The chanting stopped.
Karn shook.
The tremors jarred the cave, sending soot and droplets of flame sparking onto the floor of the cavern and the assembled Sisterhood and alien refugees
Turlough didn't need to look at God's scanner fields to work out what was happening, he'd been told they were coming: the Cyber-horde had found them, were slicing up the crust above them. He looked up into the roof, peering into the shadows and crenulations of the dark rock. He thought he could see something squirming, glinting evilly in the flickering firelight, but he couldn't be sure
The figure on the dais gasped, drawing his eyes once more to her.
She was tiny, clothed in an overly large t-shirt, her long hair trailing down to brush the floor. She was only four feet tall, with wide eyes that stared around her in alarm, her mouth opened in a silent scream, as if terrified to make a sound since that would make this real, would make them real, the aliens and fire and earthquakes would be real and they would get her, they would get her.
At last she squeaked out a cry, tiny and petrified. It echoed around the cavern, magnifying in volume, amplifying her fear.
Her feet were bare, pink and soft against the cold slab of stone. But Turlough knew the eyes, would know them anywhere, anywhen.
The rock seemed to glow underneath her touch. It was imperceptible at first, but the light seemed to bleed from beneath her skin, green and trickling, it seeped into the heart of the black rock, growing faster and brighter. First a leak, then a spring, then a waterfall.
If it had been pink light, instead of green it would have resembled a much-scaled up version of the TARDIS time rotor's heart.
Information, Turlough realized, information was being sucked out of the girl, filling the rock with coordinates and temporal specs.
He took a step forward, irrationally, wanting her to see him, wondering if this girl would somehow recognize him. For reasons he couldn't explain he wanted this Tegan, plucked from her timestream as a young girl, to recognize him, to glare at him with the oh-so familiar distrust look that he was so accustomed to.
But the roof opened up then, and the Cyberhorde rained down upon them in a hail of silver and blood.