CHAPTER 3
DESCENT INTO TERROR
His old face lined with concentration, the Doctor crouched down at the open panel on the pedestal underneath the hexagonal control console. The golden glow from the ornate oil lamp next to him cleared a comforting space in the gloom that pervaded the TARDIS control room. Eerie, flickering, shadows played over the honeycomb-like array of large circles sunk into the walls. The Doctor toiled in his shirt-sleeves and his fingers deftly worked at the wiring lacing the circuit boards and ranks of softly glowing small tubes. Cables trailed out to a small but complicated structure of metal struts and panels each covered with intricate circuitry and with a glass globe filled with glowing filaments and electrical components at its centre. Ian and Barbara stood nearby watching him silently. They didn't hear Vicki walk up behind.
"What… ?" began the girl.
"Oh! Vicki!" blurted a startled Barbara. Ian's breath whooped with shock.
"Don't creep up…"
"Do you mind!" barked the Doctor at the trio, "This is highly delicate and dangerous! Ticklish adjustments. Ticklish! Go away all of you!"
All three looked shamefacedly at one another as the Doctor returned to his task, muttering his vexations to himself. Then annoyance overtook Ian's expression as he sharply turned and strode over to the antique Sheraton chair and slumped into it. Barbara gave Vicki a comforting squeeze and moved quietly away into the darkness. The girl continued to look at the Doctor while he worked. She gradually edged nearer. He gave her a huffish glance as she crouched down beside him. Her face gradually moved closer to the circuitry as she peered intently at the ship's workings.
"Keep your nose out child!" blurted the old man harshly, "It's dangerous, do you want to be electrocuted? Go away, I told you! Ticklish adjustments! Ticklish!"
"Sorry, I only wanted…"
"Go away I say…er…ticklish, you are ticklish - er. Oh!" the Doctor spluttered at his own lapse of English. Vicki cupped her hand over her mouth to suppress her giggle.
"Go away!" This time the Doctor's voice cut like a ragged saw.
"Sorry," Vicki sighed as she got up. She could sense more than see Ian's reproachful look as she moved over to him.
"I only wanted to know what he is doing," she whispered plaintively as she crouched down alongside the seated Ian.
"The Doctor must be exhausted by now. I don't think he has slept at all. He was at that when Barbara and I came in a few minutes ago. He did sort of explain what his idea is…"
"Oooh, yes?" murmured Vicki.
Ian cupped a hand behind his neck and rubbed at it as he reformed the Doctor's explanation in his own mind. "Well, the Doctor was a bit vague but he said that the TARDIS was in too powerful a grip for us to merely pull away. Er, if you can imagine a man tightly grasping at a small object, pulling the object away is much easier if you can first prise open the man's fingers."
"Oh, I see…" Vicki whispered thoughtfully, "but what are the fingers and how can we prise them open?"
"Well, that bit I found difficult to follow. He wasn't exactly in the mood for lengthy explanations. He said something about setting up resonant fields in the outer plasmic shell, whatever that means. He did say some more but I couldn't follow it and, unlike you," whispered Ian pointedly while he tapped a finger on Vicki's head, "I know when its not the right time to press him." Vicki looked dolefully up at the schoolmaster, in much the same way that one of his pupils might have done after a rebuke.
"What are you muttering about over there? Eh?" demanded the old man, who was now using the edge of the control console to hoist himself into a standing position.
"I was just…" began Ian.
"Oh, never mind, never mind! We have much more important things to worry about," interrupted the Doctor, irritably. Vicki glanced at Ian's tightening face as she heard the hiss of air snorting down his nose.
"Well, have you sorted it out yet?" snapped Ian as he rose sharply to his feet. Vicki also sprang up. The old man ignored Ian's question, his attention rigidly fixed on the controls in front of him. His fingers played over the switches and levers. A low droning noise began to fill the control room. Ian and Vicki moved over to the control console and they were joined by Barbara, appearing from a dark corner. Suddenly a loud cacophony of drumming and blattering noises started up and they could feel the floor shuddering under them.
The three stared at the Doctor in alarm. If he was aware of their gazes he didn't show it. His expression grim, he was watching one of the dials intently. He had one hand on the master dematerialisation lever. The noises and shuddering grew to a fearful intensity. Lights on the console glowed and winked. Suddenly the Doctor slammed home the lever and the ship gave a lurch which made them all stagger, as a loud bang and a rumble signalled the start of the normal dematerialisation sequence. The central column began its rising and falling motion, as lights within it flickered to life. The familiar trumpeting and grating noises started up, slowly and laboured at first, as the lights in the ship began to brighten. The shuddering rapidly died away to a faint trembling as the dematerialisation noises picked up to their normal speed and pitch. Then the rhythmic grating gave way to the usual echoing electronic whorls and oscillations that sounded as the ship was passing through the trans-dimensional flux. The TARDIS was on its way once again.
"Hah! Hah! Eh!" triumphed the Doctor, as he joyfully darted about the console setting his beloved controls. The three others blurted their relief and congratulations in a chorus. The old man's face was brimming with pride and self-importance. "A superior brain will always find a way!" he crowed as his right hand gestured to his head while his left gave a final control knob and emphatic twist.
Not even the faintest hint of a breeze disturbed the icy beauty of the plateau. Here and there the rolling plain of snow was broken by vast arches of ice, reaching into the cold air. In other places crystal-clear icy spikes broke jaggedly through the surface at odd angles, catching the bluish-white sunlight and the glow from the intensely blue sky, to prismatically create traces of rainbow colours. Those rare jewels of colour were the only relief from the white and blue dominating the icy scene.
The plateau, about a kilometre across, was edged along most of its circumference by a jagged wall of ice, varying in height but mostly some tens of metres tall. At the only unbounded section of the plateau the snow had broken over a sharp ledge to reveal a steep slope of ice. This icy chute was a few hundred metres long and ended in a sheer drop of over a kilometre to the surrounding surface of the planet. The plateau was the only high structure visible in the landscape out to the far horizon.
The sound of electronic whorls and oscillations that first began to sound in the chill air seemed almost a natural part of the ethereal scene. Then those noises developed into the fearsome rumbling and rhythmic grating of the materialising TARDIS. Moments later a final boom echoed and re-echoed around the icy arena and a battered old police box, its roof-lamp slowly flashing, now stood as a very incongruous addition to the icescape.
The TARDIS had come to rest right at the perimeter of the plateau in a small gap in the ice-wall, with the doors of the police box facing into the plateau. It precariously stood at the very edge of the broken snow at the upper end of the ice-chute, part of the base at the rear of the police box jutting unsupported into the air at the top of the ice slope. Snow cracked and crunched under the police box as it slightly settled. A few pieces of powdery snow broke away from the edge and slithered down the icy slope.
"Still nothing out there," said Ian turning from the scanner screen towards Barbara. Vicki walked up to join the pair.
"Well, I still think you should have woken him up, when we landed," pressed Barbara.
"No. The rest will do him good. We're quite safe and you know how tetchy he gets when he's tired - and you could see how exhausted he was." Barbara's irritated expression showed that she didn't concur. She was too much the schoolmistress to meekly comply when she thought she was in the right.
"Oh, alright then, I'll wake him now," sighed Ian, "but don't blame me if he gets in a foul mood." All three moved towards the old man who was reclining, still in his shirt-sleeves, on the Louis Quatorze chaise-longue.
When he had first fallen asleep, the Doctor had been completely still. He hardly even seemed to be breathing. After a time he had started to become more active, mumbling and wheezing and twitching and turning. Now his mumblings were much more audible to the advancing trio.
"Oh, Cameca, my darling Cameca. I've never before seen a pair as magnificent as those of yours." The trio stopped in their tracks and Barbara and Ian looked awkwardly at each other as Vicki stared wide-eyed and open-mouthed. "No, I've never seen earrings like those in all my travels." Barbara bit her lip, suppressing a smirk. Vicki cupped a hand to her mouth to stop herself giggling.
Ian, coughing to hide a chuckle, moved up to the old man and gently shook his shoulder. "Doctor! Doctor!"
A pair of bleary eyes flickered open and looked uncomprehendingly up at Ian. "Oh look, my dear, room service. Two cups of cocoa please young man."
Vicki let out a screech and collapsed into hysterical giggles and Ian and Barbara also succumbed. The control room of the TARDIS was filled with the sounds of laughter.
The Doctor pocketed the TARDIS key and turned to face the snowy arena with the three others. None of them realised that the rear of the police box hung out beyond the edge of the level plain. All four were dressed in heavy fur coats, fur-lined boots, thin black leather gloves, and large furry hats with dangling ear flaps.
"Beautiful, my friends, absolutely beautiful, hmm? Eh?"
"Yes Doctor," replied Ian with a breathless awe, "it's magnificent." Vicki was exhaling deeply and watching the moisture from her breath linger like smoke. Barbara and Ian's breaths were similarly visible, the Doctor's rather less so.
Barbara shivered and pulled the clothes more tightly around her. "Doctor, are you sure…?" she began as Vicki, suddenly becoming animated, leapt forward giggling, then scooped up a handful of snow and threw it back at Ian.
"Oh, like that is it young lady!" retorted the flinching Ian in a tone of mock sternness. He started to crunch through the hard snow after Vicki who scampered away, laughing. Their footsteps were the first across the virgin white surface.
The Doctor chuckled and smiled at the display of youthful exuberance. Barbara also smiled wearily. "Yes my dear?" said the old man as they turned to each other again.
"Well, you did seem surprised that we had landed. You said you thought we would be in transit for many hours and you said you thought the controls were set to keep us from actually materialising…"
"My dear, my dear, don't worry, eh! You are a fuss pot, you know," interrupted the Doctor as he cupped his hands on Barbara's shoulders while angling his head stiffly back and peering at her down the length of his nose in one of his characteristic poses, "Yes I know that but my ship is a little unpredictable at the best of times and after all that, er, incidence, er, well, you know…"
Barbara smiled back wearily. "It's just that I'm worried that we can't be sure that we got away from whatever, or whoever, it was holding the ship."
The Doctor sighed peevishly. "Now my dear young lady. I pitted my wits against whatever it was and, quite naturally, er, won! Look around you. We're here aren't we, hmm? Eh?" The Doctor, releasing his left hand from Barbara's shoulder, let it sweep in an airy gesture, while his thin lips pouted and his cheeks hollowed. Smiling again, Barbara nodded.
"Good! Now let's hear no more of this and catch the others up, eh?" The Doctor wagged a long finger at Barbara to drive home his point. "Come along, my dear, come along!" he urged as he sharply moved off in the direction of Ian and Vicki. After a momentary thoughtful look, Barbara followed.
The two set off in the direction of the centre of the plateau, where the others were headed. They could see the quickly striding figure of Ian Chesterton catching up with Vicki who was now standing by a huge ice structure. It looked like a low arch, or bridge, made of glittering ice. Eventually Barbara and the Doctor reached the other two.
"Magnificent, isn't it?" declared Ian rhetorically as he gestured at the icy form.
"Yes, indeed, dear boy, indeed!" laughed the Doctor with delight. "Now what sort of processes could have produced this structure, eh, and the others like it, too? Hmm, yes, most interesting. Most interesting!"
"Let's go around it," suggested Ian.
"Yes, quite so. You lead," said the Doctor, gesturing impatiently for the group to move on. While the Doctor, Ian and Barbara picked their way round the icy structure, Vicki scampered on ahead.
"Oooh, look at this!" the others heard Vicki call out.
A moment later the others caught up with Vicki, who was staring into a deep funnel-like depression in the snow. It was about two metres across at its mouth. At the centre of it, about a metre down, was a gaping hole at just under a metre across, with icy walls extending vertically downwards into blackness.
Ian was first to speak. "What do you make of that, Doctor?"
"I don't know dear boy, I don't know," chirruped the Doctor briskly. "It's fascinating, yes, fascinating!"
Barbara picked her way around the hole. "There's a faint smell coming out of it," she observed wrinkling her nose disapprovingly, "and it's not very pleasant." The three others joined Barbara and stood sniffing.
"Pooh, yes," agreed Ian.
The Doctor's face clouded. "Hmm, I think this might well be a ventilation shaft, which would of course imply some habitation underground."
"People living here! In all this?" retorted Ian incredulously.
"Yes, indeed, dear boy!" The Doctor pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes, "Possibly we might meet them. Yes possibly. Mind you, we had better be careful; make preparations, eh?" Vicki looked enthusiastic, while Ian looked quizzically at the old man. Barbara continued to stare into the hole, her expression displaying her worry.
"Anyway, let us first return to the ship. I'm getting quite hungry, you must be too, I imagine?" continued the Doctor as he looked from one to the other of his companions.
"We all ate while you were asleep," chipped in Vicki.
The Doctor looked rather put out. "Oh did you! Well I'M hungry! Let us go back. Come along, now, come along!" The four travellers moved back round the ice structure until they came in site of the TARDIS. They set off across the snow towards it, the Doctor leading the way with Vicki at his side. Ian and Barbara walked together a short distance behind.
"Doctor, who was Cameca?" asked Vicki with a mischievous look on her face.
"What?" barked the Doctor, sharply turning his head to the girl. Ian and Barbara looked at each other in mild alarm.
"Who was Cameca? You were talking in your sleep and…" Vicki's voice tailed off. The expression growing on her face showed that she was realising, too late, that she had made a grave mistake.
"Mind your own business, child, you…" began the Doctor tartly.
"Vicki! Race you back to the TARDIS!" interrupted Ian. The old man spluttered loudly as Ian stomped past. Vicki took the opportunity Ian had made for her and she ran after him. The Doctor stopped and turned back to the approaching Barbara, glaring at her as if daring her to say something. Barbara took the Doctor's arm and they continued to walk, in silence, back towards the TARDIS. They watched Vicki overtake Ian, now very close to the police box. Vicki stretched out her arms in front of her and skidded into a thumping contact with the TARDIS doors.
"I've won! Aaaaargh!" screeched the girl as the police box tilted backwards accompanied by the sound of cracking ice and crunching snow. Vicki desperately pushed herself back from it and fell into the snow as it started to tilt further back and to creep, slowly at first and then more rapidly onto the ice slope. Suddenly it gathered pace and slithered, rumbling, down the icy chute. A moment later it left the end of the chute and plunged out of sight - hurtling unseen towards the hinterland at the foot of the raised plateau.
"Oh! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" wailed Vicki. The group stood at the edge of the plateau, at the top of the icy slope down which the TARDIS had slithered. The Doctor had been merciless in venting his fury at Vicki.
"Sorry! Sorry! You stupid child!" blasted the Doctor.
"Oh! Stop it! Stop it!" shrieked Barbara, almost in tears herself. The Doctor now turned on her in his fury.
"Oh! So that…" his voice was venomous.
"Pack it up all of you! Just shut up! Shut up!" bellowed Ian. The Doctor now glared at him.
"How dare you…you…" snarled the old man.
Ian lunged at him, grabbing the lapels of the Doctor's fur coat and pulling the old man's face close to his own. "Now you listen to me! I have just about had enough of you! This is your fault, you stupid old fool. You landed the ship on the edge, not any of us. You did the same thing in Rome and you've done it again now! It isn't Vicki's fault we've lost the ship, it's yours!" Ian pushed the Doctor away from him and the old man stumbled backwards and fell into the snow.
"Ian!" called out the aghast Barbara. Vicki watched trembling. The Doctor looked up at Ian with an expression of fury mixed with shock on his hawkish face. Ian's expression also turned to one of shock and he raised his hands in front of him and stared down at his upturned palms, as if the answer should somehow lay in them. The group fell silent and Ian, now trembling, turned his back on the group and stepped into the broken snow at the edge of the ice chute. He gazed into the distance, as the other three pairs of eyes all stared at him. The Doctor struggled to his feet and rather half-heartedly brushed himself down, all the time continuing to stare at the back of Ian's head.
"So!" began the old man, the note in his voice matching the haughty distaste pictured on his face, "Oh yes! Hah! That is it! You side with the Daleks, sabotage my ship, and drug Susan! And now, when I try and help you, this is all the thanks I get!" The Doctor once more had three pairs of eyes all staring at HIM.
"Oh, no!" whimpered Barbara as she cupped her gloved hands over her face. The Doctor glanced at her, then a look of shocked realisation spread across his features.
"I - I - er! Oh!" he mumbled impotently.
"Doctor," began Ian unsteadily as he approached the old man, "whatever was affecting us on the ship, it still is, down here."
The Doctor's face set like stone. "Shear nonsense!" he barked. "My dear Chesterfield, I'm never wrong! I defeated whatever was holding the ship and, thanks to me, we have escaped it. The loss of the TARDIS now is due to a mere circumstance."
"No, Doctor, you ARE wrong. Something happened to you on the ship and it has happened to you again, now. I think its also effecting the rest of us. Our argument…"
"Rubbish! You are letting your imaginings get the better of you, young man. Shear nonsense! I've never felt better. I'm at the pineapple of good health. Quite normal!" Vicki stared wide-eyed.
Exasperated, Ian said "Firstly my name is ChesterTON…'.
"I know that. I know that!" came the irritable interruption, "If you're going to simply stand there and…"
"Oh, for heaven's sake, Doctor," interrupted Barbara. All eyes now turned to her. "Can't you see it? Ian's right. We DIDN'T escape whatever was holding us…"
The old man spluttered loudly and waived a hand dismissively at Barbara. "Utter nonsense!" he barked, "Oh, I've had quite about enough of all of you! We should be looking for a way to recover the ship, not indulging in wild flights of fancy! Now I suggest…" Ian and Barbara interrupted together, creating a babble of protestations.
"Utter rubbish!" bellowed the Doctor. He closed his eyes in an expression that indicated he had also closed his mind.
Half an hour later saw the group silently trudging through the snow around the perimeter of the plateau in single file with the Doctor in the lead. They moved just a few metres from the jagged wall of icy pinnacles, looking for any opening that would take them off the plateau. Even the usually enthusiastic Vicki had stopped appreciating the ethereal beauty of the environment. All four were breathing heavily and had expressions of fatigue on their faces.
"Oh, can't we rest a minute?" wheezed Barbara plaintively. The only reply the Doctor gave was to stop and to half-turn towards her. A sullen expression vied for dominance over fatigue on his old features.
"You alright, Barbara?" asked Ian, moving in front of the woman.
"Yes. I just feel so tired."
Ian nodded. "So do I," he said. "What about you Vicki?"
"I do as well," sighed the girl.
"What about you Doctor?" Ian's voice now had a slight edge to it.
"I'm just dandy, thank you," came the reply in a tone as chilly as the air. The Doctor turned away from the group again. He closed his eyes and breathed heavily, tiredness giving his face a deeply haggard look. Ian's expression hardened. Barbara dropped her gaze to the snow in front of her and Vicki looked worriedly from one to the other of the two men.
"Well, judging by these shadows, this planet's sun is now lower in the sky than when we first arrived." Ian was now speaking to the back of the Doctor's head. "We need to find some shelter and warmth before sunset. If not…" Ian's voice turned grim, "we will all freeze to death!"
The four travellers trudged onwards for another quarter of an hour.
"Ian, I don't think I can go much further," said Barbara wearily.
"I know but do your best," rasped Ian. "There must be a way down to where the TARDIS is. There must be!"
"And here it is!" announced the Doctor. "Look! Here, Look!" The Doctor, several metres ahead of the others, was pointing to something on the other side of a section of the ice wall that had for some distance running inwards into the plateau. At this point, the wall turned through more than a right-angle and extended, over a length of about twenty five metres, back towards the main outer perimeter of the snow field. A moment later the others had tramped up to join the Doctor and they could then see what he was pointing at. About half way along the twenty five metre section of wall was a gaping hole - the opening to a cave in the ice.
"How can you be sure that it will lead us to the TARDIS?" said Ian a little edgily.
"Oh, now, now, dear boy!" replied the Doctor while patting Ian's arm, "There's every hope, eh?" The Doctor's lightning fast change of mood to friendliness and cheeriness surprised Ian. "Come along, my friends, come along, come along!" The Doctor, alone of the others, had also suddenly thrown off the weariness that was affecting them. The old man looked from one to the other of his companions, happily beaming at them. He started to walk towards the cave opening, while the others looked at each other, all taken aback. After a moment Vicki's face lit up with relief and hope. Ian's expression was now one of puzzlement, while Barbara's was one of deepening worry. At length, Ian led the women to follow the Doctor.
The old man briskly walked into the tunnel while Ian was helping the exhausted Barbara across the snow, which was here very lumpy. Vicki followed behind.
The trio arrived at the cave entrance and peered into the ice-walled passage. The tunnel was oval in shape, its walls, floor, and ceiling all being one continuous curve of rippled and corrugated ice. It gently sloped downwards from the daylight into a gloom which deepened into darkness.
The Doctor's voice echoed outwards from somewhere in the darkness. "Be careful, now, my friends. Be careful! The floor slopes down and it is rather slippery." There was a brief pause. "Ah! Now then, look at this!" they then heard him exclaim.
"Hang on! We're coming!" called out Ian. They carefully picked their way down the tunnel, darkness closing in around them as they left the harsh blue daylight behind.
"There's a light ahead," observed Vicki as they could all begin to make out a faint orange glow coming from somewhere in front of them. Suddenly the tunnel turned a corner round to the right and ended. There they came upon the Doctor. What they could see beyond him made them all exclaim.
The tunnel had opened out near the roof of a huge ice chamber. Small patches of the chamber walls glowed golden-orange, casting a weird tawny radiance over the whole chamber. As the travellers stood alongside each other they marvelled at the scene before them. A massive staircase, carved in ice crystal wound, serpent-like, down from the tunnel opening and into the chamber. Huge glittering stalactites reached down from the middle of the roof of the frozen cavern and a mountainous, jagged, stalactite rose up from the centre of the cavern's floor nearly to reach the largest, central, stalactite. Down at ground level were several arched entrances to other tunnels. Out of these shone the same golden-orange radiance.
"Magnificent, eh? Absolutely magnificent! This is fascinating! Fascinating!" enthused the Doctor, "Hmm, this staircase looks treacherous, though. Be careful now. Come along! Come along!"
"Wait a minute Doctor," said Ian, grabbing the Doctor's arm as the old man made to start his descent of the stairway.
The Doctor sharply turned back to give Ian an irritated stare. "What? Eh? What is it now?" he said testily.
"We don't know what is down there. We …"
"Oh, for goodness sake!" interrupted the old man, "and we won't find out from up here, now, will we? And what is more to the point, we won't recover the TARDIS, will we, eh? Hmm?"
"All right, Doctor, but please be careful."
The old man spluttered and turned back to his task of picking his way carefully down the treacherous steps. Ian helped Barbara to do the same. Vicki very nervously followed behind. The sides of the one-and-a half metre wide staircase were each a straight wall plunging down to the floor of the cavern.
"Thank goodness it's so cold." said Ian.
Barbara looked at him quizzically. "Why do you say that?"
"Well, if it wasn't, the ice would regelate under our feet. The pressure of our footsteps would partially melt the surface and it would become even more slippery. Being so cold in here the ice remains mostly unmelted."
"Oh!" commented Barbara, suitably impressed. A shriek from Vicki alerted the others of danger. The girl slipped and fell back on the steps. Her feet cannoned into Ian and Barbara and they too stumbled backwards and started to slither down the staircase. By this time the Doctor had swung round and he stepped to one side to try and avoid the two teachers but his legs tangled with Barbara's and he fell to his knees giving a yell of pain and fear as he slithered sideways. The bodies all came to rest but the Doctor's torso was half hanging over the side of the steps. He made a grab for Barbara's legs. Mayhem followed with Barbara shrieking in fear of being pulled over the edge of the steps and clinging hold of Ian, while the Doctor yelled garbled instructions to Ian who was grabbing at the far edge of the steps to try and haul them all to safety. The acrophobic Vicki remained on her back with her eyes clenched tightly shut.
After a long moment they all regained positions of safety, sprawled on the steps. For a further long moment they all stayed motionless and silent, breathing heavily. The vapours from their breaths only slowly dispersed in the cavern's frigid air.
"Are you all alright?" asked Vicki apologetically, while using her elbows to hoist herself into a sitting position.
"It's no thanks to you, child, that we are!" came the angry blast from the Doctor. His voice echoed around the chamber. Ian was next to sit up. He looked disdainfully back at the girl.
"I'm sorry," she whined miserably. The Doctor winced as he levered himself up into a lupine position and he vigorously rubbed at his left knee. Barbara also sat up, obviously still badly shaken.
The Doctor straightened. "Oh, tut tut! Come on now child. You didn't mean to fall, we know that. Come along, cheer up! I'm sorry if I was angry with you. I was, er, just a little, er, surprised, you know…hmm?" The Doctor's voice was now silky with warmth and friendliness.
After a surprised look at the Doctor, Ian turned back to Vicki and patted her left shin. "The Doctor's right. We're alright now. But will you please be more careful!" The girl, with a chastened expression on her face, nodded dolefully.
"Oh! Thank goodness!" exclaimed Vicki as she stepped onto the floor of the cavern and into the welcoming arms of the Doctor. When the descent had resumed it had been very slow and very, very, careful.
"There, there, child! You were very brave. Yes, very brave and I'm proud of you." The Doctor beamed one of his broad smiles as he hugged the girl. Barbara looked on, smiling wearily. Ian stared at the Doctor, not quite sure how to weigh him up. He was used to the old man's mood swings but this time it seemed more sudden and extreme than normal. Still, Ian told himself, there was normally no normal where the Doctor was concerned.
"You are very quiet young man!" said the Doctor with suspicion in his voice, releasing Vicki and looking at Ian.
Ian was startled. Then he remembered that the Doctor had once before indicated that he could sometimes read his mind. "Oh, I'm just glad that we got down the staircase alright in the end, and was wondering about how we might find the TARDIS - and remember in Rome we were lucky - what if this time it's laying on the ground with the doors underneath?"
The Doctor pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes but then his attention was distracted by Barbara. "Oh, please can we rest now?" The weariness in her voice was all too obvious.
The Doctor moved over to her and he gently took her by the arm. "Yes, my dear, of course, very, very, soon," he began softly, "I do think, though, it would be best for us to move out of this chamber. If we just go a little way down one of these passages, then we won't be so much in the open. You know…er…we will be like four bugs in a rug." Barbara looked gratefully at the old man who was now smiling kindly at her.
"Alright Doctor," she agreed, nodding. With Barbara's arm still entwined with his own, the Doctor lead the way to the nearest of the openings. They all peered into a long tunnel, walled by the same corrugated icy surface as everywhere else, within which the same patches of orange light were dotted here and there, shining from deep within the translucent walls.
"These lights are very strange," remarked Ian as they entered the tunnel. "What do you think causes them Doctor?"
"I don't know dear boy. They certainly are very strange, though. Yes, very strange. You know, these tunnels are not natural, or at least not entirely so. Perhaps these lights were built in. Of course, they might be natural. You know, some kind of fluorescence, but I don't think so," he mused as the group continued to pick its way along. "No, I don't think so."
"Is it my imagination, or is it not quite as cold now?" asked the young girl.
"Hmm, yes I think you're right Vicki," answered Ian.
"Yes, well, that is perfectly understandable, you see," began the Doctor, "it's, er, like being in an igloo, er, the latent heat of fusion of ice, you know…"
"Oh yes, I see," remarked Vicki as Ian nodded his affirmation. Barbara pursed her lips. She didn't understand but was far too tired to want to be bothered to ask.
"Well, I think here might do very well," announced the Doctor at last.
"Oh, thank goodness!" remarked Barbara, her exhaustion obvious by the tone of her voice. Ian looked at her thoughtfully as she sat down and laid back against the sloping ice wall. She extended her legs out across the middle of the passage. Then Ian did the same, snuggling tight up alongside her, while Vicki and the Doctor looked on.
"We'll keep each other warm," said Ian with a friendly chuckle. He received no answer. He craned forward to look into Barbara's face. She was already asleep. Ian looked up at the Doctor. The old man grinned and then put a finger up to his lips.
Barbara Wright got off the bus outside the school gates. She felt tense. She knew that she was late. She remembered the panic she felt when she discovered that she had forgotten to set her alarm clock. She was very hungry, having had no time for any breakfast. Her first day of teaching and she was late. She imagined boisterous teenagers in a classroom noisily waiting and an angry headmaster also waiting for her.
It was a grey, drizzly, day. Everything was grey. Not a trace of colour anywhere. The bus noisily rattled as its diesel engine chugged. Suddenly she remembered her bag with her books and notes in it - it was still on the floor under the seat she had on the bus! She turned around intending to step back onto the running board of the vehicle but a very tall and wide, aggressive-looking older woman first blocked her way then advanced forcing her backwards. Other people were streaming from the bus to either side of the fat woman. "Out of my way," blurted the woman, pushing Barbara even further back. Barbara felt a wave of panic as she heard the bus engine rev up. Still the fat woman, spluttering loudly and now waving her arms about, would not let Barbara pass.
Barbara's heart sank as the bus swiftly pulled away from the curb. The fat woman finally forced her way passed Barbara and strode off into the crowd that thronged the pavement. Barbara helplessly watched the bus move away into the busy traffic.
She turned back to the iron-barred school gate. She looked through the bars to the vast, dark-bricked, old building which was set far back across an asphalt yard. The building's high arched windows, massive bell-tower, and huge arched doorway gave the place a horribly forbidding look.
She had to push hard to get the gate to swing open as the bottom of it dragged on the asphalt. Stepping inside the yard she had to push even harder to get it closed again. Nerves welling up inside her, she started to walk towards the shabby-looking double doors of the building. Suddenly a loud clanging sound shocked her heart into a thumping beat. It was the school bell. Don't say it's morning break, she thought, I'm never that late!
Just as she reached the bottom of the four steps that led up to the great double doors, so the portals crashed open and hoards of children - some young, some older - noisily thundered out. They seemed to gush forth endlessly like water over a waterfall. She had to struggle to stand upright against the hurtling, jostling, bodies. The yard now echoed to the harsh shrieking, yelling, and shouting voices of the youngsters. Some of the children laughed and swore at her as she tried to make headway. "Please let me pass, I'm late," Barbara heard herself say. The children's harsh laughter increased and many joined in a chorus of "I'm late! Oh, I'm late!"
Finally the torrent came to an end. One last small, curly-haired, boy grabbed at her right-hand coat pocket as he ran past. It ripped open and her keys and some loose changed clattered to the ground. She swung round after the boy but he had gone and she was confronted by an arc of girls and boys. They were leering at her, jeering and laughing mockingly. The cackling laughter increased as she stepped down to pick up the fallen keys and money. I must carry on. I must go in. I must! she thought to herself although every fibre of her being demanded that she run back through those gates and go home. She tried not to look at the hostile faces as she straightened, turned, and strode up the steps and through the open doors. She also tried to close her ears to the foul and obscene remarks shouted after her.
The corridor she stepped into was dingy, filthy and smelly. Swirls of mud crusted the old woodblock flooring. Paint peeled from the walls. Barbara walked to the end of the corridor into another that crossed it at right-angles. She looked to her right and then to her left. This corridor seemed to run for a long way in both directions. The solid, chunky, walls gave the corridor a similar appearance to the inside of an old prison. She could see many doors and alcoves but no people. Which way should she go?
She decided to turn left. The same dinginess, filth and smell was in evidence. Surely she wouldn't have to work in a place like this? she thought. How would she cope without her books? Would she ever get them back? Her hunger had increased to the point that she felt a little light-headed and sick. She passed an open door that had a sign above it reading: 'Boy's Toilets'. She could hear chattering young voices from within. The stench of urine and cigarette smoke that exuded from the room made her queasy stomach retch.
Barbara quickened her pace. She could hear more young voices much further up ahead, shrieking and laughing. Door after door she passed, peering into each room through the cracked and dirty windows. Each time it was the same: empty classroom after empty classroom.
The harsh young voices grew steadily louder as she approached a large alcove. It was a cloakroom. Several large boys were jumping on and off the low benches at the foot of each coat rack and through the lines of coats. Barbara, with increasing horror, realised that the large boys were pursuing one small boy. He was shrieking in terror. One large boy caught the young lad, swung him round, then let him go, catapulting him into two others.
"Stop it! Stop it!" Barbara shouted as the louts closed in on the young boy and started kicking and punching at him. Surrounded by the older boys, the young boy was now out of Barbara's sight but she heard his gasps and cries as the blows landed. The group of thugs jeered and laughed. One, standing on a bench overlooking the group, glanced at Barbara and laughed. Then he looked down again into the kicking and punching group and said "I've got some matches. Let's set his trousers on fire!"
What can I do? I can't fight these thugs on my own, thought a desperate and fearful Barbara. "I'll get help! I'll get a teacher!" she called out as she started to run up the corridor. She heard the young victim cry out, "Miss! Miss! Help!" then "Nooooooooooo!" His voice rose to a piercing scream. A cheer went up from his attackers.
As she ran Barbara saw a large, shambling, boy slowly come out of one of the classrooms up ahead. Tears were streaming down his blubbery face. He had the look of someone severely mentally handicapped. He moved stiffly, his hands cupped behind the seat of his trousers.
"Bring flowers into my classroom again, boy, and you'll get an even worse thrashing!" yelled out a voice from within the classroom. It was a voice she recognised.
Barbara ran up to the boy. He boy gave her an agonised, uncomprehending, stare. "I only wanted to take the flowers home to my Mummy. It's her birthday," sobbed the boy in a slow, deep, drawl.
Anger welled up inside Barbara. She turned sharply and strode into to classroom. There she saw Ian Chesterton, dressed in a mortar board and gown and standing by the large desk at the front of the classroom. He stood glaring at her, a split and tattered cane held in his right hand. "What sort of school is this?" she demanded.
"What!" yelled Ian, "Who the hell do you think you are, coming in here…?"
"I'm Barbara Wright," she shouted back.
"Oh! You are late!" came the shouted reply, "You should have been here hours ago. Do you realise the class you should have taken ran riot? We had to call the police in. Ten children died because of you!"
"What! No! No!" cried Barbara. Ian threw the cane onto the desk and lunged at Barbara. He grabbed her throat with both hands. She felt the agony of his thumbs pressing into her windpipe.
"You killed them. You were late and you killed them…"
The monochrome schoolroom background changed to a corrugated wall of ice illuminated by an orange light. The schoolmaster figure throttling her changed to a furry-outlined silhouette - but it was still the same man. The same wild eyes stared back at her. She was no longer dreaming. She WAS being throttled. Ian Chesterton was strangling her!
