Author's Notes: I fully intended to be a sideline viewer to The Altverse but certain people running it weren't having any of my excuses and I got shanghaied into it. I'm trying not to look at this as merely being hijacked but more like a chance to promote my Dinosaur Agenda. For a show about time travel, Doctor Who is woefully lacking in Dinos. (I'll tip my hat to the classic series, they at least tried… but c'mon New Who!). This is just one story amongst many written by a diverse group of people for an alternative season of Doctor Who set in Pete's world.


He'd just wanted to milk a cow.

"Cows, Rose!" the Doctor enthused, dancing around the console, twirling and flicking switches as he went. "One of the foundations of human society. Without cows, who knows where the human race would be?" he said as he draped himself over the console and tried to hit a switch with his trainer.

Rose flipped the switch for him.

"Of course, I know what would've happened if some human back at the dawn of civilization hadn't thought 'Cows? Marvelous!' but for everyone else it's just conjecture."

The TARDIS landed with a jolt, sending both of her occupants flying around the console room. Rose clambered to her feet, smoothed her dress out and followed the Doctor back to the console, teeth worrying her lip.

"So Doctor, care to tell me why I look like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz?" Rose asked.

"Because of the cows!"

Rose wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. "Are these highly evolved cows that are going to make me a fashion model on their planet of cow couture?"

"Really Rose, do be serious," the Doctor said. Rose leveled a look at him and he darted out of her arms, waving his hand at the closed TARDIS door. "Outside is the great state of Kansas. It is the year 1923, the depression hasn't yet hit and this is the breadbasket of the United States. They also have cows; which I am going to milk."

Rose bounced on her feet. "Now this I have to see," she said.

"That's the spirit!"

Rose looped her arm through his and laughed as he rambled on about wheat fields as far as the eye could see, tornados, and how he hoped he'd get to eat corn on the cob.

He gestured her forward, and Rose stepped out of the TARDIS. She immediately recoiled as a large scaly creature that had been snooping around the exterior of the blue box shrieked at her, displaying a rather impressive array of teeth. She backpedaled right into the Doctor, knocking him back into the ship and slamming the door behind her.

"Rose?"

"Doctor, I think you need to ask the TARDIS where we are, and make sure you landed us when you should have."

"Rose, really, I'm sure I got this one right, 1920's Kansas isn't that hard!"

Rose put her hands on her hips and glared until the Doctor slunk back to the console and started typing furiously at the computer screen. "Right," she announced, "while you're getting where we are sorted, I'm changing. Wandering around in this dress may have been good enough for Dorothy, but I'll stick to my jeans and trainers. I should've known better then to change before we'd landed."

The Doctor barely noticed, as he was far too busy mumbling to himself.

Rose returned to find a far less bouncy Doctor glaring at the console from the jump seat. His hair was a mess, and Rose couldn't resist running her hands through it, enjoying his reaction as he leaned towards her and tilted his head into her hands. "How far off are we?" she asked.

"Well," the Doctor started.

"That far off?"

The Doctor jumped up and was at the door in a few long strides, Rose following along in his wake. "I'm just a little off, just a teensy tiny itty bitty practically infinitesimal bit."

"Hmm, so we aren't in Kansas anymore?" Rose asked.

"No, not as such. We are in North America though! I guess you could say we're in Canada. Maybe, possibly… I think."

"You think?"

The Doctor swung the door open, took a step out and gestured grandly. "Welcome to the Jurassic! We are roughly 150 million years in the past, swanning about in the Kimmeridgian Age. Here be dinosaurs, Rose!"

The scaly creature with the teeth had apparently scampered off, and Rose was able to take in the view without the threat of getting eaten. It was gorgeous; the TARDIS had materialized in a forest clearing, but unlike any forest she had ever seen. Giant conifer trees and ferns towered over them, giving the environment an alien beauty. It was hard to believe that this was still Earth.

The Doctor was grinning at her and bouncing on his feet. "Doctor," Rose said, smiling at him with her tongue between her teeth.

"Yes, Rose?" he replied.

"You really are a rubbish driver."

"Oh pshaw!" he said, looking slightly offended.

"No, really," Rose said with a laugh. "I think you should leave it to the professionals next time."

A smile lit up the Doctor's face. "As long as it's with you."

Rose bumped her shoulder into his. "No cows, though."

"I don't know how I'll survive. I guess I'll have to make do with dinosaurs!" the Doctor said.

The Doctor pulled her away from the ship and into the ferns. They ambled together through the trees; hands clasped as they simply enjoyed being in a new place.

"So, Doctor, shouldn't we be taking precautions? I'm as excited as you are but I don't fancy being the afternoon snack for a T-Rex," Rose said.

He tutted. "Don't worry! This is the Jurassic, not the Cretaceous, unless there's a T-Rex that has become very temporally misplaced, you're more likely to be eaten by an Allosaurus."

"Well that's fine then. I much rather fancy being an Allosaurus snack then I do a T-Rex nibble."

"No chance of that!" he said. The Doctor pulled his hand from hers and started digging through his suit jacket, his arm disappearing almost up to the elbow. "I made this up while you were in the wardrobe," he said, producing a mechanical gadget the size of a matchbox that had a string threaded through it. "Nifty little trick, perception filters–making you think you haven't seen something when you really have—but it doesn't work all that well on predators with a sharp sense of smell; so I fiddled a bit, a few improvements here and there, and presto!" He draped the string around her neck, and tucked it into her top. "We shouldn't be noticed. This will allow us to wander about as we please, without the threat of becoming someone's lunch."

Rose smiled. "I knew there was a reason I kept you around."

The Doctor laughed and pulled her farther into the conifer forest. Rose followed along eagerly; craning her head around, trying to catch all there was to see.

Little flying creatures would occasionally flit by, but too fast for her to really get a good look, and loud calls and shrieks could be heard farther into the forest. The Doctor was striding forward with purpose, as if he knew exactly where he was going.

Rose threaded her fingers tighter through his, and drew him back so he was walking alongside her. "Got a hot date I don't know about?" she asked.

The Doctor looked at her blankly.

"Why the rush?" Rose clarified.

"Oh." He swung their hands together between them. "If I'm right, and I think I am, then the view up ahead should be brilliant."

"Impress me then," she told him.

He smiled and this time no pulling was necessary as Rose kept pace with the Doctor's ground eating strides. Already she could tell the forest around her was changing, the thick conifers were becoming less dense and sunlight was streaming through the gaps in the trees, giving the whole scene a dreamlike quality. There were noises up ahead–noises coming from what she hoped where very large animals. Rose could feel her heart pounding in her chest as she and the Doctor broke through the tree line, and they found themselves standing on a ridge.

A valley full of dinosaurs lay below them.

It was all Rose could do not to gasp. A massive herd of long-necked dinosaurs were ambling along the valley floor: their long necks sweeping the ground, their limbs like moving tree trunks, and long tails cracking through the air like whips. Rose could feel the thunder of their movements reverberating through her body.

"Apatosaurus," the Doctor whispered in her ear. "Not the brightest of creatures but certainly one of the biggest. Their tails are so long and thin that when they move them with enough force the tip breaks the sound barrier." He grinned, "I guess you could say that these would be the Jurassic equivalent of a cow! See, Rose, right on target!"

Rose rolled her eyes.

The Doctor pouted. "It still counts!"

One of the larger members of the herd swung its head towards the Doctor and Rose, and gave them a placid look before turning its attention back to where it was going.

Rose and the Doctor continued along the ridge, paralleling the herd as it passed beside them. They came to a lake in the middle of the valley, and she found the assortment of creatures coming and going from it astounding. Some of them Rose could name by sight, others were completely alien to her. There were a few she was sure the Doctor was just making up names for as he pointed them out.

They hiked through the valley for the better part of the morning, and as the sun moved higher in the sky, Rose's stomach began to grumble. However, the Doctor had anticipated her needs. He dug through the pockets of his jacket, producing two sandwiches, two bananas and two bottles of water. They sat down by the base of a large fern, enjoying a makeshift picnic lunch.

The sun beat down hot on them as Rose finished off her banana. The Doctor had already finished inhaling his food, and was enjoying an afternoon nap—his head pillowed in Rose's lap as her free hand was gently running through his hair. The Doctor looked supremely content and Rose couldn't help but admire the way the sun brought out the freckles on his face.

A sudden roar made her jump; further down the valley, a small, long-necked dinosaur was being harassed by four creatures resembling the T-Rex. Perhaps they were Allosauruses, she guessed.

The long neck was shuffling off as fast as he could, and swinging his tail at the pursuers. In an effort to deter them, Rose thought.

The gang of fierce predators were obviously too hungry to be scared off, and they darted as close as they could with teeth and claws. The long neck's pitiful cries were heart-wrenching and Rose couldn't help but root for him as he swung his hindquarters around as quickly as he could, tail still making frantic cracking sounds in the air.

Rose breathed a sigh of relief when the long neck was thankfully swallowed up and protected by his herd. The Allosaurus pack had no choice but to give up the chase in the face of a massive wall of flesh,

Rose looked down at the Doctor who was squinting in the midday sun. "Tony would've loved this."

"Oh, no doubt. What kid wouldn't?"

"And what about you? Napping through most of it!" Rose playfully scolded him. "Who'd have ever thought?"

The Doctor smiled at her and wrapped his hand around her knee. "Boys grow up, and there are some things they love more than dinosaurs."

Rose ran both hands through his hair. "It's good to know where I stand in the spectrum of things the Doctor loves: right in front of dinosaurs."

He pouted at her dramatically and she laughed, digging through her pockets for her super phone.

She leaned back against the massive fern, listening to the phone ring until a familiar voice answered. "Mum!" Rose said when Jackie picked up. "You'll never guess where we are!"

"And I'm not going to guess," Jackie replied, "You can tell me yourself when you get around to it."

Rose ignored her response. "The Jurassic!"

"He take you to a theme park then?" Jackie asked.

"No, Mum, the real Jurassic. With actual dinosaurs!" Rose exclaimed.

"I can only imagine the trouble you two are going to get into there," Jackie sighed. "Just be careful, love. Him too."

"Mum, it's fine, they aren't even paying attention to us," Rose said, then pausing. "Listen Mum, would you put Tony on? I think he'd love to hear about this."

She could hear the telly blaring in the background as her mum handed the phone over to her little brother.

"'Ello?" Tony said.

"Tony! I've got something to tell you," Rose said, her smile almost broad enough to bleed into her voice, if one was listening carefully.

"What's that?" Tony answered, sounding somewhat distracted.

"The Doctor and I were just on a picnic, and there were dinosaurs! We just watched an Allosaurus attack a—" she paused, and looked down at the Doctor briefly.

"Camarasaurus," the Doctor said.

"That's right, a Camarasaurus."

"Mmmhmmm," Tony replied.

"Don't you want to hear about it?" She asked, surprised at his disinterest.

"I'm watching telly, Rose."

"Oh," Rose said, taken aback. "Should I ring back later then?"

Tony hummed noncommittally, and was quick to say goodbye, not even bothering to turn the phone back over to her mother, just hanging up on her instead.

The Doctor had risen from his reclined position and was on his knees looking at her when she returned the phone to her pocket. "Little boys will be little boys, Rose. Very easily distracted," he said.

"Isn't that the truth?" She grinned at him. "Case in point right here..."

"Oi!"

They stood up, Rose taking the Doctor's hand and walking ahead wherever she wished. For all the Doctor's promises that his little matchbox filter would work, being completely out in the open like this made her nervous. They might not get eaten, but there was still the definite possibility of being squished. Rose skirted the tree line, and the Doctor jumped back into his role as tour guide with relish, pointing out some of the smaller animals that inhabited this world—and that the small ones were in fact, outnumbering the large ones.

As a flock of brightly colored archaeopteryx swooped overhead, Rose couldn't help but look at the man standing next to her—she'd promised him forever once. Different planet, different animals, but oh-so similar. She may not have been able to give that Doctor forever, but she was determined to give it to this one. She stood on her toes and kissed his cheek.

"They're beautiful, Doctor. All of this is so amazing."

He laughed. "Good old Earth, constantly reinventing herself, coming up with new forms all the time! Today it's the dinosaurs—thriving, living, fighting, mating and dying—living on the top of the food chain. So many diverse species; and who would've ever thought that it'd be the tiny little mammals living in their shadows that would be the ones to win the evolutionary jackpot? They're just primitive rodents right now, but in millions of years they'll be the ones who will look up at the sky and think 'What if?' They will be the ones who spread out across the universe, and survive to the very end. Even asteroids couldn't do you lot in!"

Rose snickered. "Don't look now Doctor, but I think you're part of that lot."

"Eh, it takes some getting used to, but I think I'll manage." The Doctor fidgeted a bit, and looked away from her.

An Archaeopteryx flew above their heads, and shrieked at them right before swooping back into the trees. The Doctor had instinctually ducked at the sight, and one hand was protectively ruffling his hair. "We must be near her nest for her to act that way." He straightened himself up and Rose grinned at the image of him all flustered with embarrassment but still trying to act nonchalant.

"Don't worry, Doctor," she said, laughing at the look on his face. "I'll protect you from those nervous mothers. God knows I've done plenty of it as is."

The Doctor sputtered as the nervous mother in question made a second pass, screaming with anger and causing both of them to duck as her talons slashed through the air above their heads. She swooped around a third time and Rose looked towards the forest as she disappeared again.

"I think that may be our cue to keep moving," the Doctor said.

Rose's fingers plucked at his suit jacket "Wait a tic, Doctor," she said.

There was something off about the patch of forest the Archaeopteryx had disappeared into—something tickling at her subconscious. She shifted her position and shaded her eyes against the bright glare of the sun.

She pushed into the brush, pushing plants out of her way, and there, right there! The familiar glint of metal: metal where there should be none.

As she scrambled towards whatever it was she could hear the Doctor behind her, cursing and carrying on about her tendency to wander off, Rose smiled, because the Doctor knew just what she was like, just as she knew he would always follow.

When Rose reached her destination it looked like someone had set a plane engine down in the middle of the forest. The breeze ghosted through the metal cylinder lazily, as it turned a pair of turbines. The Archaeopteryx squawked angrily and circled overhead, finally perching on one of the struts where she clearly had built her nest and ruffled her feathers indignantly at them.

"Well now, what have we here?" the Doctor said, catching up with her and running his hands over the writing that had been etched into what looked like a control box underneath the body of the machine.

"I can't read it," Rose said "Doctor?"

He whipped out his glasses, and began doing a circuit of the machine. "This shouldn't be here."

"What is it?"

"It's for mining," he replied. "A machine like this... it was never meant to be used on a world with anything still living. They were designed to be used in the void of space—on inanimate meteoroids and dead planets. It shouldn't be here and yet it is. It shouldn't even work in this environment!" He pulled the sonic out and unlocked the control box, murmuring to himself as he poked and prodded at the circuits and wires. "Ahh, I see what you've done. Very clever. Destructive, but clever."

Rose peered over his shoulder. "Someone put this here for a reason, and they've modified it," the Doctor told her. "Modified it for use on inhabited planets. This machine is used for making great big holes in a asteroid or planet, and testing for mineral wealth." he whipped off his specs and stuck them in his jacket pocket. "It's the vanguard for something much worse."

"Can we do something? Destroy it? Sabotage it? Anything!" Rose said.

The Doctor ruffled his hair and started pacing. "There are going to be more, lots more. This machine won't work by itself, it needs the others, and destroying just this one won't affect the others. These things are designed to be cheap and effective, easily replaceable. We'd have to find and stop a third of these things for it not to work, and they'll be spread out around the valley for kilometers." He stared up at the lazily spinning turbines. "They'd be monitoring the tests... It's usually done in ships, but this group has probably set up camp somewhere close by. We're better off finding the mining camp, and trying to stop all of them from there."

"And what happens if we don't?"

"This valley will be in ruins at the very least. If the tests come back looking good—and this is the Earth, I know they will—you can bet the ship that's following will break the Earth to bits to get at what's inside. It will be the end, for every single thing that calls this planet home."

Rose could feel her heart pounding in her chest. She took the Doctor's hand and squeezed. "Good thing we're here then, yeah? Rose Tyler and the Doctor: defenders of Earth."

He squeezed back and started fiddling with the sonic, scrolling through settings. "The camp will be bursting with tech—easily traceable tech." The sonic beeped and the Doctor grinned. He grabbed Rose's hand and together they set off deeper into the forest, leaving the mother archaeopteryx still perched on the machine, feathers ruffling in anger.

The mining camp was close enough to the valley to monitor their equipment, but far enough away to make getting there more of a trek then Rose had anticipated. They'd started out at a run, but had tapered off into a brisk walk once the distances involved became even more apparent.

Even the Doctor was looking slightly winded as they worked their way towards the source of the tech the sonic had picked up. He was almost single-minded in his desire to get there, and more then a few times Rose had to prod him around an errant fern instead of letting him walk right into it.

The gloom of the forest was fading away, the trees becoming smaller, their branches letting more light in, and Rose shuddered–eager to get away from such a closed-off space and back into the sun.

The Doctor muttered under his breath and held the sonic aloft for a moment, listening intently to its chirping. Rose wiped the sweat off her forehead and plucked at her cotton t-shirt, trying to create a cooling breeze to no avail.

"This way!" the Doctor shouted, dashing off along a barely visible path through the underbrush. Rose was right on his heels as their time in the forest came to an abrupt, and startling end when they charged onto the shores of a prehistoric beach.

The sun was blinding, but the Doctor made for an easily recognizable figure–all his brown was visible against the pale of the sand; and Rose was not going to let him out of her sight.

When she caught up, the Doctor was throwing himself down along the ridge of a dune and then peered out over it. Rose crashed down next to him, and checked out at what he was looking at so intently.

They had found the camp.

It looked as if a safari had set up in the Jurassic. Heavy canvas tents appeared to be the only form of shelter the aliens were using, the large camp was perfectly still in the heat of the day–not even insects seemed to be flying near their base.

Unlike where they were, Rose thought as she swatted at a fly that kept trying to land on her arm.

"Oh, this is not good," the Doctor said. "Tecalians. Just like I thought."

"And who're the Tecalians, when they're at home Doctor?"

"At this time? They are the single most powerful race in the Milky Way. They have an empire spanning an enormous amount of star systems and much like humans they constantly need, need, need. They're a race of consumers—food, water, entertainment—they can find a use for just about anything," the Doctor said.

"The problem with using anything, is that you tip into the annoying little problem of overuse. You use and abuse to the point that it doesn't exist anymore and then it's a fat lot of good to nobody. So the Tecalians, clever lot that they are, have a rather strict set of rules governing what can and cannot be used. A planet like Earth, with all its mineral and ecological wealth is off-limits. Which means that this lot is breaking the rules."

"So we stop them," Rose said.

"We stop them," the Doctor agreed. "But how?"

The Doctor levered himself up on his arms and dug his toes into the sand dune, propelling himself up and over and skidding down to the bottom, and Rose followed. He was about to dash off towards the encampment when Rose grabbed his arm.

"What's your plan, Doctor?" Rose asked.

"Besides stop them?" the Doctor quipped. Rose gave him a look. He grumbled.

"From the looks of things, they've got triple-phased shields protecting the camp. Keeps all the critters, little and large, from running rampant in their the tents and feasting to their hearts content." He pulled her behind the stump of a tree and crouched down. "Great shields for protection–but absolutely rubbish when you need to break in. Should be easy enough." He flicked a pebble and Rose watched as it hit an invisible barrier and rebounded back. He scrolled through the settings on the sonic and hummed to himself, completely caught up in the problem at hand.

"So get through the shields, get to the control center and disable the equipment controlling the test, yeah?" Rose summed up.

The Doctor grinned. "Easy-peasy lemon-squeezy!"

The sonic beeped and the Doctor stood up. "I can get us through the shields, but I'm going to need you to hang on." He positioned her arms around his neck, the sonic held securely at the small of her back as it buzzed and chirped. The Doctor quickly kissed her nose. "Ready?"

"Always," Rose answered.

He walked backwards towards the barrier and was the first to pass through, Rose still wrapped around him. There was a slight feeling of pressure, as if she were passing through a thin membrane; and then a shimmer before her eyes and they were through, the Doctor wasting no time as he ducked behind the nearest tent.

It was empty, and so were the others. They crept through the camp, keeping low and out of sight of the still-unseen Tecalians.

At the center of the compound was a more substantial structure—looking more like a prefabricated building than a tent, tubes snaking out of its side that were attached to what looked like antennae. The sonic chirped in the Doctor's hand. "Well, this will be it. The control center where all their fiddly-whatsits and technological thingamabobs will be telling them all kinds of interesting things about what good old Mother Earth is hiding in her underparts."

Rose eyed the building. "We could try sneaking in. Maybe pretend to be part of the crew?

Just then the door opened with a thunk, and an alien stepped out. It was orange and looked somewhat cat-like—if the cat were a Persian that had swapped out its nose for a flap. It was wearing nothing but a utility belt, slung low around its furry hips. Narrow, tapered fingers ended in what looked like claws. The creature fished around in the belt; and took out what appeared to be a cigarette, but was fatter and rounder. The alien puffed away blissfully, unaware of the hidden audience.

"I don't think we'll be doing much in the way of fitting in," the Doctor murmured, but then perking up a bit. Rose could practically see the gears in his head turning. "This way! I've got an idea," he said.

The Doctor darted back into the maze of tents, choosing one at random and ducking inside. Rose followed, and found him tearing through the personal objects around a nest-looking bed.

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon it's gotta be here," the Doctor said.

"Doctor..." Rose started.

"Aha!" he exclaimed as he pulled out a black slab the size of a notebook from underneath the bed. The Doctor twirled the sonic once before zapping the slab, stopping only to grin at her as the slab lit up and beeped back at him. "Computer-obsessed cultures are all the same," the Doctor said. "They always leave their toys just laying about for anyone to pick up and play with. Why cart it everywhere with you, when you've got multiples, eh?"

The Doctor's fingers flew over the slab as the text scrolled across the screen. Rose crouched down next to him and peered at the diagrams and text coming and going at a rapid rate as the Doctor scanned through the information the pad contained.

"And we, Rose Tyler, are in luck! This lovely little machine has a direct connection to their mainframe," the Doctor said cheerfully.

"Meaning we can see what they can?" Rose asked.

"Exactolutely!"

The Doctor paused and looked briefly cross with himself. Muttered something under his breath about never saying that in public again.

He quickly recovered before Rose could say anything, launching right back into his previous train of thought. "We can also, if I am oh so good, persuade the computer that it's already carried out their little mining exercise. And if we are even luckier, I could perhaps convince it that the Earth has absolutely nothing of value, and that this rocky ball of dirt should be left to float about undisturbed."

Rose listened and nodded, but kept glancing at the entrance to the tent behind her; worried that someone would wander in and discover the two of them crouched on the floor.

Then the slab let out a series of angry-sounding beeps and the Doctor cursed.

"Doctor?" Rose asked.

"Their main computer is smarter then I thought it would be. As sneaky as I am, and I am sneaky—" he tried to ignore Rose's skeptical look. "I can be sneaky! Really! But this time, I've not been sneaky enough. The computer is onto us, and if it's onto us... so are the people running it."

"Rose," the Doctor looked up at her. "Run!"

The two of them took off through the tent entrance, pounding for the security barrier. An angry yowl came from behind them, and Rose stepped up her pace.

The Doctor still had the slab with him and was pounding at it furiously as he kept pace beside her. "The shields should be down, Rose. Just keep running!"

But an orange blur tackled them just as they were about to make it past where the shield had been. The Doctor went tumbling into Rose, their legs tangling together and they fell down in a heap. The orange alien slammed into them from above and Rose could feel sharp claws digging into the flesh of her arm. She tried to use her legs to kick it off of her—but it didn't even shift.

It was snarling at her, something fierce and terrible, she could almost feel the vibration rattling down to her bones. Then the growl stopped abruptly, due to the slab impacting the side of its head, as the Doctor stood above them, still holding the device like a weapon at the ready. Rose let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding.

The Doctor pulled her up from beneath the limp body of the Tecalian, and hustled her back towards the line of dunes and the sea beyond. They clambered up the slopes of the dune and tumbled down the other side. The sand was slowing them down, and Rose risked a glance behind her back; seeing more of the Tecalians following them over the dune, and loping after them with an easy stride.

The Doctor took her hand and tugged to get Rose's attention. "The equipment they need to shatter the Earth will be located in the middle of the test hole. When the ship arrives they'll be deployed—they'll look kind of like rockets. The thing is, every single one needs to function for the process to work. Damage one, and everything fails. Just one, Rose!"

"What do you mean Doctor?" Rose shouted, trying to ignore the developing stitch in her side.

"They're going to outrun us! Just remember to damage just one of the rockets, Rose!"

He released her hand, spun on his heels and launched himself towards the advancing Tecalians. They hadn't been prepared for their quarry to switch tactics so suddenly. The Doctor bowled them over, and Rose stopped in her tracks.

"Run, Rose! Run!" the Doctor shouted at her and she shook herself out of it, her legs obeying even if her brain rebelled at every step.

She kept running, her legs burning, and the stitch in her side feeling like it was on fire. One of the Tecalians had managed to untangle itself from the mess the Doctor had made, and was pursuing her.

There were craggy mounds of rock ahead, jutting out from the sea. Rose didn't look back as she scrambled up them, weaving her way through them at a pace that didn't feel that safe. Rose jumped down and kept going, grateful to be back on the sandy beach.

There was a roar behind her and a shriek of pain. She looked back towards the rocks where a huge sea creature had launched itself up onto them; and was dragging the flailing alien into the waves, holding it clutched between its massive jaws. The Tecalian beat at the creature's snout with clawed fists and yowled one last time, before being dragged beneath the waves.

Rose didn't spend too much time waiting around. The adrenaline surge was enough to get her off the beach, through the ferns lining its edges, and back into the conifer forest. She didn't stop until the sunlight was barely visible through the overhead canopy.

Once there, her mind reeled. The Doctor. She had to go back for the Doctor. But, the rocket—!

Rose slid to the ground, her back against one of the massive conifers. She tried to catch her breath, her mouth raw and dry; she desperately wished for some of the water the Doctor had stashed away in his suit pockets.

Or even better, the Doctor himself.