UNAWARE THAT SHE’D JUST succeeded in saving a life, Bryony was improvising – her experience as a receptionist had left her with a fair amount of experience in dealing with the unhappiness and anger of others. ‘You were Honor and Xavier, then? They weren’t children, not real children?’ There was the unpleasant possibility, of course, that the Bah-Sokhar had maybe digested the real twins and then learned enough about them to impersonate them. Or perhaps they were puppets that it worked inside – horrible idea…

OUR GRANDMOTHER WANT CHILD

WE GIVE CHILD

WE GIVE TWO

TWO IS BETTER

GRANDMOTHER HAPPY

GRANDMOTHER WANT HUSBAND BABY GRANDCHILD

WE GIVE LAST IN LIST

LAST IS LAST

IS MOST IMPORTANT

This made a kind of sense, Bryony supposed – the other desires of Julia Fetch could be seen as steps along the way to grandchildren. ‘Well, that was kind of you. That wasn’t about making people not be.’

KIND

GRANDMOTHER LOVE US KIND

GRANDMOTHER LOVE OCTOPODES

GRANDMOTHER LOVE OCTOPUSES

WE MAKE EXTRA BIG FOR HER

Bryony’s mind chilled when it remembered the grasping arms that had nearly conquered her and Putta.

REGRET

‘Yes, that’s all very well, but you don’t have to regret things like that if you don’t do them in the first place.’

BRING DOCTOR HERE

WE BRING HIM AND BRING PUTTA CREATURE

THEN YOU ALL STAY HERE FOR ALWAYS

WE PLAY

WE SLEEP

WE PLAY

Before Bryony could object, she could feel the approach of the tumbling, flustered virtual Putta and the mind of the Doctor – much more wary and harder to read as he approached.

And then – it did her so much good to see them – there were the images of her two friends.

SEE

YOU HAPPY

YOU BE HAPPY IF THEY BE HERE

FOREVER HAPPY

I MAKE PLACE FOR YOU

Almost before the Bah-Sokhar had finished thinking this sentence, the forbidding darkness began to sprout trees, rose bushes, a neat lawn…To Bryony it looked very much like a version of the garden outside Julia Fetch’s cottage. It was just a garden that seemed to go on for ever and to sway up and down, or flicker very slightly at the corner of her eye and on the horizon. Bryony, started, ‘But even children don’t want to play all the time…I mean they want to grow up and—’

Before she could finish the Doctor had unleashed a burst of fury – which was an achievement for someone rapidly being surrounded by a particularly attractive shrubbery. ‘Bah-Sokhar! You cannot have her. I forbid it. You cannot keep any of us. I forbid it!’

As soon as he yelled this – or rather as soon as his mind yelled this – the shrubbery became more wiry, more and more like a cage formed or briars and locking around him.

I AM I

I AM WE

I DO WHAT WE WISH

‘Doctor! No!’

Bryony looked on helplessly as Putta was also wrapped in briars. The sight of his face – so shocked and sad, his eyes meeting hers – rocked her heart. Back in the TARDIS, Bryony’s body shuddered in the bath. The ceiling sank lower. It was only a foot or so away from the top edge of the bath now and still descending.

‘Bah-Sokhar! Please!’

While her mind cried out, the garden the Bah-Sokhar had planted was shaken by what manifested as a strong gale – branches and leaves whipped back and forth. The sky which had been developing as umber overhead with two suns visible, faded as the Bah-Sokhar’s attention obviously turned elsewhere.

YOU SAD

‘Yes, I’m sad!’ bellowed Bryony’s consciousness. ‘You bet I’m bloody sad. You’ve been doing horrible things to people I love all day, and you’ve been lying to me ever since I came here, and I’m angry!’

‘No, no, no!’ called the Doctor. ‘Don’t be angry. Keep being sad. We know what it does when people are angry. I think sad is altogether the better path. And being fond of people…Try and be as fond as you can of Putta. He’s completely besotted with you, I can tell you. I know all the details. I mean, you’re splendid and everything, I quite agree, but the detail when you get up close to his thinking is positively obsessive—’

Putta – confined by unreal, but still painful thorns couldn’t stand this humiliation any longer, ‘Yes, thank you Doctor. She doesn’t love me. But I love her and I don’t care if she doesn’t love me. I don’t care if I die here – or where my body is, or…this whole situation is very confusing and I don’t like it – I don’t like anything about it, except that I know she’s all right. I know you’re all right Bryony and you’ll be all right…and if you’re the last thing I see, then that will be all right. That will be…’ His speech dwindled away in surprise as the briars withered back and then replaced themselves with dahlias. The Doctor was, likewise freed and left standing in a fantasy flowerbed, complete with butterflies.

YOU LOVE PUTTA CREATURE

As the creature said this to Bryony, Putta made a noise like a cat being surprised.

YOU LOVE DOCTOR

This produced a noise from Putta more like a cat being stepped on.

The Doctor smoothed his way out of the flowers and onto the lawn, getting into his stride in every sense. ‘Yes, we’re all terribly fond of each other in the usual ways. You can tell that. It’s not as if we can lie to you…Bah-Sokhar, the people on this planet they also tend to love each other – at least some of the people love some others of the people at least some of the time. I mean, they aren’t the sanest beings in the universe and certainly they can be full of hatred and fear, but why only listen to that. You made those children, you pleased their non-grandmother with them…I’m pretty sure you’ve been keeping her alive for longer than usual…You make things. You don’t have to destroy. You can learn.’

Learn

Bryony

The Bah-Sokhar became quiet, perhaps because it was thinking.

DOCTOR YOU BIGGEST MIND

BUT YOU NOT TELL

BRYONY YOU TELL

DOES YOU WANT I SHOULD LEARN

DOES YOU WANT WE SHOULD LEARN

Bryony tried to answer the creature without getting too excited, but she couldn’t avoid feeling optimistic. ‘Yes. Yes, the Doctor’s right. You could learn. We would help. We could. Probably. I don’t think I’ll be working here any more, but I could come to the lake or the park or something, I suppose and we could talk…I’m not sure if I could be like this very much – it’s really strange for me, but I could talk to the twins – you must have learned through them…’

HUMANS ANGRY

HUMANS HATE THEIR CHILDREN

HUMANS ENVY GREEDY RAGE FEAR

Putta felt he could contribute. ‘The whole universe knows that. And they eat things in pies.’

‘You’re not helping,’ Bryony hissed across to him

‘No, no…that’s…I just…You hear about humans and they’re supposed to be completely…monsters…well, not monsters…well, yes, mainly monsters…but then you meet them and they’re…that is…You know Bryony. They can be like her. They’re not all bad.’

‘Thanks for the ringing vote of confidence,’ muttered Bryony. But she was virtually smiling a virtual smile.

Putta smiled back. ‘Well, I can’t exactly lie, can I?’

The Doctor decided things needed to move along. ‘Yes, well, young love is attractive and so forth – although what your children would be like…you’re two completely different species you know – that takes considerable planning…It’s not as simple as her being from…Ipswich and him being from…Arbroath…’ He rubbed his face just as he would if it had been his face and he had been tired and at the end of a taxing day. ‘Bah-Sokhar, we will assist you. I will assist you. It would be possible for you to change. You already have, for goodness’ sake.’

I CHANGE

WE CHANGE

I AM I

WE ARE WE

WE BE CHANGE

I BE CHANGE

And this all seemed entirely positive as a development and Bryony was full of hope about it and had time to feel thrilled that she was in a virtual world with three different alien beings and kind of helping in a significant way to save all life on Earth, which wasn’t bad, considering she’d had nothing to look forward to for today beyond a film she’d seen before on telly and thinking about a man who clearly either didn’t fancy her, or who would never be able to tell her he fancied her.

Putta was, likewise, allowing his consciousness to thrum with what could be the inrushing of a lifetime’s suppressed optimism. He had been part of saving the day. It was all going to get better from here.

And the Doctor…the Doctor was cautious, but he could feel that the Bah-Sokhar wasn’t lying. The universe’s greatest and most feared assassin being had – over centuries in a quiet and lonely corner of the universe – slowly changed, altered its patterns of behaviour. The possibilities for good were almost endless.

Only then the garden disappeared in flash of utter blackness.

A force like the howling of wolves and broken children, like the end of many worlds, clawed through Putta, Bryony and the Doctor and they found themselves flung agonisingly out of the mindspace and into a bitter reality.