"Whatever's inside her... it's brand new. It's fascinating."

Oh, but I'm not new. I'm older than you. Older than any of your race.

"I'm trying to understand. You've captured my speech, what for? What do you need?"

As if you could ever even comprehend what I need, Doctor. Oh, I know you. Tales of you reach the furthest planets in the most exiled solar system.

"You need my voice in particular. The cleverest voice in the room."

You think you're so clever. So, so clever. Did it ever occur to you that I'm cleverer than you. You won't beat me once. And if I am ever beaten by anyone, I will come back. I always do.

"Allons-y!"

Yes, Doctor. Let's go. I'm falling, Doctor. Back to where I came from because of some stupid hostess. But I'll be back. I promise you that, Doctor. I'll be back.

Katherine woke up with a headache.

"Oh, god, you know a bad day when you wake up feeling like someone's driven a fork into your brain," she muttered bad-temperedly.

"You getting up?" her dad asked, poking his head around the door.

"Yes," she groaned in reply. "I'm getting there. But I'm a moody teenager, dad. Give me a break." She rolled over. "You can go now."

Her dad chuckled. "Okay, Kathy. I'll leave you to it."

"And my name's not Kathy!" Katherine called at the closed door after he'd left. "You gave me the name Katherine, you might as well stick to it!"

She heard him laugh through the wall.

She sighed and sat up, rubbing sleep from her eyes. "I have a feeling," she mused to herself, putting on her glasses, "that today is going to be a bad day."

It was.

She dropped her bag in the road on the way to school and it got run over.

She fell down the stairs at school. (Admittedly she was unscathed but it still annoyed her.)

She landed in a pile of dog poo during Games on a muddy field.

And then when she got home she found out that a bunch of her obscure relatives on her mother's side had died. She'd never met them, but it wasn't exactly the cherry on the cake.

"You okay?" her mum asked that evening as she picked unenthusiastically at her pasta that dinner.

Katherine shrugged. "Probably."

Her dad rolled his eyes and placed a hand over one side of his mouth as he stage-whispered to Katherine's mum, "It's fine. She's a moody teenager, she told me herself."

Katherine prodded him with her fork. "Thanks, dad."

He grinned. "I remember being a teenager. Never sat with my parents on buses or anything. They always used to say 'Jethro! Come over here and sit with us! You're being ridiculous!'"

"Jethro?" Katherine asked, frowning. "Your name's Oliver."

He blinked and smiled. "So it is. No, they always used to call me Jethro. Never could figure out why."

Katherine snorted. "Wow. Sounds like the kind of name you get in the future."

Katherine's dad frowned. "Suppose it does. A bit. A little. Not much, really."

Katherine stared at him. "Okaay."

And soon she was in bed, barely knowing where the day had gone, just knowing that the day had indeed been terrible, and she wished that that sound of rusty engines would stop.

Rusty engines... following her.

Everywhere she went. Rusty engines. Every now and again, that same sound. It was getting on her nerves and every time she heard it she immediately got irritated at whoever she was talking to. Then when she asked if they'd heard it, they looked at her as if she'd gone mad. Maybe she had.

But no. This time... this time was different. It was closer, somehow. And she had time. School had ended slightly early because her Maths teacher had had a heart attack, or some variation thereupon.

Not that she particularly minded. She didn't like him much anyway. And they said he was going to be fine.

So she followed the rusty engines, as they'd been doing to her. She crept down various back alleys, the noise getting louder and louder each time.

And then she turned a corner to a dead end. This was the source of the noise, she was sure of it. But it had stopped now. All she could see were a couple of skips and the roof of something blue and box-like in shape behind them.

She shook her head. Life is full of disappointments.

But she knew that there was something different. Something. She couldn't put her finger on it, but something.

She whirled around in circles, trying to figure out what it was that was making the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.

Nothing. The skips, the blue box, and a cracked mirror lying on its side in the dirt. She grimaced as she edged towards the mirror and the smell of the skips hit her. Someone had put something nasty in there. A dead body perhaps. Or an illegal range of counterfeit meats that had nearly been discovered by the police. You know. Something like that.

"Is there somebody there?" she croaked, not realising how her voice had suddenly dissipated.

"Yes."

She nearly screamed and pressed a hand to her heart as she saw a man in a pinstriped suit and a big coat standing by the skips, holding his nose.

"You nearly gave me a freaking heart attack!" she cried, gasping for breath.

He smiled. "Sorry about that. Who are you looking for?"

Katherine shook her head, rubbing her arm sheepishly. "Not who. I just thought that there must be somebody here. I... keep hearing this noise. Like rusty engines. It was just close this time."

He frowned, taking his hand off his nose. "Keep hearing?"

Katherine nodded slowly. "Yes... do you know what it is?"

He pulled a face. "Oh, urm... there's a... mechanic's... around here."

"A... mechanic's..."

He nodded enthusiastically. "Yep. I'll tell them to shut up."

"How, d'you work there?"

He snorted. "No way! I mean... my... brother does."

Katherine raised her hands, smiling. "Okay, okay. You don't want to tell me about your evil supervillain plans? Fine. I can survive. But if you're going to attempt to take over the work with the dying elephant equivalent of an engine, could you keep it down until Armageddon comes?"

He smirked. "I'll see what I can do."

So Katherine left, presuming that that was the end of it.