Read Online Doctor Who: The Awakening by Eric Pringle - Free Book Online

the seventeenth century, and seventeenth-century youths suddenly appearing in the twentieth century, it was no wonder the Doctor called time ‘confused’. It wasn’t the only one, she reflected. Yet she shuddered at the possibility which the Doctor was suggesting, and tried to find a hole in the argutncnt. ‘What about the man we saw when we arrived?’ she protested. ‘He was real enough.’
    ‘He was still a psychic projection,’ the Doctor insisted.
    ‘But with substance’
    Tegan frowned. Talking of psychic things was getting close to talking about ghosts, and nothing in that line would really surprise her now, after what she had seen.
    Turlough grew more enthusiastic the more he considered the idea. He got up and wandered about, trying to absorb the implications and corning to terms with them.
    He rubbed his hands together and said suddenly, ‘Matter projected from the past? But that would require enormous energy.’
    The Doctor nodded. He had an answer to that one too –
    so simple and so outrageous that it took Tegan’s breath away: ‘An alien power source.’
    In an English country village? Here, at the home of her grandfather? Every instinct Tegan possessed protested against this suggestion – and yet she felt in her heart that it might be correct. The Doctor was usually right about things like that.
    ‘What about Will?’ she asked, in a quieter tone. The Doctor leaned across to peer at the filthy face, torn clothes and battered hands of the peacefully sleeping youth. He smiled. ‘A projection, too. And at the moment, a benign one.’
    Turlough, in his wanderings, had reached the crack in the wall. He stopped in front of it and pointed at the now gaping split. ‘This crack has got larger!’ he announced.
     
    The Doctor had already noticed. ‘Yes,’ he agreed.
    ‘Ominous, isn’t it?’ He turned to Tegan, who was looking dismal, and slapped her shoulder encouragingly. ‘I know,’
    he said, ‘so is the fact that your grandfather has disappeared. I think it’s time I sought some answers.’
    As a first, peculiar step in that direction, he produced a coin and juggled it behind his back, slipping it with great speed from hand to hand. Watched curiously by Tegan, he then held out his two clenched fists in front of him and, with the most intense concentration, weighed one against the other.
    ‘Where will you look?’ Tegan asked.
    Making a sudden decision, the Doctor flipped open the fingers of his left hand. It was empty. He gave a disappointed sigh and opened his right hand. There was the coin, nestling in his palm. The decision was made.
    ‘The village,’ he said.
    ‘You’re always so scientific,’ Tegan responded, in a voice edged with sarcasm.
    Once his mind was made up the Doctor never wasted time, and now he jumped to his feet and tapped the sleeping Will on the shoulder. ‘Come on, Will,’ he said briskly, ‘you’re coming with me.’
    ‘What about us?’ Tegan stood up, ready to go with them.
    The Doctor shook his head. ‘You’ll be safer in the TARDIS. And don’t argue,’ he commanded her, as she opened her mouth to protest. Shouting, ‘Will!’ over his shoulder, he set off down the nave at a smart pace. Will, still heavy with sleep, stumbled down the aisle and followed him out of the church, blearily rubbing his eyes.
    Turlough watched them go, with a resigned smile. He could feel Tegan’s frustration, but their instructions had been too precise to misinterpret on purpose.
    ‘You heard the Doctor,’ he said, pointing the way to the TARDIS.
    Tegan knew there was no alternative but to submit, and with a sigh she turned with Turlough towards the steps to the crypt.
    When they had gone, a lump of masonry fell away from the edge of the crack in the wall. It made the gap a little wider still, but nothing could be seen in there – only a dark void which looked as black and deep as outer space.
    Almost everything about the churchyard was green. Inside the green fringe of