CHAPTER 12

THE TEMPLE

Still safely tucked in her own bed Frankie's sleep, like Jason's, was eventually overshadowed by nightmares, the scene in the observation room replaying itself in surrealistic detail. She saw herself chased by hundreds of red-robed demons who bound her with miles of cord so tightly she couldn't breathe. She was thrown into a huge fish bowl where she was set upon by dozens of entwining creatures whose tendrils turned to knives, severing her bonds and allowing her to escape. Frankie fled her attackers, seeing the mild and uncertain individual she knew as Chris. She ran to him for protection, only to have him transform into the traitorous Johnson. In the distance she could see Alex searching for her, calling her name. She was prevented from calling back when a gag was jammed into her mouth. She watched helplessly as he walked off in the opposite direction. Then the demons surrounded her again…

Frankie sat up in bed, screaming in terror.

Out on the porch, Jason practically fell out of his chair and raced into the house. He was at Frankie's side in seconds, trying to shake her awake. "Frankie, wake up! It's only a dream!"

The terrified woman looked at him and shrieked, fighting to pull away. Without thinking, Jason slapped her sharply across the face. "Frankie!" he snapped. "It's me, Chris. Wake up!"

Frankie gave him a stunned look and then collapsed in to his arms, hugging him in relief. "Oh, Chris, thank God it's you!" she cried. She was trembling badly and tears were rolling down her face. "It was horrible. I couldn't get away. I just…I couldn't get away."

Jason thought she was going to crush him she was squeezing him so hard. She started to sob uncontrollably, and he held her gently, letting her get it all out of her system. "You're all right now," he soothed gently. "It was just a dream." Hearing his own words, he closed his eyes, wishing the same were true for him. If only he could wake up from this nightmare of uncertainty.

After several minutes, Frankie managed to get control of herself and released her hold on Jason, allowing him to breathe again. He smiled affectionately at her, wiping away her tears with a caressing hand. "Don't you worry, my dear Francesca," he said in a comforting tone. "I still won't let anything happen to you."

Embarrassed at having so lost control of herself, Frankie was less than comforted and roughly pushed him away, getting out of bed and putting on her dressing gown. "You must think I'm just a silly woman to be so frightened by a dream," she said caustically.

Jason blinked. "What?" He had already realized it would be ludicrous to imagine there could ever be anything between them, but he had thought, in light of the last twelve hours, that their relationship had gone beyond the usual male/female stereotypes. Her assuming he was like every other man she'd ever encountered made him angry. He rose to his feet, his eyes blazing, and for a brief moment Frankie caught a glimpse of his true personality. "My dear Dr. Albert," he began sharply, "you've just survived a very serious and, I might add, rather appalling attempt on your life. That hardly makes you a silly anything. Male, female, or hermaphrodite!"

This was the most forceful he had ever been with her, and Frankie was quite naturally astounded. Not to mention a little bit frightened. "I'm sorry. It's just that…that…" she stammered out. Waving a hand, she said in frustration, "Oh, never mind. I get too defensive sometimes."

Jason flashed a broad smile. "Don't be silly, woman," he grinned mischievously, causing the oceanographer to give him a sideways glance. "Sorry," he said quickly, lowering his eyes. "I couldn't resist."

Frankie glanced at the clock and caught her breath. "I'd better get dressed. We've got to get out of here."

"What's the rush?"

Dr. Albert explained that since she was supposed to be dead, she was afraid the police might come to search her house. The last thing she wanted was for the authorities to find them there, especially after seeing the Cultist among the investigators at the Center. They proceeded to straighten up the house so it would appear as though no one had been there. Frankie collected the clothes she had been wearing the night before and put them in a plastic bag.

"We'll have to stash these somewhere on the way, I supp—" Cutting herself off, Frankie said, "I've just thought of something. How are we going to get to the Temple if I'm not supposed to be seen? We can't walk. It's more than twenty miles from here. And my car's back at the Center."

The Alterran considered, glancing toward the back door. "Well, if I can change back into Crystal, we could go by water." Hearing the oceanographer groan, he said quickly, "Sorry, bad idea. Forget I mentioned it."

"No, I'm not afraid of that," she reassured. "I'm just afraid of losing another pair of shoes."

Alex was not sure why himself, but he allowed the Doctor to see the devastated observation room. The police had already finished their preliminary investigation and closed it off.

As he prowled the room, the Doctor had Alex tell him exactly what had happened. The Security Chief obliged, recounting the events in detail, finding it much easier now that there was a chance Frankie might still be alive. He led the way out the far door, following along what was believed to be the intruders' escape route, which just happened to lead them past the vault. Intrigued, the Doctor stopped a moment to examine it.

"They didn't break-in there," Alex told him. "You can't get in without a card key or you set off the alarm."

"And it hasn't been opened since last night, I suppose?" the Doctor asked innocently, pulling a handkerchief from his pocket.

"There was no—" Alex caught his breath when the Doctor carefully removed a card key from the slot. His eyes grew even wider when he saw the name on it; Dr. Francesca Albert. Giving the Time Lord a look that was a combination of anger, shock and horror, he used his own card key to open the vault. Just as he suspected, the chest was gone and he cursed under his breath. From behind him, he heard the Doctor observe blandly, "It would appear your intruders got exactly what they came for."

"The question is," Alex replied darkly, "do I inform the authorities or not?"

In the end, Alex chose not to inform anyone of their discovery, choosing instead to accompany the Doctor to the Temple. He drove to where the highway curved at the base of an incline, indicating a dirt road that wound up to the summit where the Temple was located. He pulled off the highway, concealing his car among the trees, announcing that they would be walking the remaining distance.

The Doctor was somewhat disconcerted when his Teggellan companion removed a gun from his glove compartment before leading the way up the incline. He noticed Alex kept looking nervously around and finally asked him what was wrong. The Security Chief explained that the Temple was not always deserted and he did not want to have the entire assemblage down on top of them if he could avoid it.

Upon arriving at the summit Alex pointed out the ancient Temple, remarking that, considering all the controversy that surrounded it, it wasn't nearly so spectacular as everyone made out. It was just an unimpressive rectangular building perched on top of a cliff.

The Doctor, on the other hand, was very impressed and scrutinized the building from all sides. He entered, looked around and frowned, going back outside a moment and then reentering, apparently more enlightened than before. "How very interesting," he muttered. Turning to the mystified Alex, he asked, "Tell me, how long would you say this Temple's been here?"

"No one knows exactly. The experts can only agree that it's at least ten thousand years old."

"Oh, at the very least," the Time Lord agreed thoughtfully.

There was a mural painted in the center of what seemed to be the main wall. It was flanked by long ebony panels inscribed with symbols that, to the Doctor, seemed vaguely familiar. He knew he'd seen them somewhere, but couldn't quite place them. The painting depicted a battle at sea and showed the Temple on the cliff with lightning bolts coming from it. There were strange looking crafts in and above the water, one of which had been struck by a lightning bolt that was then defected into the ocean below. Could these be spaceships?

Crossing to one of the panels, the Doctor ran a hand over its engraved surface. "These, no doubt, tell the epic tale of the battle of the gods?"

"No doubt," Alex grunted, watching as the Doctor started to search along the panel with his fingers. "No one's ever been able to translate them—" Finally he could contain himself no longer and asked, "Doctor, what are you looking for?"

"The way in."

"The way in where?"

The Doctor replied without turning around. "Haven't you noticed? This room is square. But the building isn't. There's a discrepancy somewhere in the vicinity of fifteen feet. Large enough for a room, wouldn't you say?"

"Or a tomb," Alex said pointedly. "Jaka was supposed to've been imprisoned, y'know. Maybe he was imprisoned here."

"And sealed behind a molecularly bonded surface? Rubbish. These walls were sealed against the elements for only one reason. To protect something. That's why they've hardly weathered after thousands of years."

"What are you talking about? This temple was build by my ancestors when they worshipped everything that moved."

The Doctor turned to face him, shaking his head. "No, it wasn't. It was brought here by someone who was capitalizing on the primitive state of the indigenous population."

By this time Alex was getting overwhelmed, and not just a little annoyed. "Brought here? Oh, come on, Doctor. You're not going to tell me it's from outer space, are you?"

"Well, it's certainly not from this planet!" the Time Lord countered as he began working his way across the mural. "Not technology this advanced. You've still a few more centuries to go before you'll be even close to achieving anything on this scale." In the center of the mural, he stopped, giving a sudden cry of delight. "Found it!"

"Found what?"

"The way in," the Doctor replied infuriatingly. Pulling out his sonic screwdriver, he held it in front of the Temple in the painting. There was a click followed by a low hum and then the wall slowly parted, disappearing behind the panels to reveal a computerized control room on the other side.

Alex Grove's mouth dropped open and he stood staring in stupefied amazement.

The Doctor grinned at him and then blithely entered. "Just as I thought," he breathed in satisfaction. He took in the room in a glance, his face abruptly clouding over. He went to one of the monitor screens and tapped a number of keys on the entry pad beside it. "That's odd. The main power's been switched off. Everything's running off the auxiliary solar cells. Now I wonder …Ah!" His eyes fell on the main control board in the console along a sidewall. It had a circle of holes in it and a star-shaped dial in the center, a larger hole in its center. Each of the star points ended over the top of one of the wells and the Doctor reached into one, finding a pin sticking up at the base. Apparently something was supposed to be fitted into these before the system would function.

As the Doctor moved further into the room there was the sound of a scuffle behind him and Alex cried out in anger. Spinning around, he saw Brogan standing in the doorway with Alex's gun in his hand. Two Cult members were restraining Alex himself while a third was forcing a gag into his mouth.

"Who are you?" Brogan demanded.

"I'm the Doctor," the Time Lord replied amiably. "And you must be High Priest Brogan. Been keeping busy with your ecclesiastical endeavors?"

Brogan was not amused. "What are you doing here?"

"I don't suppose you'd believe we were new converts, would you?"

At that moment, Alex let out a muffled cry of rage, having recognized Johnson among the presently unhooded cult members. He immediately started to struggle against his captors, knocking them aside to get at the traitor. There was no love lost between Alex Grove and the Cult of Jaka and someone delivered a savage blow to his stomach, doubling him over. A second blow sent him to his knees. Then, like sharks drawn by the smell of blood, the Cultists surrounded the seriously outnumbered Security Chief.