AT FIRST, THINGS had gone well with the rescue mission. The Doctor, Chris and K-9 had managed to get at least fifty yards from the ship before they were apprehended by two Kraags and guided in a rough but effective fashion down a long rock tunnel and straight into what must be, thought Chris, Hell. He barely had time to register the captive Romana, her Kraag guards, the TARDIS sitting in the middle of it all, and the brilliant view of the infinite universe, however, because – incredibly enough – something else was bothering him.
The man who stood at the centre of this grand arena, dressed in a white tunic, with the book that had started all of this clutched tightly in one gloved hand – Chris was certain he’d seen him somewhere before. It was really going to irritate him until he worked out where. He supposed that it was a good thing to be so distracted, as it seemed likely they were all about to die some sort of horrible fiery outer-space death.
The man was staring back at him with an odd, stony expression. Chris was wondering if the chap had recognised him back and was trying to place him, too. Then he realised that the man wasn’t looking at him at all, but just to his right. One’s eyes can play tricks across fifty feet of sulphurous cavern lit only by the dim glow of the entire universe. The man was in fact staring at the Doctor.
‘Doctor,’ the man said, in a voice that was clearly trying not to express surprise, anger and disappointment but was failing on all three counts.
‘Hello there, Skagra!’ the Doctor called back with massively inappropriate cheeriness, giving a cheeky wave.
‘That’s Skagra?’ said Chris. ‘But I’m sure I’ve seen him before somewhere…’ Suddenly the memory clicked into his mind and Chris pointed an accusing finger at Skagra. ‘You’re that bloke,’ he said. ‘You pushed past me in the corridor at St Cedd’s, very rudely, just before I found the Professor lying dying all over the carpet…’ Full realisation dawned at last. ‘Oh. Oh, I see.’
‘Shut up, Chris,’ hissed Romana.
Skagra walked smartly forward, looking the Doctor up and down as if to check he was really there. ‘I am,’ he said, as coolly as he seemed able, ‘a little…’ Skagra paused as if grasping for a word he’d never had cause to use before, ‘… surprised to find you here, Doctor.’
The Doctor shuffled his feet and rubbed his nose as if embarrassed. ‘Yes, well, your ship was a little surprised to find itself bringing me.’
Skagra tried hard not to raise an eyebrow. ‘You stole my ship?’
‘Only after you stole mine,’ said the Doctor, nodding to the TARDIS. ‘Ah, there she is! I hope you’ve been looking after her. May I check? If you’ve been over-revving her in third phase –’
He made for the TARDIS but the two Kraags automatically barred his path. ‘I see,’ said the Doctor. ‘Well, you’ll be happy to know I’ve returned your ship in perfect working order, if not a little improved. You were very naughty setting her to self-destruct, you know, that poor girl worships you.’
‘A machine consciousness is worthless,’ said Skagra. His eyes never wavered from the Doctor’s smiling face.
The Doctor gasped in mock-horror. ‘Don’t listen to the nasty man, K-9,’ he said.
Chris was uncomfortably aware that Skagra could order their deaths at any moment. They had no weapons, no plan. But somehow the Doctor’s childish goading had, incredibly, tipped the scales in their favour. Skagra was clearly intrigued and off-beam, at a disadvantage. Chris reflected that a horrific place like this, with all the odds so grotesquely stacked against him, was where the Doctor magnificently belonged. Like some people belonged behind a bar, or in a very big office behind a very big desk, or swallowing swords on stage at the London Palladium. This was where the Doctor was at his best.
‘I am curious to know how you survived the treatment of my sphere,’ said Skagra flatly.
‘Don’t be too hard on the poor old thing. We Time Lords have highly trained minds.’
‘So I am aware.’ Skagra nodded, as if satisfied that he was now up to speed. ‘Doctor,’ he went on, ‘if you have come here in the hope of interfering with my great purpose, I am afraid you will be—’
The Doctor’s laugh cut him off. ‘Ha! Great purpose! You?’
Chris saw Romana trying to catch the Doctor’s eye, shaking her head a little as if to indicate that he shouldn’t, for once, be quite so dismissive.
‘Yes, Doctor,’ said Skagra, ‘the very greatest purpose.’
If the Doctor had noticed Romana’s look, he ignored it. He laughed again. ‘Great purpose?’ He wagged a finger in Skagra’s general direction. ‘I know what you want to do, you old sly-boots. You want to take over the universe, don’t you? I’ve met your sort before. Any moment a mad gleam will come into your eye and you’ll start shouting “The universe will be mine!”’
Skagra looked at him quizzically. He was clearly devoid of any mad gleam and was not going to shout.
‘How naive, Doctor. How pathetically limited your vision is. “Take over the universe”. How childish. Who could possibly want to take over the universe?’
The Doctor seemed slightly thrown by this, but pulled himself back on track. ‘Exactly!’ he said. ‘That’s what I keep on trying to tell people. It’s a troublesome place, difficult to administer, and as a piece of real estate it’s worthless because by definition there’d be no one to sell it to—’
Skagra cut him off. ‘Such visions are for infants. My purpose is to fulfil the natural evolutionary goal of all life.’
The Doctor smirked. ‘Oh tell on, do. It’s been a stressful day and we could all do with a laugh.’
Skagra merely nodded and gestured to the sphere at the console. ‘With the aid of the sphere I shall make the whole of creation merge into one single mind. One godlike entity.’
‘Oh, you will, will you? How terribly clever,’ said the Doctor, in a tone that suggested he was speaking to a four-year-old who was boasting to him about how well he could tie his shoelaces.
‘The universe, Doctor, as you so crudely put it, shall not be mine,’ said Skagra. ‘The universe shall be me.’
There was a deep, terrible silence.
It was broken by the Doctor. He walked slowly towards Skagra and looked him curiously up and down as Skagra had done to him. He rubbed his chin for a moment, before leaning in close and saying casually, ‘Have you discussed this with anyone? Why don’t you send one of your charming Kraags to make us some tea, perhaps a plate of sandwiches,’ he broke off, glancing over at the seething, burning creatures. ‘Actually some toast might be a better bet, then we can all have a nice sit down and—’
‘Doctor, your inane witterings do not interest me, nor will they distract me from my purpose,’ said Skagra. ‘What I have described will happen. It will start within hours. Once started, nothing you or anyone else can do will stop it.’
‘He can do it, Doctor,’ called Romana. ‘He’s found Salyavin! You know what that means!’
The Doctor stopped and stared at her.
‘Silence the Time Lady,’ said Skagra.
The Kraag Commander clamped its stony claw down on Romana’s shoulder. She cried out in pain as the material of her dress began to smoulder and blacken.
Chris automatically ran to help her, but the other Kraag barred his way and he was forced back by its unbearable aura of heat.
He saw that the Doctor, too, had been blocked by another of the massive creatures. ‘Stop it, Skagra!’ Chris shouted. ‘Let her go. Now!’
Skagra nodded to the Kraag Commander and it released its grip on Romana, who fell to her knees, clutching her injured shoulder.
Skagra surveyed his captives dispassionately. Then he turned to the Doctor. ‘So,’ he said, ‘does mention of the name Salyavin alter your opinion of my great purpose?’
Chris saw the ashen look on the Doctor’s face and a cold stab of fear ran through him.
‘Skagra,’ said the Doctor, in a quiet, defeated voice, with no trace of his former flippancy, ‘if you truly know the whereabouts of Salyavin, that changes everything.’
Chris and Romana exchanged horror-struck glances. K-9 shot forward a few inches, his tail drooping. ‘Negative, Master,’ he called.
‘Indeed?’ said Skagra, a trace of a smile on his full lips. ‘Tell on, Doctor, do.’ He waved a hand and dismissed the Kraag blocking the Doctor’s path.
The Doctor walked slowly towards Skagra, his head bowed as if in supplication. When he spoke, it was in little more than a cracked whisper.
‘I see it all now. Everything in its place. One Universal Mind, bring order to chaos. Such order.’ He raised his head, fixing Skagra with a look almost of awe. ‘Your order.’ Suddenly he straightened up and shouted, ‘Or an order like – K-9! Now!’
At the Doctor’s words, K-9 swivelled around, lightning fast, fixing Skagra in his sights. Chris suddenly realised that the Doctor had been arranging the whole scenario just to bring K-9 into position.
A bright red energy beam shot from the dog’s nose, hitting Skagra in the dead centre of his chest.
And then everything seemed to happen at once.
Skagra staggered a little but did not fall.
K-9 fired off another blast, but again Skagra withstood the assault. The Kraags moved automatically to protect their master, leaving the Doctor, Chris and Romana unguarded.
The Doctor made for the TARDIS, where Romana was climbing unsteadily to her feet.
Skagra’s voice rang out. ‘Maintain your positions. Guard the capsule. Kill the prisoners.’
Romana’s Kraags, who had been furthest from Skagra, turned instantly and aimed their already glowing claws at Romana. She held up her hands in surrender.
The Doctor skidded to a halt, yelling ‘Bristol, K-9, get out of here! Now!’
Chris snatched up K-9, and pelted towards the nearest archway. He couldn’t help but pause and turn back.
He saw the second pair of Kraags stomping towards the Doctor.
He saw the Doctor and Romana’s eyes lock across the chamber. She gave a tiny shake of her head.
He saw the Doctor set his jaw, nod to Romana, and then race towards the archway, just dodging a sizzling beam of fire from a pursuing Kraag. As he reached Chris and K-9, he virtually swept them along the dark, rocky passageway that lay ahead.
The only thing Chris heard him say, was ‘We’ll be back for her. Now run!’
They ran.
Skagra watched as the Kraags, their arms outstretched, advanced on Romana. She stood, still and composed, hands raised, as the creatures prepared to blast her to ashes. Skagra could see the pain in her eyes from her injury, but he saw no weakness, no sign that she would break down, weep, beg for her life. Her composure in the face of certain death stirred within Skagra what others might have called, though he never would, fellow feeling. He almost felt that something valuable might be lost with her destruction. The Kraags reached Romana, raised their claws to her face and prepared to discharge their devastating energy bolts at point-blank range. Even then, not so much as a flicker of fear crossed the woman’s face. And through all this her eyes had never once turned to him.
He waited four seconds more. Then commanded ‘Stop!’ The Kraags lowered their arms and took a step away from their captive.
Now she looked at Skagra. ‘Why do you want to keep me alive, Skagra?’ she asked simply.
‘That is the question you wish me to answer?’ Skagra said. ‘Not how I survived the attack from the Doctor’s robot? Not where the tunnel your companions escaped into will lead them?’
Romana shrugged, ‘Oh I imagine you’re wearing a personal force shield, and the Doctor, Chris and K-9 are heading down a dead end. It all seemed rather obvious, so I didn’t waste time asking about it.’
Skagra gave what could almost have been a small bow. ‘Very well,’ he said, ‘then I will answer your original question. I need you alive because you may still be of use to me on Shada. You are not essential, but a Time Lord prison may require Time Lord biology to access its systems.’ He walked over to the TARDIS, unlocked the door and held it open for Romana. ‘We have an appointment with Salyavin.’
Romana stared at him for a moment. ‘I did have one other question.’
Skagra nodded, still holding the TARDIS door.
‘I was just wondering,’ Romana began, ‘as the Doctor has already escaped from certain death once today, aren’t you a little bit worried he might do it again?’ She smiled sweetly up at him.
A tiny pulse twitched uncontrollably over Skagra’s right temple. He tried to suppress the violent images that surged up in his mind at this thought. He saw the Doctor being pushed off a very, very high cliff, crushed by an avalanche of enormous boulders, torn limb-from-limb by a pack of rabid dogs, bloodied shreds of scarf flying in all directions as his death screams echoed and echoed and echoed and –
Skagra straightened, under control once more. ‘Get inside,’ he ordered Romana. ‘Now.’
She ducked obediently under his arm and into the TARDIS, giving Skagra a satisfied smile as she passed. ‘Gotcha,’ she called back.
Chris, weighed down by K-9, was finding it hard to keep up with the Doctor as they fled, without any idea what they were fleeing towards, down a seemingly never-ending rock passage, lit only by K-9’s eye-screen and the distant glow of the pursuing Kraags. He was exhausted, near blind in this Stygian blackness, but still he kept running. He was surprised he had it in him. He’d always been useless at anything athletic. Perhaps if two Kraags had been chasing him around the 1500-metre track at Bristol Grammar School it might have been a different story. Though he could barely see him, Chris felt sure the Doctor would be taking all this in his enormous stride.
‘Clever feint, wasn’t it?’ the Doctor’s voice boomed back from just ahead. ‘Making them think I was trying to get to the TARDIS.’
‘What were you trying to do?’ puffed Chris.
‘Get to the TARDIS,’ admitted the Doctor from the gloom.
Chris let that one pass. Between breaths, he asked, ‘Doctor, that bloke must be mad, mustn’t he?’
‘Skagra, you mean?’
‘Yes, sorry, it’s not easy remembering alien names, particularly when running for one’s life.’
‘You’ll get used to it,’ the Doctor called back. ‘And as for Skagra. Well, madness, sanity, it’s all just a matter of opinion.’
‘And what’s your opinion?’ demanded Chris.
The Doctor stopped dead in his tracks, Chris only just managing to pull up before a painful collision. The Doctor turned and grinned down at him, the red light from K-9’s eye-screen giving him an almost demonic look.
‘He’s bonkers!’ His grin faded. ‘But infinitely dangerous, Bristol.’
‘You mean he really can do all that stuff? Make the universe into himself?’
The Doctor nodded, gravely. ‘It’s possible. If he really has found Salyavin.’
‘Who’s Salyavin?’ asked Chris. ‘I’m not sure I can remember another silly name beginning with S.’
K-9 suddenly piped up. ‘Master. Kraags approaching.’
‘Thank you, K-9, I think we’re all very well aware of that,’ snapped the Doctor.
Chris looked over his shoulder and saw the rock walls more clearly now in the increasing glow of the gaining Kraags. He turned back to the Doctor. ‘So why have we stopped? Have you got a plan? A better plan, I mean?’
The Doctor coughed, tugged at his nose, shuffled his feet and Chris’s heart sank.
‘Well,’ the Doctor said, ‘we’ve stopped because there isn’t actually any tunnel worth speaking of in front of us.’
Chris pondered a second. ‘You mean it’s a dead end?’
‘Well, I was trying not to put it in such a final-sounding way. Why don’t we agree to say cul-de-sac?’
Chris felt a wave of panic. ‘You mean we’re going to die? There’s no way out?’
Before the Doctor could answer, K-9’s ears began to whirr furiously. ‘Alert!’ he chirruped. ‘Please adopt silent mode.’
The Doctor and Chris fell quiet as a familiar wheezing, groaning sound began to echo around the cavernous passageway. It seemed to come from all directions at once, then faded with an odd, muffled thump and a sound like creaking wood.
Chris frowned. ‘That was the TARDIS.’
The Doctor nodded. Then shook his head. ‘Yes. No. There was something very odd-sounding about it. And we shouldn’t be able to hear it all the way down here in this cul-de-sac.’
With a thrill of horror, Chris realised that the tunnel was now bathed in a strong red glow. At any second the Kraags would be upon them. And there was no possible escape. He looked ahead, beyond the Doctor, at the bare rock wall that blocked the passage and had condemned them to death. And was rather surprised to see a door in it.
Not a space door. A normal door. A wooden door. A panelled wooden door with a brass knob.
Chris pointed frantically ahead. ‘Look! There’s a door! You said it was a dead end, but there’s a whacking great door in it! There! Look!’
The Doctor whipped round. ‘That wasn’t there before. And anyway, we’d agreed to say cul-de-sac.’
Chris took a deep breath, bundled K-9 into the Doctor’s arms, ran to the door and turned the knob. It swung open and he burst through –
– into Professor Chronotis’s study. Chris barely heard the Doctor run in behind him, slamming the door shut and wedging K-9 against it like a novelty doorstop, because the unexpectedness of suddenly finding himself back at St Cedd’s was as nothing to the unexpectedness of seeing the deceased Professor Chronotis himself, on his feet and smiling across at him, tea tray in hand. But even that was as nothing to the unexpectedness of what Chris saw on the sofa, eating a cheese sandwich. It was Clare. Clare, here. And she’d had her hair done. And she was wearing that really lovely blue blouse that made her eyes sparkle. He wanted to run to her, take her in his arms, kiss her again and again and –
Clare leapt to her feet and ran towards him, smiling broadly, eyes brimming, her arms outstretched in what Chris could only assume was a reproving and aggressive manner. He took an involuntary step back. For some reason she crashed to a halt right in front of him. ‘Chris!’ she cried, in a voice bursting with emotion. Chris couldn’t tell which emotion it was. But probably somewhere between stern disapproval and loathing. What had he done now?
‘Er, hi there, Keightley,’ he mumbled awkwardly.
Meanwhile, the Doctor was staring, and staring, and staring at Professor Chronotis. But he didn’t say a word.
‘Tea, everybody?’ the Professor asked, brightly.