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Hardy.
    Jo asked, ‘What for? I thought you wanted us in here.’
    ‘We’ve changed our minds,’ said the space pilot. ‘We’re going to meet your friends.’
    ‘We keep ourselves very much to ourselves,’ said the Doctor. ‘We don’t have any friends.’
    ‘Any arguments and I kill one of you right here.’ Hardy’s finger tightened round the trigger. ‘Out!’
    The Doctor looked at Jo. ‘Out,’ he said.
    Once more the Doctor and Jo were propelled along the corridor at gunpoint. They arrived to see Stewart aiming his blaster at the now completely red hot durilium door.
    ‘I wish you’d listen to us,’ shouted Jo. ‘We aren’t Dragons or whatever you call them. I’m human, the same as yourselves.’
    ‘You’re part of their boarding party,’ snapped Stewart. ‘You arc going to stand in front of us and get killed first, by your own side!’
    The Doctor tried to argue. ‘My dear fellow, since they haven’t boarded you yet, how can we be part of their boarding party? Try to be logical.’
    Stewart looked confused by the Doctor’s reasoning. " ‘I’hen he shook his head as though trying to clear it of difficult thoughts. ‘’They’re coming to rescue you.’
    ‘Look out!’ screamed Hardy. ‘They’re coming through!’
    The whole door was finally dissolving in a cloud of smoke. Two giant figures appeared through the jagged opening. Huge man-like creatures with bald ape heads, wearing belted metal tunics, both carried handguns.
    Jo screamed, ‘Ogrons!’
    ‘Well, I’ll be...’ For the Doctor this was an entirely unexpected development. He had met the Ogrons more than once in his travels, great hulking brutes with minds little more advanced than Earth’s early cave-men. As he recalled, Ogrons had neither the wit nor cunning to get up to any devilry of their own, though they had been used by the Daleks and other advanced Space species to do their dirty work.
    Hardy shouted, ‘Keep back, you Dragons, if you want to save your friends.’
    The Doctor turned to him. ‘They’re not Dragons, they’re—’
    But Hardy wasn’t listening. He was convinced he faced two Draconians. ‘I mean it. I’ll shoot!’
    Realising this was no time to argue, the Doctor ducked under Hardy’s gun and sent the space pilot cannoning into one of the Ogrons. The Ogron fired wildly, hitting Stewart at close range. The Doctor, meantime, had grabbed Jo’s arm and was dragging her down the corridor back towards the TARDIS. One of the Ogrons felled Hardy with a single blow from its huge furry hand and lumbered after the fleeing couple.
    The TARDIS in sight, the Doctor fumbled in his pocket for the key.
    ‘Watch out! ‘ yelled Jo. Coming up behind them was the pursuing Ogron.
    The Ogron raised its hand gun and fired. The Doctor sprawled forwards on to the deck. Jo threw herself down beside him. ‘Doctor! Doctor!’
    The Doctor remained still. Slowly Jo looked up. The Ogron stood over her, its gun pointed at her head.

3
Stowaways
    General Williams sat watching the President as she dictated a statement into her desk microphone. ‘Although distress signals have been received from yet another of our cargo ships, until the arrival of the Earth rescue ship we must reserve judgment. Relations between ourselves and the Draconian Empire are admittedly tense, but this is all the more reason not to indulge in ill-informed speculation which can only worsen the situation.’ She paused, then decided that her last words suitably ended the statement. For the benefit of the technician who, in another part of the presidential palace, was recording her words, she said, ‘Please have copies of that sent to all news services throughout Earth.’ She touched a button that turned off the microphone.
    Williams said quietly, ‘Do you think that will satisfy the world?’
    ‘Why not? It was the truth.’
    He did not relish what he had to report to her. ‘Madam President, there have been anti-Draconian riots in Tokyo and Belgrade,