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Rose waved a hand at the GENIE. ‘Your scaly friend over there went and ate him.’

‘My friend? Ate him?’ Vanessa did a double take. ‘That’s… that’s the box…’

‘That’s the box that was in your father’s study back in the twenty‐fourth century,’ Rose completed for her. ‘And that thing in it is a GENIE, made by your dad, and it granted your wish to come back here…’

Rose explained everything she’d learned about what had been happening, finishing with the disappearance of the Doctor and her own wishing experiences. To her slight surprise, Vanessa didn’t seem as freaked out by it as she’d expected. Perhaps when you’d spent the last few months living in a time 2,000 years before your own, you took things more in your stride. Although… well, actually Vanessa looked – happy. Almost verging on overjoyed.

‘What?’ said Rose. ‘Did I say something funny? Because I don’t think I did.’

Vanessa’s eyes were shining. ‘But Rose, don’t you see? All I have to do is wish to go –’

Rose quickly clamped a hand over Vanessa’s mouth before she could finish. ‘Hang on a minute! Didn’t you hear what I was saying? Be careful what you wish for!’

But Vanessa didn’t seem put off. ‘I can get home! Now I know what brought me here, all I have to do is w–’

Rose’s hand slammed back in place. ‘Whoa whoa whoa! If you w-word to go home, where’s that leave me and the Doctor? How’m I gonna get him back? Anyway, the GENIE says it can’t reverse wishes, so who knows if it can take you home anyway? I mean, if it could do that it’d probably have wished itself back by now.’

The GENIE, which had been listening with interest, gave a big sigh. ‘Regrettably, my creators chose to limit my powers so wishes can only be granted for others. Not myself.’

Rose frowned. ‘Right. But, look – this is not a wish – would you be able to get Vanessa home – safely – if she, er, expressed a desire for it?’

The GENIE considered. ‘I may be able to do so,’ it said. ‘Of course, as I explained previously, time travel over such a considerable distance requires a great deal of power.’

‘Yeah, I know,’ said Rose. ‘But if you managed to do it once…’

‘On that occasion I was able to obtain energy from the global electricity supply,’ it informed her. ‘You mean – that’s why all the lights went out?’ said Vanessa, as Rose removed her hand. That was you?’

‘Well, quite. What did you expect?’ said the GENIE rhetorically. ‘However, there is no such electricity supply in this primitive place. I have been forced to adapt myself to obtain energy in a much more basic form.’

Rose felt sick again. ‘“A goddess must eat,”’ she quoted. ‘That’s where you’ve been getting your energy from.’ She turned to Vanessa. ‘That’s why it absorbed Ursus’s body.’

‘Indeed,’ agreed the GENIE. ‘However, I fear I do not have sufficient fuel to grant any further time‐travel wishes.’

Rose raised an eyebrow: ‘Well, we’re not killing anyone for you! Look, how much more do you need? Maybe we can, I dunno, pick up a couple of steaks or something.’

The GENIE was quiet for a moment, pondering.

Finally it said, ‘I have calculated the energy that would be required to get to the year 2375.’

‘Yes?’ said Vanessa eagerly.

‘Assuming my last energy intake –’

‘You mean “dead body”,’ put in Rose.

‘– is regarded as an average,’ continued the GENIE, ‘I calculate I would need 1,718,902 times that amount in order to grant such a wish.’

For once, Rose was speechless.

* * *

FIFTEEN

Rose and Vanessa were sitting in silence, trying to work out a plan. Rose half‐heartedly picked at a cooling chip. ‘It probably took both of Ursus’s legs to magic up a couple of potatoes,’ she said, laying the fork down again.

‘Oh, no,’ said the GENIE. ‘That was a very simple wish. Probably no more than an eyeball’s worth.’

Rose pushed the bag firmly away and stood up. ‘Look, it’s no good sitting about here all day just wishing – I mean, hoping,’ she corrected herself hastily, ‘for something to turn up.’

‘Shall we go out and kill a lot of people, then?’ said