Disclaimer: Doctor Who is, to the best of my knowledge, copyright of the British Broadcasting Corporation, and I'm just having fun in the Whoniverse, which was and is the work of many wonderful and talented professional writers. This story has also been influenced by my recent readings of the novels of Linda Nagata.

Doctor Who and the Joy Hunter

Chapter 2

"Doctor, it can't simply point its rocket at Earth in order to get here, can it?" Jo said.

She and the Doctor were sitting together on a workbench, sharing a small plate of sandwiches in a quiet corner of the tactical room, away from all the main hustle and bustle that had suddenly erupted around them upon the Doctor's revelation of the nature of the frightening object that had been discovered in space. They could hear the Brigadier barking orders left right and centre, while at the same time sporadically engaging in radio communications with the UNIT world headquarters in Geneva, as well as with the British Ministry of Defense. Uniformed personnel were rushing here and there – the presence of the Doctor and Jo apparently forgotten. A dozen CRT consoles showed images ranging from telescope pictures to blank radar screens. Operators were positioned at these screens, ready for when the sweeping, glowing ray might start to highlight the blip of the deadly object.

"Well it can," the Doctor replied. "But because the object is already on a curved trajectory, under the gravitational influences of both the Sun and the Earth, rather than its exertions making it move in a straight line to Earth, they will of course just alter the trajectory – to one that becomes, with each propulsion burst, more like one that will cause the object to intersect the path of Earth. That's why it has to repeatedly ignite is propulsion system, whatever it may be. If its motor had the strength of the Saturn V moon rocket then it would only need one burst of thrust to get it to Earth – just one action to change its orbit sufficiently – and maybe a few additional ones to slow it down sufficiently to allow it to be captured by Earth's gravity. But because the nature of its curious spaceship is such that it can only release its stored energy gradually, it has to constantly fight against the gravity of the Sun, which threatens to pull it away from Earth, on its original course."

"Oh," Jo said.

The activity in the room seemed to have settled a bit. "Everything's been done sir," Captain Yates reported. "All units are alert and on standby. Geneva has notified all UNIT contingencies worldwide – Australia, Iran, Japan, the U.S., you name it. We're as ready as we can be. All we can do now is wait."

The Brigadier ignored him and continued to march around the room.

"Brigadier," a woman said, "there's a communication from the American contingent. It concerns the Apollo moon mission. It seems that our visitor passed only a few hundred metres from their ship, and the astronauts videotaped it! NASA promptly forwarded the footage to UNIT, and our U.S. counterpart has already transmitted it to us."

"Well don't just stand there, let's see it!" the Brigadier barked.

One of the TV screens on the wall came to life. The Doctor and Jo leapt up from their perch on the bench and joined the little crowd around the little monitor.

The screen awoke in a burst of static. The grainy picture which appeared was one that shook, twisted, and was continually distorted. Yet something could be made out in it. A dark, potato shape against the darker background of space.

"Why is it so dark?" Jo asked.

"The spacecraft must have passed the side of the object where no sunlight fell," the Doctor muttered absent-mindedly. His eyes were riveted to the screen. This was the first close-up image of the object.. Suddenly, one side of the dark, amorphous shape burned like red embers, then there was a blaze of light, followed by static, then nothing.

"Is that all there is?" the Brigadier demanded. There had been less than half a minute of video time.

"That's all there is, sir," replied Sergeant Benton. "We were lucky to get even that. The astronauts had trouble getting a fix on it – it was far away – they had to use a telephoto lens on their television camera, which was unsteady and cumbersome. By the time they were able to focus on the object, they only had that much time before they ran out of tape."

"Why didn't they re-use the tape?" Jo asked.

"By they time they rewound it, the object had gone! For the love of Mike, we're ruddy lucky they had a colour camera! And that we had a colour monitor!"

"Sergeant Benton – Miss Grant – enough!" the Brigadier roared. "We are not interested in American excuses in this moment! What we want to know is…"

But even Lethbridge-Stewart fell silent when the Doctor raised his hand, in an unspoken communication of having seen something important. "Sergeant Benton, can you rewind the tape for us? Thank you. Now play it back frame by frame if you will, there's a good chap!"

Grainy image after grainy image appeared on the screen until the blaze of light. At this point the Doctor cried: "Stop! Good. See? That's a propulsion burst. By Jove! Our astronaut friends must have been exceedingly lucky – their vessel must have almost been in direct line of the jet! No wonder they stopped taping there – they had more important things to worry about! What a risk they took to get us these pictures! Sergeant Benton, go back one frame if you will, old chap. One more. And another. Yes. Yes. Forward again. Look at that!"

The Doctor tapped the glass screen with his finger to show the dull red spiderweb of lines that had suddenly appeared on the frozen image of the mysterious object. On his instigation, Benton advanced to the following frame, which now showed the deep red lines brightening to a warm, brilliant gold. This current still picture seemed twice as intricate as the previous one.

"Look at that!" the Doctor said in a hushed voice.

"I don't get it," Jo said, using her typical choice of slightly out of date American slang. "Isn't that just glowing because it's hot?"

"Yes Jo. Incandescence. But look! Such detail!" The frozen picture showed a beautiful pattern of many interlaced spiderwebs – thousands of threads of light weaving together to form a great, complex form. The patterns seemed almost organic, curling, weaving back on each other, extending out in ever more complex designs in a way that seemed both alien and alive. As Jo looked at it, she felt she could be looking at constellations, or cell structures, tree branches or ocean waves. And at the same time they could be lace designs, Celtic metalwork, Mayan carvings or Aboriginal paintings. What she saw made her think of all these things, and yet it was at the same time something completely different – unique in itself. And it was lovely to look at.

"Fractal manifestation," the Doctor muttered. "Amazing!"

"Doctor what is it?"

"It's a living thing, Jo, I'm sure of it! And the most remarkable thing is – what we're looking at appears to be both its brain, and also its rocket engine! It's millions of particles, all linked to form one mind – like the cells of our brains. Such intricacy has to be for something more complex than just pushing a rock. And yet they generate heat, which makes the surface ice of the asteroid boil, and so they have to be its engine as well. Look at the next frame. The whiteout is where the energy released by them got too much for our brave friends' camera. Enough to boil away the ice surrounding the asteroid and produce the propulsion jet. Think of that Jo! Imagine if the cells that made your brain and the cells that formed the muscles in your legs you use to walk with were the same thing! A thinking organ and a motor organ combined!"

"Doctor, have you encountered anything like this before?" the Brigadier asked.

"Never. The Time Lords may know of such things, but so much of their knowledge is closed to me now." There was a note of bitterness in the Doctor's voice. "We can only learn as we go."

"Sir!" Captain Yates cried. "We've got notice from the MOD. They have missiles ready to shoot the thing down if necessary."

"No, they can't do that!" the Doctor cried.

"Doctor," the Brigadier said in a tired, exasperated voice, "I thought you told us this thing was a missile aimed at earth!"

"Actually it was me who said that," Jo said in a small voice. Both the Doctor and the Brigadier ignored her.

"I knew it was the product of some intelligence, Brigadier," the Doctor said. "But I didn't know the intelligent creature was actually living on it! If you shoot that rock, Brigadier, you'll be killing a living creature as intelligent as you or I!"

"Doctor, that thing is clearly hostile! It's aimed for us!"

"That doesn't mean it means any harm, man! The asteroid appears to merely be its vehicle. What we're seeing is a spaceship – albeit a very unusual one. Its intent obviously can't be to blow us up or anything like that, or it would blow itself up, because it would be sitting on top of its own bomb!"

"Could it be a kind of suicide bomber?" Captain Yates suddenly ventured. "A kamikaze alien? Just look at its brain – if that's what it is, its brain." He tapped the beautiful fractal patterns of the screen. "Nothing like our brains at all! How can we know if it thinks in the same way we do, or what its consciousness or its morality, its desires or motivations are like?"

"Well done Captain Yates! A highly rational consideration," the Doctor said gravely. "And yet throughout the Universe, the tendency for living things to have a self-preservation directive or desire is very strong. There are, of course, exceptions to the general rule, like the kamikaze bombers you mentioned. But they are relatively uncommon, and so we are faced with the likelihood that this thing is non-aggressive."

"We still don't know it might not get up to some mischief after it's arrived here!" the Brigadier protested.

"True," the Doctor mused. "But we equally don't know that it might not. Brigadier, does your little country here automatically shoot a foreigner who happens to arrive on your shore?"

The Brigadier seemed to hesitate a minute. Then Sergeant Benton cried: "Sir! Mr. Chinn is on the line at the Ministry. He's informed us that he's just given clearance for the mysterious object to be shot down."

"WHAT?" the Doctor shouted.

"That wretched buffoon of a man!" the Brigadier growled. His dislike of Horatio Chinn was almost as strong as the Doctor's.. White moustached in his black suit and bowler hat, government official Chinn was the perfect image of British respectability – and British obstinacy. He disliked anything that was not English, or deviated in the slightest way from English normalcy or conformity. Chinn's sympathy for anything from outside the Earth – and hence outside Britain – was virtually nonexistent, and he would ignore all other considerations.

"Brigadier we can't allow him to do this!" the Doctor pleaded – a despairing look on his face.

"I'm afraid it's out of our hands, Doctor," the Brigadier said with a look on his face that showed a range of emotions – anger, contempt – and resignation. "We are in British territory. The jurisdiction of the MOD overrules that of UNIT in matters it may consider a threat to national security."

"Wait a minute!" Jo cried. "They can only consider it to be a threat to British national security if it looks to be aimed for Britain! But it could land anywhere in the world, couldn't it?"

The Brigadier sighed. "Whether this thing is friendly or hostile, for its own safety it had better stay away from Britain, as long as Mr. Chinn has his confounded finger on the button!"


The Thing that Was felt excitement. Its arduous, exhausting journey was now drawing to a close – at last. Soon it would be able to rest. Soon, it would have what it yearned for. Soon.

And most wonderful of all, it knew that the Cold Body that now stretched beneath it did have Living Bodies on it. For it had had a wonderful surprise. In preparation, it had switched from its radiation-sense which had first alerted it to the existence of the Hot Body and the Cold Body, and had awoken its Other Sense, which would bring to its awareness the nearby existence of Living Bodies. And it had already encountered Living Bodies! Between propulsion bursts its Other Sense had detected them – not on the Cold Body itself, but passing through the Void! They had passed so close – entombed in a bizarre arrangement of materials and mechanisms that painted a confused, tangled picture in its many-particled brain. The Thing That Was did not understand it. But it had felt a thrill at the knowledge of their existence. That knowledge had spurred its hunger to new levels, and it had taken to its efforts to reach the surface of the Cold Body with renewed vigour – fiercely dragging every calorie of energy it possessed into the act of powering its strange craft on. It was on a high like that of the adrenaline rush an animal that is fighting or fleeing experiences.

But The Cold Body was so close now that it had long stopped pushing towards it with its living rocket engine. It was safely held fast now within the gravitational well of the Cold Body – held as if in the warm arms of a strong, protective mother. No longer did it have to fear the stronger, yet more distant pull of the mighty and tyrannical Hot Body that it had had to constantly fight against with its propulsion bursts for so long. Had it known laughter, it would have laughed long and hard at the Hot Body, which had threatened to tear it away from its dream that it knew now with a certainty would be realised on the Cold Body. Now, its energies must be directed to softening its fall on the Cold Body.

The Cold Body stretched beneath it. It was speeding in a near-circle around it, high above the atmosphere still, yet able to make out detail on the surface. It changed the direction of its propulsion bursts, now directing them ahead of it, to slow its velocity, rather than increase it. That would turn its orbit into a spiral as the Cold Body's gravity pulled it down.

So close! Already its radiation senses were picking up many strange things. But its Other Sense…

There! It could feel the Living Bodies below! As it flew above them like an angel in the sky, it could feel them crawling in scattered pockets. Some were almost still – others sped at considerable speed over the ground or through the atmosphere. And now…

The Thing That Was was suddenly dumbstruck. Below it a new section of land came within the reach of its Other Sense. And that land contained…

It was like entering another universe. Its Other Sense was suddenly flooded – flooded so that it was like a great, blinding white light that seared its brain. SO many Living Bodies were below such as it had never known, had never imagined could exist. Millions of Living Bodies stretched below like a great ocean in all directions…


"Sir!" Captain Yates called to the Brigadier. "The object has been seen over Los Angeles! The UNIT contingent there have it on radar! They even have naked-eye visual contact! Look! Ground-based photography."

On one of the TV screens a still photo of an office building with a car park showed. The sky showed dark – it was still the early hours before dawn on the West Coast of the U.S. In the sky above could be seen a brilliant white pinpoint.

"Chart its position!" the Brigadier snapped. "I want its movements tracked constantly!"


The Thing That Was almost went insane! Below it, in huge hordes were Living Bodies – millions more than it had ever dreamed could exist. Some were motionless – bundled together and dormant within structures. Others traveled in twisting lines at great speed within moving structures like blood cells in two-dimensional arteries that wrapped around all the inequalities of this section of the Cold Body's surface. A vast, organic pattern which reminded the Thing That Was of its own beautiful and complex structure. Like itself, the great entity below was built of millions of particles – except that those particles were the Living Bodies. They worked together, like a great brain.

And, more importantly, the Thing That Was could sense The Light.

The Light was the thing it craved for, the thing it hungered for. The Light could only be found in the Living Bodies, which was why the Thing That Was needed them. And not all Living Bodies carried The Light. Only some. Yet there were so many Living Bodies below that it was so easy to feel those who carried The Light. They were everywhere – within the structures, traveling on the artery threads – and yet in some places the Light was stronger. In some structures it was stronger than in others. In some groups of structures it was almost entirely absent, while in others it was plentiful.. Why?

The Thing That Was asked itself this question. Why? Why was The Light in some places and not in others? It was a question of considerable importance to its own continued existence, for it could not live without The Light. And if it knew how to predict where it could find The Light, then its mission to survive would be so much easier! And yet it could not answer this question. For the truth was, it did not know what the Light was. It did not really know what the Living Bodies were, except that they were vehicles for The Light. When its search was over, and a Living Body that carried the Light was properly within its reach, maybe it would learn these secrets. But by that time it would not matter any more, for it would have found what it needed. The Living Bodies were simply tools it had a use for – a source of The Light that it needed to survive.

Even as these thoughts passed through its many-particled brain, it felt its hunger driven to such a point that it was almost sent insane. The Light was there – right below it, imprisoned in the Living Bodies! All of its particles screamed out their awareness of its presence. But it could not access that Light! Its vehicle, the great, blessed and yet accursed rock which had carried it through the Void, was moving too fast! The current velocity would sweep the Thing That Was right past this glorious treasure trove, and there was no time for it to make the necessary preparations for descent into the midst of the Living Bodies. The Thing That Was was still exhausted from its journey, It was too soon! Too soon! The frustration it felt was maddening, unbelievable! Yet, in its calm, rational mind, it knew that there was no option but to let this glorious find sweep past below it. It didn't matter. This Cold Body was rich in Living Bodies, it knew that now. It would find more. And it would find The Light again.


The Doctor and Jo watched as a group of UNIT officers plotted the path of the object across a table-sized map of the world. "They lost track of it for a while after it passed over LA," Benton explained patiently. "But it was then reported just south of Honolulu by an American submarine. It appeared on their radar. Later it was picked up again, by an Australian submarine, a few hundred kilometers from the Marshall Islands. Then again by our own tracking station in the Phillipines."

"Its orbit doesn't seem to be fixed," the Doctor said. "See how there are gradual deviations from the circle it would follow around your planet if it were solely under the influence of gravity? It's steering its course!"

"Steering? How?" the Brigadier demanded.

"Using the same principle by which it steered its course to intercept that of Earth in the first place. Because it's spinning in its flight, it can wait for the opportune moments to fire its living engine in the correct direction to alter its path."

"Why would it do that?" Jo asked.

"Why would you steer anything? To get somewhere you wanted to go! Or…" The Doctor rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "…or – to explore." He reached behind his head and rubbed the back of his neck, allowing his thoughts to progress at a relaxed, leisurely pace. "It's searching!" he said suddenly.

"Searching for what, Doctor?" the Brigadier snapped.

The Doctor shook his head slightly. "I don't know, Brigadier."


"Let's play Hide and Seek!" Cynthia squealed as she and the two brothers scampered through the woodland. The whole land was alive with spring. The sun painted a bright dappled pattern on the ground between the leaves, and butterflies flitted in the undergrowth. The air was heavy with birdsong, and now and then an animal could be seen – a rabbit or a hare.

Behind her, Jim and Nichu panted as they strove to keep up with the girl who fled like a forest nymph ahead of them. "What did her mum tell us, Jim?" Nichu gasped. "We were supposed to keep her in sight? How can we do that if we play Hide and Seek?"

Cynthia stopped dead ahead of them, jumped up on a rock and span round, giggling. "Please let's play Hide and Seek! PLEASE!!"

"Your mum said we had to watch you! Nichu objected. "How can we do that if we're playing Hide and Seek?"

"Oh please!" Cynthia suddenly had a very hurt look on her face. The two brothers looked at each other, at a loss.

Jim said, "Tell you what Nich – you do the seeking, and me and Cin will do the hiding. That means she'll only have to hide from you. She won't have to hide from me."

Nichu was worried. He wasn't sure that that this idea would really work, but he didn't see much alternative. "Alright then," he muttered.

"Count to thirty!"

"No, I'm going to count to ten!" Nichu was worried that thirty would give Cynthia enough time to make her unfindable.

"Twenty five then!" Cynthia demanded.

"Twenty," Nichu offered.

"Alright! Start counting now! And no peeping!"

Nichu closed his eyes and started to count. After her footsteps had gone, he started to increase his counting speed.

Cynthia ran through the wood. Where could she hide? An exciting thought occurred to her. Mummy had always told her she must never climb trees. She looked up at a beautiful big tree. Its branches reached up into the sunlight, as if inviting her to join them, like arms spread wide for a big hug.

She seized the big friendly trunk of the tree, searching for foot-and-handholds. She found them easily. This was the kind of thing she was good at – she was better at climbing than either of the two boys, and before long she was nestled in a little spot between two boughs. This was great – they would never find her here!


Immediately after its encounter with the wondrous, vast swarm of Living Bodies at the beginning of its exploration of this wonderful Cold Body, the Thing That Was had had to face the depressing crossing of an enormous expanse of water. That expanse of water had been so vast that it had felt close to despair. It was a great gulf with no Living Bodies on it that stretched across a considerable fraction of the Cold Body's surface, and it had been frightened that this might in fact go completely around the Cold Body. Frantically it had steered itself in one direction, then another, yet it had always met more water. But now, to its great relief, it sensed land below it again.

The Thing That Was felt despair at what it felt. It sensed a ravaged land below, where many Living Things struggled to live without the Light. The Thing That Was didn't understand it. It sensed a recent conflict – something meaningless that had stolen the Light from the Living Bodies.


Benton stuck a new pin in the world map. "This here is the first sighting of it since the very brief sighting in the Phillipines. It's currently orbiting over Vietnam."

"Mmm." The Doctor rubbed the back of his neck again. "If its orbit continues to be as unpredictable as it has been so far, the exact location of our next detection of it can't be known. But its general direction of movement should be across the Asian continent."

"Sir!" Benton cried, "we have sightings in Burma and in Bangladesh."


Despair was slowly starting to grip the Thing That Was. It could feel its orbit decaying, and its final energy reserves being sapped by its desperate efforts to steer its vehicle. It knew that it would not have enough power to complete another circuit of this Cold Body. It had to find a cluster of Living Bodies that carried The Light. For a while, since its encounter with that horrible region inhabited by poor Living Bodies devoid of the Light, it had been aware of the Light in some of the regions below. But it still had not been ready to descend. And it was past those now. The land below it was once again full of Living Bodies devoid of the Light. The uncertainty of the future was maddening. When the time came for it to finally come down to the surface of the Cold Body it would be immobile and helpless. Unless it came down in a place inhabited by Living Bodies who carried The Light, it was doomed. It knew that there were Living Bodies who did possess the Light in this world – it sensed them periodically – but their location was unpredictable. It did not understand why The Light was in some regions of this Cold Body and not in others. It could recognize no pattern in the presence or absence of The Light – and it had only limited control over where it would eventually come to rest. It had to be constantly alert. It had to be aware of its diminishing resources, and, when the window of opportunity arose when it would be able to descend and yet not quite forced to descend, it would have to choose its location quickly and act.


"India … Pakistan … Afghanistan … Iran," Sergeant Benton calmly reported. "Last sighting, by radar, over Shiraz."

"I knew a chap from Shiraz once," the Doctor mused dreamily. "Fellow by the name of Hafiz. Wrote beautiful poetry!"

"Doctor," the Brigadier reprimanded in a slow voice beneath the surface of which frustration bubbled.

"It's heading this way," the Doctor said coolly. "Towards Europe, and England."

The Brigadier's hand made a fist. Jo looked at it and wondered what angry thought had crossed his mind to cause that gesture. Was it the unknown nature of the alien visitor? Or was it Horatio Chinn's missiles?


Now, for the first time in what seemed an age, The Thing That Was started to feel relief. It had steered away from the deadly coastline. It would find no Living Bodies out in the ocean. And now the new area that sped beneath it was becoming more and more full of Living Bodies. And it could sense that more and more of them carried The Light! Excitement swept through its particles. Yet it knew it must remain alert. With its characteristic, near-infinite patience, it calculated the time when it would be compelled to make its descent. And it made preparations. It knew that once it entered the thicker atmosphere of the planet, the friction would strip the particles of its being away from the surface of the rock. That must not be allowed to happen, so drawing on its last reserves of energy, its millions of particles mined the last remaining useful minerals in the shrinking asteroid and working in unison as one great, complex machine, they started to re-shape the materials. Their metabolisms forged new molecular bonds between the elements that had been mined, and a new, hard and tough substance was formed. A protective structure took shape – a shelter for the Thing That Was that could survive the rigorous entry into the atmosphere. It was a spherical structure and it emerged like a bubble on the surface of the asteroid. Once the final preparations had been made, the Thing That Was would enter that protective bubble and wait. But not yet. Not yet…


A constant flow of reports was now coming into UNIT as the mysterious object passed ever lower and lower over more and more populated land. Turkey, Bulgaria, Italy…

"Sir!" Benton cried. "It's crossed the Alps! It's over Switzerland right now. Look! This photo was taken by our world HQ in Geneva themselves!"

A photograph appeared on a monitor that revealed a stunning landscape of white peaks. High above them in the brilliant blue sky a single white point blazed. Jo knew that for it to appear so bright in full daylight it must indeed be close to the surface of the Earth. Looking at it, she could almost feel it bearing down on them like a mysterious white angel from space – the bringer of either destruction or happiness, none could tell.

Every console was alive now with dozens of reports as the object soared over the densely populated and heavily industrialized centres of France and Belgium.

"It's approaching the Channel sir!" Benton exclaimed. "There! We've got it!"

Suddenly, for the first time, the local radar screens started to beep as their sweeping lines revealed the bright blip of the approaching object.


The Thing That Was basked in wonder.. The land below fascinated it. It seemed like every tiny part of it was swarming with Living Bodies. And many of those carried The Light. Lost in wonderment, it felt the thrill of the Light flow through its particles. Although it was still not quite within its reach, the knowledge of the Light's existence filled it with satisfaction. It almost forgot how critical these last moments of its journey were as it surveyed the great landscape of Living Bodies, moving in their two-dimensional arteries, hugging the feet of the mountains, and lining the coast…

The coast!! The relaxed happiness turned to fear as the Thing That Was suddenly realized that it was nearing the end of the continent. It had no power left to steer now, and its course was leading it inexorably to a new ocean! Terrified, it searched desperately with its Other Sense to see if there existed any more Living Bodies in the direction it was headed. At the same time the awareness dawned on it that it was now ready to descend. It was within its physical capacity. But would there by any more Living Bodies after this great feast of them which it seemed about to pass?

And then, with an indescribable relief, it sensed it. There was more land still before the ocean – a cluster of islands off the main continent. And there was no doubt at all in its mind. Whether the Living Bodies there carried the Light or not, it had to descend there. For it would find no Living Bodies and no Light in the ocean. It was time.

The Thing That Was ignited its living propulsion engine one last time, consuming its very last calorie of energy in the act of aiming its vehicle for the islands and setting it to make those islands its final resting place.


The Brigadier bent over a radar screen. "Two hundred kilometers sir," Benton calmly announced.

"Sir!" someone cried, "Mr. Chinn has fired the missles!"

Jo could almost feel the Doctor's fury. "Wretched murderer!" he growled.


The Thing That was began to retreat into the shell it had constructed, ready to await its impact onto the surface of the Cold Body. But in the very last instant it was arrested by a new development unlike any it has so far experienced..

Three Hot Bodies were approaching it at great speed from different directions! Panic seized the Thing That Was. It did not understand where these fearsome things had come from, but it knew that its little protective bubble would be completely destroyed if the projectiles impacted the rock which carried it.

In sheer desperation, with the burst of energy that living things experience when faced with the prospect of sudden death, or the death of a loved one, the Thing That Was did what it would have thought impossible in its exhausted state. It started its engine one last time, and pushed – pushed – pushed. It did not wait for the rock to be oriented – it just randomly pushed for survival! With its very last ounce of strength, it pushed! Then it crawled into its bubble and waited. And rested. It had done all it physically and emotionally could. Whether it lived or died – whether it would be killed by these high speed Hot Bodies or was burned up in the atmosphere, or died of starvation in a land without Living Bodies and without The Light, it did not know. All it knew now was that it must rest. Its mind was purely logical. It knew that all it could do now was rest and wait, and so it did.


The Doctor and Jo bent over a radar screen and watched the three blips that were the missiles slowly converge on the larger blip that was the mystery object. One sweep of the glowing ray showed four blips. The next showed one big white one – the missiles and the alien object too close together now to be distinguished. The girl and the Time Lord held their breath. The next sweep of the ray again showed four blips.

The Doctor gave a rare whoop of joy. Jo was caught up in his delight and hugged him, despite the Brigadier's disapproving glare. "It survived!" the Doctor gasped. "The clever thing! It sensed Chinn's missiles just in the nick of time, and deviated its course just enough to avoid them!"

"You may think that's all well and good, Doctor, but it's still our responsibility to deal with this thing! As you have just pointed out, it's still with us!" the Brigadier growled.


The Thing That Was sensed the changes outside its protective sphere. The rock it was embedded in burned white hot as the atmosphere of the Cold Body rushed against it, and it melted. The great natural thing that had been its home and which had served it so well ebbed away – it vapourised and the sphere that formed the new and temporary home of the Thing That Was was freed. Like a cosmic egg freed from its womb of stone the little capsule that contained the Thing That Was now plummeting to earth in a great fireball, leaving a tail of flame in its wake. Made of more heat-resistant material, it would survive the atmosphere, with the Thing That Was snugly protected inside. The Thing That Was would have smiled smugly if it could. It had survived the pull of the great Hot Body – it had survived the desperate search for Living Bodies that carried the Light – it had survived the aggressive little Hot Bodies that had tried to destroy it – it had outwitted them all! Now it would just wait, and rest while it waited.


"It's gone Brigadier," Sergeant Benton said flatly. Everyone looked at the blank radar screens. "No sign of it left. It must have burnt up in the atmosphere."

"That must be the end of it," Jo said sadly. "It must have died."

The Brigadier looked sternly at the Doctor, his eyes questioning under his dark brows.

The Doctor rubbed the back of his neck. "I rather doubt that it's died, Jo. Its whole pattern of behaviour shows intelligence and planning. It would not have guided itself here unless it had some method of preserving itself. Its vehicle may be gone, but it survived. I'm sure of it."

"And it's here with us," the Brigadier said darkly.


Cynthia was getting bored now. The brothers seemed to be having trouble finding her. Maybe her hiding place had been just a little too good?

She was getting hungry and thirsty too. And lonely. And uncomfortable in the branches of this silly tree. Maybe it was time to go down…

Abruptly she heard a whistling noise above her. It was loud – so loud that she felt her little body shaken by the vibrations in the branches. Looking up, she was startled to see something the like of which she had never seen before – a brilliant white ball of light hurtling to earth, leaving a long fiery tail behind it. It drew closer and closer, and it was so bright – as bright as the sun – that she had to screw up her eyes to protect them. A brilliant green and ghostly afterimage of the thing remained behind her closed eyelids. She was very scared, and clutched the branches of the friendly tree.

And then there was an ear-splitting crash, like thunder right next to her. She screamed, and almost fell out of the tree as it shook wildly. She was deafened – first by the sound of the explosion, and then by the sounds of hundreds of startled birds as they rose from all the neighbouring trees. She was dimly aware of Nichu and Jim's voices calling frantically. "Cynthia! Cynthia!"

She opened her eyes and was astonished by what she saw. From her high perch she could see, about half a dozen trees away, a little crater in the ground. Some bushes nearby were slowly smouldering in dying flame, and a few wisps of smoke were curling into the sky.

She blinked and looked again. What was in the middle of the crater? It looked like a hollow egg, just a bit bigger than a football, all broken into pieces. It was a funny looking thing – the outside bits of it were glowing red-hot, but the inside of it looked cool.

Suddenly, she was no longer afraid. The scary noise was gone, everything was calm and quiet and normal again. Her natural sense of adventure was stirred. She had to find out what this strange thing was!

Without losing a minute of time she scrambled down from the branches and, ignoring the calls of Jim and Nichu, headed off in the direction of the strange, crashed object.