The sky was all wrong, the hills looked strange, and the gravity was a little too heavy. Rose Tyler loved it!
The TARDIS had landed and the Doctor had said that they were in the constellation of the Hyades, near Aldebaran, and the atmosphere outside was breathable. Leaving the TARDIS, they had found a landscape of barren reddish hills that reminded Rose of photographs she had seen of central Australia. They found themselves near the shore of a long, narrow lake with dark, stagnant-looking water, and not far away to the right were the ruins of what looked like an ancient city that had stood on the shores of the lake.
Strangest of all was the sky, which was a bright green colour, and in which floated what looked like two or three black moons – small circles of sheer blackness in the sky. The Doctor had looked up at them and commented that they seemed to be small black holes circling the planet, and then wandered off to look at the remains of the city.
Rose walked down to the shore of the lake, breathed in the alien atmosphere, and gave herself up to the excitement of being on a strange planet.
She had only recently met the man who called himself the Doctor, and had begun travelling with him in the TARDIS, the mysterious time-travelling spaceship disguised as an old-fashioned police box. She had only had a couple of trips in it so far, and still couldn't get over the fact of being able to step outside the TARDIS onto the soil of another world – or the soil of Earth in another time period.
Mind you, this planet was the weirdest yet, in her opinion. The wind was icy cold and there seemed to be a sense of menace in the hills, the ruined city, and the dark waters of the lake. Not to mention the sky with its black moons or stars….
Suddenly she heard running footsteps. She turned to see the Doctor running towards her from the ancient city, his long face full of alarm and his black jacket flapping. "Rose! We've got to get out of here!" he cried. "I've realized where we are!"
"What?" she said.
"This is Carcosa!" the Doctor yelled. "Carcosa in the Hyades! We have to leave!"
"Carco- where?" Rose replied, puzzled. She was just beginning to think that anything that had the Doctor in such a panic must be pretty serious, when she heard a sound from the lake behind her.
She turned to see an enormous bulk rising from the dark waters.
She was never able to describe it exactly, since it was strangely blurry and did not seem to be quite "there" in the sense of sitting comfortably in the same universe as herself. However, she got an impression of a vast, vaguely manlike shape that seemed to tower into the sky, the writhing of many tentacles, and a single burning red eye looking down on her and the Doctor.
The Doctor came and stood next to her, looking up at the enormous creature, and then surprised her by bowing to it respectfully. "My Lord Hastur," he said.
"DOCTOR", boomed an enormous voice that seemed to be partly inside Rose's head. "WHY DO YOU COME HERE?"
"I'm sorry, My Lord," the Doctor said politely. "We arrived here purely by accident and did not mean to disturb you. In fact I only just realized where we are…."
The thing called Hastur spoke again, setting the hills echoing. "I WOULD HAVE WORDS WITH YOU, DOCTOR. YOU KILLED MY COUSIN…..FENRIC."
"Fenric?" repeated the Doctor. "Oh, Fenric! He was a little while ago- in my seventh life…..Look, I'm sorry about that, Lord Hastur, but really, Fenric was trying to wipe out the human race – a race I'm really quite fond of – a race with a lot of potential - and well, I couldn't just…"
"IT IS NOT A PROBLEM, DOCTOR," Hastur boomed. "I NEVER LIKED FENRIC. HE WAS FAR TOO AMBITIOUS FOR HIMSELF. I AM GLAD YOU KILLED HIM."
"Oh .. er….Well, I'm pleased you see it that way," said the Doctor. Rose, who had been certain that Hastur was about to kill them both, almost fainted with relief.
"IS THERE ANYTHING I CAN DO FOR YOU?" Hastur asked, the voice almost gentle this time.
The Doctor hesitated before replying, and Rose thought hysterically this was the first time she had seen him tongue-tied. Then the Doctor said, "Well, my Lord, the TARDIS is a bit low on energy…."
"SAY NO MORE, DOCTOR." The great shape pointed a tentacle, or some such appendage, at the TARDIS, and something like a flash of lightning flew from its tip to the Doctor's vehicle. "YOUR CRAFT IS FULLY RECHARGED."
"Thank you, my Lord Hastur," said the Doctor, bowing again. "Curtsey!" he hissed at Rose, and she tried her best to do so, almost falling over in the process. "Well, we should be on our way, my Lord…."
"GOODBYE, DOCTOR," said Hastur, sinking beneath the surface of the lake once more. "I WILL SEE YOU AGAIN…BEFORE THE END…" Then he was gone.
The Doctor practically dragged Rose to the TARDIS and took off hastily. Then he had to spend some time explaining to Rose about the Great Old Ones, how they had lost a cosmic war millions of years ago, and how these god-like but totally amoral creatures had been imprisoned in various locations; and how Hastur, one of the greatest of them, had been imprisoned under "black stars" in the Lake of Hali, near the ancient city of Carcosa, on the planet in the Hyades.
"One last question," said Rose. "What did he mean by, 'I will see you again before the end'?"
The Doctor sighed heavily and said, "I don't know. There are some things even a Time Lord doesn't know about his own future…" He was quiet for a long time, as the TARDIS sped on its way.