Chapter One
De Flores's villa, South America 22nd November 1988.
A group of men in camouflage fatigues get out of a jeep and go to into a Spanish style villa. Inside, Nazi paraphernalia and old scrolls are scattered on a table. The Ride of the Valkyries blares out as a young man works at a computer. He completes the data input and the screen tells him - Landing Location Windsor Grid Ref 74W 32N November 23 1988. Outside on a balcony a silver haired man stands next to the record player. He picks up a modern bow to shoot a macaw in a nearby tree, then the young man comes out.
"Herr De Flores. Herr De Flores. Wonderful news," said a man named Karl.
Lady Peinforte's home, Windsor, England 1638.
In the grounds, a frowning woman in black velvet draws back a long bow while a man kneels at her feet. She misses the wood pigeon pecking at her lawn.
"Very good, my lady," said Richard.
They go inside to where an old man is working out calculations amid bubbling pots.
"How much longer?" asked Lady Peinforte.
"He cannot hear you, my lady," said Richard. "Shall I…"
"Leave him," Lady Peinforte interrupted. "There'll be time enough to punish his impertinence when he's finished."
Lady Peinforte takes an arrow from the fire irons.
"Put this with the others." Richard shrunk from her. "Are you so very feeble?" asked Lady Peinforte dirisively. "The poison cannot harm unless the arrow's tip should break the skin. Let who will steal my gold."
"And the silver arrow, my lady?" asked Richard.
"Leave that to me," Lady Peinforte replied. "You're sure the potion is well mixed?"
"On my life, ma'am. I guarantee it."
"Good. We await but the calculation. Perhaps the fee will speed matters."
Lady Peinforte takes a bag from the mantlepiece and throws it in front of her mathematician.
At De Flores's villa, De Flores enters the main room to speak to his troops, who have been given small glasses of drink. They stand to attention.
"Gentlemen. I wonder if even you can fully appreciate what this moment means. You're standing now at the turning point of history. The day of fulfillment of our mighty destiny is about to dawn. Fifty years ago, I stood at the side of the Fuehrer himself when he ordered the first giant step to greatness, just as now the moment approaches for the second and final one. It will be decisive, for this time, this time we must not fail. Gentlemen, I give you the Fourth Reich!"
"The Fourth Reich!" they all shouted.
"Herr De Flores, the aircraft is ready," said Karl.
"We leave at once," said De Flores.
As the men troop out, De Flores goes to a glass display case and removes a silver bow, then places it in a metal carrying case.
Out in space, a meteorite containing a statue starts to heat up.
Lady Peinforte's home
"My lady," said Richard, "there is but the final ingredient for the liquid wanting. For that I was thinking…"
"My lady?" interrupted the mathematician. "Lady Peinforte? I've finished."
"You have the answer?" asked Lady Peinforte.
"Yes, my lady," said the mathematician.
"Quickly, then. Tell me," said Lady Peinforte.
"The comet Nemesis will circle the heavens once every twenty five years," said the mathematician.
"Yes."
"It's trajectory, however, is decaying. This…"
"When will it land?"
"It will circle ever closer until finally it once again strikes the Earth at the point from which it originally departed, the meadow outside."
"When?"
"When. Oh, yes. Yes, of course. On the twenty third day of November in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty eight."
Black Jack's Mill - garden
The Courtney Pine Jazz quartet are playing to an appreciative audience in bright sunshine, including the Doctor, Nita and Ace. Ace is wearing a short sleeved t-shirt while Nita is rugged up in a parka.
"I could listen to them all afternoon," said Nita.
"And so we shall," said the Doctor.
Ace picks up the Daily Mirror with the headline Meteor Approaches England and reads the back page.
"Have you seen this?" asked Ace. "Charlton picked up three points."
"This is my favourite kind of jazz," said the Doctor. "Straight blowing."
The Doctor's pocket watch beeps.
"I hate people whose alarms go off during gigs," said Nita.
"What's this?" asked the Doctor, looking at his watch. "It's a reminder."
"Well, go on, then," said Ace.
"Well, obviously, at this precise moment it's a reminder to change course for another destination," said the Doctor.
He closes the ornately enamelled cover of the digital device.
"Where's that?" asked Nita.
"I've forgotten," said the Doctor. "Oh, we'll have to go back and find out."
"Oh, Professor!" complained Ace.
The Doctor and Nita walk off while Ace gets Courtney to give her an autograph.
"Excuse me, would you mind signing my tape?" asked Ace.
"Not at all," agreed Courtney.
"Thanks."
"Okay."
"Bye."
Ace joins the Doctor and Nita.
"Don't you find it embarrassing asking for autographs?" asked the Doctor.
"Not as embarrassing as forgetting what you set your alarm for," said Ace.
"Well, I probably arranged it centuries ago," said the Doctor.
Someone fires a silenced handgun at them from the hedge, but misses.
"Doctor!" shouted Nita.
"Get down!" shouted the Doctor.
They crouch, run, and hide by some trees.
"Who are they?" asked Ace.
"Couldn't see," replied the Doctor. "Quick, the Tardis."
As they run across a wooden bridge, a volley of shots sends them tumbling into the fast moving water.
Two men with guns wearing headphones come onto the bridge to check their handiwork. Seeing no one, they smile and leave. Then the Doctor, Nita and Ace surface, drift downstream a little and climb out.
"Hope my tape's all right," said Ace.
"Welcome home," said the Doctor.
Lady Peinforte's home
"I could build a flying machine," said the mathematician. "Imagine that, my lady. Human beings flying about like birds."
Lady Peinforte picks up the silver arrow. "We leave at once."
"Why, I can change the world," said the mathematician.
Riverside
Ace uses a catapult to fire stones across the river.
"Ace!" called the Doctor.
"Yeah?" asked Ace.
"Duck," said the Doctor.
Ace ducks. The Doctor shooes a duck out of the Tardis and brings a new cassette player with him.
"No, duck," said the Doctor.
"Oh, great," said Ace. "Now I can play my tape."
"Afraid not," said the Doctor.
"Why not?" asked Ace. "It's my tape deck. You built it for me."
"Yes, I know I built it for you to replace the one that was destroyed by the Daleks, but…"
"So? It's my tape deck and I want to play this."
"This is more than just a tape deck. And besides, we've more to worry about than just listening to your tape."
"Yeah," said Nita. "So who were they, anyway? Who'd want to kill us?"
"I'm afraid there's an infinite number of possibilities. What concerns me more is my alarm. Got to find out what it was supposed to be."
"Can't you remember anything about it?" asked Ace.
He inputs some data into the tape deck.
"I'm afraid not. Obviously the arrangements were made in rather a hurry. They are important. I've given them a terminal rating."
"Sounds nice," said Nita.
"It means that some planet somewhere faces imminent destruction."
"Crikey," said Ace.
"Quite."
He finishes his input and a hologram of a planet appears above the tape deck.
"That looks familiar," said the Doctor. "Earth."
Lady Peinforte's home
Lady Peinforte holds the silver arrow and on her wrist is a strange leather bracelet.
"Afraid?" asked Lady Peinforte.
"Yes, my lady."
"When I employed you, you lead me to believe you were a hardened criminal."
"As my lady knows, before I entered your service I was found guilty of a large number of offences."
"Then have the courage of your convictions."
She hooks her arm around Richard's, opens a flap on her bracelets and punches a button. There is a flash of blue light.
They both scream as an aurora envelopes and Lady Peinforte's home transforms into –
Black Jack's Mill - A restaurant complete with red checked tablecloths.
The customers look up, surprised as a pair of seventeenth century time travellers appear in their midst.
"Where are we, my lady?"
"Why, the very place we left, of course. My house in Windsor."
Riverside
"You mean the world's going to end and you've forgotten about it?" asked Nita.
"I've been busy."
"How long have you known?" asked Ace.
"Well, in strictly linear terms, as the chronometer flies, I've known since November the twenty third, 1638."
A silver spacecraft approaches Earth.
The Tardis materialises inside a cellar filled with junk, including a tiger's head. The Doctor strokes a stuffed bear and catches his hand on its teeth.
"Hello. Ow!"
"Look at all this stuff," said Nita.
"Yes, that's exactly what we've got to do, look at all this stuff," said the Doctor. "You two take that aisle."
"What's it all for?" asked Ace.
"Presents," said the Doctor.
"Nobody gets this many presents," said Nita.
"Well, if you were a lady who travelled."
"I am," said Nita.
"Yes, you're not always invited, but you are, you get presents, and then you need somewhere to store them."
"Who does it all belong to?" asked Ace. "I mean, where are we?"
"Windsor."
"Windsor?" asked Nita. "We're in the castle?"
The Doctor holds an African mask up.
"This is new."
"I thought it'd be a lot posher than this," said Ace.
"It probably is, upstairs, but we're in the vault."
The Doctor has put on a fez.
"I'm looking for a silver bow we want to borrow."
"We can't go nicking stuff in here," said Nita.
"It's only temporary."
"It's probably treason," said Ace. "I'm too young to go to the Tower."
"Listen, girls, do I have to remind you that the safety of the world is at stake?"
"It might make a difference if you'd let me know what was going on, Professor, but I suppose there's no time," said Ace.
"Precisely."
The lights flicker.
"There's even less time than I thought," said the Doctor. "Please, let's hurry."
The Doctor puts the fez on Ace.
Black Jack's Mill
"Nemesis," said Lady Peinforte. "She arrives."
The Doctor and the girls are in the cellar.
The meteorite crashes to earth by a barn. The Doctor catches a gilt bust that tumbles off a pedestal.
"Was that a bomb?" asked Nita.
"No, that was the return to Earth of a comet called Nemesis that has been in orbit for exactly three hundred and fifty years."
"You're amazing, Professor, being able to tell all that just from the noise," said Ace.
"Wasn't difficult, really. It was me who launched it into space in the first place. This may qualify as the worst miscalculation since life crawled out of the seas on this sad planet."
"Nobody's perfect," said Nita. "Hey, is this the bow?"
De Flores and Karl are in a van. The bow is in the case on De Flores's lap. The van stops.
"We're almost at Windsor, Herr De Flores," said Karl. "Shall I let the men walk around a little?"
"No, Karl. We must not keep history waiting."
At Black Jack's Mill, a police car zooms past, blues and twos on.
"My lady, what carriage is that?" asked Richard.
"Hurry," said Lady Peinforte. "The rogues will have the Nemesis."
"I've not seen the like of it before," said Richard. "We must take care."
"Oh, fie!" scoffed Lady Peinforte.
Lady Peinforte smashes the glass door with a chair.
Police are standing by the burning hole in the ground as the van pulls up nearby.
"Nemesis has come to Earth on that piece of ground," said De Flores. "In the new era, all this will be a shrine."
"The men are ready in two assault groups," said Karl. "I will remain with you. We await only your order."
"Very good. Let's drive to the best hotel and refresh ourselves."
"But Herr De Flores, there are only three policemen. We can take them now."
"You young people, always in such a hurry. Well, we were the same. Now, the statue is inside the meteor, which has just travelled through space. Have you any idea how hot it will be? How can we handle it? Since the British Government is completely unaware of its power, I'm sure we can rely on the police force to guard it safely until we're ready to collect it. I have every confidence in them."
In the cellar…
"The bow was in the case," said the Doctor.
Ace reads the description.
"Ah. This case contained the bow of Nemesis, property of the Crown, which disappeared mysteriously in 1788. Legend has it that unless a place is kept for the bow in the Castle, the entire silver statue will return to destroy the world."
"For once legend is absolutely correct. It has just returned."
The lights go out.
"Oh, now this," said the Doctor.
"It's just the electricity," said Nita.
The lights come on again.
"It does that sometimes, even in the 1980s," said Ace. "What I want to know is, how can a statue destroy the world?"
"I'll tell you three hundred and fifty years ago."
Ace puts the fez back by the drawing of the statue with its bow and arrow.
At Lady Peinforte's home, the Tardis materialises on the upstairs landing, blowing out the candles. The Doctor, Nita and Ace tiptoe out, then Ace sneezes.
"Shush," said the Doctor.
"Sorry, Professor."
"There might be someone at home," said the Doctor.
"Okay, Professor. So where are we now?"
"Windsor, of course. Only a few hundred yards from the Castle."
"And is it really 1638?" asked Nita.
"It certainly is. And furthermore, don't move."
"What?"
"Stay where you are."
The Doctor goes to the Mathematician, who is slumped over the table, asleep, and covers him up.
"Who does this house belong to, anyway?" asked Ace.
"A lady."
"She's got funny ideas about home furnishings," said Nita.
"Lady Peinforte's nothing if not original. I'm afraid this poor man was employed for his useful rather than his ornamental qualities. He's a scholar. He's done remarkably well. In a matter of months since I was last here, he's calculated the exact time and date when a comet called Nemesis will land on this planet. The twenty third of November…"
"1988," finished Ace.
"And Lady Peinforte's rewarded him with her usual generosity."
"So the bow belonged to her?" asked Nita.
"Hmm? Oh, no, no. Not to her. To a statue of her. She made the statue from the silver metal that fell out of the sky into that meadow out there."
He goes to the chess board.
"Hmm, this game is going rather badly."
"Professor."
"Don't worry. There's no one here now, apart from our sleeping friend. Lady Peinforte's around all right, in Windsor, but three hundred and fifty years in the future."
At the crash site, a policeman uses his radio.
"What means yon fellows?" asked Richard. "One speaks into his hand."
"He summons guards," said Lady Peinforte. "Oh, this cannot be."
"Why so upset, my lady?"
"Because, fool, they will protect the Nemesis, and we know not their strength and weapons."
"But, my lady, they know not what the comet is. Without the arrow, it is nothing. We must but watch and wait our chance to seize it."
"Thou art not in all wise so useless, Richard."
"My lady is too kind."
"We shall withdraw and conceal ourselves."
"Three one eight to base," said the policeman. "Hey look, there's someone inside."
At Lady Peinforte's home…
"How can she get to 1988?" asked Nita.
"She uses the silver arrow, of course, and she had some basic rudimentary technology for time travel. A vortex manipulator, actually."
"Vortex manipulator?" asked Ace.
"Mmm, don't know how she got it."
"So it wasn't just silver, this stuff that fell from the sky?" asked Nita.
"Unfortunately, Lady Peinforte discovered it was something rather more unusual. A living metal. Validium."
"Living metal?" asked Ace.
"Yes, with just one purpose. Destruction."
"But if you launched it into space, how come it's capable of destruction?" asked Ace.
"Later, Ace."
At the crash site, the police car won't start.
"Don't bother trying again, it looks like the battery's dead," said one of the policemen.
A silver periscope pushes up through the soil.
"Hello? Hello?" called a policeman.
And more of them. They spray gas and the policemen collapse.
At Windsor Castle, a bevy of tourists are on the tour, in front of a sentry box containing a red coated soldier.
"You see here the guard," said the tour guide. "They're changed quite regularly. Of course, they're only changed in winter time. They normally stand here all the time in summer time. Now, will you follow me, please, ladies and gentlemen?"
The Tardis materialises by the curtain wall, unnoticed.
"I've been here before," said Ace.
"Deja vu?" asked the Doctor.
"No, with the school."
"Oh, very droll. I haven't been here since they were building the place. You remember the way around?"
"Not really. Windsor Castle's a big place."
"Quite right. What we need's a guide. Come on."
They join the tour.
"…Tower, and also further over there is the Mary Tudor Tower," said the guide. "Those gargoyles have been there for about five hundred years. They were built in 1509 originally, and the…"
The Doctor, Nita and Ace follow a sign saying No Admittance, Royal Apartments.
In the Courtyard…
"I really don't think we should be doing this," said Nita.
"This way?" asked the Doctor. "What do you think?"
"I don't know," answered Ace. "I might be able to tell if I actually knew where we were going. We didn't actually cover the Royal residential areas on the school trip. There's someone coming."
A lady with a pack of Corgis around her ankles.
"Act as if you own the place," advised the Doctor.
"Do what?" asked Ace.
"It always works. We own the place."
"Doctor!" exclaimed Nita.
"How annoying," said the Doctor. I can't place that woman for the life of me."
"Doctor!"
Ace pulls the Doctor behind a buttress, then the woman and her dogs go back inside.
"It's all right, Ace. I know that woman from somewhere."
Ace whispers to him behind the stone.
"What! Why didn't you say something?"
"You wouldn't let me."
"She's just the woman we need. Quick, after her. Ah ha!"
They followed the Queen inside and along a landing.
"It'll be very useful to have the armed forces and the police on our side, and can you suggest a better person to ask?"
"Come on," said Nita.
"There's no alternative."
The Doctor is about to knock on a door with a crown on it, when it is opened by a stern man with beard.
At the crash site…
"I am in a nightmare, or mad," said Richard.
"This is no madness," said Lady Peinforte. "Tis England."
"But the noise, lady. The foul air."
Lady Peinforte holds out her hand for the long bow.
"Yes, my lady. What will my lady do when you possess the Nemesis?"
"Why, first have revenge on that predictable little man. He will soon arrive, Richard. Oh yes, I expect him. This time there'll be a reckoning with the nameless Doctor whose power is so secret, for I have found his secret out. In good time, I will speak it. I shall be his downfall."
On the landing…
"I've got to speak to her," said the Doctor.
"Be quiet," said the security guard. "We'll have a doctor here soon."
"But I am a doctor!"
"Don't get excited. How did you get in here?"
"I could tell you, but you won't believe me."
"Try me."
"I travelled through time and space."
"Oh dear, oh dear."
"Oh yes, very well, then. Let's forget about the armed forces."
"But the Queen?" asked Nita.
"Are you a patient with him?"
"Now, you'd better listen to him, weasel features, 'cos he's the Doctor," said Ace.
"Oh, is he?"
"Listen, the fate of every living creature on this planet hangs in the balance," said the Doctor.
"I don't believe you."
The Doctor puts on a pair of round glasses.
"You will believe me. You will let us go. You will not move." To Ace and Nita: "You will move."
The security men remain still as the Doctor, Nita and Ace head for the stairs.
"How did you do that?" asked Nita.
"It's easy once you know how. You have to make a spectacle of yourself."
"Hey!" called the security guard.
"Only trouble is, it doesn't last long."
The men with the guns and the ear defenders have arrived at the crash site. One turns over a tape in his Walkman, then energy zaps their ear phones.
In a gallery, the Doctor stops in front of a painting.
"Oh look, a Van Dyck," said the Doctor.
"Not now, Doctor," said Nita.
They push through the tour group.
"Pardon me, pardon me, pardon me," said Ace.
"Excuse me," said the security guard.
The Doctor, Nita and Ace make it to the top of another staircase.
"What now?" asked Nita.
"Back to the Tardis. We're obviously not going to get any help here."
As they run down the stone staircase, Ace stops at a Gainsborough-like painting of a lady.
"Professor, that's me."
"What? Gosh, so it is. My goodness, what a good likeness."
"How come I ended up here?"
"Well, it hasn't happened yet."
"But it's two hundred years ago."
"I know. We haven't done it. That's why you don't remember it."
"It doesn't make sense."
"Well, it did to Louis Armstrong, but then he really understood time."
"There they are," said the security guard. "Come on."
At the crash site, the neo-Nazis arrive and take up positions around the Nemesis. De Flores has changed into army uniform. His men find the fallen police.
"Herr De Flores, I don't understand how the police have already been overcome," said Karl.
"That is of no importance," said De Flores. "All that matters is the Nemesis is safe."
Karl places the box on the meteorite and opens it. The bow throbs with energy, and so does the statue inside the rock.
"Your strength returns," said De Flores. "Soon you will be completely restored. But where's the arrow? The arrow, where is it?"
The Tardis materialises by the barn.
"Find it!" demanded De Flores. "Find it!"
"I only hope we're not too late," said the Doctor.
The Doctor, Nita and Ace run up behind the soldiers.
"Er, don't be afraid," said the Doctor. "We won't harm you."
"How did you get here?" asked Karl. "I searched that section, there was no one there."
"Never mind, Karl," said De Flores. "You will see many signs and wonders in the days to come. Give me the arrow of Nemesis."
"Fortunately, I haven't seen it since 1638, when it disappeared along with the good Lady Peinforte," said the Doctor.
"Rubbish," said De Flores, turning to Ace. "You. Where is the arrow?"
"I don't know anything about it."
"She really doesn't," said the Doctor. "Allow me to explain, Ace."
The Doctor turns his back on the soldiers and stands in front of Ace.
"For the validium to become active, it must have a sufficient quantity of critical mass. The statue alone is no good without the bow…"
"I have the bow," said De Flores.
"And the arrow," continued the Doctor. "Now, if someone could put the bow and arrow into the statue's hands."
"They have the power of life and death, not only over this Earth but any planet in existence," said De Flores. "You seem remarkably well-informed for someone who claims to know nothing."
"I simply notice what is obvious," said the Doctor. "You, apparently, don't."
"What do you mean?"
"You see those policemen there? They've been attacked by technology more advanced and more terrible than you could imagine."
"What technology?" asked Karl.
"And you might also have observed the electricity supply being drained over the last few days."
"Like at the Castle?" asked Nita.
"Yes."
"Tell me where the arrow is," said De Flores. "I want you to tell me where to find the arrow!"
"I'm glad to say I can't."
"Then we will shoot her." De Flores pointed to Ace.
"Doctor."
A silver spacecraft comes in to land.
"Wait," said De Flores.
"Don't move!" said the Doctor.
Figures march out of the spacecraft.
"They saved my life," said Ace.
"Don't thank them yet," said the Doctor. "We might live to regret it."
"What are they?" asked Nita.
"Cybermen."