Doctor Who: Target - Novelisations [082] - Mawdryn Undead by Peter Grimwade

Author:Peter Grimwade
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science-Fiction - Doctor Who
ISBN: 9780426193937
Publisher: Target Books
Published: 1983-02-14T23:00:00+00:00

5

Return to the Ship

It was one of the hottest days of 1983 and the Brigadier was sorely in need of a rest. But the Doctor urged him faster and faster up the hill to the obelisk.

‘Don’t you see, Brigadier? The TARDIS came to Earth in 1977, and so did the transmat capsule, carrying someone – or something – from the ship in space.’

‘And Tegan and the other girl think – or thought – that it was you?’

The Doctor was losing patience. After all, the man had been in contact with Tegan and Nyssa in 1977 when the alien arrived on the first visit to Earth of the transmat capsule. ‘You were there, Brigadier!’ He spoke as calmly as he could. ‘You tell me!’

The Brigadier recoiled, like a child presented with the dentist’s drill. ‘No, Doctor! Please don’t make me remember!’

‘You must! I need to know what happened so I can protect Tegan and Nyssa!’

The Brigadier knew he had failed his old colleague.

‘Even if I wanted to I couldn’t recall any more.’ He wished he could explain the impenetrable barrier that walled off part of his mind.

The Doctor put a friendly arm on his shoulder. ‘We could have reached the cause of your nervous breakdown.’

‘Good heavens! Do you think so?’

The Doctor was thinking that an experience which had been traumatic enough to give Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart a nervous breakdown must have been terrible indeed. ‘Come on! We’ve got to get to the capsule before Turlough works out how to operate it. It’s the only way I can contact the TARDIS!’

It was beyond the Brigadier’s comprehension how a boy from the sixth form could understand the mechanism of a transmat capsule (whatever that might be). But, what was more to the point, neither did he know how he was going to make it to the top of the hill without collapsing in an undignified heap. He struggled to keep up with the Doctor.

The Doctor could already see Turlough kneeling beside the transmitter. They were just in time. He increased the pace, leaving the asthmatic Brigadier behind him.

Turlough had been relieved to discover that the transmitter was not as badly damaged as he had feared. It would be quite possible to cross-patch one or two back-up circuits, substitute components from the camouflage function for those damaged in the location transmission section and…

‘Where did you learn about transmat radiology?’

Turlough had been too engrossed to notice the approach of the Doctor who now stood behind him. He spun guiltily round. But the Doctor was already opening his tool-box from which he selected several pieces of equipment.

The Doctor explained how the police box had materialised in the wrong time-zone as he started work on the broken cylinder. Turlough was amazed that anyone should have such an intuitive understanding of the complex microcircuitry and was fascinated by the Doctor’s modifications. Of course, he was trying to contact his TARDIS which was within a few yards of where they were standing, but six years in the past. Surely, contact was impossible? And yet…

Neither Turlough nor the Doctor noticed a panting Brigadier beside them.

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