When Sarah called on the Doctor early next morning, she found him hard at work in his laboratory.  0n one of the benches, he had rigged up a riot of wires and condensers, connected at one end to a little monitor screen, and at the other to the blue crystal from Metebelis Three.

Thinking over the baffling events of the previous day, the Doctor had realised first that the crystal was somehow at the centre of things, and second that he didn't know nearly enough about it.  He'd taken the crystal from Metebelis to study it, having searched carefully for a jewel with exactly the right characteristics.  But although he had sometimes made use of the crystal's strange powers, he had never really investigated it properly.  On a sudden impulse, he had given it to Jo Grant for her wedding present, she had taken it to South America, and then he'd forgotten all about it.

Now, eager to make up for lost time, the Dotor was subjecting the crystal to a full electronic analysis, with the aid of one of his own inimitable lash-ups of improvised scientific equipment.

Eagerly, Sarah poured out the whole story of her trip to the monastery.  The Doctor appeared to be listening keenly, nodding his head intelligently from time to time, and encouraging her to continue with occasional 'ums and 'ahs'.  She came to the end of her story, and looked at him expectantly.  'Fascinating !' he said.  'Absolutely fascinating!'

Sarah smiled, pleased that the Doctor didn't think she'd been wasting his time.  The Doctor looked up at her and said solemnly, 'The crystal lattice is absolutely balanced, right and left.'

Sarah groaned, realising he hadn't heard a single word of her story.  The Doctor looked at her, puzzled because she didn't seem to share his pleasure.  'It's a scientific pun,' he explained.  'Coherent thought!'

'Doctor!  What about this man Lupton?  What about this giant spider that jumped on his back and vanished?'

The Doctor stared vacantly at her for a moment and then said thoughtfully:

'It's probably analagous to the laser...'  He bent over his apparatus and adjusted controls.  Blue sparks flickered round the crystal, and a complicated pattern of wave-traces flickered across the screen.

Sarah glared at his back, tempted to crown him with one of his own bunsen burners.  Suddenly, the Doctor looked up at her an said urgently, 'Spiders?  Did you say spiders??  Giant spiders?'

Sarah nodded weakly.

The Doctor came up to her and put his hands on her shoulders, his face very grave.  'Now, Sarah,' he said solemnly, 'I want you to tell me the whole story, right from the beginning.'

Sarah sighed, and started all over again.  'Well, I got this call from Mike Yates - he was down at this meditation centre place...'


Corporal Hodges, Unit Transport Section, gave the Doctor's new car a wipe with a damp cloth, and stepped back to admire his work.  He always enjoyed looking after the Doctor's personal transport.  Like the Doctor himself, it had character.  First there had been Bessie, the old Edwardian roadster with the amazing turn of speed.  Now there was this new car.  Well, you couldn't exactly call it a car.  More like a cross between a flying saucer and a hovercraft.