Chapter Four

The Fast Return Switch


I understand much more of the TARDIS's mechanics (or biology) these days, but when I first "met" her, I knew nothing at all. It was amazing and impossible, and it kidnapped me – that was more or less all I knew. So, I pressed the Fast Return switch on the console, and I, kinda, believed it would take me home.

The moment the ship jumped out of the rut of the temporal orbit and plunged into a time vortex, I knew I had done something wrong. I was thrown across the steering room and I landed curled under a tattered car seat mounted on rusty suspension springs. From under the chair I watched a scary spectacle of sparks showering from the walls, and flames exploding from the console, and even electric discharges in the crystal column. The noise was deafening – wheezing, and roaring, and thudding, and grating. The floor was shaking badly, throbbing under my hands and knees, jerking up and down and sideways, as if the ship decided it had enough of me and wanted to lose me. Then there was a final jolt which sent me face down on the metal mesh floor, and everything become very, very still.

My right hand was bleeding and I had a cut across the bridge of my nose, but other than that I was fine. I scrambled to my feet and swayed across the room and ramp to finally reach the door. I pulled it open and jumped outside, so very eager to escape. I was still mid-jump when I realised my mistake.

I didn't go back.

It wasn't London.

It wasn't the Earth.

I was in a corridor made of pressed metal sheets, lighted only by one lamp swivelling madly above the huge, airlock type door. The lamp's light was circling the floor, the walls and the ceiling madly, producing almost stroboscopic images. There was a man, sitting on the floor; legs spread wide, head dropped, empty hands resting on his tights palms up in a piercing image of defeat and resignation. I must have caused some tremor to the floor as I jumped out of the blue box, because as I landed, the man's body tilted slightly to the right and then slid slowly to the floor. He just lain there; his hands in between his thighs, his head crooked, his blue eyes opened wide in terror.

Was he dead?

"It is the Doctor! He is back!" screeched a bloodcurdlingly mechanical voice somewhere behind the blue box. I started and shouted out in fear.

'The Doctor is back! Exterminate! Exterminate!'

'The Doctor has been exterminated! The Doctor is dead!'

'It is the Doctor's TARDIS! Board the time ship!'

'Capture the TARDIS! Capture the TARDIS! Capture the TARDIS!'

The mad, vicious voices carried over the roof of the blue box, and I was very glad that it slam-banged itself neatly in the narrow corridor, blocking the way to anyone who wanted to capture it and exterminate the Doctor. Still, wooden planks didn't seem strong enough to stop the bullets, or energy blast that started banging on the box's walls. Green flashes gushed all around the ships sides, and a trembling, sharp whiz of explosions made me cower next to the blue-eyed man.

"Oh my God!" I moaned. "What's going on? What is it? What the hell is this?!"

"The TARDIS is shielded! Assume another route of approach!"

"We obey!"

"Open the airlock in the corridor one!"

Whoever they were, they were now banging at the door I sheltered below. I shrieked in fear, torn in between fright of the voices and fright of the ship.

"The TARDIS is a weapon! The TARDIS will be intercepted!"

"The TARDIS will be used as an ultimate weapon of the Daaaleks' Empire!"

"Daaaleks reign supreme! Daleks reign supreme!"

I grabbed the blue-eyed man's arm and shook it. It was numb and heavy.

"Help me!"

"Sensors show a huuuuman behind the door!"

"The huuuuman is alive?"

There was a momentary silence, then the maddening shrill voices resumed with a doubled urgency:

"The huuuman will open the doooor! Obey! Obey!"

"Oh, you wish…" I gasped breathlessly. I was unconsciously pulling at the man's arm and I managed to move him away from the door and drag him a few feet across the floor. I looked back, at the open doors of the ship, at the amber light radiating from the inside, and in that instant the decision has been made. Compared to the alien heartlessness of the voices in the corridor, the alien ship was as cosy as my own bed. It was as human and safe as anything. When choosing between two dangers, the blue box seemed the lesser evil.

I grunted as I pulled the man across the threshold. He was tall and well built, and his inertness made him even heavier; but fear gave me unexpected strength of released adrenaline pumping through my veins.

"The huuuman will surrender!"

"The huuuman will open the door!"

"Obey! Obey!"

The man's legs were sticking out of the ship. I growled, bent down, grabbed them under the knees and pulled up, then to the side, until whole of the man's body was inside and I could shut the door. I rested my back against the door; all sweaty, scared but also relieved. Then I reconsidered. All I would have in between me and the owners of piercing voices once the metal lock gives way, would be a thin layer of wood. Not distantly enough to protect me.

I rushed towards the steering console and hesitated with my index finger suspended over the fast return switch. It was just for a second, a tick, one heartbeat. Then I flipped the switch.

The rota started moving up and down, and a whooshing sound rolled over the steering room. I could still hear shrieks from behind the door:

"The TARDIS dematerialising! Stop the TARDIS! Exterminate the huuuman female!"

"Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate!"


To be continued...

Disclaimer: If Daleks were mine I would leave them gold and black. But, well, they are not mine... My brilliant baddies:)