The Balumin prisoners seemed to find this rudeness absolutely shocking. 'We do,' said one of the blue ones, his tentacles curling in distaste, 'but only to persons worth speaking to.'

'Oh,' said the Doctor. 'Well you carry on with the complimentary drinks and I'll take my worthless self off out the way and go save all your lives.' They didn't even respond.

'I wouldn't worry, dear,' said Mrs Wingsworth. 'My great-aunt Amy – she wrote the High Tea novels, you know – said our class was often incapable of anything but indulgence. I'm not sure she meant it as a criticism. But yes, I do think I rather fancy a tour of the bridge, since you were so kind as to extend the invitation.'

'Good!' said the Doctor. 'Welcome aboard. I don't suppose it's gonna do much good telling you not to wander off and things?'

The very idea!' said Mrs Wingsworth, with a light and tinkling laugh.

'Er,' said Archie.

'Yes, Archie?' said the Doctor.

'Er,' said Archie again. 'Can I come? Wanna see stuff.'

'Oh, really!' laughed Mrs Wingsworth. 'You don't think, after everything, that you'll be—'

'As long as you behave,' the Doctor interrupted.

'What's that mean?' said Archie.

'You see!' said Mrs Wingsworth.

'You do as you're told,' the Doctor explained. 'Say please and thank you. Don't try to kill anyone.'

Archie considered. 'Don't see why,' he said gruffly, 'but OK.'

'Good,' said the Doctor, clapping his hands together. 'Well, no time like the present. Allons-y,' and he marched out of the cocktail lounge. Archie and Mrs Wingsworth had to run to catch him up.

At the far end of the ballroom, to the left of the stairs, a small door led off to another narrow passageway. They followed this to a steep flight of metal stairs, the plush wood and carpet of the first-class compartments giving way to simple, whitewashed walls and thick metal.

'It's all very... functional,' Mrs Wingsworth concluded as she made her way upstairs, though she couldn't keep out of her disapproving tone a glimmer of fascination.

They followed the passageway past cramped and uninspiring spaces where the crew might sleep or spend their free time. And then the Doctor stopped abruptly.

'Cor,' he said. 'That's a bit clever.'

A small space capsule, about the size of Smart car, sat in the middle of the deck. The thick, arrow-headed front of the capsule looked a bit like some kind of snow plough, and had clearly ripped its way through the starship's side. The gaping hole in the ship's thick metal wall had been filled with what might have been strawberry jelly but the Doctor recognised as sealant. For a moment he thought of the ship's crew, who must have been sucked out into space as the hole had been gouged. The Brilliant's emergency systems had then filled the gap with sealant, keeping everyone else on board alive.

'I guess that's you,' said the Doctor to Archie.

'Yeah,' said Archie. 'Dash did the driving.'

'You came over in that?' laughed Mrs Wingsworth, appraising the tiny capsule. 'There's surely not room for the three of you!'

'I 'ad to sit on Joss's lap,' Archie explained. He grinned. 'It was good.'

'They'll have hundreds of capsules like this,' said the Doctor. 'They spurt from the mothership in their hundreds, and whoever they're attacking might shoot down a few of them, but some are still going to get through. They're zippy, manoeuvrable . . . And a bit good really.'

'It all sounds very reckless,' said Mrs Wingsworth, but she seemed quite thrilled by the idea.

'Yeah,' Archie agreed.

The Doctor had climbed behind the steering wheel and was checking over the controls and read-outs. 'I just wondered if there was anything that might tell us what happened to all your comrades,' he said. 'Seems odd only one of you made it aboard.'

'We won the race,' said Archie proudly. 'Get the best spoils that way, Dash says.'

'I see,' said the Doctor. He opened the glove compartment and eight chunky gold earrings fell out on to the floor. 'Sorry,' he said to Archie.

'S'all right,' said Archie. 'They're a bonus.'

'You could wear one in each ear, couldn't you?' said Mrs Wingsworth. 'It would be tidier that way.'

'Nah,' said Archie, 'that's not what they're for.'

'The single loop is an old tradition,' the Doctor explained. 'If Archie here gets himself killed, his comrades can claim his earring as payment for seeing he gets a decent funeral.'

'Yeah,' said Archie. 'It's proper, ain't it?'

'That is rather considerate,' said Mrs Wingsworth. 'In my family, any death is an excuse for yet another squabble over property and jewels. You can't imagine how much of my life I've had to spend negotiating probate. It's a good thing we're such a close family, really; it makes it easier to hand out the subpoenas.'

'What she on about?' Archie asked the Doctor.

'Oh,' said the Doctor. 'Fighting. Over money. Just your sort of thing.'

Archie grinned at Mrs Wingsworth, seeing in her something new, something he understood. 'Good,' he said.

'If Martha was here,' said the Doctor, clambering back out of the small capsule, 'you know what she would say?'

'No,' said Archie, hanging his head.

'Really?' said the Doctor. 'You don't have any idea?'

'She wouldn't like it,' Archie admitted.

'That's right,' said the Doctor. And you know what? Just for her, I'm gonna make sure you lot change your ways.' He met Mrs Wingsworth with his terrible gaze. All of you,' he said.

'What are you implying, dear?' laughed Mrs Wingsworth, though without the lightness that her words suggested.

'S'OK,' said Archie. 'Was bored of killing them lot anyway. S'no fun when they just come back.'

'Really?' said the Doctor, sternly. 'Killing Martha was much better for you, was it?'

Archie again hung his head. 'No,' he said.

'He was rather upset about it,' Mrs Wingsworth told the Doctor.

'When I first met her,' said the Doctor, 'she was training to be a doctor. She wanted to help people. Wanted to make things better. And she did. Wherever . we went, she made things better. And I couldn't have been more proud of her. She was going to do brilliant things.' His smiled faded. And you stopped her.'

Archie scratched awkwardly at his ear. 'I never 'ad a friend before,' he said quietly. 'An' she was nice. She let me eat food.'

'Yes,' said the Doctor. 'But it wasn't enough, was it?'

'But,' said Archie. 'I thought... I wanted to give 'er a funeral.'

'He did talk about that,' said Mrs Wingsworth.

'She didn't 'ave an earring, so I took this instead,' said Archie. And he dipped his paw into his spacesuit and extracted the thin chain that he wore round his neck. The innocent-looking key to the TARDIS spun slowly from the chain.

'That's stealing, dear,' said Mrs Wingsworth.

'I'll take it,' said the Doctor. 'I'm going to take Martha home to her family.'

Archie considered, and then removed the chain from round his neck and handed it to the Doctor. 'Can I come too?' he said.

'Of course you can't!' said Mrs Wingsworth.

'Oh,' said Archie sadly.

'Her family wouldn't take it too well,' said the Doctor. 'They're not going to be happy seeing me.'

And also,' said Mrs Wingsworth, 'there isn't a body.'

'I'll find her,' said the Doctor. 'However long it takes.'

'If you say so, dear,' said Mrs Wingsworth.

'But it's good that you feel bad about it, Archie,' said the Doctor. 'It means there's hope for you yet.'

'Don't like it,' said Archie. 'It's sad. Like Dash, when Joss got killed.'

'What?' said the Doctor.

'Oh,' said Mrs Wingsworth. 'When they chased your friend, Jocelyn got in the way of the shooting. I think it reflected off the tray Martha was holding.'

'An' Dash was sad,' said Archie. 'He was crying.'

'I think it made things clear between them, dear,' said Mrs Wingsworth. 'Said all the things they never dared to.'