The footsteps came closer.

Fleeing through that terrifying forest to the plain where The Sentience was on the point of withdrawing from the the TARDIS stood. The months in China with that Venetian moor and it boiled and swirled in the atmosphere, traveller. Slowly dying from the deadly radiation of the struggling to understand its failure. No life form had ever planet Skaro. And it was Susan who had gone off into the had the will to resist it before. The lure of the past was jungle to save them. Brave Susan...

always so great.Need 284.

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[image]

He forced himself to concentrate on her image. That dark, pretty face. That uniform she had first worn at the school and so hated that she'd buried it deep in the TARDIS.

'Oh, Grandfather. I can't be seen wearing that.'

Not 'with it', she had told him. Not the sort of thing for a fan of John Smith and the Common Men. Susan...

And then that terrible day. Defeat of the Daleks and the liberation of Earth but... but he had been forced to make her stay behind. It had been what she needed, what she wanted in her heart. To stay with David Campbell and make a life for herself. A life away from him...

She had stood outside the TARDIS, tears pouring down her face, the key to the Ship clutched in her hand. 'One day, I shall come back. Yes, I shall come back...'

He was here now. Waiting.

'Susan?'

'Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. ..'

The Doctor's voice was calm and a.s.sured.

Come back to me. Come back to me...

'I'm here, Grandfather.'

'Just go forward in all your beliefs, and prove to me that I am Her voice was strangely beautiful, haunting...

not mistaken in mine...'

Ace shivered.

Come back...

'Tell me who you are,' urged the Doctor.

'Goodbye, Susan. Goodbye, my dear...'

'I am Susan...' the apparition murmured.

Susan...

The Doctor chewed a fingernail thoughtfully. 'Yes, you're 'Grandfather?'

Susan. But tell me why you're here. Tell me what you seek.'

The Doctor's eyes snapped open. Susan was standing Susan fluttered her eyelids and the light streaming from before him, a beautiful apparition, like a shaft of sunlight them stuttered. 'I have always been here. There has always pouring through storm clouds. Her dark hair wafted around been me. But...'

her face and her hands were held open in welcome.

'But?' The Doctor held out his hands.

Like an angel, thought Ace.

Susan's face seemed to fall, as though overwhelmed with Light poured from Susan's eyes and mouth like sand from sadness. 'There must be more than this. There must have a punctured bag.

been a better time. Not this need.'

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'A better time. A simpler time,' said the Doctor. 'That's Susan rolled back her head and laughed, delighting in her what we all yearn for. The pain of wanting to belong own power. 'I shall go on from here till the need is gone. I somewhere. To go home.'

shall consume!'

'Home,' repeated Susan.

The Doctor whipped around. 'Now, Dr Cooper! Now!'

The Doctor stepped back a little. Susan raised her head.

Cooper slammed her fingers across various keyboards 'But there is always need. I cannot rest.'

and each monitor screen flared with identical data. There 'You have to feed?'

was a distant clunk from the dish above. Vijay and Robin 'At first, I had only to consume a very little and was looked up.

content. But I have grown now, and the need has grown 'Doctor?' said Ace in puzzlement.

with me.' Susan's eyes began to shine with a fearful Cooper ran a hand over the console. 'That's it, Doctor. All incandescence. 'I can smell them,' she hissed, her voice systems overridden and concentrating on Bellatrix.'

harsher now. 'Their regret. Their yearning for times past. It The room began to throb with power. The Doctor turned is so strong, so sweet. They fashion me into what they desire, back to Susan. 'Can't you feel it? Can't you feel the energy?'

or what they fear and then... then I harvest.'

Susan twisted about, her figure stretching and distorting 'Harvest?' Cooper spat the work disgustedly.

as she attempted to locate the energy source. Radio waves The Doctor silenced her with a gesture. Susan inclined her honed in on the dish of the telescope.

head.

'What is it?' hissed Susan, her hair streaming behind her 'There was much energy to be had. I grew stronger as the as though stirred by unseen currents. Light was forcing its years pa.s.sed. I learned how to shepherd my prey together way through every part of Susan's face, as though the and prevent them from leaving me...'

Sentience were shaking off the image.

'What does it mean?' said Ace.

'A star,' said the Doctor calmly. 'An exploding star.

"The sickness anyone feels if they try to leave,' said the Pushing outwards in a pure, brilliant surge of light and Doctor without taking his eyes off the apparition. 'It creates energy. Can't you feel it? Can't you taste it?'

a barrier, preventing them getting out.'

The Sentience thrashed against the walls, Susan's image 'But not getting in,' said Vijay quietly. 'Like Mr Medway?'

flaring and billowing as light fountained from it.

The Doctor nodded. 'Bees to a honeypot.'

The Doctor ran closer, pressing home his advantage.

Susan smiled slightly. 'I found one who could see as I did.

'Can't you feel it? The energy of a whole star. It's all yours.

An old man. Through his mind I saw the potential of this Take it. Take it!'

world.'

Susan's face seemed to break into a smile before Billy Coote, thought Robin. So his second sight had been evaporating into a surge of blinding light. Golden fire real after all.

roared through her until there was only a blazing column of 'And now?' said the Doctor. 'Now that you have grown?'

light dominating the room like some biblical miracle.

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'I can feel it!' screamed the Sentience, its terrifying voice To consume properly, the Sentience would have to get resonating around the room. The walls began to shudder closer.

and crack.

It was strong enough now, strong enough to leave behind 'I can taste it!'

the planet in which it had always existed.

Ace, Robin and Vijay threw themselves to the floor as The energy was weak, but once it had been fresh. The chairs and papers crashed around the room The Doctor and Sentience would have to go back. Back to when the star Cooper gripped the benches for dear life as a freezing wind exploded. And then it would feast.

blasted through the room. 'Is it not... beautiful?'

Back. Back. Back.

The Doctor turned away as the column of fire expanded across the room, dazzles of brilliant white light searing his Cooper hugged Vijay to her. 'I'm so sorry, my dear eyes. A screeching cacophony pounded at his ears and he friend.' She kissed him and then held him at arm's length.

thrust his head under the bench, sweat washing down his 'There's just the two of us now, I'm afraid. Think we can forehead.

manage?'

'Beautiful! Beautiful!'

Vijay smiled thinly. He thought of Holly and immediately The Doctor lay down flat and covered his ears with his pushed the thought to the back of his mind.

hands. There was a tremendous wave of energy and he felt No.

his whole body being flattened. His eyes lolled back in their That was wrong. That's how Holly... that's why Holly died.

sockets and blood roared in his ears. He rolled himself into a By not accepting James's death and letting his memory ball and came to rest against the console. Then he opened fester inside her. Holly was dead.

his eyes.

He would grieve, very publicly and for as long as it took.

The makeshift polythene window had burst asunder and But he would remember her with joy.

a fine rain was blowing through.

'I think we'll manage,' he said at last, kissing Cooper Cooper poked her head over the top of the bench and fondly on the forehead.

looked around.

Robin grasped Ace's hand tightly. 'Well?'

Papers fluttered over the consoles.

Ace gazed into his lovely green eyes and bit her lip. 'I'm 'It's gone,' said the Doctor, sighing with relief. 'Gone to going to tell him. Tell him now.'

find its star.'

The Doctor was rummaging through his pockets. He pulled out the small, vellum-bound book which the Abbot The Sentience consumed the ancient radiation as it rushed had lent him and looked up, as though struck by a thought.

into the telescope's feed. Even at this distance, there was 'Doctor,' said Ace quietly. She placed a hand on his sleeve.

much to enjoy. So much energy pouring out of the dying 'Mm?'

stellar body. But it was still so far away. So far away.

'Doctor, I've ... I've decided to stay...'

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