"What"s been going on?" he asked doubtfully. "Zoe I had an idea you were all white... "
"So were you! It was the Robots they tried to steal us away and turn us into something else it was horrible."
"Quiet!" The Doctor was at the central console, checking all the dials and meters. He shook his head, dissatisfied with what he read on the panel. "We"re not out of the wood yet, I"m afraid."
(Somewhere far away, in total darkness, the Doctor sat with his back to a tree that wasn"t a tree, in the midst of a forest that wasn"t a forest, and gave a wry chuckle as he recalled this careless phrase. That"s what he had said: "Not out of the wood yet." Little did he know how prophetic his words were to be... ) "Still first things first!" The Doctor glanced over at the two youngsters, with concern. "How are you feeling now?"
Zoe shrugged. "All right in myself, I suppose... But what really happened?"
"Nothing really really happened, my dear. Because nothing was real." happened, my dear. Because nothing was real."
"But where were you?"
"Nowhere. I keep telling you all the things you saw or rather, the things you think you saw were pure imagination, nothing more."
"But why?" Jamie demanded. "What"s it all about?"
"I don"t know," said the Doctor. "All I can tell you is that we must be careful... Very, very careful."
Jamie smothered a yawn. "I don"t see why now we"re back where we started, we"re all safe and sound, aren"t we?
And I feel a bit sleepy... I think I"ll go and get my head down for five minutes."
"Good idea after all that excitement, it"s natural enough for you to feel a trifle fatigued. Off your go we"ll call you if we need you."
Jamie nodded, and made his way to his room; his bed had never seemed more cosy or more attractive.
When he was out of earshot, Zoe said shrewdly: "You"re still worried, though aren"t you?"
"I"m not totally rea.s.sured, if that"s what you mean," the Doctor began evasively. "But at least I see no reason to hang around in this unhealthy environment a moment longer than we have to. By now the fluid links will have cooled down, and we should have built a sufficient power back-up to get us safely on our way... "
He pulled the main switch, and prepared for take-off.
The familiar drumming of the power supply was rea.s.suring and yet there was something else... An alien noise that seemed to cut through all other sounds. They listened intently, and then Zoe asked: "What was that? Is the TARDIS going wrong again?"
"Oh, no I shouldn"t think so for a moment. We"re on our way all right but I"m not sure where we"re going."
Zoe smiled: "That"s nothing unusual!" Then her smile faded, and she looked a little ashamed of herself. "I"m sorry..."
"Nothing to feel sorry about you"ve done nothing wrong."
"But I have... It was all my fault going outside without permission. It was nearly the end of everything."
"Don"t worry your head over that, my dear. I don"t think you had much choice. Whoever was tempting you made it seem quite irresistible. I even gave in myself, when the Voice lured me outside he was certainly very persuasive."
"Voice? What voice?"
"I can"t tell you... Perhaps there wasn"t one. Perhaps that was just another illusion too. Still, the TARDIS seems to be functioning normally again, thank goodness " He checked the meters again, and frowned. "That"s odd."
"What is?"
"The levels have fallen below the thousand minimum."
"Is that critical?"
"Well it does mean we"re expending energy faster than we"re producing it... But don"t worry there"s a special power-boost unit... Somewhere... If only I can lay my hands on it... "
Zoe raised her eyes to heaven in mute exasperation.
Really, the Doctor could be so vague sometimes! It offended her scientific mind. She rather wished she"d followed Jamie"s example and s.n.a.t.c.hed forty winks certainly she was doing no good here.
By now, Jamie was fast asleep and in the throes of a bad dream. He threshed from side to side, his brows furrowed, and his lips moved, forming the words: "No no... !"
The Doctor found the power-boost switch at last, and as he operated it, a comforting humming noise came from the controls.
"That"s more like it.. Zoe, what does the meter read now?"
She was glad to have something useful to do at last, and reeled off the figures: "Nine-nine zero... Nine-nine one...
Two... Three... "
By the time the figures reached nine-nine-eight, Jamie had rejoined them, rubbing his eyes, and saying: "Hey you know what? I just had a terrible nightmare... "
"Ssh! Do be quiet, Jamie this is important," said the Doctor.
"Nine-nine-eight," Zoe repeated. "Steady at eight."
"No, listen it was the most terrifying dream. There was this big white horse coming at me with a great pointed horn in the middle of its head - "
"I don"t want to blow the storage units again," the Doctor continued to explain to Zoe. "We"ll just let it creep up gradually."
Zoe, trying to listen to them both at once, said: "Yes, Doctor whatever you say... A horse with a pointed horn, Jamie? Sounds like a unicorn!"
"Yeah well, maybe it was. All I know is, it was charging straight towards me I thought I was done for...
Head down, ready for the kill!"
"Really, Jamie, now who"s letting his imagination run away with " Zoe glanced across at the Doctor, and then her voice changed. "Jamie look... What"s the matter, Doctor?"
For the Doctor was sitting in his chair, gripping the arms: with a look of deep apprehension on his face.
"Be quiet both of you... " he said. "Can"t you hear that sound? It"s beginning again."
They all heard it then at first only the merest vibration, but gradually increasing in power and volume.
"I"ve heard it before," the Doctor warned them. "Brace yourself it"s an alien force trying to demoralise us... "
Zoe clapped her hands over her ears: "I feel it too in my head!"
The Doctor tried to help as best he could: "Concentrate both of you... You must concentrate on something... Zoe read the figures out keep reading them!"
She did her best: "Nine-nine-nine... One thousand... "
"You too, Jamie! You must both fight back... It"s getting stronger... "
They tried hard "One thousand and one... Two...
Three " but it was no good. The sound was everywhere now, surrounding them, inside and out, as if it would shake them to pieces.
"It"s too strong for us... Too powerful I can"t fight any more!"
These were the last words the Doctor uttered and then the explosion happened.
Floating in blackness, slowly revolving, the TARDIS began to break up. It happened as if in slow motion walls, door, roof all dropped away, and the central control panel was left circling in endless night, with Zoe and Jamie clinging on to it for dear life.
Zoe looked round wildly, and screamed with terror: "Jamie! The Doctor... We"ve lost him We"ve lost him!"
That was the last they saw of him: still sitting in his armchair, falling through s.p.a.ce... Falling, falling... Until he finally disappeared from sight.
3.
Boys and Girls Come Out to Play The central control console was all that was left of the TARDIS, and it now revolved through s.p.a.ce like a giant spinning-top, while Zoe and Jamie held on to it with all their strength; their knuckles were white with the immense strain upon them.
"I can"t hold on much longer " Zoe gasped.
"You"ve got to!" Jamie urged her. "If you let go now, we"ll be lost for ever."
"Like the Doctor... " She felt tears choking her. "We"ll never see him again and the TARDIS has gone for good...
What"s the use of hoping?"
"You must never give up hope!" Jamie admonished her: but a rushing wind tore the words from his lips, as they whirled onwards into darkness.
The control console seemed to be caught in a s.p.a.ce whirlpool: it was rotating faster and faster, and they could feel centrifugal force dragging at them.
"It"s no good!" Zoe"s fingers were slipping, and she knew she was powerless to resist. "It"s all over!"
She found herself being flung off into the void her dark hair streaming out behind her like the tail of a meteor. She closed her eyes, and gave herself up to the sensation of floating...
Floating... Weightless... In total silence...
It was curiously peaceful. Almost like falling asleep...
Dawn came to the forest at long last: and it came very slowly.
From total blackness, the faintest glimmer of light began to slide across the rim of the sky, and for the first time the Doctor could see vague, looming shapes surrounding him.
Tall trees amazingly tall and straight like the pillars and arches of a vast cathedral; they were of different sizes and shapes, cl.u.s.tered closely together in strange patterns, almost like a maze. The Doctor looked about him, and wondered if someone had originally planted them like this on purpose. It would make a wonderful hiding place.
But he had been in hiding far too long. It was time to set out in search of his two companions. He had no valid reason to suppose that, like him, they had landed safely in this eerie forest after the TARDIS disintegrated but since he was here, it seemed at least to be an arguable possibility that they might not be far away.
He rose to his feet with a little difficulty, supporting himself by holding on to the smoothly-ribbed trunk of the tree he had been leaning against throughout the long night.
How shockingly stiff and sore he felt; his old bones creaked as he flexed his arms and legs.
Well, that wasn"t to be wondered at. He had gone through some fairly gruelling experiences in the last twenty-four hours he"d been removed from the bounds of s.p.a.ce and time, he"d had his mind invaded by an alien power, he"d lost his two companions, and he"d lost the dear old TARDIS... Hardly surprising if he wasn"t feeling quite up to the mark this morning.
He screwed up his eyes, trying to see more clearly but it was still very dark. The forest tree trunks disappeared upwards into impenetrable gloom: here and there, between the tall columns he could glimpse a patch of night sky, streaked with the first green light of dawn but that was all. Still, he couldn"t hang about for ever. He had to get on and find out where he was... And where the others had got to... And what in the name of goodness was going on.
Squaring his shoulders, he strode ahead into the maze.
If anyone could have had a bird"s-eye view of the scene, he might have been amazed to see the three time-travellers, all making separate efforts to find their way through the forest.
This way and that, they twisted and turned among the tall trees so near to one another, and yet so far apart. The Doctor trudged onwards in a straight line or as near straight as he could manage, avoiding the obstacles in his path with a vague intention of heading for the slowly-increasing greenish glow of early morning, somewhere far ahead.
Jamie zig-zagged from side to side, going first this way, then that, as the mood took him: while Zoe, without realising it, was slowly and steadily going round in circles, finishing up pretty well at the same spot where she had begun.
Oh, yes it would have been highly entertaining to anyone with an overall view of the proceedings.
And strangely enough there was just such an observer, sitting comfortable in the Control Centre, watching all that took place, displayed on a gallery of television screens.
"Well done, well done," he chuckled gently, as he monitored three different cameras one trained on Zoe, one on Jamie, and one on the Doctor himself.
If the Doctor could have heard him, he would have recognised that soft-spoken, yet menacing voice: for it was the same voice which had persuaded him to leave the TARDIS in the first place.
Now he sat alone, in the Control Centre, at the heart of the Citadel the nerve-centre from which he ruled this entire domain: and he was known to all those beneath him as "the Master".
Like that renegade member of the Doctor"s own race, with whom he shared the same name, he seemed to be almost ominiscient: nothing happened in this strangely private universe without the Master knowing about it instantly; and nothing could could occur unless he gave it his approval, and allowed it to take place. occur unless he gave it his approval, and allowed it to take place.
"Well done," he repeated, rubbing his hands gleefully. "A very good beginning... Let us see how the story unfolds."
Unaware that he was under surveillance, Jamie struggled on through the forest, trying to pick his way amongst the mult.i.tude of tree trunks.
It reminded him a little of days long, long ago at home in the Highlands, when he and his friends had taken to the wild woodlands, at the time of the Rising of 1745. On the run from the English soldiers with their red coats and their muskets, they had lived rough for weeks on end, hiding out during the day and making forays across country by night.
He remembered nights as dark as this, dodging the enemy among the Scottish pine trees, in the small hours just before dawn... But this was somehow different.
He stood stock still, listening.