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BBC Children's Books

Published by the Penguin Group

Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London, WC2R ORL, England

Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York 10014, USA Penguin Books (Australia) Ltd, 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (A division of Pearson Australia Group PTY Ltd) Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore

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Canada, India, South Africa

Published by BBC Children's Books, 2011

Text and design © Children's Character Books

The Underwater War written by Richard Dinnick

Rain of Terror written by Mike Tucker

Cover illustrations by Kev Walker and Paul Campbell

001 - 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

BBC logo © BBC 1996. Doctor Who logo © BBC 2009. TARDIS image © BBC 1963.

Licensed by BBC Worldwide Limited

BBC, DOCTOR WHO (word marks, logos and devices), TARDIS, DALEKS, CYBERMAN

and K-9 (word marks and devices) are trade marks of the British Broadcasting Corporation and are used under licence.

ISBN-978-14059-0-767-5

Printed in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, St Ives pic

FOR FINLAY AND EMILY

RICHARD DINNICK

Along way from Earth there was a planet called

Hydron. It was totally purple and hung in space

like a big grape. The whole of this alien world

was covered in water. Thin wisps of cloud moved

slowly across the sky and the sea below sparkled as

light from its nearby star reflected off the tips of

the waves.

Around Hydron flew a very large spaceship. It

was black with three long wings that stood out to

either side and one at the top. It was called The

Cosmic Rover and its name was painted on the

front of the ship in big, silver letters. The lower

part of the ship bulged out like a pear. This was

where everything the ship needed for its mission

was stored, including something you don't often

find on a spacecraft.

On-board The Cosmic Rover, everyone was

busy. The ship had arrived a few hours ago and

most members of the crew were getting ready to

go down to Hydron. So no one noticed the strange

sound when it started to come from the storage

room.

Two members of the crew walked past the

storage room door just as the noise became louder,

but they didn't notice it either. If they had heard it,

they would have said it sounded like a strong wind,

rising and falling - or perhaps a giant snoring.

It was the TARDIS arriving. The strange blue

box belonged to the Doctor and as it finished

appearing in the small storeroom, the door opened

and a woman looked out. She had fiery, orange hair

and was wearing a red jumper.

'This looks a bit small to be the Tower of

London,' she said.

'Some things don't always look like they should,

Amy,' said a voice from inside the TARDIS. The

voice belonged to a man who now joined Amy

outside. He was dressed in a tweed jacket and wore

a bow tie. He looked at the crates and boxes in the

cupboard. 'Ah,' he said.

Amy looked at him and bit her lip. 'No, Doctor,

they don't. Do they?'

'Ah,' repeated the Doctor. 'No. No. You're

right. This isn't the Tower of London.' He started

jumping up and down. 'We aren't even on a planet.'

He bent down and touched the floor. 'This is a

spaceship. A big one. I wonder if this door is

locked?'

While the Doctor went to look at the metal

door a second man appeared in the doorway of

the TARDIS. He had spiky hair and was wearing

a green T-shirt with a black puffer jacket over the

top. 'Oh,' he said. 'Not the Tower of London,

then.'

'No, Rory,' the Doctor said with a frown. We

know that. You must keep up if you don't want to

be left behind.'

Rory looked a bit hurt but knew that the Doctor

didn't mean it. He knew the Doctor would never

leave him behind. He went to look at the door as

well. The Doctor was already shaking his head.

'Locked,' he said.

'Sonic!' said Amy, folding her arms.

The Doctor smiled. He put his hand into his

jacket and pulled out the sonic screwdriver. This

was the most useful tool in the universe. Among

lots of other things, it could boil water and tell you

if someone's heart was beating. But it was best at

opening locked doors.

The sonic screwdriver looked like a thin torch

with a green light at the end. The Doctor pointed

it at the door and pressed the 'on' button. The

tool buzzed and the door clicked open.

'Come on, then! I think we should take a look

around,' the Doctor said, and marched out into the

corridor beyond.

At the front of the ship was the bridge, where

all The Cosmic Rover's systems — computers,

engines and navigation - could be found. It was

a square room with the two viewscreens taking

up most of one side. Against the other walls were

computer terminals and the ship's controls. All of

the people wore overalls. Each section of the crew

had a different coloured overall: blue for the main

crew, black for security and white for medical and

scientific.

The ship's captain, Jane Clancy, sat in the

command chair. She wore navy blue overalls with

four gold stripes on her sleeves that told everyone

her rank. Her soft, brown eyes stared out from

her chocolate coloured skin, looking around at

the other people on the bridge. She ran a hand

through her curly black hair. Then she put her

captain's baseball cap on her head in an attempt

to keep her hair tidy.

Around her, several of her crew were seated

at computer screens, making final changes to the

controls. They had to fly the ship into an exact

position above the watery planet. Everyone was

concentrating on their work really hard, so they

didn't notice the three new people enter the room.

'Hello,' said the Doctor with a lopsided grin.

Everyone looked up.

'Who are you?' the captain demanded, rising

from her chair. What are you doing on my ship?'

A man with very pale skin and wearing a black

uniform stood up. He took a gun from a holster

on his belt. 'Stay where you are!' he said.

'It's all right,' the Doctor continued. 'I'm the

Doctor. This is Amy and Rory.'

Clancy looked at them. 'You can't be pirates,'

she said.

'No. Not pirates,' Amy agreed.

'How did you get onboard?' asked the man in

black.

The Doctor walked up to him and read the

name that was printed on his uniform.

'Mister Fleming? Excellent. Good question,

Mister Fleming. You are head of security, I take it?'

'Correct,' said Fleming.

'Good,' said the Doctor. 'Always alert, looking

for danger. But we're not dangerous. So you can

put the gun away, please.'

The captain nodded and Fleming lowered his

weapon.

The Doctor smiled at him and said, 'Thank you.'

'You still need to answer my question: how did

you get aboard?'

'Ah. Long range matter transmitter. We beamed

in straight from Head Office,' the Doctor said. 'All

very secret, of course. You might not know about

it...' He smiled. Yes. So we're from Head Office.

I'm in charge of Health and Safety. Anyway, we're

here to help.'

Amy looked confused. What was the Doctor

talking about? She glanced at Rory who shrugged.

The Doctor had taken out a small wallet and

opened it to show the crew what was inside. It

looked like blank paper behind a plastic covering

but Amy knew this was the psychic paper.

The psychic paper showed people whatever the

Doctor wanted them to see. If he had to pretend

he had a ticket for travelling on a train or bus,

he could use the psychic paper. If he wanted to

get into a top secret army base, he could use the

psychic paper. Like the sonic screwdriver, it was a

very useful piece of kit.

'What are you a doctor of, exactly?' asked the

captain.

'And who are you?' asked the Doctor, spinning

round. He stared at the woman.

'I am Captain Jane Clancy.'

'Wonderful. Captain Jane! I like it,' the Doctor

smiled. There was a small pause. 'Oh, I'm a doctor

of almost everything. What's your mission here?'

'Don't you know?' asked Fleming.

'They didn't tell us about that,' said the Doctor.

'No time. They just sent us to keep an eye on

things!'

'Really?' asked Fleming, looking a little nervous.

'We were just going to run through our last

minute checks for the drop,' Clancy replied.

'Drop?' asked Amy.

'The sub,' replied Fleming. 'You must know

about that!'

'Of course we do,' the Doctor bluffed.

'Dropping a sub. . . submarine. Right?' asked

Rory.

'That is what we do for a water planet like

Hydron,' said Clancy.

'Thank you,' said the Doctor. He turned

and pointed Amy and Rory to spare seats. They

sat and listened as the captain told them about

the mission.

'As you know, the planet Hydron is a world

almost completely covered in water,' Captain Jane

explained. 'There are only a few rocky islands in the

sea and even those have fresh water lakes taking up

most of the room on them. So, we can't build a

normal base on the planet. Instead we have to use

a submarine, which we've brought from Earth.'

'Ah! That's why the hold is so big!' the Doctor

exclaimed.

'The submarine is an Under Sea Exploration

Ship and its name is The Ocean Explorer,' said

Clancy. 'The Company has sent us to examine

the fresh water lakes. According to my mission

briefing, some interesting minerals have been

detected there that we can use.'

'So you haven't been here before?' asked Amy.

'No,' Fleming said quickly.

'The Company told me that the minerals

were detected by a satellite,' Captain Jane smiled.

'Anyway, the submarine will be dropped into the

sea from space. The sub is protected against the

heat of the planet's atmosphere. We will then use

parachutes to slow us down before we hit the water.

We don't expect there will be any difficulties.'

'Not before we get there,' muttered Fleming

under his breath. The Doctor glanced at him but

said nothing.

Clancy also looked at her security officer. Then

she looked at Amy. 'Are you a marine expert?'

The Doctor jumped up again. 'She certainly is.

With a name like 'Pond" she must know something

about water...'

'It's not "Pond',' said Rory. 'It's "Williams".'

No one took any notice.

'I know quite a lot about the sea myself,' the

Doctor said. 'Pescatons, Sea Devils, Skarasen,

Myrka.' He lowered his voice. 'Even went to

Atlantis once. Or was it twice? Anyway. Yes. You

could say I'm an expert.'

'Good,' the captain smiled. 'We'll be leaving

within the hour.'

The meeting came to an end. Captain Clancy

stood up.

As her crew began to leave, another woman

went up to Fleming. She wore white overalls and

had her blonde hair pulled back into a bun. She

whispered something to the head of security and

then waved her arms about as if she was angry or

perhaps scared.

'Don't worry, Doctor Morton,' Fleming said

quietly but firmly. 'Nothing will go wrong'

The Doctor watched the hushed conversation

and then followed Amy and Rory from the room.

He caught up with his companions and together

they followed the small team of people down a

corridor to a lift. The lift took them down several

decks until it opened onto the huge cargo hold.

Suspended from the ceiling, and held by two

giant, metal clamps, was the submarine. It was

about the length of a football stadium and as tall

as a house, with a tower that stood up above that

by another five metres or so. The tower had a

doorway in its side with a thick metal door that led

to a ramp. A handful of crew were carrying aboard

the last few boxes of supplies for the mission. On

top of the tower an engineer was adjusting the

aerial that stood next to a periscope, sticking out

from the roof.

Although it looked like most submarines Amy

had ever seen, The Ocean Explorer had large fins

sticking out from either side at the back and front.

More crewmen dressed in blue stood on these fins

or were suspended from scaffolding so they could

carry out their last minute checks.

'Wow,' said Amy.

'That's a big submarine,' added Rory.

'It is, isn't it?' the Doctor said with a smile.

'Let's go onboard!'

An hour later, the Doctor, Amy and Rory were

sitting in a large room at the front of the submarine.

It was behind the sub's control room and Rory

could see Captain Clancy and Fleming through

the large hatchway that connected the two cabins.

Like the others, Rory was strapped into one of

the white leather chairs that lined the sides of the

room.

The three had been given yellow overalls to

wear by the captain, although the Doctor had

decided against it. He continued to wear his tweed

jacket and bow tie. 'Bow ties,' he had explained to

the captain, 'are cool.'

As he sat there, Rory counted the forty seats

that lined the walls. Apart from the people who

had to be in the control room or the engine room,

every other member of The Ocean Explorer's crew

was there. Most were wearing blue uniforms, but

there were quite a lot of people in black overalls,

too. Rory wondered why a scientific mission

needed so many security guards.

He shrugged at his own thoughts and then saw

the woman who had been making a fuss earlier,

Doctor Morton. She walked towards the chair

next to Rory's and sat down.

'Hello,' he said, looking sideways at the blonde.

She looked at him and smiled but said nothing.

'Right...' He smiled back. 'I'm Rory,' he

continued. 'Are you a medical doctor?'

Finally she spoke. 'I am,' she said. 'Are you?'

'Oh. No. I'm a nurse. Well, I was,' he shrugged.

'But then I've also been a Roman soldier and a

security guard.'

'A Roman soldier?' she asked.

'It's a long story,' Rory said. There was a pause.

Well,' said Doctor Morton. 'If I need an

assistant, I'll let you know.'

She turned round and started speaking with the

woman sitting next to her.

'That went well,' said Rory quietly. He sighed.

Before he could work out why Doctor Morton

didn't seem to like him, an alarm began to sound.

The crew all tensed.

'DOWN DROP IN TWO MINUTES,' said a

computer voice.

Heavy thuds could be heard on the hull of the

sub as the giant claws moved the submarine into

position and Rory felt the ship bump a bit as it was

jolted down. A low droning sound filled the room

and then he heard something like a rushing wind.

'They're opening the spacecraft's outer doors,'

the Doctor explained.

Rory nodded. The alarm sounded again.

'DOWN DROP IN ONE MINUTE,' said the

computer.

Amy looked at the Doctor and Rory. She had a

big grin on her face. She blew out her cheeks and

then made an 'eek' sound.

'It's not a fairground ride, Pond,' said the

Doctor.

'Isn't it?' she asked cheekily.

'More like a parachute jump!' the Doctor said.

The alarm went off for a third time and this time

it didn't stop.

'DOWN DROP IN 30 SECONDS,' said a

computer voice. 'RETRACTING FINS.'

There was a mechanical whine as the

submarine's fins were pulled inside the boat's main

body. Everyone took this as a sign to grip the arms

of their chairs as they prepared themselves for the

drop. Rory gulped. He'd never done a parachute

jump.

Then the computer started the final countdown,

talking over the top of the noisy alarm: '5... 4... 3...

2... 1... DOWN DROP!'

The Doctor smiled. 'Geronimo!'

The claws released the submarine and it fell

away from The Cosmic Rover as if someone

had dropped a brick off a cliff. Rory's stomach

lurched. He felt like he was travelling to the

basement in the fastest lift ever built from the top

floor of the tallest skyscraper.

For a few seconds the submarine was still in

space and Rory felt that he was going to float out

of his seat, but the seatbelt kept him in place.

Then the submarine was rattling and shaking. He

could feel the air becoming warmer. Both were

the result of entering the planet's atmosphere.

The noise from outside was so loud Rory could

hardly hear anything else.

Except Amy. She was holding her arms

up, shouting and smiling as if she was on a

rollercoaster. The Doctor looked calm - almost

a little bored. He'd obviously done this type of

thing loads of times. Rory just swallowed and

kept his eyes shut tight.

Outside, the sub was starting to glow light

orange as it fell. Then, as the sky around the ship

turned from black to purple, the heat began to

decrease. The submarine was travelling at well

over one hundred miles per hour, zipping through

the clouds of the planet Hydron.

Rory could feel the heat dying away now. Then

he realised he had been holding his breath and he

slowly let the air out of his mouth. 'Phew!' he said

and opened his eyes.

'PARACHUTES IN 5... 4... 3...'

'Hold on!' the Doctor called over the noise of

the wind.

The submarine suddenly jerked and if it hadn't

been for the seatbelts, Rory was sure he would

have hit the ceiling of the room.

'DEPLOYING FINS,' the computer voice

announced.

The Doctor smiled. 'It's OK, Rory. The fins

will act like breaks. They'll slow us down ready for

splashdown.' He gave Rory a thumbs up.

In the calm waters of the purple sea far below,

a creature rose to the surface. He looked like a

fish but he was larger than a man, with stripes

of brown and cream on his body. His name was

Makron and he was a member of the Shoal, the

beings who lived on Hydron.

Makron turned his face to the sun and closed his

eyes. The pattern of fins on his cheeks fluttered as

they felt its warmth. It was peaceful and relaxing.

Then, suddenly, there was a whistling sound from

above.

The Shoaly opened his eyes and saw the dark

shape of the submarine falling towards him. The

parachutes above the sub looked like huge grey

jellyfish in the sky. Matron's eyes widened in

horror and he dived back beneath the waves. He

was terrified but he knew he had to tell his people

about this.

Makron swam down through the purple water,

passing many different types of animal on his

way down. Finally he reached the kelp fields that

stretched away in every direction. The tall, red

and brown seaweed waved in the ocean currents.

Makron could see several other Shoaly working or

travelling through the farmland.

He swam faster as soon as he found the

underwater road. Because the Shoal did not move

on the seabed, the roads on Hydron were not

hard and smooth. Instead they were a collection

of coloured shells and stones that acted as guides,

leading the Shoal to different destinations. This

one led to the Shoal's capital city - Reef.

Reef was a natural mountain of coral that

had been carved and built on by the Shoal. It

was protected by a steep, hard rock face that was

guarded day and night. Now Makron approached

the undersea cliff. The water had worn away at a

crack in the stone and formed a natural tunnel.

This was the main entrance to Reef and two other

Shoaly were floating either side of it.

These were the low swimmers; the fish that

had evolved deep in the oceans of Hydron and

they looked very different from Makron. The low

swimmers were coloured dark brown with grey

stripes. They had very big mouths and strange,

golden eyes that looked like they were about to

pop out of their heads.

The most unusual thing about them was their

"lure". This was a small, glowing ball that hung

from a piece of skin between their eyes. It could

be used to hypnotise and, because its glow was

caused by the low swimmer's natural electricity,

it could also be used to stun or even kill other

Shoaly.

Makron came to a stop and let the guards wave

their lures over him, checking for anything odd

or out of place. Makron's cheeks pulsed with an

orange colour, telling the guards that he was in

a hurry. Like most Shoaly, the low swimmers did

not wear many clothes, but they did have belts

around their waists. The belts had two pieces of

equipment and a forked weapon hanging on them.

Because Makron was simply entering the city,

there was no need for them to use the weapons

or scanners. A small flash of dull white on the

nearest guard's face told Makron that he could

pass.

Makron moved down the tunnel, passing

other members of the Shoal: high swimmers like

himself, and medium swimmers who were much

more colourful. His father called them 'loud'

and disapproved of them. Makron wasn't so sure

about that, but it was his father he needed to

see now.

The Shoal was looked after by an Assembly

made up of high swimmers. His father was one

of the Shoaly in charge of a region, called a

Governor. Makron had to tell him what he had

seen falling from the sky and he knew where his

father would be.

The city of Reef was beautiful. It had no

pollution and no square buildings. All its structures

were natural or had been built to look natural.

The city was formed out of layers. The lower you

went, the darker it became. That was where some

of the low swimmers lived. Most of them lived

outside Reef, deeper in the ocean in towns called

Pools.

The highest point of Reef was a cone of bright

orange coral decorated with different coloured

seaweeds, each one representing one of the many

regions of Hydron. This was where the regional

governors gathered to meet and talk about how to

run the planet. All the entrances to the Assembly

building were guarded by the dangerous-looking

low swimmers.

As Makron neared them, one of the low

swimmers flashed red at him. This was a warning.

Its face changed again to grey with a bit of yellow.

This told anyone watching that this was a security

check and that Makron should be careful. He

slowed down and came to a stop in front of the

low swimmers. He told them that he was in a

hurry (orange) and that his father (yellow) was a

member of the Assembly (black and purple).

One of the low swimmers took a machine

from his belt. It was triangular and shimmered like

a butterfly's wing, all the colours of the rainbow.

The guard scanned Makron with the device and it

flashed white, confirming that his father did work

there. The low swimmer nodded at Makron and

the young Shoaly swam past quickly.

There were no doors in the Assembly building

but most of the spaces between the arms of the

coral had flat seaweed curtains so no one could

see what was going on inside the rooms. Makron

arrived at his father's office and burst through the

curtain. His father was a large Shoaly with very

clear stripes of light brown and dark cream.

'What are you doing?'his father, Darkin, asked,

flashing red and black with anger.

Makron twinkled with blue, green and pink.

' I'm sorry, Dad.'

'Why have you rushed in here? What is so

important?' Red - purple - black.

Makron paused. He wasn't sure his dad would

believe him. He frowned. ' They're back,' he said.

Red: danger. Brown: return. Violet: alien!

The submarine hit the water and sank into the

purple waves for a second before bobbing up

again, moving slowly from side to side. The

large, grey parachutes that had slowed down the

submarine floated down. Two of them landed

in the sea while the third fell over the tower. It

almost looked like the submarine had pulled a

blanket over itself, ready for bed.

In the control room, Captain Clancy stared out

of the viewscreen and nodded. Good. They had

made it. She turned to one of her crew and ordered

him to bring the parachutes back in. He pressed a

few buttons on his computer and the winch that

was connected to the parachutes started winding

in the canopies. As they were pulled back inside

the sub, a special machine squeezed the water out

of the material.

'Parachutes in,' said the sailor.

Captain Clancy nodded. 'Very good,' she said.

'Prepare to dive!' She turned round and found

herself face to face with the Doctor.

'Are we in a hurry, Captain Jane?' he asked,

looking out of the viewscreen. 'I mean, there's

a lovely purple sea out there. Couldn't we have a

look at that first?'

'This isn't a tourist trip, Doctor,' she replied.

'We have a mission to complete! I need to get

this submarine to one of the freshwater lakes as

quickly as I can. The report I was given before

the mission also said there were dangerous sea

creatures here!'

'Did you say that the report was based on what

a satellite found here?' the Doctor smiled.

'That's right,' she said. 'It performed a scan

of the planet and detected both useful mineral

deposits and the hostile life forms.'

'The satellite was in space?' the Doctor came

closer, peering at Captain Clancy.

Captain Clancy looked uncomfortable. 'Of

course,' she said.

'So where is the satellite now?'

'I suppose the Company must have collected it

and taken it back to Earth,' Clancy smiled weakly.

'I'm just employed to do my job, Doctor, not to

know all the ins and outs of how the Company

works.'

'Yes. I can see that,' the Doctor said. 'It's just

interesting, isn't it?'

'What is?'

'That a machine in space can tell whether a

creature under the sea is dangerous and hostile.'

Before Clancy could reply, a crewmember

came up and interrupted her.

'All systems are ready, Captain,' the sailor said.

'Excuse me, Doctor,' Clancy said as she walked

away from him to talk to her crew. A man and a

woman sat at the front of the control room, under

the screen. They were driving the submarine.

Four others stood at the two side walls, pressing

buttons to turn on the sub's engines.

'Not hanging around, then?' asked Amy. She

walked up and stood beside the Doctor and

looked out at the strange sea.

'No,' the Doctor said. 'It looks like Captain

Jane is in a hurry for some reason.'

'Ahead one third!' Clancy called. The crew who

were standing up started turning controls.

'Five degree down bubble!' called the captain.

'What on earth does that mean?' asked Rory.

Slowly, the floor of The Ocean Explorer began

to tilt. Amy and Rory held onto each other so that

they didn't fall over.

'It means we're going under water,' the Doctor

said. He looked at Amy. 'I think we should

investigate. There's something not right here.

People are keeping secrets - and I think we should

start with Mister Fleming and Doctor Morton.'

The corridors in the submarine were painted

white and had pipes running down them. They

carried fresh water and air to all the cabins so

that the crew could breathe, drink and wash. The

Doctor walked beside Rory and Amy pointing to

the different rooms as they passed.

'At the front of the submarine is the control

room,' he said. 'That sits over the sonar system.'

'Sonar is like underwater radar, right?' asked

Rory.

'That's right,' replied the Doctor. 'They use it

to see things like whales and other submarines and

stuff.' The Doctor ducked under a particularly fat

pipe. 'So, above the control room you have the

"sail"; the tower that sticks up from the rest of the sub. That's where the periscope and radio antenna

are. Where we are now is the mess.'

'Mess?' asked Amy. 'It looks tidy to me.'

'The mess is what the military or the navy call

the kitchen and dining room.'

The Doctor sat down at one of the silver

tables. Rory and Amy joined him.

'I don't know what's going on here,' whispered

the Doctor. 'But I think we need to find out as

much as we can from different people.'

The Doctor explained that he was going to

speak to Mister Fleming, the head of security. 'I

think you should stick with Captain Jane, Amy,'

he said.

'What about me?' asked Rory, looking a

little hurt.

'Don't worry. You are going to see Doctor

Morton.'

'Oh,' said Rory, remembering that she didn't

seem to like him. 'Great.'

The security centre was towards the back of

the submarine. It was a large room that had a

lot of screens showing pictures from cameras in

different parts of The Ocean Explorer. There was a

desk with computer controls and a locked storage

cupboard of weapons. In one of the side walls was

a doorway that led to a group of four small cells.

This was the 'brig'.

The Doctor entered the room and smiled at

Fleming who was sitting at the desk. The thin man

looked up and frowned.

'Can I help you, Doctor?' he asked. It didn't

sound like he meant it.

'I think you can!' the Doctor grinned. 'You see,

I heard what you said to Doctor Morton during

the meeting earlier.'

The Doctor walked round the desk and looked

at the screens. Fleming stood up.

'What do you mean?'

'Are you expecting trouble, Mister Fleming?'

asked the Doctor. He didn't look at Fleming.

Instead he stared at a screen that showed Rory

walking down a corridor.

'I am Head of Security,' said Fleming. 'It's my

job to look for trouble.'

'Ah, yes. Well I can understand that.' The

Doctor turned to look at him. He narrowed his

eyes. 'But you're not looking for it. You know it's

going to happen, don't you?'

Fleming opened his mouth to speak but before

he could say a word, a warning sounded.

BLEEP. BLEEP. BLEEP.

'See?' said the Doctor.

'It's the rear hatch!' Fleming snatched his gun

from the desk and ran from the room. He shouted

into a radio as he ran, 'Jason! Nick! Get to the rear

hatch! Something's opening it!'

The Doctor nodded to himself and then ran

after Fleming.

Suddenly, there was a "boom" from far away

and the submarine lurched to one side. The Doctor

was thrown against the wall and fell to the floor on

his knees. He looked up. 'Oh, dear!' he said.

Straight away a loud alarm went off.

'HULL BREACH! HULL BREACH!'

announced the computer voice.

The Doctor stood up and ran down the corridor

towards the back of the submarine.

'This is the captain!' Clancy's voice came over

the submarine's public address system. 'Engineers

to the rear hatch. Crew, prepare to close flood

doors!'

The submarine lurched again but the Doctor

managed to stay on his feet. He jumped through

a hatch and landed in water. It was about as deep

as a periling pool. Ahead of him Fleming was

talking to Rory outside the medical bay.

'What's happening?' called the Doctor.

'Doctor Morton has been attacked!' said Rory,

pointing to a bunk in the medical bay where she

was lying.

'Is she okay?' asked the Doctor.

Rory nodded. 'I scared off the thing that was

attacking her.'

'You saw it?' The Doctor grabbed Rory by the

shoulders. 'What did it look like?'

'He says he saw it,' said Fleming. We only have

his word for that.'

'Are you suggesting that Rory attacked Doctor

Morton?' asked the Doctor. 'Don't be ridiculous.

This is my friend. He wouldn't lie.' He looked at

Fleming.

'Thank you,' said Rory.

'So what did it look like, Rory?' the Doctor

asked as he bent down and pulled out the sonic

screwdriver. It made a buzzing sound as he waved

it over the body of Doctor Morton. 'She'll live,'

he said.

'It was big,' Rory said. 'Bigger than me. It looked

sort of like a fish but it had great big, bulging eyes.

It was walking like a sea lion — on four kind of

flippers, but the front ones looked like they had

fingers.'

'Interesting!' the Doctor whispered. 'Come on!'

'Where are you going?' shouted Fleming.

The Doctor ran out of the door and sped up

the corridor, splashing through the water. 'It might

still be onboard!' he shouted back.

Rory and Fleming looked at one another. Rory

shook his head. 'I'll stay here and look after the

patient. You go!'

Fleming hesitated for a moment and then

ran after the Doctor, catching him up just as he

reached a closed door. A crewman stood beside it.

'When did you shut this?' demanded the

Doctor.

'Just now,' replied the sailor, frowning.

'Well, open it again!'

'No!' Fleming looked at the Doctor. 'If we

open that door, the submarine will be flooded.

We'll sink.'

'We need to speak to that creature!' The Doctor

looked at the sailor and then at Fleming. Neither

of them moved.

'REAR HATCH SECURE. SUBMARINE

SAFE,' the computer announced.

'Drain the sea water!' said Captain Clancy over

the loud speaker.

The Doctor shook his head and turned away

from the door.

In the control room Amy was watching the captain.

She was impressed. Clancy had reacted well to the

emergency. She had quickly given orders and made

sure that the submarine was safe. Amy found that

she liked the woman.

Then the Doctor marched in. His eyes flashed

with anger. 'You know what is going on here and I

demand to be told!' he said. 'Sea creatures do not

open hatches and attack the crew for no reason.'

Captain Clancy looked at the Doctor as if he

were mad. 'I don't know what you're talking about

Doctor,' she said. 'Really.'

'Captain, I think you and your entire crew are

in danger and someone onboard knows why.' The

Doctor leant forward and stared into her brown

eyes. 'You can tell me,' he said gently.

Just then, Fleming entered the room. He looked

at the Doctor and then the captain. 'What's going

on?' he asked.

'That is exactly what I want to know, Mister

Fleming,' the Doctor said. 'Why were we attacked

just now?'

'Like the report says, this planet has hostile life

forms,' Fleming said.

'Humans!' exclaimed the Doctor.

'I'm one, too,' Amy said, putting her hands on

her hips. 'What have you done with my husband?'

'He's in the medical bay. He's looking after

Doctor Morton. She's been attacked by a fish

creature.'

'Wow. Really?'

'Yes, really,' the Doctor said, looking over at

Captain Clancy. His eyes narrowed and then he

smiled. 'Captain Jane!' she looked up at him. 'I

want to have a look outside.'

'What?' said Amy and Clancy, together. The

two women exchanged looks.

The Doctor explained that because he was

a very important person from Head Office, he

could ask the captain of The Ocean Explorer to

do whatever he wanted — as long as it didn't put

the ship in danger. 'I want to see what's out there.

Or who's out there,' he said. 'If you've got fish

creatures sneaking aboard, then I'd like to find out

why.'

Fleming's eyes narrowed to slits but he didn't

say a word.

'Very well, Doctor,' Captain Jane said. 'If you

want to have a look outside we can switch on the

camera feeds from here.'

She moved over to a row of controls behind

her chair.

'No,' said the Doctor. 'No, no, no. I don't want

to watch TV. I'm more of a 'get up and go' rather

than a 'sit down and stop' sort of person! I want

to get out there!' he pointed at the screen and the

dark, purple waters it showed.

'All right,' the captain sighed. 'Mister Fleming,

show the Doctor to The Verne.'

The Doctor smiled. 'That's more like it!'

Amy rushed forward. 'I'm coming too.'

Fleming took the Doctor and Amy down a

staircase in the corner of the control room.

It was so steep, Amy thought it was more like a

ladder than a flight of steps. They climbed down

two decks from the control room and emerged

into a large area that was brightly lit.

There were cupboards and lockers against the

walls. Amy could see orange diving suits hanging

in them along with bits of diving equipment. At

the far end was a small yellow submersible that

looked like it could fit about four people inside.

However, the most impressive part of the

room was what Fleming called the 'Moon Pool'.

It was a circle of water that was open to the sea.

Fleming explained that to stop the submarine

being crushed by the water around it, the air had

to be kept at a certain pressure. This meant that —

as long as that pressure was maintained — the water

could not get in through the pool.

Amy looked confused.

'Did you ever play with empty shampoo or

bubble bath bottles in the tub?' asked the Doctor.

Amy nodded. 'You can hold a plastic bottle upside

down in the bath with the cap off. If you push

the bottle down, the water doesn't get in. The air

keeps it out.'

Amy looked at the pool. She found it hard to

believe that the water didn't just rush in and flood

into the submarine.

Fleming walked to where the yellow submarine

was sitting on a platform on the other side of the

Moon Pool. The Doctor and Amy followed him

and looked at the small sub. It had a big, round

window at the front and several robotic arms on

its side. Amy thought it looked a little like a yellow

crab. Then she saw that behind this sub there was

another. She pointed this out to the Doctor.

'Yes, we have two submersibles,' explained

Fleming. 'The bigger one is The Verne and the

smaller one is The Jules.

'One of my favourite writers,' the Doctor

said, running a hand along the smooth metal of

The Verne's hull. 'He wrote 20,000 Leagues Under

the Sea - all about a submarine. Wonderful stuff.

Very wild imagination. And that Nemo, eh? What

a villain! Did you know that 'Nemo' means 'no

one' in Latin?'

'Nemo?' asked Amy. 'Wasn't he a Disney

character?'

'Not the clownfish!' the Doctor said. You

can't have a clownfish in a submarine, sinking the

world's sailing ships. That would be silly.'

'Obviously,' Amy said.

Fleming looked at them both. 'You'll find

diving suits over there. Change into them and then

I can get you loaded into The Verne'

Ten minutes later, the Doctor and Amy were

dressed in the orange diving suits and carrying

helmets that had small lights on the side, to show

up whatever the person wearing it was looking

at. They climbed up the ladder on the side of the

sub and into The Verne's cockpit through a small

airlock.

There wasn't much room in the submersible

but the Doctor and Amy took up the two seats in

front of the round windscreen. There were two

smaller seats behind this but as no one else was

coming with them, Amy put her helmet there and

the Doctor did the same. Then, the Time Lord

closed the hatch and screwed it shut tightly. There

was a click as safety bolts locked the hatch.

'It's been a while since I drove one of these,' he

said, wiggling his fingers.

Through the window, Amy watched as Fleming

went to stand by a bank of controls. He pressed a

button and spoke. 'Are you ready?' His voice came

over the radio.

The Doctor pressed down his communication

button. 'All set!' he said, grinning.

Fleming nodded and flicked some switches.

There was a hiss as the hydraulic arms pushed

forward the platform that The Verne was standing

on. When the sub was completely over the Moon

Pool, the platform lowered it into the sea water.

Amy saw the water level rising. It reached the

glass screen and then bubbled past until the sea

closed over the sub.

'Okay,' said Fleming. 'You can keep in contact

by using the radio, but you're on your own now.'

'So, we're looking for fish, then?'

'Not fish, Amelia,' the Doctor said staring

through the screen. 'That's like calling humans

'monkeys'.'

'Okay then. Fish people,' Amy said. 'Where do

we find them?'

The Doctor looked at Amy and smiled. 'What

is a fish's favourite party game?'

'What?' Amy frowned. 'Is this a joke?'

'Yes. What is a fish's favourite party game?'

'I don't know. Tell me.'

'Tide and seek!' The Doctor laughed and

pushed the control stick down.

Amy shook her head. 'That is the worst joke

I've ever heard!' she said, but she couldn't help

smiling.

The Doctor's eyes twinkled and The Verne

jerked away from the circle of the Moon Pool and

dived down into the darker water below.

Rory was in the submarine's medical bay. He was

wearing a surgical mask and was looking at Doctor

Morton as he held her wrist, taking her pulse. She

was lying on a bunk surrounded by a see-through

plastic tent. Her breathing was fast, almost like a

dog panting.

Rory bent down to look at Doctor Morton's

face. She was sweating because of her high

temperature. 'Can you hear me?' Rory said. 'I need

to give you some medicine. Do you have anything

for fever?'

Doctor Morton opened her eyes and licked

her dry lips. 'Security pass,' she said and half lifted

a hand in the direction of a desk and computer

that sat on other side of the room. Rory went over

and found what looked like a credit card. It had

a picture of Doctor Morton and her name was

printed underneath. Rory saw that her first name

was Angela.

'Is this it, Angela?' he asked.

She nodded her head once. 'Use it to open the

cupboards,' she said.

Rory went over to the nearest medical locker.

Below the handle there was a small panel. When

Rory put the pass on the panel, it opened die

cupboard. Rory smiled. Very useful, he thought.

He searched each cupboard and quickly found

the right medicine cabinet for the equipment he

was looking for. He found a spray syringe and filled

it with a capsule of a medicine that he recognised.

He came back to Doctor Morton and gently

took her hand. 'I've found something to get your

temperature down, Angela,' he said. 'It'll also help

you sleep.' He pressed the syringe against her arm.

'It will help your body recover from the attack.'

Doctor Morton looked at him. 'Be careful,' she

said.

Rory frowned. 'Don't worry,' he said. 'I'm a

nurse. Remember?'

She shook her head and whispered something.

Rory thought it sounded like 'row'. Then she fell

asleep.

Just then, Captain Clancy came in.

'How is she?' Clancy asked.

'I think she'll be OK,' Rory said. 'But I'm just

a nurse.'

'Doctor Morton is the only medical officer on

my crew,' Clancy told him. 'You are the best person

to take care of her. Some of the crew know a bit

of first aid, but you have proper medical training'

Rory looked at her. There were plenty of crew

aboard. There were sailors and a lot of security

guards. 'That's a bit mad, isn't it?' Rory asked. 'I

mean, only one doctor? What would happen if I

wasn't here?'

'Well, there is a Robot Medic,' Captain Clancy

said. She quickly explained that if there was an

emergency, every submarine had a robot that

could be used. It wasn't programmed to do what a

doctor could do, but it could help.

'Where is it, then?' asked Rory.

Ten minutes later, the robot was standing in

the medical bay. Two engineers had brought it in

and hurriedly assembled its three main parts. The

bottom bit looked like a tank. It was thick and

heavy because that is where its motor was, and it

had a track either side so it could move and four

small headlights at the front that were switched

off. Its middle part was as wide as Rory's chest and

had lots of compartments where pills, medicines

and tools were kept.

Above this were the robot's shoulders. It had

two thin arms that ended in three metal lingers.

In between its arms was a small computer screen

where medical information could be displayed.

At the moment it was showing a green crescent

moon painted on its chest. Rory guessed this was

the space equivalent of the Red Cross.

The machine's neck started at the height of

Rory's waist. It was as thick as a lamppost and

jointed in several places. On top of this was the

Robot Medic's head. It had two, large square lenses

for eyes and a small round speaker for a mouth.

'Greetings,' said the robot in a male, sing-song

voice. 'I am Medical Assistance Robot Vehicle for

use in Emergencies. If it is easier you can call me

"MARVE".'

The engineers left and Captain Clancy sat

down at the small table. Will Doctor Morton be

all right?' she asked.

'I think so,' Rory said. Whatever attacked her

left a nasty burn on her cheek.' He pointed to

Doctor Morton's face, which was red from where

something had hit her. 'By the looks of it, I think

something gave her an electric shock.'

'What's the tent for?'

'That? Oh, well, it looks like the wound has an

infection. I checked on the computer and it told

me to put that up. It's called a Biological Hazard

Tent.'

'Could it spread?' asked Clancy. She looked

worried.

'Honestly? I don't know,' said Rory. He was

concerned, too. 'I'll be watching her very closely.'

'Thank you,' said the captain. 'I am sure you

and MARVE, here, can keep things under control.'

She stood up and patted MARVE on the head

and left the medical bay. Rory looked at the robot.

The robot looked at Rory.

'Are you just going to sit there?' asked the robot.

'What?' Rory stared at MARVE. 'Great! A

robot with attitude. That's all I need.'

Several thousand feet away from where Rory was

sitting, The Verne moved slowly through the dark

purple depths of the sea. The Doctor was steering

the submersible while peering through the window

at the area of water that was illuminated by the

sub's headlights.

Amy was looking at a round sonar screen. A

yellow line swept round in a circle. Every time it

found something larger than two feet long or wide

it made a 'ping' sound very loudly. The Doctor

would then take the sub to have a look at whatever

the machine had detected. So far they had found a

rainbow-coloured jellyfish, a large crab-like animal

with ten legs and a blob of floating water plants.

'Why was the sand wet?' he asked, still staring

at the mass of kelp and other vegetation.

'Is this going to be another of your rubbish

jokes?' Amy asked, folding her arms.

'Because the sea weed!' The Doctor looked

sideways at her, a grin spreading across his face.

Amy rolled her eyes but smiled, too. She had to

admit that it was quite funny.

Without warning, the light in The Verne went

off. All the power was gone. An orange emergency

light came on and Amy grabbed the Doctor's arm.

'Steady, Pond,' he said. 'This might be just what

we're looking for.'

Together they stared through the window,

trying to see anything in the gloom of the waters

outside.

Suddenly there was a flash of bright red light a

few metres away from the sub. Amy jumped.

'What's that?' She sounded frightened.

Before the Doctor could answer, the first flash

was joined by another and another until there was a

whole army of pulsing red lights. In the glow they

gave off, Amy could see that the lights belonged to

a crowd of fish.

'They're making the lights flash with their skin,'

Amy said quietly. 'How are they doing that?'

'Bio-luminescence,' the Doctor replied. 'It's

when an animal makes light by using the chemicals

in its body. Like fireflies or glow-worms.'

'Or giant fish.'

'Deep sea creatures on Earth can do it, too,' the

Doctor added. Amy looked at him. He was staring

at the light show like a toddler in a toy shop. 'It's

beautiful,' he said.

Then, the fish charged.

In the medical bay, Angela Morton's condition

was getting worse. The mark on the side of her

face had turned from red to bright yellow. Worse,

the infection had spread though her veins making

her face look like someone had drawn a pattern

like a tree's root system on it.

Rory was now wearing a white suit and hood

with a mask and goggles, as well as boots and

gloves. They were all sealed so that he looked like

he was wearing a spacesuit. This was so the disease

could not infect him.

He climbed inside the plastic tent and stood

beside the bed, looking with concern at the woman

who lay there. Then he bent down and dabbed

a small towel soaked in cold water on her face.

Angela murmured the same word — row — in her

sleep but she did not wake up.

Rory wondered what she was talking about.

Was she referring to a rowing boat? Did she want

to row away from the submarine or something? He

couldn't figure out what she meant so he turned

round to speak with MARVE.

'It's an alien virus,' Rory said. 'Should we take a

sample? Analyse it or something?'

'It would be a start,' MARVE replied.

'If I give it to you, can you look at it? Work out

what it is and stuff?'

'Affirmative.'

Rory nodded. He removed a small plastic jar

from his bio-suit and unscrewed the top. Then he

took a medical swab and wiped the material gently

on Angela's face. He popped the swab into the jar

and put the top back on.

He left the tent and took off his hood with a sigh

of relief. Then he passed the sample of the virus to

MARVE. The Robo-Medic took the jar with one of

his thin, metal hands and moved over to the bench

on which sat various pieces of medical equipment.

The robot put the virus sample into a machine that

looked like a microwave and closed the door.

Just then, the hatch flew open and two crewmen

entered carrying another man. They put him on a

bunk and told Rory that he had collapsed in the

engine room. Rory looked at his name tag. It read

"Luke Garlick". He was trying to talk, but Rory

calmed him down and rolled up the man's sleeve.

There were several yellow streaks running up his

arm from the wrist to the elbow.

Rory looked at the two men who had carried

their friend. It's spreading,' he said.

Quickly, he contacted the captain on the radio

and told her what was happening.

'You're the chief medical officer,' Clancy told

Rory. 'What do we do?'

Rory thought for a second. He didn't know

how this virus was spreading. Sometimes viruses

spread by people touching each other or other

surfaces. The worst viruses were passed from

person to person in the air — by people coughing

and sneezing.

'Have any of the crew reported that they have

colds?' asked Rory.

There was a silence on the radio while Captain

Clancy thought about this. 'No. I don't think so.'

'Good!' Rory sighed. 'Then we can assume

that this virus is spread through touch. We need

to collect all the people who have touched Doctor

Morton since the attack — and this man, too,' he

explained. 'Then you need to scrub this sub until

it shines with anti-viral cleaner. Once we've done

that we should be safe.'

'Should be?'

'Yeah, well, you see there might be walls or

doors or bits of engine that Luke here might have

touched that other people have now touched, too.'

'Are you saying that we don't have this under

control?'

'Yes. Yes, I am,' said Rory.

'Great,' said the captain.

'There's one more thing,' Rory added.

'What's that?'

'I touched Doctor Morton when I carried her

in here and put her on the bunk.'

'So you're infected?' Clancy gasped.

'I might be,' said Rory. 'I'll have to get MARVE

to test me to see if I have got the virus.' He switched

off the radio and looked at the robot. If I get ill,

are you ready to take over, MARVE?'

The little robot's head bobbed up and down.

'Affirmative,' he said. Rory thought it looked as if

MARVE was smiling.

Amy slowly opened her eyes. Her head hurt. A lot.

It felt like someone had been playing the drums

in her brain. She put a hand to her forehead and

moaned as she sat up. She was no longer wearing

the diving suit but was glad she still had yellow

overalls on.

'Doctor?' she asked looking around her. She

was startled to see that she wasn't in The Verne any

longer. Instead she was lying on a damp, stone

floor in a small cave. It was lit with some form of

glowing seaweed. Amy remembered the Doctor's

silly joke and she gave a small smile.

Then she saw an oval window and her smile

slipped off her face. Beyond the glass was a really

ugly creature. It had a wide mouth that was full

of very pointy, very sharp teeth. It had two huge

eyes, that were completely gold and the size of

footballs. It looked like the creature was holding

a giant fork. Whatever it was, it looked pointy and

Amy decided she didn't want to find out if it felt as

sharp as it looked.

She realised the cave must be some sort of cell

and that the creature behind the glass was a guard.

'Doctor!' she called, more loudly.

A groaning noise came from behind her and

Amy turned to see what was there. She was very

relieved to see that the body lying there was wearing

a tweed jacket. So, unless the fish creatures had

taken to wearing woolly clothes, she was pretty

sure it was the Doctor.

'Ooh,' the Doctor said. 'Electrical overload.

Causes the body and brain to shut down.'

'They knocked us out, you mean,' Amy said,

and pulled the Doctor to his feet.

'Thank you,' he said. 'Yes. That is exactly what

I mean. They knocked us out. So, they don't want

to kill us. At least, not yet.'

'Good,' Amy said. She was becoming impatient

and wanted to go. 'So, can we just sonic the door,

find the sub and get out of here?'

'Patience, Pond. We came here to speak

with these creatures. They must be intelligent.

They've built a cell especially for us. That fish,

guard, monster, thing has a weapon. So, they have

technology.' He pointed to a basin beside the

door with about ten large shells hanging beside it.

'They've even managed to get some fresh water

for us and provided something for us to drink

from. So, they must be intelligent. Which is why

they didn't kill us.'

'Yet,' said Amy.

The Doctor ignored his companion and walked

past her to speak to the guard.

'Hello!' he said with his best smile. 'Are you in

charge here? Can we speak to you? There seems to

have been a terrible mix-up.'

The fish creature looked back at them and

seemed to frown.

'I don't think he likes us,' said Amy.

'No,' said the Doctor. 'It's not that.' He stared

at the guard for a few seconds and then he hit

his forehead with his palm. 'Of course! Fish!

Remember the Hath, Amy? Oh no, that wasn't

you. . .'

'The Hath?'

'Doesn't matter. The point is that they are fish.'

'Well spotted,' said Amy.

'Fish don't talk.'

'Dur,' said Amy. 'Of course fish don't talk!'

Well they do. Just not like you and I. The Hath

had their bubbles, but the point is most fish don't

make any sound. But they do communicate,' the

Doctor said. 'Look at this chap. Look closely at

his face, Amy.'

Amy looked. Although the creature was not

pretty to look at, she stared really hard at its face.

As she did so, she leaned nearer and nearer to the

window. Suddenly the fish's face lit up with a flash

of red.

Amy jumped back. 'It's the same type of fish-

thing that attacked the submersible earlier,' she said.

'And?'

Amy looked blank for a few seconds and then

she realised. 'It can change the colour of its skin!'

'Exactly!' The Doctor beamed. 'Now, normally,

the TARDIS would translate any language but this

is a little on the odd side. It can't help us with this.

No. We need to find a way to say 'hello' to Mister

Angler Fish, here.'

He spun around on the spot and walked a few

paces back to the corner of the cell. He had his

hands clasped together and both index fingers

sticking out, touching. Amy knew that he was deep

in thought. Then his fingers began to wiggle. Amy

knew this meant he had come up with a plan — or

was about to.

'Creating colour from nothing. I mean, it's not

easy, is it?' the Doctor said. 'We have your clothes.

My clothes.'

'I am NOT taking my clothes off!' said Amy

indignantly.

The Doctor shook his head. 'No, no, no. I just

need a piece of them. A bit of your yellow boiler

suit.'

'A bit? You mean you're going to cut up my

overalls?' Amy looked defiantly at the Doctor.

'No way!'

'Oh, stop moaning,' the Doctor said, taking the

sonic screwdriver from his pocket. 'I'll get you a

new one!' The sonic screwdriver buzzed and the

Doctor quickly cut a square the size of a crisp

from the side of Amy's jumper. 'There!' he said.

Then he cut a piece from her skirt and moved

on to his own clothing. The sonic quickly cut a

square out of his greeny-brown jacket and another

from his black trousers at the ankle.

'Now we just need some way of mixing them,'

he said.

'And we don't know what the colours mean,'

Amy reminded him.

'Ah,' the Doctor said and stared at the little

pieces of material in his hand as if they were about

to tell him what each of them meant.

Just then, the cell door opened and two guards

entered. They were walking on their back fins as if

they were feet. One of them held his three-pronged

weapon out before him, to keep the Doctor and

Amy at bay. Behind them was a different fish

person. He was much lighter in colour and had

smaller eyes with normal, black pupils.

'I think you'd better work it out fast!' Amy

squealed.

Rory looked up from his latest patient. MARVE

entered the medical bay, pushing a floating

stretcher with a man on it. The new patient was

moaning and had the tell-tale signs of the yellow

virus showing on his skin. There were only six

beds in the room and five were already occupied.

This sixth person meant that the medical bay was

now full. Rory didn't know what he would do if

any more people got sick.

He would have to see what extra space there

was nearby. He didn't really want to talk to the

captain about it because their last conversation

had not ended well.

After MARVE had tested him for the virus,

he was pleased to find out he wasn't infected. So

he had gone to the control room to report on the

virus and what he was doing to cure the crew. As

well as the captain, Mister Fleming was there with

two security guards. Again, Rory was surprised by

how many guards there were onboard. He wasn't

sure he trusted anyone on the sub and what Captain

Clancy was about to say didn't change his mind.

'I'm afraid we've lost contact with your friends,

the Doctor and Amy,' Clancy said.

Rory looked at her. He was concerned but not

surprised. 'When?' he asked.

'If we send out a submersible, we always keep

an eye on it,' Fleming said. He pointed to a screen

on one of The Ocean Explorer's control panels.

'Each one sends out a signal so that we can always

find it. The Verne's signal stopped broadcasting

forty-five minutes ago.'

'What does that mean?' Rory frowned. He

didn't like the sound of this.

Clancy and Fleming looked at each other.

'Well,' said Clancy. 'The best we can hope for

is that there is some natural reason why we can't

pick up the signal such as some kind of chemical

or tidal disturbance in the water. It's rare, but it

does happen.'

'Or they might have taken the sub into a cave

of some sort,' Fleming said. 'If it was under the sea

bed, we wouldn't be able to pick up the signal. Or

if they were out of range, but that's not likely...'

'And what if they aren't underground or in a

chemical cloud or whatever?' asked Rory 'Does

that mean... ?' he didn't want to finish the question.

Clancy came forward and put a hand on his

shoulder. 'It could mean that the sub has suffered a

power failure or that is has sunk or...' she hesitated.

'Or it may mean The Verne has been destroyed.'

Rory looked at her and shook his head. 'No,'

he said. 'No. I don't believe that. The Doctor

wouldn't let that happen.'

'I'm sorry,' said Fleming.

'So what do we do about it?' asked Rory. 'They

might need help!'

'I'm sorry, Rory,' Captain Clancy said. 'But we

don't have time...'

'Don't have time? Are you kidding?' Rory

shouted. 'That's my wife you're talking about.'

'We have a mission to complete,' Fleming said.

'It's very important and we don't have time to

hang around.'

'My wife is very important,' Rory hissed. 'The

Doctor is very important. Any life is,' he looked at

the captain. 'If you want my help with this virus,

you'd better find a way to 'hang around' and look

for them.'

Clancy held her hands up. 'OK, look. We'll

launch a rescue buoy.'

'What good will that do?' asked Rory.

'A rescue buoy is a floating pod that has

emergency food and water supplies,' Fleming

explained. 'It also has a radio so the Doctor and

Amy can contact us if their one is damaged. The

pod can also be sealed off from the sea so it is

warm and dry if they need to stay there for a

while.'

'The rescue buoy will send out a signal to The

Verne,' Clancy added. 'If the sub is damaged, and

it's got any power left, the pod will bring it to the

surface by auto-pilot.'

Rory nodded. He didn't believe for one second

that the Doctor and Amy were dead, but if they

were in trouble, he wanted to be sure that he had

done everything he could do for them. 'OK,' he

said. 'You'll do that now?'

'Right away,' Clancy said. 'Mister Fleming,

will you make sure the buoy is launched from the

Moon Pool immediately?'

'Yes, Ma'am.' He saluted and left the control

room.

'Can I still depend on your support in the

medical bay?' asked Clancy.

'Yes,' Rory said. 'And I think I'd better get back

there.'

That had been half an hour ago.

Rory was now rushing around, giving medicine

to six crewmen and hoping that it would work.

It was difficult because he had run out of plastic

tents and so he had to wear his biohazard suit all

the time. No one else was allowed in the medical

bay and only MARVE was allowed to pick up

crewmen who developed the virus.

Everyone else was wearing gloves and face

masks that made them all look like doctors in an

operating theatre. Rory knew that they were all

afraid too, because no one wanted to catch the

virus.

Rory sighed. No matter what was going on

elsewhere on the submarine, he had a job to do.

Right now that meant looking for more room

in case anyone else got sick and he had a nasty

feeling that would definitely happen.

There was an uncomfortable silence in the cell.

The new arrival - a far more attractive-looking

fish than the two guards - was looking at the

Doctor. This was because the Doctor was miming

silently, trying to say hello and introduce himself

and his companion. He even tried to wave the

coloured squares that he had cut from his and

Amy's clothing.

'I don't think that's working,' said Amy.

'Shhh,' the Doctor held a finger to his lips. 'If

they don't use sound to communicate they might

find it strange or impolite if we do.'

'Tough,' said Amy.

The Doctor looked at her. 'Please, Amelia.'

'All right,' whispered Amy and she stood back

to allow the Doctor to continue his efforts.

'I think I'm starting to understand some of

what they're saying when they flash different

colours,' the Doctor explained in a whisper. 'But I

think we've got a long way to go yet.'

Makron watched the strange creatures through the

cell window. He found them a little bit frightening

but also a little bit funny at the same time. Makron

had decided that the pink creature with the brown

hair on its head was in charge and the one with the

long, orange hair was its friend or helper. He also

assumed that because of its bone structure and

size that the one with brown hair was male.

When they started making noises at each other,

Makron almost laughed. He could see his father's

face, which told him that his father did not think it

was funny at all. Then the one with the brown hair

started using his coloured squares again.

He held up the green one first and then pointed at

different things in the cell: the basin, the one with the

orange hair, the guard. Then he made a movement

with his shoulders that made his neck look shorter.

Makron had no idea what he was doing.

His father moved forward, changing the colour

of his skin to ask the question, ' What are you doing

here?'

The male creature was staring at his father.

Then he smiled and lifted a hand to wave his

fingers around by Darkin's face. Makron could

see this didn't please his father, but he stayed still.

Then the male pointed to his own face and shook

his head. He held up a piece of red material.

Was he saying that his face hurt? Makron

wondered. Then he realised. The creature was

trying to talk. He bashed the long fins of his hand

on the window. Darkin and the two low swimmers

turned round to look at him.

'They're trying to talk to you!' Makron said.

'What do you mean?' asked Darkin. ' Why don't

they talk normally?'

'They can't talk normally;' Makron said. ' They

can't change their skin colour. The male is trying to

use the cloth.'

Darkin ordered the guards to let his son in and

turned back to the prisoners. He pointed at them

and flashed violet. ' You're aliens,'he said.

The male nodded and held up the black square

of material.

'He's asking you if you're in charge, I think,'

Makron pulsed.

Darkin flashed his cheeks white for a second

and bobbed his head. Yes.

The male clapped his hands together and

started making noises to the female. Darkin's

face went a little red with annoyance. The Shoal

did not make sounds so they did not think it was

polite for others to do so.

Makron sighed. His father didn't understand.

These were aliens. Everything they did would seem

odd to the Shoal. It must be the same for them.

The Doctor was smiling, his eyes narrowed

with happiness.

'Ok, clever clogs,' Amy said. You managed to

say 'hello' to the fish people! Now what?'

'Now we can explain that we're friendly and

they can let us go,' the Doctor said.

'I've heard that before,' Amy replied.

'Well, this time, it will work,' the Doctor said a

little sadly. 'I'm sure it will.'

'Go on then,' Amy said, and waved him back

to his conversation with the fish creatures.

Aboard The Ocean Explorer, Rory had found

a short side corridor just down the main passage

from the medical bay. It was narrow and not very

well lit. He hesitated and then took a step forward

as if the corridor floor was alarmed and if he trod

too hard bells would go off all over the submarine.

Nothing happened, so he sighed with relief

and nodded his head. Yeah, this would be all right.

He took another step and stopped. There was a

door in the wall to his right. It had a small, round

window in it but there appeared to be a shutter

over it on the inside. Rory stared at it.

As far as he could tell, this corridor was next

to the medical bay, but the medical bay only had

one door into it. So where did this door go? Rory

went back to where the side corridor joined the

main passageway. He walked steadily back to the

medical bay door, counting his paces. It took

him twelve strides. Then he went back inside the

medical bay and counted his steps from the door

to the far wall. It was only eight.

That couldn't be right. Unless there was

another room there.

He quickly returned to the T-junction in

the corridor and looked about to make sure he

hadn't made a mistake. No. He had come out of

the medical bay, turned right, walked down the

passage and found this little corridor to the right.

He frowned. I suppose I'd better check out what

was behind the door, he thought. If it was another

room, it would be the best place to put any extra

sailors that got sick.

He dipped into his pocket and brought

out Doctor Morton's security pass. He slowly

reached out to put the pass on the panel beneath

the door handle.

'Can I help you?'

Rory jumped and dropped the card. It was

Fleming. He was standing in the main corridor

looking down the side passage. He had one hand

on the holster where he kept his gun.

'Sorry,' Rory said. Why did he say that? He

shook his head. 'I was, um, looking for some more

space. You know, for the patients. Not space like

outer space. Space like room. For extra beds.'

'Well you won't find it down there.'

'Really?' Rory asked. 'I thought this door

might lead to another room. I mean, it's a bit

strange but...'

Mister Fleming walked towards him. 'It's just a

cupboard,' he said.

'Of course,' Rory said. 'Just a cupboard.' He

held out his hand and grasped the door handle.

Mister Fleming moved forward suddenly as if to

stop Rory, but the door was locked.

'Locked,' said Fleming. 'As it should be.' He

took Rory's hand off the door handle. 'It's a security

cupboard,' he explained, dropping Rory's hand.

'Right,' Rory looked down. 'Nothing special.'

'That's right,' Fleming said with a smile. He

seemed relieved that Rory understood. Then the

smile faded as he saw something on the floor. The

security officer bent down and picked up Doctor

Morton's security pass.

'What are you doing with this?'

'I needed it to unlock the lockers in the medical

bay,' Rory explained.

'Did you now?' Fleming looked at Rory as if

he was suddenly a threat. 'Are they still unlocked?'

'Yes.'

'Then you don't need this anymore, do you?'

'I suppose not,' Rory said. He was still standing

by the door. Fleming beckoned him to come back

to the main corridor.

Rory hesitated. Should he say this? Oh well...

'Why would you put a window in a cupboard

door? And then why would you put a shutter over

the window on the inside?'

Mister Fleming stepped up to Rory so that

they were face to face. Rory managed not to move

even though he felt scared of the other man.

'It's a security matter,' said Fleming. 'Forget

about it.'

Rory nodded. 'Sure,' he said.

'Now return to the medical bay,' the security

officer hissed. 'And stay there. I will see if we can

find you another room for the patients. Get it?'

Rory bobbed his head again. 'I understand,'

he said and walked back to the medical bay. The

Doctor was right. There was something strange

going on. And it had something to do with that

cupboard. Mister Fleming might have taken

Doctor Morton's pass but Rory had a plan to find

out what was in there.

When the Doctor was excited he looked a bit

like a meerkat or a squirrel — darting about the

place with bright eyes. Amy thought that if he had

a tail it would definitely be bushy and twitching!

He had realised that he needed many more

colours to talk to the fish creatures. He seemed

to be happiest when he had to think quickly and

make stuff up on the spot.

While the Doctor had been waving the bits of

clothing at the fish people, Amy had been looking

at the cave they were in. Its floor was sandy and

when she bent to rub her fingers in the grains she

could feel that it was a bit damp. The rock of the

back wall was quite uneven with different types of

seaweed growing in small clumps here and there.

Amy realised that the cave must usually be

underwater for the seaweed to live. The fish

creatures must have drained the water from it so

that she and the Doctor could breathe. She hoped

that whatever the Doctor was doing would work,

because she didn't want to be in the cave cell if the

fish people changed their minds and let the water

back in.

She stood with her arms folded as the Doctor

ran to the basin and grabbed the shells that they

were supposed to use for drinking. He filled five

of them with water and left the others empty. He

put them all on the floor of the cave between him

and the four fish people. Then he took out the

sonic screwdriver.

Immediately, the guards moved forward with

their weapons, but the fish creature in charge

ordered them back. They stood by the door

holding their weapons at the ready.

The Doctor didn't even seem to notice and just

started waving the sonic screwdriver over all the

types of seaweed that were growing on the wall.

Suddenly he bent down and put the device in his

mouth and plucked at one of the plants, grabbing

as much as he could. Then he dashed back to the

row of shells and dropped an equal amount of the

plant in to the middle three.

'What on earth are you doing?' Amy asked.

'Hydron, Amy. We're on Hydron. Not Earth,'

the Doctor mumbled. He still had the sonic

screwdriver clenched lengthways between his

teeth.

'Yup,' said Amy. 'I know where we are. Why are

you running about picking seaweed?'

The Doctor looked up at her and smiled. 'It's a

pH indicator,' he said.

'A what?'

'It tells you how much acid something has in

it,' he explained. 'Didn't you ever do this at home?'

'Nope,' Amy wasn't impressed.

'Well on Earth you'd use red cabbage, probably.

Fortunately there's some form of sea kale here that

contains the same ingredient as red cabbage - it's

called flavin. Anyway, if you boil it up in water, it

will change colour when you add stuff to it.'

Amy smiled. He was the maddest, most brilliant

person she had ever met. 'So how do you boil the

water...'

Before she could finish what she was saying,

the Doctor had pointed the sonic screwdriver at

the first shell and had switched it on. As it buzzed

away at a high pitch, the water started to bubble

and then boil. Thin tufts of steam floated up

towards the ceiling.

All the fish creatures were watching the Doctor,

too. They seemed just as amazed and fascinated by

the Doctor as Amy was. His smile got wider. The

Doctor had this effect on most people.

Soon the Doctor had a row of shells with boiling

water and seaweed in them. As Amy watched, the

plants started to turn the water a dark pink colour.

Then he started patting his pockets and pulling all

manner of things from them. He had a small ball

of string, a tangerine, a stick of chalk, a handful

of paperclips and a tiny sachet of tomato ketchup.

The fish creatures looked at one another.

The Doctor ignored the funny looks he was

getting and quickly peeled the tangerine. He squeezed

the juice from it into the farthest shell. Then he tore

open the tomato ketchup and added it quickly into

the nearest seashell. Finally he took the piece of

chalk, broke it into pieces and added it to the middle

shell. Then he whipped out the sonic screwdriver

again and dipped it into the water cups, one at a time.

'Usually you'd have to wait a little bit for this

to work, but we need to speak with these people

quickly!'

Amy saw that the contents of the three shells

were changing colour. The one with the ketchup

in it became yellow, while the one with tangerine

juice had gone a brilliant red. The shell with the

piece of chalk in was turning a dark blue.

'So now we have three colours,' Amy said. She

was still confused. 'Didn't we have three colours

of material anyway?

'Watch, Pond!' The Doctor picked up the

yellow and the blue. 'These three are primary

colours, which means we can do this!' He poured

a little of each into one of the empty shells and

stood back. One shell now had green water in it.

He quickly mixed purple, orange and brown. He

left one shell with clear water in it.

'And the material is still useful!' The Doctor

held up the square of black he had cut from her

dress and then placed it into the last shell that had

water in it. He applied the sonic screwdriver, which

boiled the water with a buzz. In the steaming water,

the black colour ran from the cotton, turning the

water black, too.

'There!' the Doctor said. He stood back and

admired his handiwork. He had a full rainbow of

colours as well as black and clear. 'Now we can

have a proper conversation!'

On The Ocean Explorer; Rory was feeling very pleased

with himself. When Mister Fleming had taken Doctor

Morton's security pass, he had known exactly where

to get another one. One of the patients that had been

brought into the medical bay earlier was a security

guard. Not only was Rory pleased with himself for

realising that the security guard would have a pass,

he was also happy because he had worked out that a

security guard could go anywhere.

While MARVE was looking after one of the

other sick crewmen, Rory moved over to where

the security guard was sleeping. He checked that

the robot wasn't watching and then searched the

man's pockets for the pass. Sure enough he found

it in the left-hand jacket pocket. Rory quickly

slipped the pass into his own pocket and then told

the robot he was going to the toilet.

He walked out into the corridor and along it for

a few metres to where the passage was. He quickly

walked up to the door with the round window in

it. He pressed the security pass against the panel

under the handle and pulled the door open.

Beyond the door the room was dark, but Rory

could see it was bigger than a cupboard. The room

had two rows of large, glass tubes that looked a

little like the one on top of the TARDIS control

console. They were about the width of a dustbin

and were full of water. A strange blue light lit up

these tubes from underneath, and inside each

Rory could see there was a dark circle the size of a

football.

Rory stepped into the room and moved to look

at the nearest tube. Small bubbles were coming

from the bottom of the cylinder as if the water

inside was being kept full of air - like a pump does

in a fish tank. He stared at the dark footballs and

wondered what they could be. Then he caught

sight of a shape against the light. There was

something inside the football.

He moved back to the door and hunted about

for a light switch. As he did so, he saw a work

bench against the far wall. On the bench, lit up by

a single spotlight, was a large plastic container. Rory

frowned. Why was it under a spotlight? It must be

important, he thought, so he went over to take a

look at that instead. As he got closer he thought he

could smell something and when he took the lid off

the plastic box he could see why. The stink of fish

was over-powering and he had to put a hand over

his nose and mouth to stop himself being sick.

Slowly, he looked into the box. At first he thought

it was actually seaweed, not an animal. Whatever it

was, it must have been rotting. Yuck! Rory looked

away again. Then he told himself it was OK. He

plucked up the courage and took another look.

It was just a lump of stuff, like a flap of skin -

in fact just like a deflated, black football, only more

slimy. Then he realised what it was. The things in

the tubes were the baby fish. Rory turned round

and looked at the glowing glass containers. The

dark shapes hanging in each one were not balls.

They were fish eggs!

Rory knew there was a special word for fish

eggs. He scratched his chin as he thought. Fish

roe! That was it! Then his hand fell away from

his face. Roe. That was what Doctor Morton had

been saying! Not Row! The two words sounded

the same but she must have been talking about the

fish eggs. Now he thought about it, the room was

right next to the medical bay.

So she was trying to warn him about the fish

eggs. But why? And the thing in the box, wasn't

really the whole egg. It was just the outer covering.

Not a shell, because fish eggs didn't have shells like

birds' eggs did. It was more like a case or a seed pod.

Rory wondered why they were there. The

submarine had only just arrived on the planet and

no one had been outside the ship except Amy and

the Doctor. And why was Mister Fleming so keen

to hide the eggs from Rory? Were they going to let

the eggs out into the sea on Hydron? Was it like

returning captive animals to the wild or something?

There was only one way to find out. Rory would

have to ask the captain.

Rory marched away from the workbench and

out into the passage. He pushed the door shut and

had just turned round again when all the lights on

the submarine went out. The power had gone. Then

he noticed that not only was there no light, but the

air pumps had stopped working. They'd suffocate!

The darkened sub lurched suddenly and Rory

realised he was wrong. They wouldn't suffocate.

They'd never get the chance! The submarine had

no power. It was sinking — and fast...

Rory stumbled out into the passage and hit his

head against the metal wall. An alarm was

sounding and red emergency lights had come on.

The submarine was bathed in the strange crimson

glow, making it look like a small area of hell. Rory

checked his head but it wasn't bleeding. He'd live.

Then he closed the door to the small lab with the

tubes in it and lurched into the main corridor.

The Ocean Explorer swayed violently to one

side, again sending Rory falling against a bulkhead

wall. At the same time a rushing noise, like a leaf

blower or a really big fan, filled the ship. Rory was

sitting on the deck now so the next movement

didn't affect him so much. Again, the submarine

tipped to one side at an angle.

Rory had to find out what was going on.

He stood up carefully and stretched out his

arms so that he was pressing against both sides of

the corridor. Then he started walking, using his

arms to brace against any sudden movement. He

reached the meeting area behind the control room

and stepped through the hatch that led from the

corridor. Then he noticed that the whole ship was

angled up. They were surfacing.

Captain Clancy gripped the leather command

chair arms very tightly. Everyone was watching the

depth gauge which seemed to be working despite

the power failure. Rory could see it ticking quite

quickly towards zero.

Rory reached the captain's chair. 'What

happened?' he asked.

Clancy didn't look at him. 'I don't know,' she

replied quietly. She was watching the digital display

that showed their depth even more closely. It now

read 24, 23, 22...

'We lost power across the ship. Our engines just

stopped working. Luckily we've got a small backup

generator.' Finally she looked at him. 'That gave

us the power to blow the ballast tanks so that the

sub could surface. I just hope we blew enough air

into them to reach sea level.'

'Blow the tanks?' he asked. The depth gauge

read 14,13,12...

'The Ocean Explorer is just a metal tube full of air, really,' Captain Clancy said. 'To go underwater,

the submarine has to make itself heavier. So we

have special tanks that can be filled with water to go

down and then 'blown' full of air, which pushes

the water out and makes the submarine go up.'

'Right,' Rory said. He looked back at the digital

readout. 5, 4, 3...

'Looks like we made it!' Clancy jumped from

her chair, took some binoculars from a junior

crewman and ran towards a hatch at the back of

the control room.

'Where are you going?' asked Rory.

'Up top. For a look. You coming?'

'Sure!' Rory followed her to the hatch and up a

ladder to another level.

There was another hatch, this time above their

heads. Clancy started turning the small wheel on

the hatch to open it. Then she pushed up with a

grunt of effort and the door swung open, letting a

shower of water in. Rory jumped back, but Clancy

ignored it and climbed the last ladder out onto the

top of the submarine's tower.

Rory emerged from the hatch onto a slippery

metal deck about the size of a double bed. It was

just wide enough for Clancy and him to stand side

by side. She was leaning on the low, metal wall that

ran all the way round the top of the tower. There

was a gap at the back of the wall where a ladder

ran down from the top of the tower, down to the

main part of the outside deck.

'There!' said the captain, pointing. Even

without binoculars, Rory could see that there was

an island ahead of them. He guessed it might be

about ten miles away. He wasn't very good with

distances.

'I thought there wasn't any land on this planet,'

he said. 'You know, you said it was a water world...'

'There are islands,' she replied. 'But they're

more like steep mountains sticking out of the sea.

You can't build anything on them. You'll see.'

'Will I?' Rory asked.

'Yes. We're going to that island. That's where

the company wants us to go. So that's where we're

going.'

'But what's there?' Rory asked.

'My report says there is a mineral in the lake

that we can use for power.'

'But we don't have any power right now,' Rory

argued.

'We've got enough to get us there.'

'And then what?'

'Then, we'll see, won't we?'

In the cell, the Doctor seemed to be making

progress. He was slowly learning what the colours

that he had in each shell might mean. He had taken

off his jacket and was sitting with his legs crossed

on the sandy floor.

'The fish people have a very complicated way

of talking!' Amy said. Won't it take forever just to

say one sentence?'

The Doctor shook his head. 'They're not fish

people, Amy,' he said as he smiled at the group in

front of him. As far as I can understand, they are

called 'the Shoal'.

'"The Shoal"?'

'Yes. It means a group of fish. Like a herd of

cows or a flock of birds,' the Doctor paused for

effect. 'A shoal of fish. He pointed to his most

recent addition to the shells. It had diluted black

water in it. 'That's grey, by the way. Grey means

"together" or "group", as well as "strength". I think. Anyway I am guessing they call themselves

the Shoal and that an individual is a Shoaly or

Shoalite. Shoaly, I think.'

Amy frowned. 'It doesn't sound very clear to

me,' she said.

'It's not,' the Doctor grinned. 'Like you say,

it's very complex. When they use colour they

sometimes move their cheek fins at the same time.'

His grin faded. 'I can't do that.'

'Aww, poor Doctor,' Amy joked. 'Can't move

his cheek fins!' she laughed.

The Shoalys stared at Amy. The Doctor

shushed her.

'Don't make silly noises, Amy,' the Doctor

hissed. 'Remember? They think it's rude.'

Amy pouted her lips. 'So does your colourful

water display mean you can tell them we aren't

baddies and that they can let us go?'

'I'm working on it,' the Doctor said and he

returned his attention to the Shoal.

He pointed at the blue and then the yellow.

'Are you trying to tell them how to make green?'

Amy asked with an eyebrow raised.

'Amelia!' The Doctor sighed. 'Very well. I will

explain it to you. I am saying "peaceful" and then

"friend". I hope.'

The larger of the two Shoaly that looked like

a lion fish turned his cheek blue and then yellow

in reply.

'There! You see?' The Doctor smiled again.

'Oh yeah!' Amy was impressed. 'Can you ask

them for a cup of tea?'

'One step at a time,' the Doctor said. We have

to take care. If I point at the wrong colour I

might offend them.'

'You mean... naughty words in fish language?'

she giggled.

The Doctor ignored this and started pointing

at the shells again, explaining what he hoped he

was saying to the Shoal.

The wind ruffled Rory's hair as he leaned on the

tower's handrail. The Ocean Explorer had taken

about an hour to cover the twelve miles to the

island. In the meantime, Rory had met with

Mister Fleming. The security officer had shown

him a spare bunk room that he could use for any

extra patients. This was lucky, because two more

crew had come in with signs of the yellow virus.

Rory had decided not to say anything about

the strange fish roe he had found in the lab

behind the medical bay. He thought that Fleming

would probably lock him up — or worse - if Rory

told anyone what he knew. He now knew that

Fleming and Morton were in it and he wondered

if Captain Clancy was in on it too, but he would

have to wait to find out.

Once Rory had given the new patients the

medicine to help them sleep, there wasn't much more

he could do for them. He hoped that by sleeping,

the sick crewmen would be able to fight off the

virus. MARVE was now monitoring their life signs

to make sure they didn't get worse. So far, none of

them had. But they didn't show any sign of getting

better either. Rory was just a nurse. What he really

needed was a doctor. Or better still, the Doctor!

Ahead of him now, Rory could see the

huge mountain of the island. It was massive. It

towered into the purple clouds like a skyscraper

— thousands of metres high. He couldn't see the

top because it was so high it was in the clouds. The

sides of the mountain rose almost vertically from

the ocean, like cliffs. Whatever that satellite report

had said, it was right about one thing: there was no

way of building anything on it. There was no flat

land at all.

'Having fun, Mister Williams?'

Rory looked round. It was Captain Clancy. He

smiled. 'Tell me again. Why have we come here?'

he asked.

The captain explained that before her team had

come to Hydron, she had read the report on the

planet. She had learned about the islands and that

- amazingly - there was a lake at the top of each

mountain.

'A lake?'

'Yes. We think that the islands are water

volcanoes,' Clancy said. 'On each island, the lake

at the top is linked to the sea below by a network

of underground tunnels. The water flows down

from the lake through these tunnels.'

'So how does the water get up there in the first

place?'

'In the same way water gets about on Earth — it

rains,' Captain Clancy pointed at the purple clouds.

'So the lake is fresh water?'

'Yes,' Clancy smiled. 'But that's not why we are

here. The report says that we can use something in

the lake as fuel for our engines.'

As she spoke, the submarine entered the

shadow cast by the huge volcano and Rory shivered

because of the slight temperature drop.

'But how do we get up there?' Rory asked.

'We climb.'

A short distance from the Assembly building in

Reef was a darker, more forbidding one. It was

carved from grey coral rather than the orange of

the other structures. Bright red seaweed floated

from its roofs and towers. This told every member

of the Shoal that this was the base of the low

swimmers.

The low swimmers had always been the

guardians of the Shoal. No other swimmer was

allowed to join their ranks. Only the low swimmers

with their bigger bodies and electrical lure — the

glowing balls of skin that hung down from their

foreheads — were strong enough to get through the

very tough training and pass the tests that allowed

them to join the Shoal Navy.

The Shoal Navy supplied all the police for

Hydron's cities and all its soldiers. Every Assembly

guard was a low swimmer. They had been doing

the same job for hundreds of years. They had their

own traditions of celebrating ancient battle and

honours won.

Their history was something that the highest

ranking officer in the Shoal Navy was very proud

of. His name was Admiral Icktheus and he was

one of the largest low swimmers on the planet.

His office was in the basement of the building

where there was almost no light. Because the low

swimmers had evolved at greater depths than

the other members of the Shoal, they preferred

it dark.

At this moment, Admiral Icktheus was floating

in his office behind a stone desk wearing what

looked like sunglasses. The darkened lenses

shielded his bulging, golden eyes from the light

that came in through the gaps in the branches.

He hated the light. He wished he could live in the

deeper Pools of the ocean, but because he was so

important he had to be in the capital city.

Admiral Icktheus was in charge of the safety

and defence of the Shoal. He had been told about

the aliens and their submarine as soon as Makron

had told Darkin. There had been a meeting of

the Assembly and Icktheus had said they should

destroy the invaders right away. The Governors

did not like that idea. They wanted to see if the

visitors would be friendly.

Icktheus shook his head slowly. They were

mad. They knew that these 'humans' were there

to hurt them. Why did they pretend that this was

not the case? But his plan had not been accepted.

He was told that he needed to come up with a new

idea. So he had chosen one very good soldier to

get onboard the submarine and give them a virus.

He had wanted the virus to be deadly. He wanted

to wipe out the humans on the submarine. But,

again, the Governors had refused him. Instead,

they just wanted to make the humans sick, not to

kill them. Icktheus already knew humans and so

he had sent his low swimmer with a 'friendly' -

yellow — virus.

However, making the humans ill had not slowed

them down. Icktheus was shocked to discover

that the submarine was still heading for one of

the Founts. Shock had turned to anger when he

realised which Fount they were trying to reach.

Without checking with the Assembly, the

Admiral had ordered his marine commandos to

stop the submarine. He knew that the Governors

would be weak. He knew they would ask him not

to hurt the humans, so that is what he had told his

soldiers. For the moment, anyway.

Now, he was waiting for an update on how that

attack had gone. He hoped it had been successful.

He reached into a small cage on his desk and

pulled out a small creature that looked like a sea

snail. He popped it into his mouth and chewed it

with a revolting crunching sound. Ooze from the

snail's body dribbled down his chin and he wiped

it away with a thick fin on his flipper.

One of his junior officers appeared at the

curtain of seaweed that hung over the office door.

He pulsed the colour of turquoise. 'May I come

in, Sir?' he asked.

A white flash from Icktheus told the young

Shoaly he could enter. The smaller fish darted inside

and knelt on his front and back flippers. Then he

stood up and began his report.

The submarine had been attacked as the admiral

had ordered. The engines had been knocked out,

forcing the humans to take their strange ship to the

surface for air. Icktheus smiled at this, glowing yellow

with satisfaction. The young officer hesitated.

'What?' demanded the admiral. Something had

gone wrong.

The low swimmer attack squad had used a power

drain creature called a Black-Trout on the submarine

and the ship had been forced to surface. However,

the humans had a backup engine. The Black-Trout

did not work on this new engine because the power

source the motor used was not the same.

'Are you telling me they use two types of fuel?'

Admiral Icktheus asked.

'Yes, Sir.'

'And?'

Again the officer hesitated. 'The submarine has

reached the Fount, Sir.'

'What?' the admiral made a growling noise.

This shocked the other Shoaly. Icktheus managed

to control his temper. 'What are the humans doing

now?'he asked.

'We think they are trying to get to the spawning

pool, Sir.'

This time Admiral Icktheus could not control

himself. He burst from behind his desk, glowing

red all over. He came face to face with the young

Shoaly and slowly took off his sunglasses.

'Summon my personal squadron,' he said. 'I will

deal with this m y s e l f . '

The Ocean Explorer was nestled in the shadow of

the huge mountain. Thick cables had been attached

to the submarine and tied to the island using metal

loops that had been hammered into the rock. A

gangway had been set up between the side hatch

in the submarine's tower arid the cliff.

On the deck of the sub, two crewmen in blue

overalls were attaching ropes to the end of a

special climbing gun. It looked like a harpoon gun

and had a big spike sticking out of it. According

to Captain Clancy, using this gun would mean the

climb would be much quicker. If they started out

from sea level, it could take them over two days to

climb the mountain.

The gun would shoot the great big spike into

the rock as high as it could reach. Then, a winch

would pull one climber at a time to where the spike

was. Because the winch was fast, it would mean

that they could go up by several hundred metres in

less than an hour.

Because the winch could only be used with the

harpoon gun and that was too big to take up the

mountain, they would then have to climb the rest

from there, which should take about six hours the

captain reckoned.

Rory looked away from the climbing gun and

lifted his head to gaze up at the mountain soaring

over his head. Was he really going to climb this

thing? He was now dressed in blue overalls which

were fitted with a climbing harness. This climbing

harness reminded Rory of a kind of strange pair

of Y-front pants.

Captain Clancy came to stand beside him. 'It's

easy, really,' she said.

'Really?' Rory asked. He wasn't so sure.

Then the last member of the ascent team joined

them. He was their leader because he was the most

experienced climber.

'Ready?' asked Mister Fleming.

'As I'll ever be,' Rory replied.

'Let's do this!' said the captain.

The Doctor stood with his hands clasped behind

his back. Amy was amazed. He'd done it. He was

actually talking to the Shoal and they were talking

back to him and everyone seemed to understand

each other. Except Amy. She sort of understood

what was going on and had learned vaguely what

the colours meant, but every colour seemed to have

a hundred meanings and the Doctor was doing a

brilliant job of working out what they meant.

A whole group of the Shoal that looked like lion

fish were gathered in the room and two colourful

fish were holding the Doctor's and Amy's diving

suits.

'Are they letting us go?' Amy asked.

'Not exactly,' the Doctor said. 'It seems they

want to show us their city. I think they want me

to speak to their government or committee or

assembly. I haven't quite worked out which word

is the best translation.'

'You're going to speak to their leaders with a

nursery school activity pack?' Amy asked pointing

at the row of shells with coloured water in them.

'Obviously we can't take that with us,' the

Doctor said. 'I have asked for some bits and bobs

so I can make a portable translator. I imagine it

will look a bit like a Christmas decoration, but it'll

come in useful when we get a tree for next year.'

They looked at one another. After the last

Christmas adventure they'd had, Amy hoped that

having a tree in the TARDIS would be a simple

way of staying out of trouble. But she doubted it.

'So now what? Who are the bright fish people?'

The Doctor pursed his lips. 'They are medium

swimmers. They're the general workforce. The

guards are low swimmers. The military, basically.

The other, stripy fellows are the high swimmers.

They're in charge.'

'High rollers, more like,' Amy said.

'Well. Exactly. But please try to remember:

they're Shoal not 'fish people'.'

'Right,' Amy said. 'Totally different.'

'Actually they are. Very different,' the Doctor

replied. 'The fish people lived in Atlantis and they

looked more like people than fish.'

Amy looked at him. Then she shook her head.

'Anyway...'

'The leader of the Shoal is this one here. I think

his name sounds like 'darkness', but I'm not sure,'

the Doctor frowned at his lack of knowledge. 'He

says we will be taken to a place where I can make a

translation machine.'

'And then we get the grand tour?'

'Yes,' the Doctor said with a smile. 'I'm rather

looking forward to that. It's been a while since I

saw an underwater city.'

There were blisters starting to form on Rory's

hands. Since they had left the 'base' that the gun

had managed to shoot to, the climb was slow and

dangerous. And now it was painful, even though

he was wearing gloves. They had been climbing

for almost five hours. Each time they moved up

the mountain, Rory had to grip the rope and pull.

If he could, he used whatever footholds he could

find on the cliff to push himself up at the same

time.

The air was thinner at this height too, and it

was more difficult to breathe. An hour or so ago,

they had entered a layer of thick, foggy cloud and

Rory could hardly see a thing. He was exhausted

and beginning to wish he hadn't come.

Above him Mister Fleming was flat against the

cliff face hammering a device called a piton into a

small crack in the rock. He then attached the rope

they were all using as a guide to the end sticking

out and made his next move up the cliff, slowly

feeling for any handholds.

'Are we there yet?' Rory asked. He was only

half joking.

'Save your breath for climbing,' Fleming

replied. Even he was puffing with effort.

'I'd like an answer to that question as well,'

Captain Clancy said. She was just below Rory,

clinging to the wall of stone as if her life depended

on it. Which it did.

'All right.' Fleming stopped moving and looked

down at them. 'We are almost there, actually.

According to the scanner, we should crest the top

in about ten minutes.'

'Keep going, then' Clancy called. Fleming

nodded and set off into the mist like a cautious

spider.

Rory pressed his helmeted head against the rock.

Then he took a deep breath and started climbing

again. He began to wonder how they would get

down. Wasn't it easier to climb up something than

get down again? Or was that just cats in trees?

While he was thinking this, Fleming reached

the top and gave a whoop of joy! Rory sped up and

emerged through the mist into bright sunshine.

He scrambled over the edge of the cliff and then

turned to help Captain Jane. She smiled at him as

he pulled her onto the summit. Then they stood

up and joined Mister Fleming who was staring at

the sight before them.

Just like the captain had said, the water volcano

had a lake in a crater on the top of it. It had a thin

rim on which the three of them were standing,

that sloped to the water's edge. The sky seemed

less purple at this height — more mauve or violet

than the deep purple it appeared on the surface.

Of course, Rory realised that just like on Earth,

the water on Hydron wasn't the same colour as the

sky. The water just reflected the colour of the sky

above. Because the sky was purple that is what

colour the sea looked.

Rory had imagined that the pool would

be beautiful and crystal clear. After all, it was

supposed to be pure water, wasn't it? However,

it was anything but. The water was a dark brown

colour and it had an oily film on its surface. Rory

wrinkled his nose. There was an unpleasant smell,

like mouldy socks - and it seemed familiar.

'I wouldn't exactly tell my friends to come here

on holiday,' Rory said.

'Nor would I,' the captain replied. She took

off her helmet and walked towards the lake. 'What

could possibly be in here that can power our

reactor engines?' she asked.

'The report said that there were power readings

in the water,' Fleming said. Rory thought he

sounded like a bad actor that had forgotten to

learn his lines and was making it up as he went

along. 'Perhaps some form of mineral? Uranium?

I don't know...'

Rory stepped towards the stagnant pool and

stared down into its depths. It was only then that

he started to see the shapes in the water. Because

the liquid was dark - and thick with some nasty

substance - he couldn't quite make out what they

were.

'Have you got a torch or something we can put

in the water and see what those are?' he asked.

Fleming unhooked something from his belt and

handed it to Rory. 'It's a diver's flashlight,' he said.

'Thanks,' Rory took the torch and turned it on,

holding it underwater so that he could see what the

shapes were. Suddenly he stumbled back. He now

realised why he recognised the smell. It was the

same one he'd smelled in the lab on the submarine.

'No,' he said. 'It can't be.'

'What?' Fleming was by his side in an instant, a

deep frown on his face.

'They're fish roe,' Rory said. 'Fish eggs! Well,

the pods of the fish eggs, anyway. The same as the

one you've been hiding in that secret room; the

same as the one in the box!'

Fleming glared at Rory and then glanced at

Captain Clancy. She lifted her head from the water

and looked at her security officer.

'What does he mean?' she asked. 'What fish

eggs? What secret room?' Her voice was becoming

louder. 'Explain yourself, Mister Fleming!' she

shouted.

Fleming shook his head and slowly pulled his

gun from its holster. 'Sorry, Captain,' he said, 'but

you don't know the whole story.'

The undersea cave was huge. Admiral Icktheus stood

in front of a dozen rows of his best commandos.

There were over one hundred low swimmers in full

battle kit. Each had squid grenades hanging from

their belts along with their forked electric weapons.

Some teams had the Black-Trout fish that looked

like slugs, but were the size of elephants.

Icktheus was so angry about the humans that

he decided he was going to stop them once and

for all. They were going to the Fount and that was

somewhere they shouldn't be going. It was against

the law and against everything the Shoal believed

in for anyone but a Shoaly to visit the Founts.

This was the force Icktheus was going to use to

sink the submarine — just like he'd done with the

last one. Only this time he was going to kill all the

humans.

He was about to issue the order when one of

his most trusted spies arrived. Icktheus could see

him talking with one of the guards on the cave

entrance. Because he had given the order that

no one was to be allowed in, they weren't going

to let him pass. The admiral tore himself away

from the troops and swam quickly to the group.

He dismissed the guards and watched as the spy

delivered his message.

'I have heard something unbelievable, ' the spy

said. ' Some time ago, a group of low swimmers caught

a small submarine with two humans aboard.'

The stripes on Admiral Icktheus's face slowly

turned from their usual black to a deep red. ' W h y

didn't I hear about this?'

'The low swimmers that caught them have been

kept in the rooms by the Assembly members,' the spy

reported calmly. 'Apparently they feared that you

would react badly...'

'And they were r i g h t ! ' Icktheus could not help

himself. The growl came from deep in his throat

and built to a roar that echoed through the water.

Even his hardened troops stared at the admiral.

'I cannot allow this to happen,' he said. ' We

have a proud tradition of defending our people from

any and all threats we have faced! And now we are

imprisoned and kept quiet because they do not want

us to do our job properly?'

He turned and swam back to the waiting

commandos.

'First two squads! Come with me now! There are

aliens in the c i t y ! '

The Doctor and Amy were once again wearing the

orange diving suits from The Verne. They had been

given them by the Shoal and had quickly put them

on.

'The leader says we're going to a laboratory,'

the Doctor explained. 'Once we go out into the

corridor, they'll flood the place again and then we

can swim.'

They were led into the corridor and the cell

door closed. Then water flooded in through pipes

in the wall. At last the passage was completely

submersed and another door opened and they

were ushered through.

The Doctor activated his radio and spoke to Amy.

'I think this is some sort of military or police building.'

'Why do you think that?'

'Well, you don't find cells in normal houses, do

you? Well, not most normal houses.'

Amy nodded. She had to agree with that.

After swimming down two more corridors,

they entered a large room that was full of strange

equipment and tools.

'Brilliant!' the Doctor said. 'Look at all this stuff.

I love stuff. You can do all sorts of stuff with stuff.'

He quickly set about building what Amy thought

of as his flashy light communicator thing. It had a

rainbow of lights on it as well as a camera and a

micro-computer, a speaker and a microphone.

'I've programmed the computer with what I've

learned from our coloured water experiments,'

the Doctor explained. 'The translator will film the

Shoal and translate via the speaker unit. We can

then talk to them by speaking into the microphone

and the machine will then flash the correct lights

so the Shoal can understand us.'

The Doctor told the guards that he had finished

and the Shoal leader then arrived. He flashed in

various colours and the translator relayed his

words back to Amy and the Doctor in English.

'We are going to address the Assembly,' he

said. 'Please come with me. We will be travelling

through our capital city, Reef.'

Inside his diving helmet, Amy could see the

Doctor grin.

Then, they swam to an exit where there was a

large grey creature resting on the sea bed. It looked

like some kind of whale. Amy was quite alarmed

when it opened its massive mouth and two of the

Shoal swam inside and rested against the creature's

teeth, standing on what she guessed was its

tongue! Amy pulled a face and stepped back. Not

the Doctor. Oh, no. He just stepped right up and

climbed inside!

At first Amy was not at all keen to get inside

the whale. Not after the last one! She shivered as

she remembered Starship UK and being in the

belly of the Star Whale. And she knew that you

didn't escape without a lot of fuss and probably

some whale sick...

The amazing thing was that although the whale

looked grey from out there, inside you could see

through its skin. It was like tinted glass windows in

a car. The animal rose from the sand and started

swimming. There were two low swimmers moving

along beside the whale in what looked like metal

armour. Amy was reminded of the US President's

limo driving through the streets with a police

motorcycle escort.

As the whale made its way through the city,

Amy looked out through the transparent skin.

She thought that Reef was beautiful. There was

so much colour and life here. It was like Piccadilly

Circus in London or Times Square in New York.

There were so many creatures going about their

lives and all the seaweed and coral made it look

really mind-blowing. She could see why the Doctor

had smiled at the thought of exploring this place

and she couldn't help doing the same.

The Doctor was chatting to the Shoal's leader.

His machine translated whatever he said into the

flashing lights and she guessed the Doctor had

already picked up the Shoal language so he could

understand what they were saying. It was a bit like

listening to a friend on a mobile phone.

He had managed to work out the Shoal's

individual names, too. He leant over to Amy.

'The leader of the Shoal is called Darkin and the

younger Shoaly is his son. His name is Makron.'

Finally they slowed down as the whale

approached a large, round orange building with

seaweed all over its roof.

'So that's your Assembly building?' the Doctor

asked. 'Look, Amy!'

Amy looked. It looked like a pineapple to her. A

pineapple under the sea! She laughed. 'Spongebob!'

she said.

The Doctor frowned. 'What are you talking

about, Pond?'

Amy shook her head. 'Never mind,' she said.

Then she realised that she might have been a bit

rude to the Shoal. 'It looks very nice.' She smiled

warmly at Makron whose skin flushed a light pink

colour. Perhaps he was blushing? Amy doubted it.

The whale creature came to a stop in a large

alcove below the Assembly building. Amy swam out

of the whale's mouth and straight into the orange

corridors of the Assembly building. The Doctor

followed her with Darkin and Makron. The guards

had vanished, but Amy supposed they must be

trusted now. The Doctor had that effect on people.

As they emerged into a bigger entrance hall, the

ugliest fish Amy had ever seen swam up to them,

surrounded by twenty more low swimmers. They

all had their forked weapons out and were not just

pointing them at Amy and the Doctor but also at

Makron and Darkin.

The Doctor grimaced as the ugly fish and

Darkin pulsed and flashed at each other. He turned

to Amy and whispered, 'Oh dear. I think this is not

going to end well. This chap's an admiral and he is

saying that the Assembly have betrayed him. That

we are aliens and that we are dangerous.'

'Well that's not true!' Amy said. This attracted

the attention of Admiral Ugly. He swam right up to

her and touched her diving helmet with his glowing

green lure. There was a sizzle of electricity and

Amy felt that the world was swimming - not her.

She watched in a daze as the Doctor stepped up to

the big fish and started talking to him very loudly.

Then she fainted and the world went black.

Rory looked at the gun Fleming was holding.

Was he serious? Rory had never really liked him

but what was he doing? To be honest, Rory didn't

understand and, it seemed, neither did Captain

Clancy.

'So tell me! What is going on here?' she shouted.

Fleming smiled. 'You were told that we've

never been to this planet before, weren't you?'

'Yes.' Clancy looked confused.

'That's not quite true,' Fleming said. 'I have

been to this planet before. I came here two years

ago with another team.' He stopped smiling.

'Things went wrong.'

Rory looked at the security officer and suddenly

he knew what had happened. 'You came here and

you took some of those creatures' eggs. And now

they're angry. That's why they're attacking us.'

'We... we didn't know they were intelligent,'

Fleming said. At first we just thought they were

animals.' He paused. They are animals!' he said.

'Now, get on the radio, Captain. We need to haul

a pump up here with a long enough pipe to reach

back to the sub.'

'But why?' Clancy looked at Fleming. She had

tears in her eyes. Rory felt both angry and sick at

the same time.

'It's what the eggs are made of,' Fleming said.

When they decompose they create amazing

amounts of power. I've never seen anything like

it. We tested them aboard the old submarine.

The Marine Adventurer, it was called.' He laughed

a bitter laugh. 'Some adventure. They all died.

Except me and Angela Morton.'

'But what do you need them for?' Clancy asked.

'We've got all sorts of fuel. We don't need this...'

She waved a hand at the polluted lake.

'You don't understand,' Fleming said. 'Just one

of these things could power a starship for a week.

It would make anyone a fortune.'

'So you poisoned the water here?' asked Rory

through gritted teeth. 'This is where those fish

grow up. This is their nursery.'

Fleming pointed his gun at Rory. 'Stay back,

nursemaid!' he said. Then he turned to Clancy. 'I

said, get on the radio, Captain. Do it!'

While Clancy radioed The Ocean Explorer,

Fleming made Rory sit on the ground in front of

the lake. The security officer bent down to put a

pair of handcuffs on him and stood up again.

'I'll need to take these off to climb back down,'

Rory pointed out.

'Who says you're going back down?'

Amy awoke to find that she was back on the sandy

floor of the cell. She was still wearing the orange

diving suit, but her helmet was gone. She lifted

her head and brushed off a patch of sand that

had stuck to her face. Then she looked round the

familiar cell. The Doctor was standing by the door.

Amy could just see a low swimmer through the

glass window.

'What happened?' she asked.

'The admiral took a dislike to you,' the Doctor

said, coming over to squat next to Amy. He placed

his hand gently on her forehead, then he pulled

down the eyelid on her left eye and stared at it.

Finally he stuck his tongue out. Amy did the same.

'Good.' The Doctor stood up.

'Admiral?' asked Amy. 'What did he do, though?'

'He stunned you with his lure — the special type

of fin that sticks out from a low swimmer's head.'

'The green, glowing thing?'

The Doctor nodded. 'And he's an admiral, yes.

Admiral Icktheus: the most senior officer in the

Shoal's Navy. He's taken over. We're all prisoners.

Me, you, Darkin and most of the other Governors,

too. Makron managed to get away.'

'After all our work?' she cried. 'We'll never get

away now!'

'We will get away. We must.' The Doctor

lowered his voice. 'If we don't, the admiral is going

to execute us.'

'If he wants us dead, why are we in a cell?' Amy

was angry now.

'He wants a public execution - he wants to

show everyone that we are bad aliens and that he

is doing a good job.'

'And I presume your coloured light machine

won't get us out of this?'

'I think not,' the Doctor whispered. 'But I do

still have this!' He showed Amy that he was holding

the sonic screwdriver in his right hand.

'Great. So what are we waiting for? Let's get out

of here!' She stood up and came over to the door.

'It's not that easy,' the Doctor said. 'There is

a large low swimmer out there armed with a very

nasty looking fork.'

As he spoke the very large low swimmer

suddenly fell back against the window and slid

down it until his head vanished from view. A few

seconds later, Makron's face appeared. He was

waving his owned pronged weapon and had the

Doctor's translation device in his other hand.

The Doctor grinned and immediately pointed

the sonic screwdriver at the door. After a few

seconds' buzzing, the lock clicked open and the

Doctor and Amy hurried out of the cell, stepping

over the sleeping body of the low swimmer.

Makron passed the translator to the Doctor and

they quickly started talking.

'You need to come with me. Now!' Makron

said via the translator.

They ran down the short corridor in the

opposite direction they had taken earlier. Another

low swimmer was lying on the floor. Amy guessed

Makron must have already knocked him out. In

the wall was a stone door. As the Shoaly pressed

a button, it slid back to reveal what looked like a

cupboard. Then she saw that there was another

door opposite her.

'What's this?' she asked.

'Waterlock,' the Doctor replied. He took her

arm and guided her inside the small chamber. 'Like

an airlock, but for water.'

Amy looked at him and shrugged. 'What does

that mean?'

Makron had now joined them in the tiny room

and the first door was closing.

'It means that when that door closes, the

chamber will fill with water,' the machine translated.

'Then the second door will open and we'll be able

to swim out.'

'But we haven't got our helmets! We'll drown!'

exclaimed Amy. Then she squealed as she noticed

that water was already lapping at her ankles and

rising fast.

'Don't worry!' the Doctor said, pinching his

nose. 'Just hold your breath!'

Before Amy could ask another question, the

water level had reached her neck and she took a

huge gulp of air before the water finally rose above

her head, filling the room. Then, the second door

opened.

Looking through water without goggles was

like looking at a photo that was out of focus.

Everything was hazy, but Amy could definitely

see that beyond the door was a larger area with a

line of bright lights set into the walls. They were

all shining on a big, yellow object floating in the

middle of the space.

The Doctor tugged at her sleeve and they

started swimming towards the large, yellow blob.

As they got nearer, Amy realised that it was The

Verne, the little submersible they had taken from

The Ocean Explorer. The Doctor helped her in

to the airlock on top of the sub and closed the

hatch on her. Amy was now bursting to breathe.

Her cheeks were puffed out and she needed air

urgently. Just when she thought she couldn't bear

it any more, the water in the airlock was sucked

away and she gasped in big mouthfuls of air.

Then she remembered that the Doctor was

waiting in the water. Quickly, she undid the lock on

the inner door and climbed down into The Verne's

cockpit. Her diving suit was full of water but she

ignored the discomfort. Instead, she slammed the

hatch shut and spun the handle that locked it.

Amy listened as the Doctor opened the outer

hatch with a dull thud. This was followed by

another thud as he closed it, and then a hissing

sound as the airlock drained the water away. Then

the handle on the inner hatch turned and the

Doctor climbed down.

He looked fine. Amy was still breathing hard,

grateful for the oxygen. The Doctor looked like

he'd just come in out of a heavy rain shower. He

smiled and closed the little round door again.

'Can we get out of here now?' Amy slumped

into one of the pilot's chairs.

'Don't forget about Makron.' The Doctor

waited for the airlock to go through its process

and then the Shoaly was in the small cockpit with

them. It was quite cramped, but soon the three

of them were arranged comfortably: the Doctor

and Amy in the pilots' seats and Makron crouched

behind them.

'Hang on,' said Amy. 'Fish. Sorry. Shoalys. How

do you survive out of water? I thought that sea

creatures die out of water?'

'Most do,' Makron said. We are more advanced

than most fish. We can live in air for several hours.'

'Very useful,' the Doctor said. 'Now let's go!'

He pressed the starter button on the control

panel before him. The Verne gave a small jerk and

then started motoring away from the brightly-lit

area, down a dark tunnel.

The pump at the top of the water volcano was

making a noise like a dentist's suction tube.

Fleming had forced Captain Clancy and Rory to

lower two thick cables from the cliff edge to the

submarine below. Then the security officer had

made them pull the lines back up. It was very

hard work and they were both sweating a lot by

the time the equipment appeared over the rim of

the crater.

Fleming set up the machinery while Clancy and

Rory lowered the cables again, this time to bring

up the thick pipe that would take the discarded egg

sacks down to the engines of The Ocean Explorer.

'What are you going to do when you've refuelled

the sub?' asked Rory

'Be quiet,' Fleming spat. He returned his

attention to the pump and made sure that it was

working properly. 'We don't need much,' he called

to Clancy. Then he stood up and walked to the

cliff edge. He peered down into the misty cloud.

'They're pretty powerful. Like I said, one egg

pod can power a spaceship. But these have been

lying around for ages. We'll have to see what we

can get out of them. Before that, we need to get

back down.'

Fleming stood back from the edge and then

turned round to look at Rory. 'And now we've

finished using the winch to bring stuff up, we can

use it to send things down.'

'I can climb,' Rory protested. He didn't want

to be winched several thousand feet. 'If I'm going

down, that is.'

'What are you talking about?' Fleming asked.

'You said I wasn't going back,' Rory replied.

Fleming pulled Rory to his feet and ran the

end of the cable that was connected to the winch

through his prisoner's climbing harness. He then

yanked Rory to the edge of the crater.

'Unfortunately, I need you,' Fleming said.

'You're the only one who can make Angela better.

So you've got to go back down.'

Rory peered over the side. It certainly was a

very long way down. Perhaps it was better to travel

by winch, after all. He looked back and saw that

although the cable was attached to the winch, there

was a loose pile of it that hadn't been fed back on

the machine.

'Hang on,' Rory said. You need to...'

'We need to get down in a hurry,' Fleming

whispered in his ear. 'You'd better hope the cable

is strong enough to take the strain.'

Rory opened his mouth to argue, but Fleming

put a large hand in the middle of his back and

pushed. Rory found himself falling through the

air with the cable streaming out above him. Rory

screamed as he fell.

Makron helped guide the Doctor and Amy through

the secret tunnel and out into the open sea beyond

Reef. While Amy enjoyed the new sights and the

different beings she met while travelling with the

Doctor, she was glad they were heading back to

The Ocean Explorer.

'What do you think's been happening on the

sub?' Amy asked.

'I'm not sure,' the Doctor said. He was

concentrating on the sub's controls.

'Rory's probably been having a whale of a

time!' she joked.

The Doctor looked up. 'What?' he asked. 'Oh

yes. "Whale". Very good, Pond!'

Then one of the instruments on the control

panel began to buzz.

'It's a signal,' the Doctor said. 'It's very weak

but it might be the submarine!'

He set the engines to go as fast as they could.

As they sped along, the Doctor asked Makron

about his people.

'Tell me, Makron, how do your people work

with electricity under water? Usually the two don't

mix very well!'

The translator flashed and the computer voice

said: 'You humans have blood running through

your veins. The Shoal have blood, but we also

have electricity in our bodies. Almost all the sea

creatures on Hydron do.'

'So it's like a natural thing?' Amy asked.

'Yes. We can feed on it and use it before we

even hatch from our eggs.'

'So the Shoal lay eggs,' the Doctor said. 'Of

course you do. Sorry.'

'Like a chicken!' Amy said.

The Doctor shushed her. 'Chicken's eggs have

a yolk which is full of food for the baby chick to

feed on. The Shoal eggs don't have a yolk. Instead

they have some form of electrical charge stored in

the roe somehow.'

'We need very large amounts of energy to

survive while we are in our eggs.'

'And that's how the low swimmers can

electrocute people with their lures?'

'That's right,' Makron said. 'The low swimmers

can focus the electricity in their lures and use it as

a weapon, but the high and medium swimmers can

only use it to power torches or other items that

need electricity when we touch them.'

'Once a year, all members of the Shoal who

want to have children swim to the spawning

grounds,' Makron explained through the Doctor's

translator. 'There are many Founts on Hydron, but

different ones are used each year depending on the

moons and the tides.'

While they were talking, The Verne was homing

in on the signal the Doctor had picked up when

they left Reef. A red warning light began to flash

on the control panel telling them they were getting

closer to whatever was sending the signal.

While the Doctor attended to the controls, Amy

thought she had better continue the conversation

to find out all they could about the Shoal.

'What's a Fount?' she asked.

'A Fount is an amazing sea mountain,' Makron

told her. 'It rises into the air as high as the sea is

deep. At the top are pools of the purest water.'

The Doctor's hands flowed across the controls

as if he had been driving submersibles his whole

life. Then he turned back to Makron. 'Your whole

culture is based on electricity, even though you live

underwater!' the Doctor said. And how quickly do

the Shoal grow once the eggs have been laid?'

'We hatch in a matter of days,' Makron said.

'We are almost fully grown then. We can swim and

eat normally. We don't need the electricity to feed

on any more. But we have changed from needing

fresh water to live in to needing salt water.'

'Aha!' the Doctor said. 'Just like salmon on

Earth. They swim up river from the sea and lay

their eggs.' He chuckled. 'This mad old universe!'

'We have to leave the Founts as soon as we can,

otherwise we'd die. We have to go down the Drops!'

Before Amy could ask what the Drops were, the

buzzing on the control panel became a bleeping

The Doctor had brought the submersible to the

surface of the sea and gentle waves lapped at the

view screen in front of the pilots' seats. Twenty

metres away was a small, grey object that was

smaller than The Verne.

'What's that?' Amy asked. It certainly wasn't

The Ocean Explorer.

'I would say it is an emergency buoy of some

kind,' the Doctor said. 'They probably launched it

when we went missing. I wonder why they didn't

wait for us?'

Makron flashed turquoise and green. 'They

were attacked by the low swimmers,' the machine

translated.

'What?' Amy looked shocked.

'My father gave Admiral Icktheus permission

to give the crew aboard The Ocean Explorer a virus,'

Makron explained.

The Doctor did not look pleased. 'Why did he

do that?' he asked.

'Because the last time there was a submarine

here, they attacked us. They stole our children!'

Makron flashed an angry red.

'Tell me what happened,' the Doctor said. 'I

want to know everything'

The Doctor and Amy sat and listened as Makron

told them what had happened when the humans

had come to his planet before.

'About a year ago there were visitors to my

planet,' Makron said. 'We weren't stupid enough

to think that we were the only living things in the

galaxy, but it was a bit of a shock. Everything

about the aliens surprised us.'

'First contact with another species is always

difficult,' the Doctor said. Amy nodded. Look at

what happened between the humans and Silurians

on her world!

'They looked different to us and they had big

machines that they used for travelling under water.

At first we called them the "Hurry"! That's

because they all wore orange when they were outside

their submarine. We thought that these creatures had

orange skin! We had no idea that they needed clothes

to swim under the water and that, in fact, each one was

a slightly different colour of white or pink or brown.'

'Hurry is a good word for humans,' the Doctor

said. Always rushing into things.'

'The most surprising thing about them was that

they didn't even notice us. Our scientists had seen

their ship above our planet and then they dropped

an underwater travel machine into the sea.'

'A submarine,' Amy clarified.

'Is that what they call it?' asked Makron. 'Well,

we learned about this 'submarine' and we were

very curious. We wanted to know who they were

and what they wanted. But we were scared. We

wanted to have a look first, to see what these new

people might be like.'

'So you followed the submarine?' the

Doctor asked.

Makron nodded. 'Yes. They were exploring

and we were worried. At that time of year it was

spawning season. A lot of the Shoal were making

their way to the Founts. The movement of so

many large creatures couldn't be hidden, though.

The humans noticed and followed the Shoalys.

'I bet Admiral Icktheus was very cross!' Amy

said. 'He seems the type!'

'My father wanted us to go to the humans and

tell them that the Founts were sacred. Only the

grown-up Shoalys can go there and they only get to

go once in their lifetimes. It's a really special time of

year. We have feasts and there are fun things to do.'

'Sort of like Christmas,' Amy said. She was

shocked by Makron's story. She thought this sort

of thing just didn't happen anymore.

'Exactly,' the Doctor replied. 'Then what

happened?'

'Icktheus convinced the Assembly that they

should attack the humans to show them that they

were doing something wrong. There was a battle

between the low swimmers and the humans.'

Makron paused. His mouth opened and closed

several times as if he was uncomfortable.

The Doctor bowed his head. 'I am sorry if this

is difficult,' he said.

Makron's eyes closed. 'The humans did

something terrible,' he said. 'I don't know how they

did it but they poisoned the water of the Fount. The

whole Assembly wanted the humans dead then. So

the low swimmers attacked the submarine.'

'And it sank,' the Doctor said. 'Was everyone

aboard killed?'

'There weren't any onboard,' Makron said.

'They had all gone to the Fount,' Makron replied.

'I was right!' the Doctor sighed. 'The humans

were hiding something. I don't know if Captain

Clancy is involved but Mister Fleming definitely

knows about this previous mission.'

'Not long after the spaceship took the surviving

humans away and we never saw them again - until

now.'

The Doctor sat back in the pilot's chair, shaking

his head. Amy wiped a tear from her cheek.

Makron looked sad.

'Both sides are at fault,' the Doctor said.

'However, the humans' lack of respect for your

planet and people is worse than your desire to

defend yourselves.'

He turned back to the controls and started

getting the submersible ready to dive.

'Where are we going?' Amy asked.

'We need to stop this becoming a full scale war,'

the Doctor said. 'The Shoal - or at least Admiral

Icktheus and his low swimmers — are following

The Ocean Explorer. If they manage to catch up

with the submarine before we do, they will sink it

and kill everyone onboard.'

He set the final controls and pushed the square

steering wheel forward, angling the submersible

down. There was a grim expression on his face.

Amy recognised it as determination.

'But what can we do in this little thing?' Amy

made a circle in the air with her finger to indicate

The Verne's tiny interior.

'Don't worry about that,' the Doctor replied.

His mouth was showing a hint of smile now. 'I

have a plan...'

The refuelling was complete and The Ocean

Explorer was already miles away from the polluted

Fount. Rory was back in the medical bay looking

after the sick, although now he had one of Mister

Fleming's armed security guards standing over him

all the time.

He had hated being pushed from the cliff top.

The fall must have taken only a few seconds but

it seemed to Rory that it had taken forever. Just

when he thought he was going to faint from fear,

the cable snapped tight and he bounced up again.

He supposed it was a bit like making an unplanned

bungee jump.

It had only taken half an hour for the winch to

lower him the few thousand feet to the submarine

below. All that time Rory had been thinking. He

was wondering how the Doctor and Amy were

doing and where they could be. He hoped he

would see them again soon. He missed Amy but

he knew she was safe with the Doctor.

He also thought about Mister Fleming and why

he wanted to take the fish creatures' egg cases. He

knew it was for money, but he was shocked that

some people would do anything to be rich. Rory

would always rather have a clear conscience than

have a lot of money. He couldn't live with himself

if he did something as bad as Fleming had.

Before he and Captain Clancy had returned

to the sub, Fleming had threatened to kill them

both - and the rest of the crew if Clancy didn't do

exactly what Fleming wanted.

Fleming forced Rory down the ladder to the

control room where two more of the security

guards stood with their guns held at the ready.

'This man is under arrest,' Fleming said. 'Take

him to the medical bay and watch him. If he does

anything suspicious shoot him.'

Rory was pushed down the submarine's

corridors at gunpoint and eventually reached the

medical bay. Here, the guard stood outside the

door with his gun held tightly across his chest.

'Welcome back,' said MARVE.

'Hello, MARVE,' Rory replied. 'Did you miss

me?'

'No.' The robot's two camera eyes looked at

Rory without emotion. Then the screen under the

eyes showed a smile. 'Just kidding!'

'Ha, ha,' said Rory. 'So, what's new?'

'There has been a mutiny and Mister Fleming's

guards have taken over the submarine.'

Rory looked at the robot. 'Yeah,' he said.

'Thanks for that,' and he sank down into one of

the plastic chairs by the table.

At the front of The Ocean Explorer, Jane Clancy

was sitting in a chair that belonged to one of the

control room's crew. Fleming was sitting in her

command chair and she didn't like that.

The moment the submarine had dived

underwater again, Fleming had ordered that one of

the eggs be brought to the control room. Now it

sat next to him, bobbing in its glass tube. It seemed

to be pressing itself against the side of its container

like a child staring through a toy shop window.

'Why is it doing that?' asked Clancy.

Fleming looked over at her. 'The eggs like being

in a group, so it always points towards the largest

number.'

'You're using it as a tracker?'

You saw the lake. It was stagnant, dead. They

must be using a new water volcano and this thing

will tell me how to find it.'

Clancy sighed. 'That's why you needed the eggs

on-board.'

She shook her head. She was powerless. There

was nothing she could do to stop this madman.

But at least she could try to find out the whole

story.

'Why wasn't I told about the other submarine?'

she asked. 'Why did the company hide this from me

and my crew?'

'Because I told them to,' he said.

'Why would they do what you told them?' Clancy

frowned. Fleming stood up and came over to the

former captain. He bent down and whispered in

her ear. Jane shuddered.

'I was the only one who came back from

Hydron,' he said. 'I could tell them anything I

liked. Who else could they ask to check that what I

said was the truth?'

Clancy's eyes widened. 'You lied to them?' she

breathed.

'I told them that the whole expedition had been

a disaster. I told them that there were people left

behind on the other submarine.'

'What?' Clancy was confused.

'I wasn't going to let the Company know about

the fish eggs,' Fleming said. 'Not when I could

come and take them for myself. So I told them

that the fish creatures had attacked the submarine

and we'd been forced to leave them and return to

Earth.'

Clancy blinked at the madman. 'I get it,' she

said. 'There's no way the Company would tell

anyone that that had happened! The government

would have closed them down.'

'You got it,' Fleming said. 'So I suggested

they mount another mission with a cover story. I

told them we could say there were useful mineral

deposits here. I told them that when we got here

I would reveal the real secret mission - to rescue

the survivors.'

'Very clever,' Clancy said. 'All so you can get

your hands on the eggs.' She shook her head,

disgusted. 'And how do you plan to get away with

it?'she asked.

He smiled and walked back to the command

chair and patted the glass tube with the pod inside.

'These egg cases are going to make me rich,' he

said. 'All I need to do is find them. And when I do,

I'm going to take the whole lot with me.'

'But what about the baby fish inside?'

'I'm not going to wait for them to hatch!'

laughed Fleming. 'In case you've forgotten, we've

got a whole ocean of fish creatures after us. We

won't have time to stop.'

'But the baby fish...' gasped Clancy. 'They'll be

killed.'

'So what?' Fleming said. His eyes became misty

as if he was imaging himself rolling in money.

'Last time we only managed to get five. This time

we'll get the whole lake full! Thousands of them.

Thousands!'

The small yellow submersible moved slowly

through the dark waters at the base of the undersea

cliffs. The various lights on its hull shone into the

gloom, picking out the volcanic rocks and nervous

creatures that lived there.

Inside the cockpit, a steady beeping told the

three people inside that the sub was dangerously

close to the floor of the ocean and in danger of

crashing into it. The Doctor ignored the sound

and concentrated on the controls.

He was gently steering The Verne towards

something that the sonar showed up as a large

bump on the seabed. A readout on the control panel

displayed how close they were to the 'contact'.

Amy looked at the green, digital display. It read

8.73 metres. Everyone was holding their breath.

Even the Doctor was biting his lip.

Makron leaned forward and flashed a question.

'Will we be able to get onboard?'

The Doctor didn't answer at first. He was still

concentrating. The green numbers flicked down

and down. 5.68, 5.03...

'If it looks okay...' The Doctor moved the

position of the outside light. Suddenly a great big

grey figure filled the screens. 'There she is!' he

laughed and clapped his hands.

Amy couldn't help smiling, too.

The Verne moved forward, over the sunken wreck

of a submarine. It was The Marine Adventurer, the

one that the Shoal had sunk when the humans had

last visited Hydron.

'She's still airtight,' the Doctor said, reading a

computer screen.

'What does that mean?' asked Amy.

'It means that the submarine still might be

working!'

Rory was hunched over a microscope, peering

down at the image of the virus. With nothing

he could do to escape, Rory had decided to double

check MARVE's test results to see if there really

was no cure for the virus. As far as he could see the

robot had been right. They could give the patients

medicines and antibiotics, but all this did was bring

down their temperatures.

Suddenly, he felt the deck of the submarine tilt.

He looked down at his feet. They were surfacing!

He stood up, turned and went to the door. The

security guard was standing opposite him in the

corridor. He looked at Rory without expression.

'What's happening?' Rory asked.

'We must have reached the next water volcano,'

the guard said. 'Captain Fleming is bringing the

sub up so that we can radio the drop ship.'

'Why can't you just radio underwater?'

'You can't use a radio underwater. It's like being

underground. The signal can't get through. You

need to have an aerial on the surface.'

Rory looked at him and then his eyebrows

lowered. 'Hang on. Drop ship? You mean The

Cosmic Rover?'

The guard nodded.

As The Ocean Explorers periscope broke the surface

of the purple sea, it left a v-shape of bubbles

behind it. Then, bit by bit, the tower emerged

from the water, before finally, the rest of the deck

emerged, ploughing through the waves. The hatch

on top of the tower opened and Fleming climbed

out onto the slippery metal.

He looked out over the rail at the mountain

that lay ahead of the sub. It was different from the

last one. The rock was a different colour - more

brown than grey. He brought a pair of binoculars

to his eyes for a better look and saw that there was

even a more level piece of land at the edge of the

sea.

It didn't matter. His plan didn't involve

climbing up the cliffs. Not this time. Instead, he

would radio the spaceship in orbit above them.

The automatic pilot would bring the ship down

into the atmosphere of Hydron and collect The

Ocean Explorer in its huge metal clamps. Then it

could lift the sub over the top of the mountain

and drop it in the freshwater lake at the summit.

This might kill a few of the fish creatures, but that

didn't matter to him.

He was going to kill them all anyway with The

Cosmic Rover's lasers. Then he could collect all the

eggs and leave this stupid, purple planet forever.

He'd sell the eggs to the Company and retire to

Catrigan Nova with its whirlpools of gold. Easy.

Without warning, a hundred low swimmers

appeared in the water about a kilometre to the right,

off the starboard bow. With them, they seemed to

have a dozen or so larger fish. Fleming lowered the

binoculars. Whatever they had, he didn't care. This

time, he was ready for them. This time, it would be

them sinking to the bottom of the sea.

'Have you signalled the drop ship?' he asked,

speaking into his radio.

'Yes, Sir,' a voice crackled back.

'Good. Then arm the torpedoes!' He jumped

down through the hatch and closed the doorway

above him. 'And prepare the poison!' he shouted.

He slid down the ladder and came to a halt in

the control room.

'We have 124 contacts, Mister Fleming,' one of

the crew reported. 'They're maintaining a distance

of 800 metres.'

'Staying put, eh?' Fleming laughed. 'Then they'll

be sitting targets.'

He sat down in the command chair and

listened as the crew reported the situation, and the

submarine dipped beneath the water once more.

'Contacts now 300 metres.'

'Fire the forward torpedoes! All tubes!'

bellowed Fleming.

Another of the crew in black coveralls pressed

some buttons and six small lights on his panel lit

up. 'Six tubes armed and ready,' the woman said.

'Wait!'Jane Clancy shouted. She had to try one

last time. 'Please don't do this. You'll be starting a

war with those creatures.'

Fleming looked at her. His face was red with

anger. 'How dare you challenge me?' he screamed.

He jumped up from his chair and grabbed the

nearest armed guard. He dragged the unfortunate

crewman over to where Jane was sitting. 'I am

relieving Captain Clancy of her command. If she

does that again — shoot her!'

He marched forward and stood right in front of

the screens and next to the female guard. With a brief

look of defiance at Clancy, Fleming pressed each of

the lights on the torpedo control panel in turn.

'Fire!' he hissed.

WHOOOSH!

The torpedoes left the nose of the submarine

and disappeared into the darkness, leaving a cloud

of bubbles.

Ping.

The sonar sounded as the soundwaves reflected

from the underwater missiles.

Ping-ping-ping.

The pings became faster as the torpedoes got

closer to their targets. Fleming clenched his fist.

He knew the first weapon would strike home any

second.

Ping-ping-ping-pi...

The sonar went silent.

'What's going on?' Fleming looked down at the

woman sitting at the torpedo control panel.

'The torpedoes have been...' she shrugged,

They've been switched off, Sir.'

'Switched off?' Fleming was about to start

shouting again, but then something hit the

submarine. The impact threw Fleming forward

and he hit his head on the corner of the screen.

He sat down on the floor and put his hand to his

head. When he took it away his fingers had blood

on them.

'Get that nurse boy up here,' he said, looking at

his hand. Then he looked up as if he was seeing the

control room for the first time. A guard jumped

forward and helped Fleming to his feet. 'What hit

us?' Fleming asked.

The sonar operator hesitated.

'Well?' demanded Fleming.

'The computer says it was another submarine,

Sir.'

'Impossible! The fish creatures must have a

device that reflects sonar images or something.'

Fleming smiled. A trickle of blood came down

his forehead and caught in his eyebrow. 'It doesn't

matter what they have. Is the poison ready?'

'Yes, Sir. The tanks have been filled with

7D-24.'

'But that will kill everything closer than 100

metres to the ship almost instantly!' Clancy said.

Rory arrived in the control room with his guard.

He looked at Fleming and his bleeding head.

'Exactly!' Fleming looked at Jane with a shark-

like grin. Then he placed a hand on the shoulder

of his crewman operating the water tanks. 'Release

the poison!'

CREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK...

An ear-piercing noise filled the submarine and

made Rory's teeth feel strange. It was a really loud,

high-pitched buzzing as if there were a million

angry bees behind the sub's walls.

'I WOULDN'T DO THAT IF I WERE YOU!'

Everyone looked about. The voice had come

from all around them.

'Who is that?' shouted Fleming.

Rory smiled, walked forward and spoke to the

room as if he was talking to an invisible magic

creature.

'Hello, Doctor!' he said.

'HELLO, RORY!' the voice boomed back.

Rory smiled the biggest smile.

'Hello, Amy!' Rory called.

'The Doctor? But he's dead,' Fleming said.

'LIKE MOST OF MY ENEMIES, YOU'VE

DISCOVERED I'M A BIT DIFFICULT TO

KILL!' There was a sort of muffled sound of the

Doctor talking to someone else.

The screen at the front of the control room

flickered and then filled with the Doctor's face.

'Is that better?' he asked. 'Not so loud?'

'I am the captain of this submarine,' Fleming

screamed at the Doctor's face.

'No, you're not,' the Doctor replied. 'Jane

Clancy is.'

Jane lifted her chin and smiled.

'You have no authority here, Doctor!' Fleming

yelled.

'Oh, stop shouting,' the Doctor said. 'I have

every right to replace you with a frog if I want to,

and don't think I'm not tempted. But Captain Jane

is a good woman and, right now, I need her.'

'I thought we were under attack,' Rory said.

'Ah well, I hooked up the sonic screwdriver to

this submarine's sonar system and deployed what

they call a "towed array" — that's a whole load of

microphones basically. But I turned them into

speakers. Anyway, when I switched it to maximum,

it knocked out all the low swimmers.'

'But The Verne doesn't have a towed array,' said

Jane, standing up.

'That's because I'm not on The Verne!' The

Doctor's smile filled the screen. 'I'm on The Marine

Adventurer!' For a moment the picture changed

to that of the large, grey submarine — the mirror

image of its sister ship, The Ocean Explorer.

'That's impossible,' breathed Fleming.

Rory looked at him. 'Yeah,' he said. 'The

Doctor's like that!'

'But we don't have very much time before the

low swimmers wake up with nasty headaches and

probably in very bad moods!' The Doctor peered

at them all and then he smiled again. 'But I'm sure

we can sort everything out.'

'What do you need us to do?' asked Jane.

'Lock him up for a start,' the Doctor stabbed a

finger at the screen. He was pointing at Fleming.

'With pleasure,' said Captain Jane. She marched

up to Fleming and then turned to a pair of guards.

'If you know what's good for you, you will do what

I say and put this man in the brig. He is no longer

an officer on this ship nor is he head of security.'

The two security guards looked at one another

and then jumped forward. They each grabbed an

arm and took Fleming away.

'Right,' the Doctor said. 'Don't forget that

Doctor Angela Morton will need arresting as soon

as she recovers. Now! I'd like some of the crew

of The Ocean Explorer to go with Makron here.

He needs to rescue his father and the rest of the

Shoal from Admiral Icktheus.' He paused. 'You

won't know what I'm talking about, but let's join

the submarines and have a quick chat.'

'How do we join up the subs?' Rory asked.

'I don't know, Rory,' the Doctor said. 'Have you

got any boat ties?' His smile became even wider

than normal. 'Boat ties are cool!'

Half an hour later, they were all standing in the

control room, preparing for their final mission.

Once the submarines had surfaced, the crew had

attached them together using ropes that they were

now calling 'boat ties'. The Doctor and Amy

had come aboard and some crewmembers were

already with Makron and had swapped over to The

Marine Adventurer, which was preparing to go on

its rescue mission to Reef.

The Doctor sat with Amy, opposite Rory and

Captain Jane. He was explaining what they were

about to do. 'We need to get up to the freshwater

lake on top of the Fount - the water volcano. We

need to return the eggs aboard this submarine to

their rightful place.'

'Fleming has sent a message to our spaceship,'

Jane explained. 'He was going to use it to pick up

the sub and drop it at the top of the mountain. It'll

be here in about ninety minutes.'

'That's good,' the Doctor replied. We'll need to

be leaving soon anyway. But we can't be dropped

in the lake; that would kill any Shoalys in the way.'

The Doctor operated a control and the

viewscreen flicked to show a diagram of the water

volcano. Rory could see on it that the mountain

was hollow. It was a bit like a basin made of stone

with the lake of water at the top. The sides of the

mountain came down below the level of the sea

and then flattened to become the seabed.

'What's that?' Rory asked, bending forward. He

pointed at a line that ran from the ocean floor right

up to the bottom of the pool.

'I'm glad you asked that,' the Doctor said.

'Because that is where we need to take this

submarine up to, so we can get the eggs back to

their nursery.'

'We have to take The Verne up there? It looks

very small,' said Captain Clancy.

Amy shook her head. 'We can't fit all the eggs

in there.' She frowned. 'We have to go in this one.'

'You want to pilot The Ocean Explorer up

through those narrow caves?'Jane shook her head.

We can't do that. We'll never fit.'

'We have to try,' the Doctor said. 'Don't worry,

I'll be here to help.' Then he leaned forward. 'One

more thing.'

'Yes?'

'By the time we get going, the low swimmers

will be waking up, so they'll probably be following

us, trying to stop us.'

'We'd better get started, then,' Captain Jane

said.

The Doctor jumped forward and kissed her

cheek. 'Thank you,' he said.

Jane blushed and then clicked on the viewscreen.

An image of Makron appeared. He was standing

next to a crewman with a blue uniform. 'How are

we doing with The Marine Adventurer?' she asked.

'Casting off now, ma'am,' the crewman said.

'Keep hold of that translator, Makron!' the

Doctor said.

'I will,' the Shoaly replied.

'And don't forget our plan!'

'No, Doctor, I won't. As soon as I have freed

my dad, I'll send help!'

'We might well need it. I have a feeling that

Admiral Icktheus won't be in a forgiving mood.'

Amy heard a couple of clunks as the two

submarines separated once more.

'Good luck!' Makron said, glowing turquoise

and yellow.

'And to you!' Amy called.

The screen went blank and the Doctor sat

down in one of the sub's pilot seats.

Because there were more crew aboard the

other submarine now, the Doctor, Amy and Rory

would all have to help steer and control The Ocean

Explorer. Rory sat in the one of the pilot's seats

while the Doctor and Amy went over to sit at the

master control panel.

'All ready?' Captain Jane asked.

Rory started to say 'Geronim...'

'Don't say it!' The Doctor looked at him sternly.

Then he turned round and muttered, That's my

line.'

Rory nodded. 'Oh. Okay,' he said. 'Um, 'yes',

then!'

The captain issued her orders and the Doctor

and Rory started to steer the submarine down

through the sea. Amy counted off the depth

every time they passed a depth ten metres more

than the last.

As they passed 400 metres, the aft sonar began

to ping quietly. 'Looks like we've got company,'

Amy said.

'The low swimmers are awake and they probably

know where we are,' the Doctor said. 'It won't take

long for them to figure out what we're doing'

'Where's this tunnel entrance?' asked Rory.

'It's deep,' the Doctor said. 'About 630 metres.'

'Don't submarines collapse if they go too far

down?' asked Amy.

'The Ocean Explorer has a crush depth of about

650 metres,' Captain Jane said. 'We should be okay.'

For the next few minutes they dived in silence,

with only the quiet ping of the sonar reminding

them that they were not alone in the murky depths.

Finally, the depth gauge read 627 metres when

the Doctor pointed to something on the screen.

The forward lights played on the seabed and

illuminated a jagged black hole ahead and below.

'Are we really going to fit through that?' asked

Jane. We'd better slow down so we can steer more

easily.'

The Doctor and Rory pulled back on their

wheels and the submarine slowed, nosing forward,

bit by bit, into the underwater tunnel.

'Breathe in!' the Doctor joked. Amy smiled, but

the other two looked very serious. She coughed

and went back to checking the sonar.

'Amy, I need you to monitor the forward sonar

now,' Captain Jane said.

'We'll just have to assume we're being followed,'

the Doctor added.

Amy nodded and switched the sonar controls

so that the alert would sound if the submarine was

too close to the edge of the cave. The sonar would

also be able to map what the tunnel looked like.

'Ah,' said Rory. We might have a problem.'

On the screen, the sonar was showing an

image of the tunnel, sideways on. They could all

see that instead of sloping up, the tunnel seemed

to be heading down. The depth gauge read 638

metres now.

As it passed the crush depth of 650 metres,

the submarine began to creak. Amy looked about

nervously.

'Don't worry,' said Jane. 'When they build these

things they always allow for a bit either way with

the collapse depth.' She didn't sound convinced.

'She'll hold together,' the Doctor said.

There was another menacing creak and a tiny

spurt of water sprayed in Rory's face. He flapped

his arms about. The Doctor dug in his pocket and

pulled out a piece of modelling clay. He reached

across and placed it over the small hole.

The depth reading flicked to 656 meters.

'Do you know what sardines call a submarine?'

'Oh no,' Amy said. 'Not another one of your

jokes.'

'A can of people!'

Rory moaned.

'I just thought that if we can't raise the submarine,

we might raise a smile,' the Doctor explained.

At that moment, the numbers on the depth

gauge changed to 655.

'We're going back up!' Rory said. The screen

showed that the tunnel was indeed rising now.

'Okay,' the Doctor nodded. 'I suggest we get a

move on.'

'Very well,' Clancy said. 'Increase speed. But,

please, don't break my submarine.'

On the screen, the sonar image showed that

the tunnel sloped upwards, becoming steeper and

steeper until it was almost like a lift shaft, pointing

up vertically. Jane ordered that they increase speed

and it felt more like they were in a spaceship or

aeroplane taking off, rather than in a submarine.

As they climbed through the underground

tunnels, the water flowing in the other direction

became faster and faster. This meant that they

had to increase the speed of the submarine, but it

also meant that they didn't have very much time to

react to how the tunnel changed course.

The Ocean Explorer was jolting left and right

and Rory was thrown this way and that in his seat

as the submarine sped up the tunnel.

Every now and then the big metal bulk of the

sub would emerge from one part of the tunnel

into a new section that had air in it as well.

Amy looked at the water as it pounded on the

viewscreen and realised that this is exactly what the

Shoal had to do to reach their spawning ground.

She was amazed by Makron's people and she

hoped they made it out alive and as good friends.

There was a sickening crash as the submarine

broke through the pouring water once more and

smashed into the wall of rock beside it. A jagged

piece of the cliff ripped through the front of the

submarine, missing the Doctor and Rory by less

than a metre. Water poured in through the gash,

and the viewscreens exploded.

Then the engines faltered. The power flickered

on and off. If they didn't make it now, they would

fall back down the waterfall and into the sea far

below. With the hole in the submarine, the control

room would fill with water in a moment and they

would all drown.

The Doctor threw his hand down hard on

the button that controlled the power levels in the

engines. They were trying to switch themselves

off, but he wasn't having it.

'Nooooooooo,' he shouted, his face screwed

up with effort.

As he kept the button pressed down with one

hand, his other was pushing the square control

wheel as far forward as he could - keeping the

submarine at maximum speed.

Then, with a final burst of power, The Ocean

Explorer jumped forward. Rory glimpsed the

purple sky of Hydron through the gaping hole in

the sub's nose. There were in mid air!

'GERONIMO!' the Doctor called as the sub

began to fall back to the water.

The Ocean Explorer crashed into the side of the

crater and swayed from side to side before coming

to stop at a strange angle, like a beached whale.

'So... it's okay for you to say it...' Rory began

to complain.

'Eggs!' the Doctor shouted and ran off

through the control room, heading for the secret

lab. They all raced after him. When they got there,

the Doctor grabbed two of the glass tubes and the

other three took one each.

They staggered through the twisted corridors

of the submarine up to the hatch in the side of the

tower.

'I'm sorry,' the Doctor said to Captain Clancy.

'What for?' she breathed. We made it!'

'I know,' the Doctor unlocked the metal door.

'But I did break your submarine.' He kicked open

the hatch and stepped out into the sunlight.

A hundred low swimmers had surrounded

the crashed ship and had their forked weapons all

pointed at the Doctor.

Admiral Icktheus stepped forward and his skin

pulsed angrily.

'Kill the humans!'

I don't think you want to do that, Admiral,' the

Doctor replied.

Icktheus stared in horror at what the Doctor

was holding. He recognised the small, dark balls

in the glass tubes instantly.

'Lower your weapons!' he ordered his

commandos. ' He has the roe!'

The soldiers did as they were told.

Rory stepped out beside the Doctor and Amy

followed him, with Jane bringing up the rear.

'Now what?' Amy asked. 'We can't hold these

eggs hostage.'

'We're not holding them hostage,' the Doctor

said. 'We're just holding them! I'd never do anything

to hurt them. Now, Admiral Icktheus, on the other

hand, has a nasty little mind so he thinks nasty little

thoughts. Without asking us, he has assumed we

are doing what he would do.'

'That doesn't answer the question, Doctor,'

Amy looked sideways at him.

'We just have to wait.'

'What?'

'For Makron and his father!'

Almost as he spoke, there was a deep, loud

flapping sound. A vast flying fish the size of an

airliner appeared above the edge of the crater and

then landed in the lake. On its back, there were

thirty or so Shoal members. Amy recognised

Makron and Darkin among them.

Darkin climbed down from the flying fish and

approached Icktheus. Makron ran along behind,

holding the Doctor's translation device.

'Stop this, Icktheus,' Darkin said. 'These

creatures are not our enemies.'

'You are soft and weak,' Icktheus replied. 'I have

over one hundred troops. You have a handful. I will

not surrender my advantage that easily, Governor!'

'I thought you would say that,' Darkin said. At

that moment, an even louder flapping sound filled

the air. It was coming from everywhere. More

than fifty flying fish appeared, surrounding the top

of the water volcano. Each had thirty or so low

swimmers on their backs, all wearing the belt of

purple seaweed that represented the Assembly.

Icktheus bowed his head. He knew he had lost.

Two of the Assembly's low swimmers stepped

forward and locked the admiral's fins in what

looked like silver handcuffs.

'You are under arrest for treason, Admiral,'

Darkin said. 'I will see to it that you will have a

fair trial.'

The admiral was led away onto the back of one

of the flying fish. With an enormous roar from its

huge wings, it lifted into the air and dived down,

away from the Fount.

The Doctor handed one of his jars to Rory and

then climbed down the submarine's external ladder.

He rushed forward to greet Darkin and Makron.

'These are yours, I think,' he said showing the

high swimmers the tube with the eggs in it.

'They can join the others,' Darkin said.

The Doctor looked at the beautiful, violet

coloured water of the lake. It was full of the dark

fish eggs. He smiled. 'May we?' he asked.

'By all means.'

The Doctor waved his companions and

Captain Clancy over to him. They climbed down

the ladder, careful not to disturb the eggs in their

protective tubes. Amy reached the Doctor first.

'Go on, then,' the Doctor said, gesturing at

the water.

Amy didn't have to be told twice. She unscrewed

the lid of the tube and bent down by the water's

edge. Then she gently poured the liquid into the

lake. With a satisfying splash, the egg tumbled

into the Fount. Rory and Jane did the same as the

Doctor added the last two.

'All safe and sound,' he said.

'Not bad for a day's work,' Rory agreed.

'We stopped a war,' Amy added.

'And returned some baby fish to their nursery,'

Clancy reminded them.

'Not a nursery,' the Doctor said, looking stern.

'What?'

'Baby fish don't go to nursery,' he said.

'No?' Jane was confused.

'Baby fish go to plaice school.'

Both Amy and Rory started hitting the

Doctor's arm.

'Ow! Stop that!' he said, laughing.

'Only if you stop telling such rubbish jokes,'

said Amy.

'I promise,' the Doctor said. 'Cross my hearts.'

Suddenly, there was another loud whooshing

sound. It wasn't the flying fish this time, but

something much bigger: The Cosmic Rover. It

glided down through the clouds and sat above the

mountain awaiting instructions like an enormous,

obedient dog. Captain Jane took out her radio and

started talking to the onboard computer.

'Ah,' the Doctor said. 'The ship. Excellent. Yes,

I think we should get back, find the TARDIS and

then...'

'The Tower of London?' Amy asked.

'Ha! Yes. The Tower of London.'

Captain Jane finished talking to the ship on

her radio and stepped forward. She put her head

on one side, looking at the Doctor as if he was

a complicated painting she was trying to work

out. You're not really from Head Office are you?'

she asked. You're not really in charge of Health

and Safety?'

The Doctor put his hands on hers and bowed

his head to her ear. 'That depends,' he said quietly.

'What on?' she whispered back.

'Whose health and safety you're talking about!'

MIKE TUCKER

It was the best holiday that Gellen had ever had.

Her father and Amanda — his girlfriend — had

been hinting about some kind of surprise for her

birthday for weeks, but hadn't given any hint as to

what it might be. Gellen had been sure that it was

either going to be a trip to the alien zoo on the

far side of the Moon or, at best, to the National

Museum of Mars, but when the bus had pulled up

outside their little flat in Brighton with the words

'Galactic Safari' in big bright letters on the side,

Gellen had known that they were going much,

much further.

At first she had been excited, but as the

video they showed on the bus explained how

long the trip was going to take, Gellen started

to get a bit scared.

Her father had hugged her and told her that

there was nothing to be worried about. He used

the hyper-sleep chambers on the deep space

shuttles all the time. After that Gellen started to

feel better. Her dad was an engineer for one of

the big colony builders, and was always spending

weeks — sometimes months — on faraway planets

with exotic sounding names. It was why he and

mum had split up.

Gellen wished that her mum could have come

on the trip too, but she was grown-up enough to

realise that a holiday with all three of them wasn't

going to happen again. Before she had left, her

mum had turned up at the house with a present;

a holo-recorder so that Gellen could record

everything that she was going to see. Gellen was

determined that she would make a full record to

show her mum when she got back to Earth.

That had only been a week ago, but as far as

Gellen was concerned it felt like a lifetime. Her

dad had been right about the hyper-sleep. She

had gone to sleep in a strange plastic cocoon

before the shuttle even left the ground and the

next thing she knew she had been waking up in

orbit around Xirrinda.

Since then they had taken antigravity balloon

trips over the canopy forest of Brinti, swum in

the bubbling lake at Ortagon (which had been like

swimming in a fizzy drink) and eaten more fancy

food than Gellen had ever realised existed.

To end their trip, they were spending a couple

of days at a treetop hotel on the edge of the grassy

plains of the Xirrinda Wildlife Preserve, and

Gellen had been spending all of her time capturing

holo-recordings of the local animals. She had been

amazed by the vast variety of creatures that roamed

through the long, waving grass. Huge herds of

the six-legged, horse-like things that the locals

called Trinto were the most common. However,

there were also Beslons (house-sized insects that

occasionally lumbered across the horizon) and

flocks of brightly coloured birds with hollow tail

feathers that made whistling sounds as they flew.

Plus, according to the guide book, there was a

long, thin creature called the Sharkwolf, a fearsome

predator that only came out at night.

Gellen really hoped to see one of those before

they went home. The picture of it in the book

looked really cool. Apparently the best time to

see one was dusk and so, having gone to bed

on time without complaint, she now sat cross-

legged on the veranda outside her bedroom, the

holo-recorder set to night vision mode, the glow

from the little LED screen casting a pale green

light on her face.

On the screen the grassland was as clear and

bright as if it was daylight. Gellen could see the

long necks of a herd of Trinto bobbing up and

down in the distance, and could just make out

the mournful, cow-like noise that they made. She

had enough pictures of Trinto. She panned the

camera, studying the screen carefully, watching for

the distinctive shape of the elusive Sharkwolf.

As she watched, a sudden movement made

her start. She swung the camera back and pressed

the zoom button. The Trinto were running,

stampeding, as if something was chasing them.

One of them fell, sending up a flurry of dry

dirt. Another toppled into the grass, followed

by another and another. Gellen's heart started

to race as the distant cries grew louder and more

frightened. There was another noise too, a high-

pitched whistling, like a rocket on fireworks

night...

Bang!

Gellen jumped as something hard landed on

the wooden roof of her cabin.

Bang! Bang!

Two more impacts made her scramble to her

feet. Something rolled off the roof and landed

with a clatter on the veranda. From the room

below she could hear her dad and Amanda.

They had obviously heard the noises too. Gellen

fumbled with the camera, switching it from night

vision to floodlight mode. Something small and

round shone in the harsh light. It looked like a

small, brown pebble.

Gellen knelt down to get a better look at it. It

was glossy and smooth, about the size of a large

egg but slightly flattened, like the stones that her

father had taught her to skim across the water at

Lake Ortagon. As Gellen reached out towards the

pebble it made a sharp cracking sound, and rocked

backwards on the wooden slats of the veranda.

Gellen snatched her hand back as the pebble shook

violently to and fro. She was about to call for her

father when the pebble suddenly split down each

side, revealing a dark, wet interior.

Gellen watched, horrified, as dozens of thin,

stick-like legs emerged from the 'pebble' and it rose

up, its feet making tapping noises on the wood.

Two more of the pebble creatures scuttled up

onto the veranda, clustering together and making

strange whispering sounds.

Gellen backed away, but as she did so her foot

scuffed on the floor and the three creatures spun

around. Even though they had no visible eyes it

was as if they were looking at her. Slowly they

started to move across the veranda towards her.

Then, with horrible sucking noises, the front of

all three 'pebbles' peeled back like a banana skin to

reveal row after row of razor sharp teeth.

Gellen screamed.

Out in the depths of space, a police box that was

not really a police box at all hung against the stars,

twirling slowly.

Inside, in the huge multi-levelled control room

that should not have been able to fit inside the

police box, the traveller known as the Doctor was

wiping mud from the console with a large spotted

handkerchief. In this incarnation — his eleventh —

the Doctor was a tall, gangly young man, with a thin

face and a mop of tousled hair. He was dressed in

a comfortable tweed jacket and trousers. Although

his face was youthful, a bow tie and colourful

braces gave him the look of a much older man,

though no one ever guessed that he was in fact

over 900 years old.

'Please tell me we are never going there again,'

groaned Amy.

The Doctor looked up as two people emerged

from one of the console room's many doors. Amy

and her husband, Rory, were his latest travelling

companions, and they too were splattered with

mud. Amy was rubbing at her flame-red hair with

a large towel and glaring at him. Rory just looked

miserable. The Doctor smiled apologetically.

'Yes. Well. Aridian Mire Beasts - even super-

evolved Mire Beasts like those ones — are still very

fond of... mire.' He folded up the handkerchief

and stuck it into his jacket pocket. 'So, enough of

mud, enough of Aridian revolutions, I think that

we deserve... a party!'

'A party?' Amy glanced at Rory, not sure if the

Doctor was joking or not.

'Yes, a party!' The Doctor started punching at

controls on the console.

'Do you really think we're going to get in to any

kind of party looking like this?' Rory tugged at his

mud-stained shirt.

'Oh yes.' The Doctor nodded vigorously. 'You

can get in anywhere if you're wearing a bow tie.

Bow ties are coo...'

He didn't finish his sentence. Suddenly the

control room was filled with a deafening noise, as

if a thousand tiny hammers were beating on the

battered wooden shell. There was a sickening jolt

as the TARDIS lurched to one side.

Peter Jenkins heard his daughter scream and

raced up the stairs, terrified of what he might

find. Gellen was backed against the railing

on her veranda, three of the pebble creatures

scuttling towards her, hissing angrily. With a cry

of rage, Peter kicked out at them, sending them

clattering off the edge of the veranda. Hoisting

Gellen onto his shoulder he stumbled back

down the stairs.

From all over the hotel he could hear the screams

of holidaymakers and the hiss of the creatures. On

the roof he could hear thump following thump as

more of the pebbles dropped from the sky.

He kicked open the door and raced out into

the car park, fumbling in his pocket for the key to

the jeep he had hired. Brown pebbles littered the

ground, some of them already starting to open.

Sharp cracking sounds filled the night air.

With a musical beep the door to the jeep swung

open and he bundled Gellen inside. She scrambled

across the seat.

'Come on,' she screamed. 'Get in!'

One of the pebbles landed on the roof and

Peter batted it away with the back of his hand.

'I can't.' He reached out and squeezed Gellen's

hand. 'Amanda is still inside. Those things... they

bit her. She can't walk. I can't leave her.'

He shut the door of the jeep and pressed

another button on the key. The engine hummed

into life. Gellen stared at him wide-eyed through

the window.

'What are you doing?'

'The jeep is pre-programmed to take you back

to the terminal. Tell your mother...' Peter smiled

at his daughter. 'Tell her that I'm sorry...'

Peter stepped back as the jeep started to pull out

of the car park. Gellen's terrified face was pressed

against the window, screaming for him to stop.

With a deep breath Peter watched his daughter

vanish into the night. She was safe.

He turned back towards the hotel. The air was

thick with falling pebbles, the noise of hissing

creatures louder than ever. A dozen or more were

advancing across the car park towards him. The

creatures bared their teeth.

And surged forward.

The noise inside the TARDIS was deafening. It

reminded Amy of the time she had been out in

her aunt's shed during a hailstorm, listening to

the tiny lumps of ice clatter on the corrugated

iron roof.

Rory was hanging onto one of the handrails as

the TARDIS tipped and swayed. The Doctor was

wedged up against the console, his nose pressed

against the scanner screen.

'What's happening?' cried Amy, hanging

onto Rory.

'We've drifted into the path of an asteroid

storm!' shouted the Doctor. 'But the readings...

the readings are strange...'

There was a bang and a shower of sparks from

the console.

'Rory! Come and hold this lever down. I want

to get a sample!'

Rory staggered over to the Doctor and grabbed

hold of the lever that he had indicated. The

Doctor dashed across the console room, vanishing

through a doorway, emerging a few moments later

clutching a large fishing net.

'Amy,' he cried. 'I need you to hang on!'

'To what?'

'Me!'

The Doctor staggered towards the doors, arms

and legs everywhere, like a dizzy giraffe. Amy

launched herself after him.

'What are you planning to do?' she bellowed.

'A bit of fishing!' he grinned at her. 'We'll

open the door, stick my net out, catch one of the

meteorite thingies and have a proper look at it.

Hang onto my braces would you?'

Before Amy could object, he pulled open the

TARDIS doors and leaned out into space.

With a little cry of alarm Amy reached out

to grab hold of him. Behind her she could

hear another little cry from Rory as the two

of them teetered dangerously in the TARDIS

doorway.

It took all of Amy's strength to hang onto the

Doctor as he lunged this way and that, before

finally, with a whoop of triumph, he staggered

backwards, something nestling in his net.

'Got one! Ha, hah!'

He slammed the doors shut and hurried over

to the console, rummaging in the net. To Amy's

surprise he pulled out a smooth, shiny pebble. Not

what she was expecting at all. Weren't meteorites

all pitted and jagged?

The Doctor placed it carefully on the console.

Amy and Rory hurried to his side.

'Now then,' he murmured. 'Let's get a proper

look at you.'

He whipped his sonic screwdriver from his

jacket and flicked it into life, its lime green light

washing over the strange meteorite. The Doctor

peered at the read-out, puzzled.

'That's strange. That's very strange. It's

generating massive gravitational interference. No

wonder the console was affected.'

He picked up the pebble and as he did so it

snapped open with a sharp crack. Rory and Amy

jumped backwards in alarm. To Amy's horror, the

inside of the pebble was lined with teeth. Rows

and rows of razor sharp teeth!

'Woaah!'

The Doctor dropped the pebble as the teeth

snapped at his fingers.

'Amy! Door!'

Amy dashed to the doors and hauled them

open. The 'meteorite' had sprouted dozens of tiny

legs and was starting to feel its way experimentally

around the TARDIS floor. The Doctor took a

step back, and then took a running kick at the

gnashing pebble.

The toe of his boot connected with a satisfying

clunk and the pebble sailed out through the open

doors like a football through a goalmouth. Amy

slammed the doors shut.

'What on Earth was that?'

'I don't know.' The Doctor raced back to the

TARDIS console, staring in concern at an image

of a planet on the scanner screen. 'But they are

heading straight for that colony.'

Rory frowned. 'But that meteorite storm we

flew through must have been huge. That would

mean that there are..

The Doctor looked at him gravely.

'Billions of them.'

Dawn was breaking over the Xirrinda Wildlife

Preserve when a new noise joined the mews and

cackles of the local wildlife. With a groaning rasp

that drowned out everything else, the TARDIS

shimmered into view.

Almost as soon as it was solid the doors crashed

open and the Doctor emerged into the morning

light in a whirl of arms and legs, intently studying

the readings on his sonic screwdriver. Amy and

Rory followed him out into the dawn, looking in

bemusement at their new surroundings.

They had landed in what looked like a cross

between a small airport departure lounge and a

bus station; a wide, open concourse scattered

with chairs and benches, bordered by a glass

wall that looked out over a sweeping expanse

of trees and grassland. Everything looked as if

it had been built in a hurry. The twenty or thirty

stalls and cafes that were scattered around the

other walls looked as though they had been built

from cargo containers of some kind. In amongst

them were coloured booths and souvenir stalls,

their yawning owners starting to set up shop

for the day. Dozens of modern looking tour

coaches were lined up in neat lines at one end

of the building, the words 'Galactic Safari'

emblazoned in colourful letters on their sides.

Outside, a short distance from the terminal,

a number of sleek shuttlecraft sat on a dust-

strewn landing pad, their metal hulls gleaming

in the early morning sun.

'Not exactly high-tech is it?' Rory was

unimpressed.

'New colony,' said the Doctor, glancing

around quickly. 'Probably only established in the

last year or two. They're trying to get themselves

established as a tourist destination by the look

of things. Temporary buildings built from the

colony ships whilst they wait for the engineering

firms to move in and start properly.' He looked

at Rory sternly. 'Very clever people these early

planetary colonists. Your descendants — well, not

yours directly, but your species. You should be

proud of them.'

Rory flushed. 'I just meant that they don't look

very well equipped to deal with hordes of small

toothy monsters.'

'No...' The Doctor spun around taking in his

surroundings. 'They don't, do they? I'd better have

a quick word with someone in charge. Here...' He

tossed a small bag to Rory. 'Local currency. Lots of

nice t-shirts on the stand over there. Buy yourself

some clean things.'

With that he turned and hurried across the

concourse to a door marked 'Administration',

vanishing inside with a cheery wave.

Amy watched him go, shaking her head. 'Typical.'

She took the bag from Rory and weighed it in her

hand, feeling the coins chink inside it. 'Still, if he's

given us pocket money then we might as well go

off and spend it.'

With that she hooked her arm into Rory's and

dragged him towards one of the colourful stalls.

The Doctor entered a small reception area. A

young woman was busying herself with a bundle

of files on the far side of the room. The Doctor

looked around. A sign reading Warden's Office'

pointed to a small door. Slipping through the

reception area as quietly as possible, the Doctor

pushed open the door and bounded up the stairs,

emerging into a modest control room. A man was

hunched over the consoles, poking at the buttons.

'About time. We've been without long range

scanners for nearly a hour...'

His face fell as he turned to look at the Doctor.

'Oh, you're not Thornton....'

'No.' The Doctor shook his head. 'I'm afraid

not. I was hoping to speak to someone in charge...'

'That would be me then,' said the man, extending

a tanned hand. 'I'm the warden here. Casper Van

Goole.'

The Doctor shook the proffered hand.

'I'm the Doctor...'

'Doctor, eh?' Van Goole frowned. 'Shouldn't

you be out on the savannah with the rest of

the safari?'

'Safari... right.' The Doctor nodded, recalling

the coaches in the car park. 'I'm afraid that I'm not

part of any safari. My companions and I were just

passing and we think that you may have a problem.'

'You're right there.' Van Goole gestured at the

console. 'Can't get a blessed reading from any of

them. Communications are down too. Been trying

to reach the hotel complex for nearly an hour.'

The Doctor hurried over to the console.

'That's not good, not good at all.'

He whipped out his sonic screwdriver and

waved it over the console, peering in concern at the

read-outs. 'Same as the TARDIS...' he murmured.

'Massive gravitational distortion and disruption to

the magnetic field...'

He spun around to face the warden. 'Mr Van

Goole, this safari, popular is it? Lots of people?'

Van Goole nodded. 'Two dozen families out at

the hotel, plus a school party, just arrived.'

'Then we need to get out to that hotel, very,

very quickly.'

'Now?' Van Goole said in surprise.

'Now.' The Doctor's tone was grim. You and

me, Mr Van Goole. You have transport?'

Van Goole nodded. 'Yes, but...'

'Of course you do. Wouldn't be much of a

safari if you didn't have transport. Come along.

No time to lose.'

The Doctor bounded from the control room, a

confused Van Goole following after him.

In the terminal Rory followed Amy as she

wandered from stall to stall, picking up t-shirts

and examining them, then moving on to the

next stall. Rory sighed. It was always this way

when they went shopping. Why did girls always

take so long?

As they approached the last stall in the row,

a gangly boy stood up from behind the plastic

counter. He was tall, very tall, and as they got

closer Rory suddenly realised that he wasn't

remotely human. He was humanoid, but stick

thin, with large, cat-like eyes. His skin was the

colour of teak, and as they neared the stall Rory

could see that he had a second joint halfway along

his forearm. As the two of them approached, he

smiled widely.

'Hi. Welcome to Attar's.' He spread his arms

wide, gesturing to the colourful garments spread

out across the stand, the extra joint in his arm

giving him a strange, insect-like look. Anything

you like the look of?'

Rory still found that he needed time to adjust

to the very fact of different life forms, but Amy

seemed totally unfazed. She rummaged through

the shirts on the stand as if they were at the local

shopping centre rather than a souvenir stall on an

alien planet. 'These are great.'

Attar grinned. 'Thanks. I'm hoping to get some

of the off-worlders to take some home with them.

If I can sell enough then perhaps I can get out of

here one day.'

'You don't like it here?' Amy plucked a

shirt from the pile and held it up into the light,

examining the pattern.

Attar shrugged. 'It's ok, but it's dull. Nothing

ever happens here.'

'I know that feeling. Believe me, compared to

Leadworth this place is positively buzzing!' Amy

held the shirt up against Rory's chest.

'Great. Bit baggy, but it does the job.'

'Are you sure?' Rory stared down at the tangle

of geometric lines and swirling squiggles that now

adorned his chest. 'Seems a bit colourful for me.'

'No, it looks good on you,' said Attar

encouragingly. 'It's one of my most popular

designs.'

'You do these yourself?' asked Amy. 'What are

the designs based on?'

Attar shrugged. 'Just stuff. Patterns and

drawings from the legends that we are taught about

when we're children.'

'Legends?'

'Tribal stuff, that's all. Stories that the old folk

keep telling us are important to remember.'

'Cool. We'll take two. That one for Rory...' she

tugged another shirt from the pile. 'And this one

for me.'

Amy rummaged in the bag of change that the

Doctor had given them, pulling out a couple of

large, coppery, octagonal coins.

'That enough?'

Attar took the coins. 'Perfect.' He stuffed them

into his pocket.

Rory had a sneaking suspicion that they had

just been overcharged, but he wasn't about to

start an argument. He shrugged off his old, mud-

splattered shirt and slipped the clean t-shirt over

his head. Amy nodded approvingly at him. 'Right.

I'm going to change. Won't be a jiffy.'

She gave Rory a peck on the cheek and headed

across the concourse to the toilets.

Rory was aware of Attar's cat-like eyes

watching him.

'You part of the safari?' he asked, curiously.

Rory shook his head. 'We were... just passing.

On our way to a party.' He didn't think he should

mention the real reason for their arrival. Not yet.

'Really...' Attar looked at him strangely. 'If you

find a party of any kind round here, let me know.'

The noise of an engine made them both look

round. Another coach was pulling up into its bay.

It came to a standstill and the doors hissed open.

Dozens of noisy children spilled out across the

concourse, running over to the huge windows and

pressing their faces to the glass, staring out at the

savannah, chattering excitedly.

Attar rubbed his hands expectantly. 'More eager

punters.'

As Attar hurried forward to greet the new

arrivals, Amy emerged from the toilets. She caught

sight of the children and Rory could see the worried

look in her eye.

'We need to let these people know what's

coming,' she whispered.

Rory nodded. He just hoped that the Doctor

had a plan.

The Doctor and Van Goole emerged from the

terminal into the warm, dry air of the car park. A

bright red open-topped vehicle that looked like a

cross between a mini and a hovercraft was parked

in an official bay. The warden clambered into the

driving seat.

'Hop in.'

The Doctor swung his legs over the sill and

squeezed his lanky frame into the passenger seat.

Van Goole slid an electronic key into the dashboard

and thumbed the ignition. The engine made a

choking cough, then died.

'Blast!' Van Goole tried to start the hover car

again. 'What is going on with the electrics in this

place today?'

The Doctor had a nasty suspicion that he knew

the answer to that. 'Hang on a mo.' He delved

into his jacket pocket for his sonic screwdriver

and pulled open an inspection panel on the

dashboard. He thrust the sonic into the workings.

'Try it now', he said, raising his voice above the

warbling whine.

Van Goole turned the key and the engine sprung

into life with a whirr. The vehicle lifted a few feet off

the ground and with a practised spin of the wheel,

Van Goole backed it out of the parking space.

'You're a handy man to have around, Doctor.'

He grinned. 'I should keep you on as my scientific

advisor.'

The hover car sped out past the terminal

building. The Doctor could see Amy and Rory

staring at them in surprise as they shot past the

window.

'Won't be long, Pond!' shouted the Doctor,

giving Amy a thumbs up. 'See if you can find out

what the transport situation is like!'

With that, Van Goole stepped on the accelerator

and the little car surged forward.

Amy put her hands on her hips and stared through

the glass in frustration as the car vanished towards

the distant horizon in a cloud of dust.

'Typical,' she muttered.

Rory shook his head in disbelief. 'Has he just

gone off and left us stranded here?'

'Off on a jolly whilst we have to do all the hard

work, as usual.'

'And what does he mean, find out what the

transport situation is like? We've got the TARDIS

and there are all those shuttlecraft...'

'And he knows that, so I'm guessing that there's

something he's not telling us.'

'Again, as usual.' Rory sighed.

'Well, there's no point moaning about it. He's

given us a job, so let's get on with it.' Amy looked

around the concourse. There were doors and

corridors everywhere: signs pointing out the visitor

centre, restaurants, toilets, plus a dozen more that

stated 'Official Personnel Only'.

'You go that way, I'll go this way. Meet you back

here in fifteen minutes.'

Amy strode off across the concourse. She just

hoped that the Doctor wasn't going to be long.

There was a strange feeling in the air, as if a storm

was brewing, and Amy had a horrible suspicion

that the meteorite shower wasn't far behind.

Matty George and Kevin Arkwright stepped

gratefully from the coach into the air-conditioned

cool of the building, looking around eagerly. They

were both part of a field trip to Xirrinda organised

by their school. So far, however, the trip had been

a disappointment to both of them. They had

thought that they were going to see wild animals

and primitive tribesmen armed with fearsome

weapons, but so far they had spent most of their

time studying some paintings inside a damp old

cave. The only animals they had seen were beetles

and the odd bird.

Kevin's face fell as he took in their surroundings.

'What a dump.'

'Oh, I dunno.' Matty looked over at where Attar

was waving animatedly at them. 'There might be

some cool native stuff on some of those stands.'

'Like what?' sniffed Kevin. All he could see

were crummy t-shirts.

'I dunno. Masks. Spears. Shrunken heads...'

'Can I remind you that you are here to gather

research material for your mid-term exams, not to

collect tacky souvenirs.'

Both boys spun around to see Mr Cain glaring

at them. He had been a last minute replacement

after their regular history teacher had gone down

with a bad attack of flu the day before they were

due to leave. Cain was a tall, thin-faced man with

a permanent frown, and none of their class liked

him. He was grumpy, impatient and had a nasty

temper. They had even heard some of the other

teachers muttering about him under their breath.

'Your task today, as I recall, is to gather

information on the history of the local native

population. I expect to see your reports at the end

of the day.'

Matty wanted to point out that looking at native

artefacts might be the best way of learning about

their history, but both he and Kevin had already

fallen foul of Cain a couple of times on this trip.

Rather than risk another confrontation the boys

nodded and hurried to join their classmates.

The Doctor was silent on the journey towards

the wildlife preserve, his mind whirring. Rory had

been right when he had said that the colony was

not well equipped to deal with any kind of disaster

situation, and the Doctor had a nasty suspicion

that disaster was exactly what was about to happen.

As the hover car sped through the dry bush

land, the engine continued to make unhealthy

sounding noises. The Doctor stopped his musings

and continued to nursemaid the car. They zoomed

up a steep rise, emerging onto the top of a long

narrow ridge overlooking the savannah. Suddenly

Van Goole brought the vehicle to a stop.

'What the devil?'

The Doctor stood up in his seat, leaning on the

windshield and pulling out his binoculars. Ahead

of them, a dark cloud spread across the horizon

and the air was filled with a buzzing drone, like the

sound from a hive of bees.

'It's them...' The Doctor's voice was grim. The

creatures from the asteroid storm had landed. The

Doctor turned to Van Goole.

'We're too late. Everyone in that hotel is dead.'

Van Goole stared at him blankly, unwilling to

believe what he was hearing.

'What are they?'

'At a guess, a parasitic species of some kind,

drifting between planets, drawn by gravity. They

arrive, rain down on the surface, strip it bare...'

The Doctor handed him the binoculars. 'There

must be tens of billions of them in that storm,

and they're coming this way. We've got to get back

to the colony.'

'No, wait.' Van Goole caught his arm. 'There's

something down there!'

The Doctor followed his gaze. A brightly-

coloured shape gleamed amongst the dry brush.

The Doctor snatched the binoculars from Van

Goole and adjusted the focus.

A jeep was wedged into a dry creek-bed, one

wheel jutting out at a sharp angle, the windshield

cracked. As the Doctor peered at it he could see

faint movement from within.

'There's someone alive!'

Van Goole tried to start the hover car but the

engine just clicked and whined protestingly.

'It won't start!' he cried.

'Keep trying!' The Doctor leapt from the

car and bounded down the steep slope towards

the crashed jeep, arms and legs flailing wildly.

The noise from the approaching swarm was

deafening, the whistle and thump as more and

more fell from the sky, the clacking and snapping

of millions of pairs of teeth, and the frightened

cries of the animals driven into a wild stampede

by the approaching monsters.

The Doctor dodged out of the way as a pair

of gazelle-like creatures thundered past him. He

tumbled into the dry creek-bed and hauled open

the door of the jeep. Sprawled in a heap on the

back seat was a young girl, a livid bruise on her

forehead from where she had crashed into the back

of the driver's seat. For a second the Doctor was

confused. Where was the driver? Then he noticed

the gleaming autopilot controls. The car had been

on automatic control. Someone had obviously tried

to get the girl away from danger, but somehow the

vehicle had gone off course, either because it had

been trying to avoid one of the frightened animals

or because the computer had been affected by the

interference.

'Doctor!' From the distance came a cry

of alarm from Van Goole. 'Get out of there!'

Something hard banged down on the roof. Jolted

into action, the Doctor scooped the girl up into

his arms, struggled out of the creek-bed and made

for the ridge. From behind him came the relentless

clattering of billions of feet and the chomp, chomp,

chomp of teeth. The Doctor didn't look back.

He ran.

All around him tiny missiles rained down onto

the dry earth. The Doctor stumbled forward,

kicking the creatures out of the way before they

cracked open and got their bearings. Finally, he

reached the top of the rise, gratefully letting Van

Goole take the girl from him.

'Was there anyone else?' asked Van Goole.

The Doctor shook his head. 'We've got to go.

Now!' he said breathlessly.

Van Goole gestured helplessly at the controls.

'Nothing's working!'

The Doctor leant forward, nose pressed

into the controls. 'Somehow the creatures are

generating a massive amount of gravitational

and electromagnetic interference. It's shutting

down anything electrical, but if I can persuade the

computer that it can run the engine from sonic

impulses instead...'

There was a sharp bang as something hard

bounced off the bonnet of the hover car.

Van Goole watched in horror as the 'pebble'

bounced off into the dirt, then cracked open

with a hiss.

'Doctor...'

'Nearly there!'

More and more pebble creatures rained down

around them.

'We're not going to make it!'

'Oh yes we are!' The engine roared into life

just as another pebble monster shattered the

windshield and landed in the foot-well. The

Doctor tossed it out of the car with a flick of

his wrist. 'Go, Van Goole! Go!'

The warden stamped on the throttle and the

hover car surged forwards.

Amy knew that something was wrong as soon

as the little red hover car pulled up outside the

terminal. She raised her hand to her mouth as the

Doctor struggled from the passenger seat with a

limp body in his arms.

'Oh, no.'

The Doctor hurried up the stairs and into the

terminal building, Van Goole holding the door

open for him.

'Rory!' shouted the Doctor. 'I need you over

here, quickly.'

Amy and Rory raced over to where the Doctor

was carefully laying the body on one of the benches.

It was a young girl, no more than ten years old.

Amy looked down at her pale face in despair.

'Is she...?'

'No.' Rory was checking her pulse. 'She's fine.'

He examined the bruise on her forehead. 'It looks

like she's got a mild concussion. Is there somewhere

where we can take her?'

The Doctor shot a look at Van Goole. He

nodded.

'There's a small medical room. Not much, I'm

afraid. It's this way.'

Rory and Van Goole gently lifted the girl between

them and carried her across the concourse. Amy

made to follow but the Doctor stopped her.

'Did you have any luck?'

Despite herself Amy had to smile.

'I think that you'd better come and look.'

The two of them hurried across to a set of

double doors marked 'No Admittance'. Pushing

them open, Amy led the Doctor onto a wide

platform. It was gloomy and musty, and smelled

of engine oil. As the Doctor's eyes became

accustomed to the dark he could make out a long

metal shape looming over him.

His face cracked into an enormous smile.

'Oh, you beauty.'

'They're coming!'

The girl sat bolt upright in the small bed, her

eyes wide with fear. Rory hurried over to her

bedside. 'Hey, hey, hey. It's alright. You're safe.'

The girl looked around in alarm, her panic

slowly fading as she took in her surroundings.

'Are they here?' she asked, her voice wavering.

'Those rock things?' Rory shook his head.

'No.'

'What's your name?' asked Van Goole, gently.

'Gellen. Gellen Jenkins.'

'What happened, Gellen?'

The girl looked at him with frightened eyes.

'They fell from the sky like rain. They just kept

coming. They were so fast. They killed everything'

Van Goole gave Rory a worried look. He turned

to the console. 'Let's see if we can find out what

we are up against.'

Rory frowned. 'I thought that nothing was

working?'

'Nothing is working well, but I just need to get

a signal from one of our weather radar satellites.

They might be far enough up to avoid any

interference.'

He settled into a chair in front of a console,

manipulating the controls with practised hands.

Screens flickered into life showing an image of a

pale, yellow globe. 'Bingo!' Van Goole twisted a

dial and the image zoomed closer.

'Good God.' The warden's voice dropped to

a whisper.

Rory peered at the screen. Even though he

didn't recognise the shape of the continents and

oceans it was obvious that he was looking at an

image of the planet from orbit. Unlike Earth the

planet was a mass of browns and yellows. On one

side of the screen was a fuzzy grey mass, flickering

like static. It covered a huge area, its front edge

rippling and moving slowly across the landmass.

The enormous scale of the meteorite swarm

suddenly became clear.

Van Goole looked up at Rory with frightened

eyes.

'I think that you'd better get the Doctor.'

Amy watched as the Doctor scampered all over the

train like a child with a new toy. She had been in a

deserted office on the upper story of the terminal

building when she had noticed the single gleaming

rail stretching off towards the horizon. Following

it back she had discovered the platform and the

gleaming train inside.

It was a monorail - three cylindrical carriages

linked by flexible corridors, a blister-like cab on

one end.

'This is perfect, Pond. Totally perfect.' The

Doctor beamed down at her. 'I always wanted to

be a train driver when I was a boy.'

'Here! What the devil do you two think you're

playing at?'

The gruff voice made Amy start. A stocky man

with a salt and pepper beard was glaring at them

from the doorway. The Doctor scrambled down

from the cab and hurried over.

'Mr Thornton, I presume. Just the man I wanted

to meet. Good with trains are you? Silly question.

You're an engineer on an outer rim planet, so of

course you're good with trains. Now then, how

long will it take you to get this lovely machine

ready to run?'

'This old thing?' Thornton gave a coughing

laugh. 'It's not been used in over a year. You'd have

to be a genius to get this thing fired up and ready

to go in less than three or four days.'

'Well, it's a good thing I am a genius, Mr

Thornton, because you and I have got less than

three or four hours.'

Matty and Kevin were pottering around the

stalls keeping well out of the way of Cain

when a piercing whistle rang out through the

air. Both boys turned to see a gangly man hop

up onto a bench in the middle of the terminal, a

pretty red-haired girl following after him. As they

watched, the man put his fingers in his mouth

and gave another piercing whistle.

'If I could have your attention please!' he

bellowed.

The two boys exchanged a curious glance and

then hurried forward to see what was going on.

The man on the bench had now attracted a small

crowd, mostly made up of other children from

the field trip, plus a few of the locals. A puzzled

murmur rippled through the crowd.

'Hello. I'm the Doctor.' The man beamed at

them, rubbing his hands together as he turned in a

slow circle, taking in the sea of puzzled faces.

'Now from the look of things most of you are

probably here for a nice holiday, looking to get

away from it all, or a school trip to learn all about

an alien world. Well, I'm afraid that everything is

cancelled. We need to get you all away from here

as quickly as possible. Any questions?'

There was a moment's stunned silence, then the

square exploded into a frenzied chatter of voices.

Suddenly Matty could hear a tinny voice cutting

over the din. 'Let me through, come on, clear a

path here.'

Matty turned to Kevin and grinned. 'Here

comes trouble.'

A small chubby man pushed through the

crowds towards the Doctor, his face red with rage.

It was Professor Willard, their head teacher. He

stormed up to the Doctor, glaring at him angrily.

'What's all this nonsense about cancellation?

I've got rooms booked at the hotel.'

The Doctor hopped down off the bench. 'Well

I'm very sorry, Mr...?'

'Professor! Professor Willard, from the Outer

Planet's School's Association. We've got a four day

field trip booked...'

'Well, that's lovely, but I'm afraid that I've

got more to worry about than whether you

got the right rooms in your hotel. We have a

dangerous situation...'

'Well, that's your problem,' Willard cut across

him. 'We have a very strict timetable and it cannot

be disrupted.'

'I don't think you quite understand, Mr

Willard...' The Doctor tried to explain but Willard

was in no mood to listen.

' It's Professor Willard, and I made it quite clear

when I made this booking that we were working

on a tight budget and a carefully balanced schedule.

I was assured by Mr Van Goole that everything

would be in order...'

'And as I am trying to explain...'

'Where is the warden, anyway? Are you even

part of his team? You certainly don't dress like one

of his people.'

'Professor Willard,' snapped the Doctor.

'Shut up!'

Matty and Kevin's jaws dropped open in shock.

No one ever talked to Willard like that. The little

Professor looked as though he had been slapped.

A silence descended across the crowd, and all eyes

turned to the Doctor as he leaned forward.

'The last thing I need at the moment is someone

arguing with me every step of the way. I need you

to listen and I need you to do exactly as I tell you.

We need to evacuate this building and we need

to do it quickly. If you will come with me I will

explain everything. In the meantime your staff

need to start getting these children ready to leave.

Do you understand?'

Willard nodded weakly. Matty had never seen

him speechless before. He stifled a giggle. This

was fantastic.

The Doctor turned to the red-haired girl

standing behind him. 'Amy, see what you can do

to help. Tell the locals what's going on, but quietly.

We don't want to start a panic.'

The girl - Amy - nodded and hurried off.

Matty and Kevin exchanged a puzzled

glance. Their field trip had just got considerably

more interesting.

Amy hurried over to where Attar was watching with

interest from his stall. There was amusement in

the tall alien's eyes as he chinked a pile of gleaming

coins in his hands. 'Your friend has quite a way

of making an impression. I should get him to do

some sales pitches for me! What was he going on

about, anyway?'

Amy lowered her voice and explained quickly

and quietly about the creatures and the approaching

swarm. As she did so all amusement drained from

Attar's face and his body stiffened.

'That's impossible. It's just a story...'

Quickly he thrust the coins into the till and

grabbed a coat from the stand.

'Where are you going?' asked Amy. 'You can't

just leave! We've got to help with the preparations

to evacuate.'

Attar shook his head. 'I can't.'

'You can't just run off!'

'You don't understand. My people, my tribe.

They live in a reservation out on the savannah. I've

got to warn them.'

With that he ran off across the concourse,

with long, loping strides. Amy watched him go

in despair. She had been confident that the train

had more than enough space for everyone in the

colony, but if there was a whole tribe that they had

to rescue as well... She turned and hurried over to

the administration office to tell the Doctor the

bad news.

Willard sat at the conference table, his face pale

with shock as the Doctor explained the nature of

the threat that they faced.

'So you see, Professor,' said the Doctor quietly.

'We have a bit of a problem.'

The Professor nodded.

The Doctor was peering intently at the radar

images on the screen. He tapped a long finger

against the glass. 'This is very strange, the area

behind the creatures appears to be hard, smooth,

reflective, as if they're leaving something behind

them, a trail of some kind.' He adjusted the

controls and the picture zoomed closer. Sunlight

glared off something hard.

'It looks like metal,' ventured Rory.

'Yes. It's as if the creatures are depositing a

metal coating behind them, the same way that a

snail deposits slime. They arrive, eat everything in

their path and then...'

'Leave metal poo behind?' Rory frowned.

'Why?'

'I don't know.' The Doctor started to pace

around the room. 'There's something not right

here, something I'm missing...'

'That's all very well, Doctor,' said Van Goole.

'But we have to get away from here. You say that

the shuttles are not an option, so what are we

going to do?'

'The monorail,' said the Doctor firmly. 'I'm

assuming it was built to ferry tourists here from

some larger colony, yes? So it must run back to a

major transportation hub.'

Van Goole nodded. 'It's an express line over

to Ortagon City on the east coast. It was meant

to be part of the safari experience. Originally it

had a branch line that went out to the caves, but

we had some opposition from the locals over

that.' Van Goole shrugged. 'It didn't prove as

popular as we hoped so it doesn't get used very

often. The occasional private booking, other

than that we use it as a back-up if the shuttles

are grounded.'

'Then what we do is this. Get everyone onto

the train, get to the city as fast as possible.

As soon as we are a good distance from the

creatures then we should be able to re-establish

communications and arrange a full-scale

evacuation of the planet.'

'The entire planet?' Van Goole looked shocked.

'That's nearly eight million colonists! Do you have

any idea what it is that you are suggesting?'

'I know exactly what I am suggesting, Mr Van

Goole. If we can't escape and warn people what is

coming, then eight million people are going to die.

These creatures are not going to stop until they

have ravaged the entire planet. At present I can't

think of anything that I can do to stop them, so all

I can suggest is that we run.'

'Run.' Rory looked at him sternly. 'That's the

plan? Run?'

The Doctor looked flustered. 'It's not the

cleverest plan that I've ever come up with, I'll

admit, but it's the best I can do in the circumstances.

If I come up with anything better then I'll let

you know.'

To his credit, Van Goole didn't argue. He

turned to his frightened secretary. 'Ellie, would

you inform all senior staff of what is happening

and assist Mr Thornton with whatever he needs

to get preparations underway. Professor Willard,

will you ensure that all the children are told to

co-operate with my staff?'

Willard nodded.

'Splendid.' The Doctor smiled. 'Everything

under control.'

The door crashed open and Amy burst into the

room. 'I think that we may have a problem.'

The Doctor emerged into the daylight with a face

like thunder, Van Goole, Amy and Rory following

in his wake.

'So when were you going to tell me about

the settlement, Van Goole?' snapped the Doctor

angrily.

'Doctor, my responsibility is to my people first,'

blustered the warden.

'And what about Attar's people? Who takes

responsibility for them?'

'The train has barely got enough capacity as

it is!'

'So you were just going to leave them?'

'I...' Van Goole faltered. 'I don't know.'

The Doctor stopped, his tone softening.

'Look, things are bad, I know, but are we really

going to let an entire tribe of people get wiped

out because we can't find an extra couple of seats

on a train?'

Van Goole shook his head.

The Doctor smiled. 'Good man. Now where is

this settlement?'

Van Goole nodded at a dirt track leading out

towards the savannah. 'Follow the road for about

a mile. You can't miss it.' He tossed the Doctor his

keys. 'Take the hover car. We'll start getting things

ready at this end.'

The Doctor nodded and hurried towards the

car. As he reached it he realised that Amy and

Rory were following him. As he opened his mouth

to object, Amy held up her hand and glared at

him sternly.

'Before you start, no, we are not staying behind

to help load boxes whilst you vanish off into the

distance again. Don't even bother arguing.'

The Doctor closed his mouth and shot a glance

at Rory.

Rory shrugged. He knew from experience that

once Amy had made up her mind there was no

point in trying to change it.

'All right.' The Doctor nodded reluctantly. 'But

be careful. And no wandering off!'

'As if!'

The Doctor clambered into the car, Amy

and Rory squeezing into the passenger seat

alongside him.

'Hold on tight!' said the Doctor, thrusting the

sonic screwdriver into the dashboard once more.

The little car shot forward in a cloud of dust.

The journey to the reservation only took a few

minutes. Despite the coming danger, Amy took

a moment to take in the experience of being

on another planet again. It still surprised her

how quickly she had come to treat everything as

ordinary and everyday. Sometimes she wished

that she could experience everything with the

same surprised wonder that her husband did. She

glanced across at where Rory was chewing his nails

nervously. Perhaps terrified wonder was a better

description. She gave his arm a gentle squeeze.

He smiled at her. Despite the dangers that they

faced, she was glad that he was there to share all of

this with her.

The Doctor hadn't said a word since they

had left town. That was a bad sign. For him not

to confront things with his usual cheery bravado

meant that things were serious.

As the hover car rounded a bend, a cluster

of thatched shacks came into view. The Doctor

brought the car to a halt and the three of them

clambered out. The village was deserted. The

Doctor crossed to where the remains of a fire

smouldered in the dusty earth. A metal pot hung

from a hook over the embers. He turned around

slowly, taking in every detail.

'How many people were meant to be here?'

asked Amy.

'About seventy families, according to Mr Van

Goole,' answered the Doctor.

'Well they left in a hurry.'

'Yes,' the Doctor knelt in the dirt by a fenced

area, examining a jumble of tracks. 'And they took

all their pack animals with them as well.'

'So are you saying that they already knew what

was coming?' asked Rory, puzzled.

'Yes,' muttered the Doctor. 'Somehow they

realised the danger that they were in and they left

to find somewhere safe...'

'Amy?' A voice rang out through the still air.

The three of them turned to see a figure

emerging from one of the larger huts.

'Friend of yours?' The Doctor raised a quizzical

eyebrow.

' It's Attar,' said Amy, hurrying over to him.

The young stallholder looked completely

shell-shocked.

'They've all gone.'

'They left you behind?'

'They've taken everything. Just as the

legend said...'

'Attar.' The Doctor's voice was suddenly urgent.

'Your people. They've encountered these things

before, yes? They had some plan. Somewhere safe.

Do you know where they've gone?'

'I thought that it was just a story. Something to

scare children...'

'What did they know?'

'The Rain of Terror...'

'Tell me!'

'I'll show you.' Attar led the Doctor back into

the hut. Amy followed them.

The interior of the hut was gloomy, with a smell

like incense sticks. It reminded Amy of the local

church in Leadworth, and she suddenly realised

that the building was indeed a holy place of some

kind. Light filtered in from a high window in the

centre of the roof and rows of low stools circled

a low altar.

The Doctor and Attar were standing at the altar,

talking in low voices. Amy hurried over, trying to

catch what they were saying.

'This shrine contained the history of my

people,' explained Attar. 'Paintings and murals that

the old men used to teach the young ones about the

story of who we are and where we came from.

'And every one of these pictures has gone?'

Attar nodded. 'I have never known a time

when they have not been here. For them to have

been removed...'

He trailed off.

'This history, you are all taught it as children?'

The Doctor kept his voice gentle, but Amy

could tell he was desperate to find some clue

that might give him an edge in the battle that

they faced.

Attar looked at him in despair. 'We are, but

I never paid it any attention. I was young and

headstrong. I thought that they were nothing but

old stories told by old men. They seemed to have

so little meaning to me. I thought that we should

be looking to the future, not dragging the past

along with us.'

The Doctor smiled sadly. 'I know.' Amy could

see that a part of him knew only too well what

Attar meant, but it was not the news that he had

hoped to hear.

'Do you have any idea of where they might

have gone?'

'No!'

'Attar, think! These stories, these legends,

they must have been drummed into you as a

boy. I know what teachers are like. Even if you

weren't interested something must have sunk in.

Somewhere in your subconscious you must know

where they might have gone.'

Attar's face creased with effort. 'I'm trying to

remember, but...'

At that moment Rory backed slowly in through

the doorway to the shrine.

'Er, Doctor...' he stammered.

'Not now, Rory!' Amy waved her hand at him

impatiently. 'This is important!'

'No, Amy, I really think that this might be

important too!'

Amy, Attar and the Doctor turned to see two

dark shapes slinking in through the doorway after

Rory. They were long and slender, their bodies

covered with slick black fur. They moved slowly,

hugging the ground, large wet noses twitching

constantly.

'What are they?' whispered Amy as one of the

creatures lifted its head and snarled, revealing rows

of small, sharp teeth.

Attar took a step back, paling visibly.

'Sharkwolves.'

The snarling creatures sniffed at the air, moving

their heads to and fro as they tried to locate

their prey.

'I don't suppose these things are vegetarian, by

any chance?' said Rory, gulping.

'Attar,' hissed the Doctor. 'I need you to tell

me everything that you can about these creatures,

and quickly!'

'They're hunters, pack animals. But they never

usually come out in the day, and never usually

come this close to the reservation.'

'They're being driven towards us by the

advancing swarm. That means that they're

frightened and hungry. Not a good combination.

But you said that they're nocturnal?'

Attar nodded.

'Then that gives us a chance. Their vision is

adapted for low light, so they're probably nearly

blind in daylight. We've got to get back out into the

daylight. Now, I need everyone to stay quiet and

move slowly back towards the wall. Keep the altar

between us and them.'

The four of them started to make their way

slowly back towards the rear of the temple. Amy

was suddenly very aware of every cracking twig

under foot, of every rustle of clothing.

The Sharkwolves continued to slink around

the edges of the shrine, sharp claws occasionally

slashing at each other, hissing and snarling. As

they moved slowly around the wall, Amy and

the others kept on the opposite side of the hut,

hugging the wall. The door was tantalisingly

close. Amy could see the Doctor reaching for the

keys to the hover car in his pocket.

'When I say run,' he whispered. 'Run.'

Amy tensed herself, ready for the final dash,

when there was a sudden snarl as one of the

Sharkwolves spotted them.

'Run!' cried the Doctor.

The four of them hurled themselves out of the

door and into the sunlight. As they did so, Amy

became aware of something huge thundering out

of the bush. For one horrible moment she thought

that more of the Sharkwolves had been waiting

for them, but as she started to make sense of the

chaos in front of her, she realised that it was a herd

of gazelle-like creatures, mad with fear, crashing

through the village in a blind panic. Behind them,

the Sharkwolves launched themselves out of the

shrine at the panicked animals, their snarls and

hisses terrifyingly loud.

'It's a Trinto herd!' Attar had to shout to make

himself heard above the din.

'We'll have time for the natural history lesson

later!' bellowed the Doctor. 'Keep moving!'

Grateful for the unexpected distraction, the

four of them hurled themselves into the hover

car and the Doctor coaxed the engine into life.

As they sped from the village, Amy could hear

nothing but the agonised screams of the Trinto

and the triumphant cries of the Sharkwolves as

they gorged themselves on their prey.

It was what lay in store for all of them if they

didn't get away before the swarm arrived.

When they arrived back at the terminal building,

everything was bustling with activity. The shutter

wall alongside the train platform had been opened

up and a steady stream of food and medical

supplies was being loaded onto the train.

Van Goole hurried over as they came to a halt.

'I thought you'd have a crowd in tow.' He looked

at Attar, puzzled. 'No one else would come

with you?'

'No one else was there,' said the Doctor.

'Gone, vamoosed.'

He quickly explained to the warden what they

had found at the reservation. Van Goole listened,

a flicker of hope on his face. 'And you think that

they've found somewhere to go that they can hide

from these things? Somewhere safe?'

The Doctor nodded. 'I'm certain of it. Now

I've just got to work out where.'

Van Goole sighed. 'Well let me know when you

work it out! In the meantime, Thornton would like

a word with you and I'd like to borrow Rory.'

'Me?' Rory looked surprised. 'What do you

want with me?'

'We've had a slight accident. One of the

children... a broken arm I think...'

'I'm just a nurse, you know.....'

'Our medical staff was small, and almost all of

them were over at the hotel when the creatures

attacked. That means they're all dead.'

Rory nodded.

'I'll do what I can.'

'How's it going, Mr Thornton?'

Thornton looked up in relief as the Doctor

clambered up into the cabin.

'Doctor, I hope you weren't lying when you said

that you were a genius.'

'Why?' asked the Doctor. 'What's wrong?'

Thornton put down a greasy wrench and wiped

his hands on his overalls.

'I'll show you.'

He ducked through a narrow hatchway into

the main engine compartment of the train, the

Doctor squeezing in behind him.

'I've done as you said and disconnected most

of the computer auto-controls. That means I

can control the throttle and brakes manually.

The main reactor will run on hydrogen fuel cells

from the main colony generator, but the problem

is here...'

Thornton tapped a console.

'I need the computer to regulate the boiler

pressure. No computer, no temperature control.

Too cold and we stop moving, too hot and we

blow the main engine.'

The Doctor peered at the read-outs. 'How

critical is the margin?'

Thornton shrugged. 'Ten degrees either way.

If there was more time I could rig up a mechanical

regulator, but if those things are getting as close as

you say...'

'Don't you worry about it, Mr Thornton.' The

Doctor beamed at him. 'I think I've got a perfect

replacement for the computer!'

Matty and Kevin sat in the stifling warmth of the

tour bus watching as teachers bustled around

them. Willard had sat them all down and told

them about the hordes of hungry creatures that

were approaching, and of the plan to try and

evacuate everyone by train.

Some of the other kids had started to cry: some

of the teachers too. Matty just felt a kind of numb

shock. It was as if he was watching events unfold

on a news report, and the fact that it was actually

happening to him didn't feel real somehow.

'Are you frightened?' Kevin was looking at him.

'Yes. I guess so.'

What do you think will happen if they can't get

that old train working?'

'They will. Besides, they're bound to have

radioed Ortagon City for help. There's probably a

shuttle on the way already.'

Kevin shook his head. 'I heard Willard talking to

the other teachers. These creatures that are coming

are doing something that affects machinery. That's

why we're trying to use the train.'

'Won't that be affected too?'

Kevin shrugged. 'I guess not.'

There was a sudden bustle from the front

of the bus and the gangly man that had told Mr

Willard to shut up bounded into the aisle between

the seats.

'Hello. Me again. The Doctor.' He waved

cheerily. 'Anyone here ever wanted to help drive

a train?'

The kids all looked at him blankly.

'Um, no, I really mean it. We need two of you

to help. It's important. I need two of you who can

be trusted. The lives of everyone in this colony

depend on it.'

There was a shocked silence for a moment, and

then Matty raised his hand.

'You can't be serious!'

Thornton and Van Goole looked at the Doctor

as if he was mad.

'I'm completely serious. Why, what's the problem?'

'But they're kids!'

'So?'

'We're talking about trusting the lives of everyone

in this colony to two twelve year old boys.'

'Yes.'

The Doctor turned to where Matty and Kevin

were standing. 'You two, you understand how

important this is, don't you?'

The boys nodded.

'And you're quite clear about what I've told you

needs to be done?'

The boys nodded again.

'You want us to keep an eye on these controls.'

Kevin pointed at the temperature gauge. 'If it gets

too high, we move this lever...'

'And if it gets too low we use this one.' Matty

finished for him.

'Right.' The Doctor turned back to Van Goole

with a beaming smile. 'See?'

Van Goole shook his head. 'I can't allow it. This

is madness.'

'No,' snapped the Doctor. 'It's madness to

favour machines instead of people. It's madness

not realising that the human brain is the most

fantastic computer ever created. It's madness not

trusting important things to the brightest and the

best because you have decided that they are too

young. You were more than happy to trust your

lives to a machine that thinks with a computer chip

built in a nameless factory on a distant planet by

another machine. Trust me. Trust them.'

Van Goole said nothing for a moment, then

nodded. 'All right, Doctor. You win.'

The Doctor grinned, then turned and winked

at the two boys. 'Come on you two. Let's get

you set up.'

The Doctor was watching the TARDIS being

loaded onto the train when Amy came over to his

side. He smiled at her.

'Hello, Pond.'

'You're worried aren't you?' asked Amy.

The Doctor said nothing.

'Now I know you're worried. Otherwise there

would have been some snappy remark telling me

of your grand plan. Don't you think that the train

is going to work?'

'Oh, the train is going to work fine,' said the

Doctor firmly. 'Built by the Off-Planet Railroad

Company, solid as a rock...'

'But...'

'But I'm only giving us a breathing space.' The

Doctor looked straight at her. 'The creatures are

multiplying at a frightening rate. The more they

eat, the more they breed, the bigger the swarm...'

'The more severe the interference they generate.'

The Doctor nodded. 'Every hour that passes,

the chances of us being able to get a ship into the

air gets slimmer. When we get far enough away we

have to radio the city ahead and warn them that

they have to start evacuating. Immediately. If we're

not fast enough crossing the desert then when we

reach Ortagon city on the other side of the desert

all the shuttles will be gone and we will be in exactly

the same position as we are now.'

'We'd better get cracking then, eh?' Amy tried

to sound braver then she felt.

In the corridor nearby, Cain listened grim-faced

as the Doctor explained the situation to his young

companion. He was already less than keen about

the thought of escaping on an outdated, clapped-

out monorail. Learning that it might only give

them a few hours breathing space made him even

less keen.

He chewed his lip.

The train wasn't an escape; it was only a way

of delaying the inevitable. He needed another

way out.

He hurried back onto the concourse, crossing to

where Willard and the other teachers were busying

themselves with preparations for the evacuation.

'Willard.'

The professor looked around in irritation. 'It's

Professor Willard, if you don't mind. Where have

you been, Julius? There's a lot to do here.'

'We need to talk.'

'We'll have plenty of time to talk when we're on

the train.'

'Now.'

Cain's tone made it perfectly clear that he

wasn't about to be argued with. Reluctantly Willard

followed him to a side corridor.

Cain glanced over at the other teachers, checking

that they were well away from any prying ears, but

they were too busy with their own survival.

'We don't have time for this, Julius,' said Willard.

'Shut up and listen for a moment.'

Willard flushed. He knew that he shouldn't put

up with being spoken to like this, but Julius Cain

had always been a bully, right from when they had

been children. He never had had the strength to

stand up to him.

'These creatures - these stone things - do you

know what they are?'

Willard shook his head. 'I've never come across

anything like them before.'

Cain nodded. 'That's what I thought. So they'll

be valuable, yes?'

Willard gave a little laugh of disbelief. 'Of all

the times to think of something like...'

'Listen!' snapped Cain. 'These things are falling

out of the sky. You get one of your specimen boxes

and meet me at the front of the terminal building.

Don't tell anyone what you're doing'

Amongst the bustle and chaos of the evacuation the

Doctor was suddenly aware of a lone figure, watching

silently from a bench on one side of the terminal.

Gellen.

The Doctor crossed to her and crouched down,

bringing his head level with hers. 'Are you all right?'

he asked quietly.

'Are we really going to try and escape on that

old train?'

The Doctor held her gaze. He had to admit that

the train did look a little battered and old.

'Well... yes.' He tried to sound confident. 'It is

a classic design.'

'Why don't we just get into the shuttles and

fly away?'

'Because the creatures are generating a

gravitational...' The Doctor stopped himself.

'The creatures talk to each other using gravity.

And messing around with gravity near shuttlecraft

is not good. Not good at all.'

'But they're fast.'

'But we'll be faster.' The Doctor caught hold

of Gellen's hands. 'Listen to me. This train is

going to be the fastest thing you've ever seen.

It's going to get us far away from these creatures.

So far away that their gravity won't affect us any

more. When we get to the city on the other side

of the mountains, there will be loads of shuttles,

then we'll get off this planet.'

Gellen stared at him.

'You promise?'

The Doctor grinned at her. 'Cross my hearts.'

Gellen suddenly jumped as something ran across

her feet. The Doctor looked down as dozens of

small rodent-like creatures bolted from a service

duct and scurried away across the concourse,

squeaking loudly.

The Doctor got to his feet. Through the picture

window he could see a dull grey haze in the sky

over the savannah and he could hear noise starting

to build, like distant whispering.

He caught Gellen by the hand and pulled her

upright.

'Get to the train. Tell Mr Thornton that we

need to be ready to leave. Now.'

'Is it them?' asked Gellen.

The Doctor nodded. They were out of time.

The rain of terror had arrived.

Amy watched with frightened eyes as the sky

continued to darken outside the windows of

the terminal building The whispering noise was

now so loud that it drowned out everything else.

Behind her teachers were ushering the last of the

children onto the train, whilst Van Goole's team

were helping Rory set up a makeshift medical

unit in the first class compartment. Amy could

see Rory checking that Gellen was okay. She felt

a warm glow of pride. He was brilliant with kids.

He'd make a great dad one day.

The Doctor, Van Goole and Thornton were

making last minute checks to the engine. Amy

had overheard the engineer telling the Doctor

his concerns about the weight that the train was

carrying. It had far more people on-board than

it had ever been designed for. What if it was too

much? Amy shook her head, dismissing her fears.

The Doctor wouldn't have let things get this far

if he had any doubts that the train was capable of

getting them all away from here.

Amy spun as something hard hit the window.

As she watched there was another impact, and

another. Dark shapes started to clatter against the

glass. Before she even had time to cry out, there

was a splintering crash and one of the glass panes

exploded into a million fragments. Amy stared,

horrified as dozens of small pebble-like shapes

clattered to the ground. Almost immediately there

was the familiar 'crack' as they split open, then the

skittering of clawed feet on the terminal floor.

Amy turned and ran towards the train. 'Doctor!'

she screamed.

The Doctor looked up as another of the huge

picture windows cracked from the relentless impact

of the falling stones.

'Come on, Pond!' cried the Doctor, grasping

her by the hand and pulling her into the crowded

carriage. 'All aboard!'

Thornton and Van Goole scrambled into the

cab and the train engine roared into life.

Inside the train it was chaos, frightened children

staring with wide eyes at the hissing, snarling

creatures that advanced across the concourse

towards the train. Everything started to vibrate

and rattle as the engine began to move slowly

away. Amy crossed her fingers. They were going

to make it.

'Doctor!' One of the teachers suddenly pushed

through the carriage, her face pale. 'Professor

Willard and Mr Cain. They're not on-board.'

The Doctor stared at her in disbelief. 'What?

Where are they?'

The teacher shook her head. 'He said something

about getting his notes...'

'The idiot!'

The Doctor dived across to an intercom set in

the carriage wall, and stabbed at the button. 'Van

Goole!' he shouted. You've got to stop the train!'

'What?' came the startled reply. 'Have you gone

mad, Doctor?'

'There's still two people out there! The Professor

and Cain.'

There was a pause for a moment. 'I'm sorry

Doctor, I can't risk the lives of everyone onboard

for two people. They're on their own.'

Amy held her breath as she watched the

anguish flicker across the Doctor's face. He had

been so sure that he could get everyone away

safely, so confident that no more people would

die. A look of determination flashed into his

eyes and in that moment Amy knew that he was

going to get off the train to try and rescue the

two teachers.

She opened her mouth ready to try and talk

him out of it when there was a cry from one of

the schoolchildren.

'Look! There they are!'

Amy turned and peered out through the train

window. The professor and the tall supply teacher

were racing across the concourse towards them.

Willard was clutching a cylindrical container to

his chest, his face crimson with the effort of

running.

The Doctor raced to the back of the train,

hurling open the rear doors. 'Come on!' he bellowed.

Amy held her breath. The train was picking up

speed, and whilst Cain's long legs meant that he

was gaining with every stride, the little professor

was struggling to keep up.

They were nearly at the train when there was

a sudden terrifying crash and the huge glass wall

finally gave way under the weight of the creatures

that had piled up against it. Glass and stones

scattered across the floor as a tide of the creatures

surged in through the jagged hole.

Startled by the noise, Willard stumbled,

tumbling painfully to his knees on the platform.

Cain gave the professor what looked like an

apologetic shrug as he scrambled up on to the

rapidly accelerating train.

Without a moment's hesitation the Doctor leapt

down onto the platform, grabbing the professor

by the arm and dragging him bodily to his feet.

Behind them the creatures snarled and snapped,

the sound of their legs clicking on the hard floor

and the hissing whispering that they made echoing

around the terminal building.

Amy's heart leapt into her mouth as one of

them latched on to the professor's leg, making

him cry out in pain and alarm. The Doctor tore it

loose and threw it away, kicking out at the carpet

of monsters that now spat and gnashed at their

feet. He started to sprint down the platform

half dragging, half carrying the professor. They

were so close, but the train was picking up speed

by the second.

Amy punched at the intercom. 'Slow down!'

she yelled. 'Please! The Doctor has got the

professor. You've got to give them a chance to

get back onboard!'

A muffled curse came from the speaker. The

train gave a sudden lurch, and children started

to scream as bags and packages tumbled from

overhead compartments. The train slowed and

a dozen pairs of hands hauled the Doctor and

Willard on-board.

'We've got them!' shouted Amy. 'Go, Van

Goole! Go!'

There was a roar of engines and Amy had to

hang onto a rail as the train surged forward once

more. Behind them the terminal was now full to

bursting with the creatures, hissing and screaming

in frustration as their prey eluded them.

The train burst out from the terminal into

daylight. Pebbles clattered down onto the

carriage roof and for one horrible moment Amy

thought that they had delayed their escape too

long. Children and adults alike screamed as the

claws of the creatures skittered onto the metal

as they tried to get a grip, but as the train got

faster and faster the creatures tumbled onto the

desert floor. Within minutes they had left the

rain of pebbles behind them.

Amy looked down to where the Doctor was

slumped on the floor, breathless, glaring angrily at

the gasping professor who was still clutching the

container to his chest.

'You nearly got us killed, you know,' he snapped

angrily.

'I'm sorry,' wheezed the professor. 'My notes.

My life's work. I couldn't leave them.' He glanced

over at Cain. 'Too valuable.'

The Doctor said nothing, but the look on his

face was plain for all to see. He scrambled to his

feet, looking down at the frightened professor.

Blood was seeping through the fabric of his trousers

where the creature had caught hold of him

'You'd better get that looked at. Amy, can you

get Rory to take care of Professor Willard? I need

to see how Thornton is doing'

Amy nodded. 'Okay.'

The Doctor turned and marched off down

the carriage.

Amy bent down and helped the professor to

his feet.

Mr Cain reached down and picked up the

specimen box. 'I'll look after this for you, Professor.

Would be a shame for it to go missing after all the

trouble you went through to get it.'

Amy frowned as the two men exchanged

a glance. Somehow she had the feeling that

there was more to the recovery of that box

than they realised.

The Doctor pushed his way through to the front

of the train, reassuring both children and adults

alike that they had made it away safely. When he

reached the engine he ducked down into the power

compartment to check on Kevin and Matty.

'How are my engineers doing?'

Kevin looked up and gave him a nervous

thumbs up. Matty was studying the dials intently,

his hand hovering over the temperature control.

'It got a bit hairy when we were slowing down

then speeding up again, but it's all under control

now,' he said proudly.

'Never doubted you for a moment.' The Doctor

grinned and ducked back out of the low door. Van

Goole looked up as he entered the cab.

'What was that fool Willard playing at? He could

have got us all killed,' snapped the warden angrily.

'I told him the same thing myself.'

'Is he all right?'

'A bite on his leg, nothing too serious. Rory will

sort him out.'

The Doctor sat down alongside the engineer,

staring out through the plexiglass dome at the thin

rail stretching out across the desert scrub. The train

sped forward, with the faintest of clicks and clacks

from the wheels. The sky was a brilliant blue, and

long shadows cast from the trees turned the dry

dust into a patchwork of subtle colours. It was

difficult to believe that so much death and horror

only lay a short distance behind them. But the

Doctor knew only too well how quickly chaos and

destruction could engulf even the most peaceful

of places.

'How long will it take to reach the city?'

Thornton turned and gave him a half smile.

'Five, maybe six hours.'

'How long before we've got far enough

away from the creatures for us to establish

communications?' asked Van Goole.

The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver

and peered at the readings. 'An hour, assuming we

can keep up this speed.'

'Ah, well there's the slight problem.' Thornton

gave him an apologetic look. 'Some of the fuel cells

are struggling with the load. There's a trackside

shuttle pad about eight miles ahead. We should be

able to pick up some back-up cells there.'

'We need to stop?' Van Goole frowned. 'Is

that really necessary? Those things will gain on us

pretty fast.'

Thornton shrugged. 'What would you prefer,

stop for five minutes and have spare fuel cells,

or keep going and potentially run out of power

halfway to Ortagon City?'

Van Goole sighed. 'Put like that, I guess we

have no choice.'

'Good.' The Doctor got to his feet, rubbing his

hands. 'Plan A seems to be going splendidly. Now

I want to make sure that we've got a plan B, just

in case.'

'Plan BP' asked Van Goole curiously.

'Yes. A tribe of seventy families that seemed to

know what was coming and seem to know where

to hide. I'm going to have a little chat with our

friend Attar.'

The Doctor ducked out of the cabin, almost

colliding with a shadowed figure waiting outside

the door.

'Doctor, I wanted to apologise,' said Cain

sheepishly. 'What we did was appallingly

dangerous, but the professor seemed so insistent

about retrieving his notes. I simply couldn't let him

go alone.'

The Doctor stared at him for a moment, then

nodded. 'Apology accepted. Would you excuse me,

Mr Cain? I'm in a bit of a hurry.'

Cain watched the Doctor make his way back

towards the passenger compartments. Eager

to find out what their situation was, he had

followed the Doctor and waited outside the

cab, listening as Thornton had explained about

the fuel cells. A smile flickered across his lips.

It was perfect. When they made their stop at

the shuttle pad, he and Willard would make

their escape.

Everything was working out perfectly.

Amy pushed open the door to the first class

compartment that Rory and the others had turned

into a makeshift medical bay and helped Willard

onto one of the seats.

Rory hurried over, his face anxious as he caught

sight of the blood.

'What happened? Are you all right?'

'Yeah, the Doctor decided to get off the train

to help this muppet, but other than that..'

'Young lady,' spluttered Willard. 'Kindly show a

little respect...'

'For you being so stupid?' Amy glared at him.

'Right, Professor. Really smart move.'

Any reply the professor might have made was

cut off as he gave a yelp of pain. Rory had peeled

back his tattered trousers and was examining a

deep gash in his calf.

'That's going to need a stitch...'

'Do you want me to give you a hand, Doctor

Pond?' said Amy mischievously.

'No, thank you. I need to concentrate. And

shouldn't it be Doctor Williams?' said Rory

indignantly.

'Whatever you say, doctor.' Amy looked around

the compartment. 'How are you doing, anyway?

Rory gave her a tired smile. 'I'm coping. I've

had a lot of scared kids to deal with. A few of the

adults too. The boy with the broken arm is fine

as long as he has a supply of chocolate. I'm just

hoping that these bites don't get infected.'

'Infected!' squawked the professor.

Amy rolled her eyes. 'Great bedside manner,

Doctor Williams.'

'Sorry! Didn't mean to say that out loud. I'll

give you an antibiotic.' Rory fumbled in a medical

kit and shot a look at Amy. 'I'm doing my best,

you know.'

'I think that you're doing great.' She gave him a

peck on the cheek. 'How about her?'

She nodded at where Gellen was curled up on

one of the seats.

'Honestly, I don't know. She's still in shock. She

needs rest and time to come to terms with what

happened to her parents, not yet more stress. She

just came in here and curled up as soon as we got

away. She's exhausted.'

Amy gently brushed a strand of hair from the

girl's forehead. 'Poor thing' She knew something

of what the girl might be going through. Suddenly

being dropped into an impossible situation.

Suddenly having to deal with monsters when you

have had people telling you for your entire life

that they didn't exist...

'Daydreaming, Pond?'

The Doctor was leaning in through the doorway,

looking at her quizzically. She flushed.

'No. I was... thinking.'

'Good. Thinking's good. Been doing a lot of

it myself. Hello Rory, glad to see you're taking

good care of our professor. Careful with that

wound. Nasty little teeth our friends have got. All

sorts of bugs I wouldn't wonder. Probably best

if you administer a broad spectrum antibiotic.'

Rory held up the hypodermic unit that he was

preparing. 'Er, yes. Thank you. Not completely

clueless.'

'Glad to hear it! He'll probably need a couple

of stitches too. Now, Amy, any idea where your

friend Attar might be?'

Amy shrugged. 'He was loitering at the back of

the rear carriage, I think.'

'Well, we've no time for loitering. Come on. We

need to get a peek inside his head!'

Gellen was dreaming. It was a dream full of

snapping teeth and whispering voices, of

drowning in a sea of small, smooth shapes. She

tried to pull herself free but the teeth started

tearing at her clothes, her skin...

She jerked awake with a start, breathing hard.

She looked around, reassuring herself that she

was safe. But...

She frowned. Even though she was awake

she was certain that she had heard the creepy

whispering noise that the creatures made. She sat

up, looking around the compartment. Rory was

sitting over by the window, head slumped on his

chest. He looked exhausted.

At the far end of the carriage she could see

that there was someone standing next to the

seat where the professor was sitting with his leg

up. It was the teacher — Cain. He was speaking

to the professor in a low, urgent voice. Gellen

strained to try and hear what they were saying.

Whatever it was, the professor didn't seem very

happy about it.

Suddenly Cain leaned down, grabbed the

professor by his jacket and hauled him to his feet.

Gellen ducked back down onto her seat, pretending

to be asleep as the two men hurried past her and

out into the corridor. Cain was holding a bulky

silver box, and as he passed her Gellen was certain

that she could hear the whispering chatter of the

creatures once more.

As the sound of footsteps receded she slipped

from her seat, craning her neck to see where the

two men had gone. The limping professor was

being bundled roughly through the doorway into

the baggage car. She had to duck out of sight as

Cain glanced back into the passageway.

For a moment Gellen wondered if she should

try and wake Rory. But what would she tell him?

It wasn't as though she had seen them do anything

wrong. Even so, Gellen was certain that they were

up to no good.

As she slumped back in her seat, wondering

what to do, something sharp dug into her back.

She reached around and pulled out the holo-

recorder that her mother had given her. It had

still been around her neck when she had been

found. For one horrible moment her emotions

threatened to overwhelm her. The death of

her father and stepmother was still something

that she could barely come to terms with. All

that she wanted was to be back on Earth in her

dad's little flat in Brighton.

She rubbed the tears from her eyes. If Cain

and Professor Willard were up to no good, then

this was her way of proving it. Slinging the holo-

recorder around her neck she scurried down the

passageway after them.

'Attar! There you are. Thought we'd lost you. Need

to have a word.' The Doctor plonked himself down

in the seat opposite the young native.

Attar was in no mood to play games.

'Leave me alone.'

'I need to find out where your people have gone

and what their relationship is with these creatures.'

'And I've already told you that I don't know.'

'But I think you do.' The Doctor leaned forward,

elbows resting on the table. 'You say that you were

told stories when you were a child. An oral history

passed down from one generation to the next. The

story of your race.'

'But I've forgotten everything that I was

taught!'

'No, it's just that you can't remember, there's

a difference.' The Doctor reached out and tapped

Attar on the forehead. 'Everything that we know

is in there, we just need to get at it. Now...' He

leaned back. 'These lessons, these stories. They

start when you are very young, yes?'

Attar nodded. 'It is our first day away from our

mothers. The old men would come before the

sunrise, take us all to the Hut of Learning and sit

us on the floor before the great paintings.'

'Good. Right, so it needs to be dark!' The

Doctor jumped up and pointed his sonic

screwdriver at the windows of the carriage. There

was a whir of power and the glass darkened to

a smoky grey. There were mutters of irritation

from some of the adults in the carriage as they

were plunged into darkness. The Doctor placed

his sonic screwdriver in the centre of the table,

his face dimly illuminated by the flickering green

light at its dp.

'Right. What else. Are the stories spoken in

verse, in prose, in tune?'

'There are drums.. .'

'A rhythm! Excellent!'

'But it's so long ago,' Attar said, shaking his

head. 'I could never remember...'

'I know what the tune is...'

A nervous voice piped up from the darkness.

The Doctor turned to see a young girl peering

at him over the seatback.

'Hello! Who are you then?'

'I'm Karen.'

'Karen who knows what the tune is.'

The girl blushed. 'I'm reading an i-book about

it at school. I've got a copy with me.'

'Can we hear it?'

The girl nodded and ducked down behind

her seat, emerging a few moments later with a

compact computer pad. She tapped the screen and

a low rhythmic drumming filled the air. 'It's only

a modern recording. They never let people from

outside the tribe into their ceremonies.'

The Doctor glanced over at Attar. The sound

of the drums had obviously had an affect on the

young man. Attar's eyes were slowly glazing. 'It's

good enough for us,' murmured the Doctor, slowly

drumming his fingers on the table in time with the

recording. He gestured to the circle of children

that was now clustered around them. Slowly the

children started to pick up the rhythm, drumming

on seat covers and chair backs, on books and

satchels. The noise filled the carriage. Attar seemed

to be dropping into an almost trance-like state.

The Doctor reached into his pocket and

removed something small and disc-like.

'Attar, I want you to concentrate on this.' The

Doctor leaned across the table once more. He

had a small biscuit held between his thumb and

forefinger. 'In an ideal world this should be a

silver disk or a blue crystal, but a Jammie Dodger

is the best I can do in the circumstances. I want

you to watch it.'

The Doctor started to roll the biscuit between

his fingers, like a magician with a coin, back and

forth, faster and faster in time with the rhythm of

the drums. Attar's eyes flickered back and forth as

he followed the movement. The Doctor's voice

was low and soothing. 'Concentrate on it, Attar.

Concentrate and listen to the drums. Remember

a time when you were young. Remember the Hut

of Learning.'

Attar started to sway his head slowly.

'Do you remember the story that the old

men told you?'

Attar nodded.

'Tell us, Attar,' whispered the Doctor. 'Tell us

what you were taught.'

Attar took a deep breath. 'In the time before

time, the people of the plains lived in a mighty

city...'

'What's that noise?'

Professor Willard looked up anxiously as the

sound of drumming drifted through into the

baggage car.

Cain shrugged. 'Probably nothing'

'It sounds like Ulla ceremonial drums.'

'Will you concentrate!'

Cain had set the professor's specimen case

on top of a plastic storage box in the baggage

car. The professor was bent over the open case

examining what was inside with an eyeglass. Cain

stood well back from him.

'Are you sure they'll be dormant?'

'Yes, of course,' said the professor. 'There's a

built-in stasis generator.' He lifted a piece of what

looked like thin rubber from the box with a set of

tweezers. It was bright silver. 'Extraordinary!'

'What is?'

'This material is like nothing I've ever

encountered.'

'It doesn't look that special to me.'

'But it's metal. It conducts like metal, it has the

strength of metal, but it's completely flexible.'

The professor looked at Cain in

astonishment. 'Do you realise the applications

of a metal like this?'

Cain took the tweezers from him and examined

the silver material carefully. 'Yes. It means we are

going to be very rich.'

'Not if we get caught by that swarm! And even

if we do get to Ortagon City, how are we going

to get this past the authorities without it being

discovered?'

'Don't worry about that, professor,' Cain gave

a cruel smile. 'I overheard the Doctor and the

others talking in the cab. We're going to be making

a stop at a shuttle pad in less than an hour. The

Doctor thinks that we'll be far enough away from

the creatures to be free of that interference that

they generate.'

'So?' the professor looked puzzled.

'So we're going to steal one of those shuttles

and get far away from here.'

The professor gave a snort. 'Really, Julius, and

who do you think is going to fly this shuttle?'

'You are. You're always going on about how

you flew shuttlecraft during the Cyber War. Now's

your chance to relive old times.'

The professor looked at him in disbelief.

'You're mad. We'll never get all these people on

one shuttle.'

'Who's talking about everyone? I'm just thinking

of you and me...'

'But we can't just... leave them!'

'That's exactly what we can do,' Cain spat angrily.

'And you think that they're just going to sit back

and watch us leave?'

'You really don't have much faith in me, do

you? When they were loading the train I noticed

one of Van Goole's people putting a stun gun rack

on board. Presumably they had the occasional

problem with the local wildlife getting a bit too

close to the terminal. It's got to be in this baggage

car somewhere and you're going to help me find

it. Then if anyone tries to stop us...' The look

on Cain's face made it perfectly clear how far he

was prepared to go, and how little patience he

would have if the professor argued any further.

With shaking hands, the professor put the lid

back on the specimen box.

Gellen watched the two men through the night

vision on her holo-recorder. She had snuck into

the baggage car and hidden behind the large blue

box that belonged to the Doctor, watching as

Cain and the professor had argued, recording it

all so that she could show Rory.

All she needed now was to get a shot of whatever

it was that they had hidden in the specimen box.

Although she already had a terrible suspicion of

what she was going to find, she had to have proof.

Waiting until the two men had moved off into

the darkness of a far corner, she snuck forward,

keeping close to the wall, hiding in the shadows.

She could hear Cain's gruff voice as he ordered

the professor about at the far end of the carriage.

This was her moment.

Sneaking forwards she darted across to the

specimen case. With one hand keeping the holo-

recorder trained on the lid, she reached out with

her other hand and snapped open the clasps.

Heart pounding she lifted the lid and peered

into the open box.

It was everything that she had feared.

Inside were three of the pebble creatures.

The Doctor leant forward on the table, chin

resting on one hand, nibbling on the Jammie

Dodger and pondering everything that he had

learnt from Attar. The native lad was slumped

back in his seat, exhausted from his hypnotic

ordeal. The kids had all drifted away, their

momentary distraction gone. Amy sat quietly,

waiting for the Doctor to say something.

Finally he looked up and gave a sad smile.

'Did you find out what you wanted?'

asked Amy.

'Oh yes. I'm afraid I did.'

'Well?'

The Doctor shrugged. ' You heard what he

said.'

Amy glared at him in frustration. 'It was

very long and very garbled! Can you give me

the short version?'

The Doctor gave a great sigh. 'Attar's

people had a great civilisation here once. A

technological empire...'

'Really?' Amy frowned. 'The huts we saw were

made from straw and sticks. Hardly the height

of technology.'

'Can I finish?' asked the Doctor.

Amy drew a finger across her lips.

'The planet developed to an advanced state

very quickly,' continued the Doctor. 'Too quickly.

They had power before they knew how to handle

it. They rapidly exhausted their natural resources

and brought the entire planet to the brink of

ecological and economic disaster. Their last frantic

attempt to stop total collapse was a biomechanical

experiment.'

'The creatures?' Amy was aghast.

'Yes,' said the Doctor. 'They created a self-

replicating machine-creature, a manufacturing

machine, capable of processing any form of matter

and recombining it into a multi-purpose mineral

element. They thought that it was the answer to all

their problems — but unfortunately they couldn't

control it.'

'It destroyed them?' asked Amy quietly.

'In a way, yes. They realised that they had created

a monster that they had no way of stopping, so they

launched it into space. But the legacy of what they

had created destroyed everything. They destroyed

their cities, their factories, their entire way of life,

so that such a monster could never be created

again. With nothing left to trade, their entire way

of life collapsed, the population reduced to a few

scattered communities. Over the centuries they

have all but forgotten who they once were, just a

vague memory, kept alive by campfire rituals and

children's stories.'

'Passed down from generation to generation.'

'A legacy, in case the creatures ever returned.

And now they have.'

'But how?' asked Amy.

The Doctor shrugged. 'They launched the

creatures into space in an unmanned spacecraft

of some kind, probably aiming to send it into

the Sun, or a black hole. Something went wrong.

They missed. The spacecraft probably drifted

for centuries before breaking up, either though

collision, or an accident. They might even have

been found and released by some unsuspecting

space traveller.'

'And they've made it all the way back here?'

Amy asked.

'A homing instinct of some kind. They've

probably destroyed hundreds of worlds on their

journey home.' The Doctor's voice was sad.

'And they'll destroy hundreds more once they've

finished here.'

'No.' The Doctor shook his head. 'No, it

stops here.'

'How?' asked Amy, frowning.

'Because the people who built these creatures all

those years ago also provided a way of destroying

them. A machine. A fail-safe device in case they

ever returned. A secret kept alive by Attar's people

for centuries.'

'And you think that's where they've gone? To

find this machine?'

'I'm certain of it.'

'Then what are we waiting for?'

The Doctor held her gaze. 'Because I'm going

to need the train to get there, and to do that I've

got to persuade Mr Van Goole that I'm right.'

Gellen was rooted to the spot, unable to tear her

eyes from the pebble creatures in the bottom of

the specimen box. Slowly it dawned on her that

the creatures were asleep, or drugged. Whatever

the reason, they showed no sign of movement.

Sudden anger welled up inside her. These

were the things that had killed her father and

stepmother. She felt a sudden urge to dp over the

box. She wanted to smash them to pieces, crush

them beneath her feet.

'Are these the things?' The sound of the

professor's voice from the far end of the carriage

made Gellen jump. She hurriedly slammed the

lid back onto the box and scurried back to her

hiding place.

The professor emerged from a pile of crates,

holding a bulky handgun in each hand. Cain

snatched one off him, snapping it open and peering

down the barrel.

'Of course they are. What did you think they

were, kids' toys?'

'The case said that they were only stun pistols.'

'And so they are.' Cain snapped the gun shut

with an unpleasant smile. 'But a charge big enough

to bring down a Beslon is going to have quite an

effect on something smaller.'

The professor stared warily at the gun in

his hands. Are you sure that this is absolutely

necessary?'

There was a sudden jolt and the train began to

slow down.

'Grab your specimens, professor. Time to

disembark!'

Gellen watched in horror as the professor

hoisted the specimen case into his arms. As he did

so, she realised that in her rush she hadn't done

up all of the clasps properly. One of them was

hanging loose!

The Doctor and Amy leaned out of the window,

watching as the train slid slowly to a halt at a

narrow platform alongside the shuttle pad. The

facility was even more basic than the terminal had

been. The large circular landing pad was bordered

with a cluster of small one-storey buildings and

row upon row of cargo containers. A lone shuttle,

its hull pitted and scarred from the constant cycle

of lifting into orbit and re-entry gleamed in the

afternoon sun. In the distance a range of snow-

capped mountains loomed over the plains.

Puzzled technicians hurried forward to

greet Thornton and Van Goole as they climbed

down from the cab, and there was an animated

conversation as the situation was explained to

them.

'I'd better get out there,' muttered the Doctor.

'Thornton may well need help with those spare

power cells.'

'I'll come with you,' said Amy, unwilling to

let the Doctor out of her sight and eager for a

chance to stretch her legs after an hour cooped

up in the overcrowded train.

'Nobody is going anywhere,' came a voice from

behind them.

The two of them turned to see Professor Willard

and Mr Cain step through into the carriage from

the baggage car, each of them holding a stubby

gun.

Children screamed and tried to scramble away

from them.

'Everybody sit still and keep quiet!' shouted

Cain, waving his gun menacingly. He pushed his

way towards the door, the professor following

nervously behind him.

'What are you doing?' cried the Doctor. 'There's

no time for this!'

'Not all of us are convinced by your escape

plan, Doctor,' snarled Cain. 'Not when there's a

perfectly good shuttlecraft to be had.'

'No, no, no!' The Doctor shook his head in

frustration. 'I've already explained to you. The

creatures generate a gravitational interference

field. Trying to take off would be appallingly

dangerous.'

'Ah, but we've come a long way from that

field, haven't we Doctor? I heard you talking to

Van Goole. By now we're out of range of that

interference field. Far enough for communications

with Ortagon City to be re-established.'

'Don't be an idiot, Cain!'

'I've had enough of listening to you and your

bright ideas, Doctor!' Cain raised the gun. 'Now

get out of my way.'

Amy tugged at the Doctor's arm. 'Let them go,

Doctor. If you're right, then they'll never get off

the ground anyway.'

'But there's more to it than just escaping, isn't

there?' said the Doctor sadly.

He glanced at the specimen case that the

Professor had clasped against his side. 'It wasn't

just notes that you went back for, was it professor?

It was something else.'

Amy's eyes widened. 'He caught some of

those creatures?'

'Yes,' said the Doctor grimly. 'And he thinks

that it's going to make him rich. But it's not. I can't

allow it.'

'You're not in a position to stop us. Now, I'm

not going to ask again, Doctor.'

Amy held her breath as Cain's finger started to

tighten on the trigger of the gun.

'Does anyone know why the train has stopped?'

Cain spun round in surprise as Rory hurried

into the carriage. The Doctor seized the initiative

and lunged for the gun but Cain was too fast for

him. He lashed out, sending the Doctor sprawling

in the aisle. The professor staggered backwards

as the Doctor crashed down. As he did so he

fumbled with the specimen case and it clattered

to the floor, its lid sliding loose!

With a cry of panic the professor dived for it,

slamming the lid back on.

With the two men distracted, Amy tried to make

a break for it, but Cain caught hold of her roughly.

She tried to break free but Cain was strong. An

arm clamped hard around her neck.

'Sorry. Looks like you're going to be coming

with us.'

'Cain, stop!' gasped the Doctor, staggering to

his feet.

'What's going on?' Rory rushed forward, but

Cain jammed the barrel of the gun against Amy's

temple, warning him off.

'If you don't want anything unpleasant to

happen to your girl, you just stay back.' He

backed over to the door, sliding it open. 'Now,

the professor and I are going to walk over to

that shuttlecraft. No one tries to stop us and the

girl stays safe.'

'No.' Rory shook his head. 'I'm not going to let

you take Amy.'

'It's all right, Rory.' Amy tried her best to sound

confident. 'I'll be fine. Just do as he says.'

Cain grinned. 'Sensible girl. Come on, Willard.'

The professor hurried out onto the platform.

Cain backed out after him, the gun still pointed at

Amy's head.

The two men made their way towards the

shuttle with Amy. The professor fumbled with a

control panel and a small ramp swung down from

the shuttle's nose. The Doctor and Rory could only

watch helplessly as Amy was bundled inside.

'What are we going to do?' asked Rory.

The Doctor was grim. 'I don't know.'

Behind them, unseen under one of the seats, a

smooth pebble lay motionless in the shadows.

Cain pushed Amy roughly into a seat in the

cockpit.

'You'll sit there and won't move if you know

what's good for you.'

'You won't get away with this,' she taunted.

'You're never going to be able to get this thing off

the ground.'

'She's right!' stammered the professor. 'This is

madness! The interference...'

'They've managed to get communication back,

haven't they?' snarled Cain. 'So get in that seat!'

The professor clambered awkwardly into the

pilot's seat, peering bemusedly at the controls.

'It's all so much more complicated than it was in

my day.'

Cain slipped into the seat next to him, still

keeping a wary eye on Amy. 'They say it's like riding

a bike, professor. Once you've learned you never

forget. Now get this thing off the ground!'

The Doctor and Rory watched in despair as the

shuttle's engines gave a belching cough, then

roared into life.

Slowly the bulky craft lifted into the air, sending

clouds of dust swirling across the pad.

'I thought you said that they wouldn't be able to

take off!' cried Rory.

'Taking off isn't the problem,' the Doctor

was earnestly studying the read-out on his sonic

screwdriver. 'Staying in the air once they've got up

there, however...'

The shuttle continued to gain height. In

moments it was like a toy in the sky and Rory

had to shade his eyes against the sun to keep it

in view.

The distant roar from the engines suddenly

changed in pitch, and the shuttle lurched alarmingly.

The Doctor grimaced. 'Sometimes I hate being

right all the time.'

Cain grabbed the arms of his seat in alarm.

'What's happening?'

The professor was stabbing frantically at the

controls. 'We're losing computer control. It must

be the interference from those creatures! The

engines are misfiring!'

Beads of sweat were forming on his brow as

he struggled to keep the little craft from bucking

and swaying.

'Do something,' cried Cain.

'What do you think I'm trying to do?'

Warning lights started to flash all across the

control console and then there was suddenly a

moment of total silence as the engines cut out.

Amy hung on for dear life as the shuttle dropped

like a stone.

Rory watched in horror as the shuttlecraft

started to arc through the sky, a thin vapour

trail streaming behind it like the tail of a kite.

For a moment it looked as though it would

just crash straight into the mountainside, but

at the last minute it turned, and slowly started

to level out.

Rory held his breath as the little ship

ploughed into the ground, sending up clouds

of dirt and rock as it skidded to a stop.

Rory started to run. 'I've got to get over there!'

The Doctor caught hold of his arm.

'Rory! Wait!'

'She could be hurt.'

'And it must be two or three miles to the crash

site. You're not going to be much help to her if

you get there half dead from exhaustion.'

Van Goole and Thornton were running

down the platform towards them. 'What just

happened?' spluttered Van Goole. 'Who was in

that shuttlecraft?'

'Professor Willard and Mr Cain.' The Doctor

quickly explained what had happened. 'They've

taken Amy as a hostage.'

'What the devil were they thinking?'

'Oh, I think it's our Mr Cain who's been doing

all the thinking. He's realised that the creatures

are unique and that the metal they produce has

the potential to make him rich. What he hasn't

realised is that he's not the first to think along

those lines, and if he gets those creatures off

this planet then all that they are going to bring is

death and destruction.'

'Why are we standing here talking when Amy

could be dying?' Rory exploded. 'We need to do

something!'

'And whatever it is, we need to do it quickly,'

Thornton nodded down the platform. On the

horizon a dark cloud had appeared, getting closer

with every second.

'Good God,' Van Goole paled.

'The bigger the swarm gets the more it eats,

the more it eats the faster it moves.' The Doctor

turned back to the warden. 'Van Goole. You said

that when the monorail was first built you ran a

branch line out to the caves.'

Van Goole nodded. 'The junction is just ahead.

But we never finished it.'

'But it got as far as the mountains?'

'Yes,' the warden nodded.

'Excellent!' The Doctor clapped his hands.

'Then that's where we're heading! Get everyone

onboard Mr Thornton!'

'Now wait just one minute, Doctor!' said Van

Goole firmly. 'I'm very sorry about your friend,

but that line is a dead end. We've no chance of

getting to the mountains and back before that

cloud reaches us. We have to keep going forwards

to the city. It's our only chance.'

'You can't just abandon Amy!' shouted Rory.

'We're not going to.' The Doctor pulled him

gently away from the warden. 'Mr Van Goole. That

swarm is getting bigger and more ferocious by the

second. If we run, if we get to the city and escape,

then they will continue to spread until the entire

planet is engulfed. Everything — every animal,

every insect, every plant — will be consumed.

The metal shell that they are creating will coat

the planet, trapping the heat from the core. The

temperature will rise, hotter and hotter, until the

pressure gets too much and the planet explodes.

That explosion will send those creatures flying

off into space again, to land on another world,

perhaps a more heavily populated one, perhaps a

planet whose people haven't yet discovered space

flight and have no means of escape.'

The Doctor leaned close to the warden, keeping

his voice low and calm.

'These creatures are a mistake, an accident.

They should never have been unleashed on the

universe. We have a chance to stop them here

and now. I can do it. We can do it. But I need

your help.'

'But the people on the train... the children,'

there was uncertainly in Van Goole's voice.

'Attar's people, the Ulla, have hidden in the

caves in the mountains. If I'm right then those

caves hold the key to stopping those creatures.'

'If you're right...' Van Goole stood silently for

a moment then nodded.

'All right, Doctor. So far you've been right

every step of the way, I see no reason to start

doubting you now. Mr Thornton! Are those fuel

cells loaded?'

Thornton gave him a thumbs up.

'Right,' said Van Goole. 'Let's get started.'

Amy woke with the harsh smell of scorched plastic

in her nose. She opened her eyes and looked around

the wrecked cockpit. She could barely believe that

she was still in one piece.

Despite everything, she had to admit that

she had been impressed with the way the

professor had handled the situation. As soon

as the engines had cut out, he had managed to

gain control over the crippled shuttle for long

enough to get it into a controlled glide. The

landing had been hard, but it could have been

an awful lot worse.

Amy unbuckled her harness and hauled

herself out of her seat. Smoke was starting to

drift through the cockpit. Every instinct told her

to run while she had the chance, but she couldn't

bear the idea of leaving either of her captors

hurt and trapped in the wreckage. Cautiously she

picked her way through the cabin. There was a

groan of pain from in front of her.

'Professor?' Amy pushed aside a tangle of

cables. The professor was slumped over the control

panel. Amy squeezed in next to him, easing him

back in his seat. He had a nasty cut on his forehead

from where he had fallen against the windshield,

but otherwise he seemed unhurt.

She looked around for something to stem

the trickle of blood. The corner of a silk

handkerchief stuck out from the breast pocket

of the professor's jacket. She pulled it out and

pressed it to his forehead. He winced in pain.

Amy wished Rory were here. He always knew

how to handle situations like this.

'Regular little Florence Nightingale, aren't you?'

Cain emerged from behind the co-pilot's seat,

one arm hanging by his side, the stun pistol held

firmly in his other hand.

Amy glared at him. 'Now do you believe that

we're still not clear of the interference?'

Cain sneered unpleasantly. 'We all make

mistakes. Yours was not escaping while you had

the chance.'

'Not all of us are as selfish as you are, Cain.'

And that's their mistake. You have to look

out for yourself in this universe. No one else is

going to.'

'And look where it's got you!' sneered Amy.

'You're worse off now than when you were on

the train. At least there you had some chance of

escaping.'

Cain shrugged. 'As I said, we all make mistakes.

But I've still got the professor, the specimens and

you as a hostage, so it's not a complete disaster.'

'And what are you going to do with us? The

professor's in no state to go very far and there are

millions more 'specimens' just over the horizon!'

'Very true.' Cain peered out through the

shattered windscreen. 'Fortunately, the professor

has brought us down near the caves. We'll hide

there until the swarm has passed and wait for the

rescue teams to arrive.'

'Oh, give up!' pleaded Amy. 'It's over.'

'I'm getting tired of your voice!' snapped Cain,

brandishing the stun gun menacingly. 'Now help

the professor.' Amy bit her lip. The man's patience

was obviously at an end and she had no idea what

he might do if she pushed him any further.

Unsnapping the buckle, she helped the professor

out of his seat and over to the airlock door. Cain

operated the controls and the door creaked open.

Amy took a breath as clean air rushed into the

cabin, swirling the smoke around them.

'The entrance to the caves is about a hundred

yards away,' said Cain, peering out through the

hatchway. 'Don't forget those specimens, Willard.'

The professor leaned down for the box, swaying

unsteadily on his feet.

'I'll get it,' said Amy.

'Oh, no,' Cain swung the gun to cover her. 'I'd

rather the professor carried it, if you don't mind.'

'But he's barely able to walk!'

'Then you can help him. Now move!'

Cursing under her breath, Amy put an arm

around the professor's waist, and helped him

down the short ramp. The mountain loomed

over them. Cain gestured towards a jagged

opening in the rocks ahead of them. As they

made their way towards it, Amy, staggering

under the weight of the professor, glanced back

over her shoulder.

In the sky behind them a dark cloud was

appearing.

'Hurry up, Doctor,' murmured Amy. 'Whatever

you're going to do, hurry up.'

'Come on Attar, wakey, wakey! Can't have you

sitting there dozing all day! Things to do, places

to go!'

Attar looked up groggily as the Doctor burst

into the carriage.

He rubbed his eyes and stretched, his second

joint making his arms bend in seemingly impossible

directions.

'I had the strangest of dreams...' his eyes

widened. 'I can remember...!'

'Yes, yes, yes,' the Doctor hauled him to his feet.

'You can relive your childhood later. All I need you

to remember right now is where your people will

have gone.'

'The caves,' said Attar firmly. There is a sacred

cavern deep within the mountain, a place of safety

if the swarm ever returned.'

'And from what you told me there is also a way

to stop them. A machine of some kind.'

Attar frowned. 'I think so, yes. There is a text that

has words that no one has ever really understood.

A list of numbers...'

'A shut-down code for our toothy friends.' The

Doctor grinned. 'Perfect. Come on Attar, we need

to get to those caves.'

The Doctor turned to see Rory waiting in the

doorway. 'Rory, I'm sorry I need you to...'

'Stay here,' said Rory, nodding slowly. 'I know.'

The Doctor gave a frown. 'No argument? No

insisting that you have to come with me?'

Rory shrugged. 'There's no point, is there?

You've already made up your mind that you're

going to go after Amy without me. Arguing with

you isn't going to change your mind. It's just going

to waste time.'

The Doctor squeezed his shoulder reassuringly.

'I'll get her back safely, Rory, I promise you that.'

Rory tried to force a smile to his lips. 'I know.'

'Good man!' The Doctor spun back to face

Attar once more. 'Now, this cave, this secret place.

I'm assuming that it's well hidden, otherwise it

would have been swarming with eager school

children, dull professors and interested tourists by

now, am I right?'

Attar nodded. 'It's at the centre of the

mountains, hidden within a network of tunnels

and passageways.'

'A labyrinth. Excellent. You've got to love a good

labyrinth. That's probably where the professor and

Cain are heading too. The professor is bound to

have some knowledge of the maze, even if he's

not aware of the secret chamber. So, how do we

find our way?'

'The path is shown in the great painting in

the Hut of Learning...' Attar tailed off, his face

falling.

'The painting that was taken when your people

evacuated their village,' said the Doctor solemnly.

The two men stood silently for a moment,

staring at each other.

'What are you saying?' Rory's voice was

desperate. 'Are you saying you won't be able to find

where they've taken Amy?'

'There must be mile upon mile of passageways,'

the Doctor paced up and down the carriage,

thinking frantically. 'Electronic trackers are going

to be disrupted by the swarm; even the sonic

screwdriver is going to be affected as they get

closer. I can probably rig up a pheromone scanner,

powered by the electrical field of my brain, but

that's going to take time, which we don't have.

Perhaps if I use...'

'Rory's shirt!' exclaimed Attar, suddenly.

'What?' The Doctor stared at him, puzzled.

'The pattern on his shirt! It's copied directly

from the Great Painting. I may have forgotten

what the stories meant, but I still had an eye for a

good design when I saw it.'

The Doctor hurried over to Rory, examining

the complex tangle of lines on the t-shirt with

excitement. 'Looks like you're going to be

more help that you thought, Mr Pond! Come

on, shirt off!'

Rory struggled out of the shirt, covering his

bare chest self-consciously as the children around

him started to giggle. The Doctor snatched the

shirt from him and started to trace a line through

the tangle. 'Yes, this is perfect. Come on Attar, time

we were off! Oh, and find yourself something else

to wear, Rory. We don't want you catching your

death, now do we?'

As the Doctor turned to leave, Rory suddenly

called after him. 'Doctor! Amy bought one of

these shirts too! The professor and Cain, they'll

have their own map!'

The Doctor's smile faded. 'Let's just hope that

they are too wrapped up in their own problems to

realise what's right in front of them. Don't worry,

Rory, we'll find them.'

As the Doctor and Attar hurried from the carriage,

a pebble-like shape started to rock back and forth

in the shadows beneath the seats.

With a sharp crack the pebble split open and

thin, wiry legs started to emerge.

The stasis field in the lid of the professor's

specimen box had been holding the creature in

a state of suspended animation, but the effects

were starting to wear off. Slowly the creature was

coming back to life.

Amy felt as though they had been walking in

circles for hours. The tunnels were narrow

and slippery underfoot, and constantly twisted

and turned. Occasionally, they would open out

into a wide cave, but almost immediately would

narrow back down until she had to duck her

head to avoid cracking it on the jagged rocks of

the ceiling.

The professor was becoming an increasingly

dead weight on her shoulder, groaning with

pain every time she tried to hoist him upright.

Eventually the difficult terrain and stumbling

professor got the better of her and, catching

her foot on a rock on the floor, she crashed to

the ground.

'Get up,' Cain stood behind her, eyeing her

suspiciously, his finger hovering over the trigger

of the bulky stun pistol. 'I told you, no tricks.'

'I tripped!' she glared at him. 'The professor

is exhausted and so am I. How much longer

are we going to go on traipsing around these

tunnels?'

'That's up to the professor, he's the expert.'

Amy helped the professor onto a rock ledge

where he sat breathing heavily.

'Well, Professor?' said Cain impatiently. 'You

know these caves better than anyone. Where would

your precious natives be hiding out?'

The professor rubbed his forehead, wincing as

his fingers brushed over the cut.

'There are so many caverns that are sacred to

the Ulla. We've barely surveyed more than a dozen.

It will take years of careful study.

'Well we haven't got years! I want you to get me

somewhere that has food, water and a fire. I've got

no intention of spending the night trapped in one

of these miserable tunnels.'

'And what if the natives aren't keen on sharing?'

asked Amy.

'Let me worry about that. Now which way,

Professor?'

Willard pulled a small, battered journal from his

jacket pocket. 'Last year's expedition found some

interesting Ulla artefacts in a cave a few hundred

yards from here. That would seem like the logical

place to start.'

'Right. Then let's move.'

The train pulled to a juddering halt and Gellen

watched as the Doctor and Attar jumped down

onto the dust-strewn platform and hurried towards

the mountain that loomed over them. All of the

other children, teachers and colonists were starting

to make their way out of the train too, taking the

opportunity to stretch tired limbs and get some

much needed fresh air.

At the top end of the platform she could see

Warden Van Goole and Mr Thornton talking

urgently. Gellen had overheard enough to know

that there was no more track for them to follow.

If the Doctor couldn't find a way of stopping the

creatures then they were all trapped.

Strangely, she wasn't frightened. There was

something about the Doctor that made her trust

him the way that she had never trusted anyone

else. He had promised that he would make things

better, and he seemed like a man who didn't make

promises lightly.

Deciding that it was a good idea if she got some

fresh air herself, Gellen started to make her way

towards the door. As she did so, something rustled

underneath one of the seats in front of her, and a

strange whispering filled the air.

Gellen felt her blood chill. One of the creatures

was on the train! Slowly she bent down so that she

could peer under the seats. It took a few seconds

for her to make out the shapes in the darkness, but

there, tucked up against the wall of the carriage,

was the unmistakable pebble shape of the monsters

that had destroyed her family.

Heart pounding, Gellen started to back away.

As she did so, the creature scuttled around to face

her, gave an angry hiss and lunged forward.

Attar had to jog to keep up with the Doctor as

he raced through the winding tunnels in the

mountainside. The Doctor had Rory's shirt held

out in front of him as if it were a treasure map.

Occasionally, when they reached a branch or a

T-junction, he would stop and peer at the design,

nose practically pressed to the fabric, twisting

the shirt this way and that (even turning it upside

down) before giving a cry of triumph and darting

off down another passageway.

They turned a corner to be confronted by a

high rock wall. Attar gave a groan of disbelief. It

was a dead end.

'So much for the design being a map,' he said

miserably. 'Now what do we do?'

'No, no, no.' The Doctor was studying the

design once more. 'You think that this is a rock

wall, don't you?'

'Well it is!' said Attar.

The Doctor shook his head. 'You're meant to

think that it's a rock wall, but it's a door.'

'You're mad.'

'Very possibly, but I'm still right about it being

a door. What's this symbol?' The Doctor held out

Rory's shirt, his finger pointing at a tiny geometric

shape painted on the fabric.

'It's nothing,' said Attar. 'Just the name of one

of the ancient songs.'

'Can you sing it?'

'Now?' Attar looked puzzled.

'Yes, now.' The Doctor stood back and looked

expectantly at him.

Feeling somewhat foolish, Attar started to

sing, one hand beating on his thigh in a steady

rhythm. He sang quietly at first, but as the words

started to echo around the tunnel walls, and the

rhythm started to build, he found himself caught

up in the words of the ancient song that had been

lost to him until the Doctor had revived the long

forgotten memories.

When the song was finished, Attar realised

that the emotion had brought tears to his eyes.

He rubbed the wetness away with the back of his

hand, shooting an embarrassed glance at where

the Doctor was watching him thoughtfully.

'Was there any particular point to that?' asked

Attar, unused to the strength of feeling that the

song had provoked in him.

'Oh, yes,' said the Doctor, nodding towards

the end of the tunnel. Attar turned and his jaw

dropped in astonishment. The seemingly solid

rock wall had vanished, revealing a set of steep

stone steps that stretched down into the darkness.

Glowing veins of rock lit the tunnel with an eerie

greenish glow.

'It seems that the technology of your ancestors

uses complex aural patterns as its basic operating

system. Opening the door was just a question of

finding the right aural key. The right tune.'

'So the songs we were taught.

'Are the operating instructions for a machine

that was built long ago as a fail-safe in case the

creatures ever returned.' The Doctor gestured

to the steps. 'Shall we go and find the rest of

your people?'

Together the two of them vanished into the

green-lit gloom.

'What's that?'

Cain looked up in puzzlement as the sound of

a distant song echoed around the tunnels.

'It sounds like an Ulla tribal song,' said Professor

Willard in astonishment.

'Like singing, do they?' asked Amy.

'Oh yes, I wrote a thesis on the songs of the

Ulla.' The professor plumped up with pride.

'We can have the history lesson later,' hissed

Cain. 'Right now I just want to know where that's

coming from.'

Amy cocked her head on one side. It was almost

impossible to tell where the music was coming

from; the noise seemed to echo from everywhere

around the tunnel walls.

Cain scrambled to his feet. 'It's coming from

down here.' He gestured towards one of the

tunnels. 'It looks as though we've found our

elusive natives without needing your notebooks,

professor.'

Almost as suddenly as it had started the music

was gone, and the icy silence of the caves descended

once more.

Cain jabbed Amy with the toe of his boot.

'Come on!'

'Hey!' Amy shouted. 'Cut that out!'

'Then move! I don't want to risk losing them.'

Amy helped the professor struggle to his feet,

and they made their way towards the source of

the sound.

Gellen screamed as the creature darted forward,

its teeth snapping at her ankles. She reached up

at a strap hanging down from one of the bulging

luggage racks above her and pulled hard. An

avalanche of cases, bags and boxes crashed down

onto the creature, burying it.

With the trapped monster snarling and

thrashing behind her, Gellen ran, pushing her way

through the connecting door and into the carriage

beyond. She burst into the makeshift hospital,

startling Rory, who looked up at her in alarm.

'Gellen? What's the matter?'

'There's one of those things here...' explained

Gellen breathlessly.

'What?' Rory jumped to his feet. 'On the

train? How?'

'It must have fallen out of that case of the

Professor's. I think it might be my fault.' Gellen

felt tears starting to well up behind her eyes. Rory

hurried forward and gave her a reassuring hug.

'Hey. It's the professor who was stupid enough

to want to keep one as a pet, remember?' He peered

out cautiously into the corridor. 'I don't suppose

you've got any idea where it is now, do you?'

'I pushed a load of cases on top of it, but I

don't think that will stop it for very long'

As if on cue there was a clatter from the far

end of the carriage and the creature scrambled

out of one of the air conditioning ducts. Gellen

huddled behind Rory as it sniffed experimentally

at the air. It seemed much slower than the ones

that had attacked the hotel, as if it was half asleep,

or drugged in some way. Perhaps the professor

had done something to it...

The creature started to make its way down the

carriage towards them, claws making their familiar

clicking sound on the metal floor. Rory backed

away, looking around for anything that they could

use as a weapon. Suddenly his eyes settled on

something.

'I'm going to try and distract it,' he whispered.

'When I do, make a run for the front of the train.

Try and find Van Goole, or Thornton.'

Rory snatched something up from the counter.

It was the remains of a sandwich. Before Gellen

could stop him, Rory tossed the sandwich onto the

floor in front of the searching creature. It fell on it

ravenously, teeth snapping, until nothing remained

but crumbs. Almost immediately the creature

started to shudder and vibrate, its legs snapping

back inside its shell. Gellen knew that she should

run but she couldn't take her eyes from what was

happening in front of her.

With a sickening, wet, slurping noise a crack

opened up down the centre of the creature's back

and it fell into two jagged halves. Immediately the

two halves started to bend and twist, and there

was a hissing shriek that made the hair on the back

of Gellen's neck stand on end. With the familiar

cracking noise, the pebbles split open and the legs

slowly started to emerge.

Rory shot Gellen an apologetic look. Now they

had two monsters to deal with!

The Doctor and Attar stepped down into a vast

cavern, filled with people and animals. In the centre

of the cave a huge column of gleaming metal

stretched up towards the roof, banks of consoles

circling its base.

The Doctor clapped his hands together in

glee. 'Now that looks like a monster neutralising

machine if ever I saw one!'

They made their way towards the huge machine,

the tribespeople parting silently ahead of them as

they made their way forward. At the base of the

machine a console had been adorned with fruit

and flowers, the Great Painting propped up on a

crude frame to one side. Three of the elders sat on

the floor in front of the console. As the Doctor

and Attar approached, they rose gracefully to their

feet.

The Doctor held out a hand. 'I'm sorry to

intrude, but I'm the Doctor. I wonder if I might

talk to someone in charge...'

'I am Kren.' One of the elders took his hand

and touched it to his forehead. And you have no

need to apologise, Doctor. You have brought back

to us one who we thought was lost.'

Kren smiled at Attar, who was hovering

nervously behind the Doctor.

'Welcome back, Attar. The very fact of your

being here means that all that you had once

forgotten has been returned to you. You are one

with the people once more.'

Attar bowed his head. 'I was foolish.

I thought that the old ways were unimportant.

I know better now.'

'Yes, well, lovely as this reunion is, we do have

a slightly more pressing problem. Lots of tiny

little beasties, gnashing teeth, devastating the

planet.' The Doctor peered up at the towering

machine. 'The entire history of your people has

led to this moment, so why haven't you fired this

thing up yet?'

Kren stared at him solemnly. 'You are right,

Doctor, the stories and songs that were passed

down from my father and his father before him

right back to the time before time were all for this

moment. From the point that the first creatures

started to fall upon our land once more, we knew

that we must act according to the ancient texts.

The Great Picture led us through the mountain,

and the songs of the people revealed this place

to us...'

He tailed off, shame and sorrow in his eyes.

'And?' asked the Doctor, nervously.

'And everything we were taught, everything

we have kept alive through the centuries was for

nothing. The people of this world are doomed.

The machine no longer functions.'

As Gellen and Rory hurried through the engine

towards the cab, a dark shape suddenly

emerged from a small hatchway. For a moment

Gellen thought that the creatures had somehow

managed to get ahead of her, but then an

irritated voice spoke.

'Are we going to be stopped here for long?'

A boy about the same age as her was looking at

her quizzically.

'You scared the life out of me!' she snapped.

'Sorry. It's just we've been down here for ages.

I think they've forgotten about us.'

'Us?'

The face of another boy appeared through

the hatchway. 'This is Kevin.' said the first boy.

'I'm Matty.'

'Where are Warden Van Goole and Mr

Thornton?' asked Rory.

The boy called Matty shrugged. 'I'm not

sure. Outside somewhere I think. Why? What's

going on?'

Gellen quickly explained about the creatures

that were loose on the train. Kevin went pale.

'We'd better get out of here,' he started to

scramble up out of the hatchway.

'No, hang on a minute,' Matty stopped him.

'You heard what the Doctor said. Those things

could kill everyone.'

'Er, hello. They could kill us too!' Rory

reminded him.

'Not if we're smart.'

'Oh, no,' Kevin frowned. 'Are you going to

volunteer us for something dangerous again?'

'I've got an idea,' Matty smiled.

The Doctor sat thoughtfully on the stone steps

at the base of the machine, listening as the last

note of the Song of the People echoed around

the vast cavern.

The machine remained silent and dark.

You see?' Kren held out his hands in despair.

'We have tried time and time again, but

without success.'

'So I see.' The Doctor leapt to his feet and

started examining the ancient control panel.

'It's a lovely idea that your ancestors had.

Build the machine in the mountain, put the

hardware somewhere that it could survive the

centuries without being disturbed, but put

the software - the operating instructions — in

the heads of the people, in the language, the

songs, the culture.'

He turned to Kren, eyes alive. 'But languages

evolve, particularly over the sort of time periods

that we're talking about. People add their own

verses to songs, add a new harmony here, an

extra chorus there, a little 'pa-rup-pa-pom-pom'

to liven things up. Unfortunately, the machine

doesn't recognise those changes. It's running

on an older operating system. But Attar here

never learnt those songs, never memorised them.

What I've revived in him is a race memory, a

pure recollection of what those songs should be.

Version 1.0 in fact!'

He grabbed Attar by the arm, sitting him down

in front of the console and thrust a pencil and

paper into his hands. 'Kren, I want you to sing

the song again, and Attar, anything that seems

strange, anything unfamiliar and out of place, I

want you to write it down. Write the song as it

should be!'

The Doctor turned to face the assembled

tribespeople. 'Ladies and gentlemen. Once more

with feeling, if you please.'

'Blow up the train?' Rory stared at Matty in disbelief.

'But you can't!'

'Why not?'

'Because it's probably very expensive!' Rory

blustered. 'Besides, what if we need it to...'

'To what? We've reached the end of the line.

There's nowhere left for us to go.' Matty's eyes

were blazing with excitement. 'But if we can lure

those things into the engine, Kevin and I can set

the temperature controls so that the boiler will

overload. We jump off the train and boom! No

more monsters.'

'Lure them with what?' Rory asked dubiously.

'Sweets.' Matty held out a crumpled bag.

'Kevin's liquorish sweets.'

If Rory had any doubts about the plan, they

were banished by a loud hiss from the baggage car,

and the clattering of dozens of clawed feet. The

creatures were multiplying. If they were going to

do anything they had to move quickly.

'Okay,' Rory nodded. 'I'll lure the creatures in.

Do you know how to get the train moving?'

Matty nodded. 'I've been watching Mr

Thornton. It's pretty simple.'

'Thank you very much,' said a gruff voice from

behind them. Everyone turned to see Thornton

clambering into the cab. He glared at them.

'No one is going to be driving this train except me,

so you'd better tell me what this little council of

war is all about!'

Gellen scurried forward. 'Those creatures on

the train. It's my fault, I think, but Matty says we

can trap them. Blow them up.'

Thornton stared at her thoughtfully.

'Does he now?'

'Er, it's quite urgent, actually,' said Rory.

'Monsters. On the train. Right now.'

Thornton turned round and pressed a button

on the control panel behind him. There was a

metallic clunk as all the doors locked.

Rory looked around in alarm. 'Not quite what

I had in mind.'

'If these things are on the train then we've

got to keep 'em here,' said Thornton. 'Matty's

quite right. The boiler is our best weapon. It's a

good plan.'

Matty swelled with pride.

'But Rory and I will deal with it. You kids, I've

~

got another job for you.'

The tribe must have sung their song half a dozen

times before Attar finally found all the parts that

were not original. The Doctor snatched up the note

and scanned it quickly. The changes were scarcely

noticeable. A note here, an odd word there.

'Right Attar, it's up to you now.' The Doctor

smiled at him. 'You have to become the teacher.

Teach them this new version of the song, and do

it quickly.'

Attar nodded. 'We are fast learners, Doctor.'

Attar and the elders hurried off into the crowd.

The Doctor looked nervously at his watch. If this

didn't work then they were out of time.

Rory peered nervously into the baggage car. In the

gloom he could hear the creepy whispering of the

creatures as they communicated with each other.

From the looks of things they had already found

one of the crates of food that had been loaded

into the car. That meant that there must be more

than two of them by now.

Reaching into the bag, Rory threw a handful of

sweets onto the floor. At once there was the clatter

of claws and one of the creatures appeared from

the shadows, hissing hungrily. It darted forward,

devouring the sweets in a gulp. Two more of the

creatures scuttled from the shadows, hissing and

snapping. More and more emerged until there

were about a dozen.

Rory started to edge backwards, throwing

handfuls of sweets as he went, drawing the

creatures after him. As he passed through the

connecting corridor into the engine compartment,

he could see Matty and Gellen peering in through

the outside window. He just hoped that this was

going to work.

Gellen watched as Rory lured the creatures out

of the baggage car and into the front of the

train. As soon as she was certain that all of the

creatures had followed him, she pulled open the

door and Matty helped her scramble up into the

baggage car.

The carriages were all separated by a set of

sliding doors. Gellen pressed the red 'close' button

and the glass partition hissed shut. She took the key

that Mr Thornton had given her and slid it into a

socket next to the button. There was a heavy clunk

and a red light lit up over the door.

Gellen jumped back down from the train and

gave Matty and Kevin a thumbs up. Matty grinned

back at her and ducked under the carriage. There

was a series of buttons, just as Thornton had

told him. Kevin fumbled with a torch and a dull

yellow glow illuminated the gloom. Matty peered

at the crumpled bit of paper that Thornton had

written his instructions on.

'Here goes.' With a silent prayer he pressed

the buttons in the sequence indicated and there

was a satisfying hiss of hydraulics as the engine

uncoupled from the carriages.

Slowly the engine started to move away from

the rest of the train. Matty and Kevin scrambled

back up onto the platform alongside Gellen as the

engine started to move off.

'Hey, you kids!'

Warden Van Goole hurried over as the engine

started to pick up speed.

'What the devil is going on? Who's driving

that thing?'

'Rory and Mr Thornton,' said Matty, checking

his watch. 'But they'd better get off within the next

two minutes.'

The song of the people started slowly, a low

rumble of voices keeping steady time with the

drums. Gradually it started building, more and

more voices adding to the harmony until the

cavern echoed with music. It was a song that had

been sung countless times over the centuries, but

today, it was different, today it was being sung as

it had originally been written, pure and strong, a

remnant of a distant time.

The Doctor stood in front of the control

console of the huge machine, watching in

admiration as mechanisms that had lain dormant

for centuries slowly started to spring into life.

Lights glowed on the control, read-outs flickered

and a deep, throbbing hum started to build deep

within the mountain, rising in tone as the music

swelled.

'It's working,' breathed Attar.

'Yes,' the Doctor flexed his fingers like a concert

pianist about to give a recital. 'Millions of years

and all systems go.'

'This will stop them?'

'Oh, I think so. This machine sends out a

powerful counterwave at the opposite end of the

gravitational scale to the creatures' interference

generators. That will disrupt their internal bio-

electric power systems and put their cores into

meltdown.'

Attar looked at him blankly.

'It'll scramble their innards.'

The Doctor peered at the read-outs. 'Ha-hah!'

He rubbed his hands in anticipation. We seem to

be at optimum power. Let's bring this nasty little

plague of locusts to an end.'

The Doctor was reaching out for the control

when a gunshot echoed around the cavern.

He spun around to see Cain, the professor and

Amy on the steps at the far side of the cavern.

Cain levelled the gun at Amy's head.

'Make any attempt to touch that switch, Doctor,

and the girl is dead.'

Rory stared out of the window as the train

picked up speed. Behind him, in the engine

compartment, the creatures snapped and hissed as

they divided, gorged on the sweets that had lured

them in.

'Right,' said Thornton. 'We'd better get off

before we run out of track.' Rory nodded. The end

of the line was frighteningly close.

The engineer stabbed at a button and the cab

door unlocked with a clunk. Rory stared at the

ground whizzing past below them. This had seemed

like a good idea when they were stationary.

'Bend your knees when you land,' said

Thornton encouragingly. 'And roll with the fall.

You'll be fine.'

'Done this a lot have you?' asked Rory.

Thornton just grinned. 'You'd be surprised.'

Rory was steeling himself to jump when

something small and black came racing across

the cabin floor. Thornton gave a bellow of

pain as the creature clamped onto his leg. Rory

looked in horror as more of the creatures

gathered in the doorway. The boiler was now

hissing and screaming. They could only have a

matter of seconds!

Rory looked around frantically. There was

a fire axe in a glass case by the doorway. Rory

smashed the glass with his elbow and snatched

the axe from its case.

'Thornton, keep still!'

Rory swung the axe like a golf club, catching

the creature square on and sending it clattering off

the cabin ceiling. Thornton gave a bellow of pain

as the creature was torn free from his leg.

Throwing the axe to one side, Rory grabbed the

engineer by the collar and hauled him out through

the doorway.

They hit the ground hard, rolling over in the

dust, winded by the impact. From behind them

a loud hissing noise started to build, louder and

louder until, with a deafening explosion, the

train exploded.

Rory clasped his hands over his ears as the

Shockwave sent debris flying. His ears ringing, Rory

looked around to see gouts of flame and thick black

smoke billowing into the sky. The engine was on

its side in the dry dirt, split open down the middle.

Rory scrambled to his feet, watching anxiously

for any sign of movement in the wreckage. To his

relief there was nothing. They had done it. The

creatures were dead.

There was the sound of cheering from behind

him. Rory turned to see Gellen, Kevin and Matty

leaping up and down on the distant platform,

whooping and hollering in triumph. Rory smiled

and waved. Then froze.

All the time that they had been preoccupied with

the creatures that had got on-board the train, they

had forgotten the ones that were pursuing them.

Now the swarm cloud dominated the horizon.

They had managed to kill a dozen of the creatures,

but they had no defence against the millions that

had now caught up with them.

'Hello, Pond,' the Doctor gave Amy a brief wave.

'How are you doing?'

'Oh, you know,' Amy shrugged. 'Kidnapped,

been in a shuttle crash, got a gun pointed at my

head. Other than that... You've been having a nice

sing-song in the meantime, have you?'

The Doctor gave a wry smile. 'Something like

that.' He watched as Cain led her slowly through

the crowd of natives. 'Mr Cain. I need you to

listen to me. I can stop this here and now. This

machine will shut the creatures down, totally.

Destroy them once and for all.'

'Then that sounds like a very good reason not

to use it,' Cain waved the gun at him. 'Move away

from the controls, Doctor.'

Professor Willard was staring up at the

towering machine in awe. 'I don't believe it. This is

stupendous. An archaeological goldmine.'

'Professor,' the Doctor kept his voice low and

calm. 'Tell him. Make him understand. We have to

stop these things.'

'It's no good, Doctor,' Cain shook his head.

'The professor isn't going to help wipe out an

entire species, not when that species has the ability

to make us both so much money.'

'But they're not a species,' said the Doctor

sharply, his eyes fixed on the professor. 'They're

a machine.'

'A machine?' A frown flickered over the

professor's face.

'Yes, a manufacturing machine built by

people who were blinded by greed. People like

Cain. They can't be reprogrammed, they can't

be controlled, they can only destroy, and they

will keep on destroying unless we can turn them

off. The Ulla unleashed them on the universe,

but they also had the foresight to provide the

way of stopping them. Are you really going to

let an entire planet be destroyed, Professor? An

entire solar system? An entire galaxy? How much

money will it take for you to be able to forget

the millions that will be killed by your actions

here today?'

Willard turned, looking at Cain with

uncertainty in his eyes. 'Julius?'

Cain pushed the professor out of the way

angrily, swinging the gun to cover the Doctor.

'Very clever, Doctor, appealing to the professor's

better nature. It might work with him, but it's not

going to work with me. Now, I said, step away

from the controls.'

'Julius, no, he might be right...'

'Shut up, Willard! I've stood by and watched

enough people get rich around me. This time it's

my turn.'

'I'm sorry Mr Cain,' said the Doctor firmly. 'But

I can't allow these things to spread any further.'

'Then I'm going to have to kill you, Doctor,'

said Cain.

'I know,' the Doctor nodded, his hand reaching

towards the button on the console.

'No! Julius, no!'

The professor lunged forward, knocking

Cain's arm as his finger tightened on the trigger.

The stun gun went off with a deafening crack,

sending a burst of energy zinging towards the

cavern roof. Amy ducked as the two men struggled

on the steps, energy bolts sizzling around them as

the professor tried to wrestle the gun from Cain's

grasp. With a savage blow, Cain knocked the little

professor to the floor.

Winded, he stared up at his one-time friend.

'I'm sorry Julius, but I'm not going to let you do

this.' He fumbled with the controls on the side of

the specimen box. There was a beep as the small

read-out screen changed from 'stasis' to 'revive'.

Cain's eyes widened with horror as the professor

undid the clasps on the lid.

The creatures practically exploded out of

the box.

Cain and the professor didn't stand a chance.

The ravenous creatures attacked with a terrible

ferocity. The tribespeople scattered in panic as

the gorged monsters started to shake and split,

multiplying with frightening speed.

'Doctor!' screamed Amy. 'Now would be a

good time!'

The Doctor took a deep breath and started

to sing. As the machine recognised the tune, the

button on the console lit up a fiery red.

The Doctor slammed his hand down.

Rory watched helplessly as the swarm of creatures

surged forward. To have come so far, to have got

this close to safety...

His only thought was of Amy. He just hoped

that inside the mountain she was safe.

He closed his eyes.

There was a sudden deafening noise, like a

chord played on a vast church organ. Rory gave

a cry of fear that was totally drowned out by the

booming sound. Almost as suddenly, there was

silence. Cautiously, Rory opened his eyes. Ahead

of him, for as far as the eye could see, the ground

was littered with the creatures, motionless, silent,

just like rocks.

'What happened?' asked Thornton numbly.

'I think the Doctor happened,' said Rory.

The rescue shuttlecraft had already started to land

by the time the Doctor, Amy and the Ulla finally

emerged from the mountain.

As the tribe started to sing a song of celebration

at their escape, Rory hurried over to Amy and gave

her a huge hug. 'I thought I'd lost you. Again.'

Amy gave him a kiss on the cheek. 'Not

a chance.'

'Oh, no! What happened?' the Doctor was

staring in dismay at the burned-out remains

of the monorail engine. He turned to where

Matty and Kevin were standing. 'I put you two

in charge to make sure that that sort of thing

didn't happen!'

'Sorry. But we didn't have a lot of choice,' said

Matty, looking sheepish. 'It did make a fantastic

bang though.' He broke into a huge grin.

'You remind me of a friend I once had,' said

the Doctor frowning at him. 'She was always one

for a big explosion too,' he sighed. 'Ah well, I guess

everyone is going to have to get the shuttle back to

Ortagon City instead.'

He looked around, searching for Gellen

amongst the crowds. To his relief he could see

a nurse helping her towards one of the shuttles.

Crisis over, she had finally allowed herself to

give in to the grief and sorrow. The Doctor gave

a sad smile. It would be hard for her, but with

time, the bad memories would fade. She was

lucky, she still had family at home who would

care for her, help her to heal.

'Looks like I was right to trust you after all,

Doctor,' said Van Goole, walking over and shaking

him warmly by the hand. 'Where's the professor?

And our friend Mr Cain?'

The Doctor shook his head sadly. 'The professor

finally decided that he was on our side after all, but

too late I'm afraid.'

Van Goole sighed. 'I'm sorry.'

'I am too.'

The Doctor wandered over to where Attar was

standing at the edge of the huge pebble desert

that now stretched out towards the horizon. In the

distance, a thin line of gleaming metal glinted in

the setting sun.

'What do we do now, Doctor?' Attar asked.

'What do my people do?'

'You rebuild,' said the Doctor quietly. The

metal that is out there is unique now that the

machine that created it has been destroyed. The

money it will bring should be enough for the Ulla

and the colonists to rebuild this world.'

He turned to the young native.

'But you need to remember this day, Attar.

The monster that was created here must never be

allowed to live again.'

Attar nodded. 'I know, Doctor. We must not

forget our past, we must learn from it.'

The Doctor nodded.

'You'll make a fine storyteller, Attar.'

Attar grinned. 'Well I wasn't exactly making a

fortune selling t-shirts, was I? Let's see if I'm any

better at writing songs.'

The Doctor patted him on the shoulder

and turned to where his two companions were

waiting for him.

'Come on, you two. Let's go and retrieve the

TARDIS. I promised you a party, and I think

we've earned one, don't you?'

Amy nodded. 'Couldn't agree more. Just one

condition though...'

The Doctor looked at her quizzically.

'We go somewhere where they aren't playing

rock.'