One of the spiders forced its way into the sanctum and flopped to the floor beside them. Mali squealed with disgust and dragged the Doctor along on his knees for the paltry shelter of the malformed console. While he clutched hold of it as if hanging on for dear life, Mali scrabbled in the Doctor's coat pocket for her staser's powerpack. Behind her she could hear the spiders clattering across the floor towards them, eager for the kill.

Chapter Twenty-four.

Ancestral manoeuvres in the dark

It was quiet now, the storm and rage of the Chaos Ritual finally over though it wasn't the kind of calm that came after a rainstorm, thought Fitz, the cool and refreshing release from an oppressive atmosphere. Instead it was the ghastly calm after a traffic accident, when the screaming tyres and splintering glass noises have subsided and you look around wondering what damage has been done, who needs help. Who will survive.

Fitz's arms ached from being tied above his head for so long. He struggled to look around the room. Members of the coven lay sprawled those few who had not fled in abject screaming terror from the place. Everything stank of the strange incense, but with the disgusting background smell of roasted flesh. Fitz tried not to think of Kaufima s burning body, and of course by thinking this could think of little else.

Until he saw Tarra.

She was standing, arms akimbo, in front of the dark silhouette of the figure that the ceremony had summoned.

Kellen had seemed to go into shock for a moment. But now he looked like he was shrugging it off, letting the adrenaline rush of the moment spur him into fresh action. He sounded manic. 'By Apeiron! We did it. We actually did it!'

'Yes,' smiled Tarra, her dark eyes glittering behind her skull mask. 'Yes, I did, didn't I?'

Kellen was practically dancing on the spot, like an excited child. 'Who'd have thought we could?'

Tarra favoured him with her amused look. 'Well, I would of course.'

'Yeah, right,' said Kellen. His mocking words were cut off when Tarra reached out casually and grasped him firmly by his throat.

She watched him struggle for breath for a moment before speaking. She was loving every minute of this. 'I'm an agent of Faction Paradox. Don't let these glamorous looks fool you,'

she said, stroking her bone face with her free hand. The fingers came away sticky with black blood. 'I'm really quite ancient. I've been in control of this whole project. If you think I'm going to show you any gratitude for helping with this materialisation, then you'll be terribly disappointed. So don't hold your breath.'

Kellen stared back at her, his eyes bulging widely, his face purple. Tarra released him, and he dropped to the dirty floor, whooping and gasping as he sucked air into his starved lungs.

Fitz was surprised to hear himself talking. Maybe it was just nerves. 'An ancient agent of Faction Paradox?'

She blinked her dark eyes at him and said, 'It's rude to ask a lady how old she is.'

Fitz heard a strangely familiar voice. 'I know how old you are. I remember you as a girl. I remember bringing you into the Faction a thousand years ago.'

It was the dark figure who stood starkly before them. 'Hello, Mother Tarra,' it said in greeting.

She nodded deferentially. 'Welcome to you, Father Kreiner.'

Fitz felt a cold thrill run through his limbs. He wanted to get the hell away, to start running and not stop until he fell in a gasping heap because he couldn't run any more. But his hands were still bound. All he could do was stare at the newcomer. Stare at Kreiner.

Was he staring into his own past? Or his own future?

Certainly, something in Kreiner's cracked voice had reminded Fitz of his own. Not the sound that he heard in his head when he spoke, but the sound he heard recorded on tape. He'd first tried that at his mate Billy's. Billy thought he was going to make it big in the recording industry. Billy was a rotten singer who couldn't play bass for toffee, but Billy also had a rich dad who'd bought him a cheap reeltoreel to keep him happy.

Now he was hearing someone else something else playing words back to him in his own voice. Words he'd never spoken. Kreiner's mask seemed to give the voice a synthetic edge, as if it was being played through a damaged speaker.

Otherwise, there was nothing in Kreiner that reminded Fitz of himself. The bulky armour was cracked leather and plastic, sucking in the poor light of the room. Beneath the split skull of the mask the torn remains of a jaw worked ceaselessly, grinding its teeth as though chewing gum. And when Kreiner finally stepped forward, Fitz could hear the hissing sound of mechanical parts.

Kreiner reached up above Fitz with his one good arm. There was a ripping sound, and Fitz's hands were released. It seemed as though Kreiner had only had to snap his fingers to sever the cords that bound him.

Kreiner stared straight into his eyes. The jaw stopped chewing. "This is unexpected, Mother Tarra.'

'A delicious paradox,' she agreed.

Fitz could see the onearmed figure better now. Except that it wasn't really onearmed. The shrivelled remains of the right arm dangled uselessly from the shoulder, and would occasionally flap in a pathetic gesture in its twisted piece of armour.

Kreiner showed him a smile full of cracked and blackened teeth.

Fitz was determined not to be intimidated. He reached out as though for a handshake, and then withdrew it apologetically.

'You want to scream, don't you, boy?' asked Kreiner. Fitz shook his head defiantly, clamping his mouth shut, trying not to give this fearsome apparition any satisfaction.

The apparition didn't seem to care. 'Go on. Don't bottle it up. That used to be my problem.'

And Kreiner threw back his huge bony head and cackled.

There was a scuffling sound. Fitz turned to see Kellen grappling with Tarra.

'You could have killed me!' Kellen was shouting at her, having evidently recovered from his near strangulation. 'Take off that stupid thing and look at me properly,' he continued, scrabbling at the bone halfmask.

Then he staggered back, appalled. He stared down at his hands, which were covered in dark blood.

Tarra turned away from him, and Fitz knew Kellen had at last discovered the truth about her mask. Discovered that it was part of her face.

She stripped back a whole stretch of skin from her forearm as they looked on in horror.

Beneath the peeled skin, Fitz saw the same leathery armour that Kreiner wore.

Kellen screamed.

'I could have killed you,' she told him calmly, ignoring his terror.

'But you did well in my Chaos Ritual. And you will make an excellent Cousin.'

Mother Tarra was smiling beatiflcally as Kellen's noises subsided into a terrified whimper.

'You will be among the first. First we took the Doctor. Now we will take you and your coven. And then all the Time Lords will join the Faction.'

Chapter Twenty-five.

Memories of a blue planet

The staser was useless. The bolts of energy pulsing from the weapon simply scattered and dissipated on the gross, contorted, ivory bodies of the huge spiders. The Doctor watched the gun's power slowly failing, and finally Mali hurled the ineffectual weapon at the nearest spider in a final futile gesture. It bounced off the creature's carapace.

As though sensing their prey's desperation, the spiders skittered closer. The sharp ends of their legs scraped and tapped on the solid bone of the floor.

They came around the edge of the deformed bone console, scratching at its edges as they investigated where the Doctor and Mali were cowering. Their gross bodies cast huge shadows across the twisted shape of the console room.

There was no escape.

The Doctor pulled Mali away towards the rear wall, and they clung to each other in a final, defiant stand against the monsters.

They were not advancing any further. The Doctor pointed towards the exit. 'See if you can get around and out while I distract them.'

But as soon as Mali made a move towards the door, the spiders lunged for her immediately.

She staggered back to where the Doctor had remained, and the spiders once again held their distance.

"They seem afraid of something,' Mali said.

The Doctor gave her an odd look. 'You seem remarkably well informed about the behaviour of oversized arachnids.'

'This is no time for sarcasm, Doctor. Look at them.'

He had to admit, they were rattling their legs, and strings of thick saliva were hanging from their chittering mouth parts. But they were not advancing on them any further.

At which point, a gaunt figure appeared in the exit doorway behind the spiders. For a moment, the Doctor could hardly believe his eyes. Shortly afterwards, he shouted out a warning.

'Compassion! Be careful!'

She was staggering around the perimeter of the console room, staring blankly ahead as if she'd only just learned to walk, her legs stiff, and her arms swinging awkwardly by her sides.

The nearest of the spiders spotted her at once, and flicked at her with its leg. Compassion was flung abruptly across the room, connected with the corner of the console, and tumbled to the uneven floor with a thump.

'Oops,' she said. 'Damn.' And then for good measure she went, 'Ouch.'

The nearest spider bent its legs, so that it could seize her in its mouth.

'Oh, get off,' said Compassion, batting at it with one flapping arm. The spider flicked out another leg, and Compassion rolled over and over until she struck the far wall beside the Doctor and Mali. There, she sat up in a somewhat dishevelled heap, her ginger hair wildly awry and her clothes all tousled. She had the same glassy look in her eyes, but otherwise she seemed unharmed.

'That hurt,' said Compassion.

'You're ...' Mali hesitated, looking to the Doctor for an explanation. 'You're that statue. The one we found out on the heath: 'Yes,' said the Doctor thoughtfully, 'Compassion.'

'You thought she was dead.'

'I feel like I'm dead,' said Compassion through gritted teeth. One of the huge spiders chose precisely this moment to rear up and spring on to the shattered bone console that separated it from the cowering threesome. 'Ferisix and Thrayke preserve us!' yelled Compassion.

The spider hesitated on its impromptu pedestal, and then dropped back on the far side of the console. The Doctor barely noticed, his gaze boring into Compassion's lifeless eyes. 'Spare us the superstitious language, Technician Nivet,' he said.

'Nivet?' asked Mali.

The Doctor nodded. 'Yes, that is you in there, isn't it, Nivet? You're piloting what's left of Compassion's external form, and speaking through her external microphone.'

'Clever,eh?' said Compassion's voice. 'She started to reactivate and opened her doors. I got inside and took over. Eventually.'

'I can see why they call you the finest technician in Kasterborous. Lucky for you that Compassion's exoskeleton is indestructible.'

'Yeah,' groaned Nivet. 'But I'm not. I'm getting thrown about a bit in here. Have you noticed, though, that the spiders have been holding back since I got across here to join you?'

Mali nodded, eyeing the Doctor suspiciously. 'And they only seemed to attack me, not you, Doctor. I think they're ... frightened of you.'

The Doctor rose to his feet, and waved his arms at the nearest of the spiders. 'Boo!' he said.

They scuttled to one side, and he was childishly pleased with the reaction until he realised that the creatures were just trying to manoeuvre around him to get at Compassion and Mali.

'Yes, well,' he said. 'Perhaps we'd better come aboard, Nivet. Can you manage that?'

There was a short pause, and then a thick line appeared right down the middle of Compassion, widening until it was, impossibly, bigger than she was. The Doctor pushed Mali into the TARDIS ahead of him.

At once the spiders leapt forward and seized Compassion.

Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor felt himself being propelled across Compassion's console room as the spiders started to hurl her exoskeleton around the Edifice. 'For goodness' sake, Nivet, I thought you were supposed to be clever,' he grumbled as he slumped across the floor.

Nivet glared across at him. The Doctor could see a livid bruise on the blond man's forehead where he had obviously cracked his head earlier.

'So why,' asked the Doctor, stumbling up to the console, 'didn't you think about,' he continued as he dragged himself around to the next panel, 'trying to isolate the exoskeleton,'

he went on as he thumped and twisted the controls, 'from the interior dimensions?' he concluded with a flourish.

Above them, the monitor continued to show the outside world spinning wildly about them, and the spiders gnashing and slicing savagely as they tried in vain to devour Compassion. But the interior of the TARDIS was otherwise completely calm. The Doctor switched off the monitor, and looked around.

The place was a wreck. What little furniture had remained inside Compassion after her initial landing had been reduced to firewood and bizarre tangled metal sculpture. A pall of smoke seemed to hang over the huge console room. As the Doctor paced around he could feel shards of glass crunching underfoot. He picked up the shattered remains of a bonechina cup, and carefully set it down on the edge of the console as though trying not to spill a drop of nonexistent tea.

'I like what you've done with the place,' he told Nivet.

'You should have seen it before I springcleaned,' replied Nivet. 'I don't know how it decided to admit me in the first place -'

'How she decided,' corrected the Doctor gently.

'How she decided, yeah,' said Nivet warily, as though humouring an aged relation. 'But it she saved my life.'