Author's Note: Oh, yes! We're finally at chapter 22! I've been very excited to get to chapter 22. As part of this story, I wrote summaries of each scene, just to see what was necessary and what could get cut. For this scene, the summary was as long as - or maybe a little longer than - the actual scene. And I kind of love it.

"I'm not the first Time Agent sent to investigate the Galia system," Lantro explained to the Doctor, as they made their way across the sand dunes and towards a large rock formation that — fingers crossed — would contain the metamorphic rock. "The Agency sent someone else before me. That Time Agent disappeared. I never knew who it was."

The Doctor nodded, slowly. "And you've been putting the priority on finding out what happened to her? At the expense of trying to work out the reason she disappeared?"

Lantro glanced over at the Doctor. "Yeah... about that. If Mutajar was here on a mission, it wasn't anything to do with Plate Cracking. She didn't seem remotely interested in that."

The Doctor frowned. "Then what was she...?"

"From the scant few discussions we had," said Lantro, "she appeared to be looking for something." He mimed a small object. "Fob watch. About so big. Weird astral symbols on the front. Broken, but never opened." Lantro dropped his hand and shrugged. "She seemed to think Zeera had it."

The Doctor seemed intrigued. "Zeera Kardeni. The historian friend you don't give lifts home to anymore." He stuffed his hands into his pockets. "Did she have one?"

"One what?"

"A fob watch." The Doctor mimed its size. "Like you were saying."

"I don't know — I never asked," Lantro said. He shrugged. "She used to buy all kinds of weird old junk when we were in college together. She attached them to her backpack like keychains. You could hear her jangling a mile away."

The Doctor's eyes widened a little. "You knew her back in college?"

"Oh, sure," Lantro dismissed, as they climbed up another sand dune. "She was Craig's girlfriend, you know? So whenever Craig and I hung out, she was always somewhere nearby — backpack jangling, stack of books under each arm. I didn't think much of her back then, but she was fun to joke around with. That laugh of hers..." He grinned, his eyes far away. "Some days, I think I live for that laugh." The grin faded. "Lived."

The Doctor climbed up the sand dune, his face bent in a pensive frown.

"She came to me, about two months ago," Lantro continued, climbing to the top of the sand dune. "Said she had some concerns about the company and what it was doing. The more she told me, the more I panicked. I acted rashly. She almost died as a result." He paused as he reached the top, staring at the rock formation growing ever closer with every step. His eyes grew sad. "It's the one thing I really regret. I shouldn't have put her in that kind of danger."

The Doctor turned to him, studying his face. He nodded, again. "I see. That's why you were so eager to blame me, the moment I turned up." Turned away, staring at the rock formation, as well. "Your friend Zeera is a bit gifted with Time Lord technology, isn't she? And you'd rather have the authorities think it was me helping Stenman-Hoyer — than blame her."

Lantro didn't answer.

"I'd like to speak to her," the Doctor said, "when we get back."

Lantro gave a little laugh. "Yeah." The laughter died away on the wind, turning into a dull whisper. "Yeah — me too."

Then he ran down the other side of the sand dune.

The Doctor ran after him, his frown deepening with every step.

"So basically," the Doctor guessed, as he caught Lantro up, "you and Zeera used to be best mates. But now, Stenman and Hoyer won't let you even speak to each other anymore." He pointed at Lantro. "They're holding her culpability over you, so you won't talk." Dropped the hand. "And they're holding something over her, too, I expect. Something she might want very badly. Something Mutajar wants very badly." He stuffed his hands back into his pockets. "That's concerning. Very concerning."

Lantro gave a dull laugh. "Yeah." Stared on into the distance. "I'm concerned about her too."

"What? Oh, no, not her," said the Doctor. Paused. Raised up a finger. "Actually, yes. Her too. Very her too. But not just her too." He gestured for Lantro to follow him, and ran up a smaller sand dune before them. "From what you've told me, Lantro — it sounds like someone out there's looking for a Time Lord. Not me. Another Time Lord." He scratched his head. "And I've been getting this itch inside my head since we got in here. Almost like..."

He trailed off.

Then dismissed the thought and kept running.

Lantro ran after him, climbing to the top of the sand dune.

"Nothing else?" the Doctor double-checked, shielding his eyes from the sun. "Faye Mutajar never asked about anything else? Nothing? Not one scrap of a bit of a thing? Just Zeera and that... fob...?" The Doctor trailed off, as the wind whipped at the sand below them, unburying another group of humanoid skeletons.

"Yeah," said Lantro. "Basically just..." He trailed off, as he noticed the same thing. "Oh."

The Doctor and Lantro ran down the other side of the sand dune, wiping more sand off the bleached white bones. They'd been picked clean.

"You know — I'm starting to think this isn't really sand," the Doctor pointed out, letting a handful of it run through his fingers. "I think your super-moss went very, very wrong. And the people living here paid the price." He paused. Then amended, "The super-moss named by Zeera's child. That's troubling."

"One of eight children," said Lantro, sharply. "They name lots of stuff. It doesn't mean anything." He glared at the Doctor. "Zeera has nothing to do with any of this, Doctor. Leave her out of it."

The Doctor said nothing for the next few moments, as they continued to make their way across the desert. His brow was bent in thought.

"There's something I'm missing, here," the Doctor muttered, at last. He looked up at the sky, shading his eyes from the harsh sun. "Something that's niggling at the back of my brain. I'm trying to remember..." He sighed. "But there were so many battles, you know, during the War."

Lantro said nothing. Just stood up and kicked some sand back over the bones — a burial of sorts.

The Doctor squinted at the sun. "The sun. Galia-1. I keep looking up at it and asking myself... have I seen that sun somewhere before?" He looked out at the empty landscape around him. "Are these the bones of people I once spoke to and fought beside?"

Lantro frowned. "But the sun isn't..."

"No," the Doctor decided, finally. "No, I'm sure I wasn't in this battle. Positive. By the time I joined the War, the Time Lords already had a system in place for disarming that Dalek weapon that corrupted TARDIS coral." He paused. Then swung back around to Lantro. "Sorry, what were you saying?"

"The sun isn't Galia-1," said Lantro. "That naming convention went out the window centuries ago. The sun's 'Galia-prime'. The planets are the only ones that get the numbers."

The Doctor's brow furrowed, as he began counting out imaginary planets in front of him. "Then how is Galia-4 the third planet...?"

"They named the planets based on a gravity scan," said Lantro. "When they got here, they found out Galia-3 wasn't really a planet — just a gravitational anomaly."

The Doctor stared at Lantro, his hand dropping to his side. A look of horror spread across his face. "Nitvenah," he whispered.

Lantro stepped towards him. "Nitvenah? What's...?"

"Doesn't matter!" The Doctor began sprinting towards the rock formation ahead. "We have to find Seo now. Things are suddenly much, much worse than I imagined!"