2. The Field.
Chloe has decorated the Tardis for Christmas, both inside and out, so much so that Ben and Zoe don't notice the spatial difference as they enter.
Chloe sits them down on the Park Bench in the Tardis Control room and sits with them.
The Doctor has told her a little about the problem they will encounter. "Can I tell you a little about the problem we have?" Chloe asks.
Just then the Tardis starts grinding. Both Ben and Zoe clasp their hands over their ears.
"Something wants fixing there," Ben shouts.
"I've been trying to fix that for ages," Chloe says, "and the Doctor has been trying for much longer."
"Sorry about your bad luck there," Ben observes.
The Tardis stops grinding and they relax again.
Chloe resumes her introduction to the problem. "We'll go out and look at the problem, but please stay close to us, we can't be too careful."
The Doctor opens the Tardis door, and they step out into a field of long grass.
"We're not on our village green now," Ben says. "Good trick."
Chloe decides not to tell them that they aren't even on Earth. That might be too much for them just yet. .
"It's a lovely looking field," Zoe says. "I love it!"
Chloe decides not to tell them what the Doctor feels about this field. His foreboding...
"Yes," Chloe says. "It is beautiful. There used to be a house just over there. They built it but apparently decided they would have special doors to each room. The fitters came and fitted each door and programmed them to do different things to you as you went through. The door to the gym shrank you so the whole gym could fit into just one small room. It was supposed to be Portal Paradise."
"Gosh, that sounds great," Ben says. "Where is it, the house, I mean?"
"That's part of the problem," Chloe says. "The house burnt down shortly after it was built, but the doors survived."
"Made of sterner stuff," Ben conjectures.
"Apparently so," Chloe says. "Now only the doors remain, everything else has gone, totally eroded away."
The Doctor interjects. "But then there was a landslide or two."
"Yes," Chloe continues. "So, the doors aren't where they were first put."
"Juicy!" Zoe says. "Sounds fun!"
The Doctor winces quietly but he lets Chloe continue. She seems so much better than he at telling stories, so people aren't suddenly desperately afraid.
"But we have a task," Chloe says. "A group of people came here and got lost. No-one knows where they've got to."
"Or when," the Doctor says glumly. His reference to portal time travel goes unnoticed.
"So, we need help to find them," Chloe says. "Are you up for it? You can say no, but if you do, they may never be found."
This appeals to both Ben and Zoe. They are really needed.
"Yes," Zoe says. "We'll help find them."
"It is dangerous," the Doctor says.
"That's alright," Ben says. He can't see how it can be dangerous, but a little danger is alright.
Zoe is a little more cautious. "How can it be dangerous?" she asks. "It's a lovely field and I can see two or three doors sticking up above the height of the grass."
"We'll soon see," the Doctor says mysteriously. "For an example, if we walk very slowly towards that door there," they stroll slowly towards the door, "you can see through the doorway? I should say that it's a portal, but where to, or when to?"
"Ooh, exciting," Zoe says. She is getting caught up in the mystique.
Ben is more practical but guesses wrongly that this is a game.
"Do you see the sign someone has put above that door?" Chloe says. "Shrink. As you look through that door the grass looks very much higher. So, you shrink as you pass through the portal, and everything seems much bigger than you are. The signs were put there by the previous team who were here."
The Doctor intervenes again. "If you look from the other side, the label says Grow. As you look through, the grass looks much less high! The danger becomes more apparent if you were to pass through the door twice."
"But the other doors do other things," the Doctor continues. "One door takes you forwards in time, or backwards in time, depending on which way you go through it, presumably so the house owners wouldn't miss a meeting. Another door, we think a bedroom door, speeds up time or slows time down, so you might sleep without passing much time outside. But others aren't so obvious, and it just isn't known what they do!"
"Gosh, how exciting," Zoe says. "It's very clever the way you can see things different sizes through the doorway." She clearly still thinks it is all an elaborate optical illusion.
"We must try to get back before dark," the Doctor warns. But they are so excited to explore, they start to wander off, and that's the last thing he wants. "We must log every time anyone steps through a doorway," he says, but he is largely ignored.
Chloe appears to be more in control. "The Doctor suggested earlier, when he first showed me, that we use mirrors to verify just what's happening on the other side of each door. We can look through the doorway and see the height of the grass there and look back at ourselves to make sure it is a proper two-way portal."
The Doctor passes to each of them a selfie-stick with a mirror mounted at the end. Zoe immediately checks her make-up. Ben notices that he no longer has his pet white mouse in his top pocket, but there's no time for that now, Zoe's much too excited.
They keep together as the Doctor advises them and wander over towards another door. This one has an arrow above the door pointing to the right with 100m appended.
"Translation that way, at a guess," Ben says. He steps through the doorway before anyone can stop him. They hear Ben call and look in the direction of the arrow and see Ben waving. He returns the way he came. This is presumably a secret way into an outhouse or shed that has long since perished.
"I don't want anyone prancing through doorways willy-nilly," the Doctor says. His duty of care feels tricky to maintain sometimes.
But Zoe is running towards another door. They catch up.
Zoe has pushed her selfie-stick through the portal before anyone else arrives. "Nothing odd there," she says.
The Doctor disagrees. "Do you see it's slightly less bright through there?" he says. "It might be one of the time portals."
Ben points to a sign over the portal doorway. Plus Three Hours, it says. "If we run out of time, can we go the other way through this portal?"
"Very practical," Chloe says. She is about to warn of possible consequences if they meet their earlier selves when the Doctor signals to her not to. It would only bring the seriousness of the expedition home, alarming the team members.
Ben is guessing. "I guess that the previous team went through a door to make them smaller, or we would be able to see them if they were still the same size or larger."
"So, where might they have gone?" Zoe asks.
"If they became smaller, they might be anywhere," Ben says. "They might be under our feet."
They look down, but naturally, they're disappointed not to see little people! .
As they walk as a group, they chat, and walk closer together in a line, almost shoulder-to-shoulder. They head towards another door. Two tufts of greener, taller grass suggest something odd going on. Zoe passes between the tufts of grass. It's only a few strides later when the others notice that she's missing.
"Where's Zoe?" Chloe asks. They all stop and look around. There's no sign of Zoe! .
The Doctor urges them all to be very careful. "I think there must be an invisible portal somewhere around here," he warns. Not that he expects anyone to take much notice of what he says now.
But this loss has dampened their enthusiasm. Now they must find Zoe, as well as the previous team.
Chloe points to the two tufts of grass. "It might be here!"
Then she notices a very small Zoe in amongst the grass. "Zoe's here!" she calls out. She kneels down and looks down at a tiny Zoe, only a handspan in height.
Zoe is scared. "What's happened?" she squeaks.
Ben arrives. "Wow, that's incredible. These doorways actually do things to you!"
Chloe looks at him. "Well, one portal moved you earlier."
Just then an enormous white mouse runs towards them.
What might an enormous mouse do to them?