True saw him first as he came around a nearby hill, wading through the tall grass, and let out a piercing scream.

The Doctor sighed. Thank you, he thought, thank you very much. Just what I needed.

The crew of Eden Advance jumped. Heads whipped around, and True was running to the transrover, yelling, "Daddy! Daddy!"

"Uh, hello!" the Doctor called, still coming forward. "I don't mean any harm. I just wanted to talk for a little while."

Everyone ran out to the edge of the campsite. True and Uly were already in the transrover's cab, with Yale standing beside it. Alonzo and Walman each held a magpro, although Alonzo didn't have his pointed at the stranger. For some reason, he didn't feel he needed to.

"Hello there!" the Doctor called again with a smile when he saw he had everyone's attention. "I realize this must be unusual, but I assure you I'm perfectly safe. I just wanted to talk for a while, that's all."

The stranger was tall, lean, and dark-haired. He spoke in a British accent, and his clothes were ridiculously out of place and fancy – light brown slacks and vest, a white starched shirt, a brown silk cravat, and a dark brown coat which stretched to his knees. A gold watch chain added the perfect touch to the ensemble.

Devon, standing slightly in front of the others, called out, "Who are you?"

"I'm the Doctor."

She glanced at Julia, got a confused shake of the head in return. Everyone else was silent.

Devon asked, "Doctor who?"

The Doctor closed his eyes and let out a tremendous sigh, almost of pleasure, or reminiscence. "Oh, it's been so long since anyone has asked me that."

Then something in his pocket started beeping.

The Doctor patted himself down, wondering what it could be. Danziger grit his teeth and raised his pistol; he didn't like this one bit.

"Excuse me, sir," Devon called. "Who are you, and what exactly is going on?"

The Doctor pulled the bullet out and held it up. It was beeping faster now. "Well, this bullet I picked up seems to be emitting a noise. It's quite a coincidence, because it's what I wanted to talk to you ab-"

"Take cover!" Morgan yelled. He grabbed Bess and ran for the transrover, almost everyone else hot on his heels. Alonzo dropped his gun and bolted forward. Devon, Danziger, Cameron, and Julia did the same.

"-out. You see-"

The Doctor looked up just in time to see five people slam him to the ground. Unseen, the koba jumped back into the grass.

"Getitgetitgetit!" Julia yelled. Fifty fingers fumbled for the bullet, now screeching Armageddon. Danziger finally got ahold of it, took a step, and hurled it with all his might upstream, into the water.

The titanium phosphorous blast sounded like it cracked open the world. It hurled them all to the ground. Water and splinters from blasted trees peppered them like buckshot.

Everyone lay on the ground for a moment, waiting for their skulls to stop ringing. The others ran back out, hoping desperately they wouldn't have to pick up any pieces of people. Uly and True were yelling "Mom!" and "Dad!" Yale had to hold them back.

Danziger climbed to his feet, waving that they were all alive.

The Doctor sat up and shook his head, then looked around. "Goodness. I only wanted to talk."

"You're gonna talk, all right!" Danziger leaned down and grabbed him by the front. "You're gonna tell us exactly what the hell you think you're doing!"

Devon wanted to tell John to wait, to calm down, but at the moment, she felt exactly the same way. This circus-clown idiot better have one hell of a tale! she thought.

Then they noticed Cameron wasn't moving.

"Cameron?" Julia asked. She rolled him over. In his neck was a thorn, and his face had broken into a rash.

"Oh, no," Devon said. "He's been stung by a koba."

"Has he?" the stranger asked. "Can I help? I am a doctor, you know."

Julia paused just long enough to skewer him with a look even a Time Lord could understand. The Doctor fell silent.

"Baines, help me get him into the med tent," Julia called.

"And you – on your feet!" Danziger barked. The pistol was back in his hand.

"There's no need for that, really," the Doctor said as he stood up. He was infuriatingly calm, but he didn't sound like he meant it to be offensive. "Believe me, I am just as stunned by what's happened here as you are."

"We'll see about that, now move!"

"He's right, John, he doesn't mean us any harm," Alonzo said.

"We don't know that for sure." Danziger's eyes didn't leave the stranger's for a second.

"Yes, we do," Alonzo replied.

"How do you know?"

"Because a Terrian told me."

Devon said, "Uh, John – we have company."

Danziger and the Doctor turned to look. Three Terrians were standing there, holding their staves, watching.

"They say we can trust him," Alonzo said.

The Terrian in front made gurgling noises. Alonzo seemed to be listening.

"What did they say?" Devon asked.

"The same thing again, because they're afraid John's going to hurt him – that we can trust him. They say he's a friend."

The Doctor squinted his eyes, examining the aliens. "How did they tell you that?"

"I dream with them."

The Doctor tilted his head to one side, thoroughly amazed. For the first time in his thousand-year existence, his Time Lord gift of telepathically translating any language in the universe had failed. The language of these Terrians was complete gibberish to him.

Fascinating.

"You don't seem to know them," Devon said, eyeing the stranger curiously.

"I don't. I've only just arrived on this planet."

Devon and Danziger traded looks.

"Well, they know you," Alonzo said.

"How is that?" the Doctor asked.

Alonzo shrugged. "They don't say. Just that you are known to them."

The Doctor slowly walked up to the Terrians. They eyed each other. "Well," he said. "Curiouser and curiouser."

Danziger sighed, putting the pistol away. "You got that right."

The Terrians leaned back their heads, hunched their shoulders, and dropped into the earth. Startled, the Doctor sank to his knees and reached after them, only to meet solid ground. Even the grass was undisturbed.

"Extraordinary!" he breathed. "Now how did they do that, I wonder."

"They travel through the earth," Alonzo said.

The Doctor turned, his brows furrowed. "So this planet is one living organism, encompassing even the soil and the air?"

"As far as we can tell," Devon replied, still guarded. "You seem remarkably knowledgeable about someplace you claim to know nothing about, Doctor whoever-you-are."

"I just guessed," he said simply. "I've encountered the phenomenon before."

She looked helplessly at Danziger, who shook his head with disbelief. He just guessed? It had taken everything within them to believe such a thing was even possible, and he had only just arrived (so he claimed) and he just casually guessed it? Impossible!

As Julia rejoined them, the Doctor stood and brushed himself off, then sniffed at the dirt on his hands, as if that would tell him anything.

"I've done all I can for Cameron," Julia said. "I can only hope his body won't have some allergic reaction to the poison which Morgan and O'Neill didn't, and I'm assuming he'll be up in a couple of days."

"You know, I meant it when I said I was a doctor," the Doctor said. "I would be happy to lend you my services."

"Julia is a more-than-competent physician," Devon said. "And I'd rather trust a friend of mine to her than to a man who won't even tell me his name. I don't care what the Terrians said."

"The Doctor is my name, I told you that. It's the only name I have, the only one I go by, and the only one I'll answer to. And you are?"

"Devon. Adair." She didn't offer to introduce anyone else.

Danziger showed a sad smile. He'd rarely seen Adair this upset over anything, and he was finding he didn't like to see her this way.

"Uh, listen," Julia said to break the tension, "we were all far too close for comfort to that explosion, and some of us got thrown to the ground, so I'd like to run a quick scan on those of us who didn't take cover. Just to be safe."

"Yeah, that's a good idea," Alonzo said. Devon also nodded her approval, pleased at Julia's quick thinking, for she could tell the real reason she suggested it was to find out more about the Doctor.

"Including you," Julia said to him. "Come on. Into the med tent."

"Oh, I assure you I'm quite fine," the Doctor said.

"Doctor's orders," Julia said.

The Doctor couldn't help but smile. And Devon noticed it wasn't the smile of a fake charmer like Gaal; it was real.

"If you insist," he said.

They all started in that direction. Devon brought up the rear, holding Julia back a little. At the same time she looked around at Yale. As she met his eyes, he gave a quiet assent, telling her the children were safe. She noticed he'd managed to keep them busy by giving them chores to do, but they were looking in their direction, eager to be with their parents, eager to know all about the stranger and what was going on.

Well, they're not the only ones, she thought. "Do you recognize him?" she asked Julia.

"No, but that doesn't mean anything. If this is Reilly's doing, you can be sure he wouldn't send someone I'd know." She sighed heavily. "My guess is he's either a penal colonist who's insane, or he's trying to act like a penal colonist who's insane."

Devon looked down tiredly. "Well, while you were in the med tent, three Terrians arrived and told us he was a friend."

Julia raised an eyebrow. "Really? Well, maybe he's done a favor for them in the past, the same way we got rid of Gaal, so they think he's safe." She shook her head. "I just don't know. But that certainly changes things." She shrugged. "Maybe he's even telling the truth."

They reached the med tent. "All right. Just be sure to have a sedaderm ready. I still don't trust him."

Julia pulled a sedaderm out of her pocket. "You mean like this?"

Devon smiled and entered the tent. Julia followed her.

Inside, despite what Devon had said, the Doctor was already examining Cameron closely, fascinated with his condition. Danziger was on the other side of the cot, making casual conversation – and keeping watch on everything he did.

"The poison from a koba's fingernail just makes it look like a person's dead," he was saying, "but he's really just in a deep coma." His eyes found Julia as she entered. "We hope."

She gave him a let's hope so look and pulled on her diaglove, attaching the scanner to it.

The Doctor turned Cameron's head side to side, peering closely, then gently held Cameron's head with one hand, with his thumb on one temple and his middle finger on the other. He closed his eyes.

As Julia raised the diaglove to the Doctor's neck, he said, "Yes, he's alive."

Julia pulled back.

"He's frightened, but he's definitely alive."

"What do you think you're doing?" Devon asked sharply, and reached over to pull him away. The Doctor motioned her to stop with his free hand, his face creased.

"Please don't," he murmured. "I'm inducing an alpha rhythm. Trying to calm his fears, let him know...that...everything's...all...right."

The Doctor's eyes drifted open, and he pulled his hand away.

"There." He straightened up. "I haven't improved his condition any, but the experience of being poisoned will be a little less traumatic for him, and he may come out of his coma sooner than he would have otherwise."

Julia just stared at him. Not knowing what to say, she proceeded to check the Doctor out with her diaglove. She took one look at the scanner and stepped back in alarm. "He's not human."

"Well, of course I'm not human – but I think we can save the compliments for later, don't you think? How am I? Fit as a flute?"

Julia just switched off her scanner and held it to her shoulder, looking at him petulantly.

"All right, enough games and enough guessing," Devon said. "I want to know what you are, I want to know who you are, I want to know what you're doing here, and I want to know why you almost blew us up with a bullet which obviously came from a ZED unit. And I want to know now."

The Doctor blinked at her. "Of course. That is, in fact, why I came here to see you – because I wanted to know what was going on. I just thought we were waiting for the good doctor here to go through her paces – you know, check us for cuts, bruises, broken bones, whiplash, lack of insurance, all that sort of thing."

"We're fine," Julia said simply. "I agree with Devon. I want to know what you're doing here."

"Very well. Is there someplace we can sit and talk?"

Yale stuck his head in the tent. "Dinner is ready --" he felt the tension in the air "-- if anyone is interested," he finished quietly.

"Oh, splendid!" the Doctor said. "What are we having?"

"It's this awful green slimy stuff called spirulina," True said.

Everyone turned. True was standing there, as simple as you please, having crawled under the far side of the tent. Uly was just standing up, having crawled through himself.

"True!" Danziger snapped.

Devon pointed. "Ulysses Adair, I want you back outside – now!"

Uly turned to go, then stopped when True didn't immediately obey. "We just wanted to see the stranger," she said, eyeing the Doctor curiously.

Danziger sighed in exasperation. "True!" he said warningly.

"Is it really that horrible?" the Doctor asked her.

True's face brightened at being acknowledged. "If you've never had it before, it's awful! Then it gets worse."

"Uh huh," Uly said, nodding.

"And you eat it every day?"

"At least."

"Oh." The Doctor looked at her consideringly, as if she'd just told him a vital clue to some mystery. "Well, it probably builds character. And just think how good real food will taste all over again by comparison when you come back to it, eh? Now, why don't the two of you go get some of this nasty, horrible, green – what did you call it?"

"Spirulina!" the children echoed, laughing.

"That's it! Why don't you go get some of this nasty horrible spirulina? We grown-ups will be along in a few moments, and all your curiosity will be satisfied then, eh?"

They turned and lifted the canvas to leave the tent the same way they'd entered. Devon started to tell them to go through the door, but they were gone, running and laughing. She sighed, and glanced at Danziger, who glanced back with a slight shrug.

They had to admit the Doctor handled the children extremely well.

"Well," the Doctor said, turning to them. "Shall we?"

Devon just tilted her head to one side with a determined look and led the way outside. Why do I feel like I've just lost complete control in the last five minutes? she thought.

Outside, the Doctor took one look at the dinner line and asked, "Why such small servings?"

"We have to ration our food," Devon said. "We haven't found much on this planet which is edible, and most of what we have found isn't really nutritious enough to sustain us."

"Ah. Well, in that case, I shall decline your offer. I'm really not very hungry, and I didn't know your food was scarce."

For a moment, Devon didn't know what to say. Finally she asked, "Are you sure?"

"Yes, of course. A cup of water will do for me, thanks."

"Hi-ya! Hi-ya!" Uly was fighting his way across the campsite, defeating imaginary villains with ju-jitsu.

The Doctor saw him, and the tiniest wistful smile touched his face. "Ulysses," he said softly. "Tell me, has he built any giant wooden horses?"

"No," Devon said with a laugh. "No, not that I'm aware of."

"Ulysses. Odysseus. I met the real one, you know. The original, I mean." Devon just looked at him. "He thought I was the god Zeus."

Devon just nodded, realizing the best way to deal with this strange man was not to encourage him.

At that moment, Uly tried a spin-kick and caught Walman on the back of the neck as he sat down by the fire.

"Uly – watch it!" he snapped.

"Uly!" Devon strode forward, looking as if she was ready to tan his hide. But when Uly lost his balance and fell, with his right arm landing in the fire, she broke into a run.

Uly screamed and bunched himself up, cradling his arm against his chest, holding it and crying.

Julia was there in a few seconds, but Devon still got there first. She held her little boy, wanting to comfort him and rock him back and forth, yet strangle him at the same time.

Another wistful smile crossed the Doctor's face. He knew it would be a while before Uly would do something like that again.

He was learning.