"I read a lot," he explained, flippantly. It was an old joke from an old time. He was always older than he said he was, and only Romana knew his exact age. She could always tell. He didn't know how she always knew, but she did.

She leaned into his touch and he closed his eyes, relishing this reunion, just for another moment. How close had they been for so long? How close and yet so very far away?

And she would be here, now. In Taxon. And he would have to fight through his longing for her as well as his longing for his other friends, before he finally got everyone free.