The Rsand stopped chittering, and K'think turned to address the Doctor.

 'So, what have you decided?' asked the Doctor.

 'We have dezzided zzat you zhall ezject ze black hole fromm yurrr zhip and allow uzz to ztabilize it. Zzat way we zhall build a zafe bridzge from ourr ooniverzze to the nexzt as we pazz fromm deass and are made alivvve ...'

 The Doctor's eyes narrowed in horror.

 The Rsand lifted their weapons. 'You willl have nooo choizzzze...'

 Clarisse was still missing, both inside and out. After all this time, it was amazing how much it still hurt him to explore that spot--that aching, empty void in his head where Clarisse Klein had been.

 "A telepath can only truly love another telepath," she'd said once, and he knew it was true. The pathetic headblind fools out there thought they had intimacy. They could never imagine the true, total intimacy he'd had with her--experiencing everything together, everything and anything...

 Even her death. He still felt it in his mind, the pain of it all, and then the emptiness...

 And then he'd made contact with the Rsand. He'd been depressed, and working on technology to enhance his own powers--looking to make contact with another mind, any other mind--and then he'd punched through into the universe he'd encoded as X-774. His mind had travelled through the black hole, psionic energy navigating the dimensional warp with transcendent ease, and then he'd made contact with the Rsand hive-mind...oh, the bliss of it all!

 So many minds as one, a multiplicity of beautiful thought. It was difficult to maintain contact with such an alien mind; goodness knows, it had taken all of his power. But the thoughts, they were worth it. They understood that death and life were inter-related, all part of an endless spiral. He still wasn't sure when he'd understood that the black hole was the instrument of death and life, and whether it was him or the Rsand--with so many minds in communion, he couldn't be certain which thoughts were his. But he knew that Clarisse would be here, on the other side, waiting for him.

 But now he was alone again. The Rsand had rejected him. The Doctor thought he was mad. Clarisse was nowhere to be found. He needed a mind to link with, to become whole.

 Desperately, he reached out to find another mind. There was one near the Doctor's timeship, a mind calling out for desperate help. It was near the end of its life-cycle, it needed support to save it...he stood up and moved towards it.

 "I'm sorry," he said, slowly and deliberately, "but I cannot do what you are asking."

 "Yuu havve maade a prromizze to uzz to bring uzz to livve. Why do yuu not do zzizzz?" K'Think's voice was almost pleading, a contrast to its obviously aggressive attitude.

 "Two reasons," the Doctor said as he saw his companions walk in. 'The first..." He noticed that Jadi and Angela had obviously come to terms with each other. Their body language suggested a higher degree of emotional intimacy than he'd noticed before, although there was a discomfort there too--a different sort than there had been. And Wil seemed very uncomfortable around either of them. Not too surprising, but it would make things very complicated if any of them survived the next few minutes. And when Jadi found out about Angela's secret, it'd get worse. But all that should be pushed aside for the moment--he had a race of sentient beings to save. "...is that I cannot understand why you, as a race of sentient beings, should have this drive to kill yourselves--er, bring yourselves to life--en masse like this. You hadn't developed space travel until recently, so this isn't a case of traditional behavior overriding rational thought. You all decided to do this for some reason, and until I find out what it is, I cannot, in good conscience, allow it."

 "I zzee. Forzze can convinzzze yuu, yezzz?"

 "No," the Doctor said calmly. "Because the second reason is that it's blatantly impossible. I don't have an actual black hole inside my craft--rather, I have a link to the black hole that exists in dynamic stability underneath my home planet of Gallifrey. There is no way to 'expel it from my craft', since it isn't in my craft to begin with."

 "Link to ozzer ooniverzze in there?"

 "Yes, but--"

 "Yuu will ztabilize that link. Yuu will let uzz crozz zruu into ozzer ooniverzze."

 The Doctor nodded. Privately, he acknowledged to himself that mentioning that might not have been the best policy.

 I wonder how Romana would react to a bunch of giant bugs dropping in? he wondered. Probably not well at all. They don't look like big tea drinkers.

 Costello took a deep breath, and plunged his head into Ramble.

 Grandfather was going to the hives today. It was a sad time, and yet a joyous occasion. He was old, and weak, but through the Rsand, he would live again. Not as Grandfather, Mother had explained, but as a Rsand. He would live, and then later, he would die and come back to them again as a Scrabethst, and the cycle would begin anew.

 Ramble watched Grandfather move, slowly and unsteadily, towards the Rsand hives. He was old, three cycles old, and he had difficulty shifting forms in order to move along the Path of Sorrow. Ramble couldn't help sculpting a tearform as Grandfather moved, unsteadily but without aid, and with great dignity, towards the hive.

 As was traditional, the Rsand met him along the way. Their long needle-like mouths stabbed out at Grandfather, sucking away his substance, using it to nourish their egg sacs, letting Grandfather live, and then, when he was all gone, they turned to face the assembled Scrabethsts.

 "We are leaving," they said.

 "But Rsand cannot leave! What of the cycle? How will you live, how will you die, without the Scrabethsts? How will we live and die without you?"

 "It matters not," the Rsand said. "We have recieved a revelation. A mind has come among us from beyond life and death, telling us of a place where we will live once, and then eternally. We have made ships. We travel there now. We need the cycle--we need you--no longer."

 And then they left.

 He knew what he had done. He knew he needed to help Ramble, before it was too late.

 Then he opened his eyes. No--his eyelids were dissolving. He remembered Jadi Morok's arm, and the way it merged with the Rsand genetic material.

 As the Scrabethst flowed over his body, he smiled.

 "Exxxellllent," buzzed K'Think. "Do zzo, noww."

 "Alright, let's see. Wil, if you could just step over to the Architectural Reconfiguration Unit? And Jadi, if you could just step over to the Time Vector Generator? And Angela, could you stand in front of the HADS console? Thank you. Now, listen very carefully. I'll begin to activate the procedure, but it's going to require very careful timing. I'm going to be sending a false signal of dimensional collision to the TARDIS systems--Angela, that's when you'll see a warning on the HADS. Simply pull the green lever there. That should partially dematerialize us in a hover mode. Jadi, you'll see us go into hover mode. Then all you need to do is set the TVG to co-ordinates 0, 0, 0, 0. Then, Wil, you'll see a warning signal on the Architectural Reconfiguration System. All you need to do is touch 'Yes' on the screen, three times. Then leave everything to me. Understood?"

 All three nodded. The Rsand watched expectantly.

 The Doctor reached underneath the console and pulled out a small component. Immediately, a deep ger-clonk! sound rang from the depths of the TARDIS. Angela looked down at her monitor.

 WARNING! it read. DEMATERIALIZATION SYSTEM MANUALLY DEACTIVATED. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO ENGAGE HOSTILE ACTION DISPLACEMENT SYSTEMS!!!!!

 Angela looked up at the Doctor, who nodded gravely. She crossed her fingers mentally, then pulled the green lever.

 Immediately, the holographic displays began to go insane. Flickering fractal patterns flowed over where their surroundings had once been. Jadi looked down at his screen.

 WARNING! it read. HOSTILE ACTION DISPLACEMENT SYSTEMS ACTIVATED! MATERIALIZATION SYSTEMS MISPHASED! IMPERATIVE THAT ENERGY BACKLASH DIRECTED TO NON-ESSENTIAL CO-ORDINATES! CO-ORDINATES:

 Jadi gulped slightly, and typed in 0, 0, 0, 0.

 The ger-clonk! sound became more insistent. The lighting system flickered slightly, then dimmed, then brightened. The very walls of the TARDIS seemed to blur ever so slightly. Wil looked down at his screen.

 ENERGY BACKLASH DIRECTED TO CO-ORDINATE ZERO!!! EYE OF HARMONY IN DANGER OF OVERFLOW!!! JETTISON EYE OF HARMONY? YES/NO

 Wil pressed 'YES'.

 WARNING! THIS WILL RESULT IN LOSS OF POWER TO PRIMARY SYSTEMS! INITIATE BACK-UP POWER SUPPLY? YES/NO

 Wil pressed 'YES' again.

 WARNING! THIS WILL RESULT IN LOSS OF RANGE/ LACK OF FULL DIMENSIONAL TRANSIT CAPABILITIES! JETTISON EYE? YES/NO

 Closing his eyes, Wil pressed 'YES' a third time.

 Immediately, the holograph returned to normal. The cloister bell stopped ringing. The lights returned to normal. The walls stopped blurring.

 "There--that wasn't that bad, was it?" The Doctor beamed at his companions amiably.

 "Yuu will direct uzz to zze link now."

 "I'm sorry," the Doctor said, "but that won't be possible. I've just deleted it. The TARDIS no longer contains a link to the Eye of Harmony, or indeed a black hole of any kind. It means that we won't be able to return to our universe, but I simply couldn't allow you to use my ship as a conduit to my reality. I hope you understand."

 "Er, Doctor," Wil said as the Rsand closed in, "next time could you, maybe, er, consult on these things?"

 A glutinous tendril lashed out through the suddenly-open TARDIS door, catching K'Think in the chest. Within seconds, it had oozed over him, dissolving his carapace and allowing his internal organs to spill out onto the floor.

 One of the Rsand looked out through the door. "Scrabethst!" it shrieked, flinging itself back from the door a second too late. Ramble/Costello launched itself at it, and within seconds, it had been reduced to a pile of organic gunk.

 The Rsand tried to stop the Scrabethst valiantly, but their weapons seemed to have no effect on the blob. It was dividing already, using the new genetic material to separate into multiple Scrabethsts, each one then proceeding to absorb more Rsand carapace into itself. Soon, nothing was left in the TARDIS except the Doctor, his companions, and multiple Scrabethsts.

 The Doctor's expression was grim. "How could you possbily justify such slaughter?" he whispered.

 "In the name of life," Costello/Ramble burbled sadly. "The Rsand hive-mind was damaged, and the Scrabethsts were dying. Now, through the deaths of these Rsand, both races will live. It must be difficult for you to understand, I know. But this is the way of things. The cycle continues; it may not be how we want it, but it is how the Rsand, the Scrabethst live. We will continue, and though they will mourn, they will soon need to hatch their egg sacs. And for this, they will take of us as we take of them." Almost as an afterthought, it latched onto Jadi's arm. Within seconds, it had absorbed the foreign material. "Thank you," it said. "Most delicious."

 "I'm not really sure," the Doctor mused. "The situation with the Rsand seems to be one that will correct itself--I hate to say it, but the universe seems to have ordained things this way. Nature is full of great beauty and great cruelty, and this seems to have been one of the crueler points of it. Still, they seem to have come to terms with it--and Costello, oddly enough, seems happier this way."

 "That's nice, Doctor," Wil muttered, "but you've jettisoned the Eye of Harmony, the TARDIS is stranded here, and we're someplace completely beyond any of our experiences--a totally new, unfamiliar environment with no way at all of getting back!"

 "Yes," the Doctor said, smiling at last. "Isn't it wonderful?"

 THE END...MORE OR LESS