Part 7 (1/2)

The Doctor played his master card. 'Yes-or it might be Earth in the twentieth-century. Hasn't that occurred to you? My s.h.i.+p is very valuable...'

'Why are you so suspicious of us?' asked Barbara coldly.

'Put yourself in my place, young lady. You would do precisely the same thing.'

Barbara turned away with a snort of derision; if the Doctor had any sense or understanding of them at all he would know they would never behave in the hysterical and illogical way he was behaving now.

The Doctor looked down dispa.s.sionately at Ian. 'It's time to end all your play-acting, Chesterton. You're getting off the s.h.i.+p!'

'Now?' he asked groggily.

'This instant!'

Too weak to argue, and still dazed, Ian looked up at Barbara. 'You'll have to help me up,' he said pathetically. 'I'll be all right when I'm outside in the fresh air.'

'Grandfather, look at him,' pleaded Susan. 'He doesn't even know what's happening. I won't let you do this.'

The Doctor regarded his granddaughter for a moment, recognising in her the same firmness of purpose which he had always displayed. He knew that she would not weaken in her resolve.

Finally, to save some face he announced: 'Of course, if they would like to confess what they have done to my s.h.i.+p I might possibly change my mind.' The Doctor began to march over to the lever on the control console which opened the doors.

'Why won't you believe us! We haven't-'

An ominous sound suddenly interrupted Barbara.

It was a low repet.i.tive chime, like the tolling of a huge bronze bell. It seemed to echo from deep within the TARDIS itself, and seemed to infiltrate their very beings.

The Doctor and Susan looked urgently at each other. instantly recognising the sound for what it was. The Doctor instinctively held his granddaughter protectively in his arms.

Ian was filled with a foreboding he had not felt since he was a small child. Barbara was immediately reminded of a verse she had learnt long ago at school and the meaning of which she had never fully understood till this moment: Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee. Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.

'What was that?' Ian asked fearfully, as the last reverberating tones echoed away.

'The danger signal...' Susan's voice was trembling and her face was deathly white. She clutched at her grandfather's arm. 'It's never sounded before...'

'The Fault Locator!' cried the Doctor and rushed over to the bank of instruments at the far end of the control chamber.

Lights were flickering furiously on and off and the VDU screen itself showed a crazy jumble of flas.h.i.+ng figures and letters. The entire machine seemed to be overloading; sparks and wisps of acrid smoke filled the entire area beyond the protective gla.s.s screen.

'Don't touch it, Doctor!' warned Ian as he staggered to his feet with Barbara's help.

Susan was at the Doctor's side in an instant. She looked up and recognised the fear in her grandfather's face. It was the most horrifying feeling she had ever had in her life, seeing that look of terror.

'What is it?' she asked, already knowing what the answer would be, but somehow wis.h.i.+ng that the Doctor would suddenly turn and tell her that everything was going to be all right. 'Tell me, please...'

The Doctor looked down at her and then turned to Ian and Barbara who had joined them in the Fault Locator area.

'The whole of the Fault Locator had just given us a warning,' he announced gravely.

Ian looked at the green VDU screen as it flashed on and off, casting its macabre emerald light on all their faces. It was seemingly registering every single piece of equipment on board the TARDIS.

'But everything can't be wrong!' he said incredulously.

'That is exactly what it says,' said the Doctor. 'Every single machine on board the s.h.i.+p, down to the very smallest component, is breaking down.' He looked gravely at his companions, as though considering whether to tell them the truth. Finally he decided.

The words came heavy to his lips: 'I'm afraid that the TARDIS is dying...'

9

The Brink of Disaster

For minutes all four of the time-travellers stared at each other in dumbstruck horror. It seemed impossible to believe that the machine which had become their sanctuary and only hope of safety in a threatening universe was about to die. It was like being a pa.s.senger in an aircraft who has just been told that the plane is about to crash and that there is nothing the pilot can do to prevent it. Like those pa.s.sengers there could be no escape from the doomed s.h.i.+p.

Finally Ian broke the heavy, doom-laden silence.

'But, Doctor how can that be? How can the s.h.i.+p just die?'

The Doctor pointed back to the Fault Locator. 'Whenever one small piece of machinery fails a little light illuminates and the fault is registered on that screen. By its very nature the Fault Locator is designed to be free of any malfunction and has a power source separate from the rest of my machine. Now think what would happen if all the lights lit up. It would mean that the s.h.i.+p is on the point of disintegration!'

He considered Ian and Barbara carefully and then admitted: 'You two are not to blame-all four of us are to blame!'

'That drink you gave us...' said Ian.

'A harmless sleeping drug,' admitted the Doctor sheepishly. 'Yes, I rather suspected you were up to some mischief...'

Ian nodded. 'I told you not to go near the console. I told you that you might electrocute yourself.'

'I'm afraid I might have misjudged you and Miss Wright,' conceded the Doctor. 'I thought you had sabotaged my s.h.i.+p in some way. But such damage is far beyond your capabilities. Even I would be incapable of harming the s.h.i.+p to this degree.'

Susan who had been watching the VDU screen of the Fault Locator as it flashed on and off came back to her grandfather's side. 'It's happening every fifteen seconds,' she said and added, 'I counted the seconds.'

'Very well,' said the Doctor. 'Please goon counting.' As Susan went back to the Fault Locator he turned to the schoolteachers.

'Now, listen very carefully. We are on the brink of disaster; the TARDIS's circuits are failing because of some unknown force. The s.h.i.+p could fall apart at any moment. We must forget any petty differences we might have and all four of us must work closely together. We must work to find out where we are and what is happening to my s.h.i.+p. Once we know that there may be the chance of saving ourselves.'

Ian was tempted to say that that was exactly what he and Barbara had been suggesting from the very beginning. Instead he let the Doctor continue.

'The facts are these. there is a strong force at work somewhere which is threatening my s.h.i.+p, so strong that every piece of equipment is out of action at the same time.'

'The life support systems are still functioning,' pointed out Barbara. Even in the present crisis she could still hear the in-out in-out breathing of the machine which had so terrified her before but was now becoming oddly rea.s.suring, almost like the heartbeat a baby hears in the warm protection of its mother's womb.

'Yes,' said the Doctor, 'and that is most unusual. Why isn't that failing when everything else around us is?'

'It's almost as if whatever force it is wants to keep us alive...' Barbara thought aloud, and s.h.i.+vered as she thought for what possible terrifying purpose.

'But you said that nothing could penetrate the TARDIS's defences, Doctor,' Ian remembered.