Part 15 (1/2)

Finally Rez prised himself loose and joined Professor Shulough, who led him into the airlock. As the doors closed, Rez looked back one last time at his paradise home and then turned away.

The Doctor and Rose ushered Jaelette, Kaylen and the other Laylorans away from the s.h.i.+p as Hespell ignited the manoeuvring thrusters and the huge metal s.h.i.+p slowly lifted off the ground. Surprisingly graceful, it gained height and then speed as it cleared the trees and reached the open sky. Then, s.h.i.+fting to antigravity engines, it accelerated and quickly headed off into s.p.a.ce. Within a minute there was nothing to see but a dot in the sky and a moment later even that had disappeared completely.

The Doctor and Rose walked back to the TARDIS in silence, deep in their own thoughts. Rose took the opportunity to take one last look at the wonderful planet and her heart went out to poor Rez, who had been forced to leave this paradise.

'Will he be all right?' she wondered out loud.

'I think so,' the Doctor answered after a moment or two. 'Humans are very adaptable.'

'But this is all he's ever known.'

'Until now.' The Doctor smiled. 'Anyway, it's the only way this place can get back to its normal state.'

'A paradise planet that no human can ever visit. That's a bit sad, isn't it?'

The Doctor shrugged, searching in his pocket for the TARDIS key.

'You know that feeling on a winter's day, when it's snowed in the night and you come downstairs and everything is different. There's a blanket of white and it's all perfect, untouched?'170.

'Yeah,' Rose said, 'and you want to go out in it but at the same time you don't, 'cause then it'll get mushy and covered in footprints and. . . spoilt.'

The Doctor nodded. 'It's the same thing here. Nothing lasts for ever, not even the Paradise Planet. But it can last for a bit longer yet.'

He opened the door and stepped through into the impossibly cavernous console room of his own s.h.i.+p. Rose hesitated for a moment in the doorway, looking back at the beach.

'Oh, well,' she said, following the Doctor and closing the TARDIS door behind her, 'there's always Clacton, I suppose. Not much call for a bikini there, though.' The Doctor was already at the controls, setting switches and preparing to dematerialise.

'I think we can do a bit better than that,' he said, grinning. He pulled at a lever and set the central column in motion. 'Let's go and explore!'

Between the beautiful beach and the fantastic forest a wind whipped up out of nowhere and, with a wild trumpeting sound, the blue police box exterior of the TARDIS gently faded from view. Elsewhere, the SS Humphrey Bogart SS Humphrey Bogart, battered and ugly, punched a hole into hypers.p.a.ce and disappeared from view.

'Here,' said the professor, setting a mug of a hot liquid in front of the young man who was now dressed in a spare uniform. Rez took the mug and sniffed suspiciously.

The professor smiled, taking years off her age. 'I made sure I took some jinnen with us. Can't expect you to get used to tea overnight, can we?'