Part 2 (2/2)

'Doctor, we're on Earth, aren't we?' said Peri desperately. 'I said it felt like Earth.'

The Doctor frowned. 'It's in the wrong part of s.p.a.ce to be your planet. Besides, according to all the records, this is Ravolox.'

Peri tapped the sign. 'Then how do you explain this?'

'Well, I can't, not yet. Unless of course, they collected railway stations.'

'That's ridiculous!'

'But not impossible, Peri. Not as impossible as the only other explanation.'

'What's that?'

'That somehow or other your planet and its entire constellation managed to s.h.i.+ft itself a couple of light-years across s.p.a.ce. After which, for some reason, it became known as Ravolox.'

'What time are we in?'

The Doctor produced a pocket chronometer and studied it. 'A long time after your period. Two million years or more.'

'So what happened to London?'

'Wiped out - if this was London, that is.'

'Oh, Doctor, I know it is - I can feel it!'

'Now don't get emotional,' said the Doctor severely.

'Don't get emotional?' Peri was outraged. 'This cinder we're standing on is all that's left of my world, everything I knew!'

Peri was near to tears.

In the Courtroom, the Doctor leaped to his feet. 'Why do I have to sit here watching Peri get upset, while two unsavoury adventurers bully a bunch of natives?'

The Valeyard said coldly, 'The reason will shortly be made clear, Doctor.'

The Doctor looked around the Courtroom. 'As a matter of interest, where is is Peri?' Peri?'

'Where you left her, Doctor.'

'Where's that?'

There was a note of mockery in the Valeyard's voice.

'You don't remember? Obviously a side-effect of being taken out of time. The amnesia should soon pa.s.s.'

The Inquisitor was becoming impatient with all this byplay. 'Shall we continue?' she enquired coldly.

It was more of a command than a request.

The Doctor sighed. 'Can't we just have the edited highlights?'

Very properly ignoring this frivolity, the a.s.sembled Time Lords turned their attention back to the screen.

The Doctor put his arm round Peri's shoulder. 'I know how you feel.'

'Do you?'

'Of course I do, Peri. But you've been travelling with me long enough to know that none of this really matters. Your world is safe.'

'This is still my world,' said Peri despairingly.

'Whatever the period. And I care about it. And all you do is talk about it as though we're in a planetarium.'

The Doctor sighed. That was the trouble with humans, he thought, they just didn't have the temporal perspective.

'I'm sorry... but look at it this way. Planets come and go, stars perish, matter disperses, coalesces, forms into other patterns. Nothing can be eternal.'

Peri sighed. 'I know what you mean. But I still want to get away from here.'

The Doctor rose and began roaming restlessly to and fro. 'I can't leave yet. There's a mystery here, questions to which I must have an answer...' He paused, staring intently at a section of wall. 'Look, Peri - come here!'

He was wrenching at a handle set into the wall. He heaved, and a door opened with a faint hiss of air.

'Hermetically sealed,' muttered the Doctor. He peered through. 'It seems to lead down to a lower level. Some of the original inhabitants might have survived down there.

Are you coming?'

Peri shook her head. 'No, I've seen enough. I'll wait for you at the entrance.' Peri sighed nostalgically, remembering her own time. 'Where they used to sell candy bars and newspapers...'

'All right. I shan't be long. Don't go wandering off. And be careful.'

The Doctor waved farewell and disappeared through the doorway. Peri turned away heading for the steps. Her foot turned on a fragment of rubble and she gave a little scream.

The Doctor popped out again. 'I said be careful!'

Satisfying himself that Peri was all right he disappeared through the doorway again.

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