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By Root 336 0

the buildings. As it lumbered forward, the Doctor urged his friends into the very alleyway where Sam had been sick. They stood there, panting, their backs to the wall, as the crowd ran past.The shimmering hide of the Skarasen seemed to blot out the light for a very long time. Sam saw its claws gouge chunks from the road as it passed, saw it reduce a wall to a tumble of bricks with one flick of its tail.

All at once there was a hideous scream, which was immediately blotted out by the cyborg's triumphant roar. Sam looked at the Doctor and saw that he was gritting his teeth in anguish. Emmeline and her father were marble-skinned, their eyes wide and shocked. Emmeline, clad only in her damp chemise and knickerbockers and a pair of sodden boots, was shivering with either cold or fear, her hair a dark wet tangle around her face. Even the Doctor looked as grimy and exhausted as Sam herself felt; she couldn't help wondering how they could possibly hope to stop the carnage happening around them. Or was the Doctor's plan merely to get back to theTARDIS and leave London to its fate? Was that why he had been so reluctant for Emmeline and her father to accompany them? No, she couldn't believe that. She wouldn't believe it.

Eventually, its killing done and its meal over, the Skarasen blundered away, leaving devastation in its wake. The Doctor peeled himself from the wall and touched Sam's arm lightly.

'Come on.'

Those were the only words anyone spoke for some time. The Doctor led them through more wrecked streets, past more mangled bodies. Although the screams of the populous and the roars of the Skarasen provided a constant backdrop to their progress, for a while - via a combination of good luck and the Doctor's sound judgement - they managed to remain several streets distant from the bloodbath whose evidence lay all around them.

Their brief encounter with the Skarasen was almost twenty minutes past when Sam said,'Doctor?'

'Hmm.'

'Do you mind if I ask you a question?'

'Must you?' he said, then glanced at her as she frowned.'Go on then. Only don't turn it into an interrogation. We haven't the time.'

'I know that,' she said, the frown deepening to a scowl. 'Give me some credit.'

He held up a hand.'Sorry, Sam. Go on.'

'What if the TARDIS isn't there? What if Tuval and Balaak have managed to override your preset thingamajig?'

'They won't have,' said the Doctor.

'What makes you so sure?'

'HADS.'

'You what?'

'I repaired the HADS - the Hostile Action Displacement System. It's been on the blink for ages.' He looked suddenly thoughtful. 'You know, I've been far more conscientious since I regenerated. I even keep my room tidy sometimes.'

'Congratulations,' said Sam drily. 'So you fixed the HADS. I assume this is relevant to our conversation?'

The Doctor halted them with a raised hand, listened for a moment, then beckoned them onwards. 'While I was repairing the HADS, I discovered that it was linked to an internal system that I managed to modify into a sort of bounceback circuit. I rigged it so that if anyone tried to take control of theTARDIS, she would defend herself by throwing up a force field around the console and returning automatically to a predesignated set of coordinates.'

'So you reckon that whenTuval tried to pilot it, it would've just jumped back to where you'd left it before?'

'Without a doubt,' said the Doctor and then pursed his lips. 'That's assuming that the elastic band hasn't snapped of course.'

'Elastic band!'

He grinned. 'I'm joking. It was one of those really thick ones. There's no way it would break.'

He led them into a deserted street where most of the buildings were still standing. Suddenly a raggedly dressed woman holding the hand of a girl of perhaps four or five appeared at the far end. Both woman and child were barefoot, both had stark, terrified expressions on their dirt-smeared faces, and both were running, the woman all but dragging the little girl in her wake. Seconds later, a huge dark shadow spilled across the road and buildings behind them