3

The Doctor pushed through the high grasses they'd entered. "Candice, mind telling me what's going on?"

"Not now." the young woman called over her shoulder. "Wait until we get somewhere safe to talk."

She pushed beyond the grasses, into a stand of low woods. Behind, the grasses rustled, and a group of ekeen came bounding forward to trot beside Candice. "Is everyone all right?" the young woman asked, glancing down at the smaller creatures.

"We're well." one Ekeen said, "We were not seen."

"They shot some rounds. But they missed!" said another. Candice nodded, her lips quirking up. Pulling a small box from her belt, she spoke. "Terka Holt, Terka Holt. We're coming home." She glanced over her shoulder. "Watch your footing here, folks. Only step on the grassy spots."

They played hopscotch across a long, soggy expanse, and moved into another stretch of trees. Soon, one of the Ekeen pushed its nose into the ground, and a wide hatch in the earth sprang open. The furry little bodies disappeared down into the hole. Candice and the Time Lords followed them, Candice pulling the hatch down behind her.

The stairwell gave out into a cozy room, sandstone-colored sheetrock walls glowing warmly in the light. There were cries of welcome and chitters as ekeen rushed forward to greet those waiting for them, their sinuous bodies darting through the room as they rolled, rubbed noses and brushed up against each other. Candice dropped to her knees, smiling and greeting the individuals who came to do the same with her. A few of the creatures made a semicircle around the Doctor, welcoming him all at once in a panoply of synthesized voices and small squeaks.

"You have brought them!" one ekeen said, "It is good, it is very good! Welcome Doctor! Come! Come into the holt, welcome!"

The ekeen led the way in a rivulet of brown and black bodies, guiding their guests down the corridor or nudging at the backs of their legs. People stepped out of their way in the wide hall, then bustled on about their own chores. The Doctor glanced into rooms as they passed; a few rooms held beds, another was full of busy people and the smell of cooking. In another room weapons were being cleaned and set aside.

They've got an entire community down here.

"Candice-" the Doctor sidestepped as a few small, golden brown ekeen darted between his feet. One of his entourage let out a loud bark that translated as an annoyed order, "Children! Do not run!" He turned and chased after them, leaving the group to go on.

Turning back, the Doctor started again. "Candice, why-"

"It was almost better the last time you were here, y'know." the young woman said, leading them down another sandstone-colored hall, "At least then it was an alien. Now it's the government. And they're harder to deal with."

"Why-"

"In here."

Overstuffed couches sat in a rough semicircle around a low table, interspersed with large pillows laid on the floor that a few lounging ekeen had already colonized.

"Sit, be at ease." said the ekeen who had spoken earlier, a dark individual with a grey smudge on one ear, "Food comes. It is very good that you are here!" He bounded away, chittering to himself.

"Wonderful." the Doctor said, dropping onto one of the couches and spreading his long legs. "Better than the greeting we got in the settlement, I can tell you. Nearly got the bum's rush off the planet there."

"That's the adjudication staff for you." Candice said, dropping onto a couch, "They want you off the planet because they don't want anyone knowing what they're about to do here. The adjudicator's office has authorized necessary force to be used in this colony. Pretty much, they can do whatever they like."

"Necessary force?" the Doctor asked in surprise, "They're not supposed to get that authorization unless law breaks down or the settlement breaks its charter. What exactly did you do here?"

Candice sighed, her round face grim. "We did, in the most technical sense, break our charter."

"Oh?" the Doctor inquired, "In what sort of technical sense?"

Candice took a mug offered her by one of the ekeen. "Technically, we're supposed to report all valuable ores found on planet. Well, we did. Except…"

"Except?"

Candice sighed again, brushing her bangs from her eyes. Her young face looked weary. "They say that we didn't report tellurium deposits."

The Doctor's brows shot up. "You found tellurium?" he whistled. "Pricey stuff, tellurium. Rarest metal on Earth. Worth a pretty penny."

"We reported the deposits on the northwest continent and those on the tip of the eastern continent. But not some of the others." Candice replied.

"And why would that be?"
"Because we never intended to mine them." Candice took a breath. "On this planet the tellurium is found in a few large, shallow deposits near the surface. The biggest deposits are under the large lakes that take up a lot of the continent. And we didn't report those, since we didn't want them mined."

"Why's that?" Jenny asked.

"Because it would destroy the lakes." Candice said sharply. "And those lakes are hunting grounds, playgrounds, homes and breeding grounds for the ekeen, and a good source of food and power for us as well. The adjudicators don't understand how vital these lakes are to the culture we've built here. Destroying the lakes would wreck us. It's one thing if they were using sonic drill tech, but we've been told that it'd cost too much to ship the fancy, heavy drills. They want to-well, I should say they're going to drain the lakes and strip-mine them."

"Back up, " the Doctor said, holding up a hand, "when did this all happen? And why didn't you list the lakes as protected land?"

"We did. Or at least we thought we did." Candice sipped from her mug. "Five years ago, we filed our planet report as we're required to. The first wave and second wave of colonists had both done well, and the colony was proving viable. By that time we were working hard on the Worldshare program-that's the program we set up to learn how humans into ekeen society- and in our report we listed our cohabitation with another sentient species that reserved the land around the lakes as previously inhabited. But apparently that didn't wash, because two years ago a government-contracted mining group arrived on planet and demanded the right to start mining. Well, of course we appealed. Nine months ago the adjudicators arrived to investigate the claim of ekeen sentience. We gave them enough information to fill a freighter. And then the report came back about two months ago. The court won't admit ekeen sentience. So they say we lied on our report." She sighed, and sipped her drink. "We tried sending some delegates to the Earth Enquiry Department to prove our case, but it'll be at least a year before we get an answer. And it might not be a good answer even then. In the meantime, we try to keep things under control on this end while it's in probate. And it…hasn't been going well."

"So we saw." the Doctor said dryly.

"Since we broke charter, all our voting rights have been canceled. They're the law now, and they're doing what they like. But what they're doing is illegal. The mining firm don't have the right to start drilling until the final court decision, and the adjudicators shouldn't be letting them."

"And yet they go on." one small ekeen chirped, "already there are places we cannot swim. In some places fish die."

"The runoff is killing a lot of marine life." Candice said.

"Runoff?" the Doctor asked warily. Candice nodded. "They're using lightweight machines without filters or gathering tanks. The waste slag and excess chemicals just runs off into the water. It's the Terra-easy chemistry and they say it's harmless. But the chemical bases are different on this planet, and here it's doing damage."

" Cutting corners wherever they can, aren't they?" the Doctor murmured. "And that's going a bit beyond their own mandates and breaking a few laws of their own if I'm not mistaken. But of course they can get away with it this far out and away from Earth. So you've suddenly got a militia government with its thumb on you. And you've gone underground. Quite literally. You've been trying to stop what they've been doing, right?" Candice nodded, setting down her cup. She smiled wryly. "Welcome to the resistance, I guess." Then the young woman's smile faded. She looked at the Doctor for a long moment. "I know this isn't your problem. But the last time you were here you knew exactly what to do. And now that you're back… will you help us?"

The Doctor met her eyes. "I'll try." Then he took a deep breath. "We may need to have a word with these chaps. But for the moment, my ship's out there. I'm going to pop out and fetch it back here- don't worry, it's quite small-and then we'll start sorting it out."

It took them half an hour to reach the TARDIS. Stepping through the door, they moved quickly to the consol.

"So what're we going to do?" Jenny asked, taking up her place on the stabilizers.

"I don't know if we're going to do anything yet." the Doctor said, running his hands over the controls.

Jenny's brow wrinkled. "Why not?"

The ship settled. The Doctor turned away from the consol to face his daughter, his face remote. "Because I haven't had a chance to take a good look at the timelines. Some unpleasant things are supposed to happen, you know."

"You think this is a fixed event? I didn't see any signs."

"You weren't looking too hard."

"I was a little distracted." the girl said dryly. "Besides, I saw the signs pretty easy in Ireland, and in that world war."

"You did," the Doctor conceded, "though those events have everything but blinking warning lights on them. Some things aren't so obvious."

Jenny nodded, crossing her arms over her chest. "Show me what to do."

"Relax first. Let your mind go blank."

Jenny tried to comply.

"Let your eyes go out of focus a bit." her father advised, "It helps."

Jenny let her eyes relax, unfocused. The time lines came into sharper focus as other parts of reality lost definition; some forever steady and unchanging, others, like the lines of dust motes, full of many tiny possibilities as they floated one way or another. In front of her, her father's timelines glowed with intricacy, woven in complicated and intricate patterns.

"Okay, look at the lines."

"Which ones?" Jenny asked.

"All of them." the Doctor said, "Taken all together, all those timelines make up the planetary line."

"I think I see it…" Then Jenny blinked. "It loops back on itself…I think I'm just seeing the TARDIS timeline."

"Yes, but look beyond that."

Jenny shook her head, clearing her vision. "I didn't see anything else." She turned towards the door. "I'm going to go outside and try again."

The Doctor nodded.

Stepping outside, Jenny let her eyes relax again. Now she could see a complex pattern made up of everything around her, a winding braid of millions of strands, with millions more going off in millions of directions. But there were only a few large, very large strands woven of millions of individual futures. Moments, scents and sights and sounds poked out like snapshots as she strained to study them. Down one, there were earth-moving machines, mining crews, and an area of land stripped bare. Down another there was the smell of gun smoke and more earthmovers. And the next. But there were a few where there were no machines, and the water sparkled.

Jenny brought her attention back to the moment.

"There's a lot of different futures."

The Doctor nodded thoughtfully. "Mm-hmm."

"So this event's in flux. That means we can help, right?"

The Doctor met her eyes. "Yes. We'll help." He sighed, looking into the forest. "We'll try."