Doctor Who: The Celestial Toymaker (12 page)

'Of course it is,' said Cyril rudely.
'You're too easy to fool. Now you can just go back to the beginning
and miss a turn for leaving your triangle.' He jumped up in his
stocking feet. 'That makes it my turn again.'

Dodo was outraged. 'Well,' she said.
'Of all the spiteful things.'

'Teach you to think you can beat me in
a game.' He rolled his dice and threw a five. 'A five!' he said. He
quickly counted the spaces to home. 'Look! I've won. I'm the winner!'

In his excitement, Cyril left his shoes
standing where they were. He immediately starting jumping the
triangles back towards the home base and the TARDIS. In his haste, he
forgot the trap he had prepared for the others. His stockinged feet
landed on the slippery part of the triangle. He desperately tried to
keep his balance -his arms flailing, but it was no use. He shot over
the edge of the triangle and landed with a crash on the electrified
floor. There was a shriek, a puff of smoke and then silence.

Immediately all the lights on the
triangles began flashing on and off. The room began to darken.

'What's happened?' asked a frightened
Dodo.

Leaving his triangle, Steven came over
to join her. 'I don't know,' he said. He jumped over to Cyril's last
triangle, slipped but managed to regain his balance. He leant down
and felt the slippery dancehall chalk powder that Cyril had placed on
the triangle.

'Careful, Dodo,' he said. Dodo came up
and carefully eased herself down beside Steven on the triangle.
'Look,' he said. 'It's covered with some kind of slippery powder. He
must have put it on and then forgotten about it in the excitement.
Serves him right. He was caught in his own trap.' He looked over.
Where Cyril had fallen, there was merely a charred doll.

'Come on, Dodo,' said Steven. 'The
game's over now.'

Dodo shook her head. 'No we'd better
play the game to the end. You heard what the Toymaker said. I'm sure
I can throw that four.' She took up the dice and closed her eyes in
concentration.

'Dodo,' said Steven urgently. 'Look at
the tally.'

Dodo glanced over at the robot. The
tally now read 1014.

'The Doctor has nearly finished his
game,' said Steven.

Dodo rolled the dice. It showed a four.
'We've won, Steven!'

'Quickly then, jump!' In a blaze of
flashing lights, the pair jumped over the remaining triangles to
reach home base. As soon as they arrived, the flashing lights stopped and the lighting came back to normal.
They turned towards the TARDIS. Steven put his hand out to the door
and shook it but it was locked.

'Do you suppose it's the real one this
time?' asked Dodo.

Steven listened. 'I think so. Listen,
it hums. The others didn't hum, remember.'

Dodo shook her head. 'It still doesn't
mean it's the TARDIS,' she said. 'After all our hard work.' She lent
despondently against the door. Steven snapped his fingers.

'Of course!' he said. 'The Doctor's
still got the key. He will have to finish his game first to come here
to let us in.'

He turned to look back at the board.
The tally now read 1022.

His game nearly completed, the Doctor
suddenly found himself completely visible again.

He was looking up at the screen, having
watched Steven and Dodo successfully complete their game. 'There,' he
said tapping his lapel. 'I was right.'

The Toymaker, quieter than before, was
sitting opposite him, watching the Doctor, with his snake-like eyes.
'Make the last move, Doctor,' he said.

The Doctor thought for a moment. 'Aha,
no,' he said. 'Not for a moment. I see that Dodo and Steven have
found the TARDIS. The moment they touched it, your childish trick was
broken - I'm visible again. Now you have to let us go.'

'You are indeed visible,' said the
Toymaker. 'And you've done very well. The three of you have won my
little game.'

The Doctor turned and looked at him, a
little caustically. 'I'm so glad you take it so calmly,' he said.
'And now if you'll excuse me, I'd like to make sure the TARDIS is all
right.' The Doctor got up, walked over to the wall, part of which
immediately slid away, and passing through, he found himself in the
game room with Steven and Dodo.

Dodo and Steven had their backs to the
Doctor and were trying to open the door.

'Are you sure the Toymaker couldn't
have made a TARDIS hum like this one?' said Dodo.

'If he could have done that,' said
Steven, 'why didn't he make the other ones hum too.'

'Well done, my boy,' the Doctor's
familiar voice sounded behind them. 'I'm glad you're starting to put
logic into your guesses.' Steven and Dodo whirled around.

'Doctor,' cried Dodo, 'you're safe.' In
tears, she ran over and hugged him. 'You've won your game.'

'Yes, yes,' said the Doctor. 'Well
done, both of you. Well now, it's time to be off. He crossed over,
brought a key out from his pocket and opened the door of the TARDIS.

'I certainly can't wait to leave this
place,' said Steven. 'I hope I don't have to play another game ever!'

The Doctor twinkled back at him. 'I
don't think you'll have to, my boy.'

Abruptly the Toymaker appeared beside
them. 'I hope I do not interrupt your counsel of war,' said the
Toymaker.

'Do not waste our time on trivial
formalities,' said the Doctor. 'You have been defeated. Leave us
alone.'

'Yes,' said Dodo. 'You knew you must
lose in the end.'

The Toymaker laughed at her. 'Oh, but
you're so wrong. Only I can win. If I lose, the Doctor and I go down
together. Isn't that so, Doctor?'

'Go away, you charlatan,' said the
Doctor.

'Ah,' said the Toymaker. 'Go on, young
people, ask your elderly friend if he can win completely.'

Steven turned around to look at the
Doctor. 'Is it true, Doctor? Are we bound to fail?'

The Doctor shook his head. 'No,' he
said. 'He's trying to trick us into despair. Don't listen to him.'

'Tell the truth,' the Toymaker
insisted. 'Go ahead, Doctor. Hide nothing!'

Dodo looked anxious. 'You must tell us
what you know, Doctor. We have a right.'

Finally the Doctor nodded. 'Very well,'
he said. 'I am compelled to tell the truth. Even though we have won,
there is still a chance the Toymaker can drag us down in defeat with
him. Unless ...'

'Unless,' Steven cocked his eyebrows.

'It's a question of timing,' said the
Doctor.

'Oh please, Doctor,' said Dodo. 'Tell
us, do we have a chance to escape?'

'Yes,' said the Doctor. 'We have a
chance but we have to proceed very carefully.'

The Toymaker smiled. 'An impossible
chance,' he said.

Steven broke in angrily. 'As long as we
defeat you, that's all I care about. You can't beat us now.'

The Doctor turned and nodded
approvingly to Steven. 'Well said my boy.'

'Well said?' rejoined the Toymaker.
'Does he know what he's saying? Remember the past: remember my
power.'

That was too much for Steven. Angered
he turned on the Toymaker. 'We won,' he said. 'You just won't
acknowledge it.'

'Well perhaps you'd like to go through
those little adventures again. And -'

Steven lunged forward at the Toymaker.
'Not before I lay my hands on you,' he said. The Toymaker stood quite
still, but Steven, acting as though he was being violently
manhandled, fell back, landing with a smack on the hard floor.

The Doctor helped Steven to his feet.
'It's no use, leave him alone.'

Steven said a little breathlessly, 'I
can't touch him?'

The Doctor shook his head. 'He's using
his mind to turn your own physical energy against yourself.' He waved
the other two into the TARDIS. 'Go on,' he said. 'Inside. I'll deal
with him.'

'I really don't know why you want to
leave here, Doctor.' The Toymaker's tone was most conciliatory now.
'There will always be a toymaker in the world ready to make more and
more inventive machines. That is, until one is made that will destroy
his world. But each time, the world can be recreated and we can have
the fun of building better and better toys. Why not join me, Doctor?'

The Doctor stared at him for a moment.
'I won't join you,' he said, 'because you and your kind are evil. The
toys you make have no use except to amuse yourselves and ultimately
lead to your own destruction. Toys should be left in the nursery
where they belong, not decide the fate of worlds. You have failed.'

He turned, ran into the TARDIS and
slammed the door behind him.

The Toymaker looked after the Doctor
for a moment, his face blank and enigmatic. Then he smiled, laughed
to himself, turned and waved his hand. The trilogic game appeared
before him with two chairs. Taking his time, the Toymaker carefully sat down
in one and rearranged his heavy, jewel-encrusted Mandarin's gown
around him. 'We shall see, old man, we shall see

There was a brief pause, and then, as
the Toymaker had expected, the Doctor slowly emerged from the TARDIS
and came over to him. He was furious.

'What have you done?' said the Doctor.
'How dare you meddle with my machine!'

'It isn't what I have done,' said the
Toymaker. 'It's what you haven't. You must finish the game. You
cannot leave until you've finished it.'

The Doctor crossed to the trilogic game
and looked down at it. 'Your infantile behaviour is beyond a joke,'
he said. He raised his hand to pick up the last piece and then froze,
remembering.

'No,' he said. 'No, I mustn't!' He
pointed at the Toymaker. 'You nearly caught me that time, didn't
you?'

The Toymaker shrugged. 'Make your move,
Doctor,' he said.

The Doctor shook his head. 'If I do so,
then this place vanishes.'

The Toymaker nodded. 'Yes, you will
have really won.'

'If this place vanishes, then the
TARDIS and the rest of us will vanish with it,' said the Doctor.

The Toymaker smiled a self-satisfied
smile. 'Correct. That is the price of success. Make your last move,
Doctor. Make your last move.'

*

Inside the TARDIS, Dodo and Steven were
waiting anxiously for the Doctor. 'What can be keeping him?' said
Steven.

Dodo shook her head. 'Something the
Toymaker has done to the TARDIS. The Doctor has to persuade the
Toymaker to let us go, I think.'

Steven looked crossly at Dodo. 'We won
his games, so we have the right to go. The Doctor said so.'

Dodo shivered. 'Well, as long as I'm
safely inside here, I don't mind so much.'

They turned as the Doctor came in. For
the first time, he was looking worried and a little tired. He crossed
over to the console and started to manipulate certain controls, then
pressed a button. Nothing happened. He shook his head. 'It's no use,'
he said.

'What's happened?' queried Steven.
'What has he done?'

'By beating the Toymaker we shall
destroy this world.' 'What's wrong with that?' said Steven.

'Surely, that's a very good thing. This
is such a sad place,' said Dodo.

'You don't understand,' said the
Doctor. 'As soon as the games are over and won, the Toymaker's whole
world vanishes and, as we are still trapped inside his world, we will
vanish with him. We will become non-matter.'

'But we have won,' Dodo cried. 'It
hasn't happened yet.'

'It will the moment I go out there and
make the final move on the trilogic game.'

'Why doesn't he just let us go?' said
Steven pacing up and down inside the TARDIS. 'He can't
want to be destroyed.'

The Doctor shook his head. 'He won't
be.'

'If everything disappears, then why not
him?' queried Dodo.

'If he loses the game,' said the
Doctor, 'then his world vanishes. He doesn't. And he has the power to
build a new one.'

'How?' said Dodo.

'All toymakers are immortal,' said the
Doctor. 'The urge to create toys that are ultimately destructive is
unfortunately part of our universe. This Toymaker's lasted for
thousands of years. Vey occasionally he loses one of his games, then
he has to pay the price.'

'And that price,' said Steven, 'is the
loss of his world?'

The Doctor nodded. 'But he himself is
not destroyed; he goes on forever.'

'Then we can't leave,' said Steven.

'There must be a way.' The Doctor
turned back to the control panel and turned on the scanner. They
could see the Toymaker sitting beside the trilogic board patiently
waiting for them.

Then, as they watched, he came over
close to the scanner and started touching the TARDIS, admiring it. He
tried the door, found it locked and smiled.

The Doctor turned, and called into the
microphone. 'Will you leave my ship alone!' he said.

'Oh, do let me have it, Doctor,' said
the Toymaker. 'You must admit, we've reached a stalemate now, and it
would be such an amusing toy. You might as well give up and join me.'

'Let me bring the trilogic board inside
here,' said the >Doctor.

The Toymaker thought for a moment, then
smiled. 'You must think me very naive, Doctor. I see your ploy. If
you can make the final move in there, then you can preset your
controls and dematerialise at the same moment as my world vanishes.
Then you'll get away from me.'

'That will make no difference to you,'
said the Doctor. 'You can make a new world.'

'Well, of course I can,' said the
Toymaker. 'And I'm looking forward to that. I was rather tired of
this one. But, I'm such a bad loser, Doctor. I always destroy the
destroyer of my world.'

'I will not come out and make that
move,' said the Doctor firmly.

The Toymaker smiled once more. 'Then
you will stay there forever.'

Steven came to a resolution and walked
up to the Doctor. 'Let me go out,' he said. 'I'll make the last move
for you.'

The Doctor shook his head. 'Nonesense,
my boy. You don't want to disappear.'