Part 12 (1/2)

'Turlough, of course,' said Turlough mischievously.

'Heard about you from Tegan,' said his future maths master.

So this, thought the Brigadier to himself, was the famous Turlough. Just wait till the boy got to Brendon.

He'd have that impudent grin off his face.

'I've come to take you to the Doctor,' continued Turlough insolently.

'The Doctor? You know where he is?'

'Of course. Come on.'

'Not so fast,' growled the Brigadier. 'And keep in the shadows. We've got some disagreeable fellow pa.s.sengers.'

Turlough was far more afraid of the mutants than the Brigadier, but he was keen to score off the military man in the blazer. 'They're harmless,' he jeered. 'You're not afraid, are you?'

The Brigadier could have boxed his future pupil's ears for cheek, but he said nothing and followed the boy in the direction of the Hall of Likenesses. 'What does this Doctor look like?' he asked as they walked past the icons.

'Older than me. Younger than you.'

'I mean, is he... normal?'

'Of course.'

'Then that deformed creature in the TARDIS was an imposter!'

Turlough stopped at the open door of the dormition chamber. 'Doctor? The Brigadier's here.'

The Brigadier peered over Turlough's shoulder. He pushed the boy aside and stepped into the inner room.

'Doctor?' He wrinkled his nose at the faintly rank odour, akin to overipe pheasant, that hung about the chamber.

'Doctor?'

There was a rumble and a click. The Brigadier spun round to see the entrance behind him sealed. The wretched boy had led him into a trap.

'We are scientists,' explained the mutant leader to the Brigadier as he tried to hurry the Doctor to the safety of his TARDIS. 'The Doctor can help us only of his own free will.'

'You cannot ask me to change my whole nature,' the Doctor repeated stonily as Mawdryn pleaded with him to end their infinite journey.

'Come on, Doctor, we're getting out of here,' whispered Tegan.

But still the Doctor lingered by the regenerator. He could not believe he was destined to escape so easily. 'You have the regenerator and the facilities of the laboratory.

Continue with your experiments. Find how to reverse the process.'

'We have known for many years that the process is irreversible.'

Nyssa moved to the Doctor's side. 'There must be something you can do to help them.'

'Don't interfere!' The Doctor silenced her angrily. 'I cannot will my own destruction.'

'So be it,' said Mawdryn wearily. 'Leave now with the rest of your companions. But accept the consequences of your own actions.'

The other mutants began to murmur in protest. 'Go quickly,' urged Mawdryn.

'That sounds like good advice.' The Brigadier grabbed the Doctor by the arm and propelled him towards the door.

'We have experimented for centuries,' clamoured the mutant lying next to Mawdryn.

'We have tried to discover a remedy,' cried his companion.

'There is no remission,' moaned another in despair.

'Only the power in you, Time Lord!'

'Only you can help us, Doctor. Share the life-force with us, that we may grow old and die!'

The Doctor stood watching them like a sailor who has seen his s.h.i.+pmate fall overboard, and knows that, while the boat sails on, the castaway must surely die.

'Come on, Doctor,' urged Tegan. 'There's nothing that any of us can do.'

The Doctor turned reluctantly to go. Filled with dismay, the mutants struggled to free themselves from the regenerator.

'To the TARDIS, the lot of you!' roared the Brigadier and shepherded the Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa out into the corridor.

The mutants howled like abandoned children and would have rushed into the pa.s.sageway to drag the Doctor back into the laboratory had they been strong enough.

'My friends, do not despair,' Mawdryn comforted his fellow exiles. 'The Doctor will return, and of his own free will.' He detached himself from the machine and stood, tall and strong, as any normal creature. Only the ulcerous sarcoma on the right of his face branded him as unnatural.

'There is work to be done,' he announced gravely. His seven comrades looked at him, hardly daring to hope.

Then he spoke the words they had waited over two thousand years to hear. 'Prepare our s.h.i.+p for the ending!'

As they rushed along the sombre corridors towards the TARDIS, Tegan noticed how out of breath the Brigadier was getting. The poor man had certainly gone to pieces in those six years since she was at Brendon School put on weight too, she observed, as he paused to get his breath back. 'I'm Tegan by the way,' she said, introducing herself with a friendly smile. 'We have met, but it was rather a long time ago.'

'Miss Jovanka, could I ever forget,' puffed the breathless Sir Galahad of Jubilee Day.

'Doctor, what are we going to do about Turlough?'

asked Nyssa.