Chapter 3
She looked around her, fighting the urge to panic.
The walls of this corridor were brown like the ceiling, and were as featureless as the white corridor she had been in a moment ago. Behind her was a solid wall with no hint of a way through, but ahead of her –about thirty yards away -was a single red door. She waited a moment, reaching out to the nearby walls to check they were as solid as they looked, before taking a deep breath and walking slowly towards the door.
The Doctor and Alph were standing in a small space, rather like the inside of a lift. The walls were blank – with no sign of a door. There was a low ceiling above them now, just above the height of The Doctor's head. He looked around him in a whirl
"Donna! Donna! Donnaaaaa!" he yelled, his voice bouncing straight back at him from the crowding walls. He whipped out the Sonic and played it over all the surfaces, finding no hint of a way to break through.
"I don't think she'll be able to hear you!" supplied Alph. "Noise never seems to pass through these walls!"
After a minute or two, The Doctor gave up trying to find a way out, and sank down to the floor, resting his back against the wall. Alph joined him.
"If there's no way out, then either we wait for a reconfiguration, or for ….something to happen".
The Doctor looked at him.
" Something being….?" he queried.
"Could be anything really …and probably not good!" was Alph's reply.
They sat in silence for a few minutes.
Nothing happened.
The Doctor started to get a bit twitchy. He hated being useless and immobile – especially when someone potentially needed his help.
He put his head back against the wall and closed his eyes for a moment. This was Donna Noble, he reminded himself. Woe betide anything that tried to inconvenience her! He smiled to himself, despite his frustration. He turned his head to Alph.
"As we're stuck here, you could start telling me who created this Maze, and how come you got yourself thrown in here"
Alph sighed.
"It's a long story! After you left us, the Government of the Second Republic set about trying to ensure they were never again in the position of fighting spies and traitors from within our own society. They passed all sorts of laws which meant citizens could be monitored wherever they were, and whatever they were doing. They threw huge amounts of money at developing the technologies to help them to do it -and also at developing ever more complex punishments!"
"Like The Maze?" supplied The Doctor
"Like The Maze!" agreed Alph.
"So how come you ended up falling foul of the system?" prompted The Doctor.
"I believe people are entitled to a bit of privacy" Alph continued. "A group I belong to have been looking for ways to avoid surveillance –not for anything political –just to allow people space to be themselves once in a while. They caught up with me at this club I run –realised I was one of the founding members of the group –and decided that I should suffer the full force of the law. As an example to others, I guess. So – The Maze it was!"
The Doctor nodded – he had never taken interference by authorities well himself.
He looked around the room, wondering how long they had before 'something' happened.
Donna reached the red door at the end of the corridor. She took a deep breath, exhaled quickly, then breathed in deeply, before reaching her hand out gingerly and grasping the smooth round handle firmly. There was a small 'click' as it turned. She bit her lip, and pulled the door towards her.
Ahead of her was a small lobby area, with an identical door directly opposite her. Between her door and the one opposite were a number of green laser beams shining at angles across the space.
She fished in her pocket, and pulled out a crumpled tissue she found in the lining. She gently lobbed it into the space, so that it fell through one of the beams. There was a green flash of light, and all that was left of the tissue were a few burnt pieces of ash, floating to the floor.
"Great!" she said out loud.
She turned and looked down the corridor behind her. Nothing had changed. She felt around the doorway looking for any hidden buttons or catches. Nothing. She studied the inside of the lobby, but could see nothing helpful. She had just about given up trying to find a way through, when there was a loud 'thwunk!'
Instantly the laser beams all disappeared. For a moment Donna stood frozen to the spot, not knowing what to do – then a panic that they were about to switch back on spurred her forwards, and she leapt across the space, grabbed the opposite door handle and yanked it open. She was through the door and shutting it behind her before the decision had fully formed in her mind. She found herself in a long corridor, identical to the one she had just left. There was a door behind her, but otherwise nothing but brown walls and brown ceiling, stretching away before her.
The Doctor and Alph became aware of a low whirring noise somewhere within the walls around them.
"Looks like we're about to experience your 'something' after all!" said The Doctor, looking around for a clue as to what was happening.
They realised, a moment later, that the whole room was beginning to tip. Their feet, as they sat leaning on a wall, began to rise up as if the room was pivoting round a central point. Before they had a chance to scramble into a better position, the wall behind them suddenly gave way completely.
They tumbled head over heels through the hole and continued sliding and rolling down a sloping tunnel, before dropping down through some sort of trapdoor. The Doctor came to rest on something soft.
Well, mainly soft…
A very familiar voice growled
"Get your elbow out of my stomach Doctor! And that's my ear you have your foot stuck in!"
The Doctor shook himself, and pulled himself to a more upright position.
"Just thought we'd drop by, you know!"
The look in Donna's eye showed how glad, despite her protestations to the contrary, she was to see him!
