You are like a hurricane 
There's calm in your eye. 
And I'm gettin' blown away 
To somewhere safer where the feeling stays. 
I want to love you but I get so blown away. 
		--Neil Young



CHAPTER 4:  BLOWN AWAY


	Barely contained chaos had broken out in the colony's central complex.  
The Ceres Betans were accustomed to being isolated and alone, and the news 
of an unscheduled visit and possible invaders had quickly swept through the 
colony, never mind that the possible invader was a single human woman.  
Garner, who as the colony's Science Complex administrator was plugged in to 
everything that went on there, was amazed at the swiftness with which these 
rumors had swept through the population.  In the hour or so since the guards 
had captured her, Ace had metamorphosed from one woman to a squadron of 
Dalek killers to a platoon of professional mercenaries and back to a hired 
assassin here to execute [insert name here].  Even so, as the Master swept 
down the hallway people parted before him like the Red Sea, leaving Garner to 
hurry along in his wake.
	"We're on our way down now, Captain.  No, just stay put and hold her 
there."  Garner trotted to keep up with the Master's long strides, speaking 
into his wrist communicator to the colony's security forces.  "Well, he's...he's 
pretty excited.  Yes, good work, Captain."  He lowered his wrist and sprinted 
forward.  "Pretty excited" wasn't really the right phrase.  The Master was 
way past excited.  He was practically skipping down the hall with his arms 
swinging and his head held high, beaming a wide self-satisfied grin.  Garner 
drew even with him.
	"Master, when are you going to tell me what the hell's going on here?"
	"Everything's coming together, Garner!" he cried exuberantly.  "She's 
here!"
	"Who is she?  How did the other one escape so quickly?  What did they..."
	"Too many questions, Garner.  To answer the easiest one first, her name 
is Ace and she's the Doctor's wife!"  The Master actually rubbed his hands 
together and cackled maniacally.
	"His *wife?*  So what's she doing here?"
	"I imagine she came because I'm holding her husband hostage!" the 
Master exclaimed, throwing his arms upwards in a "hallelujah" gesture 
towards the ceiling. 
	Garner stopped short and put out an arm, forcing the Master to stop as 
well.  "You didn't tell me you'd kidnapped him!"
	"I hate to bruise your ego, Garner, but I don't tell you everything."  He 
clapped Garner on the shoulder in an absurd comradely gesture and set off 
down the hall again.
	Garner's mouth opened and shut a few times, then he shook himself and 
hurried after the Master.  "Master, wait!  Where are you keeping him?"
	"Don't worry about it, everything's under control," the Master replied 
with a dismissive hand-wave and sped up, leaving Garner in the dust with his 
mouth hanging open.
	They came to the security level and the Master burst through the double 
doors with a grand sweeping arm gesture.  The security headquarters, which 
had been rather tranquil since the Master's arrival (he'd made death the 
punishment for all crimes), was a cacophony of shouts and noise.  Onlookers
clamored to get a look at the prisoner and the communications officers were 
busy answering calls from the populace.  Through the hubbub Garner could see 
a group of guards gathered around the Captain's office, and the Captain himself 
leaning over a woman in a chair, his face twisted into a snarl.  He appeared to 
be interrogating her.  The room quieted quickly as the Master and Garner 
entered, and the captain looked up and smiled to see them approaching.  He 
reached out and hauled Ace roughly to her feet, dragging her through the 
crowd.  "Here she is, Master," he said smugly, jerking her in front of him and 
presenting her to the Master like a ten-point buck.  Garner stared at her, 
fascinated.  So this woman was married to the infamous Doctor.  He didn't
quite know what to make of her but one thing was certain...she sure looked like 
she was somebody.  She was clad in a silver combat suit, black leather 
jackboots and a yellow utility belt.  Her armor was dotted with slots and 
pockets for weapons, all of which were now lying on a nearby table.  She was 
short and looked strong, the cut of her muscles evident through the skintight 
battle armor, and her face was hard and gave nothing away...although now it 
sported a developing bruise above her left eyebrow.  Her hair was coming out 
of its tight ponytail, wispy strands floating around her face, and her eyes 
were angry and full of rage.
	The Master walked forward, an oily smile creasing his lips.  You could 
have heard a pin drop in the crowded security bullpen.  "Well, well, well," he 
murmured in his best uber-villain manner.  "Fancy meeting you here, Ace."  
She glared up at him, her jaw clenched.  He reached out and grasped her chin 
in his fingers, tilting her face up towards him.  She tried to pull away but his 
grip was like iron.  "This ambush wasn't necessary.  All you had to do was 
knock."  He released her chin with a shove that rocked her head to the side.  
She recovered quickly and fixed him with a stare of pure venom.
	"Where is he?" she hissed quietly.  "Let me see him."
	The Master tsked her patronizingly.  "You're in no position to make 
demands, my dear."
	Ace looked him up and down, noting his darkening fingernails and slightly 
loose skin.  "Doesn't look like you are either."  She leaned forward, her eyes 
gleaming and her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper.  "Your decay is 
showing, Master.  Won't be long before you disintegrate completely, will it?  
It's about time.  He and I will just laugh as you can disintegrate bit...by...bit."  
The low contempt in her last three words broke the surface of the Master's 
cool demeanor.  His lip curled and he hauled back and slapped her backhand 
across the face, knocking her against the Captain.  The onlookers drew a 
collective gasp.  She straightened, smiling, a thin trickle of blood trailing from 
her lip.  Her gaze fastened on Garner.  One glance at his uncomfortable 
expression told her that he was the weak spot here.  Her next words were 
spoken to him.  "It's almost over for him now, can't you see that?  Don't you 
feel that?"
	The Master gave a brief harrumph of dismissive laughter and strolled 
back the way he'd come, turning back as he reached the door.  "If you 
cooperate with me, Ace, you might just live long enough to find out how wrong 
you are."  He nodded to Garner and swished through the doors.  Garner sighed 
and went back to where the captain held Ace.  He gripped her arm in his 
mechanical right hand.
	"You're dismissed, Captain.  I'll take it from here."
	The captain looked a little disappointed that he wouldn't get to 
"interrogate" Ace further, but he saluted smartly and returned to his troops.  
Garner led Ace up the stairs and out the doors.
	They walked the hall in silence, the staring eyes of the colonists that 
lined the corridors fastened on them.  Ace did not resist him, but Garner could 
feel her fuming.
	"So you're his latest little stooge, I guess," she finally said.
	Garner didn't answer.
	"Although from what I hear about this planet the Master might be an 
improvement."
	Garner kept silent.
	Ace glanced over at her new captor.  His face was carefully neutral.  
She'd expected that the kind of lunatics with which this planet was supposedly 
populated would put up a fight.  She wasn't entertaining plans of escape just 
yet.  She'd never be able to get out of his grip, and besides she wasn't leaving 
without the Doctor.
	"Where are you taking me?"
	"Detention level," he said.
	Ace fell silent, thinking.  Something just didn't track.  She'd barged in 
with no warning, and they really hadn't acted all that surprised.  They had to 
know that she'd come because of the Doctor, and yet they hadn't said a word 
about him.  Now they were just going to shut her up in a cell and call it good?  
Weird.
	After walking through endless corridors and descending in an elevator 
for what seemed like forever, they came to the detention area.  By the look of 
it it must be for upper class criminals, Ace though.  It was clean and modern 
with individual cells.  Garner walked her down the cellblock to the last cell 
after a cursory nod at the jailer.  He went into the cell with her, which struck 
her as odd until she realized why.  From a locked panel behind the door he 
withdrew a small silver cylinder and a wristband with a photonic transmitter 
on it.  He unlocked her handcuffs and snapped the wristband around her wrist, 
then pressed a button on the silver cylinder.  An indicator on the wristband 
and a similar one inside the wall panel lit up and there was a low electronic 
click.  He pocketed the cylinder.
	"Electronic proximity alarm?" she asked, examining the wristband.
	He nodded.  "You must be within fifteen feet of the sensor at all times," 
he said flatly.
	"Or what?"
	He sighed and paused slightly...but the pause was very telling.  "There's 
a small needle on the inside of the wristband.  If you exceed the proximity 
limit it will inject you with potassium chloride.  You'll be dead within five 
seconds."  He looked at her speculatively for a second.  "Any tampering with 
either the wristband or the panel will result in activation.  The signal can only 
be terminated by this cylinder, which I keep."  He locked the panel again and 
went to the door to let himself out, but paused just as he got there.  He turned 
back to look at her standing in the middle of the room, her arms crossed over 
her chest.  "Why did you come here?" he asked softly.  "The Master said that 
you and the Doctor are no longer together."
	Ace rolled her eyes and threw up her hands.  "Is nothing private in this 
universe anymore?"  He waited patiently.  She sighed and dropped her arms to 
her sides.  "It's one thing to be angry at your husband," she said.  "It's 
another thing not to care when his arch-nemesis takes it into his crazy head to 
kidnap him."  Garner said nothing.  "But I don't expect you to understand that," 
she said coolly.
	The mask of neutrality fell over Garner's face again.  "The Master will 
want to interrogate you later," he said.  He started to leave.
	"Wait," she said impulsively.  Something about the way he acted or the 
way he'd spoken to her was setting off the bells and whistles.  He was 
different from the others in some way, and she'd be well advised to find out 
how.   He stopped, one hand on the door, but did not turn.
	Ace cleared her throat.  "What have they done to him?" she asked softly. 
 "Is he all right?"
	Now Garner did turn to face her, his face puzzled.  "What have *they* 
done?  Why ask me?  Don't you mean what have *we* done?"
	Ace shook her head slowly.  "You're not one of them."
	"What makes you say that?"  Ace was at a loss.  She merely shrugged.  
"I most certainly am one of them, miss.  It would be unwise of you to start 
thinking of me as someone you could turn to your favor.  It's quite impossible. 
 As to your husband's whereabouts, you know as much about that as I do.  The 
Master guards his secrets closely."  He stared at her for a moment longer and 
then turned and left the cell, closing the door behind him.  It seated itself with 
a metallic thud.
	Ace went to the small window in the door and looked out into the hall, but 
she could see nothing except the opposite wall.  She turned and contemplated 
her prison.  A perfectly ordinary ten by fifteen cell, perhaps cleaner than 
most, with a cot, toilet, sink, the usual stuff.  She'd been in enough prisons
not to be fazed by them...and to realize that this one was probably escape-
proof.  
	After she satisfied herself that there was no visual surveillance of the 
cell itself, she carefully reached under her belt to the hidden compartment and 
drew out Romana's time ring.  She bounced it thoughtfully on her palm.  Press 
it once and I'll be back on the TARDIS, she thought, but no wiser than when I 
got here.  Not yet.  She replaced it in the compartment and sat down on the 
edge of the cot, her fingers laced tightly together, her mind fixated on the 
fact that somewhere in this very building the Doctor was in the Master's 
tender care.  Her resentment of him floated around in her head, at uneasy 
equilibrium with her concern for his welfare.  At this point she just wanted to 
be sure he was safe, get him away from the Master, and then she'd be happy 
to see him back to his carefree, unencumbered life while she returned to her
marginal but improving existence with Romana.  As this thought flitted 
through her mind the old anger spiked again, at the thought of him gallivanting 
around the universe free as a bird and secure in the knowledge that he'd done 
what he had to do, while she lived in a haze of fury and fear.  She pushed it 
away.  Anger clouds the mind, and she could ill afford that.  Before she could
do anything to help him, she had to first find a way out of here for herself.  
She couldn't shake the feeling that the answer lay with the Master's aide, the 
guy with the fake hand who'd brought her down here.  Just the way he went 
about his villainy suggested to her that his heart wasn't in it.  She thought of 
Romana and hoped that she'd gotten away safely...hopefully she'd return soon 
with the cavalry.


	Romana leaned against the console, her breath rattling in and out of her 
throat, pressing her right hand against a long bleeding gash in her left 
forearm, probably from one of the guards' bayonets.  She grabbed a scarf off 
the coatrack and wrapped it around the wound...it would have to do until she 
had a moment to get to sickbay and repair the injury.
	She reached out to the controls and set about opening a channel to 
Gallifrey, pushing away the disbelief and guilt over the fact that she'd just
left Ace to be hauled away and perhaps killed by the Master and his goons.  
Clear thinking is what we need now, Romana, said the Doctor's voice in her 
mind.  Sometimes in moments of danger and stress she'd seem to hear him like 
this, urging her along or chastising her for her lack of experience.  Now he 
was only reinforcing what she already knew...she could not handle this 
situation alone.  She was hesitant to run to the High Council, after all they 
were not known for their swift and effective action in moments of dire need, 
but Spandrell at least had a few underground resources to draw upon.  If 
nothing else they were familiar with the situation on Ceres Beta.
	The channel opened to show Spandrell in his office.  "Ah, Lady Pres..."  
He broke off as he observed her battered condition.  "Goodness, what's 
happened to you?" he asked, concerned.
	"I told you I'd handle it, Spandrell...but things got a little out of control," 
she said breathlessly.  "I got separated from Ace on Ceres Beta, she's still 
back there!  Now the Master has them both!  We need to formulate some kind 
of strategy."  She paused to apply pressure to her arm, wincing.
	Spandrell's brow furrowed.  "What?  What's this about the Master?  He's 
got Ace?  Have you told the Doctor?"
	Romana just stared at him for a moment, in the grip of total brainlock.  
His statement simply refused to compute.  "What are you talking about?  The 
Master *has* the Doctor!"
	Spandrell jumped up, his eyes wide.  "Great Rassilon, Romana, why 
didn't you say so!  Why didn't you inform the Council about this before you 
went storming off there by yourself?"
	Romana stood blankly in front of the screen, her head shaking back and 
forth of its own volition.  "Spandrell, you don't have any idea what I'm talking 
about, do you?"  A cold lead ball settled into the pit of her stomach as an idea 
formed in her mind.  She shut her eyes and spoke slowly and clearly.  
"Yesterday I received a message from you telling me that the Council had 
received a message from the Master, saying that he'd kidnapped the Doctor 
and would release him in exchange for...oh, what does it matter, it was 
meaningless," she finished under her breath, pressing a hand to her forehead.
	"Lady President, I did not send nor receive any such message,"  
Spandrell said dejectedly, slumping in his office chair.
	"That is abundantly clear, Spandrell.  Of course the minute she heard it 
Ace went..."  Romana trailed off, the final piece of the puzzle sliding into 
place.  "But it's still the Doctor that the Master wants," she said.  "He's using 
Ace as bait...and to get her there he sent me a phony message to make us think 
that he had the Doctor and oh I don't believe this," she said, sagging against 
the console.  "He pulled a double bluff and we just walked right into it."
	"Why go to all this trouble?" Spandrell murmured speculatively.
	"On the contrary, he's saving himself a great deal of trouble.  He could 
have tried to kidnap the Doctor as he said he had, but that would have involved 
a lot of effort and quite probably a lot of time.  Now he's going to get them 
both and all he had to do was send me a little faked message!  It's quite to his 
advantage to have them both anyway...he can always use her as leverage on 
him."
	"Well he won't get the Doctor now, his ruse has been discovered."
	Romana straightened up, frustrated at Spandrell's density.  Then again, 
he'd never left Gallifrey...and she knew all too well how dense one could 
become staying on Gallifrey.  "Don't you understand?  That's part of his plan!  
For the Doctor to go there and attempt a rescue, he first has to know that the 
Master has her, and it's my little role to go tell him...I was probably 
*allowed* to escape from Ceres Beta for just that reason!"
	"So don't tell him!"
	"I have to tell him!  I can't keep this from him!  The Master's got me 
either way!  Even if I refuse to tell him the Master will see to it that he finds 
out somehow.  Even knowing it's a trap the Doctor won't have much choice but 
to go there and try to help her!  He's arranged it so that one way or another 
the Doctor *will* go to Ceres Beta, and the Master's got a nice hostage 
already to keep him in line and make him do whatever he wants."  She sighed 
and dropped onto the wing chair, her head in her hands.
	Spandrell looked rather penitent and out of his depth.  "There's got to be 
something that can be done."
	Romana shook her head.  "The only thing I can do is go with him back to 
the planet.  Once he's there, the Master still has to capture him...and the 
Doctor is somewhat of an expert at these kinds of situations.  It'll be hard, 
though...all the Master has to do is threaten Ace's life and the Doctor will have 
to fall in line."
	"You don't think he might..."
	"Might what?  Let her be sacrificed?  Not a chance.  There'd have to be a 
lot more at stake than just his own life for him to do that."  She stood up as 
the time rotor stopped.  On the viewscreen in front of her, she saw her own 
TARDIS materialize in Spandrell's office behind his shoulder.
	"I suppose we'd better contact him then.  It sounds like he's the only one 
who might resolve this.  Where are you now?"
	"Look behind you," she said, grabbing her coat and hitting the door 
controls.  She emerged from the TARDIS into Spandrell's office.  He was 
turned away from his monitor, which now showed only her TARDIS' empty 
console room, looking at her as she exited.  He started to smile but she was 
wasting no time, going directly to the TARDIS databanks.
	"Can you locate him?" she asked.
	Spandrell turned his left hand palm up and inserted the large stone of his 
signet ring into the authorization slot while his right hand rapidly keyed in the 
request.  He pressed his face to the viewer.  "His TARDIS is on Odelphus," he 
said, his voice a bit muffled.  Romana sighed, not bothering to inform 
Spandrell of that particular planet's significance to the Doctor and Ace.  "I 
can't say whether or not he's inside it."
	Romana shut her eyes and called to him with all her strength.  She 
vaguely felt him receive the message but she was too drained to maintain any 
kind of contact.  She eased herself down in a chair.  "He'll be here," she said, 
lowering her head to the desktop.  The next few minutes passed in silence.  
Spandrell spent most of it staring at the back of her head, wondering if he 
should call a doctor.  Then he had to laugh at himself...after all, they just had.

	
	The Doctor sat alone at a table in the dining room on Odelphus.  He wasn't 
at THE table, but he could see it from where he was sitting.  There was an 
Andorphin couple seated there.  They were constantly holding hands, touching, 
smiling, talking softly...honeymooners, he thought.  He slowly swirled his 
spoon in his tea.  He could hear his own words coming back to him from the 
time when they had been here, his promises and his declarations and most of 
all her calm sureness about her own feelings.  He sighed and turned towards 
the large domed window, gazing out into the sparkling caverns.  He wondered 
for the millionth time what his estranged wife was doing right at this moment. 
 She's probably over you already, the voice of doubt whispered into his mind.  
They both hate you and they've got every reason to.  He winced inwardly.  
Since his visit to Jo he'd set out to get her back a hundred times, but she and 
Romana were hard to catch up with.  He'd no sooner track them down and get 
there than they'd be gone.  Part of him wondered if he wasn't missing them on 
purpose.  If you never try you can never fail.  He fingered his wedding ring, 
feeling the now-familiar ache in his hearts, the ache of incompleteness.  He 
stood suddenly and tossed his spoon onto the table.  The other diners looked up 
at him sharply at the loud clatter it made but he paid them no mind as he 
strode from the dining room.  This time I'll find her, he thought.  I'll find her 
and I won't leave until she takes me back.  Tell her I was wrong and I was 
stupid and selfish and...he paused outside the TARDIS.  No.  I'll just tell her
how much I love her.  Bolstered by this thought, he opened the door and slipped 
inside.
	He contemplated the console controls, wondering where to start.  On 
Earth.  Perhaps they'd be...
	The thought was cut off as cleanly as if by a sharp knife as Romana's call 
blocked out all other conscious thought.  The Doctor's hands clutched the sides 
of his head involuntarily, a pained scream escaping his lips as he collapsed to 
his knees.  It was the most intense telepathic summons he'd ever 
experienced...like a 12-ton weight slamming onto his skull.  Of their own 
accord his hands found the navigational controls and set the coordinates for 
Gallifrey.  The call ended as suddenly as it had begun, leaving only the residual 
ringing.  He pulled himself to his feet, feeling quite wobbly.  That had felt like 
all the mental force Romana could summon.  Something...a wave of coldness 
washed over him.  Something must be wrong.  Something must have happened 
to Ace.  The call had borne the mental afterimages of fear and anxiety and a 
dozen other things.  Breathing hard, he watched the time rotor rise and fall, 
all but counting the cycles until he reached his destination.  
	An eternity later the TARDIS landed on Gallifrey.  He burst through the 
doors, each step causing another bolt of pain to rocket through his brain.  He 
barely felt it.  Romana and Spandrell stood facing him.  They were in 
Spandrell's office and Romana's TARDIS was right next to his.  She looked
harried and ill-used, her hair hanging in disarray and her left arm bloodied and 
hastily bandaged.  Her skin was alabaster white with purplish shockflesh under 
her eyes.  Spandrell just looked vaguely confused.  The Doctor dismissed him 
and went right to Romana.  "Start at the beginning," he said, pushing her down 
in the desk chair and pulling up another one for himself to sit in.
	She nodded, and the Doctor had the familiar sensation of the weight of 
responsibility sliding off her shoulders onto his own.  No matter, his back was 
used to the load.  "It started with the message.  I got a message from 
Spandrell.  He said the High Council had gotten a note from the Master, saying 
that he was holding you hostage."
	The Doctor's eyebrows shot up.  "Oh really?  Well, if you're going to 
bluff, bluff large."
	"I wasn't going to tell Ace about it because I was afraid of what she 
might do, but she overheard."
	He rolled his eyes.  "You should know better, Romana.  She's a woman of 
action."
	It was all Romana could do not to say anything about Ace's pregnancy.  
She managed to keep it behind her lips...barely.  "Anyway she insisted we go 
to Ceres Beta immediately and try to break you out."
	The Doctor turned to Spandrell for the first time.  "Spandrell, didn't you 
even *try* to verify my kidnapping before you spread it around?"
	"Doctor...I didn't send the message.  I knew nothing about this until 
Romana showed up here today.  The Council never got a message from the 
Master."
	He leaned back in the chair.  "Ah, the other shoe drops," he breathed.  
	"So anyway, we..."
	He held up a hand.  "No, let me.  You went to Ceres Beta and were 
immediately attacked.  Ace was captured but you escaped and came here, 
where you discovered the deception.  You then called me."  Romana nodded 
miserably.  
	"Doctor, I'm sorry.  I should never have let her go, I should never have 
left her there..."
	He leaned forward and patted her knee.  "Don't worry about it, Romana. 
 He would have found another way to get me and probably her as well."  He 
stood up and walked a short distance away, turning his back and putting a hand 
on his forehad.  He appeared to be thinking.
	Romana waited for a few seconds expectantly.  "What now, Doctor?"
	He turned and looked at her.  "I go to Ceres Beta."
	Spandrell jumped up.  "But it's a trap, Doctor!"
	"Well of course it's a trap, but I have little choice!  As long as he has Ace 
I'm a hostage no matter where I am, Spandrell.  And you're not to tell anyone 
about this, do you understand me?  No one.  I will go there alone, and I will 
deal with the situation."  He nodded to them as if to say "dismissed" and
darted back into the TARDIS.  Romana and Spandrell exchanged an alarmed 
glance and then Romana followed the Doctor into his ship.
	He was standing motionless at the console, his hands clasped behind his 
back.  Romana stood silently behind him until he spoke.
	"You should get that nasty gash tended to, Romana."
	"I'm coming with you."
	He turned sharply.  "Absolutely not."
	Suddenly angry, she advanced on him and jabbed a finger in his chest.  
"Listen, Doctor, I was the one who picked up the pieces when you walked out.  
I was the one who gave her companionship and security when you left her like 
so much garbage.  I was the one who stuck by her through everything that 
*you* put her through, even though you were the one who supposedly loved 
her, so don't pull rank on me.  I have just as much right to help her as you do.  
You've been free and clear and probably congratulating yourself for over a 
month now while I had to watch her suffer!" she finished, giving him a hard
shove as punctuation.  She expected him to be angry but instead he looked 
ashamed.  He turned slowly away from her.  Just when she thought he wasn't 
going to respond he spoke softly.
	"You're right, Romana, about everything...except that I've been anything 
but free and clear since I left her."  He turned back to the console and began 
setting the coordinates.  Romana watched him, her eyes studying his face, 
noticing for the first time that he didn't look very well.  Feeling her gaze upon 
him he looked up at her and she had to take a step back from the pain in his 
face.  Her mouth opened but no words came out.  He smiled cynically.  "Oh, 
Romana.  Did you really think I'd be happy knowing what I'd done to her and to 
me?  Please tell me that you thought better of me than to suppose that my life 
would be all honeysuckle and waltzes after what I did."  She just stared at
him.  He nodded sadly.  "I suppose I've no one but myself to blame."  He turned 
back to the console.
	Romana felt torn in several directions at once.  Ace's anger and her own 
immersion in it had been fed by the idea of his nonchalance about his actions.  
It took the edge off their hatred to think that he might be just as miserable.  
He hit the dematerialization switch and the time rotor started its inexorable 
rise and fall.  Romana stood at the console, a tangible feeling of dread rising in 
her throat.  Maybe Ace was right...maybe something terrible *was* going to 
happen.  All she knew was that in all the adventures and perilous situations 
she'd been in her life, both with and without the Doctor, she'd never had this 
sense that doom was fast approaching.  "What are we walking into, Doctor?" 
she asked.
	"I'm not sure," he said.  "The Master wants very badly to capture me.  
Ace was only convenient.  I have a few ideas, but it's useless to speculate 
about it now."  He began pacing slowly, his hands clasped behind his back 
again.  "My only goal here is to free Ace and get all three of us off that planet. 
 Whatever the Master's latest megalomaniacal scheme, it's incidental."
	"What about your marriage?" she asked before she could stop herself.
	He looked at her.  "Tell me honestly.  Do I have a chance in the universe 
of getting her back?"
	She sighed.  "Well, she's sitting on a lot of anger.  On the other hand, the 
minute she heard you were in danger all she could think about was helping 
you."  He waited as she thought for a moment.  "I think you have a chance, 
Doctor.  But you've got to be honest with her and tell her exactly why you did 
it and why you regret it and why you want her back."
	"Good," he said at once.  "Those are three things that I've thought over 
extensively during the last month."


	Ace paced back and forth in her cell like a caged animal, which in a sense 
she was.  Her mind was a cauldron, bubbling and stewing.  She was frustrated 
by her inability to act.  She was impatient for the Master to *do* something, 
anything.  She was worried about the Doctor and simultaneously furious at him 
for getting himself into this, among other things.  And she was, in the back of 
her mind, fearful for her own life.
	She stopped and cocked her head, hearing footsteps coming down the 
hallway.  She faced the door as the steps approached her cell and stopped in 
front of it, affording her a brief glimpse of a human form passing the window. 
 The door's locking mechanism clanged off and it swung open on silent hinges, 
revealing Ace's visitor.
	In spite of herself, Ace backpedaled away from this personage, her eyes 
widening and her heart rate jacking up a few notches.  The woman entered her 
cell, having to duck to avoid hitting her head on the doorjamb.  She kicked the 
cell door shut behind her and stood with her feet spread wide and her hands on 
her hips, grinning widely.  "Hello, Ace!" she boomed cheerfully.
	Just the way this woman said her name and beamed that wide predatory 
grin made Ace's knees go gelatinous.  She swallowed, sinking down on the edge 
of the cot.  "Who are *you?*" she asked incredulously, gratified that at least 
her voice sounded even.
	The woman was at least seven feet tall and built like an Amazon warrior, 
all muscle and attitude.  She was clad in head-to-toe seamless black vinyl 
(Ace wondered vaguely how she ever got into it) and looked like a nightmare 
S&M version of Emma Peel, her black hair piled atop her head and her pale 
face heavily made up with dark shades of black and blood-red.  She wore a hip-
slung belt which held not guns or tools but a variety of metal implements and 
small devices whose purpose Ace could guess without stretching her 
imagination too much.  Black jackboots not unlike Ace's own and a golden chain 
connecting a earring to a nose ring completed this hellish picture, a jolly vinyl 
giant who obviously enjoyed her work and the prospect of practicing her art 
on Ace.
	At Ace's question she strode over to her, covering the distance between 
them in one step, and bent close to Ace's face.  "My name is Mona.  I'm the 
information counselor."
	Ace couldn't help but laugh.  "Oh, is that the current euphemism for 
torturer?"
	Mona chuckled low in her throat and stepped back, pulling on a pair of red 
rubber gloves.  "I dislike the word 'torture.'  It's fraught with far too many 
archaic references and images of sweaty guys in aprons with knives."  She 
snapped the glove over her wrist and twirled a syringe out of the belt with the 
panache of an Old West gunslinger.  "It's really an advanced science, practiced 
only by those with the will and the knowhow to do it effectively."  She 
grasped the one chair in the cell and whipped it over in front of Ace, turning it 
backwards and straddling it.  She folded her arms over the chair back, letting 
the syringe rest on her forearm where Ace could get a good look at it.  "Now 
then.  I take a great deal of joy from my work, but not, as you might think, 
from the pain-related aspects.  I dislike inflicting pain and that's the truth.  
 The real satisfaction for me comes when I get the information I want.  So 
let's try and get along, shall we?  We'll both be a lot happier...but believe me, 
you will tell me what I want to know."  She smiled, her painted lips curling, 
and in that expression lay many promises of things to come.