They had gone on like that for what seemed like hours until the Doctor had announced that he couldn't take it anymore. He had stopped dead at a crossroad between seven tunnels, jerking Victoria to a halt as well, and launched into a detailed description of how simply exhausted they were and why the company would have to stop and rest or leave him behind. Their captors had conferred for a while, halfheartedly pretending they didn't understand every word the Doctor was saying. Apparently deciding on a rest period, they had seated themselves against a wall and taken out a canteen of water and a ration bar each. The prisoners, left to their own devices, sat down facing a near wall, with their backs against the box and their hands tied behind them.
Victoria watched the soldiers eating. "Oh, I'm hungry, Doctor," she said miserably.
He nodded. "That isn't very nice of them, is it, not offering us any? Well, never mind, we'll eat when we get back to the TARDIS."
"The TARDIS?" said Victoria, shaking her head. "Do you really think we'll get back there? We've been down here for hours, and now we're going all the way back where we came from." They were indeed. Every now and again the troupe had taken a short cut' where the dust was undisturbed, but they had always returned to those tunnels marked by the time travelers' hasty passing.
"Yes, we are, aren't we?" said the Doctor, looking worried. "What's the matter, Doctor?" asked Victoria.
"That book you were reading just before we landed. I think it was left over from Susan's collection, which would explain why it never ended up in the library. What was it?"
Victoria had to think for a minute. "It was called 'A Better Way'," she said. "The story of the Dragon Day Treaty, I think. It said volume one. But why?"
"Extraordinary," muttered the Doctor. "Did you get to the part about the assassination?"
"I was only up to the second chapter. You mean the Emperor dies? I'd started liking him."
"I think the Emperor's already dead," said the Doctor. "That book contains the history of the two main continents of Efes at this time. I do wish you had brought it with you."
"I put it down in the control room." Victoria's eyes widened. "So the book says everything we're doing now? How does it turn out?"
"It doesn't say anything about us," said the Doctor. "I would have remembered from reading it. But it did state explicitly that these tunnels were not used until twenty years from now, when my old friend Sarchas Allan started a martial arts school in the big cavern under the lake, so none of this should be here at all. That might be the first thing that's wrong with the timeline, and if we could..." He trailed off again, and Victoria finally leaned back against the box and closed her eyes.
For several minutes neither spoke. The guards, intent on their meal, ignored them, and presently the Doctor nudged Victoria. She started, her train of thought broken. He stared intently into her face for a moment and then, breaking into a cheerful grin, showed her his untied hands.
"How did you do that?" asked Victoria, astonished.
"Oh, that's only a neat little trick I picked up from an American escape artist, what was his name now? I forget. We're only lucky nobody taught our friends there how to tie an effective knot. Now shhh: the less they notice us in the next few moments the better." The Doctor quickly hid his hands behind his back as one of the Phestans looked up from his food, rewarding the soldier with a how-could-you-do-this-to-me glare. As soon as the soldier's attention was diverted, the Doctor sneaked one hand out and started working on Victoria's bonds. It took him five minutes.
"Thank you," she said gratefully, rubbing her wrists where the rope had scored her. You don't really appreciate having hands, she thought, until you're unable to use them.
Checking carefully to make sure the guards weren't looking, the Doctor got a crumpled paper bag out of his pocket. "Here," he said, "take a jelly baby. It's always nice to have them about, you know, in case of emergencies."
-
Jamie sat fuming near Cerf on a heavy packing case, chained to a copper ring set in the wall of a cavern so vast he couldn't see any end to it. Wide decks along the walls held spare parts and half-completed hoverboats, and the place was packed with Phestans in the same weird uniform as the mean-faced guard, all marching back and forth, climbing ladders and fixing machinery. The harsh fluorescent lights strung along the cavern ceiling served only to deepen the shadows under the decks. The hall was full of potential hiding places, were it not for the handcuffs and chains.
The pilot of the hoverboat, a tall individual with a graying ponytail and a face that looked like it had been carved out of the side of a cliff, was conferring with a nervous-looking fellow with a set of gold stripes on his sleeves. They had been at it for some time, and were showing no signs of stopping.
"Hey, how long are you going to keep us here?" shouted Jamie.
Some passing troopers glanced at him, looking annoyed, and kept going.
Jamie stood up and paced back and forth in as large a circle as the chains would allow. Cerf was staring around him with awe and a good deal of anger. He was muttering something.
"What's that?"
"I can't believe it. How can they just do this? Who could possibly supply a project of this magnitude? Hron must know about it. It's impossible for him not to. My father would never have allowed it. I've got to contact the Thane..."
"Shhh! Remember where we are, Alexander."
"Hah. Can't take my mind off it."
"You know anything about this place? Who these people are or anything?"
Cerf looked around. "No, but it's obvious. Look at all this -- it's virtually a weapons factory. It must be some kind of invasion. I can see it now, Hron planned it all along." Cerf was getting madder by the minute.
"All right, all right, just don't do anything daft!" said Jamie exasperatedly. "We have to get away from here first. And I've still got to find the Doctor and Victoria."
"I know." Cerf's fists clenched so hard his knuckles went white. Then his eyes widened. "Jamie!" he said in a surprised whisper. "I still have my needler. I stuck it up my sleeve before they caught us."
"Hey, the guards must have missed it! That's a bit of luck. They got my dagger though -- uh oh, here they come."
The debriefing was apparently over, and the pilot was leading the thin-faced nervous character over. "Look," said Jamie, "let me do the talking, right?" Cerf looked rebellious for a minute, and then nodded.
"So," said the pilot. He had Jamie's dagger and was turning it over and over in his hands. His voice fitted his face exactly, sounding like boulders grinding together. "My name is Shen Tellisn Onash. I suppose you have names?"
"I'm James Robert McCrimmon and this is my brother, Alexander. We're not from around here."
"Alexander?" said the pilot, slurring the unfamiliar name and sounding a little as if he had just been introduced to Quadrato the Invincible and his sidekick Saturna. "And... Robert? Are you Islanders?"
"No. And the name's Jamie."
"Odd sort of way to call yourself. We of Vanussia reserve our second names for common use, and I believe the Krakods only have two each. I am Tellisn, should occasion arise for using names. Did you have a reason for being in the Regent's private gardens?"
"We were lost."
The thin-faced officer now looked nervous and exasperated -- not a pleasant combination. "We could lock them up till Sode gets back."
Tellisn looked at him for a moment, a long, unnerving stare. "Is that something you should be asking me about, Controller?" He turned back to the prisoners and stepped closer, staring at Cerf. "You have been seen in the gardens before. You have been charting our movements. Why?"
Jamie winced: there went "lost." Cerf glared back at the pilot. "You have no right on the Emperor's estate."
The stare became colored with suspicion. "Who are you to question our right?"
Cerf kept his mouth firmly shut.
Tellisn turned away, not backing down but withdrawing from the question. "It is no matter. 'Truth has but one face.'" He looked at the Controller and so did not see Cerf's eyes widen in shock. "I suggest this one be taken to the cells while I question the other. He seems the most articulate. Has Commander Khe returned yet?"
"I... suggestion taken. But they're still in the maze."
-
"I think we've been here before."
The two Phestans had long since abandoned any pretense of not understanding English. The shorter one ground his teeth in exasperation, while the taller one simply glowered.
"I really do. I'm certain I recognize that dust formation..."
This is ridiculous, thought Victoria as she stumbled wearily along in front of the box. What was the good of having one's hands free when the enemy had blasters? And the Doctor seemed content for some reason to play along, tramping for hours and complaining all the way.
On the bright side, Victoria supposed that the Phestans were being driven completely mad.
The Doctor stopped again at another crossroads, causing the box to recoil into the soldiers, and said triumphantly, "We have been here before."
The Phestans glared around the fork. There were impressions in the dust where four humanoids and something rectangular had rested. There was also a piece of red and silver foil wrapper from a ration bar.
"Tsk, messy, messy. Where to now?" drawled the Doctor.
The soldiers glared bloody murder at the Doctor, and then started to jabber a mile a minute, obviously blaming each other for the snafu. Victoria, watching them, suddenly frowned in puzzlement. "Doctor, I can understand some of what they're saying! What's going on? ...Doctor?"
The Doctor was listening intently to the Phestans' babbling and didn't seem to hear her at all. Then he said, "Oh, I see. The TARDIS translator circuits are finally making sense of the language."
"What?"
"Well, how do you think we can understand the people in all the different places and eras we visit? The TARDIS translates for us."
"My head hurts."
"That's to be expected. It's a synthetic language, you see, like a code, and your brain is having difficulty managing the syntax. It shouldn't take you too long to get used to it. Now listen, Victoria, we have to get that book from the TARDIS."
"Why?"
"Because it is our only guide to the future of Efes. We can't just do anything here -- we have to stick to the established timeline. Now, listen carefully. Take that corridor. Go right, right, left, straight past three intersections and left. Then follow the red line in the wall until you get out. It's a bit of a long go and it gets steep, but you should be all right."
She stared at him. "What? Me?"
"Victoria, this box we're tied to is full of tritium bombs and I've got an idea that history doesn't mean it to go where these individuals want it to go. Here, take the TARDIS key and find that book. Both volumes, if you can. It's essential." The Doctor pressed the key into her hand. "You and Jamie wait for me in the TARDIS. You should be safe in there. Don't worry, I'll catch up to you soon. Remember, right, right, left, straight, straight, straight, left, and hurry."
Victoria nodded. Keeping low to the floor, she moved toward the indicated passage.
A blue energy blast sizzled past her head and scorched a wall. She ducked and hurtled into the corridor. She heard the confused soldiers firing and ran for her life. They had been completely taken off guard. Eventually their angry cries faded behind her.