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The Brigadier looked up. ‘Mike, what d’you think you’re doing?’

The Captain pulled his revolver from its holster. ‘I’m sorry, sir. Please don’t touch that phone. Doctor—Sergeant Benton—come and stand over with the Brigadier.’

‘Are you going to shoot us all, Mike?’ asked the Doctor.

‘Not unless you force me to. Sergeant, I told you to come and stand over here, otherwise I may have to kill the Brigadier.’

Sergeant Benton slowly rose from his seat at the R/T apparatus and crossed the classroom.

‘Captain Yates,’ said the Brigadier, squaring his shoulders, ‘I trust you realise how serious it is to hold a gun on a superior officer?’

Yates nodded. ‘I realise everything, sir. But our plan must go ahead.’

The Doctor’s voice was friendly ‘How did you get involved in this, Mike?’

‘It was after that business with the giant maggots in Wales. You remember I was sent on leave for quite a time.’

‘You were very disturbed,’ said the Brigadier. ‘I think you still are! ‘

The Doctor frowned at the Brigadier, as though asking him to keep his mouth shut. ‘Do go on, Mike.’

‘I had a lot of time on my hands, and I went along to one of the Save Planet Earth meetings and heard Sir Charles Grover speak. It convinced me.’

‘What do you hope to gain out of this?’ asked the Brigadier. ‘To become Commander-in-Chief of their army or something?’

‘I look for no personal gain, sir. All I want is a new world. Earth used to be a simpler, cleaner place. It has all become too complicated and corrupt. We intend to roll back Time.’

‘Can Whitaker really do that?’ asked the Doctor.

‘I believe so. All the preliminary experiments have been successful.’ Yates smiled. ‘We shall find ourselves in the Golden Age.’

‘Mike, believe me,’ the Doctor implored, ‘there never was a Golden Age. It’s a myth, an illusion.’

‘Not this time,’ replied Yates. ‘We’re going to make it all come true.’

The Brigadier tapped his forehead. ‘I think you’ve gone potty, Captain. You’re out of your mind!’

‘I don’t think there’s anything wrong with Mike’s mind, Brigadier,’ said the Doctor. ‘In fact, I sympathise with him in many ways.’ He turned to Yates. ‘But this isn’t the way to change things, Mike. You have no right to obliterate the existence of generations of people.’

‘There’s no alternative,’ said the Captain.

‘Yes there is,’ replied the Doctor. ‘You can try to make something better of the world you’ve got. You humans can end the arms race, you can treat people with different coloured skins as equals, you can stop exploiting and cheating each other, and you can start using Earth’s resources in a rational and sensible way!’

Corporal Bryson entered the classroom carrying atray of tea mugs. ‘I didn’t know you were back, Captain Yates. Care for a cup of tea, sir?’

Without thinking, the corporal had walked straight in front of Captain Yates’s revolver. He stared at the muzzle pointing at his stomach, and in fright dropped the tea tray. Sergeant Benton leapt at the Captain, knocking the gun from his hand, while the Doctor’s fingers slipped round the Captain’s throat in a Venusian karate hold. Captain Yates went unconscious instantly and the Doctor gently lowered him to the floor.

‘Sorry for interrupting, sir,’ said Corporal Bryson, overcome with embarrassment at having just smashed four Army mugs of tea. ‘I didn’t realise what I was doing.’

‘You did very well,’ said the Brigadier. ‘You’ve probably just saved the world from extinction.’

10 The Final Count Down

Mark and Adam helped the young woman down from the suspended-animation trolley. She was about twenty-five and dressed in the same style of blue denim as themselves. She swayed to and fro on unsteady legs once her feet had reached the ground.

‘Welcome to the people,’ said Adam. ‘Who are you?’

The young woman blinked and looked about herself. ‘We’re really on the space ship?’ She could remember nothing since she had sat in a chair and coloured lights had blinked on and off, hypnotising her.

‘Indeed we are,’ said Adam, ‘and about to arrive on New Earth. Some of your