Tristan Parkes: Day of the Dementors

The next morning at around 10:00, Tristan teleported into Ashlee's flat, only to find it empty except for Ruffles. "Ashlee? Hello? Anybody home besides this cat?" called Tristan. No answer was the stern reply. Tristan searched the flat and found no sign of Ashlee. Wondering where she had gone, Tristan teleported back to the TARDIS, brought up the software interface for the phone system and dialled Ashlee's mobile phone. After a few rings, Ashlee answered.

"Hello?"

"Ashlee? Where are you? I went to your flat and you weren't there."

"Oh, sorry! I'm at my parents. I told them I was going away and they insisted that I spend the night."

"Oh, I see. I'll be over there in a minute and I mean literally a minute."

"Oh, wait!" exclaimed Ashlee. Tristan heard a woman's voice in the background ask, "Ash, who's on the phone?" From the information Ashlee has already given him, Tristan deduced that the voice probably belonged to Ashlee's mother. "Now you've done it, Tristan," Ashlee hissed into the phone.

"I'm sure your parents would like to know who you're going travelling with. I'll see you in sixty seconds. Bye." Tristan tapped the onscreen button to terminate the call and transferred the coordinates to the TARDIS navigation system. He then proceeded to activate the TARDIS and materialised on the front lawn of a well-kept house. Tristan used the dense shrub cloak again, then went and knocked on the front door.

A tall balding man answered it. "Can I help you?"

Tristan introduced himself. "I'm Tristan Parkes. Ashlee told me she was here."

Ashlee rushed to the door. "Um, Dad, this is Trist. He's a friend of mine."

Ashlee's father smiled and held out his hand. "I'm Trevor. Nice to meet you, Tristan."

Tristan shook his hand. "Pleased to meet you, Mr Lowe."

"Well, come in," said Mr Lowe. "Can't have you standing out here on the doorstep."

"Thankyou," replied Tristan and entered the house. "Nice place you have here."

Ashlee's parent's house had a very cosy family feel to it. Everything that Tristan could see looked quite comfortable. This was definitely not one of those "Don't Touch" houses, Tristan decided.

A voice called out from other room, "Who is it, Hon?" Tristan recognised the voice as the one in the background of his phone call to Ashlee a few minutes ago.

Ashlee led Tristan and her Dad into the living room. "Mum, this is Tristan Parkes. He's a friend of mine."

Ashlee's mother looked like an older version of Ashlee with glasses and much shorter hair. "Hello, Tristan. I'm Sue."

"Again, pleased to meet you," replied Tristan. "I'll say this for Ashlee, she certainly seems to have a knack for picking interesting friends. First Mel and now me."

Ashlee's mother looked rather shocked. "How do you know Mel? I've never met you before. Are you a relation?"

"Well, I helped out Ashlee with her worst memory, which was of her friend Mel being tortured and killed. It was not a pretty sequence of events to watch," explained Tristan. "Ashlee now has a chip in her head that blocks subconscious access to that memory. As for being related, I wouldn't count on it unless we share a common ancestor."

Ashlee seemed to have regained her senses as she rushed forward and clamped a hand over Tristan's mouth before he could continue. "Pardon us for a sec." Ashlee proceeded to drag Tristan into the next room. "What are you doing?" she demanded. "You're going to make my parents think you're nutters! And if you start talking about stuff like that around my brothers, you'll drive them round the bend!"

"Why?" asked Tristan, looking rather confused.

"Why? Tristan, you have mentioned a rather sensitive topic quite casually in front of them, then start rattling on about chips in my head," replied Ashlee. "Don't you think that will scare them just a little?" she added sarcastically.

"When you spend the first seven years of your life living in a wartime world, you tend to lose some sensitivity to the topic of death. Besides, I was just trying to prepare them for the truth about me. I don't like lying, Ashlee and I try to avoid it whenever possible. I see no reason why I should lie to your parents about who and what I am. Haven't I been honest with you the whole time since I met you?"

"Yeah, but you should tell them the truth up front, then start rattling on about chips in my head. It's a lot less confusing that way."

"What can I say? I'm a very confusing person," replied Tristan with a shrug. "Just ask some of my former classmates or teachers."

Ashlee laughed. "What am I going to do with you?"

"Well, you did say you were going to come travelling the universe with me."

Ashlee just continued laughing. "Come on, I'll introduce you to my brothers." Ashlee took Tristan's hand and led him upstairs. They entered a room, where two boys of 16 and 13 were sitting playing a video game. "Hey, boys."

Both boys turned to face Ashlee and grinned. "Hey, Ash."

"Tristan, these are my brothers, Luke and Daniel," said Ashlee.

"Into computers, are you?" inquired Tristan.

The older brother nodded. "Playstation2 has the best graphics."

"Luke, it's your go," said the younger of the two.

Luke took the controls and turned to face the screen. The younger, Daniel, faced Tristan and asked, "Who are you?"

"I'm Tristan, Ashlee's friend. Your brother's statement about the games console may hold true for now, but not for much longer. Sooner or later someone will bring out a better console. Just think what your great-grandkids might be playing on when they're your age."

Daniel looked confused for a moment, but smiled "Yeah, that would be awesome."

"Hey guys, pause your game and come downstairs. I've got to tell you all something," said Ashlee.

"Okay," replied Luke, pausing the game and leaving with Daniel in tow.

Ashlee smiled. "They're great, as far as brothers go."

"I should introduce you to my brother sometime," replied Tristan. "He's certainly crafty at times, although he's not as much of a troublemaker as I was when I was a student."

Ashlee sighed in mock relief. "One of you is bad enough!"

"You don't know even one percent of what I got up to as a student and you go and say that," replied Tristan, looking rather amused.

Ashlee smiled cheekily. "Plenty of time for me to find out."

"I could show you some photos of the results of my mischief if you like."

Ashlee snickered. "Maybe later. Right now, we have business to attend to."

Tristan clapped his hands together. "Let's get down to business, then."

Ashlee headed downstairs, with Tristan following. When they arrived, Ashlee's family was sitting around a round table in the living room. Ashlee took a seat and gestured to the empty chair next to her. Tristan shrugged and sat down next to Ashlee.

Ashlee began to address her family, "Well, as you know, I'm going away for a while. Tristan is actually my travel companion."

"Is he going on the tour with you?" asked Mrs Lowe.

"Not exactly."

"I'll be providing the transport," explained Tristan. "After all, there's no practical way to leave the solar system in this time."

"What?" asked Mr Lowe.

Tristan thought for a moment about how to explain the situation, and decided on a reference to the inspiration for his TARDIS. "You remember Doctor Who, right?" he asked.

"What's that got to do with my Ash going away?" inquired Mr Lowe, looking rather puzzled.

"We're going to be travelling in the world's first TARDIS. I built it myself, ninety-eight years from now."

Ashlee's father sat back, looking at Tristan as if he were mad. Ashlee's mother leaned forward towards Ashlee and whispered, "Are you sure he's alright?"

"I'm dead serious," said Tristan. Shooting a glare at Mrs Lowe, he added: "And I heard that."

Ashlee sighed and said, "Here's the thing: Trist is from the future."

Mr Lowe started laughing. "Ash, you're a little early for April Fool's Day."

Luke and Daniel started watching Tristan with extreme interest.

"Shall I provide a demonstration, Ashlee?" asked Tristan.

Ashlee smiled and replied, "I think that would be appropriate."

Tristan stood up and keyed in the code for the device to link a television to the TARDIS computers. "Will this do as an example of early twenty-second century technology?"

"I think it will. Begin your demonstration, Mr Parkes," replied Ashlee.

Tristan left the table and connected the device to the TV. He then called up a list of video files, selected "Rose" from the Doctor Who directory and started playing the file. "Recognise this show?" he asked Ashlee's family.

"That can't be Doctor Who?" said Mr Lowe, with an expression of amazement on his face.

"It is. This episode just hasn't been broadcast yet. It will be broadcast on the twenty-sixth of March, 2005 in England and about two months later here in Australia."

"No way." Mr Lowe looked at Ashlee and asked, "Is he serious?"

"Yep," came Ashlee's curt reply.

"So you're taking my daughter where?" Mr Lowe asked Tristan, who was disconnecting his device from the TV.

"Well, first we have to dispose of a very dangerous magical gem and then, who knows what's out there? I'm thinking of paying a visit to the other side of the galaxy," replied Tristan as he gathered up the device and stood up again.

Ashlee's mother seemed to have gotten a better grasp of this than Mr Lowe. "Oh, Ash! How exciting!"

Luke and Daniel were bouncing in their seats. "Ash! Have you been to the future yet? When are you going?" they asked enthusiastically.

Ashlee jumped up and ruffled their hair. "Calm down! You want me to tickle torture you or are you gonna behave?" she asked with a grin.

"Boys, calm down," ordered Mrs Lowe.

"If you want them tickle-tortured, I'll put a tickling charm on them for you," offered Tristan.

Ashlee grinned and said, "Oh, and Trist is also a wizard."

"WHAT?!" asked the family in unison.

"I'll say this slowly, shall I? I ... am ... a ... wizard," said Tristan.

Ashlee scowled at Tristan. "Tristan, they are not dumb. Give it a chance to sink in."

"I thought I was by saying it slowly."

Ashlee just rolled her eyes at Tristan's reply.

At that moment, Aster decided to show up again. He came up to Tristan and started rubbing against his leg. "Aster! What are you doing here?" asked Tristan as he picked him up. "Oh, you were concerned about my safety, how thoughtful of you. Now, how about you go back to the TARDIS?" Tristan put Aster back on the floor, but Aster just stood there looking at Tristan. "Oh, don't give me that look. Go on. Back to the TARDIS," instructed Tristan, pointing towards the door. Aster eventually gave up on trying to persuade Tristan to let him stay and left with his tail drooping. Tristan smiled sheepishly to the Lowe family. "Sorry about that."

"Ash, is he for real?" asked Luke.

"What was that?" inquired Daniel.

"Ashlee, are you sure this guy is alright?" asked Mr Lowe, with an odd look on his face.

"That was Aster, my pet Kneazle," replied Tristan to Daniel's enquiry.

"What's a Kneazle?" asked Daniel, continuing the line of enquiry.

"Love, are you sure you want to travel with him?" asked Mrs Lowe, addressing Ashlee.

"Simply put, Kneazles are a magical relative of the domestic cat," explained Tristan, hoping to terminate Dan's line of enquiry.

Ashlee groaned. "Mu-um! I'm big enough and ugly enough to look after myself! And, yes Luke, he is for real."

"Would you four like a demonstration of some magic?" asked Tristan.

Daniel's eyes brightened with excitement, but the rest of Ashlee's family looked sceptical.

"I'll take that as a yes. Got something broken that needs fixing?"

"Mum's vase. Dan broke it," replied Luke.

"No I didn't! You did!" retorted Daniel.

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"I don't care who broke it," said Tristan, irritably. "Just get the pieces and I'll fix it better than new."

Daniel left the room and came back with the pieces a few minutes later. On his way past Luke, he whispered, "Did too."

"Boys, cut it out," said Mr Lowe, obviously irritated with them.

Both boys sighed at the telling off from their father.

Ashlee grinned. "I love my family."

Tristan got out his wand and pointed it at the pieces of the vase. "Okay, you want some magic, here you go: Reparo!" The pieces of the vase flew back together and it became completely whole again, without even the faintest sign of a scratch.

Ashlee's mother gasped and her father went pale at this sight.

"Oh, cool!" exclaimed Daniel.

"You really are a wizard," said Luke, clearly amazed by Tristan's little display.

"Actually, I combine both technology and magic together as well," replied Tristan. "You might call me a technowizard. Here, let me demonstrate a teleporter my great-grandfather will invent in a couple of years." Tristan took a teleporter out of one of his many pockets and teleported from one side of the room to the other and back again.

Ashlee's father stared at Tristan and started laughing. "Oh, boy. I'm definitely going to need a few sessions after this."

"So you're a wizard and you're from the future. What do you want with our Ashlee?" inquired Mrs Lowe.

"Actually, I was originally going to go travelling on my own, but Ashlee asked if she could come along. She's been a great help over the past couple of days and she's a really good shot with a microwave gun," replied Tristan. "Dementors, watch out," he added with a grin.

"Dementors?" asked Ashlee's father.

"Dad, don't ask. You don't wanna know," replied Ashlee.

"How long will you be gone?" inquired Mrs Lowe.

"Um, not sure, really. Trist?"

"Well, I was thinking of returning you here however long you spend travelling with me later than when we leave," replied Tristan, but then thought he had put things rather confusingly, and added, "In other words, if you travelled with me for six months, I'd bring you back here in early July of 2005."

Ashlee nodded. "So, I'll be gone for a few months."

Ashlee's mother stood up and hugged her. "Oh, I hope you have a great time. I'll miss you."

Ashlee returned the hug, and replied, "I'll miss you too, Mum."

"You know, we could drop in for a visit at any time, Ashlee," offered Tristan.

Ashlee grinned at this. "Really?" Smiling, she added, "So, it's not really goodbye. More like see you later."

Ashlee went around and hugged her family in turn. After her father had hugged her, he walked up to Tristan. "I know she can look after herself, but I can't help but worry. Will she be ok?"

"Oh, I'd say so," replied Tristan casually. "I can provide all the equipment we need. Anything from weapons to spacesuits to food. It's all in the Pattern Replicator database in the TARDIS. What I don't already have, I can probably invent."

Ashlee's father nodded and smiled. "She's always wanted to travel. Never got the chance."

"Well, now she does."

Ashlee disentangled herself from her mother and headed over to Tristan. "Come on, we'd better head off."

"So, did you manage to get everything sorted out?" asked Tristan. "When I teleported into your flat, all I could find was Ruffles and some of the furniture."

"Yeah, Dad's gonna put my stuff in storage and I've called work. Told them I'm taking a trip and not sure when I'll be back. My landlord wasn't too happy, but my work said there will be a job for me when I get back. Could you help me get my stuff on the TARDIS? Just a bag and a box. And Ruffles."

"No problems. I can shrink it down and make it as light as a feather. No, I can't shrink Ruffles. A cat is too complicated to shrink. Only simple living things, like plants, can be shrunk."

"I wouldn't let your wand near Ruffles, anyway. I trust you, but there no way in hell I'd let anything happen to my baby."

"I don't think a cat would be too keen on being the size of a mouse, anyway," replied Tristan, with a grin. "We'll take the TARDIS back to your place, shall we?"

Ashlee grinned. "We shall." Ashlee gave her family a final round of farewells. There was a lot of kissing, hugging and goodbyes before Ashlee finally made it out the door, where Tristan was waiting.

"You think that was bad, you should have seen them when I moved out," remarked Ashlee.

"That was bad?" asked Tristan, as he uncloaked the TARDIS and entered, followed by Ashlee.

"That wasn't bad?" Ashlee gave a grin.

"One of my classmates back at Hogwarts said his grandparents were like that when it came to just going to bed," replied Tristan and almost cracked up laughing at the thought.

Ashlee giggled. "Lets head back to my place."

Tristan set the TARDIS going and it materialised in the alley next to Ashlee's flat. They left the TARDIS and Tristan engaged the pile-of-boxes cloak. "So, what do I need to shrink?" asked Tristan.

"Well, all I'm bringing is a suitcase and a cardboard box," replied Ashlee.

"Travelling light, I see," observed Tristan.

"All I need is my clothes and a few personal possessions."

"Don't forget the cat."

Ashlee rolled her eyes. "That's a given."

"You gather your stuff, I'll catch the cat and take her back to the TARDIS," offered Tristan.

"I think I better take her. I'll just put her in a carry case."

"What am I supposed to do then?"

"You can carry the box. I can wheel the bag and carry the cat cage."

"I'll shrink the box first. It'll be much easier to manage that way."

Ashlee shrugged. "Whatever," she replied and started to head upstairs with Tristan following.

They reached the door to Ashlee's flat, Ashlee suddenly groaned and put her hand over her eyes.

"What happened?" asked Tristan.

"I forgot my keys!" moaned Ashlee.

"Not to worry," replied Tristan, who then looked around to make sure that nobody was watching him, took out his wand, aimed it at the door and said, "Alohamora!" The door unlocked with a click. "I can also pick mechanical locks with bent wire, too, but this is easier," added Tristan with a smile.

"Thanks," said Ashlee and opened the door. Quick as a flash, she caught Ruffles as she attempted to escape. "Oh, no you don't!" The cat yowled as Ashlee took Ruffles over to her cat cage and locked her in. "She always seems to know what's going on."

Ashlee walked around, scanning the flat for things she had left behind. Ruffles was still yowling in the cage and starting to annoy Tristan. To remedy this, Tristan pointed his wand at the cat cage and said, "Silencio!" The cat could still visibly be seen protesting, but there was no more annoying sound. Tristan breathed a sigh of relief at this.

Ashlee suddenly jumped and demanded: "What did you do to her!?"

"Nothing," replied Tristan. "I just silenced the cage. No sound can leave it at all."

"She's just a little distressed. Might have to keep her locked up for a day or so on the TARDIS till she gets used to it."

"Is she this bad when you have to take her to the vet?" inquired Tristan cheekily.

Ashlee grinned and replied, "Yes. Luckily, I only have to take her for shots. I can do animal first aid myself."

Ashlee then proceeded to drag over a large cardboard box. "Can you get this while I get my suitcase?"

"Sure." Tristan pointed his wand at the box, muttered a spell and the box shrank down to only about ten centimetres in diameter. Tristan easily picked up the tiny box and put it in his pocket.

Ashlee walked in, rolling a large suitcase and announced: "Ready."

"Off to the TARDIS, then!" exclaimed Tristan.

Ashlee looked around and smiled. "Let's go."

Ashlee picked up the cat cage and rolled the suitcase towards the door. Tristan followed and locked the door behind him. "Are you sure you didn't forget anything?" he asked.

"I'm sure," came Ashlee's confident reply. "If I did, I don't need it and Dad'll look after it."

They arrived back at the TARDIS and entered it. Tristan followed Ashlee to her room, then took the box of her possessions out of his pocket and expanded it back to its normal size on the floor. "Well, next stop, the centre of the galaxy."

"Can I store stuff on the replicator?" asked Ashlee. "There are a few things that I know will run out."

"Of course you can. There's no shortage of power available here," replied Tristan cheerfully. "If you need me, I'll be in the control room."

"Thankyou," said Ashlee and started to unpack.

Tristan left Ashlee's room and headed to the control room. On his way, Tristan thought of an idea to help with the time-circuit power-relays and headed to the relay room. Tristan quickly replicated four new power-relays and hooked them up in parallel to the existing ones via some hastily replicated cables. "It's not very pretty, but it will have to do for now," Tristan said to himself. He then left the relay-room and headed to the control room, where he set the destination coordinates for the centre of the galaxy and started the TARDIS going.

Ashlee walked in, picked up Aster and stroked him as she walked over to Tristan. "Hey, Trist."

Tristan looked up from the main navigational controls, where he had been making a minor course correction.

"Oh, hello, Ashlee," said Tristan. "Well, we're on our way to the centre of the galaxy so we can dispose of that thing," he added, pointing at the gem.

Ashlee scowled at it. "So, how long till we get there?"

"Let me get a computer estimate," replied Tristan and tapped a few controls on another console. "Just over an hour."

Ashlee scratched Aster's ears, making him purr. "So, anything I can do till then?"

"Not really," replied Tristan. "Still, we are travelling much faster than light. You could always watch something from the data core while we wait. I'll program the computer to put us into a close orbit and alert us when we arrive."

"Whatever," said Ashlee. Addressing Aster, she asked, "Want to visit Ruffles? Seeing a familiar face can only help." Ashlee smiled and stroked Aster. "Come on, then." She gave a look in Tristan's direction. "Give me a shout when we get there."

"Why don't I join you? The computer can handle pretty-much everything on its own." Tristan tapped in a few commands at the navigational console and announced, "Done."

Ashlee smiled. "Sure thing," she replied, scratching Aster in just the right spot and he half-closed his eyes happily.

"Let's go and kill some time while we wait for the TARDIS to arrive."

Ashlee headed to her room, with Tristan following. They entered the room to find Ruffles is still in her cage and Ashlee closed the door after everyone was inside. The room looked slightly personal now, with a picture of Ashlee's family on the wall and a bunch of weights and exercise gear in the corner of the room.

Ashlee bent down and peered into the cage. "Hello, my darling. You ok?"

Tristan suddenly snapped his fingers, as he had realised something. "I forgot to take off the Silencing Charm when we arrived in the TARDIS." Tristan pointed his wand at the cage and said "Finite incantatem!"

A loud yowl came out of the cage. Ashlee put down Aster, opened up the cage and scooped up Ruffles, cradling her in her arms and making soothing noises. It took several minutes, but Ruffles slowly quietened down.

Ashlee looked at Tristan and said, "Sorry. She was like this when I moved as well. She'll be ok in a day or so."

"I hope so," replied Tristan. "In the meantime, I think she'd better stay in here."

"I think so too. Just till she gets used to it."

"How long do you think it will take you to get used to living in the TARDIS?"

Ashlee smiled. "I think I'll be okay. I chose to come. Ruffles here didn't know, so of course she's gonna feel scared at first."

"Aster was in and out of the TARDIS for the last three years that I was building it. I can imagine that he'll often try to get out to explore wherever we land."

Ashlee gave another smile. "Aster, reckon you can make Ruffles feel better?" she asked and set Ruffles on the ground.

"Judging from how they got along at your flat, I think he'll be able to help her," said Tristan. "Now, how about a little something to watch?"

"Okay. Like what?"

"I have a huge database of video files. In the mood for something short, like a cartoon?"

"Okay. What types have you got?"

"I've got a large collection of Warner Brothers cartoons dating back all the way to the 1960s. How does the 1995 one Pinky and The Brain sound?"

Ashlee laughed. "Oh, I used to love that cartoon!"

"Okay, the lab mice it is then!" said Tristan with a big grin. "Come on, I built an entertainment area into the living section."

Ashlee giggled, then asked: "What are we going to do tonight, Brain?"

"The same thing we do every night, Pinky. TRY TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD!" replied Tristan in a sinister voice and then burst out laughing.

Ashlee was laughing uncontrollably at Tristan's response. "Oh, man! You sounded just like him!"

"Maybe I inherited a talent for voices from great-grandfather Xavier? He's really good with voices. He can do an almost perfect mimic of Professor Snape's grandfather."

"Yeah? Who's this Snape fellow?" inquired Ashlee.

"The Potions teacher at Hogwarts. My great-grandfather had his grandfather as his Potions teacher. Snape is probably the most unpleasant member of the staff. I once charmed his clothes to flash the word 'GIT' in multi-coloured capital letters at a vast number of different scales. Need I say he wasn't too happy about it?"

Ashlee laughed. "Come on. Lets go watch the crazy lab mice."

"Yeah, let's. You know, I never got caught for that stunt, so Snape was even madder because he couldn't pin the blame on anyone for it."

Ashlee was holding her hand over her mouth, her face turning red in an effort to stop laughing.

They left Ashlee's room and Tristan led her to the entertainment room not far down the hall. One wall was covered by a large LCD screen and there were enough seats for sixteen people. There was a similar control unit to the Projector Room's one in a bracket on the wall as well. "Welcome to the entertainment room. What do you think?" asked Tristan, sweeping his hand out in front of him and gesturing to the whole room.

Ashlee gasped at the sight. "Oh, wow! This is killer!"

"Just wait until you hear the surround-sound for video that has it. It's great for listening to music with. Anyway," Tristan handed Ashlee the control unit. "Pick a file."

Ashlee scanned the menu and picked out an episode, then hit the play button and the screen lit up. The episode started playing and they sat down to watch. While the end-credits were rolling, a synthesised voice came through the speakers in the room. "The TARDIS has arrived at the specified destination," announced the TARDIS computer. Oddly enough, the computer's voice sounded a little like Tristan's. This was not a coincidence, as Tristan had used his own voice as a base when writing the speech-synthesis software.

Ashlee grinned. "Good timing," she said.

"Well, I'd better replicate a spacesuit, then I'll join you in the control room."

"Um, okay." Ashlee got up and headed to the control room, while Tristan headed to his room.

When he arrived in his room, Tristan replicated a spacesuit from the built-in replicator and put it on before heading back to the control room. "Well, I'm all suited up and ready to dispose of that wretched gem," said Tristan, his voice is a bit muffled by the spacesuit's helmet.

Ashlee looked hesitant. "Be careful, okay?"

Tristan tapped a few controls at one of the terminals in the control room and his voice could be heard coming through the radio in the spacesuit. "Don't worry. I've been out in space before, just not near a black hole," replied Tristan. "This carbon-fibre tether should make sure I don't get pulled away from the TARDIS." Tristan attached the tether to a hook near the door, picked up the gem that had caused so much trouble, a length of pipe and then stepped outside.

"Woah!" exclaimed Tristan at the sight that greeted him.

"Tristan? What's wrong?" came Ashlee's voice over the radio, sounding rather worried.

"Nothing just yet," replied Tristan. "The sight out here is amazing. Use the left console to get a visual image of the outside."

"Amazing" certainly summed up the sight before Tristan. Far out in the distance, Tristan could see a small black circle with an enormous vortex of hot gas spiralling into it. The gas was brighter due to being so much hotter near the black hole and the gas about to fall in was almost blinding white, even with the spacesuit's tinted visor. For something as destructive as a two-point-five million solar-mass black hole, the beauty of it was surprisingly hard to ignore.

Tristan heard Ashlee gasp. "Oh, Tristan! It's better than I could have imagined it!"

"Amazing that something so beautiful could be so destructive, isn't it?"

Ashlee's reply sounded a little cheeky. "Kinda like me, huh?"

"You're nowhere near as destructive as a black hole."

Ashlee sniggered. "That's what you think."

"I highly doubt that you could single-handedly destroy a hundred-thousand stars," replied Tristan.

"Okay, I'll agree to that. You and your factual-ness spoils my fun."

Tristan grinned to himself at Ashlee's last reply. "Anyway, time to get rid of this blasted gem," he announced. Tristan positioned the gem down near foot-level on one side of the TARDIS doorway, manoeuvred himself to the other side, lined the piece of pipe up with the gem and called out, "Fore!"

Tristan whacked the gem with the piece of piping towards the black hole and the gem became smaller and smaller until it was out of sight. Tristan then climbed back into the TARDIS and headed over to the console Ashlee was watching the outside from. Tapping a few controls, the view zoomed in on and tracked the gem as it headed for the disc around the black hole. "That's the end of that," said Tristan, sounding quite relieved.

Ashlee let out a sigh. "Thank God."

Tristan took off his helmet. "If the temperatures of a hundred-million degrees don't destroy the gem, it'll end up trapped inside the black hole for good," he said, then added, "I wonder where it came from in the first place?"

"Hmm." Ashlee looked thoughtful for a moment, then replied, "Reckon someone could have made it? Or it could be something along the lines of radioactive waste."

"The radioactive waste theory is an interesting one and a likely one in my opinion," replied Tristan.

"But what would make waste like that?" asked Ashlee.

"My guess would be some sort of technomagical reactor."

Ashlee looked confused. "And that would be?"

"Something like a nuclear reactor that uses something magical as fuel," elaborated Tristan. "Whatever it uses for fuel probably doesn't exist on Earth, or if it does, we haven't discovered it yet. Besides, Zero-Point Energy extraction is a much more reliable source of power and perfectly clean, too," added Tristan with a smug grin.

"So, will it be dangerous if they keep using it?"

"Well, it depends on whether or not they have anything like Dementors on whatever planet the gem originated on."

Ashlee stood with her hands on her hips. "Well, what now? You mentioned something about exploring the other side of the galaxy?"

"Indeed I did," replied Tristan with a nod. "Well, I'll set the controls and we'll be off. It's a big galaxy out there."

Tristan headed over to the navigational controls, set them for a point on the other side of the galaxy from Earth and started the TARDIS going. The central column began to pulse with green and blue light and the TARDIS vanished from its place near the centre of the galaxy, heading off to a destination unknown.