TONTINE
Part 12
1st Doctor
'A Week in the Death of Ian Chesterton'
The diary of Barbara Wright, schoolteacher.
Sunday
Ian died today.
I can't believe I am forcing myself to write these terrible words.
Everybody knew we were in love. That when the Doctor finally got us home we would pop off and get married. Mr and Mrs Chesterton. It sounded so right.
But you know what, dear diary? I never even told Ian that I loved him. Nor did he tell me. It was just understood.
I loved him ever since that first day at Coal Hill School, when I got my skirt caught in the door frame and he had so gallantly rescued me from my embarrassment. Of course that was nothing compared to the countless times he had ridden to the rescue once we set off with the Doctor and Susan on our madcap trip around the universe.
The Doctor and Susan.
She is hysterical, of course. I always knew she had a teenage crush on Ian.
The Doctor tries to be reserved, almost 'British' about it. Even when I pleaded with him to do something magical. Turn back time or take the Ship back so that we could rescue Ian. The old man had patted my head and dried my tears. But in the end he shook his head.
I can't write any more now. I feel so very tired and alone.
Ian died today.
Monday
I told Ian once that I was keeping this diary. He said it made no sense.
He was right of course. The pages are headed, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday etc. but they are just convenient spaces in a book. I don't know what day it is, what year or what century.
But you tell me, diary, it was a Monday when I went back to the place where Ian had died. Susan came with me. We supported each other as we looked out from the pretty shingle and sand beach, out over the deep blue water. In the sky a ringed moon was sinking towards the horizon. It was quite beautiful really but neither Susan or I were in the mood to appreciate it.
The Doctor had stayed in the Tardis. He said he had no time for sentimentality and he need to work on the Ship. I could have hit him, except I thought he was only acting the part of a gruff old man.
According to the Doctor we were somewhere in the Mezon galaxy and it was here, billions of miles from home that Ian had died, blown to atoms. We couldn't even bury him.
When Susan and I returned to the Ship the Doctor told us that his repairs were going well. We would be able to leave soon.
I dread it.
Tuesday
Today, we had a stand up row, the Doctor and I. He had came out to where I was sitting, looking out over the horizon, lost in thought.
He told me the Ship was nearly ready. I told him I didn't want to go and leave Ian here. He told me there was nothing left to leave. He got angry. I got angry. His mouth twitched and he tapped at a rock with his walking cane. He said the Tardis was leaving soon, with or without me. I screamed insults at him as he walked away.
After I had calmed down I went to the beach.
The metal disc was still there on the sand, half-buried, dull and lifeless. I shuddered as I saw the scene in my head. It was seared in there. When Ian had stepped onto the disc inadvertently as we explored and it had crackled and blazed with electricity. The look on surprise Ian's blessed face as he had vanished, his atoms blown to the wind.
Later on, when the crying had stopped, the Doctor speculated that it was some kind of weapon, like a land-mine.
As I looked at that disc, dear diary, I determined that I was going to join my darling. I couldn't face leaving him here, alone. I lifted my foot to take the final step when I saw him.
Ian
Or at least his ghost. Standing on the disc but almost transparent. He mouthed to me but there were no words. He then blinked out, like somebody had turned off a switch.
I ran back to the Ship and explained to the Doctor and Susan what I had seen.
Susan came over and hugged me.
Pity. I could see it in both their eyes. They thought I was hallucinating.
The Doctor said we would be taking off in an hour.
Wednesday
Well, we didn't take off yesterday because I sabotaged the Tardis!
I know very little about the controls, just the door button really. But I remembered how the Doctor sabotaged the Ship himself, back on Skaro. So, dear diary, when the Doctor and Susan left me alone in the Control Room for a moment I wrenched open a panel and pulled out the fluid link. Then I opened the door and ran outside.
I hid the fluid link. I won't say where in case the Doctor reads this. Then I went down to the beach again.
After a while I could hear Susan calling for me. I ran across some pebbly shingle and hid in the dunes.
She tried to find me for a long time before giving up and leaving. I was wondering where her grandfather was when I turned around and bumped into him! Such was my fatigue, grief, fear and surprise that I fainted at his feet.
Thursday
Don't give up on me, my darling. I am all around you. You need to get back to the beach. I will be waiting. I.
I was in my room aboard the Ship when I awoke. I can only guess that the Doctor and Susan had carried me back. I don't remember any of it.
But when I saw the message above I ran screaming into the Control Room.
Susan and the Doctor read it. It was Susan who pointed out that the message was in my handwriting. She was right, and I admitted as much. But I couldn't remember writing it. I tried to convince them that it was Ian, somehow, but the Doctor wouldn't talk to me until I returned the fluid link. I asked Susan for help and, left to her own devices I think she would have, but the Doctor forbade it. He turned his back on me and I left the Ship alone.
Friday
Oh day of days! I must write it all down while it is fresh in my mind.
When I got to the disc on the beach Ian was floating there again, shimmering like smoke. I was sorely tempted to run back to the Ship and fetch the others but his ghostly figure was mouthing something. This time I could make it out. He wanted me to fetch the Doctor's fluid link!
Puzzled, I ran back to the clump of rocks by the Tardis where I had hidden it. When I got back to the disc on the beach Ian was gone and my spirits plunged. Then, dear diary, the strangest, most wonderful thing! The fluid link twitched in my hand. Almost by itself it pointed at the disc. It was like a divining rod detecting water.
Then there was an electric flash between the fluid link and the disc.
I was momentarily blinded, but when my vision cleared. Ian was standing next to me!
I may have fainted again. I'm sure you can understand that. When I was compos mentis again we hugged and I cried in buckets. Over by the the disc there was movement. Together we watched as a glass sphere, the size of a football, slowly rose into the sky before shooting away like a rocket.
I wanted to know everything. Ian made me promise that I would say nothing to the Doctor and Susan about the glass sphere we had just seen. I couldn't understand why, but he seemed adamant and I agreed.
We sat on the sand. I wouldn't let him go, of course. Ian told me that the disc on the beach had been part of a defence system installed by a vastly advanced race, thousands of years ago. They had lived on this island and been threatened with invasion. But their beliefs forbade the taking of life so their scientists invented a way of displacing the invaders in time.
I didn't really understand it and Ian said neither did he. The sphere had told him all this.
When the invasion took place the defences were activated and the invaders were shifted half a second out of phase. Nobody was killed but they were all placed in a kind of prison in time where they could do no harm.
I protested that the island was uninhabited. Ian said that this all happened millenia ago. Both the islanders and the invaders had long since gone.
When Ian trod on the disc he was also displaced. The only thing in his time-prison was the glass orb, which was similarly trapped, having landed on the beach and activated the disc itself.
The orb had communicated with Ian telepathically and directed him to get me to bring the fluid link. For some reason it would help the orb break out of the time-prison. Something to do with the power from the Doctor's Ship, Ian said.
By this time my head was swimming, but I couldn't wait to see the Doctor's face!
Saturday
You can only imagine the uproar when Ian and I returned to the Ship. Susan screamed the place down and took a flying leap into Ian's arms. The Doctor, to give him his due, beamed like a lighthouse and even got Ian's name right! As I handed over the fluid link I apologised but he smiled beneficently and gave me a massive hug. That was all I needed from him.
Whilst the Ship was being powered up Ian gave the Doctor and Susan a carefully guarded account of his time away. I could see that the Doctor was foaming at the mouth for more detail but Ian pleaded exhaustion and we went away to the living quarters.
There, Ian told me that he had read my diary. He apologised for doing so. But then he said the words I longed to hear.
(End of Part 12)