He stood up. 'Technically, he's not asleep.'

'He's in suspended animation, yeah yeah,' Stoker wrinkled her nose irritably. 'That kind of thing went out with Mechanoids, Doctor. As far as I'm concerned if he isn't asleep he's dead. Can you either wake him up or resurrect him? Either will do, so long as he can answer my questions when he comes round.'

The Doctor sighed and ran a hand along the steel surface of the casket. 'I think we can bring him back to full consciousness, yes. The stasis tank is fully functional, albeit a little primitive. The gel inside preserves the bodily material without the need for cryogenic freezing. The heart rate, motor functions and brain are all reduced to a catatonic state via -'

'Spare me the lecture. Just ring his alarm clock'

'This may take a little time,' the Doctor warned her sourly, and returned to fiddling with the controls.

Nyssa was sleeping peacefully on one of the tables, covered with a foil blanket. She looked wan beneath the electric lights, with dark circles under her eyes, but otherwise all right. The Doctor had advised complete rest anyway.

Next to the table sat Jim Boyd. He was very pale and sat staring at the floor between his feet. Tegan sat down next to him and he looked at her with red-rimmed eyes.

'Sorry about your friend,' Tegan said.

After a lengthy pause Jim said, 'I can't believe he's gone,'

'Had you known him for a long time?'

'Long enough to argue with him,' he said bitterly.

'You had a fight?'

Jim took off his spectacles and wiped brusquely at his eyes with the back of his hand.'It was nothing. He was only mucking about. Nik did that kind of thing: he knew how to rile me. I just didn't expect him to... I didn't want him to...' Jim's voice trailed off as the words became inadequate, or perhaps simply too cruel. No one deserved such a violent and unnatural death. But violent and unnatural death was, sadly, something that Tegan had seen before. She tried to imagine how she would feel if it was the Doctor or Nyssa who had been killed. Almost instantly she remembered Adric's death, and with it came a pang of guilt. How could she have forgotten that? that?

'I think I can imagine how you feel,' she told Jim. 'I had a friend once... not a friend like Jim, but someone I knew pretty well... and he was killed. He was just a kid. It's too awful.'

Jim didn't say anything. It took a full minute of him not saying anything for Tegan to realise that he simply couldn't couldn't say anything. To open his mouth to speak would let all the emotion out. Tegan could see that his eyes were glossy with tears. She simply didn't know how she could help now, and felt wretched. She touched him and he gripped her hand tightly, desperate for human contact. 'I'm so sorry,' Tegan whispered. say anything. To open his mouth to speak would let all the emotion out. Tegan could see that his eyes were glossy with tears. She simply didn't know how she could help now, and felt wretched. She touched him and he gripped her hand tightly, desperate for human contact. 'I'm so sorry,' Tegan whispered.

He glanced up at her and managed a weak smile, still holding onto her hand. For a fraction of a second, Tegan recalled the warmth of his body against hers, only a few short hours ago. When everything had been lively and joyful, when they had danced and Bunny had juggled and Jim had made a pa.s.s at her. Now Tegan looked away, feeling awkward and ashamed of such careless jubilation.

Thankfully, something distracted them both: Nyssa was stirring.

'I think Nyssa's coming round,' Tegan said.

Nyssa had given herself over to the darkness. She had no choice; the darkness was all there was, an unending, depthless void.

She spun slowly through the unmoving blackness, or perhaps she was unmoving, and the blackness spun slowly around her. It was impossible to determine which. She had given up trying to a.n.a.lyse the experience scientifically: there was nothing to measure anything against. The only danger with abandoning her scientific rationale was the increased chance of it giving way to panic; already she could feel the first spark of what she knew would become a burning terror if she allowed it to kindle.

But she could feel her heart beating faster and faster. Its heavy thudding was all that she could hear. The blood roared thickly in her ears. She imagined she could hear other sounds behind the pounding beat: the TARDIS engines, humming distantly, just beyond comprehension. The whispering voice of a lover never known.

I am here Nyssa Startled, Nyssa wondered if she had heard herself say something aloud. She was, after all, completely alone.

Pointlessly, she opened her eyes. She saw only blackness; or rather she saw nothing. nothing. Emptiness. No light at all. Emptiness. No light at all.

'Where am I?' she asked the void.

Traken 'I don't understand. Traken is gone. Destroyed'

You are in the s.p.a.ce left by Traken. A cavity in reality. A wound in the universe wound in the universe 'Who are you?'

I am all that is left. I am the dark 'What do you want?'

Life 'You want to live?'

All life Nyssa swallowed. What was she doing talking to herself like this? She was utterly alone she reminded herself firmly.

Alone. There was no on else with her here in the void, she was certain of it. She had never been more alone.

You are not alone, last daughter of Traken 'I don't like what you are doing to me,' Nyssa said carefully.

I know 'Please stop it'

You cannot stop darkness. It is everywhere. I am everywhere. I surround you. I am inside you now. In your everywhere. I surround you. I am inside you now. In your mind and your heart and your blood mind and your heart and your blood 'No!'

Your blood runs black with me blood runs black with me

''No!' Nyssa could feel the blood thickening in her veins as it congealed with the blackness, feel her heart straining to move it, thudding desperately, harder and harder She woke up and saw Tegan and hugged her. Nyssa could feel the blood thickening in her veins as it congealed with the blackness, feel her heart straining to move it, thudding desperately, harder and harder She woke up and saw Tegan and hugged her.

'Easy now,' Tegan was saying. 'It's just a nightmare'

There's no such thing as Just Just a nightmare, thought Nyssa. Not any more. But she nodded and held her friend tightly for a long time. 'What's going on?' Nyssa asked. 'Why is everyone down here?' 'Something pretty awful has happened' a nightmare, thought Nyssa. Not any more. But she nodded and held her friend tightly for a long time. 'What's going on?' Nyssa asked. 'Why is everyone down here?' 'Something pretty awful has happened'

Nyssa tried to listen as Tegan described the events leading up to Nik's death and the discovery of Ravus Oldeman's stasis tank. Tegan clearly didn't want to alarm her, but equally felt it only fair that Nyssa should be in full possession of the facts. Nyssa allowed herself a momentary, slightly sardonic smile: the facts. the facts. What What were were the facts here? the facts here?

No one really knew. No one knew the secret of the darkness here, the black, impenetrable void locked away in the heart of this ghastly moon. Not even her.

'So now the Doctor's trying to bring this Ravus Oldeman person back to life, or whatever it is,' Tegan was saying. A pause. 'Nyssa?' But Nyssa wasn't really listening. All she could hear was the thick, black blood drumming in her ears.

'You're very quiet,' Stoker told Bunny Cheung. She sat down next to him, turning the plastic chair backwards so that she had to straddle it. Bunny gazed up at her. He looked tired.

'Just thinking.'

'Whoa,' Stoker said. 'You're doing too much of that lately: you're going to do yourself a real injury soon. Stop it' She unwrapped a fresh cigar and lit it.

Bunny looked back over to where the Doctor was still making adjustments to the stasis cabinet containing Ravus Oldeman. There was a brooding, contemplative shadow in the big man's eyes as he watched the process: the preservative gel was being drained into a receptacle beneath the stasis tank. The dull whine of the pump machinery could be heard quite clearly. All that remained was for the casket computer's automatic resuscitation program to take effect.

Stoker watched Bunny and blew smoke. Then she said, 'So, out with it: what's up?'

Bunny sat back and folded his arms. 'I'm not happy leaving the comms unit up there,' he jerked his head to indicate the caverns above the lab complex. 'We've got no way to contact anyone down here. We're completely cut off otherwise'

Stoker looked at him stonily. 'No mayday signals, Bunny.'

'We may have to, Jyl.'

'Only on my direct order,' Stoker said flatly. 'Or over my dead body. Whichever comes first.'

'So we can't call for help until you're killed, is that it?'

Bunny snorted. 'Bit late then.'

'I'm serious. We can sit this out. Let the Doctor wake this Oldeman guy up and we can get some answers; he must know what killed the other scientists here. Then we can decide what to do for the best.'

Bunny said nothing; he just sat and played with the hologram ring on his finger.

'Hold it,' said Stoker suddenly sitting up. 'Something's happening.' The Doctor was opening the stasis tank. The lid split with a hiss and slid aside, revealing the man within. He was completely naked, that was the first thing Stoker noticed.

The second thing she noticed was how old old he looked. he looked.

And, finally, that he was actually alive.

The Doctor helped the old man up into a sitting position and asked for a blanket. Tegan wrapped a foil sheet around Oldeman's bony shoulders as he sat shivering and coughing.

'It's all right,' the Doctor was saying,'you're bound to feel disorientated at first. Relax and you'll soon feel better. You've been asleep for a long time.'

Oldeman gagged and spluttered like a geriatric choking on a fishbone. White hair was plastered to his skull and his skin was slick with the remnants of the gel. He seemed to be trying to speak. 'I...'

Stoker went over. 'You're Ravus Oldeman?'

The man stared at her blankly, his mouth hanging open.

'Is your name Ravus Oldeman?' Stoker persisted.

The Doctor said, ' I think we ought to give him a little time to come round before subjecting him to an interrogation.'

'We haven't got time,' Stoker said.

'Need... ' said the old man. 'I need...'

'What? What do you need?'

'Need new... new... neuro... Need neuro...' he spluttered.

'What's he talking about?'

'Neurolectrin!' exclaimed the Doctor. 'Of course, there must be some around here somewhere. Help me find it.' He began to rummage through the lockers on the wall.

'What is it?' asked Tegan.

'Neurolectrin is a drug commonly used in resuscitation from suspended animation,' explained the Doctor. 'It helps reverse synaptic decay. Without it the subject can fall prey to irreversible mental illness very quickly.'

'You mean he'll go senile?' asked Tegan.

'That's all we need,' groaned Stoker. 'We're supposed to be getting some answers from him, not nonsensical rambling.'

'Could this be it, Doctor?' Tegan held up a small plastic tube she had found in a medical box.

The Doctor grabbed it and checked the label. 'The very thing, Tegan, well done!' He turned immediately snapped the end off the injector and jabbed it into Oldeman's neck. The man was slumped over, leaning heavily against the lid of the stasis tank, but he seemed to have stopped trembling and was breathing normally.

'Did it,' he mumbled. 'I did it...' He opened his eyes. They were watery but alert as he looked around him, taking in the lab and the host of strangers surrounding him. Who...?'

The Doctor introduced himself quickly. 'I take it that you are are Ravus Oldeman?' Ravus Oldeman?'

Oldeman nodded. Did you... activate the stasis tank?'

The Doctor said that he had. 'This may come as a bit of a shock to you,' he went on, 'but you've been asleep for over one hundred and sixty years.'

Oldeman glared at them all, his eyes bugging out with fear. He reached up with one bony hand and grasped the Doctor's lapel. 'You've got to get me away from here. You've got to get me away from here!'

The Doctor held onto the man's hand. 'Why? What's the matter?'

'It won't be dead yet!' Oldeman gasped. 'It will still be here! Still alive. It'll kill us all!' It'll kill us all!'

'It was supposed to be perfect stasis,' Oldeman grumbled as he sat down a little later. They had found a set of grey overalls for him and a towel, and given him half an hour to wash and get dressed. He looked a lot healthier now as he gratefully accepted a mug of hot coffee from Tegan, although it was impossible not to notice how gnarled the fingers that grasped the cup were. His hair stood out from his scalp in white tufts and his eyes looked pink and rheumy.

'Nothing's perfect,' the Doctor said, not unkindly.

'I must have forgotten to check the amniotic gel for electron decay,' Oldeman added.