They were perfect, each shape clear, glass-edged, defined by the sparkling mineral; yet, despite the simple blocky shapes imposed on him by the necessity of keeping the message clear, they were somehow also infinitely complex. Individual crystals were like stars, forming and re-forming geometric patterns as Kitig moved his head from side to side.

He had often wondered which one of the messages they would read. Or which ones ones, if Sam was right. But lately he had come to realise that it didn't matter. They were only looking for the message, the crude words. The subtle differences of texture in the stone, the fine variations in the way it cleaved to the different chisels he had used, the different effects obtained by striking the stone in different ways all these would be lost on them.

It didn't matter. Kitig knew the truth.

He looked up at the time tree, towering over the block of quartzite. Most of his later messages had been inspired by the tree, by the flowing colours of its branches, by the tiny, glittering, clusters of its seeds. Lately it had become the base of his operations: he had ventured out on to the plain less and less, remaining here by the lake shore where the tree had appeared, as the Doctor had promised it would, a few days after the TARDIS had left.

'Take care of it,' he'd said, 'but don't let it outlive you. It's too dangerous.'

Kitig had promised that he wouldn't fail the Doctor, that he would ensure the Time Tree died: and now he knew the time had come to redeem that promise. He could feel the cancerous mass inside him, growing, pressing on his heart. He could feel the blood leaking from his veins, oozing through the spaces between organs. And, too often now, he felt the deep, hard, idiot bite of pain.

He walked up to the tree. It was huge now, and crowned with feathery orange leaves. The light from its branches was visible even in the day, and at night it blazed like a beacon, keeping all but the bravest animals at bay.

He reached up to the lowest branch. The seeds had been building up for decades now, a dark encrustation, covered with the poisonous slime that kept the birds and insects at bay.

Kitig gripped them firmly, and pulled.

The sky changed to night. Kitig opened his night eyes, saw a pine forest in faint moonlight, a huge shaggy beast watching him with glowing, terrified eyes.

It roared at him. Birds clattered out of the trees.

Kitig reached up and scraped away more seeds.

Further back. More light. Low, heavy, clouds. A barren plain.

More seeds, and he was under water, in darkness, his body shouting with pain at the sudden pressure of the ocean above him. He scrabbled at the branch, and the pressure was gone, replaced by a clear blue sky, sand, and a sail-backed reptile about half his size, scuttling away with a hissing sound.

He rested for a while, enjoying the silence, the clear dry air.

Back again: barren land, an ashy taste in the air.

He took a deep breath, knowing that the air was going to be unbreathable soon.

The next two moves took him under water, then to a lake shore. The lake was scummy with life, and bubbled. The ground trembled constantly.

The time tree was changing, Kitig noticed. The light in its branches had dimmed, concentrated itself in knots around the seeds he was pulling away.

He saw the exposed roots beneath his hooves, tendrils of light.

No time for curiosity now.

He scraped more seeds off, felt heat on his skin. His lungs were bursting for air.

Now! he thought. And: this is for you, Doctor. For all that you gave me.

And for all that you took away.

He pulled away the last of the seeds on the branch he had chosen, and the sky blazed with light.

Just for an instant, the bulk of the time tree protected him from the direct light of the newborn sun, and Kitig could see the vast plane of glowing rock and dust that was slowly making Earth and the other worlds of the solar system.

Pain blossomed as the burning, dying tree drifted away and the raw sunlight hit him.

I wish I could make worlds, thought Kitig. I would make each one a new shape, a new beauty, a new chemistry and colour.

Endless variation...

The alien figure on the low bed was asleep. The skin was softly lit by the TARDIS nightlights, but the eyes seemed welded shut. shut.

Recuperation, he'd called it: the Doctor had been asleep for nearly twelve hours.

Sam watched the sleeping figure for a long time, wondering how she could tell him. Finally she spoke.

'I know you wouldn't forgive me if I told you. I don't expect it. And I know you're right not to forgive me. I could have shouted a warning. I could have fired in front of him. shouted a warning. I could have fired in front of him.

'But I want you to understand.

'We've both got to live here, so it really makes a difference, what I do, what you think about it. Whether we can forgive each other. each other.

'I need to know. I need to know if it was possible to have acted in a different way.

'The way you would have acted. That's the way I want to act.

'Doctor? Can you understand me?

'Are you still asleep?'

The figure on the bed didn't move, barely even seemed to breathe.

Sam turned and silently walked away, back to her own room and the guilt and the bad dreams.

Perhaps she would tell him about it in the morning.

Also available from BBC Books: DOCTOR WHO.

THE EIGHT DOCTORS.

By Terrance Dicks Booby-trapped by the Master, the Eighth Doctor finds himself suffering from amnesia. He embarks on a dangerous quest to regain his lost memory by meeting all his past selves...

ISBN 0 563 40563 5.

VAMPIRE SCIENCE.

by Jonathan Blum and Kate Orman The Doctor and Sam come up against a vampire sect in present-day San Francisco. Some want to coexist with humans, but some want to go out fighting. Can the Doctor defuse the situation without bloodshed?

ISBN 0 563 40566 X.

THE BODYSNATCHERS.

by Mark Morris The deadly Zygons are menacing Victorian London, and only the Doctor's old friend Professor Litefoot can assist the time travellers in defeating them. But why are the Zygons stealing the bodies of the dead?

ISBN 0 563 40568 6.

Other Doctor Who Doctor Who adventures featuring past incarnations of the Doctor: adventures featuring past incarnations of the Doctor: THE DEVIL GOBLINS FROM NEPTUNE.

by Keith Topping and Martin Day (Featuring the Third Doctor, Liz Shaw and UNIT) Hideous creatures front the fringes of the solar system, the deadly Waro, have established a bridgehead on Earth. But what are the Waro actually after and can there really be traitors in UNIT?

ISBN 0 563 40564 3.

THE MURDER GAME.

by Steve Lyons (Featuring the Second Doctor, Ben and Polly) Landing in a decrepit hotel in space, the time travellers are soon embroiled in a deadly game of murder and intrigue all the while monitored by the occupants of a sinister alien craft...

ISBN 0 563 40565 1.

THE ULTIMATE TREASURE.

by Christopher Bulis (Featuring the Fifth Doctor and Peri) The Doctor and Peri become involved in a deadly tresure hunt on the planet Gelsandor.

ISBN 0 563 40571 6.

BUSINESS UNUSUAL.

by Gary Russell (Featuring the Sixth Doctor, Mel and the Brigadier) SeneNet is no ordinary company: its managing director deals in death through alien technology, and the Brigadier is his captive...

ISBN 0 563 40575 9.

Doctor W

ho adventures adventures

out on BBC Video: THE WAR MACHINES.

An exciting adventure featuring the First Doctor pitting his wits against super-computer WOTAN with newly restored footage.

BBCV 6183.

THE HAPPINESS PATROL.

The Seventh Doctor battles for the freedom of an oppressed colony where misery is a sin.

BBCV 5803.

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[image]

Years after leaving UNIT, Jo Grant receives a plea for help from an old acquaintance. A palaeontological study of the earliest known humans is apparently under threat from a UNIT force led by a captain who does not officially exist. Investigating further, she begins to find herself out of her depth and out of the twentieth century altogether...

Meanwhile, the Doctor and Sam visit Earth in 2109 but there is no trace of the human race. Earth is the home of the Tractites, a peaceful race who have been living there for hundreds and thousands of years. Astonished and appalled, the Doctor travels back in time to see just what went wrong in Earth's pre-history.

Why have Jo and the expedition been taken back in time? Are the Tractites all they seem? Finally, separated from the TARDIS, the Doctor's last chance to put things right rests with Sam but has even she turned against him?

This novel is another in the series of adventures featuring the Eighth Doctor and Sam.

ISBN 0-563-40572-4.

9 780563 405726 >.

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