1

Ali was having a picnic with her family in the little water park on the edge of town when she first saw the Doctor. He was striding across the grass, glancing around, eyes a bit wild, as if he was searching for something. He looked like a typical man. Two arms, two legs. The usual. Short hair. Sticking-out ears and a big nose. Black leather boots. Black leather jacket. Men were like that, weren’t they? They got off on wearing the skin of dead animals. Always made Ali feel a bit funny. The idea of it.

He was sort of grinning. Not really a happy grin, though. Slightly crazy.

And he seemed to be in a hurry.

He spotted Ali’s family and came over, eyes as wide as his grin, trying to look friendly and polite, and failing badly. He didn’t look like the normal sort of tourist they got round here, or a businessman on a trip, but he was definitely a traveller of some sort. Ali felt the familiar sour sting of jealousy she always felt around travellers. Wishing she could escape her boring little life. She wondered where this man was from. When he spoke, though, he didn’t have any trace of a foreign accent, and Ali was impressed.

‘You haven’t seen anything, have you?’

‘Seen what?’ Ali’s dad replied. She could tell he was a little freaked out by this man appearing out of nowhere. He hadn’t even said hello or anything, just blurted out his question. Definitely in a hurry.

‘Never mind. You’d know it if you’d seen it.’

‘Know what?’

‘Never mind. Forget it.’

Ali’s dad struggled up and stood between the man and his family. Obviously thought there might be trouble.

‘I’m sorry to have bothered you,’ said the man. He looked at Ali’s family, saw her younger sister, and his expression changed. He was worried now. ‘It’s just …’

‘Just what?’ Ali’s dad was trying to sound tough and brave. Two things he wasn’t. He was a wimp really, wouldn’t hurt a fly, but this strange man wasn’t to know that.

‘Just … maybe …’ The man was struggling to say what he wanted. ‘Maybe you should finish your picnic and get back home. Quickly, quite quickly – like now.’

‘I don’t see why I should –’

‘Dad, it’s all right,’ Ali said. She was better at reading people than her father. She turned to the man. ‘Are we in some kind of danger?’

‘You could say that. You could also say, “Come on, let’s do as the man says and go home.”’ He looked around anxiously, scanning the trees on the edge of the park. When none of Ali’s family made a move, he sighed and carried on talking, fast and impatient.

‘I’ve been following someone, something, chasing them really, halfway across the universe, if you must know.’

‘Who?’

‘A man, two men. Well, they’re the same man, except he’s not a man at all. That probably doesn’t make a lot of sense to you. Look, I’d better go. I’m really sorry to have ruined your picnic; it looks lovely, but … well, a lot more than your picnic could be ruined.’ As he rattled on he had started picking up stuff and throwing food into Mum’s basket.

‘Just get away from here!’ he shouted when still none of Ali’s family moved. ‘Far away.’

And then he stopped what he was doing, and cocked his head as if he’d heard something. ‘Oh, Castor and Pollux,’ he muttered, dropping a plate of boiled eggs. ‘Not good. That’s really not good at all.’

And then he was gone. Running off across the grass.

‘Well, I mean …’ said Ali’s dad. ‘What was all that about?’

Mum tutted and started tidying up.

‘I think we should do what he says,’ said Ali.

‘Why?’ said Dad. ‘He’s obviously nuts.’

Just then there came a great shout that seemed to fill the sky.

‘Well, there’s that, for a start,’ said Ali, packing things away just like the man had done.

And then there was another cry, almost a scream, and there, above the treetops, was something that Ali found hard to take in. A man, but a man taller than the tallest building in town, and next to him another man. ‘The same man,’ the stranger had said, and she saw what he’d meant. They were separate physically but somehow they were both the same living thing: identical, moving together, their faces showing the same blank expression.

Ali froze as her mind tried to take this all in, too scared to move, gripped by a giant, cold claw. She had the overwhelming thought that she could never understand what a creature like this would be thinking, except that it wouldn’t care one iota about her and her family.

And then she wondered if she was really seeing it at all.

The two linked figures were very faint as if they weren’t even there, just made of cloud and smoke and swirling leaves. And there was the stranger, holding something shining in his hand. One of the giants had scooped him up and he was yelling something, and the giants bellowed and there was a flash and everything started swirling, so that instead of two giants there was a tornado, a whirlwind, a great dancing dust devil, and the stranger spun round and round, twisting up into the sky. Then there was a final huge shout and they all disappeared.

This happened in less than three beats of Ali’s heart – seeing the thing, her feeling about the alien nature of its mind, the thinness of it, the stranger being lifted up, the twister – and it was gone.

Then there was a great punch to her chest, the air was sucked out of her, her tubes popped and she felt suddenly sick. She moaned and closed her eyes. Her whole head was ringing and there was a bad, metallic taste in her mouth. She could hear her little sister crying.

And then Dad’s voice.

‘Great gods … Great gods. What was that?’

Ali felt something touch her. She opened her eyes. It had started to rain. Only it wasn’t rain. Tiny silver droplets were falling from the sky. They dissolved as soon as they touched the ground. All except one. A larger piece that sat there. A silver sphere. Perhaps the thing the stranger had been holding. She picked it up. It was much heavier than it looked and very cold to the touch. She put it into her carrying pouch quickly before Mum or Dad saw it.

‘We should get inside,’ she said. ‘Away from here, like he said, the man …’

The Doctor. That’s what he was called. Although she didn’t yet know it.

She also didn’t yet know that he wasn’t a man at all.