Prologue
The TARDIS drifted through space across a background of interstellar dust clouds.
Nita was working out in the TARDIS a lab counter, the Doctor was lining several small incubation bottles along a rack – an experimental procedure. His satisfied smile indicated that he was enjoying this.
The had a diplomatic assignment in the Evadne system in ten days' time, and the Doctor expected it to be uneventful. He decided to use the time beforehand to fulfil a promise to a friend. He headed to the console room.
Outside a secretary's office, Earth, circa 1930s. The office door was wood with a frosted glass insert in the upper portion. On the glass were printed the words –
HERCULE POIROT
PRIVATE
INVESTIGATIONS
Ariadne opened the door. She was inside the somewhat dingy office. There was a loud snap.
A blonde secretary sat behind her desk, typewriter in front of her, paying more attention to painting her fingernails. She again loudly snapped her chewing gum.
"Hercule Poirot around?"
Felicity barely looked up. "He's occupied at the present moment."
"Tell him Ariadne is here."
"Can't do that." Felicity snapped her gum. "He doesn't want to be disturbed."
"I'm here from… London."
"Doesn't matter if you're from the moon, Hon. Monsieur Poirot is incommuni… incomminica…"
"Incommunicado."
"That's it. Sorry, Hon." Felicity snapped her gum.
"Listen, Hon. Just tell him Ariadne's here." Ariadne snapped her gum.
Felicity narrowed her eyes at the challenge, snapped back. "When the boss doesn't want to be disturbed, the boss doesn't want to be disturbed. Don't take it personal like."
Ariadne snapped her gum. Noting a clock on the wall—"Monsieur Poirot is expecting me. I have a two o'clock appointment."
"It's two-ten."
"Sorry. I had a hard time with the outfit…" She raised her skirt to show off a garter. "It took me awhile to figure out what this thing was supposed to do…"
Felicity huffed, picked up the phone, and hit the intercom… "Sorry, Hercs. There's a… 'lady' here to see you, says her name is…"
"Ariadne…"
"Ariadne…"
"From London."
"From London." A beat. "Okay." She hung up. "He never heard of you."
"Never heard of me?"
"That's right."
"No, you don't understand… it's all been set up in advance… I'm Ariadne from London and I was supposed to be here at two o'clock and you don't have the slightest idea of what I'm talking about, do you?"
Felicity blinked, dumb. Ariadne wheeled and headed for Hercule's inner office door…
"Hey, you can't go in there…"
But Ariadne charged through the door into… Hercule Poirot's office …to find the Doctor with his hands raised high and a gunman aiming a revolver at him, the gunman was holding a valise… he motioned the gun at her… "Get inside." He turned to the Doctor. "Who's the doll?"
"She's my cousin."
"Ariadne. From London."
"Sorry, Ariadne- I didn't want to get you involved. She has nothing to do with this, Johnny."
"Yeah, right. What do I look like? A jamoke? You ain't nobody's cousin and you ain't here for a visit. What do you know about my money?"
"Your money?"
"The money he stole."
Ariadne turned to the Doctor. "You stole his money?"
"He's lying, Ariadne—don't listen to him."
"Johnny, why don't you tell me all about it, maybe I can help, I'm a good listener…"
He moved threateningly at Ariadne passing in front of the window as he did… "I'm finished with talking, sweetheart. Now, I'm gonna get some action or else…
Outside Ariadne could hear a car screech around a corner… Suddenly the window blasted out by machine gun fire… Ariadne and the Doctor hit the ground… the gunman was hit in the back, groaned and fell dead with his face pressed to the floor.
Ariadne looked at the Doctor. "This is what you do for fun?"
"It's a mystery, Ariandne… Who was this man? Who killed him? Where's the money he was talking about? A mystery. Now, we begin the search for clues."
"And that's fun…"
There was a screech of a car outside. The Doctor went to the window. "That's fun." He looked out the window. "A twenty-eight Ford with whitewalls… I couldn't catch the licence plate…"
The phone rang in the outer office… "Hercule Poirot, Private Investigations. Sorry, there's no Doctor here. Try down at the hospital."
"It's all right. I'll take it, Felicity." The Doctor picked up the phone on the desk, a little ruffled. "What is it?"
It was Nita, calling from the TARDIS. "Please excuse the unusual interruption, Doctor. I thought that patching communications through to your office would be less obtrusive."
The Doctor smiled. "I appreciate the consideration, Nita. What can I do for you?"
Nita looked at the viewscreen. The Ngame dust cloud is a diaphanous wave of colour partially obscuring the backdrop of stars. "Long range sensors have detected a T-tauri type star within a pocket of the Ngame cloud."
"Nothing unusual about that."
"No, Doctor. But the star's single planet falls within the M-Class range. It is capable of supporting life."
"Now that is unusual."
"Highly, Doctor."
The Doctor was not covering too well his disappointment at having to interrupt his inpersonation. "Yes, thank you, Nita. We should investigate. Please set co-ordinates to collect me." The Doctor hung up the phone and turned to Ariadne. "I'm afraid I have another mystery to deal with, Ariadne. I'll have to catch up with you later."
"I understand."
They both went out the office door.
In the Control Room later. The Doctor, Nita and Ariadne stood at the console.
"Entering the T-tauri system, now, Doctor."
They looked at the viewscreen, which displayed the star they were approaching – still distant, but close enough to see it as a disc rather than a point of light.
"Sensors indicate an energy fluctuation directly in our path. Source unknown."
They looked at the viewscreen. A shimmering "hole" in space opened up for just a moment – then disappeared.
Nita looked at her instruments. "Still picking up energy distortions – but fading. It seems to be gone."
"A wormhole?"
"Very likely. Small and extremely unstable wormholes have been mapped near thirty-nine T-tauri systems in the last one hundred years alone."
"Doctor, I suggest we move to a safer location. It could reappear at any moment."
"Agreed. Nita, take us –"
Nita was glued to her instruments. "-Doctor!"
On the viewscreen the worm-hole reappeared virtually on top of them. The Doctor and Nita looked toward the screen just as the TARDIS went into the worm-hole. A dazzling light filled the Control Room. Then the light just as suddenly faded to normal.
The Doctor turned from his instruments to survey the Control Room – Nita was fallen to the floor.