It is the future time -- about 2116 AD: Captain Rigg of the interstellar cruise ship the Empress tells his Navigator they are running ahead of schedule. In 30 seconds they will come out of warp. The female flight computer voice tells the passengers they will be coming out over the planet Azure where they can enjoy the moonlight but they should keep their silver protective coveralls on. The ship will also only be on seven tenths gravity. Rigg finds the coordinates Secker set are wrong but Secker seems relaxed... too relaxed. Exactly as the Empress comes out of warp a smaller ship, the Hecate, piloted by blond man Dymond, collides with it but it stuck in it with parts of the Empress's molecules being unstable. B Deck is blocked and A Deck doesn't answer, some passengers are blocked off as are some access ways. Riggs tells Secker he will make sure Secker never works for West Galaxy again. Secker takes off.

The TARDIS appears in a hallway not far from an unstable area. Romana, K-9, and the Doctor emerge. The large ship was in dematerialization form coming out of hyper space while the other may have been going into hyper space, leaving unstable overlaps, as K-9 tells them. Romana is worried, "I don't think we should interfere." The Doctor waves her off and onward, "Interfere?! Of course we should interfere -- always do what you're best at -- that's what I always say -- now come on!"

They see a man skulking about as they make their way to the control room. When they arrive, the Doctor watches a heated debate between Rigg and Dymond, who has somehow found his way on board. Rigg tells him the company will cover his loss. The Doctor tells them he is from Galactic Salvage and that he answered their Mayday call. They are introduced. The Doctor has a good idea: separate the ships which Dymond says is impossible. The Doctor likes impossible situations. Romana tells them if the small ship has its full thrust on and in full reverse, it should work. The Doctor tells her now she's spoiled it. Romana claims this procedure to separate the ships has been done before. The Doctor stares, wide eyed, "I preferred it when it seemed impossible." He asks Rigg if he is pressing the right button to the power unit -- it isn't responding. He is sure. Secker will take the Doctor and K-9 to the power unit while Romana and Dymond will wait in the first class lounge.

After all have gone, Rigg checks Galactic Salvage's records: formed in London 2068 AD but liquidated in 2096 AD.

Secker tells the Doctor to go to Section Five, make a left onto shuttle bay and go down to level B. Seeming sick, he leaves the Doctor and K-9 but they follow him quietly. He takes out some kind of hidden hypo from a drawer in a luggage room. The Doctor goes to it and opens the locked drawer with the sonic screwdriver. K-9 analyses it: a fungus XYZ -- Vraxoin which is a drug that the Doctor has seen destroy whole communities, whole planets. It produces apathy in someone using it and then death.

Della, a cheerful young woman and assistant on the zoological expedition of scientist Tryst, and the heavily accented Tryst explain to Romana about their machine, the CET (Continual Event Transmuter) which shows planets on a large screen but is not just an image. This catalogue are actual specimens stored in the machine through electromagnetic signals on crystals. The flora and fauna continue to grow and live within the confines of the crystal section, a small part of each planet. Tryst was hoping to meet a sponsor on Azure. The government used to sponsor him but with the galactic recession, all the government funding stopped but they do pay for first class travel facilities on government liners. Romana calls it a crude form of matter transference of dimensional control. Tryst tells her it works perfectly but Romana is not convinced, "Nothing works perfectly." She reminds him of the collision and that it could effect his dimensional matrix. He asks if she claims to have superior knowledge. Romana smiles, "Equal perhaps." Dymond just wishes everyone would stop showing off.

The Doctor returns to Rigg and tells him of Secker and the drug. The run of the ship is from Azure to station 9, then from station 9 to Azure. All the passengers have been checked. The Doctor asks of Tryst: a zoologist they picked up at station 9 after his long expedition. The Doctor wants to know where Tryst has been while Rigg wants to know who the Doctor really is -- Galactic went out of business 20 years ago. The Doctor stares wide eyed, "I wondered why I hadn't been paid." Riggs comes back, "That's not good enough!" to what the Doctor answers, "That's what I said." Bypassing this, the Doctor heads to the first class lounge, telling Rigg, "Good, good."

Secker ignores a call from Rigg on the intercom and goes into one of the unstable areas to get more of the drug from the drawer.

The Doctor meets Tryst, who tells him his expedition explored the area of space called the Sigmus Gap and then slingshot to the M-3-7, a system where the second planet had molluscs, algae, and insects. The Doctor notes the name of Tryst's ship in the expedition, the Volante (named after someone). The Doctor knew Tryst's mentor, a Professor Schtein, who is now dead. The Doctor says he knew Schtein by reputation and knew of seminars the Professor gave. Dymond tells the Doctor he is awfully anxious to be on his way and the Doctor repeats him. The Doctor and Rigg will go to the power unit, but stopping before he leaves, the Doctor says he wants to talk to Tryst later about capturing alien species for his own private zoo. Tryst tells him he is just conserving endangered species to what the Doctor answers, starting out the door, "Ahh, yes, the same way a jam maker conserves raspberries, haha." Romana tells Tryst to "don't mind him... he just likes to irritate people." Tryst thinks the Doctor has a right to his opinion. He is happy to have someone of intellect after being cooped up with all the same peoples. Tryst tells her they lost one man of the crew on Eden. She asks what happened and Tryst just tells her, "He died."

The Doctor and Rigg are at one interface near the power unit, the Doctor telling Rigg about the ship's molecular structures are rejecting each other; Riggs commenting like "a tissue transplant," to which the Doctor tells him, "Exactly."

The Doctor and Rigg use K-9 to cut through to the power source.

In the lounge, Romana turns on the machine which has planet listings as Eden, Gidi, Zil, Bros, Vij, Darp, Lvan, and Ranx. Romana looks at Gidi, a place of harsh windstorms and rocks. She looks at the Ranx section -- a planet with strange bubble like white trees. Romana gets closer to the projection of Eden which is dark with lots of trees. Something is in one of the trees -- a face of some kind. Eyes staring out. Della comes in, telling her she doesn't mind if Romana has the machine on but Tryst might. Della doesn't want to show her Eden which is where they lost a close friend of hers.

K-9 continues to cut through to the power unit bypassing the unstable interface areas.

Secker goes back to the luggage compartment for his drugs which are hidden in a vile in the drawer of the compartment but he is attacked by a clawed monster. His face is cut. The Doctor and Rigg, hearing his screams, manage to pull him out. The Doctor tells K-9 to cut through in the matter interface area but K-9 warns his sensors don't function fully in those areas.

While Secker is brought to sickbay, someone else goes for the luggage room drawer to find the drug vile. The Doctor gets there and looks in the drawer. Someone shoots him down with a rifle ray gun. This person takes the drug off the Doctor.

Della and Rigg watch doctors work on Secker who was attacked by something under the Shuttle Bay. Rigg asks Tryst if he brought any live specimens aboard. Tryst tells him that his specimens are all laser crystal recordings. Secker dies. Della looks at Tryst, both worried.

K-9 and Romana find the unconscious Doctor who yells, "Bushwhacked," when he recovers. Romana tells him that Vraxoin was stamped out. The Doctor knows it was -- a whole planet was incinerated.

Dymond wants to know why the Doctor is fooling around. He wants his ship out of the larger one, the Empress.

Romana and the Doctor go the lift. Romana asks about the machine. The Doctor asks her if she means the lift. She means the machine of Tryst's -- the CET. Does it leave bald patches on the planets that Tryst takes the specimens from? The Doctor tells her yes. Romana has the creeps knowing that something could have gotten out of the machine's disks. Rigg tells the Doctor about Secker. Romana is sent to the CET machine while Rigg and the Doctor go to the power source.

Romana looks at Eden again.

The Doctor tells Rigg that K-9 is not just a laser while K-9 cuts through to the power source, "He's saved my life on lots of occasions and beat me at chess," the Doctor thinks and adds, "...once," but when he sees K-9 about to correct him, the Doctor also adds, "Shhhh."

A light sparkles from the Eden projection and hits Romana on the neck. She falls down, unconscious.

The Doctor orders K-9 to fire at the monster. He and Rigg put the cover back on. Rigg calls this whole misadventure inexplicable. The Doctor says, with firmness that "nothing's inexplicable!" Rigg asks him to explain it then. The Doctor puffs out his cheeks, "It's inexplicable." They move on down a hallway (in one scene as they do, we hear a bird sound effect from the Eden projection which was seen as Romana lay on the floor just a scene before). Rigg asks who the Doctor works for -- everyone works for someone. The Doctor says, "I don't work for anyone -- I'm just having fun."

In the control room, Rigg uses a TV monitor scan to check for Vraxoin but finds none on the whole ship, not even in the luggage compartment where the Doctor said he found it. They wonder about a shield against the scan. The Doctor and Rigg discuss trusting one another. The Doctor wants to try using a power source from his ship. The Doctor calls Dymond on the small ship, telling him to go to full power when he calls, not before.

Someone in the first class lounge, stands over Romana and leaves. Seconds later, Della comes in and helps Romana up. The projection is off. Della warned her earlier not to put Eden on. Romana notes Della looks pale. Della goes to get Romana a drink but as she does, someone on the other side of the dispensing device, pours Vraxoin into the drink. Rigg arrives, takes that drink, and leaves.

The Doctor takes out a device with a ray gun type thing attached to it out of the TARDIS while K-9 mentions only a 60 percent success rate. The Doctor asks him why when he is trying to think laterally, K-9 is always looking on the black side of things, always thinking logically. He tells K-9 they will go find his mistress -- Romana.

In the control room, Dymond worries about losing a year of his work. Tryst thinks they should support the Doctor as the Doctor is the only one able to do anything constructive. Rigg tells them there is not a trace of the drug on his ship while drinking the drink he took -- which has the drugs in it!

In the first class lounge, Romana concludes to the Doctor that the creature came out of the projection. She tells him the name of the planet it is from is called Eden and ask if he had heard of it. The Doctor answers it rings a bell. Romana goes to the TARDIS while Tryst arrives and talks to the Doctor. Tryst values the Doctor's opinion. The Doctor is pleased, "Good because I value my life but this machine makes me fear for it." The Doctor is fascinated that Tryst would use the machine -- Tryst proudly thinks the machine is being praised by the Doctor but the Doctor tells him he is fascinated because he is still using so primitive a machine. Tryst wants the Doctor to tell him what is wrong with the machine and the Doctor does: the spatial integrator, the transmitter oscillator, the holographic retention circuit, and it has no dimensional osmosis damper. Tryst agrees to shut the machine off.

In the control room, Rigg is silly from the drug already, laughing even though he will lose his captainship. The Doctor comes in and sends K-9 to the blurred area for readings. Rigg is thirsty and leaves, but the Doctor is so busy he doesn't notice the signs of the drug affecting Rigg. The Doctor does turn and asks, "What did you say?" But Rigg is gone.

As they try to separate the ships using the TARDIS, Dymond tells them to switch off since his ship is breaking up. The Doctor wants him to hold it for a bit longer but he claims he cannot. They switch off. Something is wrong.

K-9 has gone into one of the blurred areas. The Doctor goes there and uses his dog whistle but sees a man in coveralls and sun shield glasses. The man runs into the lift. The Doctor tries to chase him but has to run down and jump down the steps to the next level, misses him there, and goes down to another level via more steps. The Doctor chases him through Passenger Pallets 67-70. One passenger thinks the man and the Doctor were the entertainment. Another passenger, a lady, gets up, upset. The Doctor gives her a jellybaby, putting it into her hand, "...and don't forget to brush your teeth." He runs to another lift and misses the man yet again. The man goes to another lift and finds the Doctor in it already. The Doctor chases him into one of the blurred areas.

In the lounge, Rigg is laughing and talks of ships in ships and comments that it is like little Russian dolls, "Remember those?" Romana comments, "I wonder if the makers of those knew they were making an exact model of the universe?"

Tryst asks if Rigg would like a cafadine capsule. Rigg laughs about his firing and eventual execution for dereliction of duty... and he doesn't care about either. Tryst still has hopes that the Doctor will solve their problems. Rigg calls the Doctor, "...that medical mighty Mr. Fix-It -- he's failed again." Romana claims not yet and goes to find out what the Doctor is doing now. Rigg tells Tryst that the Doctor and Romana are the ones doing the drug smuggling. He also claims the Doctor is a narcotics agent. Tryst gives Rigg a drink that will make him feel better.

In the blurred area the Doctor is jumped from behind by the man he was chasing. The man knocks the Doctor down. When the Doctor gets to his hands and knees, a monster faces him.

Romana moves to the opening of the blurred area and a monster comes at her from inside the area. Someone shoots at it with that same rifle ray gun. It moves back into the blurred area. The Doctor crawls out of the area, not convinced he is all here and that some of him is still back in the blur. Romana is told by him that he has been right through from one side to the other. The Doctor found a radiation wrist band that the man who jumped him dropped. It reads -- the Volante -- Tryst's ship.

In the lounge, the machine is still on. Tryst tells Della it is on for the Doctor's benefit. Using it, perhaps they can clean their own house, so to speak. They are all under suspicion of drug smuggling. Tryst thinks Stott -- the man that Della was close to -- and who was killed on Eden was the drug smuggler. He disappeared for two hours the day he was killed. Tryst more than implies that Della may be the person Stott passed the drugs on to and that she is doing the smuggling, his accomplice. Della tells him she doesn't know why Stott vanished for two hours but he is not the kind of person who smuggled drugs, she knows that much.

Romana, in the hallway, tells the Doctor about Rigg. The Doctor figures it is Vrax! He tells Romana they have got to get inside that machine. It must be hidden in there. Tryst arrives and tells them he can help. He seems to want the Doctor to send Romana off so he can talk in private to the Doctor only. Romana seems to walk off. Tryst blames Della for the drug smuggling. The Doctor is called to the bridge so he must go. He walks past a hallway wall where Romana was listening to everything he and Tryst said. The Doctor is not surprised she has done this. He leaves for the Bridge with Romana.

At the actual power feed, K-9 holds off two of the monsters.

In the control room, the Doctor and Romana are questioned by Fisk and his aide Costa of the Azurian Empire Customs and Accise Service. The Doctor tries to explain but the two men keep asking questions. They ask Romana her name and she tells them, "Romana." Fisk asks, "Romana who?" Fisk keeps asking for the Doctor's name and date of birth. "Oh very well," the Doctor goes on, "I'm called the Doctor, date of birth, sometime soon I would think." As the Doctor tries to explain again, Fisk tells him all in good time. The Doctor tells him, "There's no good time. Look, Fisk..." He puts his hand on Fisk's shoulder to explain but Costa knocks it off. Costa searches the Doctor with a tracer and picks up traces of Vraxoin in the Doctor's pocket. The Doctor bluffs for them to look at the screen and he and Romana run out. The two men give chase down the halls.

Inside the projection, the Doctor wants to call one way east but Romana asks why they can't call it north. The Doctor agrees to call it north but when they hear a roar he asks if they can go. He tells her, as they walk, that the CET machine is like the TARDIS, a relative dimensional field, much more unstable and unreliable, restructured on an inter-dimensional matrix (as Romana guessed) but without an osmosis damper anything can walk into the projection... and anything in the projection can walk out. The pair discuss the idiotic customs officers. The Doctor cannot move. He has stepped in a plant which has vines that wrap around him and start pulling him toward an opening reddish mouth -- it eats people. The Doctor asks for the root which Romana gives him. He bites into it and sprays the green chlorophyll into the mouth of the plant thing. It lets him go, "You know that didn't taste at all bad."

In the lounge, Tryst tells Fisk and Costa he cannot turn off the machine because the selector is gone. He also tells Fisk there is no logic in thinking the Doctor is the criminal. Fisk asks to get into the locked door which Tryst opens with a special VIP pass -- it is a lounge bathroom. Tryst tells Dymond he thinks the Doctor is in a lot of trouble.

In the projection crystal of Eden, the Doctor and Romana hide; the Doctor covers her mouth -- the monsters wait for and react to sound. One passes by but when they get up, another or the same one, waits for them and attacks. A man shoots at it and stops it. His face is bruised and he introduces himself as Stott. The Doctor gives him back his radiation band. Another monster arrives but Stott shows them a safe place to run to -- a small but modern cubicle with diamond shaped windows. The lights, when turned on, are musical. Stott has been here 183 days. One of the monsters, called Mandrels, bruised his face. There were times he felt like blowing his brains out but he looked out and could see Della. The reason he didn't tell her or Tryst he was still alive is that he is a Major in the Intelligence Section of the Space Corp. He thought the Doctor was the drug runner until he overhead the Doctor and Romana talking in the lounge. Stott is sure Tryst didn't know his machine was being used for drug smuggling and thinks Secker may have been involved but cannot find the source of the drugs in Eden. The Doctor wants to seal off the dimensional projection to stop the drugs from getting out but to do that he must separate the ships. Stott tells them they can get out of the projection anywhere they want. They go out into the hall by K-9. The Doctor has K-9 sniff up Stott so that he can recognize him as a friend.

The Doctor, K-9, and Romana go to the power room where he claims he can fix anything from a steam engine to a TARDIS. K-9 tells them there were five Mandrels about this area.

Coming out of a hallway, a complaining woman passenger and a crewman open a lift to find two or more Mandrels in it. Both are attacked by the clawed things and killed. In the control room, Rigg watches, drugged up, and he laughs at it. Fisk comes in to see Rigg laughing as more passengers are attacked and clawed and killed by the Mandrels in Pallet 67. Fisk will have Rigg shot. Rigg comments, as a blond woman is grabbed up by one thing that these passengers are just in economy class.

Working, the Doctor takes his jacket off. Romana comes running in, chased by a Mandrel which then grabs the Doctor in a bear hug. K-9 stuns it and it falls. The Doctor tells Romana it is quite dead and kicks it so she can jump over it to recheck that the cable is plugged into the right area. It wasn't and if the Doctor had connected, he would have caused a large explosion. Romana must see that the power in the bridge is on maximum; K-9 must activate the demat gun outside but connected to the TARDIS, all at the same time the Doctor switches to power source maximum.

In the control room bridge, Fisk arrests Rigg, who is not phased by it. Tryst tells Fisk he would rather the Mandrels are not killed -- it is a matter of conservation. A member of the crew or one of Fisk's men calls in -- two of the monsters are in the fuel area and they cannot be shot or the fuel might go up. Fisk orders them to stand watch over the things and also orders the capture of the Doctor and Romana -- if the resist, they have orders to shoot to kill.

Stott and Romana must return through the jungle while K9 must go through one of the blurred areas. K-9 is reluctant to do so but the Doctor tells him it is fine as long as he stays near the edge of the ship's hull and uses "determination." The Doctor borrows a wrist watch from Stott to build himself a timer and he will use a dog whistle to signal K-9 to activate the demat gun. Romana asks the Doctor how he will fair with the Mandrels without K-9 or a gun. The Doctor tells her he will have to use his wits. He tells her to watch out for Fisk's men, "I don't think they like us."

In a hall near an airlock, Tryst and Dymond share a strange moment about keeping in touch.

In the Eden projection jungle, Stott shoots a Mandrel which keeps coming but eventually falls.

In the power source room, the Mandrel that the Doctor told Romana was dead, moves, gets up and comes at the Doctor, who has his back turned. As the Doctor bends over, his duck allows him to miss the swipe of the Mandrel's claw.

K-9 gets through the blurred area to the TARDIS. Getting to the lounge, Romana tells Stott to go back and guide the Doctor through. She will manage.

The Mandrel in the power unit, chases the Doctor around the power poles. The Doctor avoids it and manages to use the sonic screwdriver to finish connecting and then he sets the timer. The Doctor warns the Mandrel not to hit the connection but it does and is electrocuted. It decomposes into dusty powder -- which the Doctor realizes is Vraxoin.

In a hall, Romana hides from Fisk and Costa. 12 people are dead and 29 injured. Fisk smiles that he will get a promotion -- this will "sort itself out" and they will have two ready made suspects -- the Doctor and the girl. In the meantime, K-9 has made it to the demat gun.

Romana finds Rigg in the control room. At first, he seems okay but them he asks her to give him more drugs. He grabs her and throws her. She tells him to let her pass and when she activates the full power, she will see to it that he gets medical help. He means to get the drug from her or kill her and grabs her hand just short of the control, then throws her away from it. He moves to punch her and as he raises his hand, Fisk who was entering shoots him. Rigg falls. She thanks Fisk as Rigg was going to kill her. Fisk tells her she will die anyway -- drug smuggling is punishable by death. She counters by telling him bureaucratic murderers are given promotion. Fisk tells her he doesn't make the rules. She explains they are going to separate the ships now. Fisk tells her if she moves to touch the control, he will shoot her. Her hand is once more just short of it.

After refixing the power connection, the Doctor puts his jacket and scarf back on and blows the dog whistle for K-9 to activate the demat gun, which the electric dog does.

When the ships separate, Fisk falls to the floor and loses his hat. Romana kicks his gun away and runs out. Dymond tells Fisk he came back to his ship, the Hecate, to get some GB guns to use against the Mandrels and just happened to be on it when the ships separated. The Empress is as good as new but Fisk refuses to let Dymond go even though Dymond will not put in a claim against the company. Fisk wants him as a witness. Dymond complains he will lose his contract if he doesn't go but Fisk warns him if he tries to leave, he will fire a niller rip ray into his bulkhead.

K-9 reports to Romana that the separation is 100 percent successful but that the Doctor is not on board the Empress. Romana hides as Della and an orderly take a hurt passenger into sickbay. Romana follows her and learns from Della that Fisk has given orders to have she and the Doctor shot on sight. Romana tells her Tryst thinks it is Stott and Della who are the drug smugglers but that the Doctor and she know it is not. Della explains what happened to Stott. Della was going to the shuttle when some shot stunned Stott. Della tried to help him but a Mandrel came out of the forest. She ran. Romana tells Della anyone would have done the same. Tryst told Della that Stott had died and showed her a print. Romana tells Della that Stott is alive. Della is happy and wasn't sure but knew it was Stott who was staring out at her from the projection of Eden.

The Doctor wakes up in a small ship and finds it to be the Hecate; for looking out a window, he sees the Empress in space. He also finds a strange ray gun set up - an intouca laser. He hides as Dymond returns but when the man leaves, the Doctor punches up info on a computer and finds the Galactic Credits and other info on the drug running, "The profits on human suffering." Dymond returns and the Doctor moves into another area -- a smaller shuttle area. Dymond goes there and the Doctor realizes Dymond has on a space suit and helmet. As the shuttle leaves, the air escapes. The Doctor puts himself into a trance to save himself from having to breathe. The shuttle leaves the Hecate for the Empress.

In the control room, Tryst tells Fisk that the Doctor must have gone into the projection to pick up the drugs. Fisk asks why he bothered to separate the ships.

In the hall of the larger ship, Della found a Mandrel but rejoins Romana and K-9, the later of who detects the Doctor. When Dymond leaves his shuttle, the girls hide and the Doctor exits, meeting them. Della blocks the Doctor and Romana from a trigger happy pair of guards who want to shoot the two. K-9 shoots one of the guards. The other guard takes Della.

In the hall, hiding, the Doctor tells of the intouca laser which Romana tells him can be used to transmit 1000s of telecom messages and can carry a CET crystal -- Eden. Tryst and Dymond are the smugglers. Stott arrives and K-9 shoots down a Mandrel that was after him. The Doctor and Romana explain what has happened and that Dymond is the pickup man. He will try to transfer the crystal to the Hecate. The Doctor tells them why -- the Mandrels are the source of Vrax -- the Mandrel that attacked him, the Doctor sympathetically adding "the poor thing", was electrocuted and became Vraxoin dust.

In another hall, near a lift, a Mandrel reaches out and claws the guard taking Della away, killing him. Della runs to the control room where she finds Tryst in a spacesuit ready to leave with Dymond. Tryst tells her he is right behind the Doctor if the Doctor is herding the Mandrels back into the crystal projection.

In the lounge as the Doctor works on the CET, Fisk and Costa along with three brown vested guards point guns at the Doctor. Fortunately, Stott comes out of the projection grid and shows him his credentials, telling them Tryst and Dymond are the drug smugglers and dealers.

Back in control, Della realizes Tryst was the one who fired the shot that downed Stott that night on Eden. He tells her that he ran into financial difficulty and that the drugs were a good source to continue getting money and credits for the expedition -- to save the millions of life forms that would become extinct. Della counters by mentioning the few million people becoming extinct due to the drugs. When he tells her humans have a choice, she mentions Rigg did not have a choice. Dymond and Tryst tell her that was unfortunate but necessary. A Mandrel enters and Dymond has a difficult time shooting it down but it finally does fall. Tryst sends him after Della, who ran out in the attack. Dymond follows. Della is blocked by a Mandrel. Turning, Dymond shoots her in the neck. She holds her stomach and falls. He leaves but Romana comes to her and tells K-9 to go after Dymond. K-9 starts to but says, "Mission aborted mistress." He returns to the two girls and good thing: a Mandrel is menacing Romana. K-9 nose-lasers him down. The Doctor arrives and calls Dymond and Tryst "callous wretches" for shooting Della. He thinks by now they will be making the transfer to the Hecate.

At an airlock, the two druggers hear the cancel the orders to get or kill the Doctor on sight and a message to apprehend them.

Entering the control room, the Doctor quotes Henry V, "Gentlemen, once more into the..." He wants to finally get "this marauding menagerie" back into the crystal by stabilizing the ship and now the CET.

Dymond and Tryst dock the shuttle into the Hecate.

On the Empress, the Mandrels are being herded toward the projection via laser guns. One guard is hit down by one. The monsters are to be put back into the crystal, hopefully the Doctor can stop it from being taken by the machine Dymond has on the Hecate. The guns fade but the Doctor uses the dog whistle (a Mandrel he first encountered came to him in the luggage area when he blew it for K-9 to come) to get the monsters to be calm and follow him à la the Pied Piper. He gets them all into the projection and has to go in, quoting Capt. Oates, "I'm going in now...and I may be rather a long time." The Mandrels attack him but he yells out strange things, "Oh gosh, oh lord, oh Doctor. My arms, my legs, my everything." Fisk is about to write him off and close the machine but Costa sees the Doctor coming out, his jacket off, his vest ripped, but alive. A last Mandrel attacks him but he yells at the others to switch it off. The Doctor goes to Romana and tells her she has 2 minutes and 58 seconds to rebuild the CET. She asks him if he is serious. He asks her if she can do it. She asks, "Well, I'll need a screwdriver." The Doctor increases the gayon matrix. To gather more power to do what he needs to, the Doctor has Romana attack the leads to K-9's ears and this increases the range and power of the machine. The Doctor gets a shock from the device.

The transfer is made and Dymond and Tryst now have the Eden crystal. The Doctor reverses the setting. K-9 is to find the Hecate which, when found, goes out of space, vanishing from sector 7 niner niner in seven seconds. Fisk complains the Doctor has failed again but the Doctor asks Stott if he's ever heard of the expression, "hoisted by his own petard." The Doctor has caught them -- they and the Hecate (or at least the control room part of it) are in the projection, now on the Empress. The Doctor claims it is still unstable so Fisk and his men can just "pluck 'em out" which Fisk commands his me to do.

As Tryst is taken away, he pleads with the Doctor to understand, mentioning funding, conservation, and that as a fellow scientist, the Doctor should be able to identify. The Doctor isn't looking at him, just staring, blankly but has heard every word, "Go away." Tryst asks, "What?" The Doctor quietly repeats, "Go away."