Doctor Who_ The Edge of Destruction Part 7

The Doctor played his master card. 'Yes-or it might be Earth in the twentieth-century. Hasn't that occurred to you? My Ship is very valuable...'

'Why are you so suspicious of us?' asked Barbara coldly.

'Put yourself in my place, young lady. You would do precisely the same thing.'

Barbara turned away with a snort of derision; if the Doctor had any sense or understanding of them at all he would know they would never behave in the hysterical and illogical way he was behaving now.

The Doctor looked down dispa.s.sionately at Ian. 'It's time to end all your play-acting, Chesterton. You're getting off the Ship!'

'Now?' he asked groggily.

'This instant!'

Too weak to argue, and still dazed, Ian looked up at Barbara. 'You'll have to help me up,' he said pathetically. 'I'll be all right when I'm outside in the fresh air.'

'Grandfather, look at him,' pleaded Susan. 'He doesn't even know what's happening. I won't let you do this.'

The Doctor regarded his granddaughter for a moment, recognising in her the same firmness of purpose which he had always displayed. He knew that she would not weaken in her resolve.

Finally, to save some face he announced: 'Of course, if they would like to confess what they have done to my Ship I might possibly change my mind.' The Doctor began to march over to the lever on the control console which opened the doors.

'Why won't you believe us! We haven't-'

An ominous sound suddenly interrupted Barbara.

It was a low repet.i.tive chime, like the tolling of a huge bronze bell. It seemed to echo from deep within the TARDIS itself, and seemed to infiltrate their very beings.

The Doctor and Susan looked urgently at each other. instantly recognising the sound for what it was. The Doctor instinctively held his granddaughter protectively in his arms.

Ian was filled with a foreboding he had not felt since he was a small child. Barbara was immediately reminded of a verse she had learnt long ago at school and the meaning of which she had never fully understood till this moment: Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee. Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.

'What was that?' Ian asked fearfully, as the last reverberating tones echoed away.

'The danger signal...' Susan's voice was trembling and her face was deathly white. She clutched at her grandfather's arm. 'It's never sounded before...'

'The Fault Locator!' cried the Doctor and rushed over to the bank of instruments at the far end of the control chamber.

Lights were flickering furiously on and off and the VDU screen itself showed a crazy jumble of flashing figures and letters. The entire machine seemed to be overloading; sparks and wisps of acrid smoke filled the entire area beyond the protective gla.s.s screen.

'Don't touch it, Doctor!' warned Ian as he staggered to his feet with Barbara's help.

Susan was at the Doctor's side in an instant. She looked up and recognised the fear in her grandfather's face. It was the most horrifying feeling she had ever had in her life, seeing that look of terror.

'What is it?' she asked, already knowing what the answer would be, but somehow wishing that the Doctor would suddenly turn and tell her that everything was going to be all right. 'Tell me, please...'

The Doctor looked down at her and then turned to Ian and Barbara who had joined them in the Fault Locator area.

'The whole of the Fault Locator had just given us a warning,' he announced gravely.

Ian looked at the green VDU screen as it flashed on and off, casting its macabre emerald light on all their faces. It was seemingly registering every single piece of equipment on board the TARDIS.

'But everything can't be wrong!' he said incredulously.

'That is exactly what it says,' said the Doctor. 'Every single machine on board the Ship, down to the very smallest component, is breaking down.' He looked gravely at his companions, as though considering whether to tell them the truth. Finally he decided.

The words came heavy to his lips: 'I'm afraid that the TARDIS is dying...'

9

The Brink of Disaster

For minutes all four of the time-travellers stared at each other in dumbstruck horror. It seemed impossible to believe that the machine which had become their sanctuary and only hope of safety in a threatening universe was about to die. It was like being a pa.s.senger in an aircraft who has just been told that the plane is about to crash and that there is nothing the pilot can do to prevent it. Like those pa.s.sengers there could be no escape from the doomed ship.

Finally Ian broke the heavy, doom-laden silence.

'But, Doctor how can that be? How can the Ship just die?'

The Doctor pointed back to the Fault Locator. 'Whenever one small piece of machinery fails a little light illuminates and the fault is registered on that screen. By its very nature the Fault Locator is designed to be free of any malfunction and has a power source separate from the rest of my machine. Now think what would happen if all the lights lit up. It would mean that the Ship is on the point of disintegration!'

He considered Ian and Barbara carefully and then admitted: 'You two are not to blame-all four of us are to blame!'

'That drink you gave us...' said Ian.

'A harmless sleeping drug,' admitted the Doctor sheepishly. 'Yes, I rather suspected you were up to some mischief...'

Ian nodded. 'I told you not to go near the console. I told you that you might electrocute yourself.'

'I'm afraid I might have misjudged you and Miss Wright,' conceded the Doctor. 'I thought you had sabotaged my Ship in some way. But such damage is far beyond your capabilities. Even I would be incapable of harming the Ship to this degree.'

Susan who had been watching the VDU screen of the Fault Locator as it flashed on and off came back to her grandfather's side. 'It's happening every fifteen seconds,' she said and added, 'I counted the seconds.'

'Very well,' said the Doctor. 'Please goon counting.' As Susan went back to the Fault Locator he turned to the schoolteachers.

'Now, listen very carefully. We are on the brink of disaster; the TARDIS's circuits are failing because of some unknown force. The Ship could fall apart at any moment. We must forget any petty differences we might have and all four of us must work closely together. We must work to find out where we are and what is happening to my Ship. Once we know that there may be the chance of saving ourselves.'

Ian was tempted to say that that was exactly what he and Barbara had been suggesting from the very beginning. Instead he let the Doctor continue.

'The facts are these. there is a strong force at work somewhere which is threatening my Ship, so strong that every piece of equipment is out of action at the same time.'

'The life support systems are still functioning,' pointed out Barbara. Even in the present crisis she could still hear the in-out in-out breathing of the machine which had so terrified her before but was now becoming oddly rea.s.suring, almost like the heartbeat a baby hears in the warm protection of its mother's womb.

'Yes,' said the Doctor, 'and that is most unusual. Why isn't that failing when everything else around us is?'

'It's almost as if whatever force it is wants to keep us alive...' Barbara thought aloud, and shivered as she thought for what possible terrifying purpose.

'But you said that nothing could penetrate the TARDIS's defences, Doctor,' Ian remembered.

'Exactly. No evil intelligence can get inside the TARDIS. The Ship is equipped with a very powerful built-in defence mechanism, which among other things protects us from the forces of the time vortex.

'Neither do I believe any longer that either of you are responsible for our predicament. And we haven't crashlanded-I would have discovered that immediately.'

'But what is it then?' asked Ian despairingly.

'I don't know but we must find out soon!'

'Just how long have we got?' asked Barbara.

Susan returned from the Fault Locator. 'The screen is still flashing on and off every quarter of a minute,' she said.

'But what does that prove?' Ian was at a loss to understand.

'That we have a measure of time as long as it lasts,' the Doctor replied cryptically.

He stroked his chin and looked thoughtfully at the melted face of his ormolu clock. Suddenly his eyes flashed with understanding. 'Yes, of course!' he said excitedly. 'That explains the melted clockface!'

'How?' asked Barbara. 'I don't understand.'

'Don't you see?' The Doctor's excitement was obvious as he explained his theory. 'We had time taken away from us'-here he pointed at the clockface, and then indicated the flashing screen of the Fault Locator-'and now it's being given back to us because it's running out!'

As if in response to his words, the lights in the control room suddenly flashed on, bathing the chamber for a moment in a bright circle of light. A sonorous clanging, lighter in tone and less threatening than the alarm signal, resounded throughout the room. Beneath their feet the floor vibrated slightly, causing the four time-travellers to stagger.

'The column!' cried Susan and pointed to the centre of the control console.

All eyes looked at the time rotor which throughout their ordeal had remained motionless. The complex circuitry within it flashed momentarily and the column itself slowly rose, and then fell back jerkily, stationary again.

'Impossible!' murmured the Doctor to himself. He was visibly shaken.

'Doctor, I thought the column moved when the power was on and we were in flight,' said Ian.

The Doctor nodded. 'That is correct. The very heart of the TARDIS lies directly beneath that column.'

'So what made it move?'

'The source of power,' explained the Doctor. 'The column serves to weigh down and hold that power in check. When the column rises it proves the extent of the power thrust.'

'Then what would have happened if the column had come out completely?' asked Barbara nervously.

'The power would be free to escape...' said Susan slowly, as she realised the horrific implications. The Doctor stared fascinated at the now motionless column. Compared to this, all the other malfunctions of the TARDIS were just minor irritations. This was much more serious. If the power beneath the column was indeed trying to escape...

'Can it be possible that this is the end?' he said aloud to himself.

'The end? What are you talking about?' asked Ian.

The Doctor turned and looked sombrely at his three companions. He put a protective arm around Susan's shoulder.

'I believe that the power which drives my machine is attempting to escape.'

'But that's impossible!' protested Ian fiercely, willing himself not to believe the Doctor. 'We checked the power rooms; everything there was fine.'

The Doctor nodded. 'Nevertheless that is the only explanation,' he said, and continued as if he were addressing a lecture hall of disinterested students: 'The build-up of power will swiftly increase until the surge will be so great that the weight of the time rotor will not be able to contain it.'

'Can you be certain?' asked Barbara weakly.

'As certain as I can be about anything,' said the Doctor.

He looked meaningfully at each of his companions, and announced: 'According to the readings from the Fault Locator we have precisely fifteen minutes in which to survive, or to find an escape from our situation.'

'Fifteen minutes...' echoed Ian disbelievingly. He felt oddly detached, as though he were somewhere else, looking down on himself being delivered this cruel sentence of death. 'As little as that?'

'Maybe less...' replied the Doctor. 'And now I suggest that we do not waste any more time.'

Leaving his companions standing shocked and speechless, the Doctor crossed over to the control console.

'Be careful, Doctor,' urged Ian, fearful lest the Doctor should receive a shock or something even worse. 'Remember what happened last time.'

The Doctor waved the schoolmaster's concern aside. 'It's quite safe, Chesterton,' he rea.s.sured him. 'This is where I stood when I tried the scanner switch.'

Barbara who had moved a little way off from her fellow travellers and had been examining the melted clockface thoughtfully, suddenly spoke up. 'Yes... the rest of the control console is electrified. Only that one control panel is perfectly safe. Why should that be?'

'Is that really so important just now, Miss Wright?' asked the Doctor, a little of his former impatience returning.

'Barbara, what do you mean?' asked Ian and looked curiously over at her. He recognised the expression on Barbara's face. It was the same look on many of his pupils' faces when a particularly difficult physics equation suddenly became clear for them: that peculiar mixture of understanding, delight, and amazement that they could have been so stupid for so long.

But Barbara heard neither Ian nor the Doctor. Instead she looked wonderingly around the control room, and for the first time noticed that the solitary shaft of light which bathed the control console did not, in fact, shine centrally down onto the console. Rather it slanted down onto that one particular panel, the panel which contained the scanner switch.

The two major sources of illumination in the control chamber were that beam, and the maddeningly flashing lights from the Fault Locator. She sniffed incredulously to herself and then, frowning, looked at the melted clockface and the shattered remains of her own wrist.w.a.tch in the corner of the room. She remembered the sequence of images on the scanner, the opening of the exit doors, the strange, poltergeist-like events in the laboratory which prevented her from destroying herself...

In the darkness of the control room a light was beginning slowly to dawn in Barbara's mind. She told herself not to be so silly. To apply some logic to the situation.

But things aren't always logical, are they?

Surely it couldn't be? But yes! It was almost as if someone was trying to tell them something...

Susan at her grandfather's side was finding it difficult to hold back the tears. 'We're not going to stop it in time, are we, Grandfather?' she moaned disconsolately.

The Doctor shook his head as he cast despairing eves over the controls and hugged his granddaughter closer. 'I don't even know where to begin, child,' he admitted disarmingly. 'I wish I could offer you more hope but I am at a complete loss. The problem seems to he beyond all logical argument...' He clicked his tongue in irritation. 'If only I had some sort of clue...'

'Perhaps we've been given nothing else but but clues...' clues...'

Everyone turned to look at Barbara.

'What do you mean?' asked Ian. 'Like the food machine registering empty when it wasn't?'