The ball of energy built to a crescendo and Uly fired the most powerful blast he ever had.

Straight at the Master.

It slammed into his chest and hurled him across the room. Uly was thrown to floor as a result of the backblast. "Run, True!" he yelled.

She ran to the smaller door and tried to open it, but it wouldn't budge. Uly scrambled to his feet.

"You will be exterminated!" Davros shouted and flicked a switch on the console of his chair. A slender gun slid up next to it.

"Uly, look out!" True screamed. She ran around the room, going behind Davros's chair, and Uly went the other way, using the console for cover. Unfortunately, this meant he found himself facing Reilly and the Master, just getting up off the ground. The Master was aiming the Tissue Compression Eliminator. Uly fired his staff again and hit the Master in the hand. He yelled in pain and the TCE went skittering across the floor.

True arrived on the other side of the console, nearest the double-doors, and she could hear Davros shouting as he moved around the far side, chasing Uly. She saw the TCE slide across the floor, then she looked up and her eyes met Reilly's. They each had the same thought at the same time: if she got hold of the weapon, he and the Master were finished.

Reilly dove madly for the TCE and covered it up with his body. True hadn't reacted in time. She turned to look at the console and Uly joined her, coming around it from the other direction.

"Exterminate!" Davros yelled. Uly fired at him, keeping both him and the Master on the far side of the console. If he had been an adult he would have been able to fire over it, but as it was his head only came up to its edge. Reilly sat up with the TCE. He started to aim it awkwardly, but the Master yelled, "Throw it here, you fool!"

"One of these switches should operate the door," True said, and madly began flicking switches and pushing buttons at random. Within seconds the double-doors right behind them swung open. Beyond was a dark stone hallway lit by flaming torches along its walls.

"True, watch out!" Uly shouted and fired his staff again. It hit Davros, who had sneaked back around the console the same way True had gone. Davros's chair had some kind of force field which absorbed Uly's blast, but it knocked his chair sideways and his own shot hit the console right next to True's head. True screamed and fell to the floor.

"Come on!" Uly yelled and ran for the door. True made to follow him but her fall had delayed her too long. Davros approached again, reached out, and grabbed her shirt at the base of her neck.

"Hey!" she yelled. "Let go!" She fought for all she was worth but Davros held her stationary.

Uly stopped and looked back. He lifted his staff to shoot Davros, but hesitated when Davros held True in front of him as a shield. True struggled but could not break free of his grip.

The Master came around the console the other way. He angrily snatched the TCE from Reilly's hand and Uly saw him appear in the doorway, already aiming the weapon and pressing the trigger. In that second, Uly knew he had waited too long and he was going to die.

"No!" Reilly yelled and tackled the Master, causing the shot to go wild. An area of the hallway right next to Uly shimmered and started to compact, but then it wobbled and waved like a projection of some kind and sprang back into place. Uly didn't know what to make of it.

"You fool!" the Master shouted and shoved Reilly away.

"Uly, run!" True shouted. "Don't worry about me, get help!"

Uly ran. The hallway before him was straight and there were no doors. It ended in a "T" junction, but it seemed so far away. It would take several seconds to reach it and he knew he would never make it.

"You can't harm him!" Reilly shouted back. "I need him! He's the key to our future!"

"Not any more, he's not," the Master said. Still sitting on the floor he again aimed at Ulysses.

Although Davros held True by the neck, her hands were free and she tried to hit the Master. He savagely grabbed both her wrists with his free hand without even looking and pinned them together in an iron grip. So she took a deep breath and did the only thing she could think of.

She screamed.

As loudly as she possibly could.

Right in the Master's ear.

The Master staggered as if he'd received an electric shock and again he missed Ulysses. Once more, the weapon's effect began to work on the hallway through which Uly was running, but it sprang back into shape a moment later.

Uly turned the corner and was gone.

The Master blinked his eyes several times and shook his head to clear it, then looked sideways at True with a raised eyebrow. "That was impressive," he said.

"Loudest scream this side of the Milky Way, buster," she replied. She tried to keep the trembling from her voice but didn't quite manage it.

"I have no doubt. Come here." He grabbed the front of her shirt and hauled her away.

"Whoa!" she said.

 

A lone member of the Citadel Guard cautiously advanced down an avenue, peeked around the corner of a building and spied the Dalek patrol. He fired once and ran.

"Pursue and exterminate!" the Daleks shouted repeatedly, chasing him. They rounded the corner and fired at the guard, who dove behind a pile of rubble. They advanced relentlessly, shouting the whole time. When they were halfway along the avenue the first few Daleks in the patrol exploded and staser fire erupted from the shadows.

"You fool!" Andred shouted to one of his lieutenants and fired at the Daleks for all he was worth. "If you'd waited a few more seconds we could have gotten all of them!"

The remaining three Daleks fired back, impervious to the staser fire, their thin blue energy beams lighting up the night. Then some more blue energy beams lanced out of the darkness from further up the street and struck the Daleks, destroying them in moments.

Braydon, Denner and the rebels with them ran up the street. Andred stepped out to greet them. "What happened to you?" he asked, looking in wonder at the weapons they held.

"We got caught and escaped," Braydon said, breathing hard. "The Daleks' own weapons work against them. What about you?"

"Nesbin and his people are trying to capture a second scout ship," Andred said. "The first one we captured got blown out of the sky, but at least it put them on the defensive for a while. All we've been able to use since then is explosives."

Everyone turned and raised their guns as they heard a curious clanking sound and the patter of running feet, coming from the opposite direction that Braydon and Denner had arrived. Out of the darkness came the rest of Eden Advance, Zero and K9.

They ran to greet them.

 

The survivors from the escape pod milled around the console room, muttering to themselves and looking around in awe. Grodin sat huddled in a corner looking miserable. No one bothered him. Morgan, Devon and Danziger were rapidly telling each other all that had happened to them, and Morgan handed them their gear sets.

The Doctor madly searched through a closet, muttering, "Time, time, time, we don't have time for any of this!"

"What's going on?" Danziger asked.

The Doctor's voice came from deep inside the closet, from which bits of old junk were being rapidly thrown. "There are three more escape pods scattered in different places around the TARDIS, and I've got to get everyone who was in them and lead them back here. They'll be wondering where they are and very trigger-happy. No one but Romana and myself knows their way around my TARDIS, but we don't have time to go get them because we really need to be dealing with the Eye of Harmony issue. So...voila!"

He emerged from the closet with three small, black rectangular boxes on wheels and a huge grin on his face. He set the boxes on the ground. "K9, do a quick interface with these Seekers and program them to travel to the locations of the pods." He pulled a pen and a pad of sticky notes from an inside jacket pocket and produced three notes which read, "You are safe. Follow this machine to the console room." He ended each note with a smiley face, something everyone knew the Daleks would never do.

He stuck one note on the top of each Seeker and they scampered through the door, causing more consternation for the cat, who was trying to re-enter the console room again. The cat danced around the Seekers madly and hissed at them. They just squeaked back and continued on their mission.

"Where did you get those?" Devon asked. "They look familiar."

"I picked them up somewhere on my travels," the Doctor said. "I rescued them from a massive space station just before it blew up, a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Now if everyone will excuse me, I must get started on the Matrix!" He ran to the console and began flicking switches, grimacing at some of the readings he was getting.

"Doctor," Devon suddenly asked, giving him a peculiar look, "Why are you so sure you can break into the Matrix? That seems like it would be impossible, but you obviously think you can do it easily." Then her face cleared and she tilted her head to one side. "You already know a way in, don't you?"

Romana looked up at Devon in amazement, then inquisitively at the Doctor, who sighed like a man who'd been caught. "Yes I do," he said. "Immediately after my last trial, when the Master had infiltrated the Matrix despite all the beliefs that it was impregnable, the newly appointed High Council asked me to install new security measures. I did so."

"And you left yourself a back door," Romana said, shaking her head. "I don't know whether to be relieved or angry."

"I only did it in case of emergencies, like this one!" the Doctor said. "Do you think breaking into the Matrix for fun or profit is something I would do?"

"For fun, maybe," Danziger said candidly. The Doctor scowled at him quickly before going back to work.

"It was a dangerous thing for you to do, Doctor," Romana said. "Any back door you left for yourself could have been found by others."

"After my second trial, it was made clear to me that leaving it solely in the hands of the Time Lords on Gallifrey wasn't a good idea," the Doctor countered. "I had needed access to the Matrix before. I guessed that I would again."

Romana's argument was interrupted as part of the console blew up in a shower of sparks. The Doctor jumped back in surprise. K9, hooked up to the console, began turning around and around in place, his head swiveling up and down. Romana quickly unplugged his leads and the Doctor knelt beside him. "What was it?"

"Doctor," K9 said, his voice fading in and out. "Pulse loop received. Was not expecting."

"A pulse loop?" the Doctor asked incredulously. "What in heaven's name would a pulse loop be doing inside the TARDIS systems?"

"Pulse loop was five to 15 minutes old," K9 said. "Suggest that it was manufactured purposefully."

"Manufactured?" the Doctor asked, his hand on his chin as he thought furiously. "But that's absurd. Who would manufacture a pulse loop inside the TARDIS?"

"Uly!" Devon shouted.

"No," the Doctor said, still staring at K9. "I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be him." Then he noticed a commotion and looked up.

Ulysses Adair was running across the console room into Devon's arms. She collapsed onto the floor and held him, crying openly with joy. To Danziger, the scene brought back a memory. The setting was all different, but the look on her face was the same.

The Doctor blinked at the sight. "He wasn't one of your fellow captives on the ship, was he?" he asked Morgan.

"No," Morgan replied, equally mystified.

"Ulysses," the Doctor said, kneeling beside him. "How did you get here?" Morgan knelt on the other side of Uly, eager to hear what was going on.

"The Master brought me," Uly said, stunning the room into silence. "And he says you're walking into a trap, and he said Mr. Danziger was a vegetable, and he's still working with Reilly, and he's got this weird guy all gross-looking in a wheelchair named Dagwood, and he's holding True prisoner! He tried to hypnotize me into shooting her, but I called upon the Terrians for help and they helped me so I could resist him and I tricked him into thinking that he'd hypnotized me."

The Doctor slapped the side of his own face with his hand. "His TARDIS has been inside mine all along! And since Konran set the force field and the Master was manipulating Konran, he would be able to come and go at will! I've been such a fool." He looked again at Uly. "And you say he's got someone with him?"

"And True?" Danziger asked.

"Uh huh," Uly nodded.

"Can you take us there?" Danziger asked.

Uly looked confused for a moment, then shook his head. "I don't remember the way. I just ran. Then I heard voices, so I came in here and I found all of you."

"Walking into a trap," the Doctor said, looking at Uly in wonder. Everyone was silent as the Doctor thought about this. A moment later he took out his pocket watch. "Ulysses, do you trust me?"

"Uh huh."

"Good. Then with your permission, I'm going to hypnotize you, myself. I don't want you to call upon the Terrians to resist. In fact, if you wish, you may call upon the Terrians to help us. We all need to know exactly what happened. All right?"

Uly nodded.

"Romana, while I'm doing this, initiate an internal scan to look for any foreign matter. It might find the Master's TARDIS. Also, plug K9 back in."

She nodded and set to work at the console. The Doctor sat cross-legged in front of Uly and began swinging the watch. Morgan looked at it intently. "Just let your eyes follow it, Ulysses," he said. "See how the light glints off of it? See how shiny it is? Just follow the watch and let its motion send you into a deep, safe sleep, but still standing in the world of the waking. Your mother's here and the Terrians won't let you come to harm, so everything will be all right. Just follow the watch, and on the count of three you will be asleep while awake. One...two...three. Now, if you can still understand me, say, 'Yes.'"

"Yes," Uly and Morgan both replied.

Exasperated, the Doctor reached beyond Uly and snapped his fingers in front of Morgan, who blinked and came back to life. The Doctor impatiently motioned for him to stand up and go somewhere else. Morgan just looked around, slightly embarrassed, nodded and stood up, motioning that he would find something else to do.

"Now, I need everyone to remain perfectly quiet," the Doctor whispered to those around him.

The door to the console room burst open and a group of survivors from one of the other escape pods strode in, led by one of the squeaky boxes on wheels. "What's going on? Where are we?" they asked loudly.

The Doctor madly waved his arms for them to be silent, flapping them around so much that Danziger thought he might start flying all on his own. Morgan rushed forward with his palms outward. "Not now!" he hissed. "We need everyone to be quiet. Have someone stand outside the door and tell everyone else who comes along the same thing."

Looking confused, several of the newcomers just shrugged and nodded.

"Now, Ulysses," the Doctor said, breathing a deep sigh. "Please tell me everything that happened, in detail, from the moment at which the Master first captured you and True."

Uly did precisely that, recounting every action and word flawlessly. Devon and Danziger were both visibly agitated when they heard how their children had been treated, and the Doctor was afraid that Danziger was going to have a heart attack, he was fuming so much.

"What I wouldn't give for a magpro in my hands right now," he growled.

"I've got one of these," Morgan said, hefting the Dalek gunstick.

"Show me how to work it," Danziger said.

"Not now, gentlemen," the Doctor said. "Ulysses, your work here is done. When I count to three you will awaken. One...two...three."

Uly blinked and looked around. "Did I do it?"

"You were wonderful," the Doctor said. "It helped quite a bit, but I still don't have all the answers." He scrambled to his feet and ran back to the console. When he reached it he stood in helpless frustration. He grabbed his hair in his hands for a second, then started pacing madly around the console, muttering, "It's just one thing after another."

"The scan came up negative, Doctor," Romana said.

"I expected as much, although I have no idea how," he replied.

"Look, what's the problem?" Danziger asked. "If Uly can remember all that detail under hypnosis, why not just have him tell us which way he got here? We could retrace his steps and go get this guy."

"The Master will have moved his TARDIS to a different location within my own," the Doctor said. "And he's still manipulating me somehow, and I can't see it! The answer's in here," he put his fists up to his forehead, "but I just can't get to it! And I don't have time because the Eye of Harmony and the Matrix is my first concern." He scowled some more. "I have a nasty suspicion I'm going to need a virtual environment builder. I've got one somewhere. I'll have to search for it, too!" He strode angrily for the door leading further into the TARDIS, but Morgan caught his arm.

"A virtual environment builder?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Will this work?" He held up his gear set.

The Doctor's eyes grew wide and he took it lovingly. "This would be perfect!"

"Just," Morgan twittered nervously, almost as if he was going to snatch it back, "just be careful. My gear set is valuable to me, you know." But the Doctor was striding back to the console, poking at several of the gear set's controls.

"What now?" Devon asked him.

"Romana and I are going to enter the Matrix," the Doctor said, strapping the gear set on. "Do you have another one of these?" He tapped the gear. Danziger handed his to Romana, who put it on. "We'll be interfacing with the Matrix through the gear sets, then through K9, then through my TARDIS console. I think I've got all the protocols worked out."

"Doctor," Morgan said, "remember the pulse loop?"

"Yes."

"Well, you said that the Master, or his own machinery, had to be linked to the TARDIS's systems to create that. That, and the fact that the Master has the means to hide his TARDIS within yours without detection, tells me that the Master has infiltrated the computer network of your own TARDIS."

"I'm aware of all that," the Doctor said impatiently. "What's your point?"

"Well, you're about to interface directly with a computer network that's been thoroughly invaded by the Master," he said. "It may be that that's the trap he's waiting for you to walk into!"

"I know," the Doctor said grimly. "But I don't have any other choice." He looked at Romana. "Ready?"

She nodded.

"Initiate contact," he said. He and Romana both keyed a final command to the gear sets and entered the Matrix.