The Sun was blazing hot on Earth, and even more blazing hot this close to it in space. Reinforced armour on the hull of the KH8 protected it while in the neighbourhood of Mercury, and a bit closer than that also, but any further would endanger primary systems: life support, engines, computers, and not to mention the basic temperature inside the ship.
Franklin Mercator found this news very discouraging when his first officer told him their current status, but Mercator knew how to deal with people, and announced it at the ship's social that night.
Needless to say, everyone panicked.
It wasn't as if Mercator didn't announce it in an untactful manner. In fact, these were his words:
"Hello, all. Having a nice night I see. Congratulations to Mrs Smith for winning the karaoke contest; you sound less like Yoko Ono every day.
"It appears that we might have some bad news. For some reason that none of us crew can fathom, the King Henry VIII seems to be flying straight towards the Sun and we can't get off this bloody course.
"Now, you may feel like panicking at this point, but before he went into hysterics, the ship's councillor recommended that you do not panic, and I rather agree with him. We do seem to have another week before we crash into the Sun and get destroyed by its terrible and brutal gravity, but we only have three days before we all dehydrate or get cooked alive due to the heat generated by the Sun.
"Or both.
"Once again, please don't panic."
The news of everyone's imminent death, coupled with the fact that there were no escape pods, brought about an interesting settlement. After the initial panic died down, everyone decided to spend the last three days of their lives in a giant farewell ball; costumes the first day, karaoke the second, and a dance-till-you-drop affair the third day, continuing until everyone dropped dead.
Everyone had just returned to their rooms to see to their costumes when, in one of the less used corridors of the ship, there was a strange wheezing, groaning sound. A tall blue box appeared from nowhere, nowhere being a fascinatingly accurate description of the space-time vortex.
Out of this curious blue box stepped three persons. The first was a tallish man, who seemed to be made entirely of metal, even though he was only mostly made of metal. His insides were actually several separate life support functions, a few computers, and some biological bits, all assembled in the proper cybernetic fashion. Affixed onto his head were two pipes on the opposite sides, leading into a smaller device on the apex of his head. He carried a staff slightly less in length than he was tall without any discomfort; without any emotion at all, as a matter of fact. Most Cybermen don't have emotions, and even though this Cyberman was struggling with his, he still didn't display them in any body language. His name was Kroton.
The second person to step from the box was human. She was a girl, possibly a teenager, possibly a little older. She wore a black leather jacket over a pale blue shirt. There were various badges of various sorts on various spots of her jacket, the most prominent bearing the name "Ace." She reached into the satchel, which she carried over one shoulder, pulled out a pair of sunglasses, flipped them open, and put them on. Her name was that found on her jacket, Ace.
The third figure to emerge was probably the most curious of all. A long brown coat and dark scarf of reds and browns were worn over an elegant waistcoat, and the lapel protruding from this bore question marks. He strode out of the curious blue box with a confident manner, and closed the door sharply behind him. He had an attractive name, but that was long forgotten by most, and those who did remember it were not present. Most of those who did know him well addressed him as the Doctor.
It was the Doctor who led Kroton and Ace through their adventures in space and time. He travelled in the blue box, properly called a TARDIS (which does not stand for Tricky And Really Dark In Side; it stands for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space). The TARDIS was acquired by the Doctor from his home planet of Gallifrey, which does not come into this tale. Content yourself with knowing that the Doctor is a Timelord, renegade from his own people and using his control of things which only the Timelords understand to right wrongs in this forsaken universe.
"Where are we, Professor?" asked Ace. Well, most do address him as the Doctor. Ace didn't; she non-conformed in the usual fashion, including having new names for everyone.
"A ship," replied the Doctor, examining the less used corridor of the ship that they happened to land in. "Around Earth. Specifically, in Earth's solar system. Strange."
"Why?" asked Kroton, who had been making his own examination of the ship this whole time.
"The year, according to the TARDIS, is A.D. 1215, the year John was supposed to have signed the Magna Carta."
"How is there a ship here then?" asked Ace. "Is it even from Earth?"
"Good question," said the Doctor. "Let's go find out. Which way do you suppose to be the control room?"
A direction was chosen, and the three went off. By good luck, they were heading straight towards the lift that would take them to the control room. By bad luck, there were forty-two decks between them and the control room. By good luck again, the Doctor chose this very number. They sped up towards the bridge as Mercator stepped off the adjacent lift and entered the control room.
"How's the-er-how's the ship?" asked Mercator.
"Very good," said Peterson, the first officer, "all things considered. Everything is functioning as it should be, and we don't anticipate anything breaking down due to the heat until about halfway through the karaoke party, and it won't be the karaoke machine. The karaoke machine won't break down for a while after that. Certainly not until after karaoke night is over."
"Jolly good," said Mercator, feeling very much relieved. As long as this final three-day party could continue without any hiccups, aside from everyone dying, then Mercator would have done everything possible.
Mercator went down to the ballroom to have a sherry with the passengers, just missing the Doctor arriving at the control room's deck.
"Professor, is it just me, or is it kinda hot?" asked Ace.
"I've detected a gradually increasing temperature as well," said Kroton.
"We've probably just been getting closer to the engines," said the Doctor nonchalantly. "Or the sauna. I shouldn't worry about it if I was one of us, and I am. Thus my lack of worry."
He entered the control room, and completely surprised Peterson, who was just settling down in his First Officer's chair with a milkshake.
"Hello," said the Doctor brightly. "You must be the one in charge here, or at least someone with quite a bit of power. No enlisted men would dare drink a milkshake in a control room."
"Who-what-who?" sputtered Peterson, barely setting down his milkshake without dropping it. "And where-from-how-who are-?"
"I'm the Doctor," said he, not unkindly. "Do you need any help?" He indicated the milkshake sitting on the arm of the First Officer's chair in a rather precarious position.
Peterson quickly righted the glass, and turned quickly to face the three strangers again. "Who are you? What are you doing here? How did you get here? Where did you come from?"
"Doctor; helping; you wouldn't understand; all of the above," answered the Doctor.
Peterson noticed the others behind the Doctor. "Who are you?" he yelled, pointing. "Cyberman! We're going to die!"
Kroton would have shrugged if Cybermen did that sort of thing. "You're assuming a lot there to begin with," he said. "Cybermen don't wantonly destroy. The only reason we'd take a ship like this would be if looking for new recruits."
"New re-recruits-" Peterson swallowed nervously, then raised his hands slowly. "I mean no harm to your kind. I-"
"Thank you," said Kroton, offering his hand to shake. Peterson screamed and fainted.
"I don't think you helped, Kroton," said Ace.
"Helped me though," said the Doctor. "I can get a good look at these controls without being . . ." He fell silent for a moment. Then: "Oh dear."
"What is it, Professor?" asked Ace.
"This ship-"
"The King Henry VIII," said Kroton, pointing to an emblem on the wall.
"-seems to be heading straight into the Sun."
"Can you change the course?" asked Ace.
"We're not caught in the Sun's gravity yet," said the Doctor, hands flying across the controls. He frowned, and tried more controls.
"Locked?" asked Kroton. "Old Cybertrick, locking the controls. Seen it dozens of times."
"Not locked," said the Doctor. "Just . . . nonexistent. As if the connecting parts aren't responding at all." He regarded the information screens again. "I can't judge what we should do without having a better grasp of what's going on. I need to speak to someone in control, and if he's-" he nudged Peterson with his boot "-in charge, I'll eat my scarf, which I don't fancy doing, so I must be right."
"What do we do then?" asked Ace.
"Why don't you stay with our non-command-material?" suggested the Doctor. "Kroton and I can try to get a better idea of what's going on."
"Cheers," Ace waved, and sat in the First Officer's chair. She wondered when the fainted man would wake up. As she decided to drink his untouched milkshake, the Doctor and Kroton stepped onto the lift.
"Wait," said the Doctor.
"What?" asked Kroton.
"Remember how that man reacted? The people here don't favour the Cybermen very well. Maybe you should do something else while I find who's in control. Unless there's a costume ball going on, you'll stand out like a sore thumb and cause all sorts of panic."
"Where should I go then?"
"How about the engines themselves?" proposed the Doctor. "You know a fair amount about this kind of ship. Maybe you can get a head start on figuring out exactly what's going on."
"Agreed," said Kroton, and went to the other lift.
The Doctor punched up the bottom floor on the lift and put his ear to the door. He didn't hear any sounds of human activity until about floor seventeen. When he did hear it, he pressed the STOP button. A few moments with the sonic screwdriver opened the door, and the Doctor headed towards the sounds of human activity that he had heard. When he could make out some of the words, he stopped in shock.
"Being for the benefit of Mister Kite, there will be a show tonight on trampolines!"
"Mrs Smith! Please follow the schedule! Karaoke tomorrow, costumes tonight!"
"Sorry, Captain Mercator," said the singing voice, now not singing, and rather ashamed.
The Doctor poked his head around the corner and took in what could have been the most comical scene he had seen in all of his lives. The room was full of costumed folk, with various degrees of schnazziness. Some wore long elegant gowns from various historical periods, suits of armour, and detailed costumes depicting horrifying or classy characters. Others were wearing a simple mask or hat.
The Doctor patted himself down until he came across a mask. He glanced at it before slipping it over his head and walked into the party.
"Look, Einstein!" "Nice mask!" "Drink, sir?"
This last was from one of the crew, obviously serving drink and finger food to the crowd.
"Thank you," said the Doctor graciously, and took what looked like a sherry. "Could you maybe direct me to Captain Mercator?"
"The gentleman speaking to the tiger and the corpse," said the server, pointing.
"Ah, I see," said the Doctor. "The one dressed as Nelson. Good costume."
"No, sir," said the server. "He always dresses like that." He gave the Doctor-as-Einstein a last strange look before moving on to offer Dracula a drink. Dracula, of course, requested a Bloody Mary.
The Doctor headed towards Mercator as Kroton arrived at what he believed the engines were. They were fairly standard starship engines, especially for a non-military craft. Kroton surveyed them thoroughly. Parts were moving, various mechanisms were making the correct sounds at the correct times, and everything seemed to be functioning perfectly.
"Hello," said Kroton to the whole mass before him. "What's wrong with you?" He walked into the second room of engines, filled with lovely gears and other things to make a ship go. "What could possibly be not connecting?"
"Me, maybe," said one of the engines behind the Cyberman. Kroton spun, bringing his staff up into a defensive position. A figure stepped out from behind one of the engines. "You're not supposed to be here," it said, "but that's probably alright, neither am I."
As Kroton stared at this new character, Peterson woke up. "What happened?" he asked. Then he saw Ace in his chair. "You're not supposed to sit there without - wait!" His eyes popped with dread again. "You're with the Cyberman. You're going to kill me!"
"Not necessarily," said Ace. "Not yet, at any rate. I usually wait till I get to know you before I kill you. First, though, I was wondering if you'd answer some questions for me."
"What would those be, then?" said Peterson suspiciously.
Ace was to find out most of the same things that the Doctor found out at the ball, only much slower, as she was more accustomed to blowing things up than subtly questioning and observing. As might be deduced, the Doctor was making fairly good progress with Mercator.
"Hello," said Mercator as the Doctor came up. "Who are you under there? I didn't know Einstein dressed like that, but I'm not to complain. Who minds when we're all going to die?"
"I don't think you'd know me," said the Doctor. "I've just arrived. You know that we're all going to die?"
"Yes, that's why I announced it. Surely you were around for that. What do you mean, just arrived?"
From this short conversation, the Doctor had already picked up on two important things. Everyone knew they were going to crash. The captain wasn't that bright. The passengers weren't that bright, either, but they knew not to bother with things beyond their control. The Doctor wouldn't have not bothered with the crash in this relaxed manner, but it seemed to work well with the partiers.
The Doctor realised that Mercator was waiting for an answer. "Sorry, what was that? Oh, yes, just arrived. Right." He peeled off his mask. "Well, I'm a Timelord, and-"
"Timelord?" said Mercator. "Say no more, sir. You came in one of your little time crafts because we might be in trouble dealing with this era and all. Good job you did. Can you get us off the KH8?"
The Doctor was taken aback for a moment, then grinned broadly. "Do you have an office we might retreat to?" he asked. "I have a few more things I'd like to discuss."
Mercator led the way to the lounge as Kroton regarded his conversation partner. He was a tall man, still shorter than a Cyberman, skinny, gangly, dirty, shabby, unshaved. His clothes were grey and dirty, and the sheaf of papers that he held were also rather dirty, crumbled, and slightly burned along two edges. His only outstanding feature was seven fingers on each hand.
"What are you doing here?" asked Kroton.
The tall man thrust the papers behind the engines, walked up, and inspected Kroton. "Cyberman, eh? Older model, aren't you? Not the normal kind, though. Not scout type, not warrior type. Leader? Pilot?"
"Assassin," said Kroton. "I'm not with the Cybermen anymore, though. I've got soul."
"Right," said the man. "I'm Sabet, and I'm not supposed to be here."
"Kroton," said he. "A friend asked me to come here, but that doesn't mean I'm supposed to be here either. Why are you here?"
"I'm a temporal engineer," said Sabet. "I was on the ship before it left port, but I got trapped onboard." And Kroton heard the whole story.
The King Henry VIII was a luxury star liner, travelling in time to significant dates in history, but staying a far enough distance away that no one on Earth noticed. Sabet was one of the dock engineers for the time drive, but after he left the ship the time drive malfunctioned and pulled him back to the ship, but not in time, just space, which Sabet couldn't explain.
"That's my theory, at least," said Sabet.
The trip was going as normal for the first two weeks. The destination was the Magna Carta, and everyone was having a ball, in both senses of the phrase. Then, for some unexplained reason, observed by Sabet in the engines, the shipped veered out of orbit and headed toward the Sun.
"Actually, I can explain it," said Sabet. "Pieces of the stellar engine just fell out of place. Other things fell, too. Catwalks, ceiling panels, luggage, engines. Enough that I couldn't get through to even see what needed to be fixed, much less fix it. Why everything fell, I can't explain."
"Hmm," Kroton would have said if Cybermen did that. He tried, but only an electronic buzz came out, too soft for Sabet to notice. "Can anything get past the . . . fallen stuff?"
"Only something the size of, oh, a rat. Maybe." Kroton would have smiled, but only a faint buzz came out again. Sabet was taking him to the fall as Peterson was taking Ace to the lounge.
"If Captain Mercator is anywhere, he'll be there," said Peterson. "And then you can explain to him - and me - what the hell is going on with you and that Cyberman and why you were interrogating me."
He had stopped answering questions when he realised that Ace really did mean no harm, and when Ace suggested they go find some one in charge, Peterson immediately took it up as his own plan.
They entered the lounge to find the Doctor and Mercator swapping tales of time travel. "Hey, Professor," said Ace.
"Hello, Ace," said the Doctor. "There is no need to panic. After a few answers from our friend Captain Mercator here, this whole affair is much simpler than I first thought. I might not even mention it to someone else, and that's saying something, or not saying something, as the case may be. Meanwhile, what have you been up to?"
Ace relayed their story, and the Doctor his, which was much like Kroton's, save the things falling. "Should be a simple matter just to go down to fix things, now that we know this is a luxury liner. Very straight forward ships these. Just have to do it in the next three days sometime."
Something on the table beeped. Mercator pressed a button. "Hello, yes?"
"Is the Doctor there?" asked a voice.
The Doctor gave Mercator a questioning look, and Mercator nodded permission. "Yes," said the Doctor. "That you, Kroton?"
"Doctor, there's a bit of a problem down here. I found the mechanical error."
"An error would be a problem."
"The time engine has gone wild."
A moment of silence passed. Then: "Come again, Kroton?"
"The time engine has gone wild. Has a mind of its own, it seems."
The Doctor fell back into silence. Ace nudged him. "Professor?" The Doctor didn't respond. "Professor, what are we going to do?"
"Kroton," said the Doctor, "can you describe the engine? How it's . . . gone wild?"
"No, I only have the description of one of the dock engineers to go on."
Mercator broke in. "Why is there a dock engineer on board?"
"Later," said the Doctor. "Kroton, why can't you describe the time engine?"
"The engine apparently blocked itself off from the rest of the ship. It used whatever was around. Unfortunately, the stellar engine was around. That's why the ship can't get away from its path toward the Sun."
The Doctor stood. "Kroton, I'm coming down there. I need more information on this engine."
"Doctor, I can get some information - but it would be dangerous."
"Do it. I'm coming down there now."
"Wait a minute, Doctor," said Mercator. "I don't like this idea of something dangerous happening willy-nilly on my ship."
"Don't worry, Captain," said the Doctor with a grin. He left, feeling very worried himself. As he entered the lift, Kroton turned to Sabet.
"You may want to leave."
"What are you going to do?"
"Something that could endanger anyone on this ship, if I'm not careful. I need to concentrate, and you could distract me. If I lose concentration, then you might die. That's two reasons for you to leave."
"Right," said Sabet. He headed out of the room.
Kroton opened a compartment on his chest unit, and pulled out a Cybermat. He set it on the ground carefully. The Cybermat started to move away. To anyone other than a Cyberman, or a good friend of the species, Kroton appeared to be meditating. He was really transferring all of his thought processes to controlling the Mat, so it would seek out life and kill it, it's primary and default function.
The Mat slid into one of the gaps in the fall where pieces of the stellar drive had fallen unevenly. After navigating a simple and random maze of parts, it came out on the other side, in front of the time drive. There was a glowing mass in the middle. It flashed a strange, irregular light. Reams of information sped along the monitors surrounding the engine. Suddenly, one of the screens went blank; then the Doctor's face appeared on it. He was walking out of a lift, and-
A hand fell on Kroton shoulder, and he spun, staff up in a defensive position. It was the Doctor.
"I wish you hadn't done that," Kroton said. "I had a Cybermat out."
"What?" said the Doctor, alarmed. "Go get it, quick."
Kroton indicated what lay beyond the fall. "I sent it back there, as a scout. I was going to get it back, but I was disturbed-"
"So that's what that engineer fellow was trying to tell me," said the Doctor. He turned and called. "I say! You can come back now!"
Sabet came in. "Is it safe yet?"
"No," said the Doctor, "and it's liable not to be safe for a while yet. Where's that intercom you were using?" Sabet pointed, and the Doctor activated it. "Hello?" he said, "Ace?"
"Yes, Professor?" came the reply.
"Is there any gold around?"
Kroton flinched. Ace said, "The Cap'in says most of the ornaments are. This is a luxury liner."
"Good," said the Doctor. "Round up the passengers into a room without many entrances, including vents. Keep an electric current running in a cable around the whole group and arm everyone with some amount of gold. Kroton accidentally let out one of his Cybermats."
"Oh -," came the cheerful response.
The Doctor flipped the intercom off and turned to Kroton. "Somehow this simple affair isn't so simple anymore. What did your Cybermat see before I came?"
"I've never seen a time engine before, but this looked like a big glowing lump with computers around it. Just before you came up, your face was on one of the monitors."
"Hmm," said the Doctor. "Big glowing lump. Doesn't sound like something the Timelords approved."
"The Timelords approved this ship?"
"Oh, yes. Most civilised time travelling species or corporations have to be approved and licensed by the Timelords, or they put your time ships through pretty rough waters. Cheaper and better to follow their rules. Mercator told me about when he once met a Timelord to arrange permits and all that." The Doctor sat on a crate. "This engine, though. It's strange." He looked at the fall. "I wish I could spare Ace to blow her way into that, but she'll be too busy for that." He stood. "Kroton, go find Ace and get some Nitro 9 from her. Tell her a ten second fuse. Make sure it's a ten second fuse." He turned to Sabet. "I'm going to have a talk with your friend here in the mean time."
"Right, Doctor," said Kroton. As he headed toward the lift, Ace walked into the ballroom with Peterson.
"Hello, all!" she yelled. The passengers all turned to her, several complaining about her interruption of the karaoke. "We have a bit of a problem here," she said in a not as loud voice. "I'm going to help, but I need some info. How many people are here, cast and crew, and what's the smallest room I could fit you into?"
There were forty passengers and ten crewmembers. The small ballroom would be big enough for all of them. "And it's not ventilated," said Peterson as they herded the masses. "Main reason it's not used." They got to the small ballroom, and Peterson turned to leave. "I'm going to find some cable for the Doctor's plan," he said. "Just over in stores."
He left, and Ace began to organise fifty people into vandalising the ship's decorations, much to the joy of some of the more promiscuous passengers there, and had them pile small pellets and pieces of gold in the centre of the room. About ten kilos worth had been gathered when Kroton walked in carrying a cable.
"What are you doing here?" asked Ace.
"Your friend Peterson is dead," said Kroton. "Cybermat."
"Dammit," said Ace.
"He did have this," he said, handing her the cable. "You know what to do with it. Do you have the . . . gold yet?"
"Yeah," said Ace. She indicated the pile and called into the group again. "Keep that stuff away from him," she shouted, waving a thumb at Kroton.
"The Doctor also needs some Nitro 9," said Kroton.
"'Bout time," said Ace. She grabbed her satchel. "Let's go."
"Shouldn't you stay with this group? At least set up the energy cable?"
"Alright, you take it," she said.
"He was very emphatic about it having a ten-second fuse."
"Paranoid Prof," said Ace, but she made the necessary modifications to the explosive.
Kroton took the Nitro 9 and headed back toward the lift as the Doctor headed toward the lift. "Just have Kroton blow up that fall and get into the engine room," he told Sabet. "And tell him I'll be in my TARDIS."
"Right," said Sabet. The Doctor entered the lift and moved to where the TARDIS was. The plan was to be able to contact Kroton from the TARDIS if the fall fell again, and be able to relate to him anything the TARDIS said. He arrived at the TARDIS and went in. The second thing he noticed, after he made sure his coat landed on the rack when he tossed it off, was a flashing message on the console. It simply said:
IMMINENT TIME DIFFUSION DETECTED
NON-BIOLOGICAL AND NON-MECHANICAL INTELLIGENCE DETECTED
RECOMMEND DIFFUSION REPAIRED BEFORE HAZARDOUS STATE REACHED
RECOMMEND CONTACT WITH ANOMALOUS INTELLIGENCE IMMEDIATELY
The Doctor almost panicked for the fourth time. The first time in this particular affair that he almost panicked was when he realised they were heading for the Sun. The second time was when he saw Sabet's hands. The third was when he heard personally Sabet's story about being pulled back in time. He realised that there was a little too much to almost panic about with Sabet. He quickly checked if the TARDIS had anything else to say on its recommendations, which it didn't, then headed out.
As the Doctor approached a lift, Kroton arrived at the engines rooms. Sabet was waiting. "Where's the Doctor?" Kroton asked.
"Looking for you," said Sabet. "He said not to do anything until he came back."
"Right," said Kroton. He noticed Sabet was fidgeting and hiding something behind his back. "What have you got there?" he asked.
Sabet smiled and lunged at Kroton. His hand whipped out, and clutched in it was a piece of gold shaped roughly like a bayonet. Kroton dropped the Nitro 9 to get a better hold of his staff, and slid back smoothly beyond Sabet's reach. "Where did you find that?" he said.
"I made a quick trip upstairs when the Doctor left. First chance I've had since I realised there was a Cyberman here." He made another lunge at Kroton. "I knew you would do me no good. I just have to keep you at bay for sixty hours. Then we'll be in the Sun's gravity inescapably!"
Kroton would have sighed except he didn't have the lungs for it; and also he had to dodge yet another attack from Sabet. He tried to knock the gold knife from Sabet's hands, but Sabet was much quicker than he seemed, avoiding every attack as deftly as Kroton avoided his. The Cyberman could not help but to notice how he was being driven into a corner by Sabet. He decided to try to distract Sabet.
"The Doctor is coming back, isn't he?" asked Kroton.
Sabet laughed, and tried another swing. "Oh, yes. I can't help that, but he can't help you." He patted a previously not obvious gun at his belt. "Even if he manages to regenerate, I'll keep shooting him until he's completely dead."
Kroton was at a loss for what to do. Sabet certainly had an unbreakable plan. "But why do you want to get caught in the Sun? You'll die like us."
Sabet laughed again. "Really?" He renewed his attack, much more ferociously. Kroton had to work at not getting hit now. He had little room to dodge, and couldn't afford to get hit at all by the gold. If it got into his chest or head units, it would plate up his breathing and kill him. It would also effectively paralyse any other limb that got hurt, though, and Kroton suspected that Sabet knew this.
"Kroton?" said the Doctor, walking in.
"Get out!" yelled Kroton. Sabet drew his gun with his left hand and shot at the Doctor. The Doctor hastily backed out of the room.
"Did you know my TARDIS thinks you're anomalous, Sabet?" called the Doctor. "It's seen cybernetic intelligence as strong yours, but nothing in the slightest like your kind of intelligence. You are the engine, aren't you?"
"Yes, Doctor, you know my secret," said Sabet. "I never worked as a dock engineer. I was never drawn back to the ship in some reverse time warp. I suppose someone of your kind would recognise a story like that very quickly. I could change what I had told the Cyberman. I knew my plan was doomed when you sent for explosives. Fortunately you left me alone so I could arm myself."
"Who are you?" called the Doctor. "You're not human, they only have five fingers on each hand. Other than that, you look very much like one."
"I'm a Chronite," said Sabet. "And I will be a god!"
"You forgot one thing," said Kroton.
"What?" said Sabet, turning his attention back to Kroton.
Kroton held out another Cybermat from his chest unit. "Don't make me drop this."
Sabet smiled. "It'll kill the Doctor as well."
"Don't worry about it!" yelled the Doctor, popping his head around the corner. "I'll handle it."
"Alright," said Kroton. He dropped the Mat. It landed with a thud and spun around. It saw Sabet and headed straight for him.
"No!" yelled Sabet, and swung at it with his gold. He missed and the Mat launched itself at Sabet's throat. "No!" he choked. He threw the Mat away from his face, and it headed toward the door and the Doctor.
"Doctor!" yelled Kroton as he kicked the gold knife through the doorway. His foot immediately went numb. He turned back toward Sabet. Shiny black lines crossed over his face in a hideous zig-zag pattern. Satisfied that Sabet would no longer be a problem, Kroton headed for the door. The Doctor had smashed the knife over the Mat much faster than Sabet had. It was now lying dormant on the floor.
"That's what we did," said Ace, coming up behind them. "Crisis solved on our end."
"Good," said the Doctor. "Great timing. Now you can blow up that pile over there. The crisis isn't over at this end."
"But we killed Sabet," said Kroton. "What else needs to be done?"
The Doctor sighed. "Okay, listen up, both of you. I'm only going over this once. Time engines are made of notoriously unstable stuff, T Chronium. The best way to stabilise it is to use antimatter, notoriously unstable itself. This in turn needs to be stabilised by some other process, making an awful of stabilising happening at the same time. What that boils down to is not much more than protecting a time engine except for the protections against itself. Sabet said he was a Chronite. That particular race has a sort of connection with T Chronium, being in tune with it mentally. Sabet must have come onto the ship covertly and hid himself. Then he placed his mind into the T Chronium of the time engine. He began to control other parts of the ship through the time engine, including directing the ship towards the nearest star, disabling the stellar engine, and making that fall that needs blowing up. He left his Chronite body around out here, and put part of his intelligence into it when he found someone investigating; to wit, you, Kroton. After he realised what was going to happen, he decided to kill us, or in the very least, prevent us from getting to the time engine before we get caught inescapably by the Sun's gravity. Sabet isn't dead yet, you see. Just his Chronite body. The rest of him is still the time engine."
"But why does he want to crash, Professor?" asked Ace.
"I don't quite know. He said something about being a god . . ." The Doctor dropped off into thought for a moment, then he gasped. "Of course! The Sun is a massive powerhouse of energy. Sabet wouldn't die when the ship went into the Sun. T Chronium has a melting point much higher than that of the Sun, and a time engine has the largest amount of T Chronium in one concentrated spot. He could manipulate himself as the engine went into the Sun to harness all of its power and magnify his mental powers into something nearly omnipotent. He would become the Sun in form, with proportional abilities as a Chronite; he would become a god!"
"Wait," said Kroton. "It's 1215. If the Earth's Sun suddenly turned into a god, we would know about it."
"Not necessarily," said the Doctor. "Chronites are placed outside of time in much the same way Time Lords are. Ace couldn't go back and kill, say, Henry the Eighth, but I could. And Sabet could. We can change history, but someone like you or Ace would become history."
"So," said Ace, "we're still heading for the Sun, right?"
"Yes," said the Doctor.
"Shouldn't we go and stop Sabet?"
"Good idea," said the Doctor, cheerful once again. "Ace, would you do the honours?"
She scooped up the Nitro 9 dropped by Kronton, pulled the plug, and lobbed it at the fall. Six seconds passed, and the fall exploded.
"I thought you'd do it with a little more finesse than that," said the Doctor. "And that was never ten seconds."
"Don't complain," said Ace. "Should we go before there's another fall?"
"Right," said the Doctor. They entered the new room. It looked much like Kroton had described it, but the largest monitor on which Kroton had seen the Doctor's face now bore Sabet's.
"HELLO," scrolled words beneath the face. "TRYING TO STOP ME AGAIN?"
"I think we can very simply," said the Doctor. "Ace, blow this whole engine up."
"I KNOW YOU, DOCTOR. YOU WOULD STRAND SO MANY PEOPLE IN THE PAST ON A SUICIDE COURSE INTO THE SUN."
"He's right," said Kroton quietly. "You already had Ace blow up most of the stellar engine so we could get in here. There's no way to get off this course now."
"Not the engine," said the Doctor. "No, Ace, the whole room. Thirty minute fuse." He turned to her sternly. "Thirty minutes, make sure of that." He turned to leave. "Make sure the engine will blow up, even if Sabet starts dropping stuff on the explosives. Meet us at the TARDIS as soon as you're done."
"Right, Professor," said Ace. "This'll take my whole supply of Nitro 9, though."
"Don't worry about it," said the Doctor. "Stay with her, Kroton, in case Sabet drops stuff on her."
"Right, Doctor."
The Doctor left and headed toward the ballroom. On his way, he met Mercator. "Hello, Captain, get everyone together at my TARDIS, would you?"
"Why, Doctor? What has been going on?"
"I'll explain later, Captain, but what you need to know is we can't get the ship off this course toward the sun. We have to leave in the next twenty minutes."
"But Peterson said we'd have nearly another sixty hours left-"
"The situation has changed, Captain, and I need everyone still alive to meet at my TARDIS."
"Where is it?"
"Tell you what, I'll just go with you." Fifteen minutes later, some forty-nine people gathered around the TARDIS, where Kroton and Ace had been waiting. "Time to go!" said the Doctor. Everyone filed into the TARDIS, most of them to their great astonishment.
Mercator tugged the Doctor's sleeve. "You said you'd explain."
"Kroton," called the Doctor, and the Cyberman turned around. "Remember what I said I'd only explain once?" Kroton nodded. "Explain it to Captain Mercator here. And take everyone into the third dining room. That ought to be big enough."
Kroton led everyone out, but Ace lingered as the Doctor set the controls. "Professor?"
"Hmm?"
"Why couldn't Sabet just jump into the core of the TARDIS?"
"Because Rassilon didn't like the properties T Chronium shared with the Chronites. He made the original TARDISes completely without T Chronium; thus Sabet can't join us."
"Professor?"
"Yes?"
"Why didn't you stay when I laid the explosives?"
"I needed to get the passengers and crew to the TARDIS."
"Anyone else could have done that. And there was the intercom, too."
The Doctor sighed. "Truthfully, Ace, I think I would have changed my mind if I had stayed. Didn't old Sabet try to deter you?"
"Yes . . ."
The TARDIS dematerialised back to nowhere, nowhere being a fascinatingly accurate description of the space-time vortex. As it did so, Sabet amused himself by scrolling more messages across his screen.
"YOU HAVE NOT BEATEN ME, DOCTOR. I CANNOT BE DEFEATED. EVEN YOUR EXPLOSIVES WILL NOT BEAT ME. ENERGY CANNOT BE DESTROYED, MERELY CON-"
One-fifth of the King Henry VIII blew up. Fifty-nine and a half hours later, the whole ship was destroyed on the boiling surface of the sun. And on Earth, much to the delight of the passengers of the KH8 if they had been there, King John signed the Magna Carta.
