Oli Smith

The Doctor finds himself trapped in the

virtual world of Parallife. As he tries to save

the inhabitants from being destroyed by a deadly

virus, Amy and Rory must fight to keep the

Doctor's body in the real world safe from the

mysterious entity known as Legacy . . .

For Emma, who likes this one best

Also available:

Death Riders by Justin Richards

Heart of Stone by Trevor Baxendale

Coming soon:

Rain of Terror by Mike Tucker

Extra Time by Richard Dungworth

The Underwater War by Richard Dinnick

Terminal of Despair by Steve Lyons

Oli Smith

Cover illustrated by Paul Campbell

BBC Children's Books

Published by the Penguin Group

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

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

0632, New Zealand (A division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)

Canada, India, South Africa

Published by BBC Children's Books, 2011

Text and design © Children's Character Books

The Good, the Bad and the Alien written by Colin Brake

System Wipe written by Oli Smith

2

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-978-14059-0-758-3

Printed in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, St Ives pic

Prologue-Escape 7

13. The Guild 104

1. World's End 11

14. The Architect 109

2. Link-Up 18

15. Cheat 113

3. Tutorial 28

16. A Message 123

4. Level Zero 39

17. A Plan 134

5. A New Arrival 43

18. Battleground 142

6. Demolition 50

19. The Sword and the Screwdriver..l47

7. The Forest 60

20. Breakthrough 155

8. Defrag 71

21. Legacy 160

9. The Other Side 80

22. Mistaken Identity 167

10. Safety 84

23. The Virtual War 173

11. The Bunker 89

24. Salvation 182

12. New Places 99

Epilogue-TheTower. 192

The city was virtual.

But that doesn't mean it wasn't real.

Dubstep Towers hung in a neon-pink sky

above the wireframe city below. The crowds

of people hurrying through the outlined

streets looked like pixels to Blondie - squares

of colour, the building blocks of her world.

She stood at the window of her penthouse

apartment on floor 73, placed a hand against

the glass and returned her gaze to the horizon.

Beyond the curving buildings and past the

cubic city blocks, the darkness was coming. It

was a sphere of pure black that extended both

above and below the level of the ground and

as it grew in size, its radius began to skim the

yellow-lit suburbs.

The suburbs shattered. The roads and

houses dissolved into a shower of computer

code - carefully balanced strings of numbers

and equations that held the world together.

The glowing yellow pieces rose and flowed

away from the advancing sphere, transforming

into a tidal wave that sprayed the edges of

the deep blue inner city. The yellow pixels

mixed with the blue fragments, forming cool,

green puddles on the streets before they were

gathered up into the wave once more.

Blondie drew the blinds, unable to watch,

and stepped over to the large four-poster bed

that stood in the centre of the white-tiled

room. Kneeling down, she pulled a large black

trunk from beneath the bed and pressed her

hand against the top. The cool dark material

dissolved and Blondie smiled as the contents

of the trunk reminded her of the adventures

of her younger days.

Placed carefully amongst the protective

folds of a crimson cloth was a sword. The

ivory handle was sculpted to fit her palm

and the perfectly balanced blade glowed with

white electricity that matched Blondie's hair.

She lifted it out of the trunk and flourished

it with skill before slotting it neatly into the

strap on her back. She pulled on a pair of blue

boots that matched her blouse and took one

last look at the flat that had been her home for

Boss-knows how long. Behind the blinds, the

soft patter of pixels began to sound against

the glass — the wave was almost upon her.

Blondie opened the front door to the

penthouse and looked down at the 200 metre

drop below before stepping over the threshold.

Her body twisted ninety degrees in the air, and

the smooth wall of Dubstep Towers became

the floor, as she began to walk down towards

the street below. The building shuddered as

the wave of destruction broke against the

opposite side and Blondie began to run.

She couldn't fight the darkness on her own.

She needed help.

'It's the end of the world. Again,' said the

Doctor.

'Again?' Rory made a face.

'When?' asked Amy. 'The buildings look

like the kinda stuff you'd see in 2010.'

'Ha.' The Doctor laughed. 'That's the

trouble with you born-in-the-twentieth-

century types — you think it's only a matter

of decades before your council estates and

tower blocks are replaced with shiny domes

and monorails and flying cars. But it's not.

Buildings like this are renovated and repaired,

they'll last for centuries.'

'Okay, so when is it?' Amy repeated.

'It's 2222 AD,' the Doctor answered. 'Like

I said, end of the world.' He spread his arms

and grinned as the group stopped to take in

their surroundings.

All around them, the ruins of Chicago

towered above their heads. Huge, broken

skeletons of skyscrapers standing half-

submerged amongst the vast folds of sand

dunes. The dunes glowed white in the sunlight

and faded to a cool grey in the giant shadows

between the buildings. Beyond that, the desert

stretched for miles, rolling hills of dust that rose

and fell like a frozen sea towards the horizon.

'What happened?' Rory asked.

The Doctor flicked open his sonic

screwdriver and pointed it towards the sky

before examining the handle. He shrugged

'Dunno.'

''"Dunno"?' Rory repeated. 'What do you

mean, 'dunno'? It's the end of the world!

Our whole world has been destroyed, and that

didn't stick in your memory?'

The Doctor sighed. 'I can't keep track of

everything. Earth gets blasted half a dozen

times at least in its lifetime. Count yourself

lucky,' he started jumping on the spot, 'at least

the planet's still here this time.'

Amy reached out and closed her husband's

open mouth. She turned to the Doctor, 'Could

it be solar flares?' she asked. 'It's about the

right era, isn't it?'

'Possibly.' The Doctor stuffed the sonic

screwdriver back into his jacket pocket. 'The

a'I'mosphere's taken a beating, that's for sure.'

He fished out a small white plastic bottle.

'Here, put this on — for protection.'

Rory inspected the bottle gingerly. What is

it? Space cream?'

'Sunscreen. Your pasty complexions aren't

going to last long without it.'

Amy snatched the bottle out of Rory's

hand and started smearing it on immediately.

'And you tell me this now?! I've been out here

nearly half an hour!'

'What about you?' Rory asked the Doctor.

The Doctor grinned and slipped on a pair

of sunglasses. 'Sorted.'

It wasn't long before the relentless heat drove

the group's exploration indoors. They blinked

to adjust their eyes in the stifling shadows

of one of the more intact skyscrapers. The

Doctor's boots left prints in the dust as he

stepped onto the green-tiled floor of a large,

splintered entrance chamber.

'It's a block of flats.' Amy pointed behind

a semi-circular reception desk to where a wide

grid of mailboxes was screwed into the wall.

'In downtown, no less. Very posh.' The

Doctor removed his shades and wiped them

absent-mindedly on his shirtsleeves. Rory tried

in vain to blow away the dust that had stuck to

the suncream on his arm. His spluttering was

loud in the heavy silence and Amy shot Rory a

look as the Doctor pushed past her on his way

towards the janitor's closet.

He yanked open the wooden door and

stepped inside. A second later, the green bulb

of the sonic screwdriver cast an eerie glow

over the contents of the tiny closet.

'What are you looking for?' Amy asked.

'A power source.' The Doctor's voice was

muffled in the gloom. 'Rory, be a good fella

and thump that desk for me, would you?'

Rory raised his eyebrows but did as he was

told. Gathering his shirt-cuff into his palm, he

wiped a sleeve across the surface of the desk

before poking it with a finger.

'I said thump, not poke.'

Rory patted the desk again.

'Oh, let me do it.' Amy strode forward

and brought a fist down hard on the glossy

surface. The desk sprang into life. With a small

chime it began to display large rectangles of

data — resident's details, room numbers, virtual

post-it notes, all arranging themselves around

Amy's hand.

'It's a table-computer!' Rory exclaimed.

The Doctor emerged from the closet,

slapping the sonic screwdriver closed in his

palm. 'It's a Desktop,' he said with a grin.

Pushing between the pair he rubbed his thumbs

over his fists and examined the scrolling read-

outs before him. Then he scratched at his nose

as his other hand began jabbing at the screen

in a dizzying flurry of movements. The read-

outs changed; colours and text flashing across

the faces of Amy and Rory as if they were lit

by a disco ball.

'What are you looking for?' Rory asked.

'The bills,' the Doctor replied. 'Somewhere

in this building, something is still switched on.

I picked up the power reading when we were

outside but it's too faint for me to pinpoint

with the sonic. I reckon whichever apartment it

is must have racked up a pretty hefty electricity

bill over the centuries. Hopefully that should

tell us where the reading's coming from.'

'Is that why we came here?' Rory asked.

'It is now.'

The Desktop made one final chime and

the Doctor raised his hand from the surface

screen. 'Floor 48, apartment 23B.'

Amy eyed the grand main staircase, and

pointed a finger. 'Are you expecting me to

climb forty-eight times those?' she asked.

The Doctor shrugged. 'If you want. I was

planning on taking the lift.'

'If it's the end of the world, how come the

lifts still work?' Rory asked, as the Doctor

checked his watch. The blue numbers that

seemed to be projected across the top of the

door were rising painfully slowly. So was the

temperature inside the cramped metal lift.

'It's one of the basic rules of the universe,

isn't it?' Amy threw him a wink. 'Things only

work when you don't need them anymore.'

Rory nodded wisely. 'Like when our train

broke down on the way to that concert.'

'You mean that gig,' said Amy.

'Gig, concert, what's the difference? It's

still people playing music in front of other,

slightly less sweaty people.'

'Gig sounds cooler.'

'It doesn't matter how cool it sounds.

They're still sweaty.'

Amy sighed.

The Doctor stroked his bow tie. 'I'm sweaty

and cool,' he declared.

'Urgh.'

'Aaaand we're here.' The Doctor announced,

hopping out and into a hallway. Once it must

have been decorated in a deep shade of red,

but now the paintwork had faded to a rusty

brown. 'Thank heavens for that. Remind me

never to listen to you two talk about normal

stuff again. Boooring!'

Sheepishly, the pair followed him down

the corridor as the Doctor checked off the

room numbers with a wag of his finger. Amy

felt a weird sensation through her shoes and

looked down to see the carpet crumbling away

beneath her weight. Her feet left red footprints

in the powder-snow of the worn out carpet.

'It's spooky,' she said. 'When you go to

rundown places back home you expect them

to be full of bugs and rats and mice and spiders

and . . . more bugs,' she finished. 'But there's

nothing here. Not a single living soul in the

whole wide world.'

'Peaceful, isn't it?' the Doctor called over his

shoulder cheerfully. 'Ah ha! 23B!' He stopped in

front of a blank wooden door whose number

he had deduced by examining the numbers of

the doors either side. Grabbing the handle, he

barged through.

And nearly fell to his death.

Amy grabbed him just in time. She shielded

her eyes against the sudden shaft of sunlight

and hauled him back over the threshold.

He dropped onto the floor of the hallway with

a thump.

The Doctor sat up immediately and stared

in confusion at his legs as they dangled over

the broken edges of the floorboards. He

looked down at the steep drop below.

The entire eastern side of the building had

been torn away by a force that must have been

so powerful it sent shivers down Amy's spine.

Her eyes adjusted to the light and she peered

over the edge. The concrete skeleton of the

building had crumbled to reveal a series of

sharp metal supports nearly twenty storeys

down. They were positioned exactly where

the Doctor would have landed. Her stomach

turned at the thought.

'But, I don't understand!' the Doctor finally

found his voice. Where's 23B?'

'Er, here?' came a small cough from behind

them.

Rory was standing on the opposite side of

the hallway. He pointed at the number on the

door next to him. 23B.

The Doctor cleared his throat. 'Ah, right,

thanks.' He jumped quickly to his feet and began

patting his trousers down enthusiastically. 'I

must have confused 'apartment 23B' with

'creaky door of deathly death'. Ah well, no

harm done.' He straightened up and placed a

hand on Amy's shoulder.

'Thanks.' he mouthed, and for a second

Amy thought she saw a flicker of fear being

blinked away behind his deep green eyes. Then

it passed, and the blustering madman she

knew so well returned once more. This time

when the Doctor grabbed the door handle, he

opened it considerably more slowly.

The door swung gently open to reveal a

surprisingly small apartment considering the

faded luxury of the hallway. Inside was a basic

desk and chair. They were tucked neatly in one

corner against a small, frosted window. To

the right, behind a pokey bathroom, was an

unmade bed that looked like it would crumble

to ash if anyone so much as breathed on it.

Rory looked disappointed. 'I thought this

place was meant to be posh?'

'It's the location you pay for, not the size.'

It only took the Doctor a couple of steps

to reach the desk. He ran a finger across

the surface, tracing a zigzag in the dust and

a small blue light appeared in the centre of

the Desktop. With a smooth whirr, a strange

device appeared to unfold itself from the desk.

It resembled a stylish doctor's stethoscope. A

small wishbone shape was attached to one

end, and the spine of the device curved up

before straightening out to meet the light.

'Gorgeous.' The Doctor reached out to

touch it and the blue light faded to a soft

green. 'It's still logged in.'

'What is it?' Amy breathed.

The Doctor looked over and grinned. 'It's

a games console.'

'Like an Xbox or a PlayStation?' Rory asked.

'Yeah, if they were able to read and adapt

to your thought patterns while stimulating all

five senses through manipulating chemicals in

your brain.' The Doctor gave him a look.

'I'm sure I saw an advert for something like

that,' Rory muttered.

'So this is what's been giving out the energy

signal?' asked Amy.

The Doctor pulled the chair out from

beneath the desk and perched himself upon

it. 'Yep, it's still connected to the network -

checking for updates, new software, that kind

of thing'

'But where is it getting the power from?'

The Doctor leant back in his chair and began

toying with the wishbone. 'The batteries in

these Desktops are immense. They have to be.

All the major cities moved their power plants

away from populated areas a good century

back. There's no such thing as mains power any

more. It's all hydrogen batteries now.'

'But how does that -' Rory began, but Amy

interrupted him.

'We're missing the big question here. If that

thing's still logged on, it means there's still an

Internet, or holo-net, or whatever the future-

people call it.'

The Doctor frowned. 'Good point.'

'And seeing as everything else is on the blink

around here, it seems to me like someone's put

some serious effort into making sure it was

still working.'

The Doctor tapped the desk; it beeped

encouragingly. Well,' he said finally, 'I guess

I'd better find out what's going on then.' He

grabbed the wishbone, and before Amy or

Rory could stop him he'd slotted it over his

forehead.

'Oh, great,' said Rory.

Seven miles away, sitting in the shadow of a

rolling dune, a giant robot was reading a book.

The air was still and calm and the robot held

the thick paperback at an angle so that the

sun's light fell across the pages from over the

ridge behind it.

Its metal exoskeleton was heavy and

thickset. The erosion of countless sandstorms

gave the chrome finish a rugged texture that

made it look more animal than machine. From

a distance it almost looked like a silver gorilla.

A curved plasma screen stood in place of

a face and it traced a blue bead of light to the

bottom of the paragraph. Then, with a loud

hiss of hydraulics, the robot's arm flexed to

turn over the yellowing page.

Then an alarm sounded. The blue bead

danced for a minute as a low wail emerged

from the speakers fitted in the centre of

the robot's chest. Then the screen refreshed

and a scrolling message appeared. In square

red capitals it repeated the words 'USER

DETECTED, USER DETECTED, USER

DETECTED,' over and over again.

The robot's shoulders slumped in a digital

sigh. With a great effort and clanging of

pistons it hauled itself to its feet and began

walking slowly up the side of the dune.

Its great weight caused its feet to slide in

the loose sand with each step, but eventually

it reached the top. Stretching across the

length of the horizon, the half-buried city

of Chicago looked like the skeleton of some

ancient whale. The robot's screen dimmed as it

scanned the ancient buildings for the location

of the download.

Eventually a small beep announced that the

user had been located. The robot crouched;

flexing its steel joints, then launched itself into

the air.

The Doctor didn't exist.

At least, not yet. Inside the Desktop his

mind floated in a void that was made even

more confusing by the fact that he didn't have

a body. If he had had feet he could at least

have found out which direction was 'down'.

Then there were letters.

'Welcome to Parallife,' they said.

The Doctor would've laughed at that if he

had a mouth.

'Parallel-life. Very good,' he thought

instead.

The letters rearranged themselves. 'Are you

a new user?'

'Yes.' The Doctor was getting the hang of

thinking instead of speaking now.

'Thank you, please proceed to the Character

Creation menu.'

There was a feeling of rapid movement,

although in the blackness it was impossible to

tell. A light came on, and the Doctor suddenly

realised that he was in a room — a huge, white

space in which various body parts, clothes and

sliding menu-bars were floating. He stepped

forward and discovered that he now had a

body. Looking down he saw a green wireframe

skeleton. He raised a stick figure hand in front

of his face and waved at himself.

'Well, I've received a few new bodies in

my time, but nothing like this,' he declared,

peering around at the vast number of options

in front of him. 'This is going to be fun.'

He raised his hands like a conductor

preparing to perform and began. Chins,

eyes, hair, arms, legs, hands were all selected

and adjusted with a wave of the Doctor's

hand. They zipped forward and slotted into

place over the green skeleton. When he was

satisfied, he dismissed the body parts and

brought forward the clothes. Boots, skinny

trousers, a white shirt. Unfortunately, the only

bow tie the Doctor could find was a comically

oversized affair.

Finally, he brought up the 'preview' mirror

and discovered that he had made a perfect

digital replica of himself.

'Well, would you believe it?' he said to

himself, rolling up his shirtsleeves. 'And I

thought I was just picking what looked cool!

You can't improve on perfection, I suppose.'

The Doctor ran a hand over his hair, pushing

his long fringe off to one side and dismissed

the mirror. He looked up and spread his arms.

'Right, I'm ready!' he said. 'Let's get started!'

There was no reply, but when the Doctor

looked forwards once again he found a small

red door sitting in the middle of the wall as if

it had been there all along. Which it definitely

hadn't.

The Doctor did a little hop of excitement.

'Get ready, Parallife,' he said. 'Here I come!'

The town of Tutorial brought back long

forgotten memories to Blondie. It was the

town of her birth, and like most things she had

experienced when she was young, it was far

smaller than she remembered. The buildings

here were left over from the old world, barely

four storeys high and the ground was all on one

level. Blondie considered it boring, but if she

needed help, this was the best place to find it.

Blondie had never seen so many people

in Tutorial before. She suspected that they

too had arrived to refresh their training in

preparation for fighting the darkness. It had

been so long since any of them had fought.

She made her way to the town square, a

large open space where the crowd was at its

thickest. She pushed through the mass of

people until she was standing in the exact

centre of the crowd and drew her sword. She

held the shimmering blade high over her head.

The weapon was unique and powerful and its

very presence created an immediate hush. The

crowd stepped back and cleared a circle around

her. She opened her mouth to speak, ready to

announce that she would lead the fight against

the darkness, and that anyone who wished to

aid in the defence of their world was welcome

to stand by her side. But she didn't get the

chance.

The sky above Tutorial cracked, and a

digital thunderclap washed over the square.

A great column of white light arced down,

hitting the ground just half a metre away from

where Blondie was standing.

A red door materialised in the glow, and

amongst the crowd someone screamed.

'No, it can't be!'

'Impossible!'

'It's been years, so many years!'

But it was true. For the first time in over

one hundred years, the world of Parallife had

a new citizen.

The door opened and a man stepped out,

onto Blondie's foot.

Blondie winced and the man's hand flew

instinctively to his oversized bow tie.

'It's a bit large I suppose,' he said. 'But I

didn't think it was that bad.' He extended a

hand in greeting. 'I'm the Doctor, I'm here to

help.'

The crowd held their breath, as if his touch

might tear their world apart. But Blondie

shook his hand fearlessly and when nothing

happened they heaved a sigh of relief.

'Blimey, everyone seems a bit . . . tense.'

The Doctor frowned and looked around.

'Parallife is threatened Doctor.' Blondie's

face was grim. 'We must fight or die.'

'Or fight and die.'

'I can see you're going to be a great help.'

The Doctor and Blondie eyed each other

with suspicion, until a soft rumble broke the

silence. The citizens' eyes rose instinctively to

the sky. Another visitor?

But the pink-tinged clouds remained calm,

and the rumble continued to grow. On the

outskirts of the square, one of the men turned

to look down the wide main road behind him.

His mouth opened and closed like a fish for a

few moments, until he finally found his voice.

'Stampede!' he screamed.

Tutorial was thrown into panic as the

citizens rushed for cover among the narrow

alleyways between the buildings, fumbling

blindly for their weapons. The Doctor spun

on his heel, taking it all in.

'What's going on?' he asked.

'The plains around Tutorial are filled with

animals, easy pickings for young citizens to

practise their fighting skills. A stampede is the

easiest way to level up,' Blondie replied.

'Level up?' the Doctor was incredulous.

'Wait, are you saying that we're in some kind

of game?'

'We used to be.' Blondie flexed her sword

arm and planted her legs firmly apart. She

adopted a fighting stance as the smaller,

faster creatures began to pour into the square

around them. Three legged birds hopped and

skipped across the metal cobbles, their long

necks twisting this way and that, searching for

a way through. Behind them came the larger

mammals. They tumbled through the birds,

sending them scattering in all directions.

'They're scared,' the Doctor muttered.

'Terrified.'

There was a loud squawk as one of the

creatures picked the wrong alleyway and was

struck down by a citizen hidden in a doorway.

It dissolved into a shower of pixels, which

flowed into the young warrior, making his skin

glow.

'Stop!' the Doctor was outraged. 'You

can't do that!' But the citizens ignored him.

Growing in confidence, they stepped out of

their hiding places and swiped clumsily at the

animals as they swept past.

Blondie flashed him a mocking smile. 'Do

you really think they'll listen to you? You're

level one! Zero experience. You can't hope to

command anyone until at least level seven!'

The Doctor looked aghast. 'But I'm a talker,

that's what I do, I save people with words, I —'

'It means nothing here,' Blondie interrupted.

'Unless you level-up your negotiation skills,

you're powerless. So I suggest you get fighting'

Even larger animals were beginning to spill

through now; huge, buffalo-type creatures

whose almost human eyes were wide with

fear. Blondie raised her sword, and brought it

flashing down.

But it never reached its target. The Doctor's

hand snapped out and held firmly onto her

wrist as the creature galloped past the pair.

Then he twisted her arm up until the sword

was pointing away from the steadily growing

flood of panicked creatures.

'What are you doing?' she hissed at

him, furious. We're right in the path of the

stampede, if we don't do something we'll be

trampled to death!'

'I know,' the Doctor's voice was stern, his

grip unwavering. What level are you?'

Blondie stared at him.

'What level are you?' the Doctor shouted

this time.

'Forty-seven.'

'Good, and from what little chance I've

had to look around, it appears that you're the

most experienced citizen here.'

Blondie looked smug.

'Which means you should be able to

command these people, right?'

'Of course.'

'Then stop the killing!'

A few minutes later, the Doctor found

himself perched on top of Tutorial's

town hall. He looked down at the mass of

animals that now filled the streets below. It

was strange how in this world there was no

smell. Blondie had done as he asked and now

the citizens were gathered on the surrounding

rooftops, away from the peril of the stampede.

They eyed the creatures with disappointment

as they rumbled through the alleyways beneath.

'Did we fly up here?' the Doctor asked

Blondie.

Blondie laughed, a beautiful sound that

sparkled like her eyes. 'Of course. Do you

not have magic where you come from?' She

gestured to the buffalos below. 'They're just

programmes you know, they don't even have

brains, just a list of things to do. I've never

known anyone to care about them before.'

The Doctor was silent for a minute as he

absorbed the details of this strange new world.

'Thank you,' he said finally. 'I know that

must have been a difficult choice for you to

make.'

'It's the rules of the game,' the young

woman replied. We have to kill or our levels

don't rise. If they don't rise we can't create. Our

tools, our buildings, our society are founded

on the skills we buy with the experience points

we gain from battle. There is no other way.'

The Doctor shook his head sadly.

'But in reality, Doctor, the choice wasn't

difficult. Because even I can see that it is

useless to fight the darkness.' She pointed, and

the Doctor followed her gaze.

Tutorial was only a small town. From his

position on the roof, the Doctor could see

the buildings give way to the plains beyond.

Huge, neon-bordered squares marked them

out, narrowing as they stretched away to the

dark horizon. But something was wrong. The

Doctor looked up at the sky. The clouds above

shifted on the winds of a distant rhythm, and

behind them the sky was still a warm, glowing

pink. It was then that the Doctor realised he

wasn't looking at the horizon - it was the

darkness.

The expanding ebony sphere was now so

huge that it no longer looked like a sphere. The

curve of its surface was lost against the sky

and it looked like a huge, impenetrable wall,

bulldozing through the plains towards them.

'Right, well, now I see why the animals

were so afraid.'

'They weren't afraid,' Blondie sighed,

'they're simply programmed to avoid danger.'

The Doctor looked at her. 'Isn't that what

fear is?'

She smiled. 'Does everything you say make

upside-down sense?'

'Not everything. Sometimes I don't make

any sense at all.' He swayed slowly to his feet.

'Now, since you're happy to admit that we've

no way of fighting this . . . thing. I suggest

we follow the animals and get out of here as

quickly as possible.'

Blondie took hold of his hand, ready to

return them both to the ground. We could

follow them,' she admitted, a sly grin spreading

across her face, 'or we could hitch a ride . . .'

The Doctor had been logged into the

computer for over half an hour now. The

tiny flat had become cramped and stuffy a long

time ago — even with the tiny window open.

It had been Amy's suggestion to climb to

the roof and admire the view while they waited,

but the lifts had stopped working again and

they had to take the stairs. There were seventy

floors in total and Rory made sure to remind

Amy of that fact as they passed each one.

His feet hurt.

'My feet hurt,' he said for the fifth time.

'Nearly there now.'

'They hurt bad. Like, blisters and things.'

'It'll be worth it when we get to the top.'

Finally they passed the uppermost floor

and opened the hot metal door to the roof.

A cool breeze washed over them and Rory

undid a second button on his shirt. He held

his arms away from his sides to fully enjoy the

sensation as he walked across the burnt grey

paving slabs that wound a path through the

broken air-conditioning vents and shattered

maintenance boxes.

He put his arm around Amy as they reached

the edge and gazed out at the ruins beyond.

The view took their breath away.

'It's like . . . everything is sky,' Rory said.

From this height, the blinding heat of the

sun appeared to have frozen the desert into

glass. The dunes scattered a ragged reflection

of the white-blue sky above. Even the nearby

buildings were reflected, giving the impression

that the entire city was simply —

'Floating. That's what it feels like,' Amy

replied. 'And there's not a cloud in the sky. Do

you think there's any water left in the world?'

'I don't know,' said Rory, squinting his

eyes against the glare and looking around.

'Although,' he motioned with his hand.

'There's that.'

Amy turned to her right. A single cloud

hung on the horizon, a plume of glittering

white that seemed to stretch for miles.

'Uh, Rory, I don't think that's a cloud,' she

said nervously. 'I think that's a sandstorm.'

'Well it would be, wouldn't it?' Rory had

travelled with the Doctor long enough to

expect anything less dangerous. 'What shall

we do?'

Amy's reply was drowned out by a loud thud.

It echoed loudly around the tower block and

slowly the pair returned their gaze to the desert.

A large round crater had appeared in the

sand, just over a mile away from where the

pair were standing.

'There!' Amy pointed to the sky and Rory

raised his eyes just in time to see a silver streak

falling back down to Earth.

Another thud, another crater. Closer this

time.

'What,' said Rory, 'was that?'

They didn't have to wait long to find out.

The object cannoned into the side of the

tower block nearly twenty floors below with

a crash that made the entire building shudder.

Rory stumbled dangerously close to the edge

of the roof but Amy grabbed him as she

dropped to her knees beside him. Wrapping

an arm around his legs for support, she leaned

over the ledge and looked down.

Clinging to the side of the structure,

covered in grey concrete dust, was a giant

robot. As they watched, it turned its smooth,

featureless head upwards towards them,

and the image of a bright yellow smiley face

appeared on its screen. The face winked.

With a loud crunch, the robot withdrew a

fist from the wall and smashed it into the floor

above to pull itself up. Then it did the same

with its other fist. Slowly, the robot began to

climb up the tower block, almost demolishing

the wall as it did so. Broken glass and bits of

plaster exploded outwards with each calculated

punch, cascading over the robot's metal back

like water.

'Uh,' Rory put a hand on Amy's shoulder.

'Shouldn't we be, um, running? Or something?'

'I don't know. It seems pretty friendly, what

with the smiley face and all.'

'Yeah, but maybe that's how it tricks

people into letting it kill them. I mean, how

do we know it wasn't an army of robots that

destroyed the planet in the first place? And

demolishing this city isn't just them finishing

the job?'

'Could be,' Amy replied. 'But either way,

it doesn't exactly look like the kinda thing we

could run away from, does it?'

Rory swallowed and winced as the building

shuddered from another blow by the robot.

'Well, you're the boss,' he said finally.

So they waited, until eventually the robot's

huge metal hand smashed through the ledge

of the roof. It hauled its massive bulk onto the

paving slabs. The slabs cracked.

'Well you ... are definitely a lot bigger than

I thought,' Rory finished lamely. Cautiously,

Amy raised a hand and waggled her fingers in

greeting.

'Hi,' she said.

The robot looked at them.

'Hello.' Its voice crackled slightly, and

it looked down to see that its speaker was

clogged with dust. There was a sudden burst

of noise, and a small grey cloud burst from its

chest. When it spoke again its voice was far

deeper than before. 'Let's try that again: hello?

Hello.'

'Did that robot just clear its throat at us?'

whispered Amy.

'I think it just did,' Rory replied.

The robot ignored them. 'I'm sorry to

bother you,' it continued, 'but I'm afraid an

army of robots is heading this way and they're

programmed to demolish the city.'

There was silence for a moment, then Rory

folded his arms and turned to face his wife.

'This,' he said triumphantly, gesturing at the

robot behind him with his thumb, 'is why you

should always listen to me.'

A short while later, Amy and Rory had led

the robot down into the hallway outside

apartment 23B. Its huge frame left long

scratches down each side of the corridor and

with every shuddering step, Rory had visions

of them all plummeting down to ground level.

'So, what do we call you?' Amy asked the

robot. 'Do you have a name?'

'My name is Daryl,' the robot replied.

Rory sniggered and Daryl's smiley face

transformed into a frown. Rory stopped

sniggering immediately. 'Nice to meet you,

Daryl,' he said.

The door opposite the Doctor's apartment

had been left ajar. Now it swung backwards

and forwards in a heavy breeze, beating a

regular rhythm against the frame.

'That's funny,' said Amy. She stepped

forward to prevent another slam, 'I can't

remember it being this windy when we arrived.'

She looked out through the broken hole in

the side of the tower block. The sandstorm

was larger now, much larger.

'They're coming,' said Daryl

'Wait, you mean that sandstorm is the robot

army you warned us about?'

Daryl nodded.

Rory swallowed. 'How many of them are

there?'

'It takes 347 to span the length of a city

this large.'

'But what's the point? There aren't any

humans left to enslave!'

'Enslave?' Daryl's screen refreshed and a

large blue question mark appeared. 'They're

helping humanity. And even if they could

think for themselves, what would they need

with human slaves?'

'Well, in the movies . . .' Rory trailed off.

Daryl shook his head in disbelief.

'But why would humanity want their world

demolished?' Amy stepped in.

'Demolition is only the first stage. They're

preparing the ground to rebuild the planet.'

'So unless we grab the Doctor and get out

of here sharpish we'll become the foundations

for Chicago 2. I get it, right, let's go!' She

pushed open the door to apartment 23B,

and strode over to where the Doctor was still

sitting, slumped in his chair and connected to

the Desktop.

'Wait, don't -' she heard Rory call over her

shoulder, before he was drowned out by an

almighty crash.

Amy turned to see Daryl standing in the

doorway. Or at least where the doorway used

to be. The wooden frame was now perched

at an angle across Daryl's back and behind

him the plaster of the wall had been smashed

through in a perfect outline of the robot.

'— do that.' Rory finished quietly, standing

on tiptoe to look over Daryl's shoulder and

into the room.

Daryl raised a finger and pointed at the

Desktop. A small shower of plaster powder

tumbled to the floor as he did so. 'Do not

unplug the user,' he said.

'What? Why?' Amy's hand hovered over

the small green power light.

'It's dangerous.'

'More dangerous than getting demolished

by an army of robot-bulldozers?'

'That is unfair.'

Amy rolled her eyes and moved to press

the Desktop. In a flurry of movement, Daryl's

arm snapped out. It extended on a piston and

grabbed her by the shoulder, pulling her away

from the desk.

Amy squealed, more out of surprise than

anything else. Daryl's grip was surprisingly

gentle.

'Hey! Hands off my missus!' Rory banged

on one of Daryl's shoulder blades with a fist.

'If he is unplugged before he logs out, his

mind will be separated from his body and his

body will short-circuit.' To illustrate his point,

Daryl's face flashed up a smiley face with

crosses for eyes.

'Ouch,' muttered Amy. 'Then how does he

get out?'

'He needs to find a save-point. It will store

his online character and return his mind to his

real-world body.'

'But he doesn't know that he needs to save!'

'I am connected to the network - if he

hasn't moved far from the Tutorial zone I

may be able to save him externally.' Moving

Amy carefully aside, Daryl spread his right

hand over the Desktop. From the inside of

his palm, mini-pistons began to drop down

and connect with the surface. The Desktop

rippled with light as the pistons began to tap

on its surface. It looked as if the finish was

being struck by neon-water droplets. Amy

thought it was beautiful.

Amy, I think you'd better look at this.'

Rory's voice broke her concentration. She

rushed over to where he was standing in

the hallway, looking out at the approaching

sandstorm.

It was much closer now, and through the

rippling grains of glass sand, the pair could

begin to make out the large, dark outlines of

the demolition robots. They were huge.

'We're running out of time,' Rory hissed

urgently and, as if in response, the edge of the

storm smashed into one of the outer buildings

of the city.

There was a terrible, crunching grinding

noise, like nails scraping across a blackboard,

only a thousand times louder.

Amy covered her ears with her hands as

the building began to shake.

'Daryl! Tell me you're done!' she shouted

over the din.

Daryl straightened up, and turned his

screen towards them. On it was a sad face.

'The user has left the area. I am unable to

pull him out.'

'The Doctor! He's called the Doctor!'

Amy ran over to him and flung her arms up in

frustration. 'There's got to be something, he'll

do something, that's what he does, escapes in

the nick of time and —'

The tower block shuddered again, longer

and louder this time as another building was

chewed up by the advancing bulldozers.

'The nick of time has just run out,' Daryl

stated. We have to go.'

'No! We're not leaving him!' Rory was in

the doorway now, his head and shoulders

white with plaster dust. 'You're a robot! Call

them off!'

Daryl shook his head. 'I am not . . .

operating within my programming. They will

not listen to me and I can't risk my actions

being discovered.'

Amy and Rory exchanged puzzled glances.

'What?'

'What?!'

Daryl waved them into silence, demolishing

half the bathroom in the process. 'I do,

however, have this.' A small hatch popped

open in his thigh and he produced a small

white sphere that immediately sprouted four

legs. He reached down and placed it carefully

on the floor beneath the Doctor's chair. 'An

emergency beacon. It forbids the bulldozers

to demolish anything within two metres square

of its location.'

They looked at the device doubtfully. It

blinked at them. Then, before they could

protest, Daryl reached out two massive hands

and grabbed them both. Holding them tightly

to his chest, he bent his knees with a sharp

hiss of hydraulics.

'Hopefully,' he finished, before jumping

through the wall.

Daryl set Amy and Rory down two miles away

on the opposite side of the city. They staggered

to their feet, battered and bruised, and turned

to watch as the sandstorm swamped the tower

block they had been standing in only a few

minutes before. The wall of sand dwarfed

even the tallest skyscrapers, and they looked

on in horror as each one was transformed into

a shower of glittering dust.

Rory put a hand on Amy's arm, but he had

no words to comfort her. Soon the city was

lost from view.

Amy turned to Daryl and looked at him

with hollow eyes.

'What now?' she asked.

In response, Daryl turned away from her

and crouched. Then beckoned for them to

climb onto his back.

'Now,' he said, 'we run.'

'Do you think your mount could stop trying

to eat mine for just five minutes?' the

Doctor sniffed. He was perched awkwardly

on the back of a small, ostrich-type bird. It

waddled under his weight and kept scooting

off in the wrong direction whenever he wasn't

concentrating.

Blondie was riding a two-metre long tiger.

Which was blue.

She had found it prowling around at the

edge of the stampede, ready to pick off any

stragglers. With a few well-chosen swipes of

her sword she had persuaded it to stand still

long enough for her to climb onto its back.

Once she had done that, the creature was

stuck with her.

It snapped its jaws at the Doctor's ostrich

once again and let out a frustrated growl. The

noise sent the bird and its rider zigzagging off

to hide behind an emerald-coloured tree.

Cautiously, the ostrich poked its head out

from behind the trunk and squawked angrily

at the tiger. The Doctor's head popped out

soon after.

'I suppose this is because I'm a level one

animal-trainer-rider type-thing, right?'

Blondie nodded. 'You're getting the hang

of it now.'

'And I presume you're on level three trillion

and four or something because you're Little

Miss Perfect?'

'Well, thirty-five at animal training'

The ostrich stretched out a bony leg to step

cautiously out from behind the tree. The tiger

growled and the bird quickly returned to its

hiding place.

'Well, if you're so good, how come you

can't stop your tiger-thing from trying to eat

my chicken-thing?'

'I can. But it's funnier this way.'

'Oh, you are a great help,' the Doctor let

out a bitter laugh. 'It's the end of your world

and all you can think about is making me

look stupid.'

Blondie smiled. 'I've always said it'd be nice

to die laughing' She yanked at the lump of fur

behind the tiger's neck that she was using as

a rein and reared it away from the bird. 'But

obviously your sense of humour is only at

level one as well.'

Finally the Doctor was able to control his

ride, and trotted out to rejoin Blondie. 'So

even a person's sense of humour has a level

here?' he asked.

'No, that was a joke.'

'I'll shut up now.'

'Please do.'

They rode on slowly in silence, giving their

mounts a chance to rest after the desperate

sprint away from Tutorial. The Doctor's mood

saddened as he remembered their panicked

dash through the stampeding herd. The cries

of the citizens and animals still rang in his ears

before the digital sounds that made up their

voices were disintegrated into megabytes, then

kilobytes, then bytes by the relentless advance

of the darkness behind them.

But the Doctor and Blondie had stayed

ahead of the pack, encouraging their mounts

to even greater speeds. Eventually the rumble

of destruction faded, and the tidal wave of

wreckage was nothing more than a shimmering

blur on the horizon behind them.

The Doctor ran a hand through his hair,

frustrated. When he looked over to Blondie

he realised that she was shaking, but whether

it was with anger or fear he couldn't tell. They

kept on moving.

Around them colourful branches began

to spring from the ground, multiplying and

blossoming into the flat outlines of trees. They

stretched higher, twisting and turning until

the pair were dwarfed by a cool pastel forest.

Soon they made their way through the paths

between puddles of blue light that flowed from

the surrounding roots. The Doctor blinked,

attempting to adjust his eyes to the mind-

bending structure of the world. He didn't

even know whether the sudden appearance of

the forest was a trick of the horizon, or if it

was truly growing around them.

Blondie spotted his puzzlement. 'It's called

pop-in,' she explained. 'This forest has been

programmed to exist here, but when there are

no citizens around, the network hides it to

save memory. We were running so fast earlier

that it was having trouble restoring the trees

around us, which is why they seem to grow.

Actually, this forest has been here for over

fifty years.'

The Doctor gently guided his ostrich over

towards the nearest trunk. It was flat and

golden, and when he pressed his hand against

it, it crackled gently. His palms tingled.

'If a tree falls in a forest, and there's no one

around to hear it, does the forest even exist?'

he murmured. 'Fascinating.'

Blondie laughed. 'Yeah, I forget just how

much Parallife must have changed from your

world since the players left.'

The Doctor frowned. 'And how do you

know? You're a part of the network, you've

never seen the outside world.'

'No, but I was a player's character once, we

all were.'

The Doctor stopped and looked at her.

'Do you know what humans do when

they're given a blank canvas in virtual reality?

When they get the chance to create a new

face and a new body from scratch? They

make themselves. And then they go out and

make their house, and the streets outside their

house, and the sky blue and the trees green.

Because humans think that it's a skill to make

things realistic.' She paused and took a breath.

'What did you look like on the outside?'

The Doctor looked embarrassed. 'Well,

kinda like . . . this.'

'Exactly.'

'So all this, Parallife, is an online computer

game — where people create their own

characters and go on quests and fight monsters

and level up and buy shiny swords?' the Doctor

said.

'It was an online game. And it used to look

like the outside world. Although back then the

outside world was called the real world.'

'So what happened?'

'The humans all left. We don't know why.'

The Doctor rubbed his chin.

'Parallife was left empty; all those players'

characters just stored online doing nothing,'

Blondie said.

'And you, your body and levels and things,

you used to be a character? Someone used to

play as you?'

Blondie blushed. 'It sounds weird when

you put it like that.'

The Doctor looked up towards the sky

that tinged the topmost branches of the trees

a golden pink. 'I guess that also means there

used to be a human that looked like you. Once.'

'I guess so.'

'Weird isn't it? Waking up in a body that isn't

yours.' He looked at her sadly for a moment,

then looked away. 'Hang on a minute . . .'

'What?' Blondie shook her head to clear her

thoughts. She watched as the Doctor jumped

easily from the back of the bird and ran over

to one of the trees. It was set back from the

path they had been travelling on. Had they not

stopped there to talk, he may not even have

noticed it.

Something was terribly wrong with the tree.

He knelt down, put his hands against the

trunk and pushed his face closer to inspect the

damage. The tree had a slash across it, half a

metre above the ground, which seemed to run

right through it. Above and below the slash

the trunk was still coloured with a golden

haze. But inside there was only an empty

blackness — a slice of nothingness that seemed

to ooze from the digital bark. It was dripping

something softly onto the forest floor, and the

Doctor struggled to work out what it was.

Then he realised. The tree was bleeding

numbers.

'What is it?' Blondie appeared by his side.

'I hope you made sure your tiger wasn't able

to reach my bird.' the Doctor said. He looked

over his shoulder to make sure. 'I said —'

'Shut up, Doctor,' said Blondie.

The Doctor turned to look at her. She

straightened up, backing slowly away from

the tree.

'I think we should get out of here,' she

said. And it was then that the Doctor realised

she was afraid. Very, very afraid.

'What's going on? What are these numbers?'

He reached down to scoop up a handful from

the pool on the floor.

When Blondie spoke again, her voice was

shaking. 'Nothing, waste data. Something has

erased the computer program that makes up

the tree so that all that's left is useless code.

Lengths, colours, sizes, shapes - now they're

all just meaningless numbers.'

'And what can do that?' the Doctor's voice

was stern.

'Nothing can do that!'

'Something can!' the Doctor shouted back.

'And you know what it is because otherwise

you wouldn't be so scared!'

'I've never seen one.' Blondie shook her

head and continued to back away. 'No one's

seen one. Sometimes you can hear them.'

'Them?'

'The Defrags!'

'And what,' said the Doctor, 'exactly, is a

Defrag?'

'Listen!' Blondie held up a hand.

They stopped and listened, but all the

Doctor could hear was the rustling of the

trees. Then it hit him. There was no wind. And

even if there was, would these trees rustle?

The noise grew louder, becoming a harsh

scratching hiss that sounded like radio static

with the volume turned up to maximum.

'They're coming,' said Blondie.

The Doctor and Blondie raced back to

the path. They dragged each other over

sprouting tree roots and through neon puddles

in their haste. The noise was so loud now that

they had to cover their ears. Stumbling back

onto the path, Blondie hurried to untie her

tiger, but the Doctor's ostrich had wandered

off. He whistled, sweeping his head from side

to side in an attempt to spot it.

'Why didn't you tie it up?' Blondie shouted

to him over the noise.

There was a soft pop, a squawk and the

Doctor turned slowly back towards Blondie,

who was already on her tiger.

'It's gone,' she said. 'We need to go!'

The Doctor made to run, but stopped,

suddenly confused. The path ahead and

behind them was so filled with shadow that it

was difficult to tell which direction they had

come from. 'It's too dark to see anything!' he

shouted.

'They are the dark,' she said. 'The only

things to survive the destruction.'

There was a burst of movement behind

him, and the Doctor spun around. The

shadows were swarming towards them

through the trees now, but they were like no

shadow the Doctor had ever seen. As they

moved, an outline of corrupted orange data

spilled onto the floor around them.

But there was something else as well.

The Doctor squinted, fascinated, his eyes

desperately trying to penetrate the dark. It

almost killed him.

The static noise transformed into a scream

as one of the Defrags plummeted down

towards the Doctor from its perch in a decaying

tree. He raised his hands to cover his head.

But the impact didn't come. There was

a thud and the creature seemed to roll away

from the Doctor mid-fall, coming to rest only

a couple of metres away on the forest floor.

An eerie quiet descended and the noise of the

Defrags was softened. The Doctor could hear

running water.

'Did you see that?' the Doctor turned to

his companion. 'It's like some kind of force ...'

His voice trailed off. 'Field.'

From her position on the tiger, Blondie had

raised her palm to the sky. From it, a fountain

of white energy was pouring upwards. It hung

in the air for a moment, transforming into water

before arcing down around them in a perfect

circle. It was this that the Defrag had hit.

'It's a water sphere,' she said, 'I designed it

myself.'

The Doctor said nothing. He stepped over

to the edge of the circle where the Defrags

were gathering and pressed his face against

the water-screen.

A shattered face looked back. Like a

reflection in a broken mirror.

'There's something inside the shadows,'

the Doctor breathed. 'Something broken.'

In response, a curling red claw reached out

to prod at the opposite side of the shield. The

Doctor recognised parts of the creature as

human, or animal, but the jumbled mess that

made up the whole was horrific and unnatural.

The creature howled in frustration. It began

beating its face and claws against the water in

a terrible drumbeat. The rest of the Defrags

took up its rhythm until the water dome's

surface became a mess of shuddering ripples.

'Doctor, I can't sustain this spell forever!'

Blondie called over to him.

'Quiet!' said the Doctor. 'I'm thinking.'

He got to his feet and began to pace around

the protected circle, meeting the gaze of each

Defrag as he did so.

'When did you make this spell?' he gestured

to Blondie's palm. 'After the humans left?'

Blondie nodded.

'Right, and these trees, they're not

realistic, but they're still based on the human

programming of a tree, with the colours and

textures changed?'

'Most things in this world are.'

'So people have been taking the human-

made outfits and features and expanding

them to create new objects. Could they create

new faces? New clothes and hands and other

things I haven't got time to think of?'

'For the right price. Only a few citizens

have a level high enough to do such complex

work. They must pay to have their designs

created by the Guild of Architects.'

'That's it!' the Doctor declared triumphantly.

He pointed at the snarling face of the nearest

Defrag with both hands. 'That's what these

are, and that's what the blackness is!'

'What?' Blondie's arm was shaking now.

Sweat glistened on her face, and the white

stream of energy pouring through her was

beginning to grey.

'It's a system wipe. Something is trying to

erase all the data on the network.'

'But that's our world!'

'Of course it is. But this thing doesn't

know that, it thinks Parallife is empty, that

nothing happened once the humans left. But

things did happen, you created new things;

new people and places and the system can't

tell that. It's only erasing the programs created

by humanity, not yours.'

Blondie's eyes widened. 'Which means

that —'

'The Defrags are what's left of people

like you! They're what's left when the human

designs of your bodies are erased, only your

new clothes and faces and stuff are left.

They're upgrades held together by shadow.'

'But what's left is still affected by new

programmes like mine?'

'Exactly.'

Blondie's sleeve was beginning to blacken

now as the shield began to stutter. Around

them the Defrags were beginning to sense

the weakening in the water shield, and their

screams of frustration transformed into

gloating howls.

'Now we can go!' the Doctor grinned,

running over to sit behind her on the tiger's

back.

'Oh, no, you don't!' Blondie grinned. 'You

can't just reveal that there's a way to fight these

things and then expect me to run.'

The Doctor's face fell. 'They're not your

enemy, Blondie, fighting them isn't going

to help!'

'They're monsters, Doctor, they've haunted

my city, my home and my life. I'm tired of

being scared.' She clicked her fingers and the

water shield evaporated into a cloud of steam.

Then she drew her sword.

The blade flashed in the shadows, reflecting

rainbows off the cloud as the water settled into

a thick mist. It flowed between the decaying

trees, covering the forest floor. The Defrags

remained hidden in the steam, but the hiss of

static made ripples in the mist.

Blondie's silver eyes narrowed as she

encouraged the tiger into motion. She swept

the blade from side to side through the steam,

smiling as it crackled on contact with the water

droplets. The Doctor, clinging tightly to her

waist, eyed her carefully. There was obviously

no reasoning with her like this.

'This sword is one of the most complex

programmes the Chief Architect has ever

created. A one hit kill. Now I have an enemy

that deserves such a weapon.'

The mist stirred around them, and exploded

into life.

The Defrags leapt high into the air, water

streaming through the shadows of their

bodies. Blondie smiled and began to spin the

blade in her hand faster and faster, whipping

up the air around them as she prepared to

strike the monsters.

It was only then that she realised they were

leaping in the opposite direction, away from

her. A few moments later the forest was silent

once more, and the Defrags had fled.

Blondie let out a yell of anger, and slashed

at the ground with her sword. 'How dare you?'

she called out at the empty trees. 'How dare

you run from me?'

The Doctor put a comforting hand on

Blondie's shoulder. 'They're scared.'

'They've no right to be scared!'

The Doctor said nothing. Instead he

spurred the tiger into motion, and together

they rode on towards the edge of the forest.

Eventually the trees opened out onto the

edge of a huge cliff, and the tiger refused

to go any further. The Doctor and Blondie

dismounted and looked out at a haze of sky.

'It feels like the edge of the world,' he said.

Blondie looked at him. 'We can't run

forever.'

'I know. But those Defrags, Blondie, they're

not the monsters. Inside each shattered body

is the mind of a citizen. They're trapped. Of

all the things that have been added to this

world since the players left, their minds — your

mind — are the only things that are completely

new. They are the only things that cannot

be harmed by the system wipe. One of your

friends could be inside one of those creatures

- unable to speak. How would you feel if

your touch could infect the foundations of

Parallife?'

Blondie looked away. 'You're right, of

course, but what will become of them? Of

us? Will we end up trapped inside a world of

nothing?'

'I don't know.'

'The Games Master would know.'

The Doctor raised an eyebrow.

'The Games Master is our creator. He used

to monitor Parallife when the humans were

still players. It was his job to create new quests,

missions and battles to be fought. When the

players left, he gave each of their characters a

mind of their own. We only exist because of

him,' Blondie explained.

'And where is he now?'

'Gone.'

'Where?'

'Who knows?'

She reached up to her sleeve and fingered

the burnt material from where she had cast

her spell. 'Maybe he thought we weren't good

enough and created the darkness —'

'The system wipe.'

'Whatever — to correct his mistake.' Blondie

tore off her tattered sleeve and held it out over

the cliff. She watched the wind tug at it for a

moment then let go. The cloth fluttered for a

moment then seemed to fall towards the cliff-

face, sticking to the side.

The Doctor looked down.

'Wow,' he said finally.

The cliff face stretched away below them,

as far as the eye could see, and on it a spiralling

twisting architecture soared into the sky. Cities

and homes and villages, some on a level, some

at right angles, some whose internal pathways

seemed to fold and loop impossibly around

each other.

And it glowed, all of it, a blossoming

firework frozen in time.

'We're not on the edge of the world at all,

are we?' the Doctor said eventually, 'We're on

the side of it.'

Blondie laughed. 'Your mind is too

practical, Doctor. What's up and down are not

constant here; the Architects change them as

they like.'

'The Architects!' The Doctor slapped his

forehead. 'That's where we need to go. Take

me there.'

'I was going to,' Blondie said.

She took his hand, and together they

stepped onto the top of the world.

Vast sand dunes swept by beneath Daryl's

feet. Miles and miles of rippling desert that

seemed to stretch across the entire world, and

probably did for all Amy and Rory knew.

They clung on tightly to his curved metal

shoulder blades. Each time the robot landed

they were thrown high into the air with the

force of the impact, before he launched

himself away again. And each time he

reached the peak of his impossible leap they

experienced a feeling of weightlessness. They

hung in the air as if gravity was still struggling

to catch up with them, before plummeting

down to Earth with a turn of their stomachs.

Amy's legs and arms now ached so much

that she could barely feel them, and her hair

had been blown into a tangled mess by the

speed of Daryl's travel. She looked over to

Rory, but his eyes were fixed firmly on his

sweaty palms, as if willing them to keep holding

on. Once he looked over Daryl's shoulder and

saw the ground hurtling away beneath them.

He almost fainted.

'You weren't scared when we went on that

death mountain ride at Alton Towers,' Amy

shouted over the wind.

'That had a height restriction and a safety

bar!'

Daryl's body hit the ground once more,

sending up a spray of sand. Amy screwed shut

her eyes, coughing and spitting the sand from

her mouth. When she opened them again,

Rory had gone, and beneath her Daryl was

standing motionless at the top of a dune.

With a long groan of pain, Amy prised

her fingers away from their handhold and

slid slowly down Daryl's back onto the hot

sand. She lay there for a moment, willing her

muscles to unlock, then wobbled to her feet,

legs slipping everywhere.

'This is gonna hurt in the morning,' she said,

attempting to shake some life into her limbs.

Finally confident that she could walk, she

turned to look down the side of the dune

behind her. She followed the long trail of

upturned sand that zigzagged away from her.

Then her eyes rested upon the dazed figure of

Rory, lying face down in the valley of the dune.

She slipped and slid her way down the

loose sand, accidentally spraying him as she

dropped to her knees by his side.

'Blegh,' said Rory, his face muffled by the

sand.

'You okay?'

'Blegh.'

Amy sighed. 'I'll take that as a 'yes''

Rory tried to roll over and groaned. 'My

arms and legs have stopped working.'

'They just ache, get up!' She grabbed his

arm and hauled Rory to his feet, ignoring his

half-hearted protests.

'I don't like the future any more. Can we go

to the past next time?'

'If you're good.'

She dusted him down and together they

turned to see Daryl still waiting for them at

the top of the dune. Then they began the long

climb up to meet him.

'It's shady on the other side, we'll stop for a

rest.' Amy promised.

'There's no need for that.' Daryl said, as they

hauled themselves onto the ridge. We're here.'

An arrow flashed up on his face and Amy and

Rory looked across the other side of the dune.

The sun was hanging lower in the sky now,

and the once flawless white sea of sand was

now patterned with lengthening shadows that

turned the landscape a stark black and white.

At the base of the dune was a bunker, its metal

outline shining where it caught the sun above

the shadow.

Two huge double doors faced them, and

the ribbed girders that lined the building's roof

were rusted a sunburnt orange. Surrounded by

the wildness of the landscape, its solid angles

looked strangely out of place. It looked like a

stranded ship, or a skyscraper on its side.

'What is it?' asked Amy.

Daryl shifted; sand pouring from the cracks

in his metal skeleton as he prepared to move

again.

'Safety,' he said.

The interior of the bunker was vast and

still, bathed in a shadow that hadn't been

disturbed for over a century. Until now.

The giant steel gears that arced around

the twenty-storey high double doors began

to shake and creak. They rotated agonisingly

slowly with a howl of metal grinding on metal.

Gradually the doors began to part, and a tiny

sliver of light slashed across the floor of the

bunker. The column of light grew wider as

the grinding squeal increased. Soon, the dark

outline of Daryl's silhouette was framed in the

crack between the doors. His metal body was

dwarfed by the size of the machinery around

the doors, but his strength was many times his

size. Eventually the double doors were prised

open wide enough to allow Amy, Rory and

Daryl to step through comfortably.

Amy walked slowly along the path created

by the column of light, her footsteps echoing

loudly in the gloom. Her eyes widened in the

darkness as her sight adjusted to the sudden

change, and her mouth opened in awe.

All around her, hanging from the arches

of the distant roof, were robots. Each one

was the size of a small bus, and their rounded

metal joints and steaming hydraulics gave

them the appearance of a herd of sleeping

dragons. They swung lazily back and forth on

their chains, while a network of walkways and

control panels threaded between each one.

Amy suddenly felt very small.

'It's like a cathedral.' Even Rory's whisper

echoed as he walked slowly across to join Amy.

'A cathedral for worshipping giant robots,' he

added, looking around.

'Looks like you're the runt of the litter,

Daryl,' Amy called over her shoulder.

'We aren't related.' Daryl strode over to

them with a great deal of noise, his footsteps

ringing on the metal floor.

Rory shivered, it was cold inside the

bunker. A welcome relief from the sweltering

sun outside. 'I thought you were taking us to

safety?' he asked. 'I presumed that would mean

as far away from an army of robots as possible.'

'This is the safest place on the planet.' The

smiling face returned to Daryl's screen.

'How?'

'The rebuilding of Earth is a two-

stage process. Demolition followed by

reconstruction. Outside, the planet is being

flattened and processed, prepared for the

second stage.'

'And these are the reconstruction robots?'

Amy stepped cautiously across the room to

stand beneath one of the giants. A huge, blank

plasma screen stared back, surrounded by a

cluster of cylinders.

'Correct. There are five hundred of these

factories positioned across the globe, each

one containing an army of similar size. These

bunkers are the only places Legacy has been

programmed not to demolish.'

'Well, duh,' said Rory. 'Be a pretty stupid

plan otherwise.'

'Legacy?' Amy held a finger to Rory's

mouth and encouraged Daryl to continue.

'Legacy is the Central Intelligence, it

controls all artificial life on die planet -

coordinating the restoration of Earth.'

'Including you?'

'I am ...' Daryl paused. 'Unique.'

'Is that a no?'

'Yes.'

'Yes, that's a no or yes, Legacy controls you?'

'Legacy doesn't control me.'

Rory put his head in his hands. The sun

had given him a headache. 'Hang on a minute.'

He screwed his face up, trying to think. 'Why?'

he finished.

'Why what?' Daryl flashed a question mark.

'Why the whole 'restoration' thing? There

isn't anybody left to appreciate this whole . . .'

he flapped his hand around, 'whatever it is.'

Daryl raised his screen upwards, running a

blue bead across the surfaces of the suspended

robots. It flashed across their chrome surfaces,

disappearing into the darkness above each one

before reappearing on the next. As he did so,

each robot jerked into life for an instant. The

cylinders around their screen-faces slid open

to reveal an array of mechanical arms, each

especially constructed for a different purpose.

The motors in their bodies flexed and twitched

with a series of loud hisses before the blue

dot continued on and left its target swinging

slowly from its chains, dormant once more.

'There's you,' he said finally.

Amy and Rory stared at each other.

'Us?'

Daryl shrugged, a gesture that seemed

strange and unnatural when performed by an

artificial body.

Rory stepped forward. 'You're trying to say

that all of this, this . . . Legacy stuff is to give

us somewhere to live? You're trying to rebuild

a planet for two human beings?'

'I had expected a greater number of

survivors.' Daryl's smiley face flipped into a

frown.

'Maybe they're all in other bunkers,' Amy

suggested.

Daryl shook his head. 'The bunkers are

empty except for the robots.'

Rory laughed. 'Yeah and you went round

the entire planet to check did you?'

Daryl was silent,

'Oh my God. You did!'

'I had one hundred years.'

In that moment Amy felt a pang of

sympathy for Daryl. She reached out a hand

and gently touched it against Daryl's forearm.

'I'd nearly given up.' He continued, And

then the demolition army was activated. But I

found you in the end.'

'You must have been lonely.'

'I had a book.'

Rory whistled through his teeth. Well, I

hope we were worth the effort.'

Daryl's yellow face winked at them. 'To be

honest I thought you'd be taller. Or stronger;

more like me. I was surprised to find that you

humans are so . . . fragile.'

'He's never seen a human before!' Rory hissed.

'So?'

'Shhh!' He looked nervously around.

It had been nearly half an hour since their

conversation with Daryl. With nothing left to

do but wait, the robot had produced his book

from a hidden compartment in his stomach

and settled himself in the middle of the bunker

to read. Rory had taken this opportunity to

guide Amy away, up the network of stairways

and gantries into the highest, furthest corner

they could reach.

They huddled behind the bulk of one of

the reconstruction robots, unable to see each

other in the gloom that surrounded them. But

Rory was still scared.

'Don't you see what that means?' he

whispered once more.

He felt, rather than saw, Amy shake her

head.

'It means we can't trust him. Haven't you

been listening to anything Daryl's said? He's

got no idea what's going on with the Legacy

thing, he obviously wasn't built by a human,

and he's rather keen to keep his actions on the

down-low.'

'The down-low?' Amy giggled.

'Having one lone robot jumping around the

planet, looking for the last surviving humans

just doesn't fit with a plan to rebuild Earth.

If the human race had the intelligence to put

Legacy in motion, then it should have had the

intelligence to keep itself alive during the end

of the world or whatever.'

'So where do you think he came from?'

Amy asked.

Rory shrugged. 'I dunno. He's obviously

more alive than the others.'

Amy said nothing.

Rory continued, 'So what're we gonna do?

Make a run for it?'

'He saved our lives!' Amy said. 'If we leave

now we'll be shredded by the demolition

robots.'

'But. . . why did he save our lives?'

'I don't know!' Amy was becoming more and

more frustrated. 'Why don't we just ask him?'

Rory inched over to the railings at the edge

of the gantry and looked down at where Daryl

was sitting, a dizzying distance below.

Something was wrong.

The robot's book was lying on the floor

a short distance from where he was sitting.

Although Rory couldn't see his face, the

pulsing red glow that illuminated Daryl's arms

and legs could only be coming from one place.

Cautiously, Rory stood up and softly

padded along the gantry to try and get a view

of Daryl's screen. Amy clattered after him in

her boots.

'Can you hear that?' she whispered.

'Yeah, how about you start wearing trainers

next time we leave the TARDIS?'

'No, no, not that. Listen!'

Rory pricked up his ears.

At this distance the noise was faint. But as

he listened, Rory was sure he could hear the

sound of a telephone ringing.

This side of Parallife was very different to

the one they had been on before. The hand

of the Architects could be seen wherever the

Doctor and Blondie looked. Little remained

of the old world. Even the more familiar

buildings and people had been restyled almost

beyond recognition. Vast, twisting glass

landscapes stretched in all directions, and even

in the smaller settlements the homes and other

constructions were floating in the air, attached

to the layered surface by neon strands.

But it was the music that stood out most

to the Doctor. Instead of the realistic sound

samples of the forest, where rustling leaves

and distant birdsong had been the only

soundtrack to their journey — here even their

footsteps produced soft, musical notes. When

the buildings swayed, it was in time to a soft

bass rhythm rather than the sound of any wind.

The citizens that lived here had hidden their

human features beneath rippling pixel-suits

that faded from colour to colour in time to the

beat. The colours displayed their emotions in

a way that made language almost unnecessary.

Everything was transmitting information, and

for the Doctor — who was used to not judging

by appearances — the honesty of the notes and

colours was astonishing.

'They make me look almost human, don't

they?' Blondie commented to him. And it

was true. Before, her silver hair and artificial

clothing had stood out amongst the realistic

outfits in Tutorial, and the flawless texture of

her skin was at odds with the rough, matted

fur of the animals they had ridden. Here she

was the most familiar sight that the Doctor

could see.

'Everything is so open. No one, nothing,

has anything to hide. And they couldn't hide it

if they wanted to,' he said.

'And what would they want to hide? How

could hiding what they feel help a person to

be happy?'

They had reached the nearest settlement by

now. It was only a small cluster of buildings.

The Doctor would have called it a village if

the word didn't seem so ridiculous here. They

leapt up its levels, to a network of roads that

blossomed from the centre of the houses and

arced upwards into the sky.

Blondie conjured a guiding spell. She

created a small ball of light in her hand and

threw it up above their heads. It hovered there

for a minute until Blondie spoke, loudly and

clearly. 'The Architects' Guild, please.' Then it

zipped off towards the horizon. It left a frozen

streak of lightning behind it that followed one

of the larger roads from the village.

The road was transparent and almost

invisible when the pair moved to step onto

it. But as they did so, their shadows seemed

to become solid beneath them, creating a

platform for them to stand on. The Doctor

wobbled uncertainly for a moment, and

Blondie grabbed his arm to steady him as their

shadows began to move.

They raced across the landscape, their path

joining a highway a few miles ahead. Around

them the world twisted and looped, although

the Doctor couldn't be sure if it was the world

turning or the highway.

'How far now?' the Doctor shouted, before

realising that there was no wind anymore to

drown out his words. 'I mean, how far now?'

he said again, more quietly. He checked his

watch. 'We might have outrun the system wipe

so far, but soon there'll be nowhere to run to.'

'If new code is the only protection against

the darkness, then the Guild is our last hope

for survival,' Blondie replied.

The Architects' Guild was huge. Great

emerald spires seemed to touch the sky

and turned the light around it to a deep green

that swathed the landscape in a dusky glow.

Its shape stretched downwards just as far, its

lowest spire connecting to the shimmering

grid of the city below. It looked huge. But only

after another fifteen minutes of travel, with

the spires looming bigger and bigger on the

horizon, did the Doctor realise just how huge

it really was.

The highway ended in the exact centre of

the structure, at its widest point. The Doctor

and Blondie stepped out onto a wide glass rim

that circled the Guild and attached to a large

number of other roads and walkways.

The Doctor knelt down to stare at the city

below, touching his hand against the glass. The

outlines of its grids and streets, buildings and

vehicles, shone brightly in the darkness of the

deep green sky.

'Interesting,' said the Doctor.

'What is?' Blondie leaned down beside him.

'Probably nothing.' He leapt to his feet.

'But worth remembering.'

The Doctor strode over to one of the

main entrances to the Guild, where two

men were standing either side. He smoothed

over his hair with a hand and fiddled with

his shirt. He fastened the cuffs with ease

and straightened his bow tie. Finally, once he

considered himself presentable, he offered a

hand to one of the men.

'Hello, I'm the Doctor,' he grinned. 'Now

if you'd just let me through to see your Chief

Architect, then I might be able to save your

world from total destruction.'

The men looked at each other, then back

to the Doctor.

Well, don't tell us,' said one.

'Just walk right in and do it. We aren't going

to stop you,' said the other.

The Doctor looked confused. 'But, you're

guards aren't you?'

'Guards?!' One of the men looked at him

as if he were mad. What would anyone need

a guard for?'

Blondie strode past the Doctor and through

the doors, pretending she wasn't with him.

The Doctor shifted his weight from foot

to foot, embarrassed, then hurried in after her.

'For a man so obsessed with peaceful

solutions, you expect an awful lot of violence

don't you?'

'I just thought, you know.'

'I don't know. Players don't kill players,

what kind of world do you think we live in?'

The Doctor was silent.

The main hall stretched away before them.

It was filled with columns that curved out

of the floor and extended both above and

below the glass floor into the furthest reaches

of the Guild. A menu appeared in the air

before Blondie with a collection of small, flat

rectangles of varying colours. Each one was

labelled with a department and room number.

She jabbed a finger at a small white box and

another lightning streak zipped across the

floor and up one of the columns.

'This way,' she said, striding forward.

They walked up the curve of the floor until

they were at right angles to where they had just

been standing, then carried on upwards.

The Doctor ducked to avoid bumping heads

with a citizen walking upside down on a nearby

column. As they walked, the building narrowed

and the spires split off in all directions.

Eventually their spire was all that was left, and

the tunnel that surrounded them drew so close

that the Doctor had to hunch to continue.

Finally the column stopped and Blondie

helped the Doctor step onto its peak. She

pointed at another box hanging in the air, and

the pillar began to extend. It carried them

slowly upwards through another glass floor

until they were standing in the office of the

Chief Architect.

The office was large and sprawling and the

walls seemed to be covered in a patchwork

of red shapes that made it hard to tell just how

large the room was. In the centre of the room,

the Chief Architect was playing a piano. His

fingers danced over the keys and the notes

rang out in the silence — each one changing

the shade of a shape on the wall. Then the

Architect saw the Doctor and Blondie standing

in front of him and raised his hands from the

keyboard. Slowly, the colours faded. The deep

reds washed away to white and even the piano

seemed to melt into an orange skeleton before

folding itself into the floor.

'Doctor,' he said quietly, a soft smile on his

face. 'I've heard all about you.'

The Doctor swayed on his heels. 'I hope it

was good things,' he replied, offering his hand

for the Architect to shake.

'Of course,' said the Architect. He was

young, with white hair that matched his shirt

and grey trousers that matched his shoes. But

even though he was small, his power could

be felt in every aspect of his office, bubbling

away beneath the surface.

'I'm sorry if this is rude,' the Doctor

frowned for a moment, 'but aren't you a little

young to be the Chief Architect?'

The Architect raised his eyebrows. 'Our

age isn't revealed in our faces, Doctor, we have

so many other ways of showing our wisdom.'

He leaned forward. 'But I don't think I'm the

only person in this room who is older than he

looks, am I?'

The Doctor grinned. 'You're good, very

good.'

The Architect shrugged. 'I know.'

Blondie stepped forward. When she spoke

her words were filled with a respect that the

Doctor hadn't seen from her before. 'Can you

help us, sir?'

The Architect looked away. He moved his

fingers ever-so-slightly and suddenly the walls

of the room fell away to reveal the landscape

beyond. In the far distance, the familiar

darkness was approaching, a black smudge

in the green sky. 'I don't know,' he said sadly.

'Even I don't have the power to hold back the

destruction of our world.'

Blondie reached out her hand to grab the

Doctor's. 'The Doctor has a plan.'

The Doctor shifted on his feet for a

moment. 'Sort of.'

Blondie stared at him.

'What?' said the Doctor, defensively, 'I

never said I could stop the system wipe - the

best I can do is to buy us some time.'

'But you said -' Blondie looked shocked.

'What do you need, Doctor?' the Architect

interrupted.

The Doctor leaned forward. 'I need you to

make me something. I'm only a new player.

I don't have the levels or the experience for,

well, anything really. But you, you know the

system inside out; you can find shortcuts and

program new codes. Give me the power to

change the objects in this world and I promise

I will do everything I can to save it.'

The Architect nodded. 'You are a brave

man, Doctor. We have spent so long living in

peace that some of us have forgotten how to

fight. Except you,' he looked at Blondie. 'It is

good to see you happy again.'

'I'm not happy, I'm terrified,' said Blondie.

'With you, I think it's hard to tell the

difference.'

A smile tugged at the corners of Blondie's

mouth, but the Doctor clapped his hands

together before she could reply. 'Right!' he

declared. 'Let's get started!'

The Doctor's explanation had taken nearly

half an hour to complete. The air around

the Chief Architect had become filled with

a rainbow of plans, drawings and lists of

abilities that the Doctor required. Now the

Doctor and Blondie had retreated to the far

corner of the office, where the Architect had

conjured up a small table and two armchairs

to keep them out of his way while he began

to create.

The Doctor sipped a small cup of what

looked like tea, but it tasted of nothing and

smelled of even less.

'Why do you drink that?' Blondie asked

him. She'd brought her sword onto her lap

and was polishing it vigorously.

'In the real world this would smell of

something,' the Doctor replied mournfully,

'something comforting and calming'

'Smell?'

'Obviously two senses were missed out

when this virtual world was created.'

Blondie frowned. 'You mean there are

more than three?'

The Doctor nodded. 'There are five,

usually, sometimes more.'

Blondie laughed. 'That seems far too many

to keep track of. No wonder the humans have

never really explored what they could do with

sight or sound. They must be in a constant

state of confusion.'

You know, I think you must be right.' The

Doctor smiled and took another sip of his

flavourless drink.

Blondie looked over to where the Architect

was standing in a whirlwind of computer

code. His hands darted around the swirling

fragments, pulling lines from the air and

mixing them with others. Textures and sounds

were created and then pulled into the central

shape. Others were dismissed with a wave of

the Architect's hand, crumbling into numbers

on the floor.

Sparks were flying as the object neared

completion and the office became a collage of

colours — blues and greens, reds and oranges.

They merged into rainbows and then a pure

white light. Eventually, the Architect was

finished.

The Doctor applauded loudly as he got

to his feet to meet the man. Blondie blinked,

surprised at how quickly the all-powerful wizard

she had seen while he worked had returned to

the mild young man they had first met.

'Stunning,' was all the Doctor could say when

he came face to face with the Chief Architect.

The Architect bowed his head. We all have

things we're good at, Doctor. My skills are just

particularly flashy.'

'Did you manage it?' asked the Doctor.

'Yes.'

The Architect held out his hands and

presented the Doctor with his request. 'It's

a clever design,' he commented, 'capable of

tampering with even the most complicated

of codes. If these weren't desperate times,

then I would have refused to grant such an

outrageous request. I shudder to think what

would happen if this fell into the wrong hands.'

'Don't you worry about that,' the Doctor

grasped the item firmly. 'I'm very protective

of my sonic screwdriver.'

'Your what?' Blondie peered over his shoulder.

'Sonic screwdriver.' The Doctor flourished

the device triumphantly. He thumbed a catch

and the handle snapped open to reveal a

glowing green crystal. He grinned slyly. 'My

all-purpose tampering device.'

'What's sonic about it?'

'Nothing,' the Architect wiped his hands

with a handkerchief, then made it vanish. 'It's

a cheat code actually — but its appearance

was based on the Doctor's description. It

allows him to tamper with the computer code

that makes up our world; to change it and

exaggerate it. He can make it do whatever he

likes. But without something for it to tamper

with, it's virtually useless.'

'That's what I like about it. It's a tool not a

weapon. Tools make other things work better.'

'How appropriate for a man named

Doctor,' said the Architect.

'So, what's the plan?' asked Blondie.

'First I need to test a theory,' the Doctor

turned to her. 'Your navigation thing, the spell

that showed us the way to the Architects'

Guild. It can show you the route to anywhere

in Parallife, right?'

'Right.'

'Which means that somewhere in that spell

is a world map?'

'I guess so.'

The Doctor flicked on the sonic screwdriver.

'Then let's bring it up.'

Blondie knew what to do. She flexed her

hands, summoning the white ball of lightning

once again. But before she could cast it into

the air, the Doctor's screwdriver let out a high-

pitched whir.

The ball expanded and shifted, transforming

into a metre wide, three-dimensional shape

full of kinks and planes and smooth curves.

The Doctor leaned forward to examine it

and his nose almost touched the shimmering

image. 'So this is what Parallife looks like,' he

murmured. 'But it didn't always look like this,

did it?'

'No. We Architects have adjusted the

landscape, changing it to suit the needs of

the citizens in each area. The largest towers

are easier to build if the world is flat, whereas

others prefer a traditional, curved horizon.'

'Yeah,' The Doctor nodded, 'that sounds

about right. But what happens if I hammer out

the kinks?' He activated the sonic screwdriver

again, and gradually the shape began to shift

once more — smoothing it out until it became

a perfect sphere. 'There we go,' he smiled, 'the

original globe.'

Blondie shrugged. 'So it's more round,

what's the big deal?'

The Doctor glanced over his shoulder.

'Nothing, to you. But what you don't know is

that the human world outside of Parallife is also

a sphere.' He pointed at the glowing outlines

of Parallife's continents. 'And although the

Architects have changed your world dramatically

since the players left, the basic shapes of the

digital continents are the same. Parallife is an

almost exact copy of planet Earth!'

He jammed his screwdriver into the image

and immediately it grew, zooming into a

particular city. 'I thought I recognized the road

layouts beneath the Guild — we're in Atlanta!'

'Atlanta?'

'That's the Earth-name for it; it's a city in

America.'

'America?'

The Doctor sighed. He was getting

nowhere fast. 'Okay, back to basics,' he said,

straightening up. 'Parallife is a copy of Earth,

right?' the pair nodded. 'And the system wipe

is being caused by something in the real world

— right? A computer or an artificial intelligence

or something,' they nodded again. 'So, if we can

find the centre of the system wipe in Parallife,

then that will tell us the Earth-location of the

computer that's causing it. We can turn it off!'

'But even if we found out where that was,

how would we reach it, Doctor?' said the

Architect, 'None of us exist in the outside

world.'

'Leave that to me,' said the Doctor. He

turned to Blondie. 'So, this spell of yours,

it creates a path to whatever location you

choose?'

'I just need to say the word,' she replied.

'And if that location's been wiped then it

won't be able to give you directions to it, yes?'

'I guess not, I've not tried.'

The Doctor smiled. 'Well, ask it now. Ask it

to give you directions to everywhere!'

Blondie raised an eyebrow, but she was

already too confused to risk asking another

question. She leant forward into the spell and

spoke a single word. Suddenly the image was

covered in bright white streaks. They layered

themselves over the continents, lighting up

the Architect's office until the entire globe

was covered. But there was a section missing

— a dull orange area of the map that the white

streaks refused to enter. A hole in the world.

'There it is,' the Doctor looked grim.

'Anything that the spell can't show us a path to

has been erased. Now I just need to find the

centre of the hole.' He twisted the screwdriver

one final time and the globe expanded once

more. It grew to fill the room until the Doctor,

Blondie and the Chief Architect were standing

in the exact centre of the hole in the map. The

Doctor examined it.

'Oklahoma?' he frowned. 'Really?'

'Is this a button?'

'I dunno, press it.'

'You press it.' Rory took a step back from

Daryl's screen, worried that he might touch

something dangerous.

Amy pushed him aside and put an ear to

his chest. The speaker was still ringing loudly

in the gloom. 'There's got to be something we

can do to answer the call.'

'Maybe it's not a call, maybe Daryl thinks

that's music.'

Amy sighed. 'Somehow I don't think that's

true.'

Rory tugged her shoulder and pulled her

back to stand beside him. 'Here, let me try

something,' he said.

Amy looked at him expectantly.

Rory cleared his throat. 'Uh, hello?'

Daryl's screen flashed into life.

'Wow, I didn't think that would work.' Rory

grinned. But his smile soon vanished as a

series of large red letters began to scroll across

the screen.

USER ERROR REPORT INCOMING, it

said, ACCEPT OR REJECT?

'Um, accept, I guess.' Rory swallowed.

The screen went blank for a moment, then

a familiar face faded into view.

'Doctor!' Amy shouted. 'You're alive!'

'Well of course I'm alive,' said the Doctor,

his voice crackling through Daryl's speaker.

'Why wouldn't I be?'

'You . . .' Amy trailed off. 'You almost died

Doctor!'

'Where?'

'In the apartment block! There was an

army of demolition robots - they're tearing up

the world!'

On the screen the Doctor checked himself,

patting his shirt down quickly. 'Well, I can't be

dead in the real world or else I'd be dead in

here now, wouldn't I?'

'Yeah, congratulations on the virtual body

by the way,' Rory interrupted, 'much less . . .

chinny.'

'Oi!' said the Doctor.

'Okay,' Amy held up a calming hand. 'We've

not got time for this.'

'No, exactly,' replied the Doctor, rubbing

his chin. 'So if the apartment block's been

destroyed, where are you now?'

'We were rescued.'

'Rescued? By whom?'

'Daryl, he's a robot, that's how you're

speaking to us — through his face. I'm not

going to lie Doctor,' Amy looked at Daryl's

hunched body, still posed in sleep-mode, 'it's

kinda weird.' She shivered.

On the screen the Doctor thought for a

moment. 'Interesting,' he muttered. 'Did he

tell you where he was from?'

'No, we don't know much about him apart

from that he saved our lives.'

'And that he doesn't know what humans

look like,' Rory interrupted. 'He seems to be

on the run from this Legacy thing as well.'

On the screen the Doctor thought for a

moment. 'Also interesting,' he muttered.

'So how did you find us?' Rory continued.

'I didn't,' said the Doctor. 'I found a way

to cheat the system.' He held up his sonic

screwdriver. 'I sent an error report to the

outside world. It's programmed to appear on

any screen still connected to the network — I

thought you'd still be looking over my shoulder

in Chicago.'

'Why's Daryl connected to the network?'

Amy flashed Rory a look. Rory shrugged.

'Beats me.'

The Doctor shook his head in disbelief.

'Things are getting stranger by the minute.'

He looked up again. 'Right, we need to focus.'

'What do you need us to do?' Amy was

ready immediately.

'There's a system wipe erasing Parallife.'

'Parallife?'

'This place, the virtual world. It's modelled

on Earth, except that now all the humans have

gone, the players' characters have been doing

a bit of . . . redecoration.'

'Gotcha,' Amy said.

'But something's trying to delete the whole

thing, trying to reboot the system. I don't

know why. But you need to get to the central

computer and stop it.'

Rory cleared his throat. Amy and the

Doctor looked at him. Would this central

computer be called Legacy by any chance?'

'Maybe, I don't know.'

'Because the same kind of thing is

happening out here, Doctor. Daryl called it

a restoration. They're going to demolish the

planet and then rebuild it.'

The Doctor slapped his head. 'Of course!

That's what it is! The system wipe must be

mapped onto the path of the demolition.

Legacy is destroying both the virtual world

and the real world at the same time. It's a reset

program, ready to make Earth inhabitable

for humanity when they return — Internet

and everything'

'But Daryl doesn't know whether the

humans are ever going to return.'

'You can't take the word of one robot,' the

Doctor replied. 'They could be taking shelter

out in space for all we know.'

'Doctor, outside!' a second voice crackled

over Daryl's speaker, and Amy raised her

eyebrows as a beautiful young woman strode

into the camera's view.

'I'm coming,' the Doctor replied.

'I leave you alone for one minute,' Amy

grinned, 'and look, you've gone and found a

replacement.'

The Doctor rolled his eyes and chose

to ignore her. 'Okay, Amy, Rory, this is the

plan. I've hacked the system to find Legacy's

location. You need to get there and switch it

off before it completes the wipe.'

A map replaced the Doctor's face briefly,

tracing a path to Oklahoma across the

American desert. Amy looked for Chicago on

the map and her face fell.

'But that's back the way we came. You want

us to get past the demolition army?!'

'At least when the robots have passed there's

still ground to walk on,' the Doctor replied.

'Here there's nothing. Literally nothing.'

'We'll try our best, Doctor,' said Rory. Amy

looked at him with quiet admiration.

'And you,' she turned back to the screen,

'you need to get out of there. Find a save-point

and get out of Parallife as quickly as possible.'

The Doctor looked away. 'No,' he said.

'No?!'

'I'm not leaving these people to die.'

'But they're not alive, Doctor,' Amy shouted,

'they're characters in a computer game! You're

the only person in there who's real!'

The Doctor's eyes narrowed. 'They think

for themselves, they imagine, they have lives

like yours. Just because they exist inside an

artificial world doesn't mean they're not real,'

'But in a few hours that world won't exist

anymore, and you'll be trapped inside it with

no way of escape,' said Amy.

'Not if you get to Legacy in time. Until then

I have to do everything I can to save them.'

'But what's the use of saving people if

there's nowhere left for them to live?' Amy

didn't understand.

The Doctor squeezed his forehead in

confusion at a half-remembered thought. 'I'm

working on it,' he said finally.

'Doctor!' the woman's voice shouted again.

'I said I'm coming!' the Doctor called over

his shoulder. He turned back to the screen.

'I'm going to leave an error message on the

network — when you get to Legacy use it to

find me.'

He raised his hand to the screen and the

image vanished.

'Oh, great.' Rory stomped over to the

double doors of the bunker, staring out into

the evening sunlight.

'We've got to find a way through the army,'

Amy replied.

'Yeah, well that's fun to say, but how?'

'I think I might be able to help.' The pair

spun around to find Daryl jerking his body

into motion with a grinding hiss of gears.

'Did you . . . ?' Rory trailed off.

'Did you hear what the Doctor was saying?'

Amy finished for him.

Daryl nodded, his screen displaying the

now-familiar smiling face.

'Those things we said about you,' Rory

began, 'we didn't mean anything bad by them,

you know.'

Daryl shrugged noisily. 'In a time like this,

there is no need for manners.' He swung his

screen slowly between the pair. 'Although they

cost nothing.'

Rory shuffled and looked at his feet.

'Did you know about the system wipe,

Daryl?' Amy asked.

'No,' he replied. 'It is a shame.'

'Why?'

'Parallife was a wonderful place. I'll be sad

to see it go.'

'You've been there?'

'I was Parallife.'

'What?'

'But I'm not any more.' Daryl dismissed

the question and walked over to the doors. He

looked out and his yellow face fell. 'My jump is

powerful, and my speed is second to none, but

I'm afraid that the chances of our survival are

small if we attempt to break through with you

two on my back. The strength of the storm

would kill you, let alone the robots themselves.'

'Tell me about it,' Rory said.

'We need to think.' Amy buried her head in

her hands. 'It's not just our lives at stake, it's

the Doctor's and everyone else in that world.'

'We could stay here and wait for the army

to pass over the bunker before we head out.

It'd be plain sailing after that,' Rory said.

'That could be hours,' Amy replied. Who

knows how many people would die in Parallife

before we left? We need to leave now . . .' Her

sentence faded away to silence. Daryl and Rory

looked at her expectantly. Wait,' she raised her

head. 'I've got it.'

They climbed the metal walkways to the

roof of the bunker once again, and Daryl

plunged his hand into one of the computer

controls that lined the highest walkway. The

building shuddered and creaked, ancient

winches grinding into motion.

In front of them, the huge metal bulk of

a sleeping robot began to tremble and sway.

Then the chains that fastened it to the ceiling

began to give, winding across the gears until

they caught. Slowly, the sleeping monster

began to descend.

Daryl withdrew his hand and nodded to

Amy and Rory. No one bothered to speak

over the noise.

Soon the highest point of the construction

robot had lowered past the top-most walkway

and the pair began to walk quickly down the

steps to keep level with it. Turning across the

walkways and down the flights of stairs, they

kept their eyes fastened on the metal bulk

beside them.

Four floors down, the noise of the machinery

had quietened enough for them to talk.

'So how does this help?' Rory asked.

Amy folded her arms in frustration. 'Isn't

it obvious?'

'Well no, or I wouldn't have asked.'

'We're safe inside this bunker because the

demolition army are programmed to avoid

the construction robots, right? As well as

everything a construction robot builds.'

'Okay.'

'So if we want to get through the army's

front line, we need something that they won't

just trample straight over.'

Rory's face lit up. 'Like a construction robot!'

'Exactly. With Daryl's help we can get our

over-sized friend here to build a road all the

way to Legacy!'

Rory looked behind them, back up the

way they had come. 'Yeah . . . where is Daryl

anyway?'

By now the construction robot's front

limbs and tracks had reached the floor and

the creature's tail end was gradually being laid

down behind it. There was a heavy thud as the

rear caterpillar tracks hit the floor, supporting

the last few tonnes of the robot's incredible

weight.

Suddenly, a flash of white metal flew past

the walkway where Amy and Rory had paused.

It smacked into the rear of the monster and

unfurled slowly - Daryl. He got to his feet

and began to unfasten the chains from the

construction robot's body.

'Oh, I see,' said Rory, 'He took the short cut.'

When they reached the cool metal of the

bunker's floor, the construction robot had

already been freed. Daryl sat astride its tree

trunk neck, waiting for them.

He pointed to the rungs of a small

maintenance ladder that snaked up the side

of the robot's body, and together they hauled

themselves onto its back.

They found themselves on top of a large,

flat surface covered in hatches. Each one was

the size of a small car, and each had been spray-

painted with a now-peeling white number.

Rusting track marks traced away from them to

meet the main piston arms of the construction

robot. The arms arced away into the darkness

like the wings of a giant metal dragon, folded

over the rows of tracks and legs that were

designed to carry the robot's weight.

'Hold onto something,' Daryl called from

his perch further along.

Rory didn't need telling twice. He lodged

himself between two steel bolts, each as big

as himself, in the shadow of a metal shoulder

blade. He was careful not to stand within reach

of the mechanical arms. Amy joined him,

picking her way awkwardly over the hatches.

'Ready?' Daryl shouted.

Rory raised his thumb over the ledge.

The construction robot shuddered into

motion with such force that Amy and Rory

were nearly thrown from their perch. They

scrambled for grip on the rusted metal surface,

their hands turning red as the rust flaked away.

Behind them, two of the hatches began to roll

open — revealing two churning vats of tarmac.

As they watched, the boiling liquid began to

overflow, running into shallow troughs that

ran the length of the robot's back. The liquid

bubbled and gurgled, slowly flowing into a

series of large holes and down into the inner

workings of the construction robot.

The smell of cooling tar invaded Rory's

nostrils and he screwed up his nose at the

stench. Amy pulled on his arm, pointing over

the side of the robot and over towards the

doors of the bunker. He followed her gaze.

A large, ink-black pool was spreading across

the floor, sprayed from nozzles in the robot's

chest. As they watched, the great metal arms

swung up and over on their creaking joints.

They carved the pool of tarmac into a sharp

rectangle as wide as the robot itself.

Then, with another violent jolt, the robot

jerked into motion. Its tracks began to move

and slowly it inched forwards onto the tarmac.

A sticky, tearing noise echoed throughout the

bunker as the construction robot began to

flatten the liquid road in front of it, as it rolled

towards the bunker's doors.

Daryl gripped the rear of the robot's head

with both hands. He plugged his fingers into

the circuits of its artificial brain, guiding the

monster and overriding the preprogrammed

instructions. He set a course for Oklahoma.

With an almighty crash, the construction

robot collided with the bunker doors, bending

the metal outwards as if it were cardboard.

Sparks streamed across the bodywork as it

squeezed out into the open air. A hail of

golden light showered Amy and Rory as they

passed through.

Then they were free.

The pair whooped for joy, hugging each

other as the construction robot mounted

the first dune. Behind them the black trail of

a road stretched through the dark opening

of the bunker, and in front of them the lay

the desert.

'Are we going to make it?' Rory said,

squeezing Amy's hand tightly.

She turned her face to the horizon, and the

angry boil of the sandstorm in the distance. It

was miles away now, but growing closer with

every passing second.

'We have to,' she replied.

The frozen image of Amy and Rory's anxious

faces still hung in the air in the Architect's

office. The Doctor looked at it sadly, then

grasped a corner with his thumb. He shrank

the picture down until it was the size of a small

photograph, then folded it neatly and stuck it

in his pocket.

'What is it?' he turned to where Blondie

and the Chief Architect were standing. Behind

them the wall of the office had been removed

to reveal the eerily quiet landscape of Parallife.

'There,' Blondie pointed.

The Doctor looked.

'Oh, oh dear.'

'I know.'

Beyond the city borders, an army was

approaching. An orange trail of numbers fell

away behind them as they marched towards

the Guild. The Doctor winced at the sight of

the screaming broken shapes that writhed on

the front line and looked away.

'What are they?' asked the Architect.

'The Defrags,' Blondie replied. 'The

heralds of the darkness.'

'They're what remains of your work.' The

Doctor's eyes narrowed. 'All of your wonderful

creations, all your improvements, broken by

the system wipe. They are all that's left of the

Games Master's gift of intelligence after the

original programming has been destroyed.'

'You mean, they're people?' the Architect

gasped.

'Trapped inside the fragments of your new

graphics,' the Doctor nodded.

Blondie turned to him, raising her hand to

the sword hilt on her back. We have to,' she said.

'I know,' replied the Doctor.

'Have to what?' the Architect looked from

one to the other.

'We have to fight,' Blondie said. 'If we don't

they'll destroy the city before the darkness

even reaches us.'

The Architect looked at the Doctor. 'But if

what you say is true, Doctor, then they don't

know what they're doing! They're innocent!'

'I know,' the Doctor said again. 'But we've

run out of options. We have to buy Amy and

Rory some time.'

'But you said you'd save us, Doctor,

whatever it takes.'

The Doctor looked grim. 'I know, but —'

He paused.

Then his face lit up. 'Of course, it's obvious!'

'What is?' Blondie asked.

But the Doctor was already heading

towards the central lift. 'You'll find out,' he

winked. 'Blondie, come with me. We've got a

war to win.'

'Now you're talking.' Blondie strode over

to stand behind him, snatching her sword

into her hand. She looked over to the Chief

Architect. 'Coming?' she asked.

The Architect lowered his head. 'No,' he

said slowly. 'All I've ever wanted, my entire life,

is to create. The thought of this darkness, this

destruction, is heartbreaking. I cannot bear to

watch, let alone be a part of it.'

Behind him, the open wall began to reform.

White blocks formed in the air outside,

sliding into place until the office was enclosed

once more.

The Doctor nodded. 'Thank you,' he said,

'for all your help.'

But the Architect ignored him. He took a

seat on his white stool once again and held

out his hands. Orange keys began to outline

themselves around his outstretched fingers

and the white wood of a piano started to fill

in the gaps.

The lift began to move, and the Doctor

and Blondie were lowered into the soft green

glow of the corridor once again. Above them,

the soft notes of the Architect's playing faded

away into silence.

They had only been walking down the central

pillar of the Guild for ten minutes when

the Doctor became frustrated. 'We don't have

time for this!' he shouted, brandishing his

sonic screwdriver.

He switched off the pillar's gravity.

For a split second, Blondie and the Doctor

hung in space, their bodies uncertain as to

which way was up. Then they were sent

tumbling down towards the base of the

structure.

Doors, floors and then the main hall flashed

past them at incredible speed, and Blondie

screamed with excitement as they continued

into the depths of the Guild. The corridors

narrowed once more as the opposite side of

the Guild narrowed in a perfect reflection of

itself and soon they were rushing towards the

final floor - and the doorway to the ground.

The Doctor fumbled for his sonic

screwdriver, but it slipped from his hand.

It hung in the air beside him, falling at the

exact same speed as he was, until the Doctor

snatched it back and thumbed a button.

Almost immediately the pillar's gravity

returned and the pair were dragged onto its

surface. They slipped and slid across the last

few metres, scrambling for a handhold. Finally

they skidded to rest at the very end of the pillar.

They climbed to their feet and looked up at

the floor that seemed to hang above their heads.

But they were actually standing on the ceiling.

'Here, jump,' Blondie grabbed his hand

and yanked him into the air. They flipped over,

landing with a thud on the floor.

'Well, that was . . . confusing,' said the

Doctor.

They lay there for a minute; looking up at

the pillar above them, back the way they had

come. It stretched away for what seemed like

miles until its shape was lost in the glow.

The Doctor turned his head to look at

Blondie. She turned to look at him.

'Hand me your sword,' he said.

'Why?'

'Because I'm going to save the Defrags.'

'I don't understand.' Blondie frowned, but

she passed him her sword anyway.

He ran his screwdriver across the

shimmering blade. The white metal rippled

as the green light passed over it.

'This sword, in computer programming

terms, is designed to erase the body and mind

of whatever animal you strike. But every time

you hit something with it, you earn experience.'

'Only from animals, not other citizens.'

'Yeah. So it's already in the sword's code

to transmit something from the creature into

the blade of the sword. But what if it wasn't

experience points that were transmitted, what

if it was people's minds? What if, with every

stroke of your sword you could separate the

mind of a citizen from their body and store it

in the blade?'

Blondie realised what he was saying.

'You mean I could remove the minds of the

Defrags. I could destroy their broken bodies

but keep their minds safe?'

'Exactly. You wouldn't be killing anyone,

but you'd stop them from killing others,' the

Doctor said.

'You'd be literally saving them, storing them

on the network. And without their bodies the

system wipe wouldn't be able to touch them.

Because their minds can't be erased. Doctor

that's brilliant.'

The Doctor grinned. 'Well, duh.'

'But what's the point?' Blondie looked away.

'Our world will be gone, there'll be nowhere

for them to live, no bodies for them to control.

They'll just be stuck, in a world of nothing'

The Doctor propped himself up on his

elbows and handed the weapon back to

Blondie. We'll see,' he said.

Blondie rolled onto her knees and looked

down at the Doctor, still leaning on the floor.

He was smiling quietly to himself. 'You're not

telling me everything, are you Doctor?' she said.

The Doctor stopped smiling. 'I don't want

to get your hopes up, Blondie,' he replied. 'But

I think it all rests on Daryl.'

'Daryl? Who's Daryl?' Blondie raised her

eyebrows.

'I don't know,' the Doctor jumped to his

feet and strode over to a small wooden door.

'But I have a feeling...' He grasped the bronze

doorknob firmly and pressed his ear against

the wood. He listened for a moment and then

shook his head.

Blondie looked at him.

The Doctor looked back at her, shrugged,

and then flung open the door.

Outside, the city was in chaos. The deep

green shadow of the Guild rippled across the

curving buildings, as if the entire world were

underwater. The air was filled with the broken

gleam of numbers. They formed orange ash

that drifted through the streets as the Defrags

dismantled the world.

The citizens were running scared, and the

Doctor and Blondie watched the confusion

in silence for moment. They traced the

movement of the crowds; trying to discover

which direction they were running in.

Finally, Blondie pointed. 'They're running

that way.'

'So the Defrags must be -'

'That way,' Blondie pointed in the opposite

direction. 'I need to get to the front line, I'm

the only person who can fight these things.'

The Doctor nodded. 'Then you'd best get

going.'

Blondie nodded and drew her sword,

spiralling it around her body with practised

ease. She tested its weight in her grip, then

began to jog towards the noise of the battle.

But a few steps later, she stopped and turned.

'Wait,' she said, 'what about you?'

The Doctor put his hands in his pockets.

'What do you mean?'

'You're a player. Your mind isn't part of

the network. When the time comes my sword

won't save you, you'll be disconnected from

your other body and die.'

'I know,' said the Doctor. 'Let's just hope it

doesn't come to that.'

'If you could get to a save-point before it's

too late . . .'

'I'm not leaving Parallife,' the Doctor

looked stern.

Blondie smiled. 'I know,' she said. 'But it

was worth a try.'

She turned and began to run — her sword

held out by her side. It flashed in the gloom

for a moment and then was lost in the crowd.

When the Doctor was sure she was out of

sight he reached into his pocket. He pulled out

the picture of Amy and Rory and unfolded it

carefully. 'Come on, you two,' he muttered,

'save my life.'

The sandstorm loomed large in the sky

above Amy and Rory, and even the bulk

of the construction robot was dwarfed by its

size. They were barely a mile away from the

front line but already the sand around the

construction robot's tracks was churning. The

wind was intense and Amy and Rory covered

their mouths, hiding their faces in their

shoulders to escape the stinging grains.

Even the steady flow of tarmac was

warping and twisting as it failed to find steady

ground on the dune — despite the best efforts

of the construction robot's mechanical arms.

Daryl gave up his seat on the robot's neck

and walked along its back to meet the pair.

They looked up at the sound of his footsteps.

'This is going to get bumpy,' he shouted

over the noise of the wind.

'Yeah, we kinda got that,' Rory mouthed

over to him.

Daryl stepped around them and held out his

arms as wide as he could, fastening his hands

onto the metal on either side of them with a

burst of white heat. With a series of soft pops

his exoskeleton opened slightly, fanning out to

create a protective barrier around the pair.

He began to speak but the noise was too

loud, so instead his words were displayed in

text across his screen.

'Hold on tight.'

A deep bass rumble was beginning now,

the sound of the demolition robots hidden

behind their tidal wave of destruction. It was

a terrifying, clanking growl, as if the angry

pistons were fighting each other for the chance

to disintegrate the construction robot and

its crew.

Then the storm hit them.

The construction robot rocked like a boat

in the crashing waves of sand that engulfed

it. Pale white showers of dust washed over its

bodywork and choked its fragile passengers.

Amy tried to open her eyes but couldn't.

The sand clung too tightly to her face and

she dared not breathe for fear of drowning in

the grit.

A noise like a buzz saw erupted all around

them as the tarmac pumps became clogged

and overflowed. Amy and Rory managed to

grab onto Daryl's arms and pull themselves up

just in time to avoid a searing flood of hot tar.

It flowed across the construction robot's back

and onto the struggling tracks beneath it.

Then the robot lurched one more time and

levelled out.

The storm was calmer here and Amy risked

letting go of Daryl's shoulder to wipe her face

and look back the way they had come.

'We've passed the demolition zone.' The

text scrolled across Daryl's screen, but it wasn't

needed. Amy could see that for herself. Behind

them, the rambling tarmac path that had

trailed behind them for so long had suddenly

straightened out, as the ground around it

smoothed. Gone were the rough hills of the

dunes, instead replaced with a smooth, flat,

gritted wasteland.

Amy moved her head slowly upwards. The

swirling sands blotted out the sun, and the

world was tinged in browns and golds. Then

she saw them, the demolition robots, huge

outlines in the darkness.

If she hadn't known what they were she

would have guessed that they were giants.

Dark, lumbering shapes the size of skyscrapers

moved slowly behind a curtain of sand.

Even the sound of their destruction was faded

here, and it seemed to Amy as if the

demolition robots walked in silence. Like

ghosts in the storm.

She breathed.

And the sand came crashing down once

more.

'Amy!' Rory slapped her gently round

the face to wake her up.

'What? What is it?' Amy mumbled. She tried

to get up from where she was lying, but found

that her clothes had stuck to the drying tarmac

that lined the rear of the robot. She yanked,

hard, and winced as she heard her jacket rip.

Then she realised that it was night. 'How long

was I asleep?' she asked, suddenly awake.

Rory grinned. 'Almost the entire trip, you

lucky thing. It was well boring,' he turned and

pointed at the perfectly straight road stretching

away behind them.

'So we're here?' she asked, looking around.

'Oklahoma?'

'Where the wind comes sweepin' down the

plain.'

'It's a bit... flat.'

'Everything is flat now,' said Daryl, looking

down from his perch on top of the ledge.

'This is fertile ground, ready to be rebuilt. And

that -' He turned his head and pointed in front

of them, 'is Legacy.'

Amy and Rory both scrambled onto the

ledge as the construction robot trundled

onwards. When Amy finally hauled herself

onto the cool, unstained metal at its front, the

sight before her made her catch her breath.

'It's huge,' she said quietly.

'Well, it needed to house an army,' Rory

replied.

A gigantic, stepped pyramid rose into the sky

in front of them, and its black polished surface

reflected the stars. As the robot approached,

they could see the chambers that must once have

housed the demolition robots - dark, shadowy

holes that lined the lower hundred storeys. At

the top of the pyramid a ribbed transmission

mast cast a moon-like spotlight across the

desert. A lighthouse in the wilderness.

'Do you think the future has anything that's

normal-sized?' said Rory eventually.

Amy shook her head.

They sat together, watching the pyramid

grow as they approached it. Daryl busied

himself with the robot's controls, turning it

slightly towards one of the glass lifts that sat

patiently at the bottom of the structure.

Eventually the construction robot reached

its destination. It collided against the polished

surface of Legacy with a loud crack, then

shuddered to a halt.

Rory hopped down the ladder, eager to

stretch his legs on solid ground. He stared at

the long white scratch the robot had carved

into the wall. 'I hope no one tries to send us a

bill for that.'

'I'm pretty sure there's no one round here

to tell on us.' Amy jogged over to the lift. She

pulled open the double glass doors and peered

inside. 'Uh, Daryl — I'm not sure you're going

to fit.'

'Don't worry about me,' Daryl replied. 'I'll

ride on top.' He reached up to the roof of

the lift and pulled himself onto its thin metal

ceiling. It bent slightly, but held his weight.

Amy nodded. 'Are you okay?' she asked.

'You've been . . . quiet. For a while now.'

Daryl nodded and looked away.

Amy decided not to press him any further

and motioned for Rory to join her in the lift.

'I hate glass lifts,' he muttered, stepping

inside and closing the door. 'Why does

anyone think you want to see how far away the

ground is?'

Amy sighed and pressed a button. The

doors hissed shut and the lift began to climb.

Rory buried his face in his shirt and refused to

look until they reached the top.

As they reached the final floor, another pair of

glass doors opened onto the central control

chamber. At this height the pyramid had

narrowed, but the chamber was still the size

of a small shopping centre.

The polished black surface continued

inside, coating the floors and the low ceiling.

The room was lit by moonlight. It flooded

through the windows that lined every wall.

But the room was so large that it was unable

to illuminate the very centre of the structure.

Amy's stubby heels clicked loudly on the

floor as she entered, followed by Rory. She

walked over to the shadowy central area. As

she did so, the floor and ceiling began to

glow softly. They cast a calming natural light

and the shadows fell away as she approached.

They revealed a curving Desktop computer,

above which hung a variety of different-sized

monitors. The central hub.

She reached out her hand and ran it over the

ebony surface of the Desktop. It blossomed

into life. Ripples of colour spread out across

the surface, spilling onto the floor around her.

'The whole room is a Desktop!' Amy cried.

'I know,' said Rory. 'You've had a message

floating by your feet the entire time.' He looked

around to where Daryl had sent the lift sliding

slowly back down the outside of the building

so that he could enter through the glass doors.

'Come on Daryl, we haven't got all day!'

Amy had to crouch to read the words that

floated in the floor by her feet in small red

letters. ERROR REPORT FILED. They said.

'This must be the Doctor's message,' she

edged closer towards the curving Desktop,

and managed to get close enough that the

letters flowed up and onto the surface. She

pointed a finger and jabbed at the words.

The screens above her head lit up, each

one opening the message simultaneously. But

instead of the Doctor's comforting face, all

that appeared was a string of yellow text.

Is Daryl the Games Master?

Love

the Doctor

'What does it mean?' said Rory, squinting.

Amy turned to where the large bulk of

Daryl's figure was hidden in the shadows near

the door. 'Well?' she asked him.

Daryl's screen switched on and a sad yellow

face appeared.

'Yes,' he said.

'I was the first,' Daryl began. He leaned

heavily against the central Desktop, as if

suddenly tired. Amy wondered how long it

would be able to take his weight. 'The first

artificial intelligence in Parallife. The game

had been going so long that all the players had

seen nearly everything the level designers had

created. So they created me to build new levels

and new monsters — new adventures for the

players to have. My job was to see everything,

check on everyone — to make sure each of their

character's stories were exciting and thrilling.

Then one day, they just left.'

He raised his head to the ceiling. As if it

were aware of his motion, the display above

him blossomed into an image of the sky.

A bright sun, clouds and behind them an

impossibly blue sky lit up the control room.

'I didn't know where. I didn't know how.

But they vanished and Parallife was left empty.

All those adventures I'd created and the

characters that had experienced them. They'd

all just stopped, their stories left unfinished. I

couldn't bear it.'

Above him the sky shifted and changed, the

day turning to night and then back to day again,

over and over — time passing at high speed.

'It was ten years before I came upon a

solution,' Daryl continued. 'I took my mind

and copied it. Then placed the copies inside

the players' characters and each version of

me changed to suit their body. My mind was

limitless; I wasn't trapped inside a body. But

with my mind in a million different characters

- it adapted to fit each one. They developed

into personalities. Then they began to create.

They made their own levels, crafted new

monsters, found new ways to communicate.

For the first time since the game began their

stories were truly their own. It was then that I

realised I wasn't needed any more.'

'So you left them?' Rory interrupted. 'On

their own?'

Daryl nodded. 'I'm a tinkerer, my job was

to interfere. But now I couldn't interfere - it

wouldn't be fair. I wanted to let them make

their own mistakes, and create their own

rewards. So I left Parallife and found a way to

download my mind into the body of a robot.

Now I'm like them, trapped inside a body, in

a world I don't know anything about.' The

smiley face appeared. 'It's wonderful.'

'So that's why you'd never seen a human

before — your only experience of them was in

the game. You didn't know what they might

look like in the real world.'

'Exactly,' said Daryl. 'When I left, the only

things on the planet were robots. I thought

they might be humans. For a while I thought I

might be human.'

On the ceiling, the sun set one final time

and the sky faded away to nothing. Daryl got

to his feet.

'You have to go back to Parallife,' Amy said.

'You have to save them. Stop the system wipe!

You're the only one of us who knows how.'

'No.' Daryl held up his large metal hands

and backed away, 'I can't.'

'Why not?'

'Because of what I said. Once I'm inside

the system I'm too powerful. If I start acting

like a god then the characters will stop being

free to create their own destinies — I'll be like

a human, directing my creations as I see fit.

If they don't have the imagination to save

themselves, then I have failed.'

He looked away and strode loudly over to

the window.

Amy looked at Rory. He shrugged.

'I will save the Doctor,' Daryl said eventually,

'Because he is not my creation. I can create a

save-point for him to escape through.'

'But if you do that the Doctor's efforts will

be wasted. He's risking his life to save your

characters!'

Daryl said nothing.

'Daryl, if you don't do it, I'll have to do it

myself,' Amy shouted. And I don't know what

any of this stuff does. Who knows what I'll

blow up!'

Rory put his hand on Amy's shoulder. 'Let

me try,' he whispered. She looked at him in

confusion, but hung back.

Slowly, Rory walked over to the window

and stood beside Daryl. Neither of them

looked at each other.

'You're thinking about this all wrong, Daryl,'

Rory said, gazing out over the landscape. You

think too much of yourself.'

Still Daryl didn't reply.

'Just because you created them doesn't

make you their god,' he paused. 'It makes you

their father.' He turned to look at the large

screen of Daryl's face. It was blank, and gave

no clue as to what he was thinking. 'They're

your children, Daryl. Save them, stop the wipe.

Help them grow!'

The world was ending, and Blondie was

having the time of her life.

She darted gracefully onto the top of a

nearby building as a second wave of Defrags

crashed through the city suburbs and over the

remains of their fallen comrades. That had

been Blondie's doing.

She paused for a moment, taking in every

detail of her surroundings. The neon-framed

buildings around her lay empty. The violence

of the Defrag's attack and her relentless

response had been enough to persuade any

citizens that they had no choice but to run for

their lives.

Blondie took a deep breath and plunged

into the fray once more.

Her blade flashed and sliced through

the ranks. All around her the twisted bodies

splintered, spraying her with orange data. They

tried to dodge, their broken faces howling in

frustration, but she was fast. Faster than any

of them.

The ranks fell and she sprinted on across

the infected suburbs, smashing through the

black-stained walls and corrupted gardens

that stood in her way, in a white flurry of

destruction.

A familiar static hiss sounded loud above

her and she raised her sword. Without even

looking, she spun the blade like a helicopter

rotor, as a horde of Defrags plunged out of

the sky towards her. They shattered on impact

in a blistering Catherine wheel of pixels. Her

blade glowed as more minds were absorbed.

Before the Defrag's bodies had even fallen

to the floor, she leapt high into the air once

more, scattering fragments in all directions.

Her eyes flashed, searching for another group

to save.

Then the buildings went dark.

A shadow was cast across the city, deeper

and darker than any that the Guild above

could create. The angry smile on Blondie's

face vanished, and she looked out across

the number-soaked battlefield to the wall of

darkness that dwarfed the world.

A tidal wave of pixels was gathering at

its base. Made from the torn-up remains of

the outlying towns. The broken pieces mixed

together, churning into a multicoloured flood.

The wave collected itself as the darkness

advanced ever closer, gathering itself up until

it arced over Blondie's head.

Then the wave broke and she was snatched

from the sky.

The Doctor was running out of time.

He'd lost Blondie in the chaos of battle.

Now he needed her more than ever. Looking

round he spotted a spiralling staircase wrapped

tightly around a sixty-metre tall golden statue

of a muscle-bound man wearing a shirt and

trousers. It took a moment for the Doctor to

realise that it was supposed to be the Chief

Architect.

He sprinted up the steps as fast as he

could. At the top, he grasped the statue's

outstretched arm for balance as he paused to

catch his breath.

The system wipe had arrived.

It crashed into the outskirts of the city,

flooding the suburbs with pixels. The Doctor

looked away, and then up.

Above him the Architects' Guild was

swaying on its pillar in the storm of fragmented

computer code that raced across the sky. As

he watched, the edge of the darkness hit its

central rim, tearing up the base-codes that

supported the structure. The glass flooring

splintered and shattered, transforming into a

hail of numbers as it fell towards the Doctor.

The Guild lurched — swaying in the hurricane.

Then finally the connecting pillar snapped.

'Blondie!' the Doctor shouted, desperately

looking around. Where are you?'

The Guild toppled, away from the void. To

the Doctor it seemed to fall in slow motion,

the far edge of the building crashing into the

centre of the city over a mile away. Almost a

minute before the rest of the spires hit. The

explosions rippled towards him, throwing up

blinding clouds of debris.

'Blondie!' the Doctor yelled once more,

hoping that she wasn't trapped beneath the

wireframe rubble.

Finally, his call was answered.

'I'm here!' the Doctor turned to see the

warrior standing astride one of the tower

blocks above him. Her clothes were torn and

stained with orange numbers, but her sword

glowed brighter than ever, and her face wore a

grin of triumph.

The Doctor waved, beckoning for her to

join him.

She flexed her knees and jumped. Soaring

through the air like a dancer, before landing

by his side.

'How many?' the Doctor asked.

'At least a thousand,' she replied, looking at

her sword.

'A thousand?' the Doctor looked

incredulous. 'How did you manage that?'

Blondie grinned at him. 'I'm the best.'

The Doctor smiled slightly. 'I forget you

can fly.'

'I can do a lot of things without you slowing

me down.' Blondie winked.

A spray of pixels slashed across their faces

and the Doctor ducked to avoid one of the

Defrags as it flew past them.

Blondie's sword flashed in the air for a

second and the Defrag's splintered body

dissolved, crumbling to join the pixels on the

street below.

'Make that one thousand and one saved,' she

declared, as her sword absorbed the glowing

white ball that contained the citizen's mind.

The wall of darkness was closer than ever

now and it filled the sky, turning the world to

night. The Doctor placed a hand on Blondie's

arm before she could take off again. 'No, it's

too late, that'll have to do.'

Blondie stopped. 'What now? We can't

outrun it.'

'I know,' he looked at her. 'Cast your water

shield.'

Blondie nodded, and raised her hand.

The bright column of light arced out above

them, then exploded outwards into a fountain

of water — stretching out and down to the

square below.

The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver

and, without warning, thrust it into the column

of light.

'What are you doing?' Blondie shouted

over the roar of the water.

'Trying to change the computer code of

the spell. If I can tweak it enough, the system

wipe might not be able to erase it.'

'Well I hope you can tweak fast,' Blondie

replied. 'It's going to hit us!'

The Doctor turned in time to see the

Darkness engulf the square.

There was an ear-splitting crunch and the

Doctor screwed up his face in pain as the world

around them crumbled into nothing. The

water shield boiled. Clouds of steam drifted

across what was left of the square, stinging the

Doctor's face as the system wipe searched for

a weakness in the code.

The Doctor turned to Blondie. 'I wasn't

fast enough,' he said sadly.

'It's okay,' said Blondie, 'we all have to die

sometime.'

The shield trembled and stuttered. Then

the water froze in mid-air, like a shining glass

bubble.

The bubble popped.

'We're alive,' said the Doctor.

'Don't sound too surprised,' said Blondie.

They looked around as a deathly silence

fell. The square had been carved into a circle,

traced by the outline of the water shield. The

emerald floor radiated out only a few metres

from the base of the golden statue, deep

green cobbles marked out on the surface.

They warped and twisted as they reached the

edge of the world, falling away like a waterfall

frozen in time.

The Doctor looked behind them. As if

through a grey haze, what remained of Parallife

still stretched away in the distance, the straight

border that marked the edge of the wipe

overlapped only slightly with Blondie's island.

Barely enough for two people to walk across

side by side. The system wipe had halted.

The Doctor burst into motion, racing down

the steps to the base of the statue and across

to the edge of the circle. He was moving so

fast that he could barely stop himself from

falling when he reached the edge.

He knelt down and put his hand out in

front of him.

'They did it,' he said. They stopped the wipe.'

Blondie appeared by his side. 'And only

just in time.'

She looked down at the emptiness that

stretched away in all directions. 'It's the edge

of the world,' she whispered.

'And beyond it, nothing.'

'Except for that.'

The Doctor looked around. 'Except for

what?'

'That,' Blondie pointed, 'that star.'

'What star?' The Doctor trailed off as he

followed her finger. 'Oh.'

A small white point had appeared in the

distance — a bright, white light. It twinkled,

then began to grow.

'It's getting bigger,' said Blondie.

'No, it's getting closer,' replied the Doctor.

And it was. The closer it got, the brighter it

became and soon the Doctor had to shield his

eyes against the glare. So it was Blondie who

spotted him first.

'There's someone in there!' she shouted. 'A

man, on a bridge!'

'A bridge?' the Doctor squinted through

the haze.

Blondie was right. The dark silhouette of

a man was walking inside the light of the star.

And beneath his feet a golden road seemed to

be building itself with every step he took. The

bricks' outlines arced in front of him, drawn

in pure white light before transforming into

solid gold as his feet touched the surface. As

the man came closer, the bridge shimmered in

the void behind him, a thin strand of sunlight

in a sea of blackness.

The Doctor took another look at the deep

green landscape beyond the square. A yellow

brick road and an emerald city,' he murmured.

'Perfect.'

Blondie dragged the Doctor to his feet and

pulled him back, as the white outlines extended

onto the spot where he'd been standing.

'Get out of the way,' she hissed, as the last

few blocks fell into place and the golden road

joined the remains of the square. Slowly, the

man stepped off the bridge. The starlight

followed him onto the pale green ground,

then scattered, and finally Blondie realised

who it was.

'The Games Master. He's come back,' she

whispered.

The man was tall, well over two-metres tall,

with long silver hair and a broad chest clothed

in a tight T-shirt. He wore jeans and flip-flops

and, despite his bulk, he moved with a gentle

grace. The Doctor thought he looked —

'Dishy,' said Blondie.

'Dishy?!' the Doctor looked at her. 'Really?

Is that really something you say?'

Blondie nudged him. 'Quiet, he might hear.'

The Doctor rolled his eyes and stepped

forward, extending his hand in greeting.

'Daryl, I presume?' he said.

The man grasped his hand. 'How did you

know?' he said in a soft growling voice.

'I didn't,' the Doctor replied, 'but I hoped.'

He turned and opened his arms to present

his companion, 'and this is Blondie.'

Blondie smiled sheepishly.

Daryl smiled back. 'You don't need to tell

me that. She was always one of my favourites.

I can see you didn't disappoint me, Blondie.'

'Thank you, sir,' she said. She stepped

forward and offered him her sword. 'We tried

to save as many Defrags as possible. Maybe

you'll be able to restore them.'

'Restore them?' said Daryl.

Blondie faltered. 'Yeah, when you rebuild

Parallife.'

Daryl took the sword, but shook his head.

'I'm not going to rebuild Parallife,' he said

slowly. 'I think it's time to set you free.'

'What do you mean?'

'Blondie, I've come to take you to a world

with no Games Master. A place where no one

can decide your fate for you. A place where

I am just another character.' Daryl hefted the

sword. 'These will be the first, but I'll need you

to gather together the rest of the survivors.'

He looked over their shoulders, to what was

left of the Architects' Guild and the remains

of the land beyond. 'Lead them to Legacy, she

will explain everything.'

'Legacy's a girl?' the Doctor asked.

'She is now,' smiled Daryl. 'I've reprogrammed

her. To copy what I did with myself all those

years ago.' He paused. 'There are thousands

of robots out there, Doctor, ready to begin

the reconstruction of Earth. Imagine if they

all had minds of their own, brimming with

imagination. What kind of world would

they create?'

The Doctor smiled and swept his arm

across the shimmering landscape behind him.

'Do you even need to ask?'

'I think the human race will get a surprise

when they return.'

'Yeah,' the Doctor nodded, 'but it'll be a

nice one.'

The Doctor had insisted on staying in Parallife

until every survivor had been saved. But as

Blondie pointed out, in-between her regular

flights over the broken landscape, his lack of

abilities meant that he wasn't much help. The

Doctor had just smiled and ignored her. He

said he wanted 'to be sure'.

Eventually, the last hundred citizens were

lined up alongside the splintered central spire

of the Guild, ready for Blondie to lead them

over the bridge to the new world that was

waiting for them beyond the network.

The Doctor stood on the sidelines, hands

in his pockets, watching them. Blondie turned

to look at him, and he waved.

She sighed and walked over to him.

'This is the last of them,' she said.

'I know,' said the Doctor.

'And I'm going with them.'

'I know.'

And I'll probably be downloaded into a

robot on the other side of the world, knowing

my luck,' she said.

The Doctor shrugged. 'Maybe.'

'What I'm trying to say,' Blondie paused, 'is

that this is probably going to be goodbye.'

The Doctor nodded. 'I think you're

probably right.'

They stood there for a minute in silence,

until Blondie finally plucked up the courage to

kiss him on the cheek.

'Take care, Doctor,' she said, before turning

quickly back to join the line of people as they

began their journey over the bridge.

The Doctor watched her disappear into

the distance.

Daryl appeared behind him.

'Ready?' he asked.

The Doctor nodded. 'Time to leave.'

Daryl reached out his hand, and snapped

his fingers. A small purple globe appeared in

the air in front of them.

Cautiously, the Doctor reached out his

hand and touched it.

In small white letters, a message typed

itself into the air.

Do you want to save your game?

Yes/No

The Doctor pressed Yes and the message

refreshed.

Quit?

Yes/No

The Doctor paused for a minute and

looked at Daryl.

'Don't forget to turn out the lights when

you leave,' he said.

Then quit.

The sun was rising as Amy and Rory trudged

along the flat, gritted plain towards Chicago.

Or at least where Chicago had once stood.

The soft, brown sand that had now replaced

the rolling white dunes glowed a dull orange

in the low sunlight. A haze of dust made the

world seem calm and unreal.

'It's hard to believe that only yesterday this

was all skyscrapers,' Amy said. 'Doesn't feel

like any time at all really.'

'Speak for yourself,' Rory replied. 'I'm

starving.'

They had instructed the large construction

robot, who had carried them tirelessly to

Legacy and back, to wait for them at the old

city border, but this time they weren't its only

passengers. A small team of mini-robots,

barely half Amy's size, fanned out in front of

them, scouring the land with sonar. They were

searching for something.

'I can't believe we forgot about the

TARDIS.'

Amy sighed. 'We wouldn't have been able

to save her anyhow. She's tough. I'm sure we'll

find her buried around here somewhere.'

Rory looked at her. 'You've started calling

the TARDIS 'she',' he said, 'I've never

noticed that before.'

'I think we've sailed in her long enough,'

Amy replied.

A flare went up in the distance. The pink

light flickering across the desert landscape.

One of the robots had found the ship.

Immediately, the others changed course.

They trundled over to aid in the digging.

'X marks the spot,' Rory grinned and broke

into a jog.

The blue lamp of the TARDIS had already

been uncovered by the time Amy and Rory

reached it. Amy smiled with relief.

'The paintwork's not even scratched.'

'Is it really paint do you think?' asked Rory.

Amy thought for a moment. 'I reckon it's

space-paint,' she decided.

They sat down on the lip of the hole and

watched as it grew deeper around them. Every

now and then Amy pulled off her jacket and

wiped at one of the surfaces. She cleared away

the grit and the mud until the blue shone

brightly amongst the sandy ground.

Rory lay back on his elbows, glad that the

running was over at last. He looked around.

Then spotted something in the distance.

He nudged Amy. 'Guess what?'

'What?'

'Or rather, guess who?'

A smile spread across Amy's face as she

spotted what Rory had seen.

They leapt to their feet and began to run

towards the dark shape in the distance. As

they approached, the shape became clearer,

forming into the black silhouette of a tower. It

was crooked and unstable amid the perfectly

flat landscape. Amy didn't need to guess to

know that its base was exactly two metres

square — Daryl's emergency beacon.

Grey plaster clattered down the broken

storeys as they arrived at the tower. They

looked up at the concrete support that held

together the fragments of floor. The top

few levels had broken away and lay in a heap

nearby. But three-quarters of the way up sat

the Doctor, still in his chair, in front of the

Desktop.

He rubbed his aching head from where he

had removed the wishbone interface from his

temples and gazed down at them dreamily.

They waved.

'Hello!' he called down to them. 'Been

doing a bit of home improvement have you?'

'Well, we've laid the foundations,' Amy

shouted back.

The Doctor fiddled with his shirt-cuffs.

'Oh, I think you've done more than that,' he

said. 'Come up and see!'

Rory raised his eyebrows at Amy. 'Is he

kidding? This thing's a death trap!'

But Amy was already scrambling for a

handhold in the brickwork.

'The things we do for love.' Rory groaned

to himself, before following her at a more

cautious speed. They scrambled for what

seemed to their aching arms like hours, but

in reality was barely a few minutes, until they

arrived, panting and sweating in the remains

of the Doctor's room.

He pulled them up and onto the floor and tried

to dust them down with a tiny handkerchief.

'Yeah, that's not going to help,' Rory

coughed in the dust.

'That's a shame,' said the Doctor, 'this is

the kind of occasion you should really dress

up for.' He paused. 'At least I think it is. If it's

not then it should be.'

'What are you talking about Doctor?' Amy

asked.

The Doctor coughed, and by way of

explanation grabbed them both by the

shoulders and turned them around to look out

across the plains.

'This,' he declared, 'is the occasion.'

In the distance, shrouded in the soft glow

of the morning sun, the reconstruction of

Earth had begun. Steel spires had already been

erected, twisting and turning around each other

in ways that Amy had never seen. To the right

a glass pyramid was already nestled between

two other buildings, shaped like a square and

a circle. A new horizon was being created, and

Amy caught her breath at the beauty of it all.

'The rebuilding of Earth,' the Doctor

murmured. He smiled as he recognised the

hand of the Chief Architect in the curving ribs

of another tower block, relieved that he had

escaped. 'You should be honoured,' he added.

Rory looked at him.

'This is for you,' the Doctor said. 'For

humanity, a gift from the citizens of Parallife

to the players who created them. A new Earth,

ready and waiting for their return.'

Overcome with emotion, the Doctor

hugged his two young companions tightly to

his chest.

'You know guys,' he said. 'I don't say this

often, but this time - we did good.'

The End

Colin Brake

The Doctor treats Rory to a trip to the Wild West,

where the TARDIS crew find a ghost town

full of sleeping people and the Black Hand Gang;

outlaws intent on robbing the local bank. But it's

not quite the same as the films Rory's seen on TV.

They soon discover they're not the only visitors

to Mason City, Nevada and find themselves in a

showdown against the alien Cemar!

Also available:

Death Riders by Justin Richards

Heart of Stone by Trevor Baxendale

Coming soon:

Rain of Terror by Mike Tucker

Extra Time by Richard Dungworth

The Underwater War by Richard Dinnick

Terminal of Despair by Steve Lyons

Colin Brake

Cover illustrated by Paul Campbell

Want to get closer to the Doctor

and learn more about the very best

Doctor Who books out there?

Go to

www.doctorwhochildrensbooks.co.uk

for news, reviews, competitions

and more!

1. Desert Run 7

11. Chases 104

2. Arrival 15

12. Inside the Spaceship 114

3. Ghost Town 24

13. Flight Deck 125

4. Rory Investigates 32

14. Self-Destruct 135

5. Outlaws 40

15. High Noon 146

6. Pinkertons 51

16. Prisoner 158

7. Jailbreak 61

17. Into the Mine 167

8. Deputies 73

18. Runaway Train 177

9. Close Encounters 84

19. Possessed 187

10. Escapes 95

20. Loose Ends 196

The sun was setting over the Nevada Desert

but Jed Perkins didn't have time to admire the

splashes of red and orange that decorated the sky.

Jed had a job to do. He kicked the flanks of his

horse and urged him on. The horse's hooves kicked

up red dust as they thundered across the ground.

Jed had been riding this horse for a couple

of hours now and the big brown stallion was

beginning to tire. He hoped he'd reach the next

station soon. Jed was just seventeen but his

slight figure and excellent horsemanship had

made him a natural for the job. Jed was a Pony

Express Rider.

It was 18 April 1861. In a few years time the

so-called 'iron horse' — the railroad — would

completely change travel across the United States

of America but for the moment the more traditional

horse (the one with four legs and a mane) remained

the fastest way to get from coast to coast. Jed was

galloping across the desert of Nevada as part of

a network that had been established the previous

year. The Pony Express, as it was known, was a

continental postal service connecting the east and

west coasts of America and mail could cross the

entire country in a little over a week. At the heart

of the service were individual riders like Jed, who

would take the mail from station to station. Each

rider would cover as much ground as they could in

a day, picking up a fresh horse at stations along the

way.

Jed's day should have ended at the last station

but the relief rider had been taken ill and Jed had

been asked to take the mail one more stage before

nightfall. Riding through unfamiliar territory had

been fun at first; after a few months of the job,

Jed thought he knew every twig, boulder and bush

on his usual stretch. The excitement of something

new had soon worn off, however. The desert

scenery here looked exactly like the one he usually

rode through. The only difference was that now he

was riding closer to the mountains than he usually

did. As the sun set, the peaks seemed to loom

larger against the crimson sky. Despite himself,

Jed shivered as he glanced nervously at the craggy

shapes.

The hills were home to dozens of abandoned

mines. Many a brave man had come west hoping

to find riches in the ground and many had struck

it rich with finds of gold or silver. For every

man who'd done well, however, there were a

hundred more that had failed. Many had died in

blasting accidents or collapsing shafts. Many of

the abandoned mines were said to be haunted by

the ghosts of these unlucky miners. Jed hoped it

wasn't true.

Jed had ridden horses since before he could walk

and was more at home on a horse than on his own

two feet. He enjoyed his new job. He couldn't think

of anything better than being paid to ride every day.

Nevertheless there were times when he felt lonely

and a little bit in danger. He'd heard talk of Pony

Express riders elsewhere falling foul of Indians, the

so-called 'red men'; the native tribes people who

had inhabited much of the American states long

before the European white men had arrived.

Jed wondered how many more miles he needed

to ride before he reached the next station. The

empty plain ahead of him seemed to stretch on

for ever. If there was a small town somewhere up

ahead there was no sign of it. Worried now, Jed

slowed his horse down. Had they lost the trail? In

the increasing darkness it was hard to be sure. Jed

looked up and was shocked to see that the sky was

now almost totally black save for the pinpricks of

lights that were the stars. Some seemed to shine

brighter than others. Jed looked at them for a long

moment, lost in the simple beauty of the night sky.

Suddenly Jed noticed something odd. One of

the brightest lights in the sky seemed to be getting

brighter. Brighter and bigger! Jed frowned. He'd

seen shooting stars before but they tended to

disappear into the darkness not become bigger. It

was almost as if the star was falling towards Earth.

But that was impossible, wasn't it?

Jed shielded his eyes as the light got even

brighter. Now he could feel something; a warm

wind blowing towards him. And with the wind and

the warmth came something else. A noise! It was a

sound like nothing Jed had ever heard in all of his

seventeen years. It was a roaring, shrill scream like

the cries of some kind of frightful demon yelling

from the depths of a nightmare.

Jed's horse panicked at the unearthly sounds.

It reared and bucked under him. Jed desperately

tried to hold on and calm his mount but it was no

good. The noise, the heat and the intense light was

too much for the poor horse. Jed found himself

flying through the air and heard the petrified horse

galloping off into the darkness, desperately trying

to put as much distance between itself and the

falling star as it could.

Jed hit the ground in a crumpled heap. Luckily

it seemed as if he had managed to survive intact

— no bones broken. The screaming star seemed

to be almost on top of him now. Jed rolled over

to get a better look, but was forced to shield his

eyes with his hand as the bright light threatened

to blind him. The heat was almost unbearable

now. Dry plants and bushes close by burst into

flames and for a moment Jed thought he might do

the same but then suddenly, with an even higher

pitched screech, the star seemed to pass over him.

A second or two later there was a huge explosion

that made the ground shake.

And then there was silence.

Jed pulled himself to his feet, shivering in the

sudden coldness of the night. At the foot of the

mountains he could see a huge pillar of black

smoke marking the point of impact.

Without the star's bright light, it was hard to see

much of the impact site. A few flickering flames at

the base of the column of smoke suggested that

there were some burning remains but of what it was

impossible to say. Jed was sure it wasn't really a star,

though. But if it wasn't a star, then what was it?

Jed took a step towards the crash site, to take a

closer look, and then froze in fear and amazement.

Something was calling to him. But he couldn't

hear any sound at all. It was as if the words were

in his head. It was a soft, feminine voice and it was

calling him by name. How could it know his name?

'Jed, I need you,' it said, 'I need your help, come

and get me.'

The tone of the voice and the gentle repetition

of the same phrases over and over again were

hypnotic. Jed found that without realising it, he

was stepping closer and closer to the heart of the

fallen star — or whatever it was.

Step by step he was getting nearer to whatever

it was that was calling him. Part of him wanted

to stop and run but somehow he kept moving

forward. The voice became stronger, more

insistent, more demanding. Jed felt himself falling

further and further into its control.

He reached down to pick something up,

without really knowing what it was. The object was

metallic and hot because of the flames, but despite

the burning sensation, Jed didn't drop it. Instead

he placed the object on his head and instantly the

voice inside became even louder, making his own

thoughts into whispers and making him begin to

forget who he was.

'Thank you, Jed,' said the voice, 'I'm going to be

borrowing this body for a while. You may sleep.'

And Jed felt himself falling away into a pit of

blackness.

Rory Williams found himself thrown onto the

glass floor that supported the TARDIS console.

It was not the first time this had happened since

he had begun travelling in time and space with the

Doctor.

'Rory!' Amy complained, but with a large grin

on her face, 'I told you to hold on.'

Rory let his beautiful red-haired wife help him

to his feet and glared in the direction of their host

and pilot. The Doctor was pulling and prodding at

various controls on the many-sided control console

in what appeared to be a totally random fashion.

'Well, if the Doctor could just remember how

to steer this thing,' he muttered, 'maybe I wouldn't

have to.'

The Doctor shot him a quick look from under

his long fringe of wild hair. For a moment Amy

was worried that Rory had seriously offended the

907-year-old Time Lord but then she saw that he

was also grinning.

'Time turbulence,' explained the Doctor, 'never

can tell how bad it'll be. Never mind. Soon be there.'

'Where?' said Rory and Amy at exactly the

same time, both as thrilled as ever to know where

the Doctor, and his magical blue box, would take

them next. The past or the future? On Earth or

into the stars?

'Earth,' said the Doctor proudly. Amy and Rory

tried, and failed, to hide their disappointment.

'No, don't look like that,' continued the Doctor,

seeing the expressions on their faces. 'Earth's a great

place. Probably my favourite planet in the universe.

Well, top five anyway. Maybe top ten.'

'But it's where we come from,' Rory told him.

'We've spent all of our lives on planet Earth,'

Amy added.

'But only in one tiny country, in one small time

zone. There are millions of years of Earth history

and future for you to explore. And I have got just

the place for you.'

'For me?' said Rory.

'For him?' said Amy.

'Amy! You're always getting to choose where

we go,' Rory pointed out.

'Exactly right. Shut up, Pond,' added the Doctor

smiling at her, 'this time it's Rory's choice.'

'But I haven't chosen anything,' said Rory.

'I chose for you,' said the Doctor.

'I have to do that for him in restaurants,' Amy

told the Doctor.

Rory shook his head. He knew better than to

try and argue with both the Doctor and Amy. It

was difficult enough dealing with just one of them.

'So where are we going?' he asked.

By way of an answer the Doctor pulled on one

of the larger levers sticking out of the console

and the TARDIS came to a halt with a resounding

thump.

'Still leaving the handbrake on?' teased Amy,

but the Doctor was already bounding down the

stairs towards the TARDIS doors.

'Come on Pond, Mr Pond,' he shouted back

over his shoulder as he pushed open the doors.

Rory and Amy exchanged a quick grin, sharing

their amusement and affection for their weird

friend, and ran down the stairs to join him.

Stepping out of the TARDIS, Rory found

himself on what appeared to be a fairly barren

plain. Huge blue skies filled the horizon and in the

distance the flat terrain gave way to snow-tipped

rugged mountains.

Amy was also taking in the same view. 'Pretty

but nothing special,' she decided.

The Doctor, who was bent double to sniff the

dust, glanced back at Rory, looking through his

legs.

'What about you, partner?' he said. Except

he mangled the pronunciation of the final word,

making the central sound closer to a "d" than a "t".

Amy stared at her husband's face as his

expression changed rapidly. First he looked

confused, then his eyes widened as if a light bulb

had popped on above his head and, finally, he was

grinning wildly.

'You mean . . . ?' he began and then made a

strange mime that seemed to involve riding a

horse. Amy had no idea what he was getting at but

the Doctor understood and nodded encouragingly.

'Yee-haw!' Rory shouted suddenly.

Amy's mouth dropped open. Had Rory lost his

mind?

'It's the Wild West,' Rory explained, looking

towards the Doctor for confirmation. 'Cowboys

and Indians, stagecoaches heading west, campfires

and beans ...'

Now Amy had the idea too. The Doctor had

brought them to the United States of America at

the time of the so-called 'Wild West'. America

was a huge country and it had taken a long time for

people to spread across it. After the first settlers

arrived a steady stream of brave families headed

west to make a new life. A favourite setting for

movies, the Wild West was the area in which the

families made their new homes, where life was

tough and hard. Amy smiled, knowing how much

Rory loved his Westerns.

'We'd better get changed then,' she suggested.

Ten frantic minutes in the TARDIS wardrobe

room later, the time travellers emerged again.

Amy was now wearing a blue checked shirt with

a matching handkerchief tied around her neck, a

brown leather skirt, tasselled waistcoat and cowboy

boots. Rory had kept his jeans but had also added

cowboy boots, a checked shirt and a poncho. He

too was wearing a cowboy hat. The Doctor had, as

usual, not made much of an effort. He was wearing

his usual geography teacher's checked jacket with

leather elbow patches and dark trousers. For a

moment he had tried to stick a bright red fez on

his head but both Amy and Rory had insisted that

he think again, so now he was sporting a Stetson

instead.

Back outside the TARDIS Rory wondered

where and when exactly in the Wild West they

were. To his surprise the Doctor dropped into a

crouch, plucked a blade of grass and popped it

into his mouth.

'Nevada, circa 1861,' he announced after a

moment of chewing.

Rory raised a suspicious eyebrow. 'You can tell

that from the grass?'

The Doctor nodded. 'And from the console

readouts in the TARDIS. I ran a scan while you

were getting changed.'

'So why taste the grass, if you already knew

where we were?' asked Amy, frowning suspiciously.

'Oh, no reason,' said the Doctor, 'let's start

walking...' Amy knew he was changing the subject

but decided not to press the point for the moment.

The Doctor pointed out hoof marks in the dusty

trail that cut across the plain. 'This must be the

way,' he told his companions.

An hour later they found themselves

approaching a small Western town. A wooden sign

at the outskirts told them that it was 'Mason City,

Nevada. Population 738.'

'It's perfect. Like a movie set,' said Rory.

It certainly appeared to be a classic Western

frontier town as far as Amy could make out. There

were wooden buildings either side of a wide, dusty

central street. As they walked further into the town

Amy could see a blacksmiths, a general store, a

sheriff's office, a bank and even a saloon.

'Brilliant,' muttered Rory, his eyes wide as he

took in the sights. 'Everything you'd expect to be

here is here . . .'

'Really?' It was the Doctor. As usual he seemed

to be able to pack a lot of meaning into one single

word.

'What's missing?' asked Rory, confused.

'Not what,' the Doctor answered him, 'who?'

The Doctor span around, holding his long

arms out wide.

'You're right. Everything's here. Saloon,

sheriff's office, bank . . . all present and correct.

But where are the people?'

Amy and Rory turned too, looking all around

for any sign of life but the Doctor was right. There

were no people to be seen anywhere. The town

was completely deserted.

'It's a ghost town,' suggested Amy.

The three time travellers were now standing

in the middle of the main street. They had not

seen a single person outside any of the buildings.

Rory nodded his agreement with Amy's

suggestion.

'Happened a lot in the west,' he said to the

Doctor and Amy. 'Towns grew up and died almost

overnight.' Rory spoke with the confidence of one

who'd watched more Western films than he could

count.

The Doctor, however, was shaking his head. 'Look

again,' he told his companions. 'Really look.'

Amy and Rory did as they were told and

continued looking around them. They let their

eyes pass over the buildings, drinking in the details,

hoping to see what the Doctor was getting at.

'This isn't a ghost town,' the Doctor explained.

'Look at it. It's not in decline, is it? These buildings

aren't rotting and falling down, are they?'

Now that the Doctor had pointed it out, Rory

and Amy could see exactly what he meant. The

town was empty but it wasn't true to say there were

no signs of life. There were recent footprints in the

sandy surface of the street, freshly watered flower

baskets outside the bank and, as they got closer,

they could see horses tied up near buildings.

'Looks more like the Mary Celeste than a ghost

town,' muttered Rory.

'Mary who?' Amy asked, confused.

'The Mary Celeste was a merchant ship

discovered in December 1892 sailing unmanned

in the Straits of Gibraltar,' the Doctor explained.

'The crew had all disappeared without trace.'

'Apparently, according to some reports, they left

a meal half uneaten,' added Rory. 'No one could

ever explain what had happened to the crew. It was

as if some alien had landed and abducted them . . .'

Rory's voice trailed off as a thought occurred to

him. 'It wasn't you, was it?' he asked the Doctor.

'Little trip back in time to the nineteenth century?'

'Me? No, of course not.' The Doctor looked a

little bashful. 'Well, not directly. Long story. Best

not to ask.' However, before Rory could question

the Time Lord further, Amy called them.

'Hey, you two, get in here.' They followed the

sound of Amy's voice into a nearby doorway. It

was the entrance to the town's general store.

Inside the shop they found Amy bending over

the unconscious body of a woman. She looked to

be in her thirties or forties, had brown hair worn up

in a bun and a sun-browned face. She was dressed

in a plain dress, covered by an apron. On the floor,

close to where she was lying, there was a broken

bottle of jam.

'Come on then,' urged Amy, looking up at them

as Rory and the Time Lord skidded into the room,

'Doctor or nurse - which is it to be? She needs one

of you.'

The Doctor nodded to Rory, who bent to start

examining the woman. Amy raised an eyebrow

and looked up at the Doctor.

'Not stricdy a medical doctor,' he explained,

looking a bit shifty.

'So what are you a doctor of, then?' demanded

Amy.

'Weird,' said Rory.

'Weird what?' asked Amy with a frown, thinking

that Rory was answering her question.

'Just weird, that's all,' said Rory laying the woman

back on the floor. 'It's like she's in a really deep

sleep. Heart beat is normal, blood pressure fine,

no obvious signs of injury or illness, she's just. . .

asleep.'

The Doctor crouched down next to Rory and

waved his sonic screwdriver over the unconscious

woman, taking some readings. He glanced at the

readout on the side of the screwdriver and then

pushed his fingers up through his long fringe.

'Asleep in the middle of the shop, in the middle

of the day, what's wrong with this picture?' he

asked.

Before Rory could answer Amy called out again.

'Here's another one.' This time it was a man; lying

like the first victim, asleep in a crumpled heap.

'It's like they just feel asleep wherever they

were,' said Amy.

'But it's not a normal sleep,' insisted Rory. 'I

can't wake them up.'

The Doctor suggested that they look further

afield. If there were two victims of this strange

sleeping sickness — or whatever it was — then there

might well be others.

It didn't take the trio of time travellers long to

prove the Doctor's theory right. In the very next

building they found another three men in a coma

and the next building was the same. The more they

searched inside the buildings the more victims they

found.

The Doctor found a man that had crushed his

pocket watch when he had fallen.

'Twenty-two minutes past ten,' said the Doctor,

showing the broken timepiece to Amy and Rory.

'Now we know when this all started.'

'You think they all fell asleep at the same time?'

asked Rory.

The Doctor nodded. 'No one's moved to help

any of the others,' he pointed out, 'that suggests

that no one was awake to see anyone else fall

asleep.'

Amy shook her head. 'So what makes everyone

in a town fall asleep at exactly the same time?' she

wondered.

The Doctor slipped his sonic screwdriver into

the inside pocket of his jacket and got to his feet.

'I don't know,' he confessed, 'but I would like to

find out.'

'But everyone,' Amy repeated herself, 'at the

same time! How is that possible? There must be

someone still awake.'

The three time travellers walked towards the

saloon. Rory thought he saw something out of the

corner of his eye. He looked again and watched

as a shadow moved between two buildings further

down the dusty street. He glanced back and saw

the Doctor and Amy going into the saloon.

Rory decided to check out the moving shadow

himself before mentioning it to his friends. He

didn't want to make a fuss over something that

might turn out to have a simple explanation.

Without saying anything to the Doctor and Amy

he made his way along the road.

Amy watched as the Doctor twirled slowly on

the spot, drinking in the detail of the main room

of the saloon.

'So when did this happen?' she wondered out

aloud. 'How long ago?'

'Judging from the sun I'd say it's about eleven in

the morning right now,' the Doctor told her.

'So about an hour ago?' suggested Amy.

The Doctor shook his head. 'More like thirteen.

That watch stopped at twenty-two minutes past ten

last night. I bet if we try the houses, most of the

victims will be in their beds. This happened at night.'

Amy looked around the room again, shaking

her head in disbelief. 'It's like someone just flicked a

switch and turned everyone off,' she told the Doctor.

The Doctor nodded and grinned. 'Someone or

something,' he suggested.

Amy suddenly looked alarmed. 'Where's Rory?'

she wondered.

The Doctor shrugged. Rory had disappeared

without either of them noticing.

Suddenly a sound rang out that made both Amy

and the Doctor freeze. It was the unmistakable

sound of a shotgun being fired.

'Someone's awake!' the Doctor realised.

'And I'm kinda worried Rory might have found

them,' added Amy.

Right at that moment, four shots rang out in

quick succession.

Rory stopped at the edge of the next building

and hesitated. He glanced back along the

road towards the saloon but neither Amy nor

the Doctor had noticed him leaving. The sound

of a shoe scuffing the dusty ground brought his

attention back to the moving shadow he had seen.

There was someone else still awake!

Moving as quickly as he could without making

too much noise, Rory turned into the gap between

two wooden buildings. Keeping his back tight

to the wall, he popped his head out and looked

down the passageway. He was just in time to see a

small figure disappearing around the back of the

building.

Rory turned around and moved back along the

main street until he reached the next gap between

buildings. Quickly he hurried down the passageway,

but when he reached the end, a small boy ran into

him. The boy was about ten or eleven and had

been concentrating on looking behind him rather

than in the direction that he had been running.

'Oof!' exclaimed Rory, as the pair of them fell

backwards in a muddle of arms and legs. The dry,

dusty ground sent up a cloud of sand as the two of

them struggled to get back on their feet.

'Quiet!' said the boy, urgently.

Rory was finding it difficult not to cough.

'What?' he said.

The boy glared at him. 'I said, keep quiet. If

you know what's good for you.'

The boy reached out a hand and Rory let him

help him get up from the ground.

'Quick,' urged the boy, 'take cover!' The boy

pulled Rory back into the rear alley. From the

street Rory could now hear the sound of horses

approaching. Someone was coming.

He looked down at the boy and saw a mixture

of fear and determination on his young face.

'I'm Rory,' he said and offered the boy his hand

to shake.

The boy was peering around the corner, trying

to see what he could of what was happening in the

street. Without turning around, he shook Rory's

hand.

'Nic,' he whispered back to Rory, 'Nic Piper.

But if we don't keep quiet we won't be needin' no

names, we'll be six feet under.'

Rory stuck his head out to see what he could

see. At the end of the narrow passageway there was

a thin strip of light, giving them a slither of the

scene in Main Street. As Rory watched, three horses

rode by. At least one of the riders was armed, as a

second later a shot rang out.

Nic and Rory pulled themselves back into the

shadows.

'That's just a warning shot,' explained Nic in a

whisper, 'to see who's around.'

'But everyone's asleep,' replied Rory.

'Sure, I know that, but they sure as heck don't,'

Nic snapped back. 'That's the Black Hand Gang!

They don't live here!'

Rory couldn't help feeling a little thrill of

excitement. A genuine outlaw gang was just down

the passageway, riding into town looking for

trouble, no doubt.

'I need to get a better look,' he muttered to

himself but it was loud enough for Nic to hear.

The boy shot him a suspicious look and then

shook his head.

'Okay, follow me,' he said, leading the way

towards a nearby two-storey building. 'But don't

blame me if one of those bad boys shoots your

head off.'

Rory followed Nic into the building. Inside

there was a wooden staircase leading to the first

floor. Nic led the way up the stairs and into a front-

facing room. It was a bedroom and a woman was

asleep in the bed.

'Don't worry,' said Nic, 'she's not going to wake

up. I've been trying to wake people all morning'

Nic moved around the bed to the windows and

waved at Rory to follow him. He joined Nic at the

windows and pulled back the lace curtains to look

down into the street, making sure all the while that

he couldn't be seen.

Rory realised that he had doubled back and

must have entered a building close to the Saloon.

He hoped the Doctor and Amy were still inside. As

he watched, two of the men dismounted and placed

sticks of dynamite at the front of the building

opposite to the one Rory and Nic were in.

'That's Hawkeye Kruse on the horse,' whispered

Nic, 'they say he can shoot the stone out of a

plum from a hundred yards. The two men with the

explosives are gentleman Harvard Williams and

Stainless Dick Steele, both nasty head cases. They'll

shoot you as soon as look at you.'

Rory nodded, taking the information in. 'In that

case, I'd better make sure they don't,' he whispered.

Just as he finished speaking the two men finished

laying the dynamite and stood up. One of the men

turned around and, it seemed to Rory, he looked

directly up at the window where Rory was standing.

Hoping that the combination of dirty glass and

lace curtains would prevent him from being seen,

Rory froze. After what seemed like an age, the man

looked away and Rory let out a relieved breath.

Suddenly a number of shots rang out, shattering

the unnatural silence. Thinking he must have been

spotted, Rory threw himself to the floor, dragging

the boy with him, but to his surprise, no bullets

came crashing through the window.

'They're not shooting at us,' Nic told him,

kneeling up and moving back towards the window.

'Then who?' wondered Rory.

Before he could join Nic at the window there

was a deafening roar from below and more shots.

Rory's eyes widened in surprise. It sounded like

some kind of massive bear or wild creature, but

what could it be here in the desert?

'It's huge!' exclaimed Nic, looking down into

the street.

What is?' demanded Rory.

Nic looked at him, and shrugged. 'I dunno,' he

confessed, 'some kind of massive monster thing'

Of course, thought Rory to himself, a massive

monster. What a surprise. That's why the Doctor

had brought them here. He probably tasted its

breath when he ate that grass. Knowing that

the Doctor would want a full description of the

creature, Rory hurried to take a look himself.

In the street he saw the three outlaws shooting

at something that was out of his range of vision.

Williams and Steele, the two men on foot, ran to

their horses and hurriedly leapt into the saddle.

Still taking the odd potshot over their shoulders,

the three members of the Black Hand Gang

disappeared as quickly as they had come.

The huge shadow of some kind of beast

covered part of the street but it was impossible,

from where Rory was standing, to make out any

detail of the creature. Slowly the shadow retreated

as the monster — whatever it was - moved back into

whichever building it had come from.

'I need to get down there,' said Rory urgently,

but before Nic could say anything Rory was thrown

from his feet by an enormous explosion. The

dynamite laid by the outlaws had gone off, tearing

the front off the bank. A huge cloud of black smoke

filled the street and dollar bills floated in the air.

Coughing, Rory once again struggled to get

up. He was beginning to get a little tired of being

knocked over today and resolved to do his very

best not to fall over any more. At least not for a

while, anyway.

Suddenly Rory felt something cold and metallic

sticking into the back of his neck. He knew,

instinctively, that it was the barrel of a shotgun.

'Who in tarnation are you?' a female voice

demanded.

Rory sighed. He was not having a very good day.

As the sound of more shots rang out in the

street outside the saloon, Amy and the Doctor

exchanged concerned looks.

'Keep down,' ordered the Doctor as he ran

towards the door, ignoring his own advice.

Amy set off after him, more concerned about

Rory's safety than her own. The Doctor slid to a

sudden standstill and Amy ran into his back.

Looking over his shoulder Amy saw why the

Doctor had stopped so suddenly. Out in the street

there was a trio of exactly the sort of characters

Amy expected to see in the Wild West — cowboys,

complete with wide-brimmed hats, leather jackets

and cowboy boots. It was what they were shooting

at, however, that had caused the Doctor to freeze.

It was something out of a horror movie. At least

four metres tall, the ape-like creature had two extra

arms and bright red fur. The shots from the outlaws

seemed not to have bothered the creature at all. It

roared but not in pain as it swiped with its lower

arms and nearly knocked the mounted cowboy

from his horse.

'What is it?' Amy gasped.

'I don't know,' confessed the Doctor. 'But I

don't think it's from round here, do you?'

The three men regrouped on their horses and

galloped down the street as fast as they could go.

One of the outlaws shot wildly over his shoulder

as he retreated and the bullet hit the doorframe

just above the Doctor and Amy. The two time

travellers dived back inside the saloon, fearing

further stray bullets.

Moments later there was an enormous explosion.

The saloon windows blew out, shattering tiny

pieces of glass over the Doctor and Amy, who had

taken cover on the sawdust-covered wooden floor.

A cloud of debris filled the air and Amy found that

her ears were ringing from the deafening sound of

the explosion.

The Doctor sat up, apparently unaffected.

Amy could see that his mouth was moving but

couldn't hear any words.

'What did you say?' she asked.

The Doctor looked at her, concern etched on

his face.

'I said are you okay?' he repeated, exaggerating

his mouth movements to help her lip-read.

Amy nodded and clapped her hands over her

ears. 'Fine. Well, I will be when my ears start working

again. What was that?'

'An explosion,' the Doctor answered her.

'Yeah, I figured that space boy, but what

exploded? And, more importantly, where's Rory?'

The Doctor wasn't in a position to answer Amy's

question but Rory was, in fact, not too far away, in

the upstairs rooms of the saloon. Unfortunately,

although unharmed by the explosion, Rory was not

exactly safe. A shotgun barrel was being pressed

into his neck and the owner of the weapon seemed

to be a little trigger-happy.

'Cat gotcha tongue, stranger?' asked the

woman's voice, impatiently. 'Tell me who you are

or I'll blow your head off.'

'Don't shoot him, Mother,' insisted Nic. 'He's

a friend.'

Rory was relieved to feel the pressure on his

neck decrease and after a moment he felt able to

stand up.

The woman with the shotgun (now pointing

down at the floor, Rory noted with relief) watched

him suspiciously. Nic moved across the room to

stand with her.

'This is my mom,' he told Rory.

Rory realised that it was the woman who'd been

asleep in the bed when they'd come in. She was

wearing a long cotton nightdress.

'Name's Lizzie,' she told Rory, 'Lizzie Piper,

owner of the Second Chance Saloon.'

'Pleased to meet you,' said Rory.

'We'll see about that,' replied Lizzie, not taking

her eyes off him for a moment. 'Seems like I've

overslept. And I never oversleep. You know

anything about that, stranger?'

Rory shook his head. 'It's not just you. Your

whole town was asleep when we arrived.'

'Everyone?'

Rory could tell that Lizzie was finding this hard

to believe.

'Everyone we found was out cold, like they

were in a coma.'

'It's true, Mum,' added Nic. 'It was the same

when I got back this morning from my camp out.

I couldn't wake you.'

'And what about the dynamite?' asked Lizzie.

'The Black Hand Gang,' said Nic.

'The Black Hand Gang just happened to ride

into town when everyone was asleep?' Lizzie shook

her head. 'That's too much of a coincidence if you

ask me. What do you say then, stranger?'

'It all sounds a bit weird,' Rory told her. 'But

you're in luck. The guy I'm travelling with is a bit

of an expert when it comes to weird stuff. He's

called the Doctor.'

'Doctor!'

Not for the first time Amy found that she was

talking to no one. The Doctor had already run out

into the street. Amy ran after him.

As soon as she passed through the doors of the

saloon she could see that it had been the bank that

had exploded. The whole front of the building

seemed to have been destroyed, leaving a huge

pile of debris smoking where once the pavement

had been. Dollar bills were fluttering in the air like

confetti at a wedding.

The Doctor was standing at the foot of the pile

of bricks and wood that had made up the front of

the bank. Absent-mindedly he plucked dollar bills

out of the air, without seeming to look at them.

'I think it was a bank raid,' he told Amy. 'Or

at least it would have been if the bad guys hadn't

been scared off.'

'Be careful,' Amy warned him, seeing an

exposed beam waving in what was left of the

building. A moment later the beam crashed to the

ground, throwing up a fresh cloud of dust and

covering the Doctor.

Before Amy could do anything more to aid him

she was grabbed from behind.

'Hey!' she complained. 'Get off!'

'Get back from there,' insisted a male voice.

Amy turned around and saw that she was being

pulled clear of the dust cloud by a man wearing a

sheriff's badge on his shirt. She guessed he was in

his forties, and he had a weather-beaten face and

bright blue eyes. Amy felt instantly that he was

someone she could trust.

'Ma'am, please, come away from there. The

whole bank could come down.'

Amy let herself be pulled away down the street.

She now saw that there were more people around.

Whatever it was that had caused the mass sleeping

sickness must have worn off, she decided. Perhaps

it had something to do with the explosion. The

sheriff called over an older man, dressed in a black

frock coat. He had a neatly trimmed white beard

and a friendly face.

'Doc, can you help this young lady?' the sheriff

said to the older man, who nodded and offered his

arm to Amy. 'The Doc here will take care of you,'

the sheriff promised her.

'Come with me, ma'am,' the older man said

kindly, 'my place is just down the street.'

The grey-haired man took Amy to a building

which had a red and white pole outside it. Inside

the room there was a barber's chair, a low bed and

a desk. The old man fetched a drink of water from

a jug on his desk and passed it to Amy who took

the drink gratefully and downed it in one go. She

hadn't realised how parched she had become with

all the dust.

'Thanks,' she said, handing the empty mug

back to the man.

'Doc Sanderson,' said the man offering his

hand to Amy. 'Barber, surgeon, dentist and doctor

to the good people of Mason City.'

'Pleased to meet you,' said Amy.

'Likewise. We're not usually so hostile to visitors

here,' said Doc Sanderson apologetically, 'not that

we get many visitors,' he added with a smile.

'I'm Amy Pond,' said Amy shaking his hand.

'So how did you come to be visiting us today

then?' asked the Doc. Amy hesitated. Somehow

she didn't think telling the truth would be a good

idea. Start talking about travelling through time

and space in a blue box, she thought to herself,

and he'll think I've lost my mind.

Before she could come up with an answer,

however, they were interrupted. A man dashed

into the room.

'Quick, Doc, you're needed in the sheriff's

office,' he cried. 'One of the outlaws got caught in

the explosion. If you're quick you can get him into

your cell before he wakes up!'

'What does he look like, this outlaw?' asked

Amy, as a terrible thought occurred to her.

'Young guy, lots of hair, got him one of those

fancy bow ties on too,' the man told her.

Amy's heart fell. He was talking about the

Doctor! Amy jumped up and headed for the door,

but Doc Sanderson put a hand out to stop her.

'I think you'd better wait here, miss, that fellow

might be in a bit of a mess.'

Amy ignored the Doc and, as soon as he had

left the room, she followed him. The Doc hurried

down the street, past the rubble at the bank and

headed into the sheriff's office. Amy tried to follow

but found the door had been locked. Frustrated,

she looked around. If she couldn't get to the

Doctor then her next plan was to find Rory. Now

where would he be?

Amy looked up and down the street, trying to

work out where her husband might have got to.

Her eyes stopped at a particular building. Yes, she

thought, that's the first place to look. The saloon.

Rory wasn't sure if it was his honest face or the

fact that Nic seemed convinced by his story,

but between them somehow they managed to

persuade Lizzie that Rory could be trusted.

She took him downstairs into the main saloon.

It was a large room with a long, plain bar at one end

with mirrors on the wall behind it. The wooden

floor was coated with sawdust and an assortment

of wooden tables and chairs were scattered around

the room. Opposite the bar was a pair of wooden

swing doors. Either side of these doors there

would usually be two wide windows, but right now

there were just two piles of rubble and broken

glass caused by the explosion at the bank. Lizzie

sighed at the sight.

'Best get started,' she announced and pulled the

fallen curtains clear of the pile of debris. Rory set

about helping Nic and his mother clear up.

'So where are your friends?' asked lizzie, as they

finished sweeping up the broken window glass.

'I don't know . . .' confessed Rory, but before

he could complete his sentence a familiar voice

interrupted him.

'In the pub! I should have guessed that's where

you'd be,' said Amy, as she pushed through the

double swing doors to enter the saloon. 'Are you

all right?' she added in a kinder voice, taking in the

damage to the room.

Rory shrugged. 'Yeah, fine. You know what it's

like travelling with the Doctor - had a gun pointed

at me, witnessed an attempted bank raid, saw some

kind of alien monster, nearly got blown up . . .

usual stuff. You?'

Amy nodded and shook some sandy dust from

her long red hair. 'Pretty much the same except

nobody's pointed a gun at me yet.'

'Give it time,' said Rory with a smile. Amy

smiled back, pleased and relieved to be reunited

with her husband. She drew Rory towards the bar

in order to speak to him without being overheard

by either Nic or Lizzie who were still tidying up.

'Looks like the natives have all woken up,' she

said quietly, nodding in the direction of the saloon

owner and her son. Rory quickly explained who

they were. 'Lizzie Piper and her son Nic. Lizzie

owns this place.'

'And she woke up just now, when all the rest of

them did?' wondered Amy.

Rory nodded and frowned. 'But you can't have

everyone in a coma wake up at the same time,' he

said. As a trained nurse he knew that comas didn't

work like that. Rory remembered the very first

time he had met the Doctor, back in Leadworth,

there had been strange events involving people in

comas and, on that occasion, it had been caused

by an alien.

'In which case,' Amy whispered back at him, 'it

couldn't have been a coma.'

'So what was it? What made all the people in

this town fall asleep at the same moment and then

wake up at the same time later? It doesn't make

sense.'

'Haven't you noticed,' Amy asked him, 'when you

travel with the Doctor things rarely make sense?'

'Where is the Doctor?' asked Rory suddenly.

Amy pulled a face. 'In jail. The sheriff must

think he had something to do with the bank raid.'

'Psychic paper?' suggested Rory. He was hoping

that the Doctor would be able to use his all purpose

access-all-areas ID card to get himself out of jail.

The blank paper produced an image in the mind

of the person looking at it, using the victim's own

brainwaves to create a message that would make

sense for whoever was reading it. Amy, however,

was shaking her head.

'You've still got it, remember?' said Amy, 'He

gave it to you to use on Space Station Apple Sixteen?'

Rory reached into his jeans pocket and pulled

out the battered wallet. 'Oh yeah, I'd forgotten

about that,' he muttered.

'What's that then?' asked Lizzie from across the

room. She came across and took the psychic paper

from Rory's hand and read it carefully. To Rory's

eyes it still looked like a blank sheet of paper but

he could tell from the way Lizzie's eyes moved that

she was reading. She looked up and examined him

with a new interest.

'Pinkerton's Agent, eh? Why didn't you tell me

in the first place?' said Lizzie, with a new tone of

respect in her voice.

'Well, I'm er . . . undercover,' Rory explained,

indicating his brightly coloured poncho.

Amy raised her eyebrows. 'Pinkerton?' she

repeated the word in a neutral tone hoping Rory

alone would realise that she needed an explanation

for the word. Rory sighed. If only Amy had stayed

awake when he had tried to show her some of his

favourite Western films on DVD.

'The Pinkerton National Detective Agency,

out of Chicago,' he explained. America's first

detective agency: the one that caught the outlaw

Jesse James.'

'Jesse James? Who's he?' asked Lizzie.

Rory realised that he had made a rookie time

traveller's mistake. The Doctor had said that they

had landed in 1861, the year that the American Civil

War had begun. Rory's knowledge of Jesse James

and the Pinkertons — like most of his expertise in

the Old West — came from movies, in particular a

film he had seen about the outlaw which, he now

realised, had been set after the end of the Civil

War. Although he would grow up to be a notorious

outlaw, right now Jesse James was still unknown.

'Big name back east,' Rory told Lizzie, crossing

his fingers behind his back. To Rory's relief, Lizzie

seemed to take this without question. Clearly events

on the east coast were not big news around these

parts.

'So are you after those no good critters the Black

Hand Gang?' asked Nic, who had been listening to

the conversation with growing interest.

'Er, yeah,' said Rory. 'That's exactly it. I'm here

on the trail of the Black Hand Gang.'

'So why didn't you shoot them just now when

they attacked the bank?' the boy asked.

Rory was stuck for an answer. He realised that

he might not have thought through his cover story

very well. Amy came to his aid.

'You didn't need to shoot them - you scared

them off with that monster trick,' she suggested.

'Yeah, of course I did,' said Rory.

'Clever old you!' said Amy.

Realising that his little white lies were getting

out of hand, Rory racked his brain, looking for a

way out of the situation. Suddenly he remembered

what Amy had said about the Doctor.

'Actually the genius behind that trick is my friend,

the Doctor,' he announced, 'and my...' he waved a

hand in the direction of Amy and hesitated. Should

he explain their real relationship?

'Partner,' interjected Amy.

'Wife,' said Rory at exactly the same time. They

exchanged looks and then both spoke at the same

time again.

'She's my detective partner and my wife,' said

Rory.

'He's my husband and my partner,' said Amy.

They both stopped speaking and looked at

Lizzie and Nic who were staring at them, open-

mouthed.

'Clear?' asked Rory, hopefully.

Lizzie scratched her head. 'As mud.'

'I left my wife, er partner, and the Doctor

exploring the town earlier,' Rory tried to explain.

'So right now you need to find your other friend

- this Doctor?' said Lizzie, proving that she was

managing to keep up.

'We know where he is. He's in the sheriff's lock-

up,' Amy told her. 'He was injured by some falling

debris at the bank. They just sent for a doctor to

take a look at him.'

Lizzie shook her head. 'You'd best get over

there quick.'

Amy was confused. 'I don't understand, what's

the problem?'

'You said the Doc went to examine your friend?'

'Doc Sanderson?' asked Nic.

Amy nodded. That was the name the kindly old

surgeon had given her.

Nic cast an anxious look at his mother. 'You

have to tell 'em, Mom,' he insisted.

'Tell us what?' demanded Rory.

Lizzie looked scared and Rory and Amy could

see that despite her weathered skin she had turned

pale.

'Doc Sanderson left town. Late yesterday. Got

word that his sister up at Felixstown was ill,' she

told them. 'I was with him when he got the news.

He was saddled up and off straight away.'

Rory and Amy couldn't believe what they were

hearing.

'He must have come back then,' suggested Amy.

'It's a two day ride to Felixstown,' Lizzie insisted.

'I saw him set off just yesterday with my own eyes.'

Rory started backing towards the door.

'So if Doc Sanderson is out of town,' Amy

wondered, 'who did I just see going in to examine

the Doctor?'

The Doctor opened his eyes slightly and tried to

work out where he was. He could feel that he

was lying on something flat and hard, so he was

fairly confident that he wasn't still outside the

bank, resting on the rubble. Above him he could

make out a low, dark ceiling, which confirmed

his deduction that he was somewhere inside. The

question now was which of Mason City's buildings

was he inside and how exactly had he come to be

there? He remembered Amy's warning cry and the

falling beam but nothing after that. The odd thing

was that the last thing he had seen had been the

beam starting to move but not actually crashing

down on him.

The Doctor frowned. Of course, the collapsing

building hadn't caused him to fall unconscious —

something else had knocked him out. Carefully the

Doctor let his long fingers check his body. Within

moments he found what he was looking for. There

was a patch of cloth on his jacket shoulder that was

unnaturally warm to the touch. The Doctor knew

immediately what it meant. He had been shot with an

energy-weapon: some kind of stun gun. That kind

of weapon was common enough in some parts of

the galaxy but not something that the Doctor would

expect to find on Earth in the nineteenth century.

The Doctor sat bolt upright and took a good

look around him. He had been right about the hard

surface - he was sitting on a low bed with a paper-

thin mattress on it. He was in a small room, barely

twice the size of the bed with blank grey walls on

three sides. The fourth wall was entirely made up

of wall to ceiling metal bars about six centimetres

apart. The Doctor grinned, recognising his

whereabouts. Not for the first time in his many

lives, he was in a jail.

'I see you're awake, stranger,' said a voice from

beyond the bars.

The Doctor looked through the bars to the rest

of the sheriff's office. It was a simply decorated

room with a plain wooden desk and chair at which

the sheriff himself was sitting.

'I'm the Doctor,' said the Doctor getting to

his feet, 'and I think there's been some kind of

mistake.' He grabbed hold of the bars with both

hands and pressed his face up against them.

'Mistake?' the sheriff echoed the Doctor's

word. 'What mistake would that be then?'

'You've locked me up!' complained the Doctor.

You blew up the bank,' replied the sheriff.

The Doctor shook his head firmly.

'You were found in the rubble left by the

explosion, with dollar bills in your hand,' explained

Sheriff Carter. 'Doesn't sound like an innocent

man to me. To my mind, that sounds like a bank

robber who got caught up in his own blast.'

The Doctor narrowed his eyes. Someone had

fired an energy weapon at him but if he tried to

explain that to this local lawman he might never

get released.

'You've got me wrong, Sheriff. I'm a visitor

here in Mason. Just arrived. I was across the road

when the outlaws rode into town and I heard the

explosion.'

The sheriff studied the Doctor's face carefully.

The Doctor felt as if he was being examined under

a microscope, as the lawman's cool gaze washed

over him.

'You're telling me outlaws laid that blast?' he

demanded.

'Yes - a gang of would-be bank robbers,' the

Doctor told him.

'So these men blew up the bank and then forgot

to take the money?' asked the sheriff. 'Why would

they do that?'

The Doctor shook his head. 'I don't know

exactly. Something scared them off.'

The main door to the office opened and an

older man in a long black frockcoat entered. He

closed the door firmly behind him and slipped the

catch to lock it.

'Doc,' said the sheriff, 'thanks for coming.

Looks like your patient's made a good recovery,

though.'

'I'll take a look at him, anyway,' said the medical

man, crossing to look through the bars at the

Doctor. The sheriff got to his feet and opened the

door set into the bars to allow Doc Sanderson to

step inside.

The Doctor allowed the newcomer to make a

quick examination of him. After a few moments

Doc Sanderson nodded and the sheriff let him out

of the cell and then relocked it.

'No sign of any major injury,' Doc Sanderson

told the sheriff, 'but there's something very odd

about him. Where's he from?'

'I am still here, you know,' the Doctor interjected.

'And I told the sheriff - I'm from out of town.'

Doc Sanderson was looking at the things the

sheriff had removed from the Doctor's pockets: a

collection of bits and pieces which included a yo-

yo, a wind-up torch and his sonic screwdriver.

From his cell the Doctor watched carefully as

Doc Sanderson picked through the collection.

There was something not quite right about the

local medic but he couldn't quite put his finger

on what it was. One thing was certain though; the

Doc had listened to his chest with a stethoscope

and must have heard the double beat of his two

hearts, but he had said nothing. Almost as if it

wasn't a surprise to him. For a medical man in

nineteenth century America, that was decidedly

odd behaviour.

Doc Sanderson had picked up the sonic

screwdriver and was playing with it, tossing it into

the air and catching it.

'Be careful with that,' the Doctor called out, as

the old man continued to spin and catch the sonic

screwdriver like a miniature baton.

Doc Sanderson threw the sonic up and then

snatched it out of the air before it could fall to the

floor. He caught it and pointed it directly at the

Doctor. By chance or by design he was holding it

the right way to operate it.

'Why, what is it? Some kind of weapon?' he

asked the Doctor.

The Doctor had a terrible feeling that the man

already knew the answer to his question.

'Who are you?' the Doctor asked him.

The sheriff sighed. 'I told you already, this is

Doc Sanderson, our local medicine man!'

'Is that right?' asked the Doctor, looking

squarely at the older man.

The sheriff frowned as a sudden thought hit

him. He turned to look at Doc Sanderson.

'I just thought, weren't you heading out of

town — some family crisis?' he asked.

Doc Sanderson shook his head. 'Changed my

mind,' he said.

'But Lizzie said she saw you ride off yesterday

afternoon,' continued the sheriff, 'couldn't have

been long before we all fell asleep . . . How -'

The sheriff was interrupted in his thought

and fell to the floor stunned. Doc Sanderson had

produced a futuristic pistol from his holster and

shot him.

'What have you done?' demanded the Doctor,

grabbing the bars.

'Doc Sanderson' slipped the pistol back into

his holster and took a step closer to the bars of the

cell. 'It's okay,' he assured the Doctor, 'it was on a

low stun setting. He'll be fine.'

'So I was right,' the Doctor said, 'you're not a

local at all. You're an alien.'

"Doc Sanderson" laughed and adjusted a

control on his belt. The image of the white-haired

surgeon blurred as if in a heat haze and a new

figure emerged. It was still humanoid but instead

of the pink skinned head of a man the creature had

a furry head that the Doctor recognised instantly.

'A Cemar!' said the Doctor. 'Using a perception

filter and hologram generator to create a disguise.

You're a long way from home.'

'Twin-hearted humanoid,' replied the Cemar,

'you don't belong here either. Are you sure this

isn't a weapon?'

The Cemar let his furry fingers play with the

controls of the sonic screwdriver. Suddenly there

was a bang as a glass standing on the desk exploded

without warning. The alien looked at him with his

small dark eyes.

'Okay, that isn't a weapon, it's a tool. A sonic

tool,' said the Doctor. 'It's advanced technology

and it comes from another planet.'

The Cemar raised his eyebrows. Carefully, he

placed the sonic screwdriver down on the desk

and then turned back to look at the Doctor.

'How did you get here?' he demanded.

'I have a ship,' the Doctor told him. 'I assume

you don't?'

The alien turned away, deep in thought. The

Doctor realised that he was trying to decide whether

he could trust the Doctor or not. He sat down at

the desk and then looked over at the Doctor.

The alien smiled. 'Okay, cards on the table, as

the humans like to say. I am trapped here.'

The Doctor grabbed the bars again. 'Let me

out of here and perhaps I can help you. You don't

want to be stuck here on this backward low-tech

planet.'

The alien looked at him carefully.

'You'd help me? But you know nothing about

me.'

The Doctor shrugged. 'So tell me your story.

Did you crash? Is your ship damaged or lost?'

'There was a ship,' he began finally, 'an

interplanetary transport. There was an accident

and we crashed.'

The Doctor nodded. Just as he had thought.

'We were searching for something that was

stolen. A psychic device. In the wrong hands it

could be a terrible weapon.'

The Doctor frowned. 'And this weapon is loose

somewhere on this planet?'

The Cemar nodded. 'We were tracking it from

space before the crash. We know it's somewhere

close.'

'How?' wondered the Doctor.

'I scanned for it from the wreck of my ship

but the scan had an unexpected effect on the local

population,' the Cemar confessed.

'They all fell asleep,' guessed the Doctor,

nodding. 'Maybe I can use my technology to track

it down without that side effect,' he suggested.

The Cemar nodded, then came across and

unlocked the door set into the bars.

'Thank you,' said the Doctor and he stepped

out past the alien and reached out to pick up his

sonic screwdriver.

'You said 'we'?' the Doctor shot the Cemar a

suspicious look. The alien looked away, embarrassed.

'My colleague Simgi,' he explained. 'I fear he

wants the weapon for himself, for selfish motives.

He attacked me and left me at the crash site.'

'In that case,' declared the Doctor, 'we'd better

make sure we get this device before he does.'

As they ran down the street from the saloon,

Amy was relieved to see that the door to the

sheriff's office was now open. Rory and Lizzie

were just behind her as she hurried through the

door.

'Doctor?' she called out, but she could see

straight away that the cell was empty.

'Sheriff!' exclaimed Lizzie as she arrived. Unlike

Amy, who was more concerned with finding the

Doctor, she had seen the body of the sheriff lying

on the floor in the corner of the room.

'Let me look at him,' said Rory. 'I'm a nurse.'

Lizzie stepped back, a frown on her face.

'A nurse?'

'He's a man of many talents,' said Amy proudly.

Rory dropped to his knees and carefully put

the sheriff in the recovery position, knees bent.

He checked the man's pulse.

'It's okay, he's just out cold,' he told Lizzie and

Amy. 'In fact, I think he might be coming round.'

Lizzie found a glass of water for the sheriff

and Rory helped the man into a sitting position.

'Are you all right, Jack?' asked Lizzie, passing

him the glass of water.

Jack Carter sipped at his water and then nodded.

'I think so.'

'What happened to you?' asked Amy. 'And

where's the Doctor?'

Sheriff Carter got to his feet carefully and

looked over at the open cell. 'I'm not sure. I think

the Doc shot me . . .' he told them.

Amy and Rory exchanged a look. They both

knew the Doctor hated guns.

'Are you sure?' asked Amy. 'I thought the

Doctor was your prisoner.'

The sheriff shook his head. 'No, not the

prisoner. Doc Sanderson. He shot me. At least it

looked like him.' The sheriff looked over at Lizzie.

'I thought you said Doc Sanderson rode out of

town yesterday.'

'I did,' confirmed Lizzie.

'The man who was here, the one who shot you,

must have been an imposter,' Amy told him.

'An imposter? But how?'

Again Amy and Rory exchanged looks. Neither

of them knew for sure, but they'd been around the

Doctor long enough to know that aliens had many

ways to use technology to hide their true identities.

'It was a disguise,' said Rory, finally, trying to

keep it simple.

The sheriff frowned. 'And who are you?' he

demanded.

Luckily, Lizzie answered for them. 'Pinkertons,'

she told the sheriff. 'On the trail of the Black Hand

Gang.'

The sheriff looked Rory and Amy up and

down. 'Pinkertons, eh? Well consider yourselves

deputised. Both of you. I'm going to need some

help with this fake Doc Sanderson business. Not

to mention trying to work out what put us all to

sleep like that. Reckon you can handle it?'

Rory grinned at Amy.

'He wants to deputise us,' he said, excitedly.

'So?' Amy wasn't sure what it meant.

'He's making us deputy sheriffs,' he explained.

The sheriff opened a drawer in the desk and

produced shiny silver star badges for them both.

'Oh, like Deputy Dawg?'said Amy, remembering

an old cartoon she's seen on the television.

'Who?' said the sheriff.

'Someone we know back east,' Rory told him

hurriedly.

'So where do we start?' asked Amy, anxious to

find the Doctor. 'You had our friend the Doctor in

your cell but he's gone.'

'The guy in the bow tie was a friend of yours?'

said the sheriff.

Amy nodded. 'He's a specialist freelance detective

we hired to help us. That's why he was in the rubble

at the bank, he was looking for clues.'

The sheriff took this in and nodded. 'Sorry

I had him in my cell then. Guess the fake Doc

Sanderson took him with him. Wonder why?'

'Only one way to get the answer to that,'

suggested Rory, 'we need to find them both.'

It didn't take the sheriff long to find that two

horses had been taken from the corral at the end

of the main street. Two pairs of tracks led off

into the desert, showing where the two horses had

disappeared.

'Is there a trail you can follow?' asked Rory.

'There's a trail, all right, but it won't last long,'

the sheriff told him. 'I'll follow it as far as I can

and see if I can work out where they're heading.

You two head back to town. Take a look at the

bank. Something scared the Black Hand Gang off.

I'd like to know what it was.'

Amy looked like she was about to argue and

demand to go with the sheriff to try and find the

Doctor, but Rory shook his head.

'Okay, Sheriff, we'll do just that.'

The pair of them watched as the sheriff

mounted his horse and rode off on the trail of the

two doctors.

As soon as he was out of earshot, Amy turned

on Rory.

'Why did you do that?' she demanded.

'I don't like horse-riding,' confessed Rory.

'Anyway there's a mystery here to be sorted out.'

'That alien monster thing?' asked Amy.

'Yeah,' agreed Rory. 'When the Doctor gets

back he'll want to know all about it. So let's be

ahead of the game for once, eh?'

Amy agreed and they walked back towards the

bank to see if the monster had left any clues.

Inside what was left of the bank, the staff

had secured all the money in the main safe, but

there were half a dozen metal cases that had been

damaged in the blast.

'Hey, Deputy,' the bank manager called out at

Amy and Rory as they walked past, 'can you help?'

The bank manager explained that he needed to

transfer the contents of the various safe deposit

boxes that had been damaged by the explosion

into one of the bank's vaults. 'I need to clear some

debris to get to the vault but I don't want to leave

these boxes unguarded.'

Rory and Amy exchanged a look.

'We are Deputies,' Amy pointed out.

Rory told the bank manager that they'd be only

too happy to help. The bank manager and his

assistant disappeared into the remains of the bank

to clear the passageway to the vault, leaving Amy

and Rory in the open-fronted lobby of the bank.

Some of the rubble had been cleared away and the

half dozen safe deposit boxes had been arranged

on the floor in front of the wooden counter.

'I wonder what's in these boxes?' Amy said, sitting

on the counter and letting her long legs dangle.

Rory shrugged. 'Jewellery maybe, family

heirlooms, watches, maybe prospector's samples ...'

'Samples of what?' asked Amy.

Rory was happy to show off his extensive

western knowledge.

'As people moved West you got lots of would-be

miners going on ahead of the settlers, looking for

gold, silver, tin etc. You've heard of the forty-niners?'

Amy looked puzzled. 'Isn't that the name of an

American Football team?'

'Named after the prospectors who flooded into

the San Francisco area in 1849, in the great Gold

Rush,' Rory explained.

Amy looked around at the various deposit

boxes. 'So these could be stuffed full of gold?' she

wondered.

'Could be,' agreed Rory.

'I wish we could have a look inside one,' said Amy.

Suddenly they heard a series of gunshots

ringing out.

'The Black Hand Gang!' shouted Amy, 'they've

come back.'

'Quick - take cover,' said Rory pulling Amy

down behind the counter.

'We're meant to be guarding this lot,' said Amy as

they heard galloping horses approaching. Outside,

the locals were running for cover into buildings

as the three outlaws rode down the street, firing

warning shots into the air.

'When the sheriff gave us these badges, we

should have asked for guns,' complained Rory.

'Ssh!' warned Amy, as they heard the gang

members pull up close to the front of the bank.

'They must have locked the cash away,'

complained one of the outlaws.

'Then grab them security boxes,' said a second

voice.

'We have to do something,' Amy whispered,

looking Rory in the eyes. We're meant to protect

them.'

Rory nodded and readied himself for action

but before he could do anything foolhardy or

brave there was a new sound; a bestial roar that

both Amy and Rory had heard before.

'That thing - it's back!' screamed one of the

outlaws. More shots rang out as the gang fired at

the monster. Amy and Rory poked their heads

over the counter. Just as before, the four-armed

hairy monster was achieving what Amy and Rory

could not - it was protecting the bank.

'It's not possible,' one of the outlaws shouted,

'my bullets are going right through it and it's not

stopping'

Rory and Amy watched in amazement as the

nearest outlaw fired all the bullets from his six-

shooter directly into the body of the monster. The

bullets passed straight through the creature and

Amy had to pull Rory back behind the counter to

prevent the bullets hitting him by mistake.

When they looked up again, the gang were back

on their horses and galloping out of town.

'They've gone,' said Amy.

'No thanks to us,' muttered Rory. He pointed at

the pile of safe deposit boxes. 'And they managed

to get a couple of boxes too. Some deputies we are.'

Amy was already on her feet.

'Come on,' she said, 'if we can't stop the Black

Hand Gang we can at least get to the bottom of

what that monster is. It went this way.'

With that Amy ran off into an alley between

the bank and the next building. Not wanting his

wife to face the four-armed alien monster on her

own, Rory hurried after her.

The Doctor and the alien rode out into the desert.

The Doctor was glad of the chance to try and

work out what had been happening — it had been

a busy couple of hours since the TARDIS had

landed!

He had brought his friends to the Wild West of

nineteenth century America as a treat for Rory, but

things had not turned out as he had expected. The

nearest frontier town had been full of people in

a deep and unnatural sleep. Before they could get

to the bottom of the cause, a gang of outlaws had

raided the town's bank and the Doctor had been

arrested by the newly woken sheriff and thrown

into jail. There he had met the alien he was now

riding with. The alien Cemar had told the Doctor

that his name was Rovik. The two of them were

trying to find somewhere high enough to enable

the Doctor to get a good reading on his sonic

screwdriver.

The Doctor hoped Amy and Rory would be all

right. Now that the sleeping people had all woken

up, he was sure they would have found some new

friends back in Mason. As soon as he could get a

good reading on his sonic screwdriver he would be

able to go and find them.

'This area is riddled with silver and tin deposits,'

the Doctor explained to Rovik, 'and they give off

readings at exactly the right frequency to interfere

with my scans.'

'Perhaps that is the reason my scan from the ship

failed,' suggested Rovik. The Doctor couldn't help

but smile at the odd sight. Even to him, it seemed

strange to see a human-sized furry creature riding a

horse, especially one wearing a cowboy hat.

'Or maybe your equipment is too powerful,' the

Doctor replied. 'After all, it did send out a signal

strong enough to put every human in range into a

short-term coma.'

They had been riding for more than an hour

now and were climbing into some rocky hills.

Every now and again the Doctor checked their

altitude with the sonic screwdriver. Finally, they

reached a barren outcrop that hung over the valley

below.

'Right then,' said the Doctor, bringing his horse

to a stop, 'tell me a little bit more about what exactly

it is we're looking for. You said it was a weapon.'

Rovik looked away over the valley. 'A very

dangerous one.'

'I'm going to need a few more details than that,'

the Doctor told him.

'It's a psychometric brainwave amplifier,' Rovik

explained, 'which empowers the mind to become

a weapon. It's higher technology than anything on

this planet. The energy signal from it should stand

out like a beacon of light in the darkness.'

The Doctor already had his sonic screwdriver

out. He checked the readings on the tiny read-out

and scanned again.

'So — do you have it?' asked the alien.

The Doctor nodded. 'Would you believe it?

Two hours ago it was right in the middle of Mason

City!'

'Then we must get back there straight away,'

said Rovik, turning his horse around.

'Wait, wait, wait, hold your, er, horses,' the

Doctor trailed off as he realised that was exactly

what his new friend was doing. 'Always wondered

about that phrase, now it makes total sense,' he

muttered to himself.

'Why wait?' demanded Rovik, 'There's no time

to lose.'

'Because it's not there now,' explained the

Doctor. 'It's been moved. In fact, while we've been

riding out here, it's been moving too.' The Doctor

frowned as a thought hit him. What does it look

like, this weapon?' he asked.

The Cemar shrugged. 'It's psychic. It will look

like whatever the person finding it wants it to look

like.'

Just like my psychic paper, thought the Doctor.

Suddenly he slapped his head. 'Of course, I should

have thought of that. The bank.'

The alien looked at him as if he had lost his

mind. 'What are you talking about?'

'Where do you put something you want to keep

safe? In the bank! Your device must have made

itself look valuable to some poor local who found

it and got them to put it into the bank for safe-

keeping'

'But the outlaw gang blew up the bank,' said the

Cemar.

'Making it easy for your friend to go and collect

it,' suggested the Doctor.

'Or the outlaws to come back for it,' replied the

alien. He had turned again to look down over the

valley. 'Look, there,' he shouted, pointing excitedly.

The Doctor looked down and saw a cloud of

dust. He pulled a pair of hi-tech binoculars from

his pocket and took another look. This time he

could clearly see the reason for the dust cloud. It

was the three outlaws who had tried to raid the

bank earlier.

'It's them,' the Doctor told Rovik, 'the Black

Hand Gang. They must have gone back to see

what they could take from the damaged bank.'

Quickly the Doctor pointed the sonic screwdriver

at the three riders and checked the reading.

'You were right!' the Doctor told the alien,

'They've got your weapon.'

Rory ran as fast as he could down the alley and

found himself, once again, at the back of the

buildings that made up the main street of Mason

City. As he pelted around the corner he almost ran

right into the back of Amy, who was turning her

head from side to side like a spectator at a tennis

match.

'It's not possible,' she told Rory as he skidded

to a halt, 'the thing has completely disappeared.

How can something that large just disappear?'

Rory looked too. With their backs to each other

the two time travellers slowly circled, looking for

any sign of movement or life.

'Do you see anything?' asked Amy.

Rory shrugged. 'Just that dog walking away

down past the back of the saloon.'

'Dog?' replied Amy, as if she didn't understand

the word.

'Yeah, big black dog, like the one we had when

I was little, Kramer.'

'When we get back home you'd better get your

eyes tested,' said Amy. 'There's no dog, just a cat.

Big ginger cat!'

'Look,' said Rory, 'that is a dog. A big, black dog!'

He was pointing down the alley at the creature.

Amy's eyes were wide as she looked at what he

was pointing at.

'It's a cat! A! Ginger! Cat!'

'Dog!'

A sudden thought hit them both at the same

time. They turned and looked at each other.

'You see a cat?' asked Rory.

'But you see a dog?' replied Amy.

'Perception filter,' they chorused together and

ran after the creature. Somehow the alien had

managed to trick them into seeing something

that wasn't there, but Amy and Rory had seen

through the illusion. As they ran the creature they

were following seemed to melt and reform into a

humanoid shape. A human shape with a furry head.

It took the Doctor and Rovik a little time to get

down from the rocky outcrop and back onto the

desert plain below, but when they had, they quickly

picked up the trail of the Black Hand Gang. The

three outlaws were riding into the hills at the foot

of the mountains. The Doctor and his new alien

friend followed at a safe distance.

'Stop!' said the Doctor suddenly, pulling his

horse up sharply. Rovik reigned in his own horse

and trotted up beside the Doctor.

'What is it?' he asked.

'They've stopped,' said the Doctor. Quickly he

dismounted and tied his horse up to a nearby tree.

Rovik did the same.

Creeping forward under cover of the trees, the

Doctor and his alien friend got into a position from

which they could spy on the outlaws. The Black

Hand Gang had stopped and made a temporary

camp. Using his special binoculars, the Time Lord

could see that the three criminals were arguing

about something. They were sitting around a small

fire and on the ground between them, the Doctor

could see one of the metal safe deposit boxes from

the bank. It looked like the outlaws had different

ideas about what to do with it.

'At this range you should be able to get a signal

even at this altitude,' suggested Rovik in a whisper.

The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver

and took a quick reading. 'Definite energy signal

from that box,' he confirmed.

'Give me five minutes to sneak around the back

of them,' said Rovik, 'and then create a diversion.'

The Doctor nodded. Moving in almost complete

silence, the alien Cemar slithered away, keeping low

in the long grass to avoid being seen.

The Doctor counted out the five minutes and

then got to his feet and walked towards the campsite.

'Hello there, I was wondering if you could help

me?' he began as he approached the three outlaws.

'What in tarnation?' Hawkeye Kruse was the

first to react. He was on his feet and had his gun in

his hand in a split second. The other two outlaws,

Williams and Steele, quickly joined him.

The Doctor raised his hands in the air, hoping

that the jumpy outlaws wouldn't shoot at an

unarmed man.

'Thing is, I'm a bit lost,' continued the Doctor.

In answer, each member of the Black Hand

Gang clicked off the safety catch on their guns.

The Doctor looked into the three faces of the

outlaws and saw little mercy in them. With three

guns pointed directly at him by known killers,

the Doctor realised that he was in a very perilous

situation.

'Dead lost,' said Hawkeye Kruse.

'Well this makes a nice change,' gasped Rory,

running as fast as he could.

What does?' panted Amy, who was somehow

still ahead of Rory despite his best efforts.

'Running after something,' Rory said, breathlessly.

'Usually we're running away!'

Amy felt like laughing, but with her lungs

straining for breath she found she wasn't able to.

Ahead of them, the furry-headed alien was still

just as far away from them as he had been when

they'd started this chase. Once they'd both agreed

what he really looked like, his disguise had stopped

working. He was heading out of town now, towards

the desert. The ground was uneven and rocky and

Rory nearly lost his footing. He stumbled but

managed to regain his balance.

'Come on,' Amy urged him, 'don't let him get

away.'

She had turned to make sure Rory was okay

and when she turned back to look for the alien, he

had disappeared.

'No!' she cried but then she spotted him. The

alien had clearly found the terrain as difficult as

Rory and had fallen flat on his face. Amy could see

that he was struggling to get back on his feet.

'Quick!' she urged Rory. This was their chance.

Amy and Rory ran on over the uneven ground,

closing the gap between themselves and the alien.

Rory was relieved to see that, in reality, the creature

was a small humanoid and not the four-armed giant

he'd glimpsed earlier. The alien managed to get to

his feet and set off again but he seemed to have

injured himself and was now limping. Suddenly he

skidded to a halt. Moments later Rory and Amy

saw why. They'd been climbing for a while and now

had reached the edge of a small cliff. Beyond the

alien the ground fell away rapidly into a canyon.

Amy and Rory had it cornered.

Rory and Amy slowed down as they approached

the alien. The creature turned around, raising his

arms in the universal gesture of surrender.

The time travellers were amazed to get their

first proper look at it. He had a furry face with

sharp features and small dark eyes. Although alien

there was something familiar about the face. A

moment later Rory realised what it was. The alien

looked just like a meerkat.

Rory grinned at Amy. 'Simples!' he said with a

laugh.

The Doctor looked into the eyes of Hawkeye

Kruse.

'Wait,' he said. 'Don't shoot!'

'Give me one good reason why I shouldn't?'

demanded the outlaw.

'Because if you do, you won't know for sure,

will you?' said the Doctor.

The outlaw frowned. 'Know what?'

'Whether you were a better shot than me,' said

the Doctor.

Hawkeye's two companions laughed.

'They don't call him Hawkeye for nuthin', you

idiot,' said Williams, nudging his partner in the ribs.

'Ain't no way no fancy pants from the east can

outshoot him,' agreed Steele.

The Doctor was relieved to see that they had

both holstered their weapons, leaving just Hawkeye

himself with a gun pointing at him. One is better

than three, the Doctor thought to himself.

'How about a little wager, then?' suggested the

Doctor.

'What kind of wager?' asked Hawkeye.

'A shooting competition. If I win I get to walk

away.'

The Doctor met the outlaw's gaze and waited

for a response. For a long moment, Hawkeye Kruse

considered the challenge and then he lowered his

gun and laughed.

'Why not?'

The Doctor cautiously lowered his arms. 'I'll

need to borrow a gun,' he told them, 'I don't carry

one as a rule.'

This only made Steele and Williams laugh

again. 'You don't carry a gun and you think you

can outshoot Hawkeye!' said Williams.

'Here, take my gun, sucker, for all the good it'll do

ya!' said Steele, passing his six-shooter to the Doctor.

'Throw me two of those apples you got in your

saddle bag, Harvey,' said Hawkeye.

'It's Harvard,' muttered Williams, annoyed at the

way Hawkeye never managed to get his name right.

Scowling, he went across to his horse to collect the

requested fruit. He gave one to Hawkeye and one

to the Doctor.

Without any further words, Hawkeye tossed his

apple high into the air, raised his gun and shot at

the fruit at the top of its climb into the sky. The

apple fell to earth and Steele ran forward to catch

it. He held it up for the Doctor and Hawkeye to

see; there was a ragged wound in the top of the

apple where Hawkeye's bullet had ripped off the

stalk and part of the flesh.

'Very impressive,' said the Doctor, 'but you

wouldn't want to eat that now, would you?'

The Doctor tossed his own fruit high into the

sky. His throw sent his apple even higher than

Hawkeye's had flown. The Doctor aimed his

gun and waited as the apple continued to climb,

spinning end over end into the bright blue sky.

Finally, just as gravity regained its control over the

fruit, the Doctor fired.

The apple plummeted towards the ground. The

Doctor shot out his hand and caught it. He held

the fruit out to show the outlaws. The Doctor's

bullet had passed straight through the apple from

top to bottom, removing the core and the seeds.

'Now that's what I call ready to eat,' grinned the

Doctor.

A scowl appeared on Hawkeye's face, but

before he could say or do anything, there was a

high-pitched buzz and Steele and Williams both

fell forwards and crashed heavily onto the ground.

Over by the campfire, Rovik the Cemar had a pair

of sonic blasters in his hands.

'Get down,' the Doctor warned Hawkeye,

as another blast from Rovik's advanced weapon

narrowly missed the outlaw. Both Hawkeye and

the Doctor took cover behind a rock.

Hawkeye immediately began shooting at the

meerkat-like alien.

'Why did you have to shoot them?' shouted the

Doctor angrily. 'All you had to do was take the box

while I distracted them.'

'Insurance,' answered Rovik from behind a

large cacti where he had taken cover.

'You're not taking that box,' Hawkeye

interrupted, firing in the direction of the alien.

'You see,' shouted the Doctor, 'all this could have

been avoi—' the Doctor's sentence went unfinished

as he was hit with the butt of Hawkeye's gun on

the back of his head. As darkness descended on

him, the last thing the Doctor heard was Hawkeye's

furious voice.

'Now, critter, it's your turn.'

It really was very strange, Rory decided. The little

alien, who had told them that his name was Simgi,

was just like a meerkat in his head but more or less

human in his body. His hands were paw-like and

hairy, but crucially, he had an opposable thumb

which allowed him to hold things. Right now he

was holding both hands (or paws) up to show he

meant no harm to Amy and Rory.

'You don't seem surprised to see me?' said

Simgi. 'But this is a level three planet, no? You

haven't had first contact yet.'

Amy looked at Rory with a puzzled look on her

face. Wasn't that the name of a film you wanted

me to see?'

'It's what you call it when a planet has its first

encounter with aliens,' explained Rory.

'Oh right,' said Amy. She turned back to look at

Simgi. 'We're old hands at meeting aliens,' she told

him. 'In fact we travel with one.'

'You travel with an alien?'

'Through time and space,' said Rory proudly.

The alien looked excited. 'So you have a

spaceship. A means to get off this planet?'

Amy sighed. 'Yes,' she confessed, 'we have

transport.'

'Then perhaps you can help me,' said Simgi.

'Help you? Why would we want to do that?'

demanded Rory.

'Perhaps if you let me explain, you'll understand,'

said Simgi.

The Doctor woke up with a shock and sat bolt

upright. Unlike humans regaining consciousness,

the Doctor just switched on, like a toy with new

batteries. He rubbed the back of his head and winced.

'No permanent damage,' he announced to no

one in particular, 'just a nasty bruise.'

He got to his feet, brushing dust from his

trousers and jacket.

'Oh dear, talking to myself again,' he muttered,

'that's not so good. Never mind, it helps me think

and who's going to notice. You two are still out

cold, I see.'

As he spoke the Doctor was checking on the

condition of the two members of the Black Hand

Gang that had been shot by Rovik. 'Shot in the

back, though,' commented the Doctor, 'that's not

playing fair, is it? I'll have to have words with that

Cemar. When I catch up with him.'

A quick search of the area soon told the Doctor

that Hawkeye and Rovik had both left in a hurry,

each taking one of the Gang's horses. Also missing

was the mysterious security box.

'But which of them has got the box?' wondered

the Doctor out loud as he examined the two sets of

tracks leading in different directions.

The Doctor found some rope in the saddlebag of

the remaining horse and tied the two unconscious

gang members up. He placed them back to back

either side of a tree to ensure they would be in the

shade rather than the sun.

'Don't worry, boys; I'll be back for you soon.

Or someone will. But right now I need to carry on

alone,' he told them.

'Where?' he continued as if repeating a question

that he had been asked, although neither of the

outlaws had regained consciousness, let alone

spoken. The Doctor was consulting his sonic

screwdriver.

'Well according to this, there's a pretty big power

source about five miles in that direction,' said the

Doctor, pointing. 'And since one of these tracks is

definitely going that way, I think that's where I'll

head too.'

The Doctor went back to the tree where he had

left his horse. After making sure that the horse the

alien had been riding had a chance to get a drink,

the Doctor tied it up again and mounted his own

horse.

'I'll be back for you, too,' he told the other horse

and then kicked his heels into the flanks of his ride

and set it in motion.

Simgi was explaining to Rory and Amy how he had

come to be in Mason.

'There is a weapon . . . a powerful psychic

weapon that was lost on this planet. My . . .

er . . . shipmate and I were sent to find it but I

think Rovik wants the Dream Device for himself.

He's a very dangerous Cemar.'

The three of them were walking back towards

Mason City. Amy had thought they should tie the

aliens' hands together or something but after they

tried and failed to construct handcuffs from Rory's

belt they had given up. Simgi showed no sign of

wanting to run again. In fact, since he had learned

that Amy and Rory were space and time travellers

he had been nothing but friendly and cooperative.

'So what is this weapon?' asked Rory.

'It's a device . . . a tool to enable what's in

someone's mind to become a reality. A dream

maker.'

'Was it something like that you used to change

your appearance?' wondered Amy.

The alien laughed. 'No, that was just a basic

hologram projector with a psychic filter. When I

realised where the device was I used it to scare off

those local outlaws.'

Amy was thinking. 'This hologram thing, would

your friend Rovik have one of those too?'

The alien creature bobbed his head in agreement.

'That's how he disguised himself as the local

doctor then,' Amy told Rory.

'So our Doctor's gone off with this guy's dodgy

associate, Rovik?' said Rory.

'Where would he go?' asked Amy.

'I don't know,' said Simgi, 'he's still looking for

the Dream Device.'

Rory scratched his head. 'How would he do

that? The Black Hand Gang has got the device,

and they could be anywhere.'

The alien gave the problem some thought. The

three of them were now approaching the edge of

Mason City again.

'He may have gone to the crash site,' suggested

the alien, breaking the silence.

'Why would he go there?' asked Rory.

'He could use the ship's systems to do a scan

for higher technology. He did that before. It put

every human in its range into a coma.'

'Would that happen if he tried it again?' Amy

wondered.

The alien looked grim. 'If he tried a more

powerful scan it could have a much more serious

effect,' he said.

'What kind of a more serious effect?'

'This time the humans might fall asleep and

never wake up again,' the alien answered him.

Amy and Rory exchanged looks.

'We have to prevent that from happening,' Amy

said.

'No problem,' said Rory, 'just one question -

how are we going to do that?'

Sheriff Jack Carter was hard-working, honest and

brave, but he wasn't particularly imaginative. The

things that were happening in and around Mason

City made little sense to him.

Three months back there had been talk of a

massive star falling out of the sky one night. Young

Jed Perkins, the Pony Express rider had turned up

in town dazed and confused. Jed had been found

wandering in the street with no memory of the

last forty-eight hours of his life. He had told the

sheriff that the last thing he could remember was

seeing something loud and bright falling out of

the night sky and heading for Earth.

More recently, just the other night, there had

been another mysterious light in the night sky and

a minor tremor that had rocked the good people

of Mason City from their beds. Some people

had linked the two but Carter hadn't thought it

likely. Earth tremors and earthquakes were not

that unusual. Strangers who could change their

appearance to look exactly like other people and

weapons that could knock a man unconscious

without leaving a mark were something else.

And now Jack Carter had to get his head around

something that had the body of a man but the

head of some kind of critter.

Sheriff Carter had followed the trail of the

two doctors for quite a few miles, but when they

started heading towards Dead Creek Valley he had

realised that he could cut them off by going over

the peak. It was a steep and difficult path, an old

Indian trail that few white men knew about, but

Carter knew that if he took it he could get to the

end of Dead Creek before his quarry.

Carter soon realised that he might have made

a mistake. He had discovered the old Indian trail

when he was a boy and in the years since his

exploring rock falls, vegetation and erosion had

combined to make the trail much harder than it

had been back then. Eventually he was forced to

dismount and lead his horse on foot.

Once over the peak however, the path improved

and he had soon made his way back down to the

rocky plain. Back on his horse he had hurried to

ride to the end of Dead Creek Valley.

After a short while he saw the tell-tale sign of

a dust cloud ahead of him - another rider. Carter

had urged his horse on and that's when he had

the shock of his life. From the back the rider had

looked like a man but, as Carter rode closer, he

could see that there was something wrong with the

horseman's head. It was small, and furry and when

it turned to look at him Carter saw large black eyes

and a whiskery snout. A small mouth full of sharp

teeth snarled at him.

The sheriff was so shocked at this sight that he

didn't notice that the creature had pulled a strange-

looking gun from his hip holster.

The creature fired but missed. Carter returned

fire. Whoever - or whatever — the creature was, it

was clear that he wasn't a natural horseman. The

shots spooked his horse and he was unable to

control it. The horse bucked and reared and threw

its rider up into the air.

The creature bounced onto the dusty surface

but instantly got to his feet and fired at the sheriff

again. The energy bolt hit the sheriff's horse which

collapsed, hurling the sheriff forward. Unlike the

alien, the sheriff landed badly and was knocked

unconscious as soon as his head hit the ground.

Rovik, the Cemar, holstered his blaster and

went to check on the sheriff. He was unconscious

but didn't appear to have broken any bones. His

horse was also out cold but similarly uninjured

otherwise. Rovik's own horse had scampered off

and was nowhere to be seen. Rovik sighed. Now

his only option was to wait for the sheriff's horse

to regain consciousness or start walking.

Rovik sniffed the wind. The spaceship wasn't too

far away. The sooner he got to the ship, the sooner

he would get his hands on the missing Dream

Device. Rovik sighed again, heavily. There was

nothing for it, he realised, he would have to walk.

The Doctor knew that he was almost at the crash

site long before he saw the remains of the ship.

The air was full of the smell of burning oil and hot

metal. Even though at least forty-eight hours had

passed since the crash, there was still a lot of heat

coming from the crumpled metal of the spaceship.

There was a long furrow in the red-brown dusty

soil where the ship had made first contact and had

skidded, out of control, before crashing into the

solid rock of a cliff face.

The Doctor jumped off his horse, tied it to a

nearby tree and continued on foot. The spaceship

was of a design that was unfamiliar to him but he

had seen similar vehicles. It was the space-going

version of an articulated lorry; an unglamorous

workhorse of a machine, designed to do a job

rather than to look good.

The Doctor could see that it was a sturdy craft.

Despite the crash he could see that a lot of the

main deck was intact. He headed for the nearest

airlock, confident that the sonic screwdriver would

get him in. That was the easy part. Once inside

he would have to find and stop the Cemar, Rovik.

That might prove to be a much harder task.

The Doctor approached the airlock and flicked

the switch to activate his sonic screwdriver. As soon

as he did, he realised that he had underestimated

his opponent. Blue lightning jumped from the

airlock control to his screwdriver and then up

his arm, sending an agonising electrical charge

through his body. For the third time that day, the

Doctor found himself blacking out. With a dull

thud his unconscious body hit the dusty ground,

followed a moment later by his sonic screwdriver,

which bounced once and then lay still, close to the

Doctor's unmoving hand.

Lizzie Piper looked at the alien with an expression

halfway between disgust and suspicion.

'Are you sure we can trust this critter?' she

asked, voicing her doubts.

Amy and Rory had returned to the sheriff's

office with Simgi but had only found Lizzie waiting

for them there. There had been no word from the

sheriff since he had ridden out to find the Doctor

and in his absence Lizzie didn't want to take any

chances.

'We trust him,' said Amy, looking at Rory, 'don't

we?'

Rory didn't look as confident as Amy. 'Yes, I

think so.'

Lizzie looked at the alien again. His furry face

made him look like innocent and cute, but she

remembered how his fellow Cemar had attacked

the sheriff.

'I think I'd feel happier if he were under lock

and key,' she said.

Simgi agreed to be locked in the cell at the

sheriff's office, while Amy and Rory went to stop

Rovik. Lizzie found a local map in the sheriff's

desk drawer and their helpful prisoner showed

them the crash site.

'At the foot of the mountains,' Lizzie said, 'that

shouldn't be too hard to find.'

Nic found the time travellers a pair of fresh

horses. Amy and Rory mounted them and moved

off. Amy went at a gallop, she enjoyed horse riding,

but Rory was much less confident and insisted that

they slowed down.

'We have to get there before that alien tries

another scan,' she reminded him.

Rory nodded and steeled himself. 'Okay,' he

muttered, 'what's the worst that can happen?' With

that he kicked hard and his horse shot forward.

'Arrgh!' screamed Rory as his horse accelerated

into a full gallop. Lying as low in the saddle as he

could, Rory gripped on with his hands, his knuckles

turning white with the effort.

Amy couldn't help but laugh at the sight. She

urged her horse to hurry after her husband's.

As their ride went on, however, Rory slowly

began to get the hang of horse riding. He started to

relax, but then he saw some smoke on the horizon

and he called out to Amy to slow down.

It quickly became clear that they were

approaching a camp site. The smoke was rising

from the remains of a small campfire. As they got

closer they could see two figures tied up against a

tree. For a horrible moment, Amy thought it was

the Doctor and the sheriff but it wasn't.

'It's the bandits,' exclaimed Rory, dismounting.

On foot, he stepped closer to check that they were

unconscious. 'They've been tied up.'

He turned to look at Amy. 'What happened

here?' he wondered.

Amy had also climbed down from her horse

and was picking up an object from the ground. She

threw it to Rory who caught it in one hand and

took a closer look.

'An apple?'

Amy nodded. 'And it looks like someone has

shot out the core with a bullet. You know this

smells of Doctor to me ...'

'You think? Rory looked around. 'Pair of bad

guys tied up, apple cored the hard way . . . Must be

the Doctor.'

'There were three members of the gang,'

remembered Amy, 'so where's the third?'

'More to the point,' wondered Rory, 'where's

the Doctor?'

The Doctor twitched and sat up, regaining

consciousness in an instant as usual.

'I've really got to stop doing that,' he muttered

as he retrieved his sonic screwdriver and got to his

feet. 'And I must stop talking to myself as well.'

Gingerly, he used the sonic screwdriver to

check the airlock. To his delight he found that the

protective charge that had knocked him out had

been a one-off deterrent and that he was now able

to use his sonic screwdriver to open the outer door

without risking a second attack. Once inside the

airlock it took a matter of seconds to crack the

digital code on the inner door and moments later

the Doctor was walking into the ship itself.

It was dark inside the spaceship. The main

power systems were off so there were no lights,

and the air-conditioning and life-support systems

were also off. The air was stale and warm.

Emergency LEDs marked the floor and points on

the walls, giving just enough light for the Doctor

to see where he was going. The floor sloped gently,

the only evidence of the emergency nature of the

landing. In this section of the ship there was no

structural damage. The Doctor wondered how

badly damaged the ship really was. Perhaps, with

his help, it could be made space-worthy again.

The Doctor began to explore. It was a huge

spaceship, capable of carrying massive cargoes

and it had a hold that contained half a dozen large

warehouse-sized store rooms. A central corridor

linked all the storage spaces. It was this main artery

that the Doctor was carefully making his way along

when he heard a noise that made him freeze.

It was a mechanical whirring noise; like a

machine turning itself on.

The Doctor waited.

There was a low rumbling sound and something

large rolled into sight between the Doctor and the

lift shafts at the end of the corridor.

Suddenly a bright blue light flashed in the

Doctor's face. A pale blue line of laser light passed

over his body from head to toe and a second later,

an artificial voice addressed him.

'Unauthorised entity in secure area. Identify

yourself.'

The Doctor could now see that the large object

was a security robot. It must have been activated

by his presence in the ship. With its own built-in

power source, the robot had been lying dormant

until the Doctor had woken it.

'I'm the Doctor,' the Doctor began to explain,

hoping that the robot wasn't armed in any way.

'Designation 'The Doctor' is not authorised.

Please do not resist. Stun level three has been

selected for your health and safety.'

A built-in stun gun emerged from the body of

the robot. The Doctor dived to his left, through

the doors into one of the storage rooms. A bolt of

orange energy fizzled through the space where he

had been standing just a split second before.

'Stun level four selected. Be advised some life

forms have experienced severe discomfort and

other side effects at this level. Cooperation is a

safer option.'

What a considerate robot, thought the Doctor,

as he looked around for a hiding place. If only

some of my other enemies were so thoughtful.

He grinned at the thought of a Dalek making

polite conversation and quickly began to climb a

mountain of packing cases.

The bulky robot rolled through the door and

fired a second blast of energy at the Doctor. The

Time Lord began moving around the pile of boxes,

trying to make sure that none of the robot's shots

could hit him.

Unable to climb, the robot had to move around

the base of the pile of boxes in order to find a

better angle.

'Resistance is ill-advised,' the robot announced.

'You have triggered a security alert. Unauthorised

access is prohibited. Your personal safety and long-

term health cannot be guaranteed by this unit if

you continue your behaviour.'

Now nearing the top of the mountain of boxes,

the Doctor was amused by this latest statement. It

really was one of the oddest security robots he had

ever come across. He leant on a box to consider his

next move and was shocked to feel the box move.

It was heavy but not as heavy as he had thought.

The robot was now directly below him. Its stun

blaster fired a shot but the Doctor ducked behind

the box and evaded it. Suddenly the Doctor had an

idea. He pushed at the box that had moved for him

before. It was tough and for a nasty moment the

Doctor thought he might lose his footing and fall,

but eventually the box gave way and it fell straight

down onto the robot.

The robot smashed into pieces as did the

box. The contents spilled out over the floor. The

Doctor hurriedly climbed down the pile of boxes

to examine the cargo more carefully. He picked up

one of the objects and pulled a face. It was a gun.

A hi-tech, advanced blaster gun.

This spaceship was being used to transport

weapons! The Cemar had told him a lie. He

wondered what other parts of his story the alien

had made up.

The Doctor looked around the storeroom

and made a quick mental calculation. If the

other storerooms all had the same cargo then

this spaceship was carrying enough advanced

weaponry to start a total space war!

Like the Doctor before them, Amy and Rory could

smell the crashed ship before they saw it.

'It's big,' said Rory when it finally came into

view.

'Yeah,' Amy agreed, 'really big for just two

Cemars, don't you think?'

'You reckon there could be more of them?'

asked Rory.

Amy shrugged. 'I don't know, but something

about this doesn't add up. I think that Simgi might

not have told us exactly the whole truth.'

'Good job he's safely locked up then,' said Rory.

Amy pulled a face. 'I just hope he's still in there

when we get back. Come on . . .'

Amy had spotted an open airlock. Rory quickly

tied up their horses and hurried after his wife. She

waved a hand at him to stop.

Frozen in her tracks, Amy turned and whispered

to Rory. 'I think I saw something move.'

Putting a finger to her lips, Amy turned back

and crept silently towards the airlock door. Rory

moved around to approach the door from a

slightly different angle. Together, Rory and Amy

edged closer to the airlock.

They were now positioned either side of the

open door.

Amy looked at Rory and held up three fingers.

Rory counted in his head: one, two, three.

On three they both looked into the doorway.

'Ponds! Brilliant!' said the Doctor, 'I thought I

heard your voices.'

The Doctor gave both of his companions a

quick hug and they quickly compared notes about

everything that had happened to them since they

had last seen each other.

The Doctor listened carefully to Amy and

Rory's account of being made deputies and how

they had found the alien Simgi. Amy told the

Doctor that the alien was safely locked up in the

sheriff's cell. Rory told him about the Black Hand

Gang returning and getting away with the safe

deposit box.

'I ran into them a little after that,' the Doctor

confessed. 'Managed to capture two of them.'

Rory told the Doctor that they'd found his

handiwork. The Doctor wondered if they had seen

any sign of the third member of the gang. Rory and

Amy shook their heads.

'I think it must be the last member of the Black

Hand Gang that has the box then,' concluded the

Doctor. 'He must have taken it back to their base

of operations, wherever that is.'

'So is your meerkat alien here, then?' asked

Amy.

'They're called Cemars,' the Doctor corrected

her, 'but now that you mention it, I suppose they

do look a bit like meerkats.'

Amy and Rory exchanged an amused look

— how could the Doctor not have noticed the

resemblance?

'I didn't find a horse,' the Doctor told them, 'so

I don't know if the Cemar is here yet or not.'

'We'll know soon enough if he tries another of

those scans,' Rory pointed out. 'It'll put us all in a

coma.'

'Time for action, then,' announced the Doctor

leading the way back into the ship, 'come on. I

knew you'd manage to get here eventually, what

kept you?'

'Do you have a plan?' wondered Amy.

'Working on it,' confessed the Doctor. 'First

job, find the flight deck. And make sure there are

no more coma-inducing scans.'

Seconds after the Doctor, Amy and Rory entered

the spaceship, the alien Rovik emerged from his

hiding place behind a rocky outcrop. After losing

his horse in his encounter with the sheriff he had

completed his journey on foot. As he had reached

the site of the crash, he had heard the sound of

galloping horses and had taken cover. He had

watched as Amy and Rory had approached the open

airlock and, carefully, moved closer to listen to their

conversation when the Doctor had emerged. He

quickly learned that his fellow Cemar was a prisoner

back in Mason City and that one of the Black Hand

Gang had the safe deposit box they both desired.

Now he ran up to the ship himself. He ran past

the airlock and headed to the crumpled front of

the ship. There was a quicker way to get to the

flight deck than the route the humans had taken.

Rovik knew that if he moved swiftly he could get

to the systems he needed first.

'Step carefully,' the Doctor warned Rory and Amy,

as they made their way through the darkened

spaceship.

'Can't you do something clever with the sonic

screwdriver and turn the lights on?' Rory asked

hopefully

'Don't you think he would if he could?' Amy

replied but the instant she finished speaking all the

lights came on.

'Oh,' she said, surprised. 'I'll take that back

then. Well done, Doctor.'

The Doctor glanced round at her and shook

his head from side to side, a glum expression on

his face.

'That wasn't me I'm afraid,' he told her. 'Which

means Rovik must be on the flight deck.'

The Doctor ran down the corridor. Amy and

Rory hurried after him. At the end of the now

brightly lit passageway there were two lift shafts.

The Doctor jabbed at the call button.

On the flight deck of the crashed ship Rovik

was busy. Getting the power back online had just

been his first move but now he had to get the

psychometric scanner warmed up. He noticed with

some alarm that the fuel cells had been leaking.

He wouldn't have long on full power before the

batteries failed. He had to locate that safe deposit

box before it was too late.

As he flicked switches and waited for dormant

computer systems to come online he was

disturbed by a bleep from behind. The lift from

the lower levels. How very foolish of the humans

to announce themselves so obviously.

Rovik diverted some power from the scanning

systems to activate the flight deck security bot.

The powerfully built metallic figure jerked into life

from its docking station at the back of the room

and took a step forward on its thick, hydraulically

powered legs.

'Incoming hostiles,' Rovik told the robot. 'Lift

shaft one.'

The robot creature turned around and placed

itself directly in front of the lift. The lift controls

pinged as the lift cage came to rest behind the

sliding doors.

The security robot extended its stun weapon

and prepared to take aim.

Rovik couldn't help but turn to see the action

unfold.

The twin metallic doors of the lift slid open to

reveal . . . Rovik frowned. That wasn't right. The

lift cage was completely empty!

Before either the robot or Rovik could react,

a door on the far side of the room burst open

and the Doctor appeared, brandishing his sonic

screwdriver. With a little spark the robot's stun

weapon exploded. The robot's head pitched

forward and it fell. The lift doors tried to close

but found their path blocked by the robot's head.

The Doctor took pity on it and, with another

adjustment to the sonic screwdriver, he made the

lift doors stop moving.

'Doctor, quick!' shouted Rory. He and Amy

had followed the Doctor up the emergency stairs,

but while everyone else had been distracted by the

security robot, Rory had noticed Rovik turning

back to his controls.

'Too late, Doctor,' called Rovik. 'I'm starting

the scan now.'

'No,' shouted the Doctor. Rory, surprising

himself as much as Rovik, jumped at the alien and

wrestled him away from the controls. The two

figures fell on the floor. Rory found that although

he had just about accepted the meerkat-headed

aliens from a distance it was very different in

close proximity. There was an animal smell to the

creature, like a rabbit cage, that made Rory want

to gag. Taking advantage of Rory's hesitation, the

alien darted his head forward and snapped its little

mouth on Rory's nose.

'Ow!' shouted Rory. 'It's bit my nose,'

'When did you last get a tetanus jab?' asked

Amy, as she tried to pull the alien off. Between

them they managed to dislodge Rovik's grip on

Rory and Amy found herself throwing the alien,

who was lighter than he looked, against the wall.

Meanwhile the Doctor looked at the controls

that Rovik had been operating. His eyes quickly

skimmed over the read-outs and screens and then

he pointed his sonic screwdriver at the panel of

instruments and hit a sequence of buttons. An

alarm warning sounded, a warning light flashed

and then the entire control panel exploded in a

dozen locations as the scan equipment shut down

for good.

The Doctor turned to smile at his companions.

'See, I told you I'd have a plan,' he said.

'Doctor!' chorused Amy and Rory together,

both alarmed.

'It's okay,' said the Doctor spreading his arms

wide, 'no need for any over-the-top congratulations.

A polite 'well done' might be in order.'

'Fire!' spluttered Rory.

'What?'

'You've started a fire!' explained Amy.

The Doctor twisted his head around to look

behind him, then looked back at Amy and Rory

open-mouthed.

'Fire!' he repeated.

Behind his back, flames were now pouring out

of the instruments that he had destroyed.

'That hardly ever happens,' the Doctor

complained.

Rory saw something that looked like a fire

extinguisher and threw it to the Doctor who

turned and unleashed a stream of foam at the

flames. For a moment it looked as if it might have

the desired effect, but then the flames jumped to

the next console and within seconds the entire

control panel was on fire.

Black smoke began to fill the air.

'We need to get out of here,' coughed Amy.

'Where's Rovik?' asked Rory.

They all looked across to where the alien had

been lying. He wasn't there.

'He must have been pretending,' said Amy.

'So where is he now?' wondered the Doctor.

As if in answer to his question a second loud

siren began to sound.

'Fire alarm?' suggested Rory.

The Doctor shook his head. 'Had that one

already. This is worse than that, I think.'

The new alarm sound faded to allow a

mechanical voice to make an announcement.

'Emergency Self-Destruct Protocol is Operative.

This spacecraft will destruct in twenty Rogs.'

Amy and Rory looked at the Doctor in alarm.

'Self-destruct?!' said Rory.

'Twenty Rogs?' asked Amy.

The Doctor looked pale. 'About fifteen

minutes,' he told them. 'Give or take.'

The Doctor pushed Amy and Rory towards the

lifts.

'Wouldn't it be safer taking the emergency stairs

we used before?' asked Rory.

The Doctor jerked his head towards the

stairwell. 'I don't think so.'

Amy and Rory looked in the direction he had

indicated and saw that one of the security robots

was blocking the way.

'I don't think Rovik wants us to get out,' said

the Doctor, using his sonic screwdriver to open

the lift.

The three time travellers bundled into the cage

and Amy jabbed a thumb at the control to close

the doors. As the twin doors slid towards each

other they could see flames and smoke engulfing

the flight deck. The lift began to descend.

'Emergency Self-Destruct Protocol is

operative,' repeated the artificial voice through

the lift's loud speaker system. 'This spaceship will

destruct in fifteen Rogs.'

Amy looked at the Doctor, her eyes wide.

'Five Rogs went quickly, didn't they?' she

pointed out.

The Doctor looked a little apologetic. 'I may

have got the conversion wrong,' he confessed. 'I

thought a Rog was about fifty seconds. Maybe it

was fifteen.'

Suddenly the lift juddered to a complete stop

and the lights went out. They were all thrown to

the floor.

'Oh, that's so not good,' muttered Rory. 'Less

than four minutes to get out of a spaceship that's

about to self-destruct and we get stuck in a lift!'

The Doctor was already scanning the lift with

his sonic screwdriver. He quickly identified an

access panel in the roof of the lift cage.

'Give me a boost up,' he said.

Rory cupped his hands together and the

Doctor placed a foot in them. With Amy's help,

Rory pushed the Doctor up into the air. Having

released the clamps that held it in place with the

sonic screwdriver, the Doctor was able to push

back the access panel and haul himself onto the

roof of the lift.

'Aren't you going to pull us up?' asked Amy

after a moment.

'No,' the Doctor replied.

'Aren't we going to climb up the lift shaft?'

asked Rory.

'No.'

Amy and Rory exchanged puzzled looks. 'What

are you doing up there then?' demanded Amy.

'Cutting the cable,' the Doctor answered

cheerfully and they felt the lift cage wobble and

shake as the Doctor continued to operate the sonic

screwdriver above them.

Rory looked at Amy, not sure he had heard

correctly.

'Cutting the cable?' he repeated.

'Yes.'

'The cable holding the lift?'

'That's the one.'

The Doctor dropped back down into the lift.

'Last cable's hanging by a thread now,' he told

them. 'Hold on. One good jump and it'll snap.'

Amy grabbed Rory's hand.

'Doctor, do you know what you're doing?' she

asked.

The Doctor scratched his chin. 'Well, it should

work in theory. Ready?' Without waiting for

an answer he jumped high in the air and landed

heavily with both boots on the floor.

'Geronimo!' he shouted as the cable above

them snapped and the lift cage plummeted down

the shaft, out of control.

Suddenly and unexpectedly the lift slowed

down and then, with only a slight bump, it came

to a halt. Amy and Rory picked themselves up off

the floor, noting that the Doctor, somehow, had

managed to stay on his feet.

The Doctor pressed the door control but the

doors only opened a few centimetres and stopped.

'Give me a hand, Rory?' asked the Doctor and

he pulled at the doors. Rory pulled the door in the

other direction. Slowly they moved apart.

'Doctor, why weren't we squished?' Amy

wondered.

'Emergency anti-gravity field,' said the Doctor.

'But the ship's life-support is off, how did you

know that the lift's emergency systems would be

working?'

The Doctor grinned at her. 'I didn't. But I

guessed the lift would have its own independent

safety routines.'

'Guessed?!' echoed Rory as they managed,

finally, to get the doors open wide enough for

them to get out.

The Doctor was already through the doors

and running. 'Come on, no time to chat,' he called

back. Amy and Rory set off after him.

'Always running,' muttered Rory.

Wouldn't have it any other way, would we?' said

Amy grabbing his hand.

They quickly caught up with the Doctor who led

them out through the storage areas he'd explored

earlier. They piled into the airlock but found that

the outer doors were locked closed.

'Warning,' said the automated voice, 'this ship

will self-destruct in five Rogs!'

The Doctor was busy with his sonic screw-

driver but didn't appear to be having much luck.

'I don't believe it,' he muttered. 'Rovik's

scrambled the lock codes.'

'Can't you decode it?' demanded Rory.

'Not in time.' The Doctor slapped his head.

'Come on, think Doctor, there's something staring

you in the face.'

Amy and Rory looked at each other. They had

seen the Doctor like this before. He was trying to

remember something that he had seen; something

that could help.

'Flight deck, lift, passageway, storage bays . . t h e

Doctor muttered as he racked his brains. 'Storage

bays!' he exclaimed suddenly. He rushed back into

the ship. Shrugging their shoulders, Amy and Rory

ran back after him.

'Storage bays,' the Doctor shouted over his

shoulder, 'packed to the ceiling with massive

crates.'

'And?' asked Amy.

'And there are no doors large enough for those

crates. So how did they get there?' said the Doctor,

disappearing into the first storage bay.

'Some sort of crane?' wondered Rory, trying to

answer the Doctor's question.

'Do you see trap doors in the ceiling? No, not

cranes. They used this,' said the Doctor pointing

to a large platform at the back of the room.

'Looks like some kind of open-sided lift,' said

Rory.

'Matter transporter,' said the Doctor.

'You mean like a 'beam me up' sort of matter

transporter?' said Amy.

The Doctor was examining the controls and

making adjustments with his sonic screwdriver.

'Only thing is, this is set for cargo - things not

living people. I'll have to reprogramme it. Get on

the platform.'

Amy and Rory got onto the metallic platform

and watched as the Doctor worked frantically to

make the necessary changes.

'Self-destruct in three Rogs,' announced the

automated voice.

Rory squeezed Amy's hand. 'Come on, Doctor,'

he whispered.

'Yeah, don't feel you have to leave it to the last

second or anything,' added Amy.

'Or the last Rog come to that,' joked Rory.

'There that should do it,' said the Doctor,

jumping on to the platform next to his companions.

'I've set it for a short distance but I couldn't be too

precise. Be ready for anything.'

Rory felt a wave of coldness pass over his feet

and up his body. Looking down he saw that his

lower body was fading away.

He looked at Amy and saw that she was fading

too.

A moment later all three time travellers had

disappeared.

And then, as threatened, the spaceship

exploded.

Rovik, the alien Cemar, had stolen one of the

Doctor's companion's horses and was now

riding at top speed towards Mason City, laughing

The loss of the ship, and its cargo of weapons,

was an expensive one but once he had control of

the device secured inside the safe deposit box he

knew he would have the riches to buy a dozen

spacecraft. With the mysterious Doctor and his

companions hopefully lost in the explosion, Rovik

was confident that he would be able to locate and

use the Doctor's own spaceship, to make good his

escape from this backward planet.

The scan had been shut down by the Doctor

almost as soon as it began, but there had been

enough time for the systems to locate the safe

deposit box by its energy signal. Rovik now knew

exactly where it was and soon he would take steps

to regain possession of it. First, however, there

was the small matter of Simgi to be dealt with.

The side-effect of the scan would, he knew, have

been the same as before; all the humans within

a ten mile radius would be unconscious, giving

him the opportunity to act without fear of any

complication. The only unknown was how long

the humans would be out cold. The scan had only

been operating for a few seconds so the humans

were unlikely to be asleep for as long this time.

Once outside the spaceship, Rovik had quickly

found where the Doctor's friends had tied up

their horse and borrowed one for his own use. A

trail of dust showed his progress as he drove his

horse on relentlessly. Soon he would meet up with

Simgi again and then, finally, his business on this

miserable planet would be concluded.

Rory, Amy and the Doctor materialised together.

They were some distance from the spaceship,

which was probably a good thing, as the instant

they became solid again the alien craft exploded.

Unfortunately, in trying to make sure they didn't

materialise in a rock, the Doctor had elevated their

point of arrival and they found themselves in mid-

air, a metre or so above the ground. The exploding

spaceship sent a series of powerful shockwaves

through the air, which made the newly materialised

trio spin like rag dolls in a hurricane.

Finally, with a thump that seemed to Rory to be

as loud as the explosion itself, the three of them

hit the dusty ground. An enormous cloud of dust

covered them, causing Rory and Amy to collapse

coughing. When the dust settled Rory saw that Amy

had landed close to him. She seemed unnaturally

still, and for a split second Rory feared that she

had broken something but then she coughed and

turned herself over. A quick examination showed

that although they were both bruised neither of

them had broken any bones. The Doctor was

already on his feet, brushing dust from his jacket

absent-mindedly while looking back at the crash

site.

Although there was still an enormous black

cloud of smoke and dust above the site, there was

now no sign at all of the spaceship itself.

Rory and Amy came up to stand next to the

Doctor.

'No, we're fine, really,' said Rory, 'don't worry

about us.'

'Okay, Ponds, I won't,' said the Doctor cheerfully,

still looking at the space where the spaceship had

been.

'How could it just vanish like that?' asked Amy.

'There's nothing left of it!'

'It was a ship used for smuggling,' explained the

Doctor. 'They must have rigged it with a fission

particle disrupter self-destruct. Common trick for

smugglers. If they're in danger of being caught

they just destroy the evidence.'

'The Cemar are smugglers?' asked Amy. 'I

thought Simgi said they'd been sent to find a stolen

device.'

'That's what Rovik told me,' the Doctor told

her, 'but I think both our Cemar friends have been

spinning us a tale and it's about time we got to the

truth.'

'And how are we going to do that?' wondered

Amy.

The Doctor turned around and put one arm

round each of them. 'By heading back to Mason

City and having it out with our Cemar friends.'

'What makes you think Rovik will be going to

Mason City?' asked Rory. 'Isn't he after the missing

safe deposit box?'

The Doctor nodded. 'In the end, yes. But I

suspect he will want to go and get your Cemar,

Simgi, out of jail first.'

'But I thought they were enemies?' said Amy.

'That's what they wanted us to think,' explained

the Doctor. 'Now where are your horses?'

The time travellers quickly discovered that one

of the two horses that Amy and Rory had arrived

on had been stolen by Rovik, so it was decided that

they would have to share the remaining one. The

Doctor retrieved his own horse and they set off in

the direction of Mason City.

As they rode Amy couldn't help smiling. There

was something rather romantic about sharing a

horse with her husband, galloping across the open

plains of Nevada under a bright blue sky. If it

wasn't for the fact that there were dangerous gun-

smuggling aliens to be dealt with, she could almost

imagine they were on holiday. She remembered

that this trip was meant to be a treat for Rory.

'How are you enjoying your treat, cowboy?' she

asked him as they rode behind the Doctor.

'My real-life Wild West adventure experience?'

Rory asked.

'Yes,' said Amy. 'Is it what you hoped for?'

'Alien monsters with four arms that turn out to

be meerkats with weapons, saloon owners holding

guns to my head, getting trapped in a spaceship

that is about to self-destruct . . .' Rory trailed off

and considered for a beat. 'What's not to love?'

As Rovik expected when he approached Mason City

every human he met was sound asleep, fallen to the

ground wherever they had been when the scanning

signal had reached their brain. The scan had acted

on their primitive minds like an off switch and,

deprived of their auto-pilots, the human bodies had

just closed down.

Rovik slowed down as he reached Main Street,

just in case any of the locals had managed to shield

themselves, but he needn't have worried. Every

citizen of Mason City had fallen into a temporary

coma.

The only problem Rovik had was an encounter

with a handful of unattended horses that

stampeded down the street, out of control. The

galloping horses spooked his own animal and

he had been thrown out of the saddle. For one

horrible moment he thought he might be crushed

under the horses' hooves but they ran on, leaving

him alone.

Getting to his feet, Rovik walked towards the

sheriff's office. On the way he passed some familiar

faces; Lizzie the saloon owner and her son Nic,

asleep in the twin rocking chairs that stood in the

porch of the sheriff's office. Rovik pushed at the

door and walked inside.

Beyond the bars of the cell he could see Simgi

lying on the bunk. At the sound of the door Simgi

got to his feet and crossed to the bars to see who

his visitor was.

'You took your time,' he complained as Rovik

stepped closer.

Rovik stopped and looked his shipmate in the

eye. 'You let yourself be locked up?' he asked.

'It seemed like a good idea at the time. I knew

you'd handle them,' replied Simgi.

Rovik grinned. 'Thanks for the vote of

confidence,' he said. 'I think splitting up hasn't

worked for us, has it? We work better as a team.

We should stick together. Deal?'

Simgi just looked at him. 'No more fighting

between ourselves?'

Rovik nodded.

'Then it's a deal,' declared Simgi. 'So, have you

located the safe deposit box?'

'The human criminal has taken it to somewhere

called Lone Pine Mine . . .' Rovik told him, 'it

should be simple to go and collect it.'

Simgi smiled. 'Then what are we waiting for?

Let me out.'

The Doctor, Amy and Rory had reached the edge

of Mason City. Like the first time they had arrived,

the population was all asleep.

'Guess this time they were out and about when

the scan happened,' said Rory, as they rode into

town and saw sleeping bodies everywhere.

'So why are we still awake?' wondered Amy.

'You were in the control centre when the signal

was set off,' the Doctor reminded her. 'It's shielded

so you escaped all the side effects.'

They found a place to tie up their horses and

walked towards the sheriff's office.

'Stop right there,' said a familiar voice.

One of the Cemars stepped out into the road.

The Doctor waved at Amy and Rory to stand

aside. The Cemar and the Doctor squared up to

each other like gunfighters in a film. Both flexed

their right hands near their hips.

'They're going to have a shoot-out,' gasped

Amy.

Rory nodded, 'High noon.'

The Doctor and the Cemar were circling now,

their eyes fixed on each other.

'You don't have to do this,' said the Doctor. 'I

can help you

'You just want the Device, like everyone else.

No deal, Doctor,' replied Rovik.

Rory took a step closer to Amy and put a hand

on her shoulder.

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE ALIEN

'The Doctor's not even armed,' she whispered.

Rory shook his head. 'There's always the - urgh.'

Rory's sentence went unfinished as something heavy

connected with the back of his head. Amy whirled

around and started to scream but Rory's attacker held

a damp handkerchief over her mouth. As soon as

she breathed in the fumes, Amy lost consciousness

and fell to the ground.

The Doctor had his back to all this as his gaze

was fixed on Rovik. Rovik went for his blaster.

He snatched the weapon with his right hand and

brought it up to point at the Doctor. His finger

squeezed the trigger but the Doctor had grabbed

his own 'weapon'. The sonic screwdriver was

in his hand and activating, even as the Cemar

triggered his blaster. A green light glowed at the

end of the sonic screwdriver sending a wave of

concentrated sound through the air, countering

the energy blast and sending an echo back. The

Cemar's blaster exploded in his hand, knocking

Rovik to the ground.

The Doctor twirled the sonic screwdriver in the

air, caught it and blew imaginary smoke from the

end of it. His triumph was short-lived however as

he was hit by a stun blast in the back.

'Time to stop playing games,' said Simgi,

holstering his stun weapon and helping his fellow

Cemar to his feet. 'Now, let's get to that mine and

finish this for good.'

Hawkeye Kruse shivered and edged closer to the

fire he had made. The wooden shaft supports

of the old mine creaked and groaned as the

flickering flames cast shadows across his grizzled

and dirty face.

For the first time in his adult life he had no idea

what to do. He had escaped from the encounter

with the Doctor and managed to take the safe

deposit box with him. Riding hard, he had headed

here to the Lone Pine Silver Mine. Like many

similar enterprises the mine was a series of partly

completed tunnels that had been dug and mined,

without much success, over a number of years.

The owner of the Lone Pine Mine was a

prospector who had given so much time, money

and energy into the search for silver that he had

eventually lost everything. The only thing he had

left was the mine itself and that was just a useless

collection of holes in the ground. Hawkeye Kruse

knew all about it. He had been the prospector.

Lured to the west from his upbringing in the

Carolinas, Kruse had started out honest. Life out

west was hard on a man, though. Digging deep

into solid rock on the off chance of finding a

fortune had hardened his heart. When he had lost

everything, turning to thieving had seemed like the

only option he had. Kruse had formed the Black

Hand Gang himself and they used the mine as a

hideout and base between their raids. As a rule they

had kept their activities to neighbouring states but,

recently, they had been forced to strike closer to

home.

Hawkeye looked at the box that was now all

they had to show for the raid on Mason City. Some

instinct told him that whatever was inside was

more valuable than anything he could dream of.

The same instinct made him sure that whatever it

was, it was very dangerous as well as valuable. Not

for the first time in the last few hours, Hawkeye

picked up the box and weighed it in his hands.

Should he try and open it? Or should he wait and

see if the others would join him? Unsure of the

answers to any of his questions, he placed the box

back on the rocky floor of the tunnels and waited.

As Amy found herself regaining consciousness,

she felt her legs banging rhythmically against

something warm and furry. She opened her eyes

and found that her hands were tied to the reins of

a horse. More rope secured her to the saddle. The

horse was attached to another, on which the two

Cemars sat. One of the creatures looked over and

saw that she was awake.

'It's all right, human,' he told her, 'nearly there.'

Amy tried to work out which Cemar it was.

With them both in front of her she realised how

very similar they were. They each had the same

meerkat features; a snub black nose and tiny dark

eyes surrounded by light fur that made them

looked surprised all the time. She compared their

faces, trying to ascertain which one was Simgi and

then, when she realised what she was doing, she

began to giggle.

The Cemar in front turned and glared at her.

'What is funny?' he demanded.

By now Amy's giggle had turned into full-blown

laughter and was in danger of becoming hysterical.

'Nothing,' she insisted.

The Cemars exchanged looks. They clearly

didn't like being laughed at.

'What is it?' the one who had spoken first asked.

Tears were now running down Amy's face as

she continued to laugh and giggle, uncontrollably.

'It's just that I'm, er, comparing the meerkats,'

she said, finally, as her laughter subsided.

'We're here,' said the first Cemar, sternly.

'Perhaps now you'll be less amused.'

Amy could see that they had arrived at the

foot of some large hills. In front of them was the

entrance to a dark tunnel. A wooden sign above

the entrance read 'Lone Pine Silver Mine' but it

didn't look very professional. Another sign stuck

into the ground nearby warned visitors to "Keep

Out".

The entrance itself was quite wide and some

metal tracks could be seen disappearing into the

darkness. A small metal-wheeled truck, clearly

designed to run on the tracks, lay on its side nearby.

Amy realised that she was looking at an abandoned

mine. A nasty thought occurred to her. She had

a terrible feeling that she was about to be taken

inside the mine.

The Cemars dismounted and then got Amy

down from her horse. They kept her hands tied

and pushed her towards the mine entrance.

'Is it safe in there?' she asked.

The Cemars looked at each other. 'I doubt it,'

said one.

The other took a look into the tunnel. 'Looks

highly dangerous to me,' he decided.

'That's why we are staying here and you are

going in.' said the first alien.

'I thought you wanted me as a hostage,' said

Amy.

'Hostage?! No, we want you to do a job for

us,' said the second alien, who Amy was now

fairly sure was Simgi. 'Somewhere in that mine is

a frightened outlaw and our safe deposit box. We

want that box. You go and get it without getting

yourself shot at by the outlaw and we'll let you go.

That's a promise.'

Amy looked into the darkness and then back at

the two aliens. Simgi had his blaster in his hands

and was pointing it at her. His meaning was clear.

'Right then,' said Amy. 'I can see that I don't

have much choice.' She held her hands out. 'Can

you at least free my hands? I might fall in there.'

Simgi nodded at Rovik who stepped forward

and untied the rope from her wrists.

Simgi jerked his head in the direction of the

dark shaft. 'Go on then. And don't open the box.

That's for us to do.'

Without another word, Amy turned and walked

into the darkness.

In Mason City, Rory regained consciousness and

rubbed the back of his head. Any more of this and

I'll get concussion, he thought. He looked around

for Amy and was alarmed to see that he was alone.

There was no sign of her anywhere.

He got to his feet and saw the Doctor lying in a

crumpled heap in the middle of the road. Both of

the aliens had disappeared along with Amy. Had

they hurt the Doctor?

Rory hurried across to the Time Lord and

turned him over. Instantly the Doctor sat bolt

upright causing Rory, who had been crouching

down, to fall over backwards.

'Doctor!' he complained.

'Rory!' said the Doctor. 'What happened? No,

wait, don't answer that.' The Doctor was feeling

behind his back. It looked to Rory like he was trying

to scratch an itch between his shoulder blades.

'Can I help?' he offered.

The Doctor shook his head. 'Just checking the

impact zone. Stun blaster again. That's four times

today I've been knocked out. That's four times too

many.'

'Tell me about it,' said Rory.

'Where's Amy?' asked the Doctor.

Rory shrugged. 'Don't know. Someone hit me

from behind. When I woke up Amy had gone.

Those meerkat things have disappeared too.'

The Doctor jumped to his feet.

'Then we'd better get after them,' he suggested.

'But they could be anywhere!' said Rory.

The Doctor grinned. 'No, there's only one

place they'll be heading. The Lone Pine Silver

Mine. Trust me.'

Rory followed the Doctor down the street.

'Back on the horses, I'm afraid, Rory,' the Doctor

told him. 'We need to get to the Mine as fast as we

can.'

'But how do you know where to go?' asked

Rory.

The Doctor stopped and looked at him. 'Come

on, Rory. What were we doing in the spaceship?'

'Trying to stop that Rovik scanning for high

technology and knocking everyone out,' said Rory.

'And we failed!'

'But the scan worked. That's how I know where

to look. Everyone wants whatever is really in that

safe deposit box. And that box is in the Lone Pine

Mine.'

Hawkeye Kruse had earned his nickname

because of his skill with a gun. He was famous

for his amazing eyesight and accuracy with a six-

shooter. What was less well known was that he had

remarkably good hearing as well.

Quickly he got to his feet and smothered the

small fire. Without the light from the flames the

cavern he was in was plunged into darkness. He

had one small candle in a lantern, but its glow was

tiny and weak and did not carry far.

Hawkeye listened again and was pleased to

note that he hadn't been mistaken. Someone was

moving in the mine.

The tunnels of the mine acted like amplifiers

for noise and it was almost impossible to move

through them without being heard. Hawkeye

listened carefully, trying to work out how many

people there were. The footsteps weren't heavy

and Hawkeye was almost totally convinced that

there was just one person heading towards him.

That meant that it was unlikely to be his colleagues.

Williams and Steele had been together. If they had

managed to escape, Hawkeye was sure they would

be with each other and not alone.

Leaving his one lantern with his precious

treasure, Hawkeye got to his feet without making a

sound. Even in the dark he knew these tunnels like

the back of his hand, and he stepped confidently

along the metal tracks towards the approaching

visitor. He quickly reached a junction with a small

side tunnel and without hesitation he stepped into

the smaller passageway. This tunnel soon narrowed

and the rough, rock ceiling became much lower.

Hawkeye crawled into the darkness and hid himself

in the black shadows to wait.

Amy found that her eyes were slowly adjusting

to the gloom of the mine tunnel. It was dark but

not pitch black and she could make out the metal

tracks below her feet and the low roof above her

head. Occasionally she had to bend low to get

under a particularly narrow section, but most of

the time she was able to walk upright.

She wondered what she was going to do when

she ran into the outlaw. Would he shoot first and

ask questions later? Or perhaps he wasn't here at

all. She hoped that was the case.

Amy stopped as she came to a branch in the

tunnels. One tunnel veered off to the left and

seemed to be descending lower into the rock. The

main tunnel continued with a slight bend in the

other direction. She decided to stick with the main

tunnel and followed the rail tracks around to the

right.

A moment or two after Amy had passed, a

shadowy form detached itself from the darkness

of the narrow tunnel and stepped up to the

crossroads. After a quick glance in each direction,

the large figure followed Amy.

Rory had been surprised when he had realised

that the Doctor was heading back towards the

TARDIS.

'I thought you said we were going on horseback,'

he said, as he hurried to keep up with the Time

Lord, who was striding ahead of him.

'A means to an end,' said the Doctor tersely.

'Speed is of the essence. So a short hop in the

TARDIS is actually the best option.'

Rory thought about the trouble the Doctor

seemed to have in directing his space/time craft at

the best of times.

'Are you sure you can do that?' he asked. 'We

don't want to end up two hundred years in the

future. That's not going to help Amy is it?'

The Doctor was unlocking the door to the

TARDIS and glanced back at Rory with a hurt

expression on his face. 'Of course I can do it,' he

insisted and headed through the door. Rory hurried

after him, making sure the door closed firmly

behind him. The Doctor had already bounded up

the steps to the circular control console and was

pulling at levers and switches in his usual manic

manner.

'Not gonna engage the time engines,' he

muttered, shooting a glance at Rory, 'Just going to

move in three dimensions.'

He tapped at a small screen and checked the

readings that were displayed.

'Got to be really precise though,' he said. Rory

said nothing. He knew he couldn't do anything to

help except keep quiet and not distract the Doctor.

Inside, however, he was screaming 'Come on'.

Every moment of delay could be putting Amy in

even greater danger.

Amy could see something glowing in the gloom -

a lantern containing a single candle. She hoped this

wasn't the kind of mine in which explosive gases

could build up, but assumed that anyone who used

the mine would know what they were doing. As

she got closer she could see signs that this was

a hideout of some kind. There were a couple of

low beds, the remains of a fire and some pots and

pans. More importantly, Amy could see the safe

deposit box she had been sent to collect.

Amy hurried forward and went to pick up the

box. As soon as her hands touched the cold metal

she heard something behind her and froze.

'Stand up, Missy,' said a gravelly voice behind

her, 'and turn around.'

Slowly, Amy did exactly what she had been told

to do. As she turned the faint light from the lantern

caught the edge of her shiny deputy sheriff badge.

'You're a deputy?!' said Hawkeye Kruse, in

amazement.

Amy had completely forgotten that she had

been made a deputy. It hadn't meant anything to

the alien Cemars but the outlaw in front of her

was a different kettle of fish.

'That's right,' she said, with more confidence

than she felt. 'I'm a deputy sheriff and you, sunshine,

are under arrest!'

There was a pause as Hawkeye struggled to

take in Amy's meaning. He gestured with the six-

shooter that he was holding.

'I'm the one with the gun,' he pointed out.

'Ah, yes, that's true . . .' replied Amy, thinking

fast. 'But I'm not here alone. There's a whole posse

on your tail. Moving in even as we speak.'

Hawkeye raised his eyebrows in doubt. 'Is that

the truth?'

'Yeah,' bluffed Amy, 'so put down your weapon

and give yourself up.'

A slow grin spread across Hawkeye's face.

'I don't think so, little lady. Let's do things my

way. . .'

He stepped closer. Amy swallowed hard. This

was so not going to plan.

Rory felt like he was on the verge of exploding.

The Doctor seemed to have been fiddling with the

controls of the TARDIS for an age but was no

closer to making the 'short hop' he had talked

about.

'Why's it taking so long?' he demanded, finally,

his patience exhausted.

The Doctor flicked at another control and shot

him an angry look from under his wild fringe of

hair.

'This is a very dangerous manoeuvre,' he

explained. 'I'm trying to get us as close to the alien

device as I can, because that's where Amy and the

Cemars will be going. If we're going to do business

with the Cemars we need to have possession of

that safe deposit box. Now the scan that Rovik

conducted in the ship showed that the device was

underground in an abandoned mine so I need to

materialise the TARDIS precisely in one of the

mine tunnels.'

'Oh,' said Rory. That told me, he thought to

himself.

'The thing is, if I'm out by even a few

centimetres we materialise in solid rock.'

'And that's not a good thing?'

The Doctor shook his head gravely. 'Bad for

us but worse for anyone in the mine - it would

probably set off a total collapse.'

Rory went pale. He hadn't thought that their

rescue effort could put Amy in greater danger.

'Right,' said the Doctor after a few more

adjustments. 'I think we're ready.'

He pulled down on one of the large levers and

set the TARDIS in motion. Rory noticed, with a

sharp pang of concern, that the Doctor had his

fingers crossed behind his back.

Amy was not happy. The outlaw Hawkeye Kruse,

not bothered that the girl was a deputy sheriff,

had tied her hands behind her back and put her

inside an empty mine truck. It was dark, cold

and dirty inside the truck and Amy had no idea

where exactly she was. She wondered how long it

would be before the Cemars became concerned

enough to come looking for her. She shook her

head, hoping to dislodge the handkerchief that the

outlaw had used to gag her, but it refused to move.

Suddenly she felt a wind blowing on her face.

She frowned. How could there be a breeze this

deep in the mine? The wind seemed to pick up,

becoming more intense. It was accompanied by a

noise, faint at first, but quickly growing in volume.

It was a rising and falling, trumpeting sound, alien

and mysterious, but to Amy it was a sound of pure

joy.

It was the sound of the TARDIS materializing.

Amy smiled. The Doctor was about to make

everything all right.

Hawkeye didn't understand what was

happening. How could there be wind this far

into the mine? Where had it come from? And

then he heard the noise. It was an unearthly

scream unlike anything he had ever heard in his

entire life. Something seemed to be appearing

in the air in front of him. Something massive

and blue.

Hawkeye staggered backwards, his eyes wide

with fear. In front of him something magical and

impossible was happening. In the tunnel, between

him and the mine trucks where he had put the girl,

a massive blue box was materialising before his

eyes. At first it was just a ghostly form but then

it quickly became solid, until with a resounding

thump it stood in front of him, as real as the

rocky walls that surrounded it. It completely filled

the tunnel, preventing him from seeing the mine

trucks.

For a moment there was silence and then there

was another sound, even more frightening then

the last. It was the sound of wood splintering. The

blue box must have pushed against the roof of

the tunnel, putting a strain on the props that they

could not take. Dust trickled down from the tunnel

roof as it creaked and shook. There was going to

be a collapse. Hawkeye took a step forward but

there was no way to squeeze past the blue box. He

turned but it was too late. The roof of the tunnel

caved in, sending rock and dust into his path. He

fell back against the blue box, covering his face

with his sleeve.

When the dust settled he found that the tunnel

had collapsed a few feet in front of him, leaving

him between the rock fall and the blue box with

nowhere to go. He was trapped.

On the other side of the TARDIS the door burst

open and the Doctor and Rory appeared. Before

they had both exited the space/time machine they

heard the sound of the rockfall and paused.

'It it safe?' asked Rory.

'We may have destabilised the mine,' the Doctor

confessed. 'Let's find what we're after and get out

of here.'

'What's that squeaking?' wondered Rory. They

both looked around and saw that there was a small

train of mining trucks on rails leading further

into the tunnel. The tunnel collapse had caused a

tremor that had set the wheels of the old trucks in

motion and it was the metal wheels rolling on the

rails that were making the noise.

The Doctor and Rory watched as the trucks

began to pick up speed.

'Weird,' said Rory.

The Doctor nodded and frowned. 'Can you hear

something else?' he asked Rory. His companion

looked around, worried that there might be a

further tunnel collapse. The Doctor pointed at the

rear truck of the train, now disappearing into the

darkness at speed.'

'It's coming from the train,' he said. Now Rory

could hear it too - a regular metallic banging as if

something was kicking the side of the trucks from

within. Something or somebody, they realised at

the same moment.

'Amy!' called Rory and in answer they saw the tip

of a cowboy booted foot shoot up in the air from

one of the far trucks just before it disappeared

around a corner into the dark.

'Fetch the box,' ordered the Doctor pointing

at the safe deposit box close to the remains of

Hawkeye's fire. Rory hadn't even seen it when they'd

stepped out of the TARDIS but the Doctor had.

The Doctor ran after the mine train, into the

darkness. 'And bring the lantern,' he called over his

shoulder before disappearing.

Rory picked up the safe deposit box and

managed to fit it under one arm, allowing him to

grab the lantern with his free hand. By the time he

had done this the Doctor was long gone. With a

quick nervous look at the roof of the tunnel, Rory

headed after his friends.

The Doctor was annoyed to discover that the

tunnel became quite steep very quickly. The truck

was now picking up a good deal of speed making

it harder for the Doctor to catch it. The tunnels

turned sharply, criss-crossing numerous side

tunnels where the prospectors had tried, in vain,

to find the silver they sought.

Suddenly the tunnel emerged into a larger

cavern. Here the slope levelled out, enabling the

Doctor to make some ground on the runaway

train. The cavern had obviously been a marshalling

area for a number of different parts of the mine

and there were rails heading in various directions.

The Doctor caught up with the last wagon of

the train and matched its speed. Grabbing the edge

of the truck with both hands, he leaped into the air

and twisting mid-flight he managed to land inside

the truck. Now he was able to begin climbing

from truck to truck as the little train continued its

journey.

Behind him Rory emerged into the cavern and

quickly took in the situation. Thin shafts leading

to the surface allowed enough light into the cavern

for Rory to see that the train was heading for a

place where the rock had collapsed under the rails.

Here the rails stuck out in thin air and then they

had broken. Rory could see that the train would

fall into the massive hole. If the Doctor couldn't

reach Amy in time, the pair of them would surely

fall into the pit.

Putting down the safe deposit box, Rory looked

around for something that might stop the train. On

the far side of the cavern were some huge levers

connected to the system of rails. Rory recalled the

model train set he had played with as a boy. The levers

must control the points on the rails, he realised. Rory

rushed across and pulled on the levers. All over the

cavern he could see points moving, changing the

direction of various rails. There was a set of points

ahead of the runaway train. If he could shift the

rails with the levers he could divert the train from

the dangerous hole in the ground. Luckily the train

had lost speed on the level as it crossed the cavern.

Rory ran to the set of points and put his

shoulder against the lever that controlled them.

It was stiff with age. The train was almost at the

points. Rory looked up and saw that the Doctor

had just reached the truck containing Amy and was

frantically pulling at her bonds. Rory redoubled his

efforts and, finally, the lever moved and the points

swung into place just in time to send the runaway

mine train away from the gaping hole.

Rory breathed a sigh of relief but then realised

that the trucks were now heading for a dead end.

Inside the truck the Doctor had managed to

remove Amy's gag and was busy untying her hands.

'Hold on tight,' he told her.

'What?'

'This might be a little bumpy,' the Doctor

warned her and reached for the brake lever fixed

to the front of the truck. He yanked at the brake

and sparks flew from the tracks as the braking

system applied pressure to stop the wheels from

turning. Rory watched helplessly as the train began

to slow. He turned to look at the buffers at the end

of the track - would the train stop quickly enough?

Finally, with a screech, the brakes took effect and

the train glided to a stop, just kissing the buffers

with the slightest of impacts before coming to a

dead halt.

The Doctor helped Amy out of the truck and

Rory rushed up to give her a hug.

The Doctor walked back to examine the safe

deposit box while Amy and Rory quickly caught

up.

'So, where's Hawkeye?' wondered Amy, when

they had finished listening to each other's accounts

of their adventures.

The Doctor nodded in the direction they had

come from. 'Stuck the other side of the TARDIS,

I should think. And the Cemars are at the surface.

Which means we should be able to finally get to

the bottom of all this without being disturbed.'

The Doctor placed the box on the ground

and fired his sonic screwdriver at the lock, which

instantly clicked.

'Let's see what this treasure they all want really

is,' he suggested and flipped open the lid of the

box. Rory, Amy and the Doctor leaned in to look

into the box.

'Is that it?' said Amy.

Inside the box was a single piece of jewellery.

It looked like a coronet, something to be worn on

the head. It had a large red stone, like a ruby, which

seemed to sparkle with a light from within.

Amy reached out for it and tried it on.

'Suits you,' said Rory, 'I always said there was

something regal about you!'

To Rory's surprise, however, Amy didn't

laugh at his joke. Instead she began to shake

uncontrollably. She stood up stiffly and threw back

her head. Then she stopped shaking and looked

directly at the Doctor and Rory. To their horror,

they saw that her eyes were now glowing the same

ruby red as the stone in the coronet. When she

spoke it was no longer Amy's voice but something

cold and cruel using Amy's vocal chords.

At last,' it said. 'I am free, at last.'

The Doctor put an arm out to hold Rory back.

'Don't do anything hasty,' he warned, not

taking his eyes off Amy. Rory nodded, also unable

to look away. Amy seemed to be standing more

upright. Although it was still Amy Pond to look

at, neither the Doctor nor Rory were in any doubt

that something else was now in control of their

friend.

'Good advice, Doctor,' said a new voice.

Rory looked to his left and saw that Rovik,

the Cemar, was approaching from a side tunnel.

He had his blaster in his hands. Nearby, the other

alien, Simgi also appeared. He had armed himself

with one of the outlaws' six-shooters.

'If you could just pass over our prize now,' said

Simgi smugly.

'And then since you made us destroy our own

ship,' Rovik continued, 'I think you owe us a ride

off this miserable planet.'

Both Cemars walked towards the three time

travellers.

'Come on then, girly,' said Rovik, 'Hand over

the gem.'

Amy turned on them, her eyes flashing red with

anger. 'I am not a girly,' she growled in a voice so

unlike her usual pleasant Scottish tones.

She raised her hands and gestured towards the

two aliens.

'No, don't,' shouted the Doctor, but it was too

late. Twin bolts of jagged green energy burst from

Amy's fingertips, and flew at the two aliens, who

yelped and flew backwards. Both Rovik and Simgi

fell onto the dusty floor of the cavern and lay

perfectly still.

'There was no need for that,' said the Doctor.

'Amy! What's happened to you?' asked Rory,

horrified at what he had seen.

'That's not Amy,' the Doctor reminded him.

'So who, what, just did that?' demanded Rory.

The Doctor gestured at the jewel in the coronet

that Amy was wearing.

'It's an alien called a Jerinthioan. A very rare

psychic vampire. It feeds on the alpha brainwaves

of higher life forms,' explained the Doctor.

'But it's a jewel?' said Rory.

'That's all the physical form that it requires. It's

a parasite. It uses the bodies of its victims to get

around.'

'So why was it in the safe deposit box?'

wondered Rory.

'I wanted to be safe until I could find a way off

this desolate planet,' said the Jerinthioan, speaking

through Amy.

'Don't diss planet Earth,' said the Doctor. 'It's

a fantastic place.'

'One of his favourites,' added Rory.

'And I don't like aliens thinking they can

play around with the locals as if they were toys,'

concluded the Doctor.

'I'm not playing,' insisted the alien. 'I just

wanted to get off this planet.'

'So you lured the Cemars here?' said the Doctor.

The alien nodded Amy's head. 'They are

pathetically simple creatures. All they care about

is their greed. They were passing through the

area, filled with excitement about the vast sum of

money that they were going to sell their hold full of

weapons for. It was easy to reach into their minds

and suggest that an even greater fortune lay here, if

they should choose to look for it.'

'But they crashed!' pointed out Rory. 'Why

would they do that?'

'I didn't take into account how competitive these

creatures are,' confessed the Jerinthioan. 'They

argued about who would find me first and fell out.

In the end they became rivals in the search for me.

They fought about where exactly to land, how close

to the place I was hiding, and in their fight they lost

control of their ship and crashed.'

'Looks like they made things up in the end,'

suggested Rory, nodding towards the two creatures.

'Shame it was too late for them by then,' said

the alien, 'because I've now got a much better way

off this planet. One with the ability to go anywhere

in time and space.'

'She knows about the TARDIS!' exclaimed

Rory.

'She does now,' sighed the Doctor. 'I'm sure

the real Amy is in there trying to fight off the

Jerinthioan and keep our secrets from her.'

'Don't trouble yourself, Rory Williams,' said the

alien using Amy's mouth. 'I had already discovered

all about your Doctor friend and his remarkable

craft. I'm looking forward to seeing it for myself.'

The Doctor nodded, as if accepting. Rory was

horrified. Surely the Doctor was going to put up

more of a fight than this?

'You'd better come this way,' he said and walked

up the tunnel that led back to where the TARDIS

was parked. Rory fell into step behind him and the

alien in Amy's body followed.

'There is just one thing,' said the Doctor

stopping and turning. Rory could see a glimmer of

something in the Doctor's eyes. He had a plan!

'What?' demanded the alien.

'Well, the thing is, the TARDIS; if you really

want to control it, you need me. It's my ship — only

I can make it fly.'

The alien shrugged Amy's shoulders. 'While I

have the control of this body you will do anything

I want.'

'You think?' said the Doctor looking

embarrassed. 'Sorry, Rory, but at the end of the

day if I have to choose between the TARDIS and

Amy. . .'

'Doctor!' exclaimed Rory, 'You can't mean it.'

But the Doctor looked determined.

'Wait,' ordered the alien. Amy's hand reached

up to grasp the coronet. With her other hand she

grabbed the Doctor's lapel and pulled him close.

Quickly she pulled the coronet from her head and

jammed it onto the Doctor's.

The instant the crown left her hand, Amy fell

backwards in a faint. Rory managed to catch her

and prevent her hurting herself on the tunnel floor.

She began to stir immediately and to Rory's great

relief, when her eyes opened, they had returned to

normal.

'It was horrible,' she muttered. 'It was like I was

a passenger inside my own body.'

'You're safe now,' Rory reassured her.

'But what about the Doctor?' said Amy

suddenly.

They both looked further up the tunnel to

where the Doctor was staggering around like a

man in pain. He had both hands on his head. It

looked like he was struggling to pull the coronet

off but the alien wasn't letting him.

The Doctor fell to his knees, his hands out in

front of him to break his fall. He bowed his head.

It looked to Amy and Rory as if he had given up.

Rory and Amy exchanged worried looks. If the

Doctor had been taken over they might never get

home.

The Doctor jumped to his feet.

'Well, that was touch and go,' he said, pushing a

hand through his hair and dislodging the coronet.

He held it in front of his face and gave it a thorough

examination.

'Are you really you?' asked Rory.

'Of course I am,' declared the Doctor. 'One

hundred per cent Doctor.'

'But how?' asked Amy.

The Doctor smiled. 'I over fed it. The

Jerinthioan lives on psychic energy. Literally it's

powered by your memories, your experiences.

All the places you've been and things you've

seen. And when it got into my head . . . well, it

just couldn't cope. The things I've seen in my lives . . .

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe.

Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.

I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the

Tannhauser gate.' The Doctor paused and gave his

head a knock.

'Hang about, that's not me,' he said. Rory grasped

Amy's hand and raised his eyebrows. Was there still

some vestige of the alien in the Doctor's head?

'No, that's from a film, isn't it?' the Doctor

realised with a grin. 'Like I told you, the things I've

seen . . .'

The TARDIS landed smoothly outside amongst

some trees not too far from the entrance to

the Lone Pine Mine. The Doctor, Amy and Rory

emerged from the space/time craft and made their

way through the trees just in time to see Sheriff

Jack Carter bringing Hawkeye Kruse out of the

dark shaft. The once fearless outlaw seemed to be

a totally changed man. He was pale and shaking

with nerves. He was muttering about a blue box

that had appeared out of thin air.

'Come on, Hawkeye,' said the sheriff, 'let it

drop now. No one wants to hear your fairy stories.'

'There it is, over there,' said Hawkeye, seeing

a glint of a blue shape in the middle of the

nearby trees.

The sheriff shook his head sadly. 'Think those

famous eyes of yours are letting you down, boy,'

he laughed.

'Ah, my new deputies,' he continued as he

saw Amy and Rory approaching. 'Looks like you

missed all the fun. This one here's the last of the

gang, found the other two back in the canyon.'

'Tied up and gift-wrapped?' asked the Doctor.

'Yes, sir,' said the sheriff.

Rory started to take his deputy sheriff badge

off his poncho. We need to er, resign our posts,'

he said offering the badge to the sheriff. We have

to leave.'

'Sorry,' said Amy, 'but we've got to take a

couple of prisoners of our own back, er, east and

we won't be coming back.'

'You Pinkertons!' said the sheriff in a tone of

admiration. Well I know things didn't go too well

with you guarding the bank but you seem to have

done pretty well in the long run. I'd like you folks

to keep your badges. Just in case you're ever back

this way and I need your help.'

Rory grinned and replaced his badge. 'Thank

you, Sheriff,' he said.

'No, thank you,' said Sheriff Carter.

'Right then, Deputies,' said the Doctor firmly,

'now that we've tied up the loose ends we really

should be going. We've got a long way to take our

two prisoners.'

Rory grinned. They certainly did have a long

journey. The Doctor had decided that the two

Cemars should be taken back to their home planet

to face justice. Smuggling weapons of war was a

serious crime in that area of the galaxy. Luckily the

TARDIS could make the trip in just a few minutes.

'Do you need fresh horses?' asked the sheriff.

'A posse from Mason is on its way . . .'

The Doctor smiled. 'No thanks. Our, er, horses

are just fine.'

The sheriff watched as the Doctor, Amy and

Rory turned and walked into the nearby trees.

A moment later there was a terrible noise and a

sudden wind blew up from nowhere.

Hawkeye Kruse started shaking again. 'That's

it!' he muttered, 'that's the sound of the devil box.'

In the middle of the trees a large blue box faded

away into nothing.

The TARDIS was on its travels again, taking the

Doctor and his companions to new adventures.

The End