Flashback

"G-g-goodbye, Tanya."

The tall, slightly frail woman left the room, closing the door behind her. Zoe Heriot lay back in her bed and sighed. The last of her friends, family and colleagues had said their goodbyes, and her personal effects had been removed from the private ward. This was to be her last day on Earth. She was about to die.

The final cocktail of drugs which the doctors on Medical Station Twelve had given her did their job reasonably well, but the pain of her affliction still coursed through her body when she turned in the bed sharply. Although the long years had been kind to Zoe, and she had retired from Station Three happily, this last year had been utter hell for her.

But now it was over. Zoe turned towards the wall, away from the door. Even though no-one was likely to enter the room, she still felt safer and more able to think while facing the dull, featureless metal. She closed her eyes and thought hard of all the things she had achieved throughout her life. She though back to her childhood, when she and her brothers would run to the telescreen in the living room to see the thrilling adventures of the Karkus. And she had met the Karkus once, as well, she was sure of it – but no, she couldn't have! He was only an animated character after all…

She shook her head. These drugs must be playing tricks on her mind, she thought. She delved deeper into her photographic memory, back to the years when she worked on Station Three as the parapsychology librarian, churning out facts and numbers for years on end. She had loved that job with a passion, and had had great fun on many occasions. One time a Draconian cruiser, off course, had docked, and Zoe and the rest of the crew spent four delightful hours with the aliens, discussing the similarities and differences in the two cultures. Then there was the time that she had single-handedly manned the control desk when half of the crew were incapacitated with the space grippe – what a fun time that was!

And then there was that curious adventure when Jarvis Bennett, the Station's controller had gone mad, the laser cannon was sabotaged, the Cybermen appeared on board the Station – and she had met the Doctor and Jamie. For those few days she really felt she was something more than just a number-crunching machine, and those two men had made her feel special. She had a feeling that she could have spent many more exciting adventures with them, had they not insisted they leave at once after the situation had been cleaned up.

Zoe's thought pattern was interrupted by a searing pain through her right abdomen. The final part of her life was beginning. She knew the next section of the affliction would be a major headache – and there it was. She could have screamed but the drugs were making her slip deeper into unconsciousness. She could feel the arms of the dead reach up for her, and pull her down…

And then she remembered! Just for one or two seconds, but yes! There they were! It had all come flooding back! All of a sudden the memory of waving goodbye to the Doctor and Jamie reverted to the one she knew was right – that's it, of course! She had stepped into the TARDIS, and hidden in that chest, and then had been found, and the Doctor had shown her that video, and there were the Daleks, and yes! Another thing came back – she had met the Karkus, in the Land of Fiction that day, when they had battled against the clockwork soldiers, Blackbeard and that strange Master man…

Zoe coughed as the final tendrils of the illness secured themselves round her and dragged her into the deepest sleep she had ever known, and would even come to know. She had never been particularly afraid of death, but now she was here she would do anything to get back to the land of the living.

But as she slipped away, she saw the faces of the two men who she loved, who she cared for more than anything, waving and wishing her luck. And she thought of all the good times they had beaten the Cybermen and the Ice Warriors and the War Lords, and the fun they had had in the TARDIS, and she could even remember the silly jokes that Jamie had told her, on that last flight home, before they had arrived back where they came from. It had been there for so long, but Zoe's photographic memory had finally won through against the Time Lord's mental block.

There was darkness all around now, and she could see very little now. In fact nothing – nothing except those two smiling faces, of the young, Scottish scallywag, and the kindly, unkempt Doctor. It was an image ingrained on her mind, right up until the end. And when it finally came – she was happy.

Zoe Heriot, it was said, died with a smile on her face.