Fitz looked down into the bowels of the machine, a thousand metres below the platform. "So what's this thing?" The Doctor bustled around an organic looking control panel. "Well, the TARDIS is actually a field research vessel. Before she came under my ownership, she was exploring the boundary Universe. This," He waved an arm at the sparkling edifice. "This is a Boundary Field Effect generator. I've only had to use it once or twice before. The last time was just before my fifth incarnation." Fitz lowered his eyebrows. "Yes... And... How's it going to help us?" The Doctor grinned. "The TARDIS is capable of moving outside the Universe. The B.F.E.G effectively creates a Micro-Universe. By moving outside, we avoid the effect of the cascade. It'll give us time to think!"

Sam was also peering into the depths of the machine. "But isn't the TARDIS disabled? I thought the eye of harmony was being drained?" Slowly a high-pitched whine crawled down the frequencies, to become a deep, rich, throbbing hum. The Doctor turned on a ten thousand watt grin. "The TARDIS is a type forty. After the accidents with the type 30's, they sensibly decided to include backup fusion generators. Which, I've just brought online."  He fiddled with the control panel some more. "Hang on, this is usually a little unsettling."

The deep pulsing throb quickened, and around the machine the air shimmered as if in a heat haze. "Well that wasn't too bad. I thought you said..." Fitz dropped to the ground before he could complete his sentence as the decking lurched out from underneath them. His stomach turned flip-flops as the TARDIS' gravity moved around. When it was all over, he found himself clinging grimly to the decking and desperately trying not to throw up. "That it would be unsettling." He finished, fighting the taste of bile in his mouth. The Doctor let go of the control panel. "Come on, no time to waste. We need to find that particle!" With that, he rushed out. Sam and Fitz looked at each other. "I hate it when he does that." Fitz looked down through the grating. "Yeah me too." He replied before he promptly threw up.

Cassandra opened her eyes. The last thing she could remember was being picked up by the air and thrown across the operations room of the accelerator. The 'bodyguards' had followed her, one not so fortunate. He was lying with his back against the wall, his neck obviously broken. She felt badly bruised, and it hurt to breath. As she sat up, she felt a hideous grinding in her chest, coupled with excruciating pain. For a moment she thought she would black out, instead she threw up which hurt even more. Retching and dizzy, she climbed slowly to her feet.

There was something wrong with the room; in her current state she had to concentrate on her surroundings. She found a chair that was still upright and sat down gingerly, clutching her broken ribs to stop them from moving too much. She swivelled around slowly to take in her surroundings. Everyone else was still unconscious, and it was probably just as well. One wall had disappeared, engulfed in what could only be described as a black fog. It wavered slightly, as if there were things moving on the other side of the boundary. The rest of the room was in disarray. One of the large consoles looked like it had been partially melted, and then thrown against a wall where it had stuck like a wet tissue. She struggled to hold onto her stomach, as she noticed a white-coated arm sticking out from one side.

The door into the accelerator ring had been blown off its hinges by the first explosion. She could tell by the blackened soot marks spraying outwards from the doorframe. Then she noticed one of the reporters' crew that had been in the room. He was dead; nothing was more obvious than that. Though the manner of his death was different. He was suspended at the far end of the room. Stopped in mid flight as he was being tossed from the detonation. One arm was sticking into the black fog covering one side of the room. A thick frost was slowly gathering over his frozen form. The ice jutted out from his skin in a myriad of crystal spikes. Around him, the air was thick with water condensing out from the atmosphere. He was cold, immensely cold. It hadn't yet affected the room properly, but it would soon. It would be colder than a meat locker, if she didn't move.

Groans were coming from the others now, as she slowly made her way to the door. The only route out was through the accelerator chamber, and with some luck she'd meet up with the others. She held onto her ribs and tried not move too sharply, her head felt like someone had punched it and her left cheek was swollen and bleeding. Gingerly, she stepped over prone guard near the door, and into the long corridor that held the accelerator itself. Things had changed here too.

        The long tube was buckled, much in the same way as a squashed cardboard tube, except this tube had been a two-inch thick aluminium vacuum pipe designed to hold particles travelling at close to the speed of light. Magnets were strewn over the floor, where they had been ripped free of their mountings. Some of the high-tension cables were still connected, and she could feel the tug of strong magnetic fields on the metal in her clothes. She couldn't hold it in any longer, the spinning in her head was getting worse, and the huge lines of magnetic force flailing the chamber was only compounding the effect. She dropped to the floor, and emptied her stomach before passing out. Strangely detached, she thought her cheekbone was broken, before everything turned dark.

        She dreamed. A long, thin, silver line stretched out in front and behind. It glowed softly, a cool white halo of light surrounding it. Outside of that, creatures swarmed, and snapped at each other. Then slowly, they stopped and scattered. Monsters frightened away by something even more monstrous than themselves. She looked down, to find that the polished floor was no longer there. Falling away from the light, she screamed at the voice that was booming around her. "Come to me"

        She awoke with a start, to find herself lying in a pool of vomit. Bile rose in her throat, but she fought it back, and pushed herself up into a sitting position. The chamber's light had gone out, and emergency lights flickered fitfully in the gloom. She gently wiped her face with the sleeve of her jacket. Her head wasn't as dizzy, although her cheek felt puffy and painful when she touched it. Leaning against a wall, she pushed herself upright against the smooth concrete. She had to get out, and she had to do it now. Voices were beginning to echo along the chamber. Still reeling from the explosion, she walked along the wall, feeling the smooth, cool, concrete running past her fingertips and listening to the reassuring click and tap of her shoes on the floor.

She didn't notice the lights were dimming until she saw the object. She'd been walking for what seemed like an eternity, when she finally made it to the professor's detector. Or at least where the detector, and her bomb, had been. Floating in the gap was a small black sphere, and surrounding it, at a distance of two metres, small filaments of darkness pulsed and drifted, like a small plasma ball. There were large gaps in the halo, and she stepped inside to get a closer look. The sphere was inky black, with no reflections, and appeared to be solid. She took a pen from the top pocket of her suit, and gently tapped it. It absorbed the sound; the result was beginning to freak her out a little. All she could hear was the sound of her breathing and the echoes of ghosts. Tentatively she reached out and touched it.

        The control room of the TARDIS was re-growing. Having been divested of the enormous energy drain of operating in a section of the universe with completely different laws physics, the vessel was able to start repairing the damage. "Ugh! Gross!" Said Sam, as a new strut snaked out of the debris. Fitz turned a little paler, and started breathing heavily. The journey back hadn't done his stomach any more good, and the knowledge of what had gone before still haunted his immediate memory. Especially after he had taken a sneak peek at how his bedroom was doing. It hadn't been pleasant.

        The Doctor was fiddling with a large jumble of wires and switches. With a flourish, he flicked a switch and looked up. The external view flickered and wavered above them. "It's a bit out of focus isn't it?" Said Sam, tipping her head back. Fitz didn't bother. He could see the edge of it waving about, and the worst sea voyage of his life sprang to mind. The Doctor twiddled a few knobs attached to his pile of wires. The image cleared, and the full extent of the damage became immediately apparent.

        "Looks like one of those big plasma ball thingies you can buy in the gadget shop." Fitz looked up at the stabilised image. "That cannot be the Universe." The Doctor was staring up at the drifting bands of darkness as they drifted around. Galaxies and quasars went dim, shifting in to the red as the bands passed across them. The centre was obvious, although from outside the source was shrouded in darkness. Sam turned to the Doctor. "Aren't those things moving a little fast? I mean; we can see this thing engulfing millions of Galaxies and stuff in real time. It's not speeded up is it?" The Doctor shook his head. "No, it's not speeded up. The seed is directly affecting the structure of the Universe, and as such, it isn't bound by such constants like the speed of light. It's more akin to a mathematical transform imposed on the information matrix, governing the Universal data set."

They looked at him. "The Universe isn't just particles of matter, whizzing about the place. It's also made up of information that tells each particle what it is, where it is and what it's supposed to be doing. A Strange matter particle is dominant, and re-programs that information so that its surrounding environment is more like itself." Fitz watched the black lines moving around. Funny, it was almost pretty. "So what makes this one different from a natural one?" He gave Sam an 'I listen too you know' smile.

        The Doctor had picked up the bundle of wires and walked back to regurgitating console. He dropped the bundle next to it, and they started to crawl inside. "The formation is not typical of a natural cascade effect." Fitz looked at him. "Are you telling me there's been one before? " The Doctor shook his head. "No, no. Not in this Universe. A natural formation is more like a crystallisation. The result is solid in all dimensions. This..." He waved his hand at the image above their heads. "This is the effect of an unstable particle. It's stuck between its source and destination, partially materialised. So it's acting much like a radioactive particle, except this one is firing information rather than charged particles."

         "So we can stop this right?" Said Sam moving quickly out of the way, as another strut gracefully folded into the air. The Doctor grinned. "We should be able to get close enough to set up a standing boundary field extension. Once we've got it trapped we should be able to eject it from the Universe." He looked pointedly at Fitz. "It might be a little rough though Fitz. I don't usually condone the use of unnecessary medication, but do you want something to keep you going?" Fitz quickly weighed the options. He didn't think he had anything left inside to get rid of, but he was fairly certain that it wouldn't stop his stomach trying. "Roll on the drugs Doc. Anything to stop me from being ill again." He burped, tasting acid in his mouth.

        It was smooth, frictionless and cold to the touch. It felt incredibly heavy, and yet she could move it with the tip of her finger. Cassandra had to admit; she was intrigued. "Take it with you." She span around; startled by the whisper. There was nothing there, but furtive shadows dancing in the strange light emanating from the sphere. She grasped the sphere in one hand. The feeling of someone standing next to her was undeniable, and she took another look around. The hairs on the back of her neck were standing on end, but she pocketed the sphere and ran out through the hole in the wall.