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known when she was ten that Tia Karim was destined for a better life and UNIT had promised it. But it had let her down with its placid, reactive rather than proactive, attitudes. How was the human race supposed to grow in strength and power if it didn’t use the gifts and trophies it found? Stupid politicians with their small-minded perspectives. But out there, out in space amongst those aliens, she could show them how powerful one person could be. And with the TARDIS at her command, once the Shansheeth were out of the picture…the universe was hers for the taking.
    The Colonel took a small device from her pocket. On it glowed an illuminated map of the whole base. A red dot showed where she was standing, and a small cluster of dots nearby were the Shansheeth. Which meant that other small cluster, working their way through the ventilation ducts, must be those stupid kids.
    She tapped a button on the device and a line went across one of the ducts.
    Tap. Another line.
    ‘Time to box you lot in,’ she muttered.
    Clyde, Rani, Santiago and the Groske were staring in horror at the metal panel that had just slammed across the ducting in front of them, cutting off the route ahead.
    ‘That’s not good,’ Clyde said.
    ‘Trapped,’ the Groske said.
    ‘Great,’ said Clyde. ‘Back the way we came?’
    At which point another panel crashed down, cutting off that way too. Clyde looked at the Groske. ‘So what exactly was your plan?’
    ‘No plan. Shansheeth scary. Groske hide. Humans hide, too.’
    Clyde sighed. ‘No plan. Oh, great.’
    Rani shrugged. ‘Hiding made sense actually,’ she said. ‘We need to keep you safe because whatever the Doctor’s doing, he needs you safe for that body switcheroo thing.’
    Clyde waved around. ‘Yeah, but in here, if he arrives, splat – there’s not a great deal of space now.’
    Santiago laughed quietly. ‘I can’t believe you do this all the time. Aliens and chases and stuff.’
    ‘You can talk, mate,’ said Clyde. ‘Going off to Paraguay and Mount Everest.’
    ‘You just went to another planet!’
    Clyde laughed too. ‘Yeah, there is that.’
    ‘We’ve been to parallel worlds. Nightmare dimensions. Limbo. And if we’re lucky, home for tea. We see all this stuff and then Mum’s like, “What did you do today?” and I’m like, “Not much. Went to the library.” ’
    ‘ “Played footie with Steve, Finney and the guys.” ’ Clyde smiled.
    ‘ “Stayed behind at drama club.” They always like that one!’ said Rani.
    ‘And of course what we can’t say is, “Oh, and Mum, I fought off a platoon of Judoon from the moon in my spare time,” cos our parents’d freak.’
    Santiago nodded slowly, then said, without a smile, ‘Haven’t seen my mum for six months.’
    Rani frowned. ’How come?’
    ‘She’s in Japan, organising a rally. I mean, that’s brilliant, it’s really important.’
    ‘Course it is, yeah,’ encouraged Clyde.
    ‘But before that, she was in Africa finding shell-flower plants. And Dad’s with the Gay Fathers Organisation, hiking across Antarctica, so we haven’t been together since about…April.’
    ‘When are you going to see them next?’
    Santiago shrugged. ‘I know they’re going to be at some anti-nuclear rally in Norway in a few weeks but Gran needs to get back to Granddad soon, and I’ve got a cousin on the way in Dubai. Still, at least that’ll be warm.’
    ‘Talking of warm…’ Clyde rested his hands on the ventilation ducting floor. ‘Is it me, or…?’
    The Groske jumped and immediately banged his head on the low ceiling. ‘Hot too,’ he pointed up. ‘Hot, hot, hot!’
    Rani grabbed Clyde. ‘They’re trying to boil us!’

Chapter Eleven
    Activate the memory weave
    Colonel Karim strode back into the Funeral Chamber, holding her device up. ‘Excellent. I’ve got the Brady Bunch exactly where we need them, getting a bit hot under the collar.’
    Azure looked up from one of the Memory Weave consoles. ‘The