Cirrus@Austlit

'Irving Braxiatel is a human scientist with two children, Ben and Caroline -- until one night, his alien doppelganger steps out of a mirror to deliver a warning. This version of history is not real, and the human Irving must destroy it in order to prevent the timelines from fracturing further. Irving is unwilling to destroy everything that he knows, but Caroline overhears their conversation, understands that what Braxiatel has said is true, and kills herself so that her father won't have anything to live for. Irving doesn't tell his wife and son the real reason for Caroline's suicide, and they blame him for her death and for his subsequently leaving them. Eight years later, Irving approaches Ben to try to make amends, but Ben refuses to believe his outlandish story and storms off to join the Coalition and fight the Fifth Axis. Eventually, he meets his father again while on a mission to destroy an Axis laboratory, but Irving claims that he hasn't been working for the Axis -- he built a time ring and travelled here to see his son one last time. Ben still doesn't believe him, at least not until he turns to leave the laboratory and finds that nothing else exists any more; Irving was telling the truth, and he's detonated his reality bomb. Irving claims that none of this was real anyway, but Ben knows that if he really felt that way, he wouldn't have bothered trying to reconcile with his son. Nevertheless, he holds his father's hand as the end comes.

'Meanwhile, the "real" Braxiatel has been shifting between realities, trying to find a way to stop the fracture from spreading. While attending Benny and Doggles' wedding in one version of history, he learns from Benny that Doggles feels that the technology implanted in his body by the Fifth Axis somehow drove him to create the history machine. Braxiatel thus realises what must be done. The detonation of the reality bombs in the neighbouring timelines slows the spread and creates a temporary stable pocket of Time in the gardens, giving Braxiatel just enough time to explain what's gone wrong. The Collection's new defences are an extension of Braxiatel's time machine; in effect, the entire Collection has been removed from space and time and exists in its own pocket universe, and the history machine is interacting with that bubble of history, causing its reality to fracture. The effect is spreading out into the real Universe; already, the Martian Hass has become human. They have only minutes, maybe less, to stop the spread before this stable moment passes and all of space and time is destroyed -- and the quickest way to do that is to sever the machine's link with the technology in Doggles' body. Doggles panics and begs for his life; although Braxiatel insists that Doggles will survive when history resets itself, Doggles knows that he isn't really so sure. However, the assembled guests are starting remember fragments of the different timelines they've shuffled through, and are too terrified of letting this happen again to protest; Benny in particular remembers committing mass slaughter as a soldier, and being told that her son Peter was dead, and despite her reluctance she stands by and does nothing as Hass drags Doggles to the stage and Braxiatel cuts off the screaming Cahlian's head...'

Source: drwhoguide.com (http://www.drwhoguide.com/bs_n14.htm). Sighted: 19/5/11

'Benny awakens in hospital to learn that Doggles' history machine exploded, releasing a strange form of temporal radiation. Several people have been killed, Benny has been permanently blinded -- and Peter has been mortally injured and will be dead within days. Adrian ends his relationship with Bev to concentrate on his family, and the furious Bev prepares to pack up and leave the Collection, where everyone seems to idolise Benny when Bev has done so much more for them. But Benny contacts her and asks for her help: she needs to contact Avril Fenman and fetch one of the sorceress' mind-swapping crystals so she can trade places with Peter. When Jason arrives at the hospital, Bev is just leaving, and when Jason learns what Benny has done, he realises why she asked Bev. She claims that Bev is the only person who disliked her enough to let her trade her life for Peter's, but Jason realises that Benny knew that Avril had been trapped in a man's body for too long -- and that it wasn't really Bev whom Jason bumped into in the corridor outside. Furious, Jason storms out of the hospital room to take care of matters, but when Benny tries to pick up the crystal, she discovers too late that Adrian had been nearby, listening -- and he's already taken the crystal to Peter's room. Benny is too late to stop Adrian from sacrificing his life for his son's, and she vows to track down Avril and make her pay for what she's done to them all -- but she knows that it's her own fault for trying to take on the responsibility herself.'

Source: drwhoguide.com (http://www.drwhoguide.com/bs_n14.htm). Sighted 27/5/11.