Doctor Who: Target - Novelisations [132] - The Edge of Destruction by Nigel Robinson

Author:Nigel Robinson
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science-Fiction - Doctor Who
ISBN: 9780426203278
Publisher: Target Books
Published: 1988-11-14T23:00:00+00:00

6

The End of Time

Susan burst into the control room where the Doctor was about to move to the central control console to operate the scanner.

‘Don’t touch it!’ she cried.

The Doctor stopped and looked at his granddaughter curiously. ‘Are you all right, child?’ he asked.

‘Yes, Grandfather,’ she replied and indicated the control console. ‘I tried to touch it before and it was like being hit…’

‘Hit? Hit where?’

‘The back of my neck hurts,’ she explained.

The Doctor nodded sagely. ‘Rather like mine, in fact…’

Ian and Barbara had entered the control room to hear the final part of this conversation. ‘Funny it didn’t affect me and Barbara like that,’ said Ian.

The Doctor looked at him strangely.

‘No, it didn’t, did it?’ His voice was full of suspicion. He considered the two schoolteachers warily and then beckoned Susan over to his side.

Susan considered her grandfather’s words and then regarded Ian and Barbara through narrowed, suspicious eyes. ‘Yes… Grandfather’s right. Nothing did happen to you, did it…?’

‘What are you implying, Susan?’ asked Barbara sternly. ‘Surely we’ve just gone through all this?’

The girl didn’t reply. Sensing Barbara’s unease, Ian put a reassuring arm around her shoulders.

‘I must discover what is outside the Ship,’ the Doctor determined and, ignoring Susan’s warning, he approached that part of the console which contained the scanner controls. Gingerly he operated a small lever, and jumped back, as though expecting a shock of some kind. Nothing happened.

He looked back at Ian. ‘Well, I didn’t get a shock this time, did I?’ he said meaningfully.

‘What are you trying to say, Doctor?’ asked Ian but before the old man could reply Susan turned their attention to the scanner screen set high in the wall.

The scanner lit up, casting an eerie light around the control room, and an image began to resolve itself on the screen.

The picture was one of a pleasant wooded landscape of oak and birch trees. Beyond them gently rolling hills rose up to a brilliantly blue sky, flecked with wisps of snowy white clouds. Over the audio circuits they could hear the sound of birdsong.

So convincing was the image that Ian and Barbara could almost taste the country freshness in the normally antiseptically clean air of the TARDIS.

‘That’s England!’ Barbara said delightedly, and pointed to the hills in the distance. ‘Look, those are the Malvern Hills! I used to spend my summers there as a child!’

‘Well, what are we waiting for?’ asked Ian, his disagreement with the Doctor suddenly completely forgotten. ‘Open the doors and let’s see for ourselves! I don’t know what’s been going on, Doctor, but it looks as though you’ve brought us home!’

The Doctor considered Ian and Barbara’s eager faces and then turned back to the scanner. The schoolteachers frowned as they sensed his puzzlement.

‘What’s wrong, Doctor?’ Barbara asked, and felt her heart sink.

‘This is all very curious,’ the Doctor muttered and pointed to the picture on the scanner. ‘That can’t be what’s outside the Ship.’

‘What do you mean?’ asked Ian.

‘Use the intelligence you were born with, Chesterton!’ he said irascibly.

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