The TARDIS materialised.

Sophie stepped out first, and found herself standing on a beautiful hill, windswept. It could have been the Pennines, except that the grass on the Pennines wasn't a dark shade of blue.

The Doctor stepped out behind her, a massive grin plastered on his face.

"BARCELONA!!!!!" he yelled excitedly right in Sophie's ears.

"Ow!" she yelled angrily. "Yell in my other ear so I go deaf in both, why don't you?"

"Sorry", he said sheepishly. "But just LOOK AT IT!"

It was beautiful, Sophie had to admit. Rolling plains, silver spires, beautiful forests...

But the illusion of peacefulness was shattered by a massive explosion that shook the ground. The Doctor and Sophie were knocked to the ground by the sheer force of it.

"What was that?!" yelled Sophie, confused and disoriented.

"Over the hill", replied the Doctor, all trace of joviality gone. "This way!"

They ran over to the top of the hill, and then they saw it.

Two massive armies of space soldiers, firing bolts of blazing death at each other.

"Sontarans…" muttered the Doctor.

The combatants were very different to each other.

One set were human, in blue space armour, and the other's were short, squat, and rather ugly, from what Sophie could see, dressed in black jumpsuit style clothing.

"What's going on?" asked Sophie, even more confused.

"The Sontaran invasion of 4028", the Doctor replied grimly.

"I thought you were aiming for 3972?" said Sophie, an accusatory tone setting in.

"I was. The TARDIS is getting unreliable in her old age."

"So what do we do?" she asked.

"Do?" he replied. "What do you mean 'what do we do?"

Sophie glared at the Doctor. He couuld be so thick sometimes.

"We arrive," she said, "the Son - whatchamacallits are invading and you don't think we should do something about it?"

"We don't need to. It's historical fact that the invasion was thwarted by the defenders", he said, using his 'web of time' voice that he only used when either quoting the Time Lords or regaling how fragile the web of time was.

"And you don't think it's even possible that that had something to do with you?" she countered.

The Doctor stared at her for a moment.

Then, slowly, a grin spread across his face.

He took her hand.

"Come on then!" he yelled.

They ran down to the battle.

-----------------------------------

They arrived at a human defence point, where the Doctor used his psychic paper to get them in.

They breezed into the command bunker.

"Hello, I'm the Doctor" said the Doctor. "I'm a strategic adviser from high command."

"Alright Doctor", said a grizzled looking man. "I'm Colonel Carrigan, field commander. What can I do for you?"

"For a start, you can show me the position's of all your troops."
Sophie stared at the Doctor for a moment. Sometimes, not very often, but sometimes, he proved that he really was nine hundred.

Carrigan indicated a holographic display, which showed the human troops as blue dots, and the Sontarans as red dots. The Doctor studied the holograph thoughtfully, his eyes following every little movement.

"I have an idea", he said at last. "Send your troops to THAT position, Colonel."

He pointed out a certain sector of the field, and Carrigan gave the order to send his troops to that position.

The reports came back fifteen minutes later, that with minimal loss the human defenders had secured the strategic point, though the Sontarans were fighting them every step of the way.

"Right", said the Doctor. "Now bring your artillery up there."

Carrigan gave the order, and the artillery moved into position.

"Now tell them to target sector 777-243.98", said the Doctor, who was still studying the holograph thoughtfully. "That should help you out."

The artillery reported the target lock. The Doctor waited a moment, and then...

"Fire."

The holograph suddenly changed. The red dots gave way, and the blue dots started gaining ground. The human forces quickly cleared out a full one hundred miles of Sontaran territory and re-took it.

"Where did you learn that?" asked Sophie.

"I studied tactics at Sandhurst, 2354", replied the Doctor. "Easy enough to grasp."

Then something happened on the holograph. The red dots launched an assault on the left flank of the human position, the thinnest, which slowly gave way under the attack, slowly, painfully.

"What are they doing?" asked Carrigan, shocked.

"Standard Sontaran tactic", replied the Doctor calmly. "Identify the thinnest part of the enemy battle line, and sweep it aside, before launching a massive strike on the enemies' unprepared flanks. Fortunately, I know how to counter it. Launch a surgical assault on this position."

He pointed at a small cluster of red dots on the holograph.

"What's so important about that cluster?" asked Carrigan.

"It's their command centre", replied the Doctor.

Carrigan ordered a surgical assault by artillery troops, but the shots couldn't get through.

"If we can't get our shots through, how can we destroy them?" asked Carrigan.

"If we can't destroy their command centre, then disabling it will have to do" said the Doctor. "I need you to hold them off, for just a little while, while I put my plan into action."

"What plan is that?" asked Carrigan.

"I dunno, I haven't come up with one yet", replied the Doctor. "I'm pretty certain it'll end in the Sontaran base going boom though."

He turned to Sophie.

"I can't ask you to come with me…" he began.

"You don't need to ask", she interrupted. "Last time I sat out a fight you ended up getting shot."

"And look where that got us, eh?" he finished, grinning.

He turned to Carrigan.

"One hour. Give me just one hour2, said the Doctor. "If I'm not clear by then, use a surgical airstrike, with everything you've got, and blow the place to kingdom come."

He took Sophie's hand.

"Shall we?"

They walked out of the bunker.

------------------------------

Field Marshal Karg of the Sontaran army turned to the corporal that was standing to attention by the door of the control centre, a room dominated by a large battle computer.

"What do you want?" he asked irritably.

"Sir, there are a couple of prisoners, sir."

"Why haven't you shot them?" asked Karg.

"Sir, they insisted on seeing you."

'Must be the enemy leader, here to surrender' thought Karg.

"Very well", he said. "Show them in."

Instead of a sharply dressed pair of soldiers like he expected, Karg found himself facing a youngish humanoid with brown cranial fur, and an even younger humanoid with brown cranial fur and the differently shaped thorax that made it stand out as a 'female', as they were called.

"That's a Sontaran?" the female was whispering. "Looks like somebody cloned the Mitchell brothers…"

"What do you want, humanoids?!" barked Karg.

"Ah, hello!" said the male. "I'm the Doctor, this is Sophie, say hello Sophie."

"Hello", said the female.

"I am Field Marshal Karg of the glorious Sontaran army. What do you want?!" repeated Karg angrily.

"We want to discuss the terms for your surrender", said the Doctor. The tone of his voice made it quite plain that he was perfectly sincere.

"MY surrender?!" said Karg, barely able to keep himself from laughing. "I thought YOU were here to surrender!"

The Doctor started laughing, and Karg stopped.

"US surrender?!" he said at last. "We're winning, why would we surrender?"

Karg snarled.

"Your puny forces aren't winning. We have a superior battle plan."

"Which would be why you're resorting to a desperate tactic to win?" asked the Doctor.

"I'll admit, you're a truly worthy tactician, but you're not going to defeat us."

All this time, no-one had noticed Sophie. She had been quietly attaching a small device to the big computer in the corner. Now she stepped away.

"I think you'll find we've already won, Field Marshal", said the Doctor smugly.

"How so?" asked Karg. This would be good.

"By infiltrating your base, distracting you, and scrambling your battle computer!" yelled the Doctor in reply, before grabbing Sophie's hand and ducking.

Karg watched as the computer started sparking. One of the Sontaran guards tried to fix it but as soon as he touched it he was electrocuted.

"Nooooo!" yelled Karg. He tried to find the Doctor and his accomplice to shoot them dead, but they were already long gone.

He had no choice.

"Karg to all troops. We are instigating a tactical withdrawal. Pull back to the landing ships."

----------------------------------------------------

The Doctor, Sophie and Carrigan watched the Sontaran landing fleet leave Barcelona.

"Thank you, Doctor, Sophie", said Carrigan. "We are eternally grateful to you."

"Don't mention it", said the Doctor. "All in a days work for us, eh Sophie?"

Sophie smiled, then looked up at the sky.

"Oh my God…" she gasped. "LOOK!!"

They looked up, and saw the fleet.

The ships were being sucked out of existence, by parallelogram shaped holes in existence…

"Null Time Rifts", said the Doctor grimly. "Worse than anything else in this universe."

"What are they?" asked Sophie.

"Holes in existence. In all existences."

"Can we stop them?" asked Sophie.

The Doctor looked right at her.

"We can damn well try."

He ran for the TARDIS, Sophie close behind.

"Goodbye Carrigan!" she yelled.

Carrigan could only watch as the two hero's of Barcelona entered a small blue box, which then disappeared with a horrible trumpeting sound.

"Good luck, Doctor", he said softly.