The radio hissed static for a second, squealing as the dial searched for the right frequency. The garbled voice of an announcer suddenly faded to silence on the word 'Brothers', and Doctor Albert Gilroy spun the volume up to maximum. In the dark lighting of the computer lab, silhouetted against the warm orange glow of the overhead projector, he thrust the sleeves of his lab coat up his arms and prepared his best air-guitar stance as the soft opening riff built in intensity and the high- hat skittered away underneath.

Sam Horwitz had never felt so excited. The Grand Hall of the New York Natural History Museum was packed with hundreds of people, all clutching invitations to 'See the New Wonder of the World'. In exactly two minutes, Sam was going to step out and show them his amazing discovery. Sam fidgeted with his new white blazer. He'd never worn anything so bold before, but for this, the biggest day of his life, he wanted to impress.

'OK. What is that?' asked Amy, shouting over the shrill bleeping noise that screamed out of the console. 'It's a signal! the Doctor replied, never once taking his eyes away from the screen before him. 'A beacon. An alarm. No... It's stranger than that.' All at once the TARDIS shook violently, nearly knocking them both off their feet. 'And what was that?' said Amy, bracing herself and struggling to keep balance. 'Well, I'm not sure what that was,' said the Doctor. 'I think we may have hit some sort of gravitational speed bump.' 'A gravitational speed bump? They have speed bumps in space? How fast were we going?'

Twenty minutes before he died, Donald Babinger was feeding bits of his cheese sandwich to a pigeon. It was a cold, grey day, and the pigeon seemed grateful for the attention as well as the" crumbs. It pecked eagerly at the bread, ignoring the cheese and the pickle. Babinger was sitting on the steps up to the bandstand, huddled in his coat. The bandstand was where the teenagers hung out in the evening, in the park near the library.

Brother Neame lay still where he'd fallen, conscious that any hint of movement might reveal his hiding place. He fought to stifle the desperate urge to suck in lungful of air, each breath roaring in his ears as if screaming, 'Over here.' With the passing of each agonizing moment, he could feel the dampness of the sodden grass, soaking through his robes until it met his trembling body, the icy chill flooding over his skin with such ferocity that his pounding heart could do little to fight it.

'Hide your tie in your bag,' Kate said to Lisa, as they ascended the travelator with the other shoppers. Lisa looked at her suspiciously. 'Why?' Kate Maguire tutted and rolled her eyes. 'Because we're nicking off, you idiot! Hyperville's packed with CCTV. Anybody spots us, we'll be slung out!' 'Oh. Right.' Lisa Henshaw looked abashed, and pulled her St Mary's School tie off and shoved it into her bag.

Alice Wendell stepped out beneath the great glass dome of the Oxygen Gardens and gazed up to see the glittering, icy moon of Tethys passing overhead. She had lived on Chelsea 426 for almost six months, practically since her graduation, but still the other residents - and even her colleagues - looked at her and spoke to her as if she were a complete stranger. She was sure they meant nothing by it, of course; it was just their way.

It was a forgotten world. On the very edge of explored space, the planet resembled little more than a speck of dirt floating between the stars. From the surface of this world, the nearest sun was visible only as a distant blue glow on the horizon. The planet existed in perpetual dusk. It had once been inhabited by men intent on pushing back the dark boundaries of the universe. The planet had been a useful staging post between the old worlds and the distant, uncharted stars beyond.

Wild dogs roamed the streets outside the Acropolis, the huge, high rock overlooking Athens. Their claws skittered on the smooth marble flagstones, and their tongues lolled from between snaggled, yellow teeth. They looked hungry and bedraggled, and they kept most people away from the ancient monument in the hours before it opened. June pretended not to notice the scraggy, smelly things as they trotted back and forth around her.

Trainee Pilot Kareel Rossiter uncrossed her fingers, opened her eyes and let out a sigh of relief. Made it! The hyperspace jump had been perfect: a textbook transition between one location in real space and another, courtesy of a combination of higher mathematics and enough raw power to tear a hole through reality itself. Like an ancient icebreaker, pushing its way through polar ice, the Space Freighter Tintin had thrust itself out of its home system, passed through the inter-dimensional maelstrom of hyperspace and then had punched its way back into real space in Quadrant Delta Three Black.