DOCTOR WHO AND AN UNEARTHLY CHILD

by Terrance Dicks

  The Doctor was already busy at the controls...

  Za skidded to a halt in frustration, before the strange blue tree. Za glared angrily at it. 'Smash it down,' he roared. He dashed at the strange object, axe raised high. The thing gave a strange wailing cry - and disappeared. Everyone flung themselves to the ground in terror. The thought came into Za's terrified mind that he had been wrong - surely the strangers did come from Orb after all.

  It was some time later. Rested and refreshed, Ian and Barbara and Susan watched the Doctor anxiously as he hovered over the controls, making a rapid series of adjustments.

  The central column slowed its rise and fall, and the Doctor looked up. 'I think the co-ordinates are matching... yes, they're definitely matching.' He sounded rather surprised.

  'Good,' said Susan. She smiled at the others. 'We'll be landing soon.'

  'Where?' asked Ian suspiciously.

  The Doctor sighed. 'How I wish I knew!'

  'Aren't you taking us back?'

  'Now, how can I do that? Do be reasonable.'

  'But please,' said Barbara. 'You must take us back. You must!'

  The Doctor tapped the central control console. 'The trouble is,' he said confidentially. 'This thing isn't really working properly! What's more, part of its code is still a secret.' He looked sternly at Ian. 'However, given the right data, precise information as to the time and place of the beginning of a journey, a destination can be fixed. But when we left, I had no such data at my disposal.'

  Barbara looked at him in horror. 'Do you mean to tell me you don't really know how all this works? And what's more, you don't even know where we've arrived?'

  'Precisely,' said the Doctor, apparently in answer to both questions. He turned away in a huff, muttering, 'Really! Do they think I'm a miracle-worker?'

  'You can't blame grandfather,' said Susan protectively. 'We left the other place too quickly, that's all. We never did find out exactly where and when we were!'

  The central column was moving slower and slower now; finally, it came to a complete halt. 'We've arrived,' said the Doctor.

  'Just a minute,' said Ian. 'You did try to get us back to our own time, didn't you, Doctor?'

  'I got you away from that other time, young man.'

  'That wasn't what I asked you.'

  'It's the only way I can answer you.' The Doctor turned away and switched on the scanner.

  The landscape it showed seemed bare and lifeless.

  'Not much of an improvement,' said Ian.

  'I agree,' said the Doctor briskly. 'Could be anywhere!'

  'What do we do now?'

  'There's only one thing we can do. Go outside the ship and try to obtain our precise temporal and spatial co-ordinates - that is, if you want me to get you home again.' The Doctor rubbed his hands. 'Radiation count, Susan?'

  Susan tapped the dial. 'Seems to be zero, grandfather.'

  'Good. Then we can go out and find out where we are.'

  Ian looked at Barbara. She nodded.

  'Lead the way, Doctor,' said Ian resignedly. The Doctor opened the doors and went outside. Susan followed.

  Ian took Barbara's arm. 'Well - here we go again!'

  They went outside, and the door closed behind them.

  Unseen, the dial on the radiation counter flickered into life. Like so much of the TARDIS's equipment, it tended to be erratic, and Susan's tap had started it working again. The needle swung slowly across the dial, until it entered the section marked 'Danger'.

  Although the Doctor and his companions were not yet aware of it, they were heading into even greater danger. The planet on which they had landed was called Skaro and it had been devastated by years of warfare between two races, the Kaleds and the Thals.

  Over the long years of warfare, the Kaleds had changed, mutated even, building themselves war machines in which to live and fight. They had changed their name as well as their appearance.

  The Doctor was about to meet the creatures who were destined to become his greatest enemies.

  Out there on Skaro, the Daleks were waiting for him.