Chapter Three:
The Doctor entered the coordinates to the Gatehouse as Roland recited them. The central column of the Tardis console bobbed up and down as the ship dematerialized and began making a terrible grinding noise. Roland covered his ears, and was quite surprised to see that the Doctor and Nyssa were not bothered by it at all.
"Does it always do that?" he asked, his ears still covered.
"Yes," Nyssa replied with a sigh. "Although I don't think it's supposed to."
The Doctor huffed and looked up from the controls. "It's perfectly normal, I assure you. The Tardis has always made this sound. You won't have to listen to it much longer, Roland; we're nearly to this 'Gatehouse' of yours."
The noise stopped with a metallic 'thud' and the console stood still. The Doctor flipped a switch and the thin cover over the mounted screen lifted to reveal the scenery outdoors.
"That can't be right," he frowned. "You don't live on a desert planet do you, Roland?"
Roland groaned. The scanner showed a dusty valley with orange soil and a yellow sky above it. Part of the valley had been cut into a small canyon by a series of floods centuries before, but no sign of water remained now.
"Oh well, we'll just try again. The Tardis must have been unable to process your coordinates," the Doctor offered.
"Hold on!" Nyssa interrupted. She squinted at the screen and then pointed at a smudge across the canyon. "That looks like a village," she said. "Perhaps the Tardis took us here for a reason. Shouldn't we take a look?"
The Doctor turned and opened the Tardis doors to get a better view of the 'village'. Roland let out a sigh, knowing there was a large chance he wouldn't make it home that day, and all because Nyssa decided the time ship was sentient. It wasn't really, was it?
"That does look like a settlement," the Doctor agreed. "but I'd say it's more of a military base than a village." He ran to take a peek out the door, with Nyssa and Roland following close behind.
"You don't suppose there's a war on, do you?" Roland asked. "The base looks a bit tattered, but... still equipped, like it's seen action recently."
"Could be. Let's have a look."
The Doctor locked the Tardis doors behind them and they began their descent into the valley. The slopes were surprisingly steep, Roland thought, and the rocks around them looked as if they had been half-eaten by a colossal beast. He briefly wondered what could have caused this formation before marching on behind Nyssa and the Doctor.
"Are you certain walking straight towards a military base is a good idea?" Roland questioned. "They might think we're enemies and shoot at us."
"No, we're not their enemies, and I think they'll know that," the Doctor insisted. "This is a human colony facing terrestrial attack."
"You mean, like the opposite of an alien invasion?" Roland squinted his eyes, looking around for something that could have given such information away. He saw nothing. "How can you be so sure?"
They were now mere yards away from the gate, and a sentryman shouted from a watchtower above them. Roland fidgeted, wanting to run away, but the Doctor assured him the guard was only alerting the commander.
"Besides, I told you, we're not their enemies. They won't shoot at us." He knocked on the gate and gestured to the corroding walls. "Do you see that? That's the same corrosion pattern as the rocks around us. It's caused by acid."
"Acid? Their enemies are fighting with acid?" Nyssa asked. "That's certainly an unusual type of warfare."
"No, not fighting with it. Their enemies are acid," the Doctor corrected. Two soldiers opened the gate as he explained. "They're Enkavans."
A stern-looking woman stepped through the gateway and pointed a large gun at the Doctor's head. "Who are you and what do you know of the creatures?" she demanded.
"Ah." The Doctor raised his hands in surrender and glanced at Roland, who was glaring back at him. "You must be the person in charge."
"Commander Koldoff."
"Pleasure to meet you, Commander Koldoff. I'm the Doctor." He lowered his arm to shake hands with the commander, but raised it again when she glared at it. "My friends and I were just passing by and noticed your base was recently attacked. We saw traces of acid corrosion and assumed it was the Enkavans. We thought we might be able to help."
The commander eyed the newcomers suspiciously before ordering the soldiers at the gate to search them for weapons. When none were found, she gestured for the Doctor and his companions to follow her into the base.
"You must be new to this planet if you don't carry weapons," she said, leading them through the grounds. "And yet you seem to know a great deal about the Enkavans. Why is that?"
"Well, I'm a space traveler," the Doctor began. "I've been traveling for some time now, and I have a lot of experience with interplanetary creatures. The Enkavans are one of many creatures I have encountered before."
"And your friends? Have they encountered the Enkavans before?"
"Well, no-"
"Then they are of no use on this base," the Commander interrupted. She turned to a nearby soldier. "Take these two to the bunker. Have an armed guard watch them."
"That really won't be-"
Commander Koldoff turned and shouted menacingly at the Doctor. "This is a fully functional military settlement. We cannot have useless civilians wandering about the grounds. You were permitted to enter for two reasons only: you have information on the Enkavans, and we don't want three more bodies to bury."
By this time Roland was staring up the barrel of the soldier's space gun, and Nyssa was squeezing the life out of his left hand. "Sorry to interrupt," he said, "but Nyssa and I might still be able to help the Doctor with his equipment."
Koldoff faced him and gestured for the soldier to lower his gun. "You may assist the Doctor on one condition: you have two or more armed soldiers with you at all times." She looked at the Doctor. "Are we agreed?"