Doctor Who: War Games (17 page)

‘I borrowed it,’ said the Doctor evasively. ‘In any case, it’s not one of the best models. The chameleon effect doesn’t work. It shouldn’t stay looking like a London police box, you know. It should always change to fit into its surroundings.’

‘You still have no right to it,’ said Zoe.

‘Well, I suppose if one wanted to be very legalistic about the matter...’

Fortunately for the Doctor, who did not wish to pursue this conversation, the sound and shudder of materialisation started.

‘That was quick,’ said Jamie.

‘I boosted the power,’ said the Doctor. ‘Let’s see where we are.’ He got up, crossed to the external scanner and turned it on. They saw a picture of beautiful flowers and lush foliage. ‘Excellent! A galactic South Sea island.’ He pulled the door lever. Brilliant sunshine flooded in.

Jamie stepped outside, breathing the sweet air. ‘It’s a bit better than No Man’s Land!’

Zoe and the Doctor joined Jamie outside. ‘How far have we travelled?’ she asked.

‘Trillions of light years, my dear. Don’t worry, no one will find me here.’

As the words left his lips a gust of cold wind blew through the exotic flowers and foliage that surrounded them.

‘No one, Doctor?’ Zoe clutched his sleeve to pull him back to the TARDIS. ‘That force field,’ she exclaimed. ‘I can feel it again, swamping me...’

Pushing against the force they tumbled back into the TARDIS and the Doctor closed the door. He thrust the controls into dematerialisation overdrive. The floor shuddered.

‘Where to now, Doctor?’ asked Jamie.

‘I’ve set the controls at random. Maybe that will shake them off.’

The floor had no sooner stopped shuddering from dematerialisation than it was shuddering again as they materialised.

‘This is impossible,’ said the Doctor. ‘Surely we can’t be landing again already?’

Zoe was first to the scanner. ‘We’re by the sea,’ she said, looking at a picture she thought was from the shore looking across water. ‘No we’re not—we’re in the sea!’ The scanner had sunk below the water now. A shark swam by, pausing a few seconds to inspect the strange object before passing on.

‘We’ll sit it out below water,’ said the Doctor. ‘We have all the air and food we need for as long as we like.’

A drop of water fell onto the control panel with a plop.

As they turned to look another drop fell.

‘It’s the Time Lords,’ said the Doctor. ‘They have no sense of fair play. They are deliberately weakening the defence system. But there’s one place we shall be safe, if I can get us there! ‘ He rushed to the controls. This time there was no gap at all between the shudders of dematerialisation and materialisation.

‘Where are we now?’ asked Jamie.

‘Outer Space,’ announced the Doctor. ‘There’s a chance they’ll lose track of us here.’

A voice boomed from all the walls of the TARDIS.

‘There is no escape. Return the TARDIS immediately to our home planet. You have broken our laws. You must face your trial.’

‘Oh, very well,’ said the Doctor. ‘If you insist.’ He returned his attention to the controls.

‘You’re going to give in?’ said Zoe.

‘Sometimes, Zoe,’ he said in a submissive voice, ‘a run-away Time Lord has to know when he’s beaten.’ With a big wink to her, his hands leapt all over the control panel, frantically turning on sufficient power to escape from the Time Lords. The TARDIS shuddered violently, heaving from side to side like a small ship in a raging sea. The trio were thrown in all directions.

‘What have you done?’ cried Jamie.

‘I’ve put it on maximum power-drive. It’s our only chance.’

‘It’s shaking itself to pieces,’ Zoe moaned, clinging on to the base of the control unit. ‘Turn down the power, Doctor, or we’ll all be killed.’

‘You’re right, Zoe.’ Exerting great effort the Doctor raised himself to the controls. He stared at the levers and knobs. ‘They’re working themselves. It’s no longer under my control.’

With a great jolt that threw the Doctor back to the floor, the shuddering and bucketing stopped. Zoe was the first to the scanner.

‘We’re back where we started, Doctor!’

On the screen a row of what looked like sidrats stood in line.

‘No,’ said the Doctor. ‘Those are TARDISes. The Time Lords have brought me home.’ He went wearily to the controls and pulled the door lever. ‘This is where I give myself up to their justice.’

The door opened and they all stepped into a materialisation area upon which the War Lords had modelled theirs. A tall Time Lord in long white robes was waiting for them.

‘Come with me,’ he said, unsmiling. He led them into a large space: not a ,room, for they could see no walls, yet not outside for they could see no sky. Two Time Lords, both dignified in their long robes, stood in pools of pale light.

On a little dais was the War Lord.

‘The witnesses have arrived,’ said the Time Lord bringing in the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe. ‘The trial may continue.’

‘We have already discussed your crimes,’ said the accusing Time Lord. ‘In your selfish desire of conquest you have squandered the lives of millions of intelligent beings.’

‘You call humans intelligent?’ said the War Lord. ‘They are primitive, always fighting among themselves.’

‘What they do among themselves,’ said the accusing Time Lord, ‘is their own affair. We have received full details of your crime from one of.our own race. Step forward, please.’

A pool of light appeared before where the Doctor was standing. He stepped into it.

‘That box,’ Zoe whispered to Jamie. ‘That’s how he told them. He put his thoughts into it.’

‘Do you swear to the truth of your report?’ asked a Time Lord.

‘I certainly do,’ said the Doctor.

A voice from someone unseen boomed down from above. ‘Let me hear the defence.’

The War Lord bristled with indignation. ‘First, I do not agree the authority of this court. I am War Lord of a sovereign planet. As for this so-called witness, he collaborated with me. He captured the leaders of the human resistance for us. If I am guilty, then so is he!’

While the trial continued, two Time Lord technicians were checking over the Doctor’s TARDIS. They were intrigued by its shape and puzzled by the words
Police
and
telephone
on its little windows. Their inspection was interrupted by the familiar materialisation sound. It was a common enough sound to them, but they were not expecting an arriving TARDIS. The box-like object took shape in line with the others. Strangely, its door remained closed.

Curious, the two technicians went forward to investigate.

Possibly the door had jammed and a Time Lord inside was trapped.

As they approached the door flew open. Five silver-uniformed security guards from the planet of the War Lords came out, firing their stun-guns and killing the two Time Lords instantly. They raced for the area where the War Lord was on trial.

The voice from above was pronouncing judgment. ‘We find you guilty. That one of your party, your War Chief, was once a Time Lord gives you no excuse. Had he lived he would have been punished. Your attempt to incriminate the Time Lord who wishes to be called the Doctor is equally useless. Your crimes were monstrous and your punishment will be severe—’

The five security guards came running into the court, aiming their weapons at the Time Lords and the three witnesses. Smiling, the War Lord stepped down from his dais.

‘Thank you, gentlemen. This farce is now over. We shall return to our planet.’ The War Lord looked up towards the unseen voice. ‘And we shall bring vengeance upon the planet of the Time Lords—’

A finger of brilliant white light stabbed down, engulfing and paralysing the War Lord where he stood.

The five guards all looked up instinctively; as they did fingers of light also fell onto them. All were frozen instantly.

‘This isn’t fair,’ the War Lord shouted. ‘After sentence there should be a right of appeal. I too could produce witnesses... And you have no authority over me... You have only heard half my story...’

The great voice spoke. ‘You and your murderous accomplices will be dematerialised. It will be as though you never existed.’

The six stabbing fingers: of light increased in intensity.

The War Lord and his security guards slowly began to fade.

‘No,’ screamed the War Lord. ‘You don’t understand.

We wished to bring everlasting peace... A New Order for the whole universe... Peaceful co-existence, a place for you, a place for us...’

Only the beams of light now remained. Yet the War Lord’s voice, though fading, could still be heard.

‘We shall win... We shall be masters of the universe...

We have the superior intelligence... It is our destiny to rule...’

The lights snapped out. Not a trace remained of the War Lord and the five guards who had come to rescue him.

‘Bravo,’ exclaimed the Doctor. ‘Good riddance.’ He looked up. ‘I’m glad that my evidence was so useful to the court.’ He turned to Zoe and Jamie. ‘Well, come along.

We’d better continue with our travels.’

‘No,’ boomed the voice. ‘You will now stand your trial.

Let us hear the accusations.’

The accusing Time Lord spoke. ‘The charges are two.

Appropriation of a TARDIS without permission, and interference into other people’s affairs. The latter is the most grave since non-interference is our most important law.’

‘Well,’ asked the voice. ‘Do you admit these actions?’

‘It isn’t a very good TARDIS,’ said the Doctor. ‘It doesn’t change shape and it won’t go where I want it to go—’

‘That is the lesser charge,’ said the other Time Lord present. ‘What of non-interference?’

‘I wanted to help people, to combat evil. Look how I’ve risked my life fighting the Daleks. They want to exterminate everyone. Then there are the Cybermen, a nasty lot. Do you know about the Krotons, and the Yeti?

Not forgetting the Quarks and the Ice Warriors. It’s true I’ve interfered, but always on the side of good against evil.’

‘Then you admit the charge?’ thundered the accusing Time Lord.

‘Of course I do. But your way of observing and doing nothing, it makes life so... so...’

‘Yes?’ boomed the voice.

The Doctor looked upwards. ‘It’s so downright dull!’

‘We have heard your defence,’ said the voice. ‘You will be held in custody while we consider our judgment.’

A Time Lord came forward to lead the Doctor away.

‘What about my two friends?’ he asked the court.

‘Whatever the outcome for you,’ said the voice, ‘they will be well treated. You know that we are always just.’

‘Yes,’ said the Doctor, hanging his head. ‘I know only too well.’

The cell was small and windowless. Its doorway had no door; instead a force field made escape seemingly impossible. The Doctor was pacing up and down when a Time Lord came down the passageway with Jamie and Zoe.

‘I’ve brought your friends to say goodbye.’

Jamie offered his hand to the Doctor, only to find that it banged against the force field across the doorway.

‘Can’t we go inside to say goodbye?’ asked Zoe. ‘We shall probably never see him again.’

The Time Lord looked at the tears welling up in Zoe’s eyes. ‘All right,’ he said. ‘But I shall have to confine you in there with him.’

He crossed to the opposite wall. His hands flickered over a small panel of intricate symbols. ‘Go in,’ he said.

Jamie and Zoe entered the cell. Immediately they were inside, the Time Lord’s fingers flickered again over the symbols. ‘I shall leave you to talk in private,’ he said, and slowly went back down the passageway.

‘I think your Time Lords are awful,’ said Jamie.

‘They’re so strait-laced.’

‘Don’t be too harsh on them,’ said the Doctor. ‘They’re good people really.’ He sighed. ‘It’s because they’re so good that I left them!’

‘I think it’s time you left them again,’ said Zoe.

‘Easier said than done, my dear.’

‘I don’t know...’ She was wriggling her toe against the bottom of the force field. ‘Jamie’s hand banged into it higher up, but my toe can go right through at the bottom.’

‘That’s the molecular distortion effect at ground level,’

the Doctor explained. ‘But it’s very slight.’

‘If I lay flat on my back, could you two push me through? I’m very thin.’

‘Maybe we could,’ said Jamie. ‘That’d leave the Doctor and me stuck in here.’

‘Except,’ said Zoe, ‘I memorised what that Time Lord did to that little panel of symbols over there. Want to try?’

‘You’re a genius,’ said the Doctor. ‘Quick—get down.’

Zoe lay flat, hands stretched above her head like a diver.

She held her body rigid while Jamie and the Doctor pushed.

‘There,’ she said, springing to her feet on the other side.

‘Let’s see if I can remember exactly what that Time Lord did...’ Her fingers played across the little panel.

In his eagerness for escape Jamie was leaning against the force field when its power was cut. He fell forward, and was saved by the Doctor.

‘All we have to do now,’ said the Doctor, ‘is try to find where they keep all those TARDISes.’ They started to run.

The TARDIS still looked like an old-fashioned London police box.

‘I can’t believe we’ve made it,’ said Jamie, pausing to catch his breath.

‘Since it isn’t yours anyway,’ Zoe said to the Doctor,

‘why not take one of the better ones? One that will change to look like different things; one that you can really direct.’

The Doctor shook his head. ‘All my things are in the old TARDIS. It’s become home. Come on, let’s get into it.’

They had but a few steps to go when the light stabbed down on them. They could not move. Time Lords approached from each end of the materialisation area.

‘There is no escape, Doctor,’ said one. ‘It is time to say goodbye to your friends.’

‘Doctor,’ said Jamie, ‘not after all we’ve been through.’

‘Please, Doctor,’ said Zoe, tears running down her cheeks. ‘Plead with them to let us stay with you.’

The light trapping them had gone out, but they were surrounded by robed Time Lords.