5. Back to the Future.

"Ah," Chloe recalls hearing of someone who had gone through a faulty portal with the Doctor a while before. They had found themselves on a remote beach on some random planet (ref. 17).
"You summon the Tardis," she says.

"Yes," the Doctor says. He reaches into his coat. The Tardis Summoner key fob had been in there before they left, he had made quite sure of that, or he would never have allowed them to come through the portal.
He can't put his hand on it. Is it possible that it slipped out of his pocket on their way to the portal?
He starts to get flustered. .
At last he finds it. He had been getting very worried and just putting a brave face on it.

"You don't need such a big build-up," Chloe says. . She is used to him enjoying a flourish as he summons the Tardis. Then she notices the beads of sweat on his brow and recognises that something had nearly gone very wrong. She smiles, hoping their visitors hadn't noticed.

The familiar grinding noise confirms their safety and they all dash into the Tardis as if it might evaporate at an instant's notice. .

The Doctor strides to the Console and checks that their return journey is exactly as he hopes. "No messing here," he says under his breath, "there are visitors here." He really doesn't want to either let them down or make their situation any worse. The last thing he wants just now is any of his enemies showing up, or the Tardis taking him to another adventure!

The Doctor prays and pulls the dematerialisation lever, the Tardis grinds and the Console monitor shows the lush field of long grass. He relaxes again and leans against the Console breathing heavily for a moment. He hopes the others haven't noticed. He stands again, composed and turns to face them smiling.

"To complete the rescue of our previous team, we must enlarge them. Back to the enlarging portal!" With that he bounds out of the Tardis. They all follow and stay together; they feel it really isn't safe anywhere here on your own.

The Doctor finds the portal and tests it with his selfie-stick.
"Yes," he says. "This is the right way to go through the portal."
Chloe steps around to the other side of the portal without going through it.
He places the small box near the portal, opens the lid and pushes it through to the other side. The previous team climb out and greet Chloe, who is waiting on that side of the portal for them. They are still far too small, but at least she can see them properly.

"Go around to the other side of the portal again without going through it," Chloe says.
They walk around the outside of the portal to where the Doctor is standing.
"Go through the portal from that side again," Chloe says.
The Doctor agrees. "Yes, you must."

Finally, they are the right size, they can be properly greeted.

"Now, we must decommission all of the portals," the Doctor says.
"We were hoping to do that," the leader of the previous team says. He knows that his team have failed to even start with that task, but if he is honest, they don't know how to do it. . "I'm very glad of your help."

"We should start with the faulty one-way portal," the Doctor says. Removing the highest risk first seems to be the best way forwards. He points his sonic screwdriver at it and moves it around the edges. "The programming panel is just here," he presses the frame. It stays intact. "It would be very dangerous for me to dispose of these faulty portals without fully decommissioning them."

The Doctor isn't sure how to decommission them either. "Who commissioned them?"

Here, the previous team leader can help. "We know that," he says. "A company called Portals Direct installed them years ago when they were all part of the house, but they folded when they invested a huge amount developing folding portals!" .

"Why don't we just disconnect the power supply?" Ben asks.
They look at him. "Very practical," the Doctor says. "But the power supply is integral - inside the portal frame. The power supply will last for millennia."
"Big battery then," Ben says.
"Think of it more as if it was nuclear powered," the Doctor says. "It isn't, but that's the nearest equivalent where you come from."

"Where do you come from?" Ben asks.
The Doctor doesn't want to get caught up in that sort of information sharing. "Beyond your living room," he says, glancing across jovially. "The Tardis will have plans of these. We can work from them. Will you join us, Ben?"
The distraction works. Ben becomes part of the Tech Team. He is unlikely to understand the technology, but he has a willing attitude and a keen sense for getting things to work.

Ben finds his white mouse while he is taking a break between focus sessions.

After the portals have all been decommissioned and disposed of, Ben and Zoe are dropped off near their house.

Returning to their living room they find their mugs of tea still steaming. "How can that be?" Zoe says. "We've been away for hours, yet the tea is still piping hot. What was all that? Who were they? Was that real?"

On the way back to the Tardis, Chloe has a burning question. "Doctor, why didn't we go back to the time when the owner left the house with all of the portals in it and insist that they were decommissioned then?"
"Because," the Doctor says, "the owner died, and no-one thought about it then. But we knew that the previous team had already been dispatched to do the decommissioning and missed a checkpoint – it's a fixed point in time, so going back to fix things either wouldn't have worked or would have created a time paradox needing to be fixed in itself."

THE END

The previous episode in this series is called "The Power of a Team" (ref. 55).

The next episode in this series is called "The Disturbed Cup of Tea."

I hope to add further episodes soon.

Sparse References.

Reference 1. Episode Maintenance Mission in this series. Used in chapter 2 to help set the scene.

Reference 17. Episode The Air is Greener in this series,
where a faulty portal had randomly permitted dinosaurs to escape from a Cretacious Park to another planet.

Reference 20. Episode Ships in Distress in this series.

Reference 24. Episode Master Trap in this series.

Explanatory Notes.

Ben isn't affected by the electrical voltage in his garden shed as he is inside it and is surrounded by things of similar conductivity (the wood of the shed and barrier) and has insulated himself on plastic.
Zoe is affected as she is touching the semiconducting wooden shed but is also earthed, standing on the damp earth outside the shed.

The lifter initially was hampered by current leakage through the wooden structure, however well insulated. Once it lifted free, it leapt up but hit the shed roof. At this point Zoe got the electrical shock as the hut provided conduction to her.

ANOTHER END