Read Online Doctor Who: Time Flight by Peter Grimwade - Free Book Online

and pieces Hayter had removed. He turned back to the Master.
    'These components are from your TARDIS!'
     
    The Master was looking less pleased with himself. The Doctor felt his self-confidence returning as he realised the Master's predicament.
    'You're stranded here,' he went on. 'That time contour was a desperate lifeline to the future.'
     
    The Master did not deny it. His eyes narrowed. He spoke softly; he was chillingly polite. 'I need your TARDIS to penetrate the Sanctum.'
     
    Another piece of the jigsaw fell into place. The Master needed the power in the Sanctum as a new energy source for his own time machine. The Doctor wondered again what kind of power it could be.
    Perhaps the Master would reveal the information. 'I think you might be too late,' he said provocatively. 'The power seems to have expended itself.'
     
    The Master quickly put him right. "The recuperation will be swift. Your companions have disturbed the neuronic nucleus ...' His face twisted with pleasure. 'But they will have paid for that incursion with their lives.'
     
    There was consternation amongst the young crew members. The Doctor fought back a feeling of panic
     
    with the ruthless logic of his own observations.
     
    'Tegan and Nyssa are as likely to have been protected as destroyed,' he assured the others. 'The power works against you as well as for you,' he reminded the Master.
     
    The Master knew this only too well. It was the reason for his anxiety and haste. He needed the force under his total control. 'The key, Doctor.' He raised the Tissue Compression Eliminator.
     
    The black, twig-like thing with its bulbous end didn't frighten Bilton and Scobie. They stepped forward to defend the Doctor.
     
    The Doctor knew better. 'No heroics, gentlemen,' he interposed. 'The Master will eliminate you without a second thought.' He placed the TARDIS key in the black-gloved hand of the Master.
     
    'Very wise, Doctor.' The Master went straight to the TARDIS.
     
    No one, except the Doctor, had spotted the old police box in the corner of the chamber.
     
    'Good heavens!' exclaimed Professor Hayter. 'That's never the TARDIS.'
     
    'Unfortunately, it is,' the Master deplored as he opened the door. 'So typical of the Doctor's predilection for the third rate.'
     
     
    It was beyond the Professor's comprehension that grown men should play out an hysterical charade, such as they had just witnessed, for the possession of a telephone booth. He appealed to the Doctor. 'What does the man want with an obsolete Metropolitan ...'
     
    A whirring and a groaning sound filled the air, unfamiliar to all present save the Doctor.
     
    Professor Hayter froze.
     
    The TARDIS dematerialised.
     
    The Professor's lips moved silently like an elderly goldfish that has just been fed. He finally articulated: 'We're hallucinating.'
     
    Captain Stapley was equally surprised, but he knew when to believe the evidence of his own eyes. 'Is that how you travel, Doctor!'
     
    The Doctor smiled. 'Not exactly the first-class end of the market, but a serviceable vehicle, Captain Stapley.'
     
    Professor Hayter was still in shock. 'Some kind of miasma,' he stammered weakly.
     
    The Doctor had had enough of this sour-faced Doubting Thomas. 'I do not wish to believe, therefore I hallucinate,' He rounded on the Professor. 'Is that your philosophy of Darlington Man?'
     
    'What we've just seen isn't possible,' Hayter protested.
     
    'Try explaining that when the Master materialises in the Sanctum.'
     
    'Have you any idea where this Sanctum is?' asked Captain Stapley.
     
     
    The Doctor wished he had. He might even be able to get there first.
     
    Then Bilton remembered the wall that he and the passengers had been trying to demolish.
     
    'Could be it,' said the Doctor.
     
    But, as the Captain pointed out, it was odd that the Master should need brute force to unseal the hidden room. Why couldn't he walk in like Tegan and Nyssa?
     
    The Doctor thought he understood. 'The power source is