PEARL

Chapter Four

We were on Pearl in good time but we didn't want to go outside right away. The view on the scanner didn't exactly entice us – for one thing, it was dark, and for another, it appeared to be a huge stretch of nothing, the middle of nowhere – but that wasn't it. It's just that we'd been away so long and our sojourn on Philt had been at best so full of uncertainty and at worst, well…. We were emotionally and mentally exhausted. The distress call was coming in full strength. There was no time for even a short nap. We hesitated a full 15 minutes before setting foot on Pearl, unsuited.

Once we were outside, we realized that the landscape was not as empty as it had looked on the scanner. It was nighttime, which is the perpetual state of mythical Pearl, and in the clear green night sky three moons hovered brightly. Scattered sparingly among the sparse spurts of vegetation in the dust were small blockhouses. "Underground," I said. "They live underground."

"Who?" Nyssa and Tegan inquired as one.

"Whoever needs our help." I strode ahead to the nearest blockhouse, a few yards away. "Wait here."

The door creaked as it opened. There was light inside.

"Ah," I said, waving my friends into the blockhouse. "They don't want to live in the dark. I thought it probably wasn't the atmosphere, although its being fine for us doesn't make it fine for anyone else." There was barely room for the three of us unless one stood on the trap door with the silver metal handle. We stood clear as best we could as I knelt and tugged at the handle. It was stuck. No one had been in or out this way for a long time. "Maybe one of the other entrances has more use." None of us was eager for another trek, especially more than breathing distance from the TARDIS, so I tugged again, and then tried wiggling the handle. It came off in my hand. I sighed. "Let's try the next one over. It's not all that far." We reluctantly left the lighted structure and trudged a few yards in the darkness to the next blockhouse.

This one was effectively sealed off by virtue of having no door handle into the little building. Off we repaired, several more yards away from the TARDIS.

"Third time lucky!" exclaimed Tegan, triumphantly, when we entered the next blockhouse and she easily lifted the trap door. She stepped aside, though, for me to go down first. This I did, and was gratified to find the stairway on which I found myself as well lit as its protective structure. Tegan followed me and Nyssa followed us; I am sure were were all thinking about a quite different stairway, and unconsciously bracing ourselves for a long haul, but this one consisted of no more than a flight and a half and emptied out into what appeared to be a shabby banquet hall or grand lunchroom, in full use by a couple dozen humans… or humanoids… or androids. I could not tell which and it didn't matter. They looked up from their meals and smiled or gazed curiously at us.

"Hello," I smiled. "I'm the Doctor. This is Tegan and this is Nyssa. Did someone here call for help?"

A woman stood up and bowed, then came quickly to my side, took my elbow and led me to one of the four long tables at which most of the rest were seated; some were carrying food to those tables or empty dishes from them. I motioned for Nyssa and Tegan to follow and we all sat where the woman bade us sit: on a long damask-upholstered bench at one of the gleaming wooden tables. Two young men brought us plates heaped with food that smelled wonderful despite not resembling anything we, or at least I, had ever seen before. My friends looked hesitant to partake of these delicacies, but after I took a bite they tucked in.

As we ate, a particularly dark-skinned man with particularly light blond hair, close-cropped above a particularly high brow, sat down between me and Nyssa and for about 20 seconds just stared intently at me. Then he calmly said, "We have been waiting for you for six years."

That took me aback. "How? We only got your signal, what, three days ago? Six?" I raised an eyebrow at Nyssa, who shrugged, and Tegan, who shook her head. "We came as soon as we could!" Then I realized that I didn't know the date on this planet, or for that matter during our visit to Philt. I also didn't know how "Soon" was irrelevant. "May I ask your name?"

"Egg Collector."

"Egg Collector? Sorry about our timing. Now that we are here, do you still need our help? Are we too late? What can we do for you?"

"We received and relayed a distress call six years ago. We heard it at regular intervals and then it stopped." Egg Collector stood up, so we did too. "We did preserve it. Would you like to hear it?"

"No!" shrieked my friends.

"Of course," I said, simultaneously. Egg Collector looked confused. "That's a yes."

Following Egg Collector, I tried to calm Nyssa and Tegan by explaining that the signal was extremely unlikely to be streamed through us. "We'll just see the blips and hear the sounds on some kind of equipment. It will be fine. Don't worry." To Egg Collector I said, "Are all the underground units the same?"

"In basic design, yes," he said, leading us through rooms that led one to the other, like train cars, rather than needing a connecting hallway. Several rooms were obviously bedrooms, others were nurseries or playrooms, and we saw two hydroponic gardens. After passing through an office, we ended up in another office, staring at a curious tangle of electronic equipment that apparently functioned as a transceiver, for Egg Collector was already revving it up. "This," he said, We bent over a screen embedded in a dusty counter to watch the visuals as the message played out loud. It was, of course, nothing like what we had experienced on Philt. It was just beeps and boops. Egg Collector translated for us: "Help."

"Can you tell where it's from?" I asked.

"Earth," said Egg Collector, as if he knew the place. "Would you like the coordinates?" I nodded. "Forty north, seventy-five point one west."

"That's Philadelphia!" I exclaimed.

Tegan demanded, "How in the world do you know that?"

"I may have a lousy sense of direction," I explained, "but I have been to Philadelphia." I sighed. "But when is this signal? From when?"

Egg Collector shook his head. "Six years ago for us. For Earth, who knows?"

"The TARDIS will know," asserted Nyssa. "We should go back."