defying the gravities of a million worlds and riding the winds
of the distant sky. How she had been able to sail here, how
she resisted the pull of the black hole in order to perform this
all-but impossible feat, nobody knew, but it spoke of superb
spacemanship and an instinct for the multiverse only a few
possessed.
They looked around them. Two black and brass boats had
already landed on the space-field, joining the other beautiful,
slender space tender steaming, bright brass and silver, in the
cool, dawn air where high overhead, her sails reefed, lay the
star clipper. Somehow, the Paine, of all ships, had risked the
horrors of inter-multiversal space. She had managed to sail
through the scales of the multiverse and find them, following
the course of the Ghost System, a feat never performed
until now. To find a needle in a needle stack. Here were her
passenger tenders, waiting to take them off. And there before
the trio of ships stood a tall figure in a navy blue and gold
uniform whisking off his cap and bowing. Amy wondered
what his expression might be behind that cold iron mask.
She imagined he was smiling at their astonishment. Now, at
least, she understood why he had demanded the necklace
aboard the Gargantua.
Two hours later, they were preparing for take-off. By the
time everyone was settled in their seats Captain Cornelius
had enjoyed a small demi-shant and a good breakfast and,
from his seat across from Amy, offered her the celestial
necklace lying in the flat of his hand and no longer moving.
She took it gingerly.
'The vitality will return, don't worry.' He had noticed her
disappointment. 'That necklace has done a lot of good work.
And believe me it was mine to give away. It was my map as
well as my compass. That's how I could find Miggea. It took
some tricky sailing and I'll admit to you that I was frightened
we wouldn't make it, with only your celestial necklace to
lead me to you. I'll explain the rest when we're aboard.' He
seemed to relish her fresh awareness of what the celestial
necklace actually was.
An hour later, in his spacious and comfortably austere
cabin aboard the Paine, Captain Cornelius explained how the
necklace had been his. 'A gift from my Diana. She wanted to
be sure I was here when you needed me. She left it with an
antiquarian on Venice when she decided it was time to leave,
presumably for Loondoon. Stolen by Frank/Freddie Force
when they visited me. They knew what it was, of course.
There's nothing stupid or uneducated about General Force.
That's what makes them so dangerous.'
She had left Ironface the map not to lead him to her but to
help him find Miggea. Somehow she knew he would play a
part in the cosmic drama, knew he would either take them
to Miggea or be there to save them from being marooned in
Miggea once they had fulfilled their task and used the Bow
of Diana to shoot the Arrow of Artemis into the heart of the
multiverse.
'I have to say, you did a wonderful job, steering your way
through all those different systems to reach us,' said the
Doctor, 'even with that map and compass. It's so intricate. To
calculate all those orbits within orbits demands mathematical
skills beyond most of us. Wheels within wheels within
wheels...' He raised his glass in salute. 'We'd have been
marooned in Miggea for a lifetime if you hadn't worked it
out. Thanks, captain.'
Captain Cornelius bowed in acknowledgement. 'Wheels
within wheels, as you say, Doctor. Shadows of shadows. Self-
similarity is the key to all as all our actions are reproduced
throughout the multiverse. Resonances. Echoes...'
And, as Captain Cornelius observed when he made his
plans to visit a certain milliner in Old Loondoon, travelling
as usual under his alias, he would spare Lady Peggy the
planned punishment. After all, she had actually helped him
discover his lost Diana and, with W.G. Grace, who knew
the most about hats and so forth, she would go with him to
Loondoon to find Diana, or at least perhaps a warm trail.
'Won't you come with us, Doctor?' Cornelius tapped out
his pipe in his cupped hand. 'We're natural friends. So much
in common.'
'Except I try to hold things together. And you...'
I'm a reformed individual.'
They shook hands. And Amy decided to keep the already
enlivened necklace.
As the Paine prepared to sail back to its own space-time
where the Gargantua awaited them, Hari and Flapper became
increasingly gloomy. Bingo's death, though the worst
calamity they could imagine, had definitely destroyed their
anticipated happiness. The Paine began her journey back
through the multiverse, out of the Second Aether and into
their home universe. Every few hours saw another sickening
twist into single reality until, far too soon, they emerged at
last beneath familiar stars laid against the darkness of normal
space-time where the Gargantua hung to take them home.
Now the time of parting drew closer. Flapper no longer
hid her tears and Hari's back became stiffer and stiffer as
he prepared for their final moments. There was nothing he
could offer her. A man had no right to declare his love to a
woman if he could not pay his own way at the very least.
Flapper knew that she could not offer Hari any help, having
no money of her own. Besides, his pride would not let him
marry if he could not provide for her.
In the second-class lounge, the night after they were on
their way, Hari and Flapper held hands over quarter-shants
of VW and discussed how life might have been so much
better but for a subtle twist of fate.
Entering from the first-class deck, Mr and Mrs Banning-
Cannon nodded to the lovers who each defiantly retained
a sturdy grip on the other's hand. But when Mr Banning-
Cannon summoned Hari to his table and Mrs Banning-
Canning ordered her daughter to the bar, common politeness
made the couple comply.
Hari immediately blurted his feelings to the Tiger of the
Terraforming business.
'Look here, sir, I'm not going to lie to you, I love your
daughter but if my hanging around spoils her chances of
making a decent marriage—'
'Don't give me that!' declared the planet-master. 'I have
something to say to you, young Agincourt and I won't be
interrupted.'
Hari drew a deep breath and waited for the worst. 'Right,
sir.'
'Good. Now you and Lord Robin were the best of friends,
I take it.'
'Like brothers, sir. Since we were nippers.'
'Exactly. And he had no relatives, I'm told, except a distant
uncle who is a magistrate in your neck of the woods.'
'That's right, sir. He isn't wealthy, unfortunately; rather
depends on his stipend...'
'Yes, yes. Well
, you'll be able to sort all that kind of thing
out. I was going, as you might be aware, to give Lord Robin
the deeds to the planet. Lock, stock and barrel.'
'He'd mentioned something of the sort, sir, yes,'
'Out of which, I under stand, he was going to give you
some local land and a title or some such, thus enabling you
to make a bid - that is, ask me for the hand of my beloved
daughter, Jane.'
'Uh umyum,' said Hari.
'Quite,' said Mr Banning-Cannon. 'Well, in the
circumstances, and considering I have had a chance to see
how you go about things and so on - well, sir, I'm going to
give you what I was going to give young Bingo. But there's
a condition. You have to take some sort of title - preferably
the one Bingo can't take now. Say, Hari, Lord Sherwood.
Earl of Hood or however these things go. I have to admit,'
said the tycoon dropping his voice, 'I have a motive here. If
Flapper gets a title, I can't see Mrs Banning-Cannon having
any further objection to the marriage.'
'Gosh, sir!' Hari was ecstatic. 'I say!'
Rather strenuously, he began pumping Mr Banning-
Cannon's hand.
Meanwhile, by the bar, Mrs Banning-Cannon was
confiding something to her daughter. 'In all my days, I have
not had a young man - or indeed a man of any age - stand up
to me the way Hari Agincourt stood up to me the other day,
and I realised that I rather admired his quality of command.
Therefore, Jane dear, I have thought things over and, if there's
some sort of decent job your father can find for Mr Agincourt,
who presumably, by some ancient tradition my husband
explained but which I don't quite understand, ascends to the
title, I am prepared to give you both my blessing. As for your
dowry, well, I have something rather disgraceful to admit
to you.' She coloured a little and sipped her drink. 'I fear I
gave in to an old weakness before we went down to Flynn
to watch the match. I had, I must state in my own defence,
become horribly bored.'
'Gosh, ma, I'm not going to have to visit you in jug, am
I?'
Mrs Banning-Cannon's normally grim features softened
into a broad, rather charming smile. 'Good heavens, no! But
I did break five years of abstinence. I'm afraid I put rather
a lot down for the Gentleman to win the Tournament. As a
result I returned to the Gargantua to discover that I had won
a somewhat handsome sum of bluebacks - several million,
in fact. And, because I should not profit from breaking my
promise to Professor Disch, my psychiatrist, you know, I
intend to bestow the whole amount on you and Hari, so that
you can start life with a nice little nest egg!'
'Gosh! Oh, I say, ma, that's awfully good of you!' Flapper
threw her arms about her mother and embraced her more
enthusiastically than she had ever embraced her before. 'Oh,
I say!'
She looked around her. The bar was filling up. Hari was
nowhere to be seen. Maybe he'd stepped out for some clear
oxygen, given his mood. She went to look for Amy.
Amy was in the reception area standing outside some
kind of antique monument Flapper didn't remember seeing
before. A big blue box with archaic writing on it. Amy was
not in good spirits. Flapper thought perhaps Amy had had
stronger feelings for Bingo than she realised. Also, of course,
Amy had been with Bingo when he went over the side.
'I was wondering where you were,' Amy said. 'We'll be
leaving soon.'
'Yes. Four or five days, eh? Of course.'
'We won't be going with you to the next port. We're leaving
tonight.'
'Oh, that's a ship of some kind is it? Gosh. That's a w f u l
Amy. You're off, then. In that little thing. I say!' A fresh tear
blossomed in Flapper's left eye.
'I'm afraid this is the last night I'll be seeing you, Flapper.
I hope you and Hari can get things sorted...'
'Oh, don't worry about that. I think we're going to be OK.
But I'd rather hoped you'd be my maid-of-honour...'
'You're actually, really, really getting married?! That's
absolutely marvellous, Flapper!' Amy did that hugging and
jumping up and down thing girls do to show pleasure.
'You're the first to know!'
Hari came beaming out of the bar. 'I was looking for you,
Flaps. Your pa's proven to be an absolute brick. Your ma, too,
actually.' And he told her what had transpired.
When all the hugs and jumps were over, Hari said: 'I ought
to thank the Doctor. Any idea where he is, Amy?'
'Well, he's—'
The door of the TARDIS swung open and the Doctor's
face peered out at them. His eyes were positively sparkling.
'Everything ship-shape and Bristol fashion, Jim lad! Ready to
come aboard?'
'Aye, aye, captain.' She gave him a mock salute.
A few minutes later, they stood together in the TARDIS
while the Doctor fiddled with some old electrical equipment
complete with big vacuum tubes, an antique microphone
and a pair of 'head-cans'.
'Now I understand a bit better how you think,' she said.
'Who you are.'
'How's that, Amy Pond?'
'I think it's because of you being one of a kind,' she said.
'Yeah? Put your finger on that for a minute, could you?'
'Well, anyway. I hated Bingo going the way he did. But
I was glad it was him and not the rest of us. Do you know
what I mean?'
'Yup,' said the Doctor. 'Pass me that hammer, would
you?'
'So in all these universes there might be more Amy Ponds,
more - I don't know - Jonathan Rosses and Will Smiths and
Gabe Byrnes?'
'Yep. More or less.'
'And more Doctors?'
'Ah, well...'
'You really are the only one?'
'Time Lord. The Time War got a bit desperate towards the
end.'
'But you said our actions were echoed over and over again
as if to infinity.'
'But by us. I'm not sure. There are people who take
the same actions, fulfil, if you like, the same destinies.
Everywhere, throughout the multiverse there are people
like us trying to put things right or sometimes just trying to
stop things getting any worse - echoes of echoes, shadows of
shadows. Call some archetypes. Jung did. But maybe we're
all archetypes. Maybe there's no such thing as an original?
Maybe the multiverse has no original. The World Snake
eats its own tail. No beginning and no end.' He looked into
her eyes. He grinned. 'We carry on for ever. Paradox upon
paradox,'
'That's a thought,' she said. Then she clapped her hands
together and looked business-like. 'So! Where are we going?'
She again gave her attention to the controls.
'First off, I think we need to get back to your own time,
don't you?' He smiled. 'Check a few things out. What's the
scanner showing?'
Amy peered up at the screen. And there was the Milky
Way in all her golden, scintillating glory.
'So what do you see?' He was busy with some retro
switches.
'Well, it's our galaxy. What else should I be looking at?'
And then she gasped as the truth dawned on her. 'Oh!
They've gone! You did it, Doctor! The black tides have gone!'
She sat down suddenly. 'Oh, wow!'
'Well, we did it,' he said. 'And Bingo was the true hero.
Not at all bad, eh, for a gentleman amateur. That's his real
monument... out there. We can celebrate later with the Bubbly
Boys and I suspect well see more of Captain Cornelius, too.'
From somewhere they heard faint funky music. The toot
of a distant foghorn.
The Doctor stopped. Rubbing his chin he looked out at
the galaxy. 'Clean as a whistle, eh? Well, clean as she needs
to be. We'd best be getting back to base. OK with you? I'm
expecting an urgent message.' He turned a few knobs and
flicked a few switches. 'Oh, sweet duroo, how I love you...'
'What are you doing?' she wanted to know.
'Something I shouldn't,' he told her. 'It's pretty much
against all the rules. Physical or metaphysical. But the risks
had to be - will have to be - taken.'
'What?' She sat down, more pleased than she could have
guessed that they were heading for home. Home? She looked
about her at the strange mixture: alien engineering, intelligent
and wise. Arrogant and intuitive science, as much magic as
machine by now. Humane and yet utterly inhuman...
There came the usual sound of rusty shopping carts being
dragged over sheets of corrugated tin, and the TARDIS began
to shudder. The Doctor leaned forward and started to tap out
a message. 'I'll keep it on "send later". But since you never
know how the time streams flow...'
'Who's it to?'
'Somebody has to do it,' he said, grinning like a wicked
schoolboy. 'I've always wanted to. Totally against the Laws
of Time, physical, metaphysical, natural or supernatural.
There's a Gilbert and Sullivan song in there somewhere. Turn
tumpety-too.' He bent towards the old microphone. 'Here
goes - Cling duroo. Cling duroo. Frank/Freddie Force, don't I
know you? Tom Mix. Tom Mix, Oogalator, babies. No longer got
the rabies. I love to mix, don't you? To them mean old Roogalator
blues.. Ooo! Dark tides flowing up the wadi al gloo...' Covering the mike with his hand he turned and winked at her. 'Time
Lords used to have to go before the Grey Council if they
started talking to themselves like this. But it worked, didn't
it, Amy Pond? That's the power of positive Paradox. Without