The gun was held by a wiry middle-aged man with a wrinkled weather-beaten face. A countryman’s face. The Brigadier stared at the man. There was something familiar about him. ‘Hollis!’ he said triumphantly. ‘You’re Arthur Hollis, the game warden chap. The first one who disappeared.’ He holstered his revolver. ‘I’m very glad to see you, Mr Hollis. Perhaps you can tell me what’s going on here?’
Hollis gave him a suspicious stare. ‘Your manoeuvres, innit? Thought you’d be telling me!’
‘Manoeuvres?’
Hollis waved an arm. ‘All this. Box came down, see? I touched it and – here I am. All different. Only the Government mucks things about like that.’
The Brigadier rubbed his forehead, realising that Hollis thought he was caught up in some kind of military experiment. ‘No, Mr Hollis, you’ve got it all wrong. The fact of the matter is…’ The Brigadier realised that he didn’t actually know what the fact of the matter was himself, and changed his tack. ‘I’m just as much in the dark as you are. All that has happened is the result of some kind of hostile force.’
‘Oh ah? What force?’
‘We won’t go into that now,’ said the Brigadier hurriedly. ‘Just take my word for it. Tell me everything you’ve seen since you’ve been here.’
Hollis scratched his head. Self-expression wasn’t his strong point.
‘Well,’ he said, with a mighty effort, ‘there was two others turned up in a dafty motor, like. Tall white-haired feller in a fancy get-up, and a tidgy little gel.’
‘The Doctor!’ said the Brigadier excitedly. Then he paused. He’d just left the Doctor, back at the strangely transplanted UNIT H.Q.
Could Benton’s story be true after all? Were there two Doctors? Dismissing this problem for the moment he said, ‘Go on. What happened to them?’
‘Them blobby things got ’em. Them and another feller. Didn’t get me though. I’m used to moving quiet. I followed ’em see…’ Suddenly Hollis broke off, and flung himself down, motioning to the Brigadier to do the same. They wriggled round the side of the dune, and Hollis pointed. ‘That’s them. That’s what I meant.’
The Brigadier saw the Doctor – the one he’d left at UNIT H.Q. – and Sergeant Benton. They were being herded along like sheep, surrounded by a circle of the blobby creatures. The Brigadier realised that if he hadn’t gone off and got involved with stalking Hollis, he would probably have been captured himself. Instinctively he moved to go to the rescue, but Hollis’s hand on his shoulder pressed him down.
‘Hold on now. No use rushing ’em. I know where they’re bound. We’ll follow ’em.’
Keeping their distance, the Brigadier and Hollis trailed after the little group. They followed them on the long journey through the dunes, up to the point where the grey sand levelled out into a plain. Not daring to leave the shelter of the dunes, they watched helplessly as the little party went through the great brass gates which opened at their approach and clanged shut behind them.
‘Well,’ said Hollis. ‘Now what?’
For the first time in his life, the Brigadier had a moment of utter panic. By now he was so disorientated by the rush of sudden happenings that he simply had no idea what to do next. Then his instincts and training reasserted themselves. Whatever mad world he had tumbled into, he was a military man, and he would react in the correct military manner. ‘First we’ll do a recce,’ he said crisply. ‘Then we’ll mount a surprise attack. Mr Hollis, you will consider yourself under my orders.’
For a moment Hollis stared at him mutinously. But back in World War Two, he had been a soldier himself, and the Brigadier’s level stare and clipped voice brought back long-buried memories. Clumsily he shouldered arms with his shot-gun and said, ‘Righto, General!’ The Brigadier nodded and, followed by his one-man army, began moving cautiously around the castle.
Inside, the Doctor was doing his best to reason with Omega. He was treading very carefully, more than a little hindered by his own awe of that legendary figure, very conscious of the way that Omega’s powerful yet unstable mind could fluctuate between a rather ironic amiability one minute, and sudden terrifying rage the next.
‘You yourself admit,’ the Doctor was saying in his most persuasive voice, ‘you cannot always be sure of controlling the matter-anti-matter reactions. If you find you cannot reverse the energy drain you have created through the black hole, the very fabric of the Universe could be torn apart!’
Omega’s terrifying laugh boomed through the brazen hall. ‘What if it does? It will make an interesting spectacle.’
The Doctor was appalled by the callous egoism of Omega’s response. Desperately he sought for some lever to move him. ‘If that happens, then you will be alone for ever.’
The great voice took on a note of sonorous gloom. ‘I am used to solitude. If I cannot have my freedom, I shall have my revenge. I shall be satisfied.’
The Doctor made a final attempt. ‘You have been unjustly treated, greatly provoked. No one denies that. Undo the harm you have done and you can resume your place on the High Council. I will plead for you…’
The Doctor knew at once that he had made a serious mistake. The room darkened, thunder rumbled threateningly round the great hall, as Omega boomed, ‘You will plead for me? You would do better to plead with me – for them.’
‘You could have your freedom again…’
‘Power is the only freedom. There will be no bargains with those who betrayed and deserted me. You are here for a reason, Doctor… I shall take you to the Flame of Singularity!’
The Doctor frowned. Once again this hint that he featured in Omega’s plans. Before he could enquire further, they were interrupted. The doors clanged open and two figures entered, one large, one small, herded by a menacing circle of blob-men. Sergeant Benton, and the Doctor’s other self. With a flash of irritation, the Doctor saw that the little man was looking round him with cheerful interest, like a tourist on a sight-seeing trip. Didn’t the fellow take anything seriously? The Doctor found it difficult to realise that this scruffy, rather comical figure was an earlier version of himself. He felt this second Doctor was like a sort of younger brother, with a number of rather irritating mannerisms that he himself had outgrown.
The Doctor and Benton were both tall men, and Omega topped them by several feet. The unassuming figure of Doctor Two seemed positively dwarfed by the tall figures around him. Yet he was studying the huge robed figure of Omega with interest, peering up into the savage metal mask with an expression of polite anticipation, like someone meeting his host at a party.
There was a note of scorn in Omega’s voice. ‘Who are you? Why are you here?’
The Doctor saw Doctor Two about to open his mouth, and hurriedly answered, ‘Oh, they’re nobody. Probably just a couple of innocent bystanders, scooped up by that blundering jelly-organism of yours…’
‘The organism was programmed to seek out a Time Lord,’ said Omega slowly.
‘Well it didn’t do very well, did it? Two perfectly innocent people were transported,’ said Doctor Two cheekily.
Omega obviously didn’t care for any criticism of his works. ‘Those were early errors, when the organism was newly arrived. Later they were corrected.’ Omega stared down at the two new arrivals, and they stared back up at him. He looked from Benton to the second Doctor. ‘Can this be a Time Lord – or this?’
Doctor Two seemed rather stung by the scorn in Omega’s voice. ‘Appearances aren’t everything, you know,’ he said indignantly.
‘Strange – you do not fear me. Approach!’
Obediently, Doctor Two walked up to stand beside his other self. Omega considered them thoughtfully. Both Doctors could feel the pressure of that enormous intelligence bearing upon their minds. ‘Can it be,’ the deep voice rumbled, ‘two Time Lords? The same Time Lord? The High Council must be desperate indeed to transgress their own Time Law.’
Doctor Two coughed discreetly. ‘Are you sure you’re not mixing me up with someone else? You see, I’d just drop
ped in on some old friends when a horrible great blob of jelly…’
Omega’s voice broke like a peal of thunder. ‘Silence, while I consider this attempt to trick me. I should have known the High Council would attempt some pathetic deception. Did they think your two minds would be a match for mine?’ Angrily, Omega began to pace up and down. ‘I must decide what shall be your fate!’
Doctor Two sidled up to his other self and nodded towards Omega. ‘Touchy chap, isn’t he? I’m afraid I seem to have upset him!’
The Doctor looked down at him in despair. ‘Do you realise who that is?’ Rapidly he explained all he had learned since his arrival.
Even Doctor Two seemed impressed. ‘Omega? Is it really him? I say!’
Omega strode back towards them. As if on some unspoken command, a circle of blob-men stepped from around the walls and surrounded them. ‘Take them! Imprison them with their friends.’
Doctor Two was again indignant. ‘Imprison? I say, that’s a bit much. We’ve only just arrived…’
‘Oh do be quiet!’ snapped the Doctor. The blob-men herded Benton and the two Doctors away. Omega stood brooding, alone in his great hall.
The Brigadier and Hollis had completed their reconnaissance, but it had done them little good. A complete circuit of the castle, most of it wriggling on their stomachs, had revealed that there was only one way in. Now they were back at their original vantage point, just in front of the great brass doors. The Brigadier nodded towards them. ‘There’s only one thing for it.’
Hollis looked at him sceptically. ‘Oh ah?’
‘Take ’em by storm,’ said the Brigadier briskly. ‘Full-scale frontal attack using all the military resources available.’
‘And what does that mean?’ asked Hollis in his slow countryman’s drawl.
The Brigadier gave him a rueful grin. As a young subaltern he had often dreamed of ending gloriously in some forlorn hope. Now it seemed he was to have his chance. ‘That, Mr Hollis,’ he said gently, ‘means you and me!’
The bare cell was uncomfortably crowded now. Jo, Tyler, Sergeant Benton and both Doctors. The atmosphere wasn’t helped by the furious arguments raging between the last two.
‘I tell you,’ the Doctor was saying exasperatedly, ‘I had a good chance of winning him over. Then you turned up, and he started treating me like an impostor.’
‘Well so you are, in a way,’ said Doctor Two annoyingly. He was thoroughly tired of being harangued by this tall, elegant version of himself. If that’s what he was to become, he thought illogically, he’d sooner stay as he was. ‘Although, in another way,’ he went on, ‘we’re both impostors? Or is it neither of us?’
‘Oh do stop wittering on while I’m trying to think,’ said the Doctor.
Doctor Two glared at him. ‘There’s no need to be so unpleasant, you know!’
Jo looked at Benton. ‘They’re getting worse,’ she announced loudly. ‘They were supposed to help one another.’
Benton nodded severely. ‘That was the idea.’
A sudden silence fell. The two Doctors looked at one another rather sheepishly. The Doctor rubbed his chin. ‘It’s possible I may have spoken a little sharply,’ he announced, looking at no one in particular.
Doctor Two said placatingly, ‘My dear fellow, not a bit of it.’ In fact, as both Doctors were well aware, they were behaving badly because both were overwhelmed by the magnitude of the problem facing them, and neither had any idea what to do about it. In his various incarnations, the Doctor had found himself up against many terrifying enemies. With the exception of the Master, this was the first time he had found himself opposed by a fellow Time Lord. And in comparison to Omega, the Master shrank almost to a petty criminal.
‘Er, tell me, old chap,’ Doctor Two went on, ‘what did you make of him – Omega?’
‘Well, to begin with, I’d say he was confused.’
Tyler, who had been turning his head from one to the other of the two Doctors, like a spectator at a tennis match, said bluntly, ‘Well, I know I am.’ He pointed to Doctor Two. ‘Who’s he, for a start?’
‘Me,’ answered the Doctor simply.
‘Come again?’
‘Oh, ask Jo, there’s a good chap.’ Turning back to Doctor Two, he went on, ‘One minute Omega talks about his freedom, the next he’s threatening universal destruction. I don’t think he knows what he wants.’
Tyler was not to be put off. ‘Aye, but what about this place? I mean, a world of anti-matter, and us in it. How can it exist?’
Both Doctors started to speak.
‘The singularity phenomenon, you see…’
‘The phenomenon of singularity in fact…’
Both stopped at exactly the same time. They glared at each other. ‘Do go on,’ said the Doctor politely. ‘I’m sure you understand it far better than I do.’
‘Not at all, old chap. Older and wiser heads, you know…’
‘Doctors!’ said Jo severely. ‘Simple answers please. And one at a time. Or you can take it in turns.’
Doctor Two said, ‘I’m afraid it’s not a simple matter, my dear. But roughly, very roughly, singularity is a – a point in space-time which can exist only inside a black hole. And we’ve come through a black hole into a universe of anti-matter, close to this state of singularity – where all the physical laws of the Universe break down completely. That’s how Omega was able to create the world we’re in now, by a fantastic effort of his will.’
‘All that’s a gross over-simplification,’ said the Doctor rather unkindly. ‘But it gives you the general idea.’
Doctor Two gave him a reproachful look. ‘Omega has found a way of controlling singularity, using the vast forces which exist within this black hole.’
‘Aye,’ said Tyler impatiently, ‘but who is this Omega? What’s he up to?’
The two Doctors looked at each other. These were matters they would normally never discuss in the presence of outsiders. But here, inside the black hole, all normal laws seemed suspended.
‘Long ago,’ began the Doctor, ‘my race, the Time Lords, discovered the secret of Time travel. But to make it work, we needed a colossal source of energy. Omega provided that power for us, in an incredible feat of solar engineering. In the process he was, as we thought, destroyed. Instead he survived here, in a world he created for himself, in the universe of anti-matter.’
Doctor Two added, ‘We owe him a great debt. His imprisonment was the price of our freedom to travel in Time.’
The Doctor took up the story. ‘For untold years he was trapped here, brooding over his wrongs. Then his genius found a way to strike back at us. He created the light-beam, used it to send the jelly organism to reach into our world, started the energy drain from our universe into his.’
Jo’s mind was reeling from the vastness of the concepts being discussed. It was Sergeant Benton who brought things back to scale. ‘Listen,’ he said firmly. ‘I don’t follow a word of all this. But one thing I do understand. This bloke Omega is up to no good, and you’ve got to stop him.’
‘The thing is,’ interrupted the Doctor gently, ‘we don’t think we can.’
Jo was appalled. In all the time she had known the Doctor, she had never heard him admit defeat. Dimly she sensed there was something about Omega that seemed almost to paralyse the Doctor’s will. She knew that somehow she had to give him back his will to fight. ‘Nonsense,’ she said briskly.
‘But what can we do?’ asked the Doctor.
Sadly, Doctor Two echoed him. ‘Where can we start?’
‘You can begin by getting us out of here,’ said Benton.
The Doctors looked round the four walls of the cell. Once again there was no door. The entrance had appeared when they arrived, and as mysteriously disappeared once they were inside.
Jo wrinkled her forehead. ‘Look if I understood what you were talking about, this whole world, everything in it, was sort of thought up, by Omega?’
Both Doctors nodded.
‘Well, if he ca
n think up a cell, why can’t you think up a door? You’re a Time Lord, aren’t you? In fact you’re two Time Lords. Surely your wills combined are a match for his? Why do you think the two of you were sent here?’
‘It might work,’ muttered the Doctor.
‘If the combination of wills multiplies, rather than just doubles,’ said Doctor Two excitedly. ‘Let’s try. Contact?’
‘Contact!’
The two Doctors stared hard at the cell wall. Each in his mind, which was of course the same mind, formed the picture of a door. The wall was not blank. There was a door… a door… a door…
Jo, Benton and Tyler looked on anxiously. Suddenly, faintly, there was a door. It grew more and more distinct. And then it was there – an open door in the hitherto blank cell wall. Their road to freedom was open.
8
Escape from Omega
CONFRONTED WITH FREEDOM, everyone realised they had no very clear idea what to do next. Benton moved towards the door. ‘Come on, then, let’s get out of here.’
The Doctors exchanged glances, then nodded; for once in accord. ‘You take Jo and Dr Tyler out of here,’ Doctor Two told Benton. ‘See if you can get back to the TARDIS inside UNIT H.Q. We’ll meet you there.’
Jo looked up at them worriedly. ‘What are you going to do?’
Doctor Two gave a determined scowl. ‘We’re going to do what you suggested, my dear. Look for a way to defeat Omega.’
‘You see,’ said the Doctor, her Doctor, ‘if our theory’s correct, somewhere in this castle is the actual Point of Singularity, the centre of all Omega’s power. If we can find it, gain control over it in some way, we’ll be able to defeat him.’
Jo saw that both Doctors were cheerful again. She had given them the confidence to escape from the cell. But she had also inspired them to run into even more danger. She looked from one to the other, and realised there was no chance of changing their minds.
Doctor Who: The Three Doctors Page 7
