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By Root 607 0

his. He fell forward into the Doctor's arms and the Doctor suddenly felt the temporal field of localized space moving as if it were a carpet being beaten.

'I would advise a cautious attitude to the Herne being,’ Goibhnie said. 'He appears to have lost control of certain of his metabolic processes. His body is releasing random bursts of chronons and antichronons.'

The Doctor supported Herne away from the edge of the wall and then lowered him to the ground.

‘Interaction with a body moving in the opposite direction in time. An interesting process.’

'Now we must descend to the ground level and devise a plan to deal with the reject material.'

'Can we do nothing for Herne?' asked Dryfid.

'Goibhnie,' the Doctor said, 'you and I are the only ones who won't be affected by Herne's unstable state. Help me carry him down.'

'Very well, but I suggest we hurry. The combined mass of the reject material could present an overwhelming force.’

They met a messenger hurrying up as they descended through the wall. He was flustered and worried looking.

'My lord Dryfid, some fighting has broken out at the gate. General Nuada and two of the Earth people set a wolf on some of the Firbolg.'

'What? By Dagda, what does Nuada think he's up to? His paranoia has driven him too far. We must stop him’

'Earth people?' the Doctor asked. 'Not a girl, about so high, propensity for using slang?'

'A girl and a boy,' the messenger agreed.

'Why can't you keep out of trouble, Ace? You should’ve known better than to get involved with Nuada.'

'What do you mean, Doctor?'

'Haven't you realized, Dryfid? Nuada's story about being attacked by demons when he went to see Goibhnie was just nonsense. He was the one who told you that Goibhnie had betrayed you, he was the one who was encouraging you to fight with your fellow creatures. I thought it was obvious. We must get down there as fast as possible. Goibhnie, I have a plan. Let’s leave Herne here. We can deal with him later, or earlier, depending on your point of view.'

'They've gone down to the gate,' the Firbolg told Dryfid, pointing down the tunnel. 'We did not want to fire upon him as we feared it might cause a reopening of hostilities between our peoples, but his beast attacked several of my soldiers.’

'Beast?' asked the Doctor. 'Why do you call it that?'

'It had the appearance of a wolf, but it was not a wolf. I fear that it was a demon.'

'A demon?' Dryfid asked. 'That's impossible. You must be mistaken.'

'I need no more evidence than that which my eyes supplied me with. Do you call me a liar, sir?' The Firbolg's hands went to his weapons.

'No, no, of course not. I merely meant ... '

'Dryfid, isn't it obvious that something is amiss with Nuada?’

'Has anyone checked his neck recently?' Stuart asked.

Dryfid was shocked. 'You cannot mean that General Nuada is a witch? That would be … no!'

'Whatever the case, Stuart, I think that we can put your tranquilizers to good use.'

'But Doctor, I can't shoot it in there. It's far too dark. I wouldn't stand a chance in hell of hitting anything.'

'You plan to shoot something?' Goibhnie asked. 'I can adjust my vision to all wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum.’

‘Can you fire a gun?'

'Let me see.' He took the rifle and looked at it interestedly.

'You line up the sights here ... ' Stuart demonstrated. 'And squeeze this trigger.'

'It seems simple enough.'

'What are we waiting for then? Let's do it.'

'Wait, Stuart,' the Doctor said, 'I'll come with you. Just let me organize things down here. Goibhnie, will the transmat be affected if we dig up the stones and position them on the opposite walls of this tunnel?'

'The coordinate settings would have to be altered.'

'Yes, yes, that's obvious. We don't want to send the demons to Earth. You must reprogram them so that they replace the demons in the storage module.'

'That will be easy.'

'Good! Dryfid, can you arrange for the two largest stones in the stone circle to be brought here?'

'Yes, I'll see to it right away. But ... '

'Don't argue, just do it.'

'Doctor,' Goibhnie interrupted, 'the transmat