Doctor Who_ Enlightenment.
by Barbara Clegg.
1.
Winner Takes All
"Check!"
There was satisfaction in Turlough"s voice as he moved his queen into position. He had his opponent on the run now, and very soon the white king would be cornered and completely surrounded. Shadows seemed to darken over the chessboard, and Turlough only just managed to control his irritation. Why did all the power in the TARDIS have to go on the blink just when he was winning?
"Check!" he repeated crossly.
But Tegan"s mind was not on the game. She was holding a torch for the Doctor as he fiddled with something deep in the interior of the console. All that could be seen of him were two long legs and a pair of wriggling feet. He emerged with a smear of dust on his cheek and a look of interest in his eye.
"It isn"t a leak," he said. The discovery seemed to intrigue more than alarm him. "Our power"s being tapped somehow."
"Tapped!" Tegan was horrified. She had always considered the power of the TARDIS to be impregnable.
The Doctor had told them that nothing could get at it. And here he was, taking the whole thing quite calmly, while the lights in the control room grew dimmer and dimmer and their energy slowly ebbed away.
"Come on!" Turlough sounded more exasperated still.
All he could think about was the game, and slowly and reluctantly Tegan joined him.
"Your move," he prompted.
The Doctor was tinkering with the controls on top of the console, only part of his attention on their conversation, when the last word of it suddenly echoed strangely in his head.
"... Move... move... move..."
It did not sound like Turlough"s voice any more. It was someone he knew, he was sure, but very faint and far away.
"... Move... move... move..."
The echo died as suddenly as it had started. Tegan and Turlough did not seem to have heard anything, and the Doctor decided that it must have been his imagination. He pulled himself together and concentrated on his repairs, muttering to himself as he worked.
"Block the outlet... there... and then any minute... we should have full power..."
"... Power... power... power..."
There it was again! The Doctor shook his head and pressed his hands to his ears, so abruptly that Tegan looked up from the game.
"What"s the matter?" she asked in startled concern.
"Ssh!" The Doctor silenced her with a gesture. "I"m trying to listen."
"What to?" they wanted to know. The Doctor had to confess that he was not sure. Turlough grinned and shook his head in mock resignation. He was always pleased with any chance of getting one up on the Time Lord, and for once Tegan sided with him. The Doctor was behaving in a rather peculiar manner. Then, instead of continuing to fade, the lights in the control room suddenly glowed much brighter. Then dimmed again. And brightened. Dimmed...
brightened... As though someone somewhere wanted to attract their attention.
"Of course!" As usual it was the Doctor who clicked into action first. "It"s a message!"
Before they had time to pull themselves together, he leapt towards the console, throwing switches and shouting, "Turn up the power!"
"Turn it up?" Tegan and Turlough exclaimed together.
"We"re... We"re supposed to be conserving it... Now look here..."
"... Here... here... here..." echoed in the Doctor"s head.
And then the echo was moving towards one of the doors, "... here... here... here..." The Doctor followed it, shouting commands over his shoulder.
"The photon lever... increase energy output... keep it at full... whatever happens..."
And before they could stop him or ask another question, he had flung open the door and disappeared into the corridor beyond. They looked at each other, completely bewildered.
"He must know what he"s doing." Tegan tried not to sound too worried.
Turlough peered into the dimness. The Doctor"s voice came back to them faintly from the end of the pa.s.sage.
"Think so?" Turlough queried dryly. "At the moment he"s out there talking to himself."
The Doctor did indeed appear to be having a conversation with thin air.
"It is you, isn"t it?" he asked the empty gloom ahead.
"We"re giving you everything we"ve got."
For a minute nothing happened. And then, just in front of him. silvery robes began to glimmer into view, and finally a face: a kind, but rather stern face. It was the White Guardian, his lips moving silently.
"I can"t hear you!" The Doctor had never felt more frustrated.
All at once, as though someone had turned a volume k.n.o.b, the words became audible.
"... Power... balance of power... at risk..."
The voice continued to come and go as the White Guardian glimmered in and out. "Danger... extreme danger..." And then he was simply an echo in the Doctor"s head again calling "Danger... danger... danger..."
By now a thin stream of smoke was rising from the console and Tegan and Turlough watched it, mesmerised.
"What does he think he"s doing?" Turlough muttered.
"Another minute and we"re going to blow!"
Tegan took an involuntary step towards the door. She could not see the Doctor in the gloom of the corridor, but she called to him. Out of the blackness came a terse "Keep back!"
The Doctor stared ahead, willing the image to reappear and prompting urgently.
"Go on! Go-ordinates galactic north six degrees.. What"s next?"
"Nine... zero..." came faintly back, as the White Guardian glimmered into view.again, flickering and fitful.
"... Seven... seven... go at once... must not allow..."
"What? Not allow what?" asked the Doctor frantically.
The White Guardian"s lips moved soundlessly for a second, and then, very faintly, the Doctor heard, "Prevent...
the sign of death." And once more it was only an echo in his head, "... Death... death... death..."
Without warning, all the lights in the TARDIS came on again, and the White Guardian vanished completely.
The Doctor was as startled by the sudden brilliance as Tegan, but she was the first to realise what had caused it.
She rounded on Turlough just as his hand was moving away from the lever.
"You"ve reduced the power!" she cried out, shocked. And then the Doctor was back in the room, with such a stony expression that even Turlough felt uneasy.
"I thought we were going to blow up." he muttered defensively.
"Never ever touch that console again."
The Doctor"s voice was cold and cutting, and he turned his back on Turlough and began setting co-ordinates.
"Who were you talking to?" Tegan wanted to know. The White Guardian"s name meant nothing to her; but if she had not been so busy asking questions and if the Doctor had not been busy telling her there was no time to explain, they might have seen Turlough"s look of terror. It was clear that the name did mean something to him him, and something that caused him extreme alarm. They never did notice, however, because no sooner were the co-ordinates set than the TARDIS lurched violently and the three of them were thrown across the room.
Tegan felt gingerly for bruises, but the Doctor seemed quite oblivious of any discomfort as he picked himself up and dusted himself down.
"Time override," he remarked casually. "The locking must have been in the co-ordinates." And then he added with sudden gravity, "We"re here."
There was a pause.
"Where?" asked Tegan.
The scanner showed total blackness outside, and the Doctor had to admit that he was as much in the dark as the TARDIS. He did not know where they were nor what they were supposed to be doing the White Guardian"s instructions had been interrupted too soon. All he did know was that they were supposed to stop something happening. Something dangerous.
"And when the White Guardian says there"s danger, he"s invariably right," he remarked briskly.
The atmosphere a.n.a.lyser showed the air outside to be breathable and Turlough was despatched to get two torches for himself and the Doctor.
"Make it three," Tegan called after him. "I"m coming with you."
She turned on the Doctor, ready to argue, but faltered at the look in his eyes. It was one she did not often see there.
The Doctor was seriously worried.
"I need you here," he said. "The White Guardian is sure to try and make contact again."
"Why don"t you wait, then?" Tegan wanted to know. But the Doctor shook his head.
"No time to waste. It"s too urgent".
Turlough was back in the room as he finished speaking, almost as though he had been eavesdropp"ng.
"I"ll stay, if you like," he offered, his voice just a shade too casual.
The Doctor looked straight at Tegan.
"I want someone I can rely on. It"s important."
Tegan gave up.
"All right," she said, resigned. "What do I have to do?"
Carefully the Doctor explained that she was to stand by, ready to operate the lever when the White Guardian tried to speak again. The message was vital, and his power was so badly depleted that he would need to draw on theirs to get through at all. Tegan was taken aback.
"You mean the power drain was the White Guardian?"
"Exactly!" said the Doctor. And then he and Turlough had their torches at the ready and he was opening the main door.
"What shall I do if he tells me something important?"
Tegan stuttered.
"Thank him politely." And with a smile the Doctor closed the door firmly behind him. It was not until she was alone that Tegan remembered that she still had no idea what the White Guardian looked like. Or, indeed, who he was.
Cautiously the Doctor and Turlough felt their way forward, shining their torches into the blackness. The ground had turned out to be a wooden floor, but there was no clue as to the sort of building they were in. Odd creaks sounded from time to time, and then a scrabbling noise.
The Doctor stopped so suddenly that Turlough b.u.mped into him.
"Rats," came his soft murmur, out of the gloom.
A minute later, the beam of his torch hit something solid ahead. It was a wall of boxes and crates, piled on top of one another and roped together.
"Must be a warehouse," Turlough whispered. And then, without any warning, the floor suddenly heaved under their feet. Both of them reeled and almost lost their balance, and as Turlough put out a hand to steady himself he had panicky visions of earthquakes and landslides.