Chapter CVIII

Doctor

They were back at the science department. They had searched the ship after the Uleb had died and indeed found it empty – a boarding party had then extracted as much information and technology as possible.

It was their lucky day it seemed, as the exact data they had been after was projected on a large screen right in front of him. Mira was standing next to him, whilst Jack had vanished with a female, white haired, red eyed medical scientist from Arkon who was examining the Uleb; though Jack was probably more interested in her than the Uleb. He himself was definitely more interested in the Uleb and its mysterious cause of death. But he was also interested if there was a way to send the HECATE and her crew back home and the technology of the Dolan. He could feel Mira boiling on the inside, even though she tried to appear calm. She hadn't said anything to him yet, but he knew her well enough to know just how much she disapproved of what he had done. Not that he agreed with the course of action Mira had chosen instead.

"That's good," Tchan said and looked up from his screen. "I think we can use that. Shouldn't be too hard to do the reconfigurations. Oh, and the autopsy-report from the Uleb is done. I wouldn't call it an autopsy though. It seems the body is still decaying at a rapid speed. And, what I wanted to ask the whole time, you don't happen to remember what happened to our ship, Mira? I know, it's a while ago from your perspective, but you immortals seem to have such good long term memory."

"Who told you that? Anyway. This all does ring a bell," she replied slowly. "But I might just mix up things. I wouldn't even hear from a single ship vanishing. Why would I? Maybe when it was on the news, if it's not classified, that is."

"Maybe you did hear about it," he said cautiously. "Could still be somewhere in your head."

"Yeah, maybe," she said, sat down and put her arms on the table, her head on top of it, knocking her forehead slightly against it. "But I can't recall it."

Tchan, who stood next to him, looked at her slightly irritated. Probably not quite the behaviour he had expected from someone who's scientific work he obviously admired, and, judging from what he had seen on this ship, someone considered what humans called a VIP.

"Maybe I could help you remember?" he said.

She sat up again, pulling her knees to her chest and put her feet on the chair. "How?"

"Well...," he said, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh," she said. "There are sixteen-hundred years of memory in there," she pointed at her head, "That could take a while. Don't think it's stored sorted and linear, is it?"

"So you're a telepath?" Tchan asked, who had been unashamedly watching, not even trying to conceal his scientific interest. "Is it just you or your whole species?" He threw a quick, irritated glance to Mira who had laid her head on the table again, murmuring muffled words, obviously trying to remember, and then continued, "Why do you call yourselves Time-Lords? That's what I wanted to ask the whole time, but-" He shot again a glance to Mira who was sitting up again, staring back at them.

"Let's talk about this somewhere else," she said, stood up and went out so fast that for once it was him having a hard time following her.


Mira

She was sitting in the airlock, her legs hanging over the threshold, feet dangling in the air, watching the sun slowly sink towards the horizon. The airlock was just beneath the engine-beading, the hull slowly curving away under her, allowing free sight to the ground. It was high up, sure, and theoretically no one was meant to sit here, but it was easy to disable the alarm if one knew how. The Doctor was sitting beside her, Jack, whom she had found with that young medical scientist, behind them as the airlock was a rather narrow one. She took the bottle of vodka she had 'organised' from the ship's galley, another rather easy thing for someone like her knowing these ships like the back of her hands. She might well have spent more time of her live in them than on Earth.

"So what's it now?" Jack asked as she handed the bottle back.

"The HECATE," she started slowly, suddenly remembering as it had been just a few years ago, "Disappeared. I wasn't even aware of it, as it wasn't my business; apart from that, ships get lost. It doesn't happen frequently, but it does happen. Maybe it actually was on the news, but from time to time I just don't care very much about the official and public news channels, so I might have missed it. They searched for it, but there was nothing found, no debris, nothing. Then, about four weeks later, it appeared again. We probably wouldn't have found it, as- well, you know how huge space and how small a ship is, but Nathan, the huge positronic on moon, received a message. All in- and outgoing traffic is monitored, that's why we noticed it. But it wasn't tagged as anything, so whoever was on duty back then started to wonder, tried to trace it, but Nathan itself denied having even received a message. Nathan is partly conscious, so he can actually make decisions like that. Shouldn't happen, but it does. Anyway, we new it was there. We could even trace it back to its origin as it came through quite a few relay stations." She lifted her hand and Jack handed her the bottle back and after a huge sip she continued. "The source was the HECATE. They hailed her, but there was no response. Then they finally boarded her – and found everyone dead. Every single one."

"How did they die?" the Doctor's voice reached her ear.

"Age. Old age. They were mummified. Just what's happening to the Uleb. We had no clue back then, obviously. We tried to get something out of the memory banks, but it had all been deleted. Wiped blank. Not completely, still working fine, but all information about the last four weeks was gone. Apart from that, everything was fine. Engines working, everything. I happened to be around back then, and I'm a specialist for positronics, so I had a look at it. Whoever did that knew exactly what they were doing. It must have been someone with quite profound knowledge, otherwise some vital part of it would have gotten destroyed. A specialist. Probably the same person who had coded the message for Nathan. Someone who had worked a whole lifetime with positronics of this type, particularly with Nathan if they could convince him to completely deny the existence of a message and most likely keep it hidden somewhere."

"Someone like you," Jack said as she handed the bottle back.

"Why would I do that?" she asked and glared at him, hardly noticing that the Doctor grabbed her arm as if being afraid she might lose balance. "Why would I let them happily fly into certain death just to get my message across? And, by the way, there's no way to wipe a positronic in that way. Not with the technology available here."

"Well, seems you already did," the Doctor said quietly.

"No! I would never do that!"

She turned to the Doctor, but instead of contradicting her he just remained silent, looking at her with dark, opaque eyes, his face an expression of quiet sadness. It did nothing to soothe her anger though, instead it was fuelling it, as she could clearly see that someone – she herself – had sent two-thousand people into their certain death. But why? How could she do such a thing? Well, she knew she could, but not for her own little private plan of leaving a message for over thousand years in their future. She shook off his hand and got up, climbed over Jack's legs and rushed along the corridor.

"Where are you going?" Jack yelled after her.

"Away," she replied. "I'll be back tomorrow morning."

She needed time. Time to think, time to organise her thoughts. Time spent alone, away from the ship, away from all the feeling, hoping, despairing people in there, as she had done so often on planets with names she had long since forgotten, the sight of a ship – might it have been the SOL or some version of their flagships – in the far distance, looming over the land like a mountain of steel, something familiar on worlds as strange as they could come, like a piece of home.

Not half an hour later she was flying off in a Shift that Tamar had kindly made available to her – after she had managed to evade the Doctor and Jack. She knew it wasn't fair to leave them behind, but she couldn't help it. There was a decision to make, a decision which only concerned her, the HECATE and her crew and her universe.

She landed a good distance away, the HECATE gleaming in the setting sun; distant and yet still looming over the land, a silent threat to anyone who dared to mess with her.

She got out of the Shift after switching everything off, so no-one could detect it. Tamar wouldn't follow her, but the Doctor and Jack could be quite convincing. It was risky to completely switch off the shields, but first, there was nothing around that she was able to sense, and second, she still had a portable aggregate in case something was attacking her – which had to get up to the roof of the Shift where she was sitting first anyway.


Doctor

He finally managed to find Jas – or rather, Jas managed to find him.

"Here you are!" Jas said. "You're not supposed to wander around here. Do you have any idea how big this ship is? Mira will never forgive me if I lose you. The Captain neither, by the way."

He looked accusingly back and forth between him and Jack.

"Yeah, Mira," Jack said. "Where is she?"

"She left the ship. Like an hour ago? And told me to keep an eye on you, what, by the way, Commander Vayanar had asked of me as well, and since then I'm trying to do exactly that. Which isn't easy, by the way."

"So where did she go?" he asked.

"I don't know. She took a Shift."

"And?" he asked.

"Nothing," Jas replied. "She said we shouldn't expect her back before morning. That's it. No need to worry, if anyone can take care of themselves than it's her."

"Can you not scan for her?"

"Scan for her?" Jas looked at him as if he had lost it. "You know how small a Shift and how big this planet is? Took us long enough to find that Dolan."

"Then take me back to the TARDIS. I'll find her."

"Find her? How?" Jas raised an eyebrow. "What's the TARDIS? That wooden box?"

"Yes. And I have this," he said and pulled a hair out of his pocket. A long, brown hair.

"You carry a hair from her with you? Didn't think you're such a romantic," Jack said behind is back.

"Is- Is that...?!" Jas asked and stared at it.

"A Mira-detector. Now do you bring me to my ship or do I have to walk?"

"You got a hair from her?" Jas continued, completely ignoring his request, staring at the hair in awe. "How did you manage to do that? And there I thought all we mere mortals are left with is a picture." He pulled a rolled film out of his pockets and handed it to him. He unrolled it and a hologram appeared, pretty much like a photograph in colour and 3D. Mira was in it, sitting somewhere outside on a bench, together with a person, best described as having the face of an overgrown mouse with one single, long front tooth, holding its nose into the sun, eyes closed. It might be about one meter high and probably walking upright on two legs, and it was impossible for him to tell if it was male, female or both. Sitting opposite of her was a man with a slightly haggard frame, dark blond hair and steel-grey eyes. It wasn't hard to guess who that was. He was leaning forward and seemed to say something, and Mira was laughing, her eyes closed, her hand resting on the head of the alien next to her, stroking its fur. They were all wearing the same green uniforms as the crew of this ship, only that the overgrown mouse and Mira had a symbol with a stylised brain rimmed by waves, probably depicting brainwaves, on the upper sleeve, so most likely it had been some official event even though the picture seemed quite intimate and private – as if the three of them felt quite unobserved. Or maybe they had just been used to being under observation for too long so they no longer cared. Whatever was the case – Mira seemed to be genuinely happy on this picture. Happier than he had ever seen her.

"Who's that with her on that picture?" Jack asked.

"Seriously?" Jas asked and stared at him disbelievingly. "Oh, sorry, I forgot. You're not from here. Uhm, from our universe. That's Gucky, the mouse-beaver – they are quite an impressive team, he and Mira, well, and together with the rest of the Mutant-Corps of course - and that is Perry Rhodan; our all boss, so to speak. It's quite an old picture, I know, and she was quite young, but she seems to be so happy. Couldn't find any other picture where she's smiling like that. She still looks the same obviously, but most of the times rather serious. Anyway..." Jas smiled shyly and blushed. "Seems were in the same boat, sort of. I'll take you to your ship, just don't tell her that... Well, that I'm carrying a picture of her with me. Just makes me seem like yet another fan."

He was still staring at the picture. No, she hadn't changed. And yes, even though he had no idea why, he could see that she had been much younger on this picture, and, judging from just how carefree she looked, he wondered if it had been taken even before the events in Andromeda. There was another thing becoming painfully clear to him the longer he stared at it. She didn't belong here. It was a picture taken in another universe, her home, the place where she belonged. A place where he could never exist. Well, maybe he could, but certainly not the TARDIS. Was he willing to follow her if there ever was a way back? Or would he try to convince her to stay, because there was a part of him being just as selfish as afraid of being alone again?

"Let's go then," he said, snapped himself out of his thoughts and handed the picture back. "What are you waiting for?" Then he remembered something, or rather: someone. "Jack?"

"I'm afraid you have to go alone, I have a date and I would hate to keep him waiting."

"Good man," he said and than staggered as Jack nudged him with his fist on his upper arm; rather hard actually.

For a moment he stared at his smiling face until he realised what that was supposed to mean. Humans.

"Don't worry, you sort things out," Jack said, but he was already around the next bend of the corridor, impatiently waiting for Jas to follow him.


Mira

She wasn't surprised when she heard an all too familiar sound. She hadn't expected that he would just patiently wait for her to return. Neither was she angry. Even her anger about him ignoring her orders and stepping right in front of the Uleb had faded. They had definitely gotten even now. She turned her head towards the sound, watching the TARDIS materialise completely. After a moment the door opened and the Doctor stepped out, dressed in his coat, hands in his pockets, casually strolling over to her. It was getting dark and cold, which was why she had wrapped herself in a thermal blanket stored in the Shift. She had even found some cigarettes – she only regretted that she hadn't thought of bringing alcohol. If she had ever needed some then it was now. She looked back to the HECATE. Now as it was dark they had switched on their position-lights as well as some bright floodlights.

She could hear more than feel the Doctor climbing up the Shift – it was a massive thing and even four men weren't enough to really shake it – not to mention pushing it. She suddenly remembered pulling one of these things, ages ago, on, or rather: in the hollow planet they had called Horror – when the CREST II had gotten stuck in a zone where all aggregates had failed. So someone had had the mad idea to take some shifts and pull them out of this zone. If memory served her right, and for a moment it was so vivid that she had no doubt about it, the first man had been injured when trying to get the Shift out of the ship. And it hadn't been the last one. But they had made it in the end. Like so many times after that. So many, countless times. Until right here and now, obviously.

"What are you thinking about?" the Doctor, who had sat down behind her, his chin resting on her shoulder, asked.

"About how hard it is to pull one of these things," she replied, knocking on the metal roof.

"Why would you try to do that?"

"Nevermind. It was ages ago. Long before their time." She nodded over where the dark shadow of the ship was blocking the moon-light.

"So what's the plan?" he asked, lifted his head and rubbed his chin. "Blimey, you have bony shoulders!"

"It's your chin, not my shoulder!"

"Nah," he replied. "So, they'll be off in two days at most. What have you come up with?"

Suddenly everything light and playful was gone from his voice. Not that she took it for face value when he sounded light, casual and playful – she knew him too well for that by now. But she had rarely heard him talking in such a quietly serious and grave tone.

"I don't have a plan," she replied and shrugged. "I know what I want to do, that is," she added after she drew a deep breath.

"And what would that be?"

As if he didn't know, she thought.

"It would involve them dying," she said, "So that's out of the question. Though I wonder...," she pulled the blanket closer around her, "What is their lives against many more lives I could save by returning to my own universe thousand years in my past? With all the knowledge I have now?"

"Great plan," he said. "Let's assume for a moment that whatever affected the Dolan and the Uleb and will affect the crew of that ship won't affect you. What then? Meet yourself and work together to rewrite history? To preserve the Solar Empire?"

"It's not about the Solar Empire," she said, turning her head to face him. "Do you have any idea what will happen in the next thousand years? How much will be destroyed, how many will get killed?"

"That's not how it works," he said quietly. "You can't do that."

"Says who?" She tried to read his face but failed - which was not alone due to the darkness of the night.

"Do you think I hadn't done it if it would be that easy?" he replied. "It just doesn't work that way. Things begin, things change and things end."

"Things haven't ended," she said stubbornly, knowing that he was talking about going back to save his homeworld. "They are right there!" She pointed at the HECATE. "My world is there. It's not gone."

"That's not your world," he said quietly.

"No? What is it then?"

"The past. Your past."

"O please. I'm really not in the mood for question-answer games. If you know how this is going to end, then just tell me! And don't you dare lying to me just know! Because I so don't know, I honestly don't have the slightest idea what to do!"

"I can't," he said and continued before she could protest. "Because I don't know. I don't know what will happen to this ship in particular. I just know that time follows the same laws everywhere, so your plan won't work. I just can't tell you what exactly will go wrong. I can't tell because they are not part of my universe, just as you-" He suddenly stopped, staring at her, a big frown on his face. "Oh, that's new!"

"Just as you- what? What's with me? What's new?"

She stared into his dark eyes, waiting for an answer. Suddenly she shivered – not because she was freezing, but because the absolute alien look he gave her. A look as if he could read her whole live.

Doctor

She stared at him, obviously waiting for an answer – and there was something else in her face. Fear? He knew he probably had said too much already, but he hadn't realised it before had heard his own words – quite literally. Ha hadn't meant to, but now as he was focusing on it, he got something like a hint of a time-line when looking at her, for the first time since he had met her. He normally tried his best to ignore the time-lines as they were spreading out in front of him, around him, ever changing and yet surprisingly static, winding, intertwining and separating, and of course they were always there, and all he could do was trying to look away, so to speak.

It had been especially easy with Mira, as she was a blank page, with no history in this universe and, as she was not part of it, a future which was obscure at best. Actually there hadn't been any future for him to see – not because she literally had none as people who were about to die soon, but because she was a foreign object. At least she had been until now. It had probably been going on for a while, but he had been too busy to look the other way. Now he could see it, the more he focused on it the clearer it became. Well, clear was probably the wrong word, but at least now there was something. And she wouldn't leave any time soon; at least not within the next two days. Sure, it wasn't set in stone yet, but as good as.

"I'm sorry," he just said and hugged her.

"Sorry for what?" he heard her muffled voice, her breath warm against his neck.

She struggled to free herself from his arms so he let go of her again.

"Sorry for what?" she repeated.

"You're no longer blank. You're becoming a part of this universe. I think that means you're going to stay for a little longer."

"You think?" She paused and stared at him, then slowly shook her head. "I don't want to stay here!" She sniffed and then continued, "But that makes sense, I guess. I would never sacrifice two-thousand people, even if that means I'm stuck here. Let alone to get a message across."

"So you're going to tell them?"

"At least I'll tell Tamar. It's his crew and he's responsible for them. Being stuck here might not be what they'd imagined their future to be like, but at least they have one here."

He could hear that she made every effort to sound to sound at ease with how things would work out, but she looked miserable.

"Sou you're not planning to leave within the next two days then?" he hated himself for it, but he just had to ask. He still wasn't sure she wouldn't try it, and even though he had no idea what exactly would happen, it could only end badly.

"We could unload the ship," she replied. "Leave them here with all the supplies, the Corvettes and stuff, and then... Just try it. This ship isn't build for being piloted by two or three people, but- Where there's a will there's a way. We might be lucky."

"You might be lucky," he corrected her. "The ageing might not affect you, but most likely it'll affect me. Good old Jack might actually stand a better chance than I do. Besides, the TARDIS can't survive in your universe. But I guess as she'll die anyway when I'm dead and mummified as it happened to the Uleb and will happen to them-"

"Let's not talk about that," she whispered. "As for the TARDIS, if there ever is a way back in my universe we can both survive, we'll find a way to keep her going. We might not have Time-Lord technology, but what we have is fairly advanced. Maybe It will show up, sometimes he helps. If- If you want to come with me, that is."

"Oh, I almost forgot, I have something for you," he changed the topic, pulling the picture out of his pocket and handing it to her. He wasn't sure at all what he would do should she ever be able to go home. But he sure didn't want to think about it until the time came.

She gave him a puzzled look as she unrolled the picture which slightly lit up so that it was clearly visible even in the dark of the night.

"Oh my God," she breathed. "That is ancient. Where did you get it from?"

"Jas," he replied. "Promised him I'm not going to tell you that he was carrying it in his pockets. Seems you have a fan. He was more than happy to give it to me when I told him you might like to have something to remember. Where was that taken?"

"I don't know," she replied. "But it is old. Really old. I didn't even think to ask them for pictures. They must have quite a few, from all sorts of things and people."

Her wrist-com was peeping, and as she answered it, to their both surprise, Jack's voice replied. "Mira, I think we have a problem. You should come back."


Jack

The Doctor had simply landed the TARDIS in the control room, and Mira, who had flown back the Shift, appeared little later. By the time she arrived, she already knew what was going on – it was hard to miss. It had started. The crew, young and fit people, were now wrinkled, old, and white haired.

"I wanted to tell you," Mira addressed Tamar as they were sitting around the conference table again. "I remembered after what happened to the Uleb. But I thought it's caused by the flight back, not..." She shrugged and looked at Tamar, who didn't look quite as old as Jas and Ben and the rest of the Earth-born crew did, probably due to his longer life expectancy.

"So what happens to my crew and ship?" Tamar asked.

"The HECATE will make it back. We're going to find her, and all of you... dead," Mira replied. "Died of old age. There's also a message sent to Nathan, and the memory banks of the positronic wiped clean of everything which happened during the weeks the HECATE was missing. We could never explain who had done it or what was in that message. I had the feeling this name rings a bell, but I couldn't put my finger on it. I'm so sorry, Tamar. And when I did remember I wondered why I would just let you fly off to your certain death."

"Because she didn't know that the process has already started. And there's no way of stopping it. I'm sorry," the Doctor, who had spent the last hour scanning members of the crew with his Sonic Screwdriver, but to no avail, added.

Tamar looked down at his age-spot covered hands.

"So what's your plan now, Commander?" he asked.

"Don't think we have much of a choice," Tamar replied, remarkably calm. "We go back. At least we can make sure our friends and families know what happened to us, and- and they can give us a funeral. Nothing is worse than uncertainty of what happened to the ones you love. And we can get your message across, Mira. Or, if you fancy a trip, you're more than welcome aboard. You don't seem to be affected yet, and you don't age anyway, so who knows? You might stand a chance."

He watched Mira and the Doctor exchange glances. There were tears in her eyes, slowly rolling down her cheek.

"I can't," she finally said, her voice shivering. "It's not my time. I can't return to my own past."

"Fine," Tamar said and stood up, pausing for a moment, his hand on his back, then straightening his short frame. "I'm going to inform the crew. I think you have some work to do as well – you know how to access our positronic?"

Mira nodded, and they all got up as well.

He looked around – the crew was holding up remarkably well. There had been a few cases of nervous breakdowns, but overall they seemed to have accepted their fate.

"Quite a tough bunch those humans from your universe, aren't they?" he said quietly to Mira, who could only nod.

"I had really hoped they would survive when they stay here," she said after she had tried to pull herself together again for a few moments. "Doctor, I could need your help with the positronics," she added. "I think it was your Sonic which did the trick in the end."

...

Over a day later they gathered in the control room again. Even Tamar looked like an old man now, and there was no room for doubt that they had to be on their way as soon as possible.

"We put together a few things you might find useful," Tamar said to Mira, pointing at a big stash of parcels and bags. "It started with one bag but then we might have taken things a bit too far... Anyway, we certainly don't need it anymore. Is there anything else you need? A Corvette maybe? I mean, we put together all the blueprints and manuals you asked for, but... Just in case?"

"No, but thank you for offering it and all the other things. I really appreciate it. I- No Ben, let me carry it to the TARDIS," Mira said.

"I'll take care of it," he offered and started to load the things into the TARDIS. Time was of the essence, and Mira and Tamar certainly had some words to exchange. Tamar had also gotten a tour of the TARDIS, mainly the console room, to finally convince him that this blue box was an actual space ship.

"We also put some pictures in there," an old, skinny man, humping his back and supporting himself on a crane said. It took a few moments for Jack to realise that it was Jas. "All sorts of pictures. Whatever we could find. Even some of ourselves when we were still young and hand-"

"Oh please, stop it," Mira said, looking as if she was about to start to cry again. Then she walked over to Jas and gave him a big hug.

"Be careful with my old bones," he said, trying to be funny.

"Commander?" Ben, equally aged as everyone else, said and whispered something in Tamar's ear.

"Oh, yes, I forgot," Tamar said. "We actually already left a Corvette here for you, in case you need it. The coordinates are somewhere in one of the parcels. Seems my brain gets a bit old as well."

She walked over to Tamar and took is hand. "I'll never forget you and your crew. No matter where I spend the rest of my days, here or in our universe, and how long they will last. I'll never forget you. I know that doesn't change a thing, and I wish I could do something to save you, but-"

"Don't worry, Mira," Tamar said. "I know you would. As would everyone else in the Solar Fleet. As Perry will in a thousand years from now to bring you back when Nathan hopefully delivers that message. What you yourself have done so far for humanity. That's why I signed up for this."

"I'm sorry, but I think we're running out of time," the Doctor said.

After a few more words of goodbye they finally got back into the TARDIS, only to materialise with it a few miles away, just in time to see the HECATE pulling in its landing legs. It was a weird sight, the ship hanging unmoving in the air, the legs retracting as if they hadn't been needed in the first place. Then it slowly started to gain height, seemingly light as a feather – a rather incredible sight considering its size. It was still more or less quiet; they were too far away to yet hear the sound of the air and feel the wind. Then, as it was about ten miles high, they started the engines. It took long seconds until the thundering sound reached his ears, but then it quickly grew almost unbearably loud. Then, frighteningly similar to a canon ball riding on trails of fire, it shot off, leaving behind waves of thunder and storm.

He turned his head to Mira, who covered her ears just as he did, and looked after the ship. The only one not covering his ears was the Doctor, saying something he couldn't hear. They waited until the noise grew faint.

Then he said, "What did you say Doctor? But you have to speak loud, I'm afraid I'm a bit deaf now."

"I said, did they need to lift off like that?"

"No," Mira said and smiled through her tears. "No they didn't. And it's actually forbidden on almost every single space port in the Solar System and on most other Earth-like planets. But it's fun. Just thought Tamar isn't in for lifting off like that – but guess I was wrong."

"So what made you stay behind?" he asked. He had really thought Mira would try it and go with them.

"It's not my world," she said quietly. "It's gone. And even if it had worked out, I couldn't just sit on my backside and wait for a thousand years, knowing what will happen and that I could prevent a lot of the really bad things." She took the Doctor's hand, who was still staring at the sky where the HECATE had vanished. "Things end. The Solar Empire ended a long time ago. I'm here now, and maybe that's just something else beginning. And who knows, with that message, maybe my people find a way from the other side. If not I could at least say goodbye."


NicoleR85, bored411, time-twilight, Ellie68, Kanenn, OneWhoReadsTooMuch: Thanks for leaving a review :-)

Ritz-chan: No, it's not the time-lords. Probably they just had the same idea, but it is really more the next step of evolution, not sure how much idea and decision there really is. And there are actually more entities like It, evolved from different species. Some nice and some not so nice.