Chapter 2

With the panel fully open, the brilliant light hit the Doctor's face. With a cry, he let go of the panel, and grasped at his eyes. Instantly, the panel slammed shut, and the bell feel silent.

"Are you alright, sir," asked the soldier as she scrambled to her feet and ran to his side.

"I don't know," said the Doctor as he removed his hands from his eyes. For an instant they glowed with the same light as that which came forth from the TARDIS console. Then they faded back to normal. "I can see now."

"Your eyes, sir! They were glowing."

'I must have absorbed some of the energy from the Time Vortex. It was only a brief instant, thank God, or else it would have killed me. The TARDIS has never done that before. We're materializing."

The Doctor hit a key on the panel, and the flatscreen monitor mounted on the console came to life. The TARDIS had materialized in a valley. Great red mountains could be seen in the distance, and the flickering of torches could be seen not far away.

"This isn't the Citadel," said the soldier.

"It most certainly isn't," said the Doctor as he pulled the lever that opened the outside door. "Shall we take a look around?"

The Doctor and the soldier exited the old, beat up police box which was the TARDIS' exterior shell. The Doctor took a deep breath, and looked down at the torches in the depths of the valley, and then up towards the twin suns in the sky. Pointing at a nearby ridge, he said, "The Citadel is that way. You should get going."

As the Doctor began to descend the valley, the soldier ran after him, saying, "Wherever you are going, I'm going, too."

"You don't need to go down here. Your a soldier. You never had to face this. No one should have to face it."

"Face what?"

"The Untempered Schism. I didn't think I could make the selection for the Academy. But one night, sleeping in a barn, I was given the courage to face it. I was given the courage to face anything. At eight years old I looked into the Untempered Schism. It's a tear in time and space. In the raw space time I saw...I saw… Well it's not important.'

"The important thing is is that you had the courage to face whatever you saw. Right, sir?"

"Hardly!" Laughed the Doctor as he and the soldier navigated through rows of tall, everburning torches imbedded in the grounds. "I ran, and I never stopped running. Sometimes, the most courageous thing you can do is run."

Beyond the torches was a great, circular frame mounted vertically in the valley. The gilded portal was breathtakingly beautiful, or would have been if it wasn't cracked and broken.

The Doctor's face was snow white. Every line on his face stood out in his paleness. His eyes were wet with the coming of tears. He seemed to sway a bit, as if to faint. "This is the time for you to be courageous. This is the time for you to run."

"I can't leave you like this," said the soldier as she approached him. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Listen to me! You have to get to the Citadel. You have to warn the High Council. The Untempered Schism is broken. Gallifrey is in danger. Now, run, soldier!"

Without a moment's hesitation, the soldier ran for the mountains.