"We all did it!" one of the elders exclaimed.

"Yes, but just because we all joined the Dreaming does not mean we have to change the way we live, or take drastic action," another said.

Clebadee turned away from the debate in the central chamber to find the Doctor, Susan, Ian and Barbara approaching.

"What's going on, Clebadee?" Ian asked.

"They are discussing something which I do not like the sound of," he answered. "Some of the elders do not like the negative side of becoming connected, and are trying to rid us of it."

"The negative side?" Ian asked. "What negative side? What are they talking about?"

"Most everything in the universe has a negative side," the Doctor said. "Few things are truly perfect."

"Yet, perfection is what they seek," Clebadee answered. "Over the last few days, since we all came together in the Dreaming, we have all been able to sense one another's emotions – the pleasant ones as well as the unpleasant ones. We can feel each other's anger or frustration quite easily, and it is very distracting and confusing. Sometimes, it is even painful."

"Well, surely that's something you will all simply have to learn to deal with," Barbara said.

"I would have thought so. But several of the elders – including Darlo – say that they have a better solution."

Clebadee quickly glanced around, then took the four travelers to one side and lowered his voice. "They say that they have been exploring the Dreaming, and finding out things. But something about the way Elder Darlo speaks within the debate makes me feel very uncomfortable. He wants things to be his way." Clebadee paused for a moment. "Is that what you meant, Doctor, when you said he might have other reasons for becoming an elder?"

"To have power over others is a powerful stimulant," the Doctor said. "You will notice how quickly Darlo accepted the Dreaming when it seemed he would be outnumbered if he did not. He walks tall and speaks with a loud voice, and that makes people assume he knows what he's talking about when he might, in fact, be full of rubbish. He is what humans like to call a 'politician.'"

Barbara asked Clebadee, "What is he proposing that makes you so nervous?"

"It is most perplexing and unbelievable," Clebadee replied. "He wants to take all the strong emotions that hurt us, such as grief and rage, and...and...put them somewhere else so we will not have to deal with them any more. I must confess, I do not understand all of it."

"Is such a thing possible?" Ian asked.

The Doctor rubbed his chin. "I don't know. I wouldn't have thought the Terrians could do something like that. But it sounds dangerous. Clebadee has every right to be afraid."

"How come they're all talking to each other?" Susan asked. "Shouldn't the Terrians be dreaming together?"

"Not all of my people have become accustomed to the Dreaming," Clebadee explained. "Besides, I suspect..." he looked hesitantly at the Doctor, "I suspect that Darlo has not yet mastered the art of shouting on the dream plane, and therefore still uses his voice."

The Doctor clasped his hands together and smiled proudly at Clebadee.

One of the Terrians in the central chamber raised his own voice. "What you are proposing would go against nature itself! Even so, I cannot believe you can do it."

Clebadee and the four travelers stood again in the opening to the chamber, watching curiously.

"I feel we can!" Darlo said. "And we must! Whenever we enter the Dreaming, we become acutely aware of what everyone else is feeling! If any Terrian at all is having a bad time, or is angry, everyone else around him feels it! In some cases, some Terrians have experienced such anger from their fellows that they actually collapsed in pain. This condition must be eliminated, for we cannot live that way!"

"Yes, we can!"

Everyone in the central chamber turned to face the door. Clebadee stood there, surprised at himself.

"You have no part in these proceedings, youngster," Darlo snapped.

Barbara found herself stepping forward. "Bold words for someone who tried to kill him only four days ago!"

The Terrians murmured together, and looked at each other uncomfortably.

"That has already been discussed," Darlo stated simply. "All crimes arising from fear of the Dreaming have been pardoned unconditionally. The past is behind us."

"Yet I must point out, Elder Darlo," Clebadee said, "that you did not have the answers then. So what makes you think you have them now?"

"As I said, young one, you are not a part of these proceedings!"

"But I have something to say!" Clebadee suddenly snapped.

Everyone stared at him.

"I may not be as old as you, Elder Darlo, or as tall as you, or speak as loudly as you, but I do have my own mind and my own heart and my own ideas. And perhaps I, too, can be an elder. And I say that you are wrong!"

Clebadee strode boldly into the chamber. "We have always had to live with each other. To tolerate each other. Why is it suddenly so different now that we are one with the Dreaming? The Dreaming has opened up our hearts and our emotions, so now they are not so private, and we see and feel what is in our fellow Terrians more easily. The walls between us as individuals have fallen away. But does that mean we have to be afraid?"

Clebadee slowly circled the chamber, eyeing each of them in turn.

"This is a challenge, and challenges are opportunities to learn. Think of how much we can grow by having to deal with what is really inside of us, instead of stuffing it away in some hidden corner. This is a chance to learn about cooperation, and to learn about how delicate and rewarding it can be."

He turned to Darlo. "You cannot keep overcoming obstacles by simply destroying them."

Everyone was silent.

Darlo finally said, "I see now that the strangers you have befriended have corrupted you, young Clebadee." He eyed the four travelers in the doorway. "Especially their leader, who calls himself 'the Doctor.'"

"No," Clebadee replied. "Not corrupted, Elder Darlo. Freed. The Doctor has freed me to think for myself, instead of blindly accepting whatever others have to say. That is what he does! He frees people.

"I have spoken with his granddaughter, who has told me of other wondrous places they have been, places stranger and more magnificent than any of us could imagine! He travels through the universe, and it seems to me that he frees people wherever he goes. He frees them from the shackles which bind them, both on the inside and on the outside. Who among us can say the same?"

There was silence again as everyone thought about what Clebadee said.

Another Terrian spoke hesitantly. "This...alien. He is the one who first surmised what the Dreaming truly is?"

"He is," Clebadee nodded.

"I would hear him speak."

Clebadee looked around the chamber as, one by one, the other Terrians nodded agreement at this idea. Watching the tide turn carefully, Darlo also nodded and apprehensively sat down.

The Doctor grasped the lapels of his coat and stepped into the chamber, forming his words carefully. "I would not have chosen to speak to such an assembly as this, being an outsider as I am. But since you have asked, I shall not deny your request. What is it, exactly, you wish to hear?"

"What is your opinion of Elder Darlo's idea?" one of the Terrians asked hesitantly.

"Well, to answer that, I shall need to know what, exactly, he is proposing."

They all looked at Darlo, who suddenly felt very intimidated, having to explain himself to the smooth-skinned creature with the silver tongue, as he thought him.

"I propose to take all the aggression, all the anger, all the rage which disturbs us so deeply, and channel it from all over the land into one single creature and bury it deep beneath the ground."

"I see," the Doctor said. "And what makes you think you can do this?"

"Because I already have."

The Doctor raised his eyebrows.

"Several days ago, I was extremely angry over something," Darlo explained. "Elder Zilin came to me, and he was concerned for my well-being. Before either of us knew what had happened, I felt very calm, and my anger grew less, while he grew very agitated in turn. We eventually realized that he had somehow taken my anger onto himself, out of a desire to help me."

"I see," the Doctor said.

"I was intrigued by what happened, of course," Darlo continued. "So I got angry about something else, and entered the Dreaming. There, I put my anger inside a koba and then killed it. The anger came back to me. So I did it again with another one, and this time, simply imprisoned it. The anger stayed where I had put it. I felt calm, and consequently, so did the others around me. When this happened, I knew I had discovered the answer to our problem."

"You have discovered nothing, sir, except a way to force another to suffer your misery instead of dealing with it yourself," the Doctor answered, flicking a finger at him and narrowing his eyes. "Everything my young friend said was true. The Dreaming has broken down barriers amongst you, forcing all of you to deal with each other and with yourselves – in essence, with who you are. And you are trying to run away from it, instead of striving to meet the challenge of having to work together on an emotional level.

"Also, anger is not always a bad thing. It can be a useful thing, if used in the right way."

Darlo was quivering with rage as he stood up. "How dare you..." he said.

"I dare," the Doctor said simply. "This assembly has asked for my opinion, and I have given it. Now if you don't mind, I shall be on my way." He bowed.

"Go!" Darlo shouted. "Go now, before I-"

There was an anguished cry from the other side of the chamber. The Doctor spun to see a Terrian clutching his chest, rolling on the floor in pain.

It was Clebadee.

All around the chamber, other Terrians were moaning and clutching their heads.

Darlo breathed in deeply. Slowly, deliberately, he sat back down. The moaning died away. Clebadee sat up.

"Do you see, Doctor?" Darlo asked quietly. "We are all connected now. All of us. We must be rid of these emotions which damage us."

"I agree, Elder Darlo," Clebadee said weakly as he slowly stood up. "But this...is not...the way to do it."

Darlo stared at him coldly. "I am sorry that you feel that way...young one," he said. The other Terrians in the chamber were all nodding their heads. An agreement seemed to have been reached.

"You are dismissed, Doctor," Darlo said. "We have no further use for you."

The Doctor raised his chin and stared at him briefly. Then he turned and strode silently from the chamber.

No, Doctor, thought Darlo as he watched him go. That is not quite true. We do have one final use for you yet.

 

The Doctor stood on top of the colony ship, one foot resting on the hatch cover in front of him, his hand over his brow shielding his eyes in a dramatic pose. He stared aft at the damage the ship had caused.

"Well, Alonzo," the Doctor said. "If any of your new colonists wish to try their hand at farming, this might make a good place."

Alonzo nodded, looking at the deep trench of cleared ground the ship had cut into the planet.

They had actually come to rest only 30 miles south-southeast of New Pacifica. Alonzo had briefly toyed with the idea of telling Devon that he had managed to get the ship that close on purpose, but he didn't think she'd find it too funny.

Around them, Danziger and his ops crew, along with some of the uninjured people from the colony ship, were salvaging materials and machinery which had broken free of the ship's cargo pods and were now strewn about the landscape.

The members of Eden Advance, who had been on the planet for two years, worked very quickly. They knew, better than the colonists who had just arrived, exactly how fast Grendlers could be.

The hospital staff on A ward had already evacuated everyone from the ship. The Syndrome children and the wounded alike were lying on cots or on the ground all around the ship. Several people on board were dead. No effort had been made yet to remove them.

The dunerail appeared over the hill.

"Julia!" Alonzo shouted, and waved.

Julia waved back. Alonzo leaped down through the hatch again to meet her.

The Doctor followed him. His little break was over, and there was still work to do.

 

Outside, some of the workers paused for a moment to take a break of their own. Danziger, Walman, Baines, Magus, Cameron, Denner and Mazatl all stood together, breathing heavily, sweat shining on their brows.

"Well," Baines said, looking at the crashed ship. "I guess this answers our question."

The others all nodded.

 

"Good-bye, Clebadee!" Susan said, shaking his hand lightly, knowing how Terrians did not like to be touched overly much. "I'm going to miss you." Her voice echoed around the cavern.

"And I shall miss you," he said. "All of you. But I cannot blame you for going. Not after what happened today."

"Well, I think we've just outstayed our welcome, is all," Ian said. "No hard feelings. I think despite everything, you'll do all right."

"I am sure we will," Clebadee answered.

"And I have no doubt you will be an elder yourself, someday," the Doctor said with a smile. "Especially after the way you put Darlo in his place."

"Thank you, Doctor. Allow me to walk with you to your craft." He picked up his staff, which he'd made himself since entering the Dreaming, and led them towards the exit.

"Do you think Darlo will go ahead and do what he said he'd do?" Barbara asked.

"I am not sure," Clebadee answered. "It seems like such a huge thing to force an entire race to do."

There was a rustle of displaced earth, and suddenly the group found themselves surrounded by Terrians.

"The answer to your question," Darlo said, "is, 'Yes.'"

The Terrians attacked them, shoving the five friends against the tunnel wall and pinning them there.

"What is the meaning of this?" Clebadee asked, struggling vainly against his captor's grip.

"If you recall," Darlo said pleasantly, "I need a creature to hold the anger and the rage which I wish for us to be rid of. That creature needs to have a strong will, a strong constitution – and most of all, it needs to be someone expendable."

He looked at the Doctor.

"No!" Clebadee yelled. "I will not allow it!"

"You have no choice," Darlo said, then faced the Doctor. "You have been nothing but trouble since the moment you arrived. It pleases me to sacrifice you as the means for our race's survival."

"You can't mean this!" Barbara shouted.

"It has already been decided! There was very little opposition. We are all in pain, and must be freed. That was what Clebadee said you did, was it not, Doctor? Free people?" He smiled, and gurgled with pleasure. "I shall take you very far away, and channel the energy, and lock you away for eternity!"

"NO!" Clebadee shouted again, and before anyone knew what was happening, lightning erupted from his staff and blew Darlo back across the tunnel.

Everyone looked at him in surprise. The other Terrians jumped back, releasing them.

"How did you do that?" Ian asked.

"I- I do not know," Clebadee said wonderingly, looking at his staff. "It...just happened."

"It must be something to do with the Dreaming," Susan said. "Grandfather – he can channel the energy of the planet!"

"Yes," the Doctor said quietly. "In a similar way that Darlo says he can, I expect."

Darlo stood up. "Yes," he said. "And if he can do that, then perhaps so can I!" And with that he picked up his own staff, planted it in the ground, and shot a burst of energy back at Clebadee.

The blast hit Clebadee full in the chest, and he slumped to the ground.

Darlo leaped across the cave and tackled the Doctor, and they both disappeared into the tunnel wall.

They flew through the ground together. The Doctor dared not struggle. If he broke free of Darlo's grip, he would be stuck beneath the ground.

They emerged into another, smaller cave. The Doctor looked around him, and was startled by an explosion behind him.

No, not an explosion, he realized – a very controlled, precise burst of energy. As he watched, a white light seemed to grow from a point a million miles beyond the cave wall. It stretched into the cave and pulled back again. He felt the air rush by him in suction as he stood there. Turning around, he saw spider webs near the cave entrance.

The web paths, Clebadee had called them.

"How far have we traveled from the others?" the Doctor asked.

"Not far," Darlo reassured him. "The others are but two valleys distant, but we are about to travel much further. They will have no way of knowing where we have gone, and my fellow Terrians are preparing the transfer as we speak." And with that, Darlo grabbed the Doctor again and leaped into the path of the next burst of energy.

It was freezing.

The Doctor looked around. They were in an ice cavern of some sort. Darlo ushered him outside, and he saw that they were on a short cliff overlooking a grey sea. The cold was intense, and the wind was sharp. Floating on the sea all around were ice floes. Darlo shoved the Doctor to the cliff's edge.

"Into the water, Doctor!" Darlo commanded, and spread his arms wide.

"If you think you can force me to do anything, you are quite mis- oh!" The Doctor buckled over, clutching his chest. It felt as if something had just hit him.

When he looked up, everything was different. The world around him seemed to move in slow motion. Sound echoed. Below him, the waves crashed into the cliff face with a terrible force. He felt he could hear every drop hit the shore.

"Wh- where are we?" he asked.

"We are in the Dreaming, Doctor," Darlo answered, without using words. "It is here the transfer shall take place. Already, I can feel the energy from all over my world gathering together. Soon, the Terrian people shall be free of it all."

The Doctor fell to his knees, then onto his face. It felt as if the entire world were crushing him. He gathered all his mental power and fought the transfer, but was overwhelmed.

He was fighting off an entire planet, and he knew he couldn't win.

 

The Doctor examined the microscope in Julia's medical hut with minute interest.

"I want to thank you for staying and helping us, Doctor," Julia said.

"Oh, it was nothing," he replied without looking up. "Besides, we haven't found the TARDIS, yet. It was right in the corridor where the hospital ward broke away from the ship, so it could be anywhere on the planet's surface."

Julia was silent for a moment. "You don't seem very worried about it."

"Well, the TARDIS is a grown ship. She can take care of herself. A five mile drop is a mere bump on the head to a ship as tough as the TARDIS. I wouldn't even be surprised if she landed right side up." He smiled.

"Why didn't you just pile everyone on board the TARDIS and bring them safely here?" she asked. There was no accusation in her voice, only curiosity.

"Logistics, mainly," the Doctor said. "And safety. The TARDIS interior is huge, but full of corridors, and there are some sections that not even I've been to yet. People would have gotten lost, and it would have been a difficult job finding them all again.

"But mainly it was because of the saboteur. If I had tried to put everyone in the TARDIS, Hanson would have been forced to do something very drastic to keep us all in space. And he would have had plenty of time to do something, because it would have taken several hours, at least, to put everyone on my ship. Bringing people to G889 in my TARDIS was something I was more than willing to do, but I wanted the saboteur caught, first. I just didn't realize that Hanson had been double-crossed himself by whomever planted that bomb, and that we'd already run out of time."

They left the medical hut and made their way to the central hall. Around them were a thousand people building a colony – erecting huts, caring for the injured in the tents Eden Advance had dug back out. A plane roared by overhead, bringing in another load of people from one of the colony ship's evac pods. Two such planes had been salvaged from the cargo, and Danziger had high hopes he could repair a third.

Some ways off, Zero dispassionately swiveled his head to follow K9 as the robot dog circled around him.

In the central hall they found all the members of Eden Advance, along with Romana and Dr. Vasquez. Romana and Devon were at the table studying something.

"Doctor," Devon called. "Come and take a look at this."

The Doctor and Julia looked at each other.

"I think she was talking to you."

"No, no, I think she was talking to you."

"Both of you," Devon said.

They approached the table. "What is it?" Julia asked.

"Oh, just something you need to know if you're going to stay here," Romana said. "I took a walk in the woods this morning, up in the hills, and I found the most peculiar things. Take a look at these."

On the table were assorted leaves, jars of dirt, and the bones of small animals.

Julia shook her head. "What am I supposed to be seeing?"

"Well, life evolves in a similar manner on most worlds with oceans," Romana explained. "And these animals are definitely the remains of different kinds of fish and other aquatic life, and I wondered what they could possibly be doing so far away from shore, as it didn't look like they'd been eaten by any bird or other life form. So I picked a few leaves and collected a few soil samples and brought them back for study, and I found a high salt content in them!" She beamed brightly.

Julia said, "So...there was a massive tidal wave?"

"Exactly!" Romana exclaimed. "Sometime last year, I should think. That's the only way to account for such things being high in the hills above New Pacifica."

"Which is something you need to watch out for," the Doctor said. "Tidal waves happen every now and then. But before they do, the undertow creates a massive pull, and shortly before a tidal wave comes into shore, the ocean actually retreats away from the land."

"So if you ever see that happen," Romana said, "run for it."

Danziger laughed in admiration. "We will," he promised. He couldn't help but notice that Devon was very quiet all of a sudden. She was looking intently at the objects on the table.

"There's one thing I don't understand," Baines said. "What caused the colony ship to crash?"

"There was a bomb on the outside of the ship," the Doctor said. "That was why the resonance scan you ran back on the stations didn't catch it. It was planted on the outside of the fuel tank, and it almost succeeded in doing exactly what it was designed to do."

"But why did it go off when the ship reached G889?" Bess asked. "Why not sooner?"

"Well, there's no way to be sure," the Doctor said, "but I suspect that it was a gravity-triggered mine. Causing the ship to spin in open space wouldn't have really done anything, so they designed the bomb to be triggered only when it approached a huge gravitational force."

"But if someone really wanted to kill all of us," Morgan said, "all they needed to do was plant a small nuclear warhead in both ships and blow us to kingdom come halfway here. That way there wouldn't have been any survivors."

"And what does that tell you, Mr. Martin?" the Doctor asked.

"It tells me that-" Morgan suddenly hesitated. His face cleared. "It tells me that they wanted us to survive."

"Some of you, I'm sure," the Doctor said. "They didn't have anything against you founding a colony, as long as they retained control of the planet. No, Mr. Martin, they sabotaged your ships because they just didn't want anyone coming back."

Everyone was silent for a moment.

Outside, people suddenly started screaming.

They all ran outside to find a Terrian standing in the middle of the town. Several colonists were hesitantly aiming magpros at it, but most were running.

"Nonononononono," Danziger ran out into the street, motioning for everyone to put down their weapons. "It's all right. He's a friend. He doesn't mean us any harm." He looked at the Terrian. "I'm pretty sure."

The Doctor gazed thoughtfully at the Terrian. "You know, he looks familiar." Then he snapped his fingers. "Of course! Terrians! You people have colonized the planet of the Terrians! I had no idea! My word, they have changed, haven't they?"

"He needs something," Alonzo said. He walked up to the Terrian and closed his eyes.

After a moment he opened them. He turned around and looked at the Doctor.

"He says he needs you."

"Me?" The Doctor walked forward.

The Terrian held out his hand.

"He wants you to dream with him," Alonzo said. "He says you need to go back."

"Go back? Go back where?"

Alonzo looked at the Terrian again. "He won't say. I get the feeling it's a private message for you."

The Doctor stood in front of the Terrian. Somehow, he instinctively knew what to do. He closed his eyes.

Time seemed to slow down. The Terrian was speaking to him in a way that wasn't quite speaking. In a flash of light, they were standing on a cliff beside an icy sea. An older Terrian, different from the one who had summoned him, was standing over an old man with his arms spread wide. The old man on the ground was writhing in pain.

"What's going on?" the Doctor asked, although it seemed familiar. He felt he should know, as if he'd been there before.

He bent down to look at the old man, and in a flash, the Doctor knew where he was.

He had been there before.

"So that's what happened," he said. "I'd always wondered." He stood up and looked at Darlo, still crying aloud as the energy of the planet coursed through his body.

The Doctor put out his hand. "Stop!" he said.

Darlo heard a voice, and opened his eyes.

Standing before him was another man, with dark curly hair, his hand outstretched.

"What...?" Darlo asked. The confusion caused him to falter, and his body jerked once. He could barely control the energy.

"What you're doing is wrong, Darlo," the strange man said.

Darlo jerked again, more confused than ever.

"Yes, that's right – I know who you are. I remember. You shot that poor young fellow in the chest, didn't you? It's a miracle he survived."

"What- what is going on?" Darlo asked.

"Retribution," the Doctor said darkly. He turned to the figure on the ground. "Come on. Get up."

The white-haired man with the cane got to his feet, and they stood there side by side – the Doctor in his first incarnation and the Doctor in his fourth incarnation, meeting on the dream plane. Together, they faced Darlo, and concentrated. The Terrian from the future stood by and watched.

Darlo bent over backwards. "No!" he screeched. "No! Not me! Not...me!"

The two Doctors, applying the full force of their wills, turned the energy back onto Darlo. He staggered from side to side, wrestling with the energy as it slowly possessed him. He staggered in a half circle all the way around them, and with a shriek he fell into the icy sea.

The emotional energy churning across the planet, seeking him as a conduit, found him, and stopped inside him. Swirling through the sky and up from the ground, whipping around them in a storm of light, it swirled down in a funnel and deposited itself inside Darlo.

There was a final flash of light, and all was still.

The First Doctor opened his eyes. He was on the ground, alone and back in the real world. Carefully, he stood up. He could tell he had been unconscious for hours, for night had fallen while he'd slept. His body had slowed his metabolism to keep him alive in the sub-zero temperatures.

Brushing himself off, he turned around and came face to face with Darlo.

A block of ice had frozen around the Terrian. It stood precariously on the cliff's edge. The elder was frozen in a moment of pain, hatred and rage, his mouth open in a soundless scream, his eyes alight with fury.

"Hmp," the Doctor said, grabbing the lapels of his coat. "A fitting end, for someone who had every chance to avoid it. Although, just between you and me, I'm not quite sure how it happened. Maybe someday I'll find out, eh?"

Looking down at the water, then up at the two moons in the sky, the Doctor realized that the double high tide must have deposited the frozen Terrian back on the cliff top during the afternoon, while he'd slept.

The Doctor gazed out over the gray sea. "Now, what was it you said? 'Buried in the earth?' I imagine the planet will fulfill its duty and swallow you, and there is no telling where you will end up. The deed has been done – the Terrian people have made their choice, and you, my friend, have paid the price."

The Doctor stepped right up to the block of ice and looked Darlo in the eye.

"May no one ever find you," he said, and blew a little puff of air.

Immediately the cliff edge cracked, and the block of ice slowly toppled back into the sea.

Before it even hit the water, the Doctor had spun on his heel and was headed back to the cave.