Part 2 (1/2)

'That does it. We go ahead.'

'That's my my girl!' girl!'

Ruth gave him an exasperated look and went over to the controls.

Jo Grant looked furiously at the Doctor who was still hard at work on his complex piece of circuitry. He was fitting it into a carrying case which was shaped rather like a table tennis bat. The rounded end held dials and a little rotating aerial.

'You know, Doctor,' said Jo conversationally, 'you're quite the most annoying person I've ever met. I've asked you at least a million times. What is is that thing?' that thing?'

The Doctor looked absently at her. 'Extraordinary. I could have sworn I'd told you...

It's a time sensor, Jo.'

'I see.'

'Do you? What does it do then?'

'Well, it . . . it's a . . . Obviously it detects disturbances in the Time Field.'

The Doctor gave her an admiring look. 'Very good. You're learning, Jo. Yes, this is just what you need if you happen to be looking for a TARDIS.'

'It's a TARDIS sniffer-outer!'

'Precisely; Or any other time-machine for that matter. So, if the Master does turn up.

'Bingo?

'As you so rightly say, Jo - Bingo!'

Stuart was laboriously climbing into an all-enveloping protective suit which made him look like a rather comic astronaut. 'I feel like the back a pantomime horse.'

'Very suitable for a keen young man like you,' said Ruth briskly.

'Come again?'

'Starting at the bottom?

Stuart groaned. 'Anyway, it's all a waste of time. Why should there be any radiation danger at the receiver? We're only going to use about ten degrees.'

'Are you willing to take the risk?'

Stuart thought for a moment. 'No!'

'Then stop beefing and get on with it!'

Fitting the visored helmet over his head, Stuart went through into the inner section of the laboratory - the receiving area.

Ruth operated controls and the TOMt.i.t noise began, rising steadily in pitch and volume . . .

(Blissfully unaware of all this scientific activity, the Inst.i.tute's regular window cleaner was setting his ladder up against the laboratory window. He peered curiously at the radiation suited figure in the lab, then reached for his wash-leather.) Ruth went to a shelf and took down marble vase. It had curved sides and a domed lid, and looked rather like a giant chess p.a.w.n.

She put the case on a fiat surface beneath a complex looking focussing device, then returned to her control panel.

Stuart's voice came from the intercom. 'Interst.i.tial activity - nil.'

Ruth checked the dial on her console. 'Molecular structure, stable. Increasing power.'

The oscillating whine of TOMt.i.t rose higher. In the inner lab the crystal began to glow.

With the Doctor's time sensor in her hand, Jo stood looking apprehensively at the open door of the TARDIS, which was making a strange wheezing, groaning sound. 'I say, Doctor, you're not going to disappear to Venus or somewhere?'

The Doctor's voice came through the TARDIS door. 'No, of course not. Just keep your eyes on those dials!'

Suddenly the dials began flickering wildly, the aerial spun frantically, and the device gave out a high pitched bleeping sound.

'It's working!' said Jo excitedly.

'Of course it is. Make a note of the readings will you?'

Jo grabbed a note pad and pencil.

Ruth was still calling out the readings. 'Thirty-five . . . forty . . . forty-five . . .'

Stuart's voice came back. 'Check, check, check.'

'Increasing power . . .'

The circular aerial on top of the Doctor's device was revolving wildly. It slowed and stopped as the TARDIS noise died away.

The Doctor came marching out, took the note pad with the readings from Jo's hand and began studying it absorbedly.

'Well done,' said Jo.

'Thank you,' said the Doctor modestly.

'It's a bit out on distance though. Says the TARDIS is only three feet away.'

'Those are Venusian feet,' said the Doctor solemnly.

'I see. They're larger than ours?'

'Oh yes, much larger, Jo. The Venusians always tripping over themselves.'

Suddenly the time sensor came to life again. Jo jumped, 'You must have left something switched in the TARDIS, Doctor.'

'I most certainly did not. Why?'

Jo handed him the sensor. 'Look, it's working again. And the readings are different.'