Cordar grinned gleefully. Vorlene did exactly the opposite as soon as she had tried to leave and failed. Vorlene glared at him and tried again. "What have you done to me?"

"I'm your friend," he lied a little more expertly. "I thought you might try to take off before I had a chance to talk to you, so I took the precaution of generating a time block around my transmat station. If you'll cooperate I'll let you go in minutes."

Vorlene backed away from him. He swung his hand around and grabbed her wrist, pulling her towards him. Her natural sensuality made not the least impression on him as he scooped her up and plopped her roughly in the chair the Doctor had left for him. She turned away from him and lifted her feet up against herself. He stepped back to catch his breath.

When he quit touching her Vorlene relaxed a little. "That's better," he smiled down at her. "Can you stay here for a few minutes?"

She glared back unresponsive.

Cordar brought over several instruments and began to scan her body.

"Thitocdor will find me soon," she blurted.

After taking a moment to muddle through Vorlene's phonetic soup, Cordar laughed. "Him. He couldn't find his belt buckle with both hands."

"That's funny?"

"Anyway, by the time he does find us I'll know what I want to know and it won't matter any more."

"What do you want to know? I haven't refused to answer anyone's quetions." Vorlene's voice still trembled with the emotions generated by all the troubling events of the last few minutes.

"I doubt you know," Cordar sneered.

"If I don't know then why did you bring me here?"

"Because the answers I seek are hidden in your body." He reached down and lifted some of her hair, snipping about an inch of one off. He dropped it into the chamber of a molecular analyzer. Indicators on his portable computer showed that voluminous data from the machine was being stored on a computer block.

"Now," he said to the still cowering Vorlene. "I need a place to keep you where the Doctor won't find you for a while and where you won't get away from me." He picked her up out of the chair and carried her back to the transmat station. "I'm going to move you about 30 meters beneath us," he informed as he adjusted the controls on his messenger. The time block I've generated extends there, so you won't be able to leave by time travel. The place is a cave that opens into the ocean about a mile from here. A good quarter mile of the passage is underwater, so you won't be able to swim out. Just wait there, and I'll bring you back when I'm ready," he concluded just before he activated the transmat beams.

He finished not a moment to soon. The sounds of a type 40 TARDIS materializing announced the Doctor's arrival. He and the crutch-borne Romana both came out as soon as it had landed.

"You're in big trouble," Romana accused as the Doctor scanned the area visually.

Cordar, shocked by Romana's presence, thought quickly to develop some lies to cover her disappearance. "The transmat unit fired at random while I was away from it," he said. "Maybe it was set off by some interference generated by that old bucket," he suggested, pointing at the TARDIS. "I couldn't tell where she'd gone."

"Your mother knew quickly enough," the Doctor warned.

"My mother!" Cordar scoffed. "She's at home enjoying the campaign. How could she know?"

"She appeared and gave me these," Romana held up one of the crutches, "shortly after you sent me to that desert."

"You'd have been out 'til almost morning."

"You didn't allow for my increased metabolism brought on by the much more active lifestyle I have with the Doctor."

As this conversation continued the Doctor disconnected the panels and began to carry them into the TARDIS. "You won't be needing these now," he said as he disappeared with the first one.

Cordar wanted very much to protest, but he couldn't think of a way to complain that wouldn't get him totally cut off from involvement in the Doctor's investigation.

"If you think this will get me to change my mind about marrying you you're doing all the wrong things," Romana continued.

"Don't flatter yourself," Cordar condescended. "I gave up on you years ago. I'm here strictly to be a part of this investigation."

"Why, what's in it for you?"

"The Doctor needed help, and I was the most expendable member of the unit he came to to seek help." Cordar's mock humility didn't impress Romana.

"I can believe that bit about being the most expendable," she taunted. The Doctor disappeared inside the TARDIS with the second panel. "You're after that cube, aren't you? You're the one who was bringing it to Gallifrey when it 'collided' with the TARDIS."

"If I was," Cordar allowed guardedly, "then I'll be the only one who can safely tamper with it."

"What do you mean safely?"

"Even if the Doctor were to figure out what that cube is, he'd know he couldn't tamper with it without endangering many lives."

The Doctor came out to get the third panel, and both Romana and Cordar stopped talking. Romana followed the Doctor into the TARDIS when he carried the third panel in. Moments later the TARDIS disappeared.

"What do you know about this planet?" Borusa questioned.

Fostil twisted in his seat. "It's one of the ones we recently surveyed. There were no intelligent life forms."

"Can you be sure?"

"The reports are all on file in the Matrix," Fostil countered.

"Who writes those reports?"

"The scientists who do the actual survey. We always have two scientists survey a planet independently so no one scientist can falsify a report for personal gain," Fostil said assuredly.

"Who were the two scientists who surveyed this planet?" Borusa kept on like an attorney cross-examining a witness.

"May I check the Matrix?"

"Certainly," Borusa agreed, pushing a keyboard toward his guest.

Fostil logged in and entered a triple password aided by a retinal scan. "That would be Cordar and Monatim." He reported when he had accessed the survey records.

"Monatim concurs with Cordar on that report?"

"Actually, Monatim took ill a few days ago. I haven't reassigned the second survey as I expect him back to work by next month." Fostil looked up to see the Cardinal's reaction. It wasn't pleasant.

"I don't think you'll need Monatim to confirm the report," Borusa asserted. "We already have plenty of information that the planet not only has intelligent inhabitants but that Cordar has interfered with them in some way."

"Then he shouldn't be with the Doctor on his investigation," Fostil concluded.

"We agree," Borusa affirmed. "But we don't have the means currently to get him back. If he should return by some means, you can rest assured that he will land in jail. Do not pass 'Go;' do not collect 200 dollars."

"Huh?"

"Some quaint phrase I've heard the Doctor use. I gather it means that you are imprisoned without appeal."

Romana finished and recorded the calculations for three possiblebut unlikely vacation trips. "There's music in the waves of the seas of Janalorig," she sang, more in monotone than in any melody. She glanced down the hallway. The Doctor had been in that storeroom for over an hour. She crutched herself down and leaned out on the balcony. "Find anything?"

"Come here," the Doctor requested.

She labored down the stairway to stand beside him. He sat against the wall of the storeroom with his feet propped up against the cube. He had leaned several instruments up against it. He gazed at them in unfocused contemplation.

"Yes?" she said to remind him she was there.

"You see this cube?" he responded. "It's not here."

"Huh?"

"There is no matter here at all."

"And?"

"This meter," he pointed toward one with his foot, "shows that this cube is draining a small amount of energy from the TARDIS."

"That's not enough energy to light a firefly," Romana interjected, interpreting the reading.

"But it's absolutely critical to this cube and to whoever made it."

"If it's not matter, what is it?"

"It's a time-ether stasis field."

"There's no such thing as time ether, just as there's no light ether."

"No, there isn't," the Doctor replied. "But the concept can help you understand this cube." He pushed himself up from the floor. "I read up some more on Rassilon's work with other uses for time manipulation, and it helped me remember more about that transmat process that began with a short time journey. Once the sending station had started the freight on a time journey, the recieving station wrapped the time-space continuum into itself, much like Vorlene wrapped that leaf around itself to hold the snow against your foot." He looked down. "How is your foot, by the way?"

"Better, but it still hurts."

"Anyway, with a small part of the space time continuum wrapped into itself, whatever is in it gets locked in. Time does not pass inside the field. I remember now that this civilization I watched made shipments of fresh food. The recipients would leave the food in these 'cubes' until they needed it. Since time had not passed inside the time-ether stasis field the food was still fresh. The small amount of energy these fields absorb keeps them from unwrapping. The loop forms the force field we perceive as the cube."

"So what's in here?" Romana lifted her hand toward the cube. "Is this Vorlene's tribe?"

"I'm afraid it might be." The Doctor looked up into Romana's face. "Such a device could normally be moved anywhere by matter transferrence, but the time shielding of the TARDIS apparently interrupted that operation. I would guess that your friend from Gallifrey would have gotten this into his lab if we hadn't been in the area."

Romana winced at the Doctor's misuse of the word 'friend.' "Can you get them out?"

"No."

"Could the person who made the cube get them out?"

"Sure. All you have to do is direct the right frequency toward the center of the cube. The time-space continuum loop would unravel and deposit its contents in place of the cube."

"Couldn't you rig up something that would do that?"

"Too risky," the Doctor warned. "The frequency would have to exactly match the harmonic frequency of the cube. If it didn't whatever was in the cube would cease to exist."

"So that's what he meant." Discovery saturated Romana's tone.

"What who meant?"

"Cordar. He said if you figured out what the cube was you'd know you couldn't do anything with it without endangering many lives. It makes sense now. He did this."

"He's as good as admitted he's implicated," the Doctor deduced. "We'll have to report this to the council. They'll force him to unlock this safely."

"Just a minute," Romana cut in. She struggled up the stairs and disappeared into the hallway. When she returned she carried a ball peen hammer.

"What's that for?" the Doctor asked. "You can't break it. There's no matter here."

"I don't intend to break it." The Doctor stared at her, willing her to continue. "You said the tone to unlock the cube had to exactly match its harmonic frequency."

"Yes."

"Wouldn't the fluid-pressure resonant frequency be related to the time harmonic frequency?" Romana continued.

"Time frequencies are multiples of fluid-pressure frequencies," the Doctor informed academically.

"So, we get an ultrasonic transponder, connect its output to a frequency multiplier, connect that to a messenger, and use the hammer to generate a fluid-pressure wave that will be converted by our device to the accurate time frequency."

"Of course!" he exclaimed. He dashed out of the room to gather the necessary equipment.

Romana followed more slowly, addressing him from the door of the storeroom he had entered. "Don't you think we should move the cube outside?" she suggested.

"Probably so," he agreed. "If that is Vorlene's tribe they'd be awfully upset to appear where they hadn't expected to arrive. If that unexpected place were also unfamiliar they might suffer a serious shock."

"I'll move the cube," she offered. "Bring the gear out when it's ready.

A rocky cliff near Cordar's station developed an unnatural opening. It caught his attention, if not his interest. His mother's appearance a moment later captured both.

"You are coming with me, young man," she commanded.

"But mother..." he protested feebly, "I've got to...."

"Come with me," she interrupted.

Cordar started to wrap up his MSGR.

"Leave that," she ordered. "The Doctor can bring it when he comes back."

Cordar grabbed his computer and box and followed his mother into the cliff.

Vorlene rolled onto her back, her eyes opening only slightly. She had tried several times earlier to leave her prison by time travel. Now she waited for Cordar to remove her. The low oxygen level in the cave left her groggy and dulled her senses.

Romana reached as high as she could and gave the cube a sharp rap. The needles on the meters the Doctor had propped up against it bounced wildly. Then the cube disappeared.

The clearing filled immediately with over a hundred people dressed in animal skins. A white-bearded man near the doctor peered through the darkness in confusion. "We've traveled in time, but not space," he suddenly concluded.

Then he spotted the Doctor and Romana, strange figures in strange clothes. "You!" he shouted. "What brings you strangers to our land?" All the people turned to face the time lords. "The time on this planet is nearly used up," the old man continued. "It's of no use to you."

"On the contrary," the Doctor countered. "Another time-traveling tribe could visit all the places you've visited without encountering the limitation effect you have felt."

"How would you know?" a younger man standing next to the Doctor asked.

"I'm an expert on many things," he responded, "and time travel is one of my stronger points."

"Then follow me," the young man requested as he disappeared.

Sensing a long and arduous round of explanations the Doctor worded his next comments very carefully. "I can't travel in time myself," he said, "but I know much about how it can be done. Anyway," he continued, "we don't want your planet, but we would like some information from you."

"We were just leaving to explore another planet that we hoped had no intelligent life; one we could consider using for our home," the old man revealed. "But our inability to reach it as a group needs some thought and discussion."

"I doubt that your failure to reach your intended destination has anything to do with the destination or yourselves," the Doctor offered. While he was speaking the young man who had challenged him returned.

"Not much of an expert," he taunted. "Couldn't even follow me a few days."

"Quiet, Hadrian," the old man decreed. "This man may have important knowledge for us."

"We know for certain that it's been several days here since you have set foot on this planet, because we know where you've been."

"Check it out," the old man ordered a middle-aged assitant standing near him. The man lifted his arms and vanished, reappearing less than a second later.

"He's apparently right," the man admitted. "There's no limitation on at least four days here and in the other eras we frequent."

This caused a considerable amount of quiet discussion throughout the crowd. The old man continued the interrogation. "If you know where we've been for so long, how come we're not aware of time passing?"

"For you time did not pass," the Doctor answered. "Someone, I'm ashamed to admit he's of my own race, captured you mid-flight. We don't know yet what he wanted, but perhaps, if you were to confront him, we could find out."

"Does he wish us harm?"

"I don't know yet, but I fear he does."

"How did you come here, if you can't time travel; and did you bring this meddling person to us?" the old man questioned.

The part of the discussion the Doctor had been trying to avoid had arrived. He walked over to a tree and leaned against it before he began answering.

Guards surrounded the landing bay and Kelner himself awaited the arrival of Loralar's borrowed TARDIS. Chancellor Hedin and Cardinal Borusa both watched on monitoring equipment.

As the door of the just-materialized time machine began to open four guards pushed their way in. Grabbing Cordar by the wrists, three of them quickly secured him while the fourth stated the purpose of the intrusion. "You, Cordar, are under arrest for interfering with another culture and for endangering the life of another time lord."

Loralar stood back and opened her mouth to protest. Another guard noted this and preempted her complaint. "The High Council is, even now, considering whether charges should be filed against you as well," she warned. Loralar followed the other five out of the TARDIS.

As soon as she saw Kelner she approached him. "Is this your doing, Castellan?"

"Orders from the High Council," he evaded.

"But did you initiate the charges?" she persisted.

"Actually, no." the Castellan tilted his head with a pleasantly arrogant smile. "I believe Cardinal Borusa was first to question Cordar's actions."

"Before me?" Loralar wondered.

"Not that soon," Kellner responded with the same aggravating courtesy.

"Oh...." The pitch of Loralar's voice dropped with reluctant resignation. She brushed past the Castellan and left the landing bay.

"One advantage to traveling in a machine," the Doctor expounded, "is that you can monitor a planet or moon visually from the surface without danger from temperature extremes, poisonous atmospheres, or attack by native carnivores."

"That has been a problem as we've begun searching for another planet," one of the women in the crowd asserted.

"One other advantage I may be able to offer is detailed data on many planets in this galaxy," the Doctor continued. "But my race has committed many mistakes and is afraid of interfering with the natural development of another culture. They may feel giving you access to such data might cause too great a change. If so, I wouldn't be allowed to help you in that way."

"Even if it made the difference between our survival and extinction?" the old man asked.

"Especially if it made so drastic a difference," the Doctor growled. "My people have sat back and watched the destruction of whole civilizations we had the power to save. They justify their inaction by claiming that they have the right only to intervene when natural disasters threaten. Anything done by outside intelligences is considered inappropriate territory for our assistance."

"This is what machines do to people?" another woman asked.

The Doctor started to answer and paused. "I hadn't thought of it that way," he finally mused. "I guess I've never seen such destructive detachment in cultures that hadn't developed a machine technology."

"Will you help us with your machine anyway?" the old man asked.

"As I have time. There are other matters I need to attend to, including some on your planet. Someone needs to come with me and confront the man I believe is responsible for interrupting your journey."

Romana nudged him. "Vorlene," she whispered.

"Yes. We need someone to help us find Vorlene."

The young man who had originally challenged the Doctor turned suddenly when he heard the name. "Vorlene? You know about Vorlene?"

"She was with us until early today," Romana offered. "It was her reaction to the device that held you captive that helped us know what it was and how to get you out."

"Her reaction was to run away," the Doctor added. "We lost track of her, but maybe with several of us looking we could find her."

"I want to help," Hadrian offered eagerly.

"No," the old man ordered. "It was you she ran away from in the first place." He began giving orders, deciding to accompany the Doctor himself.

"Mother pulled me away before I could retrieve an important part of my project," Cordar complained.

"Considering the forbidden nature of your project, why should I help you?" Castellan Kelner queried.

"If you will retrieve my portable computer from the TARDIS my mother borrowed and inspect the trinary-coded molecular structure data in it I think you will see the significance of what I have found," the prisoner suggested. "If you will give me credit I will let you announce the find -- in time for it to aid your campaign," he added confidentially.

"You will stay here until I call for you," Kelner warned, "I can grant no further clemency than I already have."

"But I can give you information on where to find an extremely valuable piece of data that will greatly enhance the value of what's on the computer."

"That will have to wait until I've studied the data you have here. Molecular structure is not a strong area for me; maybe I should call in an expert."

"No," Cordar nearly shouted. "No one but you and I must know of this until the announcement is ready."

"I've half a mind to ignore this altogether, Cordar," Kelner cautioned. "If you'd tell me more you might gain my interest."

"The data on my computer will tell the story," Cordar insisted.

"Did you see much of Vorlene?" the young man asked Romana, who had chosen to remain behind while the Doctor and the old man went to visit Cordar.

"Just a few minutes," she reponded. "She seemed highly skilled and quite intelligent."

"I'm Hadrian," he offered, pausing meaningfully.

"My full name is Romanadvoratrelundar, but you can call me Romana."

"Did she mention me at all?"

"Did you ask her to marry you?" Romana asked.

Hadrian nodded.

"She thinks your tribe abandoned her because she refused your offer," Romana explained.

"It is unusual for someone to refuse such an offer, but it has happened before," Hadrian revealed. "She apparently got upset and left the group. We had planned a group trip to a planet one of our scouts had found, but when the time came to leave we couldn't find her."

"Couldn't you follow her trail?" Romana asked.

"If someone doesn't want to be followed they can mask their trail. If you don't follow soon enough the trail will be dispersed."

"A few hours ago she left us. She was rather upset. That's when she found the device that held you captive," Romana added. "We followed her first trail, but she wasn't there and we couldn't find another trail."

"How soon did you follow?"

"Within a minute or two."

"A trail couldn't disperse in that short a time. Maybe you just missed her?" Hadrian suggested.

"I don't think so," Romana said. "It was already night then and we used a device that senses body heat. It would have seen her even behind foliage."

"It's hard to say what happened, then," Hadrian decided. "She'll return when she's gotten over what was bothering her."

"About this search for a new planet. Have your people had to do this before?" Romana queried.

"I don't remember all our history, but I don't remember anything about something like that."

"So as far as you know your people evolved on this planet and have only now come close to using it up." Romana inferred.

"Actually, we haven't used it up, but there are few times and places left that have the resources we need and are not dangerous. In this time period," Hadrian explained further, "it is already cooler than we are used to. And in only a few years another ice age will bury this area in snow."

Romana nodded. "Once we get the current mess sorted out I'm sure the Doctor will be willing to help you find a good location."

"This is his," the Doctor noted, indicating Cordar's messenger.

The old man looked around the hillside below the cliff. "What was he doing here?"

"We came here because the device he used to trap you ended up, by mistake, in my TARDIS," the Doctor said. "He wanted to get to it, and I was afraid he would if I didn't get him out of the way. So I gave him a job here. It was really a useful task."

"Where did he go?" the old man asked.

"Some of his stuff is gone," the Doctor thought aloud, "and his mother was showing up off and on earlier, so I guess she took him with her." The Doctor looked up at the old man before he continued. "This means I'll have to go back to my home for a while. I believe we can prove that he's responsible for interfering with you, and for my race that's a most heinous crime."

The Doctor stopped and examined his current companion more closely. "Could you or someone from your tribe come with us? If one of you were to tell your story it would have more impact than if only Romana and I told it."

"I must stay with the group," the old man replied, "but I can assign someone to come along. Maybe Hadrian. That would put him out of the way when Vorlene comes back."

"Hadrian?"

"The young man who challenged you when you first found us. He just asked her to marry him. We were all surprised when she not only refused but ran away -- in time, of course."

"And you left on your planet exploration journey while she was away, thinking you'd be back before she returned," the Doctor reconstructed a possible chain of events.

"Essentially. She'll return soon, I'm sure."

"Delforgon, would you examine this and tell me what you see?" Kelner requested.

The security squad scientist rolled a chair over to the Castellan's monitor. "A mutated form of the Rassilon Imprimature, it looks like to me."

"Our prisoner claims to have found these cells on one of the previously unexplored planets the scientific corps has been surveying over the last few years."

"Probably some earlier wandering time lord left his genetic imprint with a developing race," Delforgon surmised.

"I checked the Matrix records on the planet Borusa says Cordar was on before his arrest. There is no intelligent life there."Castellan showed the data from the matrix on another monitor. "Would you look at this!"

"What?"

"Cordar is the only member of the scientific corps to have filed a report on this planet so far." The implications weren't lost on Kelner. "He's hinted there's a big secret on the planet. Maybe we can unearth the time lord who would dare to pollute the legacy of Rassilon." The excitement in the Castellan's manner was almost childish.

"Take care that you don't get implicated in Cordar's crimes," Delforgon warned.

The Doctor and Frantec, a young woman assigned to accompany the Doctor to Gallifrey, waited at the door of the TARDIS. "I think I'd like to stay here until you return, Doctor," Romana said. "Hadrian says he'll keep me company most of the time. Tell Borusa I'm away from your influence while I think."

The Doctor nodded, but said nothing as he turned from Romana and the crowd. Moments later the blue box faded from view.

Inside the TARDIS he paced between the console and the Couch of Indolence. Twice he started to sit, but both times he jerked back to his feet and resumed pacing. He mentally reviewed the setup Cordar had made with his panels. "He had that set up as a receiving as well as a sending transmat station!" he suddenly realized. "Of course, that's how he got Romana in the first place!"

Frantec stared at the Doctor from her place beside the console. "So you think Romana will be able to keep track of Hadrian?" she queried.

"She won't have to," the Doctor responded. "Vorlene will stay with her when she shows up, I'm sure."

He turned to the console and began to make a mid-flight course correction. He paused. "I should take the news I have to Gallifrey first," he considered aloud. "No. Vorlene may be in danger," he countered.

"What do you mean?" Frantec asked.

He quickly entered the new coordinates. The rising and falling of the clear center column paused for a moment, then resumed in the opposite direction.

"I mean," the Doctor finally answered, "that Cordar probably captured Vorlene and has hidden her away somewhere."

"But she could have left any prison by time travel," Frantec countered.

"Not if he put a time barrier around her."

"Time barrier?"

"A special field that blocks the flow of space time. This machine is surrounded by such a field. That is how you can travel in it without traveling yourself." The Doctor feared his physics lesson meant nothing to his passenger.

A fleet TARDIS, distinguished by its lack of a chameleon circuit, materialized near Cordar's messenger beside the rock cliff. Kelner emerged first, followed by four guards with Cordar in their custody.

"The object you want should be 31.4 meters directly below the rock that juts up near that tree," Cordar directed.

Just then two more guards carrying a portable transmat unit struggled out of the TARDIS. Castellan directed them to the site and gave them the figures he'd just gotten from Cordar. "Make a scan first, so we'll know there's something to get," he ordered.

The two guards worked intently for about 20 seconds before one reported, "There's an organic body with a mass of about 40 kilograms laying on a silicate base."

"Is it alive?" Kelner wondered.

"Hard to tell," the guard responded.

Kelner looked to Cordar, but the latter remained impassive.

"Better bring it into a security shell. We can find out what it is after we return to Gallifrey," he decided.

The two guards disappeared in the fleet TARDIS and returned several minutes later with a case and a box of controls. They set the case on the ground, and operated the controls. A large steel box appeared. Then, while one guard monitored the controls of the security shell, the other operated the transmat. "Whatever it is has been transferred to the shell successfuly and without damage," the guard operating the shell controls reported.

"Let's go," the Castellan indicated. The steel box shrank into the case, the guards shut it and carried it back to the TARDIS. The other four guards escorted a still impassive but inwardly relieved Cordar back. Just before they disappeared Kelner ordered one to bring the rest of the equipment in too. So, two minutes later, when the fleet TARDIS dematerialized it took with it all trace of Cordar's earlier presence except the marks in the soil.

Seconds later another TARDIS materialized, this one bearing resemblance to an earth construction. It's inhabitants exited carring three scanning devices. The Doctor swung these back and forth toward the ground, the cliff, the trees. One reading caught his attention. "She was there!" he decided. "And she was there only minutes ago. Not in good health, but still alive."

He finally took a look at the last scanner he had with him. A graphic display showed two bright red streaks, one leading away from the doctor's TARDIS, the other from a spot just meters away. "A TARDIS has been here," he realized aloud. "Who could be doing that?"

"They took her away? Will they hurt her?" Frantec worried.

"I don't think they mean to," the Doctor philosophized, "but their lack of knowledge about your race could jeopardize Vorlene even if they mean no harm."

He returned to his TARDIS, set its controls again, and dropped into the Couch of Indolence as the schwirr, schwirr noise announced his departure.

While the four guards trundled Cordar back to a cell, Kelner and his other guards brought out the security shell case and set it inside a heavy cage. After they opened it the guards activated it so that it enlarged to full size. Then, only after they had closed and locked the cage door, they opened the shell by remote control. The walls disappeared and the case appeared on the floor next to the control panel. On the floor of the cage in place of the shell lay the body of a fur-clad woman. She looked around the room and asked, "Where's Cordar?"