"No!" he howled, beating his fist on the instruments in frustration. "Come back and fight! You hear me?" Ace gingerly clambered to her feet, levering herself up using the edge of the console. When the room stopped spinning inside her head, she grabbed the Doctor's arm and shook it hard. "Cool it, Professor!" she yelled. "The Timewyrm's gone. It's over. We're safe."

EPILOGUE.

The colours and shapes of the Vortex whirled about her. Voices rustled through her mind as she began to a.n.a.lyze herself and her capabilities. The Time Lord had not won, not at all. He had been lucky to escape with his life.

The Timewyrm basked in self-satisfaction. So much had been gained! This wonderful power to pa.s.s through the portals of time, to dip into any epoch, any mind that she might choose. And there were other gifts, still to be explored. No, the Doctor had not won. The first round of their fight was over. The Doctor had freed Kish and its people, but the Timewyrm had gained far more than she had lost. Mentally, she could see the vast ranges of time and s.p.a.ce open to her gaze.

Where to go first? There was so much to do! So many possibilities! And she knew that the Doctor would cross her path again. Those moral scruples of his would compel him to try to take up the fight again. Well, the next time, he would not find the Timewyrm so unprepared . . .

Meanwhile, a little trial of the powers she now possessed. Somewhere not too far off, an easy target, ready and ripe for the taking. . .

Ah, yes. . .

"Safe?" The Doctor turned guilt-racked eyes towards Ace. "The Timewyrm isn't dead. It's grown. It's learnt how to change frequencies. It's using the controls it's inherited from the TARDIS. It's escaped!" He ma.s.saged his forehead with his fingers. "How can anyone in the Universe be safe when I've unleashed that abomination? It's a virus in the lifeblood of time, Ace. It can lurk and strike anywhere and anywhen it pleases. We'll never be safe again until I can destroy it."

With another of his bursts of feverish activity he began to work on the panels again. The coordinates started to change, and the TARDIS lurched in flight as he fought the controls to move along a new setting. Gripping the rim of the console to steady herself, Ace managed to ask: "What are you doing?" "The Timewyrm still has parts of the TARDIS within itself. And I now have part of one of its implants - the one I took from your head - lodged inside the telepathic circuits. I've aligned the circuits to lock into its wake through the Vortex. Now, wherever it's heading, we can follow."

"And?"

"Haven't you been listening? Destroy it, of course. We've loosed this horror on the multiverse. It's up to us to destroy it."

"What's with this we stuff?" Ace demanded. "You never bothered to tell me what you're up to, so how can you blame me for -"

"Quiet!" the Doctor snapped, pointing at the time path indicator. It had turned a solid green and was whining urgently, like a dog desperate to be let out. "It's landed somewhere, somewhen."

"Where? When?"

He shrugged. "What's the difference? We have to follow now!" He threw home the controls, and with a groan of protest, the TARDIS locked in on the signal and bore onwards through the Vortex.

Ace had barely had time to find her way to her room when she heard the Doctor's voice echoing through the TARDIS corridors, calling her back. She retraced her steps to the control room, and immediately saw the answer to her unspoken question: the time rotor had stopped moving; the TARDIS had landed.

"Let's see where we are, shall we?" the Doctor said, flicking the switch that turned on the scanner. The screen glowed, faded, and cleared - to display a grey vista of mist and drizzling rain.

Ace recognized it instantly. "Oh no!" she said. "It's a wet weekend in Wigan -.

or somewhere like that."

"London," the Doctor said. "That dirty-looking stretch of water is the Thames. I think. The natives look as cheerful as ever, don't they?"

Ace glumly watched a few overcoated figures tramping stolidly through the downpour. "Professor - what's that tower in the background?"

The Doctor peered at the screen. "Oh yes," he said, with a self-satisfied smile. "We are in London, then. It looks as though I'll need my brolly out there."

The next book in this series is Timewyrm: Exodus Timewyrm: Exodus by Terrance d.i.c.ks. by Terrance d.i.c.ks.