Part 49 (1/2)

Tovel shrugged. 'I guess. That's what I joined up to do.'

'There'll be other wars to fight,' Shade agreed. He looked at Polly and smiled.

'Yes,' said the Doctor sadly. 'Yes, you've won a decisive battle here today, it is true, but I suppose the war you began with the Schirr will continue.'

'The Ten-strong were heroes to the Schirr dissidents. Meant to be indestructible.' Tovel grinned. 'We've taken them. We can take the rest.'

The Doctor looked disappointed with him. 'Can you not take understanding away with you from your experiences here? Compa.s.sion for those whose plight seems desperate?

Go to your leaders. Urge them to speak with the Schirr, to take this opportunity to negotiate a peace. You may prevent similar atrocities in the future, hmm?'

'The future,' Ben heard Frog whisper dreamily. 'We've actually got one. Whatever it holds.' She smiled slyly. 'And it might just hold a lot of cash.'

Tovel looked at her doubtfully. 'Oh yeah?'

'We've still got Shel floating round somewhere in these websets,' she reminded him. 'All that top-secret AI stuff...

Reckon Pent Central would pay quite a bit to get him back, don't you?'

'I think we'll pretend we didn't hear that,' Tovel said with a smile.

Frog shrugged. 'It was just a thought...' She looked furtively at Ben and winked. 'Well if I can't make a mint off Shel, maybe I'll ask old Princ.i.p.al Cellmek if Haunt's job's up for grabs. Active service will seem pretty tame after all this.' She did a fair impersonation of Haunt's voice: 'Today you're all school kids and I'm your teacher. So what did we take away from today's lesson, children?'

'Don't judge by appearances?' Shade suggested.

Creben shook his head, actually joining in with the others.

'How about, don't follow orders blindly?'

'Who's got a disk?' Shade called. 'Play him that back when he's the big man in Intelligence...'

As the relaxed banter continued to fly, the Doctor caught Ben's eye. He indicated the TARDIS, steepled his fingers and smiled.

Ben nudged Polly and started to head towards the blue box. Its door stood ajar now, waiting for them.

'Come on then, dolly rocker d.u.c.h.ess,' he murmured. 'Time to go.'

'Hey, I know,' Tovel cried. 'I know what we've learned: Believe in magic. After all we've seen today...'

Shade agreed. 'Magic, must be. Just the fact that any of us are here at all - let alone so pretty.'