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`What does your heart tell you?'

The Queen pondered that and then nodded to herself.

`Then let your heart be your guide, ma'am' He bowed to her.

'Now, if you will excuse me, there is one last task I must perform'

* * *

It was nearly dusk when the Doctor emerged from the TARDIS and joined the others by a roaring fire in the centre of the camp. 'Well, the gateway is shut again. The pressure of all that water and debris has blocked the entrance again - for good this time'

`What happened to the soldiers?' James asked sleepily.

He had regained consciousness and appeared remarkably untroubled by his time beyond the rift.

`We found no trace of them downstream,' Vollmer said. He chose not to tell the boy about the faceless corpses he and the others had recovered from the shoreline. At the Queen's insistence the bodies were to be given proper funerals, as befitted any fallen soldiers.

`There was no way back for Doulton and his men,' the Doctor admitted. 'The general knew that might well happen when he volunteered to go back through the rift and rally his troops. They sacrificed themselves for a greater good. But perhaps their sacrifice will show something of mankind's nobility to those on the other side'

`The general and his troops shall be listed as missing in action, presumed dead,' an imperious voice announced.

`They shall receive funerals with full military honours' The Queen emerged from her tent, ready to depart for Lanark.

Vollmer and the other soldiers saluted. 'Night is fast drawing in. It is time for us all to move on,' she said.

`Your Majesty, Nyssa and I shall not be travelling with you,' the Doctor said. 'Our journey will take a different path'

`Very well,' she replied. 'But you shall continue to be our scientific advisor for as long as you wish, Doctor. It is the least we can do to thank you'

`Thank you, Your Majesty.'

Vollmer let the other soldiers go on ahead with the Queen and James. He waited until the royal entourage was out of earshot before speaking to the Doctor and Nyssa. `Well, I'l be back in the morning with a team of men to tidy everything up and supervise removal of the bodies. Will you still be here?'

`No,' the Doctor replied. 'Our business here is done' He shook the sergeant's hand. 'Goodbye, Vollmer - and good luck for the future'

The soldier rolled his eyes. After this I think army life will be rather boring. It's time I considered a new profession'

`What will happen to James?' Nyssa asked.

Vollmer shrugged. 'We'll try to find his family but heaven knows where they'll be by now Failing that, he can stay with me and Clara for a while. We've always wanted children of our own and I'm starting to think I should be spending more time at home' He nodded to them both, then went quietly on his way, disappearing into the darkness.

Extract from Observations and Analysis, A Journal:

I waited until we were back in the TARDIS before questioning the Doctor. I knew he had not told the whole truth about the rift.

He admitted using the TARDIS to seal the gateway.

Ì managed to impose another dimensional buffer over it, a permanent divide this time. That will gradually heal the rift, repairing the weakness in the space-time continuum'

I remembered how slowly time moved on the other side.

`The general and his men could still be alive there, still fighting their battle'

`Yes. For decades yet as time is measured on this world, even centuries. I dare not risk trying to rescue them, in case it reopens the rift. I warned Doulton of the consequences if he got trapped on the other side but he was determined to go back there.'

Ànd his men? What choice did they have, Doctor?'

`We can't save everyone, Nyssa. You of all people should know that by now.'

`Like my father?'

Òr Adric. Death comes to us all. Learning to accept our own mortality - that is the greatest lesson.'

I pointed out there was still so much we did not know. How had the rift between worlds first been created? What was the other side like before Earth began to infect it?

The Doctor nodded. 'Perhaps we will never know all the