Story 2.3: Lockdown

"So, who told you that she was special? Who told you that bad people will come?"

Thornsby, 1998. The TARDIS arrives to collect Caroline and Danny, but after a disagreement
the three travellers end up seperated.

Danny meets Gaz and Lee who run an illegal pirate radio station. But they've
been doing deals for dodgy equipment and the airwaves are not just filled
with the sound of Town FM...

Caroline bumps into young college student, Phil, and they soon start
to uncover the truth about the station.

The Doctor, meanwhile, meets Sophie - a reporter from Seattle, and
he takes a fateful decision to finally track down some answers
about Caroline. Answers that will leave him with a big dilemma...

This is the third story of season 2, continuing the adventures of the Doctor, Caroline and Danny.

The Lighthouse: Chapter 6 (The General)

The Doctor returned to where Aleena was working just in time to see the whole device shut down and go cold.

“I did it,” said Aleena, aware of the Doctor’s return. “What about your friends?”

“They’ve gone through the time window,” said the Doctor. “They were trapped in the room and had no choice.”

“That was lucky! Can you get them?”

“I should be able to,” said the Doctor, gathering up some of his tools that were scattered around the machinery.

“They’re still fighting out there,” said Aleena.

“I know. Perhaps we should break the bad news to them.”

“No,” said Aleena. “We need to make sure this entire place is destroyed first.”

“Well it’s only a matter of time before it comes down anyway,” said the Doctor, feeling a trickle of brick dust fall onto his nose.

Aleena and the Doctor made their way back up to the communication room and flicked on the scanner screen which showed the battle raging up above the atmosphere. Most of the Sontaran ships had been destroyed and a large ship was picking off the remaining survivors.

“That looks like some sort of command ship,” said the Doctor.

“That’s the Victorious,” said Aleena ominously.

“You’ve heard of it?”

“I’ve watched it,” said Aleena. “That’s the General’s ship.”

“Ah, yes,” said the Doctor, folding his arms and leaning back in the chair. “I’ve heard about this General. Who is he exactly?”

“I’m not entirely sure, but he runs the Eyeglass with ruthless efficiency. You only get on board the Victorious if you’re as committed to the cause as he is.”

The Doctor shook his head in disgust. “I think we need to have a little chat with this General.”

“And how do we do that?”

“We go on board.”

“Doctor, that’s insane,” said Aleena, half-laughing. “He’ll have is arrested as soon as look at us. We need to get out of here now.”

“I need to try and speak to him.”

“And say what? Try and convince him to change his mind? He’s been running this operation for decades. He’s not about to give up just because you think you can make him have a change of heart.”

Suddenly the door burst open and a number of armour-clad soldiers burst into the room. They grabbed Aleena and the Doctor and held them with their hands tied behind their backs.

“Let us go!” shouted Aleena.

“Just relax,” said the Doctor. “You do know that the machinery has been disabled and there’s no way for us to get it up and running again.”

“You’re coming back with us. The General will make you fix it,” said one of the masked soldiers. “This is Lt. Everon to the Victorious. We have the prisoners. Bringing them aboard now.”




The Doctor and Aleena had been taken to a small, command shuttle nearby and the shuttle had taken them up into space and to the huge, imposing hulk of the Victorious, which hung in the nebula like a waiting spider would wait on it’s web.

They were taken from the shuttle and down a series of corridors until they reached a huge, metal door. The door slid open and opened out into a large, circular room which contained row after row of computer banks, monitors, readouts, and through the centre of the room was a huge, glass tube, showing the nebula and Equinox outside. It was a 306 degree view screen.

Standing in front of the screen was the General, his hands behind his back and refusing to acknowledge the Doctor or Aleena.

The soldier called Lt. Everon stepped forward. “Excuse me, sir, but we have the prisoners.”

“Excellent,” said the General, his silky tones betraying no emotion.

“It’s nice to finally meet you at last,” said the Doctor.

The General turned to the Doctor and then walked over to him, his dark eyes examining every inch of the Doctor. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“A lot of people have,” smiled the Doctor. “I guess I’m getting a little more well known then I’d like.”

The General chuckled. “I’ve known you for a little longer than you think, though,” said the General.

The Doctor was unsure of what to say.

“Come with me,” said the General, heading towards a small door at the side of the bridge.

“Sir?” said Everon.

“Take the blue girl to the cells. I’ll be okay with the Doctor. I’m sure he’ll understand once we’ve had a chat.”

“Doctor?” said Aleena, as she was quickly moved away.

“It’ll be okay, Aleena. Just stay calm.”

The Doctor was taken through the small door into a large, wood-furnished office. Ornate, wooden panels adorned the walls along with all manner of antique looking furniture. A large glass table sat in the middle and a window overlooked the nebula. The General poured the Doctor a glass of water and then gestured for him to sit down.

“Thank you,” said the Doctor as he took his seat, but continued to stare out of the window.

The General smiled, noticing the Doctor’s confusion. “Oh, it’s not a real window,” he said. “This room is deep in the heart of the ship. That’s a monitor, showing me what’s outside.”

“Lovely,” said the Doctor, taking a sip of his water.

“You, my friend, have caused me a number of problems today.”

“You can dispense with the pleasantries,” said the Doctor.

“Very well,” said the General.

“Tell me who you are and what you are playing at.”

The General leaned back in his chair and tilted his head, looking at the Doctor curiously. “You are a Time Lord, yes?”

“Yes,” said the Doctor.

“I used to work for the Time Lords. During the Time War.”

The Doctor’s heart ached a little at the mention of the Time War. A war which led to the eventual destruction of his home planet.

“You worked for them? What exactly did you do?”

The General got up and turned to face the window, his arms behind his back. “In those very early days of the Time War, the Time Lords were not too keen on going out into the battlefield themselves. So instead they found beings of higher races. I was one of those beings. A Human being from far in the future with advanced awareness and battle skills. They pumped me full of regenerating cells using one of their machines.”

The Doctor’s heart leapt. That’s exactly what he needed if he ever hoped to regenerate again. He managed to hold back his hope though.

“They made sure that should I ever be damaged, by body would heal itself. Not regenerate in the sense that you know it. I’d not change my appearance. I’d just stay like this. Forever.”

“Go on.”

“They gave me my own TARDIS - like the others like me that they recruited - and so off we went to battle the Daleks. And when the Time War was over, I found myself the only survivor of the augmented beings. My TARDIS was damaged and unresponsive. I was thrown from it and found myself falling through the time vortex where I arrived in this time. I barely survived, but the regenerative cells helped me to eventually heal. My TARDIS was lost to me.”

“Okay,” said the Doctor, going through all of these points in his head. During the time he fought in the war, he wasn't always privy to everything the High Council were up to. “That still doesn’t explain why you formed this terrible group.”

“I was…angry at what the Time Lords did to me. They used me as a tool. They made me hate what they had done to me. The Time Lords didn’t care about anybody else. So I wondered why I did. And then I realised that I could use my power - my knowledge - to better the Human race. If the Time Lords could become so powerful, then why not the Human race.”

“So you invaded other worlds just to make the Human race better?” The Doctor felt angry.

“Exactly. What does a soldier do when he is the last of his kind? When there is nothing left for him anymore?” The General smiled.

“He doesn’t go and destroy other races!”

The General turned to face the Doctor. “See, that’s where you’re wrong. When have we ever purposely set out to destroy another race? We want nothing to do with them. We only want the technology to better our own race. I sought out Torchwood. They were a shambles by that point merely existing in this time as a memory. I took the remnants and rebuilt it into Eyeglass.”

The Doctor continued to stare at the General. “I used to have a friend who worked for Torchwood back in the 21st century. He’d be appalled at what it’s become.”

“But we’re not Torchwood, are we? We’re the Eyeglass. Always seeing. Always watching what others are doing. Torchwood is dead.”

As if to punctuate the General’s last word, the ship shuddered and the Doctor’s half-empty glass fell over.

The General frowned and pressed a button on his desk. “Kagawa, what’s going on?”

“It’s the Haven,” said Kagawa, worriedly. “They’re firing on us.”

“What?”

“They just fired at our engines.”

The General straightened himself up and made his way back to the bridge. The Doctor got up and followed.

On the bridge people were busy running around, comparing readouts and all of them with the same question on their mind: why was their own ship firing on them?

“We have the Haven calling us now,” said Kagawa.

“On screen,” said the General, turning sternly towards the large, glass view screen-cylinder.

The image of Paragrim came on screen. Behind him were flames and smoke and the bridge was deserted.

“You were taken prisoner,” said the General.

“Nobody takes me prisoner. Did you think you could hold me?” said Paragrim. “I’ve given your crew over here the chance to escape. They are heading for the escape pods now. What I want is that Aleena woman.”

“What do you want with her?” asked the Doctor, stepping forward.

“To finish the job I started,” growled Paragrim. “I don’t know if anyone’s aware of this, but I seem to have been completely screwed over. Hired to do a job and never got to finish it off.”

“You got the coordinates for safe passage through the nebula,” said the Doctor.

“But I never finished her off.”

“I’m sure it wasn’t in your contract to kill the young lady,” said the General.

“I don’t sign contracts, but I always finish my victims off.”

“You’re a monster!” growled the Doctor.

“And you’re starting to sound like your Eyeglass friends.”

“I’m sorry, but the Doctor and the young lady are prisoners of Eyeglass. You shall not take them. We do not negotiate with other species when under threat.”

“Fine,” said Paragrim, leaning back in his chair. “I’ll just take your ship out and kill you all off.”

The screen went black and the ship shuddered again.

“He’s continuing to fire on us,” said Kagawa.

“You don’t say!” said the Doctor.

“Why aren’t the shields up?” shouted the General, crossing over to the tactical display.

“The Haven has all of our technical data. He knew our shield frequencies. We don’t stand a chance. We need to hand over those two.”

“I make the decisions around her, Lieutenant.”

The Doctor cleared his throat. “Perhaps it would be best-”

“No,” said the General, arms folded and trying to make a decision. “I don’t negotiate with his kind. And anyway, you could help us in the future.”

“We won’t help you,” said the Doctor.

The General scowled and then ordered Kagawa to begin targeting the Haven. When the Doctor was sure that nobody was looking he slowly slinked away into the shadows and headed for the exit.

He followed the corridor around until he reached the brig. The guard was too busy watching the battle on his monitor that he didn’t see the Doctor slip into the room.

Aleena was sat on a plain looking bed and jumped up with delight when she saw the Doctor.

“What happened?” she asked.

“No time to explain. Suffice to say we may have been given a distraction. We need to find the transmat room and beam back down to Equinox. We need to get back to the TARDIS.”

She took his hand and they snuck back out of the prison area and down a series of corridors, elevators and more corridors until they eventually found the room.




A few minutes later the surface of Equinox was lit up by the yellow colour of the transmat beam, and the Doctor and Aleena materialised beside the damaged remains of the lighthouse.

“I was kind of hoping this place would have collapsed by now,” said the Doctor.

“Don’t,” said Aleena sadly. “It’s been my home for a long time.”

“We need to make sure this place is levelled. Then I’ll get you back to your home world.”

“No,” said Aleena. “I can take myself.”

“How?”

“How do you think I got here in the first place. My original shuttle’s hidden in a cavern not far from here.”

“Aleena-”

“I’ll be fine,” she said, smiling at him.

There was an almighty explosion from up above and the Haven came into view. It was spiralling down into the atmosphere, getting larger and larger the closer it got.

“The General must have put it out of commission,” said the Doctor.

“It looks like it’s gonna crash right on top of us,” said Aleena, worriedly.

“It looks very much like that could be the case,” said the Doctor. “That’ll take out the lighthouse at least.” He turned back to Aleena. “Get to your shuttle. I’ll radio you when we’re both free of the nebula. Just to check you’re okay.”

She nodded. “Good luck, Doctor.”

“You too.”

She turned and walked a little. Then she turned back and crossed back to the Doctor.

“You need to go Aleena.”

She pulled herself up to his height and kissed him on his cheek. “Take care. I’ll miss you. Just make sure you come to Xanji-For as soon as you’ve got Caroline and Danny.”

And with that she was gone, sprinting over the scrubland and over the ridge.

“I’ll miss you too, Aleena.”

The Haven screamed with the sound of twisting of metal as it got closer and closer. The Doctor turned and ran, past the lighthouse and towards the familiar blue shape of the TARDIS. He took one last look as the shadow of the ship was cast over the land around them. Then he dived inside the box and dematerialised.

A few seconds after he had left the Haven crashed, flattening the lighthouse and causing the land all around to shake violently. Smoke and flames billowed up from the ship. And then there was a huge explosion as the engines went into overdrive.

The ship burnt in it’s crater for over twelve hours.




The Doctor had radioed through to Aleena and they had both signalled that they were okay. Now the Doctor was standing alone in the TARDIS console room. For the first time he realised how quiet it seemed without Caroline and Danny.

He had to get to Thornsby to find them, and he made a wish that he wouldn’t encounter any problems getting there.

When he was sure that Aleena’s shuttle was out of the system and well on it’s way to safety, he set the coordinates for Thornsby, 8th May 1998.




On board the Victorious the General stood, surveying the wreckage on the surface below. He had sent people down to investigate, but they had reported that everything inside or under the lighthouse had been obliterated. Even the few remaining Sontaran ships had limped off home, not even bothering for one final skirmish.

The communications console on his desk lit up and the General pressed a button. “What is it, Kagawa?”

“He’s here to see you.”

“Send him in.”

The door swished open and standing there was a battered and blackened Paragrim, his face full of fury.

“Welcome to the Victorious, Mr Paragrim.”

“Why did you transmat me out? You had beaten me!”

“Because, I believe you and I have a mutual enemy: The Doctor.”

Paragrim snarled at his name.

“And I believe we can both help each other.”

“How?”

“I want him dead.”

“My shuttle was on board the Haven. It’s gone.”

“I can get you a knew shuttle.”

“What’s in it for me?”

“How does 100,000,000 credits sound?”

Paragrim smiled.

“And,” added the General, “you get to kill the Doctor for fun as well.”




THE END




Aleena will return in “The Problem With Death” and Paragrim will return in “A Switch In Time”.




Next time: “Lockdown” - the Doctor arrives in Thornsby, 1998 where he goes in search of answers about Caroline, whilst Danny and Caroline get themselves involved with a dangerous pirate radio station.

The Lighthouse: Chapter 5 (Watching Ghosts)

The Doctor had persuaded Aleena to help him shut down the equipment. Danny and Caroline had stayed in the radio room up above whilst Aleena had taken the Doctor down into the bowels of the lighthouse to destroy the time equipment. At the bottom of the spiral staircase, on the ground level, was another, small wooden door. She unlocked it and the steps carried on.

They seemed to be spiralling down for ages until they came to a large, iron door. Aleena took out a key from her knapsack she had grabbed and unlocked the door. Opening it they could feel the freezing cold air from inside, but there was also the hum of machinery coming from down a corridor.

“Are you sure about this?” asked Aleena. “In the five years that I’ve been here I haven’t returned to this room. Not since I installed it all.”

“Yes,” said the Doctor, edging into the darkness and realising that the last time he had been here they hadn‘t really spoken much about how she came to be on this almost-dead world. “So you just found all of this equipment then?”

“When I was exploring this area of space,” she said, pulling out a torch and shining it into the darkness.

“No light switches?” asked the Doctor.

“No light bulbs,” said Aleena.

“Shame,” said the Doctor, feeling along the wall slightly so as to support himself.

“Gotta admit I was pretty terrified when I found that Dalek saucer,” said Aleena, shuddering. “At first I wasn’t exactly sure what it was as it was pretty badly damaged, but once I went inside I spotted them. They were all dead, thank Ireel.”

“Pretty lucky then,” said the Doctor as they turned a corner.

“You don’t have to tell me that, Doctor. I know what they do to people. They almost invaded my world once.”

“Almost?”

“It was at the end of the Third Dalek War. They were just about beaten and the Earth Alliance managed to drive them back to Skaro.”

The Doctor smiled in the darkness. “Good old Earth Alliance.”

“But they always come back,” said Aleena, ominously.

“Yes,” said the Doctor. “They always come back.”

They turned another corner and the room was lit up with a blue glow. Sitting in the middle of the room was a large, gun-metal grey cylinder. A glowing, blue core ran through a glass tube from the floor to ceiling and various wires and panels were connected to the device. It hummed with power, although the room felt ice-cold.

“So, this is it,” said the Doctor.

“Yep, this is it.”

“Let’s get to work.”




Up above Danny and Caroline had decided to take the initiative and had gone looking for a weapons room. Although the Doctor detested weapons, Caroline had figured that their best option would be to at least try and defend themselves. The computer readouts in the radio room had signalled that the Sontaran ships were coming in to land close by, and she wasn’t sure if the Doctor would be able to destroy the equipment and get them out of here in time.

They had wandered down a long corridor until they discovered a metal door leading into a small room.

Dominating the back wall was a huge, cinema screen sized mirror, and in front of the mirror was a large, leather chair. In front of the chair was a small computer console with various dials, switches and readouts. Caroline sat in the chair. The console was already switched on and the mirror was humming with power.

“Be careful,” said Danny warily.

“I’m just sitting,” said Caroline.

She flicked a switch and Danny quickly ran around to the front of the chair.

“That’s not just sitting!” he hissed.

The mirror started to glow and an image appeared on it. It showed an image of the Doctor, Caroline and Danny struggling through the jungles on Theen.

“How does this thing work then?” asked Caroline, concerned at the fact that someone would be able to spy on her so easily.

“Aleena can use it to transport herself anywhere,” said Danny. “So she must just pick a time and jump into it.”

“So,” said Caroline, eyeing up her double on the screen, “I could just hop into that mirror now and it’d transport me to there and then.”

“I presume so.” A worrying thought crossed Danny’s mind. “But don’t!”

“I’m not so stupid,” snapped Caroline. “I know I can’t mess about with time.”

Caroline pressed another button and the screen went blank. It looked simple enough. You simply enter the date, location and time, even to the millisecond, and it would appear on the screen.

She sat for a moment, thinking to herself, and then, with her heart beating faster and faster, she typed in a series of numbers.

“Caroline, no,” said Danny.

The mirror hummed with life and the image changed to that of a young man in old, Edwardian style clothes. He was sat on the edge of a large, four-post bed, a pure-white wedding dress draped over his lap. He simply stared down at it, looking sad.

“You shouldn’t, Caz,” said Danny, softly.

“It’s Will, Danny. It’s my Will,” she said, her voice full of emotion.

“I know,” he said quietly.

“I could just step right into there now and be with him.”

“You could,” said Danny, “but where’s that gonna get you? In the same situation we just pulled you out of.”

“I know,” said Caroline, sniffing and trying to wipe away the tears. “I know.”

“Come here,” said Danny, sitting on the arm of the leather chair and putting an arm around her, pulling her in.

She buried her head on his chest and sobbed. “I don’t know what I’m gonna do, Danny.”

“Think about what William would want you to do,” said Danny, knowing that anything he said wouldn’t help her with her grief. “He’d want you to carry on with your life.”

“But how can I carry on when I see him like that?” she asked, gesturing towards the screen in front of them.

“You heard what the Doctor said. He got on with his life. He’s bound to have some time to get through the grieving process though. It’s only natural. But he will get on with things, just like you.”

Caroline looked at the screen again. Now William was pulling out a large, dress box and folding the dress neatly into it.

“If I ever find a way,” said Caroline, determination in her voice, “I will go back to him. If I ever get this stupid, hidden power out of me, I will go back to him.” She walked over to the screen, her face almost touching it. “I promise.”

“Hey,” said Danny, “let’s take a look at something a little happier.”

He hopped off the chair and looked closely at the control panel. He typed in a few digits and the screen shimmered and changed to the view of a park. There was a set of swings and two, teenagers were sat on them, not swinging, but chatting with each other.

“That’s-”

“That’s People’s Park,” smiled Danny. “And that’s you and I.”

Caroline looked more closely. It was them. A younger version of them. “What year is this?”

“It’s 1998. May 8th 1998 to be precise,” said Danny, smiling.

Caroline looked around at him quickly. “That’s when you and I were dating.”

“Yeah,” smiled Danny.

“But why would you bring that up?” asked Caroline, spotting the two of them holding hands.

“Because we were happy then. I don’t mean us being in a relationship, but I mean in general. That year, that spring and summer. It was such a magical time. The only time I’ve really, really felt happy with life. That date has always stuck in my head. One perfect time. Can you remember the summer that year?”

Caroline turned and smiled at him. “It was a good time, wasn’t it?”

“Me and you spending our days walking along the old railway before they pulled it up, long evenings sat on the swings.”

“I still can’t believe you managed to convince that shop keeper you were old enough to buy those bottles of Hooch,” laughed Caroline.

“And I still can’t believe I had to virtually carry you home and sneak you through your bedroom window so your parents wouldn’t find out.”

“And you ripped your shirt climbing down the tree!” said Caroline, laughing out loud at the memory.

“And fell into your dads pond!” exclaimed Danny.

The two of them burst into laughter and Caroline crossed over to him. “What happened to us, Danny?”

“What do you mean?” asked Danny, sounding a little confused.

“I don’t mean the relationship or anything,” she said, quickly, “but as friends. What happened to us?”

“I guess we just drifted apart,” said Danny.

“Yeah,” said Caroline. She stood looking at him for a good few seconds. He was a good friend and right now she needed him.

And then the room shook violently, causing the screen to flicker. A piece of plaster fell from the roof and hit the control panel, followed by some timber. The timber smashed into the control panel and it sparked and started to smoulder.

“What the hell was that?” asked Caroline.

“Most be the Sontarans,” said Danny. “It’s damaged the control panel,” said Danny, flicking a few switches. “It’s stuck on looking at us in 1998.”

“Oh well,” said Caroline, “the Doctor wanted to disable it anyway.”

The room shook again and the wall above the doorway began to crack.

“We need to get out of here,” said Caroline, worriedly.

The room shook again and all the lights went out. The two of them couldn’t see a thing and the only thing illuminating the room was the screen showing People’s Park in 1998. It shook again and Caroline and Danny scrambled for what they assumed was a desk as they heard rubble falling.

And then all was silent.




In the time-drive room, the Doctor and Aleena were aware of the commotion up above and were working furiously to deactivate the machinery.

“Do you think Danny and Caroline are okay?” asked Aleena, unscrewing a panel from the bottom of the main unit.

“Do we have a communication station in here?” asked the Doctor.

“Just use your phone, Doc,” said Aleena.

The Doctor looked a little foolish. “Of course,” he said, pulling it from his pocket and dialling Caroline’s number. He let it ring a few times and when it went to voice mail he tried again. Still no answer.

“You go and find them,” said Aleena, noticing the worry on the Doctor’s face. “I’ll finish off in here. I’m almost done anyway.”

“Are you sure?” asked the Doctor, shuffling impatiently.

“I’m sure. Just go.”

The Doctor took one more look back at Aleena and then turned and sprinted through the tunnel and back up the spiral stairs.

Once he got up to the main area he began calling for Caroline and Danny. And then his phone rang.

“Hello?” asked the Doctor. “Caroline, where are you two?”

“We’re…trapped…” coughed Caroline.

“Trapped where?” asked the Doctor.

“In the time viewing room thingy…”

“What are you doing in there?” scolded the Doctor. “I told you to wait here.”

“We just went to search for some weapons and found it.”

The Doctor skipped across the corridor and headed towards the room. Once he got there he found that the majority of the room and the ceiling had caved in, effectively blocking off the door.

“I can’t get you out,” he said, worriedly. “The whole rooms caved in. Can you move?”

“Yeah…” said Caroline. “Danny’s….managed to clear a space and we’re back…in the room.”

The Doctor hopped from one foot to the other, thinking frantically. Then he clicked his fingers. “Is the screen still on?”

“What?” spluttered Caroline.

“What were you watching?” asked the Doctor, growing impatient with her.

“Just me and Danny in a park in Thornsby.”

The Doctor nodded. “Go through the screen.”

“What?” spluttered Caroline as the lighthouse shook again.

“I’m not going to be able to get you out of this room before this place comes crashing down. Your one option is to cross through the screen into that park. I can then come and get you in the TARDIS.”




In the room, Danny had torn a sleeve off his shirt and was wrapping it around a deep wound on his arm.

“What’s he saying?” asked Danny.

“He wants us to go through the screen,” said Caroline, worriedly. “He said he’d follow us on.”

“Caroline!” came the Doctor’s voice from the phone.

“Yes, yes. I’m still here. But what are you going to do?”

“In a few moments Aleena will have deactivated the time drive. And then we’ll let the Sontarans and Eyeglass battle it out while we get out in the TARDIS. The machinery will be destroyed totally when this lighthouse falls down.”

“I don’t know about this, Doctor. It’s a bit risky. And there’s no guarantee that you’ll get to Thornsby again. Look what happened last time.”

“We have no choice,” said the Doctor sternly.

“Now, what are your exact location details.”

Danny crossed over to the smouldering panel, which still showed the readout. “Friday, May 8th 1998. It’s about 4pm in the afternoon.”

“Good,” said the Doctor. “I’ll come and find you. Go to the pub - the White Hart.”

Danny shifted uncomfortably at the name as he listened to the Doctor on speaker, remembering Lisa.

“Do not be late!” scolded Caroline. “We all know what happened last time.”

“Go!” said the Doctor as the room shook again. “I’ll meet you there as soon as I’ve mopped up here.”

Caroline and Danny grabbed each others hands and walked towards the screen. They stepped through it and the image shimmered. They were gone.




Up above the group of spaceships were busy battling. Volley after volley of weapon fire was sent between the two opposing factions. One of the Eyeglass ships had been hit pretty badly and it’s hull had been compromised.

The golf ball-type Sontaran ships were too quick and agile for the bulky, larger Eyeglass ships and were busy blasting away, avoiding return fire.

On the bridge of the Haven, June Caster was getting more and more worried. She moved the dead body of her weapons officer out of his chair and he fell to the ground with a thud.

“We need reinforcements,” said June, checking the shield strength.

“I’ve sent out a distress call,” said Jameson. “No reply as of yet.”

June cursed the control panel and turned back to face the rest of her crew. “We cannot allow those barbaric creatures to gain control of the time equipment.”

Paragrim shook his head, stifling a laugh. “You lot are finished,” he said.

“What are you still doing here?” barked June. “Get out!”

“It’s a lost cause,” said Paragrim, finally letting out a laugh.

“Then why are you here?”

“Because I want to watch you all fail. And then I’ll leave,” he added, with a twisted smile. “You Eyeglass people are fools. Instead of being subtle and making friends and then taking the tech you need, you’ve instead turned the entire galaxy against you.”

“I don’t care!” growled June.

“No,” said Paragrim, getting up and heading for the exit, “of course you don’t.”

“Turn around and face me,” said Caster, pulling out her blaster.

“Why don’t you just shoot me in the back,” said Paragrim, refusing to turn again.

June pulled the trigger on the blaster and shot three bolts of energy into Paragrim’s back. He stopped and then turned to face her.

“Ouch,” he said simply, and began marching towards her.

“Keep back!” yelled Redcar from near the weapons station.

“Someone needs to teach this little piece of slime what happens when you go against Paragrim.”

June shot again, and now Redcar was shooting with a high-powered blaster rifle. The shots just bounced off Paragrims armour.

“I won’t kill the rest of you,” said Paragrim, putting his hand around June’s throat and lifting her into the air. “I actually quite like some of you. You all have potential to be good agents.”

June gasped for air and the rest of them looked on.

The ship shook again and Paragrim threw June at the control panel. She grabbed at her neck and gasped for air.

“What have you done to her?” asked Otto, crossing to her.

“Crushed her windpipe,” smiled Paragrim.

“Why? Why would you be so callous? She can’t breathe!”

“For the good of Paragrim,” he chuckled. He pulled out his own, large blaster and shot a single bolt at her head. June stopped struggling and lay still on the floor.

“This is exactly why we hate other creatures!” yelled Otto.

The bridge shook again and then suddenly there came a bleeping sound from Jameson’s control panel. She quickly turned to it and looked surprised.

“What is it?” asked Paragrim, picking up June’s dead body and hurling it into the corner.

“It’s another ship. It’s one of ours. Oh my god! It’s the Victorious!”




In space the Sontaran ships were suddenly being picked off one by one by a series of energy bolts. Those bolts were coming from a huge grey, spaceship. It was four times the size of the rest of them and was long and sleek, engines sweeping backwards and glowing white hot.




On the bridge of the Haven the communication screen flickered into life. On the screen was a Japanese man. “Victorious to Haven, do you receive me.”

“Yes,” said Jameson, excitedly. “Thank god you came!”

“Stay calm,” said the man, his eyes betraying no sign of emotion. “He’s coming on board. He should be beaming in right now.”

“Who?” asked Paragrim.

“Me,” came a voice from the doorway behind them.

Standing there was a tall, thin man with swept back grey hair. His long hair was tied into a pony-tail behind his head. He had a beard and his eyes were dark and sunken in. He was dressed all in black and surveyed the room with disdain.

“And who are you?” asked Paragrim, folding his arms and standing his ground.

“I’m the General,” said the man, with a smirk on his face, “and I think you and I need to have a little chat.”

The Lighthouse: Chapter 4 (Familiar Faces)

On board one of the sphere-like Sontaran ships sat a small, squat, armoured figure. The inside of the ship was cramped and small, but there was enough room for the operator to swivel his chair around and access the various computer banks and readouts.

The Sontaran soldier was dressed in a grey/blue body armour suit topped with a metal-blue collar and a domed helmet that seemed to sit seamlessly on top of the collar piece. The helmet was blank except for two, large slits which allowed the wearer to look out of.

The Sontaran reached for a control with his three-fingered glove.

“This is Commander Stoxx of the 78th Sontaran battle fleet. We claim your facility in the name of the Sontaran Empire. Respond,” finished his gruff voice.

There was nothing.

Stoxx pressed the button again. “I repeat, this is Command Stoxx of the-”

“Yes,” came the Doctor’s voice over the comm. system, “I hear you.”

“Who am I addressing? The commander of the facility?”

“There is no commander,” came the female voice of Aleena. “There’s only me. And you can all get lost. This is my lighthouse, not yours.”

“Steady, Aleena,” said the Doctor. “But she’s right. This is not the property of the Sontaran Empire. I’d advise you to leave.”

“The technology on board that facility is priceless. We want it.”

“You and everybody else,” said the Doctor. “How did you traverse the nebula?”

“Sontaran guidance systems are far more advanced than anything else in this sector of space,” said Stoxx, a hint of pride in his voice. He straightened up in his seat. “You have one hour to vacate the facility.”

“What happens in an hour?” asked Aleena, worriedly.

“If you’re still there, you die. Sontar-Ha!”




The Doctor, Aleena, Danny and Caroline had returned to the lighthouse and Caroline was helping the Doctor to patch up the various cuts and bruises that Aleena had sustained from Paragrim.

The Doctor dabbed some ointment on one particularly nasty, purple bruise and Aleena winced.

“Sorry,” said the Doctor, stepping back. “There. That should do it. It’ll take a while for your wounds to heal, but it shouldn’t stop you doing anything.”

“Doctor,” said Danny, impatiently from the window, “we have forty minutes left until those Sontaran things come down to the planet.”

“The shields are up,” said the Doctor, pulling out a needle and thread and starting to stitch up a huge gash on Aleena’s shoulder.

“Nothing’s getting through those shields,” said Aleena confidently.

“I hope you’re right,” said Danny, gazing out across the top of the cliffs.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t have gotten there sooner,” said the Doctor, a strand of thread between his teeth.

“Ouch!” said Aleena as the Doctor pricked her skin.

“Sorry. Again,” said the Doctor, a little smile on his face.

“You weren’t to know,” said Aleena. “I’m lucky you arrived when you did.” Aleena’s eyes flicked to his. “Why did you come anyway? Not that I mind, of course, I just wasn’t expecting you.” she added quickly.

The Doctor took a deep breath. “I found a little clue to my on going problems.”

Aleena broke into a grin. “That’s fantastic news!”

“Not exactly,” said the Doctor. “His name - well, the name he’s given himself - is Matthew Cole. He’s a Watcher.”

Aleena frowned, not fully understanding.

“Sometime’s when a Time Lord regenerates, he needs a little push. The Watcher is an echo of my future self. When my regeneration failed, the Watcher was trapped in Manchester and he grew into a fully-formed humanoid.”

“Ah,” said Aleena, leaning to the left slightly so the Doctor could get to the cut a little better. “So where is he now?”

“In suspended animation inside the TARDIS. I can’t risk him being out and about.”

“And you want me to help to put you two back together again?”

“Hopefully,” said the Doctor, with hopeful eyes.

“We can certainly try,” said Aleena, as the Doctor finished stitching her up, “but our first problem is the Sontarans.”

“Hey,” called Danny from the window, “anyone know where Caroline’s gone?”




Caroline was sat beside the shield generator at the very top of the lighthouse. She had wandered up there absent mindedly and was now sat with an old notebook and a pencil. She tapped the pencil on the first page of the book and considered what to write.

William had given the notebook to her as a birthday present, but she hadn’t used it for anything. That was until now. She knew that William would never get the notepad back, but she thought that maybe writing to him would help her in her grieving process.

She pressed the pencil onto the page and began to write.




Dear Will,




It feels like a long time since we saw each other, but I know that it was only days ago. We’re in a different time now. On a moon in space as well. I don’t even know what year it is, but I know it’s a long way from the smoky factories of Thornsby. From my home.




She paused for a moment, thinking back to the old, brickwork buildings of her hometown, but instead of the familiar buildings from 2012, she saw the buildings she had grown accustomed to in 1901 and 1902. Such fantastic, innovative sites.




There’s not a day that goes by when I don’t think about you. I wonder what you’re doing now. That sounds stupid - she laughed to herself - as I’m far beyond our time. You’ll be long gone.

I’m sat on the top of a space lighthouse. Can you believe it? A lighthouse in space. And it looks exactly like the kind back home as well.

Well, I suppose I better go back to Danny and the Doctor. I’m trying to make the most of things. I want to try and enjoy this life, but it’s so hard. I miss you so much.




All my love,

Caroline




Caroline closed the small notebook and slipped it into her jacket pocket as she heard footsteps coming up the steps. They were light and definitely not a man’s. And then the blue-skinned Aleena appeared in the shield generator room. She smiled at Caroline and sat down next to her.

“You alright?” asked Aleena.

“Did the boys send you?” asked Caroline.

Aleena nodded. “They did. They thought chatting with me might make you feel better. You know what men are like.”

Caroline smiled. “Yes, I know exactly what they’re like.”

Aleena smiled and looked at her. “You’re sad.”

“I know I’m sad,” said Caroline bluntly. “And I don’t know what to do to make myself feel happy again.”

Aleena looked up at the ceiling and thought about things. “You know, I used to get sad when I first left my home world.”

“Why?”

“Because I missed friends and family.”

“No,” said Caroline, “I meant why did you leave your home world?”

“Oh,” said Aleena, looking down with a distant smile on her face. “The usual. Disagreements in beliefs. Arguments with family members. Death.”

“Death?”

“Yeah,” said Aleena. “I don’t quite agree with death.”

Caroline was becoming more and more confused. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t like what happens after you die.”

Caroline laughed. “How can you know?”

Aleena looked at her and frowned. “Sometimes I forget what it’s like for other races. The Xanji - that’s my people - claim to know exactly what happens in the afterlife.”

“Seriously?” said Caroline, amazed at this revelation.

“Seriously,” confirmed Aleena. “Our afterlife is an actual confirmed reality with a God and a Non-God.”

“Non-God?”

“Your equivalent of the Devil. Satan. It’s all real and confirmed. Ireel the God and Deela the Devil.”

“Then why did you leave? It must be great knowing that you’re going to be alright when you die.”

“Nah,” said Aleena, brushing her hair from out of her face. “Where’s the mystery? I live life for the here and now. So I left. If you die off-world…well, no one quite knows what happens to you. And I find it a little hard to believe as well. I need more proof than what the council tell us is truth.”

“What do you do on your planet?”

“I was a doctor.”

Suddenly the entire lighthouse shook violently.

“What was that?” asked Caroline, jumping up.

Aleena sighed. “I reckon our short friends have decided that an hour was too long to wait.”

“Let’s go,” said Caroline, making a run for the stairs.

Aleena stopped her. “Just do me one favour, Caroline. Stay with him. Stay with the Doctor. I know you’re going through some tough times now, but what you have…the opportunity…it’s the best time of your life. Enjoy it.”

Caroline looked at her and nodded and then the two woman rushed back down the stairs.




In the radio room the Doctor and Danny where hunched over the console, the Doctor furiously flicking switches and checking readouts.

“What’s going on?” asked Aleena as she and Caroline bounded into the room.

“They’re firing some sort of specially designed missile.”

“Specially designed to do what?” asked a panicked Aleena.

“Well…blow the shields up.”

“What?” exclaimed Caroline. “What’s the point in having shields if someone can break through?”

“It depends on what weapons the enemy has,” said Aleena, apologetically.

“And the Sontarans are one of the biggest war races in the galaxy,” said the Doctor. “It may take them a while, but they’ll break through eventually. All you have to do is hit the shields and in the right spot and - pfftt - they’re gone!”

The lighthouse shook again.

“What do we do?” asked Danny.

“If the Sontarans break through, they’ll not bother taking us prisoner. They’ll let us fight them and then kill us.”

“Does the lighthouse have any defences?” asked Caroline.

“None at all,” said Aleena. “I’ve never had anyone show this much interest in it before.”

“Not until they found out what sort of equipment you have here,” said the Doctor.

“We need help,” said Caroline.

“We could call on Eyeglass,” suggested Danny. “I know they’re about as popular as Man Utd at the minute, but we might be able to come to some kind of agreement.”

“No,” said the Doctor, “we’ll deal with this ourselves. I’m not going for the ‘better the devil you know’ approach this time.”

“Doctor, we’re forgetting something,” said Aleena, urgently, “the Eyeglass ships are going to be here soon anyway. They got the coordinates remember?”

The Doctor put a hand to his forehead and closed his eyes. Two opposing factions. Both of them fighting for the same thing and impossible odds at stopping one of them, let alone two of them.

“Doctor,” came Caroline’s voice again. “What do we do?”

The lighthouse shook again and the Doctor composed himself in front of his friends. “We need to abandon this place.”

“No,” said Aleena, flatly. “Not a chance. No way. This is my home.”

“Then we need to destroy the equipment. The technology is too dangerous. Whilst I doubt the General and Eyeglass would use it to fight wars, the Sontarans are a different matter.”

“No,” said Aleena. “I can’t let you do that.”

The Doctor frowned and crossed over to her. “Why not?”

She flustered. “I can’t not watch you anymore.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I told you before. I love watching you on your adventures.”

The Doctor thought for a moment and then guided her away from Danny and Caroline. He put an arm around her and spoke softly. “Aleena, as much as I’m glad that ‘my adventures’ make you happy, it is still my life you’re spying on.”

“Not spying.”

“Maybe not with bad intentions, but it’s still spying.”

She looked deflated.

“Why don’t you come with us once this is all over? There’s room for you in the TARDIS as well. You can bring your medical equipment and we can work on the situation with Matthew from my own TARDIS.”

“I can’t do that,” she said, shaking her head.

“Why ever not? What’s keeping you isolated on your own?”

Aleena flustered again.

“Doctor,” came Caroline’s voice, “I couldn’t help but overhear.” She crossed over to the two of them whilst Danny listened on. “You’re scared, aren’t you?”

Aleena was trying to hold back her tears and nodded.

“Of what?” asked the Doctor.

“Of dying. You said that if you die off world then you don’t know what happens to you.”

“But you’re off world now,” said the Doctor.

“But I’m safe here. If I came travelling in the TARDIS I’d be in danger.”

“None of this makes sense. You left your planet because you didn’t like the idea that everyone knew what happened to themselves when they died, yes? That’s what you told me last time I was here.”

“That’s not exactly true,” said Aleena quietly. “I left because my people are too eager to die. When you get old they just allow you to die. If you have a disease they don’t try and fight it. They just let you die. All because they know that it’s going to be alright when you die. Imagine how that feels to me? A doctor! Unable to treat the sick and the dying.”

“And when you finally die…?”

“I want to die of old age. And I’ve got a direct link to send me back home so I’ll be fine. But I want to enjoy the life I have first before thinking of what I’m going to do when it’s all over. And I don’t even know if I believe it anyway.”

The lighthouse shook again and a crack appeared in the ceiling of the radio room.

“We still can’t let you keep that equipment. It’s far too dangerous.”

Then there came another, huge explosion and the entire sky lit up. The four of them rushed over to the window and looked out. Flashing across the sky were lines of electricity. Then there came another flash and the buzzing sound coming from the shield generator room stopped.

“So much for the shields,” said the Doctor, realising they had just been knocked out.

The communications console beeped again.

“This is Stoxx,” came the voice of the Sontaran. “Your shields are down. Prepare to be destroyed.”

“Can’t we get the shields up again?” asked Danny as the Doctor began checking readings.

The Doctor ran up the spiral staircase to the top of the lighthouse and checked the generator. It was blackened and charred and smoke billowed out of it. The Doctor frowned and made his way back downstairs.

“Well?” asked Danny.

“It’s fried. The blast-back from the shields must have blown it. We need to disable that technology now,” said the Doctor, looking directly at Aleena.




On board the command deck of the Haven, June Caster surveyed the scene on the holographic table. It showed the nebula, Equinox and the Sontaran spheres orbiting the planet.

“We’re coming into range,” said Otto, pointing at the planet.

“They’re Sontaran ships, aren’t they?” asked Redcar.

“Indeed they are,” said June. “It looks like they’re after the same thing that we are.” She turned to face all of her officers. “Patch me through on ship-wide communication.”

Peppers flicked a switch and June pulled a futuristic looking microphone down from a console suspended from the ceiling.

“This is Captain Caster. Ahead of us are a number of enemy ships. They are Sontarans. We all know from our training that Sontarans can be brutal. We take no prisoners. We blow those creatures out of the sky and then we go down to the planet and take the technology. The Sontarans have already taken down the shields so they’ve done part of the hard work for us. Now we have to complete this mission. For the good of the Human race!”

“For the good of the Human race!” repeated everyone on the command deck in unison.

Paragrim entered the command deck, a look of anger on his face. He stomped over to June and grabbed her arm, pulling her around.

Redcar went for his gun, but June motioned for him to back down.

“What can I do for you?” asked June calmly.

“I want my prisoners,” he said bluntly.

“They’ve gone. Your shuttle is in the hangar. Thank you for your work. You may leave.”

“I’m not going anywhere until I’ve finished my job.”

“Didn’t you hear the woman?” asked Otto. “She said you can leave. Be thankful we’re letting you go.”

Paragrim snarled and saliva dripped from his jagged teeth. “Nobody commands me.”

June looked at him with disdain. “We never should have dealt with you in the first place. Filthy piece of scum!”

Paragrim raised his fist and was about to hit the woman when the entire ship shook and lurched forward.

Jameson turned from her post beside the engineering station, her eyes full of worry.

“We’ve been hit.”

“By what?” asked June, getting to her feet and scrambling over to the dark-haired girl.

“By the Sontarans.”

“The cheeky, little freaks,” said June. “They’ve taken the first shot.”

“What do we do?” asked Redcar, getting up and checking out the image on the holographic table which now showed the Sontarans moving into attack formation, surrounding the Haven.

“Prepare for attack. Leave no survivors.”

The Lighthouse: Chapter 3 (Dressing Up)

The Doctor had left Caroline and Danny with a few more instructions before he had left for the TARDIS.

He entered the blue police box and immediately the console room grew brighter as if in response to him entering the time machine. He slung his coat over the back of the sofa next to the console and unfastened his tie.

He glanced momentarily at the glass tube around the central column. The cracks it had sustained a year ago were starting to repair themselves. It had taken a long time, but the ship was finally starting to heal.

He pulled out a big, old wooden chest from underneath the sofa and rummaged around in it until he found some sort of futuristic, military uniform. It was a one piece jumpsuit and was dark blue. He quickly changed into it and then crossed over to the full length mirror in the corner of the room. He examined himself in the mirror. He looked pretty plain and ordinary and needed something to spruce it up.

He rummaged around in the chest a little more until he found a number of medals and pins which he affixed to the uniform. He looked in the mirror again. Much more important, he thought to himself.

He then checked his psychic paper and then placed it in the breast pocket of the jumpsuit.

Having one final glance in the mirror he made his way into the depths of his ship and towards the escape pod room.




It had taken a little bit of work, but he had managed to alter the outer dimensions of the escape pod to resemble that of a small scout ship. He materialised it outside of the nebula and headed towards the lead starship - the Haven.

On the small, micro version of a console he activated a communications panel and spoke into a small, 1950’s-style radio microphone.

“This is shuttle craft Phoenix calling starship Haven,” he lied.

There was no response.

“Useless, primitive thing,” he grumbled. “This is shuttle craft Phoenix calling starship Haven. Come in please. Come on. Chop-chop.”

A few more seconds and then…the speaker crackled with communication static and a voice came over the comm.

“This is starship Haven. Please transmit your security codes.”

The Doctor frowned. He didn’t know any codes and he was beginning to regret doing this without any planning. He decided to improvise. “Security code: ZX128K-C64”

There was a pause.

“There are no codes of that kind,” came the man’s voice.

“NES?”

“Again, no codes.”

“I beg your pardon!” said the Doctor, trying to sound like the man’s superior.

“There are no codes that match the one’s you’ve given me.”

“Well of course there aren’t!” snapped the Doctor.

“Then why are you using them?”

“They’re new codes. Your database hasn’t been updated yet.”

Another pause.

“We received no information about a code database update.”

“That’s because you’re so far out from the rest of your command centre that the information hasn’t reached you yet.”

“We’re in constant communication.”

“Look, just bring me on board and I‘ll explain. I need to see your prisoner.”

“Who are you?”

“Commodore John Smith,” he said, crossing his fingers. He may not be able to keep this lie going, but if he could just get on board the Haven he’d be able to find another way to get to Aleena.

He waited for what seemed like a very long time, until finally…

“Please standby. Power down any weapons. We’re bringing you aboard.”

“I don’t have any weapons,” said the Doctor.

There was a clanking sound and the Doctor realised that they had locked a tractor beam on the escape pod and were bringing him in.

After a while the clanking stopped and he felt the ship come to a rest.

“Please exit your shuttle,” came the same voice over the speaker.

The Doctor took a deep breath and straightened himself up. He checked he had his psychic paper again and strode towards the doors.




Outside Redcar stood, hand on the blaster that was holstered to a belt, ready to whip it out at the first sign of trouble. He was flanked by two guards.

The Doctor stepped outside the shuttle and turned to face the officers.

“Lieutenant Commander Nathan Redcar,” he said.

“Good to meet you,” said the Doctor.

“Commodore Smith?”

“That’s right.” said the Doctor, looking around what appeared to be a large hangar bay.

“We weren’t informed of your arrival,” said Redcar. “Forgive me, sir,” - he added “sir” almost as if it was an insult to say it - “but your codes weren’t recognised. We have no order to update our systems, and for all we know you could be a spy.”

“A spy for who?” asked the Doctor, crossing over to Redcar and staring right into his eyes. Redcar was a little smaller than him, so it already made the Doctor feel above the man.

“A spy for the campaigners. Those groups that want to close down the Eyeglass.”

The Doctor laughed. “Don’t be absurd. Here’s my I.D.,” he said, flashing him the psychic paper.

“You’re part of the council?” asked Redcar, straightening up and not giving a second thought to the I.D.

“I am indeed,” said the Doctor, moving away from Redcar, pretending to look around the hanger as if scrutinizing every bit of detail.

“We weren’t informed of your arrival,” said Redcar again, nervously.

“You’ve said that already, Mr Redcar,” said the Doctor. “I’m here to inspect the prisoners well-being. I want to see her.”

“I’d have to speak to my commanding officer-”

“I want to see the prisoner now!” snapped the Doctor, putting on a pair of John Lennon-style glasses and looking down at the young officer.

“Of course, sir,” said Redcar quickly. “Follow me.”




Ten minutes later the Doctor was escorted to the room that Aleena was being kept in. She was asleep, slumped forward in the chair, her hands still tied behind the back of the metal frame. Paragrim was sat on a stool, drinking some kind of thick, green liquid and he grunted as the Doctor stepped in.

“What is this?” asked Paragrim, angry that someone had stepped into his playground.

“This is Commodore John Smith. He’s from the council. Here to check on the state of our prisoner,” said Redcar, nodding towards the prone form of Aleena.

“And I see she has been hurt,” said the Doctor, rushing over to her and carefully looking for the source of where the trickles of blood were coming from.

“All within regulations,” said Redcar.

“Regulations!?” boomed the Doctor, causing Redcar to step back.

Paragrim stood his ground.

“She’s an alien,” said Redcar quickly.

“Get out of my site,” said the Doctor. “Both of you!”

“But, sir-”

“I said get out!” thundered the Doctor.

Redcar quickly turned and hurried out of the door followed by a reluctant Paragrim, who looked the Doctor up and down before he left.

The Doctor waited for a few seconds and then pulled out his sonic screwdriver from inside the jumpsuit. He aimed it at the camera in the corner of the room, silencing it’s microphones. He was hoping that nobody would notice.

“Aleena?” he said softly. “Aleena, wake up. We only have a small window for escape.”

The blue-skinned woman stirred slightly on hearing the Doctor’s voice.

“Aleena, it’s the Doctor.”

Aleena looked up, her eyes were bloodshot and she frowned, trying to focus on the Doctor.

“What have they done to you?” he said, gently brushing the matted hair from her face.

“Doctor…” she managed weakly.

“Yes,” he smiled. “Yes, it’s me. I’ve come to get you out of here.”

“What…?”

“We’ve taken control of the lighthouse,” he said. “My friends are back there now. We’re going to get you home, don’t worry.”

Aleena looked up a little more and smiled weakly at him. “Doctor…”

“As soon as we get you back to Equinox we’ll get you cleaned up and see to those wounds. Then we’ll find a way to put a stop to the Eyeglass.”

“My Lord of Time,” she smiled. “I’ve missed watching you.”

The Doctor chuckled and used his sonic screwdriver to unfasten the bindings around Aleena’s wrists. She tried to get up but slumped to the floor.

“I’ve got you,” said the Doctor, helping her to her feet and putting an arm around her. “We’ve just got to get to the hangar and then we’ll be home and dry. I’ve got a TARDIS escape pod down there.”

They were about to make a move when the door swished open. Standing there was a middle-aged woman that he recognised, looking pretty severe and staring at the two of them with utter contempt. Either side of her was Redcar and the huge Paragrim.

“Doctor,” said June Caster. “How nice to see you again.”

“Ah,” said the Doctor. “Manchester airport, yes?” he remembered.

“Execute him,” said June.

But before they could do anything the Doctor’s hand went to the sonic screwdriver nestled away in his inner pocket.




Back at the lighthouse, Danny and Caroline were becoming impatient. Caroline was swirling her finger around a luke-warm glass of water and Danny was tapping his fingers on the metal table.

“Someone should really clear that cereal bowl up,” said Caroline, absent-mindedly, looking down at the upturned bowl on the floor.

“Yeah,” said Danny, not really listening to her. “This is stupid. He’s been gone ages.”

“Not that long,” said Caroline.

Danny checked his watch.

“Stop looking at that thing,” said Caroline. “It’ll make the time go slower.”

“And what if something attacks this place again?” said Danny.

“Then we…I don’t know,” said Caroline, unsure of what they would do.

Danny sighed. He considered tapping in on the power of the Apparite that was trapped inside him, but he didn’t fully understand it himself, so he certainly wasn’t going to unleash it without at least having a few instructions to follow.

“Tell me more about her?” asked Caroline.

“Who?” asked Danny.

“Lisa…you know, my un-descendent.”

“She was…wonderful,” said Danny, smiling at a memory.

“Did you meet her parents?” asked Caroline.

Danny considered for a moment. He never had met her parents. “No,” he said. “She had a falling out with them around Christmas. She never made up with them.”

Caroline sighed.

Danny crossed over to his her and put a hand on her shoulder. “What are you thinking about?”

“About him,” said Caroline, trying to fight back the tears again. “About Will. About what we would be doing now.”

“Maybe there’s a chance-”

“There’s no chance,” said Caroline. “The Doctor can’t take me back there. I might blow a hole in the universe or something.”

Danny felt like he should say something more, but he couldn’t think anything could ever make Caroline feel better again. Instead he tried a different tact.

“Hey, do you remember that old swing in the back of the old caretakers house at school?”

“Of course I do,” smiled Caroline. “The one you broke!”

“I didn’t break it!” exclaimed Danny. “It just decided that I wasn’t designed for it.”

“It was a child’s swing,” laughed Caroline.

“You were alright on it.”

“Probably because I was just a girl. You were a big, stupid gangly lad.”

“Exactly,” said Danny, in mock annoyance, “I was not designed for it.”

Caroline laughed and thwacked him on his shoulder.

He turned to her and smiled. “It’s nice to see you smile again.”

Caroline’s face soon changed once she realised what Danny was trying to do.

“What?” said Danny.

“I forgot about him. Just for a moment.”

“That’s good, isn’t it?” asked Danny.

“I don’t want to forget,” she said sadly.

“But you can be happy again. You’ve just proved that.”

Caroline was about to argue her point when there came a beeping from the console in the radio room. The two of them got to their feet and raced to the room. A flashing red light was blinking beside the control desk.

“What was it the Doctor said?” asked Danny.

Caroline stared at the flashing light. “If it beeps, go to the TARDIS and pull the dematerialisation lever.”

Before the Doctor had left he had gone back to the TARDIS and set up an emergency plan, only to be used if the Doctor was in imminent danger or had been captured. Should that happen, he would remotely signal with his sonic screwdriver. The warning light would come on and Caroline and Danny would return to the TARDIS, pull the dematerialisation lever and follow the pre-determined flight plan to the main starship.

The Doctor told them that he would only use it in extreme circumstances as they couldn’t risk the TARDIS being captured.

So this must have been an extreme circumstance, thought Caroline.

They both grabbed their jackets and quickly made their way out of the lighthouse and towards the police box.

Caroline fumbled the key as she tried to open the box as quickly as she could. When they finally entered the lights grew steadily brighter. The two of them got to the console and Caroline pulled the lever.

A few seconds later the room was filled with the sound of the great, grating TARDIS engines.

And Caroline and Danny waited.




In the room where Aleena had been held hostage, Paragrim stood with his huge blaster pointed at the Doctor.

June Caster circled her two prisoners, nodding at the fact that she’d finally captured the famous Doctor.

“I really do wish you’d let us go,” said the Doctor.

“Do you now?” said June, a slight chuckle in her voice. “And why would we do that?”

“Because we mean you know harm.”

June stood right in front of the Doctor and tried to make herself look bigger, looking him right into his icy-grey eyes.

“You are an enemy of Eyeglass. You always have been. Ever since the Torchwood days.”

“That’s no reason to hold my friend here prisoner,” he said, indicating the very weak and wobbly Aleena who was standing next to him, swaying slightly.

“She’s in possession of technology that we want. Technology that could benefit the Human race.”

“It’s dangerous technology,” said the Doctor. “It’s time travel.”

“I know,” said June. “And the General wants it.”

“Yes,” said the Doctor, “who is this General and why should he be bothered about time travel? Surely he’s not stupid enough to use it.”

“Not to change anything in the past,” said June. “He wants it to go backwards and forwards and learn. Learn how to make us better.”

“Typical. That technology needs to be destroyed,” said the Doctor. He turned to Aleena who was looking at him. “I should have destroyed it when I was on Equinox last time.”

“Well unfortunately for you that tech is now the property of Eyeglass.”

“You need to get to it first, and if I remember correctly, you don’t know the correct path to steer through the nebula.”

Paragrim chuckled next to them.

“Sorry, what’s the joke?”

“We already have the information,” said June, with a smirk on her face. “During the last round of interrogating on your blue friend, we extracted the coordinates. We’re just prepping the ships now.”

Aleena looked horrified. “I didn’t know. I couldn’t remember.”

“You still won’t get through the shields I’ve put up.”

“We’ll find a way,” said June, extremely confident in her words. “Shoot them.”

Paragrim aimed the weapon and was about to fire when the air was filled with the sound of wheezing and groaning, and right before their eyes the brilliant blue of the old, battered box of the TARDIS appeared.

June, Paragrim, Redcar and the two guards were momentarily distracted as the Doctor grabbed Aleena, dragging her towards the TARDIS door.

“Stop them!” yelled June as the door shut and the TARDIS faded away.

“Where did they go?” growled Paragrim.

“Back to Equinox,” said June. She turned to Redcar. “Get down to the flight deck. Tell them to make final preparations. We must take control of that lighthouse!”




On board the TARDIS, the Doctor was attending to Aleena’s wounds. He had pressed a recall button and the escape pod had been transported back inside the TARDIS.

“Are we heading back to the lighthouse?” asked Caroline.

“Yes,” said the Doctor. “And I’m afraid we’re going to have a few visitors.”

“You mean Eyeglass are taking their ships in?”

“Not just them,” said the Doctor, trying to hide the worry in his voice and failing miserably.

“What do you mean?” asked Danny, crossing over to the Doctor and Caroline.

“Look,” said the Doctor, pointing to the scanner screen.

“What are they?” asked Caroline.

On the scanner they could see the cloudy-red colour of the nebula. Then there was the small, red planetoid of Equinox. And surrounding the planet were around half a dozen small, metal spheres, almost like giant golf-balls.

“Doctor,” said Caroline again, “what are they?”

“Sontarans,” he replied grimly.

The Lighthouse: Chapter 2 (Up Above the World)

Back in the Lighthouse the Doctor had made his way up the spiral staircase to the circular, top of the building. In a normal, Earthen lighthouse this area would have housed the light. Instead it housed a transparent, glowing cylinder which looked like it should be turning. The Doctor had removed a panel underneath the cylinder and was scrabbling around half in/half out, wires draped across him. This was the shield generator room and, when working, would generate enough power to put up a pretty strong shield around the entire moon.

But the shield generator wasn’t working, and this was what the Doctor had to get to the bottom of. Obviously a ship had come through and Aleena had been taken before she could get the generators back up and running. So whoever had taken her was probably a scouting party. The rest of the them were surely going to be appearing soon.

He sighed and scrambled out from under the console, coughing and brushing dust from his jacket. This place hadn’t been cleaned for ages. Aleena had been so obsessed with watching him on her time monitors that she had neglected to keep up with the housework.

He got to his feet and stood with his hands on his hips, looking down at the equipment. He had to get this thing working. There was no way he could let anybody get a hold of this sort of technology.

He turned and looked out of the curved window. The last time he had been here Aleena had shown him the other moon - Titaniux - rise in the east sky. The red sky had darkened and the pale moon had risen and bathed the entire room in a white light. That seemed like such a long time ago now.

He felt a twinge of pain in his left heart and put a hand to his chest.

Composing himself, he walked around the inside of the window and looked down at his TARDIS in the distance. Down there, in cryogenic stasis, was Matthew Cole - a future echo of himself. He had come to Equinox in the vain hope that Aleena might be able to piece the two of them together. He knew that if she succeeded then he’d finally regenerate, but he was living on borrowed time now.

He shook his head, annoyed at the situation he found himself in with this ancient body of his, and returned to the console underneath the cylinder.




Caroline and Danny had scrambled down the rocky crater and had finally reached the side of the ship. It was quite big and looked as though it could carry a sizeable crew.

“What do we do?” asked Caroline. “Knock?”

Danny edged around a crop of bushes and walked over to the ship. He put his hand on the cold, grey metal. “The whole thing looks dead.”

“There must me a door somewhere,” said Caroline, her eyes frantically searching around for an entrance.

“Let’s try round here,” said Danny.

They made their way along the outside of the hull until the reached a slight alcove set into the side of the ship.

“This is it,” continued Danny.

“Wait!” said Caroline, putting a hand on her friends shoulder.

“What is it?” asked Danny, following his gaze to…

Emblazoned across the door in the alcove was a large, green outline of an eyeball, partly scorched when the ship had presumably entered the atmosphere.

“You are kidding me?” asked Danny, to himself more than anything.

“It’s Eyeglass isn’t it?”

Danny nodded. “It’s gotta be. What was their motto? For the good of the Human race or something?”

Caroline nodded, remembering their encounter with the Eyeglass agent Magnus Blackmore back on Trixatin and then later at Manchester Airport. “Something along those lines, yeah. So they came to Equinox to grab the time equipment. Bloody typical, isn’t it? Wherever we go they tend to pop up.”

“So where are they now?” asked Danny. “This place look’s deserted.”

“We need to go in and check,” said Caroline, grabbing a small, iron lever fixed to the door and turning it. There was a loud clunk and the door was released from it’s locking position. It swung open causing Danny and Caroline to step back.

“After you?” offered Caroline.

“I was afraid you’d say that,” said Danny, stepping into the dark spaceship’s interior.

Once inside what they found didn’t exactly urge them to continue on their quest. All around dead human beings in black combat suits lay strewn across the floor. One had even gotten himself trapped halfway in and halfway out of a doorway. Another had gone head first into a flickering console.

“This is grim,” said Caroline, stepping over a young, dead girl who couldn’t have been much older than eighteen.

“What do you reckon happened?” asked Danny.

“Well they obviously crashed,” said Caroline.

“But there are no survivors? Where’s Aleena and the ones who took her?”

“Maybe they’re still around here somewhere.”

“Or maybe they’re out there somewhere,” said Danny, jabbing a finger towards the exit.

“Well wherever they are, we need to find them,” said Caroline.




Not too far away just outside of the nebula, four, huge starships were waiting. Waiting for new orders. They each had huge front sections, elliptical in design, and the rears of them narrowed into more of a tube-like shape. Each of the front sections had two long, hyper-engines stretching from the front to the rear. On the front sections of each of the ships was a green Eyeglass logo.

In the largest of the ships - named the Haven - various people were milling around the control centre of the ship. They were in a round, circular room with it’s walls adorned with hi-tech computer consoles. In the centre of the room there was a large, console-like table showing various holographic images of this sector of space. Four people were gathered around the console, dressed in black combat suits, each with a green eye attached to the left breast pockets.

One of them was a man who looked to be in his late 40’s. He had brown, swept back hair, but it was greying. His face was long, serious and it looked like he hadn’t cracked a smile in years. This was Henry Otto.

The second person was a young, dark-haired woman in her twenties. She had twinkling green eyes, and seemed to blink a lot. Her name was Elizabeth Jameson.

The third person was a dark-skinned man, in his 30’s with a kindly face. He was tall and muscular. His name was Nathan Redcar.

The fourth and final person around the console was a woman in her mid-40’s. She was plump and had her hair tied into a bun, giving a severe look to her. This was Corporal June Caster - recently promoted right up to captain after she had completed a successful machine back in time at Manchester Airport.

“So we lost the Dagger,” said Otto, pointing towards the holographic image of Equinox, suspended in the nebula. “One of our best ships and we lose it.”

“But we managed to transmat Gates and Peppers out with the prisoner at least,” said a hopeful sounding Jameson.

“Liz,” said June, “we only just got them back.”

“So it’s not advisable to transmat again,” said Redcar with a slight disappointed twinge in his voice.

“No,” said June. “Not at all. The nebula is that washed with interference and distortions that we may lose the pattern of anyone who transports again.”

“Then we have to take the ships in again,” said Otto. “We’re going to have to risk it.”

June sighed. “The whole reason for the lighthouse is so that passing ships can be warned that there is a dangerous nebula ahead. If the ship has to travel through it then the lighthouse can guide it through the safest part. But the lighthouses guiding system hasn’t worked in years,” said June, pulling up a holographic, 3D image of the lighthouse, which rotated in the centre of the console. “If the guidance system had been working then we would have been able to guide the Dagger down safely and take control of the facility. Instead we ended up crashing. We were lucky we had survivors who were able to grab the lighthouse resident and transmat her back here.”

“I don’t understand why they didn’t try and fix the guidance system,” growled Otto.

“We’ve been through this,” snapped June. “the guidance system was destroyed beyond repair.”

“Then what do we do?” asked Jameson, leaning closer to the holographic image and making the image flicker with her finger.

“The prisoner will know the safest path,” said June.

“She’s not giving us anything,” said Redcar. “Paragrim’s with her now.”

“Then he’s got to try harder,” said June. “She’s not human. She’s just an alien. This is for the good of the human race.”

“For the good of the human race,” repeated the other three in unison.




Somewhere in the rear of the ship was a cold and dark, metal room. It was small and had just one, small exit. Tied to a metal chair in the centre of the room was the blue-skinned Aleena. Her blonde hair was tied back behind her head and she had a cut to her lip. Her khaki-green top was covered in green blood and she looked physically and mentally exhausted. Attached to her temples were two needles, embedded within her skin leading to wires which snaked along the floor and to a portable, computer unit set up against the wall.

The door opened and a huge, seven-foot man stepped in. Except he wasn’t a normal looking man. He wasn’t even human. He wore dark blue armour. The armour didn’t cover his entire body, however, and left parts of him - such as sections of his arms and legs - exposed. The white skin underneath rippled with muscles. Strapped to a belt around his middle were various items and weaponry - a blaster, a dagger, a sword - and his fingers slowly opened and closed in his brown-leather gloves.

It was his face which was the most terrifying. He wore a dark, blue hood, but underneath was a bald-white head, almost skull-like, with the flesh stretched over the bones. Parts of his face were augmented with cybernetic technology. His eyes were like small, pinpricks of yellow light. He had no nose, but his mouth was wide and full of fangs.

He stepped into the room and crossed over to Aleena, bending over slightly and looking at her curiously.

“Good morning,” said Aleena, tiredly.

“Feeling ready to talk yet?” asked Paragrim in a low, growling voice.

“I’ll talk about most things,” said Aleena, “but I like to do it over breakfast.”

“No breakfast for you,” said Paragrim sadly.

“Bugger,” said Aleena, with a sigh.

“If we gave you breakfast would you tell us the safest way to the lighthouse?”

Aleena smiled and then shook her head. “Nah.”

Paragrim growled and grabbed her throat, his hand large enough to clamp around her entire neck. “Do not test us.”

He released Aleena and she coughed and spluttered.

“We will break you.”

“You’ll have to kill me first,” said Aleena, hoping against all hopes that it wouldn’t come to that.

“That’s….not on the agenda,” said Paragrim. “I can torture you to within an inch of your life, but I’ll make sure you don’t die.”

“Gonna be a bit of a boring day for you then,” said Aleena. “I’m not telling you anything. Another long, hard days torture and nothing to show at the end of it.”

Paragrim laughed. “At least I’ll get some kind of enjoyment from it.” He leaned in closer to Aleena again. “It’s not such a hard job for me.”

Aleena looked genuinely concerned and tried to wrestle her hands free from being tied behind her back, but it was no use. That was steel-lined rope and she wasn’t going to be escaping any time soon.

She considered for a moment giving him the information, but that was something she could never do. The Eyeglass had a bad reputation. They were a private company fleet from Earth operating off their own back. They considered anything alien to be beneath them and would hunt the cosmos for technology to use for what they considered was the better of the human race. Most human’s from Earth were fine with aliens and other planets, but Eyeglass just wanted everything for themselves. The Earth’s government had always opposed them, but she found it strangely odd that they hadn’t done anything to stop them, and she had a nagging feeling that, although the Eyeglass were operating on their own, as an independent force, that secretly the Earth government were quite happy to let them go about their business.

They also had spies. They were known to have one of the biggest and best networks of undercover ops in the entire galaxy. And that frightened Aleena. They seemed to be more rooted in other cultures and species than anyone really realised.

A thought occurred to Aleena.

“If Eyeglass hate other species so much, what are you doing here?”

Paragrim laughed. “Eyeglass do things which better humanity,” he said, with a little disdain in his voice.

“But you’re a private hire. A bounty hunter.”

“So they hired me out to better their cause,” he said, moving over to the console.

“And you’re not concerned about what they’ll do to you when they no longer need you?”

Paragrim turned to her and smiled, his white teeth glistening with saliva. “Look at me, miss,” he said. “If they even attempt to stop me, I’ll wipe out their entire, pathetic fleet.”

“Ah, it’s good to know,” said Aleena.

“Now,” said Paragrim, “more torture, yes?”

He pulled a lever and electricity coursed through the machine and into Aleena’s temples. She screamed, and those screams echoed around the Haven for the next few hours.




Caroline and Danny had made their way back to the lighthouse and were just coming up to the main door when their was a buzzing sound. The two of them looked up and the top of the lighthouse was glowing green. And then the air fizzed and crackled and the buzzing stopped, although the green light remained on.

“Come on,” said Danny as they both rushed into the building.

They were just heading up the spiral staircase when they met the Doctor on his way down, his hands covered in oil and his blue shirt mucky with dirt.

“What was that?” asked Caroline. “There was some kind of buzzing sound outside.”

“I got the shields up,” beamed the Doctor. “Took a little bit of tinkering, but it worked!”

“Fantastic!” said Caroline. And then she thought. “Now what do we do?”

“Cup of coffee,” said the Doctor, skipping past them on the stairs on his way down.

He made his way into the kitchen, filled the kettle with water and switched it on.

“Cups,” he said, clicking his fingers.

Danny quickly searched the cupboards and found two mugs and a glass.

“The glass’ll do,” he said, popping some coffee granules in each of them.

The kettle clicked and the Doctor poured them all a coffee, adding milk and sugar to each.

“Right,” said Caroline, “now all that’s done. What next?”

The Doctor sat down at the table and interlocked his fingers, resting his chin on his hands. “What did you two find at the crash site?”

Caroline and Danny had almost forgotten.

“It’s a ship called the Dagger,” said Danny. “And it belongs to Eyeglass.”

The Doctor closed his eyes and sighed. He took a sip of his coffee and then leaned back in his chair. “I might have known they’d have been involved in this in some way.”

“You think they’ve come for the time technology?” asked Caroline.

“Definitely. But more for the surveillance. We know that Eyeglass aren’t too interested in time travel.”

“Then why not just take it? Why take Aleena?”

“My guess,” said the Doctor, “is that they crashed, unable to guide their ships safely here. So they scrambled and took Aleena and transmitted back. Very dangerous.”

“Dangerous why?” asked Danny, drinking his drink faster than was safe.

“Slow down,” said the Doctor, “that’s piping hot.”

“Tastes cool enough to me. How is it dangerous?” asked Danny again.

“Because their patterns might not have made it back to wherever the main ship is located.”

Caroline looked a little worried. “So Aleena could be dead?”

The Doctor looked extremely concerned. “It’s very, very possible, but I did some scans when I was up in the shield generator room. There are four large, starships just parked outside the nebula. So we can live in hope.”

“Why?”

The Doctor was becoming irritable with the constant questions. “I think they’ve got Aleena and are questioning her, trying to get her to tell them the correct route through so that they can make a proper landing down here.”

“But you’ve got the shields up now?”

“Exactly,” said the Doctor, “and it won’t take long for them to detect that, and that means that Aleena’s going to be in even more danger.”

Caroline nodded. “They’ll also want her to tell them how to take down the shields.”

“Exactly.”

“Then what do we do?” asked Danny, draining his mug of coffee.

The Doctor pondered for a moment, tapping his finger on the top of the table. “I’m going to have to take the TARDIS up to the ship and find some way of rescuing Aleena.”

“You can’t take the TARDIS up there,” said Caroline. “If you get caught they’ll take her and strip her down!”

“You’re right,” said the Doctor. He considered for a moment. “But we have more escape pods.”

Caroline suddenly went a little cold. The mention of escape pods had triggered the memory of her travelling in one to 1901. She had been trying her best to forget about it and concentrate on their latest predicament, but things would naturally keep coming back to haunt her.

“Can the escape pod get through the shields?”

“Nothing stops the TARDIS ergo nothing stops an extension of the TARDIS - the escape pods.”

“And if they take the escape pod and strip it down?”

“They can’t. I can shut down the inner dimensions so it just looks like a box. And then when I have Aleena I can switch them back on and we can make our escape.”

“Sounds like a plan!” said Danny, getting up and crossing over to the sink to wash his mug.

“We best get ready then,” said Caroline.

“No. I want you two to stay here.”

“Not again!” whined Danny.

“I’m not sidelining you,” said the Doctor, “but I need someone here who I can trust to keep an eye on things. We can’t have those shields going down. You need to keep your eyes on them.”

The Doctor grabbed his coat and pulled it back on.

“Be careful, Doctor,” said Caroline.

“I will be,” he said. “And I’ve got a little cover story if it doesn’t quite work.” He made for the exit. “Wish me luck!”

The Lighthouse: Chapter 1 (Deserted)

The waves crashed against the rocky shoreline, sending foamy water into the air and splashing across the red-tinted rocks. The sky was a pale, red colour and a moon hung in the sky, casting a rippling whiteness across the red sea.

The sound of the waves were joined by the sound of a great whooshing. Slowly, out of thin air, a large, blue police box materialised. It was the TARDIS, it’s light blinking as the door opened.

The Doctor stepped out. He was dressed in his usual dark trousers, blue shirt and long, black coat. Pinned to his lapel was a yellow smiley-badge. He looked around him and nodded in approval. They had made it at last.

The second person to step from the TARDIS was Danny, dressed in a dark, grey jacket and jeans. He looked disinterested in his surroundings and instead sneered at the water that had splashed up and soaked his trainers.

The third person to emerge from the time machine was a small woman with shoulder-length, dark, brown hair. She was wearing jeans, a black jacket and a bright, red top. Caroline Fieldgate - as she was now calling herself. She looked a little lost and confused, her eyes flitting all around. Unsure of what to make of her new surroundings.

“Well,” said the Doctor, “we made it.”

“This is Equinox?” asked Danny.

“Yes. This is Equinox.”

The Doctor had told them all about Equinox. The small moon which contained the home of Aleena, the Doctor’s friend who had rescued him after his fairly recent regeneration.

“It looks a bit bleak,” said Danny, noting that the entire shoreline was surrounded by rocks and cliffs.

“She didn’t exactly choose this location,” said the Doctor. “This was were the equipment was found and she built it into an abandoned lighthouse.”

“What’s an abandoned lighthouse doing on an uninhabited moon?” asked Caroline.

“The moon resides in a particularly hazardous nebula. The lighthouse was used to warn oncoming ships of the nebula.” The Doctor knelt down and picked up a small red rock. “As time went on, however, the nebula became more well known and the lighthouse became redundant.”

“And Aleena found the time equipment and built it into the lighthouse?” asked Danny.

“Exactly,” said the Doctor, tossing the rock into the sea.

“And why are we here exactly?” asked Caroline, her hands in her pockets.

“Because we need to get Matthew to Aleena. She can examine him and maybe find some way to re-integrate him into my body.”

“And so our trip to Thornsby is on hold?” asked Danny.

“For now,” said the Doctor, putting both arms around his two companions. “It’s been a few days now, and I’m sure we’ve all seen enough of Thornsby.”

Caroline nodded sadly. She didn’t know what to think anymore. She’d lost the love of her life and what she had considered to be her home. She wasn’t really sure what she wanted these days.

Danny, meanwhile, had tried to block out his terrible experiences with Lisa in 1988. He had told Caroline all about it and she had sympathised.

She didn’t blame the Doctor for what happened, but she couldn’t help feeling a little animosity towards him after what had happened to the pair of them.

And surely travelling through space and time was supposed to be fun?

She closed her eyes and cleared her head, instead pretending to think that William was just out or had gone away to another country to fight in a war…as long as she remembered, they’d still have each other.

“Come on then,” said the Doctor, striding off over the pebbled beach and towards the cliff face.

“Aren’t we taking Matthew?” asked Caroline. “Is it wise to leave him alone in there?”

“He was alone for a whole year stuck in the TARDIS and he never even noticed it. He’ll be fine. Once we’ve found Aleena we’ll go and collect him. I don’t want to bombard the poor woman!”

Danny and Caroline followed the Doctor, but hung back a little.

They eventually reached the cliff face and the Doctor began to climb, grabbing hold of rocks and finding foot holes.

“Be very, very careful,” said the Doctor. “There are plenty of places for you to grab hold of, but if you fall…well, I don’t really need to tell you what might happen.”

“Life and soul of the party as always, eh Doctor?” said Danny, helping Caroline up.

After a good five to ten minutes of struggling up the cliff face, they arrived at the top. Red dirt covered their fingers and hands and the three of them were exhausted.

The Doctor looked out over the vast expanse before him. The strange, purple grass blew gently in the wind and on the horizon he could see a few purple-leaved trees. His gaze shifted to the right and standing about half a mile away was the red and white lighthouse.

“It looks like a lighthouse on Earth,” said Danny, shielding his eyes from the sun.

“It was built by Humans,” said the Doctor, making off in the direction of the structure.

Danny and Caroline, once again, followed, but this time Danny slowed down a little and leaned in towards Caroline.

“Are you okay?” he asked. “You haven’t said much since we got out of the TARDIS.”

“I’m fine,” said Caroline quietly. “It’s just…difficult, you know? Getting used to all of this again.”

“I know,” said Danny. “I think the Doctor’s trying his best.”

Caroline nodded, but she didn’t smile.

“Tell me about her?” she said. “Lisa. My great-great…whatever she never was.”

Danny sighed, thinking back to his time in the 1980’s. He was still struggling with everything he had gone through. His falling out with the Doctor, his falling in love with Lisa and her tragic death. It was difficult to piece together in his head anything that made any sense.

“She was…very caring. Very kind and,” Danny looked at Caroline, “she was like you in a way. Not looks, maybe, but certain mannerisms reminded me of you.”

Caroline smiled. “I wish I could have known her.”

Danny went quiet.

“I’m sorry,” said Caroline.

The three of them continued for a little while longer before they finally arrived at the large, imposing lighthouse building.

“Impressive, isn’t it?” said the Doctor.

“It’s certainly…different.”

“I’ve always liked lighthouses,” smiled the Doctor, “apart from an unfortunate incident I had at one a while back.”

“So she lives in there?” asked Caroline, walking over to the battered wooden door and touching it.

“She did the last time I was here.”

The Doctor crossed over to the door and knocked on it. There was no reply. He knocked again and this time called out Aleena’s name. Still no response.

“Perhaps she’s gone to the shops,” said Danny.

“Very funny,” said the Doctor. He looked down at the lock and it appeared to be blackened and scorched. “It looks like this door’s been hit with a high-energy weapon.” He turned the door handle and it opened, creaking eerily on it’s hinges. “Anybody in there?” he asked.

Still no response.

“Is there a light switch?” asked Caroline, stepping inside the darkened doorway and feeling around the walls.

There was a click and lights flickered on inside the main building.

“Congratulations,” said the Doctor, smiling. “Aleena? Aleena are you in here?”

“Are you sure you’ve got us to the right time?” asked Danny. “Perhaps she moved out years ago.”

“No,” said the Doctor, ushering his companions inside, “I’ve got the right date. It’s only a month since I last left. Well, to Aleena anyway. It’s been a little longer for me.”

“Well she must have packed her bags and moved on,” said Caroline.

The room they were in was large with white-washed walls. There was an old wooden-framed doorway over on the other side which led to the lighthouses tower and spiral staircase. All along the walls there were pictures of various spaceships and even one of the TARDIS against a star field. In the centre of the room was an old wooden table with a bowl of half-eaten soggy cornflakes. A chair had been knocked over and the spoon was on the floor.

“Looks like there was a struggle,” said the Doctor, grimly.

“Or maybe she just had to go somewhere in a rush,” said Danny.

“Look at these scuff marks,” said the Doctor, kneeling down and looking at some muddy boot prints on the wooden floorboards. “She’s definitely been taken. Hopefully.”

“Hopefully?” said Caroline. “Why hopefully?”

“Because I’d rather her be a prisoner than be dead. There are many races out there that would kill to get their hands on the technology inside this lighthouse.”

“So you think they might still be here?” asked Danny, looking around a little nervously.

“Undoubtedly,” said the Doctor. “We need to go and have a look around.”

The three travellers made their way through the main building and into the tower of the lighthouse. They followed the old, dusty spiral staircase up around a quarter of the way when they discovered a door slightly ajar.

“The radio room,” said the Doctor. “I remember visiting it when I was last here.”

They went inside and found a bank of dials and buttons across the room, a chair at some kind of control desk and a set of headphones which were dangling over the edge of the chair.

The Doctor went over to the chair and sat down.

“What are you doing?” asked Caroline, looking around herself nervously.

“I’m hoping that Aleena has left us a message.”

“Doctor, if she didn’t have time to finish her cornflakes, then I doubt she would have had time to record you a greetings card.”

“She did!” said the Doctor, happily. “The Doctor flicked on a switch on the desk and a computer monitor lit up. On it there were a number of lines of computer code and at the bottom, in green computerised writing, it said “PLAY MESSAGE”.

“Okay, okay,” said Caroline, “so she did leave you a message.”

The Doctor pressed the return key on the keyboard and a flickering image of the blue-skinned, blonde-haired Aleena came up on the monitor. She looked nervous and there was a deep cut on the side of her face, green blood had been seeping from it.

Danny, raised his eyebrows. “Do you always pick the good looking ones?”

“Quiet,” said the Doctor as Aleena started speaking. The audio was distorted, but they could just hear what she was saying.

“The lighthouse is under attack. I don’t know who by, but a huge ship has just crashed about a mile away at the crater. I was going to get out and investigate, but I’ve seen on the monitor that the survivors are running over here. They’re heavily armed. I think they want the lighthouse. I knew I should have put the shields up. I don’t know what shot them down, but they’re almost here now.”

There was an explosion in the distance and Aleena turned her head to look to the side.

“They’ve just shot the lock off the main door. They’re inside.”

She turned her head again and then back to the camera, her voice much more urgent.

“If there is anyone watching this then you have to make sure the lighthouse is secure. Make sure nobody else can get here. You don’t know the danger that this place can be to other worlds if the tech falls into the wrong hands. Please…”

The monitor went off.

The Doctor sat there in silence for a moment and then turned to Caroline and Danny. “It’s obvious she was taken. She must have been eating her cornflakes when she heard the ship crash. Then she went to investigate, found that they were coming and made the message.”

“So who’s taken her?” asked Danny.

“I have no idea. And if they’ve taken her, where are they now?”

“Maybe back at their ship,” suggested Caroline.

“Quite possibly.” The Doctor thought for a moment. “Our main priority is to get the shields up around the lighthouse.”

“Surely our main priority is to find your friend,” said Danny.

“No,” said the Doctor. “This lighthouse contains Dalek technology. It can view any event and any person in the entirety of time and space. It has a vortex manipulator built into it so a user can then beam into any time and any place. If hostiles want this place then it can’t be for any good reason. We need to secure it first.”

Caroline had a thought. “Why don’t you let Danny and I go out there and investigate the ship while you try and get the shields up.”

“Too dangerous,” said the Doctor, getting out of the chair.

“Doctor, I survived one year without you, not to mention the 29 years before I met you.”

“With all due respect, Caroline, you didn’t spend one year on a barren moon, did you?”

Caroline could see what he was getting at, but she wasn’t willing to back down. “I’ll make my own decisions,” she said.

“Caz is right,” said Danny. “If your friend Aleena is over in that crashed spaceship, then she probably needs help.”

“I know, I know,” said the Doctor, getting irritated.

“Then let us go. If it’s too dangerous, we’ll come back to you and find another way,” said Caroline. “Let us take some of the work off your shoulders.”

The Doctor sighed. He knew there was no way Caroline and Danny were going to take no for an answer. In the past year they had become extremely independent and no longer relied on the Doctor.

He turned to look at them. “At the first sign of trouble, you come back. Clear?”

The two of them nodded.

“Take a first aid kit from the kitchen and take a couple of Aleena’s blasters.”

“You never carry weapons,” said Danny, grabbing the two, short laser blasters mounted on the wall.

“I’m not carrying them.” He looked at the pair of them. “Use it for defensive purposes only.”

“Understood,” said Danny, popping the blaster in his back pocket.

“Let’s go then,” said Caroline.




A few minutes later Caroline and Danny were trudging past the lighthouse and across the purple grass in the direction the Doctor had pointed them in. The clouds above swirled in the sky, casting large, dark shadows across the plain and the wind had whipped up a bit, making Caroline shiver.

“You okay?” asked Danny, turning to the dark-haired woman.

“I’m good,” said Caroline bluntly.

“This is strange, isn’t it?”

“What is?”

“Us two - and him in there,” he said, thumbing back towards the lighthouse, “- travelling together again.”

Caroline swallowed and turned to Danny. “It’s just…strange. Yes, you’re right. I feel so lost, like I don’t belong anywhere anymore.”

“How do you mean?”

“When I was in Thornsby, I wanted something more from my life, but then when I started travelling in the TARDIS I knew that I just wanted to get answers about myself and then go back home. And then when I was with William…well, that just felt right. Now I know I’m never going to see him again. So all I want to do is go back to him, but I know that I can’t ever do that.”

Danny smiled at her sympathetically. “We should be enjoying this, Caz,” he said. “How many other people get the chance to go off into time and space?”

“I know,” said Caroline, “but how many other people are stranded in the early nineteen-hundreds, fall in love and then get ripped away from their future husbands?”

“I completely understand,” said Danny, “don’t forget, I lost Lisa too.”

“I know,” said Caroline, sounding embarrassed that she had forgotten about Danny’s recent tragedy, “and I’m sorry.”

“We have to try and look at the positives,” said Danny, as they started climbing a gently rising hill. “We both got to experience something we never thought we would. And now we just have to get back to normal and try and enjoy our travelling.”

Caroline shook her head. “How can we do that? I’ve got some secret, hidden powers inside me and you’ve got that Apparite still inside of you.”

Danny looked a surprised.

“It’s obvious, Danny, and the Doctor knows it as well.”

Danny nodded. “It’s trapped. We’re both holding each other in place.”

“The Doctor’s trying to help,” said Caroline.

“But is he? He says he can’t take us back to Thornsby. Is that true?”

“He almost ripped the ship apart trying,” said Caroline.

“True,” said Danny. “Maybe if we could get to the bottom of this then we’d start enjoying ourselves a bit more.”

“Maybe,” said Caroline.

The hill had become a little steeper and there was less and less purple grass and more red dirt and stone. Eventually they reached the top - a ridge - and peered over the edge. It was the crater that Aleena had mentioned in her message and in the centre of it was a large, shattered spaceship. It had a tough-looking design. It was gun-metal grey and looked like it was built for battle. And it looked much bigger than the education ship that had crashed on Trixatin.

“Shall we?” asked Danny, extending his hand towards Caroline.

“Let’s go,” said Caroline, taking his hand as they made their way down the other side of the ridge and into the crater.