"Well, yes and no. Extraordinary people the Atlanteans, you know, even more extraordinary than their cousins in Athens. If reality became unbearable, they would invent a legend to tame it."
"Like the legend of Kronos?"
"Exactly! Kronos, a living creature, was drawn into time by the priests of Atlantis, using that crystal."
"You mean that crystal is the original? The actual crystal from Atlantis?"
"It is. And your friend the Professor is trying "to use the crystal exactly as it was used four thousand years ago - to capture the Chronivore."
"And that"s what you meant when you talked of the most terrible danger just now?"
"Do you mean danger to us?" asked Benton. "Or to the world?"
The Doctor said gravely, "The danger is not just to us, or our world, or even our galaxy, but to the entire created Universe."
Puffing peacefully on his cigar, the Master listened to the Director"s stammered tale of recent events.
"And now here you are," moaned the Director. "Suppose somebody should walk in here now and find me talking to you?"
The Master sighed. "My word, you are a worrier, aren"t you? Come here."
Reluctantly the Director obeyed.
"Closer," ordered the Master. "Now, look into my eyes. There is nothing to worry about. Nothing. Just obey me and everything will be all right . . . Just . . . obey . . .
me!"
"Obey," said the Director dully. "I must obey, and everything will be all right."
"That"s better. Now go and arrange for the evacuation like a good boy, and let me get on with my sums. "
The Master took pad and pencil from a table beside the armchair and began a series of complex and abstruse calculations. "You know Director, it"s some time since I found such a good subject for hypnosis as you"ve turned out to be. It"s quite like old times..."
Calmed and rea.s.sured, the Director sat down at his desk and began a series of telephone calls.
The time sensor in his hand, the Doctor was examining the TOMt.i.t apparatus with the sceptical expression of a garage mechanic checking over very old car.
"There are two things I don"t understand. One the unexplained power build-up you had. The other is the strength of the signal I picked up on my sensor."
"You said yourself," Ruth pointed out, "the time sensor picks up all all time field disturbances." time field disturbances."
"Indeed it does." The Doctor began wandering about the lab. "But the signal was far too strong for a crude apparatus such as this." Suddenly the Doctor stopped in front of a tall green computer cabinet the needle on the sensor flickering wildly. "Aha!"
Benton came over to him. "What is it, Doctor?"
"I knew it had to be around here somewhere. This Sergeant Benton, is the Master"s TARDIS!"
"I"m sorry; but you must must leave. At once, please," said the Director and put down the phone. leave. At once, please," said the Director and put down the phone.
He heard the Master muttering, " . . . now, if E equals mc cubed . . ."
"Squared, surely?".
"What?" The Master looked up.
"E equals mc squared - not cubed."
"Not in the extra-temporal physics of the time said the Master irritably. "Now you"ve made me lose my place. You"re an interfering dolt, Perceval."
"I"m sorry. What are you doing?"
"Trying to find the reason for that ma.s.sive power build-up we experienced. It makes the experiment uncontrollable. Even the filter didn"t prevent it." The Master frowned.
"Logically, it just shouldn"t happen."
"Logically, it just shouldn"t happen," said the Doctor.
"But it did." Ruth pointed out.
"It did indeed. So, logically there"s only one thing to do. Wouldn"t you agree, Sergeant?"
"Oh yes, sure, Doctor. Er - what, for instance?"
"Switch on the power and see for ourselves."
Ruth Ingram drew in a deep breath. "Right!"
She switched on the power. The machine began its low whine.
The Doctor studied a dial. "It"s reading ten already."
"That"s impossible," gasped Ruth.
Benton was looking through the open door to the inner laboratory. "Doctor! Doctor, the crystal"s glowing!"
The Doctor came to join him. "Sergeant Benton, you"re a strong man. Go in there and pick up that crystal."
"After what happened to that chap Stuart?"
"It"s perfectly safe at this low level."
"If you say so, Doctor."
Sergeant Benton"s faith in the Doctor was limitless. He went to the crystal and tried to lift it from its resting place.
It refused to budge.
"It"s fastened down," he grunted.
"It isn"t, you know," said the Doctor. "you can see it isn"t."
Benton heaved until his muscles cracked. "I can"t shift it."
"No, of course you can"t - because it isn"t really here at all. It made the jump through interst.i.tial time. It must still be linked to the original crystal all those thousands of years ago."
Ruth gave him a baffled look. "Then where is the original crystal?"
"Where do you think? In Atlantis, of course."
Lightning streaked across the night sky of Atlantis, followed by a great rumble of thunder. In the Temple, a neophyte shuddered with fear. The G.o.ds were abroad tonight. He was little more than a child, olive skinned and curly haired, a priest"s servant and apprentice. He glanced at the glowing crystal on sacred altar and braced himself to do his duty.
His bare feet pattering on the marble floors of the temple, he ran to where Krasis, the High Priest, stood watching the lightning flare across the night sky.
The terrified neophyte threw himself to the ground at Krasis"s feet. "Holiness!
Holiness, come quickly. The Crystal is afire."
Tall and gaunt, an impressive figure in his priestly robes, Krasis strode across the temple to where the crystal rested upon the altar. It was glowing fiercely.
Krasis lifted his hands in a gesture of worship. "At last, Kronos, at last! The time is come, and I await your call."
From behind a pillar a tall young man stood watching, a look of fascinated interest on his darkly handsome face. His name was Hippias, one of the High Council of Atlantis. He had long been fascinated by anything to do with Kronos.
The phone in the TOMt.i.t lab rang, and Benton s.n.a.t.c.hed it up. "Sergeant Benton ...
Oh, h.e.l.lo, Miss Grant... Yes, he"s here. I see... Yes, hang on..." He turned to the Doctor. "It"s Miss Grant. She says Stuart Hyde is coming round. He"s in a bit of a state it seems."
The Doctor was already heading for the door. "Tell her I"m on my way, Sergeant.
You"d better stay here on guard. Coming, Ruth... Doctor Ingram?"
"Ruth will do. Yes, of course I"m coming." They hurried from the room.
In the sick bay, Jo was still chatting to Sergeant Benton on the phone. "Yes, I"m all right, honestly. No, not scared exactly, just a bit ... well, you know, churned up. And a merry Michaelmas to you too. . ."
She heard a groan from the bed. "Oh lor, I"m neglecting my patient!"
Putting down the phone, she hurried back to the bed, where Stuart Hyde was writhing uneasily. "Kronos..." he muttered. "Kronos!"
Jo leaned over him. "Are you all right?"
Suddenly he opened his eyes and stared wildly at her. "I felt him coming back!"
"Kronos!" He clutched her arm. "Don"t let him touch me. The fire . . . I"m burning. I"m burning. . ."
"Jo pushed him gently back on the pillows. "It"s all right, you"re safe now. It"s all right, honestly it is."
Stuart stared at her as if seeing her for the first time. "Who are you?"
"Jo - Jo Grant."
"Where am I?"
"You"re in your own room."
Stuart groaned. "I"ve got the granddaddy of all hangovers." He rubbed his forehead and suddenly caught sight of his hands - the wrinkled hands of very old man. "My hands. What"s happened to my hands?"
"It"s all right," said Jo soothingly. "It"s difficult to explain."
"Give me a mirror. A mirror. A mirror. Where"s my shaving mirror?" Where"s my shaving mirror?"
"There isn"t one," said Jo desperately. "I"ll get you one later. Now, just lie down..."
But Stuart had spotted his shaving mirror on the bed-side table. Before Jo could stop him he lunged for it, s.n.a.t.c.hed it up - and gazed in the mirror at his own eighty-year old face.
"No . . . no . . ." he groaned. Tossing the mirror aside, he buried his face in his hands.
6.
The Ambush
"Point zero zero three five seven," said the Master thoughtfully. "Good!"
The Director asked timidly, "You"ve finished?"
"Yes, at last. So, it"s back to the lab."
"But they"ve got someone on guard."
"Yes, I suppose they have. You don"t happen to who it is, do you?"
"A Sergeant Benton, I think."
The Master smiled. "I see. Well, I think I know how to deal with him."
By now the Doctor and Ruth Ingram had arrived.
Stuart, a little calmer now, was trying to give some account of what had happened to him. "It was just after the cup and saucer appeared. . .I was about to switch off when it . . . happened. . ." His voice broke and faded away.
"Go on, old chap," said the Doctor encouragingly. "You"re doing fine."
With an effort, Stuart continued. "It was like a tongue of flame. Like all my body was on fire. All my life, my energy, was being sucked out of me."