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The Doctor and Vera rushed into the kitchen, closing the door behind them. ‘Cup of tea, Doctor? That was a close one and no mistake!’ ‘The sky is full of Protii, and all you can go on about is tea!’ ‘But why are they here?’ Vera asked. Suddenly, the door that the Doctor had just closed was hammered upon. ‘The Protii?’ whispered Vera. ‘Hardly!’ the Doctor snapped, hauling the door open. Alf and Professor Endlemann tumbled into the kitchen. Alf flew into the Doctor’s arms. ‘Oh, Doctor! It’s so good to see you!’ ‘You too,’ the Doctor replied calmly. ‘As for you Professor Endlemann, I’ll deal with you later! First there’s the small matter of a thousand Protii to deal with.’ ‘Doctor, I think the Protii are changing time!’ stammered Alf, in one breath. ‘Yes, I’m afraid you’re just about right. We’d come to the same conclusion. Now then Professor Endlemann, perhaps you’d like to tell us what your part in all of this is.’ ‘Doctor I have no part in all of this,’ he breathed nervously. ‘I’m afraid your finger of suspicion is pointing in rather the wrong direction. This woman and her devious grandson kidnapped me. Sort of.’ The Doctor turned in surprise to Vera, who was searching in the cupboard for some fruitcake. ‘Is this true?’ he asked. Vera looked sheepish. ‘It was on the planet Vrij, Doctor.’ Vera began, sitting down at the table. ‘Cy said we had to save him. Professor Endlemann was about to kill himself.’ ‘It’s true,’ Endlemann said. ‘Doctor, I’m a wanted criminal on a hundred worlds. My experiments in DNA modification broke new ground in the field. Not everyone is sympathetic to what they call “tampering with nature”.’ ‘Genetics. Of course! So that’s how Cy reconstructed the Protii. He used your misguided genius in DNA manipulation to weave a new creature around the bones he rescued from the Ranx expedition.’ ‘I never wanted this Doctor,’ Endlemann said sadly. ‘Cy threatened to turn me in to the Waterguard Space Police on Darp. I had no choice. He’s made me murder to recreate this thing down there.’ Alf had a sudden realisation. ‘The body I found earlier, drained of blood.’ ‘Yes. We needed blood as the one final ingredient to create it. Cy forced me to kill Hansen so we’d finish the work.’ He looked up at Vera, with a tear in his eye. ‘I’m so sorry, Mrs Jundrey.’ Vera began to sob again. ‘I never thought my Cy could be capable of so much evil. He seemed such a good natured boy too.’ ‘He’s not like that at all. He’s taken us for a ride,’ said Endlemann. ‘ I wanted to die Doctor. I wanted my body to go the same way as the rest of Vrij.’ ‘So you destroyed the planet Vrij! You misguided fool! Because of your attempts to evade capture, the whole universe could be in danger!’ the Doctor shouted. ‘Never mind about the universe, Doctor! What about Nick?’ Alf said desperately. ‘Last time I saw him he was in a terrible state.’ ‘Yes, of course, Nick.’ The Doctor’s voice was grave. He was lost in thought for a moment. ‘Alf, have you actually seen one of these Protii?’ ‘Yeah,’ Alf muttered. ‘Nasty looking things they are too. Didn’t seem quite real though. More like a ghost.’ ‘Ah.’ The Doctor smiled. ‘I think what you’ve seen isn’t actually a full manifestation of the Protii at all. More a shadow, an echo of the Protii collective.’ ‘So the Protii can’t fully materialise until the Protii in the cellar has been fully regenerated,’ Professor Endlemann said. ‘Which can only be a matter of time!’ Vera added. ‘Doctor, I think we should get your friend Nick out of there!’ ‘I really think you could be right Vera!’ the Doctor replied. ‘Come on!’ There was a sly smile on Cy’s face as he saw the arrival of a rather shabby-looking Waterguard ship landing behind the house. Some fool had obviously involved them, but here was a chance, he thought, to turn their arrival to his advantage. Knowing the Waterguards in this section of the galaxy, they were bound to be bumbling idiots and he could easily get them on his side, removing the meddling Doctor out of the way. The door slid open and two shabby figures approached him. ‘Hi!’ Cy beamed at them. ‘It’s about time someone came and sorted out this mess. They’ve got my boyfriend.’ ‘Don’t worry, son, leave it to us, we’ll soon have this whole situation sorted out, won’t we Costa?’ ‘Oh yes, Admiral Fisk, there could be promotion in this for us!’ Fisk smiled. ‘We’ll be the golden boys of the day.’ He said. The Doctor, Vera, Alf and Endlemann crept down the cellar stairs. ‘Can you imagine what would happen if the Protii collective were allowed to gain corporeal existence in our dimension?’ the Doctor whispered to the others. ‘Bye bye universe’ murmured Alf. ‘More than that,’ the Doctor replied. ‘All of time would be their feeding ground. History would be continuously re-shaped and distorted until the entire web of time collapsed under the weight of the Protii’s feasting.’ They reached the bottom of the stairs, and Alf ran forward to find Nick. ‘Alf, wait!’ the Doctor pulled her back. As their eyes became accustomed to the gloom, Nick became visible, still chained to the tank. But one horrifying fact suddenly became clear to them all. Endlemann turned in disbelief to the Doctor. ‘The Protii is gone,’ he whispered urgently. ‘The tank is empty!’ ‘Stay calm everyone,’ the Doctor said. ‘All it means is that the Protii is on the loose somewhere in this house and could devour us all.’ ‘Ooh!’ wailed Vera. Alf ran forward to Nick, who wearily opened his eyes. ‘Nick! Oh Nick I thought you were dead!’ ‘It’ll take more than some ancient evil to kill me,’ Nick said hoarsely, forcing a smile. He realised as her face swam into focus that he’d been a fool to think of Cy the way he did. Alf was the one. The one you searched a whole lifetime for and found right in front of your eyes the moment you stopped looking. He felt such relief as she held him in a tight hug, and he never wanted her to let him go again. ‘What’s that scum done to you, Nick?’ Alf was angry. ‘Nothing much,’ Nick smiled, ‘nothing that matters anyway now you’re here with me.’ Alf looked deep into his eyes and a heartbeat later her lips had moved to kiss him. He smiled and kissed her back. ‘Alf,’ he began but stopped as he noticed the Doctor’s eyes boring into him. He felt uncomfortable doing this in front of him. ‘Oh we’re going to die Doctor, aren’t we? DIE!’ Vera sobbed. ‘There’s only this house. There’s nowhere else on this bloomin’ planet.’ ‘The Protii must have absorbed the whole village.’ The Doctor explained. ‘Your memories have all been erased. It’s as if there never was a village here. Only Alf, Nick and myself are immune.’ ‘It’s like that time my house disappeared!’ Vera said. ‘The Protii will… what?’ the Doctor looked round confused. ‘Oh yes. It’s true. Lovely little cottage I had, on Zil. There I was, hangin’ out me smalls one day, and some bastard with a CET machine takes me ruddy house away!’ ‘I don’t think that’s what’s happening here, Vera. The village has been absorbed by the Protii collective, and removed from the time stream altogether.’ ‘Village?’ Professor Endlemann snapped. ‘What village? We came here because the planet was deserted. Stop wasting time Doctor!’ ‘Doctor wait a moment.’ Alf pulled away from Nick’s tender lips for a moment. ‘If the Protii has escaped, it has no connection with Nick. And that means its regeneration is still incomplete! All we have to do is to keep Nick and the Protii apart!’ ‘And since there is no way off this planet,’ Professor Endlemann said, ‘there’s only really one way we can save us all. And that… is to kill Nick!’ ‘You dirty rotten scumbag!’ Alf shouted, launching herself at him. ‘He’s prepared to sacrifice Nick to save his own skin!’ ‘It’s not a case of saving my skin,’ Professor Endlemann corrected her, stepping back. ‘You heard the Doctor! The whole structure of time will be destroyed if Nick is allowed to live. Which is it to be? Him? Or everything?’ ‘Stay still all of you!’ boomed a voice from behind them. At that very moment the two shabby Waterguards stormed down the cellar stairs with a leering Cy not far behind. ‘Look he’s got my boyfriend chained up there,’ Cy sounded as innocent as he could. ‘They must be trying to torture him!’ ‘Hands up you lot. The game’s up!’ cried Admiral Fisk triumphantly. ‘And what game would that be Cy?’ the Doctor enquired. ‘Chess? Maybe you think you have all the pawns.’ ‘Oh I prefer Patience, Doctor.’ Cy smiled. ‘That way, I always win.’ ‘How about Connect Four?’ Vera piped up. ‘Lock them up!’ commanded Admiral Fisk.
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