The floor creaked, then shattered into splinters. Both Jenny and Peters tumbling a full story down, as the whole building started to collapse.
The machinery tumbling through around them. Breaking apart as it hit the ground, and making this level's floor-boards sag, threatening collapse.
"Never mind," Peters decided, grabbing Jenny by the arm. "Let's just get out and worry about the details, later."
Jenny shoved him away. "No! It's gotta be here, somewhere! I can't leave it…!" She threw herself at the bits of machinery and lab equipment that had crashed through the floor, frantically searching for something.
The ceiling buckled, and several heavy pieces thunked down around them.
"Jenny, we don't have time for this!" Peters shouted.
Jenny threw three items behind her, then gave a victorious shout. "Here! Got it!" She swooped the object up in her arms — the white dome from the lab. And spun on her heels, racing back to Peters and thrusting it into his hands. "Hold this!"
"Can we get out of here, now?" Peters demanded.
Jenny beamed. "Run? Oh, yes!" Rushed past him, grabbing his wrist and dragging him along behind. "We'll definitely be running!"
Ran fast as they could, considering.
The building shaking and rumbling around them, their eyes constantly darting across the ground to look for broken floor-boards, barely outrunning the collapse as they went.
"It was so stupid of me not to think of it, earlier," said Jenny. "The dome! Of course! After all — you lot had known Seo and Jack by name, even before Seo shot anyone. So they must have already been on your radar."
A piece of masonry crashed to their right, and they jumped out of the way.
"They broke into the police station, a little earlier," said Peters, panting with the exertion. "Entered that room with the Zillwell Machine. Tried to sabotage it. Apparently, they failed."
"Entered a room that should have killed anyone who entered it?" Jenny asked.
Peters frowned.
Trying to think this through. How… could that be possible?
"I think Seo figured something out," Jenny told Peters, as the door to the outside finally crept into sight, ahead of them. "Something not even the MIT Professors could figure out. After all — those professors might have been brilliant, but recognizing something from thousands of years in the past and halfway across the universe was probably a bit beyond them."
Peters, still lugging around that dome, desperately struggled to keep up with her — both mentally and physically. He was starting to feel old… and he was pretty sure that wasn't due for months, yet. "What…?"
They burst out the door.
And the whole building collapsed.
Jenny and Peters threw themselves against the pavement, hands over their heads to protect themselves from the flying debris.
They coughed, as the dust settled.
"I said there was something powerful in that Zillwell Machine," Jenny choked out, between coughs. She sat up and reached for Peters, struggling to see him through the lingering dust. "Something very powerful. Powerful enough to create rapid, accelerated local aging."
The dust cleared.
And Jenny found herself staring at Peters. A shiver running through her.
"In the building," Jenny said, her voice very low, "and… in you. Harmont."
Harmont shook his head. "What… are you…?"
He didn't sound like himself, though. He sounded… weird. Old.
"I'm sorry," Jenny told him, fishing a mirror out of her pocket and handing it to him. "I… made you think. That's what the Poilarin target. Mental stimulation."
Peters took the mirror.
Stared into it for a long time. At his wrinkled skin. His gray hair. A beard growing, where he'd once been clean-shaven.
"It's why MIT was struck first," Jenny said, softly, "and why most of the death and devastation was centralized around this area. The Poilarin have destroyed your whole world — changed your life expectancy, collapsed your society, destroyed the best and brightest of you. That's why most of the people left, on this planet, are mindless street urchins who kill each other without a second thought. And — you police, of course. The ones guarding the Zillwell Machine. Because the Poilarin need the Zillwell machine."
"What… what… happened to me?" said Peters. Touching his own face. "This can't be real. It can't be happening."
"No, it can't," Jenny agreed. "Time's gone wrong on this planet. Very wrong. None of this should ever have happened — I can feel it."
Peters closed his eyes.
Taking long, deep breaths. Trying to accept what he couldn't possibly accept.
His other hand tightened around the white dome Jenny had handed him, earlier. Gripping it as if that would help him get a grip on the image in the mirror.
"Poilarin," Peters said, dully. "What… are…?"
"Aliens that feed on brain activity," Jenny explained, "and excrete time distortion — that can age you to death in seconds."
"Age… to death…" Peters repeated.
"But they're not from this time and place," Jenny insisted. "I last met the Poilarin halfway across the universe, and thousands of years in the past. They'd been spreading themselves through the southern tip of the Irkoli galaxy — feasting on anyone trying to revive examples of Empire technology. It was… horrible. You can't imagine."
Peters looked up at her. "I can."
"No, you can't…" Jenny shook her head, not sure how to portray the full horror of it. "A million years ago, the Irkoli galaxy underwent a huge catastrophe. Most of its life-supporting planets were destroyed, and many others made uninhabitable. The galaxy's population is small enough as it is — they didn't need the Poilarin killing them off, too."
"What did they do?"
"Quarantined that whole section of the galaxy," Jenny said. "Just… let the Poilarin eat everyone on those worlds… then starve to death." She sighed. "I showed up right when one of the creatures escaped the quarantine. Wound up tracking it down and then trapping it, so I could stick it back in the quarantine zone. The Poilarin aren't used to people outsmarting them."
"You weren't infected?" Peters asked.
"No — I wouldn't be," Jenny said. "My brain is… different. Really strong defenses. A lot of creatures have trouble invading it." She paused. Then, getting back to her feet, "Although… if Seo had to drop into a coma to stop them taking over her mind… the immunity must only apply to full-blood Gallifreyans. Not part-Gallifreyan, part-humans, like her."
She helped Peters to his feet.
He handed her back the mirror, without looking at it. Didn't want to look anymore than he had to.
"I've never heard of that species before," said Peters. "Gallif… what did you say?"
"Forget it," said Jenny, helping him into the passenger side of the police car. "I think we'd better head back to the station, though. Because if my suspicions are correct… then your Zillwell Machine isn't what you think it is. And we're in very deep trouble."