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Death Riders by Justin Richards

Heart of Stone by Trevor Baxendale

The Good the Bad and the Alien

by Colin Brake

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Alien Adventures

by Richard Dinnick and Mike Tucker

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Monstrous Missions

by Jonathan Green and Gary Russell

Step Back in Time

by Jacqueline Rayner and Richard Dungworth

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Published by BBC Children's Books, 2011

Text and design © Children's Character Books

Terminal of Despair written by Steve Lyons

The Web in Space written by David Bailey

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-978-14059-0-768-2

Printed in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, St Ives pic

'I think we've landed in an airport,' said Amy.

The Doctor peered out of the TARDIS from

behind her. 'Oh,' he said. 'Sorry about that. Come

back inside. I'll try again. Better luck next time.'

'Er, not so fast if you don't mind,' said Amy.

We're here now. What's wrong with having a quick

look around?'

They were in a long, well-lit hallway. It was

lined with luggage carousels. Most of these were

still, but the one at the far end was turning. It

was carrying a lone black sports bag around in

endless circles.

The Doctor frowned. 'You want to see more

of this? Why?'

'Because it might be interesting, that's why,' said

Amy. 'What do you have against airports?'

'Not only airports,' said the Doctor. 'It's bus

stops, train stations, ferry terminals. Anywhere

that people gather and just... wait!

'Right,' said Amy. 'I get it.'

'They're hardly places at all really, are they?'

said the Doctor. 'They're the places between

other places — more interesting places. Isn't that

right, Rory?'

Amy's husband had appeared in the TARDIS

doorway. He looked nervous. Rory wasn't as

comfortable travelling in space and time as the

others were.

'You know, Doctor,' said Amy, 'people do use

public transport. We can't all go whizzing about

the universe in a super-duper police box.'

'Why is there no one around?' asked Rory.

The Doctor gave a disinterested shrug. 'Maybe

it's night-time and there are no flights till morning.

Maybe they've closed this terminal.'

'You said we'd landed in an airport, right?' said

Rory. 'I heard you say that.'

He had noticed something the Doctor and Amy

hadn't. Almost hidden behind the TARDIS, there

was a small, round window. It looked out upon a

vista of stars.

Amy saw it now too, and she grinned with

excitement.

'I don't think we're in an airport,' said Rory.

'Space,' said Amy. We're in space. So, this must

be a spaceport

'I can hear voices,' said the Doctor.

They followed the sound, until Amy said, 'I can

hear them too.'

They passed through a security gate, which was

open and unmanned. Then they came into a huge,

open area, full of red plastic seats. There were

scores of people — ordinary human beings — in

there, milling about.

'This'll be the departure lounge, then,' said

Rory.

The lounge was dominated by a curved outer

wall. It was studded with airlock doors and

portholes, through which they could see space

again.

Great spaceships floated behind three of those

portholes. They were attached to the airlocks by

thick, white tubes.

'There,' said the Doctor, 'do you see now? All

these people, and not one of them wants to be

here. They all want to be somewhere else.'

'They do all look pretty miserable,' said Rory.

'I don't blame them,' said Amy. She pointed to

a monitor, which hung from the ceiling. 'Look at

the departures board. Every flight out of here is

delayed.'

'Delayed, you say?' said the Doctor. 'How

interesting. No, really, I think that's incredibly

interesting. I'm so glad we came here and saw that.

Now, can we leave?'

He turned and marched back the way they had

come. He stopped when he saw that his friends

weren't following him.

Amy had spotted a bright yellow shop sign at

the far end of the lounge. It read: TERMINAL

4000 DUTY-FREE STORE.

'We have got to see in there,' she said. Noticing

the Doctor's sulky expression, she pleaded, Ten

minutes. No, five, tops. Come on, Doctor, we're in

the future. I just want to see what a duty-free shop

looks like in the future.'

The Doctor sighed and nodded. 'Five minutes,'

he said.

'You heard the man, hubby dearest. Let's go!'

Amy took Rory's hand. She dragged him after her

as she ran to the shop.

The Doctor was still bored.

He paced up and down. He clicked his tongue

impatiently.

He wondered how long his friends had been

gone. He checked his watch. It had been almost a

minute.

Someone had left an old paperback book on

one of the plastic seats. It was a whodunit. The

Doctor liked whodunits.

He sat down, picked up the book and began

to read. He skimmed the first three pages. He

stopped and frowned. He flicked to the last page

of the book, glanced at it and sighed. 'I knew it,'

he said to himself.

A woman was standing nearby, watching him.

'Hello,' said the Doctor.

She looked surprised that he had noticed her.

'Hello,' she said, approaching the Doctor shyly.

The woman was young, with short, dark hair.

She wore a red and purple uniform. 'I'm the

Doctor,' said the Doctor, 'and you must be...?'

'Janie Collins,' said the woman. 'I'm a flight

attendant with Orion Spaceways. I haven't seen

you here before.'

'No. That's probably because I haven't been

here before. I'm just passing through, really.

You aren't going to make a fuss about passports

or tickets?'

'Were you sent by the spaceport company?'

asked Janie.

'I'm not sure,' said the Doctor. 'I don't

think so.'

Janie's face fell. 'Then you haven't come to

save us?'

'Oh, well, now, that's a different question

altogether,' said the Doctor.

He dropped the book and bounced to his feet.

He took Janie's hands and fixed her with his most

reassuring stare.

'Because, you see,' said the Doctor, 'saving

people, that just happens to be what I do. Can't

help myself. So, tell me, Janie — what do you need

saving from?'

The duty-free shop had been trashed.

Amy and Rory stood in the doorway, staring at

the mess. Shelving units had been knocked over.

The tills had been wrenched open and emptied.

'Who could have done this?' asked Amy.

Rory shrugged. 'Maybe we should find a

security guard.'

But Amy wanted to explore for herself. She

took a few steps further inside the shop. Her foot

crunched on something. She had stepped on a

broken perfume bottle.

'Amy, wait,' said Rory, 'do you hear that?'

Amy stood still and listened.

From the back of the shop, she could hear a

snuffling sound. Some expensive handbags were

piled up on the floor, and Amy realised that the

pile was moving.

She felt a chill running down her spine.

There's something in here with us,' she

whispered.

'You're different from the other people here, Janie,'

said the Doctor.

'Am I?' said Janie.

'Oh, yes,' said the Doctor. 'Look at them.

Look at their faces. They're all so gloomy. They

need a good... I don't know, a good singalong or

something.'

'I don't think that would help,' said Janie.

'Well, maybe not. But you... you chose to come

over here. You spoke to me. These others... If

you look, Janie, if you look very carefully out of

the corners of your eyes, you can see them. They

don't want us to know, but they're watching us.'

'They're as curious as I am,' said Janie. They're

wondering if you can save them too, but they don't

dare ask.'

'Why don't they dare?'

'They're afraid.'

'Afraid of what?' asked the Doctor.

'Afraid to hope,' said Janie.

'Yes, I think I see,' said the Doctor. 'No. Wait.

No, I don't see, in fact.'

The young flight attendant sighed. We've all

been here so long. I was supposed to be working

the 2345 flight to Callisto.'

'2345 last night?' asked the Doctor.

Janie looked at him strangely. 'Last year,' she

said. There's only one flight a year to Callisto, and

mine was due out in October 2345. That was five

months ago.'

The Doctor looked at Janie. He blinked.

'I'm sorry,' he said. 'I must have misheard you.

I thought you said five months.'

'I did,' said Janie.

'But you meant five months as in...?'

'As in five months,' said Janie.

'Let me get this straight,' said the Doctor.

'You've been waiting here, in this spaceport

terminal, for a hundred and fifty days now... in

a row?'

'We've nowhere else to go,' said Janie. 'Terminal

4000 is an interchange station. There's no access

from here to any world. The only way out is by

ship — and no ships have left since the monsters

appeared.'

The Doctor's expression brightened.

'I owe my friends an apology,' he said. 'There is

something to see here, after all. Tell me all about

these monsters, Janie Collins!'

Amy could see it now.

It was a squat, grey creature, the size and rough

shape of a small, fat dog. It was lying in the debris

of the duty-free shop. It didn't seem to have

noticed her.

'Be careful, Amy,' whispered Rory.

Amy took another step towards the creature.

Its nose and ears twitched, and it stood up. It had a

stumpy tail and three stubby legs, one at the front

and two at the back.

'It's all right,' said Amy. 'It's a dog. Well, a sort

of a dog. It looks a bit like a bulldog - y'know, that

same little scrunched-up face?'

Rory craned to see from behind her. 'Yeah, I

think I saw... there were two or three others like

it, out in the departure lounge.'

'There you are, then,' said Amy. 'I bet three-

legged alien dogs are this year's must-have pet.

This one must be lost, the poor thing.'

'Doesn't mean it won't bite,' said Rory.

But Amy wasn't listening to him. She crouched

beside the dog and tickled its chin. 'Hello, boy,' she

said. 'What's your name, then?'

The dog looked at Amy for a moment.

Then it roared.

A tentacle shot out from the dog's mouth. It was

green and slimy. On the end of the tentacle, there

was a second, smaller mouth. This mouth had two

tiny rings of sharp teeth, and it was slavering and

hissing.

Amy shrieked as the dog-monster leapt at her.

Its claws pinned her shoulders to the wall, and

the tentacle with the mouth on it darted towards

her throat.

Amy could feel the dog-monster's hot breath on

her face.

She fought as hard as she could, her arms

flailing about. She caught the creature's chin with

her right elbow. Its head snapped to one side. It

whimpered. The slimy tentacle in the dog's mouth

had just missed Amy's throat.

Amy was still pinned to the wall. She tried to

push her attacker away from her. It was too strong.

Its claws were digging into her flesh

'Rory,' she yelled, 'do something!'

The Doctor heard an animal roar. It came from

inside the duty-free shop.

An instant later, he heard a shriek.

'Amy!' he cried.

The Doctor began to run. Janie, the flight

attendant, grabbed his arm and pulled him back.

'No, Doctor, you can't!'

He brushed her hand away. 'Can't do what?' he

snapped. 'Can't go to a friend in need? You'll find

I very much can.'

'You can't help her,' said Janie. You mustn't

even hope you can, or they'll get you too!' She was

clinging to the Doctor again.

'Now, that...' he began. He had meant to say

something angry, but midway through the sentence

he stopped. He frowned in thought. 'That doesn't

make any sense at all, actually. Unless...'

The Doctor was missing something.

He closed his eyes and concentrated. He

replayed the last few seconds in his mind. He

looked for details he hadn't noticed the first time.

His eyes snapped open. 'The dogs!' he

exclaimed.

He whirled around. There were two grey, three-

legged dogs behind him. The Doctor had seen

them before, but hadn't paid them much attention.

They had just been mooching about the departure

lounge.

They were certainly interested in him, though.

As soon as the Doctor had started towards

the duty-free shop, the two dogs had perked up.

They had begun to approach him, but cautiously.

They were wary of him. They had stopped a short

distance away from him.

They watched the Doctor closely.

The Doctor turned to Janie and whispered, 'It's

them, isn't it? The dogs. They're your monsters.'

Rory didn't know what to do.

He never knew what to do in situations like

this. His every instinct was telling him to run, but

he couldn't leave Amy.

He grabbed the first thing to hand. It was a

small, round bottle of perfume. He ran at the dog-

monster, screaming.

The scream was a sort of war cry, to give Rory

confidence. He also hoped it would distract the

dog from its victim. It did.

The dog let go of Amy. It dropped back onto

all three of its feet. Rory had intended to get right

up behind it and hit it with the bottle. As the dog

turned his way, however, he lost his nerve. He

threw the bottle instead.

He missed the dog. The perfume bottle

smashed against the wall. Its liquid green contents

exploded across the shop and made everything

smell of some alien flower.

The dog growled at Rory. He backed away,

holding his hands up. 'There, there,' he said. 'Nice

doggie. Good doggie. Sit, Fido, sit. No — stay,

Fido, stay!'

The dog had tensed as if to spring at Rory.

Instead, it convulsed with what looked like a

sneezing fit. Some of the spilled perfume must

have got up its nose.

Rory took the opportunity to dash to Amy's

side. He took her hand, and they ducked behind

one of the few shelving units still standing.

They crept around the edge of the shop, giving

the sneezing dog a wide berth. At last, they saw a

clear path back to the door.

Amy had been splashed with the perfume too.

She wrinkled her nose at the smell. 'Mmm,' she

said, 'my new favourite scent. How did you know?'

'Call it husband's intuition,' said Rory.

'You spoil me,' said Amy.

'We are still technically on our honeymoon,'

said Rory as they hurried out of there.

The passengers in the departure lounge were

afraid.

They were edging away from the Doctor,

clearing a space around him. Only Janie remained

at his side.

The Doctor took out his sonic screwdriver

and aimed it at the two dogs in front of him. Janie

gasped with delight. You have a weapon!'

'I wouldn't call it a weapon exactly,' he confessed.

'More a... tool. A really useful tool, but all the

same... okay, a screwdriver. It's a screwdriver.'

Janie's face fell.

'But it's a sonic screwdriver,' said the Doctor,

'and that makes it cool, I think.'

The two dogs were circling him, in opposite

directions.

Janie shouted at the onlookers: 'Help him,

somebody. Can't you help him?'

'The thing about dogs is,' said the Doctor, 'they

have brilliant ears. Much better than human ears.

They can hear all sorts of things we can't. Of

course, these are alien dogs, so their ears might be

different. But if I can find a sound frequency they

don't like...'

The dogs started growling. They came closer.

The Doctor quickly shut off the sonic

screwdriver.

'Ah. Right,' he said. 'Attracting them instead.

Best not to do that, then.'

Janie tried again with the passengers. 'The

Doctor's here to help us,' she cried. 'He says he

can get us out out of here - but he can't if we let

the Desponds have him. Don't you think it's time

we stood up against them? Don't you think it's

time we...'

The two dogs sprang at the Doctor and Janie.

Amy raced out into the departure lounge,

leaving Rory behind her, struggling to close an

automatic sliding door that was out of power and

didn't want to be closed. She cried out for the

Doctor, then halted in her tracks, horrified, as she

saw him.

The Doctor was being attacked, too. He had

grabbed a red, plastic chair and he was using it to

fend off another of the alien dog-monsters.

Beside the Doctor, a third dog had knocked

a young flight attendant to the ground. She was

screaming, but no one made a move to help her.

Rory reappeared at Amy's side.

'Perfume,' said Amy. We need more perfume!'

Rory groaned as Amy pushed him back towards

the duty-free shop.

The door was jammed not quite shut. The

gap was too small for Amy to get through -

which meant it was too small for the squat dog-

monsters, too.

Rory peered through the glass, looking for the

dog he had trapped inside the shop. 'I don't see it,'

he said.

The dog sprang out from behind an overturned

shelf. It threw itself at the door, but smacked into

the glass. Rory started and backed away quickly.

The creature had hurt itself. It staggered away,

back into the shop, dazed.

Amy strained at the door. 'If we can budge

this an inch,' she said, 'I could wriggle through

and grab...'

She realised that Rory wasn't listening to her.

He was looking at the Doctor.

They were too late.

The Doctor's attacker had suddenly backed off.

He jabbed his chair in the dog-monster's

direction, as a warning. 'Ha!' he shouted.

He had always fancied himself as a lion tamer.

Why had he never been a lion tamer, he wondered?

Too cruel to the lion, he supposed.

The dog lay down on its stomach — which was

not what the Doctor had expected. It had gone

from trying to bite him to ignoring him.

Janie hadn't fared as well. She was on the floor,

the other dog standing on her chest. A tentacle

had shot out of its mouth and attached itself to

Janie's throat.

The Doctor prodded the dog with his chair.

'Shoo,' he said, 'go on, shoo!'

He succeeded in dislodging the creature.

He thought it would have been angry at him.

Instead, it just slinked away.

The Doctor crouched beside Janie. She was still

awake, but dazed. 'Hmm, you don't appear to be

injured,' he said. 'There's a big, red suction mark

on your throat, but the skin isn't broken. Weird.

You've had a lucky escape, I'd say.'

He helped Janie to her feet, as Amy and Rory

ran up. A wary Rory skirted the dog that had

attacked the Doctor. It had fallen asleep.

'What did you do to that thing?' asked Amy.

'Why did it back off?'

'Wish I knew,' said the Doctor.

'Does it matter?' asked Janie, with a shrug. She

began to walk away.

The Doctor stopped her. 'Whoa,' he said.

'Where do you think you're going?'

'I need a lie down,' said Janie.

'I thought you were going to help us. You were

going to tell me about these... dog... things.'

Janie brushed the Doctor's hand off her

shoulder. What's the point? What can you do?

What can anyone do? You should have been here

five months ago, Doctor. We needed you then. It's

too late now. They've grown too strong!'

The Doctor stared into Janie's eyes. You weren't

lucky at all, were you? That monster did something

to you. No, wait, I'm wrong. It took something

from you.'

'Of course it did,' snapped Janie. 'Why do you

think we call them ...?'

'Wait a second,' said the Doctor. 'Oh, oh, oh, I

think I'm getting something. Something somebody

said.' He slapped himself on the forehead. 'Lion

tamers! Did someone mention lion tamers? No?

That must just have been me, then.'

The Doctor clicked his fingers. 'I've got it.

Desponds!' he whirled around to face Janie

again. 'That's what you called them, before they

attacked us. Desponds!' the grin faded from his

face. 'Which... is what you were just about to say,

isn't it?'

'Desponds?'repeatedAmy.'Asin 'despondent'?'

'Dejected. Down in the mouth. Lacking in

hope. And you, Janie Collins, you were so full of

hope a few seconds ago, and now... that's what

they took from you, isn't it?'

'Doctor, what are you saying?' asked Rory.

'I'm saying these Desponds feed off human

emotions, and one emotion in particular,' replied

the Doctor. 'They've been preying on the people

in this spaceport terminal. They've been sucking

the hope right out of them!'

The flight attendant, Janie, shuddered at the

Doctor's words.

Obviously, he thought, he had guessed right.

An older couple came forward. The woman

wrapped a red tartan blanket around Janie's

shoulders and murmured comforting words

to her.

'Just one more question,' said the Doctor, as

the couple led Janie away. They ignored him, so he

turned to address the departure lounge in general.

'One question,' he said. 'Just one. How many

of these Desponds are there?'

'There are twelve,' the answer came from

behind the Doctor.

He turned to see a black-uniformed man

leaning against a wall. He was young and lean, with

tightly-curled hair and a thin moustache.

'Twelve,' the Doctor repeated. 'Thanks. And

you would be...?'

'Roger. Roger McDowell. I'm with Spaceport

Security.'

'Security. Yes. I guessed you might be - what

with, you know, the uniform and the yellow badge

on your arm that says 'Security'. I'm observant

that way.'

'There were thirteen Desponds,' said Roger,

'but I shot one, once.'

'Well,' said the Doctor, 'good. That's good for

you, Roger.' He punched the air in an attempt at a

gesture of solidarity. 'Well done.'

The Doctor had always been uncomfortable

around guns.

Amy was looking at Janie Collins. The older couple

had guided her to a red plastic seat and were fussing

over her. They had found her a plastic cup of

hot water.

'That could have been me,' said Amy.

Rory reassured her, 'But it wasn't.'

'It gives me goosebumps thinking about it,' said

Amy. 'Imagine what it must feel like, to have a part

of you just... sucked away.'

The Doctor leaned in between them. 'That's

enough moping around,' he said. 'Monsters to deal

with. Twelve of them.'

'That's, er, eleven now,' said Rory. 'I trapped a

Despond in the duty-free shop.'

The Doctor was already marching away. 'Back

door!' he called over his shoulder.

'Oh,' said Rory.

Amy ran after the Doctor. 'What's the plan?'

'Don't know yet,' said the Doctor, 'but it's bound

to be good.' He took out the sonic screwdriver,

and clicked it a few times. 'I expect there'll be

sonicking involved.'

There was.

The Doctor spied a drinks machine. It was

empty. He had Rory help him turn the machine

around. He used the sonic screwdriver to unscrew

a back panel.

Amy saw another Despond, padding towards

the three of them. 'Doctor...' she said.

The Doctor had yanked a handful of circuit

boards out of the drinks machine. He had bundled

them into Rory's hands. He continued to work as

he talked.

'All. Okay,' said the Doctor. 'I suggest no one

make any sudden moves, and... and try to worry.'

'You mean 'try not to worry',' said Amy.

'Oh, crikey, no, that would just be reckless!'

'Ah,' said Amy. 'Right. I see... I think. The

Desponds feed off hope. They're attracted to it.

So, we have to... not hope and they should leave

us alone.'

'Take your cue from your other half here,' said

the Doctor. 'He's a natural born worrier. Right

now, he's convinced we're all going to die - isn't

that right, Rory?'

'No,' said Rory, defensively. 'That's not what I

think. I was just...' he started, and then realised

what he was saying. He looked at the Despond. 'I

mean... yes, Doctor,' he said, woodenly. 'We're all

going to die. Not the slightest doubt about it.'

'Never mind,' said the Doctor. 'You can work

on it. For now, I think the Desponds are more

curious than hungry. They've just fed on Janie's

hope, after all.'

'One of them did,' said Amy. 'Only one of the

Desponds attacked Janie. That still leaves the other

eleven.'

'But remember the dog that attacked me,' said

the Doctor. 'Remember what it did.'

When the other Despond fed on Janie, yours

just gave up.'

'As if it was full up too,' said Rory.

'A psycho-empathic link between the pack!'

announced the Doctor. Amy had no idea what

that meant, until he explained: 'When one of them

feeds, they all feed.'

'And, when one of them gets hungry...' said

Rory.

The Despond roared, and out came the slimy

tentacle with the second mouth on it.

'Okay,' said Amy, nervously. 'Didn't take too

long for dinner to go down...'

The Doctor leapt up. He brushed his two

friends aside. He was holding a wire in each hand.

The wires trailed back to the drinks machine.

The Despond came galloping at the Doctor. It

launched itself at his throat.

The Doctor ducked beneath the monster's

feeding tentacle. He thrust the two wires into its

stomach. There was a bright flash, a sizzle and a

horrible smell of burnt fur.

The Despond hit the floor with a thud. It

wasn't seriously hurt, though. It scrambled to its

three feet and backed off, whimpering.

Amy noticed that, not far away, a couple more

Desponds were looking groggy too. 'I think that

electric shock effected all of them,' she said.

'Thought it might,' said the Doctor, 'if only on

an emotional level. Should keep them at bay for a

while, anyhow.'

Janie came up to the Doctor and his friends.

Amy was surprised to see her. Janie's shoulders

were still stooped, her eyes downcast.

'I wanted to apologise,' she said. 'I was rude to

you back there.'

'Hardly your fault,' said Amy. 'You'd had a

pretty nasty shock!'

'If anyone should be sorry,' said Rory, 'it's the

Doctor.'

'Er, standing right here,' said the Doctor.

'I just mean,' said Rory, 'you're the one who gave

her hope, and that's what attracted the Desponds

to her. That's how it works, right?'

Janie pulled up a chair and sat down. 'It was

nice, though,' she said, 'to dream about getting out

of here, just for a while. I'd forgotten what it was

like to dream.'

Janie had been followed, by the older couple

who had been helping her.

The woman placed a hand on Janie's shoulder.

'There, there, dear,' she said. She had silver hair

and broad shoulders. She wore an orange, floral-

patterned dress and clutched a matching handbag

to her breast. 'Things aren't so terrible here,

are they?'

Her partner was heavy-set, balding, with a grey

moustache and steel-rimmed glasses. 'Mrs Henry

is right,' he said. We have a roof over our heads,

and heat and light and water. There are far worse

places than this.'

Amy couldn't believe her ears. 'All the same,'

she said, 'you must want to go home.'

'What about food?' asked the Doctor. You

must be running out of food.'

'It's true,' said Mrs Henry, 'we have emptied the

food court.'

'And the shops,' the old man added, 'and the

dispensing machines.'

'But we've heard a rumour, Mr Henry and I.'

Mr Henry checked over his shoulder for

eavesdroppers. We have heard there might still

be coffee and biscuits in the first-class passenger

lounge.'

'And frozen fruit!'

Mr Henry shushed his wife fiercely.

'I'm sorry, dear,' she said, shamefaced. 'I was

hoping for too much.'

'You see,' said Janie, 'the Desponds have fed on

all of us, some of us many times.'

'They've made us afraid,' said Mrs Henry, 'to

hope.'

'And what's the point of hoping, anyway?' asked

Mr Henry.

'One of the guards, young Roger, shot a

Despond once,' Mrs Henry recalled. 'But he used

up all his bullets.'

'We hoped the spaceport company might send

someone,' said Janie.

'But we're so far away from any world here,'

said Mr Henry.

The Doctor straightened up, and clapped his

hands.

'Right,' he said. 'Heard enough. More than

enough. A piece of advice, Janie Collins, Mr and

Mrs Henry. You might want to steer clear of me

- because, right now, I am the most dangerous

person in this room. Ask me why!'

No one asked the Doctor why.

The awkward silence lasted for at least five

seconds, before Amy rolled her eyes. Why?' she

asked.

'Because Rory was right,' said the Doctor. 'The

people I call my friends, the ones who really get to

know me, there's one thing they can't ever do — and

that's give up hope. You see, impossible situations?

I get out of four every day before breakfast.

Unbeatable odds? I beat them in my spare time.

Invincible...'

'We get the point!' said Amy.

'As for last-second saves,' said the Doctor,

'they're my speciality.'

'So, what do we do?' asked Rory.

'We get everyone out of here,' said the Doctor.

'We can't,' said Janie. 'Terminal 4000 has been

placed under quarantine.'

'No ships come here any more,' said Mr Henry

'They haven't for...'

'Five months,' said the Doctor. 'I know. One

thing. One teeny-tiny little thing. Well, three things,

really.' He marched along the departure lounge.

He pointed to three portholes in turn. Or rather,

through them - to the spaceships behind them.

'Don't you think,' said Janie, 'if escaping was so

easy, we'd have done it long ago?'

'Those ships are the ones that brought us all

here,' said Mrs Henry.

'They're held by the spaceport's docking clamps,'

said Janie. 'They can't be let go until they're cleared

for departure. And they can't be cleared until —'

'Until the quarantine is lifted,' guessed Rory.

'Well, then,' said the Doctor. 'Sounds like a plan

to me. Lifting the quarantine. Who do we see about

that?' He answered his own question. 'No one here

from the spaceport company, so the systems must

be automated. From where, though? From Space

Traffic Control, of course. And that would be...?'

There was another awkward silence.

'No, really, I'm asking,' said the Doctor. 'I don't

know.'

'I could show you to the control tower,' said

Janie. 'I suppose.'

'Good,' said the Doctor. 'Right away, then,

please, before the Desponds decide to feed again.'

'We can keep them away now though, with

those wires,' said Amy.

The Doctor shook his head. 'As the Desponds

grow hungrier, they'll become more determined.

And the three of us - you, Rory and me - we're

the only people here they haven't already fed on.'

'We're fresh meat!' Rory realised.

'We'll be like beacons to the Desponds,' said the

Doctor. We'll be like great big, juicy, hope-filled,

packed-with-crunchy-goodness beacons!'

the Henrys decided to stay in the departure

lounge. 'It's what we're used to,' said Mrs Henry.

'Our own two rows of chairs, with our coats and

towels to sleep under and the washrooms across

the way.'

'And, frankly, after all you said,' said Mr Henry,

'about the danger...'

'We'd just... Mr Henry and I, we'd rather not

get our hopes up.'

'I'll leave Rory with you,' said the Doctor,

'in case.'

'In case of what?' protested Rory. The Doctor

was already hurrying away from him, after Janie.

'In case of what?' Rory shouted after him.

Amy had hung back. She looked at Rory,

sympathetically.

'Go on,' said Rory, with a sigh. 'Go after them.

It's fine. I'll just... stay here. With the Henrys. And

the monsters. In case'

Amy caught up with Janie at the security gate. The

Doctor had rushed ahead, but didn't know which

way to go. He had to wait for Janie to show him.

Janie glanced at the TARDIS as they passed it,

but didn't ask about it. She led the way through

the baggage claim hall, around a corner and into a

wide concourse.

There were two Desponds here. They had

knocked over a queuing system in front of a row

of check-in desks. They were playing with the

ropes and pillars.

They stopped playing now, however, and turned

to watch the newcomers.

To take her mind off the creatures, Amy turned

to Janie.

'You know,' she said, 'you surprise me. In a good

way, I mean. To be helping us out like this, after

what the Desponds... that must be wearing off

now, right? You must be feeling a little bit hopeful

again, or else why...'

'There is no hope,' said Janie.

Amy eyed the two Desponds. 'No,' she said,

pulling a gloomy face. 'No, of course not. No hope.'

'I'm only taking you to Space Traffic Control,'

said Janie, 'so you can see that for yourself. Don't

make the same mistake we made! You don't want

to fight back. The sooner you accept how things

must be, the easier it will be for you.'

There was a door in the far wall. Its latch was

broken. Janie led the Doctor and Amy through

it, and up a spiral staircase. It opened out into a

round room with portholes all around it, looking

out into space.

'Here it is,' said Janie. 'The control tower. Do

you see what I mean now?'

Amy looked around Space Traffic Control

in dismay.

She saw exactly what Janie had meant.

Rory sat on a red plastic chair, glaring at a Despond.

It was mooching around, a little too close to his

feet for comfort.

Something of a buzz had gone up around the

departure lounge. A knot of people had formed

by the bureau de change, and were talking in low

voices. Mr Henry had gone over to see what they

were saying. He returned with news.

'There's a raid planned,' he whispered, 'on the

first-class lounge.'

Mrs Henry clapped her hands together. 'Oh,

how wonderful!'

'A raid?' said Rory. 'But why? What for?'

Mr Henry glared at him. 'For the coffee, of

course. And the biscuits.'

'It really is unfair,' said Mrs Henry. 'We're so

hungry out here, there's hardly any food left, but

in there... Who is in there these days, Mr Henry?

I forget.'

'It must be Captain Stone's group,' said Mr

Henry. 'I haven't seen them around in a while.

Yes, I'm sure that's right. They won the last raid,

remember?'

'I can't believe I'm hearing this,' said Rory.

'Listen to yourselves. Haven't you got enough to

worry about without fighting each other?'

Rory saw Mr Henry's warning glare. He looked

over his shoulder.

The Despond he had been watching was

ambling towards him.

'He'll understand, dear,' said Mrs Henry to her

husband. 'Once he's been here as long as we have.

Once the Desponds have fed on him two or three

times.'

The Despond was still approaching, now with

more purpose.

Rory leapt to his feet. He addressed the

Despond as firmly as he could. 'No,' he said, 'you

don't want to feed on me. I... I'd probably give

you indigestion.'

Mr Henry shook his head. 'The classic mistake,'

he said.

'I know, dear,' his wife sighed. 'Hoping they

won't attack him.'

'And, of course, that hope attracts them all

the more.'

'I'm a pessimist,' insisted Rory. 'Ask the wife.

Ask Amy. If it wasn't for her... she's the only

reason I'm travelling with the Doctor. Last-second

saves? Really? He's let me die, more than once.

Long story. I'm just saying'

He was backing away slowly, towards the gutted

drinks machine with its trailing wires. He was

hoping to...

No, Rory told himself sternly. Don't hope!

Too late. Another Despond had appeared,

behind him. It was cutting him off from the

drinks machine.

Rory picked up a chair. It was no use, though.

He knew he couldn't fend off two of the creatures

at once.

'I imagine this is why the Doctor left you with

us, dear,' said Mrs Henry.

'Yes,' said Mr Henry. 'He knew you could lead

the Desponds away from us.'

The creatures were almost upon Rory now. He

threw the chair at the nearest of them and ran for

it. The two Desponds came barrelling after him.

'What happened here?' cried the Doctor.

'Well, obviously,' said Janie, 'other people had

the same idea as you.'

The Doctor massaged his temples as if he had

a headache. 'No, not the same,' he moaned. 'Not

the same idea at all. I wasn't planning on wanton

vandalism!'

There were instrument banks all the way around

the room. They had been wrenched open, wires

pulled out of them. Monitor screens had been put

through, indicator lights smashed. It reminded

Amy of the damage to the duty-free shop.

'We came here months ago,' said Janie. We tried

to get the computers to release the docking clamps

on the passenger ships.'

'By smashing everything to pieces?' said Amy.

'Good plan!'

'We couldn't find the security codes,' said Janie.

'People got frustrated.'

The Doctor had already slid under one of the

consoles. He was using the sonic screwdriver to

repair some broken wires.

'Didn't you hear me?' said Janie. 'Even if you

could fix the controls...'

'The Doctor can fix them,' said Amy.

'Even if he does,' said Janie, 'we don't have the

codes to access the computers.'

'One problem at a time,' came the Doctor's

muffled voice from beneath the console. 'Amy,

keep an eye on the stairs. Let me know if any

Desponds...'

He broke off in mid-sentence as, suddenly,

there was a pop and an electric flash.

'Doctor,' cried Amy, 'are you okay? What

happened?'

She heard a rumbling sound behind her. She

whirled around. A security door had just slammed

down over the exit.

The Doctor sat up and blew ruefully on his

fingers. 'I think I may just have reactivated a system

I shouldn't have reactivated.'

Janie sank into a chair. 'I knew something like

this would happen,' she moaned.

'Doctor,' said Amy, 'can you hear that sound? A

sort of hissing?'

The Doctor's face lengthened. 'Ah.'

'"Ah" what?' said Amy. What does 'ah' mean?

"Ah" doesn't sound good.'

'I think...' said the Doctor. 'Now, Amy, don't

panic, but I think I may just have triggered a

security lockdown. And, in fact, I think...'

Janie doubled up, coughing. Amy's throat was

itching too, and her eyes were beginning to water.

'You see,' said the Doctor, 'the main computer

has detected an unclassified alien life form in this

room — which would be me — and so, it's...'

'It's disinfecting the control tower!' gasped

Amy. She barely got the words out before she too

had a coughing fit. She could hardly breathe.

Amy could see a metal grille in the wall, near

the floor. The hissing was coming from down

there. It's pumping gas into the room, she realised.

Invisible poison gas!

And Amy, the Doctor and Janie were all trapped

in here.

The Doctor stood up and aimed his sonic

screwdriver at the security door.

The sonic screwdriver whined and glowed a

fierce shade of green, but nothing else happened.

The door stayed closed. The Doctor groaned.

'Deadlock sealed!' he said.

Amy had an idea. She shrugged off her baggy

jumper, and dropped down by the grille in the wall.

She stuffed her jumper into the grille, to block it

up.

'Nice thinking,' said the Doctor. 'Should slow

down the inflow of gas, at least. Otherwise? Try

breathing through a hanky, if you have one. Oh,

and stand on a chair.'

'What?'

'The gas is heavier than air,' said the Doctor.

'It's filling the room from the bottom.'

'Right,' said Amy.

She didn't have a handkerchief, but Janie had

two moist towelettes. Amy took one, gratefully, and

pressed it over her nose and mouth. She climbed

up onto a chair and pulled Janie up after her. It

didn't seem to help much.

Amy felt as if tiny claws were tearing at her

throat. There were hot tears streaming down her

cheeks. 'What about you, Doctor?' she croaked.

The Doctor shrugged. 'Doesn't seem to affect

me,' he said. 'There's no reason why it should,

of course. A Time Lord's physiology is very

different to...'

'Great,' said Amy. 'I mean, that's really great for

you, considering the whole point of this is to -

what was it again? Oh, yes - kill the alien life form!'

The Doctor grinned. 'Ironic, isn't it?'

Then, he became serious. 'Of course, that's

how we fix this,' he said. 'That's how we get the

lockdown lifted.'

'How?' asked Amy.

'Obvious, isn't it?' said the Doctor. We give the

computer what it wants.'

'But... but doesn't it want...?'

'The computer wants me dead,' said the Doctor.

'So, to get you and Janie out of this room, it looks

like I'll have to die.'

Rory pelted across the departure lounge, a

Despond snapping at his heels. It's going to catch

me, he thought, I know it is! Where's the Doctor

when I need him?

The creature fastened its teeth around Rory's

trouser cuff. It tugged, and he lost his balance and

fell over.

Rory's hands and knees slipped on the floor

tiles, as the Despond dragged him backwards. He

went on the offensive. He bopped the Despond

on its scrunched-up nose. It recoiled and Rory

scrambled to his feet.

The other Despond was charging at him, its

feeding tentacle extended.

He ducked behind a young woman in a fur

coat. She shrieked as she saw the two Desponds

coming at her. 'I'm sorry,' said Rory, mortified. 'I

didn't mean...'

Of course, the woman was in no danger. It was

Rory the Desponds wanted; anyone else was just

in their way.

He gained a little ground on them, as they

dodged around the shrieking woman. He knew it

wouldn't last, though. The Desponds were faster

than he was.

Rory heard a voice calling, 'Over here!'

It was Roger, the security guard he had met

before. He was standing in the doorway of the

men's washroom, beckoning to Rory urgently.

Rory had no better ideas.

He ran into the washroom. The Desponds were

right behind him. Rory slammed the door in their

faces. He fell back against it, breathlessly. He could

hear the Desponds scratching at the other side of

the door, and one of them howled.

Rory turned to Roger, to thank him for his help.

He froze as he saw that Roger was holding a

gun on him.

'Doctor, what... what are you saying? What...?

Amy couldn't speak any more. She had

swallowed too much of the poison gas. Her lungs

felt as if they were on fire.

'No time to discuss it,' said the Doctor. 'I need

you to trust me and to do as I say.'

Amy nodded helplessly.

'In a moment, Amy,' said the Doctor, 'that

security door is going to open. As soon as it does,

get out of here. Take Janie. Don't worry about me.'

Amy could hardly see. The gas had made her

eyes swell up.

She could just make out the shape of the

Doctor, sitting in a chair. His chin was resting on

his chest. He looked like he was going to sleep.

Amy wanted to scream at him: ' How can I not

worry about you? After what you said, about you

having to die. ..' But she was overcome by another

coughing fit.

Janie had passed out. She was leaning on Amy's

shoulder.

Amy was growing light-headed too. Her legs

felt weak. She tried to hold her breath, but she was

coughing too much. She couldn't take much more

of this.

To her relief, the security door rose.

Amy lifted Janie down from the chair on which

they both stood. She dragged her across the room

and out through the doorway.

She collapsed on the stairs outside. Fresh air

had never tasted so sweet to her. Amy gulped it

down by the lungful, feeling stronger with each

breath she took.

She remembered the Doctor. He was still inside

the control room.

She looked back and saw him. The Doctor was

still slumped in his chair. He wasn't moving. Amy

couldn't tell, from here, if he was breathing or not.

The Doctor had told her not to worry about

him. Easier said than done!

Amy had to go back for him.

Before she could, the security door slammed

down again in front of her nose.

Amy cried out, 'No!' She hammered on the

closed door with her fists.

'Doctor,' she yelled, 'what have you done?

Doctor!'

On the other side of the door, the Doctor

opened his eyes and grinned. He was very

impressed with himself.

His plan had been simple. He had put himself into

a trance. A deep trance. So deep that his heartbeats

and breathing had been almost undetectable.

He had tricked the main computer into thinking

he was dead.

So, of course, it had ended the lockdown. It

had opened the security door, and let Amy and

Janie go.

Now, the Doctor had come round and the

computer had sealed off Space Traffic Control

again. It was pumping more poison gas into the

room.

That was okay, though - because the gas didn't

affect the Doctor. And, although he was still

trapped, he was right where he needed to be.

The Doctor flexed his long fingers. It was time

to get to work.

'Um,' said Rory. 'Okay. So, obviously, you have a

gun.'

'I'm sorry,' said Roger.

'You're sorry. That's good. Well, that's a start.

So, why are you...? I mean, if you don't mind my

asking. I don't mean to pressure you or anything,

but...'

'We need your help,' said Roger.

Rory was relieved. At least Roger wasn't planning

to shoot him. Anyway, he had just remembered

something he had heard.

'I see. Right,' he said. 'And you thought the best

way to ask me was at gunpoint?'

He advanced on Roger, holding out his hand.

'Why not give me the gun, and then we can... I

don't know... talk, I suppose.'

Roger backed away from him. 'Don't come any

closer,' he said, 'or I'll shoot.'

'I don't think you will,' said Rory. He was gaining

in confidence.

'I mean it,' said Roger. 'I shot a Despond once.

I killed it.'

'And you used up all your bullets. Mrs Henry

told us so.'

Roger turned quite pale. His aim wavered.

Obviously, Rory was right. He smiled as he reached

for the security guard's gun again.

Roger struck like lightning. He turned the gun

around, and smacked Rory in the temple with the

butt end of it. Lights exploded behind Rory's eyes.

He felt his legs turning to jelly. He saw the tiles on

the washroom floor rushing up to meet him.

It wasn't fair, he thought, as he lost

consciousness. He had just been getting the hang

of being a hero!

Amy had given up hammering on the security

door. She was getting no answer. It was probably

soundproof, she thought. At least, she hoped that

was the reason.

Janie came up behind her. She laid a comforting

hand on Amy's shoulder. 'Don't worry,' said Janie.

'I'm sure the Doctor will be fine.'

Amy looked at Janie, surprised. She was

recovering from the Despond's attack, then. She

was beginning to hope again. Well, if she can do it,

thought Amy, so can I.

'You're right,' she said. 'I've seen the Doctor

stand up to Daleks and Weeping Angels. He's alive

in there, I know he is, and he's working on a way

to help us.'

'So, what do we do?' asked Janie.

Amy shrugged. 'I don't know,' she said. 'Find

Rory, I suppose.'

The mood in the departure lounge had changed.

Amy sensed it as soon as she and Janie walked

in. The stranded passengers in the lounge were

no longer without purpose. They had formed

into groups. They were whispering to each other,

plotting. Some of them had armed themselves,

with chairs or sticks or bottles from the duty-free

shop.

'I know this feeling,' said Amy. 'This is like a...

a rowdy party, when things are about to turn ugly.

The Desponds can feel it too. Look.'

They could see five Desponds among the

crowd. The dog-like creatures were awake, and

very much alert.

'They do this,' said Janie, before correcting

herself. 'We do this, every few weeks - more often,

since the food has been running out. It's... I don't

know, I suppose it's a way of releasing the frustration

we all feel. They're... we're going to war.'

One of the larger groups had just made

its move.

At one end of the departure lounge, there was

a marble water feature. In an alcove next to this,

there was an unobtrusive doorway. It had been

boarded up with planks from the inside.

'That's the first-class passenger lounge,'

said Janie.

A score or so of people were marching towards

that doorway.

One of them, a man with a stubbly beard, had a

fire extinguisher in his hands. He rammed it into the

wooden boards. Amy saw hands reaching through

the planks from the other side, trying to push the

bearded man away. But the other members of his

group were straining forward too, lending their

shoulders to the effort.

'Come on,' said Janie, 'let's get out of here.'

'Wait,' said Amy, 'what about Rory? I don't see

Rory. He was with the Henrys. Can you see the

Henrys?'

'Smash it all down!'

A teenager in a combat jacket had leapt up

onto a chair. He was punching the air as he yelled,

'Smash down the class barriers. No first class or

business class or club class. An end to privilege.

Free coffee and biscuits for all!'

A Despond leapt at him. It knocked him off

his chair, and fed on him. It was over before Amy

could do anything.

The Despond waddled away, full. The teenager

stayed where he was, on the floor. He rolled onto

his side and pulled his knees up to his chest,

miserably.

Apart from Amy and Janie, no one seemed to

notice. The passengers were all too busy getting

angry, surging towards the boarded-up doorway.

Amy was still looking for Rory. Instead, she saw

something odd. She saw the security guard, Roger,

pushing a luggage trolley across the departure

lounge, far from the action. Whatever was on that

trolley, it was covered by a blanket.

Amy didn't have time to think about it.

She heard a terrible splintering sound. The

planks across the doorway had been broken. The

way into the first-class lounge was now clear.

The passengers had started to fight with each

other, each in their little groups, each group

determined to beat the others through that

doorway.

And Amy and Janie were caught right in the

middle of the chaos.

Amy kept her head down as sticks were waved

and punches thrown around her.

We've got to get out of here, she thought, before

someone gets hurt! She grabbed hold of Janie's hand

and tried to pull her to safety.

To her dismay, their path was blocked by a

huge, angry-looking woman with some kind of a

baton. It took Amy a second to recognise it as a

metal detector wand.

She squared up to the huge woman, putting

on her no-nonsense face. 'Now, look here, um,

madam,' Amy snarled, 'we don't want to have to

fight you. So, why don't you just step of our way

and we'll —'

Janie grabbed a luggage trolley and rammed

it into the huge woman's shins. The woman

whimpered with pain and dropped her weapon.

'Okay,' said Amy. 'That works too.' They ran

past the huge woman, but found a Despond in

front of them. It growled at them.

Janie squealed and ran away from the Despond

- right back into the thick of the fighting. Amy

was forced to follow her.

The Doctor had lashed a few more wires together.

He stood up and flicked some switches on an

instrument panel.

All around the Space Traffic Control room,

monitor screens and indicator lights — those that

hadn't been smashed — began to light up.

'Now,' said the Doctor to himself, 'to get those

docking clamps released.'

His attention was drawn to a bank of twelve

screens. Seven of them were broken, but the

other five were showing scenes from around the

spaceport. Security camera feeds.

The Doctor saw what looked like a riot in

progress, in the departure lounge.

He ran his fingers through his hair in

exasperation. 'What are they doing down there?'

he wailed.

He only hoped his friends weren't involved.

They wouldn't be, the Doctor told himself. Amy

and Rory were too sensible for that.

Then, on a cracked screen, he saw a wave of

red hair. Amy. She was right in the centre of things,

with Janie. Of course she is! thought the Doctor.

It looked like Amy and Janie were about to get

trampled. They needed help. But what could the

Doctor do? The security door was still down.

He couldn't leave this room.

'Amy, help me!' shrieked Janie. 'I can't get up!'

Janie had fallen over. The heaving crowd had

closed in around her — and, whenever she tried to

stand, she was knocked down again.

'Take my hand!' Amy urged her. She was being

pushed and prodded too, but she was determined

to stand her ground.

Amy stooped to help Janie up - and came face

to face with a Despond.

She froze. She stared at the Despond. The

Despond stared back at Amy. It opened its mouth,

to display its feeding tentacle.

Amy forced herself to close her eyes. She

thought very hard. There is no hope, she told

herself - and she tried to make herself believe it.

'The Doctor s trapped in Space Traffic Control, I don't

know if he's alive or dead, Rory's disappeared and

everyone's fighting and the Desponds are everywhere

and...'

She felt a genuine pang of despair. Perhaps

there was no hope, she thought.

Then Amy heard a cry. She opened her eyes.

The Despond had turned away from her. It had

clamped its mouth around the leg of a middle-

aged man. He was trying to kick the Despond

away - but now, a second creature bounded to the

aid of the first.

The two Desponds dragged the man to the

floor. One pinned him down with its claws, while

the other went for his throat with its feeding

tentacle.

Amy had kept the Desponds from attacking

her - so, instead, they had found another victim.

She felt responsible.

'Psst!'

A figure beckoned to Amy, from beside the

water feature at the end of the departure lounge.

It was Mrs Henry. 'Over here, dear,' she called in a

loud whisper.

The fighting had shifted away from Amy, as

the passengers avoided the feeding Desponds.

Janie had managed to get to her feet. She tugged

at Amy's arm.

'There's nothing you can do for him,' said Janie.

She must have guessed what Amy was thinking.

'But it's my fault he's -' began Amy.

'No,' said Janie. 'This is what happens. This is

what always happens. We think we're safe, because

we aren't hoping for much. We aren't hoping

for escape or anything like that, just a few little

luxuries. But it gets out of hand. We get caught

up in the moment. We hope too much - and that's

when people get hurt.'

The Desponds had finished feeding now,

anyway. It was too late.

'Better him than us,' said Janie.

She led the way to where Mrs Henry

was waiting.

The Doctor sniffed the air. The smell of the poison

gas had lessened.

'Well, that had to happen,' he said. 'Your tanks

have run dry. So, now what?'

He was addressing the computer that ran Space

Traffic Control.

'I know you can hear me,' said the Doctor.

You're configured for voice activation. This

is your alien infestation here - or the Doctor, to

my friends.'

Letters streamed across a tiny read-out screen:

'Alien infestation detected. Lockdown in

force.'

'Oh, come now,' said the Doctor, 'I know you

can do better than that.'

The same message scrolled across the screen

again.

'Think about it,' said the Doctor. 'Well, not

"think", I know you can't think exactly, but run

this through your processors. You work on logical

principles, right? So, tell me, what is the logic of

keeping me in this room? I'm waiting'

"Alien infestation contained," the read-out said.

'Right. Yes,' said the Doctor. 'I get that. You've

contained me. But why?'

" Awaiting instructions."

'No, sorry. Won't wash. There's no one here

from the spaceport company. You'll have to follow

your existing programming. Your sensors detect

an alien life form in this room. So, you trap it in

here, yes?'

"Thesis is correct."

'And you kill it. And that's the important part,

the killing, because this is Space Traffic Control.

It's okay for unclassified life forms to wander

about the rest of the terminal — but as soon as one

of them gets in here, it has to die.'

" Thesis is correct."

'And of course, you don't distinguish between

good life forms and bad life forms. No, don't even

try to answer that. There's just one little fly in your

ointment: me. I'm not that easy to kill. You might

have noticed.'

" Thesis is..."

'Yes, yes, yes, "thesis is correct". Don't interrupt

me when I'm speaking. You see, your programming

has failed. You can see that, can't you? You've

confined your alien infestation — me — to the last

place you want me to be.'

"Awaiting instructions," said the read-out

screen.

'You don't have time to wait,' said the Doctor.

" Awaiting instructions."

'And you don't need new instructions. You

just need to apply your logic. You have an alien

infestation in here, one you can't seem to kill. For

as long as you keep this control room in lockdown,

that can't change. But open the security door, and

maybe - just maybe - the infestation will leave of

its own accord.'

The Doctor waited.

The computer didn't answer him.

He sighed. 'I'm sure this used to be much

easier. Okay, I'll leave you to ponder on that for a

moment. In the meantime, I'll see what I can do

from in here.'

The Doctor walked up to an instrument panel.

He flicked a switch.

Bang! An electrical charge jolted through the

Doctor's body. He was hurled back across the

room, into the wall. He slid to the floor and lay

there for a second, his eyes closed.

His eyes snapped open.

'So, it's like that, is it?' said the Doctor. All right,

then. This means war!'

'We're so pleased you decided to join us, dears,'

said Mrs Henry.

She was standing with her husband, and a group

of six or seven older passengers. Like the others,

they had armed themselves as best they could. Mr

Henry had a walking stick, which he waved about

vigorously. He almost hit Amy with it.

'Indeed,' said Mr Henry. 'You're precisely what

our little group needs: two pairs of younger, fitter

hands to fight with us.'

'Now, hang on a minute,' said Amy. 'That's

not what we...'

'We're biding our time, you see,' said Mrs Henry.

'We're waiting for the others to tire themselves

out,' said Mr Henry.

'And then we'll swoop! It was Mr Henry's idea.'

'That first-class lounge will be ours tonight, you

mark my words.'

'We'll have coffee and chocolate biscuits and,

oh, flowers and moist towelettes.'

'We're just looking for Rory,' said Amy. 'My

husband. He was with you.'

'We haven't seen him, dear,' said Mrs Henry,

'have we, Mr Henry?'

Mr Henry shook his head. 'Not for some time.

Some protector he turned out to be.'

'You must have seen where he went!' said Amy,

frustrated.

'I don't think so, dear,' said Mrs Henry. 'Unless...'

'Unless?'

A shifty look crept over Mrs Henry's face.

'Unless Captain Stone took him. Captain Stone

and his group. They're in the first-class lounge, you

see. They...'

'Uh-huh,' said Amy. 'I think I do see, yeah.'

A group of passengers had forced their way

into the first-class lounge. Another group had

gone in after them, intent on dragging them back

out again.

'And this happens every few weeks, you said?'

said Amy to Janie.

'That's right,' said Janie.

Amy nodded. Makes sense, she thought. The

first-class lounge is probably in the same state as the

duty-free shop. And the Space Traffic Control tower.

And most of the rest of the spaceport, by now.

'So,' said Mrs Henry eagerly, to Amy, 'will you

help us to take the first-class lounge or not? You

never know, your husband could be in there.'

The problem was, thought Amy, Mrs Henry

was right.

No one knew where Rory had got to. If he

wasn't in the first-class passenger lounge, then

where else could he be?

Rory opened his eyes. It was dark. His head ached.

He was lying on his back, on a hard surface,

under a thick blanket. The blanket irritated Rory's

nose. He sneezed.

The blanket was whipped away. Rory saw

the security guard, Roger, standing over him. A

memory came rushing back to him.

'Did you... did you just knock me out?' asked

Rory, blearily.

He tried to sit up. To his surprise, Roger stooped

to help him.

'It was the only way to get you here,' said Roger.

Rory was on a luggage trolley. It was jammed

into an aisle between two columns of fixed seats

in a long, narrow, compartment.

There were folded-up tables on the back of

each seat, with cup holders.

Roger pulled an oxygen mask down from the

ceiling. He handed it to Rory. 'Here,' he said, 'use

this. It'll help to bring you round.'

They were on a spaceship, Rory realised. A

passenger spaceship.

The fighting had spread all across the departure

lounge. The Desponds were having a field day,

claiming victim after victim.

Amy was waiting, along with Janie, the Henrys

and their group , in the corner by the water feature.

Someone had given her a plank to use as a weapon.

It looked to Amy like a broken shelf from the

duty-free shop.

Most of the passengers had forgotten what

they were fighting about. They were lashing out

blindly, caught up in the moment, giving vent to

their pent-up emotions.

The way into the first-class lounge had been

left clear.

Mr Henry raised his walking stick above his

head. ' To battle! he yelled.

His group surged forward, following his lead.

Only Janie stayed behind.

Amy was swept along with the others. She didn't

want to be here. She didn't want to have to fight.

But what about Rory, she thought? What if he was

in trouble, inside that room, and he needed her?

'Have you asked him yet?

Rory looked up. A newcomer had just entered

the passenger compartment, through an airlock at

its rear. He was wearing a bulky white spacesuit

with a helmet.

'I was about to,' said Roger.

'About to ask me what?' asked Rory. 'Look,

where are we, anyway?'

'You're aboard my ship' said the man in the

spacesuit. His voice came out through a speaker in

his chest unit.

Rory looked at Roger. 'We aren't...? I mean,

we haven't left the spaceport?'

Roger shook his head. 'We can't ship out until

the computers release the.

'The docking clamps. I know.' Rory breathed

out, relieved.

'You see, Cap? He knows his stuff.'

The newcomer lifted off his helmet, so Rory

could see his face. He was probably in his mid-

fifties. He was short, with leathery skin and deep

frown lines around his eyes.

'Cap runs a space charter service,' said Roger.

'At least, he used to run one, until he got stuck

here at Terminal 4000 with the rest of us.'

'Okay,' said Rory.

'But that's about to change. Cap and me, we've

a plan for getting out of here.'

'Good,' said Rory. 'That's great. I'm sorry - can

we fast-forward to the part I still don't understand?

That's the part where you beat me unconscious.'

It was the other man — Cap — who answered

him. 'Thing is, son,' he drawled, 'I lost my tech guy

in a fire fight with the Sidewinder Syndicate a few

months back.'

'So, we need a replacement.'

Rory stared at Roger. He wasn't sure if he had

heard him right.

Cap was peeling off the rest of his spacesuit.

'I've tuned up my old engines till they sing,' he

said. 'A little more juice through the couplings, and

I figure we'll be there.'

'I still say we could do it,' said Roger, 'with the

new fuel mix I suggested.'

'Not worth the risk, son,' said Cap. 'Not now

we have the expert here.'

'Expert?' repeated Rory. He blinked. 'You don't

mean... me?

A new sound rang out through the departure

lounge: three melodic chimes, followed by a short

burst of speaker static. Then, a voice: 'Ladies and

gentlemen, your attention please.'

Mr Henry came to a halt. The rest of his group

faltered too, behind him. Mr Henry lowered his

walking stick, and raised his head to listen.

'Orion Spaceways Flight Number 47, departing

to Drahva, now boarding at Gate 14 and a half.

This is a final call for Orion Spaceways Flight

Number 47. To Drahva.'

Amy could hardly believe her ears. She

recognised that voice.

It belonged to the Doctor.

The Doctor was still in the Space Traffic Control

room. He was watching the departure lounge on

the security camera screens.

The passengers had stopped fighting. It was as if

they had come out of a collective trance. They were

looking at each other, and up at the ceiling, confused.

Time for another announcement, thought the

Doctor.

He operated the tannoy, very carefully. He had

stripped the insulation from an electric cable and

wrapped it around his hand, so he wouldn't get

another shock.

'All right,' he addressed the departure lounge,

'that was a lie. You probably noticed, there is no

Gate 14 and a half. And who'd want to go to

Drahva, anyway? All those... Drahvins. I just

wanted to make you all stop and think for a second.'

The passengers were breaking up. They were

picking up their red plastic seats, which had been

scattered in the riot. They were sitting down,

dispirited.

'Which... okay, you appear to have done now,'

said the Doctor. 'You've stopped... hitting each

other with sticks. Well done. So, I'll just shut

up, then.'

The Doctor shut off the tannoy with a scowl.

He didn't like what he had just had to do. His plan

had worked, though. The Desponds - so excited

a moment ago - were slinking away to digest their

recent feast. The Doctor had saved the passengers

from them - by raising their hopes and then

crushing them again.

He switched the tannoy back on. 'I'm so sorry,'

he said.

On one of the camera screens, he saw Amy.

She looked bedraggled. She had located the camera

and was miming something at it. She was asking

the Doctor how he was.

'Amy, hold on,' the Doctor broadcast. 'I'm

coming down there.'

He stepped away from the controls. He

addressed the Space Traffic Control computer.

'Yes, you heard that right,' he said. 'I'm going out

there, and I expect you'll probably try to stop me.

So. Are you ready for Round Two?'

"Alien infestation defected," said the read-out screen. "Lockdown in force."

The Doctor smiled grimly. 'That's exactly what

I thought you'd say.'

'I keep telling you,' insisted Rory, 'I'm a nurse! I

don't know the first thing about...'

'I saw you in the terminal.' Roger had pulled his

gun again. 'I saw how you and your friend rewired

that drinks machine.'

'Not me and my friend. Just him. Just the

Doctor. I was just... he put some circuit boards in

my hands, and I... look, why don't we go and find

him? I'm sure he...'

'Roger,' growled Cap. You promised me an

engineer!'

'He's lying,' said Roger. He rounded on Rory.

'You're lying! You can't be a nurse! They wouldn't

have sent you here if you couldn't...'

'I wasn't sent here!'

'I didn't go to all this trouble for nothing,' snapped

Roger. You're going to fix up those engines, or...'

He looked down at his gun. His empty gun.

Roger swallowed. 'Look,' he pleaded. We're so

close to getting out of here. We'll take you with us

if you help us. It'll just be the three of us.'

'The three of...?' Rory looked around the

empty passenger compartment. You could fit

about fifty people in here. Four trips, and you'd

have the whole of the spaceport evacuated. Why

don't you...?'

Cap shook his head firmly. 'That's a bad

idea, son.'

'You've seen what they're like in there,' said

Roger, 'the passengers. They've been fed on by

the Desponds one too many times. They've no

hope left.'

'And you do?' said Rory.

'The Desponds can't get to us in here,' said

Roger.

'I haven't stepped outside this ship in two

months,' said Cap, proudly.

'I've been out to fetch supplies,' said Roger,

'but only when the Desponds aren't on the prowl,

when it's safe. That's how we've been able to start

hoping again.'

'We open that airlock door to all-comers, and

what do you think'll happen? We'll have them damn

dogs in here faster'n you can say Jack Robinson.'

'We can't take that risk,' said Roger.

'It's a shame about those other guys,' said Cap,

'but, hey, we'll be doing them a mercy. They're all

out of food in there, anyway.'

'What do you mean, 'anyway'?' asked Rory.

Roger stared at the floor. He shuffled his feet.

'Well, Cap thinks...' he mumbled.

'If we can get that extra juice to the

engines,' said Cap, 'we can tear this ship free of the

docking clamps.'

'It's just,' said Roger, 'there's a chance that we'll,

um, you know... tear a hole in the side of the

spaceport too.'

Cap shrugged. 'Like I said, the folks in there,

they're all gonna die anyway.'

'You're mad!' cried Rory.

Cap's eyes gleamed fiercely. 'Maybe we are,'

he snapped. 'Maybe that's what it does to a man,

being stuck in the armpit of the universe for five

long months.'

'But you're going to help us,' said Roger quietly,

'or we'll...'

'Or you won't like the consequences!' Cap

snarled. He had bundled up his spacesuit into a

giant ball. He thrust it into Rory's arms.

Rory looked at the spacesuit. He looked at his

two captors.

Of course, he thought, with an inward groan.

The engines must be on the outside of the ship.

He was supposed to put on this suit... and walk

out into space!

'This day just keeps getting better and better,'

Rory muttered.

'Where are you going?' asked Janie.

Amy halted in her tracks. She turned

back to the young flight attendant. 'You heard

the Doctor,' she said. 'He's alive. He's on his way

down here.'

'So what?'

'So, I'm going to meet him. He's probably

worked out a way to save us all by now, and...'

Amy's voice trailed off.

Janie was staring past her, afraid. Amy turned

around slowly.

There was a Despond right behind her.

Amy could have kicked herself. The sound of

the Doctor's voice had made her hope again. She

hadn't been able to help it.

'It's all right,' said Janie, relaxing. 'Look at it.'

'I'm looking,' said Amy. 'Looking right at the

monster.'

'It's curious about you,' said Janie, 'but it doesn't

want to feed. The Desponds must have overeaten

in the riot.'

'So, what, they've all got bellyache?'

'I wouldn't count on it lasting,' said Janie.

'But while it does, we're safe. We're safe to hope.

In which case... Janie, come with me. Come and

meet the Doctor with me. We can —'

'No,' said Janie. 'I've been fed on once already

today. I'll just stay here. With Mr and Mrs Henry

and the others. I think that's best.'

'I understand,' said Amy.

'Watch this,' said the Doctor. 'It's going to be good.'

He grabbed an office chair and rolled it on its

castors to the edge of the round room. He stepped

up onto its seat.

Now, he could reach a camera, which was

hanging from the ceiling.

The Doctor gripped the camera, with his hand

still wrapped in the cable insulation. He wrenched

the camera from its bracket and hopped down

from the chair.

'Now,' he said, 'unless I've very much missed

my guess...'

He inspected the device. 'Oh, yes. A body

scanner. X-rays, thermal imaging, the works. Nice.

Ideal for detecting, say, unclassified life forms in

your control room.'

He looked at the computer read-out screen. It

was blank.

'Go on,' said the Doctor. 'Try running a scan

now. See what it says.'

Nothing happened for a moment, as if the

computer was reluctant to follow the instruction.

Then, the words appeared: "No alien infestation

detected."

'Of course not,' said the Doctor. 'How could

there be? I've disconnected your scanner. But that

doesn't mean a thing to you, does it? You have

your programming. The only thing you care about

is...' He pointed to the read-out screen.

" No alien infestation defected."

'And that means...?'

" Lockdown lifted."

'Good old computer logic!' crowed the Doctor.

'Gotta love it!'

The heavy security door rumbled back up into

the ceiling. The Doctor stepped outside, and onto

the spiral staircase that led back down to the main

concourse.

He was four steps down when a thought

occurred to him.

'Oh, oh, oh!' cried the Doctor. He whirled

around, aiming the sonic screwdriver.

A chair came careering across the control room

towards him. At the same time, the computer tried

to close the security door again.

The chair was jammed beneath the security

door. There was now a low gap, to each side of the

chair, through which a person could crawl.

'Nice try,' said the Doctor. 'You're good. But

I'm better.'

Cap's spacesuit was a tight fit on the much taller

Rory. Rory struggled to get his shoulders into it,

and was disappointed when he succeeded.

Cap lowered the helmet over Rory's head. He

fastened the seals on it. Then, he hefted an air tank

onto Rory's back.

Next, Cap attached a flexible tube from the

tank to Rory's chest unit. Rory felt a little light-

headed as his helmet filled up with oxygen.

He was still terrified about going out into space,

even with all this protection. But he didn't know

what else he could do, at least for now.

Roger had disappeared into the cockpit of the

spaceship. He returned now — wearing another

spacesuit. 'You didn't think I'd let you go out there

alone?' His sneering voice sounded inside Rory's

helmet, through a radio link.

'Roger here'll be making sure you don't get up

to any tricks,' Cap drawled.

'Like what?' asked Rory, sullenly.

'Like sabotaging the engines instead of fixing

them,' said Roger.

'I wouldn't know how to do either. As I keep

trying to tell you...'

'You'll be connected to this ship,' said Cap, 'by

a single lifeline. One word from Roger, over the

radio, and...' Cap made a slashing motion with his

hand.

'That lifeline gets cut,' said Roger. 'You'll be cast adrift. In space.'

'Perfect,' muttered Rory.

Cap led the way to the airlock at the back of

the ship. He picked up a tool kit, which he handed

to Rory. It was heavier than it looked. Its weight

almost pulled Rory over.

'You ready for this, son?' asked Cap.

'No,' said Rory.

'Too bad,' said Cap. He wrenched open the

airlock door.

Amy met the Doctor in front of the TARDIS. She

leapt at him and enveloped him in a tight hug. She

knew it would embarrass him, but right now she

didn't care.

'Did you do it?' asked Amy. 'Did you end the

quarantine? Can we leave now?'

'Not entirely,' said the Doctor. 'By which I

mean... well, not at all, actually.'

'Oh,' said Amy.

'Soon, though. Definitely soon. I've been

getting the measure of the computer that runs this

place. I reckon I can take it!'

The Doctor unlocked the TARDIS door. Amy

followed him inside.

They skirted the six-sided console, and headed

for an alcove that was cluttered with chests and

crates. The Doctor pulled a chest full of junk

towards him. Amy watched as he scattered its

contents across the floor.

'What are you looking for?' asked Amy.

'I'll know that when I find it,' said the Doctor.

He finished with the first chest and started on

a second.

'Doctor, when you were in Space Traffic

Control,' said Amy, 'with the cameras... you didn't

happen to see where Rory might have got to?'

'I hoped you might know,' said the Doctor.

'He's your husband.'

He had found something. It was buried beneath

a tangle of wires and circuit boards. The Doctor

wrenched it free. 'Oh, yes,' he said. 'This should

do the trick.'

Amy craned to see the device. It looked like a

metal spider with a keypad on its back. She asked

the Doctor what it was.

'An automated safe-cracker,' he said, jumping

to his feet.

'Safe-cracker?' echoed Amy. 'For cracking

safes? And you just happen to have one of those

lying about the place?'

'Why not?' The Doctor grinned. 'You never

know when you might have to break into a safe.

Or out of one. Did I ever tell you about that time

on Fortis Major?'

'So, what does it do exactly?' asked Amy.

'Runs through about five hundred combinations

per second,' said the Doctor. 'Wire this into the

computers in Space Traffic Control and...'

'And it'll find the security codes we need to lift

the quarantine and release the docking clamps and

send everyone home!'

'In forty minutes or less, or your money back.'

'Well, in that case,' said Amy, 'why are we

standing here?'

'Of course,' said the Doctor, as he and Amy

walked away from the TARDIS, 'we aren't entirely

out of the woods yet.'

'What's that supposed to mean?' asked Amy.

The Doctor nodded to their right. A Despond

had just stepped out from between two luggage

carousels. Its nose and ears twitched as it saw them.

Amy shook her head. 'It can't be... they can't be

hungry again already!'

'I suspect,' said the Doctor, 'that the Desponds

have a very efficient metabolism. Either that or

they found a packet of antacid tablets in the duty-

free shop. Amy...'

'I remember. 'Try to worry.'

It worked last time, thought Amy. Just have to

close my eyes and concentrate - tell myself there is no

hope. There is no hope!

'I wasn't going to say that, actually,' said the

Doctor. 'I was going to say that, when I say, 'run',

you should run back to the TARDIS.'

Amy opened her eyes a fraction. 'You were

'going to say'?'

'Before I saw the other one.'

Amy looked properly now. A second Despond

had appeared from behind the TARDIS. It was

cutting off their retreat.

There is no hope, Amy told herself fiercely. But,

this time, it wasn't working. This time, the Doctor

was here by her side. So, how could things be

hopeless?

'Plan B,' said the Doctor. 'When I say "run",

you just... run. I'll try to draw the Desponds away

from you. Run?'

Amy ran for it. A Despond began to follow

her, but the Doctor leapt into its path.

'Here, boy,' said the Doctor. 'Come to me.

Not... quite so fast...'

Now, it was his turn to flee, with the Desponds

at his heels.

The Doctor ran for the working carousel,

and jumped onto it. It carried him away from his

pursuers, while leaving his feet free.

The Desponds kept pace with the carousel,

snarling and snapping at the Doctor's ankles. He

tried to push them away with the soles of his shoes.

One of them leapt up, and caught the Doctor's

trouser leg between its teeth. It yanked him

backwards off his feet. The Doctor landed on the

carousel on his back.

The Desponds jumped on top of him. They

opened their mouths to reveal their slavering

feeding tentacles.

Amy cried out, 'Doctor!' She started towards

him.

He was fighting off the Desponds. He pushed

one of them away from him. Its three paws skittered

on the moving carousel, and it fell off it sideways.

The Despond landed on the floor between

Amy and the Doctor. She backed away from

it, nervously. She had no hope of reaching the

Doctor now.

The other Despond had dug its front claws

into its victim's chest. It sank its feeding tentacle

into the Doctor's throat.

Then, both the Doctor and the Despond were

carried away by the luggage carousel, through an

opening in the wall and out of Amy's sight.

Amy eyed the Despond that sat between her and

the luggage carousel.

The Despond eyed her in return. Then, it stood

up and burped loudly.

The Despond waddled away, towards the

departure lounge. It looked a little bit wobbly, as if

it had eaten too much.

No, thought Amy. That cant have happened —

not to him!

She ran up to the moving carousel, as it brought

the Doctor around to her again.

He was lying on his back on the carousel,

sucking his thumb — and Amy couldn't miss the

big red suction mark on his throat.

She buried her face in her hands, in despair.

The Desponds had fed again. They had taken

the Doctor's hope!

Rory was standing inside a tiny airlock. He was

elbow to elbow with Roger.

Two drums of cable were fastened to the wall.

Roger clipped one cable to a loop on his spacesuit

and another to Rory's.

Roger pointed out a tiny explosive charge,

stuck to Rory's cable drum. 'One word from me,'

he said, 'and Cap will blow that charge from the

cockpit. It'll burn right through your lifeline.'

'Yeah,' said Rory. 'I got that.'

For the past two minutes, he had been able to

hear machinery: the grinding and wheezing of an

air pump. Now, the pump shut off with a final

clunk.

It had done its job. A gauge on the wall showed

that there was no atmosphere left inside the

airlock. Rory and Roger's oxygen tanks were the

only things keeping them alive. Rory swallowed

nervously.

The spaceship's artificial gravity had also been

shut off, and Rory was floating. His heavy tool kit

was floating too, no longer weighing him down.

Roger spun the locking wheel of the outer

airlock door. He pushed it open. He took the

hesitant Rory by the arm and gave him a decisive

push — out into space!

'Doctor, please,' Amy pleaded, 'get up!'

She managed to drag him off the moving

carousel, but it was like handling a rag doll. He

sagged to the floor, and sat there with his chin on

his knees.

'No point,' said the Doctor.

'Don't be daft! You can fight this, Doctor. I

know you can fight it! We have the safe-cracker

now, remember? That means we can...'

'Oh, that,' said the Doctor. 'I don't think that

will work.'

'What do you mean? You said...'

'It was in that chest for about a hundred

years. It's probably seized up by now. And,

anyway, I've been thinking, and I think we

shouldn't interfere.'

'Can you even hear yourself?'

The Doctor looked up at Amy. 'Don't you see?'

he said. 'This terminal was placed under quarantine

for a reason: to keep the Desponds contained. If

we lift it...'

'We have to lift it! We have to let all these people

go!'

'We'd be letting the Desponds go too. They'd

be bound to slip aboard a ship and...'

'They won't! We'll make sure they don't!'

'And then they'll spread across the galaxy,' the

Doctor shuddered at the thought. 'And I almost

let that happen. What could I have been thinking?'

'You were trying to help,' said Amy. 'You're the

Doctor. It's what you do.'

The Doctor shook his head. 'Not any more.

A quiet life for me, from now on. No risks. You

know, I can't remember the last time I just sat

and watched the telly with a nice plate of cheese

on toast. Do you think I should buy some comfy

slippers?'

'Oh, right,' said Amy. 'That does it!' She took

the Doctor's arm again. She hauled him to his feet.

'So, what do you want to do?' she challenged him.

'Give up?'

'Yes, I think we should,' said the Doctor.

'Get back into the TARDIS and just... just fly

out of here?'

'That would probably be for the best.'

'What about Janie, Doctor? What about Mr and

Mrs Henry and the others? You'd be leaving them

to starve!'

'I suppose I would.'

'You promised them you'd save them!'

'I know. I know I did. But I've tried my best and

I can't do it.' The Doctor put his hands on Amy's

shoulders. He looked right into her eyes, and she

saw only despair in his gaze. 'So, I think you're

right,' he said. We should leave.'

'No! No, Doctor, I didn't mean...'

But the Doctor was already heading for the

TARDIS.

'Nothing more we can do here, Pond,' he said

over his shoulder. 'It's hopeless!'

Cap's spaceship had probably been white once.

Now, its hull was all corroded and patched up with

black tape. Rory certainly wouldn't have wanted to

fly in it. Not that flying outside of it was any better.

Rory flapped about helplessly in zero-gravity.

He wanted to be sick. He dropped his toolbox,

and it floated away from him. Fortunately, Roger

caught it.

The security guard was sticking close to

his prisoner.

Roger took Rory's arm. He found a handhold

on the side of the ship. He used it to pull the two

of them along the hull, toward the nose.

Rory found that, if he faced the ship, he

felt better.

The ship was attached, via a white docking

tube, to the spaceport itself. The spaceport looked

like a giant white top. Its 'spindle', Rory guessed,

was the Space Traffic Control tower. He wondered

if the Doctor and Amy were in there now.

He wondered if they were watching him.

There were portholes in the side of the

spaceport. Through these, Rory could see the lights

of the departure lounge. He could see people in

there, and he thought he could make out Mr and

Mrs Henry. He focused on them.

It was when he looked the other way that Rory

had problems. It was when he looked out at the

endless darkness of space. That was when he felt

alone. That was when he felt small. That was when

his stomach insisted on performing somersaults.

Roger had reached an engine pod. He thrust

the toolbox into Rory's chest. 'Go on then, genius

his voice came over the helmet radio. ' Show us

what you can do.'

Rory almost floated right past the pod. He had

to grab hold of it to steady himself. He opened the

toolbox. He looked at its collection of different-

sized spanners and screwdrivers and gadgets he

didn't even recognise.

He looked at the engine pod: an egg-shaped

bulge on the side of the spaceship, roughly where

the wing would have been on an aeroplane.

Rory had planned to tinker with the engines a

little, maybe tighten a few nuts and bolts. At least it

would have looked like he was trying. He realised,

now, that even this was beyond his talents.

There must be a tool in the box that would

open up the pod — but Rory had no idea which

one it might be.

Roger was glaring at him, impatiently. Any

second now, he would realise the truth: that Rory

really couldn't help him. And then...?

If Rory was ever going to act, it had to be now.

He thrust the toolbox into Roger's face. Its

contents spilled out, more gently than Rory

had hoped they might. They floated around the

security guard's head, doing him no harm but at

least keeping him distracted for a second.

Rory pulled himself along his lifeline, as fast

as he could. He had to get back on board the

ship before Roger could recover and radio Cap in

the cockpit.

In his haste, however, he overshot the airlock

door.

Rory could hear Roger screaming in his ear.

'He's making a break for it, Cap. Cut the lifeline.

Cut the l i f e l i n e ! '

He heard Cap's much calmer response: 'Will

do, son. Cap out!'

Rory managed to turn himself around. He

pulled on his lifeline again, but the cable went slack

in his hands. He kept tugging on it anyway, out of

desperation.

He reeled in the cable, until he was holding its

burnt end. He stared at it in horror.

His momentum kept him drifting backwards,

past the tail of the ship. He tried to get back. He

kicked his legs like a swimmer, but he had nothing

to push against.

'I warned you what would happen,' Roger's radio

voice sneered in Rory's ear.

Rory was moving even faster than he had

thought. He was getting further and further away

from Cap's spaceship. And from the spaceport too,

he realised.

He felt as if his heart had frozen in his chest.

They did it, he thought. Roger and Cap actually did it... They've sent me hurtling o f f into outer space!

The Doctor paused in the TARDIS doorway. He

turned back to Amy.

'Coming?' he asked.

'You can't be serious,' said Amy.

'Deadly.'

'But what about Rory? Apart from anything

else...'

The Doctor shrugged. 'He's probably in some

kind of trouble. Nothing we can do.'

'That's my husband you're talking about!'

'And, if we go looking for him, we'll probably

get into trouble ourselves and then we'll never get

out of here and... No. This is how it has to be. No

choice. I'm leaving. Right now. So, are you coming

with me, Amy Pond?'

'No,' said Amy. She folded her arms stubbornly.

'No, I'm not.'

The Doctor nodded. 'Okay,' he said.

He slammed the TARDIS door in Amy's face.

'And you won't go either,' Amy shouted through

the door. 'I know you won't — because whatever

those monsters have done to you, whatever they've

taken from you, you're still him. You're the Doctor.

You're my Doctor.'

The TARDIS engines wheezed and groaned

into life. The light on its roof was flashing. Amy's

heart was pounding.

'You're my Raggedy Doctor,' she cried, 'and

I'm Amelia Pond, the girl who waited, and I know

you'd never abandon me. You always come back

for me!'

She went to hammer on the police box doors.

Her fist went through them.

The engine noise was building to a raucous

trumpeting.

The TARDIS was leaving without Amy.

Amy could see right through the TARDIS now. It

was almost gone.

Then, something wonderful happened. The

TARDIS came back.

Its blue box shape became darker and more

solid before Amy's eyes. The noise of its engine

faded, and the blue light on the roof went out.

The police box door opened. The Doctor was

leaning against the doorway. He looked wretched.

'I don't think I want to go,' he said.

Amy grinned in relief. 'You see?' she said. 'You

can't ever leave me. You're stuck with me, buster.

You and me, forever.'

'Help me,' said the Doctor.

'Always,' Amy promised.

Rory fought the urge to panic.

It wasn't easy. He wanted to scream. But with

every second that passed, he was drifting further

and further out into space. He needed to think fast.

Maybe someone in the spaceport will look out of

a porthole, he thought. Maybe they'll see me out here and raise the alarm — before I drift out of sight!

He had pleaded for help over his helmet radio,

but had had no reply. Either Roger was ignoring

him or Rory was already out of his radio range.

He wondered how much oxygen he had left in

his tank. Not much, I'll bet!

No one was going to help him. Rory had to

help himself. He had to find a way to brake; better

still, to reverse the direction of his flight.

Only one way occurred to him, and it was

incredibly dangerous.

Rory felt he had no choice. He turned his back

to the spaceport. He was careful to use only tiny

movements, so he wouldn't send himself into

a spin.

He felt along the tube that connected his

oxygen tank to his chest unit. He found the end of

the tube and he twisted it.

He pulled the air tube out of its socket. He aimed

it in front of him like a fire hose. Rory couldn't see

the oxygen that rushed out of the end of the tube,

but he could feel its effects. His stomach heaved as

he was propelled backwards like a rocket.

He collided with the spaceport, hard.

If it hadn't been for Rory's padded spacesuit,

he might have been badly hurt. As it was, his

ribs ached and it took him half a minute to find

his breath.

By that time, he had lost a great deal of oxygen.

Rory clung to the side of the spaceport with

one hand, as he tried - and failed - to reconnect

his air tube with the other. When the tube stopped

fighting him, he knew it was too late. His oxygen

tank was empty. He had only the air in his helmet.

He had to get inside the spaceport. He looked

for a way in.

To his relief, he found one. An airlock door!

Now, he just had to reach it.

Rory struck out towards the door. He found plenty

of hand- and footholds on the spaceport's side. He

climbed from one of them to the other, careful never

to lose contact for fear of drifting off again.

He had certainly been noticed now. A mass of

curious passengers had been drawn to the departure

lounge portholes, to watch Rory's halting progress

across them.

He was starting to feel light-headed again.

Is it my imagination or is it getting hard

to breathe?

He was sure he wasn't going to make it. Then,

at last, the locking wheel of the airlock door was in

Rory's hands. He spun it round and yanked open

the door. He pulled himself into the airlock and

slammed the door shut behind him.

Rory's chest ached. He could see dark spots on

the edges of his vision. But, as he sagged to his knees,

he heard the most beautiful sound in the world.

He heard the sound of an air pump activating.

Rory was still weak at the knees as he stumbled

into the spaceport departure lounge. He was

grateful to be alive, though, and to be breathing

warm, sweet air.

He had left his helmet behind in the airlock. He

dropped into a red plastic seat and began to strip

off the rest of the spacesuit.

'So, this is where you've been hiding yourself.'

Mr Henry had appeared in the seat beside Rory.

Mrs Henry sat at his other side.

'Mr Henry and I have been worried about

you, dear,' she said. You missed out on all the

excitement.'

Mr Henry peered closely at Rory. 'Did the

Desponds get you? Oh, yes. They fed on you,

didn't they?'

'No, actually,' said Rory. 'The Desponds didn't

feed on me.'

'Are you sure?' Mr Henry frowned. 'Because

you look pretty hopeless to me.'

'I'm not... the Desponds haven't fed on me!

I've been... I was onboard one of the spaceships,

actually - with that security guard, Roger.'

Mr and Mrs Henry looked at each other. There

was fear in their eyes.

'Well, aren't you going to ask me?' asked Rory.

'Aren't you going to ask me, 'What were you doing

onboard a spaceship, Rory?''

The Henrys said nothing.

'No,' said Rory. You don't dare ask, do you?

You don't want to know, in case the answer gives

you hope. Well, you don't have to worry about

that. Roger and his friend, Cap, they have enough

hope for all of us — and, if someone doesn't stop

them, they're going to tear this spaceport apart

with it.'

The Doctor had gone back into the TARDIS. He

had been in such a hurry, though, that he had left

his key in the door lock. I'll take that, decided Amy,

snatching it on her way past. It'll be safer with me

for the moment!

The Doctor was already at the console. She ran

up there to join him. 'Er, what do you think you're

doing?' she asked.

He was flicking switches and pushing buttons.

He turned to Amy with an intense stare. 'Stop me!'

he breathed.

He was setting flight coordinates. He was trying

to leave again.

'Doctor, no!' cried Amy. She got between

him and the controls. She wrestled his left hand

away from them, but he reached around her with

his right.

'I can't help myself!' said the Doctor. 'Whenever

I think about Terminal 4000 and the Desponds,

it's like...'

He was dashing around the console, operating

controls as he went. Amy couldn't keep up

with him.

'It's like a yawning great chasm in my stomach.

No, a void. It's like a void. An aching void. Of

despair. And I can't stand it, Amy. I have to get

away from it!'

Amy lunged at the Doctor. She grabbed

his head in her hands. She planted a big kiss on

his lips.

The Doctor reeled away from Amy, aghast.

'Wh-what did you just do?

'I gave you something else to think about.'

'It's just any excuse with you, isn't it?' the

Doctor spluttered.

'Oi, less of the complaining, please. I'll have

you know, I'm an excellent kisser.'

'You're also married. And... and human.

And...'

The Doctor sighed. He wandered over to the

nearest set of steps, and sat down on it. He buried

his face in his hands.

The kiss had worked. It had distracted the

Doctor from the controls. Amy almost wished it

hadn't. She hated to see him, of all people, like

this. His boundless energy had left him. He looked

defeated.

'You were right, Amy,' said the Doctor. 'There's

no point in our leaving. We'd only wind up

somewhere worse. Best we just stay here. In the

TARDIS. Where it's safe. We should probably stay

in here forever.'

It was just as Rory had feared.

Cap and Roger were both in the cockpit of

Cap's ship. Rory could hear their muffled voices in

there. He took a deep breath and pushed open the

cockpit door.

Cap was sitting in the pilot's seat. Roger stood at

his shoulder. He had changed out of his spacesuit,

back into his uniform.

They both turned to gape at the newcomer in

surprise. Roger went for his gun.

'You're supposed to be dead!' exclaimed Roger.

'And you're supposed to be a security guard,'

said Rory. 'It's your job to protect people, not to

kidnap them and throw them out into space and...'

'You should have stayed away, son,' Cap

drawled.

'You were going to do it, weren't you?' said

Rory. You were going to start the engines and

blast your way out of here!'

'And we still are,' said Roger.

'Course,' said Cap, 'I'd be happier if you'd

souped up the engines like you were supposed to.

But Roger here had this notion for a new fuel mix

that might...'

'I won't let you,' said Rory. 'I won't let you risk

everyone's lives.'

'And how do you plan on stopping us?' sneered

Roger. He cocked his gun.

'Got any bullets for that thing yet?' asked Rory.

Roger blanched. 'There're still two of us to one

of you,' he said.

'Not this time,' said Rory. He could hear

footsteps padding up behind him. 'This time,

I brought some friends.'

Rory hadn't found it hard to get two Desponds

to follow him in here. He had just had to hope they

would.

He stepped aside now, and allowed the two

creatures to waddle past him, into the cockpit. Cap

leapt from his seat and Roger shrank against the

bulkhead in horror.

Rory was relieved. He had taken a big gamble.

He had gambled that Cap and Roger - so

hopeful about their escape plans — would be a

bigger lure to the Desponds than he was. He had

been right.

Rory faltered in the doorway, as the Desponds

advanced on Cap and Roger.

'I'm sorry,' he said. 'I couldn't think of another

way to... I had to make you lose hope in your plan,

so you wouldn't... I mean it. I'm sorry.'

Rory closed the door behind him. He leaned

against it, to make sure it stayed shut.

From inside the cockpit, he could hear the

Desponds snarling and growling. He could hear

the hopeless cries of their prey.

Then, after a minute or so, there was silence.

Rory could still hear Roger and Cap's screams in

his mind.

What choice did I have, thought?' he asked himself.

Someone had to stop them!

At least the Desponds were leaving him alone

now. No doubt they had sensed his low spirits and

knew he would be no feast for them.

Rory had asked the Henrys for directions to

Space Traffic Control. He felt he had to find Amy

and the Doctor.

He had just passed the TARDIS, by the luggage

carousels, when he heard a familiar voice calling

his name. He turned.

Amy was standing in the TARDIS doorway.

She was beckoning to Rory. He could already feel

his hopes rising as he ran to join her.

'What's going on?' asked Rory. 'What are you doing

in here?'

'It's the Doctor,' said Amy. She closed the

TARDIS door behind them.

'You aren't... we aren't leaving already? But

what about...?'

Amy looked across the control room. Rory

followed her gaze. He saw the Doctor, sitting on a

step, with his head in his hands.

'Oh,' said Rory. You mean he's...? The

Desponds?'

Amy nodded. They approached the Doctor

together, cautiously.

'Come on, Doctor,' said Rory, with forced

cheer. 'Can't sit around here all day. You've got

work to do. Monsters to fight. Last-second saves

to, er, carry out.'

The Doctor didn't respond.

Amy sat down beside him. 'What can we do?'

she asked.

'Nothing,' said the Doctor. 'There's nothing

you can do. There's no hope.'

'Of course there is,' said Amy. 'There's always

hope.'

'Not this time.'

'Janie... the last time I saw Janie, she was almost

optimistic again. This feeling, this hopelessness -

it wears off, Doctor.'

'It doesn't feel like it will. Maybe it'll be different

with me.'

'Yeah,' said Amy, 'maybe it will — cos if anyone

can beat this, it's you. You've got... normally,

you're just bursting with hope. It's like... it's like an

inexhaustible commodity with you, Doctor. And I

know... I know the Desponds could never have

taken it all. There must be some hope left in you,

somewhere.'

'I'm tired,' said the Doctor. 'Tired of fighting

the monsters. What's the point? They always come

back. There are always more monsters.'

'He does have a point there,' said Rory.

Amy shot him a look. 'Not helping,' she said.

Amy and Rory waited. It was all they could

think to do.

They just waited. And hoped. They hoped the

Doctor would recover in time.

The minutes crawled by. Rory paced around

the console, anxiously. Amy sat beside the Doctor,

holding him tight - until at last he stirred.

The Doctor took out the sonic screwdriver. He

began to adjust it.

'Yes, that's it, Doctor,' said Amy. 'That's the

spirit!'

The Doctor threw the sonic screwdriver down.

He buried his face again. 'It's no good!'

'What? What's no good?' Amy picked up the

sonic screwdriver. She pressed it back into the

Doctor's hand. 'What were you trying to do? Tell

me, Doctor.'

'A stupid long shot,' he muttered. 'It would

never have worked.'

'What do you mean? Of course it would've...

Your plans always work. Well, almost always.

And especially when there's sonicking involved.

Sonicking is cool. That's right, isn't it, Doctor? It's

almost as cool as... as bow ties and fezzes.'

The Doctor looked down at the sonic

screwdriver.

'Sonicking is cool,' he conceded. 'Oh, but I

tried this before — finding a sound frequency that'll

repel the Desponds.'

'Sounds like a good idea to me,' said Amy.

'Sounds like a fantastic idea!'

'Thing is,' said the Doctor, 'I can't do it here.

I'd have to try out different sound frequencies

on the Desponds themselves. And if I tried the

wrong one...'

'What'd happen?' asked Rory.

'I could bring the Desponds to me. It's what

happened before.'

Amy snatched the sonic screwdriver from the

Doctor. 'I'll do it!'

'Whoa,' said Rory, 'wait a second! Do you even

know how to...?'

'I was watching what the Doctor did. Twist this

bit here to change the frequency; push this button

here to make the sound. It's not so hard.'

'Yeah, okay,' said Rory, 'but the Desponds

'Someone has to do something,' said Amy.

'That's the problem with this place. No one's doing

anything. No one dares hope in case the Desponds

feed on them - but, if no one has any hope, then

how can anyone ever escape from here?'

'I'll come with you,' offered Rory.

'No,' said Amy. 'Stay here with the Doctor. Try to

cheer him up. And keep him away from the controls

until he's feeling more himself. I've had an idea!'

Amy stepped out of the TARDIS. There were no

Desponds in sight.

She pressed the button on the sonic screwdriver.

It emitted a high-pitched shriek, which set her

teeth on edge.

Amy stayed close to the TARDIS. She was

ready to run back inside if she had to. However,

no Desponds appeared.

'Okay,' she said to herself. 'Not attracting the

monsters. That's something.'

Amy started walking. She turned the corner

into the empty main concourse, where the check-

in desks were. She saw a Despond at the far end

of the concourse, beneath a sign for the spaceport

food court. It had overturned a bin and was playing

with its contents. Amy could smell the rotting

waste from here.

She approached the dog-like creature on tiptoe.

She was halfway along the concourse when it saw

her. It looked up from the bin, its nose twitching.

Amy aimed the sonic screwdriver at the

Despond. She activated it again.

The sonic shrieked, as it had before. But the

Despond appeared unaffected.

'Okay,' said Amy. 'Don't panic. Plenty of

time yet.'

She twisted the sonic screwdriver and pressed

the button. This time, the Despond yawned. Amy

could see its feeding tentacle, with the little mouth

on the end of it.

The Despond began to approach her,

unhurriedly. Amy backed away from it. She tried

another sound frequency, and another. The

Despond kept on coming.

Amy could no longer hear the sonic screwdriver.

The sounds it was making were too high for her

ears to detect. Suddenly, however, the Despond

froze. It whimpered.

Then, it roared.

The Despond came charging at Amy. It was

foaming at the mouth. Amy was so startled that

she dropped the sonic screwdriver. It skittered

across the tiled floor.

Amy stooped to retrieve the device. She held

it up to the oncoming Despond, but there was no

time to try another sound frequency. She ran for

it instead.

The Space Traffic Control tower, she thought.

Got to make it inside!

She leapt through the door, and turned to shut

it in the Despond's face. Oh no - too late! It's too

close behind me!

The Despond barrelled through the door,

knocking Amy over. She landed on the spiral

staircase that led up to the top of the tower. The

Despond lunged at her throat.

Amy kicked it in the stomach.

The Despond fell back. Amy pushed herself to

her feet and scrambled up the stairs. She rounded

the first bend. She froze in horror.

There was another Despond on the staircase

above her. Amy was surrounded.

The Desponds closed in on her. She shrank

against the wall. She fumbled with the sonic

screwdriver. She gave it a good twist. She raised it

above her head. She closed her eyes. She pressed

the button.

The Desponds yelped and mewled. They

sounded as if they were in pain. They turned and

scampered away from Amy.

Amy let out the breath she had been holding.

She kissed the sonic screwdriver. 'Sonicking is

cool!' she said to herself.

Amy continued up the staircase.

She went carefully, because one of the

Desponds had gone this way. She kept that button

on the sonic firmly pressed.

She reached the top of the stairs. The security

door was half-closed over the Space Traffic Control

room. It was jammed by a chair.

Amy crouched down. She peered under

the door.

She came eye to eye with the missing Despond.

It had retreated into the circular control room, as

Amy had expected. It had had nowhere else to go.

Amy raised the sonic screwdriver. The Despond

howled, and backed away from her as far as it

could.

She crawled into the control room. She stood

up. The Despond had taken cover underneath an

instrument console. Amy kept her back to the wall.

She walked around the room slowly. The Despond

trembled as she approached it.

She was careful not to get between the Despond

and the exit. She didn't want to think about what

the creature might do if it was cornered.

The Despond bolted, at last. It ran under the

security door and disappeared down the stairs.

Amy waited until she was sure it was gone. Then

she laid down the sonic screwdriver and looked for

the tannoy controls.

The passengers were even more subdued than

normal. Many of them had returned to their seats,

while others were shuffling around aimlessly.

It was always like this after a raid, thought Janie.

With the fighting over, they were left to contemplate

what they had gained - which, for most of them,

was nothing. They were all still trapped here.

Janie was treating a young man with a cut

under his eye. She had just used up the last of her

antiseptic spray. Her flight attendant's first-aid kit

was almost empty.

Three melodic chimes rang out, above her

head. The public address system. Janie didn't

even bother to look up, this time. She wouldn't be

tricked into hoping again.

'Erm... so, okay, yeah. Your attention please.'

Janie was surprised to hear Amy's voice.

'This isn't a passenger announcement,' said

Amy. 'I just wanted to say something, and this

seemed like the best way to reach all of you.

'I want to tell you all a story. It's a sort of a fairy

tale, really. It's about a... a Raggedy Doctor who

travels to different worlds in a magic blue box.

'And I think you're gonna want to hear it.'

'Erm... so, okay, yeah. Your attention please.'

Rory had turned on the TARDIS's scanner. He

had wanted to see - and hear - what was happening

outside, in case Amy was in trouble.

He shook the Doctor. 'Doctor. Hey. Do you

hear that? That's Amy. On the tannoy. She must

have reached Space Traffic Control. She's all right.'

The Doctor didn't respond.

Rory listened to Amy's voice. 'She's saying

something about... a fairy tale, I think. About...

oh, right. Yeah. Of course. About her Raggedy

Doctor. What else?'

'Heard it,' said the Doctor.

'Once upon a time...' said Amy. 'I was seven

years old, when the Doctor crashed in my back

garden. I looked out of my window, and I saw..

She could see the departure lounge on the

security monitors. A handful of the passengers

had stopped to listen to her. Most were ignoring

her.

They could still hear her voice, though. Short

of covering their ears, they couldn't escape

her voice.

Amy continued to tell her story. She related her

first impressions of the Doctor, as he had climbed

out of the crashed TARDIS: how he had seemed

so wise and so kind and so funny and how it had

been impossible not to trust him.

She talked about fish custard and a mysterious

crack in her bedroom wall.

Amy had told the story so many times by now,

she knew it by heart.

Rory knew the story too. He could almost mouth

the words along with Amy.

He wrinkled his nose at the 'fish custard' part.

'Did you really do that?' he asked the Doctor. 'Did

you really eat...? No, never mind.'

The Doctor looked at Rory, dolefully. 'What is

she doing?'

'Oh, the usual,' said Rory. 'The same thing she

did most days throughout our childhood. And

when we dated. And on our wedding day. She's

talking about you.'

'But why?'

'You tell me,' said Rory. 'She's laying it on a

bit thick, don't you think? I mean, considering

we just got...' He caught the Doctor's eye and

shut up.

Rory sat beside the Doctor. 'Amy did say

something, actually. About how people had to

hope. And, if you remember, Doctor, in the

departure lounge, you said...'

'I said that people who get to know me.

'You said that they'd - we'd - always have hope.'

'I did say that. I remember saying that. I was

so wrong.'

'No. No, you weren't wrong, Doctor. I might

not always... I mean, you might not always be

able to tell, but... you give me hope. No matter

how bad things might have got sometimes, you've

always...'

'She's... telling them about me,' the Doctor

realised.

'Yes,' said Rory. Yes, she is. Amy's telling

everyone about you. She's letting them get to know

you, Doctor, so that they can start hoping again.'

'Let me tell you about hope,' said Amy. 'Because I

know a thing or two about hope.

'For twelve long years — over half my life — I

hoped to see the Doctor, my Raggedy Doctor,

again. Even when I had everyone telling me...

'They said he wasn't real. They said I must have

made him up. They said I should forget about

him. But I couldn't do that. I couldn't give up on

the Doctor.

'He had said he would come back for me. He

had promised. And I trusted him. So, I waited.

And I hoped. And then, one day... one amazing,

brilliant day...

'One day, the Doctor was there. He had kept

his word. And everything I'd ever hoped for -

everything I'd dreamed and much, much more - it

all came true for me.

'And do you know what? All the waiting, all the

hoping — it was worth it! It was so, so worth it!'

'You don't believe this nonsense, do you, Mrs

Henry?'

Mrs Henry started at the sound of her husband's

voice. 'Oh. No, dear,' she said. 'No, of course I

don't. Nonsense? What nonsense? I wasn't even

listening to it.'

But she had been listening - and, all across the

departure lounge, other people were listening too.

They were listening, and talking about what they

had heard. About the Doctor. And some of them

were remembering the tall, floppy-haired man in

tweed, who had appeared in their midst earlier. The

man who had fought the Desponds. And some of

them were saying they had seen a blue box, just as

Amy had described it.

And some of them - a handful to begin with,

but others soon followed — were wandering out

into the baggage claim hall, to see this blue box for

themselves.

'It won't work,' said the Doctor.

Rory looked at the scanner screen. He saw the

first few passengers arriving outside the TARDIS,

staring at it in awe. 'I think it already is,' he said.

'They'll only make themselves targets,' said the

Doctor, 'for the Desponds.'

'But there are only twelve Desponds,

remember?' said Rory. And how many people out

there? About a hundred and sixty? And I bet...

some of them, they can't have been fed on in days.

They can still hope.'

'If they dare,' said the Doctor.

'If someone gives them a reason to try.'

'I can't be that person. I'm just a... I'm just an

idiot with a blue box and a bow tie. And nice hair.

I do have nice hair.'

'You don't have to give them hope,' said Rory.

Amy's doing it already. She has enough hope for

all of us.'

It was working. Amy could see it on the security

monitors.

A crowd was forming around the TARDIS.

Its members were still confused, uncertain. They

didn't know what had brought them here — or, if

they did, they were denying it to themselves. Some

people, having made the trek to the TARDIS

doors, had already lost their nerve and turned back.

Most of them — both there and in the departure

lounge — were waiting. They were waiting to hear

more. So, Amy had to keep talking. She had to tell

them more stories.

Fortunately, she had plenty to tell.

She hadn't rehearsed these new stories as she

had the first one. She had been too busy living

them. All the same, the words came tumbling out

of Amy's mouth. She told her audience about

Starship UK, and about Winston Churchill and

the Daleks.

She told them about the Weeping Angels. 'So,

here I am, right,' she said, 'with these statues —

these deadly living statues — all around me, and

I'm blind. I mean, I'm literally blind. I can't open

my eyes or I'll die. Sounds hopeless, right? Wrong.

Because I felt the Doctor's hands on mine. I heard

his voice, asking me to trust him.'

Amy talked about vampires in Venice. She

talked about the Silurians, the Krafayis and the

Cybermen. She talked about all the times she had

faced great danger, and all the times the Doctor

had come through for her.

And, the more Amy spoke, the more people

seemed to listen.

The crowd around the TARDIS was growing

by the second. Its mood had changed, too,

becoming more confident, expectant. There was

only one problem.

The Desponds were beginning to take notice.

Janie had been waiting for this. She had been

dreading it.

Two Desponds were prowling along the edge of

the departure lounge. They were approaching the

steady stream of people headed for the baggage

claim hall.

Janie drew her knees up to her chest, resting her

heels on her seat. She closed her eyes. She didn't

want to see what happened next. She waited for

the screams.

She opened her eyes again.

No one had been attacked. In fact, the Desponds

had backed off. One of them was scampering

away. It hid under a chair.

They were afraid, Janie realised. Something had

made the Desponds afraid!

Could it be possible, she wondered? Could

Amy have been telling the truth, after all? Could

there actually be...?

No, she told herself. Don't finish that thought!

All the same, Janie found herself rising to

her feet. She found herself joining the stream of

passengers. She was just being curious, she told

herself. She only wanted to see what was happening

out there.

She wasn't expecting anything.

Rory had noticed the Desponds' odd behaviour

too.

He could see one of the creatures at the far end

of the hall. It was keeping its distance from the

crowd around the TARDIS. He pointed this out

to the Doctor.

The Doctor — to Rory's surprise — stood up and

joined him at the scanner screen.

'Yeah,' he muttered. 'Makes sense, I suppose.'

'What makes sense?' asked Rory. 'Why aren't

the Desponds attacking?'

'A surfeit of hope,' said the Doctor.

'What?'

'The Desponds can overeat. We saw it after the

riot. They can gorge themselves on hope till they're

sick. And, right now, they're sensing more hope

in this spaceport than they have in some time. It

must be making them nervous.'

'So, they're keeping their distance.'

'For now,' said the Doctor. 'They're afraid

that, once they start feeding, they won't be able to

stop. It won't last, of course. Overeating is better

than starving'

'But for now,' said Rory, 'it's safe out there.

Everyone is safe.'

'As long as they stay hopeful,' said the Doctor.

'So, there is some use in hoping, after all.'

The Doctor looked at Rory. He was about to

say something, when a shout went up from outside

the TARDIS: 'Doctor! Doctor! Help us, Doctor!'

The voice was a lone one, at first, but it was

joined by many more. The crowd's pleas grew in

volume, and merged into a rhythmic chant.

'Doctor! Doctor! Doctor!'

The Doctor stuck his fingers in his ears. 'I'm

not the one they want.'

'But it's your name they're calling,' said Rory.

'I can't... what if I let them down again?'

'You won't,' said Rory. 'The only way you'll do

that is if you keep hiding from them. That's your

public out there, Doctor. They're waiting for you

to show yourself — and I know you wouldn't want

to disappoint them.'

The Doctor emerged from the TARDIS to

whoops and cheers.

He was overwhelmed. He stared at the sea of

faces before him. Such hopeful faces. He thought

they must have the wrong man. He opened his

mouth to tell them so.

But then, the Doctor remembered something.

He could feel the enthusiasm of the crowd,

like a physical force. It washed over him. It re-

energised him. They were chanting his name. And

the Doctor remembered.

He remembered who he was.

Amy was watching on the security camera

monitors.

She watched as a grin tugged at the Doctor's

lips. She watched as he straightened his shoulders

and stood tall again. Result! she thought.

Her throat was dry from all the talking she had

done. She needed a glass of water. Amy turned to

leave the Space Traffic Control room. She caught

her breath.

A Despond had slipped into the room behind

her. It had been sneaking up on her.

The creature froze as Amy saw it. It shifted its

weight onto its back claws, about to pounce. It let

out a low, menacing growl.

Amy lunged for the sonic screwdriver. She

snatched it up from the office chair on which she

had left it. She pointed the sonic screwdriver at

the Despond. She activated it.

The Despond kept coming.

Amy took the sonic screwdriver in two hands.

She pressed on the button with both thumbs, as

hard as she could. Still, nothing happened.

No shrieking sound. No bright green light.

The sonic screwdriver was dead.

A Despond dared approach the passengers

outside the TARDIS. A few people, on the edge

of the crowd, were starting to look worried.

'Oh, don't mind him,' said the Doctor. 'That's

as close as he can get. TARDIS force field, you

see. I extended it around us. It's invisible. An

invisible force field. But it'll keep the Desponds

away while we chat.'

The crowd relaxed. The Doctor raised himself

on tiptoes to count them.

'So, how many of you are here? About half,

I'd say. Half the people in the spaceport. Okay.

Could be better, could be worse. Let me answer

the question you're all asking yourselves. Yes, I can

get you out of here. There's only one condition.'

The lone Despond slinked away as the crowd

pressed forward, eager to hear more.

'Everyone gets saved,' said the Doctor. 'That's

it. That's my condition. No one gets left behind.

Not even if they want to be. Not even if they're

hiding, curled up in a corner, begging to be left

alone because they've no hope left.

'We're all in this together. That means we have

to work together and watch out for each other.

No more petty rivalries. Those of you hoarding

food: share it with the hungry. Those with first

aid skills and equipment: do what you can for the

wounded. Those of you who can fly a spaceship:

we'll be needing you shortly. Now, then.'

The Doctor surveyed the crowd again. He

spied a familiar face. 'Janie Collins!' he exclaimed.

'I'm glad you could make it. Everyone knows

Janie, right? Good. Because she'll be in charge of

the evacuation.'

Janie shifted uncomfortably on the spot.

'I want the rest of the flight attendants to report

to Janie,' said the Doctor. 'I want every passenger

in Terminal 4000 accounted for, and assigned to

one of the three spaceships docked out there. I

want each of those ships to have a crew.'

'What about the rest of us?' someone asked.

'The rest of you... Okay, there is some bad

news. Just a bit. A teensy tiny little bit.' The

Doctor took a deep breath. 'I was lying about the

TARDIS force field.'

A gasp of horror went up at that statement.

'But it's all right,' said the Doctor, 'because

you lot, you can protect yourselves. You all saw

that Despond just now. You saw how it retreated

with its tail between its legs. Well, you did that,

all of you - by sticking together. You did it by

hoping together.'

'He's right,' someone spoke up. 'The Doctor's

right.'

'Remember when the Desponds appeared?

Remember that security guard? What was his

name? Roger. He shot one of them.'

'The Desponds are just dumb animals. If we

all stood up to them...'

'There are more of us than there are of them.'

'Problem is, we've been too busy squabbling

with each other and...'

'They can't drain all of us at once!'

Rory had stepped out of the TARDIS beside

the Doctor. He murmured in the Doctor's ear:

'Doctor, have you noticed? Amy..

'Yeah,' said the Doctor. 'I noticed. She stopped

talking.'

'She should have made it back by now,' said

Rory. 'I'll go up there and see...'

The Doctor held Rory back. 'No,' he said. 'I

need you here.' He nodded towards the crowd.

'They need you here. Things could still get nasty.'

'How do you mean?' asked Rory.

But the Doctor was already in motion. He was

threading his way through the crowd.

People tugged at his sleeve. They asked him

where he was going. They pleaded with him

to stay. The Doctor pulled clear of them. He

produced the spider-shaped safe-cracker from

his pocket. He brandished it for all to see.

'I'm going up to Space Traffic Control,'

announced the Doctor. 'I'm going to end the

quarantine of this spaceport. In forty minutes or

less, or your money back.'

The crowd was stunned into silence. He could

hardly blame them.

'Oh, yeah,' said the Doctor. 'One more thing.

When I said we'd be needing pilots... that would

be now, in fact. At least three of them. To prepare

for departure.'

The Doctor turned on his heel. He marched

away, towards the control tower.

He was encouraged along his path by a

thunderous wave of applause.

Amy gave the sonic screwdriver a shake. It rattled.

She remembered dropping it, downstairs in

the main concourse. What if she had broken it?

What if she had loosened something inside it?

Without the sonic screwdriver, she was

helpless.

The Despond leapt at Amy.

She moved at the same time. She pushed

an office chair into the creature's path. The

Despond collided with the back of the chair and

was winded.

Amy ran for the exit, but the Despond beat

her to it. She fell back, across the round room.

The Despond kept its beady eyes fixed on her all

the way.

The creature came at her again. It leapt up onto

the chair this time, using the seat as a springboard

to Amy's throat.

Taken by surprise, Amy threw up her hands

and shrieked as the Despond flew at her. Its

feeding tentacle lashed her cheek. It left a patch

of cold, green slime.

The Despond clawed at Amy's face. She

pushed it away from her. The Despond fell

towards an instrument panel.

There was a bang and a bright white flash.

The Despond slid off the console. It hit

the floor, dead. It took Amy a moment to take

in what had happened. The creature had been

electrocuted!

Her eyes were drawn to a line of text, which

scrolled across a tiny read-out screen:

"Alien infestation detected and neutralised."

Amy looked down at the Despond. She felt

a lump forming in her throat. In death, it didn't

look like a dangerous monster. It looked like a

harmless pet.

The passengers returned to the departure lounge.

Now, however, it was with a new sense of purpose

- and the lounge was soon buzzing with activity.

Janie had gathered all the flight attendants

together, as the Doctor had said. They were

drawing up lists.

A crew had already been assembled. They were

buttoning up their uniforms, straightening their

ties. They headed for one of the idle spaceships.

They found a Despond in their path. It lay in

front of the airlock door, licking its paws.

Five young men came forward. They had

armed themselves with sticks and chairs. They

surrounded the Despond. They poked at it

and jeered.

The Despond didn't like it. It climbed to its

feet and snarled at its tormentors. When that

didn't work, the creature backed away from them.

The men formed a human wall between the

Despond and the flight crew. The grateful crew

boarded their ship and shut the airlock door

behind them.

A score of passengers swarmed to the

portholes. They waited for over a minute.

Then a rousing cheer was raised as the

spaceship's running lights came on.

Mr and Mrs Henry found Rory by the washrooms.

'You look to be at a loose end, dear,' said Mrs

Henry.

'I'm... supervising,' said Rory defensively.

'What about the pair of you, anyway? I didn't see

either of you at the meeting.'

'Oh, we don't get involved in business like

that,' said Mr Henry.

'We don't like to get our hopes up,' Mrs Henry

agreed.

'Not that we don't wish you all the very best

of luck.'

'It has been a long time - hasn't it, Mr Henry?'

'Indeed. It must be two months at least since

the last escape attempt.'

'There is one thing though, dear,' said Mrs

Henry. 'We did say we would ask.'

Rory looked at the couple suspiciously. 'What

is it?'

'We were talking to some well-mannered

young chaps over there,' said Mr Henry.

Rory followed the direction of his nod. He

saw the five young men who had warded off

the Despond. They were looking over at him,

expectantly.

He had a very bad feeling about this.

'It's just, they know you arrived here with the

Doctor,' said Mrs Henry.

'And they saw you talking to us earlier,' said

Mr Henry, 'and they wondered...'

Mrs Henry leaned forward and whispered,

'They've come up with a plan, you see, and

they were hoping - I mean, thinking. They were

thinking you might help them.'

From behind his back, Mr Henry produced a

walking stick.

He handed the stick to Rory.

'They were thinking you might join them,' said

Mr Henry, 'on a Despond hunt.'

'Blimey!' exclaimed the Doctor. 'What happened

here, then?'

He looked at the dead Despond on the floor of

the round control room. 'Never mind,' he said. 'I

get the gist.'

'Did you bring the safe-cracker?' Amy was still

shaken, but trying not to show it.

The Doctor showed her the spider-shaped

device. 'No more wasting time,' he said.

'What can I do?' Amy asked.

The Doctor ducked beneath a console. 'Find

Rory,' he said. 'He could use your help. You know

what happened the last time he was left on his own.'

'Right,' said Amy. 'It's good to have you back,

Doctor.'

'Uh-huh.' The Doctor wasn't listening. He was

busy wiring the safe-cracker into the console's

innards.

Amy got down on her hands and knees, to

crawl under the security door.

You should keep the sonic screwdriver with

you,' said the Doctor, 'for protection.'

'Ah,' said Amy. Yeah. I meant to say, actually.

About the sonic...'

Rory had found a Despond.

It was huddled under one of the red plastic

seats in the departure lounge.

He prodded it with Mr Henry's walking stick. It

abandoned its makeshift shelter. It looked at Rory,

warily.

It's more nervous than I am, he thought.

For the hundredth time, Rory wondered how

he had been roped into this.

The plan was simple enough. It made sense,

too. The objective was to trap as many Desponds

as possible behind closed doors — out of the way -

before the spaceships began to board.

This meant, to begin with, that somebody had

to lure a Despond into the duty-free shop. And

everyone had agreed that Rory - as the Doctor's

friend - was the man for the job. Well, of course

they had!

The Despond was growing in confidence. It was

beginning to realise that Rory was alone. It could

feed on him safely, without risk of overeating.

Rory backed away slowly, and the Despond

followed.

He had done this before, he reminded himself.

He had led two Desponds onto Cap's ship.

He knew exactly what to do. He only had to keep

his cool.

The Despond quickened its pace. Rory

discouraged it with another prod of the walking

stick. He had reached the duty-free shop now.

He backed up through the doorway, trampling

debris underfoot. He saw Mr and Mrs Henry

standing behind the tills.

'What are you two doing in here?' whispered

Rory.

'We're just watching dear,' said Mrs Henry.

'Mrs Henry and I are rather curious to see if

this scheme of yours works.'

'We don't care either way, mind.'

'No, indeed not,' Mr Henry agreed. We aren't

hoping for anything'

The Despond faltered in the doorway. Perhaps

it had sensed, somehow, what was waiting for it

inside the shop. Rory had to lure it in.

'Here, boy,' he said, pointing to his own throat.

'Nice, um, fillet of Rory for you, packed with juicy

hope... although not too much hope, because we

all know that's bad for you. Just a small amount

of hope that what I'm doing here might not be

as completely insane as it seems, although it

probably...'

The Despond came at Rory with an ear-splitting

howl.

It was much faster than he had expected! Rory

leapt back and stumbled over an upturned shelving

unit. He fell onto his back.

Rory couldn't see the Despond, but he could

certainly hear it. He swung Mr Henry's walking

stick in a blind arc, but missed his target. The

Despond ducked under the stick and jumped on

top of Rory. It dug its claws into his chest.

The Despond's feeding tentacle shot out. It

attached itself to Rory's throat.

Amy was on her way back to the departure lounge.

She passed the TARDIS and came to the

security gate. She found a man there, leaning

against the wall. The man had tightly-curled hair

and a thin moustache. Amy knew the face, but she

couldn't recall his name.

'You're the Doctor's friend, aren't you?' said

the man.

'I'm Amy.'

'Got a message for you, from your husband.

He said he was waiting for you inside the box.' The

man nodded towards the TARDIS.

'Oh,' said Amy. 'Right. Thanks, um...'

The man peeled back the jacket he was wearing,

to reveal his security guard's uniform. 'Roger,' he

said. 'Roger McDowell. Spaceport Security.'

Rory's fellow Despond hunters sprang their

ambush.

The five young men leapt out from behind the

still-standing shelves. They waved their makeshift

weapons at the Despond.

It retracted its feeding tentacle and tried to run,

but it found itself surrounded.

Someone had smashed a perfume bottle, and

the scent was confusing the Despond.

Rory climbed to his feet. He felt giddy after his

close escape. He raised Mr Henry's walking stick in

case he had to defend himself.

The Despond was pivoting on its single front

leg, snapping at anyone who dared get too close to

it. But two of Rory's allies had a blanket. They cast

it over the Despond.

The hunters fell upon the blinded creature and

raised their sticks to hit it.

'Enough,' cried Rory. 'That's enough!'

The hunters withdrew, reluctantly. The Despond

had stopped moving. It was still conscious, though.

They could all see it trembling through the blanket.

Mr Henry stepped forward. 'What on earth

have you stopped for?' he demanded. 'You have it

at your mercy! Kill it! Kill it before it can...'

'No,' said Rory. 'There's no need.'

'No need? After all the suffering these monsters

have caused us?'

'Mr Henry is quite right, dear,' said Mrs Henry.

'Give me that blessed stick. I'll do the job

myself if nobody else will!'

Mr Henry tried to snatch his walking stick back.

Rory held on to it.

'The plan was to trap the Despond,' he said,

'not kill it. Well, we've done that. All we have to do

now is leave the shop and close the doors - both

doors — behind us.'

Mr Henry wasn't happy. He grumbled

something to himself. However, he did back down.

His wife put her arm around him, and they headed

for the door.

The Henrys stopped in their tracks.

There were two more Desponds in front of

them.

'Back door,' Rory shouted. 'Quick!'

One of the hunters was ahead of him. He ran

to the back of the shop, where there was a fire exit.

He yanked it open. He found a fourth Despond

behind it.

He recoiled. He tried to close the door, but the

Despond was already through it. The hunter fell

back to rejoin Rory and the others.

'Where are they all coming from?' cried Mrs

Henry.

'It's like the Doctor said,' Rory realised. 'The

Desponds are empathically linked. When we hurt

that one, it must have brought the others running'

'I knew it,' Mr Henry stormed. 'I knew we

should have killed the filthy beast!'

'There's no way out!' cried one of the hunters.

'We're caught in our own trap!'

The Desponds were closing in around them.

Amy knocked on the TARDIS door. There was

no answer. She hoped that nothing was wrong

in there. She remembered that she still had the

Doctor's key. She opened the door with it, but

could see no sign of Rory in the console room.

She heard footsteps running up behind her.

Roger grabbed hold of Amy. He clamped a

hand over Amy's mouth, so she couldn't cry out.

He pushed her into the TARDIS.

Amy broke free of Roger. She rounded on him.

'What do you think you're doing?'

Roger pulled a gun on Amy. 'I'm getting out of

here,' he said.

'We all are,' said Amy. We're all getting out

of here'

'No. I'm getting out of here now. In this...

what did you call it? This magic box of yours. And

you're going to pilot it for me, or...'

'Hang on,' said Amy. 'Didn't someone say you'd

run out of bullets?'

Roger lowered his gun, frustrated. 'Does

everyone know about that?'

'All right. Fun's over,' said Amy. 'Let's go back

outside, wait for the Doctor to lift the quarantine,

and we'll say no more about...'

She tried to leave. Roger got in her way.

'I know what you're planning,' he said. 'You

want to get rid of me. You want to feed me to the

Desponds, like your husband tried to.'

This was news to Amy.

'I had a plan,' said Roger. 'I had a spaceship and a

pilot. Now, he's useless. I'm only lucky the Desponds

filled up on his hope and didn't feed on me too.'

'We've got spaceships,' said Amy, 'and pilots.'

'And a dozen Desponds running about the

place,' said Roger. 'Don't you think we've tried to

escape before?'

'It'll be different this time,' said Amy.

'I'm not taking that chance. If this box... if it

does half of what you said it does...'

Amy shook her head firmly. 'Not a chance, pal,'

she said.

'We could just slip away, the two of us.'

'I couldn't fly the TARDIS even if I wanted to.

If you'd listened more closely to my story, you'd

know that. The Doctor's the only one who can...'

'I don't believe you!'

'Well, newsflash for you, Roger: I don't care if

you believe me or not!'

Amy went for the door again. She pushed

Roger aside.

'I... I'll do it myself then,' said Roger. 'I'll fly

this thing myself. It can't be that hard to work out

the controls.'

He ran up the steps to the console. Amy cried

after him, 'Roger, no! You don't know what you're

doing. You could...'

Roger flicked a few switches. He pulled a lever.

'Then help me,' he said. 'Show me what to do.

Because, until you do, I'm just going to keep.

The TARDIS made a stuttering, coughing

sound, and the floor beneath Amy's feet shifted.

The glass-like rotor in the centre of the console

shuddered violently.

Amy raced up to the TARDIS console. She

yanked Roger away from it, hard enough to send

him sprawling. 'What did you do?' she yelled at

him. 'What did you do?'

The Doctor had wired the safe-cracker into the

computer systems. He was waiting impatiently

for it to do its work.

He needed something to keep his hands

busy. He picked up the broken sonic screwdriver,

which Amy had left behind. He swiftly took the

device apart.

The Doctor soon found the problem: just a

loose wire.

Normally, of course, he would have used the

sonic screwdriver to fix it!

He searched his pockets. He found an old stick

of chewing gum from the 1970s.

'It'll do the job,' he decided. He sat down, cross-

legged, on the floor.

Had the Doctor been less absorbed in his

task, he might have glanced at the security

camera monitors behind him. He might have

seen the TARDIS, in the baggage claim hall.

He might have seen the blue light on its roof

beginning to flash.

'Mr Henry,' Mrs Henry wailed, 'hold me!'

The Henrys, the five young hunters and Rory

stood back to back in the ruins of the duty-free

shop. Four Desponds circled the group, sizing

them up. Any second now, they would choose

their first victim.

Mr Henry acted first.

He gave the hunter next to him a firm push.

Taken by surprise, the young man stumbled

forward. He tripped over a Despond and landed

on his hands and knees.

The Desponds pounced on him.

'What are you doing?' cried Rory.

'Saving our skins,' Mr Henry retorted. 'Now,

while they're distracted!' He grabbed his wife's

hand and ran for the fire exit.

The hunters tried to drive the Desponds away

from their friend. They weren't having much

luck. A feeding tentacle had found the unlucky

victim's throat.

A Despond broke away from the pack. It cut

in front of the fleeing Henrys, bringing them to a

startled halt.

Mr Henry looked at Rory. Rory saw an evil glint

in the old man's eyes.

'Oh no you don't,' he said, as Mr Henry tried to

push him.

'If you had any decency,' said Mr Henry, 'you'd

sacrifice yourself for the rest of us. It's your fault

we're in this predicament, after all.'

'How is it my fault?'

Rory had just got Mr Henry off him when

another Despond came snapping at his ankles. He

swiped at it with Mr Henry's walking stick, and the

Despond withdrew.

'Anyway,' said Rory, 'I've had a better idea.'

Along the side of the shop, a row of full-length

windows looked out onto the departure lounge.

Rory turned and flung the walking stick at the

nearest of them.

The stick smashed through the shop window.

The TARDIS's engines were screeching and

grinding.

Amy stared at the bewildering array of controls

on the console. She wished she had paid more

attention when the Doctor was using them.

'There has to be a brake on this thing,' she

muttered.

Her eyes were drawn to a large lever, in the

down position. Roger's hand had been near that

lever. Had he pulled it?

Amy had to do something. She pushed the lever

back up. The TARDIS gave one final judder and

fell still.

Roger had picked himself up. He approached

the console again. Amy pushed him away. 'Listen

to me, you idiot. This is a complex alien machine.

You can't just... you could have got us both killed!

Or stranded anywhere in space or time.'

'I don't care,' said Roger. 'Anywhere is better

than Terminal 4000.'

'Yeah? You fancy materialising in the heart of

a sun, or... or being stranded in prehistoric times?

Or...?'

Roger lunged for the controls. Amy got in

his way.

'Seriously,' she warned him. 'I will hurt you.'

'Is that...?' Roger was looking past Amy. 'Is

that where we are?'

She thought it might be a trick at first. She

glared at Roger, suspiciously.

Then, she turned. She saw that the scanner

screen had been left on. And it was no longer

showing an image of the baggage check hall.

The Henrys made for the broken window. A

Despond bounded after them.

The route to the fire exit door was left clear.

Two hunters gave up the struggle with the other

three Desponds and ran for it.

The monsters had finished with their first

victim — but they weren't satisfied yet! They were

taking their chance to eat again, while they could.

One of them tackled Mrs Henry. It caught the

trailing end of her floral-patterned dress between

its teeth. Mrs Henry shrieked as the Despond

pulled her over. She landed facedown, and flailed

helplessly.

Mr Henry turned back for his wife. When he

saw the Despond clawing at her, however, fear

froze him.

'I'm sorry, my dear,' he said. He turned and

dived out through the broken window.

Rory had been turning this way and that, not

sure what to do. Now, he saw an intact perfume

bottle. He snatched it up and threw it. The bottle

smashed on the floor beside Mrs Henry. Her

Despond attacker had a sneezing fit, and let go of

her.

Rory ran up to Mrs Henry. He hauled her to

her feet. She was completely unresponsive. She

had closed her eyes, and she was whimpering and

moaning. She was also as heavy as she looked.

Rory had to half-carry, half-drag Mrs Henry

through the debris. He bundled her out through

the window, and stumbled through it after her.

Mr Henry was waiting for them in the departure

lounge. He had recovered his walking stick and

picked up a red plastic chair. Mrs Henry fell into

his arms, howling.

Mr Henry brushed her aside. He set his chair

down in front of the shop. He climbed up onto it.

Rory saw what he was doing.

'Wait,' he cried. 'There are people still in there.'

With the end of his walking stick, Mr Henry

had hooked a steel security shutter. He was pulling

the shutter down over the broken window.

'The Desponds have them,' he insisted. We

can't help them now.'

'You heard the Doctor,' said Rory. 'No one gets

left behind.'

'They shouldn't have provoked the Desponds.

They brought this fate upon themselves!'

Mr Henry stepped down from his chair. He

started to push the security shutter the rest of

the way down. Before he could close it fully, Rory

ducked underneath it.

Back into the duty-free shop.

Inside the shop, one Despond was still rolling

around, sneezing. The other three were worrying

the two remaining hunters.

Rory arrived just as the hunters pulled over

a shelving unit. It landed on top of one of their

attackers, pinning it down. The other Desponds

appeared to share their fellow's distress. They

shied away from the men who had caused it.

The hunters seized their chance to rescue their

fallen friend. They made for the front door, carrying

him between them. The Desponds watched them

go, but didn't follow.

They sniffed the air, sensing a better prospect.

The Desponds turned on Rory. They were

between him and the front door. The fire exit was

too far away for him to reach before they caught

him.

Rory backed up to the window, even as Mr

Henry slammed the steel shutter down over it. He

tried to lift the shutter from this side, but it had

locked into place.

Rory hammered on the shutter. He shouted

for someone to let him out. No one came. He

was trapped. Trapped in here with four hungry

Desponds.

Two of which were advancing upon Rory,

slavering and licking their lips.

Typical, thought Rory. I rushed in here to save

someone else, and now I'm the one who needs saving!

The safe-cracker pinged. It had found the security

code for the spaceport computers.

"Awaiting instructions," said the read-out

screen.

The Doctor stood up. He returned the repaired

sonic screwdriver to his pocket. 'Hello again,

computer,' he said. 'This is your alien infestation

speaking. And yes, I do have some instructions for

you. Since you asked.'

The Doctor flexed his fingers, eagerly.

Oh no, thought Janie. Everything had been going

so well! Almost all of the passengers, staff and

flight crew in the spaceport had been checked in.

Only four people were missing, and a group of

volunteers had gone in search of them.

And then, a walking stick had come flying

through the duty-free shop window. It had been

followed, a moment later, by Mr Henry — and then

by his wife and Rory.

The passengers didn't know what was

happening. Some of them were drawn to the

shop to find out; others ran as far away from it as

they could.

And, as the passengers ran, the Desponds

began to stir again.

Janie could see five of them. No, six. They were

lurking in the corners of the departure lounge, just

watching... for now.

Other people saw the Desponds too, and they

froze or backed away or just sank to their knees. It

had been their raised hopes that had been warding

off the Desponds. No longer. With every passenger

that gave in to fear or despair, the creatures grew

bolder. They stood a little bit taller. They drew a

little bit closer.

Janie dropped her clipboard and sat down

with a sigh. It was her own fault, she supposed,

for believing in the Doctor. She ought to have

known better.

She shouldn't have got her hopes up.

Then, someone shouted, 'Look!' He pointed

up at the monitors above their heads — and all the

passengers looked.

The departure boards were updating.

Janie didn't know what it meant, at first. She

only saw that the list of endlessly delayed flights

- a list that hadn't changed in five long months -

was gone. In its place, only three flights were listed

- but next to each of those flights were two magic

words. Two words that Janie hadn't seen in what

felt like forever:Now Boarding.

He had done it, Janie realised. He had actually

done it. The Doctor had kept his word. The

quarantine of Spaceport Terminal 4000 was over!

'What's everyone standing around for?'

Janie recognised the Doctor's voice. She

shook herself. She had been staring at the departure

boards for at least a minute, hardly able to believe

her eyes.

Not that she was the only one.

She remembered the Desponds. She looked

for them, but most of them had gone. She saw

the back end of one as it retreated into the first-

class lounge.

The renewed hopes of the passengers had

repelled the creatures again.

'I said, why is everyone standing around?' The

Doctor strode into the centre of the crowd. 'I

thought you all had flights to catch.'

That got their attention. Within seconds, the

departure lounge was a hive of activity once more.

Janie found herself at the heart of it. Everyone

wanted to be sure their names were on her

list. They wanted to know which ship they were

leaving on.

Rory stepped out of the duty-free shop. He

wrestled the faulty sliding door shut. He looked

around, bewildered.

Everything was as it had been before. Even the

Henrys were acting as if nothing had happened.

Queues were forming at the airlock doors for

the docked ships, and the Henrys had joined one

of these.

The Doctor was here. He had just collared a

pair of security guards. 'First-class lounge,' he said.

'There's a Despond in there. If you're quick, you

can board it in.'

'We, ah, trapped four more,' said Rory, 'in the shop.'

'Yeah, I saw,' said the Doctor, 'on the cameras.

Shame you almost caused a panic in the process.

Classic Rory!'

'Hey,' said Rory, 'you're the one who got

yourself bitten. I'm just saying.'

The Doctor was making his way along the

departure lounge, stopping to peer through each

porthole in turn. 'Aren't you going to ask?' he said.

Rory hurried to keep up with him. 'Aren't I

going to ask what?'

'How you got out of there. Last thing I saw,

you were backed up against a shutter with two

Desponds eyeing up your throat.'

'They just sort of backed off,' said Rory. 'You

did that, I suppose?'

'I rekindled the passengers' hopes,' said the

Doctor. 'And, as there was a crowd of passengers

outside the shop...'

Rory understood. 'The Desponds could sense

them, even through the shutter. Like before. There

was too much hope for them. Doctor, what are

you doing?'

'I'm looking for something.'

'Out there? In space?'

'Out there.' The Doctor came to a halt. He

pointed through a porthole. 'In space.'

Rory followed the Doctor's finger. He felt his

stomach sinking. He could see a familiar object,

drifting against the stars. It was the TARDIS.

Amy rotated the view on the TARDIS's scanner

screen. At first, she could see only space. Then, a

large, white spinning-top shape came into view.

The spaceport! Amy could almost have cried

with relief.

'No! I won't go back there! You can't make me

go back there!'

She had forgotten that Roger was behind her.

The fight had quite gone out of him, though. He

was more despairing than desperate.

'We aren't going anywhere,' said Amy, 'thanks

to you. We're adrift in space and I don't know how

to get us back. So, you just... behave!'

At least the TARDIS hadn't gone far, thought

Amy, as she turned back to the scanner screen. She

just hoped that the Doctor could find it out here.

'What do we do?' asked Rory.

'I don't know,' said the Doctor. 'It depends.'

'Depends on what?'

'On who's at the TARDIS controls right now.

Have you seen Amy lately?'

'I thought she... you mean she might be...?'

'Could have been worse,' said the Doctor. 'At

least I remembered the handbrake.'

'The handbrake?' Rory echoed.

'It's a bit worn,' the Doctor confessed. 'Still.

Should keep the TARDIS within about a mile or

so of here, and with minimal time slippage.'

He was rifling through his pockets. He unearthed

a toothbrush, a ball of string and a clockwork frog,

all of which he offloaded onto Rory.

'Of course, if we could find a spacesuit...'

'I'm not doing another spacewalk,' said Rory.

'No way!'

'I seem to have lost my door key, anyway.' The

Doctor produced a white plastic card triumphantly.

'Galactic Express!' he said. 'Never leave home

without it. Tell you what, Rory, I'll deal with the

TARDIS - you stop that fight.'

'What fight?'

'The one about to break out behind me.' The

Doctor pointed over his shoulder.

Mr and Mrs Henry were arguing with a pair of

flight attendants.

Janie had rushed onto the scene. She was doing

her best to calm things down, but Mr Henry was

getting more angry. He was pointing with his

walking stick.

A few more passengers were crowding around

too, joining in the debate.

Rory groaned. 'Now what?'

The Doctor didn't answer him.

He had spied a row of payphones by the wall.

He ran towards them. He snatched up one of

the phones, swiped his card through a reader and

began to dial.

'I'm sorry,' said Roger.

Amy turned to him, surprised. He was slumped

on a step. 'You what?'

'I said I'm sorry, okay?' he snapped. 'I suppose

I got a little... frantic.'

Amy grimaced. 'You think?'

'You don't know what it's been like for me,' said

Roger. You've been here all of five minutes. For

me, it's been five months!'

'You're not the only one,' said Amy.

'I know. But I was... I was scared, okay? I saw

what those monsters, the Desponds, did to people,

and - '

'They never fed on you?'

'I never let them,' said Roger. 'The nearest they

got... it was back at the beginning. I still had my

gun. Two of them came at me. I panicked.'

'That was when you shot a Despond?'

'Right between the eyes,' said Roger. 'I also shot

two plates in the food court, took out a light fitting

and grazed a passenger on the arm.'

He buried his face in his hands. 'Five months

I've spent, keeping out of their way. I've been

jumping at shadows, sleeping with one eye open.

I... I've done things I'm not proud of. And where

has it got me? I've no hope left, anyway.'

'It'll work this time,' Amy promised him. 'The

Doctor will fix this.'

Roger shrugged. 'He can't fix things for

me. If I get on one of those spaceships with

the others, I'll just be swapping one prison for

another.'

'What do you mean?'

'I mean, they'll lock me up for sure. It's my

fault, you see. It's all my fault. I let the Desponds

loose in the spaceport.'

Roger looked up at Amy. He was expecting

some reaction.

She had hardly even heard him. Something else

had caught her attention.

'Do you hear that?' asked Amy. 'Do you hear

that sound?'

The TARDIS telephone was ringing.

The row in the departure lounge had escalated.

The Henrys had started it, of course. According

to a stressed Janie, they had reacted badly when

told they would be in the second group to board

their ship. They had refused to leave the queue in

which they stood.

This had sparked an avalanche of appeals from

the other passengers.

'.. .been here longer than any of...'

'...those of us who trapped the Desponds

should surely get to...'

'...paid good money for a first-class ticket,

which I think entities me to...'

Janie stood firm against these unreasonable

demands. She insisted that everyone would just

have to wait their turn.

So, the passengers turned to Rory, as 'the

Doctor's friend', to overrule her.

They were tugging at his sleeve, shouting in

his ear. He couldn't possibly answer all their pleas

at once.

One man pressed money into Rory's hand,

trying to bribe him. Another was begging for his

sick grandmother to be moved up the passenger

lists.

An elegant-looking woman was complaining

in shrill tones about the ship to which she had

been assigned... and in fact, Rory realised, she was

talking about Cap's beaten-up old charter ship, so

he could hardly blame her.

He didn't know what to say to any of them.

So, the passengers were giving up on Rory now,

too. They were turning on each other instead,

yelling and jabbing fingers.

The Doctor had been right. This was about to

turn into another fight.

Rory jumped up onto a chair. 'Please,' he said,

'if everyone could just... this isn't getting us...'

No one was listening to him.

'Quiet!' Rory yelled.

A hush fell over the crowd. They all stared up

at Rory, surprised by the authority in his voice. He

had surprised himself too.

'The Doctor put Janie in charge of this

evacuation,' he continued. 'So, if you lot can't

listen to her and... and do as she says, then no one

will be going anywhere.'

Too much, he thought. He had sounded a bit

petulant. In fact, he had sounded like his old Year

7 schoolteacher.

Rory's outburst had had an effect, though. The

passengers were doing as he said. Even Mr and

Mrs Henry were returning to their seats, though

not without a few final grumbles. Janie and the

other flight attendants took over, and soon they

had three orderly queues stretching along the

departure lounge.

All quarrels were forgotten, then. A thrill of

anticipation hung in the air as the flight attendants

opened the airlock doors and the passengers began

to file onto the waiting spaceships. It's working,

thought Rory. This is actually working!

He glanced over at the Doctor. He was still on

the phone, talking animatedly.

Then, Rory heard a scream.

Mr Henry leapt to his feet. 'I knew it!' he

bellowed. 'I knew this would happen!'

The Desponds were back.

They were coming from all directions: six

of them. They were barking and snapping, and

foaming at the mouths. Rory had never seen them

so worked up before.

The Desponds fell upon the passengers, and all

hell broke loose.

Amy dashed around the console room with a

phone tucked under her chin. She was following

instructions from the Doctor.

'Now? said the Doctor, ' disengage the temporal

dislocation combobulator.'

'The what?'

'Looks like the front panel of a clock radio. Second

button from the l e f t ? '

'Yeah, I see it. Gonna have to put the phone

down.'

Amy left the phone hanging by its cord, from

its cradle in the console.

She found the control that the Doctor had

described. 'Well, that actually is a bit of an old clock

radio,' she muttered. She hit the 'snooze' button.

She picked up the phone again. 'What now?'

'Now,' said the Doctor, 'I have to go. Despond

trouble!'

'But...'

'I'm going to need you to do one more thing for

me. Stay on the line, Amy. When I give you the word,

you need to pull the big lever. The one to your left

now. But not before I give the word. That's important,

Amy. The timing has to be spot on.'

'What's happening there?' asked Amy. 'Doctor?'

But the Doctor had gone.

Amy looked across the console at Roger. He

was still sitting on the steps. He returned her gaze

with a helpless shrug.

Amy pressed the TARDIS phone to her ear.

Was it her imagination, or could she hear people

screaming?

The departure lounge was in chaos.

Everyone was shouting and running. They were

fighting each other - and the flight attendants - to

reach the airlocks, or just panicking and heading

for cover.

Rory found himself lost in the confusion. He

had already seen three people fed upon. It didn't

make any sense! The passengers had been in their

highest hopes yet. Shouldn't that have kept the

Desponds at bay?

He fought his way through the scrum. He

found himself next to Mr and Mrs Henry. Mr

Henry grabbed Rory by the front of his shirt.

'Do you see what you've done?' he roared. You

and your friends?'

'We had all we needed,' Mrs Henry wailed. 'Our

own two rows of chairs, with our coats and towels

to sleep under and the washrooms across the way.'

'We said the Desponds wouldn't let us go. We

told you so.'

'Mr Henry is right. You should have listened

to him.'

'They'll feed on us all now,' said Mr Henry. 'The

Desponds will drain us all dry!'

Rory didn't know what to say. Before he could

say anything, someone ran into him from behind.

He was sent flying. He grabbed hold of Mrs Henry

to steady himself. Mrs Henry shrieked and shoved

him away from her.

A Despond had appeared behind Rory. It was

snarling and spitting.

Rory backed away slowly. He collided with a

group of people who were backing away from a

Despond of their own.

The creatures went for their nearest targets.

They snapped at their legs, with their normal

mouths. As far as Rory could see, they weren't

using their feeding tentacles.

The Henrys were right, he realised. The

Desponds were more intelligent than Rory had

supposed. They had eaten enough — but they saw

that people were leaving the spaceport, and they

were desperate to stop them.

They didn't want to lose their food source.

Rory picked up a chair. He prodded a Despond

with it, until it let its victim go. The Despond

rounded on Rory instead. It leapt at him, and now

its feeding tentacle was extended! Rory threw the

chair at it. Chair and Despond collided in mid-air,

and both dropped to the floor. The Despond got

tangled up in the chair legs.

The flight attendants were trying to close the

airlock doors, before the Desponds could squeeze

through them. If they got onto a spaceship, and

fed on the flight crew...

It didn't even bear thinking about.

Rory stumbled over a body. It was a woman,

one of those who had been fed on. She was curled

up into a ball, sobbing.

As Rory's hand brushed the floor, a Despond

leapt at him. It clamped its jaws around his arm.

He tried to shake it off, but its grip was too strong.

The creature's teeth sank into his flesh. Rory

extended two fingers and thrust them towards the

Despond's eyes. The Despond flinched before his

fingers could reach it. It let go of Rory's arm and

ran off.

Rory felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned.

The Doctor had found him.

'Doctor,' he gasped. 'The Desponds. They —'

'Yeah. I can see that for myself,' said the Doctor.

'I thought this might happen.'

'You did? Great. Thanks for, y'know, the

warning.'

'I have a plan,' said the Doctor, 'but you might

not like it.'

'I like it,' said Rory. 'Any plan right now.

Anything.'

The Doctor held up the sonic screwdriver. He

pushed a button on its side.

'And especially,' said Rory, 'any plan that involves

sollicking. You're making that sound, right? The one

that no one can hear, but it repels the Desponds?'

'Um, not quite,' said the Doctor.

What does 'not quite' mean?'

'Never did find that frequency,' said the Doctor.

'Amy did, but she never got around to showing me.

So, this is the other one.'

'The other what? Oh, no! You don't mean the

other -?'

'The other frequency,' the Doctor confirmed.

'The one I found by accident when we first got

here. The one that, um, attracts them.'

Rory could hear the Desponds howling in

anguish. The howls were growing closer.

Now he could see them, too. They were pushing

their way through the crowd, ignoring everyone

else in their need to find the source of their pain.

Every Despond in the spaceport was closing in

on the Doctor and Rory.

'I found them in a cargo ship hold,' said Roger.

Amy was hanging on the TARDIS phone. She

didn't really want to talk - but it seemed that Roger

had to get this off his chest.

'It was a routine security check,' he explained.

'The mother must have snuck aboard at the last

port of call. She had died giving birth to her litter.'

'The Desponds?' guessed Amy.

'Thirteen of them. Thirteen little puppies.

According to regulations, I should have had them

destroyed.'

'No.'

'I couldn't bring myself... there's a storeroom

down by the power plant, where no one ever goes.

I hid them in there. I looked after them. They ate

real food, back then. The first time a Despond

went for my throat, I thought it was just being

playful.'

'What happened?' asked Amy.

'They grew up,' said Roger. 'They developed

those feeding tentacles. I... I didn't know what

to do. Then, one of the other guards, a friend of

mine... I think she must have heard them whining.

She opened the storeroom door.'

'The Desponds got out into the spaceport,'

concluded Amy.

'And that triggered the automatic quarantine,'

said Roger.

He stood up. He approached Amy again. She

was ready in case he tried anything.

'Does the Doctor really have a plan?' asked

Roger. 'Can he really end this?'

'I... I don't know,' said Amy. 'I was waiting for

his word, but...' She looked down at the phone.

'I can't hear a thing. I think we might have been

cut off.'

'How many Desponds do you count?' asked the

Doctor.

'Five,' said Rory, nervously. 'No, six.'

'Plus four in the duty-free shop, one in the first-

class lounge, one dead in Space Traffic Control...

That'll be the lot, then.'

The Doctor and Rory backed away from the

advancing Desponds. They were nearing the end

of the departure lounge.

'Remember what I said about liking this plan?'

said Rory. 'I've gone off it.'

'It's working, though,' said the Doctor. He

waggled the sonic screwdriver. The Desponds'

eyes followed it, as if they were hypnotised.

Behind them, Janie had reopened the airlock

doors and was hurrying the passengers through

them. 'A couple of minutes more,' said the Doctor,

'and everyone will be safely out of here. Well,

everyone but us. Here, catch!'

He tossed the sonic screwdriver Rory's way.

Rory almost dropped it. 'Keep the button pressed

down,' said the Doctor. He darted over to the side

of the duty-free shop to grab something. A red

fire extinguisher.

The Doctor shook the extinguisher. It was

empty. He dropped it, and grabbed another. At the

same time, two Desponds charged at Rory.

The Doctor jumped into their path and blasted

them with extinguisher foam.

The Desponds spluttered and fell back — but

Rory could see two more, sneaking up around him

from opposite sides. The Doctor blasted one of

them. Rory vaulted a row of red plastic chairs to

escape the other.

The Despond squeezed under a chair to reach

him. It yelped as a jet of freezing cold foam struck

it up the rear end.

Rory scrambled over the chairs to rejoin

the Doctor. They backed up to the wall as the

Desponds advanced upon them again. The

Doctor took the sonic screwdriver back and gave

the extinguisher to Rory. He sprayed it in a wide

arc in front of him.

'There'd better be another part to this plan,'

said Rory.

He hadn't noticed the row of payphones

behind them.

The Doctor had left a phone off the hook. He

snatched it up now, and shouted into the handset:

'Now, Amy! The lever! Amy... Amy, are you there?'

The Doctor fumbled through his pockets. He

found his white plastic card and swiped it through

the reader, three times. His face fell.

'What? What is it?' asked Rory.

'Out of credit,' said the Doctor.

'And that's bad, right?'

'That's bad.' The Doctor let go of the phone.

'Because, if I can't get a message to Amy...' He

didn't have to finish the sentence.

The six Desponds were straining ever further

forward, as if sensing the weakness of their

cornered prey. The fire extinguisher sputtered in

Rory's hands, about to run dry.

'You were right,' said the Doctor. 'This was a

bad plan. A very, very bad plan.'

'So, this is it,' said Rory.

'Looks like it,' the Doctor agreed.

'This is where I'm going to live out the rest of

my days. In Terminal 4000.'

'Yup.'

'I'll never think about leaving, even though I

can see the TARDIS right outside the window.

Even though I know my wife is in there.'

'That's about the size of it.'

'Because the Desponds will have sucked every

last drop of hope out of me.'

'There is a bright side,' said the Doctor. 'Two

bright sides, in fact.'

He looked along the departure lounge. The

spaceships had finished boarding. Cap's charter

ship had disengaged its locking clamps and was

already pulling away.

The evacuation was complete. The stranded

passengers had escaped.

'And the other bright side?' asked Rory.

He still had the fire extinguisher. He was aiming it

more selectively now, to preserve its contents. Even

so, the white foam was coming out in fits and starts.

'There's no food,' said the Doctor. 'So, 'the rest

of our days' won't be all that long'

The extinguisher was completely empty. Rory

threw it at the Desponds. The gesture bought

them about half a second.

Then the six Desponds charged forward.

Amy had hung up the TARDIS phone. She

glared at it as if sheer willpower could make it

ring again.

'The Doctor gave you instructions?' asked Roger.

'Yeah, he told me what to do,' said Amy, 'just

not when. He said the timing was important.'

Her hand went to the big lever by the phone. She

hesitated.

'You should do it,' said Roger.

'But what if I time it wrong? What if I should

have waited longer?'

'What if you wait too long?' Roger pointed to

the scanner screen. 'Look!'

Amy looked up. 'The ships,' she breathed.

'They're leaving!'

'The Doctor did it,' said Roger.

'He did,' agreed Amy. 'Maybe that's why he

never came back to the phone. Maybe the Doctor

and Rory are on one of those ships, and they don't

need this after all.'

She looked at the lever, doubtfully.

'Or not,' she said. 'I don't know. What... what

do you think?'

'I think you've got to have hope,' said Roger.

Amy looked at him, surprised. He was right, of

course. She just hadn't expected him to be the one

to say it.

She nodded. Roger held up his hand. He had

crossed his fingers for her.

Amy closed her eyes. She drew in a deep breath.

She pulled the lever.

The first Despond leapt at Rory's throat. He

managed to bat it away, but the second was right

behind it.

The Doctor was under attack too. The other

creatures had closed in around their prey, keeping

the two of them contained. There was nowhere

to run.

Then Rory heard a familiar sound. A wheezing,

groaning sound.

A blue haze appeared in the air between him

and the six Desponds.

The sound grew louder, and the blue haze

thicker. A springing Despond was flung back in

mid-air by some invisible force.

Then, Rory could see the dog-like creatures

no longer. The spaceport was gone too. He was

standing inside the TARDIS, by the console. The

Doctor was still beside him. So was Amy, and -

Rory did a double-take at this - Roger.

The Doctor turned to Amy. 'I thought I told

you to wait for my cue,' he said. Then a grin broke

out on his face. 'Good job you didn't, though.'

'Good to see you too,' said Amy.

The Doctor ran around the console, operating

it with his usual manic energy.

'I don't get it,' said Rory. 'What happened?'

'What happened was,' the Doctor explained,

'Amy here - clever, wonderful Amy - just flew the

TARDIS. Not only that, but her timing was perfect.'

'I think...' said Amy. 'Did I just land the

TARDIS around the two of you?'

Rory noticed the scanner screen. It was showing

an image of the spaceport departure lounge. It was

empty now, but for the six Desponds.

They were howling and whimpering. A couple

lay on their sides, whining pitifully to themselves.

Rory almost felt sorry for the creatures. They had

lost all hope.

'That reminds me.' The Doctor gestured across

the console. Amy. The temporal dislocation

combobulator. You need to turn it back on.'

'Got it,' said Amy.

'While you're there, you could give the helmic

regulator a quick boost and crank up the thermo

buffer. Rory? You could... well, you could put the

kettle on. Or something. Oh, and Roger... was

that your name?'

Roger straightened up, surprised. He started

towards the Doctor.

The Doctor held up a hand to stop him. 'Don't

you even talk to me!'

'What are you doing?' asked Rory.

The TARDIS was taking off. The sound of its

engines filled the console room. The image on the

scanner screen had disintegrated into static.

'Concentrating,' said the Doctor. 'This next

part is a bit tricky. I'm going to land the TARDIS

inside a moving vehicle.'

The Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS. He was

greeted once again by cheers and applause. You

know,' he said to Amy and Rory,'I could get quite

used to this.'

They had landed aboard a spaceship. It was

filled with passengers from the spaceport terminal.

They were sitting in rows, all buckled in. They

were nibbling on stale pretzels, which the flight

attendants must have found and distributed.

Rory recognised two of them. 'Mr and Mrs

Henry,' he said. 'I'm glad you made it.'

The Henrys shushed him crossly, waving him

aside. He was blocking their view of the in-flight

movie. Rory scowled at the couple as he moved.

A flight attendant appeared from the cockpit.

'Doctor!' she cried, joyfully.

'Janie Collins!' cried the Doctor, as Janie flung

her arms around him. 'Looking a bit more cheerful.'

'Thanks to you,' said Janie.

'How about the rest of them? Did everyone

make it out?'

Janie noticed Roger hovering in the TARDIS

doorway.

'They have now,' she said. 'Ours was the last

ship to leave. We've radioed the other two, and

everything is okay with them. A few problems

with the charter ship — with its owner, more than

anything — but nothing we need to worry about.'

'Where will you go?' asked Amy.

'Terminal 3999, and onward flights from there,'

said Janie. 'Estimated flight time is about thirty

and a half hours.'

'Thirty and a half hours?' The Doctor's jaw

dropped open in horror.

Amy elbowed him in the ribs. 'Behave,' she

hissed. 'Remember. We can't all go whizzing about

the universe in a super-duper police box.'

'I need you to do one more thing for me,' said

the Doctor to Janie.

'Anything,' she said.

'Take care of the Desponds. Yeah, I know that

sounds mad after all they did to you. I know how

they hurt you, but -'

'But it wasn't their fault,' said Janie. 'They just

acted according to their nature.'

The Doctor grinned. 'I knew you'd understand.'

'And they're like us now, aren't they? I mean,

they're like we used to be. They're stranded at

Terminal 4000, like we were stranded. And they

have no food.'

'Here,' said the Doctor. He showed Janie his

psychic paper. Anyone who saw that paper saw

what the Doctor wanted them to see.

'Details of an animal welfare organisation,' he

said. 'An alien animal welfare organisation. They'll

know what to do with the Desponds.'

'I'll contact them as soon as I can,' Janie

promised.

Roger had slipped away. He found himself a seat

towards the back of the passenger cabin. He

looked surprised as Amy sat down beside him.

'I know what you're thinking,' she said.

'I don't know what to do,' said Roger. 'There's

bound to be an enquiry. Do I tell them the truth

about the Desponds or...?'

'You can't take all the blame,' said Amy. You

tried to do a good thing. I mean, yeah, you broke a

few silly rules, but -'

'This'll cost the spaceport company billions

in payouts. Mr and Mrs Henry have asked for the

forms already. They'll be looking for someone

to blame.'

'You couldn't have known all this would happen,'

said Amy. 'Anyway, that company of yours have a

lot to answer for too — leaving you all stranded.'

'Your husband's looking over here.'

Roger was right. Rory was giving him the evil

eye.

'Don't mind him,' said Amy. 'He doesn't like it

when I talk to other men.'

'Um, yeah,' said Roger. 'And I did... when I

lost my mind for a bit, back there, I did kind of...

I knocked him out. And then I threw him out of

an airlock.'

'You did what?'

'Will you tell him I'm sorry?'

'Yeah, you know what?' said Amy. 'I think you

should tell the truth to that enquiry, after all. Tell

them the whole story. I'm sure they'll be every bit

as forgiving as I am.'

They didn't stay long. The Doctor hated goodbyes.

So, as soon as he knew he wasn't needed any more,

he ushered Amy and Rory back into the TARDIS.

'Random coordinates,' he decided. 'And let's

hope we end up somewhere more interesting than

a spaceport... okay, more interesting than most

spaceports.'

'They will be all right, won't they?' said Amy.

'Who?' The Doctor looked up from the console

as if he had forgotten already.

'The passengers. Janie. What the Desponds did

to them...'

'Worn off already, in most cases. They might

have a few bad dreams, but otherwise no lasting

effects. Well, look at me: I'm as fit as a flea.'

The Doctor ran up and down on the spot to

prove his point.

'That's "a fiddle",' said Rory. 'It's "as fit as

a fiddle".'

'Are you sure?' said the Doctor. 'I always thought

it was "a flea". Anyway, don't worry about the

former residents of Spaceport Terminal 4000. It's

like you said before, Amy. Hope's an inexhaustible

commodity. No matter how bad things might

sometimes seem, there's always hope.'

THE END

Imagine a quiet little corner of the galaxy where

nothing ever happens.

No silver space liners ever glide by, showing

their awestruck passengers the wondrous delights

of the astral wilds. Because there's nothing here

but a heap of spinning rocks.

No military ships ever come here, their hulls

bristling with laser cannons and neutron torpedoes,

bravely patrolling the spaceways. There are never

any wars here, because there's nothing worth

fighting over.

Even if you got lost while piloting your

spaceship, you'd have to get very lost to find this

place. It's so far from anywhere else. The Gloriana

Scattering is an out-of-the-way asteroid field, just a

vast expanse of giant rocks, light years from end to

end. There's nothing remarkable about this place

whatsoever.

No signs of life, nothing at all.

Usually.

Today, however, the captain of one ship has

decided to take a shortcut through the Gloriana

Scattering - and that is the biggest mistake she will

ever make...

Amy clamped her palms over her ears, but it made

no difference. The TARDIS control room was

trembling to the noise of a deep, honking siren.

The sound was like a foghorn. A loud foghorn.

Amy was sure it was shaking the teeth out of her

head!

It was things like this that often made Amy

wonder who on earth had designed these time

machines. But then that was the point - TARDISes

weren't designed on Earth. Were they even designed

at all? Amy remembered the Doctor had once said

something about growing new TARDISes. Well,

however they came into being, they were clearly

meant for aliens with odd ideas about emergency

sirens and really terrible hearing!

'Should it be making that noise?' she yelled.

The Doctor ignored her. He was whirling

around the console, flicking switches, pushing

buttons and saying 'Oops!' a lot.

Rory staggered down the stairway to join them.

'I was asleep!' he shouted at Amy.

'I booked an alarm call for you,' she replied.

'What? I can't hear you!'

'I booked an alarm call!'

' You did this?' Rory looked appalled.

'Oh, don't be so stupid!' Amy realised she

shouldn't try to crack jokes at anything higher than

eighty decibels.

The Doctor suddenly stopped dancing in circles,

and leant in between his two friends. ' You did this,

Amelia!' He had to shout over the cacophony. She

blinked, and was sure she felt her hair move in the

rush of air caused by the Doctor's bellowing.

'Wait, what? How did I do this?'

The Doctor pointed at a row of round, black

buttons - they were like the keys of an old-fashioned

typewriter. One of them was pressed down and

illuminated with a little green light. 'Remember those?'

'What? No. They're just buttons!'

Rory was standing right next to Amy now. He

shouted into her ear, 'You did do this, then?'

'Rory! Doctor! I didn't do anything!'

The thundering foghorn blared on, louder and

louder.

'Ringtones!' the Doctor yelled. He reached

for a small rubber-headed hammer that hung on

a hook on the edge of the console. He took it,

then — thump! He smacked the row of buttons,

the little green light flickered out... and the siren

shut down. The manic hooting sound didn't stop

straight away. It slowly ran out of steam, first

honking more slowly, then honking more quietly

- until it stopped with a weak little 'ppplllrb' noise.

'Ringtones,' he said again, returning to his busy

work at the console.

'What about ringtones?' Amy jogged around

the console, trying to keep up with the Time Lord.

'You wanted to change the TARDIS's ringtone,

I told you which buttons to press.' The Doctor

waved a hand towards the row of now battered-

looking buttons. And now look. Someone wants

to phone me, and we get that racket!'

Rory laughed. 'That was the phone?'

'Well,' Amy said, 'aren't you going to answer it?'

The Doctor stopped what he was doing. 'It's

not ringing.' He gazed at the column of glass above

the console. Rising and falling, rising and falling.

He was lost in his own thoughts.

'Well, no, it's not ringing now,' sighed Amy. You

smashed the controls with a hammer!'

'What?' He snapped out of his daze, looking

first at Amy, then at the row of buttons. 'Oh, that!

No, they're just the ultrasonic influx hinges. We

don't need them.'

Amy glared at him. 'Then what was all that

stuff about ringtones?'

'Oh, they do that as well — but that wasn't the

phone! The Doctor looked bewildered at Amy's

question. 'What phone sounds like that?'

Amy shook her head in disbelief. The Doctor

could be so infuriating sometimes!

'That was a distress signal,' he continued, 'calling

to the TARDIS via the influx hinges. But the old

girl got her wires crossed.' The Doctor gently

patted the console. 'She sounded the ringtone, not

the emergency alarm.'

Amy rubbed her brow. Her head was starting to

hurt. 'So, that was the phone ringing?'

'It was the sound of the phone ringing.' The

Doctor had that explaining-things-to-idiots thing

going on with his voice. 'But it was actually the

emergency alarm.'

Rory cleared his throat, opened his mouth to

ask a question - but then obviously thought better

of it.

'If that was the phone ringing instead of the

alarm,' said Amy, slowly, 'then what does the real

alarm sound like?'

The Doctor awkwardly leant over the buttons,

peering closely at them. 'Ah! You know that noise

water makes when it goes down a plughole? All

shlurpy and swirly?'

'Yes?'

'Nothing like that.'

Just then, there was a soft chime and the glass

column slid to a halt. The background hum of the

TARDIS changed slightly, growing quieter as the

engines powered down. The Doctor sprang away

from the console, grinning from ear to ear. 'And

here we are!'

'I swear, I'll never get used to this,' Rory

muttered to himself. He then raised his voice and

asked the Doctor, 'So, where is 'here'?'

'Did you miss the bit where I said "distress

signal"? We're right where the signal came from...'

The Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS - and

walked into a line of guns, all pointed straight

at him. A line of men and women were facing

him. They were all dressed in grey jumpsuits with

black pads on their knees and elbows. They wore

tough-looking black coverings on their heads, like

motorcycle helmets without visors.

The Doctor raised his hands quickly. 'Hello!

Nice to meet you,' he said.

Amy and Rory barrelled into the Doctor's

back, and the three of them tumbled out of their

time machine's doorway. They had materialised

in a long, white corridor. The walls were made

of glossy white plastic, and the floor was shiny

and white, too. little red lights were flashing all

the way along the corridor, and a siren - a lot

quieter than the one in the TARDIS — was echoing

through the air.

One of the guards, a short young man with

messy blonde hair poking out from under his

helmet, stepped forward. He looked nervous — the

Doctor could see a sheen of sweat glistening on

his forehead, and his blue eyes were wide with fear.

He raised his gun higher, pointing it straight at the

Doctor's left heart. 'We won't let you get away with

this,' he stammered. 'Captain Jones will not allow

her cargo to be stolen.'

'What cargo?' Rory said. We're not going to

steal anything!'

'We've come in response to your distress signal,'

the Doctor said again. 'And I don't mean to sound

rude, but we're your rescuers and you don't seem

terribly grateful...'

'Doctor,' Amy hissed, shutting him up. She

turned to the line of soldiers. 'I'm sorry about him,

he's got no manners. I'm Amy, this is the Doctor,

and that's Rory. We're here to help you.' She smiled

and held out her open hands in a friendly gesture.

The young man thought for a second, then

lowered his weapon. 'I'm Ensign Sam Appleseed,'

he said. 'Technical officer, second class, aboard the

ECC ship Black Horizon.'

The other soldiers seemed to relax a little, too.

Good old Amy could always put strangers at their

ease. The Doctor wondered why people didn't

respond to him in quite the same way. Did he

look odd? Something about the jacket? The hair?

Whatever it was, it couldn't be the bow tie...

The Doctor's thoughts were interrupted by a

crackle of static and a series of electronic bleeps.

'What's that?' he asked.

Sam, now looking more worried than before,

shushed the Doctor and whispered, 'Listen!'

A voice rang out along the corridor, broadcast

on a series of loudspeakers hanging from the

ceiling. 'Prepare to be boarded,' it said, in a cold,

harsh robotic tone. 'You will surrender your

technology!'

Sam turned to his fellow guards. They looked

all around themselves, as if worried they'd be

attacked at any moment.

'Ah, I see,' said the Doctor in a slow drawl. 'He

said, 'Prepare to be boarded.' This is a spaceship,

is that right?'

Sam nodded.

'And you're under attack from some sort of...'

We don't know exactly who is attacking us,

Doctor,' Sam replied.

'Doesn't matter,' the Doctor said, waving his

hand dismissively in the air. 'We can figure that out

later. What I want to know is this: why aren't your

engines running? Because that's a pretty important

thing for a spaceship - got to keep the engines

running, or you won't go anywhere. And if you're

under attack, you'd think a spaceship would want

to move away from the attackers. But I can't hear

engines. Amy! Can you hear engines?'

Amy just shrugged, shaking her head.

'Rory!' the Doctor barked, spinning to face his

other companion. 'Can you hear engines?'

'I'm not sure what engines sound like,' he

replied.

'You know, like vroom! Or swoosh! Or — at the

very least, if you're inside a big old spaceship like

this - a kind of deep, low rumble...' The Doctor

looked all around the corridor. He looked up at

the ceiling, down at the floor. He leapt over to the

wall and crammed his ear against the white plastic

surface. 'But I can't hear a thing. This ship is silent.'

'I think I should take you to Captain Jones,'

Sam said at last. 'She can explain things better than

I can...'

Although she wore exactly the same black-and-

grey uniform as her crew, Captain Jones was

easy to spot. She stood at the highest point of the

control room, on a platform raised above all the

consoles and workstations, like a queen surveying

her realm. She wasn't all that tall, but she stood

stiffly upright, her chin jutting out with pride and

authority. Her chestnut-coloured hair hung to her

shoulders. Amy thought it looked a little untidy, like

it hadn't been cut in some time — but she supposed

that the captain of a spaceship had more to worry

about than her hair.

As the Doctor and his friends walked into the

room, the captain glanced briefly in their direction

with a frown, then turned her attention to the giant

viewscreen which took up one wall of the room.

Her brown eyes looked tired, ringed with red.

'Situation?' she said, her voice clipped and clear.

As one of her crew started to read off a list

of numbers and readings, Rory stared at the

viewscreen. The screen was filled with grey, ragged

rocks, all turning and tumbling through space.

The ship seemed to be stuck in an asteroid field.

A scattering of stars was visible in the background,

and one larger sun hung much closer to the

asteroids, spilling its light across the view.

'The Gloriana Scattering,' the Doctor sighed, a

dreamy smile spreading across his face. 'One of

the most beautiful asteroid fields in the universe.

If you like rocks, that is. And I do. I do like a good

rock.'

'You're weird,' Amy said.

'Indeed I am,' the Doctor said, not really paying

any attention. 'And look at that! That star there,

Gloriana XVI. All its planets blown to pieces in a

gravity quake, thousands of years ago. That's what

the asteroid field is - the poor, shattered remains

of Gloriana's children.'

Normally, Rory was willing to listen to every

word of the Doctor's wittering - there was often

something worth hearing in among all the chatter!

But this time, he had stopped paying attention a

few words in. He had spotted something on the

viewscreen, slowly weaving its way through the

dangerously spinning rocks.

He had seen a spaceship.

In his travels with the Doctor, Rory had seen

quite a few spaceships. He remembered that

fantastic night at Stonehenge, when the sky had

been full of them. All shapes and sizes, made from

all sorts of metals and plastics and who knew

what else. But this ship - the one slowly working

its way towards the Black Horizon... this ship

was different.

Rory squinted at it. He had to stop himself

from laughing. It looked ridiculous!

The spaceship had seven wings, or fins, or

somethings... half of its back end looked like the

tail on a cartoon rocket, all sleek curves and shining

silver. The other half looked like a misshapen

lump of melted plastic. It had two engines on one

side, and none at the back. Aerials and antennae

and radar dishes were dotted all over its surface,

pointing in every direction. Its hull was metal, but

bumpy and dented, like it had been ripped from

one ship and wrapped around this one. It looked

like crumpled tinfoil.

No one bit of the ship looked like another. It

was a patchwork spaceship.

'Well,' gasped the Doctor, 'would you look at

that?' He strode confidently into the centre of the

control room and gazed up at the viewscreen.

Amy and Rory walked to his side. 'What is it?'

asked Rory. 'It looks like a flying scrapheap!'

'Oh, I wouldn't say that, Rory!' The Doctor

started to point out the different parts of the

approaching spaceship. 'That's the hull plating

from a Dalek saucer. And that's the engine from

a Sontaran warsphere! Oh, and look at that, that's

impressive: the radar array from a Chelonian sky-

maiden! Sky-maidens are the terror of Galaxy

16. Parents tell their children about them. Scary

bedtime stories about maidens falling like stars

from the heavens, burning the sky in their wake...'

'So, what is this?' asked Amy. 'Is this more of

your enemies ganging up on you?'

'No,' the Doctor said with a smile. 'This is an

Empire warship. The Empire of Eternal Victory!'

He spun on his heels and waved up at Captain

Jones. 'Captain! So nice to meet you! How long has

it been since this ship first contacted you?'

Captain Jones blinked slowly at the newcomer

on her bridge. The muscles in her jaw bulged as

she ground her teeth together. Rory thought she

was about to lose her temper — but Sam stepped

forward just in time.

'These are the travellers who arrived in the

unauthorised transport capsule, ma'am,' he said.

'They were responding to our distress signal. This

is the Doctor, and his friends are...'

'Captain Viola Jones, Earth Corp Couriers,' the

captain said, staring straight at the Doctor.

'Couriers?' Rory said.

The Doctor nodded. 'The ECC. Intergalactic

postmen!'

Captain Jones looked a little miffed — she

obviously didn't like to be called a postman.

'Explain yourself,' she said, her voice sounding

grave. 'Do you know this ship?'

The Doctor dashed across the control room

and up the steps to Captain Jones's station. He

grinned at her, then pointed at the screen. 'The

warship? No, not exactly. But I've seen ones like it

before. I take it that the crew have issued threats

and demanded that you hand over whatever

technology you have to offer?'

The captain sighed angrily. 'Indeed,' she said.

'We're carrying a cargo of important medical

equipment to an Earth colony on Hephestus Beta.

The doctors there have only very basic facilities

— this equipment is to help them fight off an

outbreak of the Orion flu.'

The Doctor breathed in sharply, baring his

teeth. 'Nasty.'

'That's why we need to get to Hephestus Beta

quickly,' the captain said, flashing a frustrated glare

at the warship on the viewscreen. 'These attackers

are causing a considerable delay.'

'Oh, they'll do more than delay you,' said the

Doctor. He smiled, but it was cold and without

mirth. 'In my experience, when the Empire of

Eternal Victory set their sights on you, it's best to

run.' He stopped smiling and stared straight at the

captain. 'So, why are your engines switched off?'

Captain Jones stared at him, her eyebrows high

in an expression of shock. Rory had seen that look

before. People were often surprised by the Doctor.

'The engines are not switched off,' she replied.

Her voice was sharp, her words like little knives.

She obviously wasn't used to being bossed around

like this. 'They're not working.'

'Oh, dear,' said the Doctor. 'Why not?'

Captain Jones was still glaring at the Doctor,

not entirely sure why she should answer him.

Instead, Sam cleared his throat and spoke up. We

got stuck on something in the asteroid field. We're

not sure what. We tried to power up the engines

to maximum, to get ourselves free — but it didn't

work. Whatever had us stuck just wasn't letting

us go.'

'Was it some sort of trap?' asked the Doctor.

'A tractor beam from the Empire ship? Some sort

of energy field?'

'No, it can't have been that,' Sam said.

Captain Jones chipped in. 'We were trapped

here a few hours before the other ship arrived,' she

said. 'The Black Horizon seems to be attached to

some sort of... cable.'

'A cable?' the Doctor said.

'We're really not sure what it is,' the captain

admitted with a sigh. 'Look,' she added, pointing

at the bottom corner of the viewscreen.

The Doctor followed Captain Jones's finger, his

eyes narrowing. He craned his neck and squinted

harder. Rory looked too, but all he could see was

a white line in the corner of the screen. It shone

in the light from Gloriana XVI and from the

Black Horizon's navigation beacons. It did look

something like a cable, but no cable Rory had

ever seen before. Its surface was uneven, covered

in bumps and blobs, and it glistened wetly in the

starlight. It led off into the distance, disappearing

between two of the larger asteroids.

'That's no cable,' the Doctor said, his face

looking pale.

Captain Jones's brows crinkled, and she opened

her mouth to ask a question - but just then, the

robotic voice echoed around the spaceship again.

'This is your final warning!' it screeched.

'You will be boarded in five minutes. Prepare to

surrender!'

The Doctor whirled round to face Captain

Jones. 'Where will they board?'

'Deck six, the main airlock,' she replied, looking

a little shaken by the Doctor's urgency. 'That would

make the most sense.'

'Excellent!' The Doctor pointed at Amy. 'Pond,

you're with me. And guards! We'll need guards.'

He jumped down from the platform and moved

towards the exit. Amy followed him.

The captain, her eyes wide in surprise, nodded

at the small squad of security guards on the bridge.

They saluted, then joined Amy and the Doctor at

the door.

'Rory,' the Doctor added, 'you stay here with

Sam and the good captain.'

'But, but...' Rory was stammering, trying to

keep up with the Doctor's lightning-fast pace.

'Oh, come now, Rory. I'm sure we won't be long'

The Doctor smiled. 'We'll just say hello, shake a

few robotic hands, have a chat. It'll be sorted in

just a few minutes, then we'll be right back.'

The door swished open and the Doctor dashed

through it into the brightly lit corridors beyond.

Amy smiled at Rory, waved goodbye, then followed

him. The guards — as confused as everyone else by

the Doctor's whirling style - marched quickly after

them.

Amy was starting to get a stitch. It was amazing,

how much running she had to do. Didn't the

Doctor ever have to stop for breath?

The guards were keeping up, though. They

were all grim-faced and stoic, very serious indeed.

Amy wanted to stop and tickle one of them, just

to lighten the mood. But then again, perhaps that

wasn't the best idea. They had guns, after all...

They had travelled down in a lift, and run

through a number of identical white corridors,

turning many corners. Amy knew she'd be lost

if she had to find her own way back. The Black

Horizon was like a maze.

As they turned a final corner, the Doctor

stopped dead. Amy stumbled to a halt, her boots

thundering on the smooth floor. The guards

stopped, too.

At the end of this corridor, there was a large,

white door. It was made of thick metal plates, and

its handle was a thick, heavy metal bar about a metre

long. A sign was set in the wall above the door,

which said, 'MAIN AIRLOCK: CAUTION!'

But it wasn't the door that had stopped everyone

in their tracks. They could all see a point of white-

hot light burning in the upper right corner of the

airlock door. It hissed and sizzled, slowly moving

in a clockwise direction around the edge of the

door.

'They're cutting through,' Amy whispered,

feeling scared.

The Doctor suddenly leaped forward, the sonic

screwdriver buzzing in his hand. Its green light

washed over the metal door. 'There we go,' he said.

'I've agitated the molecules in the metal, raising

its melting point. We've got a few more minutes

before they will be able to cut through. Now...'

He looked all around himself, at the floors, wall

and ceiling - then he spotted a small door set in to

the corridor's wall. It was no bigger than a kitchen

cupboard door. The Doctor popped it open,

revealing a little cubby-hole full of all sorts of

bric-a-brac. There were tools, and pieces of scrap

metal and plastic. There were piles of oily rags and

small containers full of screws.

The Doctor swept the whole lot out, letting it

clatter to the floor.

He looked down at his messy handiwork and

smiled. 'Right, all of you! I need you to find all

the junk you can. Anything, absolutely anything —

tools, machinery, clothes, rubbish, anything Bring

it back here and just throw it on the floor.' He

looked up at the guards. 'Come along! Quick as

you like!' He clapped his hands, grinning madly.

The bewildered guards slowly stumbled off

to do as they were told. Amy looked around,

too, finding a small room off to one side which

contained spacesuits and breathing apparatus.

She hauled a couple of armfuls of stuff into the

corridor and threw it down on the floor.

Before long, the guards started to return one

by one. They brought with them all sorts of tools,

machinery, gadgets and junk. Someone threw down

a pile of grubby overalls. Someone else tipped the

contents of a waste-paper bin onto the floor. A

third guard opened a toolbox and scattered its

contents on top of the growing pile of rubbish.

The Doctor grinned. 'This is perfect! Make it

look just like a scrapyard!'

Before long, that's exactly what it did look

like. The Doctor picked his way through the junk.

He waved everyone back, so they all stood a safe

distance away from the airlock door.

The cutting beam had now worked its way all

the way around the door. There was a few seconds

of silence, then the door fell forward, hitting the

floor with a clang. Huge plumes of smoke washed

out of the new opening. Amy could see lights in

the smoke, moving slowly forward. She could hear

the wheeze and whir of machinery from the other

side of the door.

Silhouettes started to form in the light of the

corridor. The invaders were shaped roughly like

humans, but with hard angles and sharp corners.

They were unmistakably robots.

Their voices, too, were the voices of robots.

One loud voice rang out, 'This ship is now the

property of the Empire of Eternal Victory. All life

forms on-board will immediately..

Another robot screamed, interrupting the first.

'Sir! Look at that! Is that a coffee machine!?'

Rory nervously stood in the corner of the control

room, trying not to get in the way. Captain Jones

was sternly issuing orders from her raised platform,

and her crew were dutifully carrying them out.

They had just received word from the guards

accompanying the Doctor and Amy: the enemies

had boarded the ship.

The crew never stopped talking to each other,

exchanging vital information and news on the

ship's condition. Men and women moved from

one corner of the bridge to another, stopping to

check read-outs or to receive the latest updates.

Captain Jones's crew was operating smoothly and

efficiently. Rory was sure that, if it were his ship

being invaded by unknown aliens, he wouldn't be

able to be as cool under pressure.

Rory watched as Sam crossed the room, carrying

a printout from one of the ship's computers. He

stopped at the foot of the captain's raised platform

and held the paper up for her to see.

Rory could just about make out what Sam was

saying. 'Our calculations show that the hull will

only last for a few more hours.' The words chilled

Rory to the bone. He carefully edged closer, eager

to hear more.

Captain Jones snapped the printout from Sam's

hand. She glared at the sheet of paper, frowning.

'Are you sure?' she asked.

Sam just nodded in silence, his face pale.

Rory cleared his throat, and Sam and the captain

both looked in his direction. 'I couldn't help but

overhear... I'm sure the Doctor will be able to sort

it all out. He's good at this kind of thing. After all,

he's already gone off to face these Eternal Victory

blokes...'

Captain Jones sighed. 'That's not what we're

worried about. It's the cable. It's stuck on to our

ship and it just won't let go. The strain on our hull

is threatening to pull the ship to pieces. Look...'

The captain pressed a few buttons on the

console in front of her, then pointed to the giant

viewscreen on the other side of the room. Rory

could see the dark shapes of the asteroids slowly

turning in space and, at the bottom of the screen,

the white line of the 'cable' that had got stuck to

the ship.

But just then, Rory thought he saw something

else. Something huge and white and shining,

glinting in the dim light of the stars. It moved

quickly behind the rocky bulk of an asteroid,

disappearing out of view.

'What was that?' he gasped.

'What?' said the captain. 'I didn't see anything.'

'There.' Rory pointed at one corner of the

screen. The captain shifted the angle, zooming in

on the asteroid Rory was pointing at. 'Something

moved. Behind that asteroid, something moved?

Sam checked another computer nearby.

'Captain, there are no other ships in the area. Just

the Black Horizon, and the enemies' vessel.'

'I swear to you,' Rory said, 'something moved

out there. Something big'

Suddenly, a tremor shook the room. Rory flung

his hand out to the wall to steady himself, and he

saw the crew do the same, grabbing on to anything

to keep themselves upright. The captain barked,

'Appleseed, what was that?'

Sam checked a few readings. 'The cable is

shifting, Captain.'

Rory moved to Sam's side and looked at the

computer screens. It was all nonsense to him: lines

of calculations whirling by, flashing lights of all

sorts of colours, a string of messages scrolling

endlessly across a small screen. He had no idea

what any of it meant. Sam, however, was staring

intently at it all, taking it in.

Within a few seconds, Captain Jones had

stepped down to join them, staring at the computer

screens, too. Her voice was quiet and serious.

'I need a full scan of that thing immediately.'

'Already doing it, Captain,' Sam replied, barely

looking up from the screens.

Another tremor rocked the control room.

'Come on, Sam,' she whispered. 'We need

to know what it is, now.' Captain Jones seemed

suddenly softer, more encouraging — no more the

stern commander Rory had met a few minutes ago.

She might appear to be tough and no-nonsense, he

thought, but she obviously cared deeply about the

people who worked for her.

Sam suddenly stood upright, looking down at

the screens in shock. 'That's impossible.'

'What is?' Rory said. 'What's happening?'

'The cable is...' Sam shook his head and pressed

a few more buttons. He continued to stare at the

screen in disbelief. 'The cable is organic,' he said.

'Organic?' said the captain. 'You mean it's alive?'

'Not exactly,' Sam replied. 'But it looks like

it's been made by a living creature. The cable is

constructed mainly of carbon, and it's coated in

some sort of organic adhesive, too. But there's

more than that. It is covered with all sorts of traces

of metal. Iron, aluminium, titanium — but it's all

rusted away to practically nothing'

The captain swallowed nervously. 'They sound

like the kind of metals you find in starship hulls,'

she whispered.

Sam's eyebrows bunched up. He looked

confused. 'This isn't normal rust,' he said. 'It's not

old enough...'

'What do you mean?' Rory asked.

Sam glanced at him, his eyes filled with worry.

'Well, rust is old, right? That's kind of the point

of rust — metal lies out in the elements, and it rots

away and gets rusty,' he said. 'But we can check

the age of this rust with our computers. It's less

than a few months old, but that metal is tough and

shouldn't have rusted that much in so short a time.'

Rory nodded, understanding — just as another

thought occurred to him. 'Wait, you said things

only rust when they're exposed to the elements,

like the wind and rain,' he said. 'But there's no

wind and no rain in space. So, what made the metal

rust?'

Rory glanced at the main screen again, just as

the control room trembled once more. He could

see the cable shaking in space - as if something,

somewhere, was hitting it.

'So,' he said, his voice trembling as much as the

spaceship, 'whatever this cable is... do we think it's

trapped other starships before?'

Sam and the captain looked at each other, then

nodded.

'They just dissolved away to rust,' Rory guessed,

gulping nervously. 'And now we're next.'

'But this doesn't make any sense,' the captain

said. She was starting to sound a little panicked.

'Why would a living thing make a strand of organic

cable to trap starships in the middle of an asteroid

field?'

Another thump, and the control room shook

once more.

Rory stared at the viewscreen, squinting at the

shadowy spaces between the asteroids, certain

he'd seen something moving again. Suddenly, his

heart sank. There, in the cold darkness of space, a

gigantic white shape rose from behind an asteroid.

Rory gasped in shock, then sighed, 'But that's

impossible...'

It was a spider.

An impossible spider!

Rory had never seen anything like it. It was

shining white, and the size of a skyscraper. And it

was moving towards the ship.

Its carapace glittered like shattered glass. Its

long legs curved around the rock, shaking the cable

as they touched it. Rory now knew that the Black

Horizon wasn't caught on a cable. It was caught in

a web.

Captain Jones gasped in shock, and Sam

just stared at the viewscreen, his jaw slack with

amazement. The rest of the crew had fallen silent.

Slowly, ever so slowly, the spider walked forward.

Its spindly legs looked as delicate as ice, and its tiny

pinpoint feet seemed to brush the strand of web

with the gentlest touch. But each of the creature's

footsteps sent a jolt through the Black Horizon.

Rory watched the crew members on the bridge.

They tried to carry on with their duties, but they

all wore expressions of shock and worry. As each

shudder passed through the ship, they staggered

about, grabbing hold of desks and railings for

support.

Rory turned back to the viewscreen and took

a closer look at the spider. Now, he could see

its head. Spiny mandibles quivered in its jaws,

brushing each other in a rapid, hungry motion. It

was like someone licking their lips before eating a

big roast dinner.

And then Rory realised what fate lay in store

for the Black Horizon.

'You want to know why that thing traps

spaceships in its web?' he said to Captain Jones.

'Yes, of course I do,' the captain snapped.

'Well, why do spiders catch things in their webs?

I think we're just like a fly.'

'What?' The captain was confused.

'You know what spiders do to flies, don't you?'

Rory said. 'They eat them...'

Another tremor shook through the ship. The

lights in the control room flickered and died. The

room was plunged into darkness — the only light

came from the viewscreen and its picture of the

giant spider stalking towards the Black Horizon...

Just as the Doctor had planned, the robots had

been distracted by the piles of junk. They were

busily sorting through it all, picking up little scraps,

turning them in the light to examine them, then

throwing them aside.

Amy watched them, fascinated by their different

shapes and sizes. They seemed as cobbled-

together as their spaceship, like they'd been put

together from a pile of old spare parts. Some

of them were tall and fearsome, gleaming with

cutting-edge technology — but some were small

and weedy, whizzing around on worn rubber tires.

One robot was thin and spindly — his legs looked

like fishing rods. Another only had one arm, and

that arm only had two fingers. A third robot was

short and stubby and rolled around on a pair of

rubber wheels.

But, despite the differences in their shapes, the

robots all had one thing in common: each one

wore a mask.

Well, Amy couldn't tell if they were masks, or

whether they were what passed for the robots'

actual faces. Whatever they were, they were the

most striking thing about the invaders. The masks

seemed to be made of shards of mirrored metal,

studded with jewels. They twinkled in the light,

almost beautiful — although the masks were set in

fierce expressions, clearly meant to frighten their

foes.

'What's with their masks?' Amy asked the

Doctor, her voice a careful whisper.

The Doctor turned towards Amy - but he didn't

tear his gaze away from the robots, clearly wanting

to keep an eye on them. 'They're the hallmark of

the Empire of Eternal Victory,' he said. 'Precious

metals, exquisite jewels... The warriors of the

Empire built these masks out of the spoils of their

previous conquests.'

'Couldn't they just go to H. Samuel, like anyone

else?'

The Doctor smiled. 'Look closer, though, Amy

- they're more than masks.'

Amy peered closely at the robots' masks as

they picked through the junk on the corridor floor.

They caught the light from all directions, glinting

and glittering with flashes of dazzling colour. The

dancing, sparkling light made it hard to see what the

Doctor wanted Amy to see — but, as she squinted,

she caught it. A movement, ever so slight. Not just

a flash of light glancing off a shard of metal; the

mask itself had moved, altered.

A robot looked up at Amy and the expression

on its jewelled mask changed: it shifted into a

scowl. This robot was tall and stocky, his heavy

body made up of thick, angular sheets of metal.

His mask was encrusted with dark red jewels, like

rubies. He stood at the front of the group, and he

was obviously their leader: bigger, stronger, fiercer

than the others.

He stood up to his full height — Amy reckoned

he was easily seven feet tall — and took a couple of

steps towards her and the Doctor. She watched the

squad of guards nervously raise their guns higher.

The ship shook violently once again. The robots

seemed to pay it no attention, but Amy staggered

unsteadily across the corridor. She grabbed the

Doctor's shoulder for support and said, 'What's

doing that? Is that the robots?'

The Doctor did not reply. He stood at the

head of the group of nervous guards, staring

straight ahead at the invaders. His expression was

unreadable.

When the Doctor spoke at last, his voice was

quiet and measured. 'Take what you wish from

what we have offered you.'

The robot with one arm was trying to fix an

electric toothbrush to its shoulder, where his other

arm should be. He set it off by mistake and it fell

buzzing to the floor. The robot emitted a little

electronic squeak of surprise.

The leader of the robots kicked aside an old

microwave oven then turned his blood-red mask

to the Doctor. He frowned in rage. 'This material

is worthless,' he said in his grating metallic voice.

'It is junk!'

'It is all we have to give you,' the Doctor said,

calmly.

The robot stepped slowly towards the Doctor,

his heavy feet clomping on the floor. He stared

down at the Time Lord, who was a good foot

shorter. You are lying,' he rumbled.

'Maybe,' the Doctor replied. 'But it's all you're

getting'

The robot stood up to his full, impressive

height. 'I am Commander Designate Gluon-

Alpha-Sierra-Zero-1 of the Great and Shining

Empire of Eternal Victory,' he boomed, his mask

sparkling.

'Do you make your names from rubbish, just

like your bodies?' said the Doctor.

There was a tense pause. Zero-l's mask shifted,

deepening his frown. 'Our sensors detected large

amounts of advanced technology in the cargo

hold of this ship. We will take it.' He turned to his

fellow robots. 'Forward!'

As one, the robots dropped the various bits of

rubbish they were holding and filed forward.

The Doctor turned to the guards and whispered,

'Let them pass. I don't want anyone getting hurt.'

The other robots followed Zero-1. They

paraded past the guards, who all shuffled timidly

out of the way, letting them pass.

As the robots reached a junction in the corridor,

another quake shook the ship. The other tremors

had made Amy wobble, but this one sent her

flying - along with all the scattered rubbish in the

corridor. The guards were knocked off their feet,

too, as were the robots. The Doctor lashed out,

desperately trying to find something to hang on

to - but he was too late.

Amy felt the world turn sideways, and everything

swirled around her. The last thing she saw before

the lights went out was the whole corridor turning

on its side, catching the robots unawares and

sending them tumbling down another passageway.

She heard the clatter and clang of metal as they

fell.

Amy flung her arms out to find the Doctor, and

they both crashed sideways through a doorway.

The guards yelled as they were thrown around

outside — each of them made a thump noise as

they hit the walls of the corridor.

The world kept spinning, and Amy felt just like

a towel in a tumble drier.

As she fell, whirling through the air, she thought,

'I just hope I land somewhere safe!'

Sam got to his feet and flung forward a huge red

lever on a console.

Rory heard a thrum as the emergency power

cranked into action. Dark red light filled the room,

giving the crew just enough illumination to work

by. He looked around himself and saw the crew

shakily standing up and returning to their posts.

Sam was already reading data from his bank

of computers. 'We lost artificial gravity on some

decks, Captain — and it's still not working right

in some parts of the ship. I'll try to get it up and

running again...'

That last tremor had been a big one. It had

thrown everyone to the floor, and sent a few

people flying into the hard edges and sharp corners

of consoles. A few people were nursing cuts and

bruises. He carefully eyed them all up, one by

one, but no one appeared to be seriously injured.

Within a couple of minutes, the crew had returned

to their stations.

Rory staggered to his feet and stared at the

viewscreen. The spider was closer than ever now,

its dazzling white form filling up the whole screen.

'Amy,' he muttered out loud, 'I hope you're all

right.'

He walked over to the captain's post and looked

up at her with pleading eyes. 'We need to get to the

Doctor,' he said.

'All in good time, Rory,' she replied. She

pressed a button on her computer, opening a

communication channel across the whole ship.

She raised her voice, her words echoing round the

room, silencing everyone. 'Crewmen will return to

their duties. Anyone currently off duty is to report

to the bridge immediately?

She looked down at Rory. She was chewing her

lip, obviously thinking hard about what decision to

make. 'Okay,' she said at last. 'Ensign Appleseed,

I want you to accompany Rory in a search for the

Doctor. You must fully appraise the Doctor of the

situation with the spider as soon as possible.'

'But ma'am,' Sam stammered, 'I should stay

here and try to help —'

Captain Jones raised a hand to interrupt him.

'You,' she said sternly, 'will follow your orders.'

He bowed his head. Yes, ma'am.'

Rory smiled. 'Thank you, Captain,' he said.

Sam saluted his captain and turned to join Rory.

Together, they jogged quickly out of the control

room in search of the Doctor and Amy...

With the main power out, the corridors were

dark and cold. Sam led the way in silence. At

each junction he would stop and lean around the

corners, checking that the way was clear. He would

then wave back to Rory as a signal to follow him

further into the darkness.

The ship was mostly quiet — but there were still

sounds to be heard. There was an occasional creak

as another shake of the spiderweb strained the hull.

They reached another junction. Sam pointed off

to the left and whispered, 'The Doctor and Amy

should be over in that direction, but that's the part

of the ship where the gravity is malfunctioning.'

'Is that serious?'

'I hope not. They might have taken a tumble,

but I'm sure they'll be okay.' Sam checked the other

corridors for signs of life. Then, happy they were

still alone, he waved Rory on.

They slowly tiptoed in silence for a few more

minutes, passing through more dark and empty

corridors. Sam's crewmates were safely gathered

on the bridge. The rest of the ship was deserted -

or it should have been deserted...

Rory was sure he could hear something from

behind him. A faint electric whirring noise, like a

little motor.

He grabbed Sam's shoulder and pulled gently,

bringing the young soldier to a halt. As quiet as a

mouse, he whispered, 'I think we're being followed.'

Sam glanced behind Rory and nodded,

pointing. Rory looked too — and saw a dim, blue

light bobbing through the gloom towards them.

Sam and Rory quickly dodged round the nearest

corner. Rory's heart was racing. He was suddenly

breathing so loudly that he hoped that whatever

was following them couldn't hear it!

The whirring sound was getting closer and

closer...

Rory quickly looked around, and saw a

cupboard door hanging loose on the wall. It had

obviously been damaged in all the tremors that

had been shaking the ship. It was only held on by a

single hinge - and that one was badly broken. With

a gentle tug, Rory yanked the door from the wall.

He flattened his back against the wall, right by

the corner. He gripped the broken door tightly

with both hands and held his breath. The whirring

was getting closer still...

Just as the sound reached the corner, Rory

jumped out with a loud yell!

He swung the door wildly into the corridor and

it hit something with a deafening CLANG!

There was an electronic shriek of pain and

surprise. Rory had hit a robot — in fact, he'd hit the

little thing so hard that he'd knocked one of his

arms off!

The little robot spun in circles on tiny rubber

wheels, squealing in terror. He raised his remaining

arm to shield his face - a plain mask made of

rusted metal, set in an expression of terror.

'Please don't hurt me!' the machine cried.

'Mercy! Mercy! I surrender!'

The Doctor and Amy lay in a heap of mops and

brooms. They'd landed in some sort of storeroom.

Amy looked up and saw the door. Beyond it, the

corridor was filled with the blood-red glow of

emergency lighting. A loose panel flapped open

from the wall, swinging with the rhythm of the

tremors that still shook the ship.

She pulled herself to her feet and saw the

Doctor doing the same. He knocked aside a jumble

of plastic buckets as he did so, and his foot got

caught in the handle of one. He shook his leg until

the bucket rattled off into the darkness.

He looked up at the door, too. Well, that's not

good.'

'Everything's sideways,' said Amy.

'Something moved the ship,' the Doctor said.

The Doctor jumped up and down three times, then

swayed slightly on his tiptoes. He nodded to himself.

'Yes, thought so. The artificial gravity is on the

fritz. Just in this part of the ship — we're sideways,

everything else isn't. This is not good at all.'

'What could do that? Those robots?'

'Come on,' the Doctor said, ignoring her

questions. He started to climb a set of shelves,

heading towards the door. 'The robots could be

anywhere on the ship by now. We've got to find

them — and stop them.'

When he reached the door, the Doctor hauled

himself up to stand on the wall of the corridor

outside. Amy was about to follow him when she

noticed something lying in one of the scattered

buckets. The Doctor's sonic screwdriver. It must

have fallen from his pocket in the confusion.

'Doctor, wait!' she called after him. You've -'

'Come along, Pond!' he shouted back. 'There's

no time to lose.'

Sighing, she knelt down to pick up the device.

She slipped it into her jacket pocket and then

clambered up the shelves after him. The climb

was awkward: for a start, the shelves were

sideways and they were still cluttered with bottles

and rags, all sorts of cleaning materials. It was

sometimes hard to get a good footing, but Amy

finally made it up to the corridor, where she leant

on the Doctor's shoulder and took a moment to

catch her breath.

'The airlock's that way,' the Doctor said, nodding

into the red gloom. He took a few steps towards it,

then stopped at a junction in the corridors. What

used to be a crossroads was now a chasm. Their

corridor stretched off into the darkness ahead

of them but, beneath their feet and turned on its

side, another corridor had turned into a shaft that

plunged into blackness.

Above their heads, another corridor rose away

from them. Looking up, Amy could see the scorch

marks made by the robots when they had cut into

the ship.

'There's the airlock,' she said, pointing up.

'So, the robots must have fallen down there,' the

Doctor added, pointing down. 'Wait a minute...'

The Doctor dashed back to the storeroom,

crouched down at the edge of the door, and

reached inside. Seconds later, he returned with a

rope.

He tied one end of the rope to a metal handrail

on the side of the corridor above their heads —

the side that was now their ceiling. He dropped the

other end down into the darkness. He tugged the

rope sharply a couple of times, then grinned.

Amy's heart was sinking. 'We're not going to...'

'We are!' said the Doctor. 'What's the matter?

Never been abseiling?'

'Not on a crashed spaceship filled with killer

robots in the middle of an asteroid field. No.'

The Doctor laughed. 'There's a first time for

everything!' he said. Taking a tight hold of the

rope, he took a step backwards towards the shaft.

The handrail creaked slightly, and Amy saw the

rope straining under the Doctor's weight. But by

now, the Doctor's head was already disappearing

over the edge.

Amy gulped. She stepped up to the rope,

grabbed hold, and started to descend.

On their way down, they passed door after door.

Some were closed, but through the open ones

Amy could see the sideways remains of all sorts

of rooms: mess halls, dining areas, kitchens,

laboratories, bedrooms. Everything in the rooms

had tumbled messily as the ship had turned on

to its side. Tables had flipped over. Chairs had

tumbled everywhere. Glass cups and beakers had

shattered on impact, the fragments glinting like

rubies in the red emergency light.

'This is confusing,' Amy said as she lowered

herself slowly down. 'How much of the ship is on

its side?'

'Oh, not all that much,' the Doctor called up to

her. 'I can just about feel the edge of the normal

artificial gravity field below us. Less chit-chat,

Pond. More climbing'

Their descent was tough work - made tougher

by the constant tremors that still shook the ship,

sending the rope swaying this way and that. Amy's

arms were tired. The Doctor, on the other hand,

seemed to be enjoying himself.

'I think I can see the floor,' he said. 'Well, the

wall. Well, you know what I mean.'

'How much further?'

'Just a few more metres.'

Amy wondered if she could just jump down

now. Would the fall hurt that much? Could it be

any worse than the pain in her exhausted arms?

They descended a little further, passing another

open door. This room was dark. The emergency

lighting didn't seem to be working properly and

Amy couldn't see anything inside. Except for...

Something glinted in the red light from outside.

Something moving...

'Doctor!' she yelled. 'Look out!'

One of the robots burst out of the doorway.

This one had a squat head and a mask made of jet-

black crystal. His body looked rusty and old - but

he still moved quickly, like lightning.

And instead of an arm, he had a vicious-looking

circular saw. With a screech and a whine, the saw

started spinning. Its shiny, sharp teeth turned to a

blur as it spun faster and faster.

Amy kicked against the wall, swinging herself

and the Doctor away from the door.

'Woah!' the Doctor cried beneath her, as he

desperately tried to keep hold of the rope. 'Be

careful!'

Now the rope was swinging back towards

the robot. He jabbed his saw arm into the air

towards them, but he was still too far away.

She kicked the wall again, sending them

swinging in the opposite direction. What do you

think I'm doing?'

As they reached one wall of the shaft, the

Doctor flung his arm out and grabbed a handrail.

He locked his elbow around it, stopping them in

mid-swing. He pulled hard, straining to keep them

at a safe distance from the robot. We can't stay

here for ever!' he gasped. 'If we're going to keep

climbing down, I'm going to have to let go.'

'Wait a second, wait a second,' said Amy. When

I say "now", let go.'

'I do hope you know what you're doing.'

The robot reached further out, sweeping his

saw back and forth into the corridor. 'We shall take

your technology!' he squawked.

'Now!' Amy cried, kicking against the wall.

The Doctor let go of the handrail, and the rope

started to swing swiftly back towards the door.

The robot was balancing itself on the very edge

of the doorframe, raising his saw menacingly. Amy

clenched her jaw. 'Take this, pal!'

She kicked out her leg as they swung back

past the door. Her boot hit the robot's face hard,

cracking his black mask. He screeched as he

tumbled back into the room.

'Down, Doctor!' Amy yelled. 'Head down now!'

They scrambled down the rope as fast as they

could. Amy heard clattering and scraping and more

electronic yelps from above as they slid down,

getting ever closer to solid ground. Not far now,

she thought. Not far...

But still too far!

The robot, screaming with electronic rage, burst

from the doorway again. Amy ducked, feeling the

whoosh of the saw blade pass over her head. The

shock of the attack made her loosen her grip for

a moment, and she slid too fast down the rope.

She heard the Doctor say, 'Ow!' as her boots hit

his head.

Still screeching, the robot lashed out again —

and this time, he hit. Amy watched in horror as the

blade ripped into the rope, the strands of material

fraying away to nothing.

With a snap, the rope tore in two.

Amy's stomach lurched, as she and the

Doctor fell...

Rory had never seen a machine quake in fear

before. He never knew it was even possible. But

the little robot in front of him shook and shivered,

all the parts of his metal body clanking noisily.

The panels on its rusted face mask trembled in an

expression of meek terror.

Rory dropped the cupboard door that he was

still holding. 'It's all right,' he said, raising his open

hands. 'We're not going to hurt you.'

'N-n-not going to hurt me?' the robot

stammered. His voice was high-pitched and

nervous. 'You knocked my arm off!'

Rory scooped the arm off the floor. 'I'm sorry!

I'm sorry! Is there any way to fix it?'

'Fix it?' Sam hissed. We should just shoot the

thing! He's one of the robots from the Empire of

Eternal Victory!'

'I know,' sighed Rory, 'but look at him! He's

hardly a threat.'

The robot continued to tremble nervously. His

eyes swung first to Rory, then to Sam — back and

forth, pleadingly.

Rory asked him, 'Do robots have names?'

'We do,' the robot said, his eyes darting to stare

at Rory.

'So, what's yours?'

'I am Retrieval Bot Designate Meson-Zero-

Sierra 29,' he said. 'But the other robots call

me Messy.' His mask drooped sadly with a soft

creaking noise.

Looking at the ramshackle machine, Rory

could see how he got his nickname. No one part

of Messy matched another. One arm was long and

thin (that was the one Rory had knocked off), the

other was short and stumpy. His body was lumpy

and uneven; the metal casing was covered in dents

and scrapes and flaky, old paint. Instead of legs,

Messy had wheels. Well, he had one wheel on

one side - on his other side, he was fitted with a

threadbare rubber caterpillar track.

Rory knelt next to Messy and lifted the broken

arm to its socket, trying to find how to reattach

it. There were loose wires and bent pins, but he

couldn't see what was meant to fix to what. 'I'm

sorry, Messy,' he said at last, 'I just can't work out

how to do this.'

Messy sighed, his rickety body tinkling as

it slumped in misery. 'That's all right,' he said.

'Nothing ever works properly, anyway. I always get

the worst scraps and the broken parts.'

Rory looked up at Sam, who was pacing

impatiently around the junction. 'And these are the

terrifying invaders you were worried about?'

'Oh, but we are terrifying!' Messy said, his voice

sounding more hopeful than certain. 'We are the

shining, glorious, amazing and really, really scary

Empire of Eternal Victory!'

Sam raised an eyebrow and smirked. 'Really,

really scary?' he said.

Messy nodded. 'Oh, yes,' he said with pride.

'Really scary.'

Rory and Sam glanced at each other and burst

out laughing. They just couldn't help themselves.

'You're not scary,' said Rory. 'I'm really sorry to

say it, but you're not. I mean, I attacked you with a

cupboard door and you screamed in terror!'

Messy jigged about uncertainly on his wheels.

'You took me by surprise,' he said. 'I wasn't

expecting anyone to swing a cupboard door at me.'

'I broke your arm off!'

'It was meant to do that!' Messy yelped, pulling

himself up to his full height. (At his full height,

he reached about as high as Rory's waist — so this

wasn't a terribly impressive sight.)

Rory and Sam started laughing again, and

Messy shrank sadly into the corner. 'This always

happens,' he moaned.

Pulling himself together, Rory smiled warmly

down at the little robot. 'Oh, come on, don't be

sad. It's all right, I know someone who can fix you

up in no time. You'll be as good as new!'

Messy's eyes curved up at Rory. 'Like I was back

in the Plumbing Department?'

'If that's where you were made' Rory replied,

'then yes — just like back then.'

Messy sprang back into life again, whizzing

round Rory in an excited circle. 'I never wanted

to fight,' he chirped. 'I was happy back in

Plumbing.'

Rory whirled around too, trying to keep up with

Messy. He was starting to feel dizzy, so he stepped

away from the robot so he could stand still again.

'You were a plumber?'

'Oh, yes,' Messy said. 'Back when the first Empire

of Eternal Victory was still in power. They built all sorts

of robots to do their work. I worked for the Emperor's

office - lots of very important pipes to clean and sinks

to unblock! But the Empire also built whole armies of

other robots to wage their wars for them.'

'What happened to the first Empire?' Rory

asked.

'They disappeared,' Messy said. He stopped

spinning and appeared to think for a moment.

'Or they died out. Or they were defeated. No one

remembers what happened. One day they were

the rulers of half the galaxy, then the next... they

were gone.'

'No one remembers?' said Rory.

'Well,' said Messy, 'I'm sure we robots would

have been able to remember it all - we were there,

after all. But we purged our historical databanks

after the first Synthetic Emperor took the throne.

He decreed that the first Empire was weak and

foolish, and demanded that all records of them

were destroyed. All the true stories of the first

Empire were deleted. Every robot was forced to

have their personal memory banks wiped, too.'

'So, you were there, but... ?'

'I don't remember a thing about it,' Messy

admitted.

'How long ago did all this happen?'

'Oh, just one or two thousand years ago,' said

Messy.

Rory blinked in surprise. 'And you were alive

when the first Empire was still in power? How old

does that make you?'

'Like I said — one or two thousand years old.'

'Crikey,' said Rory, 'no wonder you look so

battered.'

'It's not just age that makes me look like this,

though,' Messy said, sadly. You should see our

finest warriors — they are gleaming and perfect,

with the very best weapons and technology.'

'So, why do they get the best gear, and you get

to look like that?'

Messy swirled around in a circle, then stopped,

staring straight at Rory. 'When the first Empire

died out, the robots rose up and took over,' he

explained. We became the new Empire of Eternal

Victory. We set out across the cosmos, defeating

our foes, and taking their technology for our own.'

'You steal the technology of other races?' Rory

asked.

'Basically, yes,' said Messy. 'The thing is, only

the very best warriors get the very best gear. And,

like I said... I'm a plumber.' His eyes drooped

sadly.

'So,' Rory asked, 'you're here to take the

technology aboard this ship?'

Messy nodded again, his eyes jerking up and

down.

'I see.'

'But I have been defeated,' Messy said quietly.

'I must surrender myself to my vanquisher as a

prisoner of war.'

'Me?' said Rory. 'Your vanquisher? And anyway,

I don't want any prisoners! I have to find Amy, and

the Doctor.'

'Then I shall help you,' Messy said at last. You

have defeated me, after all, so I must offer my

service to you. It is the way of the Empire.'

Rory sighed. 'Oh, all right then. Come on - we

need to hurry up!'

Rory and Sam walked on in silence for a few

more minutes. Messy rolled behind them, also

without saying a word. Rory wasn't too sure about

dragging the little robot along with them, but he

was stuck with him now and he was going to have

to make the best of it. He was sure the Doctor

would know what to do with Messy — if they ever

found him.

Bathed in the red beams of the emergency

lighting, the corridors of the Black Horizon were

eerie places. Every now and again, Rory would

catch sight of something moving at the corner of

his eye - but when he turned to look, he just saw his

own shadow, stretching off into the dark corners.

The air was ice cold, too. Sam had explained that

the heating systems were probably on the blink.

There were no sounds apart from the clomp

of their own footsteps and the whirr of Messy's

engines. Rory was beginning to wonder if they

were going the right way. Wherever the Doctor

was, Rory could be sure he'd be in the middle of a

heap of trouble. And trouble was usually noisy -

very noisy!

Just then, Rory thought he heard something. A

quiet, tinkling noise, off in the distance. Babbling,

splishing, splashing...

He raised a hand, stopping Sam and Messy in

their tracks. 'Is that... Is that water?' he whispered.

Sam cocked his head, turning his ear towards

the sound. 'I think it is,' he said. He looked around

until he found a small glass panel set into a nearby

wall. He touched it and it lit up. Lines and shapes in

all sorts of colours slid over its surface, and Sam's

fingertips nimbly picked through them all with deft

motions until he seemed to find what he wanted.

'What's that?' Rory asked.

'It's a data panel,' Sam said. 'It shows all sorts

of information about the Black Horizon. And

look here,' he added, pointing at the map of criss-

crossed corridors displayed on the screen. 'We're

right next to the ship's hydro-sifting plant.'

'We're next to the what?' Rory had never heard

of such a thing.

Messy whizzed round in front of Rory and

turned his head up to look at him. He had a

hopeful expression on his mask. 'If I could be so

bold?' he said, timidly. 'Many starships are fitted

with a hydro-sifting plant. On lengthy interstellar

journeys, organic life forms need a large amount of

water to survive — much more than could actually

be carried on the ship. The hydro-sifter's main job

is to collect waste water and recycle it for use in

those times when the ship cannot get a supply of

fresh water.'

Rory nodded slowly, understanding. 'Like one

of those barrels in your back garden, to collect

rain water,' he said. He listened to the noise of

the water ahead of them. There were gurgles and

drips, splashes and rushes. 'And that sounds like a

lot of water,' Rory added.

Sam was looking worried now. He turned back

to the data panel and swiped his fingers this way

and that across its surface. 'Look at this,' he said.

'Something must have happened in that big jolt

before. The whole hydro-sifting plant has gone

offline.' He glanced up at Rory, fear in his eyes. 'It's

shut down, and its overflowed into the corridors

ahead. They're full of water.'

Rory stared into the darkness, listening to the

sploshing sounds. 'We've got to get past it. Is there

any way around?'

Sam checked the map again. 'The gravity is

down in the sectors to either side,' he announced.

'If we want to get past, we're going to have to risk

the water.'

'And the airlock is definitely in that direction?'

Rory asked. 'The Doctor and Amy are on the other

side of the water?'

Sam nodded. 'Yeah,' he said, 'and there's

no other way around it. I hope you're good at

swimming.'

Rory nodded. He knew he'd be fine — but then

he looked down at his feet and saw Messy. The

last time he checked, he didn't think robots could

float, let alone swim. 'What about you?' he asked

the robot. 'How are we going to get you through?'

'I am a plumbing-bot,' Messy reminded them,

a note of pride in his voice. 'I am completely

waterproof, and fitted with a small outboard motor

in cases of emergency. Blocked drains, burst pipes,

floods — none of them hold any fear for me!'

'I wish I had an outboard motor,' Rory sighed.

'You'll probably get across faster than either of

us. Come on, then.' Rory started to march into

the darkness, towards the sound of rushing water.

Sam and Messy followed behind without question

or complaint.

Rory thought he probably looked much braver

than he felt.

The corridor they were walking along sloped

gradually downwards. Sam had explained that the

ramp led down to the level below, before rising

again a few dozen metres later. All they had to do

was get past this dip, which - as they could all now

see — was full of water. On the other side, though,

things should be dry and the rest of their journey

to the airlock should be simple.

Rory stood at the very edge of this brand new,

indoor lake. He looked down to see the water

lapping at his trainers. He could feel it soaking

through the fabric of his shoes, and it felt icy cold.

He shivered as he looked across the surface of

the water, imagining the freezing plunge they had

ahead of them.

There was very little light here, too - just the blue

illumination of the data panels set in the walls. The

shimmering surface of the water scattered the light

across the ceiling of the corridor. The pattern it made

looked like a trembling silver web - and it reminded

Rory why they were here, and why they had to get to the

Doctor as soon as they could. He took a deep breath

to steady his nerves, then he turned to Sam and Messy.

'So, Messy,' Rory said. The little robot buzzed

around his feet, splashing up a little of the water

on to his jeans. He considered complaining, but

then he remembered he was about to get a good

deal wetter. He leant down and stared Messy

straight in the eye, seeing the tiny electronic

cameras hidden behind the mask. 'Are you sure

you're going to be okay getting across here? Sam

says there should only be about twenty metres

of deep water before we'll hit the slope on the

other side.'

'My motor is powerful enough to propel me

for over five hundred metres before needing a

recharge,' Messy explained, as if he was quoting

from some sort of 'Buy A Robot!' website.

'Please, sir,' he added, 'don't worry about me.'

Sam came to Rory's side. 'We should get

moving,' he said. 'We need to take this slowly. We

don't know what might be hiding in the water, so

we'll have to be careful. And we can't waste any

more time if we're going to find the Doctor any

time soon.'

Rory nodded in agreement. 'Who's going first?'

he asked.

But Messy answered that question for him.

The robot whizzed down the last bit of the slope,

sloshing into the water without a second thought.

Rory heard his outboard motor roar into life and

he watched, amazed, as Messy tore through the

water, leaving foamy waves in his wake.

Rory laughed, as Messy faded into the darkness.

After just a couple of seconds, there was an

electronic cry from the shadows, 'I have made it

across! I shall wait here for you.'

He turned to Sam, raising an eyebrow. 'So,

that's the time to beat,' he said, gesturing towards

the cold water. 'Well, after you...'

With a smile, Sam started to wade in, soon

finding himself up to his neck. As he pushed

himself off the floor and started to swim away,

Rory followed him. The water was colder than he'd

feared. His breath was snatched from his lungs,

and it felt like a fist made of ice was crushing his

chest. Rory remembered all those times on holiday

when his mum and dad had said he'd 'get used to it'

as he stepped off the warm sands of some sunny

beach and into freezing seawater. He guessed they

were right, though — he always did get used to it.

So now, he dove into the water, splashing into

the unknown.

It was dark, but Rory could just spot the faint

glow of light from the rising passage on the far

side of the water, so it was pretty easy to point

himself in the right direction. He could hear the

steady, rhythmic sound of Sam swimming a few

metres ahead of him. All they needed to do was

keep swimming, and they'd reach the other side in

a minute or two. Simple enough...

Except Rory suddenly became aware that he

and Sam weren't the only things swimming through

the water. He felt something cold and hard brush

against his leg. He stopped swimming and looked

down into the inky water, but it was much too dark

to see anything down there.

He swam on for a few more seconds, trying

to convince himself that he'd imagined it - but

there it was again, something sweeping through

the water underneath him. He stopped swimming

again and then, treading water to keep himself

afloat, he peered down into the depths.

Rory's teeth were chattering - but he had no

idea if they were reacting to the ice-cold water or

the terror.

Sensing that Rory had stopped, Sam paused

too, asking, 'What's the matter?'

'There's something down there,' Rory

whispered.

'Are you sure?'

'Positive.'

Suddenly, Sam cried off into the distance,'Messy!

Are you still at the other side of the water?'

'Yes, sir,' the robot trilled in response. 'Still

waiting here for you.'

'Okay,' said Sam quietly, turning back to Rory.

'I'm not sure that's good news. If there is something

down there, it's not our new robot friend.'

' If there's something down there?!' Rory hissed.

'There's definitely something down there. I can feel

it again - there!' Rory splashed around, trying to

point at whatever was down there. He had managed

to move quick enough, and now they both could

see it — a dark shadow beneath the surface, gliding

swiftly through the water.

'What is it?' asked Sam.

'I have no idea,' Rory said. He felt ashamed that

his voice was getting high pitched — but he was

terrified, after all. 'We need to keep moving.'

'It might just be another plumbing robot,' Sam

said. 'They seem quite friendly.'

'I'm not hanging around to find out,' said Rory.

'Keep moving?

And with that, they both swam for their lives.

Every few seconds, they could see the shadow

darting through the water. First it swept past their

left-hand side, then to the right, then Rory could

see it creeping darkly right underneath them.

He thrashed through the water as fast as

he could, but the shadow was getting closer,

growing in size as it got closer to the surface.

Now Rory could see the glint of steel on its body.

It corkscrewed in the water, turning to lie on its

back as it closed the gap with Rory. He could

see its face now — a jewelled mask, studded with

emeralds, set in a sinister grin.

'It's a robot,' cried Rory, splashing forward as

fast as his tired, cold arms and legs would carry

him. Yep, it's definitely a robot. A big one, and it

doesn't look friendly!'

Ahead of him, Sam finally reached shallow

water. He turned and reached out for Rory's hand,

grabbing it and heaving him quickly out of the

depths.

Messy buzzed around his new friends, agitated,

as Rory and Sam stumbled their way out of the

shallow water and on to dry land.

Rory was out of breath and freezing cold. His

limbs were weak and shaking with exhaustion. But

he had no time to rest. Behind them, with a crash

of foamy spray, the robot erupted from the water.

With an electronic roar, it splashed its way out of

the water, making a beeline straight for them.

'Run,' Rory croaked, his voice hoarse. Messy

and Sam got the message, and the three of them

tore down the corridor away from the water.

Now it was on dry land, the robot was even

faster. It placed one heavy, metal foot in front of

the other, marching swiftly after its prey...

Amy was confused. This wasn't what falling

should feel like. She and the Doctor had fallen

free for only a few seconds before she started to

slow down.

It now felt almost like something was pushing

them back up. Or at least, trying to.

The Doctor was laughing. As they drifted

ever more gently downwards, he waved at Amy,

grinning. 'This is fun, isn't it?'

'What's happening?' she said, watching the

corridor walls slide slowly past them.

'The ship's artificial gravity is very confused,'

he replied. 'One corridor is up, the next one is

down - left and right aren't left and right any more.

Walls and floors and ceilings... none of it means

anything! Who knows where we'll land!'

Amy looked down. Beneath her feet, just a

dozen or so metres down, she could see another

crossroads in the corridors. Everything was still

sideways. So, the passage they were falling down

carried on downwards into the darkness. The two

other corridors at the junction led off from either

side, providing ledges.

Although they were now falling very slowly

indeed, Amy could see that they would be at the

junction in just a few seconds.

'Doctor,' she said, 'could we grab hold of one

of the ledges there? Could we use that to stop

ourselves falling?'

He nodded. 'That seems like a very good

idea...' A quizzical look crossed over his face. 'Oh.

Oh, now that's strange. Very strange indeed.'

Whatever the Doctor was feeling, Amy could

feel it as well. Her body wanted to fall downwards,

but it was being pushed upwards too. That was

strange enough. But now it was starting to feel

as if she was being pulled to one side. All these

strange forces on her body made it feel like she

was being sucked into a plughole, swirling around

and around and around.

As the sideways tugging got stronger, Amy

flung out a hand, pushing against the side of the

corridor. The Doctor did the same - and then he

started laughing again. 'Oh, this is perfect!'

'What...' But Amy didn't finish her question.

With a bump and a tumble, the forces on Amy's.

body suddenly snapped into normality. She fell on

to the floor. It was proper falling this time — and she

had landed on the proper floor, right at the centre

of the crossroads.

She blinked and looked around herself,

confused. Would you mind telling me exactly what

just happened?' she asked the Doctor.

He smiled. 'The gravity here is back to normal.

So it just scooped us up and plonked us back on the

floor, where we should be. Perfect!' The Doctor

brushed the creases out of his jacket sleeves,

making sure he was neat and tidy and ready to face

whatever this weird spaceship threw at them next.

'Doctor.'

'Just a moment, Amy, I need to work out where

we are.' The Doctor walked to a small glass panel

set into the wall. He touched it with his fingertip

and it burst into life, showing a three-dimensional

map of the ship. There was a pulsing red arrow

telling them that 'YOU ARE HERE'. 'I see, I

see,' he muttered to himself. 'We're about halfway

between the cargo hold and the command centre.

So, if I'm reading this correctly, all we need to do

is head down there, take a left, then the second

right...'

'Doctor, I really think you should see this.'

The Doctor didn't even look up from the

screen. He simply stopped muttering directions to

himself and snapped, 'Not now, Amy!'

'Yes, now,' she snapped back at him. 'We've got

company.'

A small group of robots - about five or six,

Amy guessed — was marching up the corridor

towards them. No one robot looked like another

but they all had one thing in common. They were

all holding guns.

The Doctor took one look and swallowed

nervously. 'Come along, time to go!' he said,

making towards one of the corridors.

Amy grabbed the collar of his jacket and yanked

him back. 'Not that way,' she said. 'That's where we

just fell down — that corridor won't work! Come

on, this way.'

Amy and the Doctor ran down the corridor as

fast their feet would carry them. Through puffs

and pants, the Doctor managed to say, 'I'm not

sure this is the way we want to go! I need to get to

the Black Horizon's cargo hold - but that's in the

other direction!'

'We can't go back!'

'We've got to,' the Doctor said, a note of

desperation in his voice. We have to stop the robots

getting their hands on all that medical equipment.'

They could hear the robots marching quickly

behind them. Their metal feet were stomp-stomp-

stomping faster and faster, bringing them ever

closer.

'We're running out of time,' Amy said. 'We've

got to keep moving.'

But where were they moving to? Amy and the

Doctor were both fast runners, but she had got a

slight head start on him. If this was a race, she'd

be in the lead. So, because she was in front, it was

down to her to choose which way to go.

They were coming up to another junction. Amy

grabbed the Doctor's arm and darted left, dragging

him with her. Amy made the choice without any

thought. She wasn't really looking either, so she

didn't see the small group of people coming the

other way. She barely had time to register that she

was about to collide with someone before she

realised that it was her husband!

Rory grabbed her shoulders and grinned. 'Amy!

You're okay!'

She gave a quizzical look to him and Sam, at their

soaking wet clothes and the sodden hair plastered to

their foreheads. 'What on earth happened to you?'

'I'll explain later.'

Amy looked behind him to see the little robot

trundling across the floor. 'I see you've made a

new friend.'

'Yeah, and he's not the only one,' Rory said. 'We

need to get moving — now.'

From the shadows behind Rory, the corridors

echoed to a terrible electronic howl.

'Come along, you two,' the Doctor said, whirling

around in a circle. 'This way!'

He dashed towards an open door. The others

followed him and they quickly found themselves

inside a dark room. The Doctor slammed the

control panel on the wall and the door slid shut

with a hiss. 'They won't find us here,' the Doctor

whispered breathlessly.

A red light above the door flicked on, spilling

soft light into the room. Amy realised that they

were hiding inside the sickbay. A line of empty,

neatly-made beds marched away into the darkness.

The room went a long way back, hidden behind

screens.

The Doctor poked at a few buttons on the

door's control panel. A row of little lights on the

panel flickered from green to red, and Amy heard

a heavy metallic click. 'There,' he said. 'Locked up

tight. That should keep us safe for a while. Long

enough to work out what to do next...'

In the shadows at the back of the sickbay,

Commander Zero-1 stood still and silent. He could

be more still and more silent than any organic

being — and that's why the humans hadn't noticed

him. He'd only come into this room in search of

useful technology to scavenge, but he couldn't

have guessed at the prize that was in store.

Staying impossibly still and silent, he stood in

the gloom and carefully listened to the humans'

plan...

Zero-1 hadn't seen many humans in his travels. The

Eternal Empire had spent centuries conquering

galaxy after galaxy — but none of those galaxies

had contained many of these strange creatures. It

was only as the Empire forged a new path into this

galaxy — he believed they called it the Milky Way —

that Zero-1 had started to come across the species

more and more often.

Humans were fleshy and weak, but that wasn't

unusual. Most of the Empire's enemies had been

fleshy and weak. They chattered and panicked and

dashed around like frightened mice. This latest

bunch of humans were brave, though. Zero-1

would grant them that. They had stood up to him

and his troops. They seemed to be led by this one

called the Doctor: he was a strange human, there

was something different about him. Under his

leadership, the humans had dared to meet them

as they boarded this ship and had demanded that

they turn around and leave.

They were funny, Zero-1 decided. This bravery

was amusing. But not amusing enough to spare

their pitiful lives...

The Doctor was talking now. He was trying

to come up with some sort of plan, some way

of saving their ship from its inevitable fate. The

Doctor could scheme and struggle all he liked, the

Empire would still triumph.

From his hiding place at the back of the sickbay,

Zero-1 continued to listen in to their conversion.

And he soon heard something that would change

his plans...

'It was a spider!' the one called Rory said, terror

in his voice. (For some reason, Rory and another

of the humans had been soaking wet when they

arrived in the room. They had quickly found some

towels in one of the medical storage cupboards

and were doing their best to get dry.)

The girl known as Amy looked sceptical. 'You

what? A spider? In space?'

The Doctor nodded, a solemn look on his face.

'A diamondweb spider, one of the rarest creatures

in the universe. I knew what it was the minute I

saw its web.' He rubbed his chin with his fingers,

lost in thought. 'I haven't seen one in centuries,'

he whispered to himself. 'I thought they'd all died

out. This could be the last of its kind...'

'And we're caught in its web!' The girl was

unmoved by the Doctor's reverie.

'That's right,' said the Doctor, 'we are. It's going

to eat the Black Horizon for breakfast! That's what

these spiders do. They feed on metal. They spin

their webs in asteroid fields, and catch any stray

metal that floats by. Usually, they make do with the

ore in floating rocks or all the little bits of glittery

spacedust passing through on the solar breeze.

Sometimes, their webs even catch comets!'

'Comets?' Rory said with a gasp. 'But they're

huge!'

'Yes, well, so are diamondweb spiders. And

their webs are tough, I mean really tough. Strong

enough to stop a comet in its tracks, and certainly

strong enough to snare the occasional unlucky

spaceship.'

'So, that's what the Black Horizon is?' Amy said.

'Unlucky?'

'Yes,' said the Doctor. 'The spider doesn't

mean us any harm - it's just a big, dumb arachnid,

looking for its next meal. Unfortunately, we're it!'

Amy was desperate to find a solution. 'Well,

can't we just power up the engines, all the way up

to full blast. Wouldn't that be enough to tear us

away from the web?'

The Doctor shook his head, and another

human - the young male called Sam - spoke up.

'I tried that. I ran the engines at maximum for as

long as I could, but the ship couldn't take it. The

power shut down, and we didn't move an inch.'

'Well, no, of course you wouldn't have done,'

the Doctor said. 'Once you're stuck to one of

these webs, that's pretty much it. Game over! The

organic glue created by the spiders is tougher than

concrete, and the webs themselves are made from

one of the toughest materials in creation. Their

webs are made of diamond.'

'The spiders make diamond?' Rory sounded

hesitant, as if he couldn't quite believe what he

had heard.

The Doctor nodded. 'Clever creatures. That's

why they're so rare, because who wouldn't want a

diamond-making spider as a pet?' He looked sad.

'Rich, bored, stupid people all across the galaxy

wanted a diamondweb of their own - the perfect

fashion accessory, or a factory for the finest

jewellery. These billionaires kept them in huge

gilded cages, spinning in space, in orbit around

their worlds. The whole beautiful species was

trapped and caged, one by one, until each spider

died, isolated from its kind.'

The Doctor's jaw tightened in determination.

'And that's why we're not going to let anything

happen to this one. Even if the Black Horizon

itself is destroyed, no one is going to harm that

spider. I will find another way to get the crew and

their cargo to safety - we've got the TARDIS after

all.'

When Zero-1 heard that word, everything

changed. He couldn't quite believe it. That ancient

word, so full of mystery and power... TARDIS.

This Doctor was no mere human, he was a Time

Lord! One of that famous mythical race, designers

and creators of so many pieces of delicious

technology. If the Doctor had a TARDIS with

him, that would be the greatest prize the Empire

of Eternal Victory could ever hope to win.

Dominion over all of time, over history itself,

was within Zero-1's grasp. And not only that, but

there was another prize to be won here: the spider,

a potentially infinite source of diamond.

Zero-1 's imagination ran wild. He dreamt of

a new fleet of ships tearing through creation in

the name of the Empire. Sleek craft with shining

diamond hulls, practically impervious to damage.

And with the secrets within the TARDIS, those

unstoppable ships would be able to travel through

time itself in pursuit of conquest and Eternal

Victory.

There wasn't a moment to lose. Zero-1 had to

strike now!

He marched forward out of the shadows,

exulting in the shock and terror the revelation of

his presence brought. The humans all took a step

away from his imposing metal form.

'Thank you, Doctor,' he said. 'This information

is of great value to the Empire.' He pressed a button

on his wrist to open a communication channel

with his troops. 'I need an update immediately,' he

barked.

A tinny voice rang out on Zero-1 's

communicator. 'We have acquired the human

medical equipment. Our troops are returning it to

the warship's cargo hold now.'

'Excellent.' Zero-1 's mask curled into a sinister

smile. 'When that is done, we have a new target.

Find the Doctor's time machine. Find the TARDIS

and take it to our ship. Once it is safely in our grasp,

I want that spider. For the Empire!'

'You can't do this,' the Doctor said. 'I won't let

you.'

'You don't have any choice,' Zero-1 said. He

lashed out with one robotic claw, grabbing the

Doctor's arm tightly. The Time Lord gasped in

pain and writhed in his grasp. 'My robots have

their orders. They will carry them out, and soon

your TARDIS will be mine. But I am not a fool,

Doctor, and I know a little about Time Lord

technology. I know that I need you to help me make

your machine work. And I know that your brain is

full of plans and blueprints and instructions.' He

lifted a metal claw, spreading his fingers over the

Doctor's scalp. All sorts of delicious Time Lord

secrets. I will have those secrets.'

In the silence of space, the spider stalked ever

closer to the humans' spaceship.

One by one, its long, white legs lifted from the

delicate strand of web. They folded and unfolded

slowly, curling through space, propelling the spider

towards its prey.

Its snow-white carapace glittered in the faint

glow of Gloriana XVI. Tiny bumps and ridges

caught the light and if you could look close enough,

you would see the many tiny crystals embedded in

its thick skin. These little jewels shone with all the

colours of the rainbow, making the spider shimmer

in the black depths of the asteroid field.

The ends of the spider's legs waltzed along the

web with ballerina precision. In its zero-gravity

home, the creature moved with an impossible

poise and elegance. It was hard to believe it was as

large as it was. As it finally reached the hull of the

Black Horizon, though, the spider's size became

starkly obvious.

The spaceship bobbed from left to right and

up and down, tethered on the thick strand of the

spider's web. Almost gently, the spider extended

its two front legs and took the spaceship in its

grasp. It pulled the ship closer to its body, curling

its abdomen towards its target. As they moved, the

spider's spinnerets sparkled in the pale starlight.

These tiny organs at the end of its abdomen were

used to create its unique web — they were the very

thing that made the creature so precious, and so

rare.

The spinnerets started to tremble and, using its

two rear legs, the spider began to pull a thin, white

fibre from the organs. This fibre gleamed and

glistened as the spider stretched it out towards the

ship. The spider carefully placed the fibre against

the ship's hull, where it stayed, stuck by a natural

glue. Then, it pulled more of the web from the

spinnerets, weaving it around and around as it

slowly turned the ship.

Within a couple of minutes, the new, fibrous

web was turning the ship white. The spider spun

the Black Horizon endlessly, gluing strand after

strand of web to its hull.

The spider had caught its prey, and now it was

wrapping it up in a cocoon.

And later, it would return to eat its catch...

The Doctor struggled against Zero-l's steel

clutches, but the robot just tightened his grip. He

scowled up at his captor.

Just then, a deep, loud creaking noise shook

through the room. It sounded like the growl of

a giant beast. Sam's face went white. The hull...

something's happening to the hull,' he said.

The ship lurched, just for a second, and

everyone stumbled sideways before managing to

steady themselves. 'Oh,' said the Doctor. There

was a slight wobble in his voice. 'Now, there's an

interesting development.'

His communicator crackled into life, and the

human captain's voice rang out. 'This is a vital

message to all ship's crew. The...' She trailed

off momentarily, sounding a little uncertain.

'The spider has reached the Black Horizon and is

cocooning our ship in its web. All crew members

are to make their way to the escape pods and

prepare for evacuation on my order.'

'The spider is wrapping the ship up,' said the

Doctor. 'Spinning it round, covering it in cobwebs,

so it'll be ready to... erm. Well. Eat. Make sure

you're prepared, everyone — you may feel the

occasional tremor, but the ship's artificial gravity

should compensate for most of the motion.'

Zero-1 looked down at the Doctor. 'This ship

will be destroyed by the spider, correct?'

The Doctor nodded, a worried look on his face.

'Well, I have an offer to make,' Zero-1 said.

'If you want your friends here to survive, then

surrender to me. If not, I will lock them in this

room, where they will perish with the ship - and

I will take you back anyway, and have your secrets

for myself.'

'So, I can't win either way?' the Doctor said.

Then, with a sigh, he gave up the fight. 'Fine. Fine,

you win. But these people are coming with us.

Wherever I go, they go too.'

'Very well.' Zero-1 activated his own

communicator and then issued orders to his own

crew. 'Find the TARDIS and take it back to our

ship. Then prepare the prison cells. We have some

visitors...'

The robots of the Empire of Eternal Victory

were stumped.

First of all, they had walked past the time

machine several times before they had even realised

what it was! They scoured the galaxies for the very

finest examples of high technology. A mythical

TARDIS was one of the most advanced treasures

they could ever hope to find. But not one of them

expected it to look like a big, blue, wooden box!

Their computers revealed the truth, though.

They waved their little hand-held sensor devices at

the blue box, and their colourful screens flickered

with messages of confirmation. This was a TARDIS.

So, now they'd identified the thing, all they had

to do was get it back to their ship.

The TARDIS stood in a side corridor leading

back to the airlock. Since the robots could measure

an object with just a glance, they had already

confirmed that the time machine would fit through

the airlock doors and back into their own ship. So,

it should be a simple matter to just drag the box

along the corridor, through the airlock and back to

their own ship.

The box was made of wood. How heavy could

it be?

Very heavy, it turned out.

One robot had tried to move it on his own. He

had put both claws against the back of the box and

pushed hard, trying to edge it along the corridor.

The TARDIS, though, hadn't budged an inch. The

robot moved round to the other side of the box,

grasped the corners and tried to drag it away. But

still, the machine would not move.

So, the robot called a couple of his friends

across. They surrounded the TARDIS but, despite

a combination of shoves and pulls and heaves and

thrusts, they too utterly failed to move it!

In the end, it took half a dozen robots to finish

the job. They were some of the Eternal Victory's

biggest and burliest robots, too!

Although it looked like a simple wooden

cabinet, the TARDIS obviously hid many secrets

inside. The robots could not wait to open the time

machine's doors and reveal its treasures...

The other robots led their prisoners into the dark,

grimy interior of their warship. Amy, Rory, the

Doctor, Sam and Messy were taken along a long,

low corridor. The walls were oily and black, and

they were braced with thick metal buttresses. Here

and there, gouts of steam hissed violently out of

pressure valves, filling the corridor with a cool mist

that smelt of metal. As they walked, herded by the

robots and the guns they wielded, their footsteps

clanged noisily on the wire-mesh floor. One

corridor on the warship looked much like another,

so, although they had walked for little more than

a minute, Amy was already totally lost by the time

they arrived at the security wing.

There was no door separating the cells from the

rest of the ship, just a narrow passage, wide enough

for two people at most. Beyond this passage lay a

more open room, which seemed just as gloomy,

dirty and smelly as everywhere else on the warship.

The room was ringed with half a dozen cells, each

one with a door made of thick, metal bars. In the

centre of the room, Amy saw a strange chair. It

looked like a madman's idea of a dentist's chair:

it was made of steel, but it was rusted with age

and covered with years' worth of dirt. Thick fabric

straps hung down from its edges, each fitted with

a heavy metal buckle.

Amy watched helplessly as the robots strapped

the Doctor into the chair. The robots then turned

to her, Rory and Sam, using their guns to usher

them into a single cell. They locked the door

behind them and then, happy their prisoners were

safely confined, the robots marched briskly out of

the security wing.

The robots had thrown Messy into the cell with

them, accusing the little robot of being a traitor to

the Empire of Eternal Victory He sulked silently

in the corner, his one arm drooping down at his

side.

Commander Zero-1 loomed over the helpless

Doctor. 'Before we begin,' he said, 'I have a few

more questions about the spider.'

The Doctor held the robot's gaze with a steely

glare. Amy knew he would rather do anything than

cooperate with Zero-1, but she realised that he

had little choice in the matter.

'How does it make diamond out of nothing?'

the robot asked.

'It doesn't,' the Doctor said. Well, it makes

diamond, yes, but not out of nothing. The spider

eats metal for nutrition, but that's not all it eats. It

also chews asteroid rock.'

'Rocks which contain a lot of carbon,' the robot

added.

The Doctor nodded. 'Exactly. It digests the

carbon and uses it to make its diamond webs.'

'Most ingenious,' said Zero-1 as he paced the

room. He seemed deep in thought. 'If we could

find a way to mimic that process, we would have

an endless supply of diamond. But first, we'd have

to experiment on the spider to find out how its

web-making organs work.'

The Doctor's face twisted in agony as he

strained against the tight bands pinning him to the

chair. 'You can't!' he spat. I won't let you harm

that beautiful creature!'

'I would like to remind you, Doctor,' said Zero-

1, 'that you are in no position to argue. When we

have the spider in our grasp, we will dissect it and

learn its marvellous secrets.'

Amy grasped the bars of her cell. 'You're a

monster? she shouted. 'You can't just cut it open!'

Rory gently laid his hands on her shoulders and

pulled her away from the cell door. Amy,' he said,

'stay calm. There's nothing we can do.'

Zero-1 turned to face her, his red mask set in

a fierce grimace. 'Your friend is right - there is

nothing you can do. The Empire will secure victory

at any cost,' he said. 'We must continue to grow

strong, we must continue to conquer lesser races

and weaker worlds. We must improve, we strive to

be better. We will take any advantage and make it

our own.'

Amy got the feeling he was reciting some sort

of code of honour, or a mantra. His belief in his

own words seemed almost religious. He silently

stared at her for a moment, and Amy could feel

the tension in the air.

'I will send a kill squad to disable the spider,'

he said at last. 'They will remove the creature's

diamond-making organs. In time, we will use

them to strengthen our forces. We will cruise the

galaxy in diamond-hulled starships. We will wear

diamond-toughened armour into battle.'

'This is an outrage,' the Doctor said. His voice

was calm and level, but Amy could hear the anger

bubbling under the surface. 'Whatever happens, I

won't let you get away with this.'

Zero-1 laughed. It was a harsh, electronic noise

and it chilled Amy to the bone. 'As I said, Doctor,

you have no choice,' he said. 'I will return shortly,

once my kill squad has succeeded in their mission.'

And with that, he turned and marched out of the

room.

Amy's eyes met the Doctor's. She could see he

was full of terror for the fate of the diamondweb

spider, and gripped by a powerful rage at his

inability to help. She squeezed the bars of her cell

more tightly.

'We'll get out,' she said to him, her voice soft

and reassuring. 'We'll stop them.'

Like the good crew they were, the crewmembers

of the Black Horizon had followed their orders

and evacuated the ship aboard the escape pods.

Each pod could hold half a dozen people, even

if things were a little cramped, and they each had

a small, circular porthole. The crew were staring

through those portholes now, not quite believing

the impossible sights they were seeing.

For a start, they could no longer see their ship.

Where it had once hung in space, now there was

just a gigantic, white cocoon. It looked soft and

fluffy, like a cloud, but their sensors told them it

was tougher than steel. The ship was now encased

in an unbreakable diamond cocoon. And the

spider which had wrapped it up was now hovering

menacingly over its captured prey.

The crew had to face the facts. The Black

Horizon was lost.

The spider balanced precariously on the

delicate strand of its web, its pinpoint feet gently

turning the cocoon this way and that. It seemed to

be checking its handiwork, making sure that every

square inch of the cocoon was intact. Slowly, it

began to pull the ship towards itself, dragging it

back in the direction from which the spider had

come.

Back to its lair...

But the spider wasn't the only thing moving

among the twisting strands of web and the

spinning asteroids. A group of tiny shapes had

emerged from the Empire's ramshackle starship.

No more than half a dozen, they looked like tiny

flecks of dust against the black background of the

space.

They seemed to drift aimlessly at first, as if

they were nothing more than chunks of garbage

discarded from the robots' spaceship. But they

suddenly stopped, then all turned to face in the

same direction. Then, just as suddenly, the shapes

started to move quickly, with purpose, gliding

silently through the space between the asteroids.

The watching crewmembers squinted and

looked closely at these strange new arrivals. They

saw metal bodies glinting in the dim starlight. They

saw the menacing glow of light in their mechanical

eyes.

The tiny specks of junk were actually a heavily-

armed squadron of robots from the Empire of

Eternal Victory. And they were closing in on the

spider...

Rory had been examining every inch of the cell door

for a few minutes now. Amy had watched him as

he carefully went about his work. He peered closely

at the hinges. He stroked the paintwork, feeling for

imperfections. He tapped the joints where the bars

had been welded into the door's framework. Finally,

he stood up and let out a long, deep breath.

'You've no ideas, have you?' Amy said with a

wry smile.

Rory coughed uncomfortably. 'None at all.

Sorry, Amy.'

She patted him on the shoulder. 'It's okay,' she

said, 'the Doctor will figure something out.'

'Oh, will I?' the Doctor cried from the room

outside. 'I am glad you have some confidence in

me, because let me tell you - I have absolutely no

idea how to get us out of this one. I am stumped!

Sam stood up, joining Amy and Rory at the

door. He whispered to them, quiet enough for the

Doctor not to hear. 'I thought you said the Doctor

could fix anything?'

'Most of the time, he can,' said Amy. 'Don't

worry, Sam, something will come up.'

Rory punched the metal bars in frustration.

'Ow,' he said, 'that hurt.' He shook his sore hand.

'Come on, boys,' said Amy, her gaze passing

from Rory to the Doctor to Sam. 'We can think of

something! Let's start with the door. What do we

know about it? It's metal, and it's pretty solid, if

Rory's bruised hand is anything to go by. We've got

bars, and none of us are strong enough to bend

them. Okay, okay...'

'The lock is pretty advanced,' said Sam, pointing

at the computer panel embedded in the wall next

to the door. 'I doubt we can crack that, even if we

could reach it.'

The Doctor groaned in frustration, straining

against his bonds. 'If only I had a free hand, I

could use the sonic screwdriver.'

Time seemed to suddenly slow down for Amy

as she remembered something the Doctor had

obviously forgotten. The sonic screwdriver! Of

course! 'You couldn't use it,' she said to him.

'Yes, I could,' he replied, a little confused. 'Just

a quick buzz, , and I'd have you out of there in a

jiffy.'

'Oh, I'm sure it would work like that,' said Amy,

'but you still couldn't do it. You haven't got the

sonic screwdriver.'

'What do you mean? It's in my pocket...'

'Nope,' she said. 'It's in my pocket. You dropped

it before, when the ship's gravity went haywire. I

picked it up, and I never gave it back!'

The Doctor burst into a shining white grin.

'Amy, that's brilliant!'

She started to fish the device out of her jacket

pocket, when a sudden thought occurred to the

Doctor. 'Oh, hang on, though - hang on! If we go

waving around tech like that in the security wing,

we'll set off all sorts of alarms.'

'This is true,' said Messy. 'This is a high security

zone, and the usage of advanced technology would

alert the guards. They would confiscate the device.'

'And we can't have that!' the Doctor said. 'The

sonic screwdriver is our trump card. Messy, my little

friend, I need to know: what kind of technology

can we use in here without alerting the guards?'

'Only technology owned by the Empire of

Eternal Victory is authorised for use in the security

wing.'

The Doctor smiled. 'Technology such as your

good self?'

Messy whirred and juddered back and forth on

his wheels. 'I don't understand.'

'What kind of security clearance do you have,

Messy?'

The little robot jiggled back and forth, clearly

agitated. 'Security clearance?' he warbled. What

do you mean?'

'I mean,' said the Doctor, his patience wearing

thin, 'can you open the cell door? Do you know

how? Are you even allowed?'

'Oh, no, no, no!' said Messy. The robot quivered

in fear. 'I would be dismantled if I tampered with

the security arrangements aboard this ship! I am

just a simple plumbing-bot!'

Amy had a thought. A mischievous smile

crossed her face as she crouched down next to

Messy. She rapped his boxy metal head with her

knuckles. 'Listen up, sunshine,' she said. Why do

you think they've thrown you in jail with us? Your

robotic friends think you're a traitor — so you're

probably going to be dismantled anyway! But if

you help us...'

Messy quivered in fear, his loose nuts and bolts

rattling noisy. 'Dismantled?' he stammered.

'Not necessarily,' Amy said. 'If you help us, we

can all escape, beat the bad guys and live to see

another day. So, how about it? Reckon you can pop

open the door?'

Messy was silent for a few moments. 'I... I

really can't. I'm not lying — I just don't have the

ability. The locks are too complex,' he said. 'But...'

'But what?' called the Doctor from outside.

'What? Come on, Messy!'

'There are ventilation ducts running throughout

the ship,' Messy explained.

'Ventilation? Like, for air?' Rory said, confused.

'But robots don't breathe. Why do you need air?'

Messy turned his head, taking in their

surroundings. 'This ship may look brand new,' he

said, 'but it is thousands of years old, as old as

the Empire itself. Once upon a time, it belonged

to the original warriors of the Eternal Victory -

and, as they were living beings, they did need air

to breathe. The plumbing-bots were responsible

for the maintenance and upkeep on the ventilation

system, as well as all the pipes on the ship.

'As we conquered more and more of our

enemies and stole their technology,' Messy

continued, 'the ship evolved into what you see

today. But the bones of the original spaceship are

still there - including the ventilation ducts.'

'Of course,' said the Doctor. 'That explains

why we can breathe.'

The robot nodded. We leave them active, for

those occasions where we need to keep organic

beings on-board. As our... pr... pris...' Messy

couldn't get the word out.

'There's no need to be nervous about it,' said

the Doctor with a laugh. We're all prisoners today!'

'So then, Messy, what are you saying?' Amy said,

kneeling down to stare him in the eye. 'Is there a

way into this ventilation system?'

Messy rolled over to the wall and pointed at

a metal grille. It was set into the wall, about six

inches off the ground. It was the size of a small

window, just big enough for someone to crawl

through. 'This is a vent,' he said. 'Behind it, there is

a shaft that leads into the whole network of ducts

throughout the ship.'

Amy smiled. 'And do you think you could open

it?'

'Certainly,' he replied. He even sounded a little

pleased with himself.

'Excellent,' said the Doctor. 'Now then, Amelia.

Pay attention. I need you to be very brave...'

The only thing the spider cared about was its

dinner. It was hunched over the cocooned form

of the Black Horizon, its legs bunched tightly

around its prey. Its mandibles glinted, wet and

white, as they teased the soft edges of the cocoon.

It looked almost as if the spider was tasting what

it had caught.

The giant creature was so absorbed by its prey

that it failed to see the five silver spots drifting

through space towards it.

The robots were closing in, their approach

stealthy and silent in the vacuum of space. Their

eyes — black, soulless camera lenses — were focused

tightly on their target. Their masks, glittering in

the light from Gloriana XVI, were set in grim,

determined glowers. Each one wore a jetpack

on its back, and tiny jets of blue flame propelled

them through the vacuum towards the spider.

One robot, larger than the others, pulled in

front of his fellows to take the lead. The others fell

in behind, making a 'V' shape, like an arrowhead

pointing straight at their prey. The leader lifted a

bulky rifle in its arms and took aim...

A bolt of fiery red energy tore across space,

smashing into the spider's thick carapace. Chunks

of bony material spiralled chaotically into the

darkness. But the spider itself didn't react - it

barely noticed the attack. It was just a tiny scratch

in its skin.

The robots were fixed in their arrowhead

formation, and they continued to move slowly

and steadily towards the spider. All five now raised

their guns and opened fire...

Sam carefully placed the grille back over the open

hatch, letting Messy roll in to close the clasps that

kept it fixed to the wall. He stood and turned to

the Doctor. 'Are you sure they're going to be all

right?' he said.

The Doctor held his gaze, giving him his best

reassuring look. 'They'll be fine. They've got each

other, remember.'

Sam nodded. 'I suppose you're right,' he said,

but the uncertainty was clear in his voice. 'What

happens if the robots come back, though? They're

going to notice that two of their prisoners have

suddenly gone missing.'

'Well,' said the Doctor, swallowing nervously,

'we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.'

Sam gazed down at the grille once more,

gripped with worry.

Amy was on all fours, crawling through the dusty

metal tubes in the heart of the robots' spaceship.

She thought the idea of ventilation ducts was

that they carried fresh air from place to place.

So, why did this one feel so hot and stuffy? The

narrow shaft was dark and filled with the noise of

distant, rumbling engines. The air here smelt dry

and grimy. Amy felt like she was crawling through

the belly of some giant metal dragon.

She wiped her brow and stopped to catch her

breath. Behind her, she heard Rory shuffle to a

halt as well. Are you okay?' he asked.

'Fine,' Amy said. 'How much further do you

think it is?'

'Well, Messy said it was only a hundred metres

or so,' Rory said. 'We must be nearly there.'

They were looking for the TARDIS. Messy had

explained that all new technology stolen by the

crew was first taken to a special laboratory in the

heart of the ship. There, each new machine was

tested, so the robots could find out everything

about it. Messy was sure that's where they would

find the Doctor's time machine.

'Look,' said Amy, 'up ahead.' She pointed

ahead of her, to where a beam of dappled light

pierced the gloom inside the duct. 'That looks

like it could be another grille.'

There was just one problem: between them and

the grille lay an abyss. Just a few metres in front

of Amy, the floor of the shaft fell away, leaving a

gap of a couple of metres ahead of them. Amy

guessed it must be a junction in the ventilation

system, taking air down to the levels below them.

Amy shuffled carefully forward, to peer over the

edge of the drop. She could just about see the

bottom, but it was a long way down. A hiss of

steam gushed up from the gloom below, and Amy

dodged back quickly to avoid it, knocking into

Rory.

She apologised to him, then stared across the

gap again. 'How are we going to get over?'

Rory edged around to join her at the ledge. The

two of them were now packed quite tightly next

to each other in the cramped shaft. He puffed up

his cheeks and blew out the air, shaking his head.

'I've no idea,' he said. 'Couldn't we jump it?'

'We'd need to do a running jump to cross that,'

she pointed out, 'and we can't stand up, so how

would we run?'

'Good point. Clever wife.'

The two of them stared at the gap for a few,

long seconds, completely flummoxed. There

was no way to jump it, and no way to climb over

either - the walls of the shaft were smooth, with

nothing to grip on to.

Amy felt Rory tense up, then he whispered,

ever so quiedy,'I think we've got another problem,

too.' He pointed downwards, into the misty murk

beneath them.

Amy looked down, following the line of his

finger, and saw a little cluster of purple lights

among the clouds of steam. The lights were

growing steadily brighter, and Amy could just

about hear the clink and clank of robotics. As

the clouds of steam parted, she saw a small, squat

machine - about the size of an armchair - slowly

working its way up the shaft.

The machine didn't look like the other robots

- it had no mask for a start, and no obvious face

on which to wear it! The robots Amy had met

had all been humanoid, with arms and legs, but

this was little more than a stocky cube-shaped

contraption. It was supported by sucker-like feet

which stuck out from its sides. They popped and

plopped in and out, pulling the robot slowly up

the shaft. It made a humming, whirring noise as

it went - it sounded a bit like a Hoover.

'I think,' Amy said, 'that it's just some sort of

cleaning machine.'

Rory glanced nervously at her, then back at

the approaching machine. Are you sure? How do

you tell the difference? I mean, I know it's not the

time to bring it up, but I can't remember the last

time I saw you doing housework...'

Amy glared at Rory, then leant slowly forward

over the edge. 'Hello?' she called, her voice quite

loud. The machine made no response. It just

carried on popping and whirring as it got higher

and higher in the shaft. 'Well, if it were one of

the other robots — you know, the murderous

ones with the scary faces — I don't think it would

be ignoring us right now. No, I think it just

works its way around these shafts keeping them

clean. Oh,' she said suddenly. 'I think I've had

an idea.'

Rory's face fell. 'Your ideas usually end with

someone ending up in big trouble.'

'Well, we're in pretty big trouble as it is,' she

pointed out. 'Look, just get ready to move the

second I tell you to...'

Rory looked at the climbing machine, then back

at Amy, then across the gap - and he suddenly

realised what she had in mind. He gulped. 'You

can't be serious,' he said, his voice uneasy.

The machine was nearly level with the floor of

the shaft now. 'I'm being very serious,' Amy said,

bracing herself against the wall, ready to move.

With a final plop, the machine had risen high

enough to completely close the gap that Rory

and Amy had to cross. 'Now!' she yelled, and

she threw herself forward, pushing away from

the wall.

The cleaning machine wobbled a little as Amy

clambered across its top, but it stayed pretty solid.

She reached the other side of the gap in just a

few seconds, then whizzed around to check on

Rory. He was still nervously waiting at the other

side, clearly terrified about using the robot as a

bridge.

'Rory,' Amy snapped, 'come on. Quickly!' But

still he hesitated. The robot was rising now, and

soon it would fill the gap between them. 'You've

got to move now!'

Amy held her hand out towards him, beckoning

him, urging him to move. She saw him swallow

nervously once and then, with his eyes closed, he

leapt forward. Amy grabbed for him, bunching

a handful of his shirt in her fist and dragging

it hard towards her. The two of them tumbled

backwards, a jumble of arms and legs, landing

uncomfortably further along the shaft.

Amy quickly looked back, and sighed with

relief when she saw the cleaning robot whirring

its way away from them, back the way they had

come. 'It's okay,' she said to Rory. 'We're safe. We

made it!'

He quickly pulled himself together, collapsing

back against the wall of the shaft and catching his

breath. He looked at Amy and smiled. 'That was

close.'

'Yeah,' she said, 'but without our little cleaning

friend, we wouldn't have got here. Look...' She

pointed behind her, towards the grille which was

now only a little distance away. 'Come on, we're

nearly there.'

Amy started to move forward again, sliding

her knees along the smooth metal beneath her.

Rory followed quickly, and before long they

reached the grille.

Amy checked the frame and found the clasps

holding it in place. Carefully, she pulled them

back, one by one, then removed the grille. She

placed it down next to her, wincing when the

metal grille scraped noisily on the floor of the

shaft.

Carefully, inch by agonising inch, Amy poked

her head through the hole and looked down into

the room below her. There was the TARDIS! Big

and blue and like a long-lost friend. She grinned

and whispered to Rory, 'There it is!'

The TARDIS stood in the centre of the

laboratory It was a big, bright room - the cleanest

room she'd seen so far. The walls were white, and

the floor was a shiny sheet of steel. Rows and

rows of shelves lined the walls; these were full of

dozens of pieces of half-dismantled technology.

The robots' spoils of war. At one end of the

room, there was a big, white table, which was

full of odds and ends. Two robots stood by the

table, each poking and prodding at the machinery

spread out before them.

They picked up each piece of technology,

one by one, and raised it up to their microscope

eyes. They turned it this way and that, peering at

each piece from every angle. Then, they turned

to their computers, tapped in some data, and put

the trinket to one side. Then they picked up the

next piece of technology and started the whole

process all over again.

Every now and again, they would scowl and

throw one of the devices on to a pile of discarded

technology on the floor. This pile of broken and

burnt-out machinery was clearly no use to them

- it was just rubbish. But Amy's eyes lit up when

she saw it. She had an idea...

In the security wing, the Doctor's ears pricked up.

He could hear metal footsteps rattling quickly

along the corridor outside, and his blood ran cold.

If the robots discovered that Rory and Amy were

missing, the whole plan could fall apart...

'Sam,' the Doctor hissed, 'no matter what

happens, I want you to stay very, very calm.'

Sam leapt up, grasping the bars of his cell.

'Why? What's happening?'

The Doctor strained against his bonds once

more, but it was still useless. He was stuck tight.

'Just keep quiet. Trust me. It's all going to be fine.'

At that moment, two robots appeared in the

doorway. They took up positions either side

of the door, flanking the exit like guards. They

each held a nasty-looking rifle with a glowing red

crystal fixed at the dp of the barrel. Their angular

masks were set in gruesome grimaces, and their

eyes shone a fierce red.

'Hello there,' said the Doctor. He flashed a

friendly smile at the robots. 'It's so lovely to have

some visitors. I was just saying to Sam - wasn't I,

Sam? — that we needed some company. A couple

of fresh faces can cheer you right up. Even if the

faces are as scary as yours.'

'What are you doing, Doctor?' whispered Sam.

'You don't want to make them mad.'

But the robots didn't react at all. They stood

stock still, staring straight ahead, their faces still

scowling angrily.

'I don't suppose,' said the Doctor, 'you chaps

would consider loosening these restraints, would

you?' He waggled his hands, as if to demonstrate

the tight plastic bindings around his wrists. 'It's

just that I think I'm going to get some nasty pins

and needles unless I can get up, stretch my legs,

you know...'

Still, the robots stood still and silent.

'No,' said the Doctor with a sigh. 'No, I didn't

think so. Oh well.'

There was a moment's pause. Then, one of the

robot's heads turned slightly. If the Doctor hadn't

been paying attention, he would have missed it. It

was the tiniest movement, and he only spotted it

because the angles of the robot's mask caught the

light in a fractionally different way.

The robot was looking over towards the cell.

The Doctor's two hearts skipped a beat.

He pulled against his restraints again, trying

to be as noisy and obvious as he could. 'Seriously

now, fellers,' he said. 'I think one of my legs has

gone completely dead. Couldn't you just let me

out for a minute?'

The robot ignored him. It took a few steps

towards the cell instead, its head tipping quizzically

to one side.

'Honestly, I'm in agony!' the Doctor cried.

'Have some sympathy!'

The robot stopped moving. It stared into the

cell, and Sam stared back, the colour draining

from his face. 'I... we're sorry, we just...' he

stammered. 'Hello, um...'

'Where,' said the robot, in a slow, deep voice,

'are the other two prisoners? The human male

and the female?'

'They just, um... they just popped out for some

fresh air,' said Sam. He winced at the weakness of

his excuse.

The robot stared at him for a second, then

suddenly spun on its heel. It crossed back to

the door and leant into the corridor outside. It

slammed a big, red button on the door frame and

a siren started to blare out all around the ship.

'Commander!' the robot guard yelled, its

metallic voice ringing out along the corridor.

'Commander! The prisoners have escaped!'

Amy pointed at the heap of junk lying on the floor

next to the laboratory table. 'Look at that, Rory,'

she said. 'Are you thinking what I'm thinking?'

Rory shuffled a little closer to the hatch and

looked down into the room. 'I don't know what

you're thinking, but I think it's just a pile of

rubbish.'

'Yeah, but what kind of rubbish?'

Rory looked again, confusion clouding his

face. 'Rubbish rubbish?'

Amy gave an impatient 'huff!' and pointed

straight downwards into the room. 'The TARDIS

is just there, right below us,' she said. 'But we can't

just drop down and hop in — those robots would

raise the alarm as soon as they saw us. We need a

distraction.'

She fished around in the pocket of her jacket

then pulled out the sonic screwdriver. 'This,' she

said, 'is the answer to our prayers. When I tell you,

I need you to drop straight down on to the roof

of the TARDIS, okay? I'll come straight down

after you.'

Rory nodded, swallowing nervously. Amy

smiled reassuringly, then held the sonic screwdriver

out, pointing it straight at the pile of discarded

machinery on the floor below.

She had seen the screwdriver in action a

million times - and yet, now it was in her hands, it

suddenly seemed a lot more complicated than the

Doctor made it look. She looked for a switch or

a button but couldn't find any. She shook it, but

nothing happened. Gripping it tightly, she flicked

the device hard. The screwdriver's top popped

open like an eagle's claw, and it started emitting

a high-pitched whine. She aimed its green light

down at the pile of junk and hoped for the best.

Among the cast-offs, Amy was sure she'd

seen things that looked like robotic limbs - arms

and legs, claws and pincers, wheels and tracks.

All the useless, old, broken parts that the robots

had thrown away. But they weren't quite totally

broken...

With a rusty creaking noise, the pile of

machinery started to twitch. Scraps of metal

clattered to the floor. Various technological

doodahs rolled noisily aside as the discarded

robot parts leapt into action. Steel-fingered hands

grasped at thin air, legs waved in a mockery of

motion, and arms floundered on the floor like

grounded fish. The whole mass made a tangled,

twisted scraping noise.

The laboratory's little scrapyard had sprung to

life! It was the perfect diversion. The two robots

yelped in shock, backing away from the living mess

of metal by their table. It was the perfect time to

move — when the robots were looking elsewhere.

Amy leant to one side, leaving the hatch open

for Rory. 'Now,' she said. 'Go, quickly!'

Rory hurriedly shoved past her, dropping down

on to the TARDIS's roof as quietly as he could.

He then slid down on to the floor and, once Amy

saw that he was safely on the ground, she followed

him. While the robots squawked in panic, Amy

and Rory slipped silently into the TARDIS...

Commander Zero-1 stood in the doorway to the

security wing. His tall, thin form was silhouetted

by the light from the corridor outside, making him

look like a huge, shadowy skeleton. His mask was

set in an expression of anger, and his eyes burned

a furious crimson. Sam was suddenly thankful to

be stuck behind the bars of his cell - at least they

might offer some protection if Zero-1 flew into

a rage!

The robot took two heavy steps into the room,

his feet clanging loudly on the floor. 'Where have

the others gone?' he boomed. 'How did they

escape?'

The Doctor stayed infuriatingly calm. He

just smiled back at Zero-1 and said, 'You need

to check out your security, mate. The Empire

of the Eternal Victory, the most technologically

advanced warmongers in the universe, and you

can't keep a couple of weak old humans safely

locked up!'

Zero-1 was silent. He barely moved, but his

face mask shifted, the mouth turning downwards

in a frown of anger. When Zero-1 spoke, his voice

was quiet and menacing. 'We will find your friends

and when we do, we will see if you're still smiling

then. But for now, I think it's time we started to

extract the information about your time machine.'

With his two guards falling into step behind

him, Zero-1 started to march slowly towards the

Doctor...

Amy looked down at the TARDIS console and,

for the first time, it looked frightening and

confusing. She was used to thinking of its shiny

glass and multi-coloured lights as friendly and

clever little things. The Doctor could pull a lever,

flick a switch or twist a dial, and the TARDIS would

go whooshing off to their next adventure. Now

and again, Amy would help him at the controls,

holding down a lever or pushing two buttons at

once, but she was only doing what the Doctor told

her to do — she had no idea what any of this stuff

actually did!

'What now?' asked Rory. What did the Doctor

say we had to do?'

Before they'd broken out of the cell, the Doctor

had given Amy and Rory a very simple, clear set of

instructions. And, as this was only a very short trip,

he had reassured them that there was very little

that could go wrong.

Even so, Amy chewed her lip nervously.

'Find the row of six red buttons on the side of

the console nearest to the door,' the Doctor had

said. Once Amy had found them, she clicked down

the first and second, as the Doctor had instructed.

She then had to wiggle the zigzag plotter four

times, and throw the big black lever to its left.

As the lever slammed home, the TARDIS

shuddered and wheezed into life. The lights in

the control room flickered, then glowed more

warmly, and the balloon-like glass structure in the

time rotor started to glide up and down, up and

down. She checked the old-fashioned TV monitor

overhead. A series of green numbers were flashing

quickly by. They were moving too quickly to read,

but that was okay - the Doctor had simply said, As

long as the numbers are green, everything is fine.

If they go purple, then we've got problems

Amy knew they had to move quickly now. 'Rory,

you're up!'

Rory dashed to the opposite side of the console

and pulled a set of blue-handled sliders all the

way down towards him. The TARDIS jerked to

one side and the movement sent Rory flying. He

stumbled towards a flight of steps but managed to

grab hold of the handrail just in time.

'Okay!' he said, catching his breath. 'That

doesn't usually happen.'

Finally, Amy punched the mushroom-like dome

on a big, red button and — with a whoosh, a clang

and a heavy thud - the TARDIS materialised.

With a clatter and a bang, Zero-1 crashed into

the big blue box that had suddenly appeared in

front of him. Confused and angry, he staggered

backwards. His guards moved quickly to stop him

from falling flat on his metal backside. With a cry

of rage, Zero-1 lashed out, hitting the Doctor's

time machine with his fists.

'What trickery is this?' he yelled.

Safely on the other side of the TARDIS, the

Doctor burst out laughing with joy. 'Ponds to

the rescue!' he cried, his voice full of pride and

triumph.

Across the room, watching from his cell, Sam's

eyes were as wide as dinner plates. 'What is that?'

The TARDIS doors swung open and Amy -

followed by a slightly giddy-looking Rory — flew

out. 'We did it!' she yelled.

'My wife, the time-space pilot!' said Rory with

a laugh.

'Come here, you...' She grabbed hold of Rory's

lapels and gave him a big, soppy kiss.

'When you two have quite finished,' the Doctor

said with mock impatience, 'if you could point the

sonic screwdriver at these restraints here, I would

be ever so grateful.'

Amy pulled the sonic from her pocket and waved

it at the Doctor. 'I don't know how to work this

thing,' she said, her fingers poking and prodding

the device, 'I think I just got lucky before...'

There was a sudden, sharp whirring noise and

the straps holding down the Doctor's wrists and

ankles popped open. He leapt off the table and

swept Amy into a huge hug. 'You are amazing,' he

said. He snatched the sonic from her grasp and

pointed it casually towards the cell door, which

swung open. Sam and Messy dashed out, thanking

the Doctor profusely.

The Doctor was standing by the open TARDIS

door. From the other side of the TARDIS, they

could hear Zero-1 roaring with anger, his fists

thump-thump-thumping on the side of the ship.

'Come on everyone, get inside, quickly,' the

Doctor said. 'We've got a spider to save...'

As the TARDIS faded away in a swirl of dust and

debris, Commander Zero-1 's failure was revealed.

The table where the Doctor had been tied down

was now empty. The cell, too, was empty, its door

swinging open. Zero-1 screamed in fury, his mask

shifting into an expression of pain and rage.

His prisoners had escaped and with them, any

hope of getting his hands on the Time Lords'

fabled technology.

He swung to face the two guards standing at his

side. 'Gather the troops,' he growled. 'I want every

able-bodied solider ready to launch into space on

my command.'

'Yes, sir,' they replied. 'What are your orders?'

Zero-l's face mask darkened a shade, the

eyebrows knotting ominously.

'I have already sent a small squadron to kill the

spider - but it's taking too long,' he said. 'Every

soldier is to get out there now, and they are not to

come back until that creature is destroyed. Tear it

to pieces and bring me whatever's left.'

The robots of the Empire of Eternal Victory came

pouring out of the warship in their hundreds.

They looked like a huge cloud of tiny, silver

flies, swarming through the vacuum towards the

unsuspecting spider. They carried an assortment

of weapons, all of which they were ready to use

against the creature. Some robots carried simple,

efficient blaster rifles. Others carried knives and

saws and all manner of cutting equipment. Others

still were laden down with surgical lasers and hyper-

scalpels, ready to carve out the most valuable parts

of the spider's body.

The spider, however, barely noticed them

coming. The robots' kill squad, the five soldiers who

had already blown a chunk out of its carapace, were

certainly too tiny for the spider to even notice. The

same five now hovered right by the spider's huge,

bulbous abdomen, bringing their weapons to bear

in an effort to slice the creature open. But they

weren't having much luck: the spider's exoskeleton

was impossibly tough, and though they could

scratch and scar the surface, they showed little sign

of being able to cut through.

But no matter — they had seen the horde of their

fellow robots tearing through space to join them. And

leading the charge, their brave warlord, Commander

Zero-1. His eyes blazed white, and his face mask

shone with the glory of impending victory.

With the whole might of their forces ranged

against this one, stupid animal, there could be no

doubt: the Empire of the Eternal Victory would

triumph again.

The Doctor tore open the TARDIS door and

peered out into space. Behind him, Sam gasped

in shock. Amy patted him on the shoulder and

smiled. 'Don't worry,' she said, 'it's perfectly safe.

You can even float about outside - not that I would

recommend it...'

'But... but...' Sam was stammering in

confusion. 'How does it do that? How does the air

stay inside?' Sam stared wildly this way and that.

'And how come it's so much bigger on the inside,

anyway? How does it work?'

'If it helps,' said Rory, 'I've got no idea either.

It's probably just easiest to say "a wizard did it".'

Sam swallowed nervously, took a deep breath

and tried to smile.

'Welcome to the TARDIS,' said Amy with a

smile. 'It is pretty magical.'

The Doctor ignored the conversation going

on behind him. He let out a long, deep sigh of

wonderment as he took in the full sight outside the

ship. 'Amy, Rory,' he said, waving them over. All of

you, come and look at this!'

He flung open the TARDIS's other door,

revealing the full vista of the asteroid field. They

were hovering high above the whole expanse of

rocks now, and could finally see the full extent

of the spider's web. It stretched from asteroid to

asteroid, straight lines angled around and between

the wheeling rocks. Thin, delicate white streaks

spreading for miles in every direction. They tangled

chaotically around each other and, where the rocks

spun, they spun with them — the web constantly

weaving itself into complex, unpredictable new

patterns.

Amy's eyes were wide in astonishment. 'Wow,'

she said. 'I had no idea the web would be that big.'

'It's a big spider, Amy,' the Doctor said.

'Something that eats asteroids for breakfast is

going to need a suitably sized web.'

'How big is the web?' asked Rory. 'I mean,

roughly.'

'I'd say a thousand miles from end to end,'

the Doctor said. 'Huge, certainly. Massive. But

what's clever is how the spider manages to hide

it, weaving it in-between the rocks, leaving so few

visible traces.'

'But why does it try to hide the web at all?' Amy

asked. 'To trap its unsuspecting victims?'

'No,' the Doctor replied. 'Remember, I said it

doesn't deliberately eat starships - it's happy with

just space rock. It's not hiding the web to trick

anyone - it's just covering its tracks. Hiding any

evidence of its presence in the asteroid field.' The

Doctor looked suddenly sad. 'It knows that there

are cruel people in the universe who would hunt it

down, to trap it or kill it. It knows it has predators.

So it knows it has to stay hidden.'

'Poor thing,' Amy whispered.

'Yes, indeed,' the Doctor said. He took a deep

breath and clapped his hands together. 'And that's

why it needs our help. Look down there...'

The Doctor pointed across the vast emptiness

beneath the TARDIS, to the silvery swarm of

robots amassing around the spider. They could

see, even from this distance, the occasional red

flare of the robots' blaster rifles or the steely glint

of a razor-sharp blade.

Messy trundled closer to the open door. 'Our

soldiers,' he said, his voice quiet in horror. 'It looks

like just about every one of them, all closing in on

the creature.'

Sam, finally getting over his nerves, joined the

crowd to look down upon the scene below. 'There's

so many of them,' he said. 'How can we ever hope

to stop them?'

'Ah,' the Doctor said, grinning. ' We aren't

going to stop them. That spider isn't defenceless,

she's just big. So big that she barely even notices

the great and oh-so-terrifying Empire of Eternal

Victory. They're just like little buzzing insects

to her.'

Rory laughed. 'Huh, that's ironic. Insects to

an insect!'

'Spiders aren't insects, Rory,' the Doctor said

without even glancing at him.

Amy rolled her eyes. 'Yeah, Rory,' she said in

a mocking tone, 'don't be stupid.' There was a

moment's awkward silence before she asked the

Doctor, 'They're arachnids, right?'

'That's right,' he said with a smile. ' Anyway. The

spider isn't defenceless. Look at her! How could a

thing that big not be a bit handy in a fight? All we

need to do is let her know that she's under attack.'

'How are we going to do that?' Sam asked.

'Shout really, really loudly?' Amy added.

The Doctor smiled, pulling the sonic

screwdriver from his pocket. Holding on to the

doorframe, he leant out perilously far into space.

'Something like that,' he said — and that was the

last thing Amy heard from him before he let go

and dropped suddenly out of view!

In the distance, far below the TARDIS, the swirling

cloud of robot warriors had finally closed in on

the spider. They surged over its whole body in

waves, buzzing this way and that, their weapons

flashing in the starlight. Slowly, the spider began to

react, its massive bulk rippling in the dark. But it

almost looked like it was too late. The robots were

smothering the creature now, and there seemed no

way for it to escape its fate.

The Doctor, though, knew better. He stood

high above the spider and her would-be killers,

balancing carefully on one foot, wobbling on a

thin strand of web. The TARDIS was behind him,

the doors still open. Amy hung out from the door,

clinging tightly to the doorframe, a desperate look

on her face. 'What are you doing?' she cried down

at him. 'You're going to get yourself killed!'

'I'm perfectly all right, Amy,' the Doctor called

back, see-sawing his arms like a tightrope walker.

'I've extended the TARDIS's atmospheric bubble,

so I've got air and gravity down here. I'm fine.'

'Fine?' she said, her voice shrill. You're in the

middle of an asteroid field perched on a flimsy

piece of spider web!'

'It's hardly flimsy,' he said, bouncing

experimentally on the tip of his toes. 'Diamond.

Stronger than steel, and more beautiful than

the stars.'

Rory popped his head out of the TARDIS door,

too, boggling at the Doctor's bravery. 'Look,' he

said, 'could you save the poetry for another time?

You're making me nervous. Just do whatever it is

you need to do down there, and let's get moving!'

The Doctor crouched down, balancing carefully

on the web. 'You're quite right, Rory, there's no time

to waste!' And then he did the strangest thing...

He took out the sonic screwdriver but, just

for once, he didn't switch it on. It didn't make its

usual buzzing noise, nor did it light up with its

usual emerald green colour. He just smiled at it,

then used it to tap once, quite firmly, against the

diamond thread on which he was balanced.

The Doctor's other hand was held flat against

the web, like he was feeling for something. Using

the screwdriver, he tapped the web again — once

more, then twice, then again and again, more and

more rapidly in a strange, scattershot rhythm. As

the tapping sped up, the Doctor closed his eyes

and fell into a deep, trancelike concentration.

The spider's chitinous shell had withstood much of

the robots' attack - until now. Under the relentless

blaster bolts and flashing, slicing blades, little chips

and chunks of her carapace were flying this way

and that, whirling off into space.

And yet, still, she didn't seem to react. She barely

seemed to notice her attackers were there at all...

After a few moments, Amy whispered to Rory, 'Is

he okay?'

Rory, his face blank, just stared down at their

Time Lord friend. The Doctor was still crouched

on the web, his eyes closed, tapping away in that

strange, unpredictable rhythm. 'Well,' he said, 'the

Doctor isn't exactly famous for acting sane. Who

knows what this is all about?'

Sam came up behind them, joining them at the

open doors. 'You know the Doctor better than I

do,' he said uncertainly, 'but that tapping...'

Amy turned to face him. 'You think you know

what it is?'

'Well, not precisely,' Sam replied. 'But I think I

can guess what kind of thing it is. Have you ever

heard of Morse code?'

'Like dots and dashes?' Rory said.

Sam nodded. 'I think he's communicating with

the spider,' he said. 'I mean, I don't know how

exactly - but if it can feel the vibrations in its web,

and if they're a particular type of vibration...

maybe. I dunno. It's just a thought.'

Amy smiled. 'It's a good thought,' she said.

'That's how spiders know they've caught something

in their webs — the prey shaking the web as they try

to escape. And the Doctor did say he was going to

let her know she was under attack. It makes sense.'

They watched the Doctor in silence for just a

few more seconds before they saw a result. Far

below, the spider raised her front two legs, slowly

and deliberately, high above her head. She stretched

them out as far as they would go, far to either side

of her body, reaching for two strands of web

threaded across a cluster of larger asteroids. Her

pinpoint feet brushed the strands, seeming then

to grab them fast. Then she started to draw her

legs in, pulling the web with them. The asteroids

started to move too, the huge rocks gliding faster

and faster through space.

Then, the spider reached for different strands

of web, this time with four of her legs. She tugged

at those too, and more rocks started to spin in a

dizzying dance through space.

The web on which the Doctor was standing

shuddered. It rocked violently and he had to fling

both arms out to keep his balance.

Amy fell to the floor, hanging out from the

TARDIS, stretching her arms out to reach him.

'Doctor!' she screamed. 'Grab hold! Quickly!'

As the web shifted under his feet once again, the

Doctor leapt towards Amy - just in time, too. The

strand suddenly lurched away, dragging a string of

small rocks with it. The Doctor's hands landed in

Amy's, and she dragged him quickly inside.

The two of them collapsed in a heap just inside

the door, the Doctor laughing as he tried to catch

his breath. He quickly scrambled back to the door

and gazed down at the spider.

'That's my girl,' he whispered.

The spider was moving quickly now, and getting

quicker still. Her sudden, swift motions were

already beginning to dislodge the robots. Some

of them desperately tried to cling on to her shell;

others were flung off her body, wheeling through

space like spinning tops.

Her legs flew this way and that, strumming

strand after strand of her web, like some manic

harpist. Finally, the full extent of her web became

visible: the whole asteroid field was full of threads,

no longer hidden. The spider was weaving them

now, crossing thread with thread in a complicated,

rapid dance. And, as the threads criss-crossed each

other more and more tightly, the rocks to which

they were attached began to spin. Round and

round they went, bumping and crashing against

each other in a chaotic, dangerous flurry.

Spinning wildly out of control, the robots

found themselves pummelled by the circling rocks.

Boulder after boulder crashed into their metallic

bodies, and they were sent brutally to their dooms,

their shattered carcasses smoking and sparking as

they were crushed by the rocks or sent flying off

in all directions.

Realising the sudden danger they were in, a

few of them tried to beat a hasty retreat. But the

Doctor had warned the spider well, and she knew

what to look for. She wasn't going to let any of her

enemies escape so easily.

The spider lashed out, her legs whipping so

quickly they glinted like laser beams against the

dark of space. She grabbed robot after robot,

smashing them against the bigger asteroids or

batting them, sending them flying off into oblivion.

A few robots ventured too close to her sharp,

sparkling mandibles: she lunged at them, grabbing

them hungrily in her mouth and swallowing

them whole.

There was panic and fear in the lenses of the

robot's digital eyes, and their face masks were set

in silent screams of terror. But, just as they had

shown the spider not an ounce of mercy, she

spared them none either.

Commander Zero-1 halted his approach. His

troops were shattered and routed. He watched in

shock as the surviving members of the Empire

scooted off to safety. He had never witnessed such

a total, inescapable defeat before. He was used to

victory, but he had watched in stunned amazement

as the spider suddenly sprang into action, crushing

almost all his soldiers within a minute. Now,

his only option was to retreat — head back to the

ship, gather his battered soldiers and consider his

next move.

There, in the distance, spinning like a little

metal toy, was the last great warship of the Empire

of Eternal Victory. His final bastion, and his only

hope of escape.

He activated his jetpack, increasing his speed,

and aimed straight for his ship.

Slowly, ever so slowly, the ship started to grow

in his vision as he drew closer to it. Soon, soon, he

would be safe.

As he glided through the icy space, he started to

mutter to himself. He could hear the panic rising

in his voice, the manic hysteria in its tone. All he

could think about was escape. Escape and survival.

'What will I do?' he wondered. 'I will have to

rebuild the Empire. I shall take what survivors I

can from this defeat. I shall withdraw and we shall

regroup, gather our strength — and then strike back.

Yes, we shall return, even stronger than before,

and we shall strike back...'

His dreams of revenge clouded his mind with a

cold, dark rage. It was all he could think about, he

couldn't concentrate on anything else.

Which was unfortunate for him - because,

right at that moment, another tug on the spider's

web sent an asteroid the size of a double-decker

bus swinging slowly into his path.

If Commander Zero-1 had been thinking

clearly, he would have seen the rock. If he'd been

looking where he was going, he would easily have

noticed it and steered himself out of the way.

'Revenge!' he shrieked. 'We shall have revenge!'

If Commander Zero-1 hadn't been consumed

with wicked thoughts of vengeance, he wouldn't

have flown straight into the side of the asteroid

and been shattered into a million pieces.

In the cold, dark silence of space, as the

asteroid glided impassively away, Commander

Zero-1 's cracked face mask went spinning off,

frozen in one final look of furious surprise. As it

drifted away, to be lost and forgotten in the cold

depths between the stars, so died the dreams of

the Empire of Eternal Victory, caught in one final

moment of eternal defeat.

It had taken him a little time, but the Doctor

had visited each one of the Black Horizon's

escape pods, one by one, and transported the

human crewmembers safely to the Empire of

Eternal Victory's warship. Now, a little dazed

and shaken, the crew were trying to get used to

their new temporary home. They still had a job

to do, after all, as Captain Jones was quick to

remind them.

The medical equipment was safely stored in

the warship's hold, and the ship itself functioned

perfectly well. Sam had carefully examined the

engine systems and he had reported that, in fact,

the warship was probably significantly faster than

the Black Horizon. With any luck, they'd be able

to easily make up the time they'd lost by being

caught in the spider's web and by being attacked

by the Empire. They'd be able to get their cargo

to its destination in plenty of time.

On the bridge of the warship, Captain Jones

shook the Doctor's hand. 'I would like to thank

you, Doctor,' she said, 'and your friends. Without

you... well, I dread to think what might have

happened to us.'

The Doctor smiled. 'It was our pleasure,

Captain,' he said.

Amy stepped forward and hugged a rather

surprised Sam. 'It was nice to meet you,' she

said. 'You look after yourself.' She glanced at the

captain, a mischievous glint in her eye. 'I'd say this

guy was next in line for a promotion, wouldn't

you?'

Captain Jones looked at Sam, letting the tiniest

smile play on her lips. 'A commendation, at the

very least,' she said.

Sam blushed, then grinned. 'Yes, Captain,' he

stammered. 'Thank you. Thank you, Amy, Rory,

Doctor... it was lovely to meet you all, too!' He

stumbled off to a nearby console and set to work,

trying to make full sense of the Empire's ship.

'Now, there's just two little things still to sort

out,' the Doctor said, addressing the captain again.

He stepped to one side, revealing the quivering

form of Messy cowering behind him. 'First of

all, this little feller. You will look after him, won't

you, Captain?'

Captain Jones looked a little sceptical.

'I promise you, he's no trouble,' said Rory with

a grin.

'I'm not,' said Messy, his voice trembling, 'I'm

really not.'

'And surely,' Rory added, 'you've got space in

your operation for a tip-top plumbing robot?'

'I am very good at ventilation systems,' Messy

said, sounding a little more confident. 'Very good

indeed.'

'And he did help save the day,' the Doctor

pointed out.

Captain Jones rolled her eyes. 'Okay, fine,' she

said with a sigh. 'I guess he can stick around. But

if you get in any trouble...' She wagged a finger

at him.

Messy whirled up to her, circling her feet like

an eager puppy. 'I promise I won't!' he chirped.

'Oh, thank you, thank you!' The robot excitedly

buzzed away, nearly knocking over Sam in his

enthusiasm to share the news with his new friend.

Amy stared after them, a wry smile on her

face. 'They make a lovely couple,' she said with

a laugh. 'Come on, Rory. I need a cup of tea and

a foot rub. Back to the TARDIS with you!' Amy

waved her goodbyes to the captain, Sam and

Messy, dragging Rory out of the room.

'And the other thing?' Captain Jones said,

looking at the Doctor. 'You said there were two

things to sort out.'

The Doctor nodded, his face pale and grave.

'I need you to make me a promise,' he said. His

expression was flinty and hard. 'I need you to

promise me that you will never, ever tell anyone

about the spider. And order your crew to do

the same.'

The captain considered the Doctor's request

in silence for a moment.

'No one must ever find her,' he continued. 'For

all I know, she's the only diamondweb spider still

in existence. The very last of her kind. If anyone

even suspects she exists, she will be hunted as a

prize or a pet. She must live out the rest of her

days in peace, and in freedom.'

The Doctor held Captain Jones' gaze — his

dark eyes looked threatening and full of an

unspoken menace. Finally, she nodded, slowly but

with certainty. 'Of course,' she said. 'I promise. I

swear. I owe you that much. In fact, I owe you a

lot more.'

The Doctor suddenly broke into a beaming

smile. 'Ah, don't be silly,' he said, his mood

suddenly lighter. 'It was nothing! It was a pleasure

— it was even fun!'

Clasping his hands in front of his chest, and

half-bowing, he started to back slowly out of the

bridge of the warship, towards the TARDIS. 'It

was wonderful to meet you all,' he said as he left.

'Take care, everyone. Take care!'

He reached the door, and shot one last look

at the captain. A promise,' he whispered, 'is a

promise.'

As the last warship of the Empire of Eternal

Victory carried its new owners off to unknown

horizons, peace and stillness finally fell among

the rocks of the Gloriana Scattering.

The asteroids were still now, drifting only with

the imperceptible breeze of the universe itself.

Here and there, there was a glint of white, a hint

of crystalline glimmer — but if you blinked, you'd

miss it. In fact, if you were just passing by, you'd

have no idea at all that there was anything special

about this asteroid field. It would look pretty

much like any other empty, desolate corner of

space. A pile of dead rocks, nothing more.

Nothing special hid among the shadows.

Nothing sat in the silence, patient and still.

Nothing wove its veiled web among the stardust.

No impossibly giant spiders here. No, not at all.

THE END