CHAPTER 11
CONSEQUENCES
The patches of light in the cavern walls no longer shone bright green. They now glowed with a softer tawny orange hue. Several Caspicoogas were stumbling about, stunned and confused.
Ian and Vicki were helping the shaken Barbara back to her feet. She looked from one to the other of them and saw that they, too, were somewhat shaken and confused. "What happened?" asked Barbara in an unsteady voice.
"I don't know," replied Ian incredulously, "There was some sort of a flash, I think, and a noise like a thunderclap. I can't properly remember"
"Yes there was," said Vicki, "and I woke to a terrible pain in my head. It's gone now, though."
"Oh, yes, I remember the pain," said Ian. Suddenly Vicki's eyes widened and she pointed excitedly. "Look! That monster's gone and there's the TARDIS!"
Barbara gripped Ian's arm. "Oh, it can't be true, can it?" she cried out as her emotions threatened to strangle her words. For the first time in a long time their faces lit up with hope and excitement.
"And if only the Doctor's inside." Vicki voiced the words they were all thinking. Then suddenly there was a new threat. A new barrier to their escape.
"It must have been these creatures. What have they done?" rasped several guttural voices. The humans looked on as several Caspicoogas lumbered menacingly towards them. Barbara's grip on Ian's arm tightened as Ian's gaze alternated from the TARDIS to the approaching natives. The space-time vessel was too far away and the Caspicoogas were now too close for them to make it across the treacherous cavern floor. They all cringed as the Caspicoogas, wheezing and gurgling, formed a semicircle around them.
"What have you done, creatures?" demanded one of the Caspicoogas, "Where is the Almighty Derlag?"
Ian opened his mouth to speak but Barbara beat him to it. "We have used our great powers to destroy it!" she forcefully declared.
The reaction of the Caspicoogas was immediate and dramatic. They all began shouting. "Destroyed it!" "Destroyed the Derlag?" "I do not believe it!. "Blasphemy!" "Kill them!" "Kill them!" "They must die!" "Kill them!"
They were silenced by Barbara's next, shouted, words. "Yes, we destroyed it and if you attempt to harm us we will destroy you!"
The creatures visibly cowed and backed away. There was a fear-driven lightening-speed change in the demeanour of the Caspicoogas. "Please don't hurt us!" gurgled the Caspicooga spokesman, bowing low to the three humans. "But you speak of destroying our divine and supreme ruler…"
Barbara maintained her bluster. "Divine ruler! That evil creature was not your divine ruler. It was your enslaver!"
"Yes," pressed Ian loudly, "you had a marvellous civilisation of arts and sciences before the Derlag came. You had peace and prosperity. The Derlag was an evil invader. It came from another world to enslave you. For heaven's sake, look what horrors it bought to your world!"
There was a stirring among the Caspicoogas. "The words spoken by them are true," rasped one of them to the others after a long pause.
"Thanks to us you are all free now!" chipped in Vicki.
"Yes, we have freed you and yet you threaten us!" added Barbara loudly, sharpening her words with the anger she manufactured from her tension, "Threaten us? You should bow down low before us and praise us!"
The Caspicoogas looked from one to the other and cowed and back-peddled some more. "Forgive us. You are our saviours," said the Caspicooga spokesman a little uncertainly.
Ian decided it was time to press home their advantage. "Go now! Leave us in this cavern to meditate and you all go and spread the word to your people that we have given them all their freedom. Go now! Go!"
The three humans watched as the Caspicoogas bowed low and backed away. Before leaving through the cavern entrance, the Caspicoogas each stared in bewilderment at the smooth oval depression in the part of the ice floor which used to lay underneath the great body of their revered and feared ruler.
"Phew!" said Ian, patting Barbara's shoulder as they all let out a pent up sigh of relief. "Well done, Barbara! I'll bet 5C never got the better of you!" She chuckled nervously in relief. Vicki grinned and then scampered towards the TARDIS. She was already thumping her fists on its door as Ian and Barbara reached the platform and were stepping up onto it.
Ian and Barbara joined in banging on the doors and they all shouted "Doctor!" repeatedly at the tops of their voices. The doors remained firmly shut and at length they ceased their shouting and banging. "He can't be inside. Where is he then?" said Vicki.
Ian was rubbing his neck as he stepped from the platform. "I don't know, Vicki. He was here, I know he was. I can vaguely remember waking and helping him up from in front of that creature."
"Oh, yes! So can I!" remarked Barbara, "I thought it was a dream."
Vicki dejectedly stepped from the platform. "Perhaps whatever happened to that creature also happened to the Doctor?"
"Oh, nonsense!" blasted Barbara bitterly, "He can't be gone. He just can't!" Ian looked from Barbara to Vicki and then turned away, his breath hissing down his nose.
Vicki was looking down at the icy ground. "Those creatures will be back soon," she said.
"Look!" shouted Barbara urgently as a slight noise from the TARDIS made her look towards it. The police box doors were swinging open.
Excitedly they all scrabbled onto the platform and piled inside the TARDIS. Their elation was tempered with shock on seeing the Doctor slumped across the partly dismantled control console, obviously only barely conscious. He was gripping hold of the door control switch. As they ran over to him, his grip on the control failed and he slithered to the floor.
As they reached him, Ian leaned across the console and drove home the door switch and the familiar buzzing sounded as the great doors swung closed once again.
The Doctor suddenly opened his eyes and he stared from one to the other of his companions in alarm as they knelt by him. "W-What happened! That creature…I can't sense…I don't understand…has it gone?" The Doctor face looked pale and haggard and a sweat glistened across his brow.
"Yes doctor," replied Ian, glancing again at the exposed circuitry in the console, "It has gone. Completely gone. Vanished! Did you do something with the TARDIS? What did you do?"
"Ian, no!" said Barbara sharply. "Not now. You can see he's in no state to answer questions. Let's get him to a chair." The old man looked gratefully at Barbara and he patted her arm affectionately.
"Alright," mumbled Ian and they all helped the Doctor slowly and unsteadily to his feet and then helped him cross the floor to the Sheraton chair. He gratefully accepted their assistance and they helped lower him into it.
"Phew! It seems hot in here after being out there for so long," commented Ian.
After taking off their fur coats and gloves and momentarily stepping away to drape them across the nearby Chippendale table, Ian, Barbara and Vicki crouched down in front of the Doctor.
He beamed a tired smile at them. "Thank you my friends," he said at length. The colour and strength was beginning to come back into his face.
"Doctor, what happened?" asked Ian gently after a further pause. "We were under the control of that terrible creature. Then all we knew was that there was something like an explosion and then it was gone. There's no sign of it out there now."
The Doctor breathed a deep sigh. "Well I'm not sure, my boy. That thing had me under its control, too. I tried to resist but…" the Doctor clenched his eyes shut for a moment and swallowed hard as he tried to control the trembling that had overtaken him.
Barbara gave Ian a sour glance. "It's alright, Doctor. Don't worry about it now. Tell us when you are feeling…"
"No, no, no," the old man interrupted. "Don't fuss, my dear, I'm alright. I'm alright. Er, dear me, now where was I? Oh yes. The creature forced me to link the TARDIS, er, to it, you see. It wanted the ability to move about in time and space."
"Why?" asked Vicki.
"Oh child!" retorted the Doctor testily, "Think! Use your brain, will you! With that power it could travel from planet to planet enslaving all the beings it encountered!"
"Oh!" said the girl as the Doctor groaned and put a shaky hand to his forehead. It was Vicki's turn to receive a sour look from Barbara.
After a moment the old man let his hand drop to his lap and his eyes narrowed. "But I don't understand. No, I don't understand," he mumbled. "I had to do what it wanted. It anticipated all the counter measures I tried to…perhaps under the strain of it all I…? Yes, yes, perhaps...?" The old man's voice tailed off.
Suddenly he became animated and struggled up from the chair. He shrugged off the hands that eagerly reached out to help him and he unsteadily crossed to the control console and began ferreting about in the exposed wiring. "Now let's see, er, if…yes. Perhaps I…? Yes! I did! Yes, I did! I made a mistake!" The Doctor swung around to face his companions, "I made a mistake!"
"A mistake?" echoed Ian.
"Yes! Yes! A mistake. Oh my goodness I…I don't believe it…Oh!" brimming with emotion, the Doctor seemed to laugh and cry at the same time.
"What mistake, Doctor? What did you do?" Barbara gently asked.
The Doctor lifted up one of the electrical cables that snaked across the control panel. "I made an error in my wiring here. The lateral balance cones weren't properly in circuit. Instead of carrying the creature with the TARDIS to a given destination, I turned the TARDIS into a sort of, er, canon! I shot the creature off into time and space on its own!"
"While the TARDIS stayed here?" said Vicki.
"Yes!" crowed the Doctor as he gleefully began chuckling.
Ian pointed upwards. "And the creature is stuck out there somewhere with no TARDIS to get it back home?"
"Yes, dear boy, yes!"
"Oh, Doctor, that's wonderful!" said Vicki, expressing the joy and relief that was now overflowing in all four of the time-space travellers.
"And all because you got your wires crossed!" said Barbara.
Perhaps it was partly because of the tone with which Barbara spoke her remark. Perhaps it was also the sudden relief that came with the realisation that the terrible fate that had seemed so inevitable was now so unexpectedly averted. Perhaps it was also that they had endured so much that was horrific and it had seemed a long time since they had anything to laugh about - but all four in the TARDIS control room dissolved into laughter. Not just ordinary laughter but a prolonged, almost hysterical, laughter that had their sides aching and tears streaming down their faces.
At length the laughter subsided and the Doctor chuckled, "Of course, it is a rare thing, indeed, for me to make a mistake but I don't mind admitting to you that on this occasion I am very glad I did! Eh? Hmm!" The others smiled and nodded their affirmations. The Doctor added, "Now, I suggest that you all go and get cleaned up and changed, while I make things safe here, hmm?"
"You will make sure you get it right this time, won't you, Doctor!" quipped Ian as he and Barbara had reached the internal door that led to the living quarters and as Barbara had begun to open the door. The Doctor made an attempt to splutter in mock outrage but broke into a broad grin and a chuckle, instead. Ian and Barbara smiled back and then passed through the doorway and were gone from the control room.
Vicki moved up close to the Doctor and he put his arms around her and hugged her tightly. "Don't you want to go and get cleaned up, child, eh?"
"Yes", she replied, "and perhaps we can have something to eat. I think that I'd forgotten how hungry I am."
The Doctor tut-tutted, tilted his head back in one of his characteristic poses, and peered along his nose at her. "Dear me, that won't do at all, will it now child?" he chuckled. "We must look after you, mustn't we, eh? Hmm?"
She smiled back at him. "Doctor," she began, "where has that awful monster gone to?"
"Ah, er…" he began but then he looked sharply down at the controls and a sudden look of alarm showed on his face. Vicki's expression clouded with anxiety in response.
No, perhaps with the fault in the time-locator it would not arrive there, he thought. After all, he had not yet succeeded in getting Ian and Barbara back to their own time on Earth, despite the settings that he had permanently left in place. Given the manner of the Derlag's transit, surely there could be no chance of the TARDIS accurately materialising the Derlag at that particular destination? No! No chance at all, he decided, and no reason to alarm the others unnecessarily.
Shrugging off the uncomfortable thoughts he turned his head to Vicki and smiled at her again. She looked relieved and smiled back.
He said, "Oh, I don't know, my dear. Just somewhere out there in space, where I hope that it will eventually wither and die." The old man gave her a squeeze and let her go. "Now off you go, my dear. I must just make sure things are stable and safe here and then I'll join you all for some refreshments."
As Vicki left, the old Doctor stared wonderingly, and more than a little worriedly, down at the controls once again.
At another, far away, location in space and time Ace and the Doctor, accompanied by the Reverend Edward Carmichael, were in a small clearing in woodland near an English village on planet Earth on Sunday 30th August 1954. Dusk was rapidly closing in around them.
Ace stood, stunned by the Doctor's words. "Your death! W-What do you mean your death?" she mumbled. The shock that Ace felt was heightened by the fact that she could see that her friend was having to struggle to keep his own powerful emotions under control.
"I can't make it any clearer, Ace. I have made the most terrible mistake and I am going to have to pay for it with my life."
"But…"
"Shh! He's coming back. Quick step back. I must close this door." She did as she was told but secretly cursed the Reverend Carmichael for being with them at this moment. The Doctor banged shut the TARDIS door and thrust the key into the lock and gave it a sharp twist. The Reverend Carmichael looked suspiciously at the Doctor as he stepped up close.
"I can't get over the fact of this police box being here, of all places," said the Reverend in a leading tone that indicated that he actually believed that there was some secret significance to it that the Doctor and Ace really knew about.
"Quite," said the Doctor vaguely. Then in a more forceful tone he added, "It'll be dark soon. We had better get a move on. I fear that Michael and his mother might be in imminent danger."
"Yes…Oh! Are you alright Ace, my dear?" The Reverend had just noticed the shocked and strained look on Ace's face.
She looked sharply at him. "Yeah! Let's go then if were going!" Ace's voice was agitated and tense.
The Doctor glanced from Ace to the vicar and, his face setting like stone, he barked "Come on then!" He marched off at a brisk pace, leading the way out of the clearing and into the gloom under the trees.
It was painfully obvious to the Reverend Carmichael that something was now very wrong between his two new friends as a result of something they had said to each other when they were by that police box and he was out of earshot. Not a word had passed between the two of them on their trek to the Peters' cottage. His own efforts to get a conversation going had proved completely unsuccessful. Now, as darkness was beginning to fall and the coming night air seemed to have an unseasonably dank chill about it, the trio trudged silently along the lane towards the row of five cottages.
"That's odd," remarked the vicar in a voice that was little louder than a whisper. "There's no sign of a light on in any of the cottages." There was no reply from his companions. The Doctor just marched on, swinging his umbrella in the manner of a walking stick, and with an air of grim determination about him. Ace's demeanour was now one of acute desperation and worry.
"They can't be here, Professor," whispered Ace as they all stopped at the gate of the third cottage.
"Come on," said the Doctor grimly, and he opened the gate and slowly led the way along the path and towards the front door. He anxiously scanned the dark windows in each of the cottages. The buildings themselves were now just formless black silhouettes against the deep royal blue sky. Reaching the front door, he pushed it gently and it swung open.
"Oh!" wheezed the vicar with surprise. Cautiously the Doctor craned his neck forward into the darkness within. He fumbled for the light switch just inside the doorway. 'Click! Click! Click! Click!' The darkness remained.
"Cindy! Michael!" called out the Doctor in a gentle voice, "It's alright. It's me, the Doctor."
"Professor!" The Doctor twitched and then exhaled loudly as he turned to Ace.
"Sorry," she said softly, "but there's obviously nobody at home in any of these houses."
"Oh, I'm not so sure, Ace," he replied. "Let's throw some light on the subject."
"Eh?" The Doctor thrust his right hand into his jacket pocket and produced a small box which rattled slightly.
"Take one of these," he said. "You too Reverend."
"Oh I see, matches," mumbled the vicar.
"I still can't see anything, Professor," quipped Ace as she received her match.
"Duh" came the comedic repost. There was a sharp scraping noise and the Doctor's match flared into life. The Doctor held out the matchbox and Ace and the vicar struck their matches on its side.
The three looked from one to another. The vicar noticed with some relief that the Doctor and Ace exchanged smiles, which seemed to release some of the tension in both of them.
"Right, now, let's take a look inside," said the Doctor in a grim tone as he turned and entered through the doorway. His two friends tensed as they followed him in.
"Oh no! The place has been turned over!" blurted Ace as the three of them moved into the front room. 'Click! Click!' went the light switch that was just inside that doorway but the light in that room also refused to come on.
"Oh my goodness!" exclaimed the vicar as the light from the three matches revealed the dishevelled state of the room. Then he added, "Hmm, I don't wish to worry you but I think there must be some gas or other about."
"Why do you say that?" said the Doctor, raising his eyebrows.
"Haven't you noticed? These matches are burning much brighter and whiter than they should normally do."
"Oh, I see," replied the Doctor, exhaling with relief. "No, these are a special sort of match."
"Oh?" replied the vicar as the Doctor momentarily stooped down to raise the upturned sofa and peer under it.
"Come along. We'd better search the whole place," sighed the Doctor.
Over the next few minutes the trio explored every room of the house, first the downstairs, then the upstairs. The Doctor had found the electricity meter in the understairs cupboard but the fuses were not pulled and the main supply switch was not turned off. "Strange," was his only comment and "Perhaps," was his reply to the vicar's suggestion that it must be a power cut, which would also explain the darkness in the other four cottages.
The search ended with all three standing in the upstairs bedroom that Ace had slept in the night before. Ace stared around nervously. As their search had progressed, she had become more and more unnerved. Perhaps it was just the eerie lighting created by the matches, Time and time again she was startled by the movements of the black shadows as one or other of their party moved about. It almost seemed as if those shadows were more than just shadows. They seemed to her fevered imagination like phantoms waiting to pounce.
"These matches really are amazing," commented the vicar. "They don't seem to burn down at all."
"Just a little invention of mine," smiled the Doctor.
"Really?"
"Yes. Simple really. Just a matter of chemistry…"
"Can we cut the science lesson and get out of here!" the urgency in Ace's strained voice made both the Doctor and the vicar look sharply at her.
"It's alright Ace. There IS nothing here. It's just that I was sure…" the Doctor's voice tailed off. Ace and the vicar looked at each other in alarm and then back to the Doctor who appeared to be straining to hear something.
"What is…?" Ace was silenced by the Doctor suddenly putting a finger to his lips. Then a faint clicking started, which they could all hear. Then other noises joined the clicking. There was a scampering noise and other clicks and rustlings. Then a chirruping noise, like that of a cricket, joined the growing chorus.
"Its coming from all around us!" shouted the vicar in alarm. Suddenly all three were startled as a loud scream cut the air and there was a thump from the ceiling above. Both the vicar and Ace yelped in fear. The Doctor held his match up high as the loft hatchway suddenly opened and two stubby legs appeared from the darkness and scrabbled to find a purchase on the top of the nearby wardrobe.
"It's Michael!" exclaimed the Doctor, "Here, hold this!" he barked, giving his match to the vicar. "Michael I'm under you," said the Doctor as he raised his arms up high to help the boy down. "That's it, I've got you." All the time the boy was sobbing with fear and frantically trying to brush off the spiders and beetles that had crawled onto him in the loft.
With the Doctor's help the boy's feet thumped down onto the bedroom floor. "It's alright, Michael! It's alright!" comforted the Doctor as he helped Michael brush off the last of the spiders and insects.
The Doctor sank to his knees in front of the boy, grasped his shoulders, and looked up into his tear-stained face. 'Is your mother up there, Michael?"
"N-No! No!" the boy sobbed his reply.
"Right! We'd better get out of her, then!" The Doctor gave Michael's shoulders a squeeze and then sprang up to his feet. He extended his right hand towards the vicar and snapped his fingers. The Reverend handed the match back to him. They moved towards the door. The Reverend reached it and pulled the door open. They all froze again at the vicar's sharp cry.
The scrabbling, clicking and chirruping noises now sounded louder and the flickering light from the matches showed that the wall opposite the door was seething with scuttling beetles, cockroaches and spiders. As they craned to look they could see the staircase alive with more of the insects and arachnids, together with rats and mice. Swarms of flies and daddy-long-legs were also flitting up the stairwell and were flying into, and biting at the faces of, the foursome.
"Quick! We must get down and outside!" blasted the Doctor. "Stay close behind me!" Taking Michael's hand he pushed past Ace and the vicar and led the way down the stairs. The flying insects increased the ferocity of their attacks as the four rapidly trod down the staircase, insects crunching underfoot. They were all squirming and trying to swat away the insects. Beyond the open front door several pairs of bluish and greenish eyes low down near ground level shone in the light of the matches. The several cats now padding through the carpet of insects began to howl and spit. Several larger pairs of eyes appeared outside and the light from the matches revealed that several large dogs were now looking in. They began a chorus of growling as they bared their teeth.
The Doctor gripped Michael's hand tightly. "Yell, shout, make as much noise as you can and run NOW!" he shouted as he led the way down the rest of the stairs and through the hallway, swinging his umbrella and stabbing with it. Michael and Ace yelled and screamed and the vicar balled and shouted as they all did their best to keep up with the Doctor, at the same time as punching and kicking off the attacking animals.
A few moments of mayhem and terror later the four were outside, then through the front gate of the cottage and they began running up the lane in the direction of the village square. All three of the matches had been extinguished and discarded in the escape and they now seemed to be running through an almost black void.
"It's alright, now, we can stop running," panted the Doctor, "They're not following us." The vicar whooped and moaned loudly as he fought for breath as they all staggered to a halt.
"You alright, Rev?" asked Ace. She put a hand on the shoulder of the vicar, who was leaning forward with his left hand resting on his knee and his right hand clutching at the left side of his chest. Suddenly there was the scraping of a match and in the flare of light that followed she could see that the vicar's sweating face was creased with pain. He could not answer her. He was gasping for breath.
Ace looked back at the Doctor, who had now sunk onto his knees in front of the boy. The Doctor's match was now held up just to one side of the boy's face. The Doctor's expression was grim and the lines on his haggard face seemed deeper than ever. The boy's face was quivering with shock and was deathly pale. The tracks of fresh tears glistened down from the youth's eyes.
"Michael, it's alright now. We're safe now," began the Doctor softly, "Can you tell me what happened and where your mother is?"
"It was the people from the village. They tried to break in. At first we both hid upstairs but when we heard them inside Mum told me to wait upstairs and she went down…" the boy started to sob.
"Alright, Michael, its alright," said the Doctor gently.
The boy drew himself together again. "I heard Mum cry out and they took her away. I heard others still in the house so I got up into the roof to hide. I couldn't help her…they took Mum away. They took her away!" The boy broke down again.
"Shhh, now, shhh," comforted the Doctor as he squeezed Michael's shoulder, "We'll go to the village square and see if we can find her."
"Oh, please! Please find her. We must!"
The Doctor sighed and, standing upright again, looked worriedly at the vicar who was still leant forward, panting and with a hand to his chest. "Are you alright, Reverend?" The vicar straightened and then nodded but it was very apparent he was very far from being 'alright'.
The Doctor looked past the vicar and Ace and back along the lane in the direction they had just come. "We had better move on, now. We have some friends who are impatient to see us on our way."
"What!" blurted Ace. She swung round to see a row of cats eyes and dogs eyes stretched, motionless, across the road about a dozen metres from them. The light from the Doctor's match caused the eyes to glint eerily like disembodied entities in the darkness.
The conversationless walk back to the village square had been much slowed by the vicar. Although somewhat recovered, the overweight parson rubbed his left arm and his chest with his right hand, which itself was marked and bloodied from a dog bite. He was still panting and wheezing and the light from the Doctor's match showed that he was still sweating profusely, even though the air was chilly and dank.
The tension in all four of them mounted anew as they approached the green, which was illuminated by the dingy glow from two ornate street lamps set on the roadside to either side of it. They could see a couple of dozen of the villagers toiling to pile wood around a pole set upright near the centre of the grassy area. Others were rolling up newspapers and stuffing them into the wood pile.
Suddenly all the villagers simultaneously froze in their activities. Again simultaneously they all stood to face the Doctor and his friends as they entered the village square. Without a word passing between them, about half of the villagers suddenly began to move towards the Doctor's group. The boy whimpered and the vicar's wheezing grew louder and faster as all four were surrounded and then firmly held by the villagers. The Doctor's still burning match was shaken from his grasp and it dropped to the ground and was extinguished.
"Bog off!" shouted the struggling Ace.
"Ace, don't!" ordered the Doctor. He was still staring fixedly at the pile of wood on the green.
One of the other villagers suddenly walked forward and faced the Doctor. It was the café owner, still in his grubby white apron. He laughed in a thin and reedy voice. "Well, Doctor, the Great Ruler has you in his power once more." The Doctor did not answer. Once again the air was cut by cackling laughter. "Of course, you realise that all this has happened as a result of your own actions." Again the Doctor just stared with contempt at the café owner.
"Is that true?" said Ace in a quiet, unsteady, voice. The Doctor sighed. "Doctor, is that true?" she demanded. Still he did not answer and the chilly air was again sliced with the reedy laughter.
"Shut up, bog breath!" Ace blurted at the possessed café owner. He turned his head towards Ace and made a slight motion with his hand. "Ow!" cried Ace as one of the villagers holding her gave a sharp upward tug to her arm that he had bent behind her back.
"Don't Ace! Please just keep quiet!" implored the Doctor.
"Yes, Doctor, you care about your friends, don't you," commented the possessed spokesman, "and the Great Ruler will use this fact to make you obey."
"Let them go. I know I can't resist. I will do as the Great Ruler wants." Yet again the inhuman laughter played like icy fingers on the taught nerves of the captives.
"The Great Ruler remembers your trickery and your prevarication. This time you will not be spared from a demonstration of the consequences if you do not obey."
"No! That is not necessary. I said I will do as the Great Ruler wants!" shouted the alarmed Doctor.
The café owner raised a hand high in the air. There was a shriek and the sound of a woman sobbing from somewhere to the left side of the village green.
"Mum! Mum!" shouted Michael as three villagers were forcing the struggling Cindy Peters out of the door of a house, across the road and onto the grass, then towards the pile of wood on the green.
"Michael! Oh Michael!" sobbed Mrs Peters.
"No! Don't! I've told you! I'll do as the Great Ruler wants! Don't! Don't!" implored the Doctor but the only answer he got was more of the reedy inhuman laughter. The boy began screaming and crying.
"Oh Michael! Michael!" Cindy Peters cried back as several more villagers joined in, tying her to the post at the centre of the pile of wood. The vicar let out a loud groan and then he sagged unconscious between the arms of his captors.
"Oh, God, no!" cried Ace.
The Doctor's emotions overflowed. "Stop this! I'll submit to control. Don't do this! Don't! Don't! Don't!" he yelled, struggling, but the reedy laughter continued as one of the villagers slopped petrol from a can over the wood and paper at Cindy Peters' feet.
"Nooooooooo!" came the Doctor's agonised cry as a match was struck and the wood flared alight. The flickering orange light illuminated Cindy's face as she stared wide-eyed at the crackling flames erupting around her. Michael's cries turned into screams. Moments later Cindy Peters' agonised wailing and piercing screams sounded above all else in the village square.
The flames were dying down now. The villagers stood about completely motionless. Michael stood white-faced and inert, as if in a trance. The villagers that were holding the Reverend Carmichael had let his inert body slump to the ground. Ace had turned her face away from the horrible sight and she was crying bitterly. The Doctor stared at the café owner, whose eyes were rolling and whose mouth was dripping with froth as he champed his teeth. Anger, sorrow, shock and revulsion were all pictured on the Doctor's face. "Why? Why? Why?" he choked.
The reedy laughter started up once more as the possessed café owner's eyes fixed on the Doctor. "Yiiiiiiiii! Now they'll have to call her Cinders….Yiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!" The laughter grew louder.
"Scum! You scum!" Ace half shrieked and half choked the words.
"You can blame your friend the Doctor," came the thin voice in reply. "The Doctor had dared to attempt to trick the Great Ruler once before, so the Great Ruler had decided that the Doctor needed to see one of his friends suffer and die as an object lesson. The same fate will befall you all if the Doctor now attempts any trickery and fails to do what is required of him."
Ace looked at the Doctor, who she could see by the flickering orange glow from the flames was now staring down at the ground in despair. "This…this Great Ruler thing," demanded Ace, "are you responsible for it coming to Earth, Doctor?"
"Yes Ace." The Doctor's reply was barely audible and he continued to stare at the ground.
"I hate you," she spat the words at the Doctor as her eyes once again filled with tears. He gave no response. The possessed café owner cackled with his chilling laughter once more. Suddenly the villagers standing about the pyre started to move towards the group of captives.
The café owner's laughter dwindled away. "We will now escort the Doctor and his friends to his machine. Your time is near, Doctor, hnnnnnnnn, nnnnnnn, your time is near!"
Some time later, at the army camp several kilometres away, a Group Captain was being woken from his sleep.
"What on Earth? You had better have a damn good reason…"
"Beggin' your pardon, sir, It's trouble I'm afraid." The Group Captain sighed as he levered himself into a sitting position on his bunk.
"Well, Sergeant Major, what the hell is it?"
"I've Private Wilson outside, sir. He's in a terrible state, er, he's been in a fight…"
"Sergeant Major! You wake me on a discipline matter!" blurted the Group Captain angrily.
"But that's not it, sir. He says that Private Moore has been killed…"
"What!"
"Yes, sir, killed by several of the locals in the village."
"Wha…the locals?"
"He says that they were attacked after finding the body of a man who had been battered to death. He says he managed to escape but not before Private Moore was murdered. I think you ought to see him, sir."
"Well, for heavens' sake man, take him to the guard room. Get some tea laid on. I'll be there as soon as I'm dressed. Well - jump to it!"
The Doctor hesitated as he slid the key of the TARDIS into the lock. He looked round him at the ring of villagers. Several were shining their torches at him. They were all motionless, now. Ace was held between two of them. He could not see her face but he sensed that she was weeping. "Goodbye Ace." His voice was unsteady. He turned the key and pushed the door open. A moment later he was inside and the door was closed.
Outside the police box still nobody moved or spoke. The trees around the clearing began to pulse with the light reflected from the slowly flashing roof lamp. The quiet of the night was shattered with a loud boom and a rumble and the familiar rhythmic grating noises started up. As the birds in the trees were startled awake and flew about in a panic, the police box steadily became transparent and then faded away altogether. The rumbling and grating noises died away to the fading ethereal whirlings which were the echoes of the TARDIS from the other side of beyond.
For a long moment all the people in the clearing remained quite still. The torch beams continued to shine towards the now non-existent police box. The birds continued to squawk and chirrup noisily in the night, as if protesting at the interruption of their sleep.
He's gone, thought Ace. She stared numbly at the square of yellowed and flattened grass, dimly picked out in the torch-light, where the TARDIS had stood. He's gone. Barely aware of the stirrings of the villagers around her, she remembered the Doctor's words, 'I don't know if I can defeat this evil but even if I can…it will certainly mean my death!'
