Chapter Seven
Boy ran through the forests. His Master's orders were clear and he had much to set up before the Doctor could find him. Boy wanted to stand still and shout at the top of his lungs so that the Doctor would locate him and stop him. But he couldn't disobey his Master. The instructions had been forced into his mind, controlling him more than his own thoughts.
Boy had to do this. He would obey, even as he silently begged for some cosmic force to strike him dead on the spot.
He reached a large tree which stood in the forest. It looked nothing special, just another tree on a world with billions of them. But Boy placed a hand at the right point on a branch and a portion of the trunk swung out.
Boy stepped inside his Master's TARDIS.
--
"Shouldn't we be getting after Adric?" Donna asked.
"Can you tell which direction he went in?"
Donna had to admit that she couldn't. All she could see outside the doors was an expanse of forest. There was no obvious path and she didn't know the first thing about tracking. The Doctor was at the console, apparently trying to fix the sensors. Donna wondered if the TARDIS had some sort of lifeform detectors like on Star Trek that would let them locate Adric.
"Hmm," the Doctor said. "There's a faint time differential field appeared." He frowned at the screen.
"A what? A time distortion?"
"No, it's more like... well, with no dimensional anomalies in the region and no detectable technology on the planet, it might be a sign that there's another TARDIS nearby."
"Another TARDIS? I thought there was just one TARDIS. You call it the TARDIS, not a TARDIS."
"The TARDIS was one of many built on Gallifrey. I just assumed mine was the only one not to be destroyed in the Time War. But if the Master left his hidden somewhere... The last couple of times I encountered the Master, before he reappeared recently, he didn't have his TARDIS with him."
"So he might have left it here on the off-chance of you springing the trap?"
"It's possible," the Doctor said. "The Master always planned for all occasions." He started fiddling with bits of electronic equipment that was attached to the console. "Now, if I just reconfigure the homing device," he buzzed a small globular object with his sonic screwdriver, "we should be able to track it down." He pocketed the screwdriver. "Ready."
"So we're looking for another blue box?" Donna asked as they stepped out into the forest. "It shouldn't be too hard to find."
"The Master's TARDIS could look like anything."
"I thought you'd seen it before. Even if it's not the same as yours, shouldn't you know what it looks like?"
"A TARDIS is supposed to take on a shape that will blend in with its surroundings. Mine just got stuck. I've tried to fix it a couple of times, but I kind of like it like this."
Donna glanced back to where the blue shape was just about visible through the foliage. Even she had to admit it wouldn't be quite the same if the TARDIS wasn't such a distinctive shape.
"So, what do we do if we find the Master's TARDIS?" Donna asked.
"Well, that depends on what Adric's trying to do. The Master was always an expert on mind control; he could have instructed Adric to do just about anything."
"You mean, like turning his TARDIS into a bomb to kill you?"
"Or to blow up the rest of the universe. The Master was a sore loser."
Donna was having to resist the urge to say, "I told you so," about her asking to leave when they'd first landed in the lab. Or about her suggestion that they lock Adric up. Instead, she followed the Doctor through the forest. The object in his hand gave off occasional beeps, presumably letting them know they were going in the right direction. After a minute, Donna noticed that the beeps were getting a little louder.
"It's somewhere round here," the Doctor said.
Donna looked round and saw nothing but trees.
"Are you sure that thing's working?"
Then one of the trees opened. A portion of the trunk just swung away, leaving black space just large enough for someone to step inside. The Doctor moved towards the opening.
"Are you nuts?" Donna asked. "You've just told me that Adric's probably brainwashed to kill you and you're going to walk right in?"
"We can't do anything standing around outside."
The Doctor walked through the gap. Donna sighed and followed him.
The inside looked nothing like the Doctor's TARDIS. There was a large, dark room, with a few controls and a screen around the edge. Above them, metal poles stretched across like some sort of web and there was a circular hole in the wall. In the hole, arms and legs outstretched, was Adric.
"Block transfer computation," he said, between sobs. The Doctor's face went white.
"What does that mean?" Donna asked.
"It's a method of creating solid objects out of pure mathematics."
"What kind of solid objects?"
"Any kind imaginable," said a new voice. Donna turned to see a man standing between them and the entrance. It was the man who'd been on the computer screen in the lab and he smile at them now with the same cruelty.
"Hello, Doctor," he said.
"Master."