Doctor Who: The Sensorites (17 page)

Barbara smiled and
gratefully accepted the disc. 'Susan, let's try a little experiment,'
she said, placing the white disc to her forehead. Closing her eyes,
Barbara attempted to send a telepathic message to the young girl.

Susan too screwed
up her eyes in concentration, clearing her mind in readiness for
Barbara's message.

After a few seconds
Susan opened her eyes and pointed gleefully at a section of the 3D
map of the aqueduct. 'The entrance to the aqueduct is - there!' she
exclaimed in response to Barbara's unspoken question.

'Good, it works,'
said Barbara. 'There's no point in delaying. As soon as John and I
reach the aqueduct you can start directing us.' She turned to go and
then considered: she had to ensure Susan's safety during her absence
at all costs. 'I'd like one of your Warriors to be left here with
Susan,' she said to the First Elder and then added, 'One you trust
implicitly.'

'I trust all
Sensorites,' the First Elder declared, unaware of the irony of his
remark. 'She will be guarded safely.'

'Thank you.'
Barbara waved her goodbyes and walked smartly out of the room. The
First Elder watched her go.

'She is indeed a
very capable woman: gentle yet with strong determination and
courage,' he said admiringly.

Susan agreed, proud
of the First Elder's assessment of her former history teacher. The
pair remained in silence for a few moments and then she asked, 'Tell
me, why do you trust your people so
much?'

'Why do you want me
to doubt them?' was the ready reply.

'Trust can't be
taken for granted, even among Sensorites: it has to be earned,' Susan
argued. 'I trust you but only because I know you.'

How could he make
the child understand? 'Susan, our whole life is based on trust,' he
said trying to make her see.

'And that might
prove to be your downfall,' she warned. 'You don't trust the ground
you walk on until you know it's safe, do you? So why do you trust
your own people so blindly?'

The First Elder
looked at the strange small girl who had, throughout their short
acquaintance, constantly surprised him and raised questions and
nagging doubts in his mind. 'When I listen to you who are so young
among your own kind I realise that we Sensorites have a lot to learn
from the people of Earth.'

Susan smiled sadly
at her host's natural assumption. 'Grandfather and I don't come from
Earth,' she sighed. She moved away from the First Elder and looked
wistfully out of the window, past the green and blue towers of the
Sensorite City, and far, far away into the twinkling night sky. There
was a tone of melancholic nostalgia in her voice as she remembered
her old life on the home planet, the life she had left so very long
ago.

'It's ages since
we've seen our planet,' she said. 'It's quite like Earth . . . but at
night the sky is a burnt orange, and the leaves on the trees are
bright silver . . .'

'My mind tells me
that you wish to see your home again,' said the Sensorite. Susan
nodded and he continued: 'Yet within you there is a part of you that
calls out for adventure: a Wanderlust whose power cannot be stilled .
. .'

Susan turned around
to face the First Elder. 'Yes,' she sniffed, brushing a lone tear
from her cheek. 'Still, we'll all go home someday - that is, if
you'll let us . . .'

The First Elder
smiled affectionately at her. 'Yes, Susan, I think I will. All of you
will be able to go home.'

Deep down in the
tunnel system the Doctor and Ian had been traipsing around for some
time in search of Ian's attacker.

Periodically the
Doctor would stop and take a piece of chalk from his pocket and make
a mark on the pipe, thereby ensuring they did not lose their way.

Ian waved his
torchlight around in the semi-darkness; save for the low mumbling of
the water rushing through the pipes everything was quite still, a
fact he pointed out to the Doctor.

'Yes, isn't it?' he
chuckled. 'Just as if they're preparing an ambush!'

Ian shot his friend
a look which indicated that not for the first time he was having
serious doubts about his balance of mind. 'You're a cheerful soul!'
he laughed.

'My boy, my spirits
couldn't be higher!' the old man chortled. 'Collecting evidence,
circumstantial or otherwise; evaluating information - it's all quite
fascinating!'

'Doctor . . .'
Ian's tone had suddenly changed to a hushed warning.

'Oh, don't
interrupt me, boy. It's most irritating -' Then the Doctor stopped,
aware for the first time of the figure in front of him. Behind him he
grasped Ian's hand in warning, but Ian was far more concerned with
the figure in front of him.

They were
surrounded by two men wearing INNER space uniforms. Wild-eyed with
long unkempt black hair and beards, they seemed more beasts than men.
They each held long sharpened clubs which they waved menacingly at
the Doctor and Ian.

'You were right
about the ambush, weren't you?' Ian remarked grimly.

For once the Doctor
was not too pleased that he had been proved right. 'Don't do anything
to alarm them,' he hissed.

As the two
astronauts approached them, the Doctor and Ian slowly backed up
against the pipeline. Within minutes they knew they might be dead.

A Desperate Venture

Up in the First
Elder's chamber Carol and the Sensorite leader watched anxiously as
Susan tried to contact Barbara and John. Her face was stretched in
concentration as she struggled desperately to receive Barbara's
thoughtwaves; but Barbara's skill at using the mind transmitter was
limited and Susan could catch only a few indistinct words.

'Tell her to speak
out loud to you,' suggested Carol. 'You do the same.'

Susan closed her
eyes. 'Barbara, say the words as you think them,' she said, praying
that Barbara would hear her clearly. Her face suddenly brightened.
'That's it!' she grinned. 'I've made contact. They're entering the
aqueduct now.'

She looked down at
the holographic map of the aqueduct; the route which the Doctor had
taken previously was clearly marked out.

'Barbara, you're to
go straight ahead to start with and then keep on turning to the
right.'

Down in the
aqueduct system Barbara acknowledged Susan's message and passed it on
to John. They were on their way.

For what seemed an
eternity no one spoke. The Doctor stared at his and Ian's two
challengers with stony defiance; they returned his gaze with a look
of deep suspicion. Finally one of the astronauts spoke. His voice was
croaky and abrupt.

'You have come at
last!' he rasped.

'We have come to
find you,' the Doctor said quite truthfully.

'Watch them, Number
One,' advised the other astronaut. He obviously did not trust the
strangers as much as his companion did.

'We have been
waiting for you,' said Number One. He cast his eyes to the
roof of the cave. 'Are they all dead up there?' he asked.

'The Sensorites,
you mean?'

'Yes, the
Sensorites.' He pronounced the word with distaste. 'Have you a
spaceship?'

'Yes.'

'Are there more of
you?'

'No.'

Number Two caught
the hesitation in Ian's answer. 'No others in the channel at all?' he
asked. 'You haven't brought the Sensorites with you?'

'No!' Ian repeated
with feeling.

The Doctor calmed
his companion; it would be better not to antagonise these men.
'Wouldn't you like to leave these tunnels and walk into the sunshine
again?' he asked quite pleasantly.

'No. They will hear
our minds.' Number One came to a decision. 'Follow me - the Commander
is going to talk to you.'

'I rather thought
there'd be a third,' the Doctor said to Ian.

As Number One moved
off, indicating that they should follow, Number Two pushed them on
their way with none too gentle prods of his spiked club.

Ian and the Doctor
exchanged worried glances with each other. Whoever these men were,
where ever they might be leading them, one thing was certain: they
had been captured by madmen.

'How is the search
progressing?' the First Elder asked Susan.

Susan opened her
eyes. 'They haven't found them yet,' she said. 'But they've found
Grandfather's map: Barbara says it's been tampered with. Sssh, she's
trying to contact me again.'

She closed her eyes
once more as Barbara's voice sounded in her head: Susan, John's found
some fresh chalk marks on the pipes. They've probably been made by
the Doctor. We're going to follow them. So instead of you directing
us, we'll tell you what direction we're going to take.

'They're going down
the channel now,' said Susan. She indicated their route on the map
before her.

'That is strange,'
remarked the First Elder. 'Perhaps the Doctor and Ian are
chasing the Monsters in the aqueducts.' Carol feared the worst. 'Or
they've been captured by them,' she said grimly.

The two astronauts
had led the Doctor and Ian down a succession of winding tunnels. The
roof of the narrow passageways were so low that they were forced to
walk bent almost double. Ian noticed that their guides seemed to be
totally at home in the tunnels and darkness, and that they moved with
great speed and ease.

Finally they
emerged into a large cavern, about the same size in fact as the
TARDIS console room. Running along one wall of the cave was the
pipeline carrying the poisoned water up into the Sensorites' City.
Dotted about the cave were various shabby looking items of machinery
- standard navigational and survey equipment. In the centre of mis
area stood a metal chest and two equipment cases which served as a
makeshift table and chairs.

'Wait here,' Number
One ordered his captives. He crossed over to the far wall of the
cave, and called into a dark recess which obviously led into another
smaller cave. 'The new arrivals are here, Commander!'

The Commander
strode briskly out into the cavern. Like his two men his hair and
beard had grown long over the years and his face was grey and
stretched. The Doctor recognised the wild gleam of madness in his
eyes and looked meaningfully at Ian: soon their fate would be decided
by a lunatic.

Nothing could have
prepared the two time-travellers for what happened next, A smile of
pleasure broke up the Commander's careworn features and he marched
over to his prisoners, his hands held out in welcome. He shook each
of them vigorously by the hand. Ian and the Doctor complied in
amazement, scarcely realising what was happening.

'This is the best
news I've had in a long time! Good to see you both!' The Commander's
voice was cultured and friendly. He could almost have been greeting
old army colleagues he had not seen in years, such was his bonhomie.
He looked concerned at the Doctor and Ian's grubby appearance.

'Did you have a
rough journey?' he asked. 'I'm sure you must have. Please take a
seat.' He showed his two bemused guests to the
'chairs' and they sat down.

'Very rough
quarters, I'm afraid,' he apologised, waving a hand about the cavern.
'But I'm sure you're both used to that by now. Excuse me one moment.
. .'

The Commander went
over to speak to Number Two and the Doctor and Ian stared at each
other in bewilderment. What was going on here? Who did the Commander
think they were? And more importantly, what was going to happen to
them?

They listened on to
the Commander's conversation with Number Two. 'You can take over
ammunition detail now,' he ordered. 'Pipe the poison into Pipe Number
Seven this time. Carry on!'

Number Two saluted
smartly and walked briskly out of the cave. The Commander beckoned
Number One to his side. 'Number One, organise a lecture for Number
Two. He's been looking uncommonly untidy lately. It's not for me, you
understand - it's the uniform. Is that clear?'

'Yes, sir.'

'Very good.
Dismissed.'

Number One saluted
and followed his colleague out of the cavern.

The Doctor had been
watching and listening to this scene with fascination. Now at last
all the pieces of the jigsaw had fallen into place. Forced to hide
underground from the feared Sensorites, these men had been waging a
secret war against the aliens, using as their only weapon the Deadly
Nightshade which they had introduced into the Sensorites' water
supply. They weren't evil - like all men at war they believed totally
in the Rightness of their mission - but they were mad, and what they
were playing at was no more than an elaborate and very deadly game of
soldiers.

The problem now was
how to get out of these tunnels safely; the Commander had proved well
disposed towards them so far but in his current mental state one
ill-chosen word could turn him violently against them. He would not
hesitate to kill them; in war human life could always be sacrificed
for the greater good.

The Commander
returned to his guests and apologised for ignoring them while he
talked to his men. 'Have to keep up discipline,' he
explained. 'But they're all good men. Morale's very high here.'

'You have a very
well ordered base here, sir,' Ian said, humouring the man. He found
it hard to disguise the pity he felt towards the Commander.

'It's very good of
you to say so.' The Commander glowed with pride.

The Doctor chose
his next words with care. 'I have very good news for you,' he said.
'The war with the Sensorites is over.'

The Commander could
hardly believe the Doctor: this news was almost too good to be true.
'Is that so?' he asked incredulously. 'And the planet is ours now?'

'Completely,'
confirmed Ian, hating himself for the cruel trick they were being
forced to play on the Commander.

The Commander
clapped his hands in delight. Tears of joy appeared in the corners of
his eyes, but he was too much of a soldier to let them fall. 'This is
absolutely wonderful!' he cried. 'We nearly lost, you know. I had
command of a fine spaceship. Two of my men deserted and pretended
they had to go back to Earth to get reinforcements . . .'