Ace smiled contemptuously. 'It's a horrible feeling, isn't it? Knowing you've been used.'

In the background, Legion's body was swelling from the size of a baseball to that of a small donkey.

The Doctor wrung his hands in frustration. 'Ace... Ace... I can't believe this is you talking. Not after all we've been through. All I've taught you.'

'All you've taught taught me? Like how easy it is to be manipulated, you mean used. Just as,' Ace gestured with her sidearm, 'as I'd use this gun?' me? Like how easy it is to be manipulated, you mean used. Just as,' Ace gestured with her sidearm, 'as I'd use this gun?'

'Like a good little soldier, blindly obeying orders that mean the death of her friends.'

Ace took a step forward and levelled the gun. 'It was you that manoeuvred me into s.p.a.cefleet, remember?' She smiled bitterly. 'Well, IMC paid a lot of good money into s.p.a.cefleet. All of the big corporations did after all, they didn't want the Daleks to win, any more than the rest of us did. I served on an IMC*funded ship called the Corporate Strategy Corporate Strategy for a while. They already had records of you and some pathetic companion of yours, and they knew that you were probably a time traveller. So they asked me to go on a mission for them. They didn't order me, they didn't even try and manipulate me. They asked me. And they told me that in the time of the Third Dalek War, the location of this star system is of paramount strategic value, and neither the Daleks nor the Alliance can come anywhere near it. There's some kind of total exclusion zone around it a force field or something. It started up just after the collapse of Project Eden. IMC wanted to know why, and whether there's any way round it. So they said, if you ever came back for me, I should go with you, and try and persuade you to take me to Lucifer at about this time, and then try to get the information back to them.' for a while. They already had records of you and some pathetic companion of yours, and they knew that you were probably a time traveller. So they asked me to go on a mission for them. They didn't order me, they didn't even try and manipulate me. They asked me. And they told me that in the time of the Third Dalek War, the location of this star system is of paramount strategic value, and neither the Daleks nor the Alliance can come anywhere near it. There's some kind of total exclusion zone around it a force field or something. It started up just after the collapse of Project Eden. IMC wanted to know why, and whether there's any way round it. So they said, if you ever came back for me, I should go with you, and try and persuade you to take me to Lucifer at about this time, and then try to get the information back to them.'

Legion's size changes, although slower now, had become even more extreme. Bishop raised his weapon in warning.

'Trouble is, a lot of IMC records got lost in four hundred years, so the only info they could give me was that IMC had an agent in place on Belial, and they gave me a message for someone called Legion. I a.s.sumed that Legion was the agent. And that was my first mistake...'

At the smallest extreme of his fluctuating size, Legion vanished.

A hideous scream shattered the air. Cheryl wrenched her eyes away from Ace and the Doctor in time to see Bishop lose his grip on Bryn's gun and fall to his knees, clutching in agony at his stomach and chest. She ran towards the Adjudicator. Something in the room was wrong. Something was... Legion was missing! Somehow it had managed to Cheryl gagged as Legion emerged from Bishop's body in a flood of multicoloured flesh, blood and torn shreds of clothing. Bishop gave a strangled shriek as his heart, lungs and other internal organs were forced through his ribcage, shattering it. Legion swelled into a baggy, green*hued pancake, flanked by two grey pears, shrugging off bloodied shards of Bishop's body as it did so. Christine staggered backwards, and was sick.

'Staff Sergeant,' Legion's many voices boomed, 'you are hereby reinstated as a line officer. Your orders are to facilitate the takeover of Project Eden by terminating the contracts of all non*essential personnel.'

The Doctor leapt forward. 'Ace, no! You can't do it! It's lives we're talking about. Human lives.'

Ace looked from Legion to the Doctor and back again. She swung her gun to cover the Doctor, then looked hesitantly back at Legion, her face a mask of indecision.

'Kill!' Legion's body stretched and altered as it pulled itself further into the moment, blossoming into a s.h.a.ggy, many*eyed ma.s.s supported on three spindly limbs.

'Not for you, Legion,' Ace said quietly, and threw the gun to the Doctor. 'And not for you either, Professor. I make my own choices from now on.'

The Doctor stared at the gun. 'I have often felt myself to be at a disadvantage when confronting evil,' he said to himself, 'given that I would rather have somebody other than me pull the trigger. I condemned untold billions to death by not destroying the Daleks at the moment of their birth, and I could have saved billions more by shooting down Davros like a mad dog when I had the chance.'

He sighed, and looked up at Ace. 'I have come to recognize that manipulating others into doing my dirty work is almost as evil as the acts of those I choose to fight. I have been so careful not to stain my hands that I have stained my soul instead.'

He glanced over at where the Adjudicator's shredded body lay amongst his bloodstained robes, then up at Legion, and both Cheryl and Ace took a step away from the ferocity they saw in his eyes.

'Welcome to h.e.l.l, Legion,' he said, and suddenly the gun was pointed at the dark bulk of the IMC Captain. Legion's body split and shimmered as it tried to pull itself out of the area, but the Doctor was too fast. The gun jerked in his hand, and a small grey node which had been blossoming above Legion's body exploded with a wet splat. Pink droplets showered the floor. Legion's scream spanned four octaves. Its body seemed to be sucked from the room in a shimmering montage of three*dimensional shapes. Flailing tentacles wrapped around banks of equipment and chairs, which were ripped from their anchors and pulled into nothingness as Legion's body shrank. Within moments, it had evaporated away to a spidery core of gristle and webby flesh. A last, despairing scream seemed to linger beyond the moment, pitch*shifting downwards as it echoed into silence. Legion was gone.

'Yay, Doctor!' Cheryl shouted, exultant. 'Way to go!'

A brilliant flash of light interrupted her words. When it cleared, there were four people sprawled on the floor. Hovering above the bodies was a shimmering drapery of light which Cheryl could not focus on.

'Are you...?' she began.

'Our temples are sacred,' the Angel said. 'You cannot pray here.'

It vanished.

Chapter Nineteen.

The ma.s.sive doors to the Mushroom Farm, already damaged during their earlier battering, finally shattered beneath Kreig and Ardamal's determined a.s.sault. As the troopers strode in, Bannen's pseudo*son ran ahead to find his father.

'Bannen? Professor Alex Bannen? We're under orders to... to... Jeez!' Ardamal's voice trailed off into silence as he took in the scene. The mushrooms were blazing white silhouettes linked by curved flux lines of energy, and the glowing column of the Pit had become translucent to the point where he could see the spiral of the Pit Path through its gently strobing walls.

Kreig muttered something to herself.

'What was that?'

'I said, "Screw Legion". If he wants to oversee Bannen's operation, he can d.a.m.n well ' Kreig choked. 'd.a.m.n well '

As Ardamal watched incredulously, Kreig's voice ran in a liquid stream from her mouth and splashed across her chest armour before hitting the floor in a shower of glowing syllables. Her face creased in horror as she lifted her eyes to his. Behind her, the glow from the Pit intensified, spreading throughout the chamber like ripples on the surface of a pond. As the waves began to pulse through his body, Ardamal felt himself begin to change change.

He tried to scream, but reality wouldn't let him.

In the Operations Room, the Doctor watched as Ace and Cheryl helped Piper, Miles, Bernice, and Christine to their feet. His voice rang out over the rising hubbub. 'Quiet!'

Everybody stopped and looked at him expectantly.

'Now,' he continued, 'nice as it is to have you all back again, especially you, Krau O'Rourke, and much as I would enjoy a cosy chat over a cup of tea about all of our respective adventures, I'm afraid we just haven't got the time. So if you would be so kind, a quick update from all of you is what I need. Bernice?'

The archaeologist seemed disconcerted by the Doctor's peremptory demand. 'Er... something happened to the black holes: it looked to me as if they turned inside out. Then an Angel brought us back.'

'Thank you. Christine?'

The psychologist waved a tired hand at Bernice. 'Like she said.'

'Miles?'

He held out the medicine wheel from his office. It glowed with a soft and calming light. 'My daughter's legacy,' he whispered.

'Paula's final gift,' Piper added softly. 'I had the starpod record her,' she glanced towards Miles, then reached out to touch his shoulder, 'her final moments. I'm no scientist, but I've spent enough time arguing with Alex Bannen to be able to interpret the read*outs. She changed, Doctor! As she died, the const.i.tuent elements of her body actually altered into something, well, something that the podbrain couldn't identify. And I think she deliberately changed Miles's medicine wheel into the same substance.'

'The high*ma.s.s elements that we've been searching for!' Cheryl said, stunned.

'We thought they were in the planet's core all the time,' Piper confirmed, 'and in a sense, we were right. We thought the Angels could help us find the elements. It didn't occur to us that the Angels were were the elements. I don't know how they manage it I don't even know if it's voluntary or involuntary but they can modify their body structures. When they die, they become heavier much heavier. And they sink down into the core of Lucifer. And before you ask, I don't know why they do that eith' the elements. I don't know how they manage it I don't even know if it's voluntary or involuntary but they can modify their body structures. When they die, they become heavier much heavier. And they sink down into the core of Lucifer. And before you ask, I don't know why they do that eith'

Ace slapped her forehead. 'It's like in RE at school. When the Angels die, they fall into the core of Lucifer. It's their Heaven! The rest of the universe is their h.e.l.l.'

Christine shook her head. 'Ace, listen to yourself. You're a.s.signing a human belief system, and an outmoded one at that, to an alien species. There's no way it could make sense. The Angels won't even talk to us.'

'Suppose they're scared of us?'

Christine stared at her.

'If this is h.e.l.l, then we're the demons. That's why they never communicated!'

'And,' the Doctor said breathlessly, 'that would explain the business with the black holes, too.'

'I'm lost,' Bernice announced.

'But the singularities '

'Don't bother.' She sat down and pulled her hip flask from her pocket. 'Procedural switch*off. I'm not listening.'

He turned to Ace, who watched him patiently.

'At the core of every black hole there is something called a singularity, where the entire ma.s.s of the collapsar is concentrated into a single point, and the laws of s.p.a.ce and time fail. Strip away the ma.s.s, strip away the event horizon, and you're left with a gap in reality through which anything can come. Anything Anything.'

'So what do the Angels want with singularities?'

The Doctor's face darkened. 'I'm not sure yet. It connects up with the Mushroom Farm somehow, but I don't '

A far*off rumble abruptly punctuated his sentence.

He sighed heavily, and announced: 'Trau Engado, Krau Russell, Krau O'Rourke, Krau LaFayette, this is where we say goodbye.'

Everybody tried to speak at once, but the Doctor quelled them with a glance. 'There isn't much time left. Alex Bannen has finally discovered the true function of the Mushroom Farm. He thinks he can turn himself into the saviour of the Earth, but a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. I have to stop him. You have to collect the rest of the Project Eden team and leave, because, from what Ace has told us about the future of this star system, if you don't get out now, you never will.'

'How ' Piper started to ask, but the Doctor beat her to it.

'By using Adjudicator Bishop's ship.' He looked down at where Bishop's body lay scattered, and smiled sadly. 'Under the circ.u.mstances, I think you can dispense with the paperwork.'

'But there'll be IMC troopers everywhere!' Cheryl interjected.

The Doctor opened his mouth to reply, but Ace beat him to it.

'I know the way that IMC operate,' she said. 'Now that Legion is dead, they'll be leaderless. They'll act to minimize their losses, and pull out immediately. Any IMC troopers you see will either be running round like headless chickens or withdrawing faster than you can say "boiled asparagus".'

The Doctor stepped forward and took Miles's hand. 'I would hesitate to say it's been fun, but it's certainly been interesting. Goodbye.'

'Doctor, I '

The Doctor shook his head, smiled, and glanced at Cheryl. She stepped over and embraced him. He clutched at his hat to stop it falling off. Finally, ruffled, he broke free and looked over at Piper.

'Thank you,' she said, 'for trying to protect me.'

'Perhaps you could do me a favour in return?'

'Anything.'

The Doctor delved into his capacious pockets and removed a small twist of paper. Handing it to her, he whispered something in her ear. She frowned, and nodded.

'If that's what you want,' she said, puzzled.

'It's what I want,' he confirmed, and, raising his hat to Christine, left. Ace shrugged, looked around at the company, and followed him. Bernice briefly embraced Cheryl and smiled at Christine, Piper and Miles.

'No time,' she sighed. 'Story of our lives.'

On the bridge of every ship in the IMC fleet, chaos ruled. Without Legion's tight control, and with the black holes turned inside out, panic had spread like wildfire. Heads of department held interminable meetings; scientists and engineers came to blows over whose fault it was; accountants tried to work out exactly how much eight quantum black holes were worth to Legion's race.

And at the same moment, on the bridge of every ship in the fleet, a kaleidoscopic ma.s.s of energy appeared from nowhere, spoke the words, 'Our temples are sacred; you cannot pray here,' and vanished.

As, shortly afterwards, did the fleet.

Technically, Kreig beat Ardamal out of the Mushroom Farm doorway, but it would have taken a photo*finish to tell the difference. Her skin was purple and spiny: his hands faced the wrong way on his arms and he stumbled as he ran, as if his legs were jointed differently from the way they used to be. He reeled into her as he ran and was disgusted and horrified to find he was unable to separate himself. He began to thrash about in panic.

Kreig screamed, and struggled against him.

Both troopers' minds disintegrated into madness as their bodies began to respond to each other's neural stimuli as well as their own.

As Julie Ndema sneaked into the airlock chamber, her lungs suddenly started metabolizing fluorine instead of oxygen. Choking wetly, she fell to the metal grille floor, pa.s.sed out, and died. She was hundreds of light years from home, and about twice that far from the nearest planet with a fluorine atmosphere.

Satvindha Mudan, a chemist, locked by IMC in Piper's office along with two other Project Eden staff, suddenly went blind, deaf and dumb. Screaming, he thrashed around the office. If his brain had changed as much as his sensory organs, he would have been able to process the raw flood of radar data from the bony dome that now comprised most of his face; unfortunately, the changes that had flooded through his body were major, but not comprehensive. He smashed his head against the wall, cracked the radar*transparent dome, and died of shock and loss of blood.

His two colleagues noticed neither his change nor his death. They had their own problems.

Craig Richards, sprinting frantically down the Pit, felt a burning sensation running through his body. He slowed, and watched, horrified, as his fingers began to melt and the flesh up to his elbows fell away from the bone. For a long moment, he was staring at the bloodied and pitted bones of his forearms, and then his newly acidic lymphatic fluid ate through to his heart, and he died.

Within moments, all that was left of him was his lucky deck of cards, sliding down the frictionless surface.

Monsters lurched and slithered through the Base, crying out in voices that Ace recognized with horror. Twisted corpses littered the floor in pools of unrecognizable bodily liquids. It was a vision of h.e.l.l.

A few feet from the wrecked doors of the Mushroom Farm, two bodies lay entwined with the remnants of two IMC uniforms. One looked like a large crab, with a mottled grey sh.e.l.l and eleven corkscrew legs; the other was a mucus*covered atrocity with multiple eyes and a fluted snout. They looked like they had been fighting, and the arthropod had one of the long*nosed creature's ears in its mouth. The Doctor just stepped over them, but Bernice crouched down and rooted amongst the shreds of cloth, emerging with a metal name tag. She held it out to Ace.

ARDAMAL, it read.

Bernice stood up with an unreadable expression on her face, and followed the Doctor into the Mushroom Farm.

'It's just one d.a.m.n thing after another,' Ace muttered, and stepped over the troopers' bodies.