Chapter 11 - Descent
Tegan burst out onto the balcony, just in time to witness her two struggling friends plunge over the parapet, Nyssa's scream swiftly echoed by her own. The Doctor arrived a split second behind her, and without hesitating ran to the edge.
"Doctor! Do something!" Tegan cried hysterically.
The Doctor ignored her, frantically rifling through his pockets, pulling out objects and discarding them until he found what he was looking for. He held the small, battered silver box up to the light, and swiftly looked over the edge.
Nyssa and Adric plunged towards the ground, the world around them a mess of spinning confusion, the rushing air stealing the terrified scream from Nyssa's lungs. Down they spiralled, locked in a desperate struggle, tumbling and rolling as Nyssa frantically tried to keep the boy's hands from her throat. Adric still clawed and kicked at her, seemingly oblivious to their shared plight, his face distorted further by the rushing wind into a grotesque mask of rage. The world span, up and down becoming meaningless as land and sky whirled and switched in a sickening maelstrom. Nyssa instinctively grabbed Adric's arms, entwining her legs around his in an attempt to fend off his attack, closing her eyes as the ground approached faster and faster...
The crowd in the plaza screamed and roared at the sight before them - the Lady, only just returned to them from the heavens, locked in a deadly plunge with a white-robed acolyte, and the ominous figure of the Herald watching their deadly descent from the balcony above. The spotlights picked out the falling pair, intertwined white and silver shining bright in the beams, the train of the Lady's gown streaming out behind them like the trail of a shooting star. The screams of horror intensified as they plummeted towards the ground, down, down, until…
"Now!" The Doctor shouted, and he pressed the button in the centre of the silver device.
"Oh!" Nyssa gasped, as a warm sensation suddenly began in the centre of her chest, rapidly spreading out through her torso. She opened her eyes to find her vision filled by a white, blinding light, growing in intensity until it enveloped and permeated her entire being. The light seemed to pierce and sear through every single part of her body, burning through the chemical bonds of her constituent atoms and ripping her apart, cell by cell. Nyssa tried to scream, but found there was nothing left of her to draw breath. Her last conscious thought was of Traken, as the physical world around her dissolved into nothingness.
The brilliant white light bathed the upturned faces of the citizens as they watched the spectacle before them, their screams and cries becoming gasps and exclamations of shock as they witnessed the falling pair, inches from certain death, suddenly becoming engulfed by an expanding sphere of light. The entire plaza was illuminated, the light becoming more and more intense until it became impossible to look at, causing the citizens to shield their eyes and look away. As quickly as it arrived, the light receded, shrinking to a pinpoint of brilliance before that too winked out of existence. After a few moments of silence whilst a multitude of eyes readjusted to the return of darkness, the crowd erupted into a thousand fervent conversations with the realisation that the Lady - and her assailant - had completely vanished from existence.
The Doctor turned away from the edge of the balcony, closing his eyes as he slid down into a sitting position, the silver box still firmly in his grasp. Tegan dashed to his side, not daring to look beyond the parapet that her friends had tumbled over moments before.
"Doctor!" she gasped, breathless. "They're not…" she hesitated, reluctant to say the word, "...are they?"
"I sincerely hope not," replied the Doctor. He held up the battered box in his hand. "Transmat control. I had to wait until their relative proximity was close enough, but I think I activated it in time."
Tegan's jaw dropped. "You 'think'?"
"Well, it's hard to be completely certain, I didn't exactly have time to make detailed calculations, Tegan!" he snapped.
"Well excuse me for being concerned," Tegan cried, "but I've just seen two of my friends fall to an almost certain death! And then you tell me you've magically beamed them somewhere?" She stopped, frowning. "Where exactly have you sent them, anyway?"
The Doctor cleared his throat: "Ah, yes. Well…" He struggled to his feet, then started to pick up the various items from his pockets that were strewn across the balcony.
"Doctor…!" the warning note in Tegan's voice was clear.
"Alright! I don't know! I confiscated a transmat dot from the agent that I met in the tavern. I attached it to the pendant Nyssa was wearing back in your quarters, when you were getting ready for the feast. I had made sure the device was working properly but couldn't trace the signal to its end destination."
"Great," said Tegan, "so they could be anywhere. You could have sent them to their deaths!"
"It was their only chance, Tegan! But now-"
"But now we've lost both of them!"
"But now," the Doctor stressed, "we have a way to find them, and the origin point of the transmat beam too." He held out a hand to help Tegan up. She hesitated for a moment, then took it.
"Come on," he said, pulling her gently to her feet, "let's get to the TARDIS."
"Well, what d'you make of that, Von?"
The barrel-chested barman from the Foster's Rest stood next to his wife in the centre of the Civic Square, staring at the space occupied just moments before by the Lady and her attacker as they fell from the balcony. He turned to look at her, a bewildered expression on his face. "Not a clue, Rosa. In all my years, I've never seen the like."
"D'you think she's left us?" Rosa pointed upwards to the heavens. "You know… 'ascended', I mean?"
A hooded figure next to them shook his head. "End of the world, I reckon," he said, nodding to the balcony. "That was the Herald up there, and I'll bet my last penny that he helped them poor souls over the edge. Just like on Traken: he got rid of the Keeper, and then next thing you know, the whole planet's wiped out. We're all done for, you mark my words."
"Rubbish!" cried Rosa. "We had that bloke in our tavern, we did, and he was nice as pie. Wouldn't say boo to a goose, would he Von?"
"Aye," Von nodded, before turning to look over his shoulder, "Oi! Stop shoving, will you!" He grabbed on to Rosa, protecting her with his huge frame as a surge from behind pushed them all forwards. A group of young men immediately behind them started chanting something loud and incoherent; Rosa could make out the word 'Boy', repeated over and over as they raised their fists angrily.
"I don't like this, Von," she said, her voice wavering, "I'm scared. Let's get back to the tavern."
Von, a head and shoulders taller than most of the surrounding citizens, looked out over the crowd. The sporadic blasts of laser fire had stopped, and the numerous white-robed acolytes seemed to have withdrawn, but now Von could see pockets of violence beginning to break out across the Square, amid angry shouts and aggressive chants as factions formed, each angrily claiming precedence over what had just occurred. He turned back to Rosa.
"I think you're right, love - it's starting to go to hell. Let's - oof!" Von staggered forwards, almost knocked off his feet by a shove from behind. Turning angrily, he raised his meaty fist, but looked down to see a young man cowering before him, strangely dressed in what must have started out as evening wear but was now ripped in places and covered in a mixture of mud and the occasional patch of blood.
"Please don't hit me!" Suren said, wearily. "I've had a hell of a night."
"You do look like you've been in the wars, lad!" said Rosa. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," Suren replied, "but I need to get into the Civic Hall." He looked at Von towering over him, almost as wide as he was tall. "Could you possibly help me?"
"Maybe," said Von, eyeing the newcomer warily, "but why should we? You look like one of them who's been in there all night, filling their bellies whilst the ordinary folk starve."
"Please," begged the bedraggled medic, "I'm the Lady's personal physician. You saw what just happened - I need to get to her. She needs my help."
Von looked to his wife, who shrugged her shoulders. "Well," she said, "the Lady has answered a fair few prayers for us, I'll grant you." Von considered for a few moments, then gave a brief nod of agreement.
"Go on then lad," said the big man gruffly, "get behind me. And whatever you do…. keep up!"
The brilliant white had light faded in intensity as quickly as it had arrived. Nyssa opened her eyes, but saw nothing but a swirl of chimerical colours as her overloaded senses fought to adjust, leaving her confused and disorientated, firstly at the realisation that she was still alive and seemingly unharmed, and secondly due to the fact that - according to her other senses - she was still falling. The inertia of her descent continued unabated until, moments later, she crashed into something soft and warm below her. She lay for a moment, winded and nauseous, until the form underneath her suddenly began to move and groan. Nyssa gasped, blindly pushing herself up and away from whatever it was that had broken her fall, but quickly found herself up against an obstacle close behind her. Panicking, she grasped around in the darkness, but could find no immediate escape; meanwhile, the other form began to thrash about, roaring in anger as it reached out, fingers grasping blindly. Nyssa shook her head, desperately trying to clear her vision, but to no avail; sensing her movement, her assailant lunged towards her, hands closing around her throat. She kicked out and clawed at the hands choking her, but the rough, sinewy fingers squeezed tighter, closing off her windpipe until…
The sharp hiss of a hypospray sounded in close vicinity to Nyssa's ear, and suddenly the pressure on her throat disappeared. Nyssa slumped to the floor, coughing and sucking in large gulps of air. As she lay gasping, her vision slowly began to clear.
She was laid on a small circular platform, surrounded by a rail at waist-height. To her left lay a crumpled body clad in a white robe, the messy mop of dark hair immediately recognisable as Adric's. She looked up at the dark figure standing over him, the light glinting from a silver injector in its hand.
"Well, that's quite enough of that, my boy!" The voice was harsh and electronic. A black-gloved hand reached down towards Nyssa. "Good to see you, my dear! Are you alright?"
Nyssa recoiled from the hand, a dull ache suddenly throbbing through her head. "What… what have you done to Adric?" she asked, rubbing her temple.
"Oh, don't worry. The medication has just incapacitated him for a while. He'll be right as rain when he wakes up." The figure stepped closer, into the light. Nyssa frowned up at him - she could make out a small, squat frame, with long white hair atop a head bowed with age. The features were indiscernible, concealed beneath tinted goggles and a black breath mask, but Nyssa thought she could detect a hint of a smile on the lined face.
"He's been through the mill, poor boy," the stranger continued, "but it had to be so, I'm afraid; such is the nature of time. Lucky for us his resilient Alzarian biology will rid his body of the effects of those nasty alien chemicals in no time… with a bit of help from my own concoction, of course."
Nyssa struggled to her feet, swaying slightly as her body tried to cope with yet another change in attitude. The dull pain in her head swelled momentarily as she frowned at the stranger. "Who are you? And how do you know so much about Adric?"
He chuckled, shuffling towards a workbench and setting the injector down. "Oh, not to worry, Nyssa dear, I'm just an old friend. Very old, in fact. On this world, they call me 'The Seer', and that's as much as you need to know… for now."
The old man began to rummage about on the cluttered workbench; Nyssa took advantage of his distraction, quietly moving over to where Adric lay. "How do you know my name?" she asked, bending down and placing two fingers on Adric's exposed neck. She breathed a silent sigh of relief on feeling the strong pulse beneath his pale, clammy skin.
"You don't need me to tell you that, my dear. You're an intelligent girl - I'm sure you'll work it out for yourself, soon enough."
Adric moved under Nyssa's touch, groaning softly. Nyssa stood up and moved back to her former position, suddenly wary of the boy and the violence he had recently, inexplicably, directed towards her. The Seer turned at the sound.
"Ah, he seems to be waking already. Good, good." He moved back to the platform, checking a device on his wizened wrist. "And perfect timing; our other guests should be arriving soon."
"'Other guests'?" Nyssa asked.
"Yes, yes," the Seer chuckled, "I must say, I'm looking forward to seeing the Doctor and Tegan again after all this time. Reunions are such fun, don't you think?"
Nyssa shook her head, frowning in confusion. "This is madness," she cried, "How can you possibly know they're coming? And how can you know so much about all of us? Unless…"
The Seer smiled behind his breath mask. "Unless… go on, my dear, you'll get there in the end."
The Trakenite looked at Adric, whose eyes had begun to flutter open. "Adric…" she breathed, as facts and events slotted themselves into place in her mind - "He's from another universe, yet you know that he can heal faster than most humanoids in N-Space. How could you know that? Unless…"
"Unless…?"
"Unless you'd witnessed him being hurt or injured in some way in the past…" Nyssa recoiled as a sudden realisation hit her. "Perhaps you were the one hurting him!"
"A logical conjecture, I agree," the Seer rasped, "but surely you would have remembered that?" The old man shuffled over to the corner of the room, and began to clear a space in the midst of the clutter accumulated there.
Nyssa frowned. "Well, Adric travelled with the Doctor before I met him, it could have happened then, for all I know. But you mentioned time…" She tailed off, lost in thought.
"Ah yes! Time…" the Seer replied. He picked up a box of glassware, blowing on it to remove the thick layer of dust that had accumulated on the various vials, tubes and bottles. The resultant cloud dispersed into the air around him, each mote spinning and whirling in a search for somewhere new to settle. The old man coughed, waving his gloved hand in front of his face. "A construct that, in this case, is very much relative."
Nyssa looked at him, a growing feeling of dread beginning to push at the edge of her realisation. She continued, forcing her voice to remain calm and passive as she desperately tried not to let the feeling take hold.
"Of course…" she said, warily. "There's nothing to say your knowledge comes from our past… for all I know, your past could be our future!" She surreptitiously nudged Adric with her foot, willing him to regain full consciousness. If what she was beginning to realise was true, she would need whatever help she could get. The boy moaned softly, raising his hands to his head.
The figure stopped abruptly. "Your future…" his breath rasped through the mask, as he turned back towards them. His goggles glinted in the dim light, but Nyssa couldn't make out which of them he was looking at. "Such a shame we cannot know how much - or how little time we have left. All too little, for some."
Nyssa looked at him, eyes wide in shock. "What do you mean? Is that a threat?"
The Seer drew breath to answer, but was interrupted by a loud groan. Nyssa looked down.
Adric's eyes had opened.
"Come on Tegan, keep up!" The Doctor burst through the doors back into the Consular Chamber, stopping momentarily to survey the room before him. Tegan followed, narrowly avoiding running straight into him. She too took in the scene they had left but a few short minutes ago.
Bodies were strewn across the wooden floor of the Chamber, their white-robed limbs arranged awkwardly where they had fallen, unconscious, victims of Tegan's desperate efforts with Morovan's stun gun. The Proctor himself lay across the room, quietly moaning, the shoulder of his tunic stained dark with red.
"Where… where are you going?"
The voice came from somewhere close to the ground. The Doctor and Tegan looked down to see the crumpled, silk-clad form of Procardinal Jonaris, sat in an undignified heap next to the balcony doorway. His plump, bejewelled hands shook as he raised them to his trembling mouth, his expression still frozen in shock from being attacked by Adric just a few minutes before.
"To find Nyssa and Adric," retorted the Doctor, resuming his motion towards the exit, "and get them away from this insanity you've created!"
Jonaris spluttered, attempting to rise: "I've created? How ironic that such an accusation should come from your lips, Herald! I have only tried to-"
Before the Procardinal could continue, the door from the corridor burst open, and a bedraggled figure lurched through the opening towards them.
"Doctor! Tegan! Thank the Keeper!"
"Suren!" Tegan exclaimed, dashing forward and locking the medic in an enthusiastic hug. After a moment she released the slightly nonplussed Suren from her embrace, before adding to his surprise by giving him a hearty punch to the shoulder. "I have seen some pretty stupid things in my time," she raged, "but that one really takes the biscuit! What the hell were you thinking?"
The Doctor stepped in: "Ah, what Tegan means to say is - she's pleased to see you and is very glad that you're safe. We both are, in fact. Now if you'll excuse us, we are in rather a hurry!" The Time Lord tried to manoeuvre himself and Tegan through the door, but Suren stopped them.
"Hold on, Doctor! I just fought my way through a hoard of angry citizens - twice, I might add - to get here, and you're leaving without me? And what about the Lady?"
"Yes, well, I'll explain all that once we've-"
"I saw her fall, Doctor! The whole city saw! And then she…they…" The medic faltered, lost for words. The Doctor grabbed Suren by the shoulders, steadying him.
"We're dealing with it, don't worry. For now, you have a job to do, Medic Suren." He indicated the bodies strewn across the room. "There are people here that need help - the Proctor is injured, several acolytes have been stunned, and Prime Consul Varden-" The Doctor frowned, looking at the spot where the Serenite leader had fallen. It was empty.
Tegan followed his gaze. "Where's he gone? I could've sworn he was there a minute ago…"
"Well, we haven't got time to look for him now." The Doctor turned to Suren. "Stay here. Take care of the injured, and…" He looked over to where Procardinal Jonaris was struggling to get to his feet: "Keep him out of trouble. Think you can handle that?"
The young medic stammered. "Well, I - I…"
The Doctor clapped him on the shoulders. "Good man! Come on, Tegan!"
"Here," said Tegan, handing him Morovan's pistol, "this should help. And maybe this will too." She grabbed Suren's lapel, pulled him towards her and planted a fervent kiss on his lips. Then before Suren realised what was happening she had turned and followed the Doctor out of the door.
The medic stood for a moment, mouth agape, in the middle of the casualty-filled room. He blinked, looked at the gun in his hand, the bodies strewn around him, and then touched his fingers to his lips.
"A little…." he said to himself, and smiled.
"Adric!" Nyssa gasped, not entirely sure whether to be relieved or afraid at her friend regaining consciousness. She tentatively reached down to help him. "Are you alright?" The boy recoiled from her efforts.
"No - don't touch me!" Adric's voice cracked, and he began to cough violently, turning away from her. Nyssa tried to touch his shoulder, but he shied away.
"Adric? It's me - Nyssa. Do you remember?"
The Alzarian backed away further still, before scrambling to his feet. He shook his head, desperately trying to gather his thoughts. "I… Nyssa?" he asked, confused. "I - I don't know what… is this real? I thought…"
"Thought what?"
Adric looked away, ashamed. "It seems like a nightmare, but it was so vivid. I… I remember feeling so angry, and…" He hid his face in his hands. "I did things. Terrible things."
Nyssa stepped closer to him. "It's alright, Adric. It wasn't your fault."
"But - " he looked at her, his eyes drawn to scratches on her arms, and the faint bruises beginning to appear on the pale skin of her throat, "I hurt you. I - I tried to kill you."
"You weren't yourself," she soothed, taking another step closer. "But you're better now."
Adric backed further away. "Better? How can you know that?" He looked at his hands, his fingers trembling uncontrollably. "How do you know it won't happen again? That I won't lose control?"
"Because I've seen to that." The Seer shuffled forward, the scant light flashing from the dark lenses of the old man's goggles. Adric recoiled, his eyes wide.
"No need to worry, my young friend," the Seer chuckled, "I mean you no harm. The treatment I gave you-"
"Treatment?" asked Adric, "Who are you? And what do you mean, 'treatment'?"
"He injected you with something," explained Nyssa hurriedly, "just after we arrived here. He said it would counteract the chemicals you were given by - by whoever took you."
Adric frowned, shaking his head. "That doesn't make sense…"
"But it worked, Adric! Whoever he is and whatever he did - you're better now!" Nyssa exclaimed. She reached out and touched his shoulder, but the boy jerked away from her, his expression darkening as thunder rolled overhead.
The Seer chuckled. "No, he's right, my dear. It doesn't make sense. And why is that, young man?"
"Because…" Adric replied, his voice bitter, "because you gave it to me straight away." He shakily stepped down from the platform, slowly edging towards the old man. "No test, no analysis, no diagnosis. Which means that… that you already knew what they'd given me."
The Seer nodded encouragingly, seemingly unperturbed by Adric's slow, brooding movement in his direction. "Yes, yes! And…?"
Thunder rumbled again as Adric advanced. The atmosphere in the dimly lit room seemed suddenly heavy, as if charged with electricity; Nyssa watched her friend's inexorable advance towards the old scientist, the palpable tension building between them, crackling like static.
"And the only way you could know that is if you were one of them," the Alzarian growled, clenching his trembling fists. "One of the people who took me. Drugged me." He reached the Seer, and looked down into the old, wrinkled face. Adric saw a reflection looking back at him from the tinted goggles, but the red-eyed, haggard youth wasn't someone he recognised; a twisted, angry distortion of a boy he used to know. The features in the reflected image darkened. "Turned me into this." He grabbed the old man, twisting handfuls of his robes in his fists. The Seer gasped, his black-gloved hands scrabbling to grab hold of his assailant's sinewy arms.
"Adric, no!" shouted Nyssa, "You mustn't!"
"Stay back, Nyssa!"
"Please, Adric!" she implored, "you don't know who you're dealing with!"
The boy looked down at the black gloves gripping his arms, and then back at the opaque lenses just a few inches from his face, his lips curling into a snarl.
"Oh, I think I can work it out," he growled.
Smoke curled upwards from guttering torches, congregating at the ceiling of the underground chamber, swirling above the grey-cowled heads of the kneeling acolytes below. As their heads bowed in unison, the space resonated with low, rhythmic chants; intoned numbers and formulae overlapping and complimenting each other, the mathematical language of the universe reverberating from the stone walls.
Brother Byrnus lifted his head, arms raised to the ceiling in rapture. Opening his eyes, he sensed movement from the archway at the far corner of the room; on seeing the newcomer he quickly got to his feet and moved to greet him.
"Father!" he said, his tone hushed, "I was beginning to worry."
"Apologies, my friend. I was unavoidably delayed." The older man put a hand against the cold stone of the archway, leaning to support himself.
"Are you unwell, Father?" Byrnus asked, concerned.
A jaded chuckle issued from beneath the Grey Father's cowl. "I am fine, Brother; just feeling my age a little. All the activity of late is taking it's toll on me, I'm afraid."
Byrnus took the Father's arm. "Come, Father - join in the recitations. It will calm our bodies and focus our minds ahead of the coming task."
"That is why I am here, my friend," replied the older man, putting a gnarled hand on his companion's shoulder. "We must begin the final steps. Prepare the Brethren to move out. The time of our salvation is at hand."
"You used me," snarled Adric, knuckles whitening as he tightly grasped the robes of the frightened old man before him, "Just like before. I'm sick of being a pawn in your sordid little schemes, Time Lord!" The Seer gasped as the youth shook him violently.
"Adric, leave him!" Nyssa cried, pulling at her friend's arm, "Please - he's just an old man!" The boy shrugged her off, pushing her away with a derisory laugh.
"An 'old man'? What, like he was on Castrovalva? I don't think so, Nyssa." He pulled the Seer up until their faces were inches apart, the old man's feet barely touching the floor. "Remember Castrovalva? When you kidnapped and tortured me for days?"
The old man seemed to nod slightly, his expression unreadable behind his breath mask and goggles, his hands scrabbling at Adric's arms as he fought to keep himself upright. Adric's expression darkened, as memories flooded his troubled mind.
"Well I remember it - vividly," he spat. "The agonising pain of a hadron power web isn't something you easily forget. Not when you're reminded of it every night in your dreams. I've lost count of the number of times I've woken up screaming with the memory of that pain, the feeling of every nerve ending in my body burning at the twitch of a madman's fingers…" Adric grabbed the Seer's wrist, lifting his black-gloved hand - "These fingers! And you expect me to just let him go?" He shook his head, tears forming in his eyes. "I don't think so, Nyssa, not this time. Not after all he's done… after everything he's made me do." He threw the old man to the ground; the Seer cried out, his goggles skidding across the room as he impacted on the stone floor.
"You can't kill him, Adric," Nyssa pleaded, "you're not a murderer!"
Adric looked down at the old man. "I am what he's made me," he said, his voice filled with revulsion.
"And this is where it ends."
The TARDIS console rose and fell, its rhythmic calmness at odds with the frantic activity surrounding it as the Doctor rushed from panel to panel, flicking switches and adjusting controls in rapid fashion.
"What does it say now?" he asked, his gaze fixed on the dials in front of him.
Tegan frowned at the silver control in her hand. "What, that trace thingy that you wanted to move up and down?"
"Yes?"
"It's going side to side."
"Well, that's not right," said the Doctor, scratching his head. He looked up from the console to the scanner, which was displaying a detailed map of the city below. "What does the reading on the panel say?"
"Errrr…. 463.7 mega-wotsits."
"Damn!" The Time Lord hurried round the console, snatching the control from Tegan's hands to look at the readings for himself.
"I thought you said you'd made sure this thing worked?" Tegan questioned, arms folded.
The Doctor hit the side of the device in frustration. "I did! Just a few technical issues, that's all…" He handed it back to her and resumed his adjustments to the console, which suddenly began to emit a high-pitched whining noise.
"Because if you didn't," Tegan shouted above the noise, "then not only have you probably sent Nyssa and Adric into a trap, but you've also made sure we have no way of finding them!" The whine abruptly stopped as part of the console erupted in a shower of sparks.
"Yes, thank you so much for pointing that out, Tegan!" The Doctor retorted. "If I may remind you, the only alternative was their imminent and messy death on the paving stones of the Civic Square, so although not ideal, I think I'll stick with my plan, if you don't mind?" He twisted a dial with such a violent flourish that it came off in his hand. Seeing that Tegan was preoccupied with the control once more, he swiftly put the dial in his pocket, angrily thumped the console, and turned to examine the scanner once again.
"Doctor - "
"Not now, Tegan!"
"But Doc - it's working!" She turned the control towards him, an excited smile on her face. "Look! Up and down!" The Doctor peered at the control's trace pattern, the frustration suddenly melting from his expression.
"Quick - the reading!"
Tegan swiftly looked at the relevant readout. "821.4 wotsits!"
The Doctor tapped rapidly on the keyboard, then they both turned and stared at the screen intently. Two intersecting red lines had appeared, and started to slowly move across the screen.
"Come on…. come on!"
The two lines tracked across the map, then suddenly stopped, the point of their intersection pulsing red and green.
"There!" exclaimed the Doctor, "We've got it!"
"No!"
Nyssa moved quickly to where the Seer lay, moaning softly and incoherently. Kneeling down, she picked up the old man's goggles, turning the delicately machined apparatus over in her hands. One lens was cracked, but nonetheless intact. "I won't let you do this, Adric."
"What?" exclaimed Adric incredulously. "How can you, of all people, say that? After everything he's done to you?"
"I..." Nyssa faltered, closing her eyes as the memory of Traken, suddenly obliterated by a malevolent wave of entropy, involuntarily entered her mind. All those lives… the lives of everyone she had ever known and loved, wiped out of existence in an instant, and now she had the fate of the person responsible in her hands. Was Adric right? Did she owe it to the memory of those who had perished to hold their murderer to account? Did she owe it to her father?
"Father..." she whispered, screwing her eyes tight as a sudden ache pounded within her head once more.
"Nyssa!" Adric cried, impatiently.
"I can't," she said sadly, looking down at the goggles in her hands. "I can't let you kill him. All those people on Traken, Logopolis, Castrovalva... and all the other countless worlds he's destroyed... nothing will ever bring them back, Adric. Nothing will ever bring my father back. Kill him, and nothing will change... except you."
She placed the goggles into the Seer's hand. He turned to face her, his breath rasping through his mask as he struggled to speak.
"Help me, child…!" the old man pleaded, a black gloved hand outstretched. Nyssa stared at his face, then gasped suddenly in shock as she looked into his eyes.
Eyes that were sharp as crystal, and burning with intelligence.
A sudden sharp pain lanced through Nyssa's mind; she cried out, recoiling in shock. Adric reacted at once, leaping to her defence.
"What did you do to her?" he raged, grabbing the Seer's robes and pulling him roughly to his feet. He shook the old man violently; "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!"
The time rotor juddered to a halt as the Doctor flicked a final switch with a flourish. "Perfect landing!" he announced; "Tegan - activate the scanner, please."
"We haven't got time to waste on that," Tegan protested, "we need to get out there! Nyssa and Adric could be in danger!"
"And we'll be no good to them if we stumble blindly into the same trap!" the Time Lord retorted, reaching over the console to activate the switch himself. The screen switched from the aerial map to the outside view; Tegan watched as the Doctor's face immediately fell.
"Oh dear."
Tegan's eyes widened. "What is it?"
The Doctor activated the door control, shouting over his shoulder as he sprinted through the doors. "No time for questions, Tegan, we need to get out there!"
"But that's what I just said!" Tegan shouted after him in exasperation, moving to follow him whilst muttering under her breath: "Might as well just talk to yourself Tegan, no-one else listens to a word I say round here, I don't know why I bother, I really don't…"
The scene that greeted her as she exited the safe confines of the TARDIS stopped her mid-tirade. She had emerged into some kind of low lit, cluttered workshop, the disorder surrounding them spilling over into the scene playing out before her: Adric seemed to be locked in a violent struggle with an elderly stranger, whilst the Doctor had an arm locked around the boy's waist in an apparent effort to restrain him; beyond them, Nyssa sat on the floor next to a small raised platform, her head in her hands, eyes shut tight as if in pain.
"What the hell…?" she spluttered, taking it all in. The Doctor looked over towards her.
"Tegan! Help me with Adric!" he cried, his voice straining with exertion. She immediately rushed over, locking her hands around Adric's wrists and trying to pull them from the old man's throat.
"Get… off… him!" Tegan grunted, tugging at Adric's wiry arms. The Alzarian dug his fingers deeper into the old man's throat.
"No!" Adric gasped, "you don't understand!"
"It's alright, Adric… we're here to help you! It's not your fault!" Tegan cried. A deathly rattle emitted from the old man's breath mask. "Quick Doctor, do something! He's going to choke!" she cried.
"I'm…. trying, Tegan!" he grunted. "He won't budge!"
"Rabbits!" she said, letting go of his arms. She frantically thought back to her airline training on how to subdue unruly passengers, trying to pick an option which would cause the least damage. "Sorry, Adric," she said, settling on her choice, "but you are always harping on about how Alzarians heal faster…" and with that she dug the heel of her shoe into the centre of the boy's foot.
Adric howled in pain, letting go of his victim so suddenly that both he and the Doctor went hurtling across the floor, crashing in a heap amongst one of the the piles of clutter that surrounded the TARDIS. Tegan ran over to them as Adric struggled to rise; the Doctor reacted quickly, pinning him to the ground.
"Oh no, you don't! You stay where you are, young man!"
"No!" the boy protested, "You have to stop him!"
Tegan helped the Doctor to hold him. "Calm down," she soothed, "you don't know what you're saying. They've done something to you, Adric, but the Doctor will sort you out."
"But… you don't understand!" Adric cried, struggling against his friends' grip. "It's him!" He managed to break an arm free, and pointed over to where the Seer stood.
"It's the Master!"
"Ouch! Watch what you're doing, boy!"
"Just keep still. I need to stop the bleeding." Suren continued his ministrations, applying strategic hypospray bursts of coagulant around the periphery of the blaster wound to Proctor Morovan's upper chest and shoulder. The procedure complete, he searched through the nearby medikit for a sterilising spray, glancing around the room as he did do.
The Consular Chamber was slowly becoming less like the aftermath of a battle as the medical staff that Suren had called in went about their work, carrying out the unconscious bodies of the stunned acolytes to be treated back at the Infirmary, and righting the disarrayed furniture as they went. Now only Suren, Proctor Morovan, and Procardinal Jonaris remained. The latter sat on a cushioned bench at the edge of the room, moaning quietly as he fanned his florid face with a handkerchief.
"There," announced Suren, pressing a fresh dressing against the Proctor's wound, "That'll stem the bleeding until we can get you to the Infirmary. You're all done."
The Proctor cried out in pain at the sudden pressure; Suren quickly rooted around the medikit for a vial of analgesic, putting the pistol that Tegan had given him down to free both hands for the search. On locating the drug he looked up, momentarily confused to see that the Proctor's grimace had suddenly morphed into a mocking smile, until he noticed the gun was now in Morovan's hand and pointing at him.
"Oh no, Medic Suren. I think you'll find it's you that is done."
Silence fell as the meaning of Adric's words dawned on his friends. Maintaining their grip on the boy they looked at each other, their expressions a mixture of confusion and incredulity.
"That's impossible, Adric!" said Tegan, dismissively. "The Master was trapped on Castovalva, you know that."
"And besides," agreed the Doctor, "the high technology scan I performed earlier would have picked up another TARDIS in the vicinity." He looked at Adric sympathetically. "I'm sorry, Adric, but you're just not thinking straight. Let us help you."
"I don't need your help!" Adric retorted, resuming his struggling, "I'm fine now! Please - you've got to stop him!"
"For cripes sake, Adric, he's just an old man!" Tegan cried.
"You really should give the boy more credit." The low, electronically enhanced voice from across the room caused the struggling trio to pause, each slowly turning to look to its source. The old man had regained his feet, and stood side by side with Nyssa on the raised circular platform, one hand poised over a blinking control panel to his right, the other firmly locked around the Trakenite girl's wrist. Nyssa swayed where she stood, her expression pained.
"Nyssa?" The Doctor's brow furrowed. "Are you alright?"
The Seer smiled behind his breathmask. "I'm truly sorry to cut this happy reunion short, but I'm afraid Nyssa and I have work to do. Doctor, Tegan," he nodded in their direction, "so good to see you both again. Goodbye!"
The Doctor started forward, all thoughts of restraining Adric left behind. "What? Who are you? Nyssa, what's going on?"
Nyssa shook her head, tears running down her cheeks. "I'm sorry, Doctor, I-"
Before she could finish her sentence the Seer keyed the control panel, and with a high-pitched whine of energy the transmat platform activated, enveloping Nyssa and the Seer in a column of intense white light.
"No!" The Doctor dived forward, trying in vain to hang on to their rapidly diminishing physical presence, but in the space of a second they were gone, the only evidence of their presence a lingering, ominous chuckle in the air.
Tegan abandoned her hold on Adric, running over to the platform; the Doctor was already on his feet, frantically jabbing at the control panel.
"What the hell is going on?" Tegan exclaimed, "Doctor, you don't think it actually was..."
"Come on, come on," he muttered breathlessly, ignoring her, "there must be a way to reverse the transmission..." All of a sudden he stopped his efforts, looking at the control panel in confusion. "Hang on a minute, I think he's... GET DOWN!"
Tegan barely had time to react as the Doctor launched himself at her, sending them both flying to the floor. A split second later, the control panel erupted in a shower of sparks, and a wave of heat washed over their prone bodies as the transmat platform exploded.
"Damn it!" the Doctor shouted, thumping the stone floor in frustration. Tegan moaned beneath him, causing him to realise - with a rush of embarrassment - that he was still on top of her. He leapt up, helping his groggy companion to her feet, making sure to keep himself between her and the still-burning platform.
"That was close… are you alright?" he asked, grasping Tegan's shoulders as she coughed, then nodded. Smoke billowed into the air behind them; the Doctor looked over his shoulder at the blaze, which was now rapidly taking hold of the far side of the room, glass bottles and flasks popping and shattering in its wake.
The Doctor shook his head. "He set it to self-destruct on completion of the transmat," he said bitterly, steering her towards where Adric sat, propped up against the TARDIS. "I didn't have time to trace the co-ordinates. They could be anywhere on the planet by now." They reached Adric, who struggled to his feet.
"Then you should have listened to me!" the boy protested, "We could have stopped him!"
A sudden minor explosion from across the room caused them to duck. The fire had ignited some electrical equipment, and the flames were beginning to lick at the edge of the adjoining cabinet which housed row upon row of chemical-filled bottles.
"Never mind that now," the Doctor cried, opening the TARDIS door, "we need to get out of here before the whole place goes up!" Adric and Tegan quickly dived inside, the Doctor right on their heels, slamming the door behind him. Across the room, glassware crashed to the floor; the sound of the TARDIS's dematerialisation drowned out as the chemicals ignited and the cluttered room became utterly consumed by flames, the colossal fireball momentarily illuminating the night sky above.
