This single source provides lengthy excerpts from the novel "Doctor Who: Vanderdeken's Children" by Christopher Bulis, detailing an elaborate science fiction adventure. The narrative focuses on the main characters, the Doctor and his companion Sam, as they explore a mysterious, derelict alien ship that has appeared near a civilian passenger liner, the Cirrandaria. Conflict quickly arises as the ship's Captain Lanchard and the politician Councillor Rexton struggle to maintain control against a hostile Nimosian warship, the Indomitable, commanded by Vega, as both sides seek to claim the alien vessel. Exploration of the derelict reveals it is a temporal anomaly, possibly a time machine, that has jumped twenty years into the future, where the conflict between Emindar and Nimos resulted in the utter destruction of Emindar's homeworld. The final chapters describe a chaotic convergence of time-shifted ghosts (including future versions of several main characters), present-day combatants, and a complex effort by the Doctor to resolve the temporal paradox before a full-scale war erupts.

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.