What the h.e.l.l was he going to do? Warn the authorities about the attack on Treaty Day? Then what could they do evacuate the planet? He didn't even know who the attackers were were they these Anthaurk guys? And would the 'authorities' listen to him' They'd more than likely lock him up.

If only he knew somebody in Yendip.

Then Fitz remembered: he did know somebody. Or, rather would, in the future, in his past.

He set off at a run for Lou Lombardo's Pan-Traditional Pie Emporium.

The Doctor tried to be the calm at the eye of the storm, concentrating on maintaining a straight course. Lombardo had overcome his panic and was rerouting power from all nonessential systems to the engines and the force fields which weren't that powerful, this being a commercial freighter. The Doctor estimated hoped that they'd last long enough to hold off the corrosive clouds. If they could keep up speed they might survive. But it was no good. They weren't going fast enough. The bulky ship wasn't built for speed.

Naomi started screaming something about Thom but the Doctor couldn't let himself be distracted. He had his head in his hands, calculating, muttering formulae under his breath. He came to a conclusion and sat back in his chair.

We've got one chance,' he announced.

'Well that's better than no chance,' mumbled Lombardo.

The amount of energy used to maintain the fields just might, if diverted to the engines, give them enough power to break through. It was an insane risk, but there was no other choice. 'Lou! Patch through the power from the fields to the main thrusters. Now!'

Lombardo gaped. 'You must be joking, y'tart!'

'Do it!' yelled the Doctor.

Muttering curses, Lombardo flicked a relay. There was a sudden surge of speed and a simultaneous tearing, screaming sound which made the Doctor grimace. The console exploded in a shower of sparks and the Doctor and Lombardo covered their eyes.

'Escape pods.' yelled the Doctor, freeing himself from the pilot's harness. The ship rolled and yawed and everyone was thrown to the floor. The Doctor grabbed a chair support with one hand, finding Naomi's with the other.

'Look!' she cried, pointing at the forward screen. The Doctor yanked his head round. A half-gasp, half-laugh escaped him.

The screen showed a vista of stars. They'd made it.

'Whahey-hey!' cried Lombardo in surprised relief.

The ship lurched again.

The Doctor scrambled to his feet. 'This ship's very badly damaged. We want to find the escape pods, and fast!'

He helped Naomi and Lombardo to get up. The ship was flying blind, its guidance systems eaten away. If the corrosive gas reached the power core, kaboom. 'Come on! We haven't got much time.'

Lombardo lifted Thom up. His eyes were open, his features slack.

Naomi shook her head, hands fluttering to her face. 'Oh, no. No, no, no.'

Lombardo laid Thom back down. 'Come on, love,' he said gently 'We've still got a chance.'

'I'm not leaving him!' cried the woman, struggling from the Doctor's grip and scrambling over to the body of her husband.

The Doctor swallowed hard, bending over Thom. He had to make sure. After a few seconds checking, he was sure. Thom was dead.

He turned to Naomi. They really had very little time before the ship broke up. He held her face with both his hands. making eye contact, speaking patiently and calmly. 'We have to go now now.'

There was an explosion, frighteningly near, and smoke belched through the doorway.

The woman's brown eyes were like glistening pools. 'I can't leave him.'

'Naomi,' said the Doctor gently. 'He's gone. You have to save yourself.'

'Come on!' urged Lombardo, halfway to the door.

'You'll thank me for this later,' said the Doctor, grabbing Naomi around the waist and dragging her from the flight deck. 'I hope.'

A short, cramped corridor led to the circular escape-pod bay. Lombardo yanked open the hatch of the nearest pod. The ship shuddered as a series of explosions rocked the floor beneath their feet. The Doctor bustled Naomi forward. and Lombardo manhandled the weeping woman through the hatch.

The pod interior was cramped and barrel-shaped with recesses in the walls. The Doctor strapped Naomi into one recess. She did nothing to resist, just hung there limply, heaving with sobs, her face wet with tears.

Once the Doctor had strapped himself in, Lombardo hit the launch b.u.t.ton. The lights in the pod flickered madly, and there was a sickening, lurching sensation as the pod was ejected from the freighter.

The Doctor craned his head to look out of a tiny porthole. He caught a glimpse of the freighter a bulky, functional, charmless vessel streaked with years of use before it exploded in a silent burst of white light.

'Hold on!' he cried.

The shock wave hit them and they all cried out as the pod was buffeted like a seed in a hurricane. The turbulence didn't last long, and the control panel bleeped as the pod started sending out its SOS.

'That was a close one,' said the Doctor, failing to sound even remotely cheerful. 'A lucky escape indeed.'

Lombardo smiled thinly above his double chin, but there were hollows under his eyes.

Naomi just hung there in her harness, staring at nothing.

Fitz slid the note towards the sandy-skinned reptilian barman. 'A gla.s.s of the strongest thing you have, please.'

The barman crumpled the money up in a three-fingered claw. That had been Fitz's only piece of luck so far today: finding the banknote. He had no idea how much it was worth; judging by the alien barman's reaction, and the change slapped down on the bar before him, not much.

Beside the change, the barman slid a tall gla.s.s towards Fitz. It looked like gravy. Dark lumps stirred within its depths.

Fitz frowned at it.

'What is this?'

The barman had a rasping, slightly strangled-sounding voice. 'Oomingmak honey-brandy. Sledgers rely on it during long, cold winter drives.'

'Sounds just the ticket.' Fitz took a sip. G.o.d! It burned like... acid. He grimaced at the unwelcome thought.

The lizard thing nodded. 'You like?'

Fitz tried to speak, could only gasp. 'Yeah... I... like.'

The barman wandered off to serve other customers. Fitz took another sip. He needed to get drunk, very drunk, because his situation just didn't hear thinking about and alcoholic oblivion would provide a welcome, if temporary, retreat from reality.

After leaving the stone pier, he had walked back to Arklark Arcade with visions of somehow enlisting Lou Lombardo's help. The Doctor hadn't told him much about Lombardo but he was clearly a pal of the Doctors, which meant he had to be useful to know. h.e.l.l. he could even be a Time Lord, with a functioning TARDIS.

As Fitz had crossed the bridge to the Arcade, he'd realised that he couldn't speak to Lombardo, couldn't even let the man see him because Lombardo hadn't recognised Fitz in a month or so when he'd met him for the first time.

Fitz took another long gulp of the drink, remembering how the rest of that afternoon had progressed.

He remembered leaning on the railing of the iron bridge the very railing he had leaned/would lean on with the Doctor and working it all out. If he did approach Lombardo now, then Lombardo would have recognised him on Treaty Day. But he hadn't, so he couldn't have. So, if Fitz did approach him now, he'd be seeding a mighty fine time paradox which could cause much more damage than any alien attack.

So not only did Fitz have to avoid Lombardo now, he'd have to make d.a.m.n sure he didn't accidentally b.u.mp into him during his time on Yquatine. The same thing applied to warning the authorities. If he did, and they listened to him. and they managed to somehow prevent the attack, then he'd never have come back in time to be able to warn them, which had been a result of the attack in the first place. Or had it? It was his fiddling with the Randomiser that had brought them back. But it was the attack that had caused him to take refuge in Compa.s.sion.

Cause and effect stacked up like four-dimensional dominoes with Fitz stumbling around in the dark trying not to knock over any of them.

Another sip of brandy. He could feel it loosening his mind, his thoughts beginning to freewheel, his emotions getting stirred up. He remembered being close to tears on the bridge, trying to work it all out. The sensible thing would seem to be to warn the authorities after all, don't the timelines always sort themselves out? Perhaps, in the future he'd just escaped from, the authorities had been forewarned by him but were unable to act. But on the other hand and this was the real b.u.g.g.e.r what if the attack had been because because of his warning the authorities? of his warning the authorities?

It was enough to drive him to drink. So here he was.

He'd decided not to do or say anything to anyone about what he knew would happen on Treaty Day. It was the safest bet. Like it or not and he definitely b.l.o.o.d.y didn't the attack had to happen. It had already happened: that part of the future was solidified like concrete, waiting for the present and Fitz to catch up with it. It was part of history Fitz could hear the Doctor saying this and there was Nothing He Could Do About It.

The gla.s.s was almost empty now and Fitz was beginning to feel a bit better. There was a warm glow in his stomach and a floaty feeling in his head.

So, he had decided on the bridge, if he couldn't do anything about the attack, he had to find Compa.s.sion and get out of this time zone. And so he'd spent the whole afternoon and early evening searching for her. In her long black cloak and hood, she'd be easy to spot. But a planet is a big place. When you're searching on your own, on foot, even a town like Yendip is a big place. Eventually, fatigue and hunger had overcome him and he'd sat on the edge of a public fountain, washing the sweat from his face and gulping down mouthfuls of clear cold water. He'd given up then, figuring that he'd wait for Compa.s.sion to find him.

She better had, before Treaty Day. He didn't want to be around to meet his past self or the black shapes in the sky.

It was then that his luck had changed of sorts. He'd found the banknote, and then a place called Pierhaven, which extended over the harbour and contained loads of cafes and bars. He'd bought some food, and then come to this tavern. Il-Eruk's Tavern, the glowing orange sign had said.

And there he was going to stay until booze blotted out the horror of his situation. Until he forgot how Compa.s.sion had so casually abandoned him, the b.l.o.o.d.y cow.

He shoved the pile of change back across the bar towards the barman, who he'd come to realise was Il-Eruk, owner of the tavern. 'Another one of those, please.'

Il-Eruk poured him another. 'Man with a lot on his mind, you look like.'

Fitz managed a tired, woozy smile. 'Yeah, well, you know...'

Il-Eruk winked a yellow eye. 'Woman trouble?'

Fitz grabbed the full, tall gla.s.s gladly. 'You're dead right. mate.' He took a long, satisfying sip. G.o.d. was he going to get ratted! 'Woman trouble.'

Chapter Six.

'Don't ask me, I'm just the pie man'

The escape pod carrying the Doctor, Lou Lombardo and Naomi had drifted far from the orbit of Yquatine, heading slowly inwards towards New Anthaur, sending out its SOS. The Doctor tried to keep everyone's spirits up, but they were in a defenceless little pod in the middle of a war, so he had a hard time of it. Being unable to steer the pod, it was likely that they would make planetfall on New Anthaur. the home of the enemy. If they weren't either rescued or killed beforehand. It all depended on which side noticed them first.

To take their minds off the situation, the Doctor and Lombardo were discussing pies they had known.

'I remember once on Everdrum,' said the Doctor, 'I was invited to the King's coronation. They'd baked an enormous pie! When they cut it open a horde of rebels burst out and a.s.sa.s.sinated the King.' He sighed. 'And I was hungry hungry.'

'I'm an old-fashioned guy in some respects,' said Lombardo. 'In my opinion you can't beat a good old traditional steak-andkidney pie.'

The Doctor was keeping his eye on Naomi, who hadn't spoken since the destruction of the freighter. The inane chatter had a purpose, to keep a blanket of normality wrapped around the woman. He nodded enthusiastically at Lombardo. 'It's the portability of pies that endears them to me. You can eat them on the beach, running for a bus, up a tree.'

All off a sudden they were b.u.mped about in their harnesses as though the pod had run aground. Pies forgotten, Lombardo regarded the Doctor with fearful eyes.

'What's happening?' said Naomi in a voice shaking with fear.

The b.u.mping smoothed out and the Doctor grinned broadly. 'Tractor beam!' he said brightly. 'We're being rescued.'

Lombardo had craned his head round to look out of the pod's single tiny porthole. 'No, we're not we're bring captured. That's an Anthaurk ship.'

The Doctor noticed Naomi's eyes harden at the mention of the Anthaurk.

'There's loads of them out there,' declared Lombardo. He turned back to the Doctor. 'Anthaurk battle cruisers!'

The wrong side had found them. 'Well, if they were going to destroy us they'd have done it by now.'

There was a jolt, which knocked the breath out of all three of them and the hatch began to open.

Naomi's eyes widened in terror. 'We can't let them get us!'

'We haven't got much choice,' said the Doctor.

The hatch opened fully, to reveal the helmeted head and armoured shoulders of an Anthaurk commando. 'Out!' it hissed.

The Doctor emerged from the pod, followed by Lombardo and Naomi. They stood in a long, low hangar with a curved, ribbed ceiling. Stubby, blunt-nosed Anthaurk a.s.sault ships lined each side of the hangar.

The Anthaurk commando gestured with its weapon, a bulbous-looking, k.n.o.bbly blaster. 'This way.'

Suddenly, Naomi threw herself at the alien, hands scrabbling its ribbed and ridged armour, screaming obscenities. It brushed her aside casually.

The Doctor pulled her away, muttering soothing words, as the alien gestured again.

'This way,' it repeated, adding almost as an afterthought. 'You will not be harmed.'

They stumbled after the huge alien. It didn't even bother to look back to see if they were following.

Naomi looked terrified, and Lombardo was doing his best to mask his fear, but the Doctor was instantly relaxed. 'We're in no danger here,' he whispered to his companions.

Naomi looked at him as if he was mad. 'Yes, we are!'

'No, he's right,' put in Lombardo, waving at the a.s.sault ships. 'We're on an Anthaurk bade cruiser crammed with weapons of ma.s.s destruction. Of course we're in no danger!'