The Intruder considered this, and said, ‘Very well, Doctor. I'll tell you all the information you need to know. I have to rescue two valued colleagues of mine. I need your vessel because it has the ability to cross the barriers that imprison my friends. If I don't get them out they will be trapped there forever.
The Doctor considered this, ‘I don't suppose it crossed your mind to simply ask for my help, young man. No? Instead you try to waylay my ship, and carry on regardless of the consequences.’ He snapped. At that moment, Dodo chipped into the conversation. She had just returned to the console room because she had heard voices.
‘Will you two please stop bickering. I've heard most of the conversation, and Doctor, are you going to help him or not?’
The Doctor gave her a stern look, with which he could have melted icebergs, ‘If you'd please refrain from butting in like some ill mannered horse. I was just about to make a decision, my child!’ Dodo remained silent, and looked a little ashamed. The Doctor left the console room, Dodo following close behind. He had decided to let the Intruder stew for a while.
Time passed. The spider scuttled across its owner’s shoulder and then whispered into his ear. He considered what it said, and looked at the spider,’Yes, you could be right, maybe it would have been better to have just asked the Doctor for his help in the first place.’ He said, the spider looked at him in an “I told you so,” sort of way. The Intruder considered the spider's look, and said, ‘It looks as if I'll just have to wait for the Doctor's answer.
The Doctor's footsteps echoed down the corridor towards the console room. They stopped outside, the doors to the console room opened and he stepped through them, and crossed to the console. He checked that the co-ordinates that had been earlier laid into the co-ordinate sub-system, were still there. Luckily they still were. He gripped his lapels once more, and turned from the console. His attention was now focused on the containment field and it's unhappy resident, who floated aimlessly in it's interior. He stared deeply into the Intruders eyes and said, ‘Very well. I have considered what you have said to me, and I have decided to help you in your quest.’ The grey suited man looked at him and smiled the broadest of smiles. The Doctor returned the console and deactivated the containment field, and as he did so the Intruder was released from its centre.
Outside the compression zone of the field, and now free, he soon returned to normal size. He looked at the Doctor and said solemnly, ‘Thank you.’
The Doctor replied, ‘I hope sir, that you do not give me any reason to regret my actions!’ He paused, and continued, ‘I will leave you the honour of starting our journey.’ The Intruder went to the console, and then engaged the main drive. The central column began its rhythmic rise and fall; it also pulsed with raw power. The Intruder turned from the console, ‘Well Doctor, at last we are on our way.’ He said as the noise of dematerialisation filled the room.
Outside, the sound of the TARDIS leaving filled the now shadowy garden. As it faded away into the vortex, the only proof left of its presence was an area of grass, yellowed and compressed into a large square. There were also two old deck chairs. Still they might be of use to whoever stumbled across them.
~~~
The cafe still stood suspended in space with the couple still sat inside. They had managed to generate a field of stasis around them but had soon discovered that as well as the physical barrier; there was also a time and energy-draining field. If not kept in check, it would drain the life force from the couple. The creator of the cafe had decided that mere imprisonment was not enough; he had decided that the couple would be slowly destroyed. This was the price they had to pay for being so good in their particular area of expertise. There was, as on Earth, always a price to pay for success.
Darkness was all around. A hand fumbled for the light switch on a bedside lamp.”Click” and then there was light. Dodo's hands rubbed her startled eyes. She was resting on the deluxe four-poster bed in her quarters. She closed her eyes again as her thoughts wandered to the Doctor's promise of a forthcoming visit to London. Maybe she would go home at last. After a moment another thought struck her, and she sat up in bed. The Doctor had always said the directional systems were faulty, but then how could the Intruder get to his destination? She got off the bed and decided to bring this little inconsistency to the notice of the Doctor. She left her room, closed the door and turned the key in the ancient mortise lock, and then pocketed the key, turned and walked off down the corridor. Before she had a little chat with the Doctor, she was going to pay a visit to the TARDIS library.
Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor and the silver suited Intruder looked at the view of the starfield and the cafe on the scanner screen. The Intruder commented to the Doctor, ‘It's a strange sight, isn't it?’
‘I assume that any passing vessel cannot see this spectacle?’
‘Yes. We are, at the moment, in the centre of a reflection zone. Any sensor scans just bounce back at the vessel.’
The Doctor adjusted the scanner focus control. The image became sharper, as he peered at it. ‘There doesn't seem to be a door.’ He then continued, ‘I think we are going to have a little problem getting into the cafe, my friend.’ The Intruder looked at the Doctor and nodded. ‘In that case, I think that I should inform Dodo of our current situation.’ He said and bid the Intruder farewell, leaving the console room in search of Dodo.
The couple in the cafe stirred within their self-generated stasis field. They could sense another of their kind near to them. Their minds tried to reach the newcomer, but the shield around the cafe prevented them from achieving contact. At last the help they required had arrived. All they had to do was wait.
The TARDIS library was housed in a vast cathedral like vault, or so it would appear to the casual observer. Dodo wandered up and down its dusty aisles. It appeared that no one had been here for quite a while. Her footprints trailed behind her on the dusty floor and the sound of each footfall echoed around the walls. Dodo was searching for any information on flight systems; she even hoped to find the TARDIS flight manual, if such a thing existed. She stopped and sighed, then said to herself, ‘It would be a lot easier to find some kind of index.’
As she said it, an old desk appeared in front of her. In front of the desk was a cracked leather chair, and on the desk was an old ledger. On the ledger's dusty cover were the words: LIBRARY INDEX. Dodo sat in the chair and opened the ledger. As she did so, the whole fabric of the library changed. It was no longer an ancient dusty vault filled with ancient books, it had now become an ultra modern computer complex. The chair she sat on was also changed into a modern swivel chair, and there was no longer a dusty ledger on an ancient desk. They had been transformed into a stainless steel desk and a top of the range computer. It would seem that the library's previous incarnation was not functional; it was just for the Doctor to impress his companions with. It was to confuse them more like, thought Dodo.
From her seat she rubbed her eyes, and then pinched herself to prove she wasn't still asleep in her room. ‘OUCH!’ Apparently she wasn't asleep. Now convinced of that fact, Dodo looked at the computer keyboard in front of her. She found the index key and pressed it, and then she selected the key for what she was looking for. The computer displayed the information, and spoke the words upon the screen:
++FLIGHT SYSTEMS: INFORMATION SECURITY CODED++
Dodo looked puzzled and asked, ‘Who security coded it?’ The computer was silent for a while. Then it replied:
++THAT INFORMATION IS ALSO SECURITY CODED…I WILL REQUIRE CORRECT CODE FOR ACCESS++
On hearing this Dodo reached over and hit the computers off switch as she did that, the ancient surroundings that had greeted her on arriving returned to view. Then having got up from her chair she left the library, deciding to head back to her room.
“Crackle”
A spark ran through the structure of the cafe. Its very fabric shuddered as a spark of power coursed through it. The spark ran through to the cafe's rudimentary nervous system. Apparently it had just noticed the arrival of the TARDIS, and for a moment it's cafe like appearance melted away to be replaced by a large glutinous living mass. As it pulsed, dark brown veins could be seen through it's transparent pinky mass. The pulsing stopped for a moment, and then the pinky mass reformed itself into the shape of the quaint little cafe once more. This time it would be ready for any attempt to reach it's occupants.
A warning light flashed on the TARDIS console. It winked away to itself for a while until the Doctor noticed it, and went over to examine it. ‘Ah! It would seem that our friend has finally noticed our presence.’
The TARDIS Intruder looked towards him and questioned, ‘What makes you think so Doctor?’
‘That light always illuminates when the TARDIS has been scanned by a detection beam. I do wish you wouldn't question me so.’ He paused and then continued, ‘It also means that our defence force-field has engaged.’ The Doctor then cocked his head to hear the sound of the defence field in operation. To his irritation, he could hear nothing but the normal hum of the TARDIS.
The Intruder looked at him strangely. ‘What's the matter?’ he asked. The Doctor did not reply. He just clenched his hand into a fist, the Intruder thinking that the Doctor was about to hit him as he raised his arm aloft and brought his fist down sharply on the console, near the winking light. There was then a click and suddenly the familiar hum of the TARDIS was joined by the sound of the active force field generator.
The Doctor looked back at the Intruder, ‘The ships old systems sometime need a little bit of coaxing.’ He paused, ‘Not unlike myself, my boy!’
The Intruder looked puzzled and asked, ‘Where did you learn such a primitive trick?’
The Doctor smiled fondly. ‘An old earth technician taught it to me. The strange thing is that it always seems to work on any equipment, any where in the galaxy!’