Intro

The Doctor was falling through an unknown darkness, but as he did so he noticed some interesting things. "Standard atmosphere, standard temperature," he thought. There was no sign of starlight, moonlight or indeed any sign he was outside. And then he landed, surprisingly softly on what could only be a floor. Although he could not see a light source, his body was still visible to him. The Doctor dropped his arm. "Gravity 90% of Earth, and the soft landing suggests I'm inside some sort of structure."

Still in the strange room of darkness visible, the Doctor walked to his right several steps. The sounds were slightly disconcertingly off from a normal Earth perspective. The logical thing to do was to call out for anyone here. But the Doctor didn't. "Let him make the first move," he thought.

The Doctor walked a few more steps, when a bright spotlight turned on. "LIGHTS!" shouted a commanding male voice. "CAMERA!" The Doctor now realized he was in some sort of room. "AND ACTION, DOCTOR!"

The Doctor saw on the large wall opposite various images from Earth's twentieth century. "Yes, Doctor, it's the history of humanity. But not just any history!" Now the Doctor saw on the wall an image of Hitler at a Nuremberg rally. "Nazis!" declared the voice. Now the image shifted to what the Doctor recognized as scenes from the Great Ukrainian famine of 1932-1933. "Communists!" Now the Doctor saw images from the Rape of Nanking. "The Showa Dictatorship." The image shifted to masses of corpses at Bergen-Belsen along with a picture of the Gates of Auschwitz. "More Nazis!" Now the Doctor saw more images, of Himmler in full SS regalia, of Einsatzgruppen about to commit a massacre. "Still More Nazis!" Now the images shifted to images of African corpses. "But let's not forget that hot newcomer—the Rwandan genocide!" Images of these and other atrocities from the 20th century appeared on the wall, while a new figure appeared to the Doctor's right. He looked like a Caribbean-Englander and wore a gaudy ringmaster's uniform. "Yes, it's all scenes of horrific inhumanity, all the time! And when I say inhumanity, I mean atrocities committed by the Doctor's favorite species, the self-destructive hairless apes of Sol 3! And this wallowing in cruelty and misery is especially appropriate, ladies and gentleman, for our special guest tonight. Because tonight Doctor, THIS IS YOUR DEATH!"

The "ringmaster" clapped and his clothes changed to a more tasteful suit and the room turned into a more tasteful tableau of reasonable furniture, though the Doctor noted there was no hint of a window and the light source was carefully hidden. For now, the images of mass atrocity were gone. "You seem a little miffed Doctor. And not just bad memories of the Psychic Circus? Is there something about my appearance that upsets you?"

"Not especially."

"Do you think it most suits my essence?"

"Considering that you are more than a billion years older than any human, or indeed a billion years older than any life on Earth, not particularly."

"So, you know who I am? Don't assume I'll indulge my vanity and give away one clue after another. Who am I, Doctor? Tell me."

The Doctor closely examined this extremely dangerous figure. "You're one of the three great final enemies. You're the Guest of the Cephestians. You are the My despot My tyrant of Neetcha the Daemon. You have billions of years of names. But most importantly, you are the Bad Wolf, and you have been waiting six regenerations for this moment. You're Fenric."

Act One

Back in the offices of Spencer and Associates, Romana finally stood up. She looked at the android Nun the Doctor was examining just before he vanished. The android quickly disintegrated, while Romana quickly felt the pulse of Jack Robertson, the American billionaire who had assumed the alias of Spencer. "He'll live," she muttered, then went to the open elevator door.

Once inside, as the elevator descended, Romana took out her phone. Petronella Osgood, still laying outside in the corner where the Nun had put her, was abruptly awoken by her own phone. "I'm awake, I'm awake," she answered.

"Where are you, Petronella?"

"Umm, I'm not sure. I think I'm in the City. I had a really weird day. I found myself in Nazi Germany, the philosopher Martin Heidegger insulted me, and then I was back here. Then I was attacked by a nun."

"Petronella, I think you're somewhere near the offices of Spencer and Associates on Parker Street. I want you to look around carefully and see if you can see a sign. But don't make any sudden movements. Me and the Doctor visited Spencer and Associates as part of discovering whether they were actually Spencer. I'm going to check if I can get into Spencer's security systems."

Petronella got up, making sure to carry her purse, and looked nervously around. "Petronella, can you see where north is?"

"Yes."

"When I give the word, you are going to run as fast as you can in that direction for twenty-five seconds. That means running across the street. If you run without hesitation, you'll cross the street without any problems. If you hesitate, a car could hit and kill you. Also, if you linger any longer, Spencer's security guards can capture you. Do you understand? Then do what I say NOW."

And Petronella dashed north, causing two cars to abruptly brake, while ignoring the pleas of a traffic cop. Thirty seconds later, she was gasping for breath. By now Romana was outside Spencer and Associates. "Good job. Now we have a more serious problem. The Doctor has been captured by one of his three big enemies. Only by working my TARDIS and the Doctor's in sync can we rescue him. So I need you to pilot his TARDIS."

"Umm… I can think of three big problems with that. First, I don't actually know where the Doctor's TARDIS is. Second, even if I did know where the TARDIS was, I couldn't open it without the key. Third, I don't know how to operate the TARDIS, and I don't think the controls would allow me if I did."

"Petronella, I'm going to text you the TARDIS' location. Get there as soon as you can. We'll deal with the other two problems later."

Meanwhile, back in his office Jack Robertson had regained consciousness, and was pondering his next move, when the door suddenly opened.

"Mr. Spencer, you're alive!" said his special security official Lister, with carefully planned insincerity.

"Where's Romana? And did you know there was a secret elevator in this room?"

"I did not know there was an elevator, sir," Lister replied (truthfully for once).

"Shouldn't you be trying to find her?"

"My orders are to see to your safety first, Mr. Spencer. I've arranged for two physicians to confidentially see to your health. I've also arranged a wonderful dinner. One of the Emissaries will be arriving this evening. And until then, you can count on my complete and undivided attention," he said, with a smile as unctuous as it was sinister.

"So you know my name, Doctor," Fenric said. "Did you figure anything else about me without being told by a self-pitying utopian despised by all decent people?"

"As I said, you're the Guest."

"How did you know I was not the force behind Spencer?"

"Because if you were Spencer, you wouldn't have arranged the Cephestians to capture me or have Neetcha spy on me, as you could send your agents against me at any time."

"But why assume I was the Guest? I could be the third enemy you fear."

"Probability. If 'Bad Wolf' means anything, it means you've been watching me since the Time War. But you haven't been attacking me directly, which means you're very circumspect and playing your metaphorical cards close to your metaphorical chest." The Doctor strode around the suite, now showing images of the Khmer Rouge's bloody reign on the wall. "Take this place. The gravity doesn't match Earth, so I'm not on it. It doesn't resemble a conventional space station, with the machinery it would need, but there's no sign of any windows or light source. I could simply be on a prison on an unknown planet, but I think I'm somewhere else, a sort of extra-dimensional base."

"Ah, your intuition is working. Quite correct, Doctor. This is a special lair, my Sphere of Influence, and not simply extra-dimensional. You and the Time Lords have been using all kinds of tricks and paradoxes through time and space, and so does this. But I've added something special, beyond any Time Lord ken, paradoxes of not merely reality, but also the soul." Fenric smiled evilly at the Doctor. "And since it's my home, it's my rules. The special arrangements we'll get to later. But for the moment, none of your companions can enter. Not Romana, not Petronella, not Jack Harkness nor River Song nor Donna Noble nor whatever Spencer has done with Sarah Jane Smith. Please continue Doctor."

"When I was in my ninth, or 'ninth' incarnation, Rose Tyler and I saw repeated references to Bad Wolf. And then, to save the Earth in the far future from the Daleks, she absorbed the heart of the TARDIS and realized she was the Bad Wolf. And with a gesture she sent all the clues we had encountered, conveniently solving the temporal mystery. But that's not what happened is it?"

"Doctor, you are going to die soon. You'll have to explain things more."

"The first mention was in 1869 Cardiff. Gwyneth, the servant influenced by the Gelth, told Rose she was the 'Bad Wolf.' She recognized, vaguely, that you were influencing her. All this time, Rose was your pawn. But why?"

Fenric smiled more subtly. "Actually, this is the really clever part. You'd notice an ordinary spy. What if I didn't create a puppet or a pawn, like the late Melanie Bush? What if I chose someone who would be your perfect companion? All the energy and ingenuity of your precious humans. Someone willing to stand up for herself, someone with a sense of humor, but clearly less intelligent than you. Someone who was physically attractive, and had enough sexual drive not to let it go to waste. If she was foolish, she was foolish for a good cause, liking messing up time to save her father. The companion who would kill you would be an unequivocally good person."

"And why would you do that?"

"But you know why, Doctor. For the same reason you didn't go to River Song for help."

"You wanted me to fall in love with her."

"Correct. Go on."

"The Garden of Unearthly Delights. The Soothsayer of Malmooth. I contacted her in such a way that the Matrix on Gallifrey wouldn't know I did it. She told my sixth or 'sixth' incarnation that if I fell in love I would die. Your agent?"

"Alas, more an ally. And what she told me is that love wouldn't just kill you then, but would be key to your final downfall. It was easy for one of my devotees, a degenerate pedophile and drug addict, to give Tyler a department store job three weeks before she met you fighting the Autons."

"Rose experienced the heart of the TARDIS. So you know all of its secrets."

"Actually no. Her mind couldn't really grasp them so I couldn't fully read her thoughts. I did make her think Bad Wolf was just a cute paradox, because I realized you wouldn't let it go otherwise. And it worked."

"Rose gave Jack Harkness immortality. Was that you?"

"I noticed something odd about him, and so did ultra-Rose. But I didn't arrange him to be with you. Now that you mention it, I did look into it. And guess who I found working behind the scenes after the fact?"

"Spencer, I presume."

"Not just Spencer. Turlough. He was very clever. Harkness doesn't know him from Adam. Anyway, once you regenerated after the Daleks you were a better couple than before. And then those wretched Cybermen showed up. Bloody nuisance. So I tried again. I had to wait very carefully since the Church of the Papal Mainframe was very complicated and confused. This time I thought I would have someone who was already in love with you when you first met. But it wasn't enough. It was only during your previous regeneration that the Soothsayer told me that you would never fall in love with a human, however much you might think so. And not the love at your end."

"I don't understand. I died for Peri Brown, for Rose Tyler, for Wilfred Mott, for Petronella Osgood. And I'm willing to die to stop you and the other Two Enemies."

"Ah, your famously selfless altruism. No, Doctor. This is so much more. What you feel at the end will be very special indeed."

The Doctor changed the subject. "And you forged the evidence that I had betrayed the Time Lords to the Daleks and gave it to the Cephestians."

"You're jumping ahead, Doctor. But let me explain. When the Cult of Skaro arose, it was easy for me to seduce one of its members, to get the Daleks' files. But I didn't forge anything. As far as I know, it's real."

"But I have no memory of such events. The Cephestians confirmed it!"

"There's a lot of things you don't remember, Doctor. That's why I've brought you here."

Somewhat short of breath, Petronella finally reached the TARDIS, when her phone rang. "Did you find it?" Romana asked on the other end. "I hope my directions weren't too vague."

"No, I'm here. But I still don't know how to get into it."

"I've got a plan. But for it to work, I need you to shut off your phone."

"Hold on, I'm getting a call from my sister."

"Petronella, I repeat, please turn off your phone." Petronella did so and waited outside the TARDIS. Then she noticed a strange purplish glow. It was rectangular in form and surrounded the TARDIS lock. There was a strange hum. Then there was a clicking sound and the glow vanished. Petronella pushed the door open, and entered the TARDIS.

As she approached the console, Petronella heard Romana's voice. "Petronella, I need you to hit the dematerialization circuit before Spencer tries to stop you."

"Wait, how are you contacting me?"

"It's straightforward. Your TARDIS is a type-40 TARDIS. My TARDIS is a type-80 TARDIS. It has matter-transportation technology. Among other highly advanced functions, it allows me to communicate directly via TARDIS, rather than by cell phones that people can eavesdrop on. I can't simply override the Doctor's system. But because your TARDIS recognizes both me and you as friends, I've convinced it to let me open the Door and allot you some of the controls."

Petronella hit the dematerialization circuit and the TARDIS vanished from 2022 London. "Now what?"

"You need to get a chair and take it back to the console. You'll want to be more comfortable for what happens next."

Petronella obeyed, and soon sat down in front of one of the console's screens. "A mathematical problem just appeared on the screen."

"Can you solve it?"

"I have a doctorate in mathematics. Of course I can. Didn't you send it to me?"

"No, I didn't. But you do need to solve it, Petronella. And all the other problems that appear after it."

Petronella started working on the problem. She worked calmly and rationally on it, not noticing that someone or something appeared to be watching her just outside the door that connected the console room to the rest of the TARDIS.

"You're not comfortable with my talking to you with this face, Doctor," Fenric said.

"I doubt any face would make any particular difference," the Doctor replied. But that did not stop Fenric from changing his appearance. And to the Doctor's very unpleasant surprise he now assumed a very familiar form. He resembled the Curator the Doctor had met in 2013 London, the Curator who looked like a very aged Fourth Doctor.

"Surprise," Fenric said almost jauntily as he returned to his previous form.

"No, it couldn't have been you."

"Really, did you think of all your possible futures, retirement was going to be one of them? And I needed a face that you would trust. And since the only person you trust and admire is yourself…"

The Doctor quickly reasoned. "You realized that Gallifrey still existed, and you wanted me to go there."

"Of course. There have been many prophecies about you. So while you were in your Angry Scotsman regeneration I waited to see what would happened while you sought the Time Lords. And then I learned Gallifrey was destroyed, and then I discovered the truly important secret, that you weren't a Time Lord at all. At first, I thought the Cephestian memory devices would reveal the truth. But I didn't get there in time. I thought that if you met those sybaritic Eternals in Xanadu something might be revealed."

"But I'm still no closer to finding out who I really am."

"Doctor, I'm going to have to interrupt you. What do you think of the décor of my 'fortress of solitude'?"

"I don't particularly care." A sense of politeness made the Doctor continue: "I've seen worse."

"I believe the feng shui of the place would be approved by many Earth contemporaries. But then there's the lighting. It could be brighter in here. There's all sort of shadows. Like the two you have right now."

The Doctor looked and saw that he indeed had two shadows. "What?"

"Don't try using your sonic screwdriver. I've put a block on it. Not that it was very good at saving River Song's friends."

"The Vashta Nerada."

"Infecting one of your shadows, yes. We've had a lovely chat. But I believe I'll learn more once you die." And with that all the lights turned off.

Act Two

For a few seconds, the Doctor felt the most agonizing pain as the Vashta Nerada feasted on his body. He fell to the floor, but could not find the strength to roll around in an attempt to crush the shadows that melt the flesh. He could barely resist screaming as he faced inevitable death.

And then suddenly the lights turned back on. "Begone!" Fenric yelled crossly. One could see the Vashta Nerada as little motes in the air as they were expelled. The Doctor himself couldn't see them as he was still on the floor. A strange red glow suffused him, which the Doctor realized was Fenric healing the Doctor's body from the Vashta Nerada's predations. "Doctor, I thought that if you were on the point of death, you would reveal your true self in your memories. Rather annoyingly, you did not. I'll just have to try something else then."

As the Doctor recovered on the floor, Fenric strode to a table and poured himself a cocktail. "I know what you're thinking, Doctor."

"The Cyberleader thought he knew what I was thinking."

"Oh yes, clever trick with the Silents. Won't work on me though. But as I was saying, I know what you're thinking. I can't read all your thoughts, not just yet. Time Lord minds, and whatever you are, are too powerful and devious. But you're wondering how to beat me. Even though you're trapped with no way out. Let's see. How does it go in Macbeth? 'Macbeth shall never vanquished be, until Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill Shall come against him.' And what else? 'No man of woman born shall harm Macbeth.' Those two rules, of course, did not save him.

"People like you are bound by reason. But I am guided by prophecy. Here are three that will keep me safe, though I'm sure you'll waste the little time you have looking for loopholes. First, no single intelligence, and intelligence is defined very broadly, will be able to find my Sphere of Influence. There is a proviso to that: 'Tyger tyger, burning bright,/in the forests of the night;/What immortal hand or eye,/Could frame thy fearful symmetry?' There is no rational way to find my location.

"Second, I already told you that I've kept out all your companions. Unless I let them in, no mortal can enter my sphere. And as for immortals, and you fall into that category, if they enter they will be immediately detected.

"Third, while I am in my sphere, there is no way for me to die. Further, I am destined to live until the universe's last day. Either I will be triumphant, or I will be killed by a dead God."

By now the Doctor had recovered, and had gotten to his feet. "Follow me, Doctor. I have something to show you." Soon the two were walking down shadowy, dark corridors when Fenric opened a door that led to what looked like a recording studio.

"This room is my link to the rest of the universe. Usually I prefer not to leave my Sphere." Fenric pushed some buttons, and an image appeared in the "studio" outside the interdimensional paraphernalia. It was of a humanoid creature, covered in a cloak, confined to a chair. The figure was wearing a helmet with a snake motif that covered its face and glowing green eyes.

"Sutekh!" the Doctor gasped.

"He can't hurt you. He's on the brink of death," Fenric explained. But then the Doctor was ravaged by intense pain. "Sorry, he can't hurt you too much."

"Why have you come here, Wolf?" Sutekh asked.

"Ah, Sutekh. The Typhonian Beast. The Great Destroyer. I'm going to do something especially cruel to you. I'm going to force you to tell the truth." Fenric opened a drawer and revealed a strange amethyst scarab. "Tell the Doctor what this is."

"It is from the oldest and most sacred of Osirian oracles." Sutekh was barely able to breathe as he said these words. "Everything suggests that they are older than time itself."

"And what do they say about me?"

"There are three great figures. You know the first, you are the second, and the Doctor's true people are the third. You have amassed over millions of galaxies and billions of years almost everything you need to dominate existence. Only the Doctor's true people have the final piece and you will find them once his secret is revealed."

Petronella was still sitting at the TARDIS console, working on mathematical problems, when she noticed a strange series of letters and numbers appear on another screen. "Romana, what is this?"

"It's a special sequence of numbers. Do you see a smaller sequence in the bottom right hand corner of that screen?"

"I don't see anything… oh wait, they just appeared."

"Do you know where the Doctor sets the coordinates for his journeys?'

"Yes."

"Now you're going to take those coordinates in the bottom right hand corner, and type them into the coordinate-control. Then you're going to transmit the larger sequence. And you're going to keep doing that when new sequences appear."

Petronella did so, while continuing to work on the mathematical problems. "What are these sequences anyway? And where am I sending them?"

"Did the Doctor tell you who he thought he was fighting? Who the Guest was who threatened him in Xanadu?"

"No."

"Well I think he is fighting a cosmic entity known as Fenric. And we can't confront him directly. But the mathematical problems you are solving are critical to finding the Doctor."

"Romana, are you in the TARDIS?"

"No, I'm still in my own TARDIS, talking to you, and working on my own part of the problem."

"It's just that I get this strange feeling that there's somebody else in the TARDIS."

"Do you? I think there's a green/purple button on the other side of the console you should touch."

Petronella walked over to the other side and pressed the button Romana indicated. Suddenly an attractive young brunette woman appeared.

"Jackie Hawkins?!"

"Actually, I'm just an image to give this TARDIS system a voice and a personality. The Doctor made me when she got the TARDIS back on Manethysia. What's up?"

"Jackie, is there anyone who has sneaked aboard the TARDIS? Any spy or infiltrator? Anyone who isn't supposed to be here?"

"Nope." And Jackie turned off. Petronella walked back to her chair, not all that confident. "Good Lord, I feel I've been doing this for hours."

"You have been doing this for hours." Suddenly a box the size of a large hardcover book appeared on the console. "What's this?" Petronella asked.

"Dinner. Hope you like Indian."

It was evening in London back at Spencer and Associates. The sun had set and Lister was just finishing his dinner when he received an electronic alert. He got up and to his surprise saw right in front of him a gaunt man dressed in a dark suit that resembled a public (i.e. exclusively private) schoolboy uniform.

"Mr. Turlough, I would have been happy to meet you in the Munster…"

"Lister, you informed me of the deaths of Montherlant and your employee, Gwendolyn Hall."

"Yes, Mr. Tur…"

"I need you to answer this question truthfully. It would be very unwise to lie. Have you been responsible for the death of anyone else in the last eighty-four hours?"

Turlough pinned Lister with a withering stare that filled the security official with fear. "No, sir."

"Standard procedures have been followed to insure the deceased are not linked to Spencer and Associates?"

"Yes sir, I've already…"

"Now take me to the Nun." Soon the two were in another room looking at the remains of the android that had attacked the Doctor earlier that day.

"It self-destructed, Mr. Turlough. And I can't recover anything with my 23rd century technology."

Turlough took out what appeared to be a small glass circle. He used it to examine the remains. "Fortunately, I have better technology."

"What I don't understand is how it got into a secret elevator I've never encountered before."

"That should be obvious even to you, Lister. The nun entered the elevator because it had a higher security clearance than you do."

"An android has a higher security clearance?"

"More than you ever will. Unfortunately, it was taken over by an entity known as Fenric."

"Who's Fenric?" But Turlough completely ignored the question. "Take me to Mr. Spencer."

Soon the two entered the special suite that served as the living quarters of 'Spencer,' better known to the world as American billionaire Jack Robertson. Robertson was hardly happy to see Turlough, since he had survived the special programming whereby Spencer's nominal heads were to shoot themselves if security was breached.

Turlough did not acknowledge this fear. Robertson was now confined to his bed. "The doctors say he should be able to get up again by Thursday morning at the latest," Lister said.

Turlough did not acknowledge this information either. "Mr. Spencer, I am here to inform you of another Beta alert."

"A Beta alert?" Robertson asked.

"Which could become an Alpha alert tomorrow. It deals with the Zygons."

"You mean those shape-shifting aliens that tried to take over Britain about seven years ago?"

"Please listen carefully. The Zygon planet is governed by a military council of eleven members. The planet is also divided into military governorships. Most governors are already council members, but there are four who are not. There is also a Senate, which deals with non-military issues, which has three presiding officers. There is also an infrastructure council, with two key leaders, and a Judicial council, also with two key leaders. All for a total of twenty-two key Zygon officials."

"Are they planning another attack on Earth?"

"No, Mr. Spencer. Earlier this afternoon, our time, all twenty-two of those officials were assassinated. The Zygon government is currently in crisis. What little information we have on the assassins is that they are clad completely in black, carrying lethal weaponry of unknown power and origin. Nine days ago, one of our leading and most powerful operatives was attacked and nearly killed by apparently similar agents."

The Doctor was back in Fenric's living room. Again, images of human cruelty appeared on the wall, with images of Aztec human sacrifice, the Mongol sacking of cities, atrocities from both sides of the Greek war of independence fluctuated with the image of Himmler the Doctor had seen earlier. Fenric sat down on a couch opposite of where the Doctor was sitting and smiled.

"You don't really… hold on a moment, is that a ring you're wearing?"

The Doctor realized Fenric was looking at the silver ring he had been wearing since his regeneration. "It's not a wedding ring," Fenric continued. He looked at it as if it were a device that could open black holes under Fenric's feet instead of simple jewelry. Having taken its measure, he continued. "As I was saying, you don't really take the opportunity to talk with your enemies, Doctor, do you?"

"Considering that my enemies often seek to kill me, and I have to run away from them, that's hardly surprising."

"Yes, I can understand why that would often be the case. But you've spent centuries fighting your enemies. And you rarely seem to take the effort. Consider our case, for example. You consider me evil, don't you?"

"An understandable opinion, under the circumstances. When we last met, you were trying to destroy the world with a deadly poison."

"I think you exaggerate Doctor. The two 'allies' at that moment were perfectly capable of destroying each other. I just wished to give them a little push."

"I'd point out that they did not, in fact, destroy each other."

"You're sure about that Doctor? But have you really considered my point of view?"

"You have existed for billions of years. Your admirers freely describe themselves as servants of evil and destruction. There isn't a lot of more ambiguous and complex self-description."

"Well, let's talk, shall we? You consider life, from your own perspective, as an unequivocal good. An infinitely precious thing that it would be a crime to squander. You really can't stop moralizing about the subject."

"And how do you view life, Fenric? With hatred?'

"Oh hardly. You don't understand me at all, Doctor."

"Then as what? A bauble, like a 1932 Rolls Royce or an extremely large diamond?"

"No, Doctor. I view life as an algorithm. Whether it has its origins in primaeval soup or clay or something else, organic molecules develop which replicate themselves. Over billions of years they become more complex. Natural selection pressures and forces them into certain variations whose fundamental logic is random. Life is simply a much, much smaller variation on the planetary, stellar and galactic evolution we encounter.

"Of course, there are sentient organisms and they have intelligence. But here is the problem, Doctor. Do they? Do they really? Because the vast majority of sentient organisms, like your precious humans, live in circumstances of such scarcity and control that they really do not have much more choice than their lemur or shrew or amphibian ancestors. Obey the laws of people more powerful than you. Work at what you can for basic subsistence. Believe what most of the people around you believe. Wash your hands before meals. Pay your taxes on time. Stay together for the kids.

"And this is where I disagree Doctor. George Bernard Shaw once said 'The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.' I am that unreasonable man. I force life not to obey, but to think. I challenge their basic ideas! I break the algorithm!"

Petronella was still solving mathematical problems in the TARDIS when she yawned. It was hard for her to keep her eyes open. And then she saw something that made her sit up. Several feet from the console, she noticed a strange light on the floor. It was perhaps the size of a shoe, only it was slowly growing and there was a strange high-pitched noise that was slowly rising in volume.

"Romana, are you seeing and hearing this?"

"I am, and it's not good news."

"Explain," Petronella gulped.

"The Doctor told you about three big enemies. Spencer is the first one; the Doctor was caught by the second, Fenric. What I haven't told you is that while I was out with the Doctor this afternoon, I had a computer decoding some information that Carmel left after the Time War. And when I got back, I was able to figure it out.

"Petronella, the only way for us to stop Fenric and rescue the Doctor is to work with the Third Big Bad. These mathematical formulas and the coded information you've been sending are part of how to contact the aforementioned Third Big Bad and find the Doctor. I've been using your TARDIS as a buffer to prevent TBB from seeing me. I'm gambling that because you're a human they won't pay too much attention to you."

By now the strange light was very prominent and the strange noise very loud indeed. "What should I do?"

"Don't panic. They probably don't want to hurt you just yet." But just then the light overwhelmed the console room, while the strange noise was so high-pitched that Petronella had to cover her ears. Then she fell from the chair trying to avoid the overwhelming sensation.