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‘No, Eve said they were close at hand…’ The Doctor had his fingers to his forehead. ‘Think, Doctor, think!’ He span on the spot. ‘Close at hand! And she’s an android…’ He threw himself onto his knees beside the motionless Eve and grabbed her wrist, as if feeling for a pulse. The bleeping from the bomb was getting louder and louder, faster and faster, till it was an almost continuous shriek. The whirr of the sonic screwdriver provided an electronic counterpoint as the Doctor wielded it, and Martha couldn’t help wincing as he appeared to unscrew one of Eve’s fingers. Her gaze darted between these operations and the screens showing scenes on Earth, expecting any second for the views to flare out of existence as she herself stopped existing too…

But they didn’t. And she didn’t. And the noises stopped, from both bomb and screwdriver.

The Doctor was sitting up, waving a disconnected finger in the air in triumph.

Martha heaved a very big sigh of relief.

The adrenalin had been rushing around so much that, when it seeped away, I could have fallen asleep there and then on the floor of the secret laboratory. I had a real ‘end of story’ feel, a real ‘happily ever after’ – until I realised that it hadn’t and it wouldn’t be, because there were so many loose ends left that the whole event‐pullover might easily unravel. Frank was still running about somewhere; I didn’t know what had happened to Tommy; and we might have to explain to people why the museum curator was currently unavailable.

‘I thought we’d had it then,’ I said.

‘Oh, there was plenty of time to chuck this one into an isolation field inside the TARDIS if it came to it,’ the Doctor said and tossed the egg‐bomb onto the workbench. I yelped, couldn’t help it, even though I knew it was OK now, but the thing just rolled harmlessly along until it came to rest against a Bunsen burner. It might have been nice if he’d told me I wasn’t about to die – but then I remembered what had led up to this point, and realised that I’d deserved that terror. Because there was the thing, the big thing, the thing that knocked the ‘happily’ out of ‘ever after’ for good – the billions of creatures whose deaths I’d caused. The Last Ones. Genocide on a scale that was frankly incomprehensible. Now I didn’t have anything else to concentrate on, it threatened to overwhelm me.

I tried to tell the Doctor, who was now engaged in playing tug of war with Dorothea – she seemed to have taken a fancy to some of the wires poking out of Eve’s chest, presumably thinking they were skinny worms. But he didn’t let me get half of it out before he jumped up from the floor shouting: ‘My plan! I nearly forgot!’ He bounded towards the door, so I bundled up Dorothea and headed after him.

‘Where are we off to?’ I said.

‘Central computer. Eve’s office.’

‘Why?’

‘Because I –’ he tapped his chest importantly as he ran – ‘came up with the most stupendous plan that will sort out everything!’

‘But Eve said all the animals were dead…’

‘Not if I have anything to do with it.’

‘So what’s the plan?’ I asked eagerly.

‘No time, no time!’ the Doctor cried, racing ahead.

But it didn’t really matter to me that I didn’t know the details. The adrenalin was surging again. The animals weren’t dead – and everything was going to be all right.

THE ISPYDER BOOK OF EARTH CREATURES

PARADISE PARROT

Psephotus pulcherrimus

Location: Australia

The male of the beautiful paradise parrot, a native of north‐eastern Australia, can be recognised by its distinctive blue‐green plumage, with striking black and red wings, tail and cap. The female’s feathers are duller although still attractive. Its diet consists mainly of grass seeds.

Addendum:

Last reported sighting: AD 1927.

Cause of extinction: competition for food from alien livestock; demands of the pet trade

ISpyder points value: 500

SEVENTEEN

So all I knew about the plan was that it involved