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children clinging to each one.
It s a shame, you know. The Doctor was looking at the bloodstained cube in his hands. They re only children, after all.
They tried to kill me! objected Jo. But the part of her that was Dead knew the Doctor was right. They were only children. Hungry.
And confused by the darkness, by the failure of the sun The TARDIS doors swung open and Mike stepped through it, his wood-clay body a little
misshapen, and covered in scraps of fur and blood. Now what? he asked simply.
The Doctor was lying on the floor, prising one of the panels off the console. If I can just get the field generator program unit 174
linked up to the biomorphic glucite links on the pod, we should be able to pilot it manually.
Pilot? said Mike. That sounds like a job for me.
The Doctor glanced up at him. Well, yes, possibly. But you ll have to do something, about those hands if you re going to work the controls.
Jo looked at Mike s hands and saw that they were little more than crude lumps of clay, the fingers barely able to move separately. Mike wriggled
them a few times, then shook his head.
If I concentrate, I should be able to do it, he muttered.
As Jo watched, the hands thinned out, gained a finer bone structure. Knuckles appeared, and even crude sketches of fingernails. Jo was vaguely
aware that she should be afraid, but she knew it was only happening because Mike was Dead.
Mike flexed his hands again, and then the crude mouth on his face curved into a smile. That ought to do it, he said. Right, Doctor, what do you
want me to fly?
The Doctor pulled a device out from the console, a messy, cobbled-together-looking thing, made of flickering objects that looked like blobs of
melted plastic lying in a tangle of wires, with something that looked like the front of an old radio tacked on. Cables trailed from it inside the console.
The Doctor began unplugging some of these, but he left others connected as he carried the device out of the TARDIS doors into the now sealed
pod.
Mike followed him. Jo stared after them for a moment, then looked at the serried ranks of the Dead still waiting, silent and patient, in the console
room.
Their blue eyes flickered.
And, quite suddenly, Jo became aware that the Dead were speaking to her.
the situation has changed
the experiment has failed
so the orders have changed
here are the new orders
orders which must be carried out without fail
orders which must be carried out whatever the cost
After a moment, Jo nodded, understanding the truth at last.
It was so simple, once you knew.
Epreto knew that he had lost at the same time as he had won.
He lay on his back in the huge, bright control room, the taste of Duboli s heartmeat still on his tongue. He felt incredibly tired, and at the same time
at peace, at peace in a way he had never felt as a man.
He heard footsteps crossing the room, a slow, heavy tread. A 175
face peered down at him.
Hanu.
Sir?
There was no need to say anything, thought Epreto. The truth was obvious. Everything he had done was wrong: everything he had sought to
achieve, a mistake. He had destroyed the world because he was afraid of growing up.
But somehow that didn t seem to matter.
Hanu was speaking again. Mr Epreto, the sun is moving. What should we do?
Die, thought Epreto. That s all that remains to us. But even that didn t seem to matter. He was fulfilled. He would die happy.
He would die with wings
As the pod climbed and the branches of the forest thinned out, it became obvious to Mike that there was something wrong with the Sky.
A pink glow was visible through the canopy, a sickly light silhouetting the branches, giving the leaves a grey-brown tone. The glow was brighter in
some parts of the Sky than in others. As the canopy thinned, he could see that pieces of the Sky were falling, brightly glowing, or perhaps burning. In
the distance, tall flames rose from parts of the Land, moving with a slowness that was almost majestic. A layer of smoke was visible, glowing dimly
in the eerie light.
It looks like we might be almost too late, said the Doctor, looking around at the mess: Then an expression of alarm crossed his face: The starship
has gone!
Mike nodded, but kept his attention concentrated on the Sky.
The starship certainly wasn t where it was supposed to be He scanned the area, and after a moment saw the dark, circular silhouette some twenty
degrees away from the zenith, in the direction of Kaygat.
It was moving.
Mike estimated the speed, then glanced down at the Doctor s control panel. The Doctor had explained the function of the various plastic knobs and
small metallic levers, but it had been too much for Mike to take in at speed, even with the greater concentration of the Dead.
How do I change the bearing? he asked the Doctor.
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