4. No Phone Signal.
Ommera is making minor repairs to Tardis circuits with the Doctor. Her phone rings and she answers it. "Meran, on Earth, when?" she says… "Death?" she screams.
Ommera had grown up with Meran, and they had been good schoolfriends.
The Doctor drops the circuit board he had been upgrading, it shatters on impact with the ground. He is already running towards Ommera. He grabs Ommera's phone, "Doctor here, who is it?" As the phone fails to respond he looks at the screen. No Signal!
The Doctor aims his sonic screwdriver at the phone and it instantly chirps; then the Doctor runs to the Console and plugs the screwdriver in and traces the last known connection signal to Earth. "Swindon, if I'm not mistaken. What does Meran want in Swindon? A job?"
Ommera looks at the Doctor. "Please could you check just when? I asked him when but he said something about death."
The Doctor checks the signal time. "Tardis, isn't that about the time of Earth Death?"
Information about Earth Death litters the Console monitor screen.
The Doctor reads off, "Earth Death minus TWO minutes!"
"Earth Death?" Ommera asks. "What's that?"
"My dear, it's the last moment that any life on Earth has a chance of existing on the surface."
"And Meran's there?" Ommera asks incredulously.
"So it would appear," the Doctor says calmly.
"He can't be!" Ommera squeaks desperately.
"My dear, it was definitely a call for help," the Doctor says. "We must go, but we can go with caution."
"What caution would we use?" Ommera asks anxiously.
"Let's start with invisibility," the Doctor says.
"But who would be there to see us?" Ommera asks.
"Whoever placed Meran there," the Doctor says. "It must be an enemy."
"Using Meran as hostage?!" Ommera squeaks. She is desperately afraid for Meran, and now she is becoming afraid for all of them.
"Bait!" the Doctor says. "I'll try to enclose Meran,". He tweaks so many settings, Ommera has never seen the Doctor this agitated. "Bother, the Master's Tardis is there and he's standing right next to it. I can't enclose him."
"Could we land just a few feet away so he can run to our open door?" Ommera asks.
"I'm trying that, but we must be very close," the Doctor says. "Prepare to open the door and mind the heat! It's over Sixty degrees out there!"
"Now!" the Doctor says.
Ommera opens the Tardis door, they are only two feet away from Meran. Ommera reaches and grabs Meran and hauls him inside. The Tardis door slams shut.
"Wow," the Doctor says. "That wasn't us slamming the door, I think it was the Master. If you'd needed to go any further away you would have been shut out of my Tardis by the Master! Then we'd have been in difficulty!"
Ommera hugs her friend, Meran. "I'm so glad to have you," she says.
A high wind roars outside the Tardis which begins shaking violently. The noise from the wind passing the Tardis becomes almost deafening.
"The Solar Flare has arrived," the Doctor shouts. "The Solar Flare that removes every last living thing from Earth. Satellites have been holding Solar flares off for years, but they can't do that for ever. Instead of Sixty degrees it's a million degrees outside. We're almost completely inside the Sun! Let's go!"
The Doctor tries but the Tardis can't move. "Bother," the Doctor says. "The Master is denying us the ability to go."
"But we'll fry!" Ommera screams.
"We're in the shadow of the Master's Tardis," Meran points out. "His Tardis may give up first."
"Good point," the Doctor shouts. "I'll shrink my Tardis so it's not taking the force of the wind caused by the Solar Flare so much."
An image of the Master briefly appears in the Tardis but breaks up and evaporates.
"He's trying to communicate, but he's unlikely to succeed inside a Solar Flare," the Doctor shouts above the noise.
Finally, the Master's Tardis departs, and the Doctor can take his own Tardis away from Earth.
Meran got away, but the Master knows where he lives. Will the Master try again? Will it ever be safe for Meran?