Tim looked at Mrs Wilding. 'Good question. I didn't realize she'd actually sealed the hyper reality nexii up. But you think there's one near by, in 1994.'

'Bright light, bright light,' Dent piped up and broke into a fit of giggles. Mrs Wilding casually reached out and slapped the back of his head.

'Hey.' Polly was infuriated. 'Don't hurt him.'

'I'm not hurting him, girl. His synapses are weak, a quick knock gets his neuro-peptides working again. For a while, anyway.'

Dent spoke again, but in a calm, reasoned voice.

'Tarwildbaning is correct, child. My brain is damaged and I can only remain well reasoned for short whiles. Pity her - her entire existence has been wasted looking after me.'

Mrs Wilding - Tarwildbaning - suddenly looked upset and clasped his hand in hers. 'It is not a waste, my love, how many times must I tell you?'

130.

Polly's heart suddenly went out to these people - a couple locked together in love but with one of them not being the same person ninety per cent of the time. How awful, she thought.

Dent continued. 'Atimkos, this is important. I don't think the two of us dare try to enter your time - my body is weakened and although immortality is a sound idea, we all know that if the body is destroyed, that is it. My body is, effectively, dying. Our RTC units are not enough to help us any more.' Polly could not hide the fear on her face. 'Hush, child - our deaths are not like yours. Imagine your body wasting away but over millions of years, not tens. That's how it is for me. I am dying and it cannot be prevented.

However, I do not wish to accelerate it by using the RTC units, my injuries have a reverse effect on them. The chronons are agitated to the wrong frequency by my disturbed neural paths.' He looked at Mrs Wilding. 'We will stay here now - the jaunt into your time severely damaged me.'

'Could you go back?' Polly asked.

Mrs Wilding shrugged. 'If we could remain in the hyper reality where G.o.dwanna is, we would not only be safe but prolonged exposure may help.' She squeezed Dent's hand.

'Remember when we were Aboriginals, how the pain stopped for longer periods. If we didn't have to keep fleeing to avoid her . . .'

Dent put his hand up. 'Let us discuss this if Atimkos is successful. Have you found the songlines yet?'

Tim shook his head. 'They are disrupted. We haven't been able to work out why. Or if Thorgarsuunela has, she's understandably kept it from me.'

Polly frowned. 'Songlines? They're Australian, aren't they?'

Simon nodded. 'Yeah - but they don't really go beyond that.'

'I thought you used ley lines?'

Tim nodded. 'Yes, they're all the same.'

131.

'No, they're not - that's the point, they're cultural. Or adopted by cultures. And they're everywhere - not just on one straight line. How long ago did you land here?'

Tim looked at his fellow travellers. 'I've lost track.

Mankind was reasonably new.'

Mrs Wilding shook her head. 'Nonsense - mammalian life existed but mankind didn't come along until you were on your way.'

'That's right,' Tim remembered. 'We stayed in the area for only a few thousand years. Then moved on once we discovered mankind.'

Simon suddenly spoke. 'You landed in Australia, right?

You gave the Aborigines the songlines, the dreaming, right?

OK - what did Australia look like when you landed?'

'Green. Lovely green vegetation.' Dent's voice betrayed his slipping back into idiocy.

'And when you met the first Abos?'

'I don't remember,' said Tim. 'It was quite arid I think.

Yes, hot - the trees were gone. I a.s.sumed we'd moved around a lot.'

'You had,' said Simon. 'And you came back after the continental shift. Australia moved away from Asia while it was rain forest and hit the Antarctic before drifting back up to where it is today. That's when you met the Aborigines.

Your ley lines, songlines or whatever were in a straight line.

You walked around the entire Earth once, but when you came back everything across the globe had shifted behind you.'

'Of course,' said Polly. 'That's why she can't trace the line.

It's no longer there. It's not a line but a pattern, all over the planet. How could you miss the obvious?'

'We . . we never realized how far we'd walked.'

Jayde stood at the doorway to the Grange and blasted the door off its hinges. She enjoyed that. She strode in, sniffing the air but she could not smell the humans. She walked through the hallway and into the kitchen, pausing to note 132 that the computers had been switched off. She opened the back door then jumped back.

'Baaa,' bleated a creature covered in soft white curly fur.

'Baaa.'

Jayde sniffed at it - it smelled good.

'Baaa.'

It would smell better cooked. She altered the setting on her rifle-blaster to microwave inducer and fired at the creature. It started to bleat again but died before it could get the noise out. Putting her gun to one side, she bent down and bit into the rump, tearing a large chunk away. It tasted good and she mewed in pleasure.

A noise - from inside the house like a rush of air. The scent of humans was back.

Grabbing the rifle-blaster, Jayde ran into the house, pausing to wipe warm blood from her jaws. Standing outside the room she had been barred from last time by some sort of force wall was a group of humans. With a hiss she raised her blaster.

'Stay where you are or I'll kill you!'

One of the humans, who smelled different, turned to face her. Jayde recognized the smell - it was like Thorgarsuunela. This had to be the other of her race that she was told to kill. He was holding a book as if it would protect him.

'Put it down, alien.'

'I'm sorry, we've just returned from 1874; my ears are ringing - what did you say?' He took a step nearer. Jayde raised the rifle-blaster but the alien was faster. He seemed to raise the book, flicking the pages at her. Her blaster grew heavy and like some third-born litter-runt she dropped it, cursing at herself. Her head hurt and she put her paws up to fight the pain . . . The man was looming larger . . .

Polly looked on as the Cat-Person fell back, kicking and mewling, shrinking. She realized that what she was seeing was getting progressively younger.

133.

When it was no more than a three-month-old kitten, Tim lowered the book and with a frightened mew it scampered away.

'What now?' Polly asked, feeling just a little bit frightened at how easily Tim had done that. He bent down and grabbed the blaster. Turning to Simon who was about to follow he put a warning hand up.

'Stay here, kid. There's only room for two of us and I need Polly.'

'Only room for. . . what?' Polly said but he yanked her towards the kitchen and she was dimly aware of Simon returning to the others in the Ex-Room. They were in the kitchen, and Tim raised the blaster, shooting the computers.

As each one exploded into flame he was scanning the walls, looking for something. Finally he saw a faint glow under the wall. 'Got it - the network transmitter. That's what's linking this lot with the Cat-People's shuttle.' He blasted at the wall, and with a flash it exploded. 'Done it. Let's go.'

'But the others. . .' protested Polly.

'They aren't important. There isn't time!'

In the shuttle, the screen Thorsuun was working on exploded, and she narrowly avoided being blinded by plastic fragments.

'What's going on?' demanded Aysha.

'Atimkos! He must be responsible!' yelled Thorsuun. 'He's cut off my links. We've got to get out of here now!'

Aysha leaped into action, shoving Ben towards the Doctor. 'Chosan, get ready for take-off - this mission is abandoned. For now.'

'No!' screamed Thorsuun. 'You can't! Look here - the lines are lighting up!'

Ben and the Doctor looked at the monitor screen. 'They're all higgledy-piggledy, Doc,' said the sailor.

'Yes, Ben, you're right.' He sat back in a chair and relaxed. 'They've lost it and won't be able to get it back.'

'No, d.a.m.n it, no!' Thorsuun was determinedly stabbing at controls. 'I must find it - I will find it. There!'

134.

'Where?' Aysha leaned closer. 'That's not what you originally said.'

'No, I know, but the direct link to Australia is lost. If we can pick it up here though . . .'

Aysha looked at Chosan and Lotuss for suggestions. They remained silent. Like their Queen, they acknowledged the mission was unsalvageable. Aysha mewed softly. 'We return to the battle-cruiser. Now.'

'Jayde?' asked Chosan.

'Jayde,' replied Aysha sadly, 'Jayde must be presumed lost to us.'

Thorsuun was purple with rage, saliva at the corners of her mouth. 'You stupid cats, we're going to follow this line regardless. I'm in charge, Aysha. You'll d.a.m.n well do what I say.'

'You are neither in command nor in control,' hissed Aysha. 'You cannot -'

Thorsuun screamed.

Everyone in the shuttle fell to the floor, writhing. The Doctor was on top of Ben, trying to reach Thorsuun, who was standing stock-still, an unearthly wail coming from her throat. One by one the Cat-People succ.u.mbed and even Ben stopped shaking.

Thorsuun stopped and looked down. Only the Doctor was barely conscious.

'Hold tight, alien. We're going back in time and s.p.a.ce. I will will find the trail.' find the trail.'

The shuttle blinked out of existence.

Tim and Polly watched in horror as the shuttle vanished from the clump of trees near the Gatehouse. The TARDIS was now visible.

'Doctor!' Polly was aghast.

'She's on her way. I have to stop her,' muttered Tim. He opened his mouth and let out a piercing shriek.

The surrounding cliffside trembled and Polly tumbled to the ground, the noise of Tim's cry and the ground's response shaking her violently. 'Tim. . . wha-'

135.

With an almighty bang the ground erupted in a line from the Gatehouse to the Grange, the Gatehouse itself obscured by blinding white light pouring upwards from the ruptured earth. Within seconds it was by the Grange.

Inside the Ex-Room, the students were on the floor.

'He's taken the Doctor's book,' Simon was crying but the others could not hear him. The gla.s.s in the window shattered and simultaneously Carfrae screamed. Peter was reaching for the equipment, trying to set up an Ex-Area that might shield them, but with a bang the electrical components exploded, shrapnel of plastic and metal spearing into him, the force sending him sliding across the floor to where Simon was protecting Carfrae. As with Kerbe's body earlier, Simon could tell Peter was dead.

'Jesus Christ,' he muttered.

Polly stared in horror as the white light tore through the house and suddenly it grew piercing and taller, shooting upwards to the sky like water from a punctured hose.

'No!' She desperately wanted it to stop and, with a final, terrible screech of primeval power, the Grange, the Gatehouse and most of the surrounding cliffside were completely and totally atomized.

136.

Episode Four

His mother had always warned him about rushing around too much in the heat, but Adoon never listened. He reasoned that, at eleven years old, he was quite capable of making up his mind as to what he did and didn't do with his time.

Mashuk's mother never told him what to do - and he was stinking rich now. A bit of begging, a bit of street dancing and an awful lot of purse-string cutting had made Mashuk the envy of his peers. Adoon reasoned that there was no reason why he could not learn the same tricks and make himself just as much, if not more, money.

Of course, his mother would not approve but ultimately she could not stop him. Adoon's four younger brothers and two baby sisters dominated most of her time now. And since his father had lost both his hands after trying to rob the local Wazir's third wife, Adoon reasoned that it was his job to bring a bit of cash into the household.