Doctor Who: The Mutation of Time

by John Peel

  ‘Remember,’ he said, softly, ‘that the Time Destructor is already operating. Slowly – but it will soon begin to accelerate...’ The other Daleks stopped their movements. The Doctor used the barrel of the Time Destructor to tap the side of the Dalek with him and his companions. ‘Now – back to the door.’

  The Dalek obeyed literally, gliding backwards towards the door, its attention firmly fixed on the Dalek Supreme, awaiting any commands it might be given. Using the Dalek as a shield, the Doctor and his companions moved along with it.

  ‘You will not succeed!’ the Black Dalek said.

  ‘Why don’t you shut up?’ Steven answered.

  ‘We have already pursued you through time; the Dalek replied. ‘And we defeated you. We shall do so again, and recover the Time Destructor.’

  The Doctor tapped their Dalek shield again, and it halted just short of the doorway. ‘Now, both of you,’ the Doctor hissed. ‘Go back to the TARDIS.’

  ‘What about you, Doctor?’ Steven asked, not wanting to leave him.

  ‘You promised me, my boy,’ the Doctor snapped.

  ‘But I didn’t,’ Sara replied, hotly.

  ‘Do you want to ruin everything?’ the Doctor snarled. ‘The Time Destructor is already operational! It is changing the flow of the years, the forms of everything about us.’

  ‘Including you,’ Steven added.

  ‘My dear fellow; the Doctor replied tartly, ‘I’m not of your race! I’m already over seven hundred years old. What can a few hundred one way or the other matter to me? Mmm? Now – do as I say !’

  Sara looked as though she was about to argue further, but Steven grabbed hold of her and dragged her away down the corridor. As he watched them leave, the Doctor glanced down at the Time Destructor. He could feel the immense forces that this small device was warping and straining. He knew that his body could stand only so much of these stresses, and he could only hope that he hadn’t miscalculated...

  Most of the Daleks were now in position for the launch of the armada, leaving the corridors deserted. Steven ran down them towards the tunnel they had entered by, dragging Sara. She was digging in her heels, and finally broke free from him.

  ‘We can’t leave him. Steven,’ she said.

  ‘The Doctor knows what he’s doing,’ Steven replied, worried, but determined to do as he had been told. ‘At least, I think he does.’

  Sara disagreed. ‘All we’re doing is running to save our own lives,’ she retorted. ‘If something goes wrong, the Daleks will get the Time Destructor back again. Then we will have failed – for ever!’ She simply could not bear this thought. She could almost feel her dead brother pressing down on her soul. She couldn’t let his death be for nothing. She couldn’t !

  ‘I know what you mean,’ Steven agreed. though he did not actually understand the force of this obsession of Sara’s to justify Bret Vyon’s death. ‘I’d die too if I thought it would help! So would the Doctor! Whatever he’s doing, it’s because he thinks it’s the best way. Now, come on!’ He cut short any further argument from her by grabbing her and dragging her along again.

  The Doctor had managed to get his young friends free, but he knew that effecting his own escape would be a good deal harder. The Dalek Supreme and the other Daleks could hardly see him while he was hidden behind the Dalek that was just the other side of the doorway. If he tried to move off, the Dalek could spin about. For the moment, the Black Dalek was too afraid of damaging the Time Destructor to give the order to fire, but the Doctor knew that this might still change.

  He glanced over the controls for the door, and had a sudden idea, It looked like all the other Dalek doors he had ever seen, since the Daleks tended to evolve what they considered to be a perfect design and then use it in all their projects. In that case, it undoubtedly operated from the small static electrical charge that ran through the metal floors of the buildings... The very first time he had faced the Daleks, on their home world of Skaro, he and his companions had been faced with a door very like this one...

  Working carefully, he managed to retain his grip on the Time Destructor, and to slowly free his cloak. He manoeuvred gently, so that the metal clasp and chain that fastened the cloak about his neck would fall precisely where he desired, then threw the coat to the floor and slapped the sensor panel to close the door. The door slid downwards, and contacted his cloak. The metal clasp conducted the current into the door, making the contact complete, and it stopped dead. The Doctor bent down and tugged his cloak free. It came out, but ripped as it did so. For a second he was annoyed, but then reflected that getting a new cloak would be a small price to pay for his escape. Dropping the ruined cloak, he sped off down the corridor after his companions as fast as he could.

  Inside the control room, the Dalek that had acted as his shield spun about, and hit the sensor switch. However, with the Doctor’s cloak pulled free, the contact between the door and floor had been broken. The simple control unit automatically assumed that this meant that the door was already open, and nothing happened.

  ‘Door control jammed,’ the Dalek reported.

  ‘Correct the fault immediately!’ the Black Dalek ordered. ‘Pursue the Doctor and exterminate him!’

  The Doctor hurried long as fast as he could. The Time Destructor was beginning to feel very heavy in his arms. He wondered if he could make it back to the TARDIS carrying it. At that moment, a figure stepped out of a side corridor. For a second, the Doctor almost cried out, and then he saw that it was a grim-faced Sara. ‘What are you doing here?’ he snapped.

  ‘I came to help,’ Sara replied, simply.

  The Doctor bit back an acidic retort. It hardly mattered now – she was with him, whatever he said to her. ‘Very well,’ he sighed. ‘But, remember – this machine is active. Only over a small area, perhaps, but active none the less. If you start to feel... strange – tell me. Tell me at once!’

  ‘All right,’ Sara lied She could already feel the stirring of the time flux about her. This was too important a matter to chance on one person’s shoulders – no matter how capable he seemed to be. ‘What about them?’ She gestured back down the corridor.

  ‘Back to the TARDIS first’ the Doctor said, firmly, refusing to worry about more than one problem at a time.

  Reaching the surface of Kembel again, Steven paused, and glanced around. He suddenly realized that Sara w not directly behind him, as he had supposed. The stupid girl must have gone back after all to try to help the Doctor. Steven started to re-enter the tunnel, and then paused. The Doctor would be mad enough at her for returning... if he went as well...

  Steven took the TARDIS key from his pocket and looked at it for a moment. He had promised the Doctor he’d return to the TARDIS. For all he knew, that might be a very important part of the Doctor’s plans.., or was he just trying to justify his own fear? After a further minute or two of agonizing, Steven finally moved off, through the jungle, casting frequent glances back over his shoulder.

  He just hoped that the Doctor really did know what he was doing...

  A short while later, helped by Sara, the Doctor stumbled out of the tunnel and into the daylight. The jungle seemed subtly different somehow, and the sky was barren of clouds. Sara glanced around, and whispered: ‘Doctor – listen!’

  They both did so, and could hear a keening wind, growing in strength and power. Yet the air seemed to be perfectly still at the moment.

  ‘A wind,’ Sara commented. ‘I’ve never heard anything quite like that before.’

  The Doctor hadn’t either. The whistling, rushing noise was still building up. He glanced down at the Time Destructor, which seemed to be pulsing faster. ‘It must be the effects of this infernal device; he replied. ‘It’s acting on the elements that make up this planet, and on the forces locked in the dimensions of time and space! They are starting to break down altogether...’

  ‘Can’t you stop it? asked Sara in horror. She didn’t dare add that she could feel the changes within herself as well, afraid that the Doct
or would send her away.

  He shook his head. ‘No. And I dare not touch the controls. Without a complete examination, I might only make things worse.’

  ‘Then destroy it!" she snapped, offering him her pistol.

  ‘ Impossible!’ he exclaimed, ‘The one thing that I do understand about it is that it will continue to operate until the Taranium core is burnt out – or until the settings can be adjusted. Our only chance is to get it inside the TARDIS. My ship has a field that will neutralize its effects.’

  Sara nodded her understanding, and then helped the Doctor to continue. The wind was now becoming physical, blowing the earth and twigs into their bodies as they moved out. The wind tore at their clothes, and howled through the trees. To Sara, it was as though the ghosts of the dead were screaming for company. She could almost make out the form of her brother in the swaying of the trees and the swirling of the loose soil.

  ‘I’m coming. Bret,’ she vowed under her breath. ‘I’m coming...’

  The Black Dalek waited for the Dalek by the door to open it. Planning ahead, the Black Dalek had sent other units through the other exits and levels to attempt to intercept the Doctor, but this doorway led directly to the exit corridor that he would have taken to the surface. There was no time to get any of the combat Daleks into operation from the armada. The ships had been sealed, ready for the launch. which was now delayed. The invasion could not proceed until they recovered the Time Destructor – or destroyed it. They could not chance its falling into the hands of their enemies. If there was no chance of recovering it. they would have to exterminate the Doctor and chance its destruction in the process.

  Finally, the Dalek at the door managed to override the mechanism, and the door hissed open. The Dalek then pushed the Doctor’s cloak aside. ‘Obstacle cleared,’ it reported.

  The Black Dalek turned to the seven Daleks left in the room. ‘Pursue and exterminate!’

  The seven Daleks moved to join the first. and then all eight sped off down the corridor after the Doctor.

  Steven finally reached the TARDIS, and stood outside it. looking back into the jungle. The trees looked older, somehow, and slower. He could have sworn that the several beautiful plants that had struck out at him while he had rushed through the jungle had tired as they failed to catch him.

  Come to think of it, he was feeling a little tired himself... He dragged himself together, and opened the TARDIS door. The Doctor and Sara might be here any moment, and it would be essential that they get into the TARDIS. He ran over to the main console. and switched on the scanner, focusing it back down the path that he had just traversed, eager for any sight of his friends.

  The Doctor was feeling the strain now. His face was streaked with sweat, to which the wind-blown soil had stuck, forming thick trickles of mud. His clothing flapped in the increasing blasts that swept through the dying trees. The entire jungle seemed to be feeling the effects of the Time Destructor now. ageing almost visibly as he watched.

  This section of the jungle, however, seemed somewhat familiar to him. He was certain that they were getting near to the TARDIS. ‘Not far to go now.’ he called over his shoulder to Sara. When he received no reply, he struggled, and managed to turn, still hugging the Time Destructor to his body.

  He could see her in the wind and dust, but she was all wrong ... it was Sara still, but aged ... she looked about fifty now, her face thinned out, her wind-tossed hair a light grey instead of a rich brown. Her lithe body was sagging, feeling the effects of age. ‘Sara!’ he croaked out, in despair.

  ‘Keep going!’ she cried over the howl of the winds. Even her voice was changed and cracked with age. ‘The Daleks must be after us by now!’

  ‘Sara – the Destructor...’ the Doctor gasped, waiting for her to catch up. She was struggling to make headway against the wind, her body becoming more and more frail by the moment.

  ‘ I know!’ she yelled, and he could barely hear her in the scream of the wind. ‘Do you think I don’t know what it’s doing to me? Keep moving! Keep moving !’

  She caught up with him, gripping at him with hands that were bonier and thinner than his. At her urging, he plodded on, hunched over the throbbing Time Destructor. Together, they stumbled through the dying jungle, towards the safety of the TARDIS.

  The eight Daleks emerged from the tunnel. The one in the lead glanced downwards, and switched to infra-red vision. For some reason, the view proved to be hazy and distorted. but the Dalek could make out three sets of tracks heading into the jungle. The trail of the fugitives.

  All about the Daleks, the winds howled and screamed, testing at them as they moved. Their casings protected them from the worst effects, however, and they moved off after the Doctor and his companions, moving much faster in this eerie world than the humanoids could manage.. It would only be a matter of time before the Daleks caught up with them.

  The Doctor stumbled again, as finally the TARDIS came into view. It seemed to be wavering – or was that the effects of the swirling air and the dust? He felt faint and weak, and fell to one knee. Sara paused to try to help him, but she had too little strength left now. The Doctor managed to see her in the blurriness of his failing vision. She was a mass ofwnnkles, skin over bone, with nothing but her indomitable will forcing her to go on.

  All about them, the plants had died. They decayed, turning to dust, the landscape changing in moments from jungle to a vast, all-encompassing desert of dust and sand. The Doctor fell again, and the Time Destructor dropped from his nerveless grasp. It rolled and stopped, barely inches from his clawing fingers. He didn’t have the strength to get up again. His failing vision centred on the glowing, pulsing Time Destructor, still fully at work, shaking the foundations of time and space that were wrapped about the planet, and tearing them free, allowing the chaos of entropy to rush in.

  Sara collapsed, and felt dust and sand on her face. She hardly had the strength to open her eyes, but somehow she managed it. The twig-like fragility of her arm shocked her, as she clawed towards the fallen Time Destructor. It was no use, no use... she was too weak, ton old now... Her dying vision blurred, and in the glow of the Destructor, she felt certain that she could see the smiling face and beckoning finger of her brother’s spirit.

  Sara felt a sudden peace, and all was still.

  Inside the TARDIS, Steven had seen the two figures stumbling across the newly created desert towards him. The winds howled about their fallen forms and he suddenly realized that they were not going to make it. He dashed to the open door, and outside.

  The full force of the gale slammed into him, almost throwing him back inside. Shielding his eyes against the sting of the sand, he staggered towards where Sara had fallen. As he did so, the winds blasted across her fallen form. The skin seemed to melt away, revealing a glimpse of white bone in the haze, and then the bone also vanished, part of the dust blown away in the time winds.

  Sara was gone.

  He changed his course, staggering towards the Doctor. As he did so, he stumbled over the Time Destructor. He fell, heavily, and suddenly became aware of how tired he felt. He moved his hand, and saw that it was wrinkled and frail...

  He was ageing and dying as well.

  In panic and fury, he smashed at the Dalek’s weapon. Something clicked within it, and the glow began to grow stronger. The whine started to change. In sudden fear, Steven clawed at the Doctor, praying that he wasn’t just dust and sand, like poor Sara.

  The Doctor stirred, and managed to look up. He saw an old face, yet a familiar one, looking down in concern at him. It was Steven! Under those wrinkles, the fading grey hair, it was his young companion, Steven!

  ‘Back!’ the Doctor croaked, barely audible above the wind. ‘Get back inside the TARDIS!’

  Steven grabbed hold of him, and helped him to his feet. Together, they stumbled through the screaming, tearing winds, back towards the haven of the ship. As they did so, both of them felt their energy returning, their vitality no longer as drained. The closer they got, the
stronger they became, and they finally stumbled back inside the TARDIS.

  ‘Close the doors!’ the Doctor snapped, his voice once again normal. Steven hurried to obey him, and the doors hissed shut, cutting off the noise and effects of the wind.

  The Doctor dusted himself down, then rushed back to the control console. Steven looked round, and the Doctor saw that he was once again his old – younger self! He gripped the youth’s hand, firmly. ‘Thank you, Steven! he cried. ‘By chance, you managed to reverse the setting of the Time Destructor! Instead of rushing time forward, it is now racing time backwards and incidentally, restored to us the years that we had lost!’

  He suddenly realized that there were just two of them in the TARDIS, and glanced around. ‘Sara!’

  Unable to speak, Steven simply shook his head in despair.

  The Doctor nodded. The Time Destructor had reversed its effects on them, but couldn’t help Sara, once she was dead. Wordlessly, they both turned their gaze on to the scanner in time to see the eight Daleks move out of the swirling screen, dust and haze that had once been the jungle.

  They moved more slowly than normal, struggling against the wind and its effects. Closing in on the Time Destructor, the leader suddenly saw what was happening. In desperation, it fired at the device, but failed to harm it.

  The winds had grown to maximum intensity now, and the Daleks were spinning out of control across the dust-lashed ground. Two of them hit one another and exploded. The flames died, and the shapes decayed. The rest of them started to come apart as the time reversal reached its peak. The metal of their casing fell away, parts vanishing into their component metallic atoms. For a second, the Doctor and Steven could make out the actual Dalek creature within, like a clawed embryo, struggling against the forces of time decay. The Dalek creature shifted and changed, passing back along its evolutionary development. It seemed for a moment to become fully humanoid, then reverted once again to shapelessness, before finally becoming dust and blowing away.