Commodore Hag Pa, CCO Wren and Captain Oak found themselves standing in a meadow opposite a floating spherical cage. The cage contained a still mass of moss. The sphere birthed three cylinders.

Between them the picnic and a blue box fading into solidity.

The Doctor stepped out followed by Clara.

'Welcome to Kessas Aen, I am the Doctor, this is Clara Oswin Oswald. We will be hosting the negotiations for peace.'

'We are not at war,' said the Mushk Republic Diplomat.

'Not yet, but you were about to be.' He pointed up with a click, his rings flashing.

The cheem looked up and the Mushk Republic Diplomat engaged its sensors. The ships hung in the air like a threat. They were partly in shadow, like a moon. In their shadows, the energy of the weapons systems glowed like stars.

'You made contact to speak the same language then immediately went to attack protocols.'

'Why?' asked Clara. 'You didn't exchange any word of welcome or warning.'

The cheem looked to their Commodore who thought for a moment, she was about to speak when the Doctor did.

'Because space is the dark forest, you can't tell what predators are where. Very human.' The Doctor answered for them. The disgust of the cheem felt like an insult to Clara. It was hard to tell what the Musk Republic Diplomat was thinking. The aspects of it, Alpha, Beta and Delta floated aimlessly.

'We also didn't know how to engage in the exchange pass as is protocol for most galactic fleets. How do you threatened the life of the leader with a gestalt entity that could amputate its entire body and miss nothing.'

'We'd still feel the pain, the loss. We lose something every time we split. This Republic is the hardest thing we've had to do,' said the Mushk Republic Diplomat through a vocaliser. It was tinny and smooth.

'We are not familiar with genuine gestalt identities. We've run from a society that would seek to flatten personality. The idea of something like you… so close to our biology. On Earth, moss would relay messages and nutrients to trees.'

'We are not the moss of Earth. We aren't even really moss. Humanity deemed us so like an insult, like Ice Warrior—we take it for pride and to allow ease of communication. The chatter of humanity does not bother us.'

'But to us you are like, for humans, living technology. We also are aware you intend to make an alliance with the human federation. Our enemies. They'll ask you to hunt us down. Better that we stop that now before it becomes another matter of exodus ships while cannon fodder hold back the Gestapo.'

'Mixing a lot of human history there,' said the Doctor.

'Because it happens all the time in human history!' snapped Hag Pa. It was stunted, quiet, but a snap, one that elicited a jump from the CCO and captain. 'Our ancestors have been used as fuel, then the moment we gain sentience we are supposed to live on reservations away from their toxic cities to farm cousins for them to eat? Some of us carted away into space to provide oxygen. Some of us stranded on barren planets to catalyse terraforming.'

Mushk Republic Diplomat Alpha drifted over to the cheem, Beta drifted to the Doctor and Delta went into defence mode.

'Confirm your truth,' said the sphere.

Commodore looked to Captain Oak who stepped forward.

'I thought we were running for freedom away from hierarchies of importance,' hissed CCO Wren.

'Shut up Wren,' said Captain Oak who followed the Doctor's lead and put his hand over Alpha.

'Your brain scan tickles,' said the Doctor. 'Now, are you prepared?'

There was silence from Mushk Republic Diplomat as it scanned the cheem. The cheem for their part affected neutral expressions. The lesser ranks did not notice it so much as they were not blessed as often, but Commodore Hag Pa felt it keenly, the distance from the sublunaries gave some small waking from their hold. A brief moment of self-awareness.

'Are we just standing around to talk this out? After I made the picnic? I don't think so. Everybody sit… take a place… I'll get pillows,' said Clara, meaning Mushk Republic Diplomat's sphere. It only peaked above the table when resting on the chair.

'When do I let go of this?' asked Captain Oak.

'Continue talking, it will determine brain patterns and allow us to know when you are lying.'

'We don't have brains—not in the same way humans do.'

'Nor me,' said the Doctor. He was glad Clara wasn't there to make a clever comment that he had no retort to.

'It will understand anyway. We are from a galactic community.' A hatch opened and the creature within was pushed out to latch onto the candied insects.

The cheem tried not to throw up as they used the spoons to gently carve out the delicious gelatinous nutrients.

Clara put the pillow under Mushk Republic Diplomat.

'You are a good slave. The food is well prepared.'

'I am not a slave.'

'Yeah, she's my assistant.'

Clara gave him a dark look and he tried not to laugh. She will get him back for that. 'I'm his carer.'

'She cares so I don't have to.'

'More like you can't be bothered.'

'I have so much to think about.'

'Since when?'

'Since I saved the Earth from Daleks again.'

'Pretty sure I had to make sure you did that instead of practise your card tricks.'

The Doctor gave Clara a dark look and let her win this time—or at least that's what he told himself.

As the diplomats talked, mostly travel plans and news, over their food, the Doctor and Clara shared a whispered conversation over scones, raspberry jam and clotted cream.

'Is your next trick going to be pulling victory out of hat?'

'Probably.'

'I'm really good at this. Between you and Danny and… you and everyone else. I'd make a great diplomat.'

'Or dictator.'

They shared a laugh.

'Is that still a thing, you and P.E.?'

'Yes. Despite your best efforts.'

'What does that mean?'

'You keep interrupting our dates.'

'Oh, yes, you said. Jane's going to be disappointed.'

'She has skinny suit you and River to keep her company. Something about vampire hunting. She can also get cracking on Northanger Abbey.'

'You found those letters?'

'Yes. I did. And don't think I didn't notice the stain in the gazebo.'

The Doctor shoved the scone into his mouth so he couldn't answer.

Clara and the Doctor continued to watch as Mushk Republic Diplomat and Commodore Hag Pa came to an agreement that they would pass by without firing on one another. The Mushk Republic could give the Earth Federation the information that they passed the cheem, but there was a peaceful negotiation and no information was exchanged. CCO Wren also indicated that they could tell the Earth Federation they were chasing hope of a new Earth in M87.

This was said with the suggestion that it was a lie, but a double bluff in that it might be true as well. The Mushk Republic Diplomat couldn't tell, CCO Wren was not a different species, but their bio-tech enhancements changed the chemical composition of the brainwaves.

The Doctor raised his eyebrows, finding the implications fascinating.

The Mushk Republic agreed that on Earth, they would raise the point of objecting to slavery and had been considering a campaign for non-mamalian descendent lifeforms. The Central Genus had too great a scope to consider this a problem. Life for fungal, flora and mineral-based intelligence was much different.

Clara and Captain Oak beat the Doctor and Mushk Republic Diplomat at badminton.

'Shall we all take a constitutional 'round the pavilion?' asked the Doctor, beginning his stroll.

'Is this where he threatens our species existence for threatening to disrupt the atmosphere of a planet rich in minerals?' asked the Mushk Republic Diplomat.

'What? No. This is where he waxes poetic about how fragile life is.'

'That sounds like a threat to me,' said Captain Oak.

'It might be the way he goes on,' Clara forced a laugh. 'Nah, c'mon, humour him. There'll be a nice view anyway.'

She held her arm out for the sphere who merely hovered there before looping Alpha through her elbow.

'I have no arm,' said the Mushk Republic Diplomat. It hovered on beside CCO Wren.

'Commodore?' asked Clara with the proffered elbow. She asked from beneath her eyelashes, slightly coquettish.

Commodore Hag Pa put her arm through Clara's.

Captain Oak was left alone and caught up with the Doctor as he lead them up a hill that overlooked a field of cotton-like flora. It swayed and drifted like snow falling upwards.

The speech was grand and beautiful and pompous. Clara has heard it before, and most of the permutations. This one emphasised the scale of time and potentiality. A faint memory from The Impossible Girl's scattered selves gave her déjà vu of him doing this again, but not this him, a different him.

She wondered if she would ever meet an Impossible Her at some point. It was easier to think that they were other people, but similar to her. On a long and dark night the Doctor did explain the mathematics that suggested it was entirely a possibility.

'So you say Time Lord, but time can be changed. Isn't that what all physicists say?'

'No offence meant your grace, but most species don't know a thing about temporal engineering any more.'

'Why is that?' asked Commodore Hag Pa.

'Hubris and very difficult maths. But look, you ha—'

'So what does happen? Specifically? How are each of us remembered, if at all? When do we make landfall? What planet should we search for?'

'I can't tell you. If I tell you, it'll change things. I'm not making you agree to integrate into each other's society, I'm only asking you don't shoot at each other for five minutes while you cross paths in space!'

'And maybe spread that message of peace and love to others,' said Clara with a pointed look.

'Sorry, I'm not angry, I'm Scottish apparently.'

Commodore Hag Pa took Mushk Republic Diplomat aside and spoke quietly. They both had been threatened enough to let this pass, but it was worth nothing how terrifying the Doctor was, how terrifying all Time Lords were. It was better for them to give up now, leave and do as they should, but never talk about this.

'Wise. The Time Lord and his assistant do not seem to understand their power.'

'No, they do not.'

CCO Wren took Captain Oak aside and spoke quietly too. 'You let her be put in harms way, that translator did nothing, but it was her responsibility.'

'Wren, this isn't the time to bicker amongst ourselves. We have a leader who doing her best. Once we make planet fall I will be right beside you for the parliament to offer a more diverse power structure.'

Above the shadowed giants moved across the sky. It took all day but they began to fade and when that was the case, the Doctor and Clara returned the diplomats to their respective ships. Although Mushk Republic Diplomat did take more effort, it required a time being re-integrated. And as the giants faded, two giants remained on the planet to clean up after themselves. This was rare, but they had time, there was no urgency. The day was saved, no lives lost, a rare victory for the Doctor in that time, and all because the giant was gentle and kind and brave enough to not be afraid.

Though in truth, the civilisations moving from one paradigm to the next, were very aware of what had really saved the day. Not two giants being polite because a mouse asked them not to, but because a bigger giant watched carefully, very carefully, almost like a predator sizing up prey. And in a dark forest, shadows are everything, even a little light can cast the wrong shape.