The Doctor frowned into the dim corridor revealed. 'What sort of ship is at the other end of this?'

Lombardo grimaced. 'Freighter. Large. bulky and powerful. Like me after a few pints.'

They filed down the access tube. The sonic screwdriver made short work of the airlock.

Lombardo eyed the device greedily 'Always wanted one of those. You'll have to give me the design specifications. If we get out of this.'

'I'll give you more than that if we get out of this,' said the Doctor, ushering him on board.

Lombardo ducked inside, winking at Naomi. 'Promises, promises!'

They made for the flight deck and the Doctor lost no time in strapping himself into the pilot's seat and powering up the ship's systems. He could make out the darkness of the hangar through the forward screen. 'Find the medical supplies,' said the Doctor. Lombardo nodded and headed for the rear of the flight deck.

Naomi strapped Thom into a spare seat and then did the same for herself.

The Doctor brought the ship's systems fully on line, and there was a gradual hum as power built up. Lights snapped on outside the ship, illuminating a sloping runway ending in a pair of ma.s.sive doors.

'Have you ever flown one of these before?' said Naomi, staring doubtfully at the Doctor's frock coat.

The Doctor smiled. 'No, but sure I'll pick it up as I go along.'

Lombardo returned carrying a small red box.

'Any painkillers?' said the Doctor hopefully.

Lombardo nodded, and pa.s.sed a small hypodermic to Naomi.

Naomi was holding Thom's good arm. 'Don't worry, we're getting out of here.' She injected him but he didn't even seem to feel the pinp.r.i.c.k.

'We certainly are,' said the Doctor grimly, sending the signal that would open the doors.

'We hope,' muttered Lombardo as he settled himself into the copilot's seat.

A crack appeared between the ma.s.sive portals. A crack through which thick, black gas began to pour, slowly, but then more quickly as the gap widened.

The Doctor and Lombardo stared.

'It should be daylight outside,' whispered Lombardo.

The doors had opened fully now. A churning black wall was surging towards them.

The Doctor locked eyes with Lombardo. 'We have to go. Now!'

The ship glided forward, and the Doctor cranked the engines up to full power insanely dangerous, as the ship was still in the hangar, but there really was no choice. A giant hand pressed him back in his seat as the ship plunged into the black cloud.

The Doctor steered the ship upwards into what should have been the blue Yquatine sky.

But everywhere was blackness.

The control panel began to flash with warning lights and there was the urgent bleep of several alarms.

'What's happening?' cried Naomi.

'Oh, h.e.l.l,' said Lombardo. 'Whatever that stuff is, it's eating into the hull. We're losing integrity, fast!'

The floor began to shake under the Doctor's feet. The ship was breaking up around them.

The Doctor stared grimly at the forward screen. Surely they had to break through soon. Surely.

From behind him, he could hear Thom. whimpering in pain. Naomi's voice, trying to rea.s.sure but shaking in fear.

Lombardo's usually calm tones began to rise in panic. 'We'll never make it off the planet. We're not going to make it!'

Chapter Five.

'Woman trouble?'

Fitz lay face down on the grating, the time-stuff a blue blur beneath him. Mad, angry thoughts buzzed about his brain like wasps. Killed by a TARDIS! We're supposed to be on the same side! b.l.o.o.d.y cow! Killed by a TARDIS! We're supposed to be on the same side! b.l.o.o.d.y cow! The pressure in his chest grew into a bursting, stabbing pain and then diminished. A cool breeze slid over his sweat-slicked face and he gulped in sharp, stinging lungfuls of air. He sat up, doubled over in agony, his breath tearing in and out of his body, thankful and amazed that Compa.s.sion had restored the air supply. It took a minute or so for his heart to stop hammering. and, when he felt almost normal again, he stood up, leaning on the rail. 'Compa.s.sion?' The pressure in his chest grew into a bursting, stabbing pain and then diminished. A cool breeze slid over his sweat-slicked face and he gulped in sharp, stinging lungfuls of air. He sat up, doubled over in agony, his breath tearing in and out of his body, thankful and amazed that Compa.s.sion had restored the air supply. It took a minute or so for his heart to stop hammering. and, when he felt almost normal again, he stood up, leaning on the rail. 'Compa.s.sion?'

No answer, just cool currents of air curling around his body. His shirt was plastered coldly to his back and he shivered. Was Compa.s.sion dead? Had he killed her? Had the acid somehow got into her?

'Compa.s.sion!' he yelled, his throat aching with the effort. His voice echoed off the walls, and as the echoes died away he became aware of a distant thud-thud, thud-thud, like subterranean machinery. Compa.s.sion's heartbeat? If so, she was still alive.

He approached the console. He operated the screen control using the switch he'd seen the Doctor use. The roofs.p.a.ce cleared to show a view of Yendip harbour. Boats sailed serenely about their business, and traffic floated in the clear, blue sky.

Fitz blinked. 'Wha...'

There was no sign of the black shapes or the black gas. Everything was picture-postcard normal. Perhaps Compa.s.sion was showing this image because the reality was too horrible to portray.

'It's sealed.'

The voice was a haunted-house whisper and it made Fitz jump, starting his heart racing again. He put a hand to his chest. Wasn't he too young to have a heart attack? 'Compa.s.sion?'

'It's becoming part of me.'

Fitz looked down at the console. The Randomiser casing had turned almost completely black. He hadn't succeeded in shifting it an inch.

'It's becoming part of me,' Compa.s.sion repeated in a ghostly singsong. 'Why did he do this?'

'Well,' said Fitz, gesturing around the darkened chamber. 'To protect you.'

The grating shook under Fitz's feet and Compa.s.sion screamed. 'I do not need protection!'

'All right, all right!' Fitz grabbed on to the console gingerly. It felt rusty and barnacled, like something washed up from the sea. 'Look, we'd better find the Doctor.'

'The Doctor isn't in this time zone.'

Fitz frowned. What was she talking about? His head ached and his throat felt as if he'd swallowed a cheese grater. The gloomy console chamber made him feel jumpy. The roofs.p.a.ce still showed the same peaceful view. He badly wanted to get out of Compa.s.sion, in case she tried to kill him again or went mad or something. But he couldn't be sure it was any safer out there than it was in here. 'Is that really what it's like outside?'

Silence.

Then a flash of light, a falling sensation in his guts and he was standing next to Compa.s.sion on the esplanade, overlooking the sea. Fitz shaded his eyes against the bright sun, squinting up into the sky, trying to stop himself from trembling. There was no sign of the attackers. 'What happened?' he said nervously. 'Did you. er, knock them all out somehow?'

Compa.s.sion had her hood down, and seemed unaffected by the acid, her red hair ruffling in the breeze. They won't arrive for ' she frowned 'fifty-eight days.' She turned to Fitz, smiling. 'We've escaped.'

Fitz remembered what she'd said about different time zones. 'Oh no. Compa.s.sion, when when are we?' are we?'

'When you tried to remove the Randomiser, I went into temporal spasm. I time-jumped into the past. To the first of Jaquaia, according to the local calendar.'

Fitz boggled. He felt the sudden urgent need for a cigarette. He hadn't smoked in what seemed like ages. He patted his pockets, but apart from an old rusty penknife and a gnarled hanky they were empty. 'Temporal spasm?'

Compa.s.sion smiled slowly and raised her fist in a crushing movement. 'lf I twisted a certain part of your anatomy, you would literally jump in s.p.a.ce. The same thing happened to me, only in time.'

Fitz let it sink in for a bit, and then an image of the Doctor's face flashed before his eyes. 'The Doctor! Where's the Doctor?'

Compa.s.sion shrugged, staring out to sea. 'Still in the future. On Treaty Day, the sixteenth of Lannasirn. Helping to fight the invaders, presumably.'

She started to walk off.

Fitz was suddenly angry at her lack of concern. 'We've got to go back forward and help him!'

Compa.s.sion shook her head, a slow smile spreading across her lips. Then she turned and walked away.

A few minutes later, they were walking in silence together along a stone pier which ran out into sea from the harbour, straight as a needle. Looking back, Fitz could see the whole of the harbour, the strip of white beach, the town stretching back to the distant forested hills. There were a few airships moored along the pier, translucent boarding tubes gleaming in the sun. It all looked so peaceful. The elegant shapes of the boats in the harbour, the hotels on the esplanade, the airships in the sky above. As Fitz looked they turned in his mind's eye into dark ovoids, raining death.

Fitz stopped walking. 'OK, stop.'

They were almost at the end of the pier. Compa.s.sion regarded him with disdain.

'We can't just sit back and let the Doctor, and this whole planet he made a sweeping gesture towards the town 'suffer!'

Compa.s.sion pouted, and walked on to the end of the pier, which expanded into a circular stone platform, in the centre of which was a little metal tower with a spiral staircase. Compa.s.sion climbed up, her cloak scuffing on the railings.

Fitz followed, trying to fight down his feelings of exasperation and anger, telling himself she wasn't human any more, she probably didn't realise how badly she was treating him. Just like the Doctor sometimes. Well, great.

There was room for only the two of them at the top. Cool place to take a girl, thought Fitz, shivering in a sudden fresh breeze. He looked back: the pier stretched to the mainland, the water on either side rippling, giving Fitz the unsettling sensation that they were moving. Very pretty, but now wasn't the time for sightseeing.

He grabbed Compa.s.sion's shoulders. Her body felt disconcertingly human, pliant yet firm. 'We're going to help the Doctor.'

She shook him off. He remembered the console chamber, how she was prepared to kill him, even if it was out of panic, and he was suddenly scared of her.

She smiled, her lips parting to reveal small, white teeth. How deep is the veneer? wondered Fitz. How far down do you look human? How long before the black metal takes over? 'The attack won't happen for over a month. We're perfectly safe until then.'

Fitz felt as if she was missing the point. 'But the Doctor isn't.'

She looked at him as if he was a child. 'He's as safe as we are.' She raised her arms towards the sky. 'So why not enjoy the peace while it lasts?'

A flock of sea birds swooped and dipped in the distance, and Fitz saw that she was right. They were in no danger now. The Doctor wasn't even in this time stream, this reality.

But he couldn't shake the feeling that he ought to be doing something something. He couldn't shake the feeling that the attack had just happened. His blood and his bones remembered it, even if his mind told him that he was quite safe. Illogically he fully expected the sky to darken at any moment. 'I don't have your sense of perspective,' he muttered.

Compa.s.sion shrugged. That's a pity.' Then, with a wheezing, groaning sound, she faded away.

Fitz looked at the s.p.a.ce where she had been for a full minute, half expecting her to return. 'This had better be a very, very bad joke,' he muttered through clenched teeth. But she remained not there. Just a gap in the air.

The wind had sharpened, and Fitz suddenly felt very cold. He hugged himself, rubbing his arms with his hands. He looked back along the pier towards the town, and waited. Then he looked out to sea, where a pleasure cruiser was knifing through the waves, and waited. He stared into the sky as the shadow of an airship pa.s.sed over him, and waited.

Eventually his self-acknowledged low reserve of patience ran out and anger burst through his body. He drew air into his still aching lungs, and yelled into the sky. 'Come back, woman!'

'What are you doing, mister?'

Fitz looked down. A small child had climbed up the spiral steps, and now stood hanging on the railing, one hand gripping a bluegreen stick, clearly a sweet of some kind.

Fitz smiled sweetly at it (he couldn't tell if it was a boy or a girl). 'Go away, kid. I'm the nutter your parents warned you about.'

The kid laughed, a squeaking, bell-like sound, revealing a bluegreen-coated tongue.

Fitz's smile abruptly vanished. On Treaty Day, the kid would be dead, melted away by the acid rain. Not even a body left behind. And, he realised, there was nothing he could do about it. He couldn't reach the Doctor, and he had no idea where Compa.s.sion was. He also had no money and nowhere to stay, and he knew no one on the planet.

He ruffled the child's blond hair. 'What's your name?'

The child laughed again. 'You're a nutter!'

'You're not wrong, kid,' muttered Fitz. What could he do? Scoop up this child in his arms, hope that Compa.s.sion turned up? It was ridiculous. How far would he get before he was arrested? It was so stupid, so senseless, that he began to laugh.

The child laughed back, and offered Fitz the bluegreen stick.

Fitz declined. He leaned nearer. 'Look, kid, I dunno if you can understand me uh, what's your name?'

'Lorena.'

So it was a girl. 'Look, Lorena, this is very important. When Treaty Day comes, you've got to be off this planet. Go and visit your granny '

'Treat day!' trilled Lorena. 'Treat day! Presents!'

Fitz sighed. Useless, pointless. How could he expect a child to understand? Far better to warn the authorities. And, oh G.o.d, here come the parents, their faces hard with suspicion, eyes hostile.

'Well, goodbye, Lorena.'

Fitz ignored the angry questions of the parents. and climbed down the spiral stairs, walking slowly back along the stone pier, reluctant to leave the place in case Compa.s.sion returned. But deep inside, he knew she was gone for ever. She'd spread her wings and flown away, leaving him and the Doctor in the lurch.