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Alf stood over Jeret Seth who was now sitting on the floor of the TARDIS, beads of sweat forming on his tanned forehead. 'You've sent out a burst of Artron energy?' asked the Doctor rhetorically. 'The Tiger's Eye will flock to the TARDIS like the faithful to their god,' replied Seth, examining his charred hand. The Doctor operated the scanner and, sure enough, the crystal creatures were attaching themselves to the outer plasmic hull, bound together in a web of electrical rapture. 'If you dematerialise, they will gain an understanding of travel through liquid time and will accompany the TARDIS…' Seth's laugh turned to a cough. 'There is nothing you can do.' 'You've already said that,' snapped the Doctor, closing the scanner. 'But you're wrong.' The Time Lord clone set the controls and threw the dematerialisation switch. Alf gasped. 'What are you doing, Doctor?' 'Don't worry Alf. I have a fallback position. It is extreme, but needs must when the devil drives.' Seth looked agitated. 'What fallback position?' he demanded, rising to stand. 'Watch it, mate,' said Alf, readying herself for an attack. 'Tell me!' shouted the former drug lord. 'Surely you know that Dar-Es-Buraq is built in the crater of an extinct volcano?' asked the Doctor with an arched eyebrow. 'Of course, but… no. No! You plan to use magma?' Seth thrust Alf aside and jumped onto the raised dais surrounding the console. Alf hit the wall of the TARDIS and her shoulder exploded with pain. She watched helplessly as Seth grabbed the broad shoulders of his adversary and stared intently at the Doctor. The Doctor stumbled back as if struck but then powered forward to mimic Seth's stance. 'Alf…'he said through clenched teeth. 'Contact Kovalis… tell him… tell him… must fire… satelittles…' As the two Time Lords stood locked together in what appeared to be a painful staring match, Alf slowly stood up and, clutching at her shoulder, stumbed to the console. The communication circuits were a series of green and blue buttons on the far side of the wooden mushroom, but she had little idea how to work them. She stared at the configuration of controls and waited for the mirror to stop spinning… Nick and Kovalis stood in the cramped confines of the mobile command unit, the Yahanan examining the latest figures of evacuees while Nick went through the communications reports, looking for any sign of Alf. 'He has been gone a long time,' said Kovalis breaking the silence of several minutes. Nick looked up. 'Yeah, but when you've got a time machine, it doesn't mean anything.' He scratched his head. The Buliseye did have a point.'I s'pose we should make sure those satellites are ready.' 'They already are,' said Kovalis pointing to a screen behind Nick's head. 'Five of the planetary defence net's weapons platforms are now in geo-synchronous orbit over Dar.' 'Right,' said Nick. The depot rang with the sound of reality being unzipped and the TARDIS materialised in the darkness, the 12 Tiger's Eye still clinging to its outer shell. In the Console room, the Doctor seemed to be gaining the upper hand in his battle with Seth, but it was hard for her to tell. Both were now sweating freely and had clenched teeth, each grimacing at whatever the other was doing. 'Doctor, I hate to break up your party, but I just don't know how to set the…' 'Extreme right - blue…' hissed the Time Lord clone. 'Middle - green… all frequencies.' 'Right,' said Alf. The message was received by the communications officers in the mobile command unit and passed to Kovalis immediately. He and Nick listened to the message. As soon as he heard the voice, Nick jumped up and punched the air. 'Yes! You stupid woman! You're alive!' he shouted, grinning. Then he frowned. 'I'll kill you for leaving me at that Maatabix!' Several hundred kilometres above Dar-Es-Buraq, the five defence satellites opened fire on the city. Their crimson rays of amplified light lit up the early morning sky for thousands of miles and the pinprick beams passed through the bedrock on which the conurbation had been built. Finally they reached the underground sea of lava that had been sealed centuries before, immediately super-heating it to temperatures in excess of 200 degrees Celsius. The effect was instant. The molten lava sought any route to permit its expansion and found only those tiny boreholes created by the laser fire. It streamed up them, gathering speed and enlarging the apertures as it went, before bursting forth upon the near-deserted city, sending plumes of liquid rock hundreds of feet into the air. Tremors shook the buildings of the massive city and caused most of the canals to burst their banks. The water coursed through the streets bringing a new type of death before the pressure of the lava finally blew the tiny boreholes apart, allowing the lava to flow at a reduced pace, but an increased volume. The destruction of Dar-Es-Buraq had started. Seth had engaged the Doctor in the sort of mental assault the Time Lord remembered from his days at the academy. He had never enjoyed the so-called game - not because he was bad at it - it just seemed a pointless pursuit with the only outcome being pain for both parties. The object of these duels was to drive one's opponent back through their past regenerations mentally. Ultimately, a loser could die, but this was rare - although not impossible. Seth was obviously trained in such matters by the Celestial Intervention Agency - that part of Time Lord society that looked after matters of external security. The CIA operative had obviously never heard of the Doctor's famous sweet jar defence, though. As Seth had tried to force the Doctor to regress, he found his every move blocked by a seemingly impenetrable shield of humbugs. The image was intensely strong and almost Escher-like in its complexity, meaning that even if Seth found his way past one layer, he was immediately confronted with another. The Doctor knew that this meant stalemate - something for which Seth would never settle. The errant Time Lord would continue his attack until the Doctor's defence was beaten. This was not going to happen. Ergo the Doctor had to fight back in order to end the bout. The troubling question was, would Seth admit defeat before the Doctor regressed him to the state of cabbage? 'Please, Seth,' he said, aware of the tremors shaking the TARDIS. 'You… cannot… win.' 'You are out of shape, Doctor,' said Seth with ease. The Doctor knew this was just a ploy - gamesmanship - and began his counter-attack. Alf watched as Seth began to visibly sag under the pressure. The Doctor had now stopped perspiring and was standing in a relaxed position, his eyes locked on Seth's. 'Seth, I do not wish to harm you. From what I understand we Time Lords are an endangered species.' 'Some… more… than others,' hissed Seth. 'Enough!' shouted the Doctor. 'Why are you really doing this? You know the Time Lords would have rescued you if you had sent a signal. Do you mean to wrest power for yourself?' 'Nothing… so simple…' 'Doctor, look!' Alf pointed at the scanner. Outside, the Tiger's Eye were splitting apart - like amoebas - one becoming two, becoming four, becoming eight at an ever-increasing rate. 'They… breed,' said Seth triumphantly. 'It doesn't matter,' said the Doctor. 'The lava will reach us soon and we will probably all die. Pointless isn't it?' With a sudden movement that looked as if the Doctor was going to head butt his fellow Time Lord, the battle was over. Seth collapsed to the floor just as a wave of lava washed through the depot, consuming the Tiger's Eye and the TARDIS alike. The Doctor bent to examine Seth. 'Why Seth? Why did you push me this far?' 'Had to,' explained the Time Lord as he reached for the Doctor's hand. The clone took it and clasped it tight. 'Controlled. Deep down… I knew. I had to be free of the control.' 'Who was controlling you?' 'Jeret Seth. Not me - bestowed upon me by him. The Je...' Seth's breathing became more laboured. The deep and resonant clanging sounded from the depths of the TARDIS interior. Alf went to say something, but the Doctor waved her away with his free hand. 'I can save you, Seth, I have technology on Alpha Centauri that can restore you.' 'Too late, Doctor. But thank you. Going soon.' Under his beard, Alf saw the Doctor bite his lip. 'Then , please, tell me the co-ordinates for Outpost Gallifrey,' 'The least… I can do,' Seth smiled. He beckoned for the Doctor to bend closer and then started to whisper something. NO! Alf looked round for the source of the voice, but there was no one else in the console room. Seth gave a spasm in the Doctor's arms and fell to the floor. The Doctor looked up, a look of immense anger in his eyes. 'The Millennium People,' he sneered. 'Doctor, you all right?' Alf had never seen him like this. The Doctor bowed his head. 'I'm sorry Alf. But no, I am not all right. One of the Millennium People has used and murdered a Time Lord in an attempt to gain control of the worst army imaginable and I know who… oh no!' The Doctor jumped up as a screeching sound issued from the console. 'Plasmic hull failure immanent!' he exclaimed. 'We must dematerialise immediately. Sorry.' He patted the console and busied himself setting the controls. 'What about the Tiger's Eye things?' asked Alf. 'One of two things will happen to them,' he replied, not even looking up. 'They will either be killed by the lava or entombed within it as it cools.' He looked up and Alf saw there was a single tear meandering down his cheek. As it reached the rich growth of his beard, the Doctor wiped it away. 'I am ashamed to say that by this action I have committed the most heinous of crimes - genocide - and I have been forced to do so by the Millennium People.' He hit the dematerialisation switch and the TARDIS lurched away from the crystalline creatures, leaving them to their uncertain fate. The Doctor had tried to persuade Kovalis to come with them, but the old Yahanan had declined. He had said - with a snort - that his place was with his people, fighting the new threat of the Sontarans. The Doctor had nodded silently and then wished him luck. He wished he could not tell his noble friend the certain doom he faced at the hands of the cloned armies, but he could not. It was bad enough he had tried to take Kovalis with them. He dreaded to think what the Figure would say if he ever saw him again. Having failed to alter history, the Doctor had left Alf and Nick on Alpha Centauri and taken Seth's body to the Eye of Orion. It seemed the right thing to do. Upon his return, he had found himself acting as referee in an argument between his two friends. Apparently it had all started with Nick calling Alf a stupid cow for going off without him and then Alf had - in Nick's vernacular - 'gone ballistic'. The Doctor found it hard to get emotional about such a silly altercation when he had just witnessed the loss of Seth, Kovalis and the whole Yahanan people. And he had only managed to get partial co-ordinates for Outpost Gallifrey. His friends would sort things out and he would find his people. He was certain of that. All else was up for debate and right now, the Doctor didn't care for one…
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