A CHIME LIKE a vesper bell rang through the Professor’s rooms. Chris shot up from the sofa where he’d been sitting next to Clare, studiously ignoring her. ‘What the hell was that?’
Clare grabbed him by the back of the shirt and pulled him down again. ‘It means we’ve arrived, that’s all.’ Chris noted that the glass-cased clock on the mantelpiece had ceased its upping and downing.
‘The young lady is quite right,’ said the Professor, turning agitatedly from the control panel. ‘We’ve arrived in Shada!’
‘Oh,’ said Chris. ‘Oh, it’s just I thought it might be a bumpier ride than that. After all, we don’t have the key and it’s locked away in this bubble-thing, outside the universe, apparently. Somehow.’
The Doctor laughed and patted the Professor’s shoulder. ‘And Professor Chronotis’s TARDIS is even older than mine, yes. But as we were following the space-time trail of my TARDIS we were able to slip through quite easily and undetected. Neat, wouldn’t you say?’
‘Doctor,’ pleaded the Professor, ‘this is all quite fascinating but we really must get on and stop Skagra. He’s already here!’ He started heading for the exit.
Chris and Clare got up from the sofa simultaneously. ‘Right behind you, Professor,’ said Clare with such gumption that Chris added, ‘Yes, we’ve got to stop him!’ because it sounded quite plucky and he was sick of feeling left out.
The Doctor whirled to face them. ‘Yes, of course, you two have a vital part to play, you must—’ he began.
‘Yes?’ asked Chris and Clare.
‘Stay here,’ finished the Doctor.
Chris and Clare opened their mouths to protest.
The Doctor waved his arms demonstratively and said ‘Sssh!’ Then he leaned in close to Clare and whispered – Chris thought, slightly oddly – ‘I am not at liberty to explain.’ He then turned to Chris. ‘Ditto,’ he said. Then he whirled away from them to face K-9. ‘Now K-9, you can come along.’
‘Master,’ said K-9 happily and trundled towards the door, which the Professor was already holding open with considerable agitation.
‘But, K-9,’ added the Doctor, stopping the dog in his tracks, ‘you are not to tangle with any Kraags! Understood?’
‘Affirmative, Master,’ said K-9.
‘Unless of course you have to tangle with any Kraags.’
‘Hurry, Doctor!’ cried the Professor. He seemed to have lost patience and was already heading through the door. He turned briefly towards Clare. ‘You will look after the old place for me, won’t you, my dear?’ he added.
‘Of course,’ said Clare, blinking.
The Doctor and K-9 followed the Professor through the door and it slammed shut behind them.
Chris and Clare were left alone. They sat back down on the sofa.
‘Well,’ said Chris.
‘Well,’ said Clare.
That having seemed to cover everything, they went back to ignoring one another.
The wooden door of the Professor’s room was positioned incongruously in the wall of a tall, imposing hallway of red stone. The Professor, his face a picture of concern, was hurrying down the passage. The Doctor tapped him on the shoulder and pointed the other way. ‘Professor Chronotis,’ he whispered, ‘judging by the coordinates on your time-path indicator, I’d say my TARDIS was in this direction.’
‘But Skagra will have gone in this direction,’ said the Professor, pointing very definitely down the hallway to make his point. ‘I’m quite sure I heard footsteps,’ he added hurriedly.
The Doctor nodded. ‘But if we can get to my TARDIS first we can stop Skagra getting it back. He’ll be trapped here. In a prison. Which is rather fitting for such a rotter.’
‘Doctor,’ pleaded the Professor, almost hopping up and down, ‘it is imperative we find Skagra before he finds Salyavin!’
The Doctor held up a hand and started backing down the long hallway in the direction of his TARDIS. ‘Yes, but let’s just exercise a little strategy, shall we?’ he said.
The Professor sagged. ‘Oh, very well,’ he huffed. ‘But please hurry.’
Cautiously the Doctor led K-9 and the Professor down the echoing hallway. The Doctor looked about him at the red walls with their glowing circular light-panels. ‘Rather eerie, this state of timelessness,’ he whispered. ‘This architecture suggests the grandeur of the Rassilon era. Almost like stepping back into the past.’
‘You are always stepping back into the past, Master,’ whispered K-9.
‘Not my own past, the past of Gallifrey,’ the Doctor whispered back. ‘I suppose this is how it must feel for normal people.’
The very end of the passageway opened out into a huge chamber, and at its centre sat the comforting blue shape of the TARDIS.
‘You see,’ the Doctor whispered to the Professor, ‘strategy.’
He was just about to step out into the open and vault over to the TARDIS when a Kraag stomped around the side of the police box, eyes glowing fiercely, and obviously very much on guard duty.
The Doctor flattened himself against the wall of the passageway and gestured the others back.
‘So much for strategy,’ he said through gritted teeth. ‘I think we’ll try this your way, Professor Chronotis.’
They turned about and hurried in the other direction. The Professor took the lead, wringing his hands and tutting continually like the White Rabbit.
‘By all the suns, I hope we’re not too late,’ he muttered. Suddenly a thought seemed to strike him and he turned and looked down. ‘K-9?’
‘Professor?’ queried K-9.
‘Be alert. If Skagra tries to use the sphere on –’ he faltered for a moment – ‘on anybody, you must destroy it!’
‘Affirmative, Professor,’ said K-9.
The Professor hurried on down the hallway, K-9 and the Doctor following. ‘I rather thought we were going to destroy it anyway,’ the Doctor mused into his shirt-collar, never taking his eyes off the Professor’s threadbare-tweeded back. ‘Yes, I’d sort of taken that as read.’
The strange little party continued to move through the deep, dark hallways of Shada, quiet as ghosts, each one lost in his own thoughts.