Chapter Seven

Utopia

The rocket landed, and the landing was none too smooth. Lucy gritted her teeth as it jolted to a halt, but all the other passengers (besides Harry) were talking excitedly.

"Come on, Lucy," Harry said, unbuckling. "Let's have a look, shall we? Make sure it's safe."

She nodded and followed him out onto the small walkway on the outside of the rocket. The rocket had touched down on a landing pad, apparently, but it was completely deserted. No lights, no people, no holograms welcoming them to Utopia. And the silence; the horrible, horrible silence, as of a place where no one had ever lived and no one ever would.

"Oh, Harry," she whispered. "Take me home, Harry."

"Nonsense." His smile, meant to be reassuring, only made him look like a madman. "Let's explore. There's a landing pad, which means that someone had to build it. Possibly no one was expecting us."

By now everyone else was filing out of the rocket, looking around and murmuring in fearful or disappointed voices.

Outside of the landing pad, there was some light, but it was horribly dreary. As she looked up, Lucy saw that the light came from a planet, not far from this one judging by how large it looked, and the planet was breaking apart. Burning. All around her was a wasteland; the remains of a city crumbling into ruin. She stumbled over something and bent to look at it. Bones; the bones of a child, if the size meant anything. She clapped a hand over her mouth to keep back a scream.

Harry took her arm firmly. "Get a grip, Lucy. What did you expect trillions of years in your future? Peaceful hamlets full of sheep and laughing kids? This is it; this is the beginning of the end of the universe, and there's nothing anyone can do to stop it. How does it make you feel?"

"Empty," she replied. "Everything comes to this in the end. What's the point in anything that we do?"

She did not see his smile. "Exactly. Now you understand why I took you here, don't you?"

"No." Her voice was flat and dull. "And I don't care."

"I'm going to save all these people that came with us, the last of the human race. Look at them; what's here for them? They will be willing, ecstatic, to serve me. Now, let's go get the Tardis. We have work to do."