Three dragon-like creatures stepped softly through the forest. They had been sent to gather food for the group, but they knew that if they dared to make a sound, the colonists would catch them. One of the colonists, a female child about the age of eleven, spotted them. This female child was blue-eyed and had long, blonde hair somewhere between wavy and curly, and something inquisitive and innocent about her face.

"Father!" she exclaimed, attracting the attention of a nearby tall, athletic man. He was also the leader of the small colony.

"Father!" the young girl repeated. "Look over there!"

The colony's leader looked in the direction his daughter pointed, and saw shades of purple amongst the greenery.

"They look famished," the girl decided, continuing to look at the shades of purple.

"They do, Olivia," the father agreed. He took his daughter's word for it. "You there!" he yelled at some guards that (inexplicably) accompanied them. "You see those beasts over there?" He pointed through the trees at the purple shadows. "Take them back to the dome."


Not far away, an insanely young female scientist typed diligently at a large computer. This was Elissa, a dark-haired girl who was one of many young people chosen to carry out simplistic tasks in the colony – a colony which, thanks to that policy, was now 75 made up of people between the ages of thirteen and twenty-five. Elissa herself was sixteen.

Elissa looked up as a purple dragon was brought in by a team of six guards, on a stretcher. Of course, 'purple dragon' was hardly the proper term for them – they had been termed the Niagorn.

"Is he injured?" Elissa asked immediately.

All the six guards shook their head rapidly, and one replied, "no, Miss Castle. Just hungry."

Elissa glared at the six men. "What am I meant to do about it?" she inquired. "The only thing Holmes'll spare me is milk. That's not even a food. Besides, it's clearly obvious that..."

"It's not our fault, miss," the same guard protested. Elissa was a rather intimidating sixteen year old. "Holmes's orders were that you were to feed the thing and let it go before it gets too dark."

The young scientist visibly stiffened, but the troop of guards stomped out before she had a chance to yell at them. Elissa turned around to see that the creature had opened its eyes, but was apparently unable to move. Elissa couldn't understand why, and thought maybe the idiotic guards had used a tranquilliser on it.

"Please don't panic," she cooed gently. "I won't hurt you."

Elissa didn't try to touch the creature, and realised that due to the language barrier, not to mention the fact that it was an alien creature, her gentle words were being lost on it anyway. She retrieved a bowl from a nearby table, but instead of crossing to the table for milk, she crossed to the sink. She filled the bowl with water, and returned to the perfectly still Niagorn.

"Really, I won't hurt you," she assured the beast, despite the fact that it wouldn't understand her. "Here – water. You won't get sick from this stuff."


As the sun faded into the sky, eleven-year-old Olivia stared languidly out of her bedroom window. From it, she could see two of the three moons around the planet, named Hope and Charity by the humans. Faith could be seen from her window at a different time – not sunset. She was interrupted by a welcome knock on her door. She turned her blue eyes away from they rapidly appearing moons and towards her door.

"Come in," she called. The door slid away to reveal Elissa. Unusually, Elissa and Olivia had become good friends despite the five-year age difference. Elissa sometimes rather mothered Olivia, as Olivia's real mother was still on Earth.

"Your father," Elissa began, "is a raving lunatic."

Olivia rolled her eyes. It was common knowledge that Elissa liked arguing and complaining for no reason, and even more common reason that when Elissa actually had a reason to complain, it was usually to do with Olivia's father and the colony's leader: Aaron Holmes.

"What's he done now?" Olivia asked wearily. Maybe staring at Hope and Charity hadn't been so boring.

"He left instructions that the captive Niagorn was to be fed only milk!"

"Oh," Olivia replied. Complaining for no reason, as usual. "He did look hungry."

"Milk isn't even a food!" Elissa yelled.

"Oh yeah," Olivia replied vaguely. "I still think captive's a bit harsh, Elissa."

"Fine then. Victims."

"That's even more harsh, you know."

"Is it? Those bumbling guards used their tranquillising guns on the poor thing. Terrified it half to death, I should think. And all they'll spare to it, when it wakes, is milk! Haven't they noticed how ill they become?"

"Why are you asking me?" Olivia inquired. "I've only ever seen them from a distance."

"But even from a distance it's painfully obvious..." Elissa stopped ranting and turned to the eleven-year-old. "Come with me," she said. "I didn't give the latest one milk, but the tranquilliser's still rather in effect. I'll show you."

"But it's dark out," Olivia protested. "Father'd kill me if..."

Elissa smiled vaguely and recited a rule. "Children at the age of twelve or younger may only leave the dome during the night if accompanied by someone older than that age, and for a maximum time of twenty minutes."

Olivia made a resigned face. "All right," she grumbled. "Where are we going?"


"I don't understand," Elissa muttered. "It was perfectly still when I left it here, and that was ten minutes ago. Moved only when I moved it."

Olivia couldn't quite understand the implications. "Do you mean we have to follow it?" she whimpered.

"The Niagon might not be safe," Elissa replied. "Of course we have to."

Olivia scowled. "It's dark, it's cold..."

"No it isn't. It's still eighteen degrees."

"It's still dark," Olivia argued. "Besides, I'm only allowed out here for twenty minutes."

"It can't have lumbered so far," Elissa told the younger girl impatiently. "We'll be back at the dome in good time."

"All right," Olivia said resignedly, following Elissa through the dark wood. You would have thought that with three moons there's be thrice as much moonlight, but there wasn't...

Several minutes in, a bunch of shadows suddenly descended from the trees and surrounded them. To the casual listener what ensued sounded like a bunch of growling and snarling, but Elissa realised the growls and snarls varied quite rapidly in pitch and volume, and it occurred to her that the Niagorn – always dismissed as stupid animals – were actually comparable to land-dwelling dolphins, if such things existed.

Which meant that, if the Niagorn had a language, the two Terran girls were in trouble.


The Doctor stood at his white control panel, staring at various instruments and readings. This Doctor had a mop of curly hair, a multicoloured, six-metre long scarf and a grey jacket. Astonishingly, it wasn't even cold.

On the other side of the control panel, there stood a brunette, tanned girl wearing dark animal skins. She had blue eyes and an impatient stare on her face. This was Leela.

There was one more animate object in this room: a robot dog, about half a metre high, named K9. He was noisy and broke down a lot – but he was sometimes very useful.

"Where are we going?" Leela asked the Doctor.

"Ganda Delta," the Doctor told Leela.

"Oh," Leela replied, none the wiser. "When will we get there?"

The Doctor shrugged. "About... thirty seconds or so..."

"Then it is not far away," Leela surmised. "Is Ganda Delta a nice planet?"

"It's not a planet," the Doctor grinned. "It's a living moon. Ganda itself is a planet of liquid water – not habitable – but its fourth moon is."

Leela blinked. "Is Ganda Delta a nice moon, then?"

"Oh, yes," the Doctor replied. "Sunny... peaceful... just about the size of Earth..."

"So there are no monsters?" Leela queried.

"No, no monsters..." the Doctor frowned suddenly. "You don't want to find monsters, do you Leela?"

Leela was saved from answering by the shudder of the TARDIS as it landed – on Ganda Delta, if all went well.

The Doctor and Leela stepped outside the TARDIS, closing the door behind them. They were surrounded by lush, green forest. Rays of sunlight filtered in through the thick canopy.

"Isn't this a lovely place?" the Doctor beamed.

Leela stared. "There's no one here," she commented.

"Well, you have to find them first," the Doctor explained. "I wonder if we're in the right time to see Tiffany..."

"Tiffany?" Leela asked. "Who is Tiffany?"

The Doctor ignored Leela. "Oh, I haven't seen her in the longest time... I wonder if she'd recognise me..."

"Why would Tiffany not recognise you?" Leela asked, puzzled.

"Oh, well, I've changed my appearance a bit since then," the Doctor mused. "Recoloured and curled my hair, gained dress sense... that kind of thing..."

Leela didn't think he could have gained dress sense, judging by what he was wearing, but didn't say so.

"Where will this Tiffany's tribe be?"

Unknown to the Doctor or Leela, they were not on Ganda Delta at all.