"Now, isn't that an impressive sight," breathed the Doctor admiringly.
Upon entering the building, the Time Lord and his friends had found themselves in a large chamber filled with various forms of 19th Century equipment such as Victorian steam engines and generators. In the centre of the room, encircled by handrails, was a large metal structure shaped like a hemisphere, which was currently opened up like an eyelid, revealing a deep shaft inside that seemed to go down forever. A beam of intense blue light run from the end of the shaft, through the open hemisphere and up one of the chimneys of the building.
"Doesn't look particularly Victorian to me," remarked Peri. "What's it supposed to be?"
"A Time Vent," explained the Doctor. "One of the various sources of power for the Matrix. Works along the same principle as the Eye of Harmony. The energy beam you see helps to maintain the structure of the Matrix, though the vent itself is designed to close shut if too much energy starts to be poured in. Quite a magnificent display of craftsmanship, isn't it?"
Peri peered over the edge of the handrail and looked down the shaft. "Wow, it looks as though it goes down forever."
"It does, so I wouldn't recommend falling in," warned the Doctor.
Exasperated, Mel could not help but cut in. "Hold on a minute you two, this isn't the time for sightseeing, we've got things to deal with at the moment. The Valeyard, remember?"
"Hmm, how could I forget?" said the Doctor as Mr Popplewick came over to join them.
"Hey, where's Glitz?" asked Peri suspiciously as she realised that the intergalactic crook was not with them.
"I don't know," said the Doctor, turning to cast a skeptical look at Popplewick. "Decided to stay outside on guard perhaps, eh, Mister Popplewick?"
"Er, yes," said Popplewick awkwardly. "I perceive Mister Chambers is not here. I shall go and find him for you, sir."
"Yes. Yes, you do that, Mister Popplewick," said the Doctor with an almost incredulous tone in his voice.
With a curt nod, Popplewick turned and walked off, disappearing behind the large gears and belts of a 19th century generator placed next to the time vent. Once he was out of view, the Doctor quickly moved to a workbench against the wall and grabbed a length of rope from amongst the various scattered tools placed on top.
"Now what are you up to?" asked Peri.
"If we knew what's going on, maybe we could help," added Mel.
But the Doctor simply shushed them before darting after Popplewick, taking care to keep the rope in his hand out of view. Peri and Mel followed him in time to spot Popplewick in the corner closing a pair of wooden doors for an inbuilt alcove, the word 'DANGER' painted in thick black letters across the large timber boards. Noticing that he had been followed, Popplewick calmly walked over to the Doctor and his friends.
"I'm awfully sorry, sir. I don't seem to be able to locate Mister Chambers," said Popplewick apologetically.
The Doctor did not look in the least bit surprised. "Yes. Well, I rather thought you might have some trouble..." His words suddenly trailed off as he shot a surprised look past Popplewick's shoulder. "Who's that?"
Popplewick turned to look in the direction that the Doctor was indicating. No sooner than he did so, the Doctor sprang into action, grabbing Popplewick by the arms. Although confused, Peri and Mel sprinted over to help and within seconds, they had successfully tied Popplewick's hands behind his back and to the nearest metal railing encircling the time vent.
Popplewick was beside himself with rage. "Untie me this instant! This is preposterous. You will regret this. Mister Chambers will demand an explanation for this iniquitous, this wicked behaviour."
"Well, let's ask him, shall we?" said the Doctor with a knowing expression. He reached up to the side of Popplewick's face, took hold, and began peeling it away! Peri and Mel dropped their mouths in astonishment as they realised that 'Popplewick' was wearing a thick rubber mask and they were even more amazed as the Doctor tugged the whole mask away, to reveal the cold, grim face of...
The Valeyard.
With a satisfied expression, the Doctor dropped the mask to the ground and took hold of 'Popplewick's' clark clothes, pulling them away to reveal the Valeyard's own black courtroom robes neatly worn underneath the immaculate disguise.
"Whoa, no way!" said Peri at last. "How did you work out that the Valeyard was Popplewick the whole time?"
"The performance was too grotesque to be real," replied the Doctor, not taking his eyes off the Valeyard for even a second. "I have never been able to resist a touch of the Grand Guignol. Have we?"
"You'll soon have ample scope to indulge in melodrama," said the Valeyard sarcastically as he returned the Doctor's piercing stare.
"Really? Why?" asked the Doctor almost demandingly.
As this exchange of spats was going on, Mel had crossed over to the alcove and pulled the large wooden doors wide open, to reveal a complex piece of machinery. Although tailored to fit in with the room's Victorian setting, with large wooden panels mounting the whole thing, the equipment inside was far more advance with a complex mass of inbuilt circuits, gauges and blinking lights, more akin to an alien computer than any 19th century appliance.
"Take a look at this," said Mel as she looked over the strange device which hummed with life. "That's quite some computer we've got here."
The Doctor crossed over and examined the unusual contraption for himself. "A maser," he said at last.
"A maser?"
"An acronym," explained the Doctor, "for 'Microwave Amplification and Stimulated Emission of Radiation'."
"Never mind the technobabble," retorted Peri. "What's it all for?"
"Yes, Doctor. Enlighten us. Disseminate the news," goaded the Valeyard with a unusually smug look on his face.
"Disseminate?" The Doctor looked confused for a second, but his expression turned to a mixture of disbelief and shock as he realised what the Valeyard was saying. "A particle disseminator?"
The Valeyard smiled viciously. "One of the ultimate weapons, capable of tearing anything as small as a fly or as large as a galaxy apart atom by atom, until nothing remains, not even the smallest speck of dust. And it's all fully charged, ready to deal out death in just a short while."
"You're not seriously thinking of using that thing in here, are you? Destroy us and you destroy yourself," pointed out Mel. But the Valeyard simply chuckled at her remark, not looking at all concerned about this prospect.
"What's the gag?" demanded Peri, trying to keep the fear out of her voice.
The Doctor's face fell and he suddenly pulled out the parchment he had pocketed earlier. "I've just realised. My writing. Our writing. A hit list." He glared at the Valeyard. "The whole trial was a trap, wasn't it? Not just for me, but for every member of the court! That's why the whole proceedings were being held on this space station in the middle of nowhere. It was somewhere where you could quietly bump them all off!"
"But why?" asked Mel. "What could be gained from that?"
"A power vacuum," smirked the Valeyard. "Can you imagine the chaos that would occur on Gallifrey if all these guardians of the law were eliminated in one fell swoop? I have plans to use the weapon to deal with the High Council afterwards, leaving the path open for me to use the Matrix to take complete control of Gallifrey."
"And how do you hope to do all that? These so-called supreme guardians of the law are all in the trial room, and we're in the Matrix," pointed out Peri.
"The Matrix screen!" realised the Doctor. "He must have linked the disseminator to it." He dashed over to the weapon and frantically checked the settings. To his dismay, he found the disseminator was already charged, as the Valeyard had claimed, and preprogrammed to dispense its deadly rays right into the courtroom.
"Peri, Mel! Get back to the trial room. Tell them to disconnect the Matrix screen and evacuate the court," instructed the Doctor urgently.
"But..." Mel began to protest.
"Go! Do it, or there'll be mass murder!" snapped the Doctor frantically.
"Come on, Red, we haven't a second to waste!" added Peri as she took Mel by the arm and pulled her towards the exit. The two girls dashed out of the building and back towards the Matrix door, while the Doctor began to desperately examine the disseminator, as the Valeyard burst out laughing insanely, certain of his ultimate victory...