hole of a desert oasis.

"How mich longer?" Jamie asked the Doctor regarding his jerry-rigging of the electromagnets.

"Not much longer, Jamie, almost done." The Doctor beckoned Jamie to stand and the two men lumbered to their feet while Zoe remained sitting on the step. She was too lethargic and miffed at the Doctor for calling her a pessimist. It reminded her of the reactions she'd get on the Wheel. She wasn't being a pessimist! She was being logical about the risks and speaking out of concern. Of all people, she had thought the Doctor understood that.

"Tha' wiring looks like a 'cat's cradle'.." she overheard Jamie say as he looked at the open panel with the Doctor. She wondered in an odd, detached way what that was … surely not a cat in a literal cradle! It made no sense within the context of wiring—but then again, many of Jamie's allusions made no sense, at least to her. If they survived, and she remembered to, she would ask him about it …

Jamie moved over to her and grabbed the metal railing.

"Hold on tae somethin', Zoe."

Zoe did as she was told, and just in time as the entire structure lurched and her body was pulled by the speed. She and Jamie, along with holding onto the railings, braced their feet against the momentum.

"Wha's happened?"

"Oh, Doctor, you've got it wrong!" She cried. "We're gathering speed!"

"I know! I know! But I can't turn it off!"

"What?!"

"It's–it's stuck, I–" The rest of the Doctor's panicked explanations were drowned out by the sound of the whirring mechanics.

"Is it working?" Jamie shouted.

"Yes, but in the wrong way!" Zoe cried. "We're being shot further into space! Oh, Doctor for heaven's sake, do something!"

"I'm trying, Zoe! I'm trying!" And in the next moment, he succeeded. The section came to a halt and they all breathed a small sigh of relief– a small sigh was all they could manage at this point in their ever shrinking air supply. They collapsed to the floor.

"Oh, thank goodness!" Zoe breathed.

Jamie pushed himself up on his hands and knees and, panting, turned his head with some effort to the Doctor.

"Are we alreeght now?"

"Doctor?" Zoe said when the older man did not answer the Highlander. He did not look at her when he finally answered:

"No, Zoe, I'm afraid we're not. Even if I could reverse the magnetic field I'm afraid we're too far away from the next section."

"Then we're worse off now– just floating hopelessly in space!"

"Yes … oh, dear … what a silly idiot I am …"

Zoe bit her lip to refrain from saying "I told you so".

Jamie, still on his knees, let his upper half fold over so his forehead was touching the floor. Zoe heard soft words come from his lips between pants, but she could not understand what he was saying. He was not talking to her anyway. He was praying.

In Gaelic, of course.

Zoe, still sitting on the floor, leaned back against the side of the railed platform. A moment later Jamie also sat up and, with effort, he scooted to sit next to her. It had clearly taken the last of his energy. Zoe then patted her shoulder with a significant look to Jamie. He blinked at her with tired surprise, then, with a wan smile of gratitude, rested his head.

The moment Zoe felt his hair brush her cheek she leaned her head against his.

Jamie's hand was laying limply by hers, his palm up. He curled his index finger against her hand in a beckoning gesture.

"Zoe …"

Her heart lurched at the strain in his voice and the scared tone she could just make out despite his efforts to suppress it. Zoe placed her hand in his open palm.

Neither had the strength to squeeze or hold, so his left hand and her right just lay there together, one on top of the other— and that was enough.

Jamie had been frustrated and at a loss as to what to do with the wall of tension that had sprung up between them since Westminster. He had been debating whether to try and scale it or let it, hopefully, crumble on its own.

It looks like the answer was a bit of both.

Though he also had to admit these life or death situations, coming one after another, seemed to have done most of the work for him.

"I'm afraid I'm out of ideas …" The Doctor sighed resignedly, slowly collapsing to the floor. His head ended up resting against Jamie's midsection, using it like a pillow. "I'm sorry, Zoe. I should have listened to you …"

Zoe hummed in response.

The Doctor dragged the air canister toward them all.

"Here you are," he breathed and unscrewed the lid and pushed it toward his young companions. Jamie and Zoe lifted themselves up slightly to take a whiff of the air, their brains clearing a bit as a result. Jamie frowned as the air suddenly stopped without the canister being reclosed.

"Empty." He shifted his head on Zoe's shoulder to exchange a concerned look with her, then lifted his head to look at his older friend.

"Oh, Doctor," Zoe said, "what about you?"

"I-I don't need so much as you."

Jamie settled back down heavily against Zoe and she, him.

Suddenly a metallic bang from outside the section startled them all from their stupor.

"Wha' was tha'?"

"Just a minute, Jamie, listen."

Suddenly there was a drilling sound and popping noises. The trio felt little metal objects hitting them. Zoe looked at one.

"Someone's cutting through the bolts in the hull!"

Jamie struggled to his feet, adrenaline kicking in. "We've been discovered!" Whatever strength he had left he would use to defend his friends.

"Wait a moment, Jamie!" The Doctor exclaimed. They all got to their feet just as a large figure in some sort of space suit and helmet came bursting through, a large ray gun in his hand. He stood on the platform looking down at them for a second.

"Oh, no ye don't!" Jamie cried, making a leap for the man, making sure he was between the gun and his friends.

"Jamie, no!" The Doctor cried.

A high pitched whine came from the gun and Jamie crumpled before the stranger. Zoe blinked with shock at the unreal sight of Jamie's body on the ground.

A surprisingly strong scream burst out of Zoe's oxygen starved lungs . "YOU MURDERER!"

She could not wrap her head around it— not with what she knew of the vigorous Highlander— so seemingly indestructible and full of life.

"Stay still, the pair of ya, unless ya want to follow him," the stranger commanded.

No, no, no … this isn't happening …

Zoe's head swam and her heart pounded. She could barely form his name with her lips, all her breath seemed to have been used up. She ignored the stranger's orders and the Doctor's warnings to listen and clambered up the small stairs to Jamie's side. Zoe gently maneuvered his lower half into her lap and cradled his head. She looked up at the stranger, glaring at him with all the vehemence she felt, daring him to shoot her. The man looked taken aback and did nothing, just watched.

Zoe turned back to Jamie and pressed two fingers to the arterial vein in his neck. She had never prayed before; she tried now.

Please, God, not Jamie … please …

Relief and gratitude washed over her as she felt a strong pulse pushing rhythmically against her fingers. Her eyes stung as she blinked back tears.

Thank you …

"Look, either you all start talkin' or I'm going to have to get tough!" The newcomer said, though he did not sound too confident.

"Look, Zoe, I think he's just stunned," the Doctor said soothingly.

Zoe pressed her trembling lips together and nodded in agreement. She tenderly brushed the hair out of the Scotsman's eyes then dabbed at her own.

The Doctor whirled on the spaceman. "I don't care, my man, I will not be threatened in that bullying manner! Do you understand!"

The stranger looked bewildered and not a little distressed. His handlebar mustache, visible under his helmet's face shield, twitched. "W-wha, well, I don't know … a boy, a girl, and a nutcase … you can't be the pirates!"

"Pirates? Pirates … oh, I see …"

Jamie groaned and began to stir. Zoe's face lit up. "Oh, Doctor, he's coming 'round!"

"Of course he's comin' round," the stranger said, leaning over a bit to take a look. "I only gave him a quarter blast." Zoe glared at him and put an arm protectively around Jamie while also helping him sit up.

"Hey, listen, you there!" The stranger said, trying to get The Doctor's attention while he helped with Jamie. "She called you 'Doctor'. 'Doctor' she called you. Now why did she call you that?"

"Sheer politeness."

"Are you alright, Jamie?" Zoe asked the Highlander, worriedly searching his face as she steadied him. Jamie winced and groaned in response, but he was upright and his color was returning. Her heart began to finally settle down a bit.

"Now, I'm not going to stand anymore of this nonsense!" the spaceman fussed. "I want to know who you are and where you come from! Come on!" He waved his weapon at them for emphasis.

Zoe whipped around and drew herself up. She stepped protectively in front of Jamie, eyes flashing. "You know it's very rude to point at someone, especially with a gun!"

"I told you she was polite," the Doctor said, his own lips twitching with wry amusement. Jamie's own lips lifted with admiration of Zoe's pluck, but then his head swam and he swayed a bit. Zoe put an arm around his back and he leaned against her for support, his legs still not quite sure of themselves.

The spaceman was getting agitated. "How did you get here?!"

"We just arrived."

"So you're off from a ship? You docked on the beacon?"

"Well, not so much on it, uh, but–"

"In it." Zoe finished.

"Inside? Well, how could you be doin' that? That's not possible."

Jamie spoke up at last. "Anythin's possible with the TARDIS. Especially, when he's at the controls!"

"Ah, Jamie, you're better," the Doctor said with a wry smile.

Zoe smiled also but patted Jamie's chest, silently commanding him to take it easy and be quiet.

"Now do you really expect me to believe all that? If I don't get the truth out of one of your three in ten seconds, I'll–"

"But it is the truth!" Zoe protested.

"One!'

"Everything we've told you is the truth!" Zoe continued. The stranger kept counting, but the moment he reached ten, the structure shook.

"What was that?" The Doctor exclaimed. What now? Hadn't they been shaken up enough?

"Someone's firing at us!" The spaceman said and despite his threats earlier, he hustled them all on board his ship to safety.

"Now what's going on?" The Doctor demanded as they gathered into his control bridge. "Who's firing at us?!"

"Quiet!" The spaceman demanded as an audio transmission came in. "I want to hear this!"

"That was a warning shot, Clancy," an authoritative voice crackled over the radio. "You have no chance of getting away. Surrender or get the next missile through your hull!" The spaceman, Clancy, seemed unbothered. He even laughed.

"My, my, my, it's that soft-faced puppy from the Space Corp!" He smiled roguishly at his guests. "Hang on everyone, I'm going to try a trick or two on that boy!"

Here we go again, Zoe thought. They all desperately clung to whatever nailed down object they could as the spaceship suddenly took off. A Brown Betty teapot came flying out of a nearby cabinet that had flung open. The Doctor tried to grab it but missed and it smashed on the metal floor.

"You have ten seconds, Clancy, to turn around, or we'll send the missile!"

Clancy ripped off his helmet. "'Ten seconds! The nerve of that greenhorn talking like that to me!"

The Doctor began to argue with Clancy at his foolishness of picking a quarrel with this Space Corp who clearly had superior equipment. The man on the radio continued his countdown.

"Milo Clancy don't take that from nobody!"

"Just do wha' he wants!" Jamie yelled. He put a hand around Zoe's waist to steady her.

"They're going to fire a missile on us!"

"Don't worry, I got a trick up my sleeve," said Clancy. He threw his weight against a large lever. It gave against his weight with a large crack.

"Time's up, Clancy!"

Clancy's spaceship, LIZ, shifted as something left it and the missile did not come.

"Wha' did ye do?" Asked Jamie.

Clancy explained that he sent out a cloud of copper needles, something that the "new fangled" ships couldn't handle.

"They got these new fangled computer guidance systems, you see, and the argonite on the spaceship attracts all the copper, and all those thousand needles jigger up all their computer scanners!" Clancy said with glee.

"But what's argonite?" Zoe asked.

Clancy gave her an incredulous expression. "What is argonite? Didn't they learn you nothin' at school, girl?"

It took Zoe a quick second to process the atrociously formed sentence, and then the annoyance set in.

"They didn't teach me anything about argonite," Zoe bit out, embarrassed by this apparent gap in her knowledge. "Have you ever heard of argonite, Doctor?"

"Well, based on what Mr. Clancy was saying, I deduce it's a metal used in the construction of space craft, am I right?"

Zoe was glad the Doctor at least didn't know either, that made her feel better.

"Well, argonite is used for practically everything! It's ductile, it's tensile, it's heatproof, it's practically indestructible!"

"Magnetically polarized for copper," the Doctor said, catching on.

"You mean to say you've never honestly heard of argonite? It's the most expensive mineral in the galaxy!"

"As you know already, we do not come from this civilization, we are … visitors."

"Aye, and we're no' stoppin' long!" Jamie hissed in the Doctor's ear.

"Jamie," The Doctor admonished.

"Ha! Well, if that don't beat jumpin' grasshoppers!" The pilot exclaimed.

Zoe raised an eyebrow.

And here I thought Jamie's dialect was hard to follow …

"You mean to say," the space cowboy continued, "that you travel through time … as well as space?"

"Well … yes! Yes!" The Doctor regarded the man he had at first pegged as very common with new interest. "You've grasped the principle very well!"

The pilot's drooping, handlebar mustache parted in a grin, revealing crooked, tobacco-stained teeth. Zoe wrinkled her nose. "Must be a mighty interestin' thing to do!"

Jamie gingerly settled himself down in the empty copilot chair. "It would be if we knew where we were goin' tae land up every time!"

The Doctor turned, always defensive of his beloved ship and his own skills as her pilot.

"A minor fault in the system. I'm going to—"

"'Put it right in time'?" Jamie finished for him with a sardonic smile, having heard that particular retort at least a hundred times.

The Doctor gave the Scot an exasperated look.

"If we ever see the TARDIS again," Zoe interjected. It was no good arguing over the effectiveness of a ship that might be lost to them forever! Zoe kept that last, bitter thought to herself, she did not want to be called a pessimist again.

The Doctor straightened. "Uh, yes, ah, by the way, Mr. Clancy … would it be going out of your way to drop us off at the space station?"

"I can't do that, it's all in bits, isn't it?"

"Oh, dear … oh, my word!" The Doctor feigned shock. "Well, ah, do you know where the pieces are?"

"Only the argonite pirates know that, they've touted the bits off for salvage."

Now the Doctor did not pretend. "Oh no! Oh dear! Salvage! Do you know where they've gone?"

"Sure. Speakin' of which, we shouldn't be sittin' around here, we should be getting the heck out of here before that General Harmack sends more Minnows out—I've used up all my copper needles!"

"Who is General Herman?" Jamie asked.

"General Hermack. He's from the Space Corps. He's tailin' those pirates—thinks I'm one o' them! That's why I call him bone-headed. Now, let's get outta here! Excuse me, now, move over there." Clancey shooed Zoe away from the controls.

"Mr. Clancy—"

"Look, you're a good girl, and if you promise not to cause any trouble, you can call me Milo."

"Well, Milo, there's one thing I do not understand …"

"Well, you're lucky, girl—there's about a hundred thousand things I don't understand …"

Zoe could believe that.

"—But I don't stand around askin' fool questions! Now, why don't you make yourself useful and make a pot of tea, or somethin'?"

Zoe's eyes automatically darted over to Jamie and just as she expected he was snickering behind his hand, his hazel eyes sparkling with amusement. Zoe pressed her cupid-bow lips into a thin line of consternation.

"Yes, tea would be lovely." The Doctor exclaimed, quickly forgetting the poor pot's fate.

Jamie looked wistfully at the ceramic shards and reminded him that it was broken.

"There's a metal one in the cabinet there, made of tillium," Clancey said pointing towards a row of them built into the ship wall.

"Tillium?" The Doctor repeated quizzically. Curious, Zoe went to the cabinet and pulled out the pot. She turned it over in her hands. It did not look or feel any different from earth's stainless steel.

"Yeah. That's what this whole spaceship's made of, tillium. Lasted me a lifetime out in the galaxy—makes a lousy cup o' tea."

"That's what I couldn't quite understand!"

Zoe interjected. "Why your spaceship wasn't affected by the copper needles …"

"Wha' will happen if one of those wee Minnow-things catches up wi' us?"

"Don't worry, lad, they won't!" Clancy then turned to Zoe. "And you, girl, the galley is just through there."

Jamie clapped. "Aye, hurry up wi' the tea, Zoe. Chop, chop!"

Oh, If looks could kill … but of course his supercilious grin only grew under her unamused look.

"So help me, Jamie MacCrimmon …" Zoe began, but then took a deep breath and counted to ten. She then left the bridge and, passing through the door indicated by Milo, found herself in the galley.

It was indeed a galley kitchen, long and narrow— so narrow Zoe seriously questioned the basic physics of Clancey maneuvering his hulking body through it.

After opening all the magnetically sealed cabinets, she at last found the tea tin.

It was at that moment that the ship lurched to life.

Zoe gasped in pain as the momentum pushed the small of her back into the counter behind her.

The cabinet where she had found the tea was still open and spilled its other tins, mostly biscuits, on her. They made quite a din and it was not long before Jamie stumbled inside.

"Are ye alright?"

"I'm fine. Are you? You don't look so well, Jamie."

…..

LIZ was not the smoothest ride, especially not at top speed.

Jamie had a good constitution when it came to being on the sea, but a shaking old spaceship with variable air pressure … that was something entirely different.

"Doctor …"

"Yes, Jamie?"

"I think I'm goin' tae be sick …"

The Doctor shuffled back from the Highlander, putting a hand protectively over his jacket front. "Now, now, Jamie. Willpower. Willpower."

"Anymore tea, anyone?" Zoe asked chipperly, apparently unaffected by the movement.

Although Zoe had initially balked at the idea, she had been craving a cup of tea and making it afforded more opportunity to inspect the Tillium.

Mr. Clancey was right. It made a lousy cup of tea.

"I'll have another cup, Zoe, if there's any left," Clancy said, adjusting a valve on the controls with a spanner. He accepted the refill, gulped it down, then wiped his hands on an oil stained towel he had had tucked in his belt. The Doctor expressed his misgivings about the jostling of the ship in relation to its speed and air pressure.

Tapping the pressure gauge he said, "It seems a bit high."

"Yeah, it is a bittie. That's your thermonuclear power, you see. Yeah, it's wearing out a bit. Nothin' you can do about it."

"Well, except slow down!" The Doctor said, with an eye on poor Jamie. "I mean," the Doctor continued, "there could be a nasty explosion!"

"Ah, don't you worry, Doctor. It's a mighty strong lil' ship, this. They don't make ships like this these days, you know."

Jamie swallowed hard and mumbled. "Probably fer good reason …"

Milo assured them that they had not far to go now.

"Where are we going?" Zoe asked, "you haven't said."

"Well, ma'am, I'll tell ya. We're going to the one place where they'll never think of looking for us."

Milo turned to tap on the scanner, drawing their attention to the image of a planet that was slowly filling the screen. "That's the planet Ta."

"Is it inhabited?" The Doctor asked.

"Yeah, it is these days. It's the headquarters of the Issigri Mining Corporation."

"Why d'ye say they won't bother tae look for us?" Jamie asked, some color coming back to his face as the LIZ began to slow down.

"Well, Madeline Issigri, who runs the show at the mine now, is a sworn enemy o' mine—or so I've been told. Anyway, General Hermack will think I'll go anywhere else rather than go there."

"If she's a sworn enemy, won't she give you away?"

"We won't be announcing our arrival, Doctor. We'll just lie low there until that old Space Corps gets tired o' lookin' for us."

Zoe peered at the scanner again now that they were closer. "It doesn't look as though there's anything there. This side is just desert." Jamie joined her at the scanner to have a look for himself.

"No, there's no surface life on Ta, girl," Milo said. "There's too much ultra-violet radiation." Zoe's gaze snapped to him in alarm.

"Don't you worry, don't you worry. We'll be all right. We'll be a mile underground as long as I can fall into my old landing pad."

"Oh, you've been there before, have you?" said the Doctor.

"Certainly have, certainly have. Me and my old partner, Dom Issigri, god rest his poor tired old soul, we turned that whole planet into a piece of Gruyere cheese between us."

Jamie swallowed hard and lost some of the color he gained. "Gruyere cheese …" he repeated faintly.

The Doctor squeezed Jamie's shoulder in sympathy but continued with Milo. "Mining! I see. For argonite, presumably."

"Yeah, that's right, argonite. One of the richest strikes we ever found. Took us about ten years to drill that clean. Well, I'd better try to find this old entry shaft then. Now, you'd better brace yourselves. Hang onto something. My landing pad's ain't as good as they used to be."

"Who cares as long as it's quick."

Milo nudged Zoe impatiently aside from his control panel where she had stationed herself. "You do get underfoot, don't you girlie?"

"Ye dinnae know the half of it …" Jamie said, rolling his eyes.

The Highlander answered her unamused glare with a grin, which was all the more annoying to Zoe because she found it so endearing.

When the ship made its hard descent they were thrown onto the floor in a tangle, but not Milo. He was ready and strapped to the control panel by a leather life belt.

The trio lay on the metal floor a moment, slightly stunned. An electronic whining was heard over the intercom, like an old AM radio searching for a station.

"Are you alright, Jamie?" The Doctor as he slowly got to his knees and looked over the Scot.

"Aye," Jamie answered automatically, but his mind was on the petite scientist in his arms. Zoe had been jarred into him and he had taken the brunt of her fall.

"Nice smooth landing, after all," Milo said, giving the ship's hull a fond pat.

"Smooth?" Jamie exclaimed "What d'ye call a rough landing?" Jamie growled as he got to his feet and helped Zoe up.

Milo shrugged unapologetically. "I did say 'hang on'. If anyone's got to stay upright and steady it's the pilot makin' the landing."

"I suppose I cannot argue with that logic …" the Doctor said sarcastically and rose, brushing dust off his coat and trousers.

"Are ye alreeght, Zoe?" Jamie asked, placing his hands lightly on her shoulders and looking her over.

"I should be asking you that," Zoe's tone was slightly scolding, but her eyes were anxious. She was still a tad rattled from his earlier encounter with the stun gun.

"What's the matter with you, sonny? Are you getting soft or something?" Milo chided.

Jamie moved toward the front hatch in which they had entered. "Jist let me get my feet back on the ground, that's all."

Milo put out an arresting hand. "You stay right here where you're safe, boy."

"Safe?" Jamie gestures emphatically to the hodge-podge spaceship and its loose contents, scattered by the landing. "Is that what you call this?"

"You want us to stay here?" The Doctor said with a frown.

"Yeah. I'm thinking of your own safety."

"Why?" Jamie asked.

"Well, we're a mile underground here. This is the old freighter dock. And there's nothing to see, there's nowhere to go, it's just a whole maze of argonite tunnels, and if you go in there, well, even I mayn't be able to find you again. You stay right here in this ship."

Milo picked up his tool bag and headed for another door at the other end of the pilot's room

"Just a minute," The Doctor said, making to follow after him, "Where are you going?

"I've got to go to the generator room. I think one of their rockets must have gone through my transmitter unit. That radio there's whistling like some sort of hysterical canary." With that the space cowboy left them.

Jamie sidled up behind the Doctor, looking at the door Milo had just passed through. "Do you believe him?"

"I don't know, Jamie. What do you think?

"Well, he never did explain how he turned up the way he did, did he? And that Space Corp ship was chasing him."

"True. But I think we've got to trust him, Jamie. If we leave this ship, we'll never ever have a chance of finding the Tardis again."

"Weeel, I don't see we've got much of a chance anyway. Look, it's up there in space somewhere on a bit of that beacon heading for I don't know where."

"A blast furnace, I imagine," the Doctor said grimly. "I think the pirates are probably going to take the pieces and melt them down for the argonite. The trouble is, we can't guess where their headquarters is."

"There's no need to guess, Doctor. It's easy enough to work out." The two men turned to see Zoe bent over a table, writing on a piece of paper.

"What?" The Doctor asked.

"Applied mathematics."

Jamie simultaneously rolled his eyes and smiled.

Tha's my canny lass …

"'Applied … ?'" The Doctor looked confused for a brief moment, then a he cocked his eyebrow, giving her a slightly dismissive look. "Oh, I see. You've been messing about again, have you?"

Zoe shrugged her shoulders and crumpled the paper. "Oh well, if you don't want to know what I've discovered …"

Jamie saw a faint coy smile tug at her lips and hid his own growing grin behind his hand.

"Oh, no, no, no …"The Doctor took the crumpled paper from her hands and, smoothing it out on the table, said in a patronizing tone, "Come along, surprise us."

Zoe flashed him a dirty look, which the Doctor returned with his most charming smile. With a roll of her eyes Zoe bent over the paper again and the Doctor and Jamie stood on either side of her.

While she explained, the Doctor's eyes were riveted on the paper, but Jamie's eyes were on Zoe. He leaned against the table, resting his elbows on the surface, a slow, warm smile spread across his face as he studied her animated profile.

"This was the position of our bit of beacon when Milo first saw us. I got the figures from the computer."

"Oh yes?" The Doctor grinned. So, that's why you persisted in hovering by the controls …

"… And this was our position eight minutes later when he docked along side—"

"Yes, circle fourteen." Zoe stopped and gave him a mildly exasperated look at the repeated interruption. The Doctor gave her an apologetic look. "Yes, go on." He then glanced at Jamie and his lips twitched.

He'd better wipe that silly grin off his face before Zoe notices …

"Well, from this data it was simple enough to work out our original position and course. Do you see? "

"Yes, except that after my little experiment, we veered rather violently off that course."

"Yes, but I allowed for that. Look!" Zoe rolled her eyes and turned to Jamie with the intention of exchanging an exasperated glance, but when their eyes connected Jamie twitched and quickly looked away.

"Ah, yes …" He murmured. "Oh."

Zoe frowned, annoyed and confused by the avoidance.

What's wrong with him?

"Oh," the Doctor echoed then bit his lip to stifle a laugh at Jamie's expense. The Doctor's voice brought Zoe's attention back to her explanation. She gave her hair a slight toss and, straightening, she continued.

"Electromagnetic waves are always at right-angles to the direction of propagation, and, as you know, travel at one hundred and eighty six thousand, two hundred and eighty two miles per second."

"Do they really?" The Doctor said flatly. "How interesting. Well, what's the answer?"

"Here!"

"What?" The Doctor said, his puzzled look mirroring Jamie's, which made Jamie feel better.

Zoe sighed at them both before continuing.

"If we'd stayed on our original course, the Tardis would have landed within ten miles of where we are now. Except, of course, it would still be up there because we weren't travelling quite so fast."

"Oh, bless my soul! Yes, of course. Yes, as you say, a simple calculation. I should have thought of that myself. "

Zoe quirked a sardonic eyebrow at the older man. "Yes, I wonder why you didn't?"

The Doctor sputtered and walked away muttering to himself.

Jamie turned to Zoe. "Did all that talk mean that the Tardis is going to land somewhere around here?"

The Doctor whirled around and, grabbing the paper, shoved it in Jamie's hands. "Jamie, it's all here, written down. It's as plain as a pikestaff!"

What a pikestaff had to do with understanding Zoe's calculations Jamie had no idea—he also knew it was best not to ask.

Jamie looked down at the paper anyway and admired her tidy, very feminine handwriting. Unfortunately, her neat writing made no difference in regards to his ability to discern what she wrote—it might as well have been illegible scribbling.

"Aye, well …" Jamie handed the paper back to Zoe. "In tha' case, the pirates are going to be 'round here too!"

The Doctor ran a hand through his dark mop with a sigh. "Yes, Jamie, you're right."

Zoe neatly folded up the paper and slipped it in her pocket. "Do you think Milo's one of them and that's why he landed here?"

"Yes, I think it's possible."

"Aye, he seemed to know all about them, didn't he? Look, I think we ought to get out of here before he comes back."

Zoe nodded. "Yes, so do I. We don't even know if he has gone to the generator room. He might just have gone to get his gang."

"Aye."

The Doctor nodded in slow acquiesce. "All right. All right. But if the Tardis has landed here we'll have to find it anyway. Come on, you two—but for heaven's sake don't make a noise on the ladder."

The trio made their way over to the ladder that led to the outer door; as they did, Jamie tripped over a tube that had shaken loose during the landing.

"Jamie!" Zoe hissed sharply.

Jamie's temper flared. "We're not on the ladder yet, are we?" He then gestured to the ladder with a mocking sketch of a bow. "Ladies first."

The Doctor stepped ahead of Zoe and put his foot on the first rung.

"Age before beauty."

…

Darkness greeted the trio when they opened the landing bay door, followed by the tang of moist metal. The Doctor rummaged through his jacket.

"Jelly babies … no … string … no … key to the TARDIS, I will need that later … more string … no … marbles … no … ah-ha!"

Suddenly a small light flickered to life, partially illuminating the rough hewn tunnel that stretched out before them. The Doctor held aloft the sonic screwdriver and stepped out; Jamie and Zoe followed close behind—both with a hand on the back of the Doctor's jacket.

The walls sparkled when the light hit the angular crystals of argonite seams.

"It's like we're walking through a field of stars …" Zoe breathed.

"Aye." Jamie murmured, equally enchanted. "Tha's a bonnie way of puttin' it."

"Thank you."

"Apparently argonite, even in its rough state, is as reflective as the polished metal."

The trio suddenly came to a fork in the tunnels. A slight puff of air greeted them from the one on the

left.

They travelled along in silence until they came to another fork in their path. Again, they chose the one that seemed to have a hint of fresher air—this time on the right.

"How are you feeling?" Zoe suddenly asked Jamie, softly breaking the silence.

"Oh, better, but my head aches a wee bit—like I've had one too many."

Zoe frowned, confused. "'One too many' what?"

"Drams. Ye know … whiskey. Spirits." Jamie's lips suddenly split into a devilish grin. "Now, I know ye know how tha' feels, Zoe …"

Zoe flushed, knowing he was referring to her accidental overindulgence of "apple Jack" back in 1920's Appalachia. She rubbed her own forehead in sheepish memory of the painful hangover.

"I'd like tae go back. I really enjoyed tha' place. Those people. Well, here's hoping' the TARDIS will accidentally take us back there someday …"

Zoe was quiet. Jamie turned to look at her. Even in the dim light he could see that her expression as pensive—almost sad.

Jamie frowned. "Wouldn't ye like to see them again?"

Zoe snapped out of her reverie and glanced at him. "Oh, yes! Yes. I would." She said quickly, pasting on a smile that did not reach her eyes.

Zoe faced forward again and wondered if the Doctor, just up ahead, was listening.

Silence descended again and they walked for a few minutes more before Zoe suddenly stopped. Jamie and the Doctor turned to look at her.

"Wha' is it?"

Zoe chewed her lip and frowned. "Maybe we should have turned right back there … no, I'm sure we should have turned right back there."

Jamie crossed his arms with a sigh. "We did turn right."

"I mean earlier. We seem to be getting deeper."

"Wha' d'ye think, Doctor? Should we go on or turn back?"

The Doctor turned to face them with a sigh. "I think we should have done as Milo told us. He said we'd get lost."

"The tunnels probably run for hundreds of miles," Zoe mused.

"Weeel, if they do, we'll never get ourselves out."

The Doctor suddenly put up his hand. "Shush. Just a minute, Jamie."

"What?" said Zoe.

"He said, 'shush', Zoe," Jamie hissed. "Tha' means you, too!"

Zoe frowned and scrunched her nose at him.

"I can hear something," the Doctor said.

"Aye, a buzzin' noise."

There was indeed a buzzing noise that seemed to emanate from all around them.

"Where's it coming from?" Zoe asked, turning her head this way and that.

The Doctor pointed down the tunnel. "Seems to be up ahead there …"

"Hey, Doctor. There's a wee light there, look."

"Where?"

Now Jamie pointed to a spot higher up the tunnel's side. "Jist shinin' through a crack in the wall."

Zoe leaned in closer to Jamie to better see where he was pointing, her cheek inches from his. Jamie could just feel its heat.

"You're right, it is a light." Zoe pulled away, but the Highlander's cheek remained warm.

"Yes, it's reflected through from the other side," the Doctor murmured. "I wonder if we can—"

"It's tae high tae see anythin'."

"I'm the lightest," Zoe piped up. "If you can lift me up perhaps I could see through."

"All right. You jump onto Jamie's back."

Jamie's insides jumped, as did Zoe's.

"What?" Jamie said sharply, then he forced himself to sound casual. "Oh." The Highlander got down on his hands and knees.

Zoe stared at him a moment in indecision. She had not thought about the logistics of the thing when she had made the suggestion–but, yes, Jamie would be the most logical choice, given his strength … Zoe shook her head to clear her thoughts of the Highlander's muscles and clumsily climbed onto his back.

"There we are," said the Doctor. "Can you see anything?"

Zoe's head didn't quite reach the crack. "A bit higher,"

"Hurry up," Jamie grunted and tried to arch his back; the rough floor dug painfully into his knees and shins.

"It's no good." Zoe said; she reached out to the Doctor and he assisted her in stepping off the Scotsman. "I need more height."

Jamie stood and stretched his lower back. He was tempted to make a crack about her diminutive size, but decided against it.

Zoe looked back at Jamie and he could see she was trying to figure out their next move. It was Jamie who finally made a decision.

The Highlander surged forward, wrapped his arms around Zoe's legs, just beneath her bottom, and hauled her off her feet. Zoe gave a squawk of surprise and automatically grasped the top of his head as her upper body pitched forward.

"Can ye see now?"

An involuntary giggle bubbled in the back of Zoe's throat as Jamie's chin dug into her stomach.

"Well?" The Doctor prompted impatiently. Zoe forced her mind back on the task that put her in this interesting position. She peered through the crack and, after blinking at the bright light, she could see that beyond the fissure there was a cavern, and in the cavern were three men.

"… They're wearing welding suits and using thermal lances to cut off chunks off a large, metallic structure … I think they're pirates."

"How d'ye know?" Jamie asked, tilting his head back to look up at her. "They could be miners."

"No," she managed, "they're cutting up bits of scrap and it looks like part of the beacon."

"It looks as though we've stumbled on their headquarters," the Doctor said. "Yes, of course. That noise is an electrical furnace … You can put Zoe down now, Jamie."

"Oh."

Embarrassed, Jamie loosened his grip too much, too fast and Zoe abruptly slid a few inches down his body. She gave out a small "oh!" of alarm and Jamie immediately re-tightened his hold to arrest her descent. Zoe automatically wrapped her arms around his neck and clung to his upper back to keep from falling.

"Sorry," Jamie murmured.

The Doctor cleared his throat, prompting the Highlander to remember himself and ease Zoe back down to earth.

As he did so Zoe's hands naturally slid along his chest.

Perhaps it was just Jamie's imagination but Zoe seemed to let her hands linger a moment longer than necessary before she stepped away.

"Did ye see the TARDIS?" Jamie managed to ask over the loud pounding of his heart.

Zoe cleared her throat and touched up her hair, praying the dimness of the cave was enough to obscure the raging blush staining her face. "No, just the three men."

Jamie dragged his eyes from Zoe to the Doctor. "We've go' tae try an' stop them before they start cuttin' it up."

"Yes. Now the first thing we'd better do is—"

Suddenly a blaze of light hit the trio and they turned to see a portable floodlight coming their way. Then came the sound of gunfire and ammunition pinging off the argonite walls. Jamie moved to shield the Doctor and Zoe, but their attackers were aiming around them, not at them, to control their movement.

"Keep moving!" One of the men in a welding suit shouted.

"All right! There's no need for that!" The Doctor yelled, holding his hands up.

"Back! Back! Back! Back!" The man shouted, as if they were herding a trio of circus lions.

Zoe tugged at Jamie's and the Doctor's sleeves. "Quick! Down this passage!"

All three turned and fled. Zoe, quicker than both of them, was up ahead. She saw what looked to be a crevice good for hiding in and leapt for it. She gasped as empty air greeted her feet. A scream was torn from her throat as she went hurtling through the dark.

"Zoe!" Jamie cried and immediately jumped in after her. The Doctor hesitated a bare moment before jumping in himself.

….

The drop had been mercifully short and surprisingly soft. They seemed to have landed on loose packed earth and not rock.

"Oh, Doctor, are you all right?" Zoe asked quickly, knowing his older bones would have taken the landing harder. The Doctor's face was screwed up in a grimace of pain.

"No."

"What's the matter?" Jamie asked, struggling into a sitting position.

"Just a minute." The Doctor raised his hips up on one side and, digging into his back trouser pocket pulled out a damaged packet of drawing pins, the points clearly sticking out of the paper.

"What are you carrying drawing pins for?" Zoe exclaimed.

"I like drawing pins," the Doctor answered matter-of-factly. He moved the pins to a coat pocket. "Ouch! Normally." The Doctor pulled out the sonic screwdriver and began to throw the small light around to inspect their new surroundings.

"It looks like some sort of a prison cell," Zoe said.

"Yes …" the Doctor concurred.

"If someone hadn't been makin' a muckle racket we wouldnae be in this mess!" Jamie groused.

"You should've told me what you were going to do first instead of just picking me up like that," Zoe shot back, "and then dropping me!"

"I didnae drop ye!"

Zoe heard the sound of Jamie getting to his feet and then a yelp. "Och! My leg!"

The Doctor directed his light on the Highlander on the ground, rubbing his ankle.

"Are you all right?" Zoe asked, her attitude immediately switching from annoyance to concern.

"I must have twisted it when I landed."

Zoe quickly moved over to his side and enveloped his left ankle in her tiny hands.

Jamie flinched and tried to pull his leg away, but Zoe's firm grip and the pain forced him to stay put. "W-wha' are ye doin'?"

"I'm checking for swelling or breaks," Zoe said as matter-of-factly as any nurse.

"Ahem, uh, Zoe, I think you should let me do that," said the Doctor. Zoe threw him an offended look. "I know you're perfectly capable," he said quickly, "but—"

"Yes I am," Zoe said curtly and turned her attention back to Jamie's leg. Why was everyone questioning her abilities today?

"There does appear to be a bit of swelling around the ankle …" Zoe said. She then moved her inspection to the area, gently probing her way up his calf muscle.

Jamie suddenly smacked her hand and Zoe drew back with a start, nursing the smarting appendage with a look of outrage. "Jamie! What on earth's the—!?"

"It doesnae hiurt up there!" Jamie snapped and seemed to be trying to draw the hem of his kilt further over his knees than it would go.

Zoe blinked and blushed.

Oh.

"The pair of you are exhausting," The Doctor sighed, crouching down beside her. "I'll take over, Zoe."

Zoe hastily stood and drew herself up to her full five feet, haughtily looking down her pert nose at the Highlander.

"I-I don't see why you're being so bashful when you clearly have no problems with other women touching you."

The Doctor could have knocked Jamie over with a feather right then—and he probably had a feather in his coat with which to do it.

"Wha'?! Wha' d'ye mean—?" Jamie sputtered, looking nonplussed.

But the petite scientist quickly pivoted on her heel and stalked away, leaving behind a distressed and confused Jamie who was looking to the Doctor for answers. The Doctor shrugged.

Zoe rubbed her temples as she stood about twelve paces away from them.

Jamie was very much unlike any man she'd ever known—and she had known quite a few while working on the Wheel. At first the Highlander had seemed so psychologically predictable, but the more she got to know him, the more he surprised and confused her. For example, the thing that was constantly at the back of her mind:

The kiss.

It had been so sweet and tender and yet, had "meant nothing to him". Of course she had told him that it had meant nothing to her as well ….

She wouldn't have credited Jamie for being so good an actor, and yet, by his own admission, he had done it before …

A low, male groan interrupted Zoe's tangled musings and, in spite of herself, she immediately turned around, worried about Jamie.

"What was that?" Zoe called out.

The sound came again, but she now realized it was emanating from in front of her. Zoe shrank back towards her friends. "Oh, Doctor, there's something over there!"

"Oh dear," said the Doctor, and cast the light in the far corner.

It was a man. A familiar looking man in a familiar looking uniform, sitting on the ground with his back against the wall.

The Doctor gestured for Zoe and Jamie to stay back while he approached, but Jamie picked up a rock and followed after to lend support.

As they got closer, a flicker of recognition crossed Jamie's face. "Hey, it's tha' chap from the beacon. The one that was shootin' at us—"

"Oh, he's injured, look!" exclaimed Zoe.

The man's uniform was torn at the shoulder, exposing purpling flesh. The Doctor crouched down and gingerly inspected his arm.

"I think it's only a bruise. It's not broken. Lift him up, very gently."

The Doctor picked up an earthenware bowl he spied on the floor. After sniffing its contents, and satisfied that it was water, he wet a handkerchief and dabbed the man's forehead.

"Ah, he's comin' 'round."

The man looked up at the trio blearily, then a light of recognition came into his eyes, "You were on the beacon …" his voice lowered with suspicion and his body stiffened. "What are you doing here?"

Jamie dropped the rock he forgot he was still holding and held up his hands. "Och, look, it's all right. We're friends."

"Friends? You led my men into a trap."

"We were in the same trap ourselves. The pirates left us for dead!"

"I thought you were decoys."

"Oh look," piped in Zoe, "we wouldn't be here now if we were helping them."

"Then how did you get off the beacon?"

The Doctor waved away his questions. "Well, well, it's a long story, but the important thing is to escape from here now."

The man laid head back against the rock wall with a sigh of resignation. "Do you think I haven't tried? That shaft is the only way in. It's impossible to get out."

The Doctor emphatically shook his head and looked around the space. "Oh, no. There's another entrance here somewhere." Zoe and Jamie cast their eyes over their prison, too.

"I've searched every inch of this cell. Solid rock."

"There's a hidden door. The problem, of course, is going to be finding it."

"There's no door, believe me. You're only wasting your time."

"No, no, no, no. There's obviously a less painful way of getting in here so there must be a way of getting out."

"What makes you so sure? I mean, it could be a sort of tomb," Zoe said in a low voice of dread.

"Aye, a burial pit," Jamie said grimly.

Zoe glanced at the rock walls, as if they were going to close in on her. She hugged her arms and automatically stepped closer to Jamie for comfort, but then out of self-awareness, stopped herself. She glanced up at him and found him looking at her. She gave him a haughty glare and stepped away.

Hurt mixed with bitterness roiled in Jamie's stomach.

Then why did ye move sae close, ye daft lassie!? Ye were th' one gettin' all handsy earlier … An' tha's anither thing …

"Wha' was tha' all aboot? Me 'bein' 'used tae lassies touchin' me'? Wha's tha' supposed tae mean?!"

Zoe refused to look at him, half embarrassed, half angry. She said quickly, "You know exactly what I mean."

Jamie was at a complete loss as to what to say next except, "nae, I dinnae!"

Jamie's heart sank. That invisible wall of tension had never left after all. Near death had not destroyed it as Jamie had thought, only took it down temporarily for repairs …

The Doctor suddenly inserted himself between them, holding out the piece of pottery he found earlier.

"Ahem! Ah, look! Water, in a fragile bowl. Well, that couldn't have been thrown down that chute, now could it? That means there's another entrance …"

"Where?!" The injured man mocked while swiveling his head back and forth in a display of exaggerated searching. But his mocking did not last long as his head suddenly dropped, his chin to his chest.

Zoe quickly moved forward, her whole body exuding empathy. She crouched down beside him and picked up the bowl of water, resuming the Doctor's earlier ministrations with the cloth.

"Are you alright?" She asked gently.

The man managed to lift his head and give her a reassuring smile. "I'm fine, miss, just dizzy. I shouldn't have shook my head like that. Thank you." Zoe smiled at him. Someone was appreciating her nursing!

"What's your name?" The man asked her.

"Zoe Heriot," Zoe answered pleasantly. "What's yours?"

"Sorba."

Jamie sullenly observed this interaction.

Zoe's compassion, it was an aspect of her character that he had had the pleasure of watching blossom ever since she had left the Wheel. But, in this instance, Jamie wished Zoe would show a little less compassion; he didn't like the way the man was looking at her.

"Jamie, come help me," the Doctor called.

Jamie gave a heavy, internal sigh. He had no right to protest. He may be sweet on her, but she clearly did not reciprocate …

Like he had told Zoe before, she really was unlike any girl he had ever known. At first he thought maybe, but then the way she acted after the kiss, and was continuing to act seemed to confirm it.

But then she'd be so tender and attentive, like earlier, when they thought they were about to die. In those cases, she was acting like Jamie expected a woman to act: nurturing and compassionate …

Jamie glared at her and Sorba.

Yes, he clearly wasn't special when it came to that …

Jamie gave a low growl of frustration and forced himself to turn away and go to the Doctor.

"What are ye doin'?" The Highlander asked him sourly.

"Looking for a crack," he answered as he walked about the perimeter of the pit, feeling the walls.

"A crack?"Jamie echoed incredulously. "In a rock face? There must be thousands!"

"I'm looking for a certain crack, Jamie. We find it, we find our way out."

"They're mad." Sorba said to Zoe, "It's solid rock."

"When the Doctor gets an idea," Zoe informed him, "nobody can change his mind."

Jamie glanced back at Zoe and Sorba. He saw her smile and thought the other man was the cause. He smacked his hand against the cell wall.

"Och, look Doctor, this is doing nae good at all!" Jamie growled.

"Patience, Jamie, patience."

"You'll no' find anything. We've been over it three times already!"

"It's got to be here. Look." The Doctor ran his hand along a fissure in the stone.

"Aye, I know. Cracks in the wall."

"Yes, but see the way they run."

"There are marks like tha' all over th' place!"

"Yes, well, we're going to go on trying."

Jamie glanced back again and was relieved to see Zoe coming over to join him.

"Now what's he doing?" Zoe asked.

Jamie turned back to the Doctor and watched as he fished out a stethoscope from his seemingly bottomless jacket pockets.

"Och, search me," he said hopelessly.

The Doctor dragged the device along the wall.

"There's got to be a control unit here somewhere. Just a question of locating it, that's all."

"What sort of control unit?" Zoe asked.

"Shush, shush. Just a minute."

The Doctor tapped on the wall and his listening frown became a triumphant smile. "Ah ha! Yes! Yes, it's under there!"

"Wha's under there?" Jamie asked, raising an eyebrow.

"An audio lock."

"An audio lock!" Zoe exclaimed, clearly knowing what he was talking about. Once again Jamie had to ask to be clued in.

"Och now, wait a minute, what's an audio lock?"

"Well, they were used on safes, Jamie," the Doctor explained. "Combination locks became a little too easy to open when burglars took to taking miniature computers with them on their expeditions. Now I have my tuning forks here somewhere." The Doctor went rummaging through his bottomless pockets again.

"What are you going to do with a tuning fork?" Zoe asked. She had heard of audio locks, but had never encountered one.

"I usually carry them with—Ah, yes. Here we are!" The Doctor pulled out the metal instrument and fiddled with it. "Now then, get these sorted out. Right …"

Jamie leaned toward Zoe. "Which end did he land on when you fell down tha' shaft?"

Zoe rolled her eyes and gave him a rueful grin.

Ting …

Ting …

…. Ting.

"Oh, look, Doctor, will you stop it?" Jamie fussed. Even Zoe, who had been hovering nearby out of scientific curiosity, was getting annoyed. "That noise is getting on everybody's nerves."

"You want to get out of here, don't you?"

"Och, tha's nae goin' tae get us out!"

"Yes, Jamie, it is! An audio lock is a simple solenoid switch which is only activated by a particular sound. It's just a question of finding it, that's all."

…Ting.

"I cannae stand anemore!" The Highlander snatched the fork from the Doctor's hand and threw it down on the ground.

Tong!

There was a loud scraping sound and a section of the wall the size of a doorway opened up.

"Jamie, you found the right note!" The Doctor cried, clapping with delight.

Zoe touched Sorba's shoulder. "Oh come on, we can get away now."

"Oh no, we can't." The Doctor suddenly said, his tone completely changing. He was staring at something through the doorway.

"Wha'?" Jamie looked to see Milo standing on the other side, gun in hand. Zoe, who had also come to look, gave a small gasp at the sight of the gun and automatically stepped in front of Jamie to shield him.

"I've been tryin' to find my way in here for the last hour. Now, come on now!" The space cowboy fussed.

Jamie, eyeing him with suspicion, maneuvered around Zoe and the Doctor to protect them both. "Come on where?" He growled.

"What's the matter with you, boy? You don't think I'm in cahoots with the pirates, do you?"

"Well they're here, you know," the Doctor said, "We've seen them."

"I know. They've got nothin' to do with me."

"Well, it might help if you didn't point that thing in our direction," the Doctor said firmly.

Milo rolled his eyes and re-holstered his gun. "Oh, come on now. If I was in cahoots with the pirates, why would I be trying to rescue you?"

"We don't know that you are trying to rescue us," said Zoe.

"No," concurred Jamie.

"Oh, that's a fine thing to say, isn't it. Didn't I get you off that beacon? You would have died if I hadn't helped you then."

"Aye, you only got us off of there because you were curious to know who we were."

"And that Space Corp ship opened fire on you," Zoe added. Jamie hummed in agreement.

"If that don't beat jumping grasshoppers!" Milo cried. He stepped into the cell wagging his finger. "You listen to me, you three sourpusses. You're only in this pickle now because you did the very thing I told you not to do. You went wandering off into these mine workings. I've had a whale of a time trying to find you, and if you want to get out of here alive, Milo Clancey is the only person who can show you the way. Now, you either come with me, or am I going to leave you here to rot?"

The Doctor sheepishly tapped his fingers together. "Well, well, well, yes, yes, if you put it that way."

"Right. Good thinking. It's about time one of you showed a bit of sense. Who's this?" Milo indicated Sorba in the corner who had been trying to struggle to his feet during this whole exchange. "My name is Sorba. Lieutenant Sorba."

Zoe gave a noise of dismay on realizing she'd forgotten her charge and moved to help him. Jamie followed to assist and to keep an eye on them.

"Aye. The pirates took him prisoner when they attacked the beacon."

"Oh, there's no love lost between me and the Space Corp, Sonny Jim, but, well, you'd better come with us, I guess."

The Doctor shushed them all. "There's somebody coming."

"Keep back there!" Milo ordered, motioning for the group to flatten against the wall.

"The door's open!" They heard a man yell then two guards rushed in and chaos erupted.

When it was all over one guard was dead, the other took off back out of the cell. Milo aimed after him and shot his pistol.

"Tarnation take it! A couple of years ago I'd have nailed him before he got ten yards!"

"What, you mean he got away?"

"Yeah, he did. It means we're in real trouble. There'll be guards swarming round that tunnel now like a buzz of bees!"

"Well, we'd better get away. hadn't we?" Zoe cried.

"We sure had. Come on!" Milo concurred just as an alarm sounded. Jamie winced and covered his ears.

"Wha's that?"

"I told you. That's the alarm signal. Now, come on, let's get out of here. Quick!"

Jamie moved to help Zoe with Sorba who suggested he grab the dead guard's gun before they left.

…

After hastening through a steep and narrow passage for fifteen minutes Jamie glanced back at Zoe.

"Milo?" Jamie piped up.

"What?"

"Can we rest a moment?"

"Why?"

"No, no, don't bother with me," Sorba said a bit breathlessly, "I'm all right."

"Oh well, I want a rest, anyway," Zoe panted. "It's this climbing." She was good for quick bursts of physical activity but had little endurance—unlike Jamie who was used to long treks over rugged terrain.

"Well, just for a minute, then," Milo said. The group stopped. Jamie and the Doctor, who had been giving Sorba support as he walked, helped him settle down on the ground.

"Remember, though, they're closing in on us all the time we stay here."

The Doctor who had also been about to sit, straightened. "Oh dear. Where are we heading for, Milo?"

"The Issigri Mining Company. We got to get to their headquarters. It's only a couple of levels from here now."

"But didn't you say that Madeleine Issigri was your sworn enemy?" Zoe asked.

"Yeah, well, I thought she was. I thought it was her lot that was behind all this piracy trying to do me out of business."

"You've changed your mind. Why?"

"Well, I thought Madeleine blamed me for her father's death. Poor old Dom. He just disappeared. Years ago now. I wasn't even here at the time. And then all this piracy started and Madeleine started to find argonite in workings that Dom and I had abandoned years ago. Well, it all seemed to fit together somehow."

"Yes, well, it fits together a bit too well, if you ask me—" began Zoe archly.

Jamie leaned in close to Zoe and whispered chidingly. "Naebody asked ye,"

Zoe glared at him. "Aren't we jumping out of the frying pan into the fire?"

"No! No! When I followed you down that shaft I recognised the leader of these pirates. He's a murderous criminal called Maurice Caven. I've seen his picture on my home planet. He's notorious."

Jamie suddenly straightened from his pose against the rock wall. "Someone's comin'."

Milo and the Doctor picked up Sorba this time. Zoe and Jamie followed, with Jamie guarding the rear with the gun.

They weren't traveling for five minutes when the Doctor and Milo began to slow. Sorba was increasingly unable to match his stride with theirs—they were practically carrying him.

"I'll never make it. You go on …" Sorba gasped.

"No, we've got you this far," Milo said, trying to encourage him. "We're not going to leave you here."

"We can't carry him, Milo," the Doctor panted.

"Oh, Doctor, they're not far behind us!" Zoe cried.

"Aye, well they won't get much further, dinnae worry!" Jamie quickly spun around and took off back down the tunnel.

"No, Jamie. Come back!" The Doctor yelled.

Zoe immediately turned to follow after him but she was grabbed by the Doctor.

"He won't hold them off for long," Milo said. "He got no recharge units for that gun."

The image of Jamie lying motionless on the ground flashed in Zoe's brain.

The pirates' guns most certainly would not be set for stun as Milo's had been.

Jamie would die this time.

"Oh, Doctor, can't you think of something?!" She cried, struggling against the Doctor's grasp and panic's even firmer grip.

"I'm not a magician Zoe! I—What's this?" The Doctor noticed an open panel planted in the rock's face.

"It's an old power distributor box, I think," Milo said. "We got one on every level."

"Really? Oh. Well, I wonder if it's connected up?" The Doctor fiddled with the wires coming out of the box and got a small shock for his troubles. "Oh!"

"Yes, it's connected," Zoe said dryly.

The Doctor roped her into helping him manipulate the power box whose wires he noticed ran along back the way they had come.

"Zoe, attach these to that metal ring there, do you see?"

"Yes, all right, but hurry, Doctor!" She flinched at every blast noise from the gun fight going on in the distance.

"I am hurrying!"

There was another blast and yell of pain coming from the other end of the tunnel.

Was that Jamie? That didn't sound like Jamie's voice … oh, please, let him be alright …

"Yes, I think it's working," the Doctor said after testing the trap he rigged. "Right, now you two, you carry along. I'll stay here and help Jamie."

Zoe reluctantly turned away to help Milo with Sorba.

"Doctor! They're right behind me."

Zoe internally sighed with relief when she heard Jamie's voice. If she had not been helping to bear up Sorba she very well might have turned around and flung her arms around him in relief.

Soon they were all before the lift that would take them to the mining office.

All being gentlemen they allowed Zoe in first, but the lift was so small that when the rest piled in, Zoe found herself in danger of being pinned against the wall. Jamie saw this, and before the other men settled in, he quickly maneuvered himself next to Zoe, making himself a human barrier to give her a modicum of breathing room.

"I thought mine lifts were a bit bigger," The Doctor groaned as he was squashed between Milo and Sorba.

"This lift ain't for hauling argonite," Milo replied as he struggled to reach the controls. "This is the main elevator for the offices. Pencil-pushers only."

He pressed the button and the lift gave a labored heave that thrust the whole group to one side.

In Zoe's direction.

Jamie's eyes widened and he immediately braced his hands on either side of her, to prevent her from getting pinned to the wall.

"You know, this reminds me of when we were trapped in that giant book in the Land of Fiction …" Zoe commented with a faint, awkward chuckle.

"A-aye," Jamie briefly looked at her then his eyes darted away, apparently trying to focus on anything but her.

The melancholy ache she felt in the Abbey was back, along with the sense of forlornness similar to what she had felt on waking from her Silver Maiden induced nightmares to find Jamie gone.

The small lift shuddered to a rough halt and Jamie's arms buckled under the combined weight of Sorba, Milo and the Doctor being suddenly shoved into his back.

"Oof!"

Jamie managed to keep himself up on his elbows so his whole weight was not pressed against her. But he could not prevent his lips from briefly brushing her jaw as he was pushed forward.

Zoe's breath hitched and her mind went blank except for the awareness of his lips on her skin and the memory of Westminster Abbey. She felt her knees go weak and heat sweep over her body. There was no TARDIS panel or darkness to hide in this time.

"Alright, folks, this is our stop."

The pressure removed from his back Jamie went to lift himself away from Zoe but found she had a firm grip on his shirt front. Her head was down and her eyes appeared to be squeezed shut.

"Um, Zoe, we've stopped … are ye alright?" He had felt her sharp breath earlier. Had he stepped on her foot? Was she sick? Concerned, he put a finger under her chin and tilted her head up to get a better look at her. "Zoe, wha's ailin'—?"

The words died on his lips when he saw her flushed, upturned face. The eyes that connected with his were dark and warm, and made his heart pound. In the next moment, however, her expression turned cold. She jerked her chin from his grip and roughly nudged him away.

"I'm fine," she said hoarsely and walked swiftly out of the elevator leaving a bothered and befuddled Highlander in her wake.

Jamie shoved shaking fingers through his thick dark hair. "Women …"

…

Madeline Issigiri's striking, almond-shaped eyes swept over the strange assortment of persons filling her office.

"I thought it was some sort of joke when my company guards told me that Milo Clancey was on his way up in the main elevator. Who are your friends?"

"No joke, girl. Now look, will you do one thing for me before you start asking me any fool questions?"

"What?"

"I want you to get onto General Hermack, and get him to get that V-ship here as soon as he can."

"Why?"

"There you go, asking questions! Because you're harbouring a nest of vipers down there in those mine workings, and they're on their way up here at this very moment."

The Doctor decided to put his oar in. "He means that the argonite pirates are using the old mine workings as a secret hideout."

Madeline flashed him an incredulous, scornful look. "Argonite pirates? Oh really."

Milo stamped his foot in frustration. "Oh, child, will you listen to me!"

Milo and Madeline argued back and forth, but Milo was not making any headway convincing Madeline that Caven and his band of pirates had been squatting in the mines, using it for their own means. Milo threw up his hands and made his way over to Madeline's desk where there was a communication button installed with a direct line to Space Corp.

"I assure you there's no need to call in the Space Corps. I can deal with it."

"You're an idiot, girl. She's as stubborn as her old man. Now look here child! Your guards wouldn't last five minutes against that gang of thugs out there. Now look, I am going to contact General Hermack whether you want me to or not!"

"Stop! Don't touch that call button, Milo."

Caven himself suddenly burst into the office from another door. Sorba snatched the gun from Jamie's hand and aimed at Caven, but the pirate gunned him down. Zoe cried out in shock and buried her face in Jamie's arm. He put his other arm around her shoulders.

"Anybody else want to die like a hero?" Caven sneered and turned his gun on the old space cowboy. "You must have walked in here with your eyes wide open, Clancey. How very naive of you."

"Wait!" Madeline cried out. "I never agreed to anything like this!"

The group's collective hearts sank at the revelation.

Caven shrugged coldly. "If you don't like it, step outside for a moment."

"I don't want any more killing."

"Too bad."

"I warn you, Caven, don't overreach yourself!"

"I never do that."

"Well then, just remember I'm still running this operation."

Caven's sneer turned into a nasty smile. "Are you? I do all the dirty work. The space piracy, the capital larceny—"

"-The first degree homicides!" Milo interjected.

Caven gave him a nod of mock gratitude. "Right, Clancey." Then he turned back to Madeline and continued. "While all you do is sit there looking pretty and count the money. But that doesn't mean to say you're not guilty."

Madeline's confident facade faltered slightly. "Maybe, but I never agreed to murder."

"Well, you'd better agree to it, because if we don't get rid of these snoops, we'll both end up in a nirvan chamber."

"I don't want them killed! There must be some other solution."

"Y-Yes," the Doctor said. "There's just got to be."

Caven turned to one of his men. "Dyce."

Almost simultaneously the Doctor and Zoe noticed Jamie's body language change. They were both so familiar with the stance they knew the Highlander was preparing to spring on the nearest guard.

The Doctor grabbed Jamie from behind. Zoe hugged his right arm and Milo grabbed a shoulder.

"Let go o' me!"

"You don't stand a chance!" Zoe hissed.

At first Jamie bristled at this, assuming Zoe was doubting him, but then he looked down and saw the clear anxiety in her eyes.

With his gaze still locked with Zoe's, Jamie forced himself to relax, even though it went against every natural inclination.

Caven directed one of his guards over to them with a curt jerk of the head. The man shouted orders for them to move and threatened the quartet with the pistol.

"What are you going to do with them?" Madeline asked tensely.

A fine time to be worrying about us now, Zoe thought.

"Don't worry, they're not going to be shot." She heard Caven say as they were hustled out of the room.

The guard led them down a corridor with a metallic walkway and walls lined with pipes.

"Where are you taking us?" Zoe demanded.

"Shut up!" The guard snarled.

"Hey!" Jamie exclaimed. The Highlander's right hand itched. If the man was not currently covering Zoe and the Doctor with the gun, he would have punched him.

The quartet exchanged glances, all silently wondering if the other was going to make a move to escape, but then they all seemed to decide against it.

The Doctor peered into the inky blackness with a dubious look. "Has anyone got a light? It's very dark in there."

"We're right under the freighter dock," Milo murmured to him.

"Hurry up! Inside!" The guard barked and indicated sternly with his pistol where they were to go.

When the door was firmly shut behind them, they tried to make out their surroundings. Jamie bumped his midsection into something hard and thin. He automatically put his hands out and felt the familiar feel of wood grain underneath his palms.

"'Ey, it's a table!"

"Land sakes alive! It's Dom himself!" Milo cried.

"What?" The Doctor exclaimed.

Jamie found Zoe's arm in the dark and clutched it. "A bogle!?"

"Oh, Jamie, don't be ridiculous." Zoe scoffed, but then put her small hand over his larger one.

"That picture!" Milo pointed to a portrait illuminated by light coming through a ventilation grill. "It's Dom Issigri!"

"Madeleine's father?" Zoe asked.

"Yeah. Well, wait a moment now …" Milo peered about and as his eyes began to adjust, a smile came over his face. "Yeah. This is the old fellow's private study! Land sakes, it's years since I've been in here!"

"You don't happen to remember where the light switch is, do you Milo?" The Doctor asked hopefully.

"You won't find a light switch, Doctor. You might find some candles, or something."

Jamie perked up. "Candles? In this day and age?"

"Yeah. Or an oil lamp or something. Hey boy, look in that cupboard, you might find something."

Zoe went rummaging through the cabinet indicated. She had heard of candles.

"This place looks a wee bit like Victoria's home," Jamie commented to the Doctor. Zoe felt a stab of jealousy at his mere mention of her name.

"It is very mid-nineteenth century …"

"Yeah, yeah. He was an old-fashioned, romantic old critter, was old Dom," Milo said with a nostalgic smile. "He brought all this furniture, he brought all them books and everything from Earth, you know."

"Are these candles?" Zoe abruptly thrust in front of Jamie a box of what appeared to be wax batons.

"Ah, well done, Zoe," The Doctor said, reaching over and taking the box. "Yes, a whole box of them!"

Zoe quizzically studied the candles. "How do they work?"

Jamie gave Zoe an incredulous look that gave her the rare and unpleasant feeling of stupidity. "How do they work?"

"You take them," the Doctor said gently, handing Zoe a candle, "and I'll show you."

Jamie grabbed a candle, too. "Hey, we need a flint box."

"No, it's all right, Jamie, I've got some matches." Before Jamie could ask what matches were, the Doctor struck one. "Now, you just light the wick, you see, Zoe? The wax allows the wick to burn fairly slowly."

The orange light flared up as it fed on the untrimmed wick and Jamie's heart rose with it. It was so pleasant to again see something that was once so much a part of his daily life. But that pleasure was soon replaced by an even stronger one as he watched the effect it had on Zoe. He considered Zoe pretty in any light, but by the warm glow of the candle she was … infinitely more so.

Without warning Zoe's eyes left the candle and met his. In that unguarded moment, like the Doctor's magnets, Jamie felt an almost unbearable pull between them.

The Doctor swung the candle around to illuminate their immediate surroundings. Zoe's face became obscured by the dark and the moment was broken.

"My word. Good lord! This is very interesting." The Doctor exclaimed as he delightedly surveyed the objects d'arte and antiques. It was like being in a museum without rope barriers.

Jamie stepped toward where he last saw Zoe, squinting in the dim light. Was she still looking at him?

No. She had moved on to examine a gramophone.

Nerve lost, Jamie turned aside and pretended to admire an intricate grandfather clock ticking away in the corner.

After staring at it for a bit, he began to admire it in earnest. It actually looked like something more from his time.

Around the clock face frame were four ladies, one on each corner, swathed in classical and exotic garb. Above the face was a panel in the shape of a half-moon on which was painted a horse and rider. The rider was a red-coated soldier brandishing his saber before him as the horse charged.

The Highlander shuddered as memories of the real thing flooded his brain.

Zoe, who had been covertly watching him from the gramophone, approached him now. She had seen him go stock-still as he stared at the clock. He was so transfixed that when she reached them, he did not even seem to notice she was there.

Zoe stood there a moment then bit her lip and shyly reached out to him. Her fingers had just barely brushed his arm when he jumped.

"Are you alright?"

The eyes that glanced over her had a far-away look. Jamie chafed his arms. "I'm fine," he said curtly and walked away, leaving Zoe hurt and annoyed. She looked up at the clock and studied the decoration. The man on horseback also caught her eye. Although Zoe's mental index of ancient history was limited, even she recognized the likeness of an 18th century British soldier.

Oh. I wonder …

"Hey, Doctor," Milo piped up. "You know there's one thing I can't quite understand. It is why Madeleine let Caven put us in here."

"Why?" Zoe echoed.

"Well, like I said," the older man continued, "this used to be the old fellow's private study, and she had it all locked up, so I was told, when he disappeared. She swore that nobody would ever come in here again."

"Naebody has," Jamie said. "Look at the dust everywhere. Look."

"I think somebody's been in here quite recently," the Doctor said, joining Zoe where she still stood by the clock.

"Eh?"

"Well, why do you say that, Doctor?" Milo asked.

"This clock."

Jamie gave the innocent timepiece a black look. "Weel, wha' about it?"

"It's an eight day movement, Jamie."

"Why would anyone come down here just to wind a clock?" Said Milo.

"Yes, that's what I'm wondering."

A sudden shout erupted from Zoe, startling everyone. "Oh! Oh, Doctor!"

"What is it?" The Doctor came to her side. She clutched his sleeve with one hand and pointed at the floor with the other. "Doctor, look!

The Doctor followed the direction of her finger to a little table covered with a white embroidered tablecloth. He bent down and held the light to it, illuminating what Zoe saw:

A foot.

A gnarled, dirty, bare foot, sticking out from underneath the cloth. The Doctor slowly grasped a corner and with a quick, decisive yank, revealed an old man curled up in a fetal position. A thin, reedy voice floated up to them, pleading.

"Don't hurt me, please!"

"Now, we're not going to hurt you," the Doctor gently. "We'd like to know who you are."

Jamie loomed over the table, hands on hips. "Aye, and why ye're hidin.'"

"No!" The old man screeched. With surprising speed he burst out from under the table and bowled into Zoe. Jamie immediately lunged forward and yanked him off her. The man wildly thrashed about and screamed. Jamie forced the old man's arms behind his back in an effort to restrain him.

"Calm doon, man!"

Milo had watched the whole proceedings with his mouth hanging open, a look of shock and disbelief on his face. "It's Dom!" He suddenly cried out . He had been staring at the ragged man with the long white beard and the wild eyes, and yet, despite his current state, he would have known him anywhere. He approached and took him by the shoulders to look earnestly into his old friend's face.

"Dom! Dom! Look at me. Don't you know me, Dom? It's me, Milo. Milo Clancey, Dom. I'm your old partner!"

But the man did not show any sign of recognition, and the man-handling was making him more hysterical. "No! Leave me! Leave me be! No! Don't hurt me! Not again! Please!"

Zoe brushed off the dust and dirt from the old man and looked doubtful. "Are you sure it's Dom Issigri?"

"Of course it's Dom Issigri!" Milo exclaimed, slapping his leg for emphasis. "I was closer to that man than a brother for fifteen years. It's Dom, all right. What in the world have they done to him?"

"Jamie, let him go," the Doctor commanded.

"Wha'?"

"Well, he's obviously so frightened. We can't make him worse."

Jamie reluctantly released the old man and the Doctor put an arm out to shield Zoe as he darted to the other end of the room like a scared rabbit.

Milo stared at his old friend in dismay. "What in the world has happened to him?"

The Doctor shrugged. "Well, you can't expect him to behave normally. We don't know how long he's been down here."

Milo shook his head in a hard negative. "But listen, Maddie wouldn't have done a thing like this to him."

"Not her own father …" Jamie said.

The Doctor suggested Milo go and talk to Dom—talk about things they would remember. Milo agreed. He approached his old friend slowly, like one really would approach a frightened animal. The supposed Dom Issigiri's resemblance to a hunted woodland animal was even more apt as he shivered and pressed himself even more into the corner.

"Hey listen, Dom. I've still got the Liz. You know, Dom? Remember the old Liz we used to thrash from here to home planet in? Remember that time we had to race those three ships in order to register our stake on Lobos? You remember that race, Dom?"

Dom's wide, panicked eyes remained transfixed on Milo, his emaciated chest heaving.

Milo fished around in his jacket and pulled out a slightly crumpled photograph, slowly holding it out to Dom. "Wasn't that when little Madeleine was born?"

At last a flash of recognition came into the old man's eyes. He straightened slightly as humanity began to creep through.

"Maddie?" With shaking fingers he slowly grasped the photo and took it out of Milo's hands. Milo's mouth stretched into a hopeful smile.

"Yeah! Remember that? We made that record return trip. It took them fifteen years to beat the time we did then, Dom. I thought the old Liz was going to split into two. Remember, Dom?"

Dom didn't answer but had his eyes fixed on Madeline's photograph. He reverently touched the face of the girl in the black and white image.

"Maddie. Madeleine …"

Zoe's heart warmed at the sight and at the same time it ached. Her hand found the Doctor's sleeve. The older man turned his head and gave her a soft smile of understanding.

Jamie moodily observed this interaction. The unwanted memories stirred up by the clock were bad enough, but his envy over the Doctor's easy connection with Zoe only added to his general frustration over the whole situation, leaving him in a decidedly soured mood.

Milo, meanwhile, continued to coax Dom's memory along. "That's her, Dom. That's your daughter. Why, she must have been about six year old when that was taken."

"Five," Dom corrected promptly and with certainty. The dazed look was gone now. "Only five. Ah, poor Madeleine. Madeleine!" Then suddenly the old man's gaze snapped up to Milo.

"Milo Clancey! It's Milo!" A shaky smile stretched Dom's thin lips.

Milo joyfully took his old friend by his thin shoulders and gave them a squeeze. "It is, Dom, it is! Old Milo, Dom." He then pulled out a chair for him and Dom sat gingerly down. Hey, come on, come on, old fellow. Now there you are, come on. I'll tell you something, Dom—" a shadow of the old nervous look passed over Dom's eyes as he glanced at Jamie, Zoe, and the Doctor.

"We're all friends here," Milo reassured him.

"Friends? So he's caught you too. He's caught us — all of us."

"You mean Caven?" The Doctor asked

But Dom did not seem to hear him. "You'll never get out of here. Never!" A hint of the despairing hysteria came back into his voice. "You'll all die here, I tell you!"

"I think we shall get out of here," the Doctor replied with calm firmness. "How long have you been down here?"

"How long? I don't know how long. Years! They came for me by night, with guns."

"Who did?" Queried Zoe.

Dom did not reply to Zoe either, so Milo restated the question.

Dom's rheumy eyes darted to his old friend. "You know Caven?"

"Yeah."

"He's evil. Ruthless. They brought me down here and kept me like a rat underground."

"That explains how he disappeared," Milo said. "Caven kidnapped him!"

Jamie spoke up. "Well, why do that?"

Milo answered for Dom. "Because he wanted to drive a wedge between Madeleine and me. He wanted to take over the company."

"I know," Jamie countered, "but why keep him prisoner all this time? I mean, surely it would be easier for them to have killed him and be done with it."

Zoe shot him a slightly shocked and censorious look. Unfazed, Jamie folded his arms and shrugged at her. She could glare all she wanted, but this was battlefield logic, something a girl who had spent all her life as a human computer in space would not understand.

"Well, from what we've seen of Caven," the Doctor put in, "I think he always has a good reason for doing things, Jamie."

Zoe's eyebrows knit together. "You mean Mister Issigri is still of some value to Caven in some way?"

"Yes, I think so, Zoe. Well, Dom, we shall just have to escape, won't we?"

"Escape?" Dom echoed and pointed at the heavy portal they had been shoved through. "That door's the only way out of here."

"Are you quite sure?"

"What? Of course he's quite sure. Old Dom, he built this room—hacked it out of the living rock. That door's the only way out."

"Yes, but it's also the only way in," the Doctor replied, then he turned to Dom.

"Dom, the grille over the door that acts a breeze through—"

"Leads out to the passage outside," Dom said. "And that steel is three inches thick. I tell you it's hopeless. I spent my first year down here working on that hinge. You can see it's hardly marked."

"I wasn't thinking of brute strength. Well, well not much brute strength."

"It's not an audio lock, is it?" Jamie asked sardonically. He heard Zoe giggle and automatically turned to look at her. Zoe quickly tried to smother her smirk with her hand; with this cold war going on between them, she did not want to give him the satisfaction. But it was too late. He gave her that gratified grin, and, almost against her will, the resentment melted away.

The Doctor gave Jamie an unamused look. "No, Jamie, it isn't an audio lock."

"Och, that's a relief!" Jamie smiled at Zoe again and this time she willingly shared it.

"Jamie, I think you don't appreciate all I do for you," the Doctor groused, but Jamie wasn't listening. He turned to Milo. "Supposing we could get out of this room, do you think you could find your way back to your spaceship?"

"Well, yeah, apart from these guards there. If we can get past those guards, well, they wouldn't track us down in those tunnels. I know those tunnels like the back of my hand."

The Doctor clapped his hands together. "Splendid! Right, Zoe, hand out those candles. Two at a time will do."

"What for?" Jamie asked.

"Just a minute, Jamie. I'll tell you. Now, where did I put my bag of marbles?"

The Doctor instructed them all to light the candles and hold them at an angle so the wax dripped on the floor. And while the pool of wax was still soft, the Doctor placed the marbles in the wax. He then explained that he was creating a lure and trap for the guards outside.

"Once they're in here, they'll slip on marbles, then we'll disarm them and make our escape. Now, Dom, is there anything in here you'd be willing to burn?"

"I should have something."

The Doctor turned back to the rest of his companions and set out a plan of attack. Dom returned holding a tray of items.

"An old shirt and an old aeronautical journal," he announced.

"That should make plenty of smoke," the Doctor said approvingly. "Right then, is everybody ready?"

Everyone took their positions. The Doctor got up on the chair they had positioned under the grill and, striking a match, touched the flame to the old shirt and journal. They went up quickly, and as he predicted, created plenty of smoke. It was not long before the gray tendrils worked their way through the grille and caught the attention of the guards.

"Quince! Here quick!" They heard them shout. The moment the guards charged into the room they went skidding across the floor and fell in a prone heap. Jamie immediately quickly rendered one unconscious, Milo went for the other, but he proved harder to knock out. He rolled away from the hulking space cowboy, only to put himself in Zoe's reach. She promptly grabbed a nearby vase and smashed it on his head, rendering him unconscious.

Dom was the first out of the once beloved room that had become his prison—he couldn't escape fast enough.

"Hey, Dom! Wait up!" Milo called. "Come on, Doctor!" The group ran down the rocky hall, backtracking the way they had been taken. But, after a pace Zoe noticed that Jamie was lagging.

She stopped, not heeding the increasing gap between herself and the rest of the group.

"Jamie?"

"Jist checkin' we're not bein' followed." He put his hand on her upper back, gently propelling her forward as he continued to check over his shoulder. "A vase tae th' head won't keep a man doon fer long."

"He seemed pretty well knocked-out to me," Zoe said archly, not appreciating his casting aspersions on her vase-handling skills.

"Eh, mebbe you're reeght. These types have soft heids, I'll warrant—No' like a Highlander's heid. It would take more than a wee bit o' crockery to put us out."

"No, just a blast pistol set to stun," Zoe said grimly.

Jamie colored. "Aye, weel … let's catch up tae the Doctor." The Highlander quickened his pace. Zoe struggled to keep up with his long strides. Jamie, noticing her fall behind, rolled his eyes and stopped to grab her hand.

"Och, come along, wee shanks."

Zoe, deducing the meaning of his colloquialism, cocked an unamused eyebrow at him.

They walked in silence for a few moments before Zoe spoke again.

"Jamie?"

"Aye?"

"Promise me you'll never do something stupid like that again?"

It took Jamie a moment to realize what she was referring to.

"Och, so protecting you and the Doctor is 'stupid' now, is it?"

"No, just the way you've been going about it lately is. Almost twice today you blindly charged at well-armed men. You probably would have died if we had not stopped you. I think, perhaps, the extended time spent in thin oxygen may have affected your frontal lobes."

"My wha'?"

Jamie stumbled slightly as he tried to give Zoe a scandalized look and watch where he was going at the same time.

"To be more specific, right there." Zoe, who was walking on his left, reached out and tapped the left side of his forehead. Jamie too late batted at the area where Zoe's hand had been. "Your prefrontal cortex, to be more precise. It's the part of the brain where you do your critical thinking and logic."

"Oh."

They descended into silence.

Zoe gave Jamie a quick sidelong-glance. The Highlander was frowning and tilting his head, a familiar outward sign that was Jamie attempting to digest information beyond him. Zoe smiled to herself.

"Weel, what about you?"

Zoe's attention snapped back to Jamie, smile gone. "What about me?"

"Does 'thin oxy-whatsit' affect the part of the brain that makes lassies nice and sweet?"

Zoe skidded to halt. "What do you mean?" She asked indignantly.

"Ye know exactly what I mean!" Jamie said, deftly throwing back her words to him from earlier. "Ye made me sound like a …" he lowered his voice. "A muckle rake!"

It took Zoe a second to pull up in her mental index the definition of "rake". Guilt and regret tightened her chest. She really needed to explain herself and apologize for her stupid behavior. It wasn't fair to Jamie, nor kind.

Jamie watched as her eyes flicked up to his face then down at her shoes. She looked uncomfortable. She looked like she wanted to disappear. "Might we talk about this later?" She pleaded softly.

Jamie blinked at her, taken aback by her subdued attitude and discomfort. She was in the wrong and yet he felt bad. How did women do it?

"Oh … aye, o' course." And then he repeated more firmly as he remembered where they were, "Aye. Ye're reeght. Now is nae the time." He put his hand on her back to spur her forward although she needed no prompting.

Suddenly, a small shockwave passed through the tunnel and their bodies, followed by a loud roar. Hot air hit their faces. Jamie pulled Zoe protectively against him. "Wha's tha'?" He yelled over the noise.

"The rocket!" Zoe exclaimed, gripping his shirt. "The Doctor's going without us!"

Jamie gasped and looked down at her with wide eyes. "But, he wouldnae do!"

Zoe tugged impatiently on the fabric still in her fists. "Oh, come on!"

As they ran, the tang of exhaust fumes assaulted their noses. Jamie stumbled as his shoes caught on something large, soft, and heavy.

"Jamie!" Zoe admonished as she helped him regain his balance.

"Wha' did I trip on?"

They both simultaneously looked down to see a crumpled up figure in a shabby coat.

"Doctor!" Jamie cried. He immediately crouched down intending to scoop him up, but Zoe stopped him. If there was a broken bone or something, Jamie's handling could make it worse.

"Oh, don't lift him, Jamie—don't touch him at all." Zoe kneeled down beside the Doctor and felt his neck; her lips pressed together, her face tense.

"Is he all right?" Jamie asked anxiously. "Zoe, is he all right?"

"His pulse is weak," Zoe answered gravely. "He must have been caught in the blast of those rocket boosters." Zoe wrinkled her nose and coughed. "Oh, these fumes! Come on, let's get him out of here. You can pick him up now."

Jamie carried the Doctor until he spied an intersecting tunnel and veered off into it.

"That's better, the air's clearer here," Zoe said approvingly.

Jamie gently laid the Doctor back down then stepped away to let Zoe work. She took the Doctor's pulse again and was relieved to find it stronger than before.

"Doctor?" Zoe briskly tapped the older man's cheeks then his chest. "Doctor?"

The Doctor's eyes fluttered open and Jamie found himself blinking back tears of relief. He quickly turned his head to hide them. Zoe wasn't so reticent and allowed a few tears to escape as she helped the Doctor sit up.

"Take deep breaths," she instructed. The Doctor obeyed. "And again, come on."

The Doctor coughed then rasped, "Oh, dear!"

"Thank goodness for tha'" Jamie murmured, his voice still a bit shaky. "For a moment I thought ye'd had it."

The Highlander bent to help the Doctor to his feet.

"It's all right Jamie, I'm perfectly all right," the older man gently reassured him as he straightened.

Zoe solicitously brushed dust and rubble off the Doctor's coat. "What happened? Why did Milo take off without us?" She asked.

"I don't think he intended to, Zoe."

"Oh, but he must have. How could the LIZ take off otherwise?"

"Milo wasn't anywhere near the controls when it all happened."

Zoe frowned. "But surely—" then her brow cleared. "Of course. Remote control."

"Yes, I think it's the only answer."

Jamie folded his arms and cocked his head. "Wha' good would it do Caven—shooting you off into space in a rocket?"

"I'm not sure, Jamie, but we've got to find that remote control unit and save Milo and Dom. Come on." The Doctor took two quick strides forward but then swayed a bit and put out a hand to steady himself. Zoe and Jamie flanked him and grasped his arms.

"Oh, now steady, Doctor," Zoe said, her eyebrows scrunched in worry.

The Doctor shook himself out of their grip and straightened his collar. "It's all right, Zoe. I'll be all right if you don't fuss over me! Come along. The remote control is bound to be in the mining office."

The trio traced their way back to the mining office, including retaking the infamously narrow elevator. Jamie and Zoe stood at opposite ends and avoided eye-contact. The Doctor rolled his eyes.

On approaching the door they heard raised voices coming from inside. One male, one female.

"Don't you understand? There's nothing I can do. Nothing!"

"That sounds like one of Caven's henchman," hissed Zoe.

"This is your one chance to get free of Caven. Help me, Dervish."

"Tha's Madeline," Jamie whispered.

"We can get the Space Corps out so that—"

"No! I daren't! Don't move!" Dervish's tone was rising with panic. Jamie knew that it would not take much for Dervish to pull the trigger on Madeline.

Jamie signaled for the Doctor and Zoe to follow. Zoe gave him a worried look, but nodded. Jamie gently tried the doorknob. It gave. He slowly turned the handle and, opening the door just a crack, peeked in.

Providentially, Dervish had his back to them. Jamie had been right, Dervish's right hand was on his holstered pistol.

Jamie opened the door more fully and the trio tip-toed in.

Madeline's eyes widened a fraction when she saw them, but quickly turned her attention back on Dervish. She lifted her chin and gave him a look of absolute loathing.

"All right. I can see it's pointless arguing with a gutless fool like you. You don't care about anything except your own skin!"

Dervish's face turned purple with rage and panic. "Shut up. Shut up!" He screamed. He whipped his pistol out of the holster and aimed it at Madeline. Jamie leapt on Dervish from behind, wrapping his arm around Dervish's waist, pinning his left arm to his side and grasping the man's right wrist in an effort to force him to drop the gun.

The group tensely watched the pair of men grapple, none dared approach to help with the gun liable to go off. Jamie was easily the stronger man, but—as seen before—a gun leveled the playing field. And despite Jamie's efforts Dervish managed to pull the trigger and Zoe's heart automatically leapt into her mouth at the flash and noise, but fortunately the bolt went wide and struck Madeline's desk.

Jamie's fist connected with Dervish's face. The henchman spun and crumpled to the floor.

The Doctor raised his eyebrows with approval. "Ah, well done, Jamie. A one punch knock-out."

Jamie blew on his smarting knuckles and then shook his hand out. "Aye."

Now free to move, Madeline rushed over to the Doctor's side. "Quickly, we must do something! They've cut off the air in the LIZ and my father's in there! He's dying! This is the remote control unit." She turned to grab it off her desk but then stopped short and looked at it despairingly.

"Oh my word!" The Doctor said, picking up the object, still smoking from the stray shot. "I'm afraid the blast from the gun has fused the wires together."

Madeline gripped the corner of her desk as she tried to keep her panic in check. "Can't you do something?"

"I'll do my best."

Zoe moved to get a closer look at the remote, hoping to help. Jamie left his spot by the fallen Dervish to follow out of curiosity, and for an excuse to stand close to Zoe.

The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and bent over the device, all his focus on the little white box. It was a very delicate operation. Tiny sparks went up as he carefully un-fused and respliced the wires.

"Oh, come on … come on, please!" Madeline murmured as she bit her fingernails, watching the Doctor's progress like a hawk.

The lately dead light on the remote came to life. The Doctor flicked one toggle switch up.

"I think … I think that's the air conditioning unit back up. Now for the radio link. I hope it's still tuned into the LIZ's frequency." He switched it on.

"Hello! LIZ 79. Can you hear me? Can you hear me, Dom? Dom Issigri!"

Madeline leaned over the older man's shoulder from behind.

"Father? Father, this is Madeleine! Can you hear me? Father!"

Nothing but radio static answered them.

"Are you sure the radio link is working?" Madeline asked anxiously.

"Well, I think so."

The tall woman wrung her well manicured hands together, willing herself not to think of the other, more obvious reason why they received no answer.

"What about the video?" She prompted.

"That is much more difficult, I'm afraid."

"How can we tell whether they're all right or not?" Madeline's voice was beginning to take on an hysterical pitch, understandable in the circumstances.

"Well—"

"Hey, Doctor!"

"What is it, Jamie? I'm busy."

"It's Dervish. He's gone!"

"What?"

"He's bound to bring Caven and the guards back," said Zoe.

"Aye." Jamie posted himself by the door to keep watch, mentally kicking himself for not keeping an eye on Dervish—he had assumed that punch would have kept the man out longer. Either Jamie was losing his touch, or the man was made of harder stuff than he'd given him credit for. It had to be the latter.

Well, good for him.

"I'll close the main doors, then we'll be safe," said Madeline. She went to the controls and pressed a button. There was a rumbling in the distance as the doors activated. She then turned back to the Doctor. "Let's try and contact the LIZ again. Please."

The Doctor looked at her a moment then handed her the remote. Madeline tried to keep her voice calm and even as she spoke into the receiver. Jamie and Zoe exchanged worried glances.

Suddenly, a familiar voice crackled through the speaker.

"Ugh, stop screechin' like a banshee, will ya?"

"Hardly like a banshee …" Jamie muttered under his breath.

Despite the more important things going on in front of them Zoe could not resist asking, "What's a 'banshee'?"

"Hm? Oh. Weel, it's kind of hard tae explain but, ah … she's a spirit that comes aroound, weepin' an' wailin' when someone's aboot tae die."

Zoe made a face. "I'm sorry I asked. I assume that's one of your Scottish legends is it?"

"Irish. But we Scots share a similar legend, the Ban Sithe."

Losing interest in the subject, Zoe turned her attention back to Madeline and the Doctor.

"I don't think I much care for it," Zoe said in a lofty tone.

"Och, dearie me! Zoe Heriot doesnae much care for it. My ancestors would be hiurt."

Zoe rolled her eyes and gave him a dry look. Jamie's lips were tilted up in that easy, teasing grin again that grew with the watching. She quickly turned her gaze back to the Doctor as she felt a blush rise.

"And I suppose you've heard this banshee in order to make the comparison," She softly scoffed, pushing into scorn in an attempt to mask the fluster.

"Aye."

Zoe's gaze snapped back to Jamie. He was no longer looking at her or smiling. Zoe opened her mouth to ask more questions when a deep authoritative voice faintly came over the radio link.

"It's Hermack from Space Corps, he's contacted the LIZ," Madeline said.

In an impromptu three way call, Madeline, Hermack, the Doctor and Milo hashed out a plan of attack and escape between them. But first they had to get the LIZ free of the remote control or they weren't going anywhere. The Space Corps could not mount their assault and pick them up at the same time.

"Now listen, Milo, I think I can help you dismantle the remote control device and regain control of the LIZ …" The Doctor said.

Milo said something back that Zoe could not make out.

"I think the remote control unit will be probably situated somewhere in the computer preselector. Now do you know where that is?"

"Well, of course I know where it is," Milo's voice crackled. "I know the LIZ like the back of my hand. Now that computer thingummy, that should be, well, somewhere about here, I guess …"

"Madeline …" Caven's oily voice was suddenly heard over their heads, like a phantom. "Can you hear me? This is Caven."

Jamie put his hand on his dirk and looked wildly around. It was then they all spotted Caven's face on the large office telecom screen.

"He's probably outside the main door," Madeline murmured. "That's where the internal video is." The stately woman then moved to the door.

"You can't get in, Caven. By the time you cut through that door, the Space Corps will be swarming all over Ta."

"Oh dear, Madeleine, you've disappointed me. We could have made a fortune together, instead of which I have to leave and you have to die."

"Empty threats, Caven."

"Oh, no …" Caven said in a sing-song voice. Then he addressed Dervish who was apparently with him. "You'll need eighteen to twenty demolition charges."

"What for?"

"Connect them in series to the atomic fuel store."

"But that's madness, Caven. There isn't time—" the pair began to squabble. It would've been comical if the situation wasn't so serious. Caven ended the argument with, "Do as I say!" The sound of departing footsteps was just audible.

"Should be quite a bang. The equivalent of about eighty old-fashioned hydrogen bombs."

Jamie heard Zoe suck in a sharp breath beside him.

"You'd never do that," Madeline said. "You'd blow yourself sky-high as well!"

"Oh no. We shall explode it when we're a safe distance away, and the V-Ship is right in the flash zone. You have about forty minutes. Oh, don't try to leave. I'm turning the manual lock on this side. Enjoy the big bang!"

Madeline heard the lock click. She turned back from the door, a bleak look on her elegant face.

"That's it," she said with a sigh. "I don't think he's bluffing. And if he sets off an explosion in the atomic fuel store …"

"Then we must see to it that he doesn't," the Doctor said firmly.

"Well, how?" Jamie piped up. "We cannae stop him if we're locked in here."

"What about the Space Corps? Can they get here in time?" Zoe asked.

Madeline shook her head. "No, V-ships require a complicated landing technique. They're so large."

"Besides," added the Doctor, "we shall have to warn them of Caven's intended escape."

Jamie put his hands on his hips, his familiar pose of frustration. "Then who's goin' to get us out of here?"

"There's only one man who can, Jamie. Milo."

"But the LIZ is still jammed on remote control," Zoe reminded him.

"I know, I know, but we shall free it."

"You hope," Jamie said dryly.

The Doctor ignored Jamie, used to his pessimism. "Get on to the space patrol," he ordered Madeline. "Tell them what's happened. I'd better see how Milo's getting on with that bird's nest."

Zoe situated herself by the Doctor as he continued to direct Milo, just in case the Doctor made a mistake. Jamie sidled up to Miss Issigiri to listen to her conversation with Hermack; learn the possible attack strategy and see if he could help.

"He's planting some sort of explosive device in the atomic fuel store, with a radio control detonator."

"He intends to leave Ta in a Beta Dart and set off the explosion once out of range …"

"Yes."

"Then we must try and intercept him before he has the chance to transmit the triggering pulse. We'll let you know, Miss Issigri, don't worry."

Back over on the Doctor's side of the desk. "Milo? Have you found that little red wire leading into the neuristor bank?"

"Huh! Little red wire, he says. There's about a thousand little red wires here. You hold that bunch, will you, Dom?" Now, neuristor bank?"

Zoe frowned and made a slight huff of exasperation "I thought he said he knew the LIZ like the back of his hand. How does he not know where the neuristor bank is?"

"Not everyone is as brilliant as you, Zoe," the Doctor replied dryly; "Milo knows how to fly his ship and how to keep it running, more or less, but not how every single thing works. Overriding remote interference is not an everyday problem for Milo."

A sharp yelp from the man in question came over the speaker. The Doctor's lips twitched. "It sounds as if you've found it."

"Jumping galactic gob-stoppers, why didn't you tell me it was alive! My fingers!"

Zoe rolled her eyes. "I'd have known that."

The Doctor gave her head an indulgent pat. "Yes, Zoe, you're very smart. Now, shush.

"Now, somewhere near that neuristor bank, there should be the implanted overriding unit. It's probably transistorised. Very small."

Dom Issigiri's voice floated through the speaker.

"Is that it?"

"Could be, Dom. We'll try that one, shall we? Right. Good."

The sound of large creaking metal and yowling jet fire came to Zoe and the Doctor's ears, along with Milo and Dom shouting.

"What's happening?" The Doctor asked anxiously.

"I found it!"

The Doctor and Zoe exchanged a smile of relief.

"Right. Now, dismantle it carefully."

"I just have. Hold on a second, Dom. We're on our way!"

Madeline ended her communication with Hermack and moved to the Doctor, putting her hand over his, the one holding the receiver. "Let me speak with him."

Jamie noticed a slight blush creep into the Doctor's face and he grinned.

"Oh, ah, of course." The Doctor cleared his throat and politely relinquished the receiver.

"Hello, LIZ 79. Milo, can you hear me?"

"Yeah, loud and clear. We'll be seeing you in a minute, Maddie girl, because we've landed."

"Thank goodness for that. Now listen, Milo, there isn't much time. You've got to get over to Headquarters and release us quickly."

"But why? What's going on?"

"There's no time for questions! Hurry!"

"Righto!"

Madeline put the receiver back in the cradle then turned back to confer with the Doctor.

The Doctor, Jamie, Zoe and Madeline all huddled together to take a brief council of war. The Doctor was sure that, once Milo freed them, he could defuse the explosive and then they would escape on the LIZ. Madeline got in touch with Space Corps again to apprise Hermack of their plan.

"The Doctor thinks that he might be able to defuse this explosive."

"You haven't much more time. Eight, perhaps ten minutes. I've got to blast that Beta Dart at 1200 hours."

"All right, but give us as long as you can.

"Good luck. You'll need it."

Madeline hung up the receiver and a moment later Milo burst in. "I haven't run so far since I was knee high to a grasshopper," he panted.

The group rushed toward him. Milo felt a sense of pride. Clearly they were coming to hail-the-conquering hero—but then they all brushed past him into the corridor.

"Hey, what's going on here? Where are you all going?"

"To turn off a bomb!" Jamie shouted back over his shoulder.

"Oh my. A bomb?! Hey, wait for me!"

…

Zoe, Milo, Jamie and Madeline crowded around the porthole built into the door to the atomic fuel room. They tensely watched the Doctor as he worked over the detonator.

"Oh, Doctor, hurry!" Zoe whimpered.

"Land sakes alive, girl, he's got to find the right one," Milo chided. "He'll blow us all to bits if he moves the wrong wire."

"What time is it?" Zoe asked Jamie but before he could answer she grabbed his wrist to look at his watch. "11:55. The Doctor has five minutes." Zoe made to let go of Jamie's wrist but Jamie's long fingers closed around hers. They both exchanged anxious looks before returning their attention to the porthole to watch the Doctor.

The Doctor reached inside the remote unit and removed a waxed cartridge–wires running from it to the radio control box. He stared at the wires for a long moment.

"Wha's he waitin' for? He's just standin' there!"

"If he cuts the wrong wire, Jamie, it will explode for sure."

The Doctor moved. They all held their breath as he cut the wire. When nothing happened they all collectively exhaled.

"He did it!" Madeline exclaimed. She turned and wrapped her arms around Milo in a warm hug. The old cowboy melted. "It's all gonna be alright now, Maddie-girl," he said soothingly, patting her back.

Zoe and Jamie snuck sidelong glances at each other, both wanting to follow suit, yet not daring to.

…..

"I've just heard that the Space Corps has destroyed the Beta Dart," Madeline said, replacing the office telephone back on the hook.

"Well, at least those varmints have done something right for a change, hey?" Chuckled Milo.

Madeline gave a resigned sigh despite the good news. "General Hermack is coming back here to pick me up. I have to go back to home planet."

Zoe frowned. "What for?"

"To stand trial."

Jamie straightened up from the desk he'd been lounging against beside the Doctor, an equally concerned frown furrowing his brow.

Milo put his hands on hips. "To stand trial? Now listen, don't you worry about that, little Maddie girl. I'll have a few words with those fangdanglers about that."

Madeline put a hand on his arm and looked up at him with a fond smile. "Don't worry. The General doesn't seem to think that the outcome will be disastrous, and my father's evidence will help."

"Yeah, damn tootin' it will. Poor old critter. Hey, would you like to go and have a word with him, Maddie girl? He's only out there on the LIZ."

Madeline went still. "Yes … yes. It'll be strange seeing him after all these years."

Milo gently nudged her to the lift door. "Go on. You go and have a word with him all by yourself. Go on."

She looked at Milo then at Zoe and Jamie and the Doctor. She blinked rapidly as a sheen of tears came over her blue eyes. She suddenly looked very young.

"I don't know how to thank you …" she said quietly, humbly then quickly turned away and went into the lift.

"Doctor? Doctor, what about the TARDIS?" Zoe suddenly asked.

Jamie stepped up beside her with his hands on his hips. "Hey, that's a point. Where is it?"

The Doctor blinked. He apparently had forgotten all about it. "Oh, the TARDIS. Well, that's no problem. It's orbiting Lobos, Milo's home planet, in one of the beacon sections."

Zoe huffed and folded her arms. "Oh, no problem, eh? Well, how are we going to get to it?"

A smile spread across the Doctor's face. "Milo's very kindly offered us a lift in the LIZ."

"Oh no, not the LIZ again!" Jamie burst out in dismay, his face turning a shade paler at the memory. "Frankly, I'd rather walk."

Milou gave him a confused look. "You what?"

"You never know," the Doctor chuckled,

"you might have to."

…..

Jamie was once again curled up in a ball of misery while the LIZ shook his stomach and bones. Jamie swallowed against the rising nausea. Zoe was also feeling a bit off. But, it wasn't nausea. A dull ache was pulsing in her back and stomach; she felt hot.

Jamie felt Zoe plop down beside him and open one eye to survey her with concern despite his own queasiness.

"Ye alright?" He asked quickly then shut his mouth as another wave of sick hit him with a jar from the LIZ.

Zoe rubbed her stomach with a frown. "Yeah, I just … ache."

"We're coming up on Lobos!" Milo announced.

"Thank the Lord …" Jamie murmured and struggled to his feet. He put out a hand and helped Zoe up.

Fortunately it did not take long to identify the beacon section holding the TARDIS, and with slightly anemic, yet fond farewells to Milo, the trio boarded the beacon piece and made their way into the TARDIS.

"Ah, home again!" The Doctor exclaimed.

Jamie quickly made use of the TARDIS' toilet, dry heaving a few times before his stomach settled.

There was a sudden pounding on the door and Zoe's urgent voice.

"Jamie! Could you hurry up? I need to use the facilities!"

Jamie, who was feeling much better, opened the door. "Alreeght, keep yer skirt on, lass—Och, steady on!"

Zoe practically shoved past him and slammed the door in his face.

"Are ye alreeght, Zoe?"

"I … oh, no …" came her muffled voice.

"Zoe?"

"Jamie … could you get the Doctor for me?"

Now Jamie was really concerned. "Wha's wrong?"

"Just get him, please!"

"Alreeght, fine."

Within minutes the Doctor was by the door. "Zoe, what is it? What's wrong"

"Is Jamie there?"

"Yes." Jamie was hovering nervously at his elbow.

"Tell him to go away, please."

The Doctor turned to Jamie with raised, quizzical eyebrows.

"Fine," Jamie huffed and stalked away.

"Alright, he's gone, now what is it?"

"It's a little embarrassing …"

Zoe told him.

"Oh. I see. I'll see what I can find …"

…