57. The Disturbed Cup of Tea.
1. A Ground Quake.
Chloe is visiting her father, Devyon, and her sister, Alyssa. They're planning to catch up over a cup of tea.
A ground quake alerts them to possible outside dangers.
"Magnitude Three," Devyon says cautiously.
He's experienced ground quakes before and reckons he can gauge the magnitude. He reaches to appear to steady a floor standing shelving unit that had swayed slightly.
"Were there any ground quakes forecast?" Chloe asks.
"None expected," Devyon says, after consulting his device. It doesn't surprise him that ground quakes might occur unannounced, though. He has his own unshareable private view on the planetary quake forecasting where they live on Tinsel. .
"Perhaps we should go for a walk ... away from buildings, to avoid effects of aftershocks?" Devyon proposes.
His daughter, Alyssa, jumps at the suggestion. She has some childhood scare from something light that fell on her, probably unconnected with quakes.
His other daughter, Chloe, has no such phobia. "I'll stay in and steady the shelving unit!" she quips. She's already looked at the plans of the house from its recent rebuild and knows it can withstand a lot more than that.
Yet for Choe, something about the quake seemed different from a simple ground quake. Something that unsettles her, but she's not quite sure what it is.
After Devyon and Alyssa have gone for their walk, Chloe retreats to her study.
Vast numbers of books litter floor-to-ceiling bookcases on each wall. Part of the bookcase contains her old demised large-screen devices. She's sure she can find a set of information somewhere on an old device that she's been missing.
She's sure the others won't be long.
The door alert sounds. Someone's at the door who hasn't got a key fob. Did Devyon and Alyssa forget to take theirs?
Chloe goes to the front door and opens it.
A smartly dressed gentleman is standing a short distance away. From his head he lifts an unusual hat the like of which Chloe hasn't seen before, a neatly domed hemispherical hat.
Maybe they don't have bowler hats where Chloe lives!
"Good day," he says with a flourish and a bow, before replacing his hat and clasping his hands in front of him.
Chloe feels suddenly strangely drawn to him. A strange feeling pervades her, removing her residual fear of this apparently nice, well dressed, gentlemen.
"Shall we go for a walk?" he asks.
Normally, Chloe would have rejected him immediately, but something strange is happening that she doesn't know about. Logic screams at her to refuse and retreat into the house, closing the door. Yet something's wrong here. Some strange force is pulling her into going with the stranger.
Maybe he has a 'Ring of Confidence'?
"Come on, Chloe, I'm the Doctor, I've regenerated!" the stranger says abruptly.
But Chloe still has at least part of her guard up.
"Did I catch you off your guard?" the stranger asks, apparently tongue-in-cheek. "Shall we walk?"
Chloe wonders why the Doctor should appear anywhere but in the lounge.
"Why here?" she asks. Are there still so many things that are odd about this sudden appearance of the Doctor? Why hadn't he just appeared in the lounge?
"Walking's best done outside," the stranger says. "Shall we?"
Surely she can't go too far wrong. Chloe has faced Daleks and Cybermen and come off best. The remaining oddities with the sudden appearance of the Doctor can surely evaporate!
"Okay," she says with some reluctance, closing the door and proceeding towards the stranger. A walk would be so good; it's a lovely day.
Can anyone with a fear of being buried alive, please skip to chapter three!
They walk along a path that Chloe hasn't noticed before. She wonders why.
A doorway appears to be their only way to advance, and they pass through it.
Beyond the doorway, the stranger laughs as Chloe trips and falls into a shallow pit.
"That's your grave! Ha, ha!"
Tons of something like mud deluge on top of Chloe. Something's desperately wrong!
Quickly, she ensures her hands can move as the pressure increases. She knows now that the stranger isn't the Doctor! That laugh she's heard before! It's definitely the Master!
She can't hope to move under that tonnage. Instead, she imagines just where the Master must be in the space above the pit, thinks of a space just behind him and activates her personal wristwatch transport (ref. 29) ...
The stranger is just in front of her. Chloe has the option to surprise him, but elects to step back into the shadows, away from the Master. The mud on her hasn't started to drip off yet. . Her surprising the Master can come later. Right now, she really wants to see his reaction to apparently trapping her successfully!
The Master can hardly believe his luck! He's suffered at Chloe's hands, as have the Daleks and Cybermen (refs. 31, 37, 53). Has it been so simple? His trap is complete!
He dismisses the rift path he'd created and removes the portal at a flick of a switch. The Doctor will never trace his path! Chloe's disappearance is complete. He shouts his victory!
Chloe's sickened. She decides she'll depart and return later, trying to activate her personal transport again...
The Master's Tardis has a faulty landing circuit which creates a quake when he lands! .
Although he's done some repair work on it, the quakes are still noticeable.