Doctor Who_ Time Flight Part 13

The Doctor walked the short distance to the Master's TARDIS. The Master was waiting for him.

'The temporal limiter,' demanded the Master.

'The quantum accelerator,' insisted the Doctor.

Neither trusted the other a millimetre. The Master guardedly revealed the Doctor's accelerator. The Doctor allowed a glimpse of the Master's limiter. There was a fumbling, mutual s.n.a.t.c.h and grab. The deal was done.

'Shall I say au revoir, Doctor?' The Master oozed venomous charm.

The Doctor turned his back dismissively on his arch enemy and returned to the plane. Hardly had the Master, with a dark chuckle, entered his TARDIS than the column dematerialised.

By now none of the crew batted an eyelid. 'I suppose he could end up anywhere in the universe,' said Captain Stapley.

'Heathrow, actually.'

The Doctor's casual announcement caused consternation.

'He's virtually running in a new TARDIS,' he went on to explain. 'To check out the temporal dimensions he'll need to track back the line of the time contour.'

Andrew Bilton was appalled at what the Doctor had just allowed to happen.

'He'll land up in London with the nucleus on board?'

'Yes.'

'It's a disaster!'

'Quite right.' The Doctor couldn't agree more. 'Shall we go on board?'

All around them dazed pa.s.sengers were returning, once again, to their senses.

'The punters are your responsibility, Tegan,' shouted Stapley, making a quick escape to the main door. 'When you get them on board, stand by on those tyres.'

Just my luck, thought Tegan. My first job as a stewardess. She tried to forget how dirty and sweaty she was and approached the pa.s.sengers with a radiant smile on her face. 'Ladies and gentlemen, we do apologise for the delay ...' The words flowed like syrup. 'Your flight to Heathrow is now ready for boarding. Would you proceed to the aircraft immediately.'

The Doctor soon had the quantum accelerator back in circuit. He stood up from the console looking very pleased with himself. Nyssa couldn't understand why. 'The Master will get to Earth before us,' she fretted.

'Not with my temporal limiter in circuit,' the Doctor rea.s.sured her.

'It won't work?'

'Of course it will. You don't think I could fool the Master do you?' He started to make his way out of the TARDIS and towards the flight deck.

Nyssa recognised the glint in his eye. She smiled. 'Mind you,' said the Doctor, 'there is an inhibition factor inherent in the programming.'

'What does that mean?'

The Doctor grinned. 'We get to Heathrow first.'

Tegan felt very lonely out in the cold beside the two wheels, with everyone else strapped in their seats waiting for takeoff. She looked up at the flight deck window, hoping for the sign to release the compressed air.

But with such a hazardous launch before them, the pre-flight checks were more vital than at any well-equipped international airport.

The moment came.

'Air on number three engine.' Captain Stapley gave the order in a calm, clipped voice.

Tegan released the valve. There was a hiss like a soda syphon. She prayed that not too much air was escaping from the makeshift connection.

'Start number three engine.'

From the right hand side of the airfcraft came a dull whine.

'Start number two engine.'

Another deep snarl from the left of the plane.

'Air off. Get Tegan in.'

The air jets were screaming now, and Tegan had her hands over her ears as Bilton waved to her. She pulled the feed clear and ran for the door.

'I want reverse thrust on three and four so I can turn the aircraft.'

The engines roared as the plane rotated anticlockwise.

The Captain was giving his final briefing to his First Officer and Engineer when the Doctor arrived on the flight deck. 'I will abandon takeoff, prior to V1, only on the loss of two engines ...'

'Ready to go?' asked the Doctor.

'Strap yourself in for takeoff will you please, Doctor,' ordered Captain Stapley. He turned back to Bilton and Scobie.

'At V2 we will maintain our climb-out at theta two under full power.'

Captain Stapley looked ahead at the frozen mudflat. No one at Toulouse or Bristol ever dreamed she would have to come unstuck from that. He glanced over his shoulder at the Doctor. 'Cross your fingers.' He beamed the merest smile in the direction of Bilton and Scobie. 'This is it, gentlemen.'

The Captain's right hand rested on the four throttles. 'Three, two, one ...' He counted the seconds. 'Now.' He pushed the throttles hard against the end stop.

The idling turbines surged to a full-throated roar. The great silver creature struggled forward.

There were rolling. Faster, faster. A bit of feedback already shaking the stick.

'Airspeed building.'

Four green lights on the instrument panel; afterburners coming in.

Flame from the four Olympus engines; full power.

Faster, faster.

'One hundred knots.'

'Power checked,' called Scobie.

'V1,' called Bilton.

One hundred and seventy knots and building, Alpha Charlie rocketed down the mudflat. No stopping now; it was takeoff or crash.

The pa.s.sengers in the cabin had never known such a buffeting. Captain Stapley, hands on the shaking control column, felt every b.u.mp from the primitive runway. Bilton, eyes on the airspeed indicator, willed the needle to the next marker.

Five hundred yards of runway left. A rocky hillside rushing closer. One eight seven, one eight eight, one eight nine, one ninety knots ...

'Rotate,' called Bilton, and Captain Stapley eased the column towards him.

Concorde Golf Alpha Charlie lifted her nose skyward, careered a little further on her main wheels, and was airborne. Four vapour trails streaming behind, she soared above the Citadel.

Captain Stapley was as excited as a child. 'What did I tell you, Doctor,'

he shouted jubilantly. 'Finest plane in the world!'

The Doctor just managed a smile. There was a moment as they thundered towards the rocks that he wished they had gone by TARDIS.

'Gear up,' called the Captain. Andrew and Roger, who had shared the Doctor's feelings, grinned sheepishly at each other and set about the routine business of maintaining the climb. 'Where to now, Doctor?'

asked Stapley.

The Doctor extricated himself from the jump seat, leaned between the two pilots and started to programme the flight computer.

10.

In Transit

Tegan and Nyssa wondered how the Doctor was going to get them all back to the twentieth century. They had certainly never seen him enter such elaborate coordinates. He stood up and thought for a moment, checked, double-checked, and corrected a setting.

'Now.' The Doctor looked at the girls. 'As we dematerialise, we reverse the process of the time contour and kick Concorde back on its original flight path ...' He sounded very confident. But as he activated the controls, Tegan couldn't help noticing he had his fingers crossed.

The dematerialisation of the TARDIS had an immediate effect on the flight deck.

'Centre of gravity's shifted,' called Roger as he instinctively corrected the trim of the aircraft.

But the alteration in payload was not the only change. 'The radio navigation's working!' shouted Andrew delightedly.

Captain Stapley scanned the dials. One by one all the instruments were coming back to life.

The radio crackled. 'Golf Alpha Charlie, permission to descend to three five zero.' His voice betrayed none of the emotion he felt. They might have been for a joyride round the Bay of Biscay. But there was a roguish smile on his face as he turned to Roger and Andrew. 'We're back!' he said.

Meanwhile the TARDIS had taken good care of the Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa. The door opened and they peeped out at the hurly-burly of Heathrow. It was hard to believe, with the screaming chorus of jets and the reek of aviation fuel, that this was the same location as the Citadel.

'We appear to be on time for a change,' observed the Doctor optimistically, though the significance of this escaped the two girls.

Nyssa watched in amazement as a jumbo lifted into the sky with an ear-splitting screech. 'What a funny way to travel,' she shouted above the din.

'Kind of fun, though,' said Tegan, feeling a pang of nostalgia that quite surprised her.

Nyssa had never seen that faraway look on Tegan's face before. 'You miss it, don't you?'

'Oh, I don't know.' It was a while before Tegan turned from watching the activity on the runway. 'It's not exactly dull with the Doctor.'

Their sentimental tete-a-tete was not to continue. Two policemen were hurrying towards the TARDIS.

'Doctor!' called Nyssa in dismay.

To the girls' surprise, the Doctor looked up in the air. 'What we need,'

he said, studiously ignoring the approach of the Law, 'is a diversion. And with a bit of luck, not to mention judgement...'

Tegan wondered why the two constables had stopped. They too were looking upwards.

'Look!' shouted Nyssa.

In the sky, above the TARDIS, shining brighter than Haley's Comet, was a Corinthian column.

'The Master's TARDIS,' cried Tegan. She looked at the Doctor, but he was already running into his own TARDIS.

'The Master can't land,' cried Nyssa as she watched the Doctor frantically punching in new coordinates.

'No. Same coordinates as the TARDIS. But we got here first...' He gave a deep sigh. 'Just!'

The two constables had been surprised to discover a police box outside the Terminal building. The subsequent appearance in the sky of a pillar, of fire caused the younger man to wonder if the Day of Judgement was at hand. His older colleague suspected a few too many at lunch-time.

Neither of them was rea.s.sured by the disappearance of the illicit box.

But at least the shining column had vanished as well.

'It's gone,' said Nyssa, watching the TARDIS screen.

'Knocked back into time-s.p.a.ce like a straight six into the pavilion,'

declared the Doctor with great satisfaction.

Nyssa's face suffused with sadness. 'The Xeraphin will never be able to regenerate.'