CHAPTER 12
THE RECKONING
Ace walked with the rest of the crowd as they picked their way back through the woods and towards the village.
When the villagers had been released from the grip of the alien influence that their spokesman had called 'The Great Ruler' there had been much upset and confusion. As they recovered so their memories of the unspeakable actions that they had been forced to commit had come back to them. Some of the people now cried inconsolably. Others walked in stunned silence.
Ace's mind was in a turmoil. The Doctor had been her mentor and friend. Her saviour, even. The TARDIS had seemed more like a home to her than any she had been used to before. True, the excitement of her life of adventure with the Doctor had started to turn into a loathing for the perils and for the horrors of death and destruction that often seemed to surround them. But now he was gone. He was gone and it was all over. Added to that she was stuck on Earth more than thirty years before her true time.
She also thought about the Doctor. He HAD been her friend. What he had said about his imminent death - could it be true? The Doctor had seemed invincible. Could his restless spirit really be no more? She did her best to conjure an image of his face in her mind's eye. She failed. All that came into her mind was the last words she had spoke to him. She had told her friend that she hated him.
The somewhat clownish figure of the seventh incarnation of the Doctor leaned on the TARDIS control console as he grimly stared at the image now on the scanner screen. In the distant background, and off to one side, was the colourful cloud-striped globe of the planet Jupiter. In the foreground, and dominating the picture, was the hideous form of the evil creature the Doctor had first known as the Derlag.
"We meet again, Doctor!" rumbled the voice over the communications circuit. The Doctor's expression mirrored the groan his soul gave as he heard that voice again.
"Oh, couldn't you think of anything more original to say that that?" sneered the diminutive Time Lord.
The TARDIS control room echoed with the sound of the creature's rumbling laughter. "When your machine projected me to this point in space and time I was overjoyed to find such a rich planet, teeming with sentient life within my reach. And triumph upon triumph, I detected your mind amongst the masses on that world. I knew then that the ultimate power of your machine would soon be in my grasp."
"And I sensed your mind reaching out and probing, like icy fingers of hate," replied the Doctor with disgust.
"I see that you have now regenerated your physical body, Doctor! I sense that you have regained the powers that you had lost when we first met."
"Yes, indeed I have, so beware!"
Again the mocking laughter sounded. "Even at your strongest, you are still pathetically inadequate against me!"
"Oh I don't know. Don't be too sure of that!" Again the mocking laughter boomed around the control room. "You're a happy soul aren't you!" quipped the Doctor.
"You cannot goad me, Doctor!"
"I don't think that I will need to goad you. You're looking rather withered, I see. Been on a diet have we?"
"You prattle even more nonsense than you did when we last met, Doctor!"
"Nonsense is it?" The Doctor forced a small laugh. "I should say that you are now fast weakening, now that you are having to live off your own fat. I bet YOUR powers aren't what they once were, eh?"
"I will have all the sustenance I need when I arrive on that planet."
"The Earth, you mean. Yes, well, you've got to get there first!"
"When I have your vehicle under my control I will have access to the whole Universe of space and time and all the lifeforms in it will be mine to command."
The Doctor sighed. "I wondered when you would get around to that subject."
Again the rumbling laughter sounded in the control room. "I perceive that you have modified the internal structure and some of the control systems of your…my fascinating machine since we last met."
"Just some redecoration," replied the Doctor airily. "But what was that you said? Your machine…my machine? A slip of the tongue was it? Oh, but of course you don't have a tongue do you, er, slip of the brain, then? I should take things easy if I were you. Perhaps you need to see a doctor?"
"I tire of this conversation. You will now begin work."
"Work?"
"Enough of this, Doctor. I know that last time the procedure failed because of an error you unwittingly made. I had you in my power."
"Hah! Utter rubbish! I didn't make any error. It was deliberate. I defeated you!"
Again came the mocking, inhuman, laughter. "I know otherwise, Doctor!"
"You couldn't control me then," blasted the Doctor angrily, "and I am now stronger and you are now weaker, so what chance do think you've got to control me now?"
Anger now sounded in the creature's voice, which boomed louder and louder, "Then I had to maintain my control over the Caspicooga race. Now, Doctor, it is just you and I. Your mind is puny compared to mine. I will possess it and with it all your acquired knowledge. I will have your secrets and those of this machine. This time you will be under my total control. This time you will successfully make the link between myself and this machine. I will be the master of all!"
"Quite a speech but you wo…yeaaaaargh!" the Doctor's hands clasped against his head. He screamed again as the booming laughter sounded once more.
"Resistance is useless, Doctor. It is time for my ultimate victory! My ultimate conquest! My ultimate Destiny!" The Doctor writhed and his face contorted for a brief moment more. Then he stood upright and his hands flopped down to his sides as the fire died in his eyes.
"Fascinating! Oh, what secrets you did possess, Doctor!" triumphed the voice, "You will now begin work on the link. I have won, Doctor!" I have won and you have lost! The Universe WILL be mine to command!"
The coming day was beginning to show itself as a brightening in the eastern sky. Already the black cloak of night was just beginning to lift from the village square as the sorrowful procession trudged onto it. The street lamps to either side of the green were no longer lit. In silence the people sombrely dispersed to their respective houses. As they went, some stared in sorrow and disgust at the still glowing embers in the middle of the green.
Ace could just make out the ponderous body of the Reverend Carmichael sprawled on the edge of the green. She went over to him and shook his arm. He moved slightly and moaned.
"Rev, wake up," she said softly. "Wake up. It's all over now." The Reverend wheezed and rolled himself into a sitting position. It was still too dark for Ace to clearly make out the features on his face but she could now feel that he was shivering. He moaned again.
"Oh dear…I…Oh dear! W-What…?"
"It's alright, Rev. The Doctor's gone and the villagers have become normal again."
"W-What…? I don't…"
"Shhh, now. Let's get you back to your house." Ace looked around her for help but she could see no one else still about in the square. "Oh, that's right! Thanks for your help!" she sarcastically yelled into the gloom.
The vicar patted Ace's arm. "It's alright, dear. I'll be alright in a minute." Ace could hear the trembling in the vicar's voice. He puffed and wheezed as she helped him unsteadily to his feet. She held his arm and they very slowly began to pick their way across the green and towards the vicarage.
They had to pass by the remains of the fire. Ace tried to avoid looking at it but suddenly she realised, in the half light that was still nearly night, that Cindy Peters' son was kneeling by it, staring into the red glow. "Michael!" she called but the boy showed no sign of hearing. He just continued to look into the ashes. She could see his face very dimly lit by the red glow. His eyes were wide and staring. Ace, helping the vicar, moved over to him. The Reverend motioned for Ace to let go of him and to attend to the boy instead.
"Michael," said Ace as she knelt down and put a hand on his shoulder. Slowly the boy turned his face towards her. It was completely expressionless. "Come on now," Ace said softly and she helped him to his feet. Together the three moved slowly and silently towards the vicarage.
When they got to the vicarage they saw that its front door had been forced open. Ace remembered the events of that morning, when the villagers had been hunting them down. She guessed that the villagers must have broken in to search the vicarage. As they went inside and pushed the door closed behind them, the sound of an approaching lorry broke the silence of that sorrowful morning.
Moments later the lorry drove into the village square. It pulled to a halt on the far side of the green. It's engine rattled to a stop but its headlamps remained glowing.
An army officer stepped out of the passenger side of the cab and went round to the back of the lorry. He lifted the canvas flap. "Right men! Check firearms. You know what to do. Right, then! Fall out! On the double!"
The scene was grimly surreal. The figure of the Doctor moved around the hexagonal TARDIS control console with stiff and jerky robot-like movements. Several of the covers were off the supporting plinth of the console, revealing the intricate circuitry and machinery within. Wires trailed about across several of the control panels, laced between now open access covers and some also down to the plinth below.
"Good!" boomed the rumbling voice, "Yes, good!" as the Doctor keyed in the last adjustments to the controls. The Doctor showed not a flicker of emotion. The scanner screen showed that the creature had now moved up to the TARDIS and had extended its tentacles to clamp onto its police box exterior.
"Begin the sequence! Materialise us on the planet Earth!" The Doctor stiffly, mechanically, moved to one of the panels, reached forward and threw a switch. A low whine begun to fill the control room, getting louder and rising in pitch. "Yes! Yes! Yes!" boomed the voice triumphantly.
Suddenly complex instrument displays on the small monitors on the TARDIS console all changed to show a scene from the TARDIS' past. It was the TARDIS control room when it had a more ornate decorative style and the original control console was in place. The monitors also showed the old console partially dismembered and jury-rigged with wires. By it stood the white-haired and Edwardian-garbed figure of the first incarnation of the Doctor, despair showing on his old face, and his hand moving towards the master dematerialisation lever.
"What is this?" boomed the voice, "What is happening? Something is happening in the machine?" The dark-haired Doctor remained impassive. The monitor showed the old Doctor's hand hesitating over the master dematerialisation lever. The whining noise that was filling the vessel grew louder still and the central glass column in the console began to rise.
"No! Stop! Stop!" boomed the voice. The image on the monitors showed the old Doctor close his eyes and drive home the master lever.
"Nooooo!" screamed the creature as the whine turned into a banshee wail and a blinding light exploded from the central column.
Outside the hideous creature and the police box exterior of the TARDIS dissolved into a blinding inferno of light and heat, which then exploded into the void. The vacuum of space offered no resistance to the colossal explosion and in a few moments the nuclear fireball had disappeared to leave in its place…absolutely nothing!
Ace sat on the fallen tree trunk, aimlessly picking off loose bits of its bark. This was the tenth day since the Doctor's forced departure and the seventh day she had returned to the clearing. Each day was a little cooler and cloudier than the day before. The stifling heat of the summer was giving way to the sombre promise of autumn. The square of flattened and yellowed grass still marked the spot where the TARDIS had stood. The first time she had returned she had hoped that she would see the familiar police box standing there once more, and with the Doctor standing by the door welcoming her with a raise of his Panama hat and a comedic goofy grin.
She was now resigned to never seeing him again. Still, the place felt comforting and it helped her to come here and think. She had traced out in her mind the whole peculiar chain of events that took her from her life in Perivale, through her travels with the Doctor, and led now to her present situation, a resident in an English village more than a decade before she was even born.
Suddenly she noticed a change in something at the very edge of her vision. Looking up sharply she saw an apparition begin to form over the yellowed square of flattened grass. Slowly, silently, the unmistakable form of the police box began to materialise.
"Professor! Professor!" she cried out, overjoyed, as the ghost-like apparition finally solidified. She sprang up and rushed over to the doors. She grabbed the handle but the doors remained firmly closed. "Professor! Professor!" she shouted while she thumped her fists on the doors. Still nothing happened. She stepped back and stared at the doors, willing her friend still to be alive and for him to come out and greet her.
Suddenly one of the doors did open and the Doctor appeared in front of her, looking more than a little dazed and confused. He staggered out and Ace choked back the tears as she flung her arms around him. "Have you put carrots in my rice pudding, Mel?" he said, then slipping through Ace's arms onto the ground.
"Professor! It's me, Ace! It's me! It's me!" she urgently said as she crouched down and gently shook his shoulders.
"Oh, not now Cameca, my dear. I've got the most irksome headache," he moaned.
"Professor!"
The Doctor's eyes blinked as he stared up at Ace, as if he was trying to clear his vision and remember where he had seen her before. Suddenly his expression cleared and he beamed a toothy smile up at her. "Ace!" he said.
Ace seemed to laugh and cry at the same time. The Doctor extended an index finger, picked off a tear from her cheek, and then dabbed the finger on her nose.
"Oh Professor, I thought your were dead!"
A look of puzzlement spread across his face and he, obviously still weak and dizzy, struggled to a sitting position. "Oh yes, I remember now." Then he looked sharply at the TARDIS and then slowly back to Ace.
"I don't understand it. I thought…the TARDIS and I would have been destroyed." His expression became anxious. "Ace…the villagers. How are they? Is there any sign of them being controlled?"
"No, Professor. Not since that night. Also the army turned up and eventually arrested many of them. The rest of us have been interviewed but I've been staying with the Rev. They believed what he said about me. He told them I was a friend from London staying with him. They've gone now but each of us had to sign a form saying that we wouldn't talk to anyone about what happened."
A quizzical look appeared on the Doctor's face. "How long have I been away?" he asked.
"Ten days."
"Ten days! And you're sure that everyone has returned to normal?" pressed the Doctor.
"Yeah. Well, not really normal I suppose. Everyone is well sick about what happened. Most of the villagers who are left now want to move out. Some have already gone."
"Understandable," mused the Doctor, "Yes, I think that the creature must definitely have been destroyed, all right. But how did I survive?"
There was a long pause. Ace broke the silence. "What did you do?" she asked.
"Well, you see, I had met that creature once before."
"That thing on the planet with the giant butterflies and ants?"
"No, Ace. That was another creature rather like it, but that one was much less powerful. I met the…the…Drel, no Dral, er, Der, Derlag, yes, that's it, the Derlag, on another planet. It forced me to make a link with it and the TARDIS. It wanted to be able to travel freely in time and space so that it could conquer and enslave any of the worlds and lifeforms it cared to choose."
"Evil!" commented Ace.
"Well, at the time it nearly succeeded. It would have done but for the fact that my struggles with it had taken their toll on me and I made a blunder in my wiring and projected the creature away into time and space, instead, leaving the TARDIS where it was. The lifeforms on that planet were freed to follow their own destiny from then on."
"You made a mistake, Professor! That's a new one!" laughed Ace. The sombre look she received in return made her smile whither as the realisation of the meaning of Doctor's words dawned on her. "And another mistake was that you sent it here, in this time?"
"Yes, Ace, All that has happened here is my fault." Bitterness now edged the Doctor's words. "The TARDIS's space-time locator mechanism was at that time faulty and two of the companions I had with me then wanted to be returned home, to London in 1963, so that was the coordinates I had permanently programmed in. Since I couldn't even get them home with the TARDIS operating in its usual mode, I had thought that the manner of the Derlag's transit would make it even less likely that the TARDIS would accurately place it anywhere near that time or place. I had hoped that the creature would have wound up far out of range of the Earth or any other habitable planet but, well…" The Doctor sighed heavily.
"Oh!" said Ace in a small voice. Then, after a pause, she added, "But what did you do this time around, Professor?"
"While I was waiting to meet up with you and the Reverend Carmichael here, er, on that Sunday afternoon, I had been busy with a little bit of sabotage in the TARDIS. I programmed the ship to create a link with itself to the epoch when it first linked with the Derlag, the link to be completed when the creature existing in this time zone was coupled to the TARDIS."
"Eh?" said Ace.
"The Derlag then and the Derlag now, or the 'Great Ruler' as the villagers called it, existed in different positions in both time and space."
"So?"
"The Universe is evolving, Ace, and expanding. Entropy increases and the energy of all the individual material objects in it changes from one form to another with time".
Ace still looked blankly at the Doctor. He gathered himself for his explanation. "You see, it's a bit like a ball that had been given a kick to send it rolling up hill. As it climbs higher the kinetic energy, energy of motion, it gained from the kick changes to gravitational potential energy, a stored form of the energy. The ball slows down but the energy isn't lost. It is transformed from one sort to another. In the case of that ball if you will allow it to, the ball will start rolling back down the hill, getting fast and faster as it goes down."
"So it gets the kinetic energy back again," chipped in Ace.
"Well done Ace! Yes it does and it gets that kinetic energy from the stored gravitational potential energy it is losing as the height of the ball reduces as it is rolling down the hill."
"Oh Yeah! Conservation of energy. I remember that in physics lessons at school"
"Good! I'm glad you remembered more than how to make explosives back in your schooldays, Ace!" Ace smiled at the Doctor as he continued. "The important thing here is that the potential energies of the Derlag were different at each of the two times the TARDIS was linked to it. By arranging for the TARDIS to link with itself across the space-time continuum I effectively linked the Derlag to itself. In effect, I turned the TARDIS into a conductor, rather like a piece of wire deliberately used to create an electrical short-circuit. I used the TARDIS as a conductor to short-circuit the space-time differential between the two Derlag's. The huge amount of energy released destroyed the creature."
"Oh, wicked Professor!" commented Ace admiringly.
The Doctor's eyebrows spread upwards and a somewhat vacant look came onto his face. "The point is, I would have thought that the TARDIS would have been destroyed as well, and me with it."
"So you would have sacrificed yourself to save the rest of us." Ace spoke the words quietly.
The Doctor glanced at her and then seemed to stare into the far distance. "I couldn't be sure that my plan would work. In fact I thought the chances were rather poor that it would. After I made the adjustments to the TARDIS I had to do my best to bury the fact in the deepest recesses of my mind. I knew that I wouldn't be able to resist the Derlag's force of will. I just hoped that it could be distracted away from uncovering my plan when it penetrated my mind." The Doctor paused. "But how come I…" the Doctor's eyes widened, "Of course! The regulator valve! Yes! It must have been!"
"Professor?" whined Ace plaintively.
"In order to get the TARDIS to make the short circuit I had to disable the interstitial regulator valve in the temporal limiter. Its function is to make sure that the TARDIS doesn't cross its own time-track because that could be very dangerous. It prevents situations that would give rise to the type of energy release that I used to destroy the Derlag. It also prevents the impossible from happening. For instance, paradoxes such as apparent changes of established history could happen if it were not for the temporal limiter. It is such an important component that it is specially designed to be virtually indestructible and there is a fail-safe system which backs it up, immobilising the TARDIS if anything goes wrong with it. I had to disable that, too!"
"Wow, Professor!" The Doctor did not appear to notice Ace's look of admiration.
"Could the valve being disabled plus the TARDIS's instinct for survival have resulted…? Yes, that might have happened." The Doctor's voice was quiet and he sounded vague. He seemed to be talking more to himself than Ace. "Of course the energy released in the interaction polarised the valve back then as well didn't it? Yes, of course it did, and it was not until I landed on…now which planet was it…yes, on Xeros, that I discovered the fault."
Ace's expression betrayed her incomprehension. Suddenly the Doctor stared directly at her. "Some time after my encounter with the creature the TARDIS landed on the planet Xeros. In fact, what actually happened was that it crossed its own time-track and landed there twice. Luckily the time differential was very small, just a few hours, so there was no significant energy differential involved. As far as myself and my travelling companions knew about it the TARDIS had landed just a little ahead of itself. We saw ourselves as exhibits in the Morok's space museum on Xeros. In effect we had seen a few hours into our own future. We had to set about changing the course of events leading up to the fate we had so luckily been forewarned about. Actually the Moroks were invaders. We helped the indigenous population rise up against the Moroks. The museum was dismantled and so we couldn't wind up in a museum that didn't exist. Safe in the knowledge that our fate was avoided we continued on our way."
Ace's expression showed that she had to struggle to understand the Doctor's wide-ranging explanation. "So you are saying that since you took out that valve thing, it is possibly responsible for you and the TARDIS surviving, as well as destroying Mr Alien?"
"Correct."
"Oh, neat Professor! And you are also saying that the energy release also had some effect on the TARDIS back then, when the TARDIS was first linked to Mr Alien?"
"Yes, Ace. The energy surge blew the valve back then as well, though I didn't know it at the time. I unwittingly travelled about for quite a while before discovering the fault when I got to Xeros. Mind you, it was a simple matter to put right. I just had to unpolarise it. After that it was fine again."
Ace's expression clouded again. "But you said that since the valve was so important there was a fail-safe back-up. What happened to that?"
"Oh, yes, er…"
"It failed!" laughed Ace.
"Yes, it did!" admitted the Doctor with a wry smile.
"You're a very dangerous person to be with, Professor." Ace laughed again but then her laughter died as she saw her friend's expression suddenly change to one of deep sorrow.
"There are consequences." He said quietly as his gaze dropped to the ground. "How is young Michael?"
"His mother's funeral is tomorrow."
The Doctor stared out of the window of the cottage's front room. The sky was overcast and leaden, suiting the mood of the day. The small room seemed cluttered with the various relatives of the late Cindy Peters. All were dressed in black. Some sat on what chairs there were. Others stood. The very little conversation that took place was conducted in whispers.
Michael sat, staring blankly ahead of him, on a small chair which had been brought in from the kitchen. A large, fat, aunt sat in his usual armchair. Through the whole of the funeral service he had been completely emotionless. He had been that way ever since the dreadful night of his mother's burning.
Ace touched the Doctor on his shoulder. He gave no sign that he was aware of her presence. "It wasn't your fault, Doctor," she whispered. Still he stared out of the window, his face set like granite.
There was a rattling noise as another of Michael's aunts brought in a tea tray. For the first time since he had sat down on the chair, Michael moved his eyes. He stared at the tray. On it was the special tea service. The tea service that used to be his grandmother's. The tea service that was so cherished by his m…
Michael's face contorted and his mouth opened in a long silent scream. Then Michael sobbed and cried.
Everybody cried.
