You will probably want to read the Introduction before you start.
Prologue
“Where are we?” asked Lily-Rose, as the Doctor opened the door. “How far back? Do you know?”
The Doctor opened the door a crack further. White light reflected onto his face, and he raised an eyebrow. “We’re back at the start.”
“1985?” asked Autumn.
The Doctor shook his head mysteriously. “Oh, no – you won’t remember this one. But we’ve all been there at some point, when matter first came about, somehow. The earliest matter, in fact, before the Big Bang. Tiny atoms that will one day be our world, and us…”
He invited them out.
They stood on a platform that shook with each step. Autumn feared that the whole thing would collapse beneath them, and they’d be left plummeting into the darkness. In front of them was a large window, displaying a panorama of a glorious time: clouds of gas, spreading out and glowing under stars which were positioned like cosmological mood lights. Nebulas tumbled in the distance, changing shape constantly. It was like nothing Autumn had ever seen in years of drifting through space. The Doctor held out a hand, in his trademark I-took-you-here way.
“Welcome to the beginning of time.”
Lily-Rose’s eyes widened. “You can see the beauty of the Creator’s design here,” she murmured, her breath condensing on the glass.
“Which one of you is going to point out what’s wrong, then?” asked the Doctor, as on-the-ball as ever. He jumped, and the ship jolted with his landing. “We’re at the beginning of time, about-“he checked his watch – “six days in, roughly.”
Autumn looked around, realising, in complete confusion. “But… this is…”
“Civilisation, yes.” The Doctor nodded. “Intelligent civilisation.”
“Is this the Hunters’ ship?”
“No, of course not. Look at this! It’s ragtag; looks like a flat-pack spaceship.”
Right on cue, a door opened behind them, and a middle-aged, greying man in Dartmouth-green overalls stepped out followed by his crew, a disparate selection of humans befitting of the unstable ground they walked on. “How…”
“I’ll stop you right there,” interjected the Doctor. “Introductions, you first, as quickly as possible, Captain.”
“I… uh…” The Captain gathered himself. “Yes, sorry, I’m Captain Ruskwitz.” He shook the Doctor’s hand and gestured to the man behind him, a Spanish-looking, dark-haired young man who diverted Autumn’s attention. “This is Quinlan Velasco, second in command, and Dr Chuprov…” An older, mischievous-looking Russian grinned at the team. “He’s our chief scientist. And last of all, Dennie Vee, our head of security…” a ruggedly-beautiful brunette gave the Doctor a wave. “And you are?”
“The Doctor, also a time-traveller, obviously; I’m a Time Lord, far more interesting than the hat-wearing bureaucrats that make up the rest of my species; this is Autumn Rivers, don’t let her near any sharp objects, and staring out of the window dejectedly is Lily-Rose, a space-nun who’s kept suspiciously quiet, and no, I don’t trust my women, but introductions over, I’ve got news.”
“For us?”
“Yes.” The Doctor looked the Captain in the eye, a grim look on his face. “You’re all going to die.”
The Doctor opened the door a crack further. White light reflected onto his face, and he raised an eyebrow. “We’re back at the start.”
“1985?” asked Autumn.
The Doctor shook his head mysteriously. “Oh, no – you won’t remember this one. But we’ve all been there at some point, when matter first came about, somehow. The earliest matter, in fact, before the Big Bang. Tiny atoms that will one day be our world, and us…”
He invited them out.
They stood on a platform that shook with each step. Autumn feared that the whole thing would collapse beneath them, and they’d be left plummeting into the darkness. In front of them was a large window, displaying a panorama of a glorious time: clouds of gas, spreading out and glowing under stars which were positioned like cosmological mood lights. Nebulas tumbled in the distance, changing shape constantly. It was like nothing Autumn had ever seen in years of drifting through space. The Doctor held out a hand, in his trademark I-took-you-here way.
“Welcome to the beginning of time.”
Lily-Rose’s eyes widened. “You can see the beauty of the Creator’s design here,” she murmured, her breath condensing on the glass.
“Which one of you is going to point out what’s wrong, then?” asked the Doctor, as on-the-ball as ever. He jumped, and the ship jolted with his landing. “We’re at the beginning of time, about-“he checked his watch – “six days in, roughly.”
Autumn looked around, realising, in complete confusion. “But… this is…”
“Civilisation, yes.” The Doctor nodded. “Intelligent civilisation.”
“Is this the Hunters’ ship?”
“No, of course not. Look at this! It’s ragtag; looks like a flat-pack spaceship.”
Right on cue, a door opened behind them, and a middle-aged, greying man in Dartmouth-green overalls stepped out followed by his crew, a disparate selection of humans befitting of the unstable ground they walked on. “How…”
“I’ll stop you right there,” interjected the Doctor. “Introductions, you first, as quickly as possible, Captain.”
“I… uh…” The Captain gathered himself. “Yes, sorry, I’m Captain Ruskwitz.” He shook the Doctor’s hand and gestured to the man behind him, a Spanish-looking, dark-haired young man who diverted Autumn’s attention. “This is Quinlan Velasco, second in command, and Dr Chuprov…” An older, mischievous-looking Russian grinned at the team. “He’s our chief scientist. And last of all, Dennie Vee, our head of security…” a ruggedly-beautiful brunette gave the Doctor a wave. “And you are?”
“The Doctor, also a time-traveller, obviously; I’m a Time Lord, far more interesting than the hat-wearing bureaucrats that make up the rest of my species; this is Autumn Rivers, don’t let her near any sharp objects, and staring out of the window dejectedly is Lily-Rose, a space-nun who’s kept suspiciously quiet, and no, I don’t trust my women, but introductions over, I’ve got news.”
“For us?”
“Yes.” The Doctor looked the Captain in the eye, a grim look on his face. “You’re all going to die.”
The Eighth Doctor Adventures
Series 1 - Episode 10
The Quest Through Time
Written by The Genie
“We need everyone to assemble together,” instructed the Doctor. “I’ll explain when I know everyone is in the same room, but for now anyone else is at risk. Captain.” He clicked his fingers. “Anyone else on-board?”
“Only Chot, the head of maintenance.”
“Small crew,” noted Autumn.
“Never mind,” said the Doctor, brushing it aside. “We need to find her. Take me to her quickly.”
“Why am I following your orders, ‘Doctor’?” asked the Captain. “This is my ship.”
“Captain,” replied Autumn, before the Doctor had a chance. “At the moment, I’d estimate you’ve got six minutes to live. One minute for them to find you, and another five for them to torment you. If you stick with the Doctor, you’ve got at least twenty, and he won’t let you suffer. Twenty minutes to act and to do everything useful you can with the rest of your life. Already we’re wasting time. In the minute we’ve spoken, they’ve found you. Would you like the torment to begin, or are you going to trust the hat-wearing bureaucrat?”
“I don’t wear hats,” argued the Doctor.
The Captain nodded, reluctant but resolute. “Okay, we play by your rules, but I want an explanation as soon as I can get one.”
“Let’s get Chot first,” decided the Doctor. “Then I’ll tell all.”
***
“Chot, come in,” spoke the Captain into the intercom. The corridors were as flat-pack as the rest of the ship; the railings unstable, and the floors rattling as they walked across them. The constant sound of a generator moaned over every conversation. The Captain kicked a wall, and Autumn wondered if his foot might go straight through it. “She should be here. And what’s that smell?”
Lily-Rose sniffed. “I’m sure I recognise it. It’s horrible.”
“The smells are constant here, apart from at this time of day, and this isn’t the usual,” warned Dennie. “Normally we can smell Chot cooking.”
“You still can.”
All eyes were on the Doctor, and the grave tone he’d spoken with.
“I’m sorry?” Dennie put her hands on her hips exhaustedly.
“No, I’m sorry. That’s what you can smell, right now. Chot’s cooking.”
“But I don’t… understand…”
But she did.
“Oh my God,” whispered the Captain.
Autumn turned to the Doctor, who nodded discreetly in response to her lip movements – “Human flesh?”
“Take me to the canteen,” said the Doctor, at last adding: “I can explain now.”
***
The canteen was the widest open space, but again, a hodgepodge of items that might have worked in their home environment – only together, resembled something of a car boot sale: park benches arranged around coffee tables; plates on computer desks, and kitchen cabinets dotted across the room. Thankfully, however, the sound of the generator was at least slightly reduced.
“We were chasing the Hunters of Andromeda,” explained the Doctor. “Ever heard of them?”
“No,” answered the Captain, “I think they’re a bit before our time.”
“You wouldn’t want to have. Expert killers; practically transcendental assassins, and to all intents and purposes, undefeatable. Shape-shifters, dimension-changers, element-manipulators – they have everything to their advantage. Perfectly-evolved, utterly ruthless, they’ve wiped out whole planets for undiscernible reasons.”
“And they’re here?” asked Dennie, her voice started to shake.
“We’ve chased them back to here, and this is the end of the line. There’s a way out for us but not for them. They can only go backwards.”
“And how exactly are you planning on stopping them?” The Captain was too overcome by astonishment at the Doctor’s lack of plan to experience fear.
“Unavoidably, they’ll end up trapped here, unless there’s a loophole. I need to stay here for a bit longer – I need to find their ship and fully deactivate it. I need to learn about your ship and cancel out any possibilities of moving into the future. Mine will be secure, and we can return together. I’ll need one night, that’s all, but your base is under siege. You all need to stay in the safest places you can. Have you got rooms?”
“Can’t they sleep in the TARDIS?” suggested Autumn.
“The TARDIS is under a perception filter. I don’t know how reliable it is, and drawing attention to it won’t help.”
“So we’re bait?” complained Dr Chuprov.
“That’s a strong word.”
“And we are weak team.” Chuprov had seen through the Doctor’s well-meaning façade.
“You have one night,” decided the Captain.
“But Captain-“
“Captain’s word is final,” stated Quinlan.
“We each have rooms,” said the Captain, leading them down a corridor. “All quite secure, or as safe as you can be from these Hunter things. We have one spare room and…” he thought, concentrating on some difficult decision. “Chot had a room. One of you can have that.”
“I’ll take Chot’s room,” volunteered Lily-Rose. “Autumn and the Doctor have known each other longer.”
There was no argument. People retreated into their rooms, preparing for the possibility of torment and death.
***
“So you’re going to leave in a minute? Go to the ship?” Autumn combed her hair in the battered surface that might have once been called a mirror. The Doctor was sat on the bed, hands-on-knees, deep in thought.
“I don’t know what to do,” said the Doctor. He thanked the sound of the generator, otherwise his confession would have left complete silence.
“What? No.” Autumn kept looking in the mirror, avoiding the Doctor’s visage in the understanding that seeing his face would make her realise that he was deadly serious.
“I thought this would be easy – a space-battle, or an early planet. I didn’t anticipate innocent people, or a place like this. I should have taken the crew to the TARDIS straight away, but we went looking for Chot…”
“We can go back,” assured Autumn, “back to the TARDIS.”
“The Hunters need the TARDIS now. We can’t risk it, Autumn; they’d follow us in. We need to find a way to kill them but I don’t know how. I’m lost.”
“Lily-Rose,” remarked Autumn. “She’s trained to kill them. She must have a few tricks up her sleeve, surely?”
“Yeah.” The Doctor stared at the wall.
“Listen to me.” Autumn crouched down and took firm hold of the Doctor’s shoulders, forcing him to look into her eyes. The Untempered Schism had nothing on them. “We are not giving up. You are not giving up. Not here, not now. We might die here, but we are not giving into those things. We will use every last scrap we have, and we will take every opportunity. Go down fighting, always.”
The Doctor rested his hand on top of Autumn’s. “Go down fighting,” he repeated. “That sounds like a plan.”
***
Lily-Rose carefully removed the device from her pocket, treating it with something between respect and caution. It was appropriately-heavy, primed and timed. She watched the counter ticking away. 59:23… 59:22…
“I was-“
The Doctor stopped as he entered, staring at the device. “I was just going to ask if you had any ideas. Lily-Rose, you’d better have a good reason for this.”
“I think a calling from the Creator stands as a reasonable excuse,” she retorted. “In just under an hour, this vessel will be completely torn apart by a small but fatal explosive device, in fulfilment with the Creator’s plan. These humans before their allocated time will be removed, and the universe will at last be rid of the Hunters of Andromeda.”
***
“Chuprov.”
Dr Chuprov shot out of bed, recognising the voice in an instant, and holding his head to the door.
“Chot! I thought you were dead!”
“Chuprov, those creatures took me, but I escaped…” Chuprov noticed she was crying. “I need you to come out and get me.”
“The Captain has said no one can leave their rooms.”
“But Chuprov… I thought you liked me…”
Chuprov hesitated as he held his hand to the door. I do like you…
***
“Come in.”
Dennie entered the Captain’s quarters, admiring the photographs of his family that were plastered to the walls. The Captain’s room was smaller than the rest.
“Captain, I was just checking security, and I’ve picked up a signal that I’m not liking the look of.”
“Those Hunter things?”
“No, sir. A bomb.”
***
“I couldn’t find Dr Chuprov,” said Quinlan, leaving the door to his room ajar. I don’t know where he’s gone.”
“Okay.” The Captain considered. “We need to find this bomb first. Dennie, get the door open.”
Dennie held a rusty metal gadget against the lock, tapping commands into it. They were breaking into their own base, and others had arrived before them. The Doctor stood calmly by the door, half-expecting their arrival, and Autumn held a blaster to Lily-Rose’s head as she held the bomb to her chest.
“What the hell is going on in here?!” exclaimed the Captain.
“Lily-Rose is doing something which she’s going to end up regretting!” snapped Autumn, holding her finger over the trigger. “I will shoot you.”
“Only my vocal command can deactivate the bomb. You’d be destroying the only chance you’ve got.”
“I could blast the bomb into a million pieces.”
“And risk the consequences? You don’t know how powerful it is, Autumn Rivers. But I’d like to see you try. Go on.”
“See, Doctor?” Autumn turned her head sharply to the Time Lord. “Faith isn’t a good thing. It’s a disease that spreads and kills, and the indoctrination seems strong on this one.”
“The Hunters of Andromeda threaten millions of lives across the galaxies, and now they’ve developed time travel, across all of time. They threaten history and the Creator’s plan. They must be stopped.” The others expected her hand to shake, but it didn’t. There was no fear in what she was doing.
“The quiet one,” teased Autumn. “The one who went ignored all the way here. Is this your plan? The silent martyr?”
“Autumn, stop it!” hissed the Doctor.
“Er, I’m sorry to interrupt…” The others turned to Quinlan, who bent down and lifted something shining off the floor. It was a ring; round and simple, but with traces of blood on the inside.
“Oh, God…” The Captain took the ring from him and handled it carefully. “No, they can’t have done. What kind of monster would do that?”
“Do what?” inquired Dennie. “Captain, what is it?”
The Captain looked to the Doctor for a sign of approval. The Doctor nodded. The Captain’s guess was right.
“Dr Chuprov is dead.”
No one could look each other in the eye.
“They removed his wedding ring. They shattered the last promise he ever made. He’ll never see them again, and they’ll never know.”
“I’m sorry,” said the Doctor. “I’m so sorry for what they’ve done to you, and I swear I am more determined than ever to stop them. But now it’s time you come clean with us – where can you come from that you’d all give up your families, and where a small, silver ring is the greatest sentimental value in the whole ship? Why are you really here?”
***
The team sat distanced across the canteen. The Doctor and the Captain sat on opposite benches, while Dennie and Quinlan were furthest away, sitting close together on two stools.
“We’re called the Last Chance Project,” explained the Captain. “We come from the future, and by that I mean the farthest future possible. The universe was falling apart. Galaxies collapsed into each other, civilisations crumbled, and our ancestors tried everything – terraforming, self-uploading, and the Utopia project – never found out what happened to that, by the way. In the end, they accepted their fates. Hundreds joined the Futurekind.” The Doctor didn’t know any of these strange new words, but could imagine what they might mean. “Others persevered and were rewarded for it. They reached a pocket of space, somehow untouched. A whole planet, green and luscious and warm, like Eden. A hundred years they spent there, until that began to collapse as well. We realised it wasn’t just space breaking down, but time itself. Things took longer to happen, words took longer to say. Moving in certain places was like walking in syrup – you had to be there to understand it.” He nodded to Quinlan, who understood it too well. “With time breaking down, we were able to manipulate it enough to create a rudimentary bit of time travel. Only enough to take us and this old ship back. We thought if we could return to the beginning of time, we could find a way of reversing the process. If time ends, then maybe it started. And maybe we could somehow extrapolate. But not anymore.” He held his hands together sadly. “Dr Chuprov was a genius, and he was our last hope.”
“So how did you all get here?” asked the Doctor. “All of you. Why you?”
“I lost my family in a natural disaster,” responded the Captain. “Time was slowing down around us and by the time they’d cried out my name and had been swept up by the current, I’d only just seen them arrive. I had nothing left apart from determination.”
It was Quinlan who responded next. “I was the Captain’s protégée. I met him on the Red Cliffs. We formed the expedition together.”
“Dr Chuprov left his wife and children behind in the hope that he could save them,” said Dennie. “Chot just wanted to do anything to escape.” She bowed her head.
“And you?”
“I was recruited,” admitted Dennie. “Nothing personal; I was just what was needed. I was told about the risks and I went.”
“The Hunters are playing games with us, even now,” revealed the Doctor. “But all of you, listen to me. They can’t play with your memories. They can’t go to the future – so they can’t change your past. Everything you stood for is still intact. The mission is not over, and I promise you, as long as we’re all here, I can offer you anything you need. We’ve just got to stick together.”
The rest of the team agreed, but were too solemn for anything more than a murmur.
Autumn approached Lily-Rose. “The vocal code, Lily. Look at these people. You’re not a killer. Give me the code.”
“They will all be rewarded after death.” Lily-Rose held the device behind her back. “As will you, through the mercy of the Creator.”
“Okay.” Autumn relaxed, backing away. “Okay. I’ll make you an offer you can’t refuse then. Doctor, you need to find the Hunters’ ship. It’s your only chance of stopping them. Take the team with you. I’ll stay here and persuade Lily-Rose.”
The Doctor dreaded what ‘persuade’ meant to Autumn Rivers, but didn’t have the time to argue. She was right, after all, as she always was.
“Let’s go.”
***
The team stopped at an archway at the end of a corridor. The Captain explained that it should have been a wall – a dead-end, at one end of the ship, but instead it was a menacing gateway. This was the Hunters’ ship, a vessel perhaps just as powerful and unpredictable as the Hunters themselves. The Doctor took a step closer and a swinging lantern fell off the wall and smashed, startling everyone.
“Hunters?” called the Doctor, his voice echoing along the corridor. Were they really gone?
“We…”
The Hunters spoke through the noise of the generator. The Doctor had now become accustomed to its constant murmuring, but suddenly it developed intonation. It thundered all around them, mocking apathetically. He wondered if the Hunters had been present the whole time.
“We always keep our promises.”
The Hunters had vowed that they would meet the Doctor again and destroy him.
“My people fought you and failed.” It almost sounded like the Doctor was starting with a surrender, but his tone quickly changed. “But they’re lazy and half-hearted. They’re not me. I am the essence of the Time Lord in the body of a madman. Leave these people alone – they will not be part of your – our – games.”
The generator buzzed for a few seconds before it answered. “We win.”
“Win?” The Doctor looked around. “Win what?”
“Our games.”
Another lantern dropped, this one above Quinlan. It smashed straight into his skull before the Doctor had time to stop it, and Quinlan dropped to the floor. Smashed glass fell through the floor’s grid, and blood splattered across the walls.
“Quinlan!” cried the Captain.
“I’m sorry, but there’s nothing we can do.” The Doctor held the Captain back. “We need to get back to Autumn.”
So they turned and ran, not noticing the dots of blood on the bottom of their legs and shoes – apart from the Doctor, who thought it kindness not to point them out.
***
Lily-Rose was clean; as clean as they’d left her. Her hair was neat, her face was unscathed, bones unbroken. But she’d been hurt, on a level that the Doctor could recognise. There was anguish in her eyes. She was tense. The Doctor had often suspected that Autumn knew where to apply the slightest pressure to cause the least visible injury and the most pain. But the timer ticked away; any grotesque efforts of persuasion had failed.
As the Captain followed the Doctor into the room, Dennie stopped underneath the archway.
“Did you hear that?” she asked.
“Hear what?”
“Something… creaking…”
She looked up, inspecting the brickwork of the arch and assessing its strength. Then it fell on her, some of the ship’s mechanism collapsing in with it; about a tonne of compressed weight, suspected the Captain. Enough to crush her into the floor.
“No!” roared the Captain. “No, no, no, Dennie!” He tried to pull her out of the wreckage. Only her legs had escaped, but they were firmly held in place. The Captain kept trying to pull her out, clawing desperately at her overalls. “Dennie, come back, Dennie…”
“I’m sorry, Captain, she’s dead.” The Doctor tried to help the Captain up but he refused the gesture. “If there was anything I could do, I swear…” The Doctor felt awful. The Hunters were better at keeping their promises that he was. They were better than him.
“Captain, get up,” instructed Autumn. The Doctor glared.
“No,” cried the Captain. “I’m not leaving her. I promised her dad… I promised…”
“Moping isn’t going to kill these things, and it isn’t going to bring her back.” Autumn forcefully and callously pulled the Captain away from the corpse. “Move – you’re coming with us, and we’re going to end this.”
The Doctor led the way back to the observation deck, Lily-Rose following closely behind, her device still ticking away. The observation deck was the same as they’d left it, and in his mind the Captain imagined his team following him through the way they were when they’d introduced themselves. Quinlan, faithful to the end. Dr Chuprov, wise beyond his years and funny through all of them. And Dennie, so beautiful and so natural.
“Tell me,” questioned Autumn, turning to Lily-Rose. “How do you have faith through all of this? How can you ever imagine that someone kind is doing this?”
“The Creator revealed himself to us, far in the future.” Lily-Rose perched on the wall, staring out at the forming cosmos. “We were given conclusive evidence of his existence. I’ve seen miracles.”
“Science.”
“Miracles. They were miracles. Science would never be that kind, but the Creator would. We saw a justice in everything, a natural moral order. Even now, there will be justice. Those things will be cast down to hell, and we will be rewarded in Elysium for allowing that.”
The Captain looked at his watch. “It’s nearly a new day. When we first met you, Doctor, you said everything would be finished by now.”
“The seventh day,” realised Lily-Rose. “It’s time for a rest.” She held her finger over the button.
“NO!” exclaimed Autumn. “Lily, don’t you dare. Lily, don’t!” She wanted to pull the device away, but realised that any rash movement would lead to the button being pressed. “Lily, please, I’m begging you. Lily!”
Lily pressed the button.
Autumn ran for the door but slipped and fell on the stair. As she climbed up, she realised – nothing was happening.
“Oh, no.” The Doctor clenched his fist.
“What?” Autumn smiled. “This is good, isn’t it? The bomb didn’t go off.”
“That’s because it wasn’t a bomb. It was never a bomb, it was a far worse weapon than that. It was a trigger.”
“What do you mean, a trigger?”
“Look at her. Autumn, look at her.”
Lily-Rose was frozen, not just apathetic as she normally was, but inhuman. Her eyes glowed a fierce, Satanic red, staring hatefully into the Doctor’s.
“She was a weapon of the Hunters the whole time. I should have realised – they anticipated all of this, and created her back in Greece with false memories. The bomb was her activation switch – she had to realise herself. Their chess-piece, and the last casualty they will ever have. I’ve given them so many chances.”
“Doctor, the TARDIS.” Autumn turned to the ship, aware of its presence. “The perception filter’s broken. And the door’s open.”
“Yes. They’re inside it now.” He returned his attention to Lily-Rose. “So, you’re a weapon, but look at you, you’re human. You had a mind, a personality, that you believed.”
“You will not stop the Hunters.” She still spoke with her own voice.
“The Hunters put memories in your mind, but they put something else in there too. They put the consequences of those memories.”
“You will all die.”
“Yes, in a minute, but wait…” He stared into her pupils. “I wonder if it’s still in there. Something deeper than any order – something that would override any other command. Do you still have faith?”
“Faith is irrelevant.”
The Doctor pulled a charm from around Lily-Rose’s neck. It was golden and star-shaped, with a red glowing crystal that matched her eyes.
“Dedicated the Creator. Sacred.” He pulled the sonic screwdriver out of his pocket and held it to the charm. “Let’s just destroy that then, since it’s irrelevant.”
Lily-Rose snatched it back. Her eyes were back to normal.
“I thought so.” The Doctor handed it over willingly. “They indoctrinated you too far.”
“They’re inside your ship,” observed Lily-Rose, her passion returning. “Now they’ve got control of time. I should have destroyed this place while I had the chance!”
The Doctor smiled.
Autumn watched the smile curiously. He’d smiled many times before. Sometimes it was sadly, accepting his failures. Sometimes it was jokily, sharing some whimsical past experience. But this smile was something worse – it was almost evil.
“My move,” he whispered. “I’ve been preparing for this one.”
The ship shook, and the lights went out – the only source of light now was the cosmos out of the window. Then another appeared, from within the TARDIS. It was a pure, heavenly white light that burned as it touched the skin. Autumn screamed. The Captain, exhausted, allowed it to. He found peace within the light. Autumn escaped it, banging on the window to find a way out of it. As she turned around, squinting, the Doctor’s silhouette eclipsed it.
In that moment, she was terrified of him.
Then he was gone, following a series of shadows. The shadows were clawed, bent over and desperate, moving like demons in the night. The door slammed shut. The buzz of the generator got louder and higher-pitched, until it screamed, and the ship continued to shake; lights flashed on and off, and booms sounded in the distance. Autumn realised she’d fallen onto Lily-Rose, who was now unconscious. The Captain propped himself up, in awe of the spectacle.
It was a minute before the screaming generator stopped, until it turned off for good, and the ship drifted silently through the night, dead, as the Doctor walked back through its corridors. They were inside a corpse.
“What… happened…” Autumn coughed and stood up, steadying herself up.
“The Hunters unlocked the heart of the TARDIS. It’s connected to me, because of the TARDIS’ psychic abilities. We’re kind of attuned to each other. I was in pain and desperate, and they were breaking the TARDIS. The connection snapped and bounced back onto them. My feelings and the TARDIS’ feelings – hatred on both accounts – was reflected through the time vortex. The TARDIS used time to put the fear of God into them, and they fled.”
“They fled because of you,” corrected Autumn. “I saw you and the way you chased after them. You were terrifying. Did you have any mercy?”
“Did you?” The Doctor pointed at some debris tumbling through space. “A bit of wreckage from this ship. The Hunters left a bit of a dent behind.”
“Where did they go?”
“They went further back, the only direction they could. They trapped themselves before time, in the never-space. They’ll be stuck there forever. Or for-never, if you like.”
“Justice,” said Autumn, looking down at Lily-Rose who was still sleeping. “But the Hunters? Scared?”
“The heart of the TARDIS has the power to change minds and hearts together.”
“So do you.”
Autumn noticed that the Captain had gone, probably to clear up some of the mess and inspect the ship. “So everything is doomed to collapse in the end?” She watched a cloud of pink gas passing by the window.
“I suppose it is. But even then, there are so many possibilities. There’s an endpoint of death, but look out there. Anything could happen.” The Doctor and Autumn were reflected back at themselves through the glass, but the cosmos also shone through. Their faces were a part of the forming universe. “It’s all in flux here. Our lives could go in different ways. Maybe that’s how infinity works – all those alternatives.” He lowered his voice sadly. “All the things I could have done differently.”
“You didn’t realise you were harbouring a weapon. Lily-Rose, I mean. How did you make that mistake so easily?”
“I was ignorant,” admitted the Doctor. “I didn’t give her enough thought. I can see anything if I want to – I’m just too self-absorbed to bother, sometimes. And speaking of flaws, you went to some lengths today. I almost expected better. Why?”
“Why was I so harsh on the Captain? Why was I so ruthless? So cold? Why did I go as far as torture? Do you really want to know?”
“Yes,” said the Doctor, sotto voce.
“I was scared.” Autumn collected herself. “I was so scared, Doctor. Not of suffering, or of being morally-corrupted, or any of the complex things you experience. I was just so scared of dying. Does that make me a bad person?”
“I don’t know,” replied the Doctor diplomatically, secretly wondering if it did.
The Doctor noticed the Captain in the reflection, still holding Dr Chuprov’s ring.
“I can give you a lift home,” offered the Doctor.
“A Captain goes down with his ship.”
“The ship’s going to go down slowly. It won’t be very pleasant.”
“That’s the way everything ends. I’ve seen it, remember? It just slows down, wearily, and sleeps. At least now I can watch it all starting around me.”
The Doctor respected the Captain’s decision, nodding, and led Autumn to the TARDIS. Once she was instead, he stepped half-in, and turned back to the Captain. “I’m sorry. I wish…” He swallowed. “I’m so sorry.”
“Just leave,” said the Captain, trying to hold back tears. “Please.” The Doctor stepped inside the TARDIS and shut the door, clenching his jaw. More regret. Meanwhile, the Captain stared out at the beginnings of the universe and leant against the wall. He was tired – in need of a long sleep.
The Church of St Ava
Even Autumn admired the Church, as she walked meekly through the ambulatory. It was distinctly Earth-influenced, very Renaissance, but with an element of the fantastic about it too. Candles drifted past, suspended in the air, and exotic birds flew from beam to beam; birds of all different colours, singing high-pitched hymns.
“We’ll take good care of her,” promised Sister Elora, a nun garbed in the same black dress and veil, but much older; in her sixties, the Doctor guessed.
“Thank you,” said the Doctor. “She’ll need a lot of changing – there are extreme views that need quietening down a bit, but I think there’s potential in there, and one helluva strong faith.”
“Oh, Doctor, it’s so good to see you again.”
“Sorry? Oh…” The Doctor rolled his eyes. “Time travel, of course. I look forward to the next time, then. Or the last time.”
“So the Hunters of Andromeda are really gone? No need for us to send any missionaries?”
“No, thankfully. Well, we can never be sure, but we can hope. The universe will be better without them.”
TARDIS – Console Room
A note had appeared on the TARDIS console, wedged between the time rotor and the console unit. The Doctor snatched it out, unfolding it. It was written in red pen and block capitals, and said only one word; a word capable of sending a shiver up his spine.
Repent.
“What’s that?” asked Autumn.
“Nothing.” The Doctor put it quickly on the bookshelf. “Just something from the Hunters, I think.”
The Church of St Ava flashed off the monitor, replaced randomly by the ship.
“Are we back?”
“No, I think the TARDIS is just malfunctioning. She has just been ripped open, after all.” The Doctor tried to calm her, but the monitor image changed again, this time to a snow-capped hill under a red-hue, and the edge of a mighty dome. That image flashed away too, and it was blank, for a moment, before another flashed up. This one was ordinary, but in a frightening, calm-before-storm way.
It was a village. A green field, and at the end of it, some cottages and a pathway. The whole thing was covered by a layer of mist.
“Why is there a village there? Doctor?”
The Doctor turned off the monitor, avoiding Autumn’s gaze.
“I’ll give her time to adjust.” He left in hurry, heading down a corridor and slamming the door behind him. Autumn remembered the place the Doctor had left the note and reached up, pulling it out from on top of the books it was balanced on. She unfolded it, studying it carefully.
Repent…
“Only Chot, the head of maintenance.”
“Small crew,” noted Autumn.
“Never mind,” said the Doctor, brushing it aside. “We need to find her. Take me to her quickly.”
“Why am I following your orders, ‘Doctor’?” asked the Captain. “This is my ship.”
“Captain,” replied Autumn, before the Doctor had a chance. “At the moment, I’d estimate you’ve got six minutes to live. One minute for them to find you, and another five for them to torment you. If you stick with the Doctor, you’ve got at least twenty, and he won’t let you suffer. Twenty minutes to act and to do everything useful you can with the rest of your life. Already we’re wasting time. In the minute we’ve spoken, they’ve found you. Would you like the torment to begin, or are you going to trust the hat-wearing bureaucrat?”
“I don’t wear hats,” argued the Doctor.
The Captain nodded, reluctant but resolute. “Okay, we play by your rules, but I want an explanation as soon as I can get one.”
“Let’s get Chot first,” decided the Doctor. “Then I’ll tell all.”
***
“Chot, come in,” spoke the Captain into the intercom. The corridors were as flat-pack as the rest of the ship; the railings unstable, and the floors rattling as they walked across them. The constant sound of a generator moaned over every conversation. The Captain kicked a wall, and Autumn wondered if his foot might go straight through it. “She should be here. And what’s that smell?”
Lily-Rose sniffed. “I’m sure I recognise it. It’s horrible.”
“The smells are constant here, apart from at this time of day, and this isn’t the usual,” warned Dennie. “Normally we can smell Chot cooking.”
“You still can.”
All eyes were on the Doctor, and the grave tone he’d spoken with.
“I’m sorry?” Dennie put her hands on her hips exhaustedly.
“No, I’m sorry. That’s what you can smell, right now. Chot’s cooking.”
“But I don’t… understand…”
But she did.
“Oh my God,” whispered the Captain.
Autumn turned to the Doctor, who nodded discreetly in response to her lip movements – “Human flesh?”
“Take me to the canteen,” said the Doctor, at last adding: “I can explain now.”
***
The canteen was the widest open space, but again, a hodgepodge of items that might have worked in their home environment – only together, resembled something of a car boot sale: park benches arranged around coffee tables; plates on computer desks, and kitchen cabinets dotted across the room. Thankfully, however, the sound of the generator was at least slightly reduced.
“We were chasing the Hunters of Andromeda,” explained the Doctor. “Ever heard of them?”
“No,” answered the Captain, “I think they’re a bit before our time.”
“You wouldn’t want to have. Expert killers; practically transcendental assassins, and to all intents and purposes, undefeatable. Shape-shifters, dimension-changers, element-manipulators – they have everything to their advantage. Perfectly-evolved, utterly ruthless, they’ve wiped out whole planets for undiscernible reasons.”
“And they’re here?” asked Dennie, her voice started to shake.
“We’ve chased them back to here, and this is the end of the line. There’s a way out for us but not for them. They can only go backwards.”
“And how exactly are you planning on stopping them?” The Captain was too overcome by astonishment at the Doctor’s lack of plan to experience fear.
“Unavoidably, they’ll end up trapped here, unless there’s a loophole. I need to stay here for a bit longer – I need to find their ship and fully deactivate it. I need to learn about your ship and cancel out any possibilities of moving into the future. Mine will be secure, and we can return together. I’ll need one night, that’s all, but your base is under siege. You all need to stay in the safest places you can. Have you got rooms?”
“Can’t they sleep in the TARDIS?” suggested Autumn.
“The TARDIS is under a perception filter. I don’t know how reliable it is, and drawing attention to it won’t help.”
“So we’re bait?” complained Dr Chuprov.
“That’s a strong word.”
“And we are weak team.” Chuprov had seen through the Doctor’s well-meaning façade.
“You have one night,” decided the Captain.
“But Captain-“
“Captain’s word is final,” stated Quinlan.
“We each have rooms,” said the Captain, leading them down a corridor. “All quite secure, or as safe as you can be from these Hunter things. We have one spare room and…” he thought, concentrating on some difficult decision. “Chot had a room. One of you can have that.”
“I’ll take Chot’s room,” volunteered Lily-Rose. “Autumn and the Doctor have known each other longer.”
There was no argument. People retreated into their rooms, preparing for the possibility of torment and death.
***
“So you’re going to leave in a minute? Go to the ship?” Autumn combed her hair in the battered surface that might have once been called a mirror. The Doctor was sat on the bed, hands-on-knees, deep in thought.
“I don’t know what to do,” said the Doctor. He thanked the sound of the generator, otherwise his confession would have left complete silence.
“What? No.” Autumn kept looking in the mirror, avoiding the Doctor’s visage in the understanding that seeing his face would make her realise that he was deadly serious.
“I thought this would be easy – a space-battle, or an early planet. I didn’t anticipate innocent people, or a place like this. I should have taken the crew to the TARDIS straight away, but we went looking for Chot…”
“We can go back,” assured Autumn, “back to the TARDIS.”
“The Hunters need the TARDIS now. We can’t risk it, Autumn; they’d follow us in. We need to find a way to kill them but I don’t know how. I’m lost.”
“Lily-Rose,” remarked Autumn. “She’s trained to kill them. She must have a few tricks up her sleeve, surely?”
“Yeah.” The Doctor stared at the wall.
“Listen to me.” Autumn crouched down and took firm hold of the Doctor’s shoulders, forcing him to look into her eyes. The Untempered Schism had nothing on them. “We are not giving up. You are not giving up. Not here, not now. We might die here, but we are not giving into those things. We will use every last scrap we have, and we will take every opportunity. Go down fighting, always.”
The Doctor rested his hand on top of Autumn’s. “Go down fighting,” he repeated. “That sounds like a plan.”
***
Lily-Rose carefully removed the device from her pocket, treating it with something between respect and caution. It was appropriately-heavy, primed and timed. She watched the counter ticking away. 59:23… 59:22…
“I was-“
The Doctor stopped as he entered, staring at the device. “I was just going to ask if you had any ideas. Lily-Rose, you’d better have a good reason for this.”
“I think a calling from the Creator stands as a reasonable excuse,” she retorted. “In just under an hour, this vessel will be completely torn apart by a small but fatal explosive device, in fulfilment with the Creator’s plan. These humans before their allocated time will be removed, and the universe will at last be rid of the Hunters of Andromeda.”
***
“Chuprov.”
Dr Chuprov shot out of bed, recognising the voice in an instant, and holding his head to the door.
“Chot! I thought you were dead!”
“Chuprov, those creatures took me, but I escaped…” Chuprov noticed she was crying. “I need you to come out and get me.”
“The Captain has said no one can leave their rooms.”
“But Chuprov… I thought you liked me…”
Chuprov hesitated as he held his hand to the door. I do like you…
***
“Come in.”
Dennie entered the Captain’s quarters, admiring the photographs of his family that were plastered to the walls. The Captain’s room was smaller than the rest.
“Captain, I was just checking security, and I’ve picked up a signal that I’m not liking the look of.”
“Those Hunter things?”
“No, sir. A bomb.”
***
“I couldn’t find Dr Chuprov,” said Quinlan, leaving the door to his room ajar. I don’t know where he’s gone.”
“Okay.” The Captain considered. “We need to find this bomb first. Dennie, get the door open.”
Dennie held a rusty metal gadget against the lock, tapping commands into it. They were breaking into their own base, and others had arrived before them. The Doctor stood calmly by the door, half-expecting their arrival, and Autumn held a blaster to Lily-Rose’s head as she held the bomb to her chest.
“What the hell is going on in here?!” exclaimed the Captain.
“Lily-Rose is doing something which she’s going to end up regretting!” snapped Autumn, holding her finger over the trigger. “I will shoot you.”
“Only my vocal command can deactivate the bomb. You’d be destroying the only chance you’ve got.”
“I could blast the bomb into a million pieces.”
“And risk the consequences? You don’t know how powerful it is, Autumn Rivers. But I’d like to see you try. Go on.”
“See, Doctor?” Autumn turned her head sharply to the Time Lord. “Faith isn’t a good thing. It’s a disease that spreads and kills, and the indoctrination seems strong on this one.”
“The Hunters of Andromeda threaten millions of lives across the galaxies, and now they’ve developed time travel, across all of time. They threaten history and the Creator’s plan. They must be stopped.” The others expected her hand to shake, but it didn’t. There was no fear in what she was doing.
“The quiet one,” teased Autumn. “The one who went ignored all the way here. Is this your plan? The silent martyr?”
“Autumn, stop it!” hissed the Doctor.
“Er, I’m sorry to interrupt…” The others turned to Quinlan, who bent down and lifted something shining off the floor. It was a ring; round and simple, but with traces of blood on the inside.
“Oh, God…” The Captain took the ring from him and handled it carefully. “No, they can’t have done. What kind of monster would do that?”
“Do what?” inquired Dennie. “Captain, what is it?”
The Captain looked to the Doctor for a sign of approval. The Doctor nodded. The Captain’s guess was right.
“Dr Chuprov is dead.”
No one could look each other in the eye.
“They removed his wedding ring. They shattered the last promise he ever made. He’ll never see them again, and they’ll never know.”
“I’m sorry,” said the Doctor. “I’m so sorry for what they’ve done to you, and I swear I am more determined than ever to stop them. But now it’s time you come clean with us – where can you come from that you’d all give up your families, and where a small, silver ring is the greatest sentimental value in the whole ship? Why are you really here?”
***
The team sat distanced across the canteen. The Doctor and the Captain sat on opposite benches, while Dennie and Quinlan were furthest away, sitting close together on two stools.
“We’re called the Last Chance Project,” explained the Captain. “We come from the future, and by that I mean the farthest future possible. The universe was falling apart. Galaxies collapsed into each other, civilisations crumbled, and our ancestors tried everything – terraforming, self-uploading, and the Utopia project – never found out what happened to that, by the way. In the end, they accepted their fates. Hundreds joined the Futurekind.” The Doctor didn’t know any of these strange new words, but could imagine what they might mean. “Others persevered and were rewarded for it. They reached a pocket of space, somehow untouched. A whole planet, green and luscious and warm, like Eden. A hundred years they spent there, until that began to collapse as well. We realised it wasn’t just space breaking down, but time itself. Things took longer to happen, words took longer to say. Moving in certain places was like walking in syrup – you had to be there to understand it.” He nodded to Quinlan, who understood it too well. “With time breaking down, we were able to manipulate it enough to create a rudimentary bit of time travel. Only enough to take us and this old ship back. We thought if we could return to the beginning of time, we could find a way of reversing the process. If time ends, then maybe it started. And maybe we could somehow extrapolate. But not anymore.” He held his hands together sadly. “Dr Chuprov was a genius, and he was our last hope.”
“So how did you all get here?” asked the Doctor. “All of you. Why you?”
“I lost my family in a natural disaster,” responded the Captain. “Time was slowing down around us and by the time they’d cried out my name and had been swept up by the current, I’d only just seen them arrive. I had nothing left apart from determination.”
It was Quinlan who responded next. “I was the Captain’s protégée. I met him on the Red Cliffs. We formed the expedition together.”
“Dr Chuprov left his wife and children behind in the hope that he could save them,” said Dennie. “Chot just wanted to do anything to escape.” She bowed her head.
“And you?”
“I was recruited,” admitted Dennie. “Nothing personal; I was just what was needed. I was told about the risks and I went.”
“The Hunters are playing games with us, even now,” revealed the Doctor. “But all of you, listen to me. They can’t play with your memories. They can’t go to the future – so they can’t change your past. Everything you stood for is still intact. The mission is not over, and I promise you, as long as we’re all here, I can offer you anything you need. We’ve just got to stick together.”
The rest of the team agreed, but were too solemn for anything more than a murmur.
Autumn approached Lily-Rose. “The vocal code, Lily. Look at these people. You’re not a killer. Give me the code.”
“They will all be rewarded after death.” Lily-Rose held the device behind her back. “As will you, through the mercy of the Creator.”
“Okay.” Autumn relaxed, backing away. “Okay. I’ll make you an offer you can’t refuse then. Doctor, you need to find the Hunters’ ship. It’s your only chance of stopping them. Take the team with you. I’ll stay here and persuade Lily-Rose.”
The Doctor dreaded what ‘persuade’ meant to Autumn Rivers, but didn’t have the time to argue. She was right, after all, as she always was.
“Let’s go.”
***
The team stopped at an archway at the end of a corridor. The Captain explained that it should have been a wall – a dead-end, at one end of the ship, but instead it was a menacing gateway. This was the Hunters’ ship, a vessel perhaps just as powerful and unpredictable as the Hunters themselves. The Doctor took a step closer and a swinging lantern fell off the wall and smashed, startling everyone.
“Hunters?” called the Doctor, his voice echoing along the corridor. Were they really gone?
“We…”
The Hunters spoke through the noise of the generator. The Doctor had now become accustomed to its constant murmuring, but suddenly it developed intonation. It thundered all around them, mocking apathetically. He wondered if the Hunters had been present the whole time.
“We always keep our promises.”
The Hunters had vowed that they would meet the Doctor again and destroy him.
“My people fought you and failed.” It almost sounded like the Doctor was starting with a surrender, but his tone quickly changed. “But they’re lazy and half-hearted. They’re not me. I am the essence of the Time Lord in the body of a madman. Leave these people alone – they will not be part of your – our – games.”
The generator buzzed for a few seconds before it answered. “We win.”
“Win?” The Doctor looked around. “Win what?”
“Our games.”
Another lantern dropped, this one above Quinlan. It smashed straight into his skull before the Doctor had time to stop it, and Quinlan dropped to the floor. Smashed glass fell through the floor’s grid, and blood splattered across the walls.
“Quinlan!” cried the Captain.
“I’m sorry, but there’s nothing we can do.” The Doctor held the Captain back. “We need to get back to Autumn.”
So they turned and ran, not noticing the dots of blood on the bottom of their legs and shoes – apart from the Doctor, who thought it kindness not to point them out.
***
Lily-Rose was clean; as clean as they’d left her. Her hair was neat, her face was unscathed, bones unbroken. But she’d been hurt, on a level that the Doctor could recognise. There was anguish in her eyes. She was tense. The Doctor had often suspected that Autumn knew where to apply the slightest pressure to cause the least visible injury and the most pain. But the timer ticked away; any grotesque efforts of persuasion had failed.
As the Captain followed the Doctor into the room, Dennie stopped underneath the archway.
“Did you hear that?” she asked.
“Hear what?”
“Something… creaking…”
She looked up, inspecting the brickwork of the arch and assessing its strength. Then it fell on her, some of the ship’s mechanism collapsing in with it; about a tonne of compressed weight, suspected the Captain. Enough to crush her into the floor.
“No!” roared the Captain. “No, no, no, Dennie!” He tried to pull her out of the wreckage. Only her legs had escaped, but they were firmly held in place. The Captain kept trying to pull her out, clawing desperately at her overalls. “Dennie, come back, Dennie…”
“I’m sorry, Captain, she’s dead.” The Doctor tried to help the Captain up but he refused the gesture. “If there was anything I could do, I swear…” The Doctor felt awful. The Hunters were better at keeping their promises that he was. They were better than him.
“Captain, get up,” instructed Autumn. The Doctor glared.
“No,” cried the Captain. “I’m not leaving her. I promised her dad… I promised…”
“Moping isn’t going to kill these things, and it isn’t going to bring her back.” Autumn forcefully and callously pulled the Captain away from the corpse. “Move – you’re coming with us, and we’re going to end this.”
The Doctor led the way back to the observation deck, Lily-Rose following closely behind, her device still ticking away. The observation deck was the same as they’d left it, and in his mind the Captain imagined his team following him through the way they were when they’d introduced themselves. Quinlan, faithful to the end. Dr Chuprov, wise beyond his years and funny through all of them. And Dennie, so beautiful and so natural.
“Tell me,” questioned Autumn, turning to Lily-Rose. “How do you have faith through all of this? How can you ever imagine that someone kind is doing this?”
“The Creator revealed himself to us, far in the future.” Lily-Rose perched on the wall, staring out at the forming cosmos. “We were given conclusive evidence of his existence. I’ve seen miracles.”
“Science.”
“Miracles. They were miracles. Science would never be that kind, but the Creator would. We saw a justice in everything, a natural moral order. Even now, there will be justice. Those things will be cast down to hell, and we will be rewarded in Elysium for allowing that.”
The Captain looked at his watch. “It’s nearly a new day. When we first met you, Doctor, you said everything would be finished by now.”
“The seventh day,” realised Lily-Rose. “It’s time for a rest.” She held her finger over the button.
“NO!” exclaimed Autumn. “Lily, don’t you dare. Lily, don’t!” She wanted to pull the device away, but realised that any rash movement would lead to the button being pressed. “Lily, please, I’m begging you. Lily!”
Lily pressed the button.
Autumn ran for the door but slipped and fell on the stair. As she climbed up, she realised – nothing was happening.
“Oh, no.” The Doctor clenched his fist.
“What?” Autumn smiled. “This is good, isn’t it? The bomb didn’t go off.”
“That’s because it wasn’t a bomb. It was never a bomb, it was a far worse weapon than that. It was a trigger.”
“What do you mean, a trigger?”
“Look at her. Autumn, look at her.”
Lily-Rose was frozen, not just apathetic as she normally was, but inhuman. Her eyes glowed a fierce, Satanic red, staring hatefully into the Doctor’s.
“She was a weapon of the Hunters the whole time. I should have realised – they anticipated all of this, and created her back in Greece with false memories. The bomb was her activation switch – she had to realise herself. Their chess-piece, and the last casualty they will ever have. I’ve given them so many chances.”
“Doctor, the TARDIS.” Autumn turned to the ship, aware of its presence. “The perception filter’s broken. And the door’s open.”
“Yes. They’re inside it now.” He returned his attention to Lily-Rose. “So, you’re a weapon, but look at you, you’re human. You had a mind, a personality, that you believed.”
“You will not stop the Hunters.” She still spoke with her own voice.
“The Hunters put memories in your mind, but they put something else in there too. They put the consequences of those memories.”
“You will all die.”
“Yes, in a minute, but wait…” He stared into her pupils. “I wonder if it’s still in there. Something deeper than any order – something that would override any other command. Do you still have faith?”
“Faith is irrelevant.”
The Doctor pulled a charm from around Lily-Rose’s neck. It was golden and star-shaped, with a red glowing crystal that matched her eyes.
“Dedicated the Creator. Sacred.” He pulled the sonic screwdriver out of his pocket and held it to the charm. “Let’s just destroy that then, since it’s irrelevant.”
Lily-Rose snatched it back. Her eyes were back to normal.
“I thought so.” The Doctor handed it over willingly. “They indoctrinated you too far.”
“They’re inside your ship,” observed Lily-Rose, her passion returning. “Now they’ve got control of time. I should have destroyed this place while I had the chance!”
The Doctor smiled.
Autumn watched the smile curiously. He’d smiled many times before. Sometimes it was sadly, accepting his failures. Sometimes it was jokily, sharing some whimsical past experience. But this smile was something worse – it was almost evil.
“My move,” he whispered. “I’ve been preparing for this one.”
The ship shook, and the lights went out – the only source of light now was the cosmos out of the window. Then another appeared, from within the TARDIS. It was a pure, heavenly white light that burned as it touched the skin. Autumn screamed. The Captain, exhausted, allowed it to. He found peace within the light. Autumn escaped it, banging on the window to find a way out of it. As she turned around, squinting, the Doctor’s silhouette eclipsed it.
In that moment, she was terrified of him.
Then he was gone, following a series of shadows. The shadows were clawed, bent over and desperate, moving like demons in the night. The door slammed shut. The buzz of the generator got louder and higher-pitched, until it screamed, and the ship continued to shake; lights flashed on and off, and booms sounded in the distance. Autumn realised she’d fallen onto Lily-Rose, who was now unconscious. The Captain propped himself up, in awe of the spectacle.
It was a minute before the screaming generator stopped, until it turned off for good, and the ship drifted silently through the night, dead, as the Doctor walked back through its corridors. They were inside a corpse.
“What… happened…” Autumn coughed and stood up, steadying herself up.
“The Hunters unlocked the heart of the TARDIS. It’s connected to me, because of the TARDIS’ psychic abilities. We’re kind of attuned to each other. I was in pain and desperate, and they were breaking the TARDIS. The connection snapped and bounced back onto them. My feelings and the TARDIS’ feelings – hatred on both accounts – was reflected through the time vortex. The TARDIS used time to put the fear of God into them, and they fled.”
“They fled because of you,” corrected Autumn. “I saw you and the way you chased after them. You were terrifying. Did you have any mercy?”
“Did you?” The Doctor pointed at some debris tumbling through space. “A bit of wreckage from this ship. The Hunters left a bit of a dent behind.”
“Where did they go?”
“They went further back, the only direction they could. They trapped themselves before time, in the never-space. They’ll be stuck there forever. Or for-never, if you like.”
“Justice,” said Autumn, looking down at Lily-Rose who was still sleeping. “But the Hunters? Scared?”
“The heart of the TARDIS has the power to change minds and hearts together.”
“So do you.”
Autumn noticed that the Captain had gone, probably to clear up some of the mess and inspect the ship. “So everything is doomed to collapse in the end?” She watched a cloud of pink gas passing by the window.
“I suppose it is. But even then, there are so many possibilities. There’s an endpoint of death, but look out there. Anything could happen.” The Doctor and Autumn were reflected back at themselves through the glass, but the cosmos also shone through. Their faces were a part of the forming universe. “It’s all in flux here. Our lives could go in different ways. Maybe that’s how infinity works – all those alternatives.” He lowered his voice sadly. “All the things I could have done differently.”
“You didn’t realise you were harbouring a weapon. Lily-Rose, I mean. How did you make that mistake so easily?”
“I was ignorant,” admitted the Doctor. “I didn’t give her enough thought. I can see anything if I want to – I’m just too self-absorbed to bother, sometimes. And speaking of flaws, you went to some lengths today. I almost expected better. Why?”
“Why was I so harsh on the Captain? Why was I so ruthless? So cold? Why did I go as far as torture? Do you really want to know?”
“Yes,” said the Doctor, sotto voce.
“I was scared.” Autumn collected herself. “I was so scared, Doctor. Not of suffering, or of being morally-corrupted, or any of the complex things you experience. I was just so scared of dying. Does that make me a bad person?”
“I don’t know,” replied the Doctor diplomatically, secretly wondering if it did.
The Doctor noticed the Captain in the reflection, still holding Dr Chuprov’s ring.
“I can give you a lift home,” offered the Doctor.
“A Captain goes down with his ship.”
“The ship’s going to go down slowly. It won’t be very pleasant.”
“That’s the way everything ends. I’ve seen it, remember? It just slows down, wearily, and sleeps. At least now I can watch it all starting around me.”
The Doctor respected the Captain’s decision, nodding, and led Autumn to the TARDIS. Once she was instead, he stepped half-in, and turned back to the Captain. “I’m sorry. I wish…” He swallowed. “I’m so sorry.”
“Just leave,” said the Captain, trying to hold back tears. “Please.” The Doctor stepped inside the TARDIS and shut the door, clenching his jaw. More regret. Meanwhile, the Captain stared out at the beginnings of the universe and leant against the wall. He was tired – in need of a long sleep.
The Church of St Ava
Even Autumn admired the Church, as she walked meekly through the ambulatory. It was distinctly Earth-influenced, very Renaissance, but with an element of the fantastic about it too. Candles drifted past, suspended in the air, and exotic birds flew from beam to beam; birds of all different colours, singing high-pitched hymns.
“We’ll take good care of her,” promised Sister Elora, a nun garbed in the same black dress and veil, but much older; in her sixties, the Doctor guessed.
“Thank you,” said the Doctor. “She’ll need a lot of changing – there are extreme views that need quietening down a bit, but I think there’s potential in there, and one helluva strong faith.”
“Oh, Doctor, it’s so good to see you again.”
“Sorry? Oh…” The Doctor rolled his eyes. “Time travel, of course. I look forward to the next time, then. Or the last time.”
“So the Hunters of Andromeda are really gone? No need for us to send any missionaries?”
“No, thankfully. Well, we can never be sure, but we can hope. The universe will be better without them.”
TARDIS – Console Room
A note had appeared on the TARDIS console, wedged between the time rotor and the console unit. The Doctor snatched it out, unfolding it. It was written in red pen and block capitals, and said only one word; a word capable of sending a shiver up his spine.
Repent.
“What’s that?” asked Autumn.
“Nothing.” The Doctor put it quickly on the bookshelf. “Just something from the Hunters, I think.”
The Church of St Ava flashed off the monitor, replaced randomly by the ship.
“Are we back?”
“No, I think the TARDIS is just malfunctioning. She has just been ripped open, after all.” The Doctor tried to calm her, but the monitor image changed again, this time to a snow-capped hill under a red-hue, and the edge of a mighty dome. That image flashed away too, and it was blank, for a moment, before another flashed up. This one was ordinary, but in a frightening, calm-before-storm way.
It was a village. A green field, and at the end of it, some cottages and a pathway. The whole thing was covered by a layer of mist.
“Why is there a village there? Doctor?”
The Doctor turned off the monitor, avoiding Autumn’s gaze.
“I’ll give her time to adjust.” He left in hurry, heading down a corridor and slamming the door behind him. Autumn remembered the place the Doctor had left the note and reached up, pulling it out from on top of the books it was balanced on. She unfolded it, studying it carefully.
Repent…
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Next Time
A Village Called Nothing
An ordinary English village is secluded from the rest of the world. As the Window-Man makes more frequent appearances, and a scientific dig brings about some alarming results, the villagers begin to wonder if there's something far more sinister at work in their lives. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Autumn are being blackmailed. Episode list: 1. The Time Museum 2. The Adulteress and Her Doctor 3. Peacepoint 4. Earthstop 5. Sunset Forever 6. The Planet Makers 7. Who Watches The Watchmen? 8. The Anger Games 9. Extinction 10. The Quest Through Time 11. A Village Called Nothing 12. Bigger on the Inside 13. Extermination of the Daleks |