Chapter Nine
The Doctor stood in the throne room, along with Aragorn, River, Gandalf and Faramir. He had his hands clasped behind his back and was watching with increasing frustration the argument before him. The others in the room were debating, passionately, how to deal with the Master. He shook his head before giving a shrill, ear piercing whistle. The others stopped their argument abruptly, and turned to the Doctor. He gave them a small grin but they all noticed that it was unusually forced.
"Sorry about that, but you are all wrong. The only course of action for us to take is to send him back into the Time War. If we can find an Orc or Goblin that is on the verge of dying, we can force the Master out of Pallando, into the Orc then send him, using the Tardis, into the Time Vortex but with directions. After that, he's the Time Lords problem," he deadpanned. Gandalf turned to his old friend.
"How do we force him out of Pallando?" he asked.
"With the only things in this world that are powerful enough. The five rods of power," he answered.
"There's a slight problem there Doctor. The traitor Saruman's staff was destroyed by Gandalf. Therefore, we are one short," said Aragorn, tentatively, as if he didn't want to risk the Doctor's consternation. The Doctor smiled, playfully this time.
"You are forgetting, my liege, I have a time machine." With that, he spun on his heels and sprinted into the blue box parked meters away. Instantly the now familiar metallic wheezing sound started up again and the Tardis disappeared from view. For ten seconds they all stared at the space it had vacated before the noise started up again and it faded in to view once more. The door was yanked open and the Doctor strode from within, clutching in his right hand the staff of Saruman the White.
"Three down," he said. "Saruman's, Gandalf's and Pallando's, with Radagast's and the other Blu Wizard's to go. Do you have any idea who he is or even where he would be Gandalf?" he asked.
"Aha, an inquisitive hobbit once asked me that, many moons ago. In that instance I could not, but at remembering Pallando's the other comes to me with ease. Alator is who you look for. As for where he is, east somewhere is all I know," replied the Wizard. The Doctor's brow creased as he thought, long and hard about that particular problem. Aragorn collapsed wearily on to his throne, River sank on to the Stewards seat and Gandalf lent on his staff, which shifted slightly, giving off a sound. The Doctor's eye flickered up at the sound and settled on the staff. His eyes suddenly lit up with enlightenment and he pushed off from the Tardis and strode over to Gandalf. Slowly he pulled his Sonic Screwdriver from his inside pocket and, ignoring the weird looks he was getting from Aragorn, scanned the staff, before flicking the device open. He read the Gallifreayan readings and squealed excitedly.
"I can track the energy signature of all the rods. They emit slightly different pulses and as soon as Radagast get here, we'll have a reading off his staff and can head off on the only unknown emission left. Come on!" he shouted and strode from the room, heading to the stables.