'What do you mean, you won't allow it? What gives you the right?' said Nagle, aggrieved. 'This is my project.' She held up a hand, staffing the Doctor. 'I know it could be used for warfare. But you can't uninvent something. Nuclear weapons exist, enough to blow up the planet ten times over, yet we're still here.'

'Not if I can't close the wormhole,' muttered the Doctor.

Nagle was defiant. 'Even if you shut this one down, I've got notes. Even if you destroy them, I could still start from scratch. Perfect the generator. I believe in the TC Warp, Doctor. You're gonna have to kill me to stop me continuing my research.'

She had a point, thought Fitz. Instant transportation would solve a lot of the planet's problems.

The Doctor's face clouded. 'It won't come to that.'

'The Doctor is trying to help,' said Fitz, stepping between them. 'I think you'd better let him, and argue the toss later.'

'Look,' said the Doctor, ignoring Fitz. 'It's founded on alien technology, and you simply haven't got the knowledge to operate it properly. Even if you kept it exclusive to C19, there would always be the danger of accidentally creating another wormhole. So, I simply cannot allow it.'

Nagle swore. 'Then I'm not sure I want you to help any more.'

'Anyway, it's academic,' said the Doctor, standing up and pointing at the generator. 'It's almost ready.'

The shimmering p.r.o.ngs had stabilised, and there were points of light at their tips, as bright as burning magnesium. Fitz shielded his eyes.

'How do I get into the chamber?' asked the Doctor.

'There's a door at the far end. You'll need this key,' said Professor Nagle, pa.s.sing a slim card to the Doctor.

'Right,' said the Doctor, taking the card from Nagle. 'As soon as I am inside the generator chamber, activate the node.'

'Stop right there!'

The voice echoed all around the generator room. They all turned to see, framed in the doorway, the uniformed figure of Major Wolstencroft. He was aiming an automatic pistol right at the Doctor's head. Beside him, Captain Rogers stood, aiming a pistol at Fitz.

Not again, thought Fitz.

'Make one move to open the node,' said Wolstencroft calmly, 'and I'll shoot.'

Major Wolstencroft walked down the short flight of steps into the generator room, his right arm steady, aiming directly at the Doctor. He didn't want to shoot if he, a UNIT officer, killed the Doctor, what would happen to him? Court martial, leading to dismissal, at the very least. But he had to protect Earth.

Wolstencroft frowned. There were two civilians in the generator room a young blonde girl, Swedish by the look of her, slumped in a chair on the far right. A dark-haired chap in an encounter suit, next to Professor Nagle at the control desk. And to the left, the Doctor, on his way to the entrance to the generator chamber. A wide range of targets. He had the Doctor covered; the captain had the others covered.

Behind them all, the generator was shimmering, points of light glowing at the ends of the silver needles. He had been right. The Doctor was going to activate it.

Nagle was staring at him unflinchingly. He felt a glow of satisfaction. This was mutiny. She'd be kicked out of C19 and stripped of her professorship.

'If you're going to shoot the Doctor you'll have to shoot me as well,' said the dark-haired man. His words meant nothing Wolstencroft could tell at a glance that he was the type to go scurrying for cover as soon as shots were fired.

'Major, we have to let the Doctor go through the wormhole,' said Professor Nagle. Her voice was shaking. 'It's the only way to find out what's going wrong.'

Wolstencroft snorted. 'Absolute rubbish! The only way is to blow up this entire installation and bury the thing.'

'Oh, please!' cried the Doctor, throwing his hands above his head, his face a dark scowl. 'Do I always have to come up against the gross stupidity and tunnel vision of the military?'

His histrionics distracted Wolstencroft momentarily, and he caught a flash of movement out of the corner of his eye, and turned to see Professor Nagle leaning over the keyboard.

'Stand away from that computer!' he roared.

He heard the clack of keystrokes and she turned to face him, unsmiling, defiant. 'Go on, shoot me,' she said. 'It's all you know. But it's too late now. Look at the generator.'

Between the p.r.o.ngs, something was forming.

As Sam watched, the centre of the black wall, where all the cracks converged, began to glow with a white light. The light pulsed and spread until it formed a whirlpool in the black rock, a tunnel of white light which was instantly familiar to Sam.

The thing that had invaded the TARDIS and brought her here. This must be the way home. It had to be.

But how to get across the cavern without being noticed?

As she watched, two of the Ruin darted towards the whirlpool, their legs spread out so they looked like vast wheels. They disappeared in a flash of light.

Sam had to try to get through.

She ran down to the bottom of the valley, taking great leaps and strides, until she was directly underneath the battle. The Ruin were cl.u.s.tered around the whirlpool, but no more of them were going through. It was as if they were waiting for something. Waiting for the others to come back?

Now she was nearer she could see that the green-skinned things were indeed T'hiili, but they were more heavily built, and wore a leatherlike armour. The biggest difference was their wings; pale green, mothlike, and too small for flight in normal gravity, but perfect for the Dominion. They all seemed to have retreated to the ledge. What were they doing?

Then all of a sudden, dozens of them launched themselves at the Ruin. The movement was slow and graceful in the low gravity.

The battle exploded again above Sam with tremendous ferocity.

She had to try to get to the whirlpool. It was the way home.

She leapt up, shouting. 'Get me through and I'll save you all!'

The whirlpool was far above her, and unlike the Ruin and winged T'hiili she couldn't fly. She stood, watching, as the Ruin flailed at the attacking T'hiili. Limbs were shorn clear of green bodies, wings were shredded.

There was nothing she could do.

She went back across the cavern towards the sky-sea, taking one last look before she plunged in. The whirlpool was still open, the Ruin holding their position. What she needed was a dirigible, then she could fly into the whirlpool.

She turned to face the curtain of sky-sea. She stepped into it, shuddering as her whole body tingled. She could still feel the floor of the cavern beneath her feet, but as she walked further into the golden void it fell away, and she was floating again. She moved her arms and legs, and set off in a random direction.

And then she saw something heading through the sky-sea towards her, something dark and bullet-shaped, blunt and finned like a shark.

Fitz stared into the barrel of Wolstencroft's revolver and closed his eyes. Oh h.e.l.l, he was going to die. Shot in the head. The thought turned his stomach. Would it hurt? Would there be a flash of pain and then nothing?

Suddenly there was a sound which Fitz felt rather than heard, a solid ba.s.s whoomph whoomph, and he opened his eyes, heart hammering.

Wolstencroft had dropped his weapon and was staring open-mouthed at something behind Fitz.

He turned.

There, where the generator had been, was a gigantic, swirling whirlpool, golden and white, just like the one that had s.n.a.t.c.hed Sam from the TARDIS.

Fitz watched as the Doctor walked into the generator chamber, as casually as if he were getting on a bus.

And then the monsters came through the node.

There were two of them. Their hourgla.s.s-shaped bodies were bright orange, and they had six thick black legs, about ten feet long. Tentacles and cilia whipped and lashed from the open ends of the main body.

Christ, they were just like the dead thing he and Nordenstam had found in the forest, only very much alive. He thought of Nordenstam, wondered what he was doing now, what he would say in his report.

The Doctor ducked as the legs flailed above him. One of the creatures shot out of the whirlpool and cannoned into the gla.s.s part.i.tion, shattering it instantly. Fitz instinctively ducked as splinters of gla.s.s showered down around him.

Looking up, he saw that the creature impaled on three-footlong spikes of gla.s.s was dying, its black legs twitching.

But the other one was still alive, and it was stumbling out of the generator chamber, supporting itself on its six legs. Unbelievably, the Doctor was unhurt.

Wolstencroft and Rogers were firing at the surviving creature. It lashed out at them, its limbs moving so fast that Fitz could barely see them.

Fitz circled round. A hand gripped his arm. It was Kerstin, her eyes wide with fear.

'Everyone out of here!' yelled the Doctor.

He ran with Nagle to the door. Wolstencroft and Rogers, followed.

But the creature was between Fitz and Kerstin and the metal doors, which were sliding closed. The last face he saw before the door closed was the Doctor's, calling to him. 'Get out of there, Fitz!'

All very well, but how?

The creature bore down on them, its tentacles lashing. It looked like a bizarre cross between a spider, a plant and a sea creature. Fitz knew that the edges of its legs were razor-sharp. It could kill them with one swift flick of its legs.

There was only one thing to do. The Doctor had wanted to go through the wormhole now it looked like Fitz had no choice.

Typical.

He turned, stepping over the edge of the broken part.i.tion, taking Kerstin with him. He took a step towards the node, and then found himself flying into the air, and into the glowing heart of the whirlpool. Kerstin still clung to him, screaming.

As the light closed around them, Fitz knew there was no point in pretending to be brave now. Because he was screaming too.

Book Three

Destiny

Chapter Fifteen.

Moss Elixir.

Professor Nagle stood outside the generator room. Her hands were shaking and she felt sick. Those things...

From behind the steel double door came a m.u.f.fled thumping and clattering. It sounded like the surviving creature was wrecking the generator.

The Doctor was pacing up and down in front of the door, breathing heavily, his face pale and drawn. Every now and then he'd glance towards the door, wincing.

Fitz and Kerstin.

Professor Nagle tried not to think about what those things could he doing to them.

Wolstencroft was issuing a string of orders to Captain Rogers. These included rounding up every soldier left in the base in order to finish off the creature.

'There's no time for that,' snapped the Doctor. He went to key in the entry code.

Wolstencroft stopped him. 'We wait for backup.'

The Doctor pointed at the two doors, his whole arm trembling like a tautened wire. 'Two innocent people are in great danger! We have to try to save them!'

Nagle went up to the Doctor. 'Doctor, it's too late to do anything for them now. And anyway, they could have gone through the '

The Doctor held up a hand. 'Yes, yes, yes, the wormhole. Even more reason to open the doors!'

Shouts and footsteps from along the corridor. A squad of about twenty UNIT troops marched up, clad in hi-tech combat gear, their faces hidden by helmets and masks. They crashed to attention and saluted. The Doctor and Nagle found themselves barged out of the way.

Typical,' tutted Nagle. 'Now they've got something to fight they think it's all over.'

Wolstencroft shouted an order and the soldiers fanned out, aiming their machine guns at the door. Nagle and the Doctor were left staring at a wall of black-uniformed backs.

Wolstencroft addressed his men. 'If anything's moving in there, open fire.'

The Doctor put a hand to his forehead and groaned. 'Anything not human not human, for Ra.s.silon's sake.'

Nagle grabbed his sleeve. 'I think we'd better stand back.' She pulled him back along the corridor, a vague escape plan taking shape. She could go back to her room, retrieve her notes and get out of here. But she had to see what had happened to the generator. Where was Lindgard? Probably still skulking in the lab. She knew that he wouldn't want to destroy his specimens.

She watched as the soldiers filed through the opening doors, the Doctor following on their heels. Once inside, she took in the damage with thumping heart. 'It's ruined,' she whispered, 'it's all ruined.' Equipment lay smashed, desks overturned, chairs scattered. Over the far side, the gla.s.s part.i.tion was broken, its jagged edge like a line on a graph. One of the aliens was impaled on a spike of gla.s.s, clearly dead, its body deflated, grey cilia drooping from the ends.

Behind it, the p.r.o.ngs of the generator itself seemed intact, but the shimmering whirlpool of the node was gone. The UNIT guys were picking their way through the debris, checking and double-checking. The other creature lay slumped in a corner, its legs curled in upon itself like a giant dead spider. Two soldiers were prodding it with their rifles. The stench was overpowering.

No Fitz or Kerstin. It was obvious what had happened. She thought of what happened to the probes, to Johan, and swallowed, a sick taste souring her throat. She looked over at the Doctor. His face was relaxed, almost vacant-looking. Calculating, a.s.sessing.