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.They continue to believe their sacred purpose is theobliteration of all other life forms.However, they are quite clearly not inherently evil butsimply the victims of a freakish accident of history.It is thereforeimpossible to consider simply destroying them all.What can bedone?THE SOLUTIONThe planet of Krikkit is to be encased for perpetuity in anenvelope of Slow Time, inside which life will continue almostinfinitely slowly.All light is deflected round the envelope so thatit remains entirely invisible and impenetrable to the rest of theUniverse.Escape from the envelope is impossible until it isunlocked from the outside.The action of Entropy dictates that eventually the wholeUniverse will run itself down, and at some point in theunimaginably distant future first life and then matter will simplycease to exist.At that time the planet of Krikkit and its sun willemerge from the Slow Time envelope and continue a solitaryexistence in the twilight of the Universe.The Lock which holds the envelope in place is on an asteroidwhich slowly orbits the envelope.The key was the symbol of the unity of the Galaxy - aWicket of Steel, Wood, Perspex, Gold, and Silver.Shortly after the envelope had been locked, a group ofescaped Krikkitmen had attempted to steal the Key in the processof which it was blasted apart and fell into the Space Time Vortex.The passage of each separate component was monitored by theTime Lords.The ship containing the escaped Krikkitmen had been blastedout of the sky.All the other millions of Krikkitmen were destroyed.The Doctor and Sarah go to Gallifrey to try and find someanswers.The Doctor is furious with the bureaucratic incompetence ofthe Time Lords.The last component of the Wicket to emergefrom the Space Time vortex was the wooden centre stump whichmaterialised in Melbourne, Australia in 1882 and was burnt thefollowing year and presented as a trophy to the English cricketteam.Only now, a hundred years later, have the Time Lordswoken up to the fact that every part of the Wicket is now back incirculation and should be collected up and kept safely.The Time Lords at first refuse to believe the Doctor's storythat the Krikkitmen have stolen the Ashes of the wooden stump.They say that every single Krikkitman was accounted for, andthey are all safe."Safe!" exclaims the Doctor, "I thought they were all destroyedtwo million years ago!""Ah well, not exactly destroyed, as such." begins one of theTime Lords, and a rather curious story emerges.The Krikkitmen, it seems, were in fact sentient androidsrather than mere robots.The difference is crucial, particularly inwar time.A robot, however complex, is basically a programmablefighting machine, even if an almost infinitely large number ofresponse patterns give it the appearance of intelligent thought.On the other hand, a sentient android is taught rather thanprogrammed, it has a capacity for actual initiative and creativethought, and a corresponding slight reduction in efficiency andobedience - they are in fact artificial men and as such protectedunder the Galactic equivalent of the Geneva Convention.It wastherefore not possible to exterminate the Krikkitmen, and theywere instead placed in a specially constructed SuspendedAnimation vault buried in Deep Time, an area of the Space TimeVortex under the absolutely exclusive control of the Time Lords.And no Krikkitman has ever left it.Suddenly, news arrives that the Perspex stump has disappearedfrom its hiding place.The Time Lords are forced to admit that theDoctor's story may be true and tell him the locations of the othercomponents of the Wicket.The Doctor and Sarah hurriedly visit the planets where theother components are stored.First, the Steel Stump.They are too late.It is gone.Second, the Gold Bail.It is gone.Third, the Silver Bail.it is still there! If they can retrieve itthe Key is useless and the Universe is safe.It is worshipped as a sacred relic on the planet of Bethselamin.The Bethselamini are predictably a little upset when the Doctorand Sarah materialise in the chamber of worship and remove theSacred Silver Bail.The Doctor cannot stay to argue the point butgives them all a little bow just as he is about to leave the chamber,thus fortuitously ducking his head at the precise moment that aKrikkit bat swings at him from the open door.They have arrived.A pitched battle ensues in which the Bethselamini are ratherforced to conjoin on the Doctor's side.During the Battle, the Doctor finds his way into theKrikkitmen's Pavilion, where he has to fight for his life.Just as adeath blow is apparently about to be struck, the Doctor, halfdazed, falls against a lever, and the Krikkitman slumps forward,paralysed [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]