I can do it to your mind, I can do it to your face
I can do it with integrity, I can do it with disgrace


I can do it on the water, I can do it on dry land
I can do it with instruments, I can do it with my own bare hands
But either way, either way
I wanna kill you...I wanna blow you away
	--Poe



Chapter 3:  BARE HANDS


	The office was dark and almost deserted, lit only by the thin light given 
off by the Glass.  Just for a switch, it was night in the Domain...a black, 
moonless night.  The huge floor-to-ceiling windows looked out on the darkened 
Gardens where the indistinct shapes of Guardians flitted back and forth like 
smoke.  The images on the Glass shifted indiscriminately, guided by the random 
stream of its controllers' consciousness.  Theo and Angel sat at opposite ends 
of a deep leather couch at the shadowy far end of the office, not speaking as 
they passed a large ceramic mug back and forth.  Theo was slouched way 
down, one arm slung over the couch's arm and her legs kicked up on an ottoman 
in front of her, her head sagging back to rest against the wall.  Angel was half-
lying at an angle against the other arm, his legs crossed and his chin propped in 
one hand.
	Theo sighed.  Sometimes it was all a bit much and they both needed this 
kind of null time to let their brains catch up with their actions.  The Glass 
homed in on an image of Ace and Romana in the TARDIS console room.  Ace was 
wearing battle armor and they appeared to be deep in conversation.
	"Something's up," Angel said without much energy.
	"That's nice."
	Pause.  "Why do people fall in love, anyway?" he said musingly.
	"Sounds like an Elvis song."  Their voices were low and languid, the 
pauses long and comfortable.
	"No, I'm seriously asking."
	"Haven't you ever been in love, Angel?"  Voices whispered at the back of 
her mind...the voices of the many people, Guardians and others, who had 
suggested that Angel might be in love with *her.*  She didn't believe it, but 
you never knew what lurked behind that inscrutable face.
	He scrubbed one hand over his face and crossed his arms over his chest.  
"Not to my knowledge."
	She turned her head and regarded his profile.  "Now that surprises me."  
He raised an eyebrow.  "No, no, it really does.  I mean, how many millenia 
have you lived?  And you've never once been swept off your feet?"
	He chuckled.  "Never had the inclination, I suppose.  Guardians aren't as 
prone to swooning as you humans are.  I guess that's why I'm asking you about 
it."
	"Well, as a keen observer of detail you've had plenty of time to watch us 
mere mortals.  You oughta know more about it than I do."
	"I guess it's one of those things where personal experience counts more 
than objective observation," he said dryly.  They fell silent for a moment.  
"What I'm really asking you is why do you suppose *they* fell in love?" he 
said, gesturing with the mug towards Ace's face on the glass.  "Everyone sure 
seemed surprised about it, except you."
	Theo took the mug and knocked back a swallow.  "They were only 
surprised because Time Lords on the whole know even less about romance than 
you do, my dear...and most of them only thought of him as a Time Lord, not as 
a mortal being with feelings and a soul.  I wasn't surprised because I'd seen 
how she made him complete, always did.  In some ways the Doctor shows a 
different side of himself to me than he shows to his companions."  She sighed.  
"I was so happy when they got their feelings sorted out..."
	"Well you did give them a bit of a push."
	She sniffed.  "Yeah.  Maybe it would have been better if I'd left well 
enough alone.  It hurts me to see both of them so torn up."  She stared up at the 
ceiling.  "Do you suppose it's my fault?" she asked softly.
	"Don't be ridiculous," he said wearily.  They'd been over this before, too 
many times.
	She smiled and drained the mug, peering into it.  "Why are we drinking 
egg nog tonight?"
	"I like egg nog."
	"Fair enough."
	Another comfortable silence fell.  Theo looked over at her majordomo 
again.  His eyes were closed and his face peaceful.  She could objectively
observe that he was beyond handsome...more like an idealized male figure.  
She'd always wondered if he'd taken the name Angel because he looked like one. 
 "Can I ask you an odd question?" she said.	
	"Sure."
	"Are you in love with me, Angel?"
	He smiled.  "I wondered when you'd get around to asking me that."
	"Are you?"
	"No, Theo."
	She sighed and took his hand.  "Thank God for that.  I don't know if I could 
handle losing my best friend."
	He squeezed it.  "No fear of that.  I'm afraid you're stuck with me."
	Her smile faded.  "Seth said those very words to me once upon a time."
	"I'm not Seth."
	"Neither was he, back then."  They looked wordlessly at each other for a 
moment in the quiet darkness.  Theo turned her face away.
	"It still hurts, doesn't it?" Angel said softly.
	Theo nodded.  "In a way I envy you, Angel.  If you know nothing of love 
then you're also safe from its repercussions."
	"What is one without the other?"
	Pause.  "Impossible, unfortunately."  After another brief silence she 
stood up decisively, the lights coming up in the office.  "But I will survive, to 
quote Gloria Gaynor."  She turned and Angel was relieved to see her usual hit-
me-with-your-best-shot grin on her face.  "Cmon, Angel, so many people 
making so many mistakes."


	"Where is this planet, um...what's it called again?"
	"Ceres Beta.  It's one of the outer rim Earth colonies.  According to the 
time signature on the message the High Council received it was transmitted in 
the human year 5134.  By that time most of the far-flung colonies, including 
this one, had lost all contact with or connection to Earth.  Most of them 
developed independently, but their technology suffered.  This colony was
founded by scientists, mostly of the mad variety.  No doubt the Master's 
drafted them to assist him in his search for immortality."
	"And he thinks this Matrix data can help him?"
	"Apparently.  Whatever it means, it's important enough to go through all 
the trouble of locating and kidnapping the Doctor."
	Ace's brow furrowed.  "He must have known Spandrell would notify you.  
He's got to be expecting a rescue attempt."
	Romana looked up at her pleadingly.  "Yes, he will be.  Ace, I'll ask you 
again to let me handle this.  I have resources, people who can help."
	"No," Ace said, leaning over the console.  "If it were anyone else 
requiring rescue, one of those resources would be me, wouldn't it?  If you 
needed this kind of help wouldn't I make the short list?"
	Romana sighed.  "Yes, I suppose you would."
	"Factor in that it's my *husband* we're talking about here.  How can you 
exclude me?  It doesn't make practical or emotional sense."
	Pause.  "All right," she said softly.  "I won't try to dissuade you again."
	Ace straightened up, her eyes flashing.  "Good."
	"So what's the plan?"
	Ace examined the map of the colony on the console room viewscreen.  
The colony was a self-contained environment about 200 kilometers in diameter 
in the middle of a huge continent that appeared to be mostly desert.  "Well...it 
looks like a pretty barren environment."
	"Not many places to hide."
	"On the contrary, this kind of terrain is in our favor, especially with a 
TARDIS.  It's likely that no one can survive for an extended period in the
surrounding country, so the colonists don't expect infiltration from the 
outside.  Any space vessel landing couldn't help but be detected...but we'll just 
be one of the rocks.  Unless someone happens to be looking directly at our 
landing site at the precise moment we land, no one will notice.  Even if the 
Master is expecting a rescue attempt, he's not familiar with this type of 
TARDIS and I can't see how he could possibly be ready for it."  She turned to 
Romana.  "On the other hand it is the Master we're talking about here, which is 
both good and bad."
	"His genius makes him dangerous, but his ego makes him sloppy."
	"Exactly."  Ace looked at the map again, finally pointing to a site a few 
kilometres northeast of the colony.  "We'll materialize here, among these rock 
formations."  She crossed her arms over her chest.  "Boy, when I get my 
hands on him..."
	Romana nodded.  "I know.  Many times I've had similar feelings about the 
Master."
	"I'm talking about the Doctor!  How could he have been stupid enough to 
have let himself get kidnapped?  After all these centuries he should be able to 
smell the Master coming a mile away!"
	"Perhaps he was distracted," Romana said flatly.
	Ace shot her a look but said nothing.  "Well, it wouldn't have happened if 
I'd been with him.  So I guess he's got only himself to blame."
	"Or maybe instead of just the Doctor he'd now have both of you."  
Romana leaned forward and hit the dematerialization switch before Ace could 
respond.


	Garner slunk over to a corner of the large lab which served as a crude 
office.  The Master wasn't much for correspondence or record-keeping, but 
there was a desk and a phone...the only phone in the entire complex that Garner
 could be sure wasn't tapped.  He glanced around.  The Master was over by his 
worktable, muttering to himself as usual.  As Garner approached the office his 
voice rang out.
	"Garner!  Where are the bio-pneumatic pattern buffers?"
	Garner jumped a little, then shouted back.  "They're in the 4th floor 
storeroom, Master.  Would you like me to fetch you one?"
	"No, I'll do it myself, I need to see which size will be appropriate."  He 
left the room, head down, a piece of equipment in his hands.  Garner let out a 
breath.  He'd be down in the storeroom for at least ten or fifteen minutes.  He 
darted to the office and picked up the phone, dialing a number that appeared 
nowhere in the colony's directories.  A woman's voice answered.
	"Hello?"
	"Margo!  It's Garner."
	"Good Lord, Garner, we were starting to wonder about you.  You haven't 
been here for weeks!"
	"The Master is in one of his manic phases again.  I haven't been able to 
break away."
	"Are you all right?"
	"Yes, just tired.  I only wanted to check in."
	"Something's up, isn't it?  We've been hearing odd reports on the news 
about some of the Master's activities."
	"He's expecting some sort of an attack."
	Margo fell silent for a few moments.  "What kind of attack, and from 
where?" she asked in a hushed voice.
	"I'm not exactly sure.  Small, definitely.  It's all part of his plan," he 
said, spitting the last word sarcastically.  "Whoever he's expecting, he's sure 
excited about it.  He's made some...discoveries.  He thinks he's found the way 
to achieve his ultimate goal...but to do it he needs this one certain person here."
	"Who?"
	"Another Time Lord, one called the Doctor.  Sort of his arch-rival."
	"And he's expecting this Doctor to attack?"
	Garner's brow creased.  "No, I don't think it's him that's coming...but 
whoever it is, it's part of the plan.  He hasn't shared the details with me, of 
course, but he's battening down the hatches."
	Margo paused again.  "Come home, Garner.  I have a bad feeling about 
this."
	"Me too, but I have to stay.  I don't trust him, I have to keep an eye on 
him."  He cleared his throat.  "And I think things are going to get a lot more 
interesting around here very soon."


	Romana and Ace stood silent in the console room...a much different 
console room than Ace was used to.  Romana's TARDIS was an advanced 
prototype for the Type 70, which would not go into general production until 
after a few years of testing.  So far they'd had no problems with it, and had 
been delighted with all its features.  The console room was circular in shape 
and domed, the central column rising from the floor all the way through the 
ceiling far above them.  It was transparent glass, and the time rotor inside it 
was spiral-shaped, softly luminescent in blues and purples as it twisted ever 
upward into infinity, driving the time machine through the Vortex.  The dome 
doubled as a scanner/viewer when greater perspective was required than 
could be provided by the standard five-by-seven foot viewscreen set into the 
wall.  The console ringed the central column as usual but the clunky levers and 
buttons had been replaced by smooth touch-sensitive keypads and displays.  
The walls and dome were a soothing pearl gray color with the ubiquitous 
roundels, the lighting subdued but sufficient for their eyes.  In this room, and 
the entire TARDIS, Ace had a sense of competence and dependability she'd 
never had in the Doctor's TARDIS...yet she missed that police box dreadfully.
It was somewhat akin to trading in your much-loved Dodge Dart for a Lexus.  
The Lexus was the far superior car, but that old Dart had been *yours* in a 
way the Lexus could never be.
	The time rotor ground to a halt and Ace's feet, well-trained by years of 
TARDIS travel, sensed the landing.  She wordlessly turned towards Romana 
and slid her blaster out of its holster.  Romana's fingers nimbly flew over the 
touchpads as she scanned the landscape.  The smooth gray of the dome slid
away to give the 360 degree view of the terrain around them.  Their backs 
were to a large outcropping of rock, and the colony rose about two miles 
distant.  Between it and them there was nothing, just an expanse of red-brown 
sand and rocks with the occasional group of boulders or sand dune.  The sky 
was orange, twin suns glowing large in the hazy atmosphere, and everything 
seemed very still.
	"I'm not picking up any life signs other than those in the colony," Romana 
reported.
	Ace sniffed.  "That means nothing."
	"I beg your pardon!  These scanners are state of the art..."
	Ace turned towards the Time Lady.  "Romana, Time Lords may be great 
scientists but they lack practical experience.  I can think of at least five ways 
of fooling scanners like these right now."
	Romana seemed a bit miffed at this slight to her TARDIS's abilities.  
"Then I gather you're not satisfied it's safe to go out?"
	Ace shrugged.  "When is it ever safe to go out?  It's never stopped us 
before."  She slid her sunglasses off her head and over her eyes.  The effect 
was disconcerting.  It was more than just the glasses...when she put them on, 
she put on a whole different face, one Romana was unfamiliar with.  The 
woman she knew as Ace was a stubborn pregnant woman who enjoyed things
like racquetball, Stone Roses albums and a good afternoon of horseback riding.  
She sang in the shower, quite well actually, loved to swim and knew every 
card game ever invented.  This woman in the sunglasses, the soldier, was 
someone altogether different.  She was well-trained, highly skilled and quite 
dangerous.  It was hard to imagine the two coexisting in one body...especially 
since Ace had tried hard to reconcile the soldier's actions with her own view 
of herself, not always successfully.  That woman would always be a stranger 
to both of them, but one could not deny that she came in handy now and again.
	These thoughts flashed through Romana's mind in half a second or so.  She 
reached beneath the console and pulled out a small thimble-sized device.  
"Here, take this in case we get separated."
	Ace reached out and took it in her gloved hand.  "What is it, a time ring?"
	Romana's eyebrow shot up.  "How do you know about those?"
	"The Doctor told me that the Time Lords once sent him on a mission to 
Skaro and gave him a time ring to get him back to his TARDIS after he was 
done."
	"Quite right.  It is a time ring, or a similar device.  Press that button," 
she said, indicating a recessed button on the underside of the device, "and it 
will transport you to this TARDIS."
	"Always this one?"
	"Oh yes."
	"A sensible precaution," Ace said, slipping the time ring into a small 
compartment on the inside of her belt.  "Shall we, then?"  Romana nodded and 
hit the door switch.  Ace stepped forward, her movements fluid and eerily, 
completely silent.  "Stay behind me, please," she said softly.
	They emerged into the rocky desert, Ace with her blaster drawn and held 
down at her side at the ready.  Romana followed her out and closed the TARDIS 
door after them, pocketing the automatic recall switch.  They ventured out 
past the rock formation where the TARDIS was just another boulder, and Ace 
gradually relaxed as nothing happened.  No one jumped out to attack them, no 
force field descended upon them.  She straightened up and looked around, one 
hand on her hip, but she kept the blaster in her other hand.  "Well, this is quite 
the planet," she remarked.  "How could anyone live here, and why would they 
want to?"
	"I think the original colonists had some terraformers among them.  
Twisting nature to their own design, that sort of thing.  The colony has 
weather control technology and all the comforts of home, you might say.  I 
suppose they wanted freedom to do their...their experiments."  Ace shuddered. 
 She'd read enough of this colony's history to know what Romana meant.  The 
two set off for the colony, keeping to the shadows of the rock formations 
whenever possible.
	"What happens when we get there?" Romana asked bluntly.  "Do we 
march in and demand to see the Master?"
	Ace shot her another look.  "The best approach is probably to try and find 
the resistance."
	"What resistance?"
	"Come on Romana, you've been around the universe enough to know that 
there's always resistance.  Even if this colony was founded by mad scientists, 
they can't all *still* be mad scientists after fifteen centuries, even if they 
were all raised to be.  Humans are contrary by nature, you know.  There'll be 
dissenters, rebels.  And the Master being here has probably only polarized 
them.  If they're competent in the least they'll know about him, where he's 
working, where he might be holding the Doctor.  Get in, get him, get out."
	"Sounds easy enough."
	"It always does, doesn't it?  Of course if I know the Doctor, and I know 
him well, he'll want to interefere with the Master's dastardly plan or 
whatever.  If he makes a fuss, I recommend duct tape."
	"Duct tape?"
	"Over the mouth.  Keeps people quiet very efficiently."  They were fast 
approaching the colony's border.  Ace slowed down.  "We can't just waltz in.  
They're bound to know who belongs and who doesn't.  Best to find an 
unobtrusive way into the city."
	"That won't be a problem," came a loud male voice.  Both women jumped.  
Ace whirled around, looking for the speaker, her blaster drawn.  No one was in 
sight.  "Welcome, ladies, to Ceres Beta," the voice said with a chuckle.  It was 
the Master speaking.  Ace didn't know how she knew that, but it was him all 
right.
	"Where's that coming from?" Romana hissed.
	"Loudspeakers or something, " Ace hissed back.  To her right a small 
hillock in the sand suddenly came to life, a man in desert camouflage armed 
with a nasty-looking disruptor-style weapon rising from beneath the sandy 
surface.  Ace fired reflexively, striking him right between the eyes.  He fell 
over...but she might as well not have bothered.  All around them the desert 
was coming to life.  Guards were appearing out of the ground, out of the rock 
formations, seemingly out of the very air.  Ace turned in a circle, firing.  She 
never missed, but for every guard she hit three more appeared.  Her eyes 
registered almost as an afterthought that they were all wearing damping 
medallions, a Traxian device that scrambled most kinds of lifesign scanners.
The guards did not fire back, which surprised her a bit.  She wasn't killing 
their comrades, the blaster was not set at full strength, but she would have 
expected some sort of response.  All they did was carefully advance on her,
their faces bright with excitement, their sheer numbers their best weapon.  No 
doubt they're under orders to procure us unharmed, Ace thought.  Christ, 
where are they all coming from?
	Romana, unarmed and facing about two dozen camouflage-suited guards 
advancing on her, thrust her hand into her pocket and pressed the automatic
recall switch.  Amid Ace's blaster fire she heard the unmistakable and very 
welcome sound of her TARDIS materializing.  It appeared directly in front of 
her in its natural shape.  The arrival of a possible escape route for their 
quarry galvanized the guards into action.  They rushed forward as Romana 
grabbed Ace's elbow and lunged for the TARDIS door.  Ace resisted, her 
adrenaline pumping and battle fog settling over her mind, obscuring rational 
thought and reducing her to a reactionary creature.  The guards reached Ace 
and grabbed at her from all directions.  She fought them off as best she could, 
smashing the butt of her blaster on their hands and lashing out at them with 
her other fist.  Romana's fingers were shaken loose from Ace's elbow but 
found a grip on her belt.  She braced her feet in the half-open TARDIS door and 
pulled on Ace with all her strength, but it was no match for the combined 
strength of the ten-odd guards pulling in the other direction as well as the 
three or four that were battering at *her.*.  She lost her grip and flew 
backwards into the TARDIS, Ace's cry of frustration echoing in her ears.  The 
TARDIS door slammed shut and Romana could hear guards battering at it, 
trying to get in.  She leapt to the scanner.  The viewscreen showed her the 
picture outside.  Ace was barely visible beneath a pile of guards.  Romana 
watched with wide eyes as they began dragging her away towards the city.  
One of them had taken her blaster, and another bound her hands behind her 
back.  Romana's jaw clenched as Ace stopped resisting and just walked with 
them, probably realizing that for the moment she was beaten and that to resist 
further was counter-productive.  Romana's first impulse was to run out the 
doors and free her, but that idea was worse than ludicrous.  Her, alone, 
against two dozen armed guards?  She looked towards the TARDIS doors, 
where five or six guards had stayed behind and were still hammering on the 
exterior, trying to get in.
	She had only one realistic option that would give her any chance of 
getting Ace and the Doctor back safely.  I hope she forgives me, she thought
grimly as she hit the dematerialization switch.