Hordort gave one final heave and then he was through. The metal pilings collapsed and he and the rest of his team moved into the chamber. It was dark but not pitch dark. Various lights blinked in obscure patterns on the wall. It smelled of sterile electronics and greasy mechanisms. Everything about the chamber suggested an atmosphere of clinical precision.

Hordort motion one of his guys over. “Hey.” He leaned in close so his whisper permeated nothing. “Need you to head back. Alert the second squad.”

His guy nodded and clicked his rifler with a satisfying click. Honestly the best part of these missions was the little sounds all his equipment made. He would have retired years ago if it wasn’t for those periodic clicks and clacks he heard every now and then.

The rest of the team fanned out along the perimeter of the wall. It was a handy shape. A circle. There was no denying that. They took up equidistant points and faced towards the center of the chamber. There, illuminated in alternating red and blue glows, was the chair and its occupant.

“It seems we have you at last, Doctor,” Hordort said in a neutral green. He’d been trained for this.

The man in the chair did not move. He could not move, in fact. He was strapped in. Something about the situation suggested they were way too late.

“Indeed,” sneered the Doctor. He took a breath and hummed. He hummed loud and strong. It was a non-stop hum that vibrated the very air.

“DOWN!” shrieked Hordort. In another second, the west wall blew in with a shower of sparks and light-emitting diodes. Two of the team were swallowed in the blaze. Hordort gunned down the Doctor with his rifler - satisfying clicks - and moved over to the new carnage. His guys were hurt. Not badly but hurt. They would be a burden on the rest of this mission. They had to get aboveground.

“Mission Saturn,” he rumbled into his comm-factor. “Get a medic-man down here. We have two repeat two repeat two repeat two repeat two repeat two repeat —“

“HOHORDORT!! shouted one of his guys. “Pickups on the eleventh aisle!!”

That was a codeword for something but Hordort was trapped. The Doctor’s remains smoldered but he was afraid it wasn’t enough. He sent a few more clicking bolts into the metal chair. That should be fine. He could smooth it over with the proper paperwork.

A light panel blinked on one of the upraised agent stations. One guy from the squad tapped it in some alien pattern and the rest of the room illuminated in a harsh white sheen. Finally they could see the whole place.

Hordort had nothing. “Got some bad news,” he said. “Just heard from Mission Saturn. We’ve got the wrong place.”

“But that was the Doctor,” objected his second in command. A stalwart man who had no head for imagination and cared only about business. Results. A solid second-in-command, but a disaster as the leader. You need to be well rounded in order for this to work. To have an effect, you see. I do see. I see very much.

“It was the Doctor,” conceded Hordort, shooting off his rifler into a random section of the wall until it was molten slag. Those clicks and clacks were just too nice. “But he managed to shoot off his connection to the orbiting skylink before we could do anything.”

“Then we have to get out of here.” One of the other guys was on the verge of panic. It made sense. Everybody should be panicking at this point.

It was panic-time.