A hand on his shoulder. 'You weren't to know You were doing the right thing.'

Fitz looked at the Doctor's face, soft and compa.s.sionate. He shook his hand away. 'Good intentions aren't enough, are they? And now you've turned up everything's all right, isn't it? b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l. You get all the glory.'

The Doctor flinched. 'You really think that I do what I do for "glory"?'

Fitz turned away. 'No. Course not.' Even there you're better than the rest of us, he thought. Then he smiled faintly. 'Thank G.o.d,' he muttered. He looked over to the TARDIS, wanting to change the subject. 'So, the TARDIS is all right now?'

'Sort of,' said the Doctor. 'The wormhole's snarled in her bowels like a tapeworm. It's caused the node to expand.' He suddenly looked haunted. 'I may have saved the T'hiili but at what cost?'

Then Fitz remembered the most important thing of all.

'Doctor,' he said, impulsively grabbing his arm. 'I've found Sam. She's alive!'

The Doctor turned towards Fitz, his jaw dropping open in complete amazement.

Kerstin watched as the procession of alien creatures scuttled into the TARDIS. First of all came a dozen bipedal winged froglike things in armour. Two of them were supporting what looked like a naked human woman. Following them was another, smaller froglike creature, in a leaflike yellow costume. They didn't even notice the grand panorama of the TARDIS interior. She supposed that if your world was coming to an end, nothing much would come as a surprise.

The Doctor had given her the task of showing the refugees to the b.u.t.terfly room. She walked up the one in yellow. Was he their leader?

'h.e.l.lo,' she said. 'Welcome to the TARDIS.' She felt like an air stewardess, or a holiday rep. She had to fight to stop the bizarreness of the situation getting the better of her. If she stopped to think, she would surely go mad. 'If you would please follow me.'

She led the creatures down a vaulted corridor which led from the console room, stopping outside a double door which opened at her approach.

Inside was the field and hillside, the place where she'd first arrived in the TARDIS. The b.u.t.terflies were hovering in the air. They seemed to be floating about rather drunkenly; the Doctor said he had lowered the gravity. 'Please go inside; we've prepared this environment specially for you.' She stood to one side as they trooped in, counted them as they went past. Fourteen of them, in all. Fourteen saved from an entire universe.

The doors closed. Kerstin felt light-headed, excited again. Just how big was this place? She walked off down the corridor.

Sam's head hurt. She remembered ducking, as a Ruin leg swung for her it must have banged her head, side-on. If that razor edge had made contact she would have been scalped. But her head still hurt, and she could still taste the smoke of the burning dirigible, coating the inside of her mouth.

She opened her eyes. Where was she? On something soft, something rubbery.

'Sam.'

A voice. A voice outside her head. Human...? Human...? Sam rolled on to her back, suddenly awake. There above her was the Doctor. He was smiling. He was holding her hand. 'h.e.l.lo Sam.' Sam rolled on to her back, suddenly awake. There above her was the Doctor. He was smiling. He was holding her hand. 'h.e.l.lo Sam.'

'Doctor!' She sat up abruptly, ignoring the throbbing pain in her forehead, and hugged him, breathing in the smell of him.

'Erm, I don't want to worry you,' came a voice from her side.

She turned to see Fitz, in a very strange get-up of lumberjack shirt and T'vorha armour. His hair was still short, but his chin was dark with stubble. It would still be some time before he was back to the Fitz she knew.

'The Blight's tickling the a.r.s.e of this dirigible,' he said. 'I suggest we hotfoot it to the TARDIS forthwith.' He grinned. 'h.e.l.lo, Sam.'

Sam smiled back. Hadn't they argued? It didn't matter. For now. She hugged him as well, and he swung her from the alcove.

Outside the dirigible, Sam's feet scudded on the sand. To her left, the Blight, metres away, gaining rapidly. She looked up. It arched overhead, like a pantomime cloak of doom.

To her right, a shining white chasm. Had the whirlpool opened again? What was going on?

Then she saw the familiar blue shape of the TARDIS, and made straight for it, the Doctor and Fitz close behind.

'How did you find me?' she asked the Doctor.

'It's a long story, he said. 'Tell you over tea, if and when we have time for such a luxury.'

Sam stepped into the TARDIS, with a last backward look at the Blight. She walked down the steps, round the console and flopped down in the Doctor's Regency chair. She felt drained, but it was good to be home again.

The Doctor was haring around the console, pulling levers, snapping switches. The ceiling showed a view of the cavern they had just left, Blight on one side, node on the other, with only a narrow blue band of cavern in between.

'We'd better take off soon,' said Fitz, looking fearfully up at the blackness closing in.

'Yes yes yes,' said the Doctor. Then: 'Now that is is interesting.' interesting.'

Sam ran up to the console. 'What is it?'

The Doctor glanced up. 'I've just realised what's causing the Blight! It's not the wormhole at all!

'Wormhole?' Sam frowned. What wormhole? She realised she had no idea what had been going on while she was trapped in the Dominion.

Fitz was removing his T'vorha armour, tossing it on to a pile of cushions. 'If it's not the wormhole, what is it?'

'No time for that now. Hold on this could be a bit of a b.u.mpy ride.' He flicked a switch, and the columns in the time rotor began to move.

A door opened on the far side of the console room and a girl entered. She was about Sam's age, with short blonde hair and tanned skin. She was wearing a black T shirt and white shorts.

Fitz ran up the girl, exclaiming his surprise. 'Kerstin!'

Sam blinked. Obviously a heck of a lot had been going on. She had some catching up to do.

The girl Kerstin smiled weakly at Fitz. 'Good to see you too.'

'You could have told me she was safe, Doctor,' said Fitz.

The Doctor's head popped up from the console. 'Didn't I? Ah, Kerstin are our guests happy?'

Kerstin had a foreign accent which Sam couldn't quite place. 'They're fine. I mean, as far as I can tell.'

Sam stood up. 'Er, anyone mind introducing us?'

'Kerstin Bergman, Sam Jones and vice versa,' said Fitz. He shrugged and grinned. 'It's a long story.'

Sam shook the girl's hand. 'Welcome to the madhouse.'

The smile faltered on Kerstin's face. 'I've heard a lot about you.'

Sam looked narrowly at Fitz. What had he been saying?

Tears were br.i.m.m.i.n.g in Kerstin's eyes. 'I I'm glad you're safe.' She turned away, beginning to sob. Fitz held her, and she buried her head in his chest.

'The wormhole,' said Fitz. 'It took her boyfriend away.'

Sam felt light-headed. She was dying to know what had been going on. 'Fitz?'

Briefly, Fitz told her everything that had happened since her unplanned exit from the TARDIS. Sam listened, trying to take it all in.

'How could a wormhole invade the TARDIS?' she asked. 'I mean, I thought she was well, impregnable.'

'She usually is,' said the Doctor. 'And I don't know how.' He straightened up, hands on hips, frowning at the console. 'Almost as if she wanted it to happen.'

'Look the Blight,' said Fitz, pointing.

The image above them changed. Now the blackness was almost absolute.

A thought struck Sam. 'Are we safe in here?

'We're in hover mode,' said the Doctor, his voice hushed. 'Temporally displaced. We're the only ones privileged to see the death of an entire universe.'

Sam grimaced. 'One privilege I'd gladly forego.' She looked away from the blackness. 'Anyway, I thought the Dominion was a planet.'

'No.' The Doctor shook his head, walking up to stand beside her. 'It is was a pocket universe. Imagine our universe as a balloon. Now imagine a small section "pinched off" from our universe, through a black hole.'

Sam imagined it. It seemed too simple. 'Is that what the Dominion was?'

The Doctor sighed. 'We'll never get to study it,' he said with genuine regret in his voice.'

Fitz had his arm round Kerstin. They were both staring up at the display. 'So, what is this Blight?'

'At first I thought was caused by the wormhole,' said the Doctor, pacing up and down. 'But it seems that has nothing to do with it.'

As Sam stared at the Blight, she could see tiny points of light within the blackness. Like stars.

Exactly like stars.

'Hey,' said Kerstin. 'That looks familiar.'

'It should do,' said the Doctor. His face was sad. 'It's our universe.'

Chapter Twenty.

All For Nothing Professor Nagle ran through the trees, not knowing or caring which way she was going. She only wanted to get away from the node, away from the Ruin. She'd kicked off her patent-leather high heels ages ago, and ran on her stockinged feet, her flesh scratched and torn by thorns. She ran awkwardly, one hand holding her gla.s.ses on, through clumps of ferns, occasionally stumbling into trees. She had to get away from here.

The glowing white node was a mouth that was going to gape wider and wider until it consumed the Earth. She knew there was nowhere to run, but still she kept running. She had to keep running because she knew it was all her fault and if she stopped she'd crack up.

Major Wolstencroft stood with his back against a tree, aimed his machine gun at the flailing creature and let out a short, controlled burst, the weapon juddering against his body. The bullets tore the bifurcated torso of the thing to bits and it sank to the ground, its legs and tentacles thrashing, then falling still.

A noise behind him. He swung round there was another. He fired again, and it slumped to the ground, squealing.

The Ruin hadn't taken to the air for very long. They'd all spiralled down to the ground, where they scrambled about on their six legs, like giant spiders. Those legs were lethal, razor-sharp, and Wolstencroft and his men had a hard task keeping away from them. Still, he was glad they were on the ground. An airborne enemy was far more difficult to fight.

Wolstencroft dodged around the tree, swearing as he saw one of his troops on the ground between four Ruin. The man was dead. They were picking at him with their claws, their grey trunks probing his body. Tasting him.

Wolstencroft sprang out from behind the tree and yelled his rage, the chatter of the machine gun drowning out all other sound. The creatures fell, squealing, on top of one another and the soldier. Moore, his name was. Private Jeff Moore. Only twenty-three.

Wolstencroft ran to a clump of ferns, crouching down to check his gun. Some distance away, he could see the white glow of the node. The Ruin had stopped coming through, but the node was getting bigger. Was it the end of the world? He felt a strange and unsettling sense of liberation.

Footsteps behind him human ones. He turned as a breathless soldier ducked down beside him. Private Schofield. He was wild-eyed, but still largely in control. This was only his second engagement against an alien enemy.

'How many of us left?'

Schofield shook his head. 'Don't know, sir.'

Wolstencroft swore. He noticed the young private was looking at him expectantly. Waiting for orders. 'Right. We'll try and contain the creatures inside the forest.'

'Just you and me, sir?'

Wolstencroft smiled. 'Yes, Schofield, just you and me.' He remembered the creatures in the generator room. 'These things don't live for very long, on Earth. All we have to do is stay alive until they die.'

Schofield suddenly leaned forward, shoved Wolstencroft to the ground and fired his machine gun. Wolstencroft looked up to see that one of the things had crept up on them. It danced in the hail of bullets, and then lay broken, twitching.

Wolstencroft scrambled away from its death throes.

'Well, they'd better hurry up about it,' said Schofield, scanning the trees ahead of then. 'Doesn't look like they're dying off to me, sir.'

They scouted round. All the creatures were heading in one direction. It took Wolstencroft a while to realise what was happening.

He stopped Schofield and pulled him into cover. 'They're heading back towards the node,' he said. 'They're trying to go back to where they came from.'

Sam stared up at the ceiling of the TARDIS. She was standing next to the Doctor. His hands were resting on the lever that would take them out of here for ever.

There wasn't much left of the Dominion now. All they could see was the glowing node, a white slash against the black gla.s.s of the cliff. Once the node had gone, that was it. No more Dominion. Sam wondered if she should go and get Itharquell, so he could be there at the end but no. She doubted if she would want to watch if she were him.

The Blight surged once more, and, like a snuffed-out candle, the node was gone, and with it the Dominion.

Now the Blight was everything. Sam could see that, as the Doctor had said, it was the the universe universe her her universe. The familiar sprinkling of stars, galaxies, the deep, deep black the black of the Blight. She remembered being stuck to the stalagmite, the Blight advancing upon her. She'd had a feeling it was familiar back then, she'd thought it had been the way home. Well, it was, of sorts. universe. The familiar sprinkling of stars, galaxies, the deep, deep black the black of the Blight. She remembered being stuck to the stalagmite, the Blight advancing upon her. She'd had a feeling it was familiar back then, she'd thought it had been the way home. Well, it was, of sorts.