Search Worlds Without End

On contemporary Earth, the Doctor and Sam discover an ancient secret society is trying to start a nuclear war. An optical mystery compounds their confusion and the mysterious US-owned Station Nine brings further problems for them to resolve.

The Doctor, Sam and Fitz land on the Vega station, a pleasure center given over to gambling, shopping and the Arts. It hangs on the edge of Battrulian Space, close to the Earth colony's frontier with the Canvine, huge, wolf-like dog creatures.The Earth colony president is arriving to attend an exhibition of the 3-D reality scans in oil paintings of Toulour Martinique. But the Doctor soon discovers there is more to the paintings than meets the eye. A dark secret is hidden behind the shallow delights of the station, and it seems that it is not only the President who is marked for death but the Doctor and his friends, too.

In 1889 a mine owner, desperate to prevent the closure of the local mine, builds a dam. The construction of the dam disturbs a long-dormant entity and the Doctor finds himself in a race against time to combat the menace.

The late nineteenth century -- the age of reason, of enlightenment, of industrialization. Britain is the workshop of the world, the center of the Empire. Progress has left Middletown behind. The tin mine is worked out, jobs are scarce, and a crack has opened across the moors that the locals believe reaches into the depths of Hell itself.But things are changing: Lord Urton is preparing to reopen the mine; the society for Physical Research is interested in the fissure; Roger Nepath and his sister are exhibiting their collection of mystic Eastern artifacts. People are dying. Then a stranger arrives, walking out of the wilderness: A man with no name, no history.

With Fitz gone to his certain death and Anji back at work in the City, the Doctor is once more alone. But he has a lot to keep him occupied. At the Naryshkin Institute in Siberia, scientists are busily at work in a haunted castle. Over a century earlier, creatures from a prehistory that never happened attack a geological expedition. Pages from the lost expedition's journal are put on display at the British Museum, and a US spy plane suffers a mysterious fate. Deep under the snowy landscape of Siberia the key to it all remains trapped in the ice. Only the Doctor can see that these events are all related. But he isn't the only person involved. Why is Colonel Hartford so interested in the Institute? Who is the mysterious millionaire who is after the journal? How is the Grand Duchess, descendent of the last Tsar, involved? Soon the Doctor is caught up in a plot that reaches back to the creation of the Universe. And beyond... ...to Time Zero.

This Week: A hideous misshapen creature releases a butterfly. Next Week: The consequences of this simple action ensure that history follows its predicted path... Sometime: In the swirling maelstrom of the Time Vortex, The Council of Eight maps out every moment in history and take drastic measures to ensure it follows their predictions. But there is one elemental force that defies prediction, that fails to adhere to the laws of time and space... A rogue element that could destroy their plans merely by existing. Already events are mapped out and defined. Already the pieces of the trap are in place. The Council of Eight already knows when Sabbath will betray them. It knows when Fitz will survive the horrors in the Museum of Anthropology. It knows when Trix will come to his help. It knows when the Doctor will finally realize the truth. It knows that this will be: Never.