DOCTOR WHO AND THE THREE DOCTORS

by Terrance Dicks

  The Doctor was still fishing round in his many pockets. 'We sit, and wait and think, I'm afraid. Would you care for a gobstopper?'

  He produced a grimy paper bag, offered it to theBrigadier (who rejected it rather irritably) and said, 'I wish I could find my flute. I think best to music.'

  Benton, who was still watching the scanner screen, said, 'Doctor, the picture's changing. It's that old bloke again.'

  Doctor Two rushed to the screen and saw the features of his first incarnation glaring at him disapprovingly. 'Well,' said the sharp old voice, 'made any progress?'

  Doctor Two sighed, and decided to own up. After all if you can't be honest with yourself... 'No,' he said firmly. 'None whatsoever. How are our fellow Time Lords?'

  'Getting steadily weaker. They can't seem to check the energy loss.'

  'Is there anything I can do to help? I'd welcome your advice.'

  'Turn off the TARDIS force-field.'

  Doctor Two looked horrified. 'But that would mean—'

  'Well of course it would,' interrupted the old Doctor querulously. 'But I'm afraid it may be the only way. Surely you can see that? Use our intelligence!' And with that, the lined old face faded away. The rampaging jelly-blob filled the scanner once again.

  The second Doctor stood slumped by the scanner, his face grave and resigned. Benton said, 'You're not going to do it, are you, Doctor—turn off the force-field?'

  'Oh yes, I think so.' He nodded towards the scanner. 'He told me to. And I've always had great respect for his advice.'

  The Brigadier looked at him in perplexity. 'Am I correct in thinking, Doctor, that if you cut off the force-field, that stuff out there can get at the TARDIS?'

  Doctor Two said cheerfully, 'Absolutely correct. Hold on, everyone!' Before they could stop him, he reached out and switched off the force-field.

  Immediately a series of tremendous jolts started to shake the TARDIS, sending it lurching from side to side. There was a final tremendous jolt, and the TARDIS seemed to spin in mid-air, throwing its occupants about like dice inside a shaker. They crashed against walls, floors and ceiling, and everything went black.

  Corporal Palmer had received the Brigadier's order to evacuate with the greatest relief. He lost no time in carrying it out. For the second time that day the UNIT H.Q. staff poured out of the building at top speed, forming up on the overlooking hill. A very angry Whitehall V.I.P. had been whizzed back to London in his limousine, and now Palmer and the rest of the UNIT troops were watching the main building, wondering what would happen next. Palmer thought he was prepared for anything. But he was wrong. The jelly-like substance, now swollen to fantastic volume, could be seen pouring through the empty building. Empty that is, except for those trapped inside the TARDIS. Soon every room in the building was filled with the heaving, crackling mass. The stuff was even rising outside the outer walls, until the outlines of the entire building were obscured by the glistening blob.

  Palmer made another attempt to get through on his walkie-talkie. 'Brigadier, this is Corporal Palmer. The evacuation is now complete. Are you still all right? Shall we mount a rescue attempt?'

  There was no reply. Suddenly an enormous white flash filled the air. Palmer dropped his walkie-talkie and, like the rest of the UNIT troops, covered his eyes with his hands. For one terrible moment, he thought they had all been blinded. He opened his eyes and saw—blackness. Then to his infinite relief, the blackness gave way to a kind of red mist. This too faded and restored more or less normal vision, though everything seemed very blurred. Blinking his eyes, Palmer looked at UNIT H.Q. It was gone.

  He rubbed his streaming eyes with his fists and looked again. The entire building had disappeared. Even the foundations were gone. All that was left was a huge rectangular patch of black earth where the building had once stood. Unbelievingly, Palmer stumbled towards it.

  Inside the TARDIS it was Doctor Two who recovered consciousness first. He found himself slumped over the top of the control console. He slid down, groaning a little from aches and stiffness, and felt himself rapidly all over, concluding with relief that although most of him was bruised, nothing was actually broken. He thought that it was probably the shock of transportation, rather than the banging about, which had knocked them all out.

  Sergeant Benton was sprawled in a heap on the base of the console, the Brigadier slumped face down near the door. The Doctor looked at them sadly, wondering how to break the news. The first thing, he decided, was to wake them up.

  A few minutes later, the Brigadier and Sergeant Benton were both on their feet, stretching and groaning, and gazing around in confusion. The Doctor checked them over and decided that, like himself, they were more shaken up than actually damaged.

  As soon as he was fully conscious, the Brigadier's first thought was for the safety of his men. He snatched up the walkie-talkie, which was lying in a corner, and flicked the control. 'Corporal Palmer, do you read me? Palmer, what's the situation out there?' The set crackled, but there was no reply. The Brigadier shook it irritably. 'Must have been damaged in the explosion.'

  Doctor Two looked at him sadly. 'I'm afraid you won't get through on that thing, Brigadier. It hasn't quite got the range. And that wasn't an explosion—not in the way you mean.'

  'Nonsense. I know blast-effect when I feel it. That jelly stuff must have blown itself up. Maybe that contraption of yours did the job after all, Doctor. Switch on that scanner thing.'

  Silently Doctor Two obeyed. The scanner showed an empty laboratory, with no sign of the blob. 'There you are,' said the Brigadier triumphantly. 'We've got rid of it.'

  'On the contrary, Brigadier, it's got rid of us.' The Brigadier ignored him. 'Open the doors now please. I'll just pop outside and see what's going on.'

  'I really don't advise it.'

  'Come now, Doctor, we can't stay inside here for ever.'

  'No, I suppose we can't. Very well, I'll open the doors. But I think you should prepare yourself for a bit of a shock.'

  He operated the control, the TARDIS door opened and the Brigadier marched purposefully out.

  Doctor Two called after him, 'Brigadier, wait.. But the Brigadier was gone. He sighed, 'Oh dear, oh dear, I do wish he'd listen. Come along, Sergeant Benton, we'd better get after him.'

  They followed into the laboratory, but the impatient Brigadier had already moved on. Doctor Two looked around almost admiringly. 'Most ingenious. I suppose the stuff found the TARDIS a bit indigestible by itself, so it swallowed some of the surrounding matter as well. Like washing down a pill with a swig of water.'

  'What are you on about, Doc?' said Benton suspiciously. 'Are you trying to tell me the whole place has moved?'

  'That's right.'

  'Where are we then?'

  Doctor Two nodded towards the direction taken by the departed Brigadier. 'Not where he thinks we are.'

  The Brigadier marched along the empty, silent corridors, pleased to see that the evacuation had been carried out as ordered. Curious how quiet everything was. He was on his way to the front door. From there he would be able to see Corporal Palmer on the hill, signal they were all safe. The Brigadier reached the main door and flung it open. He opened his mouth to call, but no sound came out.

  There was no green hill, no Corporal Palmer, no UNIT troops to be seen. No roads, no buildings, no fields, no trees. Just miles of grey dunes, stretching ahead as far as the eye could see.

  6

  In the Hands of the Enemy

  Herded by the circle of blobby figures, the Doctor, Jo and Tyler trudged wearily across the endless grey landscape. Their guards herded them like sheep-dogs. If they strayed from the right path, the ground erupted in flame before their feet. There was never any doubt as to which way they were intended to go.

  Jo was almost dropping with weariness. She felt as if the nightmare journey had gone on forever. The ghastly sameness of the featureless dunes meant that they didn't even feel they were getting anywhere. It was like walking endlessly on the spot in some terr
ible dream. Jo stumbled, and held the Doctor's arm for support. 'I can't keep this up much longer, Doctor.'

  Gently he steadied her on her feet. 'You won't have to. I think we've reached our destination.'

  For quite some time, Jo simply hadn't bothered to look around her. Since there was nothing to see, she'd simply watched her own feet stumbling through the grey sand. Wearily she lifted her head and followed the direction of the Doctor's pointing finger. She gave a gasp of surprise.

  In front of them the grey desert had levelled out, and there, in the middle distance, stood a towering castle. It seemed to have been beaten from solid brass. Hundreds of towers and slender minarets glinted dully beneath the lowering purple sky, giving the whole place a look of oriental opulence, like the Arabian Nights castle of some Caliph. The massive main gates were open. Inside they could see only blackness.

  Jo clutched the Doctor's arm. 'We haven't got to go in there, have we?'

  The Doctor took a step to one side, and a burst of flame sent him back on the road to the castle. 'I'm afraid there's no alternative,' he said gently. 'And it would be very rude to keep our host waiting.'

  Tyler looked up at the gleaming, sinister castle. 'Whoever he is, I don't reckon much to his taste in architecture,' he grunted. Soon all three of them were trudging through the massive brazen gates into the darkness of the castle beyond.

  They found themselves in a vast shadowy hall. On every side parabolic arches stretched up to the impossibly distant ceiling. With a clang that made Jo jump, the gates swung to behind them.

  'What now?' whispered Tyler.

  The Doctor spoke in his normal voice. 'I've no idea,' he said. 'I expect someone will let us know.'

  'GREETINGS!'

  The single word, spoken in a deep resonant voice, echoed and resounded around the hall. They looked towards the source. At the end of the hall, framed in a patch of brilliant light (like a Superstar in a spot-light, thought Jo irreverently), stood a huge, imposing figure. It was a good seven feet tall, and it wore long metallic robes that reflected the gleaming bronze of the walls. It was crowned with a terrifying brazen mask, a huge, cruel metal face with long slanting eye-slits. With a shudder of horror, Jo saw that behind the eye-slits there was—nothing. Only blackness.

  'Our host, I presume,' murmured the Doctor and began walking towards the patch of light. Reluctantly, the others followed.

  The Doctor gazed up at the terrifying figure, made larger still by the raised metal dais on which it stood. 'Who are you?' he asked boldly. 'Why did you bring us here?'

  There was a moment's pause, then the great booming voice spoke again. 'My purpose will soon be revealed to you, Time Lord. As for my name—in the legends of our people, I am known as Omega.' The clanging syllables of the name ran round the great brazen hall, until their echoes died away in the high vaulted ceiling.

  Jo looked up at the Doctor. It was all too obvious that the name meant a great deal to him. She had never seen him look so shocked. In an awe-stricken voice he gasped, 'No—no you can't be. You were destroyed.'

  'No, Doctor, as you see, I was not destroyed.' A note of strangely incongruous self-pity came into the great voice. 'I have been wronged, Doctor, grievously wronged. Now is the time for my vengeance.'

  At a wave of Omega's hand, blob-men appeared from the darkness and began to herd Jo and Tyler away. The Doctor called, 'My friends must not be harmed, Omega. They are here by chance.'

  'Do not fear, Doctor.' With a rather sinister emphasis, Omega added, 'They have no part in my coming vengeance.'

  Jo and Tyler were driven down a long gloomy corridor. Their guard paused by a sort of arched recess, and motioned them in. Once they were inside, it moved away into the darkness. Tyler looked round puzzled. 'How do they expect to keep us here, in a cell with no door?'

  His question was soon answered. The air at the mouth of the arch shimmered and another wall appeared, blocking it off. Jo drew a deep breath. 'How about that, then?'

  'Aye, he's got a few tricks up his sleeves,' agreed Tyler. 'Whoever he is.'

  Jo was still thinking about their encounter with Omega. 'The Doctor seemed to know him.'

  Tyler grunted. 'Happened he did. Hasn't done us much good though, has it? We're shut up in here, while the Doctor has a nice cosy chat with his old friend.'

  'I didn't get the feeling they were friends. More like deadly enemies.' Folding her arms, she leaned against the bare metal walls of the cell and shivered. One thought was filling her mind. It was the first time she had ever seen the Doctor afraid.

  The Doctor was still afraid, as anyone may be who finds himself face to face with a legend. But he managed to control his fear, keeping his voice steady and his manner calm. Once Jo and Tyler had been taken off, Omega had motioned the Doctor to follow him. Now they were standing in some kind of inner chamber, just behind the great hall. There was still the same richly ornate metallic decor, but one complete wall was occupied by an enormous screen showing a great sweep of space, crowded with a sort of faint starry mist. The Doctor knew he was looking at the Veil Nebula, an enormous mass of gases and cosmic dust. Omega gestured towards it. 'Without me, there would be no Time Travel. You and your fellow Time Lords would still be locked into your own Time, as puny as the creatures you so graciously protect.'

  The Doctor was all too aware that everything Omega claimed was true. Lamely he said, 'You must have known that your mission was dangerous.'

  'Dangerous, yes. Yet I completed it. And I did not expect to be abandoned.'

  'You were not abandoned, Omega,' said the Doctor desperately.

  The great booming voice overbore him. Again Omega gestured towards the Nebula. 'Once all this was a star, a sun with planets, until I arranged its detonation.'

  'You were the first of our Solar Engineers. It was your duty...'

  'It was my honour. I was to be the one to find and create the power source to give my people mastery over Time itself.'

  'And so you did. You succeeded and you were honoured for it.'

  'Honoured? I was abandoned. I was the sacrifice to that supernova. Blown out of existence into this world of anti-matter. My brothers became Time Lords, and I was abandoned to my fate, forgotten...' Once more the great voice was steeped in self-pity.

  'You were not forgotten,' contradicted the Doctor firmly. 'All my life I have known of you, honoured you as the greatest of our heroes. Now you have turned against your own people, you talk of revenge...'

  Omega made a sweeping gesture, and the picture disappeared from the screen. 'And why not? A hero?' This time the voice was full of bitter scorn. 'I should have been a god!'

  Omega turned and strode away. The Doctor followed him, his mind a whirlpool of emotions. On one level, he was still reeling from the shock of realising that the long-dead Omega, the great Solar Engineer who had sacrificed his life to bring the secret of Time Travel to his people, was somehow still alive in this impossible place. But at the forefront of his mind was another terrifying thought. One thing was quite certain. Brooding on his wrongs for untold years had sent Omega mad. Yet in this world he was all powerful. And the Doctor and his friends were in Omega's hands. For the first time in his life, the Doctor knew the full meaning of despair.

  He followed Omega into the great hall. For the moment Omega's rage had subsided, and the great figure was wrapped in a brooding silence.

  The Doctor said, 'Theoretically, of course, you, this place, that substance of yours—well, it's all impossible.'

  'Here, Doctor, everything is possible—as you will discover.'

  'How did you manage to survive?'

  'How does anyone survive? By the force of my will!'

  'And the organism you sent to bring us here?'

  'I created it from the raw stuff of matter. It has transformed you, so that you too can exist in this world.'

  With complete sincerity, the Doctor said, 'It's all enormously impressive. With all these powers, why do you need help from me?'

  'There are some
things even I cannot do alone. At this point in my plans, I need the help of a brother Time Lord.' There was a wealth of scorn in Omega's voice as he pronounced the last few words.

  'I see. And since I was isolated on Earth, you turned your attack to me.'

  Omega waved a dismissive hand. 'It amused me—to use you against them.'

  'Even if I give you my help, do you really think you can succeed in defeating the other Time Lords—all of them?'

  Omega's laugh echoed round the hall. 'But I am defeating them. With the forces at my command, I created the black hole. It is draining cosmic energy from their universe into mine. As they grow weaker, I grow stronger.'

  'And if I don't co-operate?'

  The room darkened. Streaks of jagged light flashed like lightning across the darkness of the roof. The metal walls glowed with an evil fire. 'Then you will face the wrath of Omega,' the great voice roared. 'You and the miserable humans who accompany you here. Do you value their lives, Doctor? Do you value your own?' With a shock of surprise, the Doctor realised that Omega's surroundings were affected by his moods. Instinctively he knew this was a valuable clue to the workings of this strange world.

  A panel in the wall near Omega suddenly lit up, and complex symbols streaked across it. Meaningless to the Doctor, it was obvious they conveyed some message to Omega. Abruptly he said, 'Investigate and follow. Bring them to me—but do not harm them.' Turning to the Doctor, Omega went on ironically, 'You are more fortunate than I, Doctor. You have just arrived on my world—yet already you have human company to share your exile.'

  The Brigadier spent a moment taking in the incredibly strange panorama that stretched before him. Then he straightened himself up, slammed the main door and marched back to the laboratory. Benton was standing by the TARDIS calling, 'Will you please hurry, Doctor?'

  The Brigadier added his voice to the demand. 'Doctor, come out here at once!'

  Doctor Two popped his head out of the TARDIS. 'I'm just trying to find my flute,' he said peevishly.