Chapter 3

Nita and Yvonne sat in their seats in the front row of the Biology lab. They heard the phone ring and Mr Lucas answered it.

A few minutes later, a petite dark-haired young woman, stepped hesitantly into the room. Mr Lucas beckoned her over. He turned to the class.

"This is Miss Brown," said Mr Lucas. "She will be taking Miss Phillips' place in my classes. Miss Brown, we have been studying plant biology."

Peri's eyes lit up. Botany was her specialty! It was what she had been studying in university when she met the Doctor. Maybe she would be able to handle this after all!

After class, Peri approached Nita and Yvonne. "Do you know what happened to Miss Phillips?" she asked.

"All we know is that she went missing," replied Nita. "Have you heard anything more?"

"No," replied Peri. She swallowed nervously. Here was the hard part. "Do you think there was something unusual about her disappearance?"

"What do you mean?" asked Nita.

"I mean, people often assume that when someone goes missing, that they've run off with some guy, or their boyfriend or some stranger murdered them," replied Peri. "But what if there's some other explanation?"

"Like what?" asked Nita.

"Well, has anyone seen anything strange lately?"

"Strange?"

"Like, I don't know, lights in the sky or something?"

Nita was startled. Yvonne scoffed. "Ok, I'm going," said Yvonne, walking off.

"I know, it sounds stupid," said Peri. "Never mind, pretend I didn't say anything." She turned away.

"No, wait!" said Nita, grabbing Peri's arm. "I saw something, a few weeks ago."

"What?" asked Peri, eagerly.

"My cousin and I had been looking for Halley's Comet," explained Nita. "Then we noticed what looked like a cloud that kind of blotted out the stars. The object flew across the sky quite quickly. It seemed to have 'blobs' around the edges. My cousin told me not to tell anyone because they wouldn't believe me."

"I'll let you in on a little secret," Peri whispered. "I believe you."

"You do?" asked Nita, surprised.

"Tell me exactly when and where you saw this object," said Peri.

"Well, I was at Chermside," replied Nita. "And we were looking towards the East, so I suppose that was over the bay? And then it travelled sort of south, so I don't know, Logan? I don't know where it went after that."

"And when exactly was this?" asked Peri.

"Last month sometime," said Nita, vaguely. "I can't remember exactly."

"Well, did you write it down or something?"

"Oh yeah, probably," said Nita.

"Well, can you find out?"

"Ok, I'll have a look in my diary and tell you tomorrow," agreed Nita. She turned and went to her next class.

Peri went to the staff room at lunch time. She instantly caught sight of a rainbow coloured jacket in the corner at the tea urn. She walked up to its wearer.

"Doctor?"

"You were expecting someone else?" asked the Doctor, turning around.

Peri rolled her eyes. "So how are you enjoying being a teacher?"

The Doctor groaned. "I nearly choked someone!" he cried. "Those children are a nightmare!"

"Well, I found out something interesting," said Peri.

"Really?"

Peri told the Doctor what Nita had said about the phenomenon in the sky.

"I'd like to speak to this Nita," said the Doctor, quietly. "The phenomenon might be connected to Miss Phillips' disappearance."

"All right," said Peri. "I'll try to arrange something tomorrow. She's going to read her diary to refresh her memory of the details."

The next day, Peri met Nita outside the Biology classroom before class. "Nita, I have a friend who wants to talk to you about the lights you saw in the sky."

"Oh?" asked Nita, a bit worried. "Who is it?"

"He's the new science teacher, Doctor Smith," explained Peri. "Can you come up to the staff room at lunch time?"

"I suppose so," replied Nita, hesitantly. She was beginning to regret saying anything to Miss Brown about this. She didn't know anything about this new teacher, and she was looking forward to sitting and talking to her friends at lunch time. But this could be important, so she had better go.

At the end of her Maths lesson, at the beginning of lunch time, Nita turned to her friend Malcolm. "Mal, I have to go talk to my Science teacher about something. I'll see you later, ok?" She took off towards the staffroom. Malcolm watched her go, puzzled. He shrugged his shoulders and headed off to join their friends.

Nita arrived at the staffroom and knocked on the door. Peri, who had been expecting her, answered it. "Hi Nita," she greeted. She beckoned to the Doctor to join them. "Let's go for a walk, shall we?" Peri suggested.

The three of them went down the stairs, and walked through the grassy area in the middle of the school.

"So, Nita, Peri tells me you saw some lights in the sky a while ago," began the Doctor. "I'm very interested in that sort of thing. Would you like to tell me what you saw?"

Although Nita felt a little intimidated by Doctor Smith, (he was so tall), she also felt compelled to talk to him. So she told him everything that she had seen that night.

As Nita related her story, the Doctor had a bad feeling about the description of the ship. It sounded very familiar to him. It sounded a bit like a ship he had seen quite recently. He really hoped that he was wrong.

"And when exactly did you see this?" asked the Doctor.

"Oh, right, I looked up my diary," replied Nita. "It was on April 12th."

"A month ago," pondered the Doctor. "Would they wait around for a month? Or did they take others before Sharron?"

"Who?" asked Nita.

"I'm not sure yet," replied the Doctor. "But I will find out. Thank you for your help, Nita."

"That's ok," replied Nita, heading back to her friends.

"What do you think, Doctor?" asked Peri.

"That ship sounds like the one we encountered on Necros," replied the Doctor.

"The Dalek ship?" exclaimed Peri, horrified.