The flowers were in full bloom, their scents wafted pleasantly around
the gardens. A bumblebee happily buzzed from bush, to flower, and to tree. It
was a peaceful and idyllic scene. As it flew, its tiny wings beating in such a
way that would always baffle and infuriate earth scientists; the bumblebee
alighted for a moment. It landed on a tall blue box that was hidden in the
shade of an Oak tree. Outside this strange edifice, cooling in its shade were
two rather worn deck chairs. On these, stretched out, were two figures. The
elder of the two was a rather distinguished old gentleman with flowing silver
locks. He wore checked trousers and a frock coat. On his head was a rather
yellowing Panama hat. His clothes had a vaguely Victorian air. Beside him was
his travelling companion Dodo.
The Doctor was deep in sleep and snoring loudly. Dodo looked at him,
picked up a stick that was lying beside her chair and gave him a nudge with it.
He stirred for a moment and then went back to sleep. This time, at least, he
had stopped snoring. Dodo turned away from him and went back to her own
napping.
The Man, as if by magic, appeared out of nowhere. He wore a very well tailored grey suit, and had perfectly prepared hair.
The only thing strange about his appearance was his bright silver waistcoat
that glittered in the sunlight. As he got his bearings, his keen eyes scanned
his new surroundings. There was nothing of interest to be seen. That is until
he saw the TARDIS. He moved towards it and felt its surface. The tremor of
latent power travelled through his fingers. He stepped back slightly amazed at
the purity of the power and said to himself, ‘At last I've found
exactly what I need.’
In his sleep the Doctor stirred uneasily as the TARDIS tried to alert him to something.
The strange man rubbed his hands together and concentrated as an eerie
glow enveloped him. He shuddered for a moment, and then relaxed. With his arms
extended in front of him, he advanced towards the TARDIS. As his hands touched
it, there was a crackle of static and a release of ozone. He walked forwards
and his entire body sank through the Police Box exterior of the TARDIS.
At the very same moment, the sleeping figure of the Doctor shot rapidly
back into full consciousness. He sat bolt upright in his chair; sweat trickling
from under his Panama hat. He took a hanky from his pocket and mopped his
furrowed brow. He looked around to the TARDIS. He noticed that the beacon on
top was flashing red. 'Oh dear, I do believe that I may have a bit of a
problem!'
The Intruder was definitely in a bit of trouble. He had expected to
penetrate the interior of the time vessel but instead he found himself trapped
in the dimensional limbo between the inner and outer plasmic shells of the
TARDIS. He found he could not penetrate any further. This was because as soon as
the TARDIS had detected the outer shell breach, it had raised the interior
defence shields. As he floated about he reasoned that he would need to build a
bridge. The only thing wrong with that, was that it could take him quite some
time to construct one. He only hoped that the owner of the craft didn't
discover him before he breached the inner plasmic shell. He put his hands to
his temple,
closed his eyes and sank into a very deep thought. What he really needed was to find any tiny chink in
the shell's defences. It wouldn't have to be very large.
The doors to the console room opened and the Doctor walked in. He
crossed to the console and closed the doors behind him. As he looked around his eyes fell on the fault locator. It was flashing
angrily at him. He walked towards it and made a note of the digital code on it's read out. He turned from
the machine and then made his way to the far corner of the console room.
There stood an ancient bureau, and near to that was
an ornate Ormolu
Clock. He paused to set the correct time on the clock's bezel and then
opened
the slide top of the bureau. After a moment of searching he had found
what he was looking for - The TARDIS flight manual. If only all of
his past travelling companions knew of it's existence, and of the vital
information it contained. The Doctor thought about this, and a wicked
smile
spread across his face. He blew the dust off its cover, opened the book
and leafed through it until he found the section on “Error” and “Fault Reports”. The former smile melted from his aged face.
‘Mmm, an outer plasmic shell breach, I'll have to look
into this carefully.’ and
he moved towards the interior door of
the console room. As he opened it a thought suddenly struck him. He turned around and moved back
over to the console. He reached over, and flicked the switch on the outer lock isolation system. Dodo now could
not gain access to the TARDIS. ‘She would be a lot safer outside in the warmth of the
garden.’
he thought and then, without a moments delay, exited the console room
and headed towards the laboratory.
~~~
The
TARDIS’ intruder floated about, still deep in concentration. As he
thought on, he could see the inner shell of the TARDIS in front of
him, and
as he looked closely he thought he could see the chink in
the shell's armour. His hand reached towards it, and as his fingers
touched
there was a shimmering in its fabric. With a bright flash, a portion of
the TARDIS components became exposed. He was most pleased
with his skills as a technician and smiled to himself. He reached into
his pocket and removed a small, shiny, silver bead, which sat in the
palm of his hand. He covered it with his other hand and a dull red glow
enveloped his clasped hands, which was combined with a high-pitched
whine.
A short time passed and
he eventually opened his hands and
looked again at his palm. In the place of the bead there was now a small silver
spider. He looked closely
at the creature in his hand and said, ‘You know what to find, my little friend. Go out and eat any silver
components you can find.’
He paused, ‘Be careful. Don't
take anything vital. Without this vessel, I cannot complete my task. Now go
and be fruitful.’ After completing his little speech, he touched
the circuitry with his finger. The little spider ran along it and was absorbed into
the TARDIS. At the moment it totally disappeared, a ripple was sent through the fabric of
the plasmic shell to the interior of the vessel.
~~~
The first thing the Doctor did when he reached the
Laboratory, apart
from puff and wheeze, was to make himself a nice cup of tea. He always
found
the Tannic acid it contained helped relax his ancient body. He sipped on
his
cup of tea, as his eyes spied the comfy sofa. It seemed out of place in
the hi-tech
lab
however, he decided that he needed to get his breath back and promptly
stretched himself out on it. He
placed his cup of tea on the lab floor beside the sofa, and as he did so
the whole interior of the room suddenly rippled in a most
improbable manner
and the contents of his cup were spilt. Suddenly, all hell seemed
to brake loose amongst the computers in the
lab; warning lights flashed rapidly on the science computer and as
suddenly as
it had started, all activity quickly ceased, and for a
while there was silence.
Boom!
Boom! Boom! The ominous sound of the cloister bell shattered the
silence
and the Doctor rose quickly from the sofa, he crossed to
the science computer
and looked at it. On it's screen flashed a message which it also spoke:
++INNER PLASMIC SHELL INSTABILITY…TOLERANCES BEYOND AUTO REPAIR…PILOT MANUAL OVERRIDE NEEDED…WARNING…WARNING...SHELL COLLAPSE IN FIVE MINUTES++
++INNER PLASMIC SHELL INSTABILITY…TOLERANCES BEYOND AUTO REPAIR…PILOT MANUAL OVERRIDE NEEDED…WARNING…WARNING...SHELL COLLAPSE IN FIVE MINUTES++
The Doctor looked away from the computer, ‘You just
cannot trust a computer to make a serious decision for you.
It's just as well really. I have never trusted them fully.’ He mumbled
and as he listened, he realised that the TARDIS was back to it's usual
self.
That was strange he thought, although the ship was back to normal, he
could still
hear the cloister bell in his head. The telepathic circuits were still
reminding him too
that the TARDIS was still in danger. He only had four
minutes left, so he would have to make his way quickly to the drive
room.
~~~
Dodo
awoke from her sleep, yawned and looked around her. The Doctor was
nowhere to
be seen. ‘I know,’ she thought, ‘he must have popped back inside for
some refreshment.’ She got up from her deck chair and approached the
doors of the TARDIS.
To her amazement the doors were locked. Dodo fumbled about in her khaki
shorts
and removed her copy of the TARDIS key, inserted it into the
lock and
with a twist of her hand she turned it.
“Click”
~~~
In and out of TARDIS components the little spider ran. Occasionally it
stopped to eat all traces of silver it could find. During this time it had only
made one mistake. Its sharp little teeth had nibbled away at a portion of the
plasmic shell stabilizer. It wasn't worried about the damage because the pilot
of the vessel would be able to restore it manually. It hoped.
~~~
The doors of the drive room burst open, and the Doctor skidded to a halt
in front of the drive computer. He was, as after any exertion, wheezing like an
asthmatic pit pony. The sound of the cloister bell was still ringing in his
mind. He steadied himself for a moment to regain his usual composure. Inside his
head the telepathic circuits told him that he had under a minute
to activate the manual override, but first he would have to find the
switch. He looked eagerly around for it, mumbled to himself, ‘Where on earth is the wretched thing?’ The Doctor looked around
again and then finally he
located the switch. He brushed the dust off it, and pressed the activator.
“Click”
The sound of the bell in his head ceased. He went from the switch to the
drive computer,
looked at it and spoke; ‘Please may I have a
status report on Inner Plasmic shell, if you will.’
The computer considered this and replied:
++SHELL IS NOW STABILIZED...FURTHER SCANS REVEAL UNIDENTIFIED LIFE-FORM++
++SHELL IS NOW STABILIZED...FURTHER SCANS REVEAL UNIDENTIFIED LIFE-FORM++
The Doctor heard this with interest and headed towards the door and as he went through it said, ‘An unidentified
life-form, eh. How dare it hitch a lift. I'll have to find a way of dealing with it.’
The Doctor left the drive room heading back towards the
console room. He needed
to let his body relax, as he really needed to rest. As he walked through the corridors he came upon the TARDIS cinema
and decided to stop for a while and peruse what cinematic
treats it had to offer
while he had a much needed rest.
As he entered the cinema he remembered that, with his granddaughter Susan he
had (when he first “borrowed” the TARDIS), started a collection of classic films from throughout Earth's history. He studied a play list
and found that he could stay and watch “A Clockwork Orange” or “The Exorcist (Uncut)”
amongst others. This small ship's cinema was the only place where he
could see both these films on the silver screen and see
them in their entirety. ‘What a good thing
that the petty attitude of repressionist censors had not pervaded the
minds of
the management here.’
he thought and sat down in one of the plush red
velvet seats. Another good thing, he thought, about the TARDIS cinema
was the
fact that there wasn't a lot of poor, underpaid staff being forced by
the
management to sell you horrible food at unreal prices. The Doctor also
remembered from his last visit to the cinema that his
luxury seats and air conditioning did not give you chronic back pain and
saved you from having to go to a sauna after your visit.
He chuckled to
himself as he remembered Susan telling him how much she hated the commercial “Multiplexes” which were run by big companies
who drove the little independents to the wall. To these big companies profit
was the only reason for existence. The Doctor closed his
eyes, he
could hear her voice for a moment.
‘Enough of this reminiscing, I have got some
business to attend to!’ he
said out loud and he rose from his seat and left the cinema. At the
door he paused to look at the silver screen. As he looked, he could see
that
there seemed to be portions of the screen that had been eaten away.
‘Mmm, it appears I'll have to return with the insect spray!’ He shut the
door with a swift movement. A moment after, a silver spider
shuffled from the shadows. It found an open access port and disappeared
into
it.
~~~