Chapter 9

Flesh and Stone

'Up. Look up,' the Doctor told the group.

Everyone struggled to their feet on an artificial surface, although the tunnel walls were still made of stone.

'Are you okay?' River asked Rose as she stood up.

'What happened?' Rose asked.

'We jumped,' River told her.

Rose looked around with a puzzled expression. 'Jumped where? Was it like a teleport or somethin'?'

'Up. Up. Look up,' the Doctor told them.

'Where are we?' Rose asked.

'Exactly where we were,' River said cryptically.

Rose frowned. 'No we ain't.'

'Move your feet,' the Doctor told her as he crouched down to sonic a circular hatch in the floor, with six inset lights around it.

Rose was looking up at the roof of a cave. 'Doctor, what am I lookin' at up there?'

'Oh, come on, Rose, think,' he said in his school master tone of voice. 'The ship crashed with the power still on, yeah? So what else is still on? The artificial gravity. One good jump, and up we fell. Shot out the grav globe to give us an updraft, and here we are.'

They were actually standing upside down on the hull of the Byzantium, looking down at the terrace of the chamber where they had just been standing. Four Weeping Angels were frozen, looking and reaching out to them.

'Doctor, the statues. They look more like Angels now,' Octavian reported.

'They're feeding on the radiation from the wreckage, draining all the power from the ship, restoring themselves. Within an hour, they'll be an army.'

The circular iris hatch opened and a light went bang. 'They're taking out the lights. Look at them. Look at the Angels. Into the ship, now. Quickly, all of you.'

'How?' Rose asked, looking down a long vertical tube.

The Doctor dropped through the open hatch into the vertical tube. From everyone's point of view, he was standing on the side of the vertical tube.

'Doctor?!' Rose said in amazement.

'It's just a corridor,' he replied. 'The gravity orientates to the floor. Now, in here, all of you. Don't take your eyes off the Angels. Move, move, move.' He was inspecting the hatch controls inside and using his sonic screwdriver on them.

'Okay, men. Go, go, go!' Octavian ordered. Inside the cylindrical corridor, he looked back at the hatch. 'The Angels. Presumably they can jump up too?'

The Doctor activated his sonic, and the iris hatch closed. 'They're here, now. In the dark, we're finished.' The hatch leading into the ship started to roll shut. 'Run!'

'This whole place is a death trap,' Octavian said.

The hatch shut tight, trapping them in the corridor. 'No, it's a time bomb . . . Well, it's a death trap and a time bomb. And now it's a dead end. Nobody panic,' the Doctor said, and nobody was. There was banging on the outside of the hatch. 'Oh, just me then. What's through here?'

'Secondary flight deck,' River told him.

'Okay. so we've basically run up the inside of a chimney, yeah? So what if the gravity fails?' Rose wondered.

'I've thought about that,' the Doctor informed her.

'And?'

'And we'll all plunge to our deaths. See? I've thought about it.'

River pulled down a panel and started working on the inner hatch controls, while the Doctor examined the hatch controls. 'The security protocols are still live. There's no way to override them. It's impossible.'

River looked away from the panel. 'How impossible?'

'Two minutes,' he told her.

The outer hatch opened, and Octavian took up a defensive position. 'The hull is breached and the power's failing.'

The lights went out, and they saw an arm silhouetted against the open hatch.

'Sir, incoming,' Cleric Marco said.

'Doctor? Lights,' Rose said nervously.

The Angel was starting to enter. The was another flicker of the lights, and three more were inside and the hatch was closed behind them.

'Clerics, keep watching them,' Octavian told his troops.

'And don't look at their eyes,' the Doctor warned them. 'Anywhere else. Not the eyes. I've isolated the lighting grid. They can't drain the power now.'

'Good work, Doctor,' Octavian said.

'Yeah, good . . . brilliant in fact . . . Good in lots of ways. Good you like it so far.'

'So far?' Rose asked, wondering what else was coming.

'Well, there's only one way to open this door. I guess I'll need to route all the power in this section through the door control.'

'Good. Fine. Do it,' Octavian told him.

'Including the lights,' he told him. 'All of them. I'll need to turn out the lights.'

'How long for?' Octavian asked.

'Fraction of a second. Maybe longer. Maybe quite a bit longer.'

'Maybe?'

'I'm guessing. We're being attacked by statues in a crashed ship. There isn't a manual for this.'

'Doctor, we lost the torches,' Rose reminded him. 'We'll be in total darkness.'

'No other way. Bishop.'

'Doctor Song, I've lost good Clerics today. You trust this man?' Octavian asked River.

'I absolutely trust him.'

'He's not some kind of madman, then?'

'Ah,' Rose said. How do you answer that one? She found out when River spoke again.

'I absolutely trust him,' River said again.

'Excuse me,' the Doctor said, slapping their shoulders and joining Rose at the hatch.

Octavian leaned close to River and spoke softly. 'I'm taking your word, because you seem to be able to get through to this guy. But that only works so long as he doesn't know who you are. You cost me any more men, and I might just tell him. Understood?'

'Understood,' she said reluctantly.

'Okay, Doctor. We've got your back,' Octavian told him.

'Bless you. Bishop.'

Octavian organised his Clerics. 'Combat distance, ten feet. As soon as the lights go down, continuous fire. Full spread over the hostiles. Do not stop firing while the lights are out. Shot gun protocol. We don't have bullets to waste.'

'Rose, when the lights go down, the wheel should release. Spin it clockwise four turns,' the Doctor told them.

'Ten. Got it,' Rose said

'No, four,' he corrected her. 'Four turns.'

'Yeah, four. I heard you.'

'Ready?!' He plunged his sonic screwdriver into the control unit.

'On my count, then,' Octavian commanded. 'God be with us all. Three, two, one, fire!'

The lights went out, and the Clerics started shooting at the approaching Angels.

'Turn!' the Doctor called out.

'Doctor, it's openin', it's workin',' Rose said. She got the bulkhead open just enough to squeeze through.

'FALL BACK!' the Doctor shouted over the gunfire.

The Doctor held the bulkhead door open with his sonic while everyone got through, and then squeezed through himself. They ran along a short corridor to another bulkhead door, where he used his sonic again to open it and let the group into the Secondary Flight Deck.

'Doctor, quickly,' Rose called to him, and again he squeezed through the closing gap. He hurried to the control station with River and Octavian.

'Doctor!' Rose called as the wheel on the door started to turn.

Octavian placed a device on the door and activated it.

'What are you doin'?' Rose asked him.

'Magnetized the door. Nothing could turn that wheel now,' Octavian announced.

'Yeah?' the Doctor asked skeptically, and the wheel started to turn.

'Dear God!' Octavian exclaimed.

'Ah, now you're getting it,' the Doctor said. 'You've bought us time though. That's good. I am good with time.'

'Doctor,' Rose said as she saw the wheel on a door to the right start to turn.

'Seal that door. Seal it now,' Octavian commanded.

Cleric Marco stuck another device to the door, and the wheel stopped turning.

'We're surrounded,' River said as the wheel on the door to the left started turning.

'Seal it. Seal that door,' Octavian ordered. 'Doctor, how long have we got?'

'Five minutes, max.'

'Nine,' Rose said out of the blue.

'Five,' the Doctor corrected.

'Five. Right. Yeah,' Rose replied with a puzzled expression.

'Why'd you say nine?'

'I didn't.'

'We need another way out of here,' River said.

Octavian looked around. 'There isn't one.'

'Yeah, there is,' the Doctor told him. 'Course there is. This is a galaxy class ship. Goes for years between planet falls.' He clicked his fingers. 'So, what do they need?'

'Of course,' River realised.

'Of course what?'What do they need?' Rose asked.

Octavian looked at a section of the wall. 'Can we get in there?'

The Doctor made his way over to the recessed section of wall and inspected it. 'Well, it's a sealed unit, but they must have installed it somehow. This whole wall should slide up. There's clamps.' He took out his sonic screwdriver and sonicked the clamps at the base of the wall. 'Release the clamps.'

'What's through there? What do they need?' Rose asked.

'They need to breathe,' River told her as the rear wall of the flight deck slid up.

Rose's jaw dropped. 'But that's. That's a . . .' Rose said.

'It's an oxygen factory,' River explained.

'It's a forest,' Rose said.

'Yeah, it's a forest,' River agreed. 'It's an oxygen factory.'

'And if we're lucky, an escape route,' the Doctor said.

'Eight,' Rose said randomly.

The Doctor looked at her. 'What did you say?'

Rose was unaware that she'd said anything. 'Nothin'.'

'Is there another exit?' the Doctor asked. 'Scan the architecture, we don't have time to get lost in there.'

Octavian stepped into the forest. 'On it. Stay where you are until I've checked the Rad levels.'

'But trees, on a space ship?' Rose said.

The Doctor followed Octavian into the forest. 'Oh, more than trees. Way better than trees. You're going to love this.' He pulled at a piece of tree trunk, and it peeled back to reveal a web of fibre optic cables. 'Treeborgs. Trees plus technology. Branches become cables become sensors on the hull. A forest sucking in starlight, breathing out air. It even rains. There's a whole mini-climate. This vault is an ecopod running right through the heart of the ship. A forest in a bottle on a space ship in a maze.'

'Seven,' Rose said.

'Seven?' He queried, looking intently into her eyes.

'Sorry, what?'

'You said seven.'

'No. I didn't.'

'Yes. you did.'

Octavian called from the forest. 'Doctor, there's an exit, far end of the ship, into the Primary Flight Deck.'

'Oh, good. That's where we need to go.'

'Plotting a safe path now.'

'Quick as you like.'

['Doctor? Excuse me? Hello, Doctor? Angel Bob here, sir.']

The Doctor took the communicator out of his coat pocket and sat in the control chair. 'Ah. There you are, Angel Bob. How's life? Sorry, bad subject.'

[' The Angels are wondering what you hope to achieve.']

'Achieve? We're not achieving anything. We're just hanging. It's nice in here. Consoles, comfy chairs, a forest. How's things with you?'

['The Angels are feasting, sir. Soon we will be able to absorb enough power to consume this vessel, this world. and all the stars and worlds beyond.']

'Well, we've got comfy chairs. Did I mention?'

['We have no need of comfy chairs.']

The Doctor turned of the communicator and spoke over his shoulder. 'I made him say comfy chairs.'

Rose laughed and said, 'six.'

'Okay, Bob, enough chat. Here's what I want to know. What have you done to Rose?'

['There is something in her eye.']

'What's in her eye?'

['We are.']

'What's he talking about? Doctor, I'm five,' Rose told him. 'I mean, five . . . Fine! I'm fine.'

'You're counting,' Rose said.

'Countin'?' Rose asked.

The Doctor looked in her eyes again. 'You're counting down from ten. You have been for a couple of minutes.'

'Why?'

'I don't know.'

'Well, countin' down to what?'

'I don't know.'

['We shall take her. We shall take all of you. We shall have dominion over all time and space.']

The Doctor sat back in the comfy chair. 'Get a life, Bob. Oops, sorry again. There's power on this ship, but nowhere near that much.'

['With respect, sir, there's more power on this ship than you yet understand.'] A screeching sound came from outside the flight deck.

'What's that?' Rose asked.

'Dear God, what is it?' River also wanted to know.

'They're back,' Octavian announced.

['It's hard to put in your terms, Doctor Song, but as best as I understand it, the Angels are laughing.']

'Laughing?' the Doctor asked.

['Because you haven't noticed yet, sir. The Doctor in the TARDIS hasn't noticed.']

'Doctor,' Octavian called to him. It was time to move out.

'No. Wait. There's something I've missed.'

A steaming "W" shaped crack had appeared in the bulkhead above the forest entrance, and it was widening.

Rose looked at it wide eyed. 'That's, that's, that's like the crack in Amy's wall.'

'Yes. Two parts of space and time that should never have touched,' the Doctor told her.

'Okay, enough,' Octavian said. 'We're moving out.'

'Agreed,' River concurred. 'Doctor?'

The Doctor was moving a large crate towards the entrance. 'Yeah, fine.'

'What'cha doin'?' Rose asked.

'Right with you,' he said as he climbed on the crate and started scanning the crack.

'We're not leaving without you,' River told him.

'Oh yes, you are . . . Bishop?'

'Miss Tyler, Doctor Song, now!'

'Doctor?' Rose was reluctant to leave him.

'Come on!' River said.

The Doctor looked at the results of the scan. 'So, what are you? Oh, that's bad. Ah, that's extremely very not good.'

'Rose, what's wrong?' River asked her as they made their way into the forest.

'Four,' Rose replied. She swayed and sat down, then lay on a moss covered outcrop.

'Med scanner, now,' River commanded.

'Doctor Song, we can't stay here. We've got to keep moving,' Octavian told her.

'We wait for the Doctor.'

'Our mission is to make this wreckage safe and neutralise the Angels. Until that is achieved . . .'

'Father Octavian, when the Doctor's in the room, your one and only mission is to keep him alive long enough to get everyone else home. And trust me, it's not easy. Now, if he's dead back there, I'll never forgive myself. And if he's alive, I'll never forgive him. And, Doctor, you're standing right behind me, aren't you?'

'Oh, yes,' the Doctor said with a grin.

'I hate you,' she said playfully.

'You don't,' he told her. 'Bishop, the Angels are in the forest.'

'We need visual contact on every line of approach,' Octavian told his Clerics.

'How did you get past them?' River asked the Doctor.

'I found a crack in the wall and told them it was the end of the universe.'

'What was it?' Rose asked.

'The end of the universe,' he told her and then knelt down to examiner her. 'Let's have a look, then.'

'So, what's wrong with me?'

'Nothing. You're fine,' River said, trying to keep her calm.

'Everything. You're dying,' the Doctor told her.

'Doctor!'

'Yes, you're right. If we lie to her, she'll get all better. Right. Rose, Rose, Rose. What's the matter with Rose? Something's in her eye. What does that mean? Does it mean anything?' he rambled on.

'Doctor,' Rose said weakly.

'Busy,' he told her as he tried to think of a way to save her.

'Scared,' she replied.

'Course you're scared. You're dying. Shut up,' he said with more humour than he was feeling right now.

'Okay, let him think,' River said.

The Doctor thought out loud. 'What happened? She stared at the Angel. She looked into the eyes of an Angel for too long . . .'

'Sir! Angel incoming,' Marco called out.

'And here,' Phillip added.

'Keep visual contact,' Octavian ordered. 'Do not let it move.'

'Come on, come on, come on. Wakey, wakey,' the Doctor told his sleepy wife. 'She watched an Angel climb out of the screen. She stared at the Angel and, and . . .'

'The image of an Angel is an Angel,' Rose remembered.

'A living mental image in a living human mind. But we stare at them to stop them getting closer. We don't even blink, and that is exactly what they want. Because as long as our eyes are open, they can climb inside. There's an Angel in her mind.'

'Three. Doctor, it's coming. I can feel it. I'm going to die.'

'Please just shut up. I'm thinking. Now, counting. What's that about? Bob, why are they making her count?'

['To make her afraid, sir.']

'Okay, but why? What for?'

['For fun, sir.']

The Doctor looked at the communicator in disgust and threw it away.

'Doctor, what's happening to me?'

'Inside your head, in the vision centres of your brain, there's an Angel. It's like there's a screen, a virtual screen inside your mind and the Angel is climbing out of it, and it's coming to shut you off.'

'Then what I do?'

'If it was a real screen, what would we do? We'd pull the plug. We'd kill the power,' he told River. 'But we can't just knock her out, the Angel would just take over.'

'Then what? Quickly,' River said.

'We've got to shut down the vision centres of her brain. We've got to pull the plug. Starve the Angel.'

'Doctor, she's got seconds,' River reminded him. As if he needed reminding that the love of his life had seconds to live.

And then he had an idea. 'How would you starve your lungs?'

'I'd stop breathing,' River told him.

'Rose, close your eyes,' he said calmly.

Rose was afraid that if she closed her eyes, she would never open them again. 'No. No, I don't want to.' She knew you had to keep looking at an Angel.

'Good, because that's not you, that's the Angel inside you. It's afraid. Do it. Close your eyes,' he told her.

Rose squeezed her eyes shut, and the med scanner changed from red to green.

'She's normalising,' River observed. 'Oh, you did it. You did it.'

'Sir? Two more incoming,' Phillip called out.

'Three more over here,' Pedro said.

River checked on Rose. 'Still weak. Dangerous to move her.'

'So, can I open my eyes now?' Rose asked.

'Rose, listen to me. If you open your eyes now for more than a second, you will die. The Angel is still inside you. We haven't stopped it, we've just sort of paused it. You've used up your countdown. You cannot open your eyes,' the Doctor explained.

'Doctor, we're too exposed here. We have to move on,' Octavian told him.

'We're too exposed everywhere. And Rose can't move. And anyway, that's not the plan.'

'There's a plan?' River asked in surprise.

'I don't know yet. I haven't finished talking. Right! Father, you and your Clerics, you're going to stay here, look after Rose. If anything happens to her, I'll hold every single one of you personally responsible, twice. River, you and me, we're going to find the Primary Flight Deck which is . . .'

He wet a finger and held it up. 'A quarter of a mile straight ahead, and from there we're going to stabilise the wreckage, stop the Angels, and cure Rose.'

River raised her eyebrows. 'How?'

'I'll do a thing.'

'What thing?' River pressed him.

'I don't know . . . It's a thing in progress. Respect the thing . . . Moving out!'

'Doctor, I'm coming with you,' Octavian said. 'My Clerics'll look after Miss Tyler. These are my best men. They'd lay down their lives in her protection.'

'I don't need you.'

'I don't care. Where Doctor Song goes, I go.'

'Wha'? You two engaged or something?'

'Yes, in a manner of speaking. Marco, you're in charge till I get back.'

'Sir,' Marco said.

'Doctor? Please, can't I come with you?' Rose asked anxiously.

'You'd slow us down, Miss Tyler,' Octavian explained.

'I don't want to sound selfish, but you'd really speed me up,' Rose joked, really trying to get him to take her with him.

'You'll be safer here,' the Doctor said quietly. 'We can't protect you on the move. I'll be back for you soon as I can, I promise.'

'You always say that,' Rose told him. 'What have I told you about promises?'

The Doctor smiled. 'I always come back.' He kissed her on the forehead. 'Good luck, everyone. Behave. Do not let that girl open her eyes. And keep watching the forest. Stop those Angels advancing . . . Rose, later. River, going to need your computer!'

'Yeah. Later,' Rose said.

Octavian led the Doctor and River into the forest towards the Primary Flight Deck. Rose was sitting on the mossy outcrop, listening to the Clerics around her. She could sense that something was wrong.

'So, what's happening? Anything happening out there?' Rose asked.

'The Angels are still grouping. Are you getting this too?' Marco asked.

'The trees? Yeah,' Phillip replied.

'What's wrong with the trees?' Rose asked.

'Here too, sir. They're ripping the Treeborgs apart,' Pedro announced.

Phillip called out. 'And here. They're taking out the lights.'

'What is it? What's happening? Tell me!' Rose insisted.. 'I can't see,'

'It's the trees. ma'am,' Marco said. 'The trees are going out.'

'Angels advancing, sir,' Phillip said.

'Over here again' Pedro told them.

Marco went into combat mode. 'Weapons primed. Combat distance five feet. Wait for it.'

'What is it? What's happening? Just tell me!' Rose said in desperation.

'Keep your position and, ma'am, keep your eyes shut,' Marco told Rose. A bright light flooded through the trees in the forest. 'Wait.'

'The ship's not on fire. is it?' Marco asked.

Pedro tried to see through the trees. 'It can't be. the compressors would have taken care of it. Marco, the Angels have gone. Where'd they go?'

'What, the Angels?' Rose asked.

'This side's clear too, sir,' Phillip called out.

Rose moved her head around trying to hear what was happening. 'The Angels have gone?'

'There's still movement out there, but away from us now. It's like they're running,' Marco said.

'Running from what?' Rose asked.

'Phillip, Crispin, need to get a closer look at that,' Marco told them.

'What are you all looking at? What's there?' Rose asked in frustration.

'It's like, I don't know, a curtain of energy, sort of shifting. Makes you feel weird. Sick,' Marco explained.

'And you think it scared the Angels?' Rose said.

'What could scare those things?' Pedro asked.

Rose stood up and started stumbling about.

'What are you doing?' Marco asked.

'Point me at the light,' she told him.

'You can't open your eyes.'

'I can't open them for more than a second, that's what the Doctor said. Still got a bit of countdown left.'

'Ma'am. you can't.'

'I need to see it,' Rose told him. She needed to report back to the Doctor. 'Am I looking the right way? I have to be quick.'

'Very quick,' Marco said as he pointed her at the light.

'Okay.' Rose opened her eyes and saw the jagged crack that she had seen in Amy Pond's wall. ['Oh my God! Love, we've got a problem,'] she thought to her husband.

['Rose, are you okay?'] He could feel her distress.

She spoke and thought the same message. 'It's the same shape. It's the crack in Amy's wall.'

'Close your eyes, now!' Marco commanded.

['The crack that Prisoner Zero came through?']

['It's following us, and it's bigger than ever! How can it be following us?'] She fell to her knees and Marco put his hand over her eyes.

'Are you okay?' Marco asked kindly.

'Yeah. It was the same shape.'

'Marco, you want me to get a closer look at that?' Pedro asked.

Rose could hear the Doctor's internal dialogue in her head. ['Cracks . . . Cracks in time. The universe is cracked. The Pandorica will open. Silence will fall. Time running out. No, couldn't be. Couldn't be. But how is a duck pond a duck pond if there aren't any ducks? Okay, time can shift. Time can change. Time can be rewritten. Ah. Oh!']

'Marco, you want me to get a closer look at that?' Pedro asked, nodding at the illuminated crack.

'Go for it. Don't get too close.'

'Hang on. What about the other two?' Rose asked. 'Why not just wait until they're back?'

'What other two?' Marco asked.

'The ones you sent before,' she said in a puzzled tone.

'I didn't send anyone before.'

'You did, I heard you. Crispin and Phillip,' Rose told him.

'Crispin and who? Rose, there never was a Crispin or a Phillip on this mission, I promise you.'

['Uh-oh,'] Rose thought to the Doctor. ['If you think a crack in the universe is bad, this is really gonna ruin your day. Two of the Clerics have disappeared.']

['Disappeared? Have the Angels got enough power now to zap them into the past?'] he asked himself.

['I don't think it was the Angels. Marco and Pedro don't remember them. It's like they never existed.']

['Time can be rewritten! Oh, got to go. An Angel has got the Bishop in a headlock.']

'No, I heard you,' Rose told Marco. 'Before you sent Pedro, you sent Crispin and Phillip, and now you can't even remember them. Something happened. I don't know what, and you don't even remember.'

'Pedro?' Marco asked.

'Yeah, before you sent Pedro.'

'Who's Pedro?'

'Something's happening. Pedro was here a second ago and now you can't even remember him.'

'There never was a Pedro. There's only ever been the two of us here.'

'No, there were five of us. Why can't you remember?' Rose pleaded.

Marco had heard enough.. 'Listen. Listen. I need to get a closer look at that light, whatever it is. Don't worry, I won't get too close.'

'No. No, you can't,' Rose told him. 'You mustn't.'

'Here. Spare communicator. I'll stay in touch the whole time,' Marco said as he handed Rose the radio.

'You won't, because if you go back there what happened to the others will happen to you,' Rose told him in a calm, quiet voice.

The sad, resigned look on her face made Marco doubt his own conviction. He knew that the Bishop had given him the sole task of defending Rose, and if there was a light that could keep the Angels at bay, then he needed to investigate it.

'There weren't any others,' he told her sadly. The stress of the situation had obviously gotten to her.

'There won't be any you if you go back there,' Rose said.

'Two minutes. I promise,' Marco said as he headed towards the light.

'Please, just listen to me!' Rose called to the retreating Cleric.

'Let him go!' the Doctor demanded of the Angel which had the Bishop in a half Nelson.

'Well, it can't let me go, sir, can it? Not while you're looking at it.'

'I can't stop looking at it, it'll kill you.'

'It's going to kill me anyway. Think it through. There's no way out of this. You have to leave me.'

'Can't you wriggle out?'

'No, it's too tight. You have to leave me, sir. There's nothing you can do.'

The Doctor wrung his hands together helplessly and looked around for inspiration. What he wouldn't give for Michelangelo's sculpting tools right now. He'd have that arm off in a second.

'Sir, there's nothing you can do,' Octavian told him.

'You're dead if I leave you.'

'Yes. Yes, I'm dead. And before you go . . .'

'I'm not going.'

'Listen to me, it's important,' Octavian said sternly. 'You can't trust her.'

'Trust who?'

'River Song. You think you know her, but you don't. You don't understand who or what she is.'

'Then tell me.'

'I've told you more than I should. Now please, you have to go. It's your duty to your friends.'

'Just tell me why she was in Stormcage?'

'She killed a man. A good man. A hero to many.'

'Who?'

'You don't want to know, sir. You really don't.'

'Who did she kill?'

'Sir, the Angels are coming. You have to leave me.'

'You'll die.'

'I will die in the knowledge that my courage did not desert me at the end. For that I thank God, and bless the path that takes you to safety.'

'I wish I'd known you better,' the Doctor said sadly.

'I think, sir, you know me at my best,' Octavian replied courageously.

'Ready?'

'Content.'

The Doctor dived through the hatch onto Primary Flight Deck, and closed it behind him.

'There's a teleport,' River told him. 'If I can get it to work. we can beam the others here. Where's Octavian?'

'Octavian's dead. So is that teleport. You're wasting your time. I'm going to need your communicator.' He needed to talk to Rose, and didn't want River to get suspicious about his telepathy with his wife.

River handed it over, and he switched it on to hear a conversation between Rose and Cleric Marco.

['Hello? Are you there? Hello? Hello?']

['I'm here. I'm fine. Quite close to it now.']

['Then come back. Come back now, please.']

['It's weird looking at it. It feels really . . .']

['Really what? Hello? Really what? Hello? Hello? Hello? Please say you're there. Hello? Hello?']

'Rose? Rose? Is that you?' the Doctor asked.

['Doctor?']

'How many of the Clerics are left with you?'

['They've gone. There was a light from the crack and they walked into the light. Doctor, they didn't even remember each other.']

'No, they wouldn't.'

'What is that light?' River asked him.

'Time running out,' he replied. 'Rose, Rose, I'm sorry, I made a mistake. I should never have left you there.'

['Well, what do I do now?'] Rose asked.

'You come to us. The Primary Flight Deck, the other end of the forest.'

['I can't see. I can't open my eyes,'] Rose reminded him.

'I know, and I'm sorry, but you have to start moving now. There's Time Energy spilling out of that crack, and you have to stay ahead of it.' He thought to her. ['I'll guide you through, I can show you the path in my mind.']

['But the Angels, they're everywhere,'] Rose explained over the radio.

'I'm sorry, I really am, but the Angels can only kill you.'

['What does the Time Energy do?'] Rose asked him.

'Just keep moving!' he said, avoiding the question.

['Tell me,'] Rose demanded.

'If the Time Energy catches up with you, you'll never have been born. It will erase every moment of your existence. You will never have lived at all. Now, you keep your eyes shut and keep moving.'

'It's never going to work,' River said.

'WHAT ELSE HAVE YOU GOT? RIVER, TELL ME!' he shouted angrily, afraid for his wife.

At that moment, there were clanging noises around the ship. 'What's that?' River asked.

'The Angels running from the fire. They came here to feed on the Time Energy, now it's going to feed on them.'

'That Time Energy, what's it going to do?' River asked him.

He rubbed his eyes wearily. 'Er, keep eating.'

'How do we stop it?'

'Feed it.'

'Feed it what?'

'A big, complicated space time event should shut it up for a while.'

'Like what, for instance?'

'LIKE ME, FOR INSTANCE!' he shouted. "Or like the Bad Wolf in Rose," he thought. He was running out of patience . . . and time.

['Doctor, there are Angels all around me now,] Rose called to him over the communicator.

'Rose, listen to me. This is going to be hard but I know you can do it. The Angels are scared and running, and right now they're not that interested in you. They'll assume you can see them and their instincts will kick in. All you've got to do is walk like you can see.' ['Rose, don't open your eyes. Walk like you can see. You are not moving. You have to do this . . . Now.'] There was still no sign of her moving. He banged his hand on the console in frustration. 'YOU HAVE TO DO THIS!'

There was a long silence before Rose's voice quietly spoke over the communicator. ['Doctor. I don't think I can move, I can hear them all around me. I'm surrounded by Angels, and I seem to be the centre of attention. I think they know I can't see.']

'ROSE! Keep moving! I'll think of something,' he said quickly, but he didn't know what.

There was a flash of light, and River grabbed hold of Rose. 'Don't open your eyes Rose. You're on the Flight Deck. The Doctor's here. I teleported you.' She looked at the Doctor with a satisfied smile. 'See? Told you I could get it working.'

He ran forward and hugged Rose, kissing her on the top of her head before looking at River. 'River Song, I could bloody kiss you,' he said.

River grinned. 'Ah well, maybe when you're older.'

An alarm started to blare out. 'What's that?' Rose asked.

'The Angels are draining the last of the ship's power, which means the shield's going to release,' he explained as he walked over to the forest bulkhead. The bulkhead rose to reveal an array of Angels.

'Angel Bob, I presume,' he said to an Angel holding a communicator.

['The Time Field is coming. It will destroy our reality.']

'Yeah, and look at you all, running away. What can I do for you?'

['There is a rupture in time. The Angels calculate that if you throw yourself into it, it will close, and they will be saved.']

'Yeah, yeah, yeah. Could do, could do that. But why?'

['Your friends will also be saved.']

'Well, there is that.'

'I've travelled in time,' River told him. 'I'm a complicated space time event too. Throw me in.'

'Oh, be serious. Compared to me, these Angels are more complicated than you, and it would take every one of them to amount to me, so get a grip.'

'You're not seriously considerin' helpin' them by throwin' yourself into that thing are you?' Rose asked in disbelief.

'Doctor, I can't let you do this,' River said.

'No, seriously, get a grip,' he told them.

'You're not going to die here!' Rose said angrily.

'No, I mean it. Rose, River, get a grip.'

River looked at the readouts on the display and realised what was happening. 'Oh, you genius.'

['Sir, the Angels need you to sacrifice yourself now.']

'Thing is, Bob, the Angels are draining all the power from this ship. Every last bit of it. And you know what? I think they've forgotten where they're standing. I think they've forgotten the gravity of the situation. Or to put it another way, Angels . . .'

A monitor said Gravity Failing, as River put Rose's hand on the handles of a console module. 'You hold on tight and don't you let go for anything.'

The Doctor gave the Angels a lopsided smile 'Night, night.'

The monitor displayed Gravity Failed, and they felt themselves being pulled off the floor towards the forest, which used to be behind them, but was now below them. The Doctor and River looked down past their feet, and saw the Angels falling backwards through the forest, where they disappeared into the crack, which then closed.

'Now what?' Rose asked as they hung from the consoles.

'Ah, yes. Right. I'd better come up with a plan to get us out of here,' he said sheepishly.