'Laylora, Laylora. . . Laylora! Laylora! ' '

'You've heard of it?'

The Doctor nodded his head. 'Yes, I think so. . . It's one of those legendary worlds that mayor may not exist all half-truths and rumour. Of course, I'm probably remembering it from the future. One of the side effects of time travel. . . '

The professor stared at him, convinced the man was a fool, or mad, or possibly both. 'But you do recognise the name?' she demanded.

'Well, yes, I think so. A planet reputed to be perfect in every way. The Paradise Planet. But it doesn't exist, does it? It's just a myth.'

'It's no myth, Doctor,' said the professor with pride. 'This is Laylora!'

The rear doors of the bridge opened and Kendle was surprised to see Hespell stride through.

'Mr Hespell, have you left the professor alone with the prisoner?'

Hespell looked a little embarra.s.sed. 'She insisted.'

Kendle sighed. 'Doesn't she understand that man might be linked to those creatures that attacked us! Does she want to get herself killed?'

Hespell was smart enough to know that the older man didn't want an answer to that.

'How are the repairs to our sensor array going?' he asked, hoping that changing the subject wouldn't get him into trouble.

'Auto-repair systems are cycling through. We should have most of the video and infrared back on-line within the hour.'

Hespell nodded an acknowledgement and slipped into his seat. 56 With power still a precious commodity, most of his console was dead, but at least he could monitor some systems to keep himself busy. In the command chair, Kendle was deep in thought. Hespell wondered what the man was thinking. Was he really worried about the professor being left alone with the Doctor? Or was he thinking about the creatures that had attacked them, trying to come up with a strategy to deal with them the next time they met?

'Do you think they'll come back?' Hespell asked, breaking the oppressive silence.

'Of course they will.' Kendle was certain of it. 'Whatever it was they wanted they didn't get, did they? They'll be back all right.'

Hespell laughed nervously. 'So much for paradise!'

Jae Collins was stuck. He had been dispatched to oversee the environmental systems, the control matrix for which had been damaged in the crash. He found the various controls a mess of burnt-out circuit boards and broken connections.

With a heavy heart he had begun to take various parts of the system off-line when a power outage had locked the doors to the room. He tried to call for help via the intercom, but it too had ceased to function. After a half-hearted attempt to pull open the doors manually, Collins slumped to the floor. Why, oh why, had he ever volunteered for this ridiculous mission? The first time he'd seen the banged-up Humphrey Bogart Humphrey Bogart he knew he'd made a terrible mistake. And yet he had still joined up. he knew he'd made a terrible mistake. And yet he had still joined up.

His fellow crewmates were fresh academy graduates with stars in their eyes, the ship's owner was a steel-hearted obsessive and the pilot was an old soldier looking for one more fight. Every instinct had told Collins that joining this crew was a bad idea. The problem was, he didn't have a choice. He needed to drop out of sight. Unfinished business with the banks that had funded his s.p.a.ce-yacht-racing career and gambling debts that would bankrupt a small planet all added up to an urgent need to get out of his home system and vanish. The offer of a place on board the Humphrey Bogart Humphrey Bogart had seemed like a lifesaver. Now he feared it might yet cost him his life. 57 had seemed like a lifesaver. Now he feared it might yet cost him his life. 57 Collins's nose wrinkled something was burning. That's all he needed. He looked up at the ceiling, at the nozzles from which nothing was shooting. The fire sprinklers must be off-line too. Great!

'Be careful. It's very old.'

The Doctor smiled to himself. So you do care about some things, he thought.

Professor Shulough had taken him to her quarters to explain about her quest. She told him about how she had ama.s.sed a large collection of clues and evidence relating to Laylora and its location, the most valuable of which was the book he was now examining a handwritten journal. The yellowing pages were crisp and fragile and the Doctor had to take care as he flicked through not to inflict any further damage.

Reading at a speed no human could match, the Doctor scanned the pages, taking in huge amounts of information. It was an oldfashioned diary, the personal record of someone called Maurit Guillan.

'Guillan was an explorer working for one of the big corporations back home. His ship was on a long-term survey mission, looking for suitable planets,' the professor explained.

The Doctor paused in his speed-reading and shot her a cool look. With his gla.s.ses perched on his nose, he looked quite severe, but it was all water off a duck's back to the professor.

'Suitable for what? Strip-mining of all its mineral a.s.sets?' he suggested icily.

'The Empire doesn't run on air, Doctor. Things have to be built, raw materials have to come from somewhere. The Empire always needs new planets for expansion, colonisation, exploitation. . . '

'So having ravaged your own world and made it little better than a giant rubbish-filled quarry, now you're looking to do the same to other worlds, is that it?'

The professor was quite shocked to see how angry this idea seemed to make the Doctor. Surely he wasn't that naive?

'You can't turn back time, Doctor. Progress is a one-way street.'

58.The Doctor shook his head vehemently. 'No, no, no. That's where you're wrong. It's cyclic. What goes up must come down. You can break the cycle, although it takes imagination and willpower and real effort. But if you don't, your empire will fall just like every other empire before it. You can't ignore history.'

'I don't,' said the professor, taking the ancient journal back from the Doctor and replacing it safely in its temperature-controlled container.

'Guillan's ship was the infamous SS Armstrong SS Armstrong,' she went on, as if expecting him to recognise the name.

The Doctor looked blank and shrugged. 'Is that meant to mean something?'

'It was in the news for months,' she said, frowning.

'I travel a lot,' confessed the Doctor. 'I don't always get to catch up with current affairs.'

'Hardly current,' the professor replied. 'It was nearly fifty years ago!'

She explained that the SS Armstrong SS Armstrong was notorious because of the mysterious circ.u.mstances in which it had been recovered. The ship had been found drifting, out of control and out of power, at the edge of Draconian s.p.a.ce. An unknown disaster had befallen it and it had lost life support along with power. Whatever the reason, the entire crew had been killed. was notorious because of the mysterious circ.u.mstances in which it had been recovered. The ship had been found drifting, out of control and out of power, at the edge of Draconian s.p.a.ce. An unknown disaster had befallen it and it had lost life support along with power. Whatever the reason, the entire crew had been killed.

'Any ideas what exactly happened to it?' asked the Doctor.

'Thousands,' the professor replied, 'each one more unlikely than the last. All we know for certain is that when an imperial cruiser patrolling the no-fly zone recovered it, the salvage team found they weren't the first to have gone on board since the accident. s.p.a.ce pirates had stripped the ship of everything of value.'

'But that's not the whole story, is it?' guessed the Doctor. The professor smiled and shook her head. 'There were traces of trisilicate in the hold. Scans revealed that the ship had been carrying an enormous stock of the stuff.'

'Trisilicate,' mused the Doctor.

'A rare and valuable energy source. . . '

'The fuel my ship needs too,' agreed the professor.

'So, Guillan's exploration had been successful?'

59.'That's certainly what everyone thought. Although the ship had been stripped of most things, there were a few personal items left. Including a handful of images printed out and stuck on the wall of Guillan's cabin. They were various views of the same planet and had been labelled in his own hand. Two words described each image Laylora and paradise.'

'Hence the legend of the "Paradise Planet"?'

The professor nodded. 'You know how myths develop. It's like a s...o...b..ll. It starts with a kernel of truth and builds and builds until,.. well, it becomes something far greater. It takes on the status of legend. And that's what happened with Laylora. Soon that's all people were talking about. Everyone had a theory about where it could be found.'

The Doctor was taking all this in. 'A holy grail for a new generation. . . ' he murmured.

'If you like. For a while it was all the rage everyone and his electronic dog were looking for the legendary Paradise Planet. But when no one found it the interest faded. Something else came along to capture the public imagination and everyone forgot the name Laylora. . . '

'Except for you,' the Doctor guessed. 'What kept you looking when everyone else had given up?'

'I came across this journal. And when I read it, I knew it was the genuine article. It's a personal diary, not a log of his journey, but Guillan has described the places he visited along the way. With a lot of hard work, I've been able to plot his route. And that's what brought me here.'

'But why were you so sure it was genuine?' asked the Doctor. The professor moved away, not meeting the Doctor's eyes. She's hiding something, he thought, but what?

'I just thought there had to be something in it,' she offered by way of an explanation eventually, but clearly there was more to it than she was willing to admit.

'Is it me or is it hot in here?' asked the Doctor, loosening his tie.

'What?' The professor was finding it difficult to keep up with the Doctor's kangaroo-like mind.

60.'I said it seems a bit on the warm side,' said the Doctor, feeling around the cabin wall with the palm of his hand.

'Now you come to mention it, it does feel a bit hotter than usual.'

The Doctor sniffed the air. 'It is getting warmer. Where are your environment controls?' A worried expression appeared on his face. 'I think you may have a problem.'

61.

[image]

It was now fully dark outside the tent, but the light from the fire was enough for Rose to see what she was t oi ng. The soup hadn't lasted long and an equally tasty plate of salad and vegetables had followed. While they enjoyed their meal, Rose had bombarded Rez with questions about his life on Laylora and the teenager, excited to have another human being to talk to, was happy to tell her everything she wanted to know.

The tribe lived in harmony with nature, Rez told her solemnly, which would have sounded really naff from most people, but sounded utterly sincere and reasonable when he said it. It seemed an idyllic lifestyle, although Rose was fairly certain it wouldn't appeal to her in the long term. Perhaps it was just all a bit too perfect, and she said as much to Rez. He laughed, amused at the comment.

'Perfect? I don't think it's perfect. . . it's just balanced. Everything plays its part. If something bad happens, something good will happen to keep the balance.'

Rose found herself nodding; that seemed to make sense. But then Rez's face darkened, as a breeze made the flames of the fire flicker and falter. 'At least, that's how it used to be. . . ' There was a sadness in his voice that he couldn't disguise.

63.'What's changed?' asked Rose gently.

Rez shrugged. 'I'm not sure. . . No one is. But recently there have been more bad things than good. Some of the harvest failed last year. There have been tremors. Storms. Strange weather.'

All this sounded a bit familiar to Rose. 'You've not got a case of global warming, have you?'

The phrase meant little to Rez. 'I don't know about warming, but there is something wrong. And it seems to be getting worse.'

Rose felt sorry for him. It was clear that he loved this place and it was hurting him that things were going wrong. She wondered if the crashed s.p.a.ceship had something to do with it. The Doctor would find out. Perhaps together they could work out what the problem was.

'So what's with Brother H and his mumbo-jumbo?' she asked, trying to change the subject.

This brought a smile back to Rez's face. 'He's harmless, you know.'

'Harmless? He wanted to sacrifice me to your planet!' exclaimed Rose.

'He's just like the rest of us, trying to make sense of a changing world.'

'So you lot don't make a habit of sacrifices and all that?'

Rez shook his head, still smiling. 'Not as a rule. At least not for hundreds of years. A long time ago our ancestors did. But we grew out of it.' Rez stopped and corrected himself. 'I should say "their ancestors", shouldn't I?'

Rose let the comment pa.s.s. 'So what's Brother Hugan, then a throwback?'

Rez shrugged. 'He is the tribe's wise man, our shaman. He studies the old ways and tries to find the wisdom among the superst.i.tion.'

'And that costume you were wearing what was that all about?'

'It's for use in certain ceremonies.

It's meant to represent the Witiku.'

Rose remembered the name. 'The creatures the planet calls on to protect itself?'

Rez was impressed. 'That's right. You were paying attention!'

'I try.'

64.Rose smiled to herself. Take that, Mrs Cooper, she thought. Rose Tyler would have reached a better standard in History this year if she had managed to listen as enthusiastically as she speaks. Rose Tyler would have reached a better standard in History this year if she had managed to listen as enthusiastically as she speaks. That was one school report which had, mysteriously, never found its way home. That was one school report which had, mysteriously, never found its way home.

'The Witiku are meant to appear in times of great danger,' explained Rez. 'That's why Brother Hugan is so worried about the crop failures and the weird weather. He fears the Witiku will walk again. Maybe they already are. Maybe that's what happened to..' Rez suddenly stopped.

'What?' demanded Rose.

Rez shook his head. 'We're not meant to talk about it.'

'Talk about what?' insisted Rose. 'Come on. Maybe the Doctor and I can help.'

Rez looked into her eyes and could see that she was genuine. He took a deep breath and then told her.

'Yesterday, three people disappeared. Brother Aerack, Brother Purin and Sister Serenta. They were digging a new animal trap and they never came home. We searched and searched, but there's been no sign of them. They've just vanished.' He stopped and looked away.

'People are saying the Witiku took them.'

'I'm sorry,' said Rose.

'They're just kids, my age. And they've just gone, Rose. Completely gone!'

The Doctor hurried along the s.p.a.ceship corridor, leaving Professor Shulough trailing in his wake.

'Next door on the right,' she called after him, rather out of breath. She couldn't quite work out how it was that a man who had been their prisoner a few minutes ago was now acting as if he owned the place. Somehow he had persuaded her to accept him at face value.

'Trust me,' he had said, and she did.

The Doctor reached the door she'd indicated and stabbed at the controls without any success.

'Some power systems are still off-line,' she explained. 65 'So I can't use the sonic screwdriver,' muttered the Doctor, with a sigh. 'I'll just have to improvise, then.' He started searching about for something, anything, he could use instead. 'We'll have to open the door manually,' he explained, dropping to his knees and tugging at a flooring panel. With a grunt of satisfaction he pulled the floor tile free and flexed it between his hands. 'This might do the trick.'