Chapter Two

Drawn Off Course

"What do you mean you don't know where we are? Don't you know how to steer this thing?" This forceful, if accusatory inquiry was made by Peri. The dark-haired American had just joined the Doctor as a traveling companion, and like so many of the others before her, she found the Time Lord's apparent inability to control his erratic time machine vexing, to put it mildly.

The Time Lord gave no reply, scowling over at the scanner screen and then back down at the control console. His expression did not change when he looked up at his companion. She re turned the dark look with one of her own. The tall, slight, fair-haired man dressed in the unlikely costume of an Edwardian cricketer might claim to be over eight centuries old, but he still looked only a few years older than she did. Peri wondered if he was trying to be intimidating. If so, he was failing miserably.

This lack of success was not an uncommon occurrence for the Doctor of late. He was in his fifth incarnation and his youthful appearance tended to make people less likely to take him seriously. While this had proven advantageous in some instances, it was downright irritating when it happened at the wrong time, something he hoped would be rectified as time went on rather than having to wait until his next regeneration.

"Well?" Peri asked pointedly.

The Doctor drew a deep breath. "I don't know where we are because the TARDIS seems to've been drawn off course. Why I don't know." He pulled the door lever and turned, adding, "But I intend to find out." With that, he strode out the door.

Not a bad exit, Peri thought as she followed after him.

The time travelers emerged from the TARDIS to find themselves in what appeared to be a gigantic warehouse. The Doctor strode across the enormous room to a wall covered with an odd assortment of dials and switches. He gave it a cursory glance before he turned back to survey his surroundings, looking up at the catwalk under which he had just passed. It ran along the base of mammoth multi-paneled screen that he recognized instantly. "Ah, that explains it," he muttered, turning back to look at the dials. "The TARDIS must've locked on to its transmission frequency."

"What is this place, Doctor?" Peri asked. "It looks like a drive-in movie in space."

"Hardly. It's a solar generating satellite," the Time Lord informed matter of factly.

His companion looked none the wiser. "You mean like in solar power?" she asked.

"Quite the reverse, actually." Always ready to impart knowledge, the Doctor continued, "The generator screen up there recreates the full spectrum of sunlight and focuses it down onto the planet's surface below, both warming and lighting it like the sun."

"Why? What's wrong with good old-fashioned sunlight?"

The Doctor stopped his examination of the control dials and turned to face her. "Be cause, my dear Peri, not all planets are as fortunate as yours to be near to their suns. If a planet is found to be conducive to human life, a ring of satellites—like this one—is constructed to simulate day and night. And judging by the fact that this one is off, it must be night on this side of the planet."

"Wow!" Peri exclaimed, clearly impressed. "Isn't that taking artificial lighting a little too far?"

Before the Doctor could think of a suitably crushing reply a door not ten feet away from him suddenly opened and a large middle-aged man in orange coveralls entered. He stopped dead in his tracks at the sight of the two strangers. "How the devil did you get in here?" he asked in amazement.

"Well, it's all perfectly simple," the Time Lord began amiably. "You see, my young friend and I were—" He cut himself off when he noticed the name on the man's coveralls. "Your name is Bailey?"

The technician was surprised before realizing the Doctor was reading his nametag. "Yes, as you can plainly see."

"Bailey Ryan Anderson?" the Doctor then asked, receiving an astonished look. "My dear Bailey, don't you remember me? I'm the Doctor. We met sometime ago when—"

"Good Lord, yes, the Doctor!" Bailey exclaimed. "You're here to find out who's causing all the accidents, aren't you?"

"Accidents?" Peri repeated, exchanging a mystified look with the Doctor. "What accidents?"

Bailey grinned. "Okay, I'll play along," he said cheerily, much to the Time Lord's bewilderment. "We've been having a lot of freak accident over the last ten months or so. Not just here, but on all twelve solar generators. The general consensus is there's a ring of saboteurs at work, but so far the investigation by the locals hasn't turned up anything solid."

"By your tone, I take it you have," the Doctor remarked.

Bailey's smile broadened. "As Chief Technician in charge of generator operations, I have ac cess to a great deal of information, classified and otherwise. I've been tracking the frequency of the accidents and their movement from generator to generator."

The Doctor was hooked. "And what have you discovered?"

"As near as I can figure, the next accident will be either here or on Generator 5."

"Interesting. A systematic set of accidents caused by an unknown party for an unknown rea son."

"Exactly. And if I ever get my hands on whoever—" Bailey broke off when some machinery suddenly came on. He turned to the control board with a horrified expression on his face. "The generator's starting to power up!" he exclaimed.

Peri was baffled. "Isn't that what it's supposed to do?"

"Not at this angle," the Doctor replied. "If it were to come on now, we'd be burnt to a cinder."

Bailey flew at the controls, working frantically without success. "I can't shut it down! All the access codes have been changed."

"We've got to get out of here," the Doctor said practically.

The Chief Technician was already climbing the stairs to the catwalk. "No, I'll have to change the position of the screen manually," he called back. "If it comes on at this angle, it'll destroy the whole station—and us with it."

The Doctor needed to know no more. He dragged the baffled Peri over to an equipment locker and thrust her inside commanding that she stay with her back to the door until he returned. He then closed and bolted the door, ignoring Peri's protests.

"Doctor, you can't leave me in here!" she yelled, banging on the door with her fists.

"Keep your back to the door and cover your eyes!" the Time Lord commanded again.

With his companion in the relative safety of the locker, the Doctor went back to the control board, calling out the readings as Bailey frantically worked on the control levers, which had in explicably seized up. The technician angrily kicked one in frustration and, to his astonishment, it moved, as did the generator screen, swiveling several feet upwards before stopping. The first of three warning bells sounded at the same time announcing the imminent activation of the screen.

Kicking frantically at another lever, Bailey managed to get it freed up, the enormous screen moving a few feet more. He was on his way to a third switch when a second bell went off. The Doctor called from below that he abandon his efforts and come down just as the protection plating dropped into place, sealing the doors. They were running out of time.

"Come down, man!" the Time Lord called. "We've got to take cover before that screen comes on."

"No, Doctor, it's alright," Bailey called back triumphantly, "I've got the last one. You'd better take cover." He slammed down the last of the seized switches the same instant the third and final alarm sounded.

"Bailey, for pity sake, come down! That was the final warning!" the Doctor yelled. "If you're up there when—" He never finished his sentence. The alarm timer had also been tampered with and the generator screen came to life a full minute too soon. Brilliant, white-hot sunlight suddenly filled the room.

Caught completely off guard, the Doctor screamed in pain, his hands flying to his face. The head-on exposure was excruciating and he only managed to spin around before sinking to the floor. Behind him he could hear Bailey's screams of torment as the amplified light burned him to death. He could also feel the heat scorching his clothes, but could not find the strength to move out of the light's deadly path. Fortunately, he did not have to. During the entire assault on his senses, the massive machinery continued to whir steadily, the generator screen swiveling into position. The Doctor felt the room shake as it rocked into alignment. Then he felt numb.