‘Someone here has been playing with time, Ace Like playing with fire, only worse – you get burnt before you’ve lit the match.’ Abandoning a holiday in Oxford, the Doctor travels to Space Station Q4, where something is seriously wrong Ghastly soldiers from the future watch from the shadows among the dead Soon, the Doctor is trapped in the past, Ace is fighting for her life, and Bernice is uncovering deceit among the college cloisters What is the connection with a beautiful assassin in a black sports car? How can the Doctor’s time machine be in Oxford when it is on board the space station? And what secrets are held by the library of the invaded TARDIS? The Doctor quickly discovers he is facing another time-shattering enigma: a creature which he thought he had destroyed, and which it seems he is powerless to stop Full-length, original novels based on the longest running science-fiction television series of all time, the BBC’s Doctor Who The New Adventures take the TARDIS into previously unexplored realms of space and time Daniel Blythe’s short stories, articles and poetry have appeared in anthologies and magazines including Xenos and Skaro THE DIMENSION RIDERS Daniel Blythe First published in Great Britain in 1993 by Doctor Who Books an imprint of Virgin Publishing Ltd 332 Ladbroke Grove London W10 5AH Copyright © Daniel Blythe 1993 ‘Doctor Who’ series copyright © British Broadcasting Corporation 1993 ISBN 426 20397 Cover illustration by Jeff Cummins Phototypeset by Intype, London Printed and bound in Great Britain by Cox & Wyman Ltd, Reading, Berks This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior written consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser With thanks Mum (for time, space and continual encouragement) & Dad (for food and technology) And all those who read and commented And stealing from between the doors of vision With breath of space beyond they came, fragmenting Time, and borne on winds that charred The earth itself Jazlon Krill, The Darkside Epics Contents The Dimension Riders: Dramatis Personae viii Prologue: Input 1: Time Ghosts 2: Perception and Inception 3: Atmosphere Normal 17 4: Vertices and Vortices 25 5: Temporal Distraction 33 6: Communication Breakdown 39 7: On the Bridge 47 8: Conversations with the Dead 51 9: Far Out and Gone 59 10: Force Majeure 69 11: The Riders 77 12: Information Technology 87 13: Incubus 93 14: Cracks 103 15: Echoes 115 16: Into the Vortex 121 17: Come as You Are 127 18: Focus 133 19: The Link 143 20: Location and Dislocation 149 21: Control 157 22: Ships of Time 167 23: Architecture and Mortality 171 24: Undiscovered Country 179 25: Reflections 191 Epilogue: Output 199 THE DIMENSION RIDERS: DRAMATIS PERSONAE THE DOCTOR, a wandering Time Lord ACE, his companion BERNICE SUMMERFIELD, his companion TERRAN SURVEY CORPS Captain ROMULUS TERRIN, Commander of the Starship Icarus Lieutenant-Commander LISTRELLE QUALLEM, First Officer Lieutenant-Commander DARIUS CHEYNOR, Second Officer Dr FERRIS MOSTRELL, Medical Officer Lieutenant ALBION STRAKK TechnOp ROSABETH McCARRAN Surveyor MATTHIAS HENSON Surveyor TANJA RUBCJEK Troopers TechnOps STATION Q4 Supervisor SEPTIMUS BALLANTYNE Co-ordinator HELINA VAIQ Crew Members and TechnOps OXFORD JAMES RAFFERTY, Professor of Extra-Terrestrial Studies THE PRESIDENT of St Matthew’s College AMANDA, a Time Lord android TOM CHEYNOR, postgraduate student HARRY, a porter THE GARVOND, a creature from the Time Vortex TIME SOLDIERS ... THE DIMENSION RIDERS Daniel Blythe First published in Great Britain in 1993 by Doctor Who Books an imprint of Virgin Publishing Ltd 332 Ladbroke Grove London W10 5AH Copyright © Daniel Blythe. .. on the longest running science-fiction television series of all time, the BBC’s Doctor Who The New Adventures take the TARDIS into previously unexplored realms of space and time Daniel Blythe s... the people and their reaction seemed to have been slowed as if they were battling against driving winds She saw the terror in the grey eyes of the target Then the laser-tube snicked up from the