2. Chasing the Crew.
The Doctor is relaxing in Devyon and Chloe's lounge. Devyon's wife, Crystelle died not long before; Chloe, one of his daughters is chatting with the Doctor. She's been on many outings with the Doctor. She's visiting her father who has always been based on his home planet, humorously called Tinsel. .
They return to their initial topic of conversation.
"Are you sure you programmed that Tardis with the correct automatic return journey?" the Doctor asks, yet again.
"Absolutely sure," Chloe insists. "I can't think what's happened to them. They ought to have returned here yesterday."
Devyon remains stoical. "I'm sure they'll be along sometime soon." Maybe a misplaced confidence.
"How can we check how they're doing?" Chloe asks.
"Let's send Meran a note on his messaging device I gave him," the Doctor says.
He retrieves his own device and taps in a message before sending it.
A distant ringing sound is heard from the upstairs.
"Oh, no! Doctor!" Chloe gasps. "He's left it behind!"
"Bother! Of course," the Doctor says, "he's wearing different clothes for the event and forgotten to transfer it!"
Quite a normal thing to forget to do!
"Then we can't find him!" Chloe says despondently. "We can't do anything for him!"
"I wouldn't go as far as that," the Doctor says positively. "We have a Tardis!"
"I guess we could track him?"
"No, but we might follow him!"
Devyon was about to suggest another cup of tea when his two visitors suddenly head off to the Doctor's Tardis, parked in the corner of the lounge. He decides he should go and see what they're doing and heads there himself.
And so, the house is left empty.
"It isn't the easiest Tardis to use to trace another Tardis," the Doctor owns. "The Tardis they're using is far superior."
They'd always known this, but usually the Doctor defends his Tardis from their banter.
"That Tardis can simply follow that Tardis!" he says. He knows they can still follow, but the other Tardis will be a significant way ahead of them. But if its occupants choose to cloak their journey, it will be a whole lot harder, yet not totally impossible for the Doctor.
"Why don't we hide your Tardis inside their Tardis before they're due to arrive back after the end of the event?" Devyon suggests. He's not travelled much in Tardises before, unlike his clones.
"Good idea!" the Doctor says. "I was waiting to see who would come up with that one!"
The Doctor's mind had actually been revolving around much more complex methods of tracking the other Tardis after-the-event.
Watching the crew.
The Doctor's watching the Console monitor in his Tardis. He's patched it to observe the Console room in the other Tardis. They can see Trelim and how he's treating Alyssa and Meran. The Doctor has known Trelim for a long time, but not as any sort of friend.
"Doctor, when should we interrupt them?" Devyon asks nervously. He's more concerned for the safety of his other daughter, Alyssa. He feels that Meran's unlikely to be of much protection to her.
"In a while," the Doctor says. "I want to see what they do next. Where they go; what sort of plans they make."
"Doctor, why don't we just take over their Tardis and stop their adhesion to danger?" Chloe asks.
"I doubt this Tardis can take over their Tardis from this position of being a passenger... Oh dear!"
"What's happened?" Chloe wants to know.
"Trelim's studying his Tardis monitor screen."
Suddenly the Doctor's screen goes black, then red. The words "Permission Denied" appear on his screen.
"We've been spotted," the Doctor announces.
He presses a lot of buttons. The word "Disabled" appears on his screen.
Devyon gives up hope. "We're doomed!" .
"Not if I have anything to do with it!" the Doctor announces, busily pressing buttons.
The word changes to "Ejected".
"Apparently he doesn't want any passengers," Chloe says. "Can we encapsulate him from here?"
"Just Trelim or the whole Tardis?" the Doctor asks.
"Either?"
The other Tardis disappears suddenly.
"Oh," the Doctor says. "They're travelling. Back to tracking him after-the-event!"
"Doctor, was he being devious?" Chloe asks.
"Yes," the Doctor admits. "I recall a class at school where we were shown how to detect other Tardises and deal with them. Text book stuff on his part."
"But you've had much more practice than he has!"
"He has an upgraded Tardis! And we did escape!" the Doctor says in his defence. "It looks like we have a longer task ahead of us!"
Trelim is now alerted to the possibility of stowaways. He will doubtless scan for any more, so they can't just try again.