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'Do you know,' he said conversationally as the drone put him down, 'I think she's actually got faster.'

He looked back over the rich darkness of the cove. His doubts clustered thickly about him like unwanted relatives.

I am what I know, he thought, to know is to act. To act is to change what you know. Therefore, to act is to change what you are. If I become something that I am not, am I bound by the rules that made me what I was? And since time is shaped like a jam doughnut, are my actions foreshadowed or disinpredestined and why does the jam always dribble down my chin? If the devil is in the detail is God in the overall plan?

The idea came suddenly, bursting in his head like a soundless, colourless, invisible supernova.

Like a great big neon sign that said – EMERGENCY EXIT.

Hyper-lude

1. The treaty below marks the solemn agreement between the High Council of the Time Lords of Gallifrey (hereafter known as the High Council) and the temporary representative (hereafter known as God) of the people living in, around and within the sphere of influence of the Worldsphere (said people to be referred to hereafter as The People). (See Appendix I (one) for precise Universal Co-ordinates and definitions of sphere of influence.) 2. The People shall recognize the rights, duties and responsibilities of the High Council with regard to the maintenance of the continuity of the fabric of the space-time continuum and the causality of the Universe providing that these rights, duties and responsibilities do not conflict with the provisions of this treaty. As the temporary representative and spokesman of The People the conscious machine entity known as God shall act as guarantor of this Treaty and shall be responsible for the enforcement of the provisions herein. The People also make the following undertakings:

i) The People undertake not to develop a mode of temporal transportation nor make direct investigation into the possibilities of technologies that lead to the development of a temporal transportation system.

ii) Any theoretical knowledge of temporal transportation, translocation, transmigration or transcendence that results from any other form of research must not be pursued as a technology.

iii) The People shall at no time and by no means threaten the physical security of Gallifrey, nor shall they make alliances, deals or agreements with the enemies of the High Council. Nor shall The People have dealings with supernatural, time-transcendental, multi-dimensional beings, superbeings or deities. Contacts with the above to be reported immediately to the High Council through the channels specified below.

iv) The People shall in no way impinge, probe or explore the galaxy designated as Mutter's Spiral and will undertake no activities of any sort under any circumstances in that area of the Universe. In addition The People shall create no permanent database, record or store of information relating to the physical, spiritual or metaphysical substance of Mutter's Spiral.

3. The High Council hereby recognizes that The People are, and will remain, the dominant political, cultural and military force within that galaxy that is hereafter designated the Home Galaxy of the People or Home Galaxy. In regards to the status of the People within this Galaxy the High Council makes the following undertakings:

i) That the High Council will undertake no activity that will interfere with the social, economic, political, diplomatic or historical development of The People or any other cultural, ethnic or biological grouping within the Home Galaxy, either in the present, in the future or the past.

ii) That all contacts between The People and the High Council will take place in linear time and that strict relativity shall be maintained between Gallifreyan standard time and the time frame of The People. (See Appendix II (two) for technical details.) iii) The High Council will undertake a policing role with a view to preventing unauthorized