4

For the next few hours, the Doctor grumped about the TARDIS looking alternately puzzled and worried or irate. Occasionally he’d get a wild gleam in his eyes like he’d just thought of a brilliant plan and he’d rush off to check something on one of the TARDIS computers. A little later he’d stalk back, grumpier than ever.

‘No joy?’ asked Ace.

‘No,’ the Doctor sulked.

‘What are you trying to do, exactly?’ she asked.

The Doctor sighed. ‘I’m trying to find out what the Daleks are up to and how they’ve managed to fool so many people into believing that they’re benign.’

‘So what’ve you found out so far?’

‘Nothing. I’ve checked histories, galactic archives, ancient transmissions that are still spreading out into space. All the data seems to indicate that what Tulana says about the Daleks is true.’

‘So they really are good guys now?’ Ace grinned. ‘Wow! That’s brilliant.’

The Doctor gave Ace a look that could have curdled milk. Ace wiped the smile off her face.

‘Is there anything you didn’t check?’ she asked.

The Doctor grimaced. Whatever it was, he obviously found the idea of trying it deeply distasteful.

‘Well, Professor?’ Ace prodded.

‘The only way to be really sure …’

‘Yes?’

‘Would be to go to Gallifrey and talk with the Time Lords.’

‘And they’d know the truth?’

The Doctor nodded. ‘The Time Lords have unique ways of monitoring the significant events in space and time.’

‘So let’s do that then,’ said Ace breezily. ‘A quick trip back to your old home planet, a cup of tea and a chat and you’ll know exactly what’s what – yeah?’

From the look on his face, Ace reckoned that a visit to the Time Lords was something similar to her having to visit the dentist back on Earth.

‘Why don’t you want to go?’ Ace asked.

‘Oh, Ace, let me count the ways. They’re old, boring and judgemental.’

‘Is that it?’

‘I’m just getting warmed up! They’re hidebound and they’d rather dress up in their ceremonial robes and watch the universe than actually participate in it.’

‘Anything else?’

‘They treat me like a naughty schoolboy!’

Ace laughed. ‘But you’ll go anyway?’

The Doctor sighed. ‘Yes. I have to. Every cell in my body is telling me that something is terribly wrong here.’

Ace glanced up at the viewscreen and saw Tulana standing outside the TARDIS. She looked like she was searching for a doorbell.

‘Doctor?’ said Ace, pointing at the screen.

The Doctor looked up, saw Tulana and reached for the door controls.

‘Are you going to meet the Time Lords?’ Her face beaming, Tulana fired her question at him before she’d barely set foot over the threshold.

Not for the first time, the girl managed to make the Doctor’s jaw drop. ‘How did you know that?’

Tulana’s eyebrows rocketed upwards.

‘It would be fairly odd if you didn’t,’ said Tulana with a puzzled expression. ‘After all, you are one of them.’ She was really excited and rattled on, hardly pausing for breath. ‘It’s so weird. I’ve been learning all about the Time Lords for years, then I meet you and now I get to meet loads more Time Lords.’

‘You can’t come with us, Tulana,’ frowned the Doctor.

‘You can’t really stop me.’

‘I won’t take you.’

‘You don’t have to take me, I’ll go by myself.’

‘And how will you manage that?’ the Doctor asked.

Tulana raised a distinctly unimpressed eyebrow. ‘I’ll. Walk. There?’

‘Walk?’ said the Doctor. ‘To Gallifrey?’

‘No,’ said Tulana incredulously. ‘To the Great Hall in the Assembly Building. The High Council of the Time Lords arrived there about ten minutes ago.’

‘The High Council came here?’ The Doctor sounded like he was being strangled. ‘All of them?’

‘Yes! They’ve come to officially thank the Daleks for operating on the Lord President last month to remove a micro-aneurysm from his brainstem.’

The Doctor’s jaw practically hit the console.

‘The Time Lords brought the Lord President here for surgery?’ asked Ace.

‘Oh no, he was far too ill to travel. They invited a Dalek team to Gallifrey. But they’re all here now.’ And she strolled out of the TARDIS again.

Ace looked at the Doctor. He wore an expression she’d never seen before.

‘Come on then. Let’s go see your Time Lord buddies,’ said Ace.

‘There’s no point.’ The Doctor’s voice was flat and lifeless. He sounded defeated.

‘Why not? You said the Time Lords monitor everything. You said they’d know what was going on. And now you’ve got a whole bunch of them right round the corner.’

‘I’m afraid it won’t do any good.’

‘Why not?’

‘I thought this was a Dalek plot, but it’s much worse than that. I thought that the Time Lords were just keeping their heads down the way they usually do. Sitting back in splendid isolation and not interfering.’

‘But?’

‘But there is no way that they’d invite hostile Daleks to visit Gallifrey. It would be like the hens inviting a skulk of foxes around for afternoon tea.’

‘A what of foxes?’

‘A skulk, my dear Ace, is the collective noun for a group of foxes,’ said the Doctor. ‘But now is not the time for an English lesson.’

‘Thank goodness for that! So why has this visit from the Time Lords put your nose so out of joint?’

‘It means that this change to the universe is real and huge. And any changes on this scale that even the Time Lords don’t know about are dangerous and must be the result of some very powerful force or entity that has changed things.’

‘Even more powerful than the Daleks and the Time Lords?’

The Doctor nodded, his expression grim.

Ace couldn’t believe it. ‘Well, can you fix it?’

‘This strikes me as something way beyond my capabilities,’ the Doctor admitted. ‘We, like the universe, are in big trouble.’