The Vanishing Man, Chapter 3

Matthew Cole and the stranger made their way through the corridor and found the first aid room. It was gone 11pm now and the airport seemed completely deserted. They knocked on the medical room door and a female voice asked them to enter.

When they got inside an middle-aged woman with her hair tied up into a bun got up from behind a desk and crossed over to Cole and the man.

“What happened?” asked the nurse, her eyes lighting up at the sight of the stranger.

“I think it was the earthquake,” said Cole, helping him onto the bed.

“What earthquake?” scoffed the woman.

“Oh, of course,” said Cole. “You’re not going to remember it, are you?”

The woman laughed. “Come on, now. Seriously, please.”

“I think he fell and bumped his head.”

“Do you know him?” asked the woman, who’s name badge revealed was called June.

“Never met him before in my life,” said Cole. “I was just wandering through when I found him crouched on the floor.”

June put her hands either side of the strangers face and looked into his eyes. “How do you feel? What’s your name?”

“My name…? I feel…I feel like I’ve just gone ten rounds with Heaton McBride.”

“Who?” asked Cole.

“He’s a boxer,” said the stranger. “Surely you’ve heard of him.”

“Never,” said Cole.

“What’s your name?” asked June again. “I can’t help you unless you tell me what your name is.”

The stranger winced and screwed his eyes together tightly. He rubbed his forehead and then opened his eyes again, looking at June. “My name? My name’s Magnus. Magnus Blackmore.”




Danny had made his way out of the station and down the road. He then crossed over to a cash machine, took his card out and thought.

Will this card work?

He still had the same account in 2011 that he had back in 2003.

Oh well, he thought, might as well try it. If it eats the card then it eats the card.

He slotted the card into the machine, typed in his pin-code and then pressed to withdraw £100. The machine took a long, long time to respond and then, to his amazement, it worked. His mind started racing as he took the money and placed it in his wallet. He was sure there was something at the back of his mind. A memory of his younger self, back in 2003, complaining to the bank that some money had gone missing and it wasn’t him that had withdrawn it.

He chuckled to himself as he crossed over the road and hailed a cab.

The taxi took him to a nearby Travelodge. As he crossed over to the double doors and towards reception, he caught a glimpse of himself in the glass. He was looking tired and unshaven. What he needed was a good nights sleep and a hot bath.

As he turned to continue heading to reception he thought he caught a glimpse of something else in the glass. Something shadowy. But he dismissed the thought and went to book his room.




Thirty minutes later Danny was lowering himself into a warm, hot bubble bath. It felt good and he felt all of his muscles relaxing. He closed his eyes and let the water surround him until only his face was submerged.

He started thinking back to his life in 2003. It hadn’t been a bad year, really. It was the year that followed that had been difficult. It was then that he had the thought. Surely, if it was 2003, Adrian would still be there. Maybe he could call him. Maybe he could warn him…




Cole watched on as June finished patching Blackmore up. She had put plasters on some of his cuts and had bandaged up his wrist which had been burnt. He had refused to remove an ornate bracelet from the same wrist, however, and had instead moved it up his arm to just below his elbow.

Matthew wasn’t sure who this Blackmore was, but he was pleased that so far he hadn’t forgotten him. And neither had June. That made him feel better. But he still wasn’t sure how to go about explaining to these people that he had turned into some kind of rubber band invisible man, constantly snapping back to arrivals if he tried to leave the airport complex.

“There you are,” said June. “All patched up. Now, where were you headed?”

“I have no idea,” said Blackmore, rubbing a bruise on his cheek.

“You must have some idea,” said Cole.

“I was trying to get back to Earth,” said Blackmore.

Cole looked bemused.

“Earth?” said June. “Oh, my poor love. You must have concussion. Perhaps I should get you an ambulance.”

“No!” snapped Blackmore quickly. “No ambulances. I’m fine. I just need to get out of here and get my bearings.”

“Okay, okay, calm down,” said June.

Cole could sense something wasn’t quite right with this man and crossed over to Blackmore. “Okay, nurse, I’ll see to him. I’ll see if I can get him to a hospital.”

“But he just said-”

“He’s obviously had some kind of trauma,” said Cole, laughing nervously and helping Blackmore off the bed. “I’ll take care of him.”

Cole helped Blackmore out of the room and down the corridor.

“I said I don’t want an ambulance. I don’t need a hospital,” growled Blackmore.

“Don’t worry,” said Cole, “I’m not taking you to hospital. I’m taking you down for a coffee.”

They made their way along the corridor and down the escalator towards T3. All of the café area was closed so they ordered a black coffee from the vending machine and sat down at a small table in the corner.

Blackmore was still looking a little dazed and confused, and then they noticed June walk down to grab a coffee as well. She didn’t bat an eyelid at the two of them.

“Has she forgotten you as well?” asked Cole.

“What do you mean?”

Cole looked at Blackmore. He looked tired and confused and in need of a good sleep. “Nothing.”

“So where am I?”

“Manchester airport.”

“Don’t be stupid. An airport? They haven’t had an airport in centuries.”

“What do you mean?” Cole was getting more and more confused.

“It’s spaceport,” said Blackmore, looking around him.

Cole didn’t know why, but he felt like he could trust this man, despite all the crazy things he had come out with. After all, he was currently stuck in a nightmare of his own.

“Where are you from?” asked Cole.

“Originally? Cambridge.”

“I’m from…somewhere in Scotland…I think,” said Cole, noticing his accent and finding himself slightly confused by it.

“You don’t know where in Scotland?”

“Not exactly. It’s all a bit of a blur.” Cole sipped from his coffee and leaned back in his chair. He gazed into the distance. “I remember arriving at the airport and since then everything’s been a little bit…confusing.”

“In what way?” asked Blackmore.

Cole sighed and leaned forward. “This is going to sound bizarre.”




Some time had passed and Danny was now lying on the bed, in a dressing gown with the TV on which was showing an old comedy show from back in the 1970’s.

He turned his iPhone over and over in his hand, contemplating calling Adrian. It scared him. It had been so long, and he wasn’t really sure what he would even say to him if he did answer.

Finally, stealing his nerve, he dialled the number. His phone had been configured to work wherever and whenever he was by the Doctor.

It rang for a few seconds and then…

“Hello?” came the voice.

It was a familiar voice. A voice he had not heard for seven years. A warm, happy voice. The voice of Adrian.

Danny opened his mouth to speak, closed it, opened it again and then-

“Hello?” came Adrian’s voice again. “Who’s there?”

Danny pulled his phone away from his ear, looked at the touch pad and then pressed the call end button.

He lay there for a long time, contemplating what he had just done and who he had just heard. If he was able to speak to Adrian, perhaps he would be able to go and see him.

And then he thought about what the Doctor had said about interfering in one’s own time stream.

But this was Adrian. He was alive and well and living his life.

“Screw the web of time,” he said to himself.




The train door swished open and the Doctor and Caroline stepped off. It was cold and the platform was deserted.

“Last time I was here,” said Caroline, “was when I was catching a plane to Cologne. Me and Kate went for a weekend at Christmas back in 2005.”

“Charming city,” said the Doctor, as they made their way towards the escalator. “I spent some time there back in the 1800’s. Helped run a medicinal stall with a lovely little old man called Corrinas. Tobias Corrinas. Nice man.”

“I wish we were catching a plane somewhere now,” said Caroline as they stepped onto the escalator.

When they reached the top the Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and began taking readings from around them.

“Anything?” asked Caroline hopefully.

“Hmmm,” said the Doctor, turning on the spot. “There appears to be some kind of temporal field somewhere nearby.”

“Temporal?”

“Time stuff.”

“I know what temporal means,” said Caroline. “But why should it be here?”

“Well that’s why we’re here. To find out.”

“Lead the way,” said Caroline as the Doctor headed towards the sky link.

They strode along the moving conveyor belt towards the other end, the light casting a purple tint to their clothes.

When they reached the end they found themselves at the escalator that led down to T3. They made their way down and walked across the hall, the Doctor occasionally checking his sonic screwdriver and the readings it was gathering.

It was when they passed nearby to the café that the device started making a high-pitched whine.

The Doctor turned around until he reached the spot where the whine was the most high-pitched. Sitting at a table were two men. One he didn’t recognise, and one that he did.

“Oh no,” said Caroline, also noticing who the Doctor had seen. “How did he get here?”

“Mr Blackmore has a time ring, remember. I can only assume that he made his way here via that.”

“I thought he might have been dead,” said Caroline, glumly.

“Steady on, Miss Parker, we can’t wish all the bad guys dead.”

“You know what I mean,” she replied.

“Come on, let’s get this over with.”

They headed over to the table where the stranger and Blackmore were deep in conversation.

The Doctor cleared his throat.

The stranger, Cole, turned around and Blackmore looked up, rolling his eyes.

“Can we help you?” asked Cole.

“No,” said the Doctor, “but we may need to help you if you continue your association with this man.”

“Do you know him?”

“No,” snapped Blackmore. “He doesn’t know me. He’s met me once, very briefly. You can’t know or judge a person on that.”

“Ooh, a little defensive there, Magnus,” said Caroline.

“This man is a killer,” said the Doctor. “A cold, blooded killer, and I have a feeling the Trixatins would like you back on their planet.”

June looked up at the two group of people at the table and then returned back to her coffee.

“What?” asked a confused Cole.

“Don’t start preaching to me, you stupid buffoon,” said Blackmore.

“Give me that time ring,” snapped the Doctor.

“No.”

The Doctor moved forward to grab Blackmore’s arm.

“Now hang on a minute,” said Cole, grabbing the Doctor’s hand, and….

BOOM!

There was a blinding white light…and then darkness…

The Vanishing Man, Chapter 2

Fire. Burning. Orange, burning fire. And screams and cries for help. Pain. Indescribable pain. And then confusion and a figure kneeling down. And then a hand extending towards him.

His saviour.




Cole woke up with a start. He was slumped on the seats in arrivals. He had tried for the past two hours to get out of the airport, but it had been impossible. Every time he tried to get out he would appear back in arrivals, always on the same seat as well. He had tried the train again, a bus, and even walked over the hills surrounding the complex to try and escape, but it had been to no avail.

Every time he tried to get away he would fail and end up back in arrivals. He didn’t understand it and when he tried to tell airport security they just told him he was being stupid. And no sooner had he told them, but they soon forgot he’d even been there in the first place.

The taxi driver that had crashed had even forgotten why he’d crashed. Even when Cole had walked up to the ambulance and made himself known to the taxi driver, he hadn’t recognised him. It was like he was a snowflake. There for the briefest of moments before melting away as if it had never existed.

So now he was going to try something else. He walked right up to airport security and tapped the guard on the back.

The guard turned around and Cole noticed his firearm attached to his belt.

“Can I help you, sir?” said the stocky man.

“Yeah, you can actually. I’m armed and dangerous,” said Cole, blankly.

With that the guard reached for his weapon, drew it and ordered Cole to get down on the ground.

All around the arrival hall people screamed and ran out of the way. Cole obediently got to the ground and put his hands on the back of his head.

“Don’t move,” said the guard as he radioed for back-up.

Ten minutes later Cole was being bundled into the back of a police car, handcuffed and flanked by two police officers.

The police car turned the corner that led out of the car park and he closed his eyes, praying that he wouldn’t wake up back in arrivals.

But he did. He opened his eyes and there he was again. And everything seemed to return back to normal. Curious onlookers where wondering exactly why they were curious and why they were onlookers.

Cole walked up to the same security guard who he had spoken to before and tapped him on the shoulder.

“Can I help you, sir?” he asked again.

“Do you remember me?” asked Cole.

For a moment the guard looked confused, almost as if there was some recognition, but then he just shook his head. “No, sir. Never seen you before in my life. Should I remember you?”




It was getting dark outside and Cole had walked all around the airport. He had tried to explain the situation to the airport authorities, but they had just laughed it off and had slowly forgotten him. Even when he had threatened a member of staff, they had soon forgotten who he was.

And it was the same over and over again. He tried to leave the airport in so many different ways. He walked along the train line…and appeared back in arrivals. He stole a car…and ended up back at arrivals. He even tried to board another plane and ended up back at arrivals. He could walk all around the airport, but he just couldn’t leave it.

Now he was checking his mobile for numbers. Strangely, though, they had all disappeared.

“This is getting stupid,” said Cole. “There’s got to be someone I can call.”

He was about to dial 999 when the whole airport violently shook. It was like a minor earthquake. There were screams and people began to panic, running for the exit, but the earthquake soon passed and everyone returned to normal. Everyone had forgotten.

It was during the tremor that he had heard the sound. The sound of grinding, wheezing engines…and then they were gone.

He made his way back along the sky link, stopped at a vending machine, got himself a drink and then headed towards T3 Departures. Somehow he had to get to the bottom of this.

And then he spotted the man. He looked quite young, probably in his mid-thirties, with short, blonde hair and a nasty scratch on his arm. He was crouched down, examining something on his wrist, and he looked a little worried.

“Excuse me,” said the man, looking up at Cole. “Could you tell me where I am?”

That seemed like a slightly odd comment, thought Cole. Surely he knew where he was. Even after the weird day that Cole was having, he still knew where he was.

“You’re at Manchester airport,” said Cole, crossing over to him. “How don’t you know that?”

“I-I don’t know,” said the man.

Cole looked at him more closely. He was dressed all in black and he had a number of bruises and burns on him.

“Do you need help?”

“I’m not sure,” said the man. “I’m confused. I’m not quite sure how I got here.”

“Come on,” said Cole, “let’s get you to a nurse. Perhaps we can both help each other.”




The Doctor, Caroline and Danny were standing on the cold platform at Sheffield station. They weren’t able to land the TARDIS any closer to the airport. Every time they did, the TARDIS would start screeching and wailing, as if putting it’s breaks on, and the Doctor would be forced to ease off.

It was only when they were over the city of Sheffield that they were able to put the TARDIS down quietly and safely.

It was getting on for 11pm and the train had been delayed. There was frost about and both Caroline and Danny were wearing scarves and gloves.

The Doctor was standing beside a vending machine, examining the contents inside.

“Anything you fancy?” called Caroline. “I’ve got a bit of change.”

“Ninety-five pence for a packet of Mini Cheddars!” exclaimed the Doctor. “No thank you.”

He walked back to the bench that Danny and Caroline were sat on.

“Even in 2003 the prices were way too steep,” said Caroline.

“This is weird,” said Danny, with a little smile on his face. “It’s like we’re in the past, but we’re not, if you get what I mean.”

“Yeah,” grinned Caroline, “I’ve been thinking that too.”

“I’ve been trying to think about what we were doing back in 2003.”

“Well I was at Hypersave,” said Caroline, glumly. “Still am at Hypersave if I ever get my life back on track.”

“And I got a job at Harper’s Advertising!” said Danny, remembering. “My first job after Uni.”

“What were you doing in 2003, Doc?” asked Caroline.

“I’ve been to this year several times,” said the Doctor, looking up and down the platform impatiently. “I could have been doing any number of things.”

“Illusive as always,” said Caroline with a roll of her eyes.

“Where’s that train?” grumbled the Doctor.

“You can tell you don’t use public transport much,” laughed Danny. “It’ll come.”

“It’s not good enough.”

“And it won’t get better. Even in 2011 the trains are still running late.”

The Doctor winced and put a hand to his chest.

“You okay?” asked Caroline.

“Same as usual,” said the Doctor, taking a pill from his pocket and popping it into his mouth. “Being almost fried to a crisp on an electric chair didn’t help matters and neither did being tortured by Tressure.”

“Do you know what this illness is yet?” asked Caroline. “You haven’t been very clear about that.”

“No change there,” said Danny. “We don’t have answers about anything.”

The Doctor clearly didn’t want to discuss the matter and crossed over to Danny. “You still haven’t told me why you attacked Kate.”

“Don’t change the subject,” said Danny, refusing to make eye contact.

“Why not? What are you afraid of, Danny?”

“What are you afraid of?” asked Danny.

“What do you mean?”

“You’re quite happy to keep us in the dark about your condition. Why should I tell you about mine?”

“A-ha!” said the Doctor, with a clap of the hands. “So there is something wrong?”

“I’m just a little stressed out. This has all gotten too much for me.”

“It’s more than that,” said the Doctor. “That Apparite is still inside you, isn’t it?”

“Don’t be daft,” said Caroline, shifting uncomfortably on the bench. “Why would it still be inside of him?”

“I’ve never heard anything so stupid in my life,” said Danny, crossing his arms and looking away.

Just then there was a sound from down the tracks. Soon two pinpricks of light came into view. It was the train.

“I’m not coming,” said Danny, getting up and walking away from the bench.

“What?” said Caroline. “You have to? What are you going to do?”

“Stay out of his way,” he said, nodding to the Doctor as the train pulled up and the doors opened.

“But it’s the middle of the night, Danny,” said Caroline. “You can’t just hang around a station.”

“I’ll be fine,” said Danny. “I’ll get a hotel room. If you’re not back at the TARDIS by lunch time tomorrow, I’ll take a train down there. I just need some time on my own.”

“Danny-” started the Doctor.

“Shut up,” he snapped back and turned to walk away. “See you later, Caz.”

Caroline looked back as Danny disappeared down the steps leading to the passageway running under the station.

“Come on, Miss Parker,” said the Doctor as the doors began beeping, signalling them closing.

“I hope he’ll be alright,” said Caroline.

They made their way into the carriage and sat down at a table seat, opposite each other.

Caroline watched as the train pulled out and the station slowly moved past them, her chin resting on her hand.

“Everything okay?” asked the Doctor, who had found a packet of peanuts in his coat pocket and was busy popping them one at a time into his mouth.

“Not really,” said Caroline. “Why do you think the Apparite is still in him?”

“Because Kate told me. He told Kate that he was still possessed and that’s when he attacked her.”

“But you can’t be sure?”

“It’s not that I can’t be sure. I know it’s still there, but it must be hidden so deep inside him that there’s nothing to prove that it’s in there.”

“We’ve got to help him,” said Caroline.

“And we’ve got to help you, as well,” said the Doctor. “It’s so easy for these things to be forgotten. We’ve all got our problems, but things keep getting in the way.”

“And you need to start coming clean with us,” said Caroline.

The Doctor sighed and leaned back in his seat, looking up at the ceiling. “To be honest with you, Caroline, I don’t quite know what happened to me. It’s all a bit of a blur. It was soon after I regenerated.”

Caroline nodded, remembering what Ivy Coldstone had told her about the Doctor’s people being able to change their faces and renew their bodies.

“I felt different. More different than normal. I felt…sick. It seems that as soon as I regenerated into this body…well, it was like I was already dying and my body wanted to regenerate into my next incarnation.”

“Has that happened before?”

“No. Never. It was like this incarnation had failed right at the start.”

“So why didn’t you regenerate?”

“That’s when Aleena came along. She said that I couldn’t regenerate anymore.”

“But it’s still trying to happen?”

“Yes,” said the Doctor sadly. “If I don’t keep taking these pills, my body will quickly wither away and I’ll die.”

The conductor bustled in and Caroline and then Doctor handed their tickets over to have them stamped. They waited for him to pass and then returned to their conversation.

“Aleena did extensive tests on me and all of my regenerative cells have died.”

“So if you allowed yourself to wither away and die-?”

“Then that‘s it. That’s the end. No come back. No encore. I’d be dead.”

The Vanishing Man, Chapter 1

Matthew Cole opened his eyes. For a moment he had forgotten where he was. And then it dawned on him. The echoing of voices, the speaker system announcing names and the sound of suitcases being rolled along the ground.

He was at the airport.

Specifically Manchester airport. He had only sat down for five minutes and had drifted off momentarily. He tried to recompose himself, trying not to get embarrassed that he had just fallen asleep in public, but nobody seemed to have noticed anyway.

He stood up and walked over to the toilets.

Once inside he went over to the sink and looked at himself in the mirror. He looked a mess. His hair was becoming a bit untidy and was in desperate need of combing, he’d grown a little bit of stubble on the flight over and his tie was askew.

He straightened himself out, slicked his hair back a little and splashed cold water on his face.

“Much better,” he said to himself. He smiled and left the toilets.

He made his way across the arrivals hall and headed towards the railway station which was situated just outside of the airport.

He walked through the sky link that connected the terminals to the station and looked out of the curved windows that looked out over the airport complex. The sun was beginning to set and a little bit of the snow they had gotten had started to melt.

Good. He didn’t like snow.

Eventually he reached the escalators leading down to the platform and purchased a ticket from the self-service booth.

He looked up at the departure board. Not long to wait. There’d be a train in three minutes that would take him straight to Manchester Piccadilly.

Sure enough the train arrived and Cole boarded it.

He took his seat in the quiet carriage and closed his eyes again. He was determined not to fall asleep, but if he did, he was sure that falling asleep on a train was not as embarrassing as falling asleep in arrivals.

Slowly but surely, as the train made it’s way out of the station, he found himself drifting off. It was only when some kids ran past him in the aisle that he woke…

…And found himself back in arrivals.

He looked from left to right, unsure of whether to move, unsure of whether this was all just a dream.

But no, he was definitely back in the airport.

He checked his watch. He had left arrivals fifteen minutes ago at 7:37pm and sure enough it was fifteen minutes later. So he hadn’t been dreaming. He had really boarded the train, fallen asleep and somehow ended up back here.

He started to panic and got to his feet. This time he walked briskly from arrivals and back to the train station.

There was another train due to arrive in five minutes, and so he waited.

Five minutes passed and Cole boarded the train once again. He sat down, this time in a regular carriage, and forced himself to stay awake. And he waited.

They went through the tunnel that would take the train under the motorway when…

…He was back at arrivals again. And this time he knew it wasn’t a dream. So was he going mad? He started panicking and this time ran to the taxi rank outside.

He hopped into the nearest black cab.

“Piccadilly please.”

“Right-o,” said the diver, putting his foot down on the pedal.

He was just beginning to relax when the taxi turned the corner to leave the car park and…

…He was back at arrivals once again.

Cole screwed his eyes closed and rubbed his forehead. And then, from outside, he heard the screeching of tyres and cries of shock outside.

He got to his feet and made his way outside following the small group of people that were running towards the car park exit. In the distance he could see the taxi he had just been in a few seconds before. It had crashed and someone was helping the terrified driver out of the drivers seat.

Cole could overhear him babbling to people who were helping him out.

“He just vanished. He just vanished. Like a bloody ghost.”

Cole run his hands through his hair, looked at the car park exit and ran full pelt towards it. A car almost hit him, but he carried on running. He just got to the exit when…

…He appeared back in arrivals…




On board the TARDIS, the Doctor was flicking through a pile of old books that he had gotten down from the TARDIS library. Occasionally he would turn to a page and spend what Caroline thought was an age reading something, and then he shake his head, close the book and go onto the next one.

“What exactly are you looking for?” asked Caroline.

“Information,” he replied, blowing dust off the cover of a red, leather-bound book.

“Information on what?” asked Caroline.

“On the Ancestor’s.”

“You mean what Captain Nivere belonged to?” she asked, remembering back to the mystery name that had been mentioned on Theen.

“That’s right,” he said, sitting down, putting his feet up on the console and turning to the end of a particularly thick, black book.

“Have you tried looking it up on Wikipedia?”

“Funny,” said the Doctor, giving her a sideways glance.

“Your life is just a bunch of riddles, isn’t it?” she said, sitting down on the sofa near the stairs and turning to a dusty book written in a foreign language.

“Indeed it is. Well, it is at the minute.”

Caroline looked up when she heard a beeping sound coming from the Doctor.

“Alarm?” she asked.

“In a way, yes,” he said, taking his pills out of his pocket and taking a few.

“Aren’t you going to talk into your tape recorder? To Aleema?”

“It’s AleeNA,” corrected the Doctor, “and no, there’s no point. The TARDIS is still refusing to take me there. And I still can’t get messages to my friend.”

“And me?”

“Still no joy with that, unfortunately,” he said, throwing the heavy book onto the floor with a large ‘thud’.

“And your scans haven’t come up with anything since you cleared out the system?”

“No. Nothing at all. If you’ve got some form of hidden power it’s buried deep inside. The TARDIS just can’t detect it.”

Caroline sighed. “And what about Danny?”

“Where is he?” asked the Doctor, looking around the console room.

“In his room. Says he has a headache. Again.”

The Doctor tutted. “I need to have a good, long chat with that young man. Especially after what happened at Sherman prison and then with that putty monster.“

“So, we’re calling it a Putty Monster now. Is that it’s official designation?”

“What happened down there was difficult for all of us.”

“What was it that Walters was talking about? When he said you’re half a man.”

“I’ve been through a lot,” said the Doctor. “A considerable amount actually. It takes it’s toll sometimes.”

“What you two need is a holiday. What I need is a holiday.”

“I’m game,” said Danny, emerging from the inner doorway that led to other parts of the ship. “I reckon somewhere in the Pacific would do me.”

“How you feeling?” asked Caroline.

“Good,” said Danny with a smile. “I’m feeling…better.”

“You’ve been through a lot,” said the Doctor, jumping to his feet and flicking a few controls. “What with the Apparite taking over your body and then your silly plan of letting Tressure take control of you. And it must have taken it out of you fighting against Walters.”

“Hey, we won, didn’t we?” said Danny, flopping down next to Caroline.

“Yes, we won,” said the Doctor, “but what about what happened back at the prison?”

“What do you mean?” asked Danny, sheepishly.

“Kate said you attacked her.”

“What!?” spluttered Caroline.

“When did she tell you that?”

The Doctor thought for a moment. “At the funeral.”

Danny laughed. “Don’t be stupid. She was dead.”

“She came back and spoke to me.”

“Why did you attack her?” asked Caroline, her arms folded.

“Is that Apparite still in you?” asked the Doctor. “Think about this, Danny. I need to know.”

“No,” said Danny. “Don’t be so stupid.”

“Be very careful about what you say to me,” said the Doctor, grabbing his sonic screwdriver and shining a light into Danny’s eyes.

“Get off,” said Danny, pushing him back.

“There doesn’t seem to be anything. A little pressure behind the eyes…”

“Stress,” said Danny. “Like I said. I’m game for a holiday.”

The Doctor looked down his nose at him and then nodded. “Okay. But if you need to speak…speak to me.”

There were a series of repeating beeps coming from one of the panels on the console and the Doctor looked intently at a readout.

“Anything exciting?” asked Danny, hoping to draw the Doctor away from the previous discussion.

“Hmm, maybe,” he said. “Hold tight you two. We’re off the Manchester airport.”

“Really?” asked Danny, leaping to his feet. “Surely we don’t need a plane to go to the Pacific.”

“I’m afraid this isn’t a holiday,” said the Doctor. “This is a genuine trip to Manchester airport.”

“Aww,” whined Caroline. “Why?”

“The TARDIS is picking up an interesting power source. I’ve never seen anything like it…I don’t think.”

“Hey, if we can get to Manchester airport, perhaps I can take the train back to Thornsby and try and get some answers from my parents.”

“I’m afraid not, Miss Parker,” said the Doctor, turning the lever and setting them on course for Manchester. “This power source is coming from January 2003, a little bit before your time.”

“Yeah,” she said, “but even still. I’d be able to get some answers.”

“No, I’m sorry,” he said sadly, “I can’t have you risking the web of time.”

Caroline sighed and sat back down. She wondered if she’d ever see home again. She glanced over to Danny. Since coming on board the TARDIS they had gotten more and more distant, and now with this talk of Danny attacking people…she wasn’t sure what to believe anymore. Indeed she’d even witnessed it back in the TARDIS when he attacked the green alien guy. It wasn’t like Danny. It just wasn’t.




A few minutes later and they were ready to land, but something was wrong. The TARDIS was shaking and rumbling and the engines sounded like they were grinding against something.

“What’s up?” asked Danny, crossing over to the console and flicking a few switches.

The Doctor slapped his hand away. “The TARDIS doesn’t seem to want to land at the airport.”

“Does this machine ever go where you want to go?” asked Caroline, joining the two men at the console.

“Sometimes,” said the Doctor. “Maybe,” he added quickly.

The engines continued to grind and sparks flew from underneath a panel.

“Alright, alright, old girl,” he said, patting her on the side of the console. “If it hurts you that much then we’ll not land there.”

“So we’re not investigating this power source?” asked Caroline.

“We are,” said the Doctor, “but we’re going to have to land on the outskirts and take a train into the station.”

Story 1.6: The Vanishing Man

“I’m slowly dying. Aleena’s been trying to find ways to help me, and I’ve been fighting it off with medication and tablets, but in the end I will die. It’s just a matter of time.”

Manchester Airport, January 2003. Matthew Cole tries to leave arrivals, but every time he attempts it he ends up back in the airport again. And his memory is fading...

The Doctor, Danny and Caroline arrive to investigate the strange source of power emanating from the airport, but Danny soon finds himself caught up in a different situation involving a beautiful, dark-haired young lady called Emily.

Caroline and the Doctor, however, find themselves meeting an old friend...or enemy...


Equinox, Sometime in the future and in the Doctor's past - Aleena rescues a newly regenerated Doctor and nurses him back to health - except it's likely that his health will never return.

This is the sixth and final story of season 1 in a continuing range of adventures starring the Doctor, Caroline and Danny, and introducing Claire Danes as Aleena, and Henry Ian Cusick as Matthew Cole.

Putty Love, Chapter 10

Caroline smacked the gun out of his hand, whilst Danny pushed him to the ground. Desiato let out a cry of anger, snarling at him.

‘Let me go! He’s out to kill us! He’s leading us to our deaths!’

‘What he hell are you on about?’ said Caroline, whilst the men struggled.

‘Let him up,’ said the Doctor. Danny did so slowly, keeping a careful eye on the captain. The Doctor passed Desiato the gun.

‘Doctor, he just tried to kill you with that!’

‘Don’t worry Danny, the power supply ran out yesterday. I don’t think Captain Desiato was thinking straight. Were you, captain?’

Desiato seemed to regain some of his composure. ‘Sorry, Doctor, I don’t understand what I was thinking. For some reason…’

‘Walters is influencing your mind, captain. Breeding hatred in you, to use against us. You must control your thoughts. Can you do that, or do I have to send you back to the surface?’

‘I’ll be all right Doctor.’ Desiato struggled to keep his temper down, especially as the Doctor now seemed to be talking to him as if he were a schoolboy. The voice faded from his mind, and his thoughts began to order themselves once more.

‘Good.’ The Doctor resumed his march onwards. ‘The cavern opens up ahead. Follow me.’

Desiato, Caroline and Danny did as they were told. They trailed the Doctor into a vast expanse that seemed carved away from the rock. The grey gloop of the symbiote’s tissue spread over the contours of the cavern walls, thick, arterial tubes emerging from it. The vein-like protuberances ran over the rock face, converging on the far side of the cavern, some twenty metres away. As they met, they swelled into a large blob of matter, which convulsed and contracted with a steady rhythm.

‘It’s a heart,’ said Caroline.

‘I think you’re right,’ said the Doctor. ‘It must pump the symbiotic matter through the rock, right across the planet. It’s incredible.’

‘Indeed it is, Doctor,’ said a snide, superior voice from the roof of the cavern. They looked up. Walters was descending towards them, his feet supported by an entwined knot of grey tentacles.

‘You finally made it here,’ he sneered, coming to a gentle halt on the rock floor. ‘I was wondering how long it would take you. You’re not quite the prevailing hero you make yourself out to be, are you Doctor?’

‘I never claimed to be such.’

‘Oh, but that is the impression you give. Fighting the good fight, your trusty companions by your side. But you’re nothing really, are you? You’re half the man you were once.’

The Doctor looked angry and bewildered. ‘What do you mean by that...?’

‘Your hypothesis concerning my psychic abilities was very close to the truth, Doctor. However, you underestimated me. At this range, I no longer need the symbiote to be in your system in order to read and influence your mind. Its presence at this level boosts my power. I am surrounded by a living psychic amplifier.’

‘Still, it must have taken you time to break through my mind. I am a Time Lord, with the inherent strengths and defences.’

‘A Time Lord? You’re not even close to that any more. You‘re a failure. A broken and shattered man.’

‘Doctor?’ said Caroline. ‘What does he mean?’

‘Don’t listen to him, Caroline,’ warned the Doctor. ‘He’s just playing with us.’

‘And these kids you bring with you. They are nothing to you, really. You like humans for company, as inferior little pets - ’

‘That isn’t true. These people are my friends.’

‘You condescending freak!’ screamed Walters. ‘How can you lie to yourself even now?’

‘You’re lying. I know what you’re thinking. You’re like an open book to me now, all that anger flowing through you, it’s like a beacon. It illuminates your worst thoughts. Why should you be so angry? You should be proud to have Human beings as companions, despite how pathetic they are.’

‘Better that than an alien?’ shouted Desiato.

‘Ah, the monsters’ friend,’ said Walters, pursing his lips in a grotesque mockery of a kiss. ‘Let’s all be chums, Mister Alien, come and have a big friendly hug. You’re worse than him. You should know better.’

‘I have learnt to put aside my anger with the Tarrokku, to view them as equals. Why do you despise them so badly?’

‘They’re just animals, Desiato. Parodies of humanity.’

‘For someone who hates aliens, you hang around with some strange company,’ piped in Danny.

The grey glutinous mass quivered around him. ‘Such creatures have their uses – if they serve my purpose. I control this creature, it failed to control me.’ He looked curiously at Danny, as if he’d spotted a blemish on his face. ‘I didn’t focus on you before, so I didn’t see it. How strange. You’re less human than he is,’ he said, gesturing towards the Doctor. ‘There’s alien in you, isn’t there? Something truly alien. Something evil.’

‘Stay out of this.’ He looked defiantly at Walters. ‘I know you’re just messing with me. It was you who made me angry earlier, made me attack the Tarrokku in the ship.’

‘Oh no it wasn’t, young man. That was nothing to do with me.’

‘Why should we believe anything you say?’ said the Doctor.

‘Because I do not lie. I expose your inner truths, your real hatreds.’

‘Why have you turned on the humans?’

‘They fought against what they knew to be right. If they want to be friends with creatures, then they don’t deserve their humanity.’

‘You are insane, Walters, you really are. What’s your grand plan? Kill everyone on the planet and spend the rest of your life here alone, with only a blob for company?’

‘Actually Doctor, that is where you’re going to help me. You TARDIS is an excellent energy source for my pet, but I can’t pilot it. It won’t let me access any of its systems. I need you to help me.’

‘You must be joking. I’d sooner see the TARDIS dead than let you loose on the Universe.’

‘Trust me Doctor, when I’m through with you, you’ll do anything I tell you to do.’

A tentacle ripped out from the ceiling, lashing at Desiato, Caroline and Danny. They flew backwards, smacking into the rock wall. More tendrils followed, enmeshing and coagulating into a single impenetrable wall.

‘A little time alone I think, Doctor.’

Danny, Caroline and Desiato pounded against the wall of rock-like matter in a futile attempt to break through.

‘It’s no use,’ said Caroline, falling to her knees in resignation. ‘It won’t budge.’

‘There must be someway to break through,’ said Danny, digging his nails into the mass. ‘Can’t we prize the tentacles apart?’

‘No, it’s completely fused together,’ said Desiato. ‘If Walters is holding it together, there’s no way we can persuade to budge.’

Danny continued to claw at the wall, small fragments of grey tissue unpeeling, only for the face of the barrier to reform moments later. Still he continued, ripping a fingernail out as it embedded in the wall. He yelled at the sudden pain, slowing his efforts, but not stopping, and as he did so, he felt the anger swell up in him again.




‘So what now?’ goaded the Doctor, staring into the face of his adversary. ‘You offer me a share of the Universe if I let you into the TARDIS systems? You threaten my friends? You carry on with a bit of a gloat? Whatever you’re planning, I’ve seen and heard it all before. You won’t get me to help you.’

‘Doctor, I am fully aware of how stubborn you can be. I did consider bargains and threats, but I soon realised they would have little sway with you. So,’ he chuckled, ‘I thought I’d just rip the information from your mind.’

The Doctor felt a light penetrate his mind, heard a knife cutting into his brain, tasted a tear running from his eye as the pain increased. Walters was forcing his mind into the Doctor’s, and the Doctor could not resist.

‘Not quite the great mind you once were, are you Doctor?’

‘I may not be the man I once was,’ gasped the Doctor, desperately trying to fight the probe, ‘but at I am still a good man. Can you say the same? You despise monsters – but you are no more than a monster yourself!’

‘Be quiet, Doctor, I am fast running out of patience with you. Give me what I need.’

The Doctor screamed.




Danny saw through the wall.

‘He’s weaker. He’s using his power on the Doctor.’

‘What?’ said Caroline.

‘I can see what he’s doing. I don’t see how but I can. He’s attacking the Doctor, and I will stop him.’

Danny felt the anger rise inside him, and he let it out, channelling it forward into Walters’s own mind.

Walters felt the Doctor fighting back at him, at the same time Danny pushed his way in. He lost control of the symbiote, focussing his efforts on the Doctor.

Danny could feel the life form all around him, he could feel it’s basic mind yearning for instruction.

‘Leave,’ he told the part of it that formed the wall, and it shrivelled away, slithering into the darkness.

‘Danny, did you do that?’ asked Caroline, baffled.

‘I think so,’ he replied. ‘I don’t know how.’

‘Give me the TARDIS!’ cried Walters, and with that outburst, the huge, pumping heart behind him exploded, freeing the police box shaped craft.

‘Never!’ cried the Doctor. ‘Danny, whatever you’re doing, help me!’

Danny saw the symbiotes in Walters’s body. They cried out to him, abandoned by their master, needing someone to guide them. Danny told them what to do.

Walters collapsed to the ground, his eyes bulging.

‘What is happening?’ he whispered, before he fell forward.

‘Is he dead?’ asked Desiato.

‘Yes,’ said Danny. ‘He is.’

‘Danny, how did you do that?’ cried Caroline.

‘I’m not sure. Somehow I connected with Walters and I felt the symbiote’s tissue in his body. I told them to attack his cells. I think he died of shock.’

The Doctor got to his feet, sweat running down his head.

‘Thank you, Danny. I’m not sure how you did it, but thank you.’

The Doctor walked over to Desiato, putting a hand on his shoulder.

‘Thank you, Captain. I think we’ll be leaving now. I have no desire to stay here any longer.’

‘I can understand that, Doctor. But I do. I have a lot of work to do. Everyone here does. The creature will behave like it did before now, I take it?’

‘As far as I can tell, everything will be back to normal. As normal as it was, anyway. Do you need any help getting back to the surface?’

‘I’m sure I’ll manage. Thank you for your help, all of you.’

The trio bid their goodbyes, and climbed into the TARDIS.

‘Will the TARDIS work okay now,?’ asked Caroline.

The Doctor flicked a few switches. The console hummed into life.

‘The old girl’s got plenty of life left in her yet.’ He set a few more controls, and the central column began to rise and fall, the familiar groaning sound accompanying it.

‘Where are we going?’

‘Somewhere quiet, I think. I hope. Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to bed. It’s been a very tiring day.’

‘I think I will to,’ said Danny. ‘I think I’d like to be on my own for a while.’

As they walked through the corridor to their respective rooms, the Doctor stopped Danny,

‘I don’t understand what happened today, and I don’t think you do either. But rest assured, we’ll get to the bottom of it. Don’t worry.’

The Doctor walked away, closing the door to his room behind him.

At the edge of his hearing, Danny thought he heard someone laugh.

THE END

Next time: The Vanishing Man

Putty Love, Chapter 9

The Doctor gingerly eased the rope down into the ragged fissure in the ground. He tied the other end around a handy piece of jagged rock at the rim, which seemed just about stable enough to hold his weight.

‘Right,’ he said, rallying his companions, ‘I’m not going to be able to do this alone. I’ll need you both to help me, but be on your guard – we have no real idea what we’ll find down here.’

‘We’ve got your back, Doctor,’ said Caroline. ‘Haven’t we, Danny?’

‘Oh, of course,’ said Danny, somewhat disingenuously. ‘You want us to follow you into almost certain death? Jump at the chance, me.’

‘You don’t have to come,’ said the Doctor, beginning to shimmy down the rope. ‘You can stay up here while Caroline risks her life for you and the colonists.’

Danny considered a retort, but thought better of it. ‘All right, I’m coming. But I don’t understand why some of this lot can’t help us.’

‘The colonists are in hardly any state to be cooperative. They’ve been deliberately manipulated to become aggressive towards each other. Hopefully they can hold off from tearing each other apart for a while, but I doubt they’ll be much use in a life or death situation.’

‘A little harsh, Doctor,’ said Desiato, overhearing.

‘Pragmatic, captain, merely pragmatic. I need people I can trust with me. Your people are more under Walters’ power than I think you realise.’

‘I’m coming with you Doctor, at the very least. The seconds-in-command can look after their respective crews. You need someone who knows this planet helping you.’

‘You may know the surface of the planet, captain, however - ’

‘I’m coming with you, and that’s final. This is my world now, and my people. I am going to protect them.’

‘Very well,’ said the Doctor, sliding down the rope. ‘Follow me down, one at a time,’ he called up, ‘the rope should hold one person.’

‘Should?’ said Danny.

‘Get down there,’ said Caroline, elbowing him in the ribs. ‘And stop being an arse. I don’t know what’s come over you since we started travelling with the Doctor.’

‘It might have something to do with me not knowing what I was letting myself in for,’ said Danny, nodding his head towards the certain doom that was surely lurking below the surface.

‘I just want you to speak to me,’ said Caroline, putting a hand on his shoulder and trying to look into his eyes.

Danny shifted his head, trying to look past her and refusing to make eye contact. ‘I’m okay. Really, I’m okay.’

Caroline smiled sadly. ‘I really wish I believe that.’

The Doctor’s voice came from down below. ‘Oi! You two! Get a move on!’

Danny grabbed the top of the rope and cautiously clambered down. When he reached the bottom, the Doctor shone a torch in his face.

‘I knew you wanted to help really,’ he said, grinning widely.

He shone his torch about the cavern they were now standing in. grey, bulbous shapes stood out from the gloom. The Doctor reached out and poked a wall. It stuck to his finger, stretching out towards him as he pulled his hand back, until it snapped back into the surface.

‘The symbiote completely ensconces this planet’s crust,’ he stated. ‘It must work its way through the ground, enveloping the world. As if the planet itself was a single life form.’

Caroline slid down beside them.

‘All the smaller life forms become suffused with it,’ continued the Doctor, awestruck. ‘They become part of it, like mitochondria in cells, or bacteria in the small intestine.’

‘Delightful,’ said Desiato, landing with a thud. ‘I’ve never been compared to intestinal flora before. Well, only once.’

‘It was meant in the kindest possible way, captain,’ said the Doctor, waving the light about and peering into the gloom. The bulbous knots of rock-like material gave way in a cleft to his right. ‘This is the only way Walters could have gone.’ He walked through the breach. ‘Come on, chop chop! Last one up against a homicidal loon is a rotten egg!’

The others followed him through, quickly enough to keep sight of him but slowly enough to keep watch in the shadows. Bizarre and worrying shapes jutted out from the cave walls, and they had to be constantly on guard not to walk straight into one and have an eye poked out.

Desiato bounded after the Doctor, catching up with him.

‘Yes, captain?’ queried the Doctor quietly.

‘Doctor, what you were saying before, about being under Walters’s powers. What did you mean? I realise he’s been manipulating us with these killings, but the what you said suggested something more.’

‘I’m afraid that Walters has most likely been influencing your very minds and emotions. It’s difficult to know for sure, but it certainly seems to be the case. Tell me, captain, how did your two crews first enter into this alliance?’

‘Well, when we both crashed in the same area, with little food or resources, alone with little hope of contacting the outside Universe, we had to cooperate to survive.’

‘Just like that?’

Desiato wondered what the Doctor was getting at. ‘Well, yes. We had no choice.’

‘Two crews, of wildly different species, enemies in a space war that had claimed the lives of thousands of their comrades, and you just sat down and said, “Oh well then gents, let bygones be bygones, let’s have a cup of tea and start farming”? Much as I’d like to think that your two species could cooperate on such a level, I am rather disinclined to believe it.’

‘Well, that is how it happened. After a couple of weeks in which we’d mostly tried to avoid each other, so as to keep tensions low, we started talking properly.’

‘A couple of weeks eating the planet’s wild plants and animals?’

‘Well, we obviously to had to eat.’

‘From the point you began ingesting the life forms of this world, the symbiotic entity was within you all. It subtly manipulated your subconscious minds – making you more susceptible to cooperation. Exactly as it’s been doing to life on this world for millions of years.’

‘You think so, Doctor? I’m not sure I like the sound of that.’

‘Well, it’s only a theory,’ said the Doctor, smiling reassuringly. ‘I wouldn’t worry about it. The life form was just doing a little friendly prodding to help you get along. Walters’s higher than normal ESP must have allowed him some awareness of the creature. As he grew used to it, he began to control it, imposing his will. And if he could do that, as we have seen only to well he can, then he could have taken it a step further.’

‘And used the symbiote to influence us?’

‘Exactly. Making you more aggressive to one another, rather than less. Destroying all your progress. Whatever the symbiote did to help, that was still your triumph. And now Walters has jeopardised all of it.’

This new information disturbed Desiato greatly. He had spent years in the fleet, defending the colonies of the Earth Empire against marauding aliens, only to end up fighting wars with species whose only crime was to defend their own worlds. Oh, he’d hated them for being enemies of humanity, swallowing propaganda, but deep down he’d felt more and more guilty of his role in the wars. The Tarrokku were one in a series of many such peoples. When their two crews had been marooned on this world, he’d felt almost relieved – this situation was an ideal opportunity to rebuild some of the relations between the Empire and Tarrokk. Of course, he’d eventually come to accept that a rescue was not going to be attempted. Their success in building a two-species society was not going to be reported to the Galaxy at large. However, he had still gained immense satisfaction from the thought that he and his people had made it work; and by now he’d come to think of them all as his people. He’d hatred of them had completely waned, and he found it hard to think that he’d ever felt that way. The news that some other alien force had helped them succeed robbed him of much of his pride in the colony. It did not disturb him as much, however, as the knowledge that it could very well have been for nothing; that it was all to lead to a return to bloodshed.

It all started when the Doctor had arrived. He’d admitted that his ship had provided power to the monster that had killed his people; his coming here had caused the deaths of those Desiato had sworn to protect. And now he was telling him that he hadn’t even been helping them, it was because of some alien, controlling them. And him! An alien monster infiltrating his mind. Making him want to live amongst creatures like the Tarrokku. Living in this primitive world, light years from home with only monsters for company.

What had the Doctor said earlier? He wasn‘t Human. What was he? Some kind of impostor? Another eetie, here to ruin Desiato’s work? To manipulate him? To murder him?

Hatred simmered in the captain’s mind. Give in, something was telling him. The Doctor is the enemy. Kill him and you can return home in his ship. Take your crew with you and the monsters here. Do it now.

The rage filling his mind, Desiato removed the blaster from his jacket. He took aim at the Doctor’s head, squeezed the trigger…