'What do you know about that?'

The Doctor took the slip of plastic from his pocket and pa.s.sed it to Marnal.

'It mentions the Vore. And a cicatrix, whatever that is.'

'I think it's a type of parrot,' Rachel guessed. 'They used to have one on Playschool Playschool.'

The Doctor and Marnal ignored her.

'So. . . what happened next?' the Doctor asked. 'You set off an explosion, you barely got away in time. So you headed back to Gallifrey?'

200.

Marnal hesitated. 'I don't remember.'

'That's my line,' the Doctor noted. 'As Boethius said, though, the history book on the shelf is always repeating itself.'

Marnal took a squelchy step forward, pressed the gun to the side of the Doctor's head.

'Marnal!' Rachel screamed.

The Doctor turned so that the muzzle of the gun was pointing to the dead centre of his forehead.

'Before you kill me,' the Doctor said reasonably, 'would you mind telling me about the Matrix?'

201.

Interlude Marnal's Error Marnal's TARDIS emerged from the Vortex and pa.s.sed along an authorised flight path through the powerful transduction barriers that enveloped Gallifrey, keeping it safe. From there, it was seconds relatively speaking before the ship materialised in its berth. Marnal was still shaking.

He carefully deactivated the time engines, collected up his belongings and opened the door. His hearts hadn't settled down after his escape from the Shoal. The other two ships in his squadron wouldn't yet know that he had got clear. If they'd survived, they would be following their orders to head back home. They'd all take different routes and would arrive at different times. Marnal had broken with protocol and come straight here. He needed to make a report to the High Council about the alien threat. What he put in and left out of that would need some consideration, and he had to calm himself. Everything he believed in had been vindicated, but would they see it that way? His squadron had been using cloaking devices, and he'd bribed the duty officer at traffic control, so the facts would be whatever he said they were.

He stepped out of the deserted landing area, and walked through an ancient stone archway and into the corridor.

A powerfully built man with white hair and a clipped beard blocked his way.

'What the h.e.l.l have you done?'

Marnal tried to step around him and to disguise his agitation. 'Out of my way, Ulysses.'

He was one of the Time Lords who had given himself a new name the latest fad among the independent-minded. Ulysses had called himself after an adventurer from the same primitive planet as his wife Penelope.

Behind him were two of his companions. One was Penelope herself, wearing her strange Earthling clothes: an ankle-length skirt and prim white blouse.

Her red hair hung wild to her waist. The other was Mister Saldaamir, an alien with blue skin, the last survivor of the Time Wars in the ancient past. The three of them surrounded Marnal. They were trying to intimidate him, but they were running more scared than he was. That was obvious in a dozen tiny ways, from posture to nervous glances between themselves.

203.

Ulysses asked him again.

'You've got blood on your hands, Castellan,' Penelope said quietly.

Marnal glanced down, but she was speaking metaphorically.

'The High Council authorised a reconnaissance mission. Close observation,'

Ulysses barked at him.

Marnal looked at Ulysses, and thought about his response carefully. He'd always enjoyed baiting this fool. 'In closed session, yes. I'm sure they'd be interested in how you know about that.'

'You transgressed their orders. You treated the mission like a military a.s.sault.'

'The demands of this uniform ' Marnal countered.

'It isn't a uniform if only you are wearing it,' Penelope told him sharply.

'My suspicions proved justified. There was a threat to Gallifrey. Didn't I do exactly what you and your fellow explorers only talk about doing? The creatures in the Shoal had access to advanced technology They were on the verge of swarming across the universe. The High Council will read my reconnaissance report and take it at face value. They won't worry if I leave out some of the details.'

Penelope sneered at him. 'They will if we report you. You committed genocide.'

'Better a million aliens die than a single Time Lord.' He sneered at Penelope, letting her know that the sentiment was a calculated insult. 'And better a pre-emptive attack fought thirty thousand light years away than those things attacking the Capitol.'

'There was no threat of war.'

'You have no idea what I found there.'

'A temporal cicatrix,' Mister Saldaamir replied.

'A scar where s.p.a.ce-time has tried and failed to heal itself,' Penelope added.

'An area characterised by anomalies in time and s.p.a.ce,' Ulysses finished.

'You were watching me?' Marnal tried not to sound rattled.

Mister Saldaamir smiled, baring sharp teeth. 'No. We were watching the cicatrix. They are extraordinarily rare, and rather useful for the project we're working on.'

'The creatures there were in control of the phenomenon. I think they built it.'

Ulysses laughed. 'They are attracted to it like moths to a flame. They've learnt to ride the hypers.p.a.ce corridors formed naturally by the scar, but they didn't create it. The scar formed over the damage caused by the brief appearance of a naked singularity there centuries ago. Nothing at all to do with the insects.'

'They were plotting with other aliens to destroy Gallifrey. I saw their plans.'

204.

Someone else had joined them. The young woman with the long blonde hair he'd just seen in the Shoal. 'No. You saw me send experimental data back here. I am the Lady Larna.'

Marnal looked the woman up and down. 'What's going on here, Ulysses? If she's a Time Lady, why don't I recognise her?'

'You wouldn't, yet,' Larna said.

'You're from the relative future?'

Larna nodded.

'That doesn't narrow it down as much as it might. But it does explain the advanced technology. You're from after the attacks, then, Larna?'

She stayed very quiet. The other three were staring at her.

'Ah. . . so you've not told the rest of this little clique?'

'Tell us now,' Ulysses ordered.

Larna took a deep breath. 'For millions of years Gallifrey has existed in isolation. Soon not imminently, not all at once there will be a spate of attacks. Omega, the Sontarans, Tannis, Faction Paradox, Varnax, Catavolcus, the Timewyrm. You know some of those names, you will come to know the others. It is very important that Gallifrey survives all these attacks.'

'Of course it is,' Ulysses said.

'You don't understand. All things must pa.s.s. Gallifrey will fall. But it must fall at precisely the right time. The enemy is unknown to us. It will be until Last Contact is made. If it's destroyed before that, by any of those other enemies, then the consequences. . . ' Her voice trailed off. 'That is as much as I know.'

Marnal looked pleased with himself. 'The president and members of the Supreme Council know the prophecy. They have been told that a Time Lord now living will be central to all these events. That he will find the lost scrolls of Ra.s.silon and lead Gallifrey from darkness.'

'I hadn't even heard rumours of this,' Ulysses admitted, rubbing his chin.

'This happens in our lifetimes?'

'Our children's, at the very latest. The council have been keeping it from even their senior colleagues. They fear the consequences if it is widely known.'

Ulysses and his companions looked at each other nervously. They all knew there would be disunity. Chaos. With each individual Time Lord wielding the power they did, such social upheaval was truly dangerous.

'There would be panic. Overreaction. Many would seek to kill or contain this Time Lord.'

'Others would seek to be him,' Mister Saldaamir said thoughtfully.

'It'll all end up in the public domain if the High Council investigate what's happened today. Still keen to report me to them?'

'They sent you because of the prophecy?'

205.

'They are worried, Ulysses. Most of all by the idea that I am right, that the time for observation is over and we have to get out into the universe.'

'You're not the only person who believes that.'

Penelope had been listening to all this. 'We have prophets of doom on my planet too, plenty of them. The only thing they have in common is that they've all been proved wrong in the end.'

'The Supreme Council take it seriously,' Marnal said. 'They'll do anything to protect the status quo here. I killed a few aliens. So what? You've violated every law of time.'

Penelope looked worried. 'We will all suffer because of this,' she told her husband.

'No,' he replied, stabbing a finger at Marnal. 'He started a war, he's killed sentient beings. We've done nothing of the sort.'

Mister Saldaamir shook his head. 'The council know what we're doing.

They always have. They won't be able to turn a blind eye to our activities any longer.'

Marnal realised that he gained some satisfaction from seeing them arguing.

There was still more poison to drip in their ears. 'They won't touch anyone who doesn't have it coming to them, I'm sure. So why would any of you have anything to be scared of? Perhaps you're right and we should get everything out into the open.'

'He's trying to manipulate us,' Penelope said. 'Trying to scare us. He's the one who's done something wrong.'

Mama (looked at her. 'I'm sure they'll be very understanding about your son. How is little ?'

Ulysses turned around, punched Marnal square in the jaw and sent him slamming into the stone wall. Marnal hit his head and collapsed. He tried to get up but couldn't muster control of his legs.

'What are you doing?' Mister Saldaamir asked.

'He can't jeopardise our project. We know he's already covered his own tracks. There's no trail.'

'Are you suggesting we murder him?'

Ulysses spent just a moment too long considering the question. 'No, no, no.

We go to his TARDIS. We use its telepathic circuits to erase his memory. I take him somewhere he can't do any harm and dump him, then come back here and hide his ship.'

'Where are you going to take him?' Mister Saldaamir asked.

'England, 1883,' Penelope said quickly. 'Earth,' she clarified for Larna's and Mister Saldaamir's benefit.

'That's where you're from,' Ulysses noted.

'Well yes, dear, once upon a time. I thought mother could look after him.'

206.

'Is exile to your mother-in-law's the sort of punishment you had in mind?'

Mister Saldaamir asked.

Ulysses grimaced. 'It's perfect.'

207.

Chapter Twelve.