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"I meant," said Vera walking into the room which was full of screens, equipment and generally looking like a cross between a bank trading room and the store room of a high tech company with far too much capital budget, "are you some sort of policeman or soldier or secret agent or what."
"No. Well sort of. Okay perhaps. But I'm also a Thread Lord."
"Okay," said Vera going over to a chair and sitting down, "supposing I believe you, what the heck is a Thread Lord."
"We're masters of threads."
"And what does that mean? You get to wear great clothes?"
"No. Well perhaps. Okay, yes," said the Doctor as he did a very impressive Vogue pose. "But that's not what I meant. Do you know what superstring theory is?"
"I've heard of it, but don't understand it."
"Not understanding is hardly surprising, it's mostly rubbish."
"Okay, but what has that got to do with threads?"
"Threads are, well, threads. Never-ending. Beautiful. Everything and nothing. Alive yet not alive." Shaking his head as if from a reverie, the Doctor continued. "Anyhow. If you replace strings with threads, you get the real foundation of everything."
"So you are saying thread theory explains the universe?"
"Not explains, but is. Woven together threads become the intangible, invisible fundamental fabric that is the universe itself. They are space, and energy, and time, and even reality itself."
"So what's a Thread Lord? Some sort of universe webster?"
"Webster? Oh, weaver. No, not at all. More like a policeman or a repairman."
"So you go around darning the threads of the universe?"
"Repairing, caring for, mending and renewing, redirecting and strengthening, even getting rid of moths and other pests. So yes. That's about what I do."
"So what brings you here?"
"Rumours of an old adversary, that she had come here. Her presence is never a good sign. That, and a feeling that the Threads hereabouts are in danger."
"So you're here on a hunch?"
"Yes. But the Glamaians, those llamas, they shouldn't be here. And they're bringing in a lot of equipment. Equipment they didn't want me to see. Equipment the likes of which I've never seen before. And that is always bad news."
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