Part 18 (1/2)

'Soon more Xhinns.h.i.+ps shall arrive.'

'How soon?' the Doctor asked.

'When this world has circled its star fifty times.'

'Then shall the Xhinn arrive.'

'Then shall the great work truly begin.'

'What if the people of Earth refuse to accept the ways of the Xhinn? Humans can be a delightfully stubborn species, as I'm sure you've already discovered. What then?'

'They are stubborn.'

'But they are fragile.'

'You saw the testing.'

The Doctor was furious. 'What you are doing is wrong!'

'We have studied the history of this species.'

'For centuries they have colonised this world.'

'They have subjugated and exterminated their own kind.'

'All in the name of civilisation.'

'All in the name of progress.'

'All in the name of their G.o.ds.'

'We do unto them as they do to themselves.'

'How can that be wrong?'

'But they have learned! They have changed! What's your excuse?' the Doctor demanded.

'We need no excuse.'

'We are the Xhinn.'

'We are the future of this world.'

Sarah and Tommy b.u.mped into each other on the staircase, her coming down from the roof, him coming up from the kitchen.

They stared at each other, neither refusing to give way. Finally, Tommy broke into a smile.

'Sums up our relations.h.i.+p. You're too stubborn to give way...' he said.

'And you're too stubborn to admit when you're wrong,'

Sarah replied.

'Speak for yourself!'

'I always do.' Sarah couldn't help but smile. For all his violence and fury, there was something infectious about Tommy.

Just a shame he showed it so rarely. 'Look, I want to go over the road and visit Mary Mills. One of her daughters is sick from the smog.'

Tommy stepped aside to let Sarah past. 'Be careful.'

Across the road Mary was getting ever more concerned about Bette. Her youngest daughter's breathing was just a shallow wheeze now Bette had always been a sickly child. She was born prematurely and never completely recovered. Every illness going around seemed to strike her down first and worst. The smog was going to be the death of her.

There was a knock at the door. Jean opened it, leaving her mother to care for Bette in front of the fireplace. 'There's a woman here to see you, Mum. Says her name's Sarah.'

'Let her in and close the b.l.o.o.d.y door Jean!'

The eldest daughter came back into the front room, followed by Sarah. The visitor looked with concern around the room. The smog was seeping in through the gaps between the wooden frames of the sash windows. A film of grey moisture coated nearly every surface. The air was dank and sour, despite the blazing fire in the grate.

'How is she?'

'Dying. Can't hardly take a breath.' Mary looked up pleadingly. 'Can't somebody do something?'

Sarah just shook her head. 'The ambulances can't get through. The hospitals will be overflowing with cases like this. I wish there was something I could do...'

'You can,' Mary replied. 'Stay with us until.. until it's over.'

Sarah nodded. She sat on the floor beside the distraught woman and held her hand. It was the least she could do.

The Doctor decided that debating the nature of right and wrong was getting him nowhere. He had to use the only language the Xhinn understood threats.

'I didn't want to have to resort to your methods. I thought we could resolve this peacefully. I see now that you are intent on destroying this world and all its species. So let me say this: I am sworn to protect this planet and its people. If you continue on this course of action, I will have no alternative but to destroy you all. You may consider this a first and final warning.'

There was a curious noise in his mind, like metal rasping against metal. The Doctor realised it was the Xhinn expressing mirth.

'You warn us?'

'You would destroy us?'

'How?'

'I am not of this world,' the Doctor said, 'but I have saved it before and, no doubt, I shall save it again.'

'We know you are alien.'