Hoff fished a screen from the pack and handed out headsets, each of the group programming theirs for their particular interests. Then they set to the business of examining the data that the media scanner was picking up. For some hours, the only sounds that could be heard in the forest were the usual movements of small animals and birds.

Through the bushes crept a great hunter.

He was a tabby tom-cat, and his name was Wolsey. He was far from his own territory, and thus constantly on the lookout for rivals and new things to explore.

The dome was something very new indeed. It was twilight, and he had been about to turn and head home for some food, but the new thing caught his attention.

He approached it cautiously, skirting right round before venturing towards it.

Visually, it was hard to see that there was anything strange there, but Wolsey didn’t rely on sight as much as a human would, and he perceived the strange construction as a bundle of strange sounds and absolutely new smells. He stalked right up to the edge of it, and leaned his nose forward until his whiskers were nearly touching the mysterious surface. In a moment, the great hunter would mark the thing with scent from the side of his head, and then it would be his.

A sudden sound. Wolsey looked up. And jumped. Aphasia landed right where he’d been, her hands snatching at the air as the cat bounded off into the undergrowth.

The little girl bared her teeth and stood up, brushing the dirt from her dress. ‘A cat!’ she called to the others. ‘It was one of those cat things!’

‘A cat?’ Greeneye leapt out of the dome, his hand reflexively grasping for the top of his sword. ‘A Gallifreyan creature!’ He was dressed in relaxed summer whites and blazer, a pristine boater perched atop his newly cropped hair. The only strange things about him now were the two swords still harnessed to his back.

‘Would you please relax?’ August emerged from the dome behind him, in a dapper business suit. ‘You’re making me nervous.’ He slapped a control on Greeneye’s harness and the swords vanished. ‘We could only find test transmissions in the radio spectrum, remember? The media scanner had to concentrate on how the locals perceive their print culture. Unless they want to use it as an observatory, I can’t see what the Time Lords would want with somewhere as primitive as this.’

‘But the cat⁠ —’

‘There are lots of worlds with cats,’ Hoff muttered. He was wearing the medals and uniform of a Boer War veteran. ‘Don’t let it bother you.’

Serif was still in his long black cape and wide-brimmed hat. He turned his head silently, examining the foliage. ‘I will explore with stealth,’ he told the others, ‘by night.’ And he was gone into the forest.