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Human Nature - Chapter Thirteen

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Let Me Tell You Something That's True

'Doctor!' Bernice cried, and ran to him.

Smith disengaged himself from the hug. 'Smith. Still.' He pulled the Pod from his pocket and spun it in the air thoughtfully. 'I haven't yet applied for my honorary doctorate. I saw how you saved him, by the way.' He pointed to Greeneye, who was even now being bound in miles of schoolboy string. 'Well done.'

'We need him as a hostage.'

'I doubt that would work. Anyhow, that wasn't why you did it.'

Benny resumed the hug and this time he allowed it. 'No,' she whispered. 'It wasn't. I think I've developed this phobia about letting people get surrounded by men with swords. Hey, how did you know about that?'

'This.' Smith rubbed the Pod on his elbow. 'It lets me know little bits. At random, I think. Oh, by the way, I brought some friends.'

Up the hill behind him had appeared Hadleman and Tim.

Anand ran to Tim and shook him warmly by the hand. 'I thought you were dead!' he laughed.

'So did I,' said Tim.

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Alexander had been helping the boys secure Greeneye. Now the curator looked up. For an instant, he closed his eyes. Then he made himself smile and stood up, waving. 'Richard!'

Hadleman ran forward, and the two men stood at a distance from each other, their hands forming restrained spirals before them. 'Alex, old chap, what are you doing here?' Hadleman grinned.

'I could say the same. Come and, erm, see what's happened to the monument.'

Alexander glanced at Smith and the boys, and the two men wandered around to the other side of the destroyed statue.

Benny was still holding on to Smith. 'So, you're finally convinced that you weren't always human?'

'I am. What an odd thing to find out.'

'Well, this might be a good time to consider what species you'd like to be. You know about Joan?'

'Yes. They've told me I have until dawn to give them this, or they kill her.' Smith gazed at the brightness that was starting to redden the eastern horizon. 'I had thought of just making the swap, but Timothy showed me what would happen if I did. I was tempted to go through with it anyway, because I do love her, Benny.' His eyes sought hers. 'But I don't think the Doctor would like it.'

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'You mean you're still going to stay as Smith? You don't want to be the real you, despite all this?' Benny sat down heavily on the grass. 'The Doctor would have some plan worked out in two seconds. One, if we had a chessboard handy.'

He sat down beside her. 'John Smith is the real me. And it's because of all this, not despite it. You don't know what you really want in life until it's taken from you.'

'You mean Joan?'

'Yes. She agreed to marry me. I have to save her. And I have to do it as me.'

Benny looked at him for a moment, and then resignedly laid her head on his shoulder. 'If there's one thing I've learnt in the past few weeks, it's that we don't get second chances. Do you need a bridesmaid? I've always wanted to be one, but everybody I've ever known has been scared to death of altars.'

'You mean you think I should?'

'I think you ought to go for whatever you think will work. I might even start to like her.'

Smith nodded solemnly. 'So we have to win, if only so you can expand your wardrobe. But we're going to do it as you and me. Smith and Summerfield. Will you come with me?'

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Benny carefully planted a kiss on top of his head.

'You're beautiful,' she told him. 'Of course I will.'

Smith grinned, frowned and bit his lip at the same time.

'Erm, thank you.'

'You know, I think Rocastle got a bit of Doctorishness off of you before he died. It must be catching.'

'Perhaps. But does the Doctor have to sacrifice himself to win?'

'Sometimes.' Benny shivered, not knowing why. 'So,' she asked, 'shall we go and have this adventure?'

'The last adventure. Before I retire.'

'And do you have a plan?'

'Oh yes. Tell me, have you ever played poker?'

August checked the controls on the vortex tunnel. 'We can be ready to depart as soon as we have the Pod.' He glanced at the approaching dawn. 'If, that is, Serif and Greeneye get back.'

'I'm worried,' Hoff muttered. He was still squatting by the post, his gun jammed under Joan's chin. 'They're taking too long. And we heard an explosion.'

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'That'll just be Greeneye over-reacting. Still, if they don't appear before Smith does, then I'll just use the Pod before we go to search for them. We'd be able to locate them in a moment with the services of a TARDIS at our command.'

'You're certain he'll bring the Pod?'

'Of course. We have the thing he holds most precious in the world.' August patted Joan's head.

'I'm not a thing,' Joan told him.

'Oh, in this game you are. We're all things when it comes to war. You see -' August realised that Hoff was staring out of the dome in surprise. He followed his gaze.

Smith and Bernice were wandering unconcernedly towards the dome, Smith wearing his white evening gloves.

The two of them walked straight in through the open doorway.

Hoff pressed his gun closer into Joan's face. 'John!' she cried. 'I hadn't dared hope -'

'What?' hissed Smith. 'Oh, of course - she thinks that I am Dr Smith. Greeneye and I succeeded in cornering his fleeing companion on the hillside. She and some of the boys had mounted a trap for us. We fooled them through my assumption of this form. That finger I consumed proved to be\x85 very useful.'

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'And I had some fun afterwards. Professor Summerfield put up quite a fight.' Bernice wiped the back of her hand across her mouth, her other hand on her hip. 'Delicious memories, almost as good as that Auregan.' She wandered over to Joan and ran a hand through her hair.

Joan shivered. 'Does this mean that - Is John dead? Please tell me.'

'No. He wasn't about. Lucky for him.' Bernice looked up at August. 'Can I have some of this? It's always that way with humanoids: you have one and ten minutes later you want another.' She pulled a strand of hair from Joan's head and chewed on it thoughtfully.

Hoff relaxed, standing up and dropping his gun back into its holster.

August smiled at Bernice. 'Yes, of course, but don't do her too much damage, we need something to give to Smith. This Auregan you mention, do you mean Sola?'

Bernice glanced up from where she'd knelt down, starting to tap Joan's sides with her fingers like a skilled butcher. 'No, not him. Didn't I tell you about Kuala? Or was it Tuola? I just fancy some kidneys\x85'

Joan began to sob uncontrollably. 'Oh God, somebody save me, please\x85'

August turned back to Smith. 'You don't have the Pod, I take it?'

'No.' Smith shook his head. 'Smith must still be searching for it.'

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August absently picked up a scanner and checked a reading. 'So why keep his form?'

'I can search for the boy like this, also. He will trust me.'

Joan gave a shriek. Bernice was working at something behind her. 'Finger,' she explained. 'That won't annoy Smith too much, will it? They'll be a matching pair.'

Smith idly picked up the control dart-gun from one of the benches and inspected the muzzle. 'Ready?' he asked.

'For what?' August frowned.

'Yes,' Bernice called cheerfully.

Smith spun the gun round and fired darts into August and Hoff.

Bernice threw aside the manacles she'd been cutting through and pulled Joan to her feet. She dropped the laser cutter back into her pocket. 'Sorry I burnt you,' she told Joan, 'but it added a touch of realism.'

August plucked the dart from his chest. 'I'm astonished,' he said. 'But those darts don't affect us.' He snatched his gun from its holster and pointed it at Bernice.

A question mark umbrella handle plucked it from his hand and sent it spinning across the dome.

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Hoff grabbed for Joan's shoulder, but she was already running, Bernice pulling her bodily out into the forest.

August swung a blow at Smith's head, but the little man ducked, rolled over and popped up again in time to trip Hoff as he dived for the door. He gave a quick bow and hopped over the sprawled alien, dashing off into the trees.

'No!' August shouted. He slapped a control on the wall.

Smith, Benny and Joan sprinted through the lightening undergrowth, Joan being virtually carried along between the other two. 'John!' she panted. 'You rescued me!'

'We're not out of the woods yet,' Smith gasped. 'Still-'

'Is it me, or are we slowing down?' Bernice asked.

They all looked down. Beneath them, the humus was slipping away from their feet. A great wind rose against them, and suddenly they were pushing to make headway, the air around them as thick as treacle. A buffeting hurricane of leaves and twigs thundered by.

Smith swung his umbrella in a slow arc and the handle caught around a tree branch a few feet ahead. He pulled on the umbrella itself and managed to haul them forward a little way, the wood stretching and creaking with the effort.

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Bernice got a hand on the umbrella, too, and helped to pull.

'They've got us again, John.' Joan's voice was calm and strong. 'Promise me one thing. Don't give them what they want, even if it means my life. They've told me what they intend to do with it. Do you understand? Don't be unfaithful to who you are. Promise me.'

'They're not going to - '

'Promise me!'

'Yes, I promise. I love you.'

'I love you. Thank you for coming back for me.' The umbrella started to stretch.

Bernice made a mighty effort. She slapped a hand forward, and worked her way up the shaft, hand over hand.

She managed to get hold of the tree itself and hauled herself past it.

She tumbled down a slope on the other side, free of the force. She scrambled quickly back up the bank. Supporting herself against the tree, she poked her head over the ridge.

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It was like being hit on the back of the head with a hammer. The force grabbed her skull and tried to haul it off her shoulders. 'Doctor!' she called. 'Get down here!' She reached out a hand, but Smith and Joan were still clinging on to the umbrella and each other. Joan began to slip from Smith's arms and his fingers grew white on the umbrella handle.

'No\x85' he said, despairing.

And then he was torn from the umbrella.

Smith and Joan shot off backwards towards the dome, the umbrella spinning after them.

Bernice watched as they went. Hoff and August caught them neatly by the dome and threw them inside. Then the force that had captured them was switched off, and all was quiet again in the forest.

'Do you think you're dealing with children?' August pulled Smith to his feet.

'Children would be better behaved,' Joan told him. She smiled proudly at the aliens. 'John came to rescue me, against all the odds.'

'We have similar ethics, then.' August let go of Smith and motioned to Hoff. The gruff alien grabbed Joan and secured her to one of the benches. 'We both look after our own. Where are Serif and Greeneye?'

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Smith glared at him. 'The first is dead. The second we've taken prisoner. I'll swap him for -'

'No. If you had the stomach to harm him, that would have been your initial strategy.' He picked up the scanner again and checked the readings. 'You're swamped with the kind of radiation we've learnt to associate with the Pod. It's not on you, but you do have it hidden somewhere.' He pointed to Joan. 'Our offer still stands. Give us the Pod and she lives. Go and get it.'

Smith looked into August's eyes. 'If she's hurt, there will be nowhere in the cosmos that you can hide from me.'

August inclined his head. 'I believe you. One hour.'

As Smith left the dome, he caught sight of the expression on Joan's face. Pride and quiet determination. He paused for a moment, then, imperceptibly, he nodded to her.

When he'd left, Hoff turned to August, his eyes closed in grief. 'Serif too\x85' he whispered. 'This trip has been costly.'

'They'll both be avenged.' August patted his shoulder. 'Before we go, we'll reduce this world to ashes.'

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The others were waiting in the forest, sitting in a great circle in a clearing, too shocked or nervous to make their way home. Alton had started a fire and Hutchinson was staring into it morosely. Anand and Tim were talking in whispers, going over Tim's adventures.

'The thing is,' Tim was saying, 'I thought that I knew how Rocastle was going to die. The Pod told me. But he blew himself up to kill Serif.'

'Then that means that the future's wide open. We can change it,' Anand whispered. 'Isn't that wonderful?'

The other boys were huddled together, some of them sobbing, others just slowly calming down, ridding themselves of the tension and the fear of death that had been with them for the last few hours. It didn't help that Greeneye was tied to a tree near by, under the watchful gaze of Alexander and Hadleman. After he woke up, the prisoner had started shouting threats and curses, but after a while, these had changed into pleas and requests for food. Once it was certain that he wasn't going to get any, he slumped into an angry silence.

The sky overhead was getting lighter. It had been a warm night, but they were all ready to welcome the dawn.

'So,' Alexander broke the silence. He'd been looking at Richard and wondering if he should tell him. He mustn't do that. The only thing he could do was to enjoy every moment they had left. 'Does anybody know any good stories?'

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'Oh, shut up,' muttered Hutchinson.

'You shut up,' Tim told him.

'You can't tell me that, bug.'

'Yes I can, and don't call me bug.'

'Who thinks' - Hadleman raised his voice - 'that Tim should shut up? Raise your hand.'

No hands appeared.

'And who thinks that Hutchinson should shut up?' A lot of hands appeared.

'There. Tell us a story, Tim.'

'It doesn't work like that,' Hutchinson sighed wearily. 'I'm his Captain, so I can tell him to shut up.' There was a murmur of discontent around the circle. Hutchinson looked up, suddenly bemused. 'What?'

'I think\x85' Hadleman picked up the red sphere that Smith had left with him and stood up. Alexander watched him worriedly. He'd advised Richard not to hold on to the Pod, to leave it by the fire. Now he was throwing it lightly from hand to hand. 'I think that democracy will soon be everything. You lads just got your first vote. If the balloon goes up this year, or the next, maybe the generals will finally realise that, in the end, a soldier fights for his conscience. He isn't an animal to be herded to the slaughter.'

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'Wouldn't you fight, then?' Hutchinson glared at him. 'Would you be a coward?'

Alexander watched a distant expression wash over Hadleman's face. Finally, he put the Pod back down on the ground and met Hutchinson's gaze. 'I would fight if I thought the cause was just, as far as any of us can tell that sort of thing. And, believe me, there will be plenty of cowards on the battlefield, and plenty of heroes who make the decision not to go there.' Rather embarrassed by his eloquence, he shrugged and sat down.

Alexander stared at him sadly. 'I love you,' he mouthed, though Hadleman couldn't see.

Hutchinson probably wouldn't have let the matter rest there, but into the clearing walked Smith and Benny.

Smith glanced around the group. 'I'm sorry,' he told them. 'We failed. They still have Mrs Redfern.'

'Well then, there are enough of us!' Hutchinson gestured to the boys once more. 'There are only two of them. Never mind all this anarchist bunkum -'

'Socialist bunkum,' said Alexander.

'It's time for some good old British grit. Play up and play the game, chaps! We've nearly done it, we've knocked out three-fifths of their force! Listen, I have a plan...'

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Smith stared at the young man as he started to make the words again, to spread his hands in grand gestures. Unseen, he wandered around the campfire to where Alexander and Hadleman were sitting. Smith bent down and picked up the Pod. 'Mine, I think.'

Alexander looked up at him. 'Is it?'

'Oh yes.'

'Take care.'

'I will.'

Bernice was standing with Tim and Anand's group, much to Merryweather's delight. The Captain had discreetly moved around the fire to sit by them. Benny was making loud coughs and trying to start other conversations as Hutchinson went through the motions of his speech. Every now and then she looked at what Smith was doing, desperate for him, yet not knowing what advice she could possibly give.

Still, she was surprised when he appeared behind her and put a hand on her shoulder. 'It was good to know you.'

'Doctor, you're not - '

'Smith. Dr Smith. Call me that now, at least.'

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Benny carefully adjusted his tie, whispering so that Tim couldn't hear her. 'You're not planning on -'

Smith patted her gently on the arm. 'Walk with me a little way, I don't want to listen to that.' He indicated Hutchinson, walking around the campfire, pointing in the air.

They wandered through the forest until they came to a dark glade, where the rising sun stretched the shadows of the trees into long, spectral shapes. Benny rubbed a hand across her face. She was so tired that she felt like she might fall asleep any moment. The sensation had come over her in the last few minutes.

'I've discovered a lot in the last few weeks,' Smith began. 'I've found out that being the Doctor... it's not about having special knowledge or abilities. It's about not being cruel. It's about not being afraid.' He walked into the middle of the clearing, searching for the right words. 'There are monsters out there, yes. Terrible things. But you don't have to become one in order to defeat them. You can be peaceful in the face of their cruelty. You can win by being cleverer than they are.' He turned back to Bernice. 'I tried to give up so much - my responsibilities, my past, my guilt. But others kept these things safe for me. Now, for one last time, I, John Smith, will be the Doctor again, and go on an adventure, and defeat the monsters. It doesn't take an object to let you do that. It takes determination. And hope for humanity. And love.'

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Benny went to him and held him. 'What you said about sacrifice, John. It doesn't have to be like that. There's always another way.'

'Not this time.'

'I just don't want anybody to have to die. Hadleman, my old Guy, Rocastle. Poor Constance. But especially you. Both of you.'

'Then let me do this, before more children get killed.' His words seemed quieter somehow, as if they were coming from a distance, part of the whole distance of the glade. When she came to write this section of the narrative up for her diary, Benny felt that she was somehow writing fiction.

Especially considering what happened next.

She stepped out from the trees, a beautiful dark-haired woman. 'John\x85' she called.

Smith and Benny turned and stared at her. 'Verity,' said Smith.

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August stood by the door of the dome, gazing out into the darkness. 'It is quite a beautiful world, don't you think, son? I like the trees particularly.'

Hoff ducked his head outside and looked. 'Hmm. Trees are trees. I'm worried about Greeneye. Don't you think we should have bargained?'

'And gone back to square one? No. Once we've got the Pod, we'll rescue him. Oh, and talking of which -'

A small, shadowy figure was making his way slowly through the forest.

Hoff picked up his gun and went to stand beside Joan. She had been sleeping fitfully, but now she'd woken once more.

'You know, you really could come to some kind of accord with John,' she said. 'He's a good man. We all feel for our own kind. Perhaps - '

'Shut her up,' August snapped.

Hoff slapped a dart into Joan's neck and the woman froze, breathing shallowly.

The figure in the darkness approached the dome. To the east, the sky was blue, and a prickly expectation was settling on the forest, the calls of waking birds mingling with the departing sounds of night hunters as the sun rose.

August stepped forward. 'Dr Smith. Have you brought the Pod?'

'Yes.' The figure stepped forward, his left hand in his pocket, his right holding the red sphere. 'Where's Joan?'

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'Here.' Hoff activated a control and Joan stood up. He took a key and loosed her from her chains.

August studied the little man before him. 'You've finally given up, then? No last-minute tricks? No desperate gambits?'

'Only a request. Reconsider. What's in that sphere is vast and terrible. It's a tremendous responsibility. Do you really want to take it on?'

'I've thought about it long and hard, believe me.' August reached out, and, with an anticipatory pause, took the Pod from the other man's palm. 'I've prepared for this transformation. I've had psionic blockers placed in my brain to filter Time Lord personality data and stop it replacing my own. What I'll get is all the information, all the memories, but none of the compulsions or traits that made the Doctor what he was. He will, in effect, die, but in so doing he will create a new species. A very strong one. Now.'

He slowly raised the Pod to his forehead. Blue sparks began to dance between the two surfaces.

They touched.

August screamed in pain and doubled over, his hand clutching the Pod in determined agony. Hoff stared at the scene, covering the others with his gun.

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Suddenly, August jumped to his feet again and spun to look at Hoff, his arms extended. His pupils were shining silver, information spiralling across them. 'Hoff, I can feel it, it's wonderful!'

He spasmed again, twisting into a crouch, his hand still wrapped tight around the Pod.

His eyes met those of the little man in the shadows.

A look of horror passed across the silver pupils.

And then it was gone.

August slowly straightened up and tossed the Pod from hand to hand. He smiled a satisfied smile and stretched. 'Let her go, Hoff. We've got what we wanted.'

Hoff stared. 'It worked? You're a Time Lord?'

'Yes! I feel as if I could fly!' He walked up to Joan, and waved a hand before her sightless eyes. 'I want her to see me.' He plucked the dart from her neck and she jerked back to life, staring at the man who stood before her.

The smile was enough to tell her what had happened. 'You...' Her eyes narrowed, and she glanced between the three men in the dome. Then she said carefully: 'You gave him what he wanted.'

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'No.' The man with the umbrella stepped forward. 'I didn't.'

August touched Joan's chin, extremely tenderly. 'He's right.'

Hoff frowned, realising that something was happening that he didn't understand.

He grabbed Joan, pulling her away from August, and pressed his gun into her neck. 'Wait!'

'Hoff\x85' August spread his hands, amazed. 'What's wrong?'

'I want to see his hand. The one he's got in his pocket. Then I decide what I do next.'

'Well, you could always -' The man in the shadows revealed his left hand, and flexed his little finger. His calm expression darkened into a stormy frown, and he growled: 'Run.'

August lunged at Hoff.

Hoff threw Joan aside and brought up his gun.

The blast went straight through August's side.

But the force of August's run sent both men tumbling backwards towards the wall of the dome.

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The Doctor threw the Pod across the room. It slapped against a control on a distant instrument bank. He jumped at a closer panel, and, faster than the eye could follow, clattered hundreds of switches into new positions.

Hoff threw the gasping body of August aside and swung up his gun towards the Doctor.

But the Tim Lord had already spun the final dial.

The first time barrier swept into the room through the wall of the dome and into the sphere atop the control panel that the Doctor was working on. Hoff shouted as the shimmering wall went through him. 'No!' he bellowed. 'Don't!' He dived at Joan and held on to her like a lifejacket. 'You'll kill her too!'

'I'll kill no-one,' the Doctor snarled.

The second timeframe arrived a moment later.

The two walls collided, with all of them between them.

Hoff fell from Aphasia's wrist, a tiny newborn trailing blood.

Greeneye caught the baby and dropped him into a vat of liquid nutrients. 'Isn't he wonderful?' he said.

Hoff had never known he'd heard that before. Serif was busy dabbing at Aphasia's wrist as she sobbed. August looked proudly down into the vat and smiled.

'Well, that's the last one. What shall we do now?'

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Laylock was standing by the door of the dome they'd erected. Every now and then, he'd glance out at the burning fields in the distance. 'What indeed?' he whispered.

Hoff lay back in the liquid and luxuriated in it. He was at peace, for the first time in his life. And the last.

The Doctor watched the image of the scene spiral away, replaying itself time after time between the shimmering membranes of the timeframe. He was watching with his eyes closed, because he knew that if he opened them, he'd really be just standing in the dome.

And it was good to be able to watch with his eyes closed again.

Good to be the Doctor.

August stood before him in the timeless time. He held out his hand. 'The Doctor, I presume?'

'Good to meet you, Dr Smith.' The Doctor shook the hand of the being who used to be August, marvelling at how familiar the new expression on the alien's face was. 'I got you killed. I'm sorry.'

'Don't be. Joan would never have accepted me like this, in this body. Does she know?'

'I don't know.'

'Then don't tell her. Do I call you Father?'

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'If you want. I haven't heard that for a while.'

'It doesn't seem appropriate.'

'No.' The Doctor looked past August's, or rather, Smith's, shoulder.

Verity was standing there. 'Doctor. Dr Smith.'

Smith spun round and gazed at her. 'Verity. My dear.'

The woman smiled. 'I'm flattered, John, that you regard me as an old flame. That was your interpretation of what I was doing in your memories. But I think you're on rather dangerous ground. I'm one of the Doctor's dreams, an icon, a female custodian of something that's deep inside him. I was the only piece of himself that he left behind in his head. I'm important to him. He hardly listens to me, mind you. And he never returns my telephone calls.'

'Do you want to tell me what you told John in the glade this morning?' the Doctor asked. 'What you were trying to whisper in his ear for so long?'

'You still don't know? I don't see why I should tell you now. You employed me, after all, to defend and take care of your deepest memories, and then you failed to take heed of any of my warnings.'

'I didn't, you mean,' Smith interjected.

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'There are things down there in my unconscious that even I don't know about, memories from before I was born,' the Doctor explained. 'I couldn't get rid of all of them and Smith was certain to start accessing some of it. I just thought that there ought to be somebody in there who knew who I was.'

'Couldn't she have appeared earlier and saved me all that bother?' Smith asked.

Verity patted him on the shoulder. 'I wasn't allowed to. That was the frustrating thing. I couldn't intrude into your consciousness. I could only appear when you'd got it sorted out for yourself.'

'So what did you say to him?' the Doctor asked.

'That he believes in good and fights evil. That, with violence all around him, he's a man of peace. That he's never cruel, or cowardly. That he is a hero.'

Smith closed his eyes for a moment. 'It felt good to hear it confirmed. Of course, that's not a definition of me. That's you, Doctor.'

The Doctor reached out and touched him on the shoulder. 'As I believe you said, being me is a state of mind. Six other people apart from you and I have had a go. You were rather good at it.'

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Smith looked at him again and managed a smile. 'Perhaps I taught a few more would-be Doctors how to do it.'

'Perhaps. But I wonder how many will remember when they grow up?'

Verity waved a hand between them. 'Sorry to interrupt. Look who's here.'

Death looked at them all, sniffily. 'You deal with me again, raven Time Lord, possibly for the last time.' She put a hand on Smith's shoulder. 'This one belongs to me, now. I told you long ago, Doctor, that I would take a life from you in return for that of your companion. Our business is now concluded.'

Smith shivered at her touch. 'What's going to happen to me?' he asked.

'Another owl for Lord Rassilon?' the Doctor asked.

'That is not for you to ask,' Death replied.

Verity kissed Smith's forehead. 'It'll be fine. Bloody Eternals think they own the universe. They don't know everything.'

Death began to fade, and Smith with her, the man looking around himself in wonder.

'Give my love to Time and Pain,' said the Doctor.

'If it wasn't for Time, I would never entertain you.' Death glared at him. 'But you cannot let family down.'

She clicked her fingers.

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The Doctor opened his eyes.

Joan was standing in front of him, staring at the ring on her finger. 'When - whatever that was - happened, the ring saved me. I could feel it, protecting me, holding me here like a sort of anchor.'

'Good.' The Doctor went to the bank of controls, and pulled a long electrical cord from it. He peered at the globe where the two timeframes spun around each other, then hopped over to where the Pod lay, still in August's dead fingers.

'That poor man,' Joan whispered. 'He must have turned against his fellows at the last moment. He gave his life for his conscience.'

The Doctor bit his lip, pulling the Pod from the cold hand. 'Yes\x85' He connected the Pod to one end of the cable, and the timeframes to the other, then hit a few switches. The timeframes faded and he spun the Pod in triumph. 'Good, that's Hoff in the Pod as well. Now\x85' He pulled the cloth from the vortex disc, and reset the controls, so the butterfly tunnel spun off in another direction. 'The Monks of Felsecar guard some of the most dangerous artefacts in the universe. I'm sure they'll appreciate another item for their collection. Who knows, maybe one day they'll let those two out.'

'Why, John, what do you mean?'

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The Doctor winced again, secretly. 'Nothing. I'm still confused.' He tossed the Pod into the vortex, and watched it spin away into the distance. Then he switched off the cabinet. 'Shall we go?'

'Where?'

'About three hundred yards away. Out of range of the self-destruct mechanism.'

'Oh,' said Joan.

From the diary of Prof Bernice Summerfield

In the clearing in the forest, I watched as the woman walked up to John Smith and whispered something in his ear.

She vanished soon afterwards and Smith turned and walked away into the darkness.

I think. When I came to write this all up\x85 Listen, if you're a historian, you know you can't trust a diary, right?

Well, it felt like the woman was just a character I'd made up. Perhaps I'll just start this whole account with the words: 'Long ago and far away.' I got back to the campfire and walked round and round it, hugging myself.

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Hutchinson was still in mid-rant when the time barriers hit us.

We got to our feet after they'd passed, feeling as if a ghost had gone by, or that we'd just missed a fast aircraft at an air display.

Tim blinked. 'I feel like - like I've just woken from a dream,' he said. 'Goodness, Anand, what a strange few days this has been.'

Hutchinson stopped talking, tried to pick up his place and started to flounder. I have a feeling, if my own experience was anything to go by, that he has a smell of mud and iron in his nostrils.

Hadleman and Alexander clutched each other. Alexander looked at the other man and I saw a strange, hopeful, smile on his face. 'I don't know why,' he said, 'but I suddenly feel quite hopeful.'

While I was doing all this observing, and the sun was coming up too - by the way, I'm really quite thorough about background - I realized that I'd started to cry. Or laugh. Or something.

What a strange life this is.

At any rate, by the time the Doctor got there, I was smiling.

Diary Entry Ends