Then they realised what they were looking at. They blinked. They saw what the chamber around them had very suddenly turned into. Their second murmur of surprise was much louder and more appreciative than the first.

The Doctor grinned.

They weren’t in the same room any more.

They were somewhere else entirely.

Rory wondered if he ought to risk some more soup. He didn’t really want any more soup. It was good soup, but he was full. However, having some soup was about the only thing to do apart from just sitting there, and he was fed up doing that. At least having some soup was doing something. It was an activity.

The assembly hall was very quiet. Vesta was snoozing. Sol Farrow was watching the flames crackling in the nearest firebucket. Sol had already been back for seconds and thirds of soup, and Rory was worried there might not be much soup left if Sol decided to go for fourths. Then there really wouldn’t be anything to do to pass the time except sit around and be bored.

The night wind was picking up outside, driving the snow against the windows. Rory could hear it pattering like grains of sand. It was a proper blizzard out there.

Things were warm enough close to the firebuckets, but there was a wickedly cold draft blowing in under the main doors of the assembly, and odd, fluting wind sounds were coming from the chimney vents up in the eaves.

‘They’re taking a long time,’ said Rory.

‘Guide’s answers are often hard to find,’ replied Sol.

He cleared his throat and leaned forward to warm his hands at the fire. ‘Particularly when… you know.’

‘It’s a problem you’ve never met before?’ suggested Rory.

Sol nodded.

‘Have you really never seen winter until now?’

‘Not until these last three years,’ said Sol. ‘We knew what winter was, of course. Knew what it had been like on Earth before, because of the records. And it always got a bit colder this season, regular. But we’d never seen white and ice before.’

‘Right.’

‘Vesta tell you that, did she?’

‘Yes,’ said Rory.

‘They have winters where you come from, then?’

asked Sol.

‘Yes, actually,’ said Rory. ‘Where I come from, they have them quite often. We’re used to them. But this is pretty fierce. It’s a bad winter. And, obviously, any winter’s going to be a bit worrying if you’re not supposed to have them.’

He got up and looked over at the doors that led into the Incrypt.

‘Maybe I should just go and see how they’re doing?’

he suggested. ‘I’m sure I could help.’

‘It’s not allowed,’ replied Sol. ‘The council voted.’

‘What are they looking at exactly?’ asked Rory.

‘Well, the words of Guide, of course,’ said Sol, sitting up and looking at Rory with a frown. ‘The covenant that Guide provides for us, as is held in the Incrypt. Guide knows an awful lot. More than any of us, and it usually takes quite a time and a lot of cleverness to sort of sift out what Guide is telling us.’

‘This is your Guide Emanual?’ said Rory.

‘That’s right,’ said Sol. ‘Surely you have the same in your plantnation?’

‘We’ve got tourist information points and a weekly free paper.’

‘What?’ asked Sol.

‘Never mind,’ said Rory. He paced a little. ‘I wish I knew where Amy and the Doctor were. I hope they’re OK. The Doctor always knows what to do. I keep trying to imagine what he’d say or do if he was here.’

‘Hello! Hello? Can anybody hear me?’ the Doctor’s voice suddenly boomed out across the assembly.

Sol and Vesta both leapt up in considerable dismay.

The voice seemed to come from directly behind Rory. He turned around very slowly.

The assembly hall was bathed in a soft yellow radiance, warm but bright, that was somehow shining out of the floor, the walls, and the ceiling. Glittering traceries of energy had appeared along the circular metal patterns inlaid in the wooden floor, and up the seams in the hall’s beams and roof posts.

The centre of the hall was no longer the assembly room at all. It appeared to have become, in the blink of an eye, part of a very modern-looking white chamber.

The row of benches in front of the council rail had turned into what looked like a computer workstation complete with two high-backed chairs.

Rory was standing halfway inside the assembly hall, and half in the new, white room.

The Doctor, beaming from ear to ear, was right in front of him, along with Amy and two young Morphans that Rory didn’t recognise.

‘Doctor!’ Rory cried.

‘Rory!’ exclaimed the Doctor in delight. ‘Rory Williams Pond!’

‘Not my actual name,’ smiled Rory.

‘I was confident we’d make contact with someone,’

the Doctor said excitedly. ‘I didn’t dare hope it would he you!’

Dumbfounded, Amy rushed towards Rory so that she could hug him. He spread his arms wide to meet her.

‘How did you get here?’ Rory laughed.

The anticipated hug didn’t go according to plan.

Much to their mutual surprise, Rory and Amy passed through each other like ghosts. They stopped in their tracks, turned and looked back at each other.

‘What just happened?’ asked Rory.

‘Why can’t I touch Rory?’ demanded Amy. ‘What’s going on? It’s spooky! I just went right through him.

How can I not touch him if we’re in the same room?’

‘Well, because you’re not actually in the same room at all,’ said the Doctor.

Amy reached out her right hand to feel Rory’s face.

She succeeded merely in pushing her hand through his head.

‘Urn, OK, stop doing that,’ Rory told her.

‘That’s so freaky!’ Amy exclaimed.

‘Yeah, still, stop it,’ said Rory.

‘You must be in the assembly in Beside,’ said the Doctor. ‘Well done, Rory. That’s exactly where I needed you to be.’

Rory gave a no problem shrug as though he’d planned it all along. ‘Where are you?’ he asked.

‘We’re in Firmer Number Two,’ replied the Doctor,

‘which is one of the big mountains you would be able to see from the window if it wasn’t night-time.

Actually, we’re deep inside it, so you wouldn’t see us anyway.’

He was speaking rather too loudly and rather too clearly, as though he was using a telephone with a poor connection.

‘Remember the mountains, Rory?’ he asked. ‘The strange ones that I didn’t think were mountains?’

‘I do, Doctor,’ said Rory.

‘Well, they’re really not mountains. They’re giant machines called terraformers, or terramorphers, or whatever you want to call them. They’ve been set up to change this world. To re-engineer its climate and make it more Earth-like.’

‘Earth -esque, surely?’ smiled Rory.

‘Touché, Mr Pond,’ laughed the Doctor. ‘So, it’ll take years to do. Centuries. It’s a long-term project.

Anyway, we’re inside one of them.’

‘OK…’

‘Specifically,’ the Doctor said, ‘we’re in a telepresence communications chamber. We found it by accident. It’s part of a communications network that probably once linked all the Morphan communities.’

‘It’s like you’re here,’ said Rory, still not quite believing his eyes.

‘It’s conjury!’ Sol Farrow murmured. He and Vesta were rigid with fear. Their eyes were very wide.

‘Who’s that?’ asked the Doctor.

‘That’s Sol Farrow,’ said Rory. ‘And this is Vesta.’

‘Vesta Flurrish!’ the Doctor cried. ‘Alive and well!

How fantastic is that? Very pleased to virtually meet you, Vesta. As you can see, I’ve got your sister and Samewell here with me. They’re perfectly safe. Well, they’re relatively safe. Well, they’re here with me.’

Vesta and Bel stepped forward and gazed at each other.

‘I was so worried about you,’ said Bel.

‘You look like you are made of light,’ said Vesta.

‘She is!’ cried the Doctor. ‘To you, she is! The telepresence system generates a live hologram field.