5. The Rogue Planet.
The Doctor arrives where he traced Alyssa's message signal to be from.
"Are you sure it was from here?" Meran asks, as he surveys the Console monitor screen.
"I've already checked," the Doctor reassures him.
Meran is still accompanying the Doctor and loves to try to learn more about the Tardis communications.
A cold, barren planet surface greets them as they emerge from the Tardis.
"Mind your footing," the Doctor warns Meran as he steps out onto the meagrely lit rocky surface.
"Why wouldn't the Tardis land just when the signal was transmitted?" Meran asks.
"It's got a lot of sense when it comes to avoiding direct confrontation that might affect the timelines," the Doctor says. He thinks the Tardis has too much sense, sometimes!
Retrieving his sonic screwdriver, the Doctor sweeps around the space. He takes a few steps away from the Tardis and repeats his action.
Meran wonders what the Doctor's doing but decides to wait for the Doctor to choose to tell him.
The Doctor whistles at the results. "Another Tardis was here only a minute ago!"
Meran takes a sharp breath in. "The Master?" he asks terrifiedly. He has encountered the wrong side of the Master before.
"Yes," the Doctor says with a certainty, having noticed a square area of broken rocks nearby.
"It was Alyssa's messaging device that sent the message," Meran says nervously.
"So, we can say with some certainty that Alyssa has been kidnapped by the Master!" the Doctor deduces abruptly.
The signs are there, but there's plenty unexplained.
"But why here?" Meran asks.
"Why indeed!"
"What other things have been used here, Doctor? What can your sonic screwdriver tell us?"
The Doctor changes a setting on the screwdriver and wafts it in a side-to-side motion, as if he was looking for gold with a metal detector.
"Aha!"
"A what?" .
"A personal transport hyperspace armband was used here for a local journey!"
"How local?" Meran asks. He knows nothing of these Hyperspace Armbands. How far they can go, or anything.
"Only a few yards, but a very high power was used. Almost as if they were travelling through ... the rock!"
"Why would they do that?"
The Doctor turns to run to the Tardis. "There isn't a moment to lose!"
The Doctor presses lots of buttons as Meran watches. He's no idea what the Doctor's trying to do, but eventually the Doctor turns to him.
"There's a cave a few metres below the surface. We're going down there!"
"What?" Meran almost panics. The idea of going into any claustrophobic location fills him with dread. "A c-cave?" He'd never go potholing! .
"Yes." The Doctor starts pressing more familiar navigation buttons. "It's risky! The Tardis can't pre-scan the area to ensure avoiding damaging anyone down there. It might half-enclose someone and chop them in half!"
"Can it travel across the Universe but be defeated by a few metres of rock?"
"Not defeated, just the scanners can't penetrate rock. It's usually able to pause just before landing to scan the area, but not this time!"
"How big is the cave?" Meran asks. "Might we land near an edge?"
"We've no idea just how big it is. We could try that and risk having a large, heavy chunk of rock land on the Console room floor. I'd rather go for the middle of the space normally, but ... alright. I'll land near a wall if I can."
He pulls the dematerialisation lever, and a large pillar of rock gradually appears in the Console room.
"We've landed in a wall of the cave and enclosed a lot of rock! On the positive side, it's got enough floor for it to stand on without falling over!"
Before either of them take a step, the Tardis door is opened from the outside! ... .
Is there something malevolent in that cave?