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RANDOM FICTION #68
FRACTURE

Episode One by 6th Doctor
Episode Two by Fanzine Editor
Episode Three by Sixth Doctor
Episode Four by Steve Lake
Episode Five by Sixth Doctor
Episode Six by Steve Lake
Episode Seven by Sixth Doctor
Episode Eight by Steve Lake
Episode Nine by theWatcher
Episode Ten by General Wooly
COMPLETED




Episode One
by 6th Doctor

It was raining. Oh what a surprise. The spitting droplets cascaded onto the heather fed by an inexhaustible supply of cloud cover, which hung darkly over the countryside. "Does this weather ever give in?" hissed Karen, struggling along with a camping backpack that was very probably heavier than she was.

"It wasn't my idea to come to Derbyshire!" snapped Nicola, who seemed to be receiving dark looks from Karen.

"No but it was your idea to stay in this dump!" mumbled the supposed leader of the trio. Christina was afterall the eldest and the richest of the girls. The student holiday had been her idea. Get the student flat members to go away together. When she suggested - no, more insisted - Derbyshire, Paul and Tony had quickly made their excuses for not being able to go. Nicola had also observed that Christina had become very quiet and withdrawn in the last week. She was not sure why this was happening.

True, Nicola was the one who suggested staying in Edale. She had learnt about the place in school a couple of years back and morbid curiosity had made her pursuade the other two that they should stay there.

The August sun was beating down on them - or it would be if not for the reinforced concrete clouds blocking any of the summer heat, replacing it with refreshing cool rain, and had decided that said rain was the order of the season. Oh how the sun had shone when they had been in Manchester catching the train down here. What a shame it could not have joined them on the journey.

Actually the holiday was going quite well. Edale was a pretty village with a fascinating history. Nicola was probably the only one to appreciate this. A sun worshiper like Karen had done little else but moan, while Chris had entered her own little world. Karen decided that Chris must be a city girl. The great outdoors must be leaving her out of her depth. Nicola, who had ummed and ahhed about coming seemed to have gained the most from the holiday, but this rain was almost the last straw.

And so, here they were, striding unceremoniously across Kinder Scout clad in brightly coloured waterproofs. Cold, wet and worst of all, lost! The OS map had been a 1988 edition, and dog-eared, but without it they were wandering aimlessly. As for the map it had probably blown all the way back to Manchester by now!

* * *

From a distance, across the valley the girls were being watched. A figure, alone, scrutinised them with an antique extending telescopic piece. He put the piece down and lifted his top hat to place the telescope inside. He then replaced the hat, which covered a mass of blonde hair. The man chuckled. His pointed face hidden from the rain by the brim of the top hat. His black cloak covered a dark green tail coat adorned by large gold buttons. He wore a dark mottled waistcoat and a dark green cravat which matched the tail coat.

Beside him was another antique item, a camping table, carefully unfolded, covered in a rough table cloth and had a teapot and a tray of biscuits. These were also protected from the rain by a large parasol balanced over them. The man picked up the one other item on the table, a notebook. He began to scribble down something with a sharp pencil frowning at the spots of rain that insisted on finding their way onto the paper. He closed the book and slipped it into a small leather bag at the foot of the table. Out of the bag he brought a small brass bell. He lifted it with noble precision into the air and gave a few graceful flicks of the wrist. The gentle tinkle of the bell was briefly heard. The nearest souls were the girls across the valley, but there was no way they would hear the ring. No one else had ventured out onto the moorland in this weather. The mans eyes narrowed as he rang the bell again with less grace, but succeeded in creating a louder ring.

The wind picked up slightly as a clump of heather on the mans left side quivered and suddenly depressed as a foot stepped onto them. It was a smart foot. A polished black shoe covered by black trousers. As if out of no-where, stepped another man. Some years older. he was nearly bald with a thin moustache. His appearance was strange, as natural as if he had stepped out of a doorway, but as unbelievable as a man who had just stepped from nowhere into the heather covered moorlands of North Derbyshire. The new arrival carried a silver plate, and a white towel hung from the arm. He was well dressed, but in with the body language that read, professional servant.

"I apologise for my delay sir but your copy of the Express had arrived and I thought you may care to receive it at this time."

"Very good Dorking!" replied the man with precise English, obviously appeased by the excuse. Dorking handed over the newspaper. "Oh Dorking, I have been making more notes on the landscape. Please take them to the study and write them up for me, there's a good fellow."

"Of course sir!" politely replied Dorking. "Would you like anything else at this time sir?"

"Yes. It has become rather chilly. Fetch my scarf would you. Oh and while you are here. would you pour me a cup of tea?"

"Gladly sir!" Dorking poured the tea with professional pride, and carried the cup and saucer over to his Master. He then walked back the way he had come vanishing into thin air through the strange invisible doorway. His Master sipped his tea.

"Hmm a little cooled." He put the cup and saucer down on the camping table and pulled out a folded up camping chair from below it. He unfolded it in one brief snap and sat down below the protection of the parasol. He began to read his paper.

Dorking once again re-appeared. "Here you are sir!" He smiled and wrapped the scarf around his Masters neck. "Does his Lordship find anything of interest in the paper?"

"Hmm, it would appear that Bell has been marketing that infernal invention of his. They're said to be setting up a small exchange of Telephonic apparatus around London. I will tell you now Dorking I don't want one of those infernal machines. Before you know it, everyone I know will use it as an excuse to speak to me with electricity rather than to my face! It will never be more useful than a good letter! You mark my words!"

"A wise decision sir!" nodded Dorking. "Now if your Lordship has no further use for me I will begin drafting your report."

"Oh yes of course Dorking. Off you go." The servant bowed smartly before about turning and striding into thin air. His body a silhouette against the cloudy half-light fading in less than a second from view.

His Lordship continued sipping his tea, while reading the paper when something caught his eye. A sheet of paper. It was blowing across the moorland. He was about to disregard it but its proximity to him was temping. It was blowing and flapping between the scrubland propelled by a gentle wind. His Lordship arose lightly and strolled over to the paper, keeping his spats clear of any muddy patches. He stopped over the paper and reached down to retrieve it. Eyeing it over, he quickly realised it was a map of the area. He plucked a handkerchief from a pocket in his waistcoat and wiped over the map. The date on the title fold was 1988. Once again his Lordship chuckled in delight, then carried the map back to his seat. He had found something of far more amusement to read. He relaxed once again in the camp chair and picked up his tea.

* * *

The flagstones were clean, save for the hopscotch pattern chalked haphazardly onto it by young hands. The chalk was slightly smudged, bearing the wear of many young feet landing upon it. The next pair of feet were most unexpected. They hammered across the hopscotch board in perfect, if heavy precision.

"Doctor! You are childish!" chided Leela, hardening her lips in condemnation of the Doctors behaviour.

"Nonsense! A good skip is healthy for the knees!" replied the Doctor, who had just completed the Hopscotch board again. "Plus it helps me think."

"Are you sure we left the TARDIS here?"

"Well, yes. Someone must have shifted it."

"To trap us here?"

"Probably not. More likely because it was causing an obstruction to the pavement, that or it was depriving someone of their favourite street game!" figured the Doctor knocking on the flagstones with a heavy black cane. He always used it when visiting this era it seemed, that and his chequered cape and hat he referred to as a Deer Stalker.

"Well we must find it," Leela said folding her arms to block out the cold air.

"No point at this time of night you know. Any authorities will have gone home. This is a quiet town."

"I know. It has been very uninteresting."

"Nonsense. Broadheads last bat was quite spectacular! Hmm. I think we will have to find somewhere to stay for tonight. We can track down the TARDIS tomorrow."

"Fantastic," mumbled Leela following the Doctor down the road, his cane clattering on the flagstones every few feet. They passed a lamp lighter, who was scurrying from post to post providing the evenings dull illumination. The Doctor tipped his hat to man.

"Evening!" saluted the Lamplighter, adjusting his Bowler hat.

* * *

The Lamplighter stopped by another post and placed the ladder at the base. A freak gust of wind blew the firelighter from his hand. "Blast!" he exclaimed to no one in-particular. He was alone on the street. The dark clear blue sky did not seem windy. A little chilly perhaps. He frowned, climbed the ladder and stopped to carefully light a match, perching on a rung. The match sparked into life but was quickly blown out again. The lamplighter glared at the sky. There was a strange wind blowing, but he could not tell where from. He reached up to unlock the casing of the gas lamp. Something unbelievable happened.

His hand passed out of existence as he reached up to the top of the post. He gasped and quickly withdrew his arm. It reappeared again. He felt the flesh of his arm. It was colder, and covered in spots of moisture. It was rain. He looked up again. there was defiantly not a single cloud in the sky. He slowly reached up. His hand began to vanish from view again, as if it was reaching behind a piece of wood painted exactly the same colour as the sky. There was no real sensation. His arm was colder but the strange silent vanishing trick did not seem to scare him in any way. He tried a couple more times before climbing all the way up the ladder and poking his head through the strange invisible barrier.

The next thing he saw stunned him.

He could see nothing below his chest, but it was the same street. Only it wasn't. He was grasping the lamp, but it looked older, and was already lit. Not by gas. By a strange glowing orange orb bright beyond any lamp he had seen outside the theatre. It shone down on a street crowded with carriage shaped vehicles with four wheels, parked tightly along the edge of the street. Some were moving down the road, emitting an unusual growling sound, their bright beams of light flooding the street ahead of them.

It was if someone had added things to the street. Strange things. Pillars and coloured shapes. A large square building was at the end of the road that was not there before. The strange unpowered roaring carriages proceeded by in large numbers. The street was no longer cobbled, but flattened by Tar Macadam or something similar. He reached up to the lamp he was holding onto and unlocked the case with his square key. The orb inside did not appear very warm. It was very unusual. Far better at illumination than the gas lamps he lit. He felt at the orbs base and tugged at a trailing wire determined to work out how the strange device worked.

His fingers touched a piece of metal at the base of the lamp and his arm jolted backwards at great uncontrollable speed. The Lamplighter found himself falling backwards into his own street, back through the strange invisible hole. He landed roughly on his back with a splitting crack. His lifeless eyes staring up at the sky, his backbone snapped by the impact. In the grip of his lifeless hand was a sodium lightbulb, the glass broken at one end.

A gentle rain fell through the gap left by the invisible hole covering and soaking his features.




Episode Two
by Fanzine Editor

Nicola woke with a start. A sudden noise had disturbed her sleep. She sat upright in her sleeping bag and looked around the tent for any sign of disturbance. Even in the half-light she could see nothing amiss, the two outlines of her flat-mates, Karen and Christina snugly wrapped up in their own sleeping bags.

The rain still spattered against the side of the tent. It had been raining all day, ever since they arrived. She picked up her torch from the tent floor and shone it on her watch face.

2:38.

She worked out that it had been raining for nearly ten hours solidly. She really was beginning to regret the holiday now. Right, that's it, she thought. I'm going to wake Chris and tell her that we're going home.

She turned towards her friend and gently shook her. No response. She shook harder. Still no response. Odd. Chris was usually the light sleeper. Nicola shone her torch in the direction of Chris' face, perhaps that would wake her. The torch beam revealed a pillow in the place where the girl's face should have been. Nicola turned to her other friend, Karen and shook her awake.

"Karen. Wake up," she hissed.

"Wha - what is it?" Karen replied, drowsily.

"It's Chris. She's not in her sleeping bag."

Karen sat up at this. "Perhaps she's just gone to the loo?"

"She's left her pillow in place to make it look like she was still in her sleeping bag, Karen. Where could she go at this time? It's dark and very wet out there."

"Look," said Karen. "If the stupid cow wants to go and lose herself in the Derbyshire countryside that's her own lookout."

Nicola shook her head. "Karen. We've got to find her. Who's knows what could be out there."

"Exactly," Karen said as she settled back down to sleep.

Nicola shook her again. "Listen. We're gonna find her, right?"

* * *

"Right hand burnt," said the Doctor. "Electrocuted I'd say, except..."

"Except what?" asked Leela.

"The remains of this sodium lightbulb," said the Doctor as he gestured at the scattered glass fragments on the pavement around the body of the lamplighter they had seen earlier.

"What is so unusual about this sodium lightbulb?" Leela crouched over the scattered glass and sniffed.

"It hasn't been invented at this time." The Doctor stood and placed his cape over the dead man. He joined Leela in her examination of the lightbulb.

"Could this be the doing of Greel?" Leela remembered a recent encounter they had with a man named Greel who was a criminal from Earth's future. She wondered if they had arrived before they defeated him. Would they have to fight him again?

The Doctor shook his head. "No, Leela. This has nothing to do with Magnus Greel. We beat him years ago."

So that answered that question for her. "The ground around the man is wet, Doctor. Yet the rest of it is dry."

"Well observed, Leela. I was wondering when you would notice that."

Leela gave him a look that would freeze a Speelsnape. "You are testing me. As a warrior of the Sevateem I will pass any test you set."

"Very good, Leela. It seems I'm not wasting my efforts on you." The Doctor gave her one of his infectious toothy grins.

She could not resist smiling back. "So how did this man die with a sodium lightbulb which has not been invented yet?"

"Electric shock. Like the Rutan used. But there aren't enough sources of electricity around here to do this. I suppose the water around him may have been used as a conductor."

* * *

Christina had woken ten minutes ago in this strange place. One minute she had been out on the moor looking for a quiet spot, the next she had found herself lying on the floor, obviously indoors. Some kind of house, she supposed. She was in a large room, a laboratory of some sort. Faint candle-light bathed the room in a semi-darkness from their positions around the walls. The walls themselves were panelled in a heavy wood, which she couldn't identify.

A few wooden benches were placed around the room. On these benches sat antique scientific equipment, that looked as if they were from the Victorian era. They also smelled faintly of chemicals. The room reminded her of a set from one of the Hammer Frankenstein films. Any minute now Peter Cushing is going to come through the large doors at the end of the room, Chris thought.

Just to make sure she went over to the doors and tried the one of the ornate handles. Locked. Try breaking it? No, she decided. Don't want to get in trouble for damaging anything. Try the window. They were covered by heavy, dark coloured drapes. She pulled one of them aside.

* * *

The sun shone brightly down upon the crowded Victorian street. Men, women and children and many animals going about their daily activities. Leela wondered if they were of the tribe of Cockney's that lived around this strange city. She glanced suspiciously at those around her. The Doctor who was walking at her side seemed unaffected by the crowd. "You think we will find the cause of this anachronism?" she asked.

"I'm not sure, Leela. I'll know more once I've re-examined the place where that poor fellow died."

They continued to walk in silence. There was still one thing that tugged at Leela's mind. "Doctor, you are certain that the TARDIS is all safe?"

"Yes, Leela. She can take care of herself. She'll be found when she's good and ready."

* * *

They called her name out loud. But they got no reply. They'd been searching in the rain for nearly an hour. Karen called Nicola over to where there was a dense gathering of trees. "Please don't let her be dead," thought Nicola as she ran over, nearly falling on the slippery grass. Karen had it in the beam of her torch. A large blue box with Police Public Call Box' written across the top. Nicola tried the handle on the door. It was locked. She knocked on the door and called Chris' name. Nothing.

"What would that be doing here, Nic?" asked Karen. She was starting to look worried. Nicola shook her head in bewilderment. "I don't know. Maybe it's time we gave them a call." She reached for a small panel on the police box that had a notice on it, telling her that she could contact the police from here. They needed help. They needed it badly.




Episode Three
by Sixth Doctor

There was a movement outside the door. Christina sprang back up from a small canonical flask she was examining and tried to look innocent. There was a key in the latch and with a slight squeak the door opened. Christina fully expected Karen to come through and tell her about this elaborate prank of hers, but she was not confronted with Karen, Nicola or anyone she recognised.

It was a man, quite tall and probably in his 30's with short, slightly curled blond hair. He was quite attractive, but had eyes that made her stop before saying anything. His eyes were intense and captivating, but also seemed dangerous. His clothes were freaky. He could have walked off the set of Pride and Prejudice with the outfit he was wearing. A dark shiny green cravat was wrapped around a large upturned collar, over which was an ornate waistcoat and an evening jacket. He was looking at her with a strange amusement.

"Well I see you have recovered!" He said promptly with a posh accent.

"Who are you?" Christina replied with as much command as she could muster.

"Who indeed? Yes I am sorry for your waking surroundings. I was unsure what state of mind you would be in. I am Lord Godfrey Haddon, and you are in my home."

"Your home, and where is that exactly?"

He smiled at her kindly. "I think the question you should ask Miss...?"

Christina realised she was just staring at him, not responding to his prompt, then gulped. "Erm, Christina. Christina Leigh."

"Miss Leigh. Hmm, from Manchester I presume from your voice?"

"That's right."

"Very good, where was I? Oh yes. Its not so much a question of where you are. But when."

"When? As in what day? Oh Hell, how long have I been unconscious?"

"No my dear. You were only slightly stunned from your accident. You have not been insensible for more than an hour."

Christina smiled nervously trying to gauge the outcome of this strange conversation. "Sorry?"

"Sit down Miss Leigh." Christina complied meekly. "You are no longer in your own year. A year which I believe is somewhere around the dawn of the 3rd millennium." Christina frowned. "You are presently in the year eighteen hundred and eighty four."

"If you say so." Chattily replied Christina. Finally it was obvious that this was a joke.

"I understand that tone of voice young lady. Take not my words lightly. I am speaking the truth."

"What? That I have ended up more than 100 years in the past by..." Christina tried to bring back a memory that wouldn't come. "What did happen to me?"

"This countryside is pitted with infernal mine workings. You slipped on loose shale and you were found by one of my groundsmen."

"Mines? On Kinder Scout?"

"The doorways can transpose you some miles in distance as well as time. You were no longer on Kinder Scout but up on the hills above Grindleford."

"Grindleford! That's on the other side of the peak district!" Christina angrily barged past Godfrey and made her way into the dark wood panelled corridor that lay beyond. It was richly decorated with black and white floor tiles and a multitude of pictures and displays of exotic animals. "Where's your telephone?"

"Teleph... Oh. A verbal Telegraph machine! I have decided not to have one."

"Everyone should have phones these days! Especially with this place. You must be loaded. I would use the mobile but the batteries are dead." Christina looked out of the window at the end of the corridor. "Oh my... What sort of place is this?"

Out of the window she saw a panorama of the valley overwhich the house stood. Directly along there was a large coal mine with a winch and what looked like a steam engine housed under a makeshift roof. The place was thick with grimy filthy people. Some women stood over a stall serving bread and some other food to the mines workforce while armies of horses hauled carts of coal and shale. The scene was not of the 20th century. Suddenly the words of what Godfrey rang through to her. 1884. What was out there she had seen the like on TV, but this was no reinactment or film set. It was all real.

"Disgusting isn't it?" Hissed Godfrey peering out of the window beside her. "I tried to have the building halted but they lay a larger claim on the land. But at least I blocked them building a railway junction down here."

"You mean I really am in the nineteenth century? But how? It isn't possible!"

"Mother Nature gives us many gifts, and we should never turn our back on them. Look at those 'things' down there! Hundreds flock to that mine every day. Men reduced to the state of animals burrowing and rotting in underground oblivion. Their homes degrading and centres of immorality and disease. Most starve through these colder months, but still they come here to work and die. An evil cycle at which the pit masters jeer as they line their pockets."

"It's horrible." Agreed Christina almost subconsciously.

"Its unnatural! All of it! These stupid mechanological advances. They take man further away from the land and God he serves. Now they dabble in sciences I do not comprehend. And what will it bring us?"

"Erm, Mobile phones. Microwaves. Jo Whiley on weekday afternoon radio 1..." Christina had a feeling her flippant attitude was not well received.

"Yes. Child of the future. Tell me what your world of marvels has done for Mankind?"

"We have had Men on the moon!"

"Oh have you now. And how did that aid the homeless beggar clinging to the gutter of a London backstreet? Or those millions who starve in areas of the planet not so able to afford your technologies. Does having the speck of matter that is a man on a great stone mass that is the moon have any bearing on yourself?"

"I... well, Not me directly no. But is shows what the Human race is capable of."

"Yes it does indeed. Trivial pursuits while Poverty, greed, murder, infidelity and corruption spread and eat away at society like those cancers you have brought upon your population. Oh yes I have been studying your time. The doorways have allowed me to collect much information. You dabble in mutations of the flesh and interfere with the elemental forces of nature. Create weapons that are not designed for war, but for simple annihilation of all living things. It is a world that is evil."

"I'm not evil!" Christina realised she was shouting and looked on silently.

"Maybe not you personally. Most individuals are not. But I see the corruption of your nature has set in. I see how you flaunt your body with the garments you wear."

"Flaunt! Ha! Like I had anything to flaunt! What's the big deal with Jeans and T-shirt anyway? Its not like its the Victorian..."

"At the present Miss Leigh, you will find very much that it is."

* * *

Nicola hammered her fist on the door of the Police Box. "Locked tight! We aren't getting any help from that!"

"But look at it!" Karen complained. "Its in the middle of nowhere."

"Well someone plonked it here!"

"Sure wasn't here yesterday."

There was a creak from the door and strangely, it folded inwards by itself. Karen pulled Nicola over to it. "What caused that?"

"I want to know what they keep in these things. Hopefully there might be something inside more use than this duff phone thing." With that Nicola slipped into the Police Box. Karen following. "Give up! There'll be no room if you come in!" Nicola stepped back further into the Box to make way for her shovey companion, and stepped into what seemed like another world.

A tinny metal voice addressed her harshly from somewhere about knee height. "Do not deviate from your current position and explain your business with the exterior of the TARDIS. This unit is equipped with defensive capabilities."

* * *

Christina had spent some time in the time of this Lord now. She was finding herself attracted to his heavy determination to his cause and his looks, but there remained something very unsettling about the way he toned his words. Like he was about to bite. He was showing her the exhibits of his study. It was stuffed with slightly un-tasteful stuffed birds, but also full of antiquities and strange items from past centuries. He was showing her a large hand axe from the stone-age. Feeling over its surface gently with his hands, almost lovingly. He then offered it to her to look. She picked it up gently and examined it. Running the tip of her finger over the smoothed flint edges.

"Beautiful isn't it? Many thousands of years ago a man fashioned this with the most primitive of techniques. Yet he lived in harmony with the land. I unearthed this from a cave near Buxton."

"Nice," whispered Christina.

"Such a simple yet perfect device. No more than was required, but no less that it would make its purpose too difficult to perform. And over the last century we have veered too far from this path."

"Look the future is not really that bad!"

"But it could be better! So many people need not die or live in pain! I only wish I had this opportunity at the time of my Grandfather. Our family owned much of the land then. Then the enclosures act came. Then big business and the industrialisation. A revolution as your history books call it. It was no revolution. it was a Rebellion!"

"Rebellion? From what?"

"Nature! The natural world is more important to us than most would think. In your time it is too late , but now, there is a chance. One last chance to change it all for the better! You as a citizen of that lost time could help me do it! Help me save Humanity from itself!"

"I can't think what use I could be!"

"Just being here you could help me! Those doorways you stumbled through, I found a year ago. Took me months to relocate one. But now I have mapped out many across the land. each offering a path to your time."

"Natural time gateways?"

"I do not know the reasons for their existence, nor do I really care. Maybe mother nature herself afforded them to me for that I may carry out my mission!"

"I'm sorry your Lordship but you sound obsessed."

"I am my dear. Obsessed and committed to what unpleasant things I must do."

"Look please tell me what you are doing!"

"Very well. Do these names... Wells, Einstein, Shroedinger, Rutherford, and Bhor, have meaning to you?"

"Yes. Most of them. Writers, theorists and stuff"

"Just a few names of a list I am creating Miss Leigh. Each one will have to be neutralised. Either through persuasion, or more despicable actions."

"What? But you can't kill them for being clever!"

"I do not wish to. But how else would I achieve my goal? Just think. Without the under pins of your technology there will be no advancement out of this century. Then I shall set about returning the enumerate populations of our fair towns to the land, where they can once again live in harmony, not in fear."

"You're mad!"

"Am I? They say the future is carved in stone, very much like that item you are holding there." Christina glanced at the flint hand axe she was holding. "I am going to Fracture the future that you know Miss Leigh. Knap it and flake it down, remove the obscenities, and fashion it into a perfect tool much as the craftsman did with that exquisite flint artefact so long ago. The sculpture will produce of the future will be beautiful and perfect, and I will create it, with or without your help."




Episode Four
by Steve Lake

The Doctor lugged a stepladder to the base of the lamp-post and propped it up against it. Passers' by were not the only ones to be giving the Doctor funny looks, though Leela felt she had spent enough time in his company by now to not be surprised by what he came up with. He probably kept it in his pocket, she thought. He kept everything else in there. Except anything useful, like a gun or a knife, she thought ruefully. She watched him clamber unsteadily to the top and pause to examine a small device in his hand.

"Ah ha!" he intoned, which Leela knew could mean any number of things from 'tea's ready!' to 'look out, there's a Cyberman behind you!'

"You have found the TARDIS?"

He looked down at her. "In a manner of speaking. I know what happened to it, certainly. Watch!"

Suddenly his head and shoulders vanished into nothingness. Leela leapt forward with a cry of alarm and kicked the step-ladder away. It clattered to the pavement, the Doctor tumbling after it. She crouched beside him concerned, but relieved to see his head and shoulders were still intact.

"Doctor, what happened?"

"Rough guess, I'd say you took the ladder away. Ouch!" he cried, feeling his back.

"Are you injured?" she asked, rather shamefaced.

"I think I landed on my yo-yo."

"Is that painful?" Leela gasped.

"It's digging in a bit, but no, I'm all right. Though I'm rather afraid my dolly mixtures didn't survive the fall." He held up a squashed paper bag and produced a flattened lump of liquorice and coconut. He popped it into his mouth and chewed sadly. "They never taste the same."

She helped him to his feet. "I am sorry. I thought someone had grabbed you," she said, crestfallen.

"No, nothing of the sort. Cheer up! I've found the answer anyway. See that?" He pointed up at the top of the lamp.

"No?"

"Exactly! It's a fracture in the space/time continuum. Totally invisible, of course."

"Of course! And that is where the TARDIS has gone? Through this fracture?"

"Ah ha!" he intoned again, to her annoyance. "That's the rub" he drew her aside conspiratorially, though there was no one else around to conspire from. "According to my instrument, this fracture is an unstable wormhole leading to a random variety of different points across a wide time/space broadband. Do you see?"

She folded her arms. "Not really."

He beamed. "Thought you would! Our poor electrocuted friend back there must have encountered something positively shocking when he popped his head through it."

"That is a very bad joke."

"You're right," he replied gravely. "Death is no laughing matter. Which means it's up to us to pop through, find the cause of the fracture, and seal it up before anyone else gets hurt."

"And also lead us back to the TARDIS?"

"Well, that's the theory." A slow grin spread across his face. "There's only one way to find out!"
He set the ladder back up and scuttled back up the ladder, aiming to duck through the hole. But Leela held him back.

"Let me go first, Doctor."

"What? Certainly not!"

"You told me yesterday that ladies always go before men."

"That was yesterday, and the rule doesn't apply in cases of extreme danger. Besides, you're no lady yet - savage!" he grinned.

"If it is dangerous it is all the more the reason why I should go first. I am a warrior," she said proudly.

"So I noticed. I like your dress," he said, still grinning.

She looked down at her Victorian garments. "It is heavy and impractical."

"All the more reason why I should go first!"

With that he jumped up through the hole.

* * *

"What is this place?" gasped Karen, gawping around the console room in awe.

"And what's that?" squeaked Nicola, pointing at the small metallic shape gliding towards them.

"I am K-9. This is the TARDIS. A machine capable of travelling through time and space. You will now explain your unauthorised presence."

"The door was open!" blurted Karen.

A slim metal antennae slid from K-9's head, accompanied by a low buzzing sound. "Sealing mechanism temporarily disabled by sudden temporal re-location." The little robot cocked its head on one side. "TARDIS motors not engaged, therefore re-location caused by exterior force. Explain!" it snapped at the girls.

"We dunno what you're talking about! We were just looking for our friend!" stammered Nicola.

"Is she in here too? Chris? Chris!" Karen shouted.

"Increase in vocal volume not necessary, There are no other humanoids within this vessel."

"Humanoids! Karen, let's get out of here! This some weird alien abduction thing or something!" She swung her friend round and tried to go back through the door but it was tightly shut. She swung back round, frightened. "Let us out!" she cried.

K-9's scanning circuits whirred. They told it him the girls were of little threat, but it still did not explain how they had gained entry - or why their appearance did not match that of the time period the master and mistress had ventured into.

"Do not be afraid. I am programmed for self defence only. I am incapable of attack without direct order from the master or mistress."

"Master or mistress? Who are they?"

"The Doctor-master and the Leela-mistress. They are not on board. Query: have you encountered them?"

"We don't know what they look like!"

"Observe the scanner." K-9 glided over to the console and extended his antennae. The scanner hatch whirred and lifted and an image faded into view of a tall grinning man with a mop of curly hair and a very long scarf and a lithe tanned girl wearing a very brief leather outfit.

"No, we haven't seen anyone like that!"

K-9 whirred to himself. It was not unknown for the master and mistress to go out exploring, leaving him behind, and getting him to come and rescue them. This must be the situation now!

"The master and mistress must be in extreme peril. Therefore, I shall rescue them." He turned to face the two girls.

"And you shall assist me!"

* * *

Christina wandered warily around the big house. Her surprise at being allowed to roam free had been replaced by a feeling of great boredom. He'd said there was no sense in locking her up, as where was she going to run to? He alone knew how she'd got here, and it wasn't like she could pick up the phone and call for help. And if she ran outside? Who would believe her? So he'd left her to her own devices, saying he had to go into town to pick up a delivery. He said something about a servant, but Christina hadn't seen sight nor sound of him.

"Damn it," she muttered. "What am I going to do?"

Godfrey had suggested she visited the library, but Christina had never been much of reader, and besides, she could guess at what sort of books he had on his shelves. She had hoped he'd have a snooker table or something, but there wasn't one in evidence yet, certainly not in any of the rooms she'd visited. A lot of them were locked, though.

Like this one. She paused outside it. Could she hear something within? Yes, a sort of humming sound! There was a chink of light shining from the crack under the door. She tried the handle hopefully, but it was no use.

She tugged at her lower lip, trying to think of what to do, when the door suddenly rattled and started to swing open. Christina ducked behind a cabinet on the other side of the corridor and watched a bald old man with a thin moustache walk slowly through the door bearing a tottering stack of heavy-looking leather-bound books. From his uniform, Christina judged he was the servant Godfrey had mentioned.

Burdened by the volumes, the servant merely kicked back at the door with his heel to close it behind him, and trooped slowly down the corridor towards the stairs and presumably the library. He hadn't locked it! Perhaps now she could get somewhere

Waiting until the man had gone, Christina rushed up, opened the door and slipped inside.

She gasped, awe-struck. A shimmering oval of soft golden light filled the centre of the room. To the side of it were two large tables jammed together. Maps or charts of some description covered them.

But it was the light that held Christina's attention. "That must be how I came here!" she murmured, approaching it slowly. The glow seemed to pulse and vibrate, and she became aware of a soft sighing sound that accompanied the pulsing, that grew louder with every step nearer she took. The light and sound filled her mind, possessing her. She stretched out an arm

The door behind her swung open and a voice yelled: "No! For pity's sake, girl, don't touch the portal!"

Christina snapped out of her trance too late. Her fingers brushed the surface and there was an explosion of orange light. She screamed




Episode Five
by Sixth Doctor

Christina was no longer in the cellar. Words did not seem to adequately describe where she was. After the initial shock of touching the object she had found herself in this never realm, but it was not frightening, nor was it threatening. It was if anything peaceful and calming. She did not seem to be able to locate her body but that didn't seem too important right now. There was a feeling of everything being looked after. She was aware and alert, but it felt like a dream and her consciousness was floating over a landscape. It was this landscape that absorbed all her attention.

It was as if she had stepped out of the third dimension. She was looking down upon a country landscape, but it had different shades of existence and she could see them all! She saw the land without a single house in sight, but there was also a village in the same space, and on top of this village was a town, a ghostly viaduct spread across the town, millions of trains blurring over it, starting as steam and becoming electric. Mills appeared and disappeared into ruin, crowds seethed and receded, and the sky was breathtaking. A thousand seasons constantly shifting. It bathed the landscape in purples and yellows.

She saw below her a man. He was walking his dog across a field. Judging by his outfit he belonged to the time she had been in. A scruffy cap and an old waistcoat and jacket. She decided to concentrate on him a moment, and in a second the domain she was in showed her everything about him. He was a baby, a child, an adolescent, and played through all the seven ages of man until he was nothing but a skeleton. All this happened in a blur of motion in under a second, but yet it all made sense to her, nevertheless seeing someone's entire life in a moment was unnerving and she recoiled. This was not a good move, everything seemed to recoil, wildly spinning backwards, the towns and villages spiralling into the dust.

Pull yourself together Chris, she thought to herself. She would have spoken it but her mouth seemed elsewhere. The rate of change slowed in front of her and she was becalmed at a point long before human occupation of the landscape. It was beautiful, she saw the world through Godfrey's eyes a moment. A never-ending vista of peace and tranquillity was bathing the hills and valleys. Mammals and birds played out their lives below here in microseconds, the web of life constantly weaving into new beautiful patterns. Then Ice, thousands of miles of it. Pouring over the hills and pulverising them like a giant white bulldozer. This must be the ice age, she thought.

Time was moving back forwards again. The dead harshness of the world now made her feel cold and she was glad when it began to melt away before her. Trees sprouted up over the barren soil, animals came and re-conquered what had been snatched from them, and then they came. Tribes of hunters forging a nomadic existence amongst these lush forest lands. They grew, expanded, ripping their way through the web of life gaining strength and hold over the land. The forests were torn down, the animals enslaved, hunted or driven away. This bacterial invasion seemed so repulsive to Christina, and yet these were her race. Her civilisation.

A Roman fort stood atop of a hill, suddenly decayed and abandoned, some nearby farm houses stealing its stone to form part of their own buildings. Time played through recorded history and once again the mills could be seen. Christina gaped, or felt she should gape, for she could see something very familiar. It was her. Stood on the hillside with her companions. This was unbelievable. Like her own mind was seeking out familiar things to lock onto. She reached forward to try to tell them, she felt could almost touch Karen, but it was no use. With some Anguish Christina tried to call to them, But the motion was not interpreted well by her surroundings and she was catapulted forward in time far away from her friends.

Things seemed to change little for a time and then there was a flash. Christina begged and pleaded to be set free from her imprisonment in this strange time lapse photography of history, so she could be back with her friends. Her force of revulsion at that moment did something to her surroundings, and she fell.

* * *

Christina stood up. She brushed ashen filth from her Jeans and flung her hair back with a sharp intake of breath. The air was acrid and smelt faintly stale. Her lungs did not like this air either. It seemed uncomfortably cool and thin. She looked about her.

"Oh my" She stood open mouthed.

It was deathly cold and the thin atmosphere revealed a myriad of stars sparkling down on this unholy world. At first her thoughts were that she was on the moon, for it looked like a moonscape, with rolling dead dusty hills in bright sunlight with a pitched black sky, but the moon was just appearing over the horizon. That had not changed. But the Earth she was stood on had changed completely. For amongst this dead landscape of black and grey were remains. Ruined buildings, scraps of metal. Shards of everyday life. She hobbled to one side as she stepped on something that tipped her balance. Regaining her footing she looked down to see what had nearly caused her fall.

It was a skull.

* * *

Godfrey perched on top of a heavy oak table, his narrowed eyes glaring intently at the orb, its radiant orange glow reflected in them. A hand propped up his chin with his index finger covering his lips. He kept that posture for some time, thinking quietly. Dorking stood to one side. He tried to look professionally busy arranging some sheets of paper but it was obvious he was just waiting for his Master to reach some decision.

Godfrey's eyes lifted and he sprang off the table smartly to his feet.

"I'm going after her Dorking." He spoke ferverently.

"Your Lordship do you really believe that wise? You should not risk everything for one child!"

"She's innocent Dorking!" Snapped Godfrey pacing the cellar. "This should not have concerned her! I can't just that poor thing be lost out there!" He waved a hand at the orb and marched over to another table, adjusting an oil lamp to throw more light about.

He unrolled a long piece of paper and beckoned Dorking over. Upon the paper was a timeline. A sketchy one with names and dates added in very roughly in margins. The notes on the timeline were predominantly objects and landmarks. The paper seemed to be a map of history rather than a simple time chart.

"5 years Dorking. 5 years and we still only comprehend minuscule details of the orb's function."

"Maybe she has used the orb to return home sir."

"You seriously believe that? She has never used it before. Look what we did before we learned to control entry points."

"My Lord, you were lucky to make it back alive the first time. Every time you have resorted to using this contraption since We fear you may never return."

"You seem quite at ease with the stable doorways I have created Dorking. Why this fear over my safety now?"

"It's my duty sir."

"More likely you are worried you may lose your staff job if I am lost to the world of time. Scared my Sister will be quite happy to inherit this property, but not its manservant?"
Dorking looked cowed.

"Positions are hard to find at my age Sir." Godfrey smiled.

"Be glad I am not sending you to look for her." Dorking did not answer. "I shall begin looking over the notes. Maybe we can trace her before she drifts too far. This device works in many strange ways. Who knows, maybe it will guide me to her as it guided you to me that first time?"

"I hope so sir." As Dorking spoke the orb glowed brighter and hummed to itself in an almost lifelike way. Godfrey stared at it intently again.

"It is a beautiful mystery is it not?"

"I don't really hold an opinion sir." Replied Dorking evasively.

"A carriage for traversing time. A tool capable of changing everything. It makes me feel the most fortuitous of men! Think, who else could have this power? The power to save the world!"

* * *

The Doctor slammed his sonic screwdriver against the lamp post in irritation. Its resonance waves adjusted themselves satisfactorily after being subjected to the percussive maintenance.

"What do you think it will do?" Leela asked quizzically.

"Well something makes these time-fractures move about. Maybe not in time but certainly in space. I am wondering if the Sonic Screwdriver can emulate the frequency they operate on."

"But how will that help us find the TARDIS?"

"Well, it will make it easier to climb through," replied the Doctor staring up at the shrouded opening into another century. "There's also a public service consideration. I can't go and leave unsealed rifts about now can I? I mean who knows what else could happen. One man has already died."

"A death by accident is a hollow way to die. He shall not rest easy."

"Maybe we should help him rest in piece then by getting to the bottom of all this, don't you think?"

* * *

Christina stumbled again and fell, her hands held forward. They were coated in the thick grey ash. Her nails were scratched and bleeding. This was the least of her concerns. There was no shelter out here and the temperature was dropping by the minute as night grew closer. Her breath rasped in the freezing sharp air. She had been gasping since she had arrived. There was not enough oxygen here that was painfully obvious. She was preoccupied by the thought that she was going to die here, along with everything else on the world. There was no life. Not even any water.

Her head was pulsating and her oxygen starved brain struggled to keep her senses alert. The grey desert seemed never-ending. The building she had passed offered nothing. Its bricks fused by incredible heat and roof long gone. Nothing else suitable seemed in sight. With no food, water or shelter she was doomed to perish in this god forsaken place, that was if oxygen starvation didn't get her first. The silence around her was terrible and the loneliness was unbearable. She had not dared to stop and think of what had happened today and right now all she longed for was to be back home in her own time.

The sun sank below the hills, and the deadly chill of night took its stranglehold on this barren post-apocalyptic hell.




Episode Six
by Steve Lake

K9 withdrew his sensor from the TARDIS console and trundled backwards slightly, absorbing the data he had received. The problem was a fascinating one. The information provided told him that the TARDIS had landed in almost the exact same area as a massive fissure in the space/time continuum. What was more interesting was that this fissure, or fracture, was not a natural phenomenon. Someone or something had created it, possibly as a means of trapping the Doctor-master and the Leela-mistress, or possibly even as a means of getting at the TARDIS. That idea appealed to K9's logic circuits. The ship had been relocated in time and space, and the door mechanism disabled in the process.

And now he had two unauthorised intruders. Very suspicious.

Yet the intruders did not appear in any way, shape or form to be dangerous or hostile. Indeed, they were bewildered - terrified even - of their new environment. Not much of an invading force, unless they were expertly cloaking their real intentions.

And the longer they remained on board, the more K9 doubted that. Both girls were huddled together on a couple of chairs in the corner of the console room, talking in low whispers. His audio receivers detected that the principle subject of their conversation was about how they would get away from the TARDIS and what K9 would do to them, rather than how they would seize control of the ship and what they would do to him.

Which left the question: could be rely on them in assisting him to help locate and rescue the Doctor-master and the Leela-mistress?

He pondered another aspect of their conversation. They were very concerned for the safety of a friend of theirs, who in all probability was caught up in the same disturbance as the Doctor-master. K9 began to see a way of gaining their assistance - and possibly their trust into the bargain - if he could help locate their missing companion at the same time. How would the Doctor-master put it? "You rub my back, and I'll scratch yours." The simile was a bizarre one, but then he found many of the Doctor-master sayings bizarre. But he understood the logic of it, and that was what mattered.

He swivelled round and motored forward to face the girls. One of them, Karen, shrank back in her chair, but the other girl, Nicola, seemed to have come to grips with her new location somewhat better and gazed down at him without flinching. K9 decided to address himself to her.

"Query: you are missing a companion too, are you not?"

"That's right," nodded Nicola warily. "Christine. She was with us, but she sort-of wandered off, and we've no idea what happened to her since."

K9 cocked his head on one side. Sometimes the speech patterns of these humanoids - especially the juvenile ones - were difficult to follow. "Define 'sort-of wandered off'?"

Nicola sighed, and then began to recount their story.

* * *

There was a crackle of green sparks and the Doctor snatched his hand back away from the lamppost.

"Well that's not right"

The Doctor frowned at the fissure above, then began tinkering with his sonic screwdriver again. Leela peered over his shoulder at what he was doing.

"What is it Doctor?"

"Something is agitating the time fracture."

Leela drew her knife. "It is under attack?"

"No no, more likely something has passed through it - or is attempting to pass through."

Her eyes widened in alarm and her knife arm tensed. "To here?"

"I very much doubt it. More likely something is passing along the same channel to another location - ah!"

The Doctor froze suddenly, mouth gaping. Leela gripped his arm.

"Are you all right?"

The Doctor blinked before replying. His voice was low and deadly serious.

"Leela, a fracture like this can't stand the strain of all this to-ing and fro-ing. The odd chance encounter, like our luckless friend the lamplighter, is one thing, but if someone is attempting to use it as a means of travel, the effects could be catastrophic catastrophic!"

"How cata catastrophic?" Leela stumbled over the unfamiliar word. The Doctor's eyes widened.

"Well, I said it twice, and do you usually know me to repeat myself?"

Leela folded her arms. "Fairly often."

"That's only because you never listen - oh no!"

There was a crackling, hissing sound, like badly distorted static, and more green sparks began to rain down upon them. The patch of sky that marked the location of the fracture darkened and lightened, darkened and lightened

"The fracture" the Doctor hissed urgently. "I think it's going to close! Leela, if it does, we could be stranded here forever!"

"What will we do?" cried Leela.

"We'll have to take a chance," he said grimly. "And go through!" He straightened the stepladder and started upwards. Leela hovered uncomfortably beneath.

"But is it safe?"

"Highly unlikely!" he boomed, "But what's life without a little risk, hmmm? Quickly, hold onto my scarf - and don't let go, whatever you do! Don't want to spend eternity lost among the infinite corridors of time, do you?"

"I thought we already were," she replied waspishly, wrapping the garment securely round her right wrist and holding on tightly.

"Lost? Me? Never! Just a little off course, that's all"

The fracture hissed and spluttered with greater ferocity and the Doctor tensed.

"It's going!" he cried. "Quick - jump!"

The Doctor hurled himself upwards, Leela following close behind -

And they vanished.

The stepladder clattered to the ground, and the street became empty and peaceful once again

* * *

"Sir, I do wish you would reconsider"

Dorking hovered anxiously as Godfrey tossed useful items into a large canvas knapsack. Candles, tinderbox, clasp-knife, notepad, pencils, fresh bandages, dried fruit, water flask

"Oh, do be silent, Dorking. I am to blame for allowing that unfortunate child to venture forth into the unknown, and I must at least attempt to find her and bring her back." He finished putting things into the sack and gestured impatiently for his cloak. Dorking scurried across and helped him put it on. "Be grateful that I require your presence here and do not need you to accompany me."

Dorking suppressed a shudder. Although he'd accompanied his master on many of his sojourns backwards and forwards through the portal, he didn't particularly care for the experience, nor was he learned enough to appreciate it. But he kept these thoughts to himself, and did as His Lordship bade. He didn't really have any other choice.

"I stand ready to serve your Lordship in whatever way I can," he quavered.

Godfrey glanced at his servant, saw the genuine fear and concern for his safety there, and his expression softened. "Don't worry, Dorking," he soothed. "I shall not take any unnecessary risks. I know that the consequences may be dire, but I simply cannot allow that poor child to suffer as a result of my actions." He held out a hand. "Now, my stoutest stick, if you please."

"I'd rather your Lordship took a more formidable form of defence."

Godfrey snorted. "Good heavens man, I intend to use it as an assistance to walking, not as a cudgel!" He straightened his shoulders, allowing the thick cape to settle better across his frame. "You ought to know by now my feelings towards the matter of violence" he growled.

"But sir, many of those places we saw" Dorking shuddered again. "Such such terrible sights! Terrible things!"

"But I shall not be party to them!" Godfrey buttoned the cloak up and hefted his sack. "Why else do you think I am departing on this venture? I wish an end to such human folly as war and violence, Dorking. The human species is capable of so much more than wanton destruction!"

Dorking swallowed, started to say something, and then stopped. Godfrey noticed his expression and paused, narrowing his eyes.

"I know you think my opinion hypocritical, in light of the changes I wish to effect upon human history, Dorking. Believe me when I say I shall take no pleasure at all in the necessities of what I must do." He leaned forward suddenly and grasped the old servant by his shoulders, eyes glittering dangerously under the radiance of the orb. "But necessity it is, Dorking! How else are things to be righted? How else can one save mankind from its own destruction? You've seen it, Dorking you've seen how that grim future will one day materialise!"

"But sir, the cost of such a venture"

"Oh, Dorking!" Godfrey wheeled away and stared into the depths of the glowing sphere. "Why can't you see!"

Dorking looked away, mumbled: "I am not blessed with your Lordships' learning, or understanding of such affairs"

"Oh, just a humble servant!" Godfrey sneered. "Ridiculous! You're a reasoning human being like I, Dorking. Why, a mere child in arms could understand the quandary we are facing" he spun round again, an almost maniacal look on his face. "And appreciate my solution!"

Dorking kept his eyes to the floor. "Yes sir," he mumbled. "Do forgive my foolishness"

Godfrey sighed heavily. How could he make him understand? He shook his head. It didn't matter. So long as he obeyed his instructions, and Dorking had been too long in his service to start disobeying. His fist tightened unconsciously around the handle of his stick.

For his sake, he had better not disobey.

"I shall now go, Dorking. Await for me here. If I require your assistance, I shall call for you."

The old man bowed. "Yes, sir."

Godfrey turned away towards the orb again, took a breath, steadied himself for the step through.

"And sir?"

"What now?"

"Good luck, sir."

Godfrey gave Dorking a thin lipped smile.

"Thank you, Dorking."

He stepped through.

* * *

Christine stumbled blindly through the darkness, panting for breath. Each step she made raised a cloud of dust and ash that hung in the still freezing air, adding to her breathing difficulty. The ash tasted bitter and foul, and from time to time she had to pause to fight the urge to retch. She couldn't afford to waste her strength that way. The increasing coldness and the lack of air was sapping her to the degree of total collapse.

She stumbled over something in the dark and pitched forward. Something jagged painfully across her bare right arm and she cried out, a hoarse, lonely sound amidst the silent desolation. She rolled over, clutching at her arm, felt warm blood trickling down a deep cut. She booted out weakly in frustration and heard a dull clang as her foot connected on something metallic - and evidentially razor sharp.

She sat up and clutched her wounded arm to her, pulling herself into a tight ball, weeping softly in pain and frustration.

"I want to go home," she sobbed. "I just want to go home!"

A soft rattle of pebbles to her left made her look up sharply. Just something settling, or

"Hello?" she called, wiping away her tears. "Hello? Is someone there?"

Silence, briefly; then, the sound of debris shifting again. Definitely something moving

She struggled up and gazed around her into the darkness. "Please, is anyone there? I need help! Please!" she implored.

Something shifted and clicked just beyond her, and she thought she saw something pale moving dimly across the wasteland towards her, flitting across dunes like a wraith

She felt a tremor of unease and stepped back.

Something touched her back and she spun round with a scream.

A terrible vision stood before her.

It was a man, or something that might once have been a man. Dressed from head to toe in what looked like grimy grey bandages that wrapped its skeletally thin body, like a mummy. A face - a skull, more like - leered down at her through the wrappings, bloodshot eyes rolling madly in horribly sunken sockets. A terrible stench of rot and decay emanated from it.

It reached out a bony talon again and Christine jumped back with a revolted cry - and straight into the clutches of a similar spectre behind her.

She screamed, tried to struggle loose - but there was strength in those emaciated claws, and they held her firm in a tight embrace.

The first creature stalked forward towards her, and began to whine in a mad, high-pitched falsetto:

"See, Vern? See? Told ya I smelt blood on the wind told ya!"

The creature holding her tittered, a shrill sound that set her tattered nerves further on edge.

"Us'll eat good tonight then, Cabe may'n be enough left for a tomorra!"

The first creature began to giggle as well. "Fact!" it shrilled, and tugged a long and rusty knife from the bandages at its waist before advancing eagerly towards her.

As it got closer, Christine realised what coated the blade wasn't rust

It was dried blood.

She began to shriek




Episode Seven
by Sixth Doctor

The Doctor stood under the streetlights, half his face lit by the orange glow. Leela was taken aback by the change in their surroundings. The Doctor had reasoned that they had moved forward in time about twelve decades. It was quite obviously the same place, yet with all the unusual materials on the walls, the filthy air and loud noises coming from so many engines. The Doctor called them cars, or Auton-meals or something that sounded like that. She had seen similar vehicles in her travels but these "cars" made growling noises that made her nervous, they also had piercing bright white eyes that picked you out of the darkness. She felt they could be an excellent hunting weapon, but she would be scared of one being used to hunt her. At least she would hear it coming.

The Doctor was once again using his yo-yo. She found it best not to disturb him in this mood. His yo-yo was an important part of his meditation. He must have much to figure out. Leela wandered along the street a little, made uneasy by how many people were watching her. She supposed it was her clothing which was bright and cheerful. It was warm but nobody else in this time seemed to be wearing such bulky materials. She immediately decided to remove the clothes, stripping away the multiple skirts that weighed her down. The Doctor stopped his meditation and looked at her quizzically.

"Leela what on earth are you doing?"

"Blending in Doctor. I was drawing attention to us."

"Yes well never mind, you'll draw a different type of attention if you keep doing that. Come along. We might be able to find you something less conspicuous."

"What are we to do in this time?"

"I am not sure Leela, but the readings are not what I wanted
at all. This is not the source of the fissure and I rather hoped it would be."

"So we're trapped here?" said Leela worriedly.

"No no, just delayed maybe... unless..." The Doctor withdrew a modified dog whistle from his pocket. He blew it hard then stuck a finger in his mouth before holding it aloft into the wet night time air.

"Hmmm, Northwest wind" he said. Come on Leela."

* * *

K9 turned his back on the confusing young females and trundled to the console, extending his sensor to interact with the controls.

"Doctor Master in the vicinity" he chirped, then his ears wiggled profusely.

"Something wrong?" asked the Karen young female.

"Dimensional instability of local space disrupting TARDIS systems. Access to exterior location currently unobtainable..."

K9 went back to whirring his ears.

"Em, can we help?" asked Karen, the other female holding onto her nervously. K9 raised his head.

"Suggestions welcome." he submitted.

* * *

Christine was hauled like a hunk of meat into a tunnel concealed in a blackened collection of bricks. To her relief there appeared to be air down below the ground, and at least a little heat, but she was not pleased to be receiving such basic sustainances For a start she did not wish to be here.
What was more the disgusting cadaver like creatures that brought her here had every intention of consuming her.

She managed to get her head to an angle that could see the tunnel up ahead straining against the unpleasant way she was being carried, bundled upside down into a backpack made from loosely tied rope, one of her arms was dangling from it and her fingers would occasionally scrape the floor leaving drops of blood. The arm was numb from being kept in its position and she could do nothing to free it.

The tunnels were ageing and grimy. They looked like sewers, they probably were sewers. All that was left of this dead world. Some parts of it were cavernous, the dim light of the torches carried by her captors revealing nothing she wanted to see in the depths of the shadows. The place was absolute squalor. Some places revealed piles of browned bones, not all were human. Animals had obviously been brought down here in large numbers at one time. The air smelt like rotting vegetables, and the floor had now turned from stony to a soft mushy gunge. Christine observed, almost with curiosity that the Captor carrying her was wearing faded Doc Martens boots, bound with filthy rags and pins which seemed to keep half of his clothing stapled into his very flesh.

She was led into a large underground expanse. Above her she could see other tunnels that would once of brought torrents of sewer water down from the streets above. They had long dried up. There was heavily corroded pipework and sheets of rusted metal bound into strange hut like buildings. Electric lightbulbs illuminated the room and there were others like those who brought her here. Male and female, some looked almost human, others were so rotted away she could not tell how they kept breathing. The went about unusual tasks. One was messing with what looked like bits of a Hornby train set A female was tearing strips of paper from crusted magazine and bathing them in a dark colourless goo. Another sported a broken welding mask and was stripping electronics from an old radio.

They all began to watch her. She saw desire in their eyes as they looked at her body. But the desire was hunger. They all began to move towards the centre of the room, in which was what looked like a camp fire but a large barbecue construction was actually at the centre. The ropelike bag which bound her to the back of the creature was removed and she was flung painfully onto the barbecue grill.

Her head smarted and her numb arm flopped helplessly over the edge. She looked up as collections of eyes stared back down, filling her field of view. Their faces were all grotesque. Baggy skin hung from dried muscle and bone. Black liquid streamed from their sore eyes and cracked mouths.

They were people, she thought they were alien invaders but they were as human as she was. But how could they live like this, what had brought them to this fate? She was in no mood to ask because a moment later a clawing appendage felt at her neck leaving scrapemarks. She gasped and let out a cry.

"What a juicy little beauty!" Cried the one who had caught her. There were mumbles and grunts from the crowd. "I want this thigh!" he declared hoarsely feeling at her leg in a way that made her recoil, her skin crawling making her feel physically sick. She began to cry uncontrollably. A disgustingly rotten mouth licked at her eyes to absorb the moisture of her tears and she butted the cheek away violently.

"Stop it!" croaked another voice from the crowd. An older member of the group stepped forward, his arms encased in leather sewn into his skin. The others turned to him.

"Is there no dignity left in any of us?" He spat pushing away those rallying to get first dibs on her body. The man placed his hand on her forehead, although it irritated the cut on her head, his touch was not unkind. "I'm so sorry." he whispered. Christine tried to calm her breathing and tried to speak.

"Where am I?" was all she managed.

"You're with the Collective of Dysherr child." He continued to stare at her. "How did you come to be here?" Christine wondered what she should say, but the truth was all she could bring to mind.

"I, I travelled through time I think, from Victorian times." The man nodded slowly and with real sorrow in his swollen putrefied eyes.

"Yet another unfortunate victim of our sins. I wish things could be a different way, but our fathers and mothers chose the way humanity would meet its end. In a way child, we are as much victims as you."

"What happened to this world?" Christina cried?

"You don't really want to know that." The old man looked down. His eyes no longer able to meet her gaze. "Do not judge us, for there is no choice left for us anymore." He withdrew a knife from his belt and held it over her. "Sleep my dear. Please do not suffer."

He brought the knife down into her stomach and she felt a sharp spasming pain. She saw the knife penetrate her, she fell back and screamed breathlessly. All she could feel was a warm numb sensation all over. She could not scream anymore and then gave up the struggle to keep awake. She closed her eyes and prepared for death.

At that moment there was a familiar voice in the distance. Her own heart pounded but she could tell who it was.

"Christina!" Her eyes snapped open to see the room aglow by orange light but she could not see where it was coming from.

The underground dwellers had moved back away from her and a strong hand gripped her shoulder. Blood was pouring from the open knife-wound in her stomach and she tried to shout for help but there was no strength left in her. The face of Godfrey Haddon appeared in front of her looking horrified and desperate. Unable to feel her body anymore Christine slipped into unconsciousness.




Episode Eight
by Steve Lake

"Doctor, we have been walking for a very long time."

The Doctor didn't even look back at his companion, let alone pause from his striding alone the pavement. "What? Don't tell me you're getting tired. Fit, strapping young woman like yourself ought to be able to handle a little exercise."

Leela wrinkled her face in disgust at the Time Lord's back. "I am not tired. I am simply questioning the wisdom of this exercise."

That drew the Doctor up, and made him turn round. "You're questioning my wisdom?" he asked gravely.

Leela halted too, and folded her arms. "Yes."

The Doctor tapped himself on the chest. "My wisdom? Me?"

"Yes."

His voice became even graver. "A Time Lord of Gallifrey? Questioned by a mere savage?"

"Yes."

"Someone who, only this morning, was struggling to understand the mechanics of a pedal-bin?"

"You could not open it either."

"That's because it was jammed." The Doctor stabbed an accusing finger at her. "And you know why it was jammed. Because you kicked it!"

Leela set her jaw defensively. "I only did what I have seen you do when faced by a stubborn machine."

The Doctor's mouth opened and closed a few times in outrage before he replied. "I do NOT always kick stubborn machines!"

"You kick the TARDIS. And I have seen you kick K-9."

"Only once!" the Doctor boomed testily. "And by accident!"

"You put a dent in him!"

"I straightened it out afterwards!"

"Yes, by hitting him again! With a hammer!" Their voices had started to raise to shouts.

"How else was I supposed to straighten it out?"

"By not kicking him in the first place!"

"It was an ACCIDENT!"

"Just as your solution to solving the problem of the jammed peddy bin was throw it against the TARDIS wall was an accident, I suppose!"

"THAT WAS-"

The Doctor's mouth shut suddenly with an audible snap. Leela stared at him in alarm. "Doctor? What is it?"

"That's it that's it! Of course!"

A broad grin slowly spread across the Time Lord's face. He suddenly reached out and grabbed Leela's hand and shook it energetically.

"Leela, you're a genius! Where would I be without you, hmmm?"

Then he turned and hurried off along the pavement at an even faster rate, but back the way they came, while still grinning like a goon.

Leela could only stand and stare after him in bewilderment, massaging her now aching arm.

"Mere savage, now a genius" she muttered. "I wish he'd make up his mind!"

Shaking her head, she hurried after him before he could disappear from sight.

* * *

"Christina! CHRISTINA! My God, what have they done to you?"

Godfrey stared in horror down at the form of the young woman sprawled across what looked like some form of charcoal pit. He could barely bring himself to contemplate what these vile creatures had in mind for the girl. He had found her just in time!

"Get away from er!" a voice squealed from the shadows. "She's OURS!"

A form launched itself at him from the darkness. Godfrey turned away from the girl and swung his walking stick to meet the charge. Solid wood met brittle bone. There was a sickening SNAP and the form hurtled backwards into the shadow, shrieking in pain. At once all the other creatures took up the cry, and the chamber reverberated to the dreadful sound, setting Godfrey's nerve's further on edge.

"Got to get out of this place!" he hissed. He bent forward and scooped the girl up. She was surprising heavy, and he staggered back a little as he lifted her.

"NO! NOOOO!"

Another form launched itself at him from the darkness, claws flailing. His thick cloak bore the brunt of the attack but he felt a blow tear a gash in the exposed skin of his neck. Godfrey yelled, and aimed a clumsy kick at his attack. More by luck than aim it connected and the attacker fell away, keening like a crippled dog.

But another creature lurched from the shadows to join the assault. And another and another!

* * *

An electronic klaxon began to sound somewhere within the TARDIS console. Karen and Nicola clapped their hands to their ears.

"What's happening?" cried Karen over the tumult.

K-9 hastily unattached himself from his current position and sped round to the other side of the console. He emitted a single high-pitched chirp and the klaxon ceased.

"TARDIS has detected one correction, two chronon anomalies, recently travelled through the time fracture. Sensors indicate that neither are the Doctor-master or the Leela-mistress."

Nicola crouched on her knees beside the computer. "You think it might be Chrissie then?" she asked excitedly.

"Probability that one of the anomalies may be your companion 87.9367232%."

Nicola glanced across at Karen and grinned nervously. "Well, that's close enough for me!" She looked back at K-9 again. "So what can you do about it?"

"My priority is to re-establish contact with the Doctor-master," replied K-9.

"But you said yourself, it's Chrissie!" yelled Karen.

"Correction: only 87.9367232% probability that it is your companion."

Nicola ignored that. "But she might know what's going on! Please, you have to try to get to her!"

"Please!" repeated Karen, who'd joined Nicola on the floor, crouched beside K-9. "Please help her!"

K-9's sensors whirred for a few seconds. Then:

"Affirmative. I shall attempt to effect a landing at the co-ordinates of the anomalies."

Karen and Nicola slumped in relief. "Thanks!" sighed Nicola.

K-9 wagged his tail. It was always nice to be appreciated.

* * *

Leela poked her toe at the thick length of cable running from the lamp post to the broad green-painted electricity junction box on the other side of the pavement, in front of which the Doctor was crouched on his knees.

"Doctor, are you sure this is wise?"

The Doctor pulled his head out of the junction box and stared back over his shoulder at Leela. "Why shouldn't it be?" he asked. "It was your idea after all!" He popped his head back inside and went back to what he was doing.

"Yes, but" Leela poked the cable again.

The Doctor poked his head out again. "But?" he repeated.

"But perhaps it is not wise to give this particular thing-" and she gestured vaguely towards the air at the top of the lamp-post "-a kick."

The Doctor just grinned. "Well, we won't be giving it a kick in the way you kicked that pedal-bin-"

"Or you kicked K-9?" interrupted Leela mischievously.

The Doctor gave her look and carried on speaking. "But a highly concentrated energy pulse should be enough to stir the fracture into opening."

"And this energy pulse will be the kick?"

The Doctor grinned again. "Right! You really are learning!" He stuck his head back inside again.

"But is that not dangerous?"

"No, no well, not much. Perhaps a little. If I get my connections wrong. Which I seldom do, you know."

"Seldom do?" Leela folded her arms. "That is not the same as never do, is it?"

The Doctor stuck his head out and grinned again. "Your grasp of language is improving too!"

"Thank you."

"My pleasure." He vanished again.

Leela stared at him for a moment. "Well?" she asked impatiently.

"Fine, thank you," replied the Doctor absently.

"I mean oh, Xoanon!"

"Language!"

Leela turned away in disgust and looked along the road. Fortunately it was a quiet stretch, with few vehicles passing and even fewer pedestrians, mercifully. But it paid to be alert, particularly for those Blue Guards that she knew inhabited this era. Not that she would have minded the distraction, nor the opportunity to take out frustration on something, but she knew the Doctor would get involved and make things even more complicated than they already were.

There was a tap on her shoulder. She turned to find the Doctor standing smiling at her. "All finished," he said.

"But will it work?" she asked.

"Ah, now that is the question!" The Doctor went over to the lamp-post and examined the connection he'd made there. "It should do the trick"

"Which is, to open the fracture again?"

"Only partly, Leela."

"You do not wish us to go through it again?"

"Good gracious, no. Far too dangerous. Could end up anywhere, or rather, anytime." He sniffed the air dubiously. "Certainly somewhere even less salacious than this. Primeval bog, Roman encampment, Dalek guard post-"

"Then why are we opening the fracture, if not to go through it?"

"Simple. The energy I plan to discharge into the fracture should be sufficient for K-9 to lock onto and come and get us. Better than wandering around aimlessly waiting for the little chap to turn up, don't you think?"

Leela shrugged. "I suppose so."

"You suppose-" The Doctor looked outraged. "You suppose so? Who was the one complaining she was tired of walking, hmmm?"

Leela rolled her eyes. "Yes, Doctor."

The Doctor clapped his hands together. "There you are then! So let's show a little more more" he groped in the air for the right word.

"Enthusiasm?" suggested Leela quietly.

"Enthusiasm!" repeated the Doctor more loudly.

With that, he kicked the lamp-post. There was a bright flash and a rolling thunder of power. Leela's world began to shimmer and vibrate before her eyes, and she staggered, disorientated.

"Oh no!" she heard the Doctor cry.

"What?" Leela shouted back.

"I forgot!"

"You forgot what?"

"I forgot to reverse the polarity of the-"

His words were drowned out by a colossal explosion, and everything went black

* * *

Godfrey fought back against the creatures as best he could. Though they were weak and emaciated, there were many of them, and they were gradually wearing him down as he struggled back the way he came, along the tunnel to the outside where he'd spotted the two creatures bearing Christina.

Of course, he would have stood more of a chance had he not been bearing the unconscious girl, but he would not have abandoned anyone in that charnel-house to the mercies of its foul inhabitants.

Worse still, he had realised just how badly hurt she was. The blood from her stomach wound now soaked his clothes as well as hers. He knew little about medicine, but he knew a serious injury when he saw one.

But he would not abandon her. He would not!

A bony claw grasped at the hem of his cloak and he nearly fell, but was just able to retain his balance. He lashed out with his foot and the perpetrator went squealing back into the darkness. Godfrey stood panting with exertion for a moment. All around he could hear the rustle and murmur of the vile creatures as they pressed around them in the darkness. If they all came at once, instead of one at a time

A new sound began to pick up. A roaring, whooshing sound, like a mighty wind. At first he thought it was just that, but as it became louder, he realised it was more mechanical, like some kind of engine.

Then, a light began to pulse in the centre of the tunnel. Godfrey thought at first it was his battered senses playing tricks, but the light became brighter and more distinct. As it became so, a shape began materialise. A shape in the form of a tall blue box

* * *

Another klaxon began to sound within the TARDIS console. This one was of a shriller, more urgent tone. As it sounded, the room began to shake.

"Warning!" chirped K-9, scooting wildly around the console. "Vector instability rising to critical!"

"What!?!" yelled Nicola, clutching at Karen. The vibration was getting worse.

"I think he means we're going to crash!" Karen screamed back.

Another alarm began to sound. And another, and another, until the whole room rang to the sound of an electronic clamour.

"Danger! Instability rising beyond critical! Danger!" squawked K-9.

The room seemed to pitch on its side. The two girls fell in a heap and slid across the floor. K-9 remained clinging perilously to the console by his antennae, chattering electronic signals frantically.

Above all the alarms, a bell began to chime loudly, clanging like a death-knell




Episode Nine
by theWatcher

Leela realised something was not right. She sensed great danger and grabbed for her knife, but her arm didn't seem to be there. She felt as nothing. She could see the street where they had been standing, bathed in a half-light. But there was no movement in the scene, as if time had stopped.

"Doctor!" cried Leela, but only in her mind as her mouth had also gone. "Where am I?" she thought as loudly as she could. Neither fight nor flight was possible here.

"Leela." She heard her name as a soft whisper all around her. "I am here," she thought with growing anxiety.

"Leela." Again her name, but very near, like a warm embrace. "I am here," thought the Doctor, trying to ease Leela's plight. "We appear to be in that channel I spoke of. We are very nearly in the Time-Space Vortex, I think. Without the TARDIS, I would have thought survival would be unlikely, but we appear to be safe for the moment."

"No, Doctor. There is great danger. I can feel it. It is where the bell is."

"Bell? I don't hear a bell." Leela could sense the Doctor trying to hear the bell. "Do you know where the bell is?"

Leela could only direct her thoughts in the direction of the sound.

"Time and space are fluid here. To move in this place, use your mind to will yourself to where you want to go. Take me toward the bell."

Leela strained her thoughts to the sound of the bell. They began to drift closer to it. There was movement on the street again, faster and faster. She forced herself to ignore the scene below and focus only on the bell.

"I hear it now. NO!". Leela felt the Doctor become agitated. "The cloister bell! It's the TARDIS in danger!" The Doctor now pulled Leela toward the bell, faster and faster, perhaps too fast.

A flash of orange light as they appear in the tunnel. The TARDIS is directly in front of them, tipped slightly and buried into the wall of the tunnel. Lord Haddon's bag and stick lay beside the dying Christina.

"Get her inside" croaked the Doctor, not being accustomed to the stench. He picked up Christina's shoulders and they carried her to the TARDIS door. The Doctor fumbled for the door key.

Leela saw the ghastly creature come around the corner of TARDIS. She dove for the walking stick, rolled up to her feet and delivered a whistling blow. The creature flopped to the floor, silent and unmoving. A small but very triumphant smile curled Leela's lips. She saw others down the tunnel and glared. The creatures retreated; there be no eatin' t'day. She turned and saw the man on the ground.

* * *

Haddon was thrown back when the TARDIS materialized. He painfully raised his head to see the Doctor with Christina and Leela glaring at him. Leela took a step toward him. He dropped his head to the ground and felt faint. "Dorking..." he wheezed and a yellow glow surrounded him while he vanished.

* * *

"A man over there just vanished," Leela said over the sound of the sonic screwdriver.

"What? I don't see anyone there. Anyway, the door won't open and K-9 doesn't answer his whistle."

"Stand aside, Doctor." Leela ran a few steps and kicked the door which opened with a bang.

The Doctor looked at the now open door and Leela with momentary surprise, then said, "Help me get her inside. - You're always kicking things!"

"I learn best by example, Doctor!"

Leela picked up the bag and stick and they carried Christina into the TARDIS Control Room. They found Karen and Nicola in a heap against the wall and K-9 beside them on his side and too quiet.

"Don't mind them. They're having a nice nap. It's this one that needs a bed," said the Doctor, carrying Christina to a room somewhere in the TARDIS.

* * *

"How's the patient?" quizzed the Doctor when K-9 trundled into the Control Room. "Damage reduced by 83%. Autonomic healing will effect complete repair," came the answer.

"There is relevant information about the recent temporal anomalies in the TARDIS archives," stated K-9.

"You managed to fix the archives? You clever old dog," said the Doctor with a big smile. "The time this unit is left to 'guard' the TARDIS is too great to waste -- Master." buzzed K-9. Not willing to admit the guilt of neglect, the Doctor's smile faded as he asked "What did you find.".

"There is a story of a race quite ancient relative to the Time Lords. There was a device they called the 'Time Way'. It was believed to be a trans-dimensional device of sophistication greater than any Time Lord technology. It's primary use was to build a portal, the equivalent of a road, between two points in time and space to be travelled at will in relative safety. These portals ultimately proved to be unstable. They would drift in spatial dimensions and intersect destructively, leaving a temporal void. The race's home star system was apparently completely engulfed by such a void," monotoned K-9.

The Doctor's eyes widened at the thought. "So the Time Way was destroyed with the race?"

"Unknown. The device was to have existed largely within the Time-Space Vortex, having only small control nodes required for operation. The other use of the device was to inject the user into the Vortex where, by will alone, navigation to any place and time was possible. There were few safeguards, unlike the TARDIS."

"Leela and I certainly experienced that while coming here. Is there more?"

"Like a device powered by a difference of electrical potential, the Time Way was powered by the Vortex with the difference potential between time and -".

"ANTI-TIME! The FOOLS!" shouted the Doctor. He pressed his fist against his lips, realising the implications of this information. "Now, calm yourself, Doctor," he said to himself. "The situation is bad, but not yet lost. What IS our situation, K-9?"

"Our temporal coordinates can not be determined because of the vestigial portal left by the Time Way in the tunnel outside. The atmosphere is 34.392% of Earth normal. Almost no life can be detected on the surface. The destruction of the atmosphere and surface was likely not caused by warfare."

"What? It certainly looks like a war zone."

"There is no residual evidence of weapon use. But destruction occurred over a short time, no more than a few years. The evidence is more likely of an asteroid impact."

"Asteroid impact?" asked Leela as she entered the room.

"A rock the size of a small mountain falling out of the sky and striking the ground at very high speed. Tremendous heat would be released to ignite a global forest fire. Dust and ash would block the sun's light for years, then settle out to smother any remaining living thing. As fell the dinosaurs," said the Doctor in a tragic tone of voice. "But surely they would have the means to detect and deflect the big asteroids at this time?"

"More dead without peace. - Who was the man that vanished?" asked Leela.

"Let's find out," said the Doctor, opening the bag left behind. Nothing of note, not even the apparently blank notebook. But rubbing the top page with a pencil, the Doctor reveals the writing done on the page removed. The Doctor read the faint lines. "Christina Leigh, stop man on Moon?, Goddard, von Braun, hmm, can't make out the rest. I think it's time to have a chat with our patient."

* * *

Christina opened her eyes. She quickly put her hand where the knife had been, but felt only a smooth bandage. The room was dimly lit, but she could see the odd mixture of antique and high-tech things scattered around. "Not again!" she thought.

She heard breathing and turned to see her friends asleep. "Karen! Nicola!" she screamed with delight. The two sleeping forms stirred. Karen saw Christina and leapt to her side, grabbing her hand. Nicola stood over them.

"Welcome back! What happened to you?" shrieked Karen. "What's going on? They won't let us out of this stupid police box," whined Nicola.

"Police box? What are you talking about?" said Christina, puzzled. "Where are we?"

"You are in my TARDIS and you have a lot of explaining to do," said the Doctor with mock gruffness as he and Leela entered the room, K-9 wheeling in right behind.

"What's that?!" cried Christina.

"My dog, K-9, who has sensitive ears. Don't shout at him," said the Doctor.

"Greetings, Miss." hummed K-9.

"Hi, I guess." replied Christina.

"And this is Leela, Warrior of the Sevateem." Karen and Nicola recognised her, and her leather suit, from the picture shown by K-9.

"You are very lucky we happened along, young lady," said the Doctor to Christina. "And you owe your luck to your friends. They were able to donate blood to you for a good old-fashioned transfusion. Crude, but effective. Your recovery means you will be able to help in the situation we are facing. Leela saw a man in the tunnel outside who vanished. Who was he?".

"Godfrey Haddon. Lord Godfrey Haddon. I fell into one of his time gateways and ended up at his house. I was looking for a way out and found a room with another gateway that brought me here." She paused. "Wait a minute! Did you say he was outside? Are we still in that tunnel?" she said with alarm.

"We're safe enough for now. But we can't leave until we know where we need to go. Tell more about the gateways," said the Doctor.

"Well, the first one I don't know about, because it was dark and I didn't even know I walked into it. But the one in Godfrey's house glowed and hummed. It wanted me to step into it. I just floated around and could see time going backward and forward really fast. I even saw the three of us together, but when I tried to show I was there I ended up here."

"The gateway at the house is a Time Way control node, isn't it, K-9?" asked the Doctor, not wanting to hear the affirmative answer. "Affirmative, Master." was the unwanted reply. "And with it Lord Haddon somehow changes the timeline so Earth is destroyed because they lacked the means to prevent it. Did he say anything about using these gateways, these portals?"

"He did seem to be obsessed with stopping technology so he could get the people back to nature. He said he was going to persuade or otherwise neutralize guys like Einstein so there would be no technology."

"And he was successful in stopping rockets and quantum mechanics, so there was no defense against the asteroid impact." The three girls were visibly shaken by this revelation. "Don't worry. It's already happened and now we must stop it before it happens," said the Doctor heading back to the Control Room.

* * *

"So the TARDIS is interlaced with the tunnel wall. And the Time Way portal outside is interfering with our leaving here. Is there any information on closing that portal?" quizzed the Doctor.

"A large pulse of energy will disrupt the portal, but not close it." hummed K-9.

"I know that!" huffed the Doctor.

"The TARDIS apparently 'bounced' off the portal when it materialized and caused the interlacing with the wall. Perhaps de-materializing and re-materializing the TARDIS so near the portal will disperse it and free the TARDIS from the wall?" hummed K-9. "You mean use the TARDIS to give the portal a big kick?"

"Oh, no," groaned Leela.

* * *

Lord Haddon awoke in his own bed. His wounds had been bandaged. The morning sun streamed in though the window. Dorking appeared through the open door with a tray of fresh tea.

"How long have I slept?"

"Just overnight, sir. What happened to the girl?"

"Other travellers were there, Dorking. They probably have her. I feel these people are going to be meddlesome. They have a machine for time journeys as ours. We must begin our work today, Dorking, now, for there is a desperate future to prevent!"




Episode Ten
by General Wooly

Christina was glad that the Doctor was allowing her to try to make Lord Godfrey Haddon see reason, but, as Dorking escorted her to see him, she became anxious. She knew that the aristocrat's heart was more or less in the right place, but, by his own admission, he was obsessed with his vision for the future. It would be hard for him to accept that humanity would need technology to survive. She knew from her psychology class that it was often a lot easier for people to believe what they wanted to believe.

Still, Christina knew that Haddon was a brave, highly intelligent man, and that meant that there was a chance. She desperately hoped so. She knew that the Doctor planned to stop Haddon, no matter what it took, and she didn't want the mysterious time traveler to have to hurt him. When the Doctor had wished her good luck on her mission, she had realized just how much he also wanted to avoid any sort of violent showdown. Still something about his eyes had made it equally clear that he would not tolerate Haddon's continued manipulation of time.

Christina supposed she understood the Doctor's position. The terrible future she had unwittingly visited simply couldn't be allowed to happen.

Dorking announced Christina and then led him into Haddon's study. Haddon, at his desk, looked up at her and smiled. She smiled back.

"Thank you for coming after me." Christina had promised herself that she would thank him for his gallantry before she did anything else.

"Think nothing of it, my dear lady," relied Haddon. "Thank me when I manage to save the world from that terrible future we saw."

"Lord Haddon, that's why I'm here."

"I guess it shouldnt surprise me that after what you saw that you would want to help me. I'm just glad that you were able to return to me. Frankly, I think I will need the help."

"I'm sorry, but you don't understand."

"Oh?"

Christina knew what she had to say, but still had trouble finding the words. She simply couldnt bring herself to look him the eyes. She knew how much the truth would hurt him. "I've learned that the future we saw wasn't caused by a war, but by a massive meteor strike. People should have had enough technology to stop this meteor from hitting the Earth, but you kept that from happening. The future we saw was one you made."

"That can't be right," Haddon protested.

Christina managed to look him in the eye. "Lord Haddon, do you honestly imagine that I would lie to you? Don't you think I would be working with you if what I said wasn't true? Do you really think I want that future any more than you do?"

Haddon said nothing, but Christina could see in the aristocrat's misty eyes that he knew that she was telling the truth. "Don't worry. I know somebody who can fix everything."

"Then you had better go get him," replied Haddon, slumped behind his desk in defeat.

"I will, sir," Christina said before setting off to get the Doctor.

It took the Doctor not even an hour to fix things. After he had caused the extraordinary orb that had so nearly sent her to an early, brutal end to simply disappear, Christina had made the mistake of asking the Doctor how he had done it. To say that the time traveler's answer went over her head would be a profound understatement. A quick glace at Haddon told her that the explanation had made as little sense to him as it had to her. When the Doctor was done, he and Christina said their good-byes and returned to the TARDIS. The Doctor then returned Christina and her two friends back to their own time, in fact, to their very camp site.

With a smile, the Doctor opened the doors to let them out. Before leaving, Christina and her friends profusely thanked the Doctor, Leela, and K-9 for all they had done. Christina was almost out the door when a thought suddenly struck her.

She turned to face back into the TARDIS and asked, "Doctor, what about all that information that Lord Haddon gathered about the future? Couldn't that still mess up history?"

The Doctor looked puzzled by the question. "If I understand your question, I must not have made things as clear as I had thought. I thought that my explanation had made it transparent that I had arranged things so that once I got you back your own time, this whole sorry episode would be undone and exist only in our memories. Perhaps I should explain just what I did again. It really was quite clever, even for me."

"That's okay, Doctor," replied Christine, hurrying out of the TARDIS. Her mind already felt too much like a computer asked to divide a number by zero.

"Bye then," called out the Doctor. His disappointed tone made it clear that he regretted not having another chance to ramble on about his astounding scientific brilliance.

As she slipped out of the TARDIS, she heard Leela ask, "Doctor, does that mean that man we found won't be electrocuted?"

"Indeed it does," replied the Doctor, sounding particularly pleased with himself. "All the fractures in time have been completely fused."

Christine turned around to ask what man wouldn't be electrocuted, but saw that the TARDIS door had closed. With Karen and Nicola, she watched silently as the TARDIS departed, fading in and out of sight to a weird mechanical groaning. After the time-traveling blue police box had faded away entirely, they heard the Doctor's disembodied voice say, "You see, Leela, you don't always have to kick things to fix them."

Any reply Leela might have made never reached their ears.

Perhaps in response to the Doctor's ridiculousness or perhaps from sheer relief, Karen and Nicola started giggling, but Christina remained silent. Reflecting on what Lord Godfrey Haddon had tried to do, she had reached a decision. She turned toward her two friends and told them, "I think you both should know that I'm going to devote my life to making the world a better place."

"Good luck with that," replied Nicola between giggles.

"Nicola, I think she means it," said Karen more seriously.

Nicola took another look at Christina, and then said to Karen, "I think you're right."