**

The domed construct floated in space, suspended completely still, as if hanging by a wire. This particular area of space was apparently empty; there had never been any record of any planets even being there. The only thing that had been detected, however, was a large

time anomaly, attracting teams of researchers determined to find out what it was, and for some, how to harness it's power. After decades of work though, nothing significant had been discovered. The scanners, positioned on the outside of the dome, were designed to only focus on the area that the anomaly had been detected. After all, its location had never changed.

This of course, meant that they did not pick up on the sudden distortion in time-space around the domed station as multiple creatures suddenly came in to existence. The first to appear turned its attention on the floating dome, stretching out its wide wings, each with three long sharp spikes extending from them, and swinging its scythe like tail in an arc. It let out a roar as it flew towards the dome, several other creatures following behind it.

**

The walk through the corridors hadn't been particularly enlightening. This officer, Jaran, wasn't willing to divulge any details about the lab, or whatever it was, that they were in. Part of the Doctor was kicking himself for breaking the illusion that he was a researcher. He's tried pushing for more information, but Jaran really didn't seem the type for chat. The Doctor had even tried his junior officer, but he was soon silenced. So far all the Doctor knew was that there were people here, humans, if these security officers were anything to go by, researching a 'crack in time'. That's how Jaran had described it, but the Doctor knew it was more complicated than that. For one, if they were located on this 'crack', which was implied, what was stopping them from being pulled straight in? Hopefully this Haim that they were being taken to see would be more generous with his answers.

At least that would be one mystery answered anyway, he thought, his gaze landing on Moira. She seemed so unsure about everything, even her own name, yet she still knew it. Perhaps some kind of amnesia? No, that wouldn't explain how she knew his name. He'd encountered situations like this before, he was bound to with the amount of travelling through time he did, but those people usually remembered how they knew him; even if they wouldn't tell him. He liked to pretend that after all this time he could completely understand all of the temporal laws, and their implications but he had to admit to himself that it was all just a bit timey-wimey, even to him.

"Wait here." Jaran barked, as they arrived at a large silver door. He turned to Ortel as he keyed in a series of numbers in to a keypad. "Keep an eye on them."

"Yes sir." Ortel nodded, as the door opened and his superior entered the room. As the door closed, the Doctor turned to Moira.

"Are you ok?"

"I'm fine." She snapped. "I don't need looking after."

The Doctor looked rather taken aback. "Sorry! When a young girl appears from no where with no memories of how, a less than intact identity and knowledge of stuff they shouldn't know, I just get a bit protective."

"That's happened before then, has it?" Moira glared at the Doctor, obviously not impressed.

"Well," he rubbed his chin, "a few times. Once or twice." She was still looking at him, eyebrows raised. "Ok, once."

"Including now?"

"Ok, yes," The Doctor sighed, giving up. "Once, including now. So no, it hasn't happened before." He paused for a moment. "Not for me, anyway."

"What's that supposed to mean?" She snapped, looking over to Ortel. He seemed to have no problems with the pair talking between themselves, and was even a little entertained by their bickering. He seemed so different from Jaran and somehow, she knew she could trust him.

"Nothing." The Doctor replied, shaking his head. "It's nothing."

"I give up with you!" Moira snapped at him, holding her hands up in front of her in frustration.

"Moira." The Doctor said suddenly, very seriously. "What happened to your hands?"

She looked at her palms again, having forgotten the strange marks burnt in to them.

"I don't know." She admitted quietly. "Just like everything else. I just don't know!"

"You know some things." The Doctor said sympathetically, leaning back against the cold silver wall. "Why don't we just start from there?" A thought flashed in to the Doctor's head. He could very easily find out what she knew, perhaps solve her entire mystery, by looking in to her mind. However, he soon thought better of it. Their relationship wasn't a great one, and she was bound to fight him, something that could have severe consequences on both of their minds.

"I just have this feeling," She started, "just something telling me that I have something to do. That I'm here for a purpose." The Doctor leant forward, intrigued, as the door beside him slid open.

"Go in." Jaran ordered. "You have an audience with Haim himself. I hope you like theories behind time and space and that rubbish."

"Well, now you mention it," The Doctor beamed, "I do!"

**

"Mr Haim, I presume?" The Doctor waved cheerily, as he and Moira entered the room. The man looking back at him was nothing like the Doctor had imagined. Maybe his hundreds of years of travelling had prejudiced him a little, but he had expected an angry looking man, outraged that anyone had dared trespass inside his complex. Instead, Haim appeared delighted to see new people.

"Yes!" He smiled, rushing forward to shake the Doctor's hand. He reached for Moira's, but she pulled back. "Please ignore Officer Jaran," Haim said with a chuckle. "He's never happy unless he's unhappy about something. If that makes any sense."

"It does, in a way." The Doctor grinned, nodding quickly. This was going to be easier than he thought. "So Mr Haim, can you tell me where exactly we are?"

"Certainly!" He replied, leading the Doctor and Moira towards a large sofa in one corner of his office. The pair followed, the Doctor observing all of the various diagrams on the wall, whilst Moira remained indifferent, deep in thought. "I would ask you how you got here," Haim remarked as his guests sat down, the Doctor stretching his arms out across the back of the sofa, whilst Moira sat away from him. "But I assume it's just something to do with the Time Rift. Happens every now and again. Objects falling through, that kind of thing. Never a person before though!" His voice was full of enthusiasm. "Now, I'll do what I can to explain to you, and of course, do my best to get you back to where you came from."

The Doctor had a large grin on his face. It seemed rather rare that he materialised somewhere and someone hadn't tried to kill him, let alone be this nice. As soon as he had spoken, the Doctor had decided that he could trust Haim.

"I'll be honest with you Mr. Haim."

"Geoffrey."

"I'll be honest with you Geoffrey." The Doctor smiled. "I didn't come through your Time Rift. My ship bought me here." He saw the puzzled look on Haim's face. "Moira here, however," He gestured, "It's quite possible that she did fall through."

"Will you stop talking about me as if I'm not here!" She snapped at the Doctor, who held his arms up in defence.

"Sorry, just trying to help. Again." He didn't pause to let her speak and turned to Haim instead. "Anyway, what exactly is this place? What do you know about this Rift?" The mans' face lit up again with the chance to talk about his project. He stood up, heading towards a large monitor on the wall. After pressing a few buttons the image that the Doctor had seen earlier appeared.

"This," Haim said proudly, pointing at the schematic of the dome, "is Temporal Anomaly Research Facility One, codename Kali."

"Hindu Goddess of Time." The Doctor pondered. "Nice." Haim smiled at his observation.

"The facility was built to research a large rift in the space-time continuum that had been observed for many years prior to the construction of Kali. From here, our large research team conduct experiments, monitor output from the rift and study it."
"Why?" The Doctor asked, leaning forward in his seat. He looked to Moira, who was staring down at her lap obviously uninterested. "Why would you want to do that?"

"Well," Haim replied, slightly taken aback. "why not? If we can work out the mechanics of the Rift, who knows what we could achieve in the future? He pressed a button on the screen as the image panned out, the diagram of the facility fading way, leaving a large fissure in the space, shimmering with a golden glow, "And even if we can't, isn't something so beautiful, so wondrous, worth studying just for the sake of it?"

The Doctor leapt to his feet, his eyes wide with excitement.

"Brilliant! You always come through, don't you!" He beamed, almost gliding across the floor towards Haim. "Humans and their curiosity! It's there, let's study it! Brilliant!" He shook Haims' hand. "Just one question though, how does the facility just float there, around this Rift? If I know time rifts, and trust me, I do, it's quite likely that the whole place would have been sucked in by now, scattered throughout time. Like a big dome shaped jigsaw puzzle." He stroked one side of his face thoughtfully. "Big old jigsaw puzzle. Although, you probably wouldn't find the last piece down the back of the sofa." He paused again. "Maybe Ancient Greece."

"Well," Haim smiled, there it was, that look of pride again. "This whole facility is kept in place by the Time Core."

"Time Core?" The Doctor asked inquisitively.

"Salvaged from alien technology that was discovered across the galaxy decades ago. We think it may have once been used to travel through time, but we modified it in order to keep the facility stable in time."

"Brilliant!" The Doctor exclaimed, glancing back to Moira, who was looking up at him now. "Isn't it just a little bit exciting?" He asked her enthusiastically. "Something new? Something you don't understand? Not even a little bit?" He held his thumb and finger out, holding them close together. "Not even a tiny little bit?"

"It's not new." Moira said quietly. "It's as if I know what's going to happen, but not until it does. It doesn't even make sense!" The Doctor noticed that her voice was cracking a little as he sat back down next to her.

I know it doesn't." He said quietly. "And it doesn't make sense to me either. But it will." He looked her straight in the eye. "I promise, it will make sense."

The moment was interrupted as the door slid open and a young woman rushed in. She was wearing the same uniform as Haim, brown, with a red stripe on the arm. Her hair was blonde, slightly brighter than Moiras' and much shorted.

"Leslie!" Haim exclaimed. "Doctor, Moira, allow me to introduce Lieutenant Leslie Corl!"

Corl looked at the pair, before turning back to Haim.

"Geoffrey, we have a problem. A rather big problem."

"What is it?" He asked. "The scanners haven't detected any activity from the Rift?"

The Doctor was standing with them now.

"Then what is it? Any ideas?"

"I asked for video footage to be relayed from the secondary orbital sensors to this office." She explained, pressing buttons on the front of the large screen. Moments later, the image changed to an external view of the dome, presumably, the Doctor thought, from small satellites observing the dome.

"This footage is from around ten minutes ago." Corl said as the Doctor watched intently.

"What? I don't see anythi-" He was cut off by a odd flash on the screen, as a creature seemingly folded in to existence.

"No." The Doctor shook his head. "No no no." More of the creatures were appearing on the screen, their wings spread wide, tails whipping frantically. "It can't be? Why would they be here?"

"What are they Doctor?" Haim asked.

"Reapers." Moira answered, getting to her feet, "They are called Reapers."

"Well," The Doctor shrugged, "they're not really called anything." Moira shot him a look. "But they have been known as Reapers, yes."

"That's just a name. What are they?" Haim asked again.

"That doesn't matter right now." The Doctor said with a sudden realization. "You said that this feed was from ten minutes ago." He watched as the screen showed the creatures charging in to the surface of the Dome. "And ten minutes is plenty of time for them to-"

The Doctor was stopped as the whole facility shook, sending everyone in the room crashing to the floor. Alarms started to sound as the communication equipment buzzed in to life, messages, and calls for help, coming from all over the dome.

"Plenty of time for them to break through!" The Doctor shouted over the commotion.