The air was suddenly alive with power. Ace felt the hairs Material began to bleed from the companion on to the on her arms and neck stand up.

dwarf until it reached its maximum permissible ma.s.s. At 'Here it comes,' whispered the Doctor.

this point, the Chandreskhar limit, the dwarf underwent a The castle began to seethe with light, the old stones ma.s.sive thermonuclear explosion.

themselves rippling and blurring.

The Sentience, however, knew nothing of this. All it could feel, all it could taste, was the bounty of the exploding star.

296.

297.

It slipped free of Earth's atmosphere and sped across the Ace regarded the Doctor steadily. 'Where's it going?' 'Out galaxy at incredible speed, throbbing with power.

of the galaxy,' said the Doctor wonderingly. 'Out towards In an instant, it was there, writhing and wallowing in the Andromeda.' He looked up and smiled. 'M31. The Great astonishing blast of energy.

Spiral.'

'Need!' it sang to itself.

'And what's it looking for? Another nova?' The Doctor leant on the console and looked at her. 'No, better than that.

'It'll stay there until the star has exhausted itself,' said the A supernova.' He checked his instruments. 'Yes, there it is.

Doctor. 'Let's nip forward a bit...'

It's found one. A big one too.'

His fingers danced over a row of b.u.t.tons.

Ace checked her watch. They'd been gone a good while The Sentience groaned with delight as the energy from the now but this was a time machine, after all. The Doctor could blazing red star flooded into it. If it could go on discovering drop her off only a minute after they'd left. She thought of these sources, these dying stars then, perhaps, the need Robin and smiled. The Doctor glanced at the scanner and would be fulfilled. Perhaps it might rest, at last..

frowned. 'It's gone.'

'What about the star?'

The Doctor chewed his fingernails anxiously. 'We'll go 'Finished. Dead.' He stabbed at a display before him.

forward in Time again and see what it's up to.'

'Wait, I've got a trace. We can follow it.'

He cast a glance at the scanner and his eyes began to Ace joined him at the console. The Doctor frowned and widen.

then smiled. 'Clever. Very clever...'

'What is it, Doctor?' said Ace worriedly.

'If we're lucky...' he said under his breath.

The Sentience had sensed the star diminishing. How long Ace shrugged. 'What? The star burns out?'

it had hovered there, drinking in the beautiful energy, it 'No, no. Remember what I told you.'

couldn't tell. But what was time to it? Now it was free to 'It turns into a pulsar, right?'

roam through s.p.a.ce, consuming anything it came across.

'Yes,' said the Doctor quietly. 'Unless the core of the star is The eater of stars!

too ma.s.sive for the neutrons to support it against gravity. In It sent out a portion of itself and suddenly shuddered which case the core continues to collapse.'

with delight. There was another star, somewhat more Ace shrugged. 'Well?'

distant, but so powerful!

'Continues to collapse until the gravity at its centre is Seconds later, the Sentience was storming out of the strong enough to form...?' The Doctor raised his eyebrows galaxy.

expectantly.

Ace frowned, then smiled, then grinned as she realised what the Doctor was implying.

298.

299.

Then a curious peace came over it as it vanished forever.

The Sentience was aware of the star's death. Immediately, Perhaps it had finally come home.

it began to monitor the s.p.a.ce around it for more energy. It was colossal now, stretching shimmering tendrils into the The Doctor flicked a switch and the scanner roundel vacuum.

darkened to the same hue as the others.

It would leave and find more stars.

'It's over,' he sighed. 'Consumed by the black hole.'

Nothing happened.

Ace breathed out delightedly. 'Well...'

Once again, it attempted to leave and found that it could 'Yes. Time you were getting back.'

not. It desired to be elsewhere and this had always been The Doctor looked at her steadily. He didn't want to let easy to accomplish. Why not now? Besides, since it had her go but under normal circ.u.mstances he would have done.

grown greater the need was greater.

Under normal circ.u.mstances.

Already, the yawning emptiness seemed to burn within it.

But there was more at stake now...

The Sentience flexed a tendril but was dragged back 'Crook Marsham 1968, here we come,' he said brightly.

remorselessly towards the dead star.

This was impossible. It had to move. Get away. The star Ace had nothing much to pack and returned to the had nothing left to give. There was no more energy. There tertiary console room with her rucksack and bomber jacket.

was nothing but oblivion.

Her tape deck would have to stay as it was anachronistic For the first time in its ancient life, the Sentience felt and liable to cause a few raised eyebrows. Come to think of something akin to panic. It tried to wrench itself free, it, by the time Ian Brown and the Stone Roses came round, lashing its tendrils in fury, but the gravity of the star she'd probably be too old to like them any more. Funny wouldn't permit it. Not even the Sentience could escape thought. But she had Robin now...

from a Black Hole.

She walked into the room uncertainly. The Doctor was at For a long moment, an eternity of experience flashed the console and the TARDIS was just materialising.

through its consciousness. Sir Brian de Fillis and his wife, 'Doctor?'

Harry Cooke and his daughters. Dyson and Scott from the He turned.

archaeological expedition. Dr Shearsmith, Jack Prudhoe, Ace bit her lip. 'Everything we talked about before. You Win Prudhoe, Betty and Lawrence Yeadon, Abbot will be OK now?'

Winstanley...

The Doctor smiled. 'You know, the Elizabethans thought Need. Cannot die. Still need. Must go on. Must...

nostalgia was a diagnosable disease. Perhaps they were Holly Kidd. Edmund Trevithick...

right.' He sighed. 'Thanks to you, Ace, I know that what's Must go on... Must... Must...

done ... is done. No sense living in the past. The only way The Sentience shimmered briefly like a firefly.

for me is forward. Always forward.'

300.

301.

Ace moved to hug the Doctor one more time but he shook his head. 'Just go. I'll slip away quietly. No fuss.'

Ace nodded silently, feeling the tears well up in her eyes.

Then she ran through the double doors without looking back.

Epilogue.Expecting the familiar moorland, she was somewhat surprised to find herself on a broad stretch of beach.

The sand glistened like pomegranate seeds and the sky above her was a lovely, dusky purple. A breeze was blowing through a dense forest to her right. Three moons hung low over the horizon.

'Doctor,' she said in a low whisper. 'You've got it wrong.'

Robin waited for a very long time. In fact, for over five She ducked back into the TARDIS. The tertiary console months, never a day pa.s.sed without him making the trip to room was empty and silent, save for the familiar hum of the telescope. Just in case. But she never came back.

machinery. Ace noticed several switches clicking into life.

Perhaps it was for the best. If, as she'd said, she was from Ace stepped over the threshold. The doors swung shut of the future, then living through her time again might have their own accord and the TARDIS dematerialised proven very difficult. But Robin missed her so much.

automatically.

He became very close to Dr Cooper and Vijay Degun and She grasped the bra.s.s door k.n.o.b and threw open the it was good to have friends who understood what he was interior door, racing into the corridor beyond.

going through now that Lawrence was gone too. It had been 'Doctor! Take me back! I have to go back! I have to!'

a terrible time for them all.

There was no reply. Ace ran down the corridor, fresh tears Robin read the official account in the paper some time springing to her eyes. 'Doctor! You promised! Take me back!

later. Poison gas, they said, from under the ground.

The light in the grey corridor was dim and cheerless. Ace Couldn't have been antic.i.p.ated. n.o.body's fault. He was wheeled around, already hopelessly lost. She slid down the surprised to see how many of those who'd had the worst roundelled wall and buried her head in her hands. 'Take me scares were the first to deny anything out of the ordinary.

back.'

Probably just their way of dealing with it.

Robin didn't stay long in Crook Marsham, however. He moved to York and then to London. Occasionally, he got a postcard from Jill Mason. She seemed never to settle down.

Always at some political flashpoint or another.

302.

303.

Vijay and Dr Cooper he saw more frequently now they were back in Cambridge. They had all put the village behind them. Too many memories. Far too many...

The tracking station was closed down almost at once, dark noises being made about risking government property and Author's Notes lives (in that order) in such an unstable geological area.

The great telescope dish stood through another three winters until it was dismantled. Eventually, even the concrete sh.e.l.l of the station buildings, stained and broken by the elements, disappeared.

And there was only the rain. And the moor. Always, the moor.

Prologue.THE END.

I knew from the beginning that I wanted a prologue set on Gallifrey with the first Doctor running away. Susan featured in the original draft, as I recall but I was asked to take her out so as to leave her origins more mysterious. She could be waiting for the old man inside the un-disguised TARDIS or he could find her somewhere else later. I still think it's a rather nice prologue, though it's a bit purple and, as Joseph II might put it there are "too many notes".

The very last line where the Time Lord realises the TARDIS has been stolen and says 'Oh no, this really won't do at all' continues the long tradition of the Time Lords'