67 - Sometime Never...

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This Week:

A hideous, misshappen creature releases a butterﬂy.

Next Week:

The consequences of this simple action ensure that history follows its predicted

path. . .

Sometime:

In the swirling maelstrom of the Time Vortex, The Council of Eight map out

every moment in history and take drastic measures to ensure it follows their

predictions. But there is one elemental force that deﬁes their prediction,

that fails to adhere to the laws of time and space. . . A rogue element that

could destroy their plans merely by existing.

Already events are mapped out and deﬁned. Already the pieces of the trap

are in place. The Council of Eight know when Sabbath will betray them.

They know when Fitz will survive the horrors in the Institute of

Anthropology. They know when Trix will come to his aid. They know when

the Doctor will ﬁnally realise the truth.

They know that this will be:

Never

This is another in the series of adventures for the Eighth Doctor.

Sometime Never. . .

Justin Richards

DOCTOR WHO: SOMETIME NEVER. . .

Commissioning Editor: Benn Dunn

Editor: Stephen Cole

Creative Consultant: Justin Richards

Project Editor: Jaqueline Rayner

Published by BBC Worldwide Ltd

Woodlands, 80 Wood Lane

London W12 0TT

First published 2004

Justin Richards 2004

The moral right of the author has been asserted

Original series broadcast on the BBC

Format c

BBC 1963

Doctor Who and TARDIS are trademarks of the BBC

ISBN 0 563 48611 2

Cover imaging by Black Sheep, copyright c

BBC 2004

Printed and bound in Great Britain by

Mackays of Chatham

Cover primed by Belmont Press Ltd, Northampton

For Alison, Julian and Christian – always

Contents

Once Upon a Time. . . 4

At No time 7

Gazing at Inﬁnity 15

Into the Unknown 20

Telling Tales 27

Cause and Eﬀect 34

Uninvited Guests 42

A Matter of Timing 46

Devine Intervention 51

Meeting Point 54

History’s Mysteries 60

Life Line 64

Crystal Clear 70

Piecing Things Together 81

Predictivity 86

Bare Bones 91

Eternity in an Hour 98

Timeless 105

Contents 2

Reunion 111

Long Night 118

Freeze-Frame 125

Happily Never After 131

Never Once. . . 137

The Eternity Corridor 148

Unlikely Allies 156

Sabbath’s Story 160

Out of Joint 164

The Last Museum 169

When it Comes to the Crunch 178

Heart of Glass 186

The End of Eternity 197

Playing the Odds 209

Opening Time at the Lost and Found 217

Twice upon a Time 226

Alpha and Omega 233

Time and Time Again 237

Acknowledgements 238

About the Author 239

There is a room in the TARDIS where the Doctor never goes. . . He is in there

now.

Once Upon a Time. . .

Kujabi the hunter never saw Death come to the forest. He was watching the

antelope, picking his target, his best spear balanced in his hand when the air

cracked open like an egg and Death swam into existence between the trees.

>> Tracking...

>> Portal established. Stable. Agent emerging into real

time...

It was like a man, but it was also like an ape – a distorted mixture of both

species, and of more besides. The huge ﬁgure stood motionless, perhaps

snifﬁng the air. Perhaps knowing that Kujabi was there. Its shaggy head

turned slowly towards him and the creature took a massive, lumbering step

forwards. It gathered speed as it crossed the clearing towards the oblivious

hunter. Its feet, its paws, thumped into the ground and made the foliage

shake with fear. Kujabi was looking at Death. But he did not see it.

>> Target position locked and located...

>> Proceeding...

>> Real time co-ordinates established and verified...

>> Countdown to Event Initiation... No interruption to be

tolerated...

But before Death reached the hunter, another ﬁgure staggered into the

clearing, blundered into Death’s path. Kujabi had already turned away when

Death smashed its way through the new arrival, knocking it back the way

the creature itself had come. The smaller ﬁgure staggered and fell, but Ku-

jabi did not hear it shout words he could not understand, and then came

the screaming and Kujabi still heard and saw nothing. He did not see the

creature continuing on its journey, as if nothing had happened. Because by

then Kujabi was gone, following the antelope, becoming Death himself.

Once Upon a Time. . . 5

If Kujabi had been able to see it, he might have noticed that the creature

walked in a perfectly straight line. If he could also have brought himself to

follow the being that seemed to be made up from pieces of other creatures,

he might have identiﬁed some of the parts – one arm from an orang-utan,

the other apparently human, the legs of another massive ape, the head of a

Neanderthal but with a reptilian jaw, a body covered with hair but rippled

with pustules and erupting with scars and damaged tissue. . . If he had lived

four hundred years later, Kujabi might have realised that Death carried a

briefcase.

But Kujabi was dragging the antelope he had killed back to the village.

The creature’s mind was only on its mission. It had barely noticed the life

form that had blundered into its way and been thrown aside – ripped apart

by the Time Winds as it fell back unprotected into the portal. There was no

change in the ebb and ﬂow of History, therefore the event was unimportant.

The creature hardly felt the forest plants and small trees that it trampled

through on its way to the exact, calculated point. It perceived nothing but the

manner in which Time was ﬂowing around it, how everything was changing

and evolving, how the tiniest impact of one atom on another set up minia-

ture chain reactions of cause and effect that nudged History forwards and

determined its course.

The Agent stopped at exactly the right point in the forest, and put down

the briefcase. It was the sort of metal briefcase that might in centuries to

come contain a camera. Or a gun. A hirsute paw undid one of the clasps.

The creature’s near-human ﬁngers undid the other. Its mismatched hands

reached into the case and took from the foam-padded interior a crystal box.

The scorching African sun reﬂected off the angled transparency of the lid as

the Agent slid it aside. Surprisingly gently, the creature reached a paw into

the box and carefully lifted out the delicate form within.

Then: a hand held up, the sun behind it in the sky. Fingers slowly opening

at the exact moment, at the exact point in space. A hesitation no greater than

a child’s breath, and then the butterﬂy was free. Its paper-thin wings beat

gently as it lifted itself into the air, dark red against the brilliant yellow of the

sun and the blue of the sky. It ﬂuttered along its predicted course without a

care in the world. Without a notion of what it was achieving. Without any

consciousness of the part it might be playing on Time’s stage.

The Agent watched the butterﬂy disappear into the distance. Despite the

fact that it had no real existence in the world, the Agent could feel. Some-

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ThisWeek:Ahideous,misshappencreaturereleasesabuttery.NextWeek:Theconsequencesofthissimpleactionensurethathistoryfollowsitspredictedpath...Sometime:IntheswirlingmaelstromoftheTimeVortex,TheCouncilofEightmapouteverymomentinhistoryandtakedrasticmeasurestoensureitfollowstheirpredictions.Butthereisoneel...

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67 - Sometime Never...

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