Aline had left her strappy shoes on a shelf of rock at the foot of the cliff.  The sand was warm on her bare soles.  It was cooler down on the beach, a long insistent gust of wind sweeping diagonally across the sand to bother the cliffs.  The Doctor seemed preoccupied, intent on the crashed skyboat that lay on the shore ahead of them like a beached sea-creature.  He'd managed to whip up a token sense of urgency in the Eknuri and the warpfield had been invoked on standby, ready to whisk them all off at the slightest hint of danger.

As they walked side by side, a sickening thought occurred to Aline.  What if the Doctor was behind it all?  The fear returned, gripping her insides like frost.  She knew it well enough to catch it early and prevent it warping the facts.  Time Lords never interfered, that was one fact.  They certainly never harmed anyone.  That was another.  Aline forced herself to relax.  Everything would be all right - they'd find Peri and Athon and they could all go back and have some more wine.

They were almost upon the skyboat now.  Empty, Taiana had said, of anything living.  Aline tried to make out if she could see anything in the shadows beneath the upturned vessel, and shuddered.

She stood back as the Doctor ran up to the crashed skyboat.  He leaned down and peered underneath.  Aline bit her lip.

He stood up again, shoulders slumping, hair blown back by the wind.  'Empty,' he said.  Then his eyes widened.  'Oh, no.'

Suddenly, the sound of engines boomed along the cliffs like a peal of thunder.

The Doctor ran up to Aline, grabbing her shoulders and whirling her round, her black dress flapping around her in a sudden breeze.  She heard his voice close by her ear.  'The "unanticipated vessel"...'

From the ceiling of clouds that now pressed down over the clifftops, an alien ship descended like a great black bird, its wings curling down over the party installation, angular figures streaming down from it likes spores of death.  Aline saw an Eknuri leap over a balcony, only for two a of the figures to descend upon him, bearing him to the ground.  She saw a trio of women herded into a corner by a brace of the attackers.  She turned away, her whole body shuddering.

The Doctor looked at the azure crystal crescent in his palm - their link to the warpfield - closed his fist and shook it angrily in the air.  'Why haven't they activated the warpfield?'

If they had, they wouldn't be standing on the beach any more.  'Perhaps they were overcome... no time to react.'  Aline found herself staring at the ship, its engines screaming as it maintained its predatory position.  More of the attackers were descending from it now.  Something about the shape of their heads was familier.

The Doctor's face was a grimace of pain.  'Oh,Peri...'  he breathed.  H tossed the warpfield crystal on the white sand where it lay like a lost jewel.  Then he turned to Aline.  'Whoever they are, their intentions are clearly hostile.  We can't go back for the TARDIS, so there's only one thing to do.  Hide.'  He pointed back up the beach, where black cave-mouths gaped.  'If we're quick, they notice us.'

The caves looked a long way away.  Aline felt rooted to the spot like a statue in the sand.  She became aware of a strange sensation, cool pinpricks on her face and arms.  She looked up.  The sky had now completely clouded over; the seeded storm was about to bear fruit.

'Come on,' urged the Doctor.  He started haring across the beach, sending up white puffs with each stride.  Aline followed, toes digging in the sand, shoes forgotten, as heavy spots of rain began to fall from the leaden sky.