A lot of the news recently had been to do with the complete extermination of the American army and the restoration work. No longer bound by restricting laws, the television stations were once again able to exercise freedom of speech and they felt themselves obligated to report on all the disasters of the last three years. The Doctor was beginning to give up until, when pressed, Atlanta came up with something remarkable (but not to the broadcasters): a meteorite had hit Earth recently. Since no one was injured and it hit an area near the town of Ambukara, in Victoria, Australia, it hadn't been a very newsworthy story.

It was, however, highly newsworthy to the Doctor and he set about trying to start Atlanta's Dad's old car that had been unused for years. As soon as it did, he announced to Atlanta that they were going to Ambukara.

"Why are we driving?" Atlanta asked, reluctant at having to leave her sunny backyard. "Why don't we just take your TARDIS?"

"It's not completely reliable," the Doctor answered. "How long does it take to drive to Ambukara?"

"Two and a half, three hours," Atlanta answered. "You might want to buy petrol before going too far out."

"I rarely carry money."

"I have some," Atlanta sighed. "I don't suppose there's nothing unusual about this meteorite, is there?"

"Of course there is," the Doctor answered. "It's the best lead I've got."


A starving Atlanta stumbled out of the car as soon as it got to Ambukara.

"You just had to go the scenic route, didn't you?" she chided him, referring to his detour through Geelong.

"Well, I didn't know Geelong was so difficult to get out of!" the Doctor retorted.

Atlanta ignored him and turned to the little milk bar/bakery near the river. "It's been ages since I came here," she sighed happily. "I must have been fourteen." She shivered. "It was never so cold, though."

"We're not here to reminisce, we're here to find the meteorite!" the Doctor snapped. Atlanta shrugged.

"You, maybe," she answered. "I've been stuck in a car for four hours with no food. I want to eat."

The Doctor shrugged and waved her towards the shop. Atlanta glared at him reproachfully and entered to buy some lunch, while the Doctor decided to walk around the beautifully scenic lake in search of the meteorite. The day was certainly much cooler here than elsewhere in the state, but it was a gorgeous area. He certainly hoped he'd be able to defeat the alien invasion – this lake and its surroundings were much more tranquil even than Atlanta's backyard. If he didn't defeat them, he hated to think what this beautifully coloured spot would look like in the grey world of the 2090s. Grey, most probably.

Atlanta stumbled out of the shop with a meat pie and two plastic bottles of Coke. Fumbling while trying to carry everything and look for the Doctor, she inadvertently tripped and fell down a hill. Satisfied that the pie had escaped unscathed, Atlanta decided to eat it and then continue.


The Doctor had located the meteorite and found it wasn't a meteorite at all. For a start, there wasn't the remotest trace of a crater, merely a pile of broken trees where the thing had crashed through them during its descent. Also, although it looked vaguely like a rock, a bit of tapping and prodding had revealed it to be hollow. Obviously, rocks weren't hollow, but just as obviously, rocks can't contain entire alien armies unless they're big rocks. Or, conversely, small aliens. He didn't think it was small aliens, though, because of the fact that he had the foreknowledge to know that they'd be masquerading as Americans, and he could hardly imagine minuscule aliens running around dressed up in a suit the size of a human.

Therefore, assuming the Doctor was correct (and he nearly invariably was) this disguised ship was a scout. That would also mean it would be much easier to defeat the alien invasion. Perfect timing, once again, the Doctor beamed to himself, and decided to see how Atlanta was doing with her lunch.

Atlanta and the Doctor stumbled into each other much sooner than the Doctor had expected on the far side of the lake. After apologising, Atlanta offered him one of the bottles of Coke and then asked about the meteorite.

"It's not a meteorite," the Doctor answered cheerfully. "I believe it's an alien scout ship."

Atlanta stared at him. She might have learnt five weeks ago that travel in Time and Space was feasible, but that didn't mean she was falling for the alien invasion thing.

"Are you sure it isn't just a meteorite?" she asked him.

"It was hollow," the Doctor replied impatiently. "Meteorites aren't hollow."

Atlanta thought. "Do you think you should examine it again?" she asked hopefully.

"Why would I want to do that?" the Doctor asked curiously.

"Well, because I'm going to bug you until you do," Atlanta told him playfully.

The Doctor snorted. "For the sake of a quiet life..." he muttered. "Come on, Atlanta. And try not to get poisoned this time."

Atlanta grinned. She had no intention of nearly dying again.


Atlanta poked the rock with her finger. She took the Doctor's word for it, and accepted that it was an alien scout ship – at least to him – but it somehow couldn't get out of her head that it was identical to a rock. The Doctor, apparently, could, and was busily scanning it with a metallic wand – his sonic screwdriver.

"Doctor," Atlanta asked, "how do we get in?"

The Doctor shrugged and said nothing.

"Doctor," she repeated, "do you know how we can get in?"

"No," the Doctor replied quietly. "But I'll tell you something more worrying."

"What?"

"I don't think we want to go inside, anyway."

"Why not?" Atlanta asked. "If I can witness a mass-murder I can deal with an alien, Doctor."

"These aren't just any aliens, Atlanta," the Doctor reprimanded slightly. "These are Rutans."

This information didn't help Atlanta at all. "What are Rutans?" she asked.

"Shape-shifting natives of Ruta 3," the Doctor answered. "They've been engaged in a war with the Sontarans as long as anyone can remember. Both races are ruthless and prepared to destroy any planet they feel is strategically beneficial in order to advance with their mission. In fact, both are like your Americans, but nine hundred thousand times worse."

This didn't particularly help Atlanta, either. "I've never heard of the Sontarans or the Rutans!" she exclaimed irritably. "That doesn't help me at all!"

The Doctor sighed. "Well, you don't really need to know," he argued. "Just, you should know that you don't want to be caught with one of either race, all right? And if you're so adamant, ask Sarah when you meet her."

Atlanta rolled her eyes. "Fine, Doctor. I'll remember that."

"On second thoughts, you might not want to. I have a horrible feeling that she was quite traumatised last time she met a Sontaran."

"Fine. I'll remember that, too."

"Excellent. If you ever see Leela, that's who you should ask. She's even seen a Rutan. Sarah hasn't."

"Doctor!" Atlanta exclaimed irritably. "I don't know who those people are!"

"Really?" the Doctor asked. "When I woke you up, you asked where Sarah was, and that was before I started meddling in this time."

"When was this?" Atlanta asked him, her voice a strange mixture of confusion and fury.

"Well, it would be about eighty years in your future if I wasn't meddling now," the Doctor replied truthfully. The then realised that maybe a truthful response wasn't the best response he could have given. Maybe he should have lied and pretended it was during that whole fiasco with the injection.

"You mean that you're meddling in my time stream?" she demanded furiously.

"Not just your time stream," the Doctor pointed out. "Sarah's. The world's. One in three hundred people on this miserable planet will live past the end of this year if I don't. Besides all that, you told me to!"

Atlanta scowled at him. "How am I supposed to know if that's true or not?" she demanded. "As far as I'm concerned, Earth – this miserable planet, as you put it – is perfectly fine."

The Doctor wished her could show her the destruction of the 2090s. He couldn't however, for two reasons – firstly, because the TARDIS was all the way back in Melbourne, and secondly, because he would risk the two Atlantas meeting, which would cause an explosion known as Blinovitch's Limitation Effect. Or rather, the two Atlantas meeting would cause the effect which would, in turn, cause the explosion, but who's counting?

Anyway, it was for those reasons that he couldn't prove to Atlanta that mucking around in her time stream was a good idea, which made her storm off angrily, back to the shop. Or maybe she'd take a nostalgic wander around Ambukara to get reacquainted with the small town.

Just as long as she didn't steal the car and drive back to Melbourne, whatever she did was fine.