Doctor Who: The Edge of Destruction (11 page)

‘Exactly!’ said the Doctor. ‘The TARDIS is ultimately unable to resist the overwhelming forces of that explosion; but it has stalled itself in the void, trying to delay for as long as possible that fatal moment when it must be finally and irrevocably destroyed!’

The affirming clang which echoed throughout the room now was almost deafening. The floor beneath their feet shuddered violently, sending the four companions staggering off in all directions.

‘I know now,’ cried the Doctor, as he leant against the safe part of the control console for support, ‘I know!’ He turned everyone’s gaze towards the scanner screen: the final sequence was repeating itself over and over again.

‘I said it would take at the very least the force of an entire solar system to attract the power away from my Ship. And that is exactly what is happening! We have arrived at the very beginning of all things!

‘Outside the Ship, hydrogen atoms are rushing towards each other, fusing, coalescing, until minute little collections of matter are created. And so the process will go on and on for millions of years until dust is formed. The dust then will eventually become solid entity—the birth of new suns and new planets. The mightiest force in the history of creation beyond which the TARDIS cannot pass!’

‘You don’t mean the Big Bang?’ asked Barbara incredulously.

‘No,’ said the Doctor. ‘I doubt whether even my machine would be capable of withstanding as well as it has done the forces generated by the creation of the entire Universe; but the creation of a galaxy—of your galaxy—of the Milky Way!’

‘But, Doctor, how did we get here?’ asked Jan. ‘When we left the planet Skaro where did you ask the TARDIS to take us?’ The Doctor hesitated. ‘Think, Doctor, think!’ he urged.

The Doctor paused for a moment. ‘I had hoped to reach your planet Earth in the twentieth-century; the old man said. ‘Skaro was in the future and so I used the Fast Return switch.’

‘The Fast Return switch?
What’s that?’

‘It’s a means whereby the TARDIS is supposed to retrace its previous journeys.’

‘What do you mean “supposed to”?’ asked Barbara.

‘Exactly what I say, young lady,’ snapped the Doctor. ‘I’ve never used it before!’

‘Don’t you see, Doctor, you’ve sent us back too far! We’ve gone back past the Earth of 1963, we’ve even gone on back past prehistoric times!’ Ian seized the old man by the shoulders. ‘Doctor, show me that switch! Where is it?’

The Doctor peered down at the control console. ‘I can’t very well see it in this light,’ he flustered. ‘It’s near the scanner switch,’ volunteered Susan. ‘Of course!’ said Barbara. ‘The one part of the control console that the TARDIS kept safe for us! Only we were too stupid to realise!’

‘Doctor, hurry—we can’t have much time left!’ Ian reminded him.

‘There! That’s the one, said the Doctor and pointed down to a small, square-shaped button on one of the keyboards of the control panel.

‘So how does it work?’ Ian asked urgently.

‘You merely press it down and—’ The Doctor caught his breath as he examined the switch. ‘It’s stuck! I pressed it down and it hasn’t released itself !’

‘You mean it’s been on all this time?’

‘Yes, it must have been.’

‘Well, don’t just stand there! Get it unstuck!’

From out of his pockets the Doctor took a small screwdriver. Frantically he began to unscrew the panel which contained the keyboard. Around him Ian, Barbara and Susan watched with anxious eyes, holding their breath as the Doctor’s aged fingers fumbled with the screwdriver.

Finally the Doctor lifted up the panel and poked around in the interior workings of the mechanism. He jerked quickly with the screwdriver at the jammed button and with the most anxiously awaited
click!
in history, the control released itself.

Like an old, forgotten friend the lights returned to the TARDIS control chamber, dispelling instantly the black shadows and illuminating the drawn and weary faces of the four exhausted time-travellers. The TARDIS hummed almost joyously into life again, and in the centre of the control console the time rotor resumed its stately rise and fall.

Close to collapse, Barbara threw herself gratefully into a chair and Ian clasped her hand firmly in support. By the console Susan hugged her grandfather and finally let flow the tears she had held back for so long.

Released from their terrible nightmare at last everyone breathed a heartfelt sigh of relief.

For a long time no one said a word.

It was Susan who finally broke the silence. ‘Are you sure we’re safe now, Grandfather?’ she asked.

The Doctor smiled affectionately down at her. ‘Yes, we can all relax now. But I must say that it was a very narrow escape, a very narrow escape indeed. We’ve all been very lucky.’

‘So what happened?’

The Doctor explained to her the reason for the TARDIS’s disability.

Susan was puzzled. ‘But why didn’t the Fault Locator tell us what the problem was?’

‘Elementary, my child,’ said the Doctor. ‘The Fault Locator is designed to identify faults in the TARDIS’s machinery; the smallest imaginable thing can go wrong with my Ship and the Fault Locator will identify it. But the Fast Return switch wasn’t broken—it was merely stuck! That’s why the Fault Locator couldn’t register it. It’s as simple as that!

‘You know, I should have thought of that myself at the very beginning. I think your old grandfather is going a tiny bit round the bend!’ The Doctor chuckled and then his face turned serious. He hugged Susan even tighter. ‘And I think you were very brave, Susan. I was proud of you.’

Susan smiled gratefully at the Doctor. ‘But what about all these warnings we had?’ she asked. ‘The lights, the control panels... was it really the TARDIS warning us? Can it really think and act for itself?’

The Doctor smiled and then sighed once more. ‘I truly don’t know, my child. But as we travel on our journeys I feel I am learning more and more about my machine. There were times on our travels, I don’t mind admitting to you now, when I felt that we were never quite alone...’

Susan smiled and then directed her grandfather’s attention to Ian and Barbara who were at the other end of the room. Barbara was sitting in the chair, her arms folded and her face set hard. Ian was talking softly to her.

‘Grandfather, what about them?’
Susan asked in a whisper. ‘What about Ian and Barbara?’

‘What about them?’ asked the Doctor diffidently.

‘You said some terrible things about them,’ continued Susan. ‘When I thought Ian was going to attack you even I was against him... But we misjudged them. All through this terrible thing all they’ve wanted to do was help us... Don’t you think you really ought to apologise to them?’

The Doctor’s eyes flashed with anger for a moment at the very idea; apologies were only for people who had been proved wrong, and the Doctor was never wrong. But his granddaughter reminded him of the manner in which he had treated his two human companions and the debt he owed to both of them—especially Barbara. And then he flushed as he realised that he had indeed been proven wrong.

‘Please, Grandfather, make it up to them,’ she urged once more. ‘It’s not so much to ask for, is it? And we’ve all got to live together after all...’

The Doctor scratched his chin thoughtfully and then to Susan’s delight wandered over to the two schoolteachers. He tried—unsuccessfully—to affect an air of nonchalance.

‘Well... I... er... er...’ he began.

Ian turned to him and smiled. He raised a hand to stem the Doctor’s awkward words. ‘Don’t bother to say a thing, Doctor,’ he said magnanimously. ‘You know, there are times when I can read every thought on your face...’

The Doctor turned an even brighter shade of red.

‘Er. yes. well, thank you, Chesterton. I always did think you were a man without any recrimination in you.’ The Doctor ventured a comradely pat on the younger man’s back. To his surprise, he discovered that it wasn’t hard to do at all, and the young man returned it.

You see, Grandfather,
thought Susan and smiled,
it isn’t to difficult after all.

The Doctor turned his attention to Barbara. She was still sitting in the chair, staring thoughtfully into space. Her ordeal had held back her tears but now it was over they were beginning to form at the corners of her eyes. Ian and Susan tactfully drew away as the old man approached Barbara.

‘I... er, I feel I owe you an apology, Miss Wright.’ the Doctor began falteringly.

Barbara arched an eyebrow in interest and surprise as the Doctor continued: ‘You were absolutely right all along—and it was me who was wrong, I freely admit it. It was your instinct against my logic and you triumphed. The blackouts, the still pictures, and the clock—you read a story into them and you were determined to hold to it... Miss Wright, we owe you our lives.’

Barbara regarded the Doctor. The look in her eyes told him that his apology wasn’t enough. ‘You said some terrible things to me and Ian,’ she reminded him.

The Doctor lowered his head in agreement. ‘Yes, and I unreservedly apologise for them. I suppose it’s the injustice. When I made that threat to put you off the Ship, it must have affected you deeply.’

Barbara laughed ironically. ‘What do you care what I think or feel?’

‘As we learn about each other on our travels so we learn about ourselves.’

‘Perhaps.’

‘No, certainly,’ insisted the Doctor softly. ‘Because I accused you injustly you were determined to prove me wrong. You put your mind to the problem and you solved it... As you said before, we are together now whether we like it or not. Susan and I need you and Chesterton, just as much as you need us. We may have originally been unwilling fellow travellers but I hope that from now on we may be something more to each other. There is a boundless universe out there beyond your wildest dreams, Miss Wright, a thousand lives to lead, and a myriad worlds of unimaginable wonders to explore. Let us explore them together not in anger and resentment, but in friendship.’ He looked expectantly at her and offered her his hand. ‘Miss Wright?... Barbara?’

To his delight, Barbara smiled and shook his hand. Watching from a distance, Ian and Susan winked happily at each other.

Conclusion

Yawning, Barbara walked into the control room to find the Doctor scanning the read-outs and graphic displays on the control console. In the centre of the console the time rotor was slowly falling to a welcome halt. The deafening crescendo of dematerialisation began to fill the control chamber.

Swiftly, the Doctor’s hands flickered over the controls as he brought the time-machine into a safe landing. He examined the atmospheric readings which were displayed on one of the control boards.

‘A perfect landing,’ he said as he became aware of Barbara’s presence. ‘How did you sleep, my dear?’

‘Like a log,’ smiled Barbara.

‘Quite understandable too after your ordeal.’

‘So what’s it like outside, Doctor?’ she asked.

‘Normal Earth gravity and the air is remarkably unpolluted,’ the Doctor replied, ‘although it is a trifle chilly. I suggest you go off and find yourself a warm coat—we must look after you, you know.’

Barbara nodded and went off in the direction of the TARDIS’s extensive wardrobe.

‘So where are we then, Doctor?’ asked Ian who had just walked into the control room with Susan after having breakfast.

The Doctor looked shocked. ‘Goodness gracious, you surely don’t expect me to know that, do you:’

Ian burst into a fit of uncontrollable giggles.

‘My dear boy, what on Earth are you laughing at?’ spluttered the Doctor. ‘Really there are times when I find it quite impossible to understand either you or your companion!’

He smiled and, to his surprise, found that Ian smiled back. As Barbara came back, wearing a long overcoat, and loaded with warm clothing for all of them, he operated the door controls. The double doors buzzed slowly open.

A brisk refreshing wind rushed into the control room. Beyond the double doors the four companions could see an infinite expanse of snow and white-capped mountains set against a breathtakingly blue sky. It was one of the most awe-inspiring and beautiful sights any of them had ever seen.

‘Well, shall we go out?’ the Doctor asked his friends. Barbara smiled and took the Doctor’s outstretched arm. Susan and Ian followed.

Looking out over the mountains, Barbara had to agree that the Doctor had been right—there were indeed a myriad wonderful sights to see in the wide Universe.

If they were truthful with themselves, Ian and Barbara had to admit that they were finally beginning to enjoy their travels with the Doctor in the TARDIS. Smiling to each other, they recalled that far-away foggy November night.

It had all started in a junkyard. Who could say where it would end?