Julia pulled down a tree branch and peeked through. Alonzo came up behind her.

"There it is," she pointed. "I knew we weren't hearing things!"

About 30 yards up the slope was an opening in the rock. Every few seconds, an occasional flash and bang escaped from inside. They smiled.

"Looks like we found another spider tunnel!" Alonzo said.

Julia swung her gear around in front of her eye. He stopped her, asking, "Hey – what are you doing?"

"Telling the others what we found," she said. "Why?"

"Why do we need to do that?" he grinned. "I was hoping maybe on the other side of that tunnel was a nice, tropical lagoon," he grabbed her playfully, "and we wouldn't be bothered by anybody!"

She was laughing. "Alonzo!"

"Come on!" he said with a smile. "Lets keep this to ourselves! Just for a day or two."

She stopped struggling and looked into his eyes. She then quickly motioned to the cave with her head. "Lets go," she whispered.

They squeezed through the tiny opening, holding hands. At the far end of the cave were spider webs. Every few seconds, a wash of energy would extend the length of the narrow cave.

They waited until one went past, then immediately stood in the middle of the cave, clutching each other tightly – no letting go this time!

The energy wrapped them up and transported them elsewhere.

And they almost died.

 

Several months after reaching New Pacifica, Julia had found an edible plant which made a wonderful, strong tea. It was the first change the members of Eden Project had in their diet in almost two years.

Danziger poured himself a hot cup. He looked with sadness at Devon, sitting in front of the radio with her back to him, ever vigilant. He poured a second cup and set it down next to her.

She immediately picked it up, alarmed. "John, don't set drinks next to the equipment, please!" she scolded him.

"Sorry," he muttered, completely unflustered. He turned to go.

She reached out a hand. "I'm sorry, John," she sighed. "I don't mean to take it out on you."

"Yeah, I know," he said, with the lightest of smiles. "Trust me, Adair, I've learned to deal with your moods."

She lowered her head and smiled a weary smile. Then, without raising her head, she looked up at him with her blue eyes, bemused.

"Why don't you just let Zero listen?" Danziger asked. "Get some rest?"

She shook her head. "I can't," she whispered.

He set his tea down on an opposite workbench and sat next to her. He put his arm around her and she leaned on his shoulder, as natural and as comfortable as two people who had known each other all their lives. They stayed like that for many moments.

Finally, Danziger said softly, "Perhaps we were naive to think that the Council wouldn't sabotage the colony ship, too."

Devon was silent.

"I mean, think about it," he continued. "The Council didn't figure we would ever make it here. They went through an awful lot of trouble to keep a handful of people from setting foot on this planet – so how much trouble do you think they'd go through to keep over a thousand people from landing? Hmm?"

"I don't want to think about it," Devon said. "It's been 72 days since they should have arrived. I keep telling myself that in interstellar terms, that's actually not very long at all – that even a small power shortage in one of their engines would delay them by three months to a year. That's what Alonzo says.

"But I have this awful feeling, John." She raised her head to look at him, her eyes wet. "I have this awful feeling that something terrible has happened!"

 

Clebadee was soaring.

Others were there, flying with him. They all flew together, coordinated, as if they were one mind. It was so beautiful! He never wanted it to end!

"Come join us!" the others called. "And bring the others along!"

"Others?" he called, trying to ignore the fear which pierced his gut. "What others?"

"The others in your tribe!" they called back. "Bring them! Bring-"

Clebadee woke.

His head jerked up, staring around him wildly. His heart beat fast. He peered desperately into the shadows. Had anyone seen? He trembled.

Then he realized he was crouched in the Dreamer position. His knees pointed up, and his hands were flat against the floor of the cave.

He stood up suddenly, yanking his hands back as if he'd touched a fire, and stared at them. Then he nervously looked around again to make sure no one had seen.

It didn't appear that anyone had. He walked on, attending to his duties.

Was he taking part in the mysterious Dreaming? Did he have the disease? It was all too likely. The disease was the most widely-spread affliction the Terrian people had ever experienced. It seemed to be spreading everywhere, randomly. And no one could figure out how.

There was no way of knowing if he truly had it, though, and no way that he knew of to calm his fears. If he even made a casual inquiry about the symptoms of the disease, everyone would wonder why he was asking, and everyone would watch him. Watch him to see if he was sick. They wouldn't be interested in answering his questions, or helping him.

He would become an outcast.

He grabbed two bags hanging by the entrance of the cave and headed for the stream. All he could do was wait, and hope he wasn't infected.

There was no one he could turn to for help.

 

"Well, Doctor," Ian said. "I've got to hand it to you. We keep getting closer every time."

"Hmm?" the Doctor looked up at him testily. He pierced him with his sharp, bright eyes over his spectacles, but only for a moment. His usual tack was to ignore the human, but his curiosity got the better of him, in spite of himself. "What are you talking about, Chestleton?"

Ian Chesterton ignored the way the Doctor bungled his last name.

In fact, he'd started a list of all the interesting variations on his name which the Doctor sometimes formed in his absentmindedness. During their travels, the Doctor had called him "Chesterfield," "Chesterform," "Chattleton," "Cheston," and, most amusingly, "Chestnut," among many others. He made a mental note to remember "Chestleton." That was a new one.

And he suspected he would never know whether the Doctor did it on purpose, just to provoke him. The old man sometimes didn't seem comfortable unless he was up to his neck in trouble.

"Getting Barbara and myself back home," he said with a smile. "In the last six months, you've actually managed to land on Earth three times. First in the 13th century, then in the 15th, and finally in the 18th. I figure we're getting closer every time, and pretty soon, now, you'll be hitting the 20th!"

"Hmp," was all the Doctor said, clearly disappointed that he'd bothered to ask.

Ian wasn't fooled. He knew the real reason the Doctor didn't pursue the conversation was because he was embarrassed to.

The Doctor hated admitting that he couldn't pilot the TARDIS.

He didn't know much about the Doctor. Despite their adventures together, and the very real friendship which had formed among everyone on board, the Doctor was extremely private about where he came from and who he was.

All Ian knew was that somewhere out there in the cosmos was someone – or something – which frightened the Doctor considerably.

Something he was running from.

He and Barbara were teachers at the Coal Hill School, in London. He taught science, Barbara taught history. The Doctor, in an effort to hide from whomever it was he feared so much, had decided to lay low on Earth for a while. The only companion he had was his 15-year-old granddaughter, Susan. Against his better judgment, he had grudgingly allowed Susan to attend the nearby Coal Hill School.

Intrigued by a child who could be so incredibly intelligent, yet so amazingly ignorant of the simplest things, he and Barbara had investigated her home background.

They had no way of knowing that Susan would turn out to be an alien, and that "home" would be a space/time machine. Nor could they have realized that her grandfather would leave the 20th century, taking them with him, because he couldn't afford to let anyone loose who had stumbled upon his secret.

To say that he and Barbara had been a little upset at being kidnapped from their home and flung off to alien worlds was an understatement. And the Doctor had only made matters worse when he told them that he couldn't get them back because he didn't know how to pilot the TARDIS properly.

But as the Doctor himself had said, "Fear makes companions of all of us." In their efforts to survive the days after being plunged into the Doctor's strange world, they had gotten to know one another. The Doctor had subsequently apologized for his rash behavior, and was now trying to get them back home to the London of 1963.

He always failed, of course. Wherever they landed it was certainly interesting, and usually dangerous. The four of them had shared a number of adventures together.

Over time, Ian and Barbara had gotten to like the Doctor, and he had a grudging respect for them both. Although the Doctor was difficult and crabby, he was also very wise in his own way, and they had been through enough perils with him to know that he was a good man.

It was just that he was a proud man, as well. And he avoided this conversation with the two meddlesome teachers, as he called them, whenever it came up.

"Don't be so sure, Chatterton," the Doctor said. He peered down through his spectacles at some readouts on the TARDIS console. "If we're following a pattern, as you so naively suggest, we might skip the 20th century altogether. We might end up even further in the future."

Ian smiled, and leaned forward a little. "You know, just between you and me Doctor, I wouldn't mind another look at the future again, myself."

The Doctor interlocked his fingers in front of him and smiled back, a momentary rapport struck between them, as one scientist to another – the desire to explore.

"Excellent, Chesterton, excellent, excellent!" he giggled. "For that's exactly where we are!"

Ian's face fell. Only then did he notice that the central console had stopped, and suddenly he found himself regretting what he'd just said.

The Doctor was wiping his spectacles clean with his handkerchief. Without looking up, he said, "You'd, ah – you'd better go and fetch Barbara and Susan. I think we'll just have a quick look around."

"Must we?" Ian asked. "If you already know we're in the future, why can't we just take off and try again?"

"Oh, tut tut, Chesterlin! I'll get you and Barbara back soon enough, so stop going on about it! Go and tell them we've arrived, and come meet me outside." He activated the door control. "Who knows – we might learn something useful, hmm?" He disappeared through the door.

Yes, Ian thought, and we might get our heads blown off by a Dalek.

He shook his head and went to get Barbara and Susan. He knew better than to argue with the Doctor when there was someplace new to see.

 

The huge ship lumbered through space, alive but unattended.

At the far end of a small side passage, a blue police telephone box ground into existence. The door opened and out stepped a man, a woman and a robot.

"Did not," said the man.

"Did so," said the woman.

"Did not," said the man.

"Did so," said the woman.

"Did – look, are we going to go on like this for very much longer?"

"I certainly hope not. As soon as you admit your mistake, we can stop."

"My- my mistake?" the man asked.

"K9," the woman asked, "did the Doctor not say we were headed for a pleasure cruise on the Galaxy Zero run in Mutter's Spiral?"

"Affirmative, mistress."

The Doctor looked down at his little robot dog. K9 was about a meter long, with a box-like body which ran on wheels. He had an antenna for a tail, two small radar dishes for ears, another extendible antenna just below the eyes, and a stun gun which could extend from the end of his boxed nose.

In a flash, the Doctor dropped to the ground, his face inches from K9. "Did I really?" he asked.

"Affirmative, master."

The woman haughtily looked around her, triumphant at having won the argument.

"Oh. Well," the Doctor waved his hand around, "I might have mentioned something along those lines. But those cruises can be very dangerous. Very dangerous, indeed. Taking a joyride through the cluster of black holes at the heart of a galaxy. Only a matter of time until they have an accident. It's nothing we should be doing. Tempting fate, and all that."

The Doctor leaped up again, studying their surroundings.

"Well, where do you suppose we are?" the woman asked.

The Doctor suddenly held up his hand as if he'd had a revelation, then pointed straight at her. "Romana – I'll defer to you. You tell me where we are."

"All right." She glanced around. "The English language on all the signs and readouts tells me it's an Earth ship. By the design, I should say it's mid to late 22nd century. All these compartments are cryo-sleep chambers. This one is numbered 326, and they stretch on, so I imagine this ship is very huge. It's probably carrying all of these people to a nearby planet to set up a colony."

The Doctor, looking out a window into space, had his chin thrust out and his eyes wide as he listened. Then he nodded and said, "But why are they still asleep?"

"What do you mean? Why shouldn't they still be asleep?"

"Look," he pointed out the window.

Romana looked out also, and saw a nearby star.

"I say!" she was astonished. "We're very close to it, aren't we? If an interstellar ship is this close to a star, that means it's either just arriving or just departing. But that's not the Earth's sun, which means that this ship has already reached its destination. Or very close to it, anyway."

"But no one's awake yet," the Doctor murmured. "I wonder why."

 

Clebadee had just bent down to fill the water bags when, on the other side of the stream, the blue box appeared with the noise of a sick wind.

He gurgled in terror. He was too afraid to move.

After a few seconds, a door opened in the side of the box, and out stepped a creature the likes of which Clebadee had never seen.

It walked on two legs, like himself, but the resemblance ended there. The creature's skin was white and smooth, instead of brown and rough, like his own. It had white hair on the top of its head, wore garments of a finely-made cloth, and carried an ornate walking stick. Or was it a weapon?

The creature saw him, stopped, and its mouth spread larger from side to side.

Clebadee started to back away.

The creature actually crouched down on its knees and stretched out a hand. He didn't recognize the expression on its face, but for some reason, Clebadee could tell that the creature was trying to display friendliness.

Then the door opened again, and three more of the strange creatures came out! It was too much. With a wail, Clebadee turned and fled back to the caves, leaving the water bags behind.

"Oh!" the Doctor stood up and turned around. "How could you? I was just about to make friends with that poor fellow when the three of you scared the daylights out of him!"

"Grandfather, it wasn't our fault!" Susan protested. "How were we to know?" Barbara and Ian just looked at each other and shook their heads. By now, they knew when to ignore the Doctor's childish outbursts.

"Hmp. Well, I intend to follow it. It seems to have some knowledge –" he pointed to the water bags the creature had left behind "– so maybe it has enough intelligence to tell us exactly where and when we are. And the more knowledge I have about our position, the better chances I have of getting you home!"

Ian sighed and gestured ahead. With another "Hmp," the Doctor turned and set off at a brisk pace.