44. The Welsh Power Pool.
1. The Missing Hotel.
The Doctor's Tardis arrives on Earth... but in 1962. His current favourite family are all with him.
"We're losing a huge amount of power," the Doctor says, grappling with the controls. "We can't depart, and we can't keep our internal rooms stable."
He continues to grapple with the controls, but appears more desperate.
"I'll have to store the rooms to save power," the Doctor says, "but we must lose our rest room and the kitchen."
"How will that help?" Devyon asks, curiously.
"Every room in the Tardis takes power to project, create and sustain. If I can store a room offline, it'll save quite a lot of power for the Tardis."
Although losing the rest room doesn't bother the Doctor, his family will be without beds, and they've had a long hard day.
Finally, the Doctor stops battling with the Tardis controls and sighs. "I see there's a hotel we can stay in only a quarter of a mile away."
"It's quite dark out there," Devyon says practically, looking at the Console monitor. He's accompanying the Doctor while his house is being rebuilt and re-equipped after it was destroyed by a freak wind caused by the Master. .
"Can we take torches," Simeon asks. He's been accompanying his girlfriend, Chloe, in the Doctor's Tardis recently.
"Yes, we must, we'll need them!" the Doctor confirms. "It's pitch black out there for some reason."
"Maybe the same thing that's draining the Tardis is draining power locally here?" Chloe suggests.
"And it's night," Alyssa suggests, tongue-in-cheek. .
It's pitch dark with no light anywhere as they set out along the single-track private road towards the hotel.
Bat-like creatures appear and swoop towards the light of their torches.
"Put your torches off if you don't want the bats to pester you," Chloe says.
Her sister Alyssa immediately extinguishes her torch. "I'll save the battery for later," she says in explanation, but inwardly she's scared of these bats and walks much closer to the others. .
They pass a battered sign showing the name of the hotel - "Queen's Hotel, Welshpool."
But a hundred yards further along the little sideroad they find a large pile of rubble along with a newer more temporary notice - "Apologies to all concerned, a fire in the Queen's Hotel has totally destroyed it. Please try at the Ship Inn for accommodation." .
"That's torn it," Meran says. He's also been accompanying the Doctor's current favoured family since the Doctor told him it wasn't safe for him to return home after the Master had plucked him from his own house.
"Back the way we've come," the Doctor says, after studying the notice for a minute. "It seems the hotel burnt down six months ago along with all records of bookings. A chance fire fuelled by too many flammable liquids."
"Something must have happened to cause it," Alyssa says. "Fires don't just start by chance!"
"In this day and age, people did the most stupid things. They routinely carried portable fire-lighting sticks to ignite cancer-giving sticks *. Likely one of those caused the fire. Sorry, there's far too many weird things they did then ... erm, now! No safety regulations for so many things!" .
As they walk, to make things worse, it starts to rain gently, and a light breeze starts blowing.
"Just a light rain shower," the Doctor says, hoping he's right but knowing the variability of any forecast in this region to be far too high.
The Alternative Hotel.
They trudge past the end of the tiny path leading to where the Tardis is standing, cloaked in darkness and obscurity.
Another quarter mile leads them to two adjacent tall slate buildings, illuminated only by their torches. One of them has a small notice above a solitary door in the tall, forbidding wall - "Ship Inn."
Devyon finds the door is locked as he tries the handle. "Cold wet night for us, then," he observes. .
"There'll be another door," Alyssa says hopefully.
"Yes, certainly there will," the Doctor says, heading around the corner of the building.
A much more welcoming entrance is dimly illuminated by a meagre canopy of tiny lights. The door easily opens with the clatter of a bell and the group enter the small, dimly lit hotel reception.
A lady arrives at the bottom of a flight of stairs. "What a night you've chosen to be out in, so wet and windy!" she says. She's homely enough, and the group warm to her, at least for the moment.
"Could we have three rooms, please?" the Doctor asks. "Chloe and Alyssa, are you alright sharing? Could Devyon and Meran share? I can share with Simeon - we're both Gallifreyans!" The Doctor laughs.
"Certainly," the receptionist says, oblivious to the Doctor's sharing arrangements. "You'll all be wanting baths or showers, I dare say; and at this time of night, too! I'll put you up on the top floor of the Annexe, away from the other guests - I don't want you waking them up! Breakfast tomorrow morning is at 8 a.m. sharp! You'll be wanting a wake-up call, too, I dare say?"
"Which way is it to the rooms?" Devyon asks.
"Just this way," the receptionist says as she walks towards an unpromising rough wood plank door partially behind some dark curtains. It seems incongruously different to the plushness of everything else.
The door is duly unbolted and unlocked, but it's raining outside as they emerge from the solitary door in the forbidding wall that they saw earlier. She steps across to the other, taller building, equally forbidding, where a similar door yields to a large key which she then gives to the Doctor.
"This is the annexe. That's the key you must use for that outer door. Your rooms are on the third floor."
The receptionist decides against going all the way up the stairs herself and stays on the ground floor after retrieving some keys from a wooden key safe.
"Your rooms are on the top floor of this annexe; these are the room keys, I hope you'll excuse me from having to go all the way up there with you, thank you kindly."
With that, she heads off out through the outer door which she locks after her.
Although the building seems to be quiet and empty, some doors have a little light shining through from under their ill-fitting doors, at least on the ground floor. Further up, there are no lights from under any of the doors.
"I think the wind's getting stronger," Devyon says.
When they arrive on the top floor, the creaks from the roof are loud and clear.
"I don't think we'll be sleeping well here tonight," he concludes.
"We must all do our best," the Doctor says brightly. "Stiff upper lip! I'll let the ladies choose their room first."
It takes no time at all for Chloe and Alyssa to head for the nearest door, whatever the room might be like. "Goodnight everyone," they say as they go.
The room contains a wash hand basin which guggles when they use it. "I guess it's because the building's so tall, any water going down the pipe sucks the rest down," Chloe says.
"Poorly installed," Alyssa taunts.
The beds are basic, and adequate, if a bit cold.
"Aren't there any spare blankets?" Alyssa asks, searching the cupboards and drawers.
It appears not, so they must bed down anyway.
Good Night? .
Lying awake, listening to the alarming creaking of the roof just above the ceiling, Chloe and Alyssa chat occasionally, then sleep fitfully. A loud banging noise on their door awakens them. It's the morning wake-up call. It still feels far too early to possibly be morning and it's still dark. .
"Morning wake up call. Breakfast in thirty minutes!"
It hardly feels as if they've been asleep.
The windows reveal a grey, dark morning with heavy rain falling. The stone-cold floor under their feet feels much better through socks and shoes. .
Shortly, the Doctor's voice on the landing outside brings everyone to him.
The Doctor smiles cheerfully. "Good morning. Well, it's breakfast time! We should make the most of it! Let's go down."
As they descend, Meran wants to know if anyone slept at all.
Devyon answers. "Knowing that Tardis, that's likely to be the least of our worries!" .
Chloe glances at Alyssa. "Dad's becoming quite negative these days!"
"I'm not surprised!" Alyssa responds. .
The Doctor opens the Annexe door, and they must run to the door in the main hotel through the heavy rain.
Breakfast.
Once inside, the dining room is sumptuous, a rich red, deep pile carpet, which seems out of place with their wet shoes. There are adequate tables, and a few other guests are there. They seem cheerful and have obviously slept well on the lower floors of the annexe, away from the creaking roof!
The windows look out onto the inclined road outside and the rain is so hard it's bouncing up from the torrent of water flowing along the roadway.
The first course of cereal arrives, but a bright flash of lightening is followed instantaneously by a loud clap of thunder. Immediately the lights go out, leaving the dining room lit only by the meagre dawn light from the windows.
Staff immediately bring in candles to light the dining room.
Simeon's pleased. "Ah, so romantic. Breakfast by candlelight!" He cuddles up to Chloe and they kiss briefly. .
Breakfast completes without further problems.
"How are they able to cook without power?" Alyssa asks.
"Ah, while there may be no electricity here, they'll be cooking on Gas!" the Doctor replies. "Their equipment might be ancient, or just not dependent on the electric. Why should a gas cooker be so dependent on electric? Just to light it? With no backup plan? That would be a very poor design flaw!"
They spend the day in their group wandering around after the rain has stopped, looking for anything that might be draining the Tardis' power. Everything's soaked. The Tardis won't even let them in!
"Is your Tardis door dependent on power to let us in?" Alyssa asks. An innocent enough question, but it sets the Doctor thinking.
"Yes, it is just now. Why did I let it become dependent?" .
Erm, Doctor, isn't that rather like the problem with the gas appliances? .